(World of Valdira 01) The Way of the Clan

by Dem Mikhaylov

  In ninety minutes I managed to finish it but I was niddle-noddle. Rather due to the miserable eight life points – a couple of sharp chips flew off into my direction – than due to fatigue. Besides I stumbled once and instead of hitting a thick branch heavily I grazed my leg by the axe and consequently lost ten life points at once. In recognition of all those sufferings I got one more professional promotion as a lumberman that was equal to two points then.

  Skills of the lumberman increased by 1. Total: 2.

  ‘Oh my gosh!.. I have never had a lumberman’s skills over one’ – I sneered picking the axe into the trunk.

  Having dragged myself to the well I made a push to raise a bucket full of water and satisfy my thirst, thus I decreased the level of fatigue and recovered three life points. I was standing on my feet more firmly then. I’d like to drink some more water but I was full – the game’s limits.

  I’ll be able to drink a little more in twenty minutes. But actually I was expecting a good substantial lunch that the hostess had promised. Food would recover my life points much faster.

  Making sure that one more loose chip could lead to my premature demise I decided to kill time before lunch and construct an elementary weapon for personal needs. The hostess wasn’t going to present me the axe, besides it was very short – I never liked to fight close-in. What a difference a powerful far-ranging bow can make – one arrow shot straight and it’s done.

  Having chosen a rather straight and thick branch from a pile of cut branches, I got armed with the axe again and chopped that branch from both ends by several careful hits. Thus I became the owner of a gnarly staff as high as my shoulder. I’d like to say that it was a combat staff but that miserable stick didn’t meet such a decent title. There is one simple quest that I actually have planned to do later and I’ll need my staff in it. Grasping the axe handier, I chopped off all the boughs and rinded the tough bark to expose a sallow core. Well, that’s it. I didn’t need a better result. The only thing I can do more is to ask the kind-hearted hostess for a kitchen-knife for a while and peel the remains of the bark and other blemishes.

  Achievement!

  You’ve got an achievement – a first-rank weapon-maker!

  See your achievement table in your character’s settings.

  Your award for this achievement:

  +0.5% to the quality of weapon you make.

  +1% to a successful chance to make a weapon.

  Another doubtful achievement. I’ve never fancied crafting weapon by my own hands. It’s much easier to buy it or ‘to take’ from a monster. Grabbing the staff by two hands I peered at it and immediately got all the required information:

  An oak stick. Two-handed weapon. Hit: 4-8. Hit type: splitting-up. Durability: 29/30

  Hrmph… it doesn’t amount to a poorish combat staff. No bonuses for attack or attributes. Just a ponderous and unbalanced stick that can be useful if you want to hit your enemy’s impudent head or any other part of the body. That’s not actually bad. A level is known by its weapon. It’s fair. Adding my new weapon to the small treasure I’ve got lying on the bench I sat down nearby and started looking around lazily and smelling in expectation flavors of the food being cooked coming from the open door. A caravan of ‘new-born’ gamers dragging behind the fence never ended. They were spinning their head from one side to another in curiosity and admired loudly the vividness of the virtual world continuing their way without stopping. The hostess who had invited me for dinner usually waited for gamers at the entrance and offered them to mend their clothes in exchange for a little service, but at the moment the lady was busy fussing around the kitchen, and it was a total bummer for gamers. But if they are really eager to fell a withered oak – let them wait for their turn, I don’t mind! They won’t wait for a long time – a couple of days, no more… ahem…

  The hostess didn’t hurry at all. I managed to visit the well once again to drink absolutely all the water left in the bucket, to recover some more life points and to eliminate my fatigue completely.

  Some cackling hens broke out from the henhouse that I hadn’t noticed before, soon they dispersed around the yard and I was about to look at them predator-like when the hostess wrapped in the cloud of flavorous steam emerged from the house and put two bowls full of food in front of me.

  There was thick nourishing broth in one of them and something like porridge consisting of chalky overcooked cereal in the second. It smelled awesome. A capacious spoon was handed to me and I wired into the meal hungrily feeling that every swallowed piece gave me the increase of life points.

  I burnt up the table like a powerful bulldozer leaving only the bowls licked clean and shining on it – how did I manage not to gobble them up, I wonder? But my life points increased by almost eighty per cents. My energy was bubbling over.

  - Oh, good boy! Such a pleasure for the lady-cook, you haven’t left a single bit on your plate! – the hospitable hostess was radiating delight while picking up empty plates from the table. – Now you can set off without any hesitation! You’ll be able to cover any path!

  - Thank you for lunch, madam – replied I in tune to her – But actually I’m not going to set off so far! There is so much work to do left here.

  You should have seen the amazed face of the hostess at that moment – an astonishing scene!

  - Work?

  - Sure, madam! Five trees haven’t disappeared yet – I assured her nodding at the withered oaklings standing align. – I’ll move on to them right now. Don’t you mind?

  - I don’t mind, I never mind it! – babbled the amazed lady dropping the pile of my clothes back on the bench. – I’ll be happy if you do it! But I have nothing else to pay you for your kindness!

  Is it a trial? Gamers quite rarely help NPCs for free. Particularly in routine boring quests that don’t imply a rapid increase of your level or plenty of goodies. It can be. But anyway I haven’t received any information about the completion of the quest, the hostess isn’t sending me away from the yard… so, I’ll go all the way. But I’ll try to bargain something to eat not to kick the bucket because of hunger and cold.

  - No need to pay – I brushed away in a richman’s arrogant voice. – If you treat me dinner, I’ll be overwhelmingly grateful!

  - It goes without saying, you’re my savior! – jabbered the hostess hastily – You’ll get both dinner and a bed in the barn to sleep warm!

  - Agreed! – I smiled rising from the table – I goes beyond my dreams, madam!

  The hostess nodded at me in silence and followed me with dazed eyes. She was watching me carefully as if she couldn’t believe her own eyes while I took the axe keeping silence and really came to the next tree. Glancing over the felled and cleared from branches tree I turned towards the stunned lady and wondered like a delighted idiot:

  - Haven’t you got a saw by chance, auntie?

  - Yes, I have. Sure, I have…

  - Then I’ll saw some firewood and split it for you! – I blurted out killing the poor lady by my unbelievable generosity. – Please, find and bring it to me, auntie. I’ll do the rest.

  A great… almost haunted silence settled in the yard. Having shrugged my shoulders I grinned like a half-mad sado-masochist and swung the axe.

  Then the result of my tiny advancement was obvious – the blade of the axe didn’t fly back but it cut into wood by a finger-length instead. Besides the axe that used to be too heavy to lift became far lighter to swing. My strength increased by one point along with the two points of the lumberman’s skills started paying off. The ball was set rolling!

  Before twilight came I managed to fell three more trees and it took me much less time. Then only two miserable oaklings instead of six were outstanding, the yard turned to be overwhelmed with felled trunks and dry leaves mixed up with abandoned nests. I scrabbled about the nests in hope to find something interesting, but there was nothing except for rubbish. It was exciting that I spent less time on every following oakling. The second tree capitulated in three hours, th
e third and the forth took me two hours each. I didn’t do anything with the fallen trees so far but came up to the next one instead. I’ll chop all boughs away later.

  I had breaks only to ‘drink water’ from the well, approaching the bucket regularly to pour into my mouth as much vivifying liquid as possible. I had some rest at such moment as well. Each time I could recover just several points, but actually that was enough – chips didn’t fly off as often as they used to do. The lumberman’s skills worked! After the third and the last tree for today I got several goodies at once:

  Your strength has increased by 1 point.

  Your stamina has increased by 1 point.

  The lumberman’s skills have increased by 1. Total: 3.

  You’ve got a new skill!

  Axe-handling (except for axe-throwing) has increased by 1 point. Total: 1

  That’s good news. Life points have grown up to ninety, strength and stamina – by three points each. If I increase the lumberman’s skills up to five points, I can visit the guild located in the city to gain the rank of an apprentice. As for the hacking weapon, it’s rather interesting…

  I got interested in the topic so much that I opened the dashboard and studied the popped-up message properly:

  Axe-handling 1

  Deterioration of an axe used either in fighting or at work has decreased by 1%.

  Hit at the usage of an axe has increased by 1%.

  Chance to succeed in repairing axes has increased by 0.5%

  ‘I got a little from the largess but still I got it’ I came to the conclusion and shut the message.

  Warning about deterioration put me on the alert that’s why I punched up the characteristics of the axe.

  A lumberman’s cheap axe. A two-handed weapon.

  Hit: 8-12. Hit type: hacking. Durability: 102/120

  I can relieve. I shouldn’t have worried about it so much. Since the axe is quest-like, it can boast refined durability and hardness. It may happen that it can recover the very durability step by step – self-repairing. The unpresentable chip-axe had changed a lot of hands when hundreds of gamers had cut down cast-iron trees like hell completing my current quest. Otherwise the hostess is keeping a whole store of axes but I hardly believe it.

  It’s not forbidden to play a role of a thief, thus having broken into such a cozy and nice at first sight tiny house, a gamer could get astonished and frightened seeing about two hundred of axes being kept with care in the kitchen. Such a quiet haunted house…

  The door opened bringing out the second cloud of flavorous steam for today and an extremely sweet voice of the hostess:

  - Come to the table, good man! That will do for today! You must be worn out.

  ‘I’ll come closer and she’ll bang me on my head by the hidden axe and into the furnace!’ – such a thought crossed my mind and I hardly resisted bursting out laughing. What a crazy idea! In fact there are some human NPCs in the world of Valdira who strive to kill a gamer – woodkerns, for example, but it’s obviously not our case.

  By the way, the hit level of my chip-axe has been exaggerated by a couple of points both towards minimum and maximum – to let a beginner fell a cast-iron tree without damning it all.

  - I’m coming, auntie, coming right now– I responded while stepping over felled trees and fighting against the laughter suffocating me.

  I couldn’t resist it and when the hospitable hostess was laying the table I managed to chop some boughs away from one of the oaklings. In order to have less work next day.

  That time I was treated to three dishes at once – porridge again, broth and a bowl of vegetables sliced roughly had been added. I was about to thank the hostess when a board with slices of bread and a huge cup of home-made kvass dropped on the table. Stuffing my mouth with burning hot food, I even rolled my eyes behind and groaned with pleasure, the hostess was overdelighted.

  - My name is Vlasilena – said the lady all of a sudden, I nearly choked.

  When NPCs introduce themselves, it means that their attitude towards you has changed from indifferent to at least friendly. The hostess must be really impressed by my desire to help her cope with her problems.

  - Ros… Rosgard – I replied as soon as I pushed through my throat a piece of food stuck there. – Nice to meet you, Vlasilena!

  - So we became friends – the lady nodded, then stood up and added – I’ll go and make down your bed. It’s late so far.

  - Thanks – I cried into her back and making sure she couldn’t see me, I seized all the bread from the table and stuffed it in my knapsack, luckily it was just at my side and I didn’t have to leave the table. To kill hunger three dishes were quite enough. I’ll keep the bread until later. Bread is everything for us, it’s our blood.

  I reached the barn with great effort holding my bulged stomach by both hands. A sack covering straw and a blanket on it were waiting for me there. Actually I ate everything offered even all the crumbs pouring it with delicious kvass that, by the way, gave a temporary strength increase +1. Eh, Vlasilena, why didn’t you let me drink your kvass at the beginning? I would have had less trouble for sure. She didn’t give it to me because I wasn’t good enough. Only now my reputation has improved significantly in her eyes, but at our first meeting I was just a stranger shag-rag. There are lots of us wandering along Valdira’s roads, kvass is in scarce supply…

  Flopping down on the straw sack I covered myself with the blanket up to my chin and closed my eyes wearily. So, the first day has finished. It’s time to return to real life and feed myself as a real human.

  Flash.

  Hello, rainbow…

  Exit

  Chapter 4

  Return to the Cradle. Day Two.

  Stumbling out of the cocoon, first of all I rushed to my tiny kitchen where a fossil fridge from the Soviet Union era, a table, a couple of behemoth stools, a gas cooker and a sink could hardly find a place. I dropped a frying-pan on the cooker and whipped up giant fried eggs, then discharged it on a clean plate that was really hard to find and having taken a fork came back into the room. Before digging into the food, I pushed through one of blister-packs lying in the first-aid-kit and pushed an aspirin into my mouth. I didn’t have a headache – I just wanted to make my blood thinner as one of my friends, also an experienced gamer almost living in the play cocoon, advised. As he said – to prevent possible problems. After all it’s almost motionless life style and I was afraid of seeing its consequences soon. I don’t know whether it’s true or not but despite the probability of contracting stomach ulcer also according to some gossips, I took a pill a day.

  Then it was time for fried eggs that I sorted in two minutes. I brought the plate back into the kitchen and seizing the occasion took a bottle of water from the fridge and sticking to the bottle neck gulped down about a liter. Great. I’ve fed us both – myself and Rosgard.

  ‘Now it’s time to have a nap’ – I made a difficult decision fighting against a desire to come back to Valdira and do something there ignoring night-time. And this is a depressing diagnosis, old chap…

  Getting into my bed – I should have changed the sheet and pillow-case long time ago – I nuzzled into the pillow and fell asleep immediately.

  I had been sleeping for about five hours – if I could trust my electronic alarm-clock. I woke up with a start. I was wheezing sweetly in both nostrils just a moment ago, but then – bang – and I was absolutely awake staring at the wall perplexedly. The alarm-clock face was showing 04:55. It was still dark outside but in Valdira a new day was breaking. That’s a dear. It’s time to get down to business. While the kettle was on the boil, I managed to visit my full bathroom to get rid of accumulated surpluses and wash my face. The coffee was damn cold – I had added too much cream. However, strong. Now I should drink some water, throw an empty bottle into a waste bin, put the closed bottle of mineral water into the fridge and that’s all for my housework in this world. But in the world of Valdira it’s just the beginning…

  A sleepy sun-rise was
in full swing. The sun arriving from the watchtower engoldened everything all around by its tender beams. The street was empty and lifeless. And silence… ringing silence of a real country-side morning.

  Pastoral to the last degree…

  Standing at the barn that gave me a shelter for a night and admired the sun-rise for a couple of minutes, then looked down and stared like a killer at the trees that survived after yesterday’s slaughter. Just a couple of oaklings! It’s time to get done with you, guys. Vlasilena wasn’t in the yard. The door opening into the house was tightly closed. The hostess must be sleeping and enjoying the seventh dream. Well, there is nothing I can do with it – I’ll have to bother her with the axe thundering. I wasn’t going to wait until the NPC got enough sleep and deigned to get up! Normally villagers must get up before sun-rise, as far as I know…

  Digging the axe out of the pile of cut boughs, I studied its characteristics first and a smile of satisfaction spread on my face. I guessed about its self-recovery right indeed! I did it!

  A lumberman’s cheap axe. Two-handed weapon.

  Hit:8-12. Hit type: hacking. Durability: 120/120

  Brand-new again!

  I’m itching to privatize this unique sample of carpenter’s tools but it doesn’t do any good. Since I’m not going to become a professional lumberman. And even if such a thought came to my mind, I would find a much more perfect tool at the blacksmith’s. And besides it can be fraught with consequences – the hostess won’t understand if I walk away with her axe. She’ll get offended and fink on me to the guard. Do I really need it? To scuttle off along dark back alleys and start at every noise just because of a cheap axe…

  I spoiled the pastoral silence with some gloating delight by resonant axe strikes and dashing heave-ho. If some neighbors deigned to be reposing then they must have woken up and be ‘praising’ me.