The Beginning (Dark Paladin Book #1) LitRPG Series

by Vasily Mahanenko

  “So what are you doing?”

  “Saving you!” Gromana cut me off angrily. "Hasn't anyone told you that curiosity is a flaw? The less you know, the longer you live!”

  “Not in my case,” I grinned. "I am an explorer. Without knowledge I’ll just croak, so tell me, please, what are you doing? What kind of ritual is it?”

  “I am making an elixir.” The witch cooled off, looking at me in a different way. “Now I understand why the Chancellor defended you. An explorer. The Chancellor always liked those, even back in my training days. I was thrown into the Labyrinth immediately after sentencing. And before that there was a little skirmish with the priests, I spent a fair amount of Energy and didn’t have time to get more, so now I have neither elixirs nor the elves’ ointment here. There’s no game trader here, so despite all my money I can’t do anything. But that’s not the worst; there are no components for the standard Energy replenishment potion in the Labyrinth, so I am having to experiment. If I end up inside the chick, my protection would last me about four days; the background level of emotions gives me another day or so, but that’s not guaranteed: if all the recruits leave the Labyrinth, it might not be enough to restore. Then I’d have to die every four days… I figure it’ll take the Academy a whole month to close, so six or seven are practically guaranteed. I don’t want to be digested, so that’s why I’m experimenting with the potions. Are you satisfied, explorer?”

  “You are here because of the sentence?” I caught on to familiar words. “What on earth have you done?”

  “Paladin, why don’t you stop meddling where you aren’t welcome!” Gromana was harsh, but I just could not afford losing such a source of knowledge about the main world.

  “Now can I ask what I want?” I inquired, extracting an elixir from my inventory. “I need information; you need this vial. We could trade.”

  “One vial won’t change much,” Gromana snorted. “So I will die six times instead of seven. What difference does it make?”

  “Really, what’s the difference?” I drawled, pulling out another six elixirs from my cache. “This thing replenishes Energy fully, 100 percent, regardless of how much you have left, right?”

  “That’s a weighty argument,” Gromana drawled contemplatively, impassively watching the elixirs disappear into my inventory. “What do you want, kid?”

  “Kid?” I was surprised now. “I thought we were close in age.”

  “I am three thousand years old, child.” In just a few moments the witch transformed from a sweet kind girl into a terrifying hag. Oh, her appearance didn’t change one bit, but I felt so uncomfortable that I cringed and barely contained my impulse to crawl under the table and hide.

  “Stop pushing me!” I rasped, fighting the fear. It was a good thing I was sitting on the stool before the witch attacked, or else I would have easily ended up under the table anyway.

  “You took “Spiritual integrity?” Gromana said, stunned, and at that moment my fear passed. “That’s really random. What kind of explorer are you, with an attribute like this?”

  “I had no choice.” I caught my breath, trying to still my trembling hands. “There’s one girl running around the Academy who’s a pretty advanced Suppressor, with an ability to control up to ten players. For some reason she developed a dislike for me; so I had to use one level of my artifact for this property.”

  “That’s how it is…" Gromana’s eyebrows crawled upwards. “A student of Areimen arrived at the Academy?”

  “I have no idea who that is.” I shook my head. “We have students of Devir, Archibald and Levard, if those names tell you anything. “I have not heard the word 'Areimen' in the Academy so far.”

  “Hunters and a Councilor,” Gromana nodded understandingly, thinking of something. "All those in the same enrollment?”

  “And in the same sector,” I added, supposing the witch might know something else. “Our sector.”

  “Very interesting … Two fierce implacable irreconcilable hunters who’ve been killing each other for several thousand years send their students to the Academy at the same time… What for?”

  “From what I understand, one of them has an order to kill me, and the other to protect me. However, the one that’s supposed to protect me has been thoroughly messing with our heads‒ mine and a few other Paladins. That’s the girl with advanced control abilities whom I mentioned.

  “What‒ are you the Emperor’s son?” Gromana asked in surprise. “What did you do to deserve such an honor?”

  “Same question to you: what did you do to deserve such fuss? I mean the exile to the Academy. What does one do to deserve that?”

  Silence fell over the veranda, broken only by the quiet scraping of a spatula in the mortar. Even as she was talking to me, the witch kept working on yet another potion.

  “I am under the curse of truth,” Gromana said finally, staring at me with her brown eyes. “And I was so rash as to, immediately after the battle with the priests that we won at the cost of incredible losses, to say everything I thought about the head of my class and her politics. Soluna, the head in question, is also a Judge, so I was instantly condemned for behavior inappropriate to a witch, and exiled first here, and then to the Game world called ‘Earth’. To the utmost backwater of the Game worlds. Did I answer your question? You owe me seven elixirs and a clarification – why are they all hunting you?”

  “Wait, we didn’t agree that I would give you the elixirs if you told me …”

  “Don’t play with me, kid!” The veranda was instantly plunged into darkness, and the formidable witch loomed over me. The fear was to strong it physically pinned me to the seat to the point that I couldn’t move. Something warm trickled down my thigh. The wound must have opened and it was blood, I was sure. At least you didn’t need to excrete in the Academy, or else I would have just pissed myself from fear. “I need the elixirs!”

  “Pr-pr-pp...” I tried to say “no”, but only spit and bubbles came from my lips instead of an answer. My body stopped obeying me. I stood up, limping and leaving a bloody trail – it was blood after all‒ dragged myself, and then jumped from the veranda, internally screaming in pain, but did not even attempt to open the inventory and extract the elixirs. So it turned out that even if someone else wrenches control from you, personal effects are not in their power. That’s a very useful thing to know!

  “I am waiting for my elixirs!” Gromana repeated again, setting me back on the stool and relinquishing control over my body. The pain intensified, flooding like a river of fire, over the entire left half of my body, so I did what was the most sensible thing to do under the circumstances: I fainted. I really didn’t want to argue with a three thousand year old witch at the moment.

  “I know that you have come to.” I heard Gromana’s voice through the darkness. Get up so that we can negotiate.”

  “After what you’ve done?” I said testily, opening my eyes. I was in the smaller chamber again. There was no pain.

  “You know, when a green-ass pipsqueak starts insisting on his rights, it does make you lose your cool. I’ll meet you on the veranda.”

  One thing could be said in Gromana’s favor: after waking me up she didn’t immediately attack me with questions and suggestions; rather, she allowed me to come to my senses and form a position. The witch had indicated the most important thing: she was ready to negotiate. My demonstration of seven elixirs had played its role, so now I had a rather weighty argument to receive as complete information about the Game as possible. Not what the teachers feed you, but what the players keep to themselves: where you need to go first thing and what to do right after the Academy; what you shouldn’t do, what to watch out for and the like. Everything that Gromana had had to overcome on her own.”

  “What do you want?” the witch asked point blank, once I plopped down on the stool.

  “How much time do I have till I can respawn?” was my first question. With those constant faints I was completely lost in time.

  “One day ti
ll your group arrives. You are the last player in the Labyrinth, everyone else has already left. Two days till the chick hatches.”

  “I need information and help.”

  “What kind of help?” Gromana frowned.

  “I need protection against mental encroachment. As far as I understood, you found the idea of the 'Spiritual integrity' attribute laughable, but that’s all I was able to come up with. Surely you have an amulet or something else that would block someone from getting into my brain. I don’t want to return from the Academy and turn into a puppet on a string. Your demonstration was very vivid and enlightening.”

  “The Game prohibits taking newly-minted players under control for two years after they complete the Academy. During this time the player either gains an opportunity to buy himself an amulet, or turns into a puppet as you rightly noted. No one cares what happens to you. The most important thing is to have an anchor in your class stronghold. As soon as a two year old player drops to the first level, members of his own class will kill him. No one will grant a free Game slot to other classes. Your teacher was supposed to have told you that even if you were found by the Game. Lesson number three, if memory serves.”

  “I had some troubles with training,” I responded, and then told Gromana about my issues regarding developing as a player. Starting from encountering Devir, all the way through being sent to the Academy, and some things that already happened here. Without mentioning the Madonna’s diary and the strange hexagon.

  “Revenge?” the witch grimaced. “Devir has descended to revenging NPCs? Sorry: to a new player? That’s stupid… I can’t believe it! I know this mage very well, and together we… it doesn’t matter, but he’d never stoop to revenge. That’s way too petty for him. The druid, on the other hand, is interesting. Archibald’s student… The catorian had not taken any students ever since the re… For the past two thousand years he has had no students.

  “Since the restart of the Game?” I ventured a guess and, from an eyebrow lifted in surprise and the measuring look the witch cast at me, I realized that I had hit the nail on the head. Madonna lived about two thousand years ago; the Game restarted at the same time. If Gromana was three thousand years old, she must be one of those who had been chosen to continue the Game in the new world.

  “Yes, ever since the restart,” the witch said slowly. “Now you have interested me as well. I can count on the fingers of one hand those who know that the Game can be restarted.”

  “What about the druid?” I reminded Gromana of a thought that had trailed off.

  “Archibald is a very prominent figure in the game universe, even though he lives in the boondocks. Sorry, but that’s the only way to describe the Earth. There are very few who haven’t heard about that catorian, so I was very surprised to hear that his student was in the Academy. Normally, a minion’s training lasts seven years; however, Archibald trains his recruits – well, at least he used to before – for twenty to thirty years before letting them enter the Academy. Devir was the last student of Archibald that I know about and he is sparing no effort trying to surpass his teacher in every way. That’s why there’s been an incessant struggle going on between them for two thousand years and counting. And yes, Devir went through the restart as well.”

  “So it seems I have no chance against the druid?”

  “Neither here nor in the main world,” the witch confirmed. “She’ll eat you whole and won’t even notice. Your only hope is – if Archibald had told her to take the Paladins through, she would have already left the Academy together with them. Then you can go through to the end at your leisure; all the subsequent tests and the wasteland are aimed at lowering your level by draining your Energy. That wouldn't be a treat for you. But if the druid decides to come back, no one will be able to help you. She’ll crush you like a bug.

  “You know how to lift a guy’s spirits, don’t you?” I grinned.

  “I’m telling you the way it is. I don’t embellish reality.”

  “The Paladins are still in the Academy.” I opened the map and saw that the dots indicating my group were already a significant distance away from the Labyrinth. But for some reason Dirion and Refor were not among them. Had those two been killed? Or were they going through respawn? I’d have to check again in an hour.

  “That means she’s here as well. I even feel a little pity for you. We need to make a trade agreement. I want to receive my elixirs.”

  “You will get seven elixirs from me, I swear by the Game,” I assured the witch. “There’s no point in me keeping them. Even without the players the background level of emotions is enough to keep my Energy full. But I need information.”

  “I hear you. Recruits other than you are all gone, so now we have a chance for a thorough conversation. Go ahead: ask.”

  “Why did you snort when you learnt that I have the 'Spiritual integrity' attribute?” I asked the question that had bothered me ever since the beginning of our conversation. The face of the witch was far too displeased when she heard about that.

  “Because you are an explorer! The only useful attribute for those is ‘Neuronal Network’. ‘Context Search’ could be useful as well, but only up to level 15, so as to download information. That’s it! Everything else would be just a waste of attributes!”

  “I have ‘Context Search’,” I frowned. “What ‘Neuronal Network’? What benefit does it provide?”

  “Honestly, at this point I don’t remember what it has at the low levels; at level 15 video analyzer becomes available. What is your artifact?”

  “Book of Knowledge!”

  “Well, at least there you didn’t make a mistake! At level 15 of Neuronal Network the book will start analyzing the video and determine what among the things you recorded is new knowledge, and what are repetitive and redundant frames that don’t require detailed review. Oh‒ I do remember! From level one to fifteen you develop the neuronal network analyzer; starting from level one it will highlight things for you – phenomena or people that are not in the book. The analysis will improve at every level; then, starting from the 15th the Book will be able to analyze the video on its own. Then its analysis quality improves; already at level 30 it will become interactive… The Book will become your alter ego. You could consult with it, ask it questions, et cetera, et cetera. There’s something else at levels 60 and 120, but I don’t recall. Ask in the Temple of Knowledge, they’d be glad to share that information.”

  “So, it seems like I grabbed a bunch of silly and useless attributes for myself?” I grimaced. “But if I hadn’t selected them, I simply would not have made it here!”

  “That’s exactly why, before they leave the Academy, recruits are given an opportunity to redistribute the values of all the attributes they acquired earlier. You could take off everything you used for 'Spiritual Integrity' and add it to 'Context Search' or 'Neuronal Network' if you obtain it by that time. You cannot add new attributes during redistribution. So my advice to you, Paladin, is to bring serious claims against your mentor when you go back. They were supposed to have told you all this during the training! You are like a blind kitten now! It’s amazing you even made it to the Labyrinth!”

  “I crawled,” I muttered, with some choice words in my mind for both Archibald and Sharda. “If you have such problems with the potions, I could go back to the forest and buy you as many as you need to survive. The only thing is, I don’t have any granises now…”

  “That’s impossible. Did you not notice that there are no doors on our side anymore? After the last recruit in our sector left the forest, the Chancellor broke the connection between the units of the Academy. You can’t go back. But thank you for the offer. I do really appreciate that.”

  “Shit… Oh well, let’s get back to the explorers then. As you noticed, my initial training wasn’t really all it was supposed to be. Are there mentors for explorers? And if so, where does one find them?”

  I am not sure I understand the question,” Gromana frowned. “What do you mean by ‘mentors
for explorers’?”

  “Well, you know… those who would teach…” I was taken aback. “Like, tell about the ways to properly level up your artifact…”

  “There’s the Temple of Knowledge for that. Why would one keep a special NPC or player just to clarify the obvious? Go on, explore, study… Nobody is obligated to lead you around by the hand like a child. The only exception is the initial training prior to the Academy, but that is strictly regulated as well. Nothing else! For example, the only reason I am talking to you is the elixirs. If they weren’t there, this conversation wouldn’t happen. It’s time for you to get it already: no one owes anything to anyone in the Game. Especially for free. There’s no place for altruism here. Go on, keep asking.”

  “Are there hidden characters or locations in the Labyrinth? Teachers, traders, auctions?”

  “I have not encountered anything like that here. I know they have them in the forest. In the wastelands, among nomadic clans, you could run into a trader now and then. The Labyrinth is kind of bare in that respect.”

  “Speaking about the trade – how do explorers earn granises?”

  “The same way as all the other players‒ Dungeons, trade, quests, presents. Being an explorer is not a terrible punishment; it’s just a development path. If you get bored being an explorer, you can become a hunter, a warrior, a librarian, a baker, a maker‒ anyone! The Game sets only one constraint: you choose your artifact before you go to the Academy and you cannot change it. Everything else depends fully on the player and his preferences at that specific moment. Well, you have to remember to continuously level up your artifact. The Game doesn’t like those who do nothing.”

  “You mentioned Dungeons. What are those?”

  “Oh, wow…,” Gromana sighed sadly. “You don’t even know that… That’s bad… A Dungeon is a certain location specified by the assigner. Each Game world has the Sanctuary, which acts, in essence, as the point where the players gather. An unmentioned capital of the Game world. One of the Sanctuary representatives is called the assigner. It’s an NPC; he provides to both newbies and old hand players their quests and the coordinates of the Dungeons. What it is, is an enclosed location with a final boss at the end. The Dungeons can be set up both for individual players and teams. The first thing you’ll need to do after you come back from the Academy is to register in the Citadel and visit the Sanctuary. Up to level 30 the best way to level up is through the Dungeons. In addition, you’ll get something to wear that way.”