“Everything that is not forbidden. We have no time. Partner dying. Need potatoes. You must help us. Forget Yari for now. He on my team.
“He’s no one to you, necromancer! After the Academy you’ll part forever. Why do you need a Paladin?”
“Yari help complete Academy. You know who I am. Who’s my teacher. Need your help. Help. Reward will be good.”
“Bloody hell!!!” Dolgunata thought a while, then cursed heartily, helplessly stomping her foot on the ground. “From what hellhole did you spring up here?! You broke all my plans! What do you want?”
“Need help with potatoes. Cannot wait. What you suggest. Why kill bird?”
“There’s no need… simply an NPC, there’s no point in it. I just wanted the Paladins to croak in pain: it’s impossible to kill the bird. I can buy potatoes, but only for you and the mage. I won’t buy anything for Yari. My teacher gave me very clear directions with respect to helping him.”
“Agree,” Zangar responded after thinking for a long time. “You buy potatoes for me. Mage. Go to second test. Yari catch up.”
Turning towards me the necromancer added:
“Marinar die if we wait. Must get to Chancellor. He revive her. Then need to return. She need training. I can’t wait. Sorry. You worthy partner. Can survive on your own. She can’t. Little time.”
“My brother and I will come with you,” Dolgunata added at once. “I‘m tired of coddling those Paladins, now Yari’ll have to bother with them.”
“Paladins’ fate I don’t care. Yaropolk important, he’s partner. I return for him. But first other partner. Must go, druid. No lose time.”
“But still, how did he escape from under my control?” Dolgunata wouldn’t give up. “What did I do wrong? He has no amulet, nor congenital immunity like you do.
“Yari grew up while trained. Don’t know how many years. Learnt to understand himself. Strong player. Will be hard for you, hunter.”
“Training ranges. Of course!” Nata exhaled, smiling bitterly. “I couldn’t maintain the control, and if he spent a lot of time there, he could have escaped from it – simple. Hm… Listen, but there’s no way to counteract this! Six months of training, plus three months when the Energy level drops… Yeah, I’ll have to think what to do. Fine, I’m ready. Sakhray, we are leaving.”
A powerful druid passed by me, haughtily, with a feeling of his physical superiority. Some Mister Universe, if you judged him purely by physical appearance; in addition, Sakhray’s movements were smooth and flowing, as if he’d been a dancer all his life. It looked like he was floating above the ground rather than walking, despite being quite huge. It was amazing that Zangar could feel him approach.
By the way, I didn’t hold a grudge against the necromancer. It was unpleasant to be left on my own again, but I fully agreed; it was necessary to move on, otherwise Marinar would die. The Chancellor was really clear regarding quest and reward, so without the mage it would be pointless to visit him. I could survive six respawn cycles. I had enough elixirs.
As a dense crowd, we reached the center of the village, where an amazing thing happened. Amazing in the sense of understanding the druid’s actions. She verified with the necromancer, to see if he really wouldn’t join her group. Then she found the village elder and gave him two brass keys, pointing out that from this moment on her group, including the currently dead Paladins, should be counted among those who had passed the first test. I didn’t know on what conditions her team had been formed, but was totally certain that Dolgunata could have stiffed everyone. But she didn’t. Why – that was unclear. In my mind the druid was associated with all things negative. Nata bought potatoes for Marinar and Zangar from the same village elder, and then the four of them and the village elder went inside the house, but I was not allowed. A seven-foot-tall guard carefully moved me aside without any threats or instructions. Simply put me in my place.
“Yari?! I heard a surprised voice. “You are finally here! Where are the rest?”
Refor, Dirion and Sartal approached the house of the village elder ten minutes later.
“Logir, Teart and Monster are at respawn‒ Dolgunata killed them. Nata and Sakhray are with the village elder, discussing something. Did you receive information that the first test is complete?”
“Yes,” Refor frowned.” “What do you mean, killed? Why? How? And what happened to your hand?”
“In half an hour they’ll tell you everything themselves,” I said tiredly. “Did you harvest the potatoes or just left them at the field?”
“Harvested, of course. They're not needed any more, but leaving such a gift to the mages and the rest after what they’d done to us…”
“Since you don’t need them, maybe you could share?” I put out a feeler. “They would come in very useful to me. Since I am not part of the group, the key didn’t affect me.”
“In principle, I don’t mind,” Refor looked at the rest, but before I had a chance to rejoice, he added: “There’s just one thing. You said three of our guys were sent to respawn. What if the key doesn’t work for them? We have to wait. Sorry, Yari, but we already lost two levels with those potatoes… those who are being respawned have more right to it than you. If they don’t need it, then we’ll give you all twenty-four of them. You said, it was half an hour? Let’s wait: it’s not that long. Meanwhile, please tell us what happened and why Nata activated the key. It seems we had agreed differently…”
An hour later I was in the middle of the field, carefully covering a single potato with soil. Refor hadn’t lied to me: as soon as the three respawned players confirmed that the test had been passed, he gave me everything the Paladins had gathered by that time. Zangar and Dolgunata came out from the village elder with blank faces, and moved on to the teachers without paying any attention to us. Presumably, the second test took place inside the house and their group had just completed it. By then I, with the help of Teart and a constantly blushing Monstrichello, had clarified to the Paladins what the druid was really like, so their meeting with Dolgunata was rather cool. It’s unpleasant when someone manipulates you like a puppet. The Paladins, accompanied by the village elder, went inside for the second test while I left for the gardening plots. In order to complete the first test successfully I needed to grow one crop. Three blasted potatoes. 24 hours in the Game.
I buried my potato and sat down on the ground. There were quite a few players around. Some were guarding their crops, some were wandering around in pairs looking for potential victims: not everyone cared to grow their own harvests. They were not interested in me: I had just one potato. But the players who had managed by now to plant their second harvest faced far more danger from the thieves: there was supposed to be a certain distance between the tubers, and if the group of players was large enough, already at the second growing cycle the area of the crops grew enormously. Since it was large, guarding it was hard as well. Within the two minutes that I had been in the field, the bird had flown over twice, dragging hapless players with it. The bird was an eagle grown up to the size of a bus. It covered the distance from the nest within seconds, then attacked a group of four players and dragged them off to its chicks. An unpleasant respawn. “Vultures” immediately rushed to the vacated spots: players, who didn’t feel like growing their own potatoes. They pushed and shoved, sending each other for respawn, dug out the tubers stealing single potatoes, screamed with joy once they were able to stick their quarry in the inventory. It was all very chaotic.
A thought flashed through my mind that it would be interesting to find out what happened to the potatoes from the personal inventory of those players who met their final death, eaten by the chicks, but then the blinking icon on the control panel reminded me again that I was spending too much time paying attention to those around me and not enough for myself. Making sure there were no “vultures” around me, I clicked on the icon.
You have reached the threshold level for allegiance: Darkness
Would you like to activate it?
Threshold level for allegiance. One of the teachers had said that it was practically unrealistic to reach it within the Academy, but he had forgotten that I was a Judge, and that for delivering a correct verdict I was due some kind of bonus. Even though my sentence was so brazenly ignored. There was no sense in delaying the decision, so I calmly clicked on the “Accept” button. If I am destined to be a Dark one, so be it. Because…
Suddenly, like a tsunami out of nowhere, a wave of ecstasy came over me. The sensations were so amazing and delightful that, stifling a moan of pleasure, I fell to the ground. Sex? Drugs? Alcohol? All of that at once? Nothing could induce such feelings that overcame me. The sensation seemed to last forever, until finally the darkness saved me by drowning my overheated mind. Too much of a good thing can be dangerous, too.
“He’s not dead yet for some reason. Shall we just leave him? It’s been a day and a night...”
“Roll him to one side, that’s all. Can’t you see: his potato ripened! Three potatoes will be ours. This one can die, blasted freak. The Paladins killed so many of our guys.”
Someone was attempting to manhandle me, and my body definitely disagreed with the idea. Uttering another moan of pleasure, since the memory of mega orgasm was still fresh, I opened my eyes and dug my arms in the ground, not allowing them to move me. I was lucky: when I fainted I fell right onto my planted potato. That’s why I hadn’t been robbed. What was unclear was something else: why was I still alive?”
“Bastard! Get away already!” The fat man that was pushing me growled angrily. Seemed like a monk, if I deciphered the class clothes correctly. One thing was obvious: he was not human. “Drgrygz, help! He came to!”
“Then whomp him!”
“You whomp him yourself! I have only one level left.
“Go to hell!” I growled, grabbing the potato tops with my good hand. They weren’t trying to beat me, just to carefully move me from one place to another, that’s why the Game was not destroying the thieves. “This is my loot!”
“Drgrygz!” The fat guy yelled, desperation showing in his voice by now, and another monk came up to us. “This loser won’t give us his potatoes.”
“Leave him!” The new arrival grumbled. “He came to, wanker crip. Let’s go.”
They stopped touching me and left me alone; and only then did I figure out what had seemed strange to me during my first few moments after “waking up”. There was no more allegiance scale at the top of my vision field; in addition, a semi-transparent green inscription “+1” kept flashing in front of my eyes. About every ten seconds.
I clicked again at the new icon, which had stopped jumping like crazy, and stared at the amazing sight:
Location: Academy Labyrinth. Level of available emotions: 56%. Energy restore: 1 unit per 10 seconds. Current allegiance level: 1
The number “1” in the Energy restore description was interactive. I immediately clicked on it and saw a complex formula for calculating the amount of Energy replenished, linked both to the allegiance level and the amount of available emotions within the current location as well as to the amount of available emotions within a certain distance from the player. The closer a source of emotions was located to me, the faster my Energy would restore.
“Get away!” I heard a woman shrieking indignantly. “That’s mine!”
“Drgrygz, don’t let her through! I’ll dig everything out now!” One of the monks replied joyfully. I closed all the windows and turned in the direction of the conflict. A woman of about fifty, wearing dark steel armor, was trying to no avail to get around the monk standing in front of her in order to protect her plot with the three ripened tubers. Meanwhile, the second monk was digging the soil with his hands like a mole. Or a rat, which was more accurate under the circumstances.
“Leave her alone!” I shouted, throwing my own harvested potatoes into the inventory. The first test was as good as done.
“Drgrygz, come on, just a little more!” The monks ignored me, continuing to loot someone else’s plot.
“Paladin, help!” real tears appeared on the woman’s face. More than likely she wasn’t initiated and now the monks were effectively killing her as she looked on. She was still walking and breathing, yet she was already dead. Losing the potatoes for non-initiated players equaled delayed death.
Initiation of the allegiance cost me 24 hours. The map indicated that the Paladins were approximately half-way between me and the center of the Academy; more than likely they were already within the wastelands. Zangar with his group had practically reached the Chancellor: according to the map they were within a very short distance from the point marked by the Chancellor as his location. No matter what I did I wouldn’t be able to catch up with either of the groups; so I could as well use some time for additional exploration. Frankly speaking, I couldn’t care less about the shrieking woman: she wasn’t a Paladin, and I didn’t like her appearance, so she was of no interest to me. However, she would be able to help me find the answer to my question: what happens in the nest? What happens to the potatoes if their owner dies? Since I need to wait for Zangar’s return – and he will have to bring Marinar back for training – I needed to explore everything as best I could.
“You, jerk: stop!” the monk who was collecting potatoes yelled, astounded, as I was striding straight to the fighting trio. “Beware the bird! Oh, stop, you, idiot freak! Drgrygz, run! The Paladin’s gone mad!”
Too late! With one leap I covered the distance that separated us, activated my protection and beamed a smile at the monk who was trying to crawl away in fear. The woman cried out, covered her face with her hands, and then a shadow covered us. The huge bird came down to sort it out with those who dared break her unwritten rules.
The talons of the flying monster pierced the class armor of the monks and the Dark warrior like paper. The players’ faces distorted in horrible pain, but they didn’t go for respawn: the bird was experienced and wouldn’t let her prey disappear too early. This trick didn’t work with me: the protection would not pierce, and the talons just produced showers of sparks as they scratched helplessly on the force bubble. I grinned: my plan had worked. Now the bird will find a good grip, grab my bubble and we’ll fly to the chicks. I’ll also record a bird’s eye view video of the village: what if there’s something else useful here?
However, the bird really was tremendously experienced, as if it had previously encountered players with active defense. It squawked loudly, then seized me in its beak, flew up several dozen meters and then wagged its head and opened its beak to throw me one the ground forcefully. Like an overripe nut. All I could do was cry out when, just like a nut’s shell, my protective bubble cracked when I hit the ground. The impact was so hard it took my breath away and I fainted for a few moments. Wrenching pain pierced my shoulder and thigh, bringing me back, and then I felt like I was being turned inside out: the bird soared into the air. In one foot it was holding the screaming monks, and in the other, the shrieking woman and myself. I was also screaming, as the pain was unfathomable.
I was unable to activate the protection, probably, because there was a foreign object piercing me all the way through. The blood and the sweat clouded my eyes. All I was able to see was a tall tree, a huge perch at the very top and two enormous gaping throats craving food. The chicks were so huge they seemed almost bigger than their mother, or at the very least as big. I could not see any small detail such as to find out if there were any potatoes. It was a miracle that I was still conscious at all. The entire left side of my body turned into one huge lump of pain. The woman and one of the monks were already slumping as lifeless corpses; only Drgrygz continued to scream. The bird hovered over the chicks and launched the monks into one of the gaping beaks. There was a chick’s contented squawk, chomping, and two wild practically inhuman screams. Well, the monks weren’t human anyway. With a nasty squelch the talons of the flying monster left my body, sending me forward to my death.
“I am the energy armor!” I managed to whisper as I was falling
before the chick’s beak closed over me. Fighting the bird left me with over half of my Energy level and knowledge that availability of energy armor did not make me invincible. This defense did not defend me against the laws of physics. Another shower of sparks flew as the chick attempted to chew me. A random thought flashed that birds cannot chew, but it was immediately banished by a wild shriek of pain: the woman came to and started screeching horribly once again. I was thrown from side to side, the sparks flew so brightly it hurt my eyes to look, yet the Energy bar wasn’t even thinking of dropping. On the contrary, at some point it started increasing despite the crazy meat-grinder.
“Aaaaaaaaa!” The dark warrior screamed louder as soon as the grinding stopped and we came crashing down. Even though it had seemed to me that a louder and more protracted screech was impossible. I crashed into something soft and viscous, but this time at least the protection worked the way it was supposed to: a small air bubble formed around me and the viscous substance could not get in there. I automatically took an elven elixir to kill the pain, then stood up. After I took a look around I was almost overcome with nausea. In the Academy I’d already seen all kinds of death, but the nightmare unfolding before my eyes was a first. Apparently, we had ended up in the bird’s stomach, and that viscous substance around us was the stomach acid. Within just two steps of me skin and flesh was being dissolved from the woman, who had been broken up almost to the state of chopped meat, yet miraculously somehow stayed alive. The acid was eating the player up and I saw a semitransparent bubble around her head: the Game kept the victim living, providing it with a unique chance to fully feel the pain of being in the chick’s stomach. Terror settled in the woman’ eyes, but somehow she fixed her crazed gaze on me; a single thought was in it: “kill me”. Acting more on instinct than following the rational side. Even though my entire left side was numb, I rushed towards the woman, putting the artifact on my hand along the way.
The Beginning (Dark Paladin Book #1) LitRPG Series Page 32