How can someone even become Legendary? Take Yalininka for example—any NPC would say that she is a legend. Why and how isn’t important. The important thing is that she is. Or, take for example the orcs in the Karmadont Chess Set. Every one of them committed some great deed in his life, yet could you call them Legendary? According to Prontho—you could. And the same goes for the dwarves and ogres…Which immediately raises the question of the giants that I still had to craft—what did the two giants have to do to earn their place among Karmadont’s Chess pieces? And, mind you, why was it that this feat or deed fail to earn any fame among the denizens of Barliona…If I were in Karmadont’s position, what would I include the giants for?
One possibility was an act of self-sacrifice. For what? To save someone’s life. The next question then is why does no one know about this feat? Hmm…What if the giants themselves didn’t want anyone to remember them? No, that’s dumb. Wouldn’t that mean that the very same people the giants saved had wanted to kill them? To scrub any mention of them from history…No, that won’t work—I doubt Karmadont would add giants who had sacrificed themselves for their foes…
Unless of course these foes were children…
Even in the depths of design mode, I felt a shiver sweep across my body…That was it! I don’t know the precise story that the developers had come up with, but it was clear to me that the giants had perished while saving the children of the children of their enemies…
* * *
“Darling,” whispered Tigra, leaning over to her husband. “Are they going to kill us?”
“Yes,” replied Ra, stroking his wife’s hair. He cast a look of loathing at their guards and shivered a little—this rain was not the best weather to die in. It had been raining seven days now, and the gorge that the locals had dragged him and his wife to had already flooded up to his ankles. The water streamed from the sheer cliffs. It fell from the sky onto the earth that had become so waterlogged that the water had no place to go but seep into the dam that divided the gorge in two halves—one an enormous lake, the other a narrow passage which lay within walking distance of Zultan—the capital of the Drang people. And it would be this gorge that was to become the last resting place of Ra and Tigra…
The Drang were people, but they were people of a strange faith. They worshipped neither Eluna nor Tartarus. The supreme deity of this people was a mirror. It was an ordinary mirror, yet when the Drangians looked into it, they saw in their reflection the true vicars of the higher powers of Barliona. And seeing this, they knew that all other races had to be destroyed. Having lured the five-meter-tall Ra and Tigra into an ambush, the Drangians had bound the couple and decided to put them to death at the foot of their main sanctuary—the dam at one of the branches of the Altair River.
“Watch out—don’t step on each other’s feet!” came a lingering cry, forcing Ra to lift his head. Just a few meters from the giants, a huge crowd of children appeared. The Drangians had brought them to watch the execution.
“Are you sure the chains are strong enough?” asked one of the little ones, examining the fetters around the giants’ arms and legs. “What if the monsters suddenly break out and attack us?”
“Do not worry,” their teacher replied. “Do you see the archers?” She pointed to the guards. “Even if the impossible happens and the chains break, the giants will be shot down immediately.”
“Can I have that woman’s ear?” asked another girl. “I’ll hang it on a thread and show it off to all my friends!”
“I want a tooth!”
“I’ll take the eyes!”
“No, I already have dibs on one of the eyes!”
The kids raised such a hubbub that they drowned out the sound of falling water. They bickered amongst themselves over the gruesome souvenirs. And no wonder—it’s not every day that one could watch the death of two giants—five-meter tall gargantuans that had appeared in Barliona by sheer accident. After all, whoever does not look like a Drangian must be destroyed—such was the chief commandment of Zultan.
“The poor children,” whispered Tigra, moving away from her husband. “The poor, unfortunate children…”
“These poor unfortunates can’t wait to see you torn asunder,” barked Ra angrily, looking for the slightest opportunity to take a pair of Drangians with him. It was of no use: He no longer had the strength to break the chains.
“It’s not the children’s fault that they are taught to kill everything that doesn’t resemble them,” Tigra shook her head. “If only we could…Did you hear that?”
“What?” Ra asked surprised.
“The…” Even through the veil of rain, it was clearly visible how pale Tigra had suddenly become. The gorge resounded with the thunder of breaking logs. “The dam is failing…”
Ra raised his head—literally a few meters from the giants, the dam was beginning to creak ominously. The Drangians had constructed the base of the dam, which was about two meters tall, from stone, knowing how much pressure the river would exert on it. However, the top of the dam, which accounted for the remaining seven meters, they built from ordinary logs, assuming that the water level would never exceed two meters. After all, it never had over the entire thousand-year history of Zultan. Now the time had come to pay for their ancestors’ miscalculation…
One of the logs splintered and a fountain of water spouted through the breach—the pressure was so high that the water at their feet swelled to four meters.
“Save yourself!” cried one of the guards in panic. He dropped his weapons to the earth and fled toward the exit to the gorge—a good two hundred meters away.
“A-ah-ah!” sounded the cries of twenty children, realizing that they had just been abandoned—the teacher had fled behind the guard.
“Hurry, Tigra!” yelled Ra to his wife. Seeing another log snap, the archers dropped their crossbows and also fled from the gorge—their own skins were worth more to them than some old giants. “We can get out!”
“Ra, help me!” said the giantess, pinning back two of the logs with her arms to keep them fixed in place. “Ra! I won’t manage on my own!”
“Leave it!” cried Ra stunned, utterly unable to understand why his wife was doing this. “We’ll drown if we don’t get out of here now! We do not know how to swim!”
“If we go, the children will die!” wheezed Tigra. She was under such strain that blood had begun to flow from her nose. “I won’t be able to live knowing that they died because I failed…Raaaa!”
A beam beside Tigra cracked, sending splinters flying into the giantess’s shoulder.
“Run for it!” Ra barked at the children, who remained standing paralyzed, awaiting their deaths in a stupor. The adults had all fled. “Go!”
The giant darted over to his wife and pressed himself against the dam beside her—five meters and his giant’s strength gave him the hope that the little Drangians would come to and make their escape. But how difficult it was!
“Ra, I can’t hold any longer,” Tigra’s voice was all but inaudible. The blood was now flowing not only from the giantess’s nose, but from her lips too, which she had bitten into from the strain. “I love you…”
Tigra collapsed and the beams that she had been restraining, suddenly sensing their freedom, came flying out of the dam.
“I love you too,” croaked Ra and glanced over his shoulder to see that the children had made it out of the gorge in time.
“We did it,” he whispered as the dam collapsed upon the couple…
* * *
Two transparent giants appeared before my eyes—a man and a woman, smiling, straining to one another, dressed in ordinary clothes—two enamored sentients who had sacrificed themselves for children who had wanted to see their blood. I had no doubt that the story I invented fit the idea that the Corporation had in mind. Even if I had been mistaken in certain details—like for example, their having drowned instead of being buried—the general idea would remain the same. These were the very giants who had been included in t
he Chess Set and not the dozens of other heroes from that race, who had earned their renown through their strength and might.
I combined these projections with the Tanzanite and sensed a feeling of satisfaction—the giants were complete. Yet my satisfaction was partial because my clan ring remained unfinished. How oddly had things worked out—I had sat down to do one thing and ended up accomplishing something entirely different…No, this wasn’t the way to get things done! I’m not going to leave design mode until I figure out how to craft those rings!
Let’s return to the legends!
You can become a legend by becoming a great hero. You can become a legend by sacrificing yourself. You can become a legend by creating something great and dedicating your life to helping the sick. There really are an enormous number of options for how you could become a legendary hero. But what do they all have in common? Having a unique race as I had thought before? No. The desire to stand out? Also no…
What then?
Why, for example, had Karmadont and the developers decided that the giantess was worthy of being a legend? Because she felt sorry for the children? Well…maybe…but the dwarves had invested a piece of themselves in their creations, the orcs had proven that they were true warriors and the ogres had died to save their kin. Was it pride that united them all? No…Was it honor? No…Was it the pursuit of their ideals?
No!
It was love that united them all! Damn it—that was it! For the orcs, weapons and warfare were a natural part of their essence! The dwarves were master craftsmen: No one could deny their love of creation. The ogres loved their family. The giants loved children. And Yalininka loved all people! To be great is one thing, but to be able to love and to follow that feeling is something totally different…Jeez….
What about the Legends of Barliona then?
What did players love? Or rather, what was the object of adoration for the players? What are they willing to sacrifice themselves, their time, their all, for? What a silly question—why, it’s Barliona itself! The players love this game. They abandon their realities to live in it. It’s the game that is the legend for real people—not some contrived characters! The players love this world!
My heart skipped a beat. The true Legends of Barliona weren’t a character or some group of characters from the game. They were the game itself! Its legendary mountains, vast seas, endless forests, skies, monsters, Dungeons, First Kills…These were the legends of Barliona, not the Dragon, the Siren and the Vampire! Sure, these three were part of it all, but only as parts…
And if this was the case, the next question was how I could represent all of this in one tiny ring. How could I unite all these different pieces?
Yet again a shiver coursed down my spine—why was I fixating so much on Barliona anyway? After all, there was one thing that tied it all together—the mountains, the rivers, all the pieces of this immense world! I knew what it was!
Swiping away the giants’ figures, I fashioned an oblong form that resembled a table’s surface. I would make the foundation blue, just like that of the original. I made additional notches around the edge of the template, since the original’s edges glowed blue and stood out a little, imbuing it with volume. The last and final touch was the inscription, a specific script that every single player is intimately familiar with. An inscription of five black letters…
As my template, I used an ordinary ring. I didn’t do anything special with it. I wanted everyone to see the stone set in it, or rather the three united stones, instead of the band. This was precisely the point of my idea…
I wonder how much time has passed since I began working…
Clan artifact created (ring): ‘Enter.’ Description: The Legend of Barliona inscribed in a ring. +45 to all main stats if the ring is worn by a member of the Legends of Barliona clan (Note: This bonus is calculated differently for each player; the actual algorithm is hidden). Item class: Unique. Requirements: No more than four items equipped.
Recipe for clan artifact (ring) ‘Enter’ created.
New clan symbol available. Do you wish to use it?
Skill increase:
+1 to Crafting. Total: 11
+5 to primary profession of Jewelcrafting. Total: 124
You created a Legendary item. Your reputation with all previously encountered factions has increased by 500.
Congratulations! You have continued along the path of recreating the Legendary Chess Set of Emperor Karmadont, the founder of the Malabar Empire. Wise and just, the Emperor offered his opponents the opportunity to settle disputes over the chess board instead of on the battlefield. Each type of Chess piece was made from a different stone. Pawns: The Malachite Orc Warriors (Creator: Mahan) and Lapis Lazuli Dwarf Warriors (Creator: Mahan). Rooks: The Alexandrite Battle Ogres (Creator: Mahan) and Tanzanite Giants (Creator: Mahan). Knights: A War Lizard of Tourmaline and a War Horse of Amethyst. Bishops: Troll archers of Emerald and Elf archers of Aquamarine. Queens: An Orc Shaman of Peridot and an Elemental Archmage, a human of Sapphire. Kings: The head of the White Wolf Clans, an orc of Green Diamond and the Emperor of the Malabar Empire, a human of Blue Diamond. The Chessboard: Black Onyx and White Opal, framed by White and Yellow Gold. Numbers and letters on the chessboard: Platinum.
After the death of the Emperor, the Chess Set was destroyed. It remains only to you and your crafting abilities to ensure whether Barliona will again see this truly great wonder of the world—the Legendary Chess Set of Emperor Karmadont.
You have created the Tanzanite Giants from the Legendary Chess Set of Emperor Karmadont. While the chess pieces are in your possession, each minute you will regenerate 1% of Hit Points, Mana and Energy in addition to your standard regeneration rate; Energy decreases at half the current rate.
Skill increase:
+1 to Crafting. Total: 12
+5 to primary profession of Jewelcrafting. Total: 129
You created a Legendary item. Your reputation with all previously encountered factions has increased by 500.
You have crafted two Unique items during one crafting session. Your reputation with all previously encountered factions is increased by 1000.
When I opened my eyes, the enormous amount of text was the only thing that saved me from going blind. The illumination emanating from my hands could have rivaled the sun itself in brightness and intensity. Moreover, I had two such suns—the ring and the chess figurines, one more step bringing me closer to the Tomb of the Creator.
“You could at least warn me!” I heard Fleita’s indignant voice. I turned in the direction of the sound and saw the girl sliding down the wall. Apparently, she had been sitting in a chair and the blast I had triggered in my poor workshop had flung it and her against the wall. Viltrius will kill me. The workshop had been blown to smithereens.
Initially I tensed up, afraid that the system would hold me responsible for doing damage to another player; however, the seconds ticked by and no Herald appeared. And anyway, Fleita’s Hit Points remained at 100% as if I’d done nothing to her but sent her for a tumble.
“I sit there waiting for him like manna from heaven and suddenly he comes back and blasts everything to hell around him…”
“How many days have I been sitting here?” I asked. “And how did you know that I’d come back now?”
“A week has passed since you accepted me as a student—check it out, I’m already at Level 12! As for knowing when you’d be back, Kornik snitched on you…Well, to be fair, he got it wrong the first time. We showed up, waited around for a few minutes, then he smirked at nothing in particular and took me with him to hunt crocolupes. Filthy creatures! By the way, Anastaria stopped by to see you.”
“Stacey?” I immediately called out to the girl telepathically, but received an error message:
You cannot reach this character. Anastaria is not currently in Barliona.
“Will you show me what you made? Oh, why that’s the Karmadont Chess Set! So that notification I just saw was about you? Then you must be the creator
it mentioned? Cool! Can you teach me too?”
“Let’s slow down a little, Fleita,” I told the girl. “My brain can’t process all this text in such a short period of time.”
Although I’d become accustomed to the jolt of pleasure that accompanied progress in Barliona, a one-time boost of +10 to Jewelcrafting was too much even for a hardened pleasure-seeker like me. I got to my feet and examined the results of my labors. Oh wow! I had managed to create nothing short of perfection!
“Mahan, is our new clan symbol your handiwork?” Barsina wrote in the clan chat.
“Uh-huh,” I replied.
“If they start laughing at us, I’ll kill you!”
“I can’t believe it!” whispered Fleita, examining the ring beside me. “I know what this is!”
How could she not? There’s no one in Barliona—at least among the free players—who isn’t familiar with the ‘Enter’ button that is used to log into the game. It is this very button that transports people into the wondrous world of Barliona. It’s this very button that every player wants to push, it’s this button that is legendary for them and it’s this very button that is set into the ring I crafted, replacing our former clan symbol.
From here on out, the Legends of Barliona would be inextricably linked with the ‘Enter’ button. It remained to be seen where this would lead us, but as far as I was concerned, if anyone has a problem with it, they were welcome to speak to Plinto about it…
Chapter Three. The Skrooj Dungeon
“MASTER,” Viltrius said with a bow. “What shall I tell the aldermen? They have been expecting an audience with you for six days now. They don’t dare return to their villages without it.”
The Karmadont Chess Set (The Way of the Shaman: Book #5) LitRPG series Page 7