(World of Valdira 01) The Way of the Clan

by Dem Mikhaylov

  The particular characteristics of the spell are the following. It can be cast under water only, it has a certain duration of its effect and can ‘attract’ all living beings nearby. And it’s essential that it’s unnoticeable from the surface. Actually not water but something like acid corroding flesh spins in the whirl. This acid increasingly spreads into different directions turning nearby waters into a poisonous shake. For example, if a beaver gets inside, it will be killed immediately. If I put foot in it, I’ll be able to survive for five or ten seconds. As for small fish with gills there is nothing to say – one inhale and alas. This magic can be cast by achilots only, other races can’t learn this spell. None of the aliens could be an achilot. They live under water and if they emerge on the surface then only inside a water bubble. But this condition can’t destroy my new-born theory – there are scrolls with single-use spells. I’ve used them once or twice while hunting far away from the city. You’d better not to go to the wood alone but if you dare such a stupid step then be so kind to provide yourself with healing potions and a bundle of scrolls with simple spells like ‘small healing’, ‘cleaning’, ‘regeneration’ and so on and so forth. To tell the truth I can’t imagine how many gold coins a scroll with ‘acid whirl’ spell can cost, but it’s not a problem to buy it if you have enough money.

  Making sure that no one was watching me I went into water neck-deep and started swimming to the pond center striking my arms awkwardly. A gleesome message popped up immediately:

  Achievement!

  You’ve got a first-rank achievement ‘Swimmer’!

  You can see your achievements in your character’s settings.

  Your award for the achievement: +1% to the speed of moving in water.

  Current bonus: +1%

  Thanks a lot! That’s the achievement I’ve been dreaming about all my life! I closed the message and went on swimming.

  I hope there are no angry pikes that enjoy biting swimmers’ feet. Beavers aren’t aggressive. They can attack only in response to aggression. Water was warm on the surface, it had heated in one day but I didn’t feel comfortable as I had to swim among water-lilies and their fleshy leaves splashed my face over and over again. Long strings of water grass were sliding along my bare stomach and legs. I started with fear at their every touch. There is only left to get entrapped and sink, damn it all… Gosha will be happy to hear that I managed to die heroically splashing about a shallow pond. By the way it seemed shallow, but at the moment I couldn’t feel its bottom under my feet. Swimming away from the bank far enough I inhaled some air and dived immerging into green gloom. A semitransparent timer popped up in front of my eyes, it was ticking backwards 01:59, 01:58. Two minutes. That’s the exact amount of time I could stay under water without a slight problem. If I stayed under water longer, my life points would start ‘ticking’ backwards. Besides, at an incredible rate. About ten percent per second from the maximum value of the life scale. When they pass away, it means death. I didn’t have time to look around when one more message appeared in front of my eyes:

  Achievement!

  You’ve got a first-rank achievement ‘Diver’!

  You can see your achievements in your character’s settings.

  Your award for the achievement: +1% to the time of breath-holding under water.

  Current bonus: +1% (02:01)

  Hrmph… it’s certainly good, but how shall I manage not to get a first-rank achievement ‘Drowned’… I gave the push by my legs and dived deeper peering into the bottom darkening in front of me. In fact it was rather shallow there – about two or two and a half meters. Damn that bloody watergrass completely blocking the view, without it I could see much better…

  Over and over again I dived for a short period of time to search the pond bottom raising benthal ooze and frightening a school of small fry. It’s truly a paradise for a fisherman! I need to find a rod and go fishing here to get an achievement ‘Fisherman’ that I used to have and for the sake of fish. I’ll be able to sell it or cook for myself…

  I found them after having checked two thirds of the pond and started to get depressed. I was diving subconsciously without believing in success. And suddenly my eye caught something foreign standing out on the black background. But it was so familiar to me. I had seen it millions of times. Checking my timer I made certain I had one minute left, dived deeper and swam closer to the foreign spot. Watergrass ribbons parted to open the view… I can’t believe it… a constrained guttural sound came out of my throat, I emitted a cloud of bubbles, pushed from the bottom and rushed up to the surface. I surfaced in the halo of splashes, I was gasping madly looking blindly at the sky blueness over my head but there was the gloomy picture I had just seen on the bottom in front of my eyes instead. Among watergrass, ooze and slimy stones I had seen a skeleton dressed in torn rags, it was lying face up and looking up by its empty eye-pits at the glimmering surface of water and just one step aside… a clot of silver mist was hovering softly in water in the form of a human body with its arms spread wide. Such clouds of mist are usually left when a gamer is killed together with his belongings, armor and weapon.

  It appears that three years ago not two NPCs entered the Cradle and had a hobnob. Only one of them was ‘local’. The second was none other than but a gamer. But a gamer can’t go through the northern gate! A gamer can’t come back to the Cradle any way! A magic veil covering the gate won’t let him in, it will push him aside! Oh my gosh… it appears that he can… but why didn’t he return to take his ‘body’? And why do all the guides warn that once a gamer leaves the Cradle, he’ll never have a chance to come back?

  Feeling that I started ‘freezing’ – besides your own sense, your play body gets dazed, your movement slow down – I shook my head sending away unwanted thoughts, inhaled as much air as possible and dived again. I’ll do it later. I’ll have time to sit down and to think everything over. But at the moment I need to act on the basis of a cold logic. In similar cases my logic always tells me to grab as much as possible, you’ll sort it out later.

  Reaching the bottom at the available speed I, first of all, swam to the clot of silver mist and put my hands inside to find something valuable. But there was nothing but for burnt-out and cut rags of clothes. The gamer was totally empty. No gear, no rings, no charms, no weapon – nothing at all. That was caused by the impact of ‘acid whirl’ having spun there for two days. The spell completely destroyed his armor and weapon.

  Leaving the clot of mist alone, I switched to the site of the bottom right under it. I was sifting ooze and sand hoping to find at least something survived after the impact of collapsing magic. I had air for only seven seconds under water when my fingers touched something solid and protruded deep under the sand. Pulling an unknown subject closer to me I hurried up to the surface thrashing the water with my legs at a crazy rate. I managed to surface until the decrease of my life points. I recovered my breath, looked at the prize that I was squeezing by my fingers and winced with disappointment. It certainly used to be a wonderful sword. But then I was holding a handle crumpled much with a miserable fragment instead of the blade. Just a fragment of blade made from an extraordinary metal shimmering blue without a sign of rust. A graceful handle was covered by a layer of mud but some yellow metal could be seen here and there… it looked like gold… Anyway it’s a trophy. And it means that I’ve completed Frol the Money-box’s quest.

  I stuck the fragment of the sword in my belt and dived again. That time I was approaching the ‘local’s remains. The sword mad me significantly heavier and it was much easier for me to go down in contrast to the previous immersion. Touching the bottom I started to search without wasting a single precious second but actually I didn’t hope to get much. Bloody ‘acid whirl’… why was it that spell that was cast? They’d better have stuck each other and that would be that… wait… what’s that? Among the skeleton bones namely in the remains of a broad belt corrupted by acid I could see a rectangular plate that looked like a belt buckle. I grabbed it
by my fingers, squeezed tightly in the fist and took up sifting the ooze again. Nothing! Absolutely empty. The timer switched to a scarlet-red color showing that only several seconds were left but I continued searching to find nothing except for stones and bottom rubbish. Hopeless… there was just dust left from his armor and the rest. My dream to discover something fantastic and awfully expensive collapsed. I threw the last glance at two bodies resting in piece on the bottom and hurried up to the surface.

  Having pulled my bare legs tightly to the chest and wound myself into a shivering ball, I was sitting at the edge of water and looking at my last loot in the beams of the declining sun.

  Now it was obviously not a belt buckle. As long and wide as my palm and as thick as my palm too. Considering its weight, density and surface roughness I was made from stone that reminded me marble pierced with blue veins. One side was absolutely clean, the other was covered with runic ornamental script half-hidden under muddy streaks. Trying to still my shiver I dipped the stone plate into water and rinsed it properly washing down the remains of mud. And then I peered into the plate again. Definitely that’s a runic inscription – a special language imagined by Valdira’s creators. According to the game legend the ancient race of the Great that left that world many centuries ago for ever used to speak this language.

  Among gamers there were real fans of that legend who were collecting the information about the gone race as well as fragments of their objects of unknown usage scattered all over the world. Rare things that exist in one sample only and don’t give any bonuses. So they were searched just for the sake of aesthetic value and collecting. Although from time to time information about another lucky gamer who ran into real treasure of Valdira – legendary weapon, armor, jewelry and so on and so forth depending on the forger’s fantasy – emerged on the game forum and other fans’ sites. Nonsense, in one word.

  Shaking the last drops of water off the plate, I fingered it over and sighed with grief. Nope, this piece of stone is unlikely to be legendary weapon belonging to the Great. Extremely unlikely. It looks like rather an ordinary brick or a decorative marble wall board. It’s a usual glazed tile that must be placed on a wall in a bathroom not in my hands. And I can’t read runes otherwise I could understand what’s written there. However… this rune looks like a human standing on his head for some reason. Ugh… I’m holding it upside down. Turning the plate properly, I looked at it again and chuckled with satisfaction – then the stickman was standing on his both feet firmly. But I couldn’t realize what other symbols looked like. Some doodles, squiggles and complicated geometric shapes…

  A flash…

  And a huge neon-bright blue message in front of my eyes:

  Attention!

  Would you really like to learn the spell ‘To chase away Zar’graad’s veil‘

  - Erm… what’s the hell…

  It’s the first time I’ve seen such a concise message without any additional information about the type and attributes of the spell.

  Attention!

  Would you really like to learn the spell ‘To chase away Zar’graad’s veil‘

  - Yup, sure! – I blurted out and nearly got deaf due to the deafening fanfare went off from nowhere and then nearly got blind due to a blazing laser flash. The stone plate that I was squeezing in my hand crackled deafly heard and crumbled into weightless dust which disappeared once it touched the ground.

  Congratulation!

  You’ve learnt the spell ‘To chase away Zar’graad’s veil‘!

  The spell effect: it destroys the veil of Zar’graad forever.

  The required number of mana points: 10,000.

  - …?! Well… - I whispered with a croak staring at the empty hands stupidly. – And who is Zar’graad?!

  I heard a light and distinctive snap the same as a camera’s snap. Looking up I saw… an angel hovering over the mirror-like pond surface. A broad-shouldered fellow dressed in a snow-white robe wrapped by golden and purple ribbons with golden sandals on his feet that were hardly touching the water. There was a gleaming halo hanging over the head of blond locked hair. He was carrying something like a short gold rod in one hand and squeezing a long and beautifully twisted sheet of vellum carelessly in the other. Total gold, purple and white look. An angel, pure and simple. Maybe I started seeing day-dreams because of staying in the game too long.

  While I was opening and closing the mouth soundlessly like fish thrown on the bank, the divinity come down to me announced in a mild and at the same time vibrant voice:

  - My congratulations, Rosgard. You’ve gone down into Valdira’s historical annals. A painting depicting your achievement will appear in all taverns and inns all over the world of Valdira today.

  - What did you say?! – I croaked and finally I got it – Wait… you’re an Amreeta, aren’t you?

  A real angel was standing in front of me. An angel of the world of Valdira. One of the administration representatives turned up. Gamers are used calling them Amreetas as it is literally impossible to kill them.

  - Absolutely right – the angel nodded with a cool smile on his face – You’re entitled to decide if you want your achievement to be known to everyone all over Valdira.

  - My achievement? What achievement?

  - You’ve found and learnt the spell ‘To chase away Zar’graad’s veil‘ – informed me the Amreeta with a slight grin.

  He must be enjoying the situation. But I didn’t understand a thing!

  - What does this spell do?

  - It does exactly what it is intended to do: it chases away Zar’graad’s veil – the Amreeta replied and raised his hand to prevent mu further question – I’m sorry but we mustn’t influence the game process by providing gamers with direct information. I advise you to use the forum. Besides, the info about the fact that the spell was found and learnt successfully has been already posted on the game portal. So would you like to make your achievement public aor keep it a secret? Please, have a look. This very image will appear in paintings.

  A huge mirror turned up next to the angel, in a moment its surface misted over and once the mist dispersed I saw the image. A naked dude covered by rags of watergrass, literally blue with cold was sitting on the pond bank and staring stupidly at a plate squeezed between his hands. On the background there was a shocked beaver sitting on its tail and smelling that dirty creature that crawled out of the pond. The beaver seemed to film much better than me.

  - Such the rules are – the angel said spreading his arms wide and again a grin seemed to appear on his lips. – An achievement is always captured at the moment when you get it. So, what did you decide? Shall I make it public or keep a secret?

  - Keep a secret – I replied without hesitation and repeated to make sure – A secret… please, keep it. But you’ve just told me that the news has been posted on the game portal?

  - Plus, on the main page in the breaking news column. But it’s just general info. It is said that the spell has been found and learnt. It’s not mentioned who has done it and where. You’ve made your choice. Good luck, Rosgard.

  I didn’t manage to say anything when the shape of the Amreeta got wrapped in golden light and he rose smoothly into the sky at the sounds of a harp and a plangent choir of male voices drawing continuously at the same pitch ‘ah-ah-ah-ah-ah’. Soon the golden sparkle melted and died out.

  I shut my jaw dropped with a crack and after standing up heavily approached the tree at which I had hidden my simple stuff. The beaver sitting on his fat bottom shut its mouth with even a louder crack and tearing its crazy glance off the sky dragged to the pond. It might have decided to cool its overheated head. Even the beaver was impressed by a picturesque departure of the angel.

  But only one thought was spinning in my head – the special effects of the Amreeta’s ‘Ascension’ were exaggerated. Definitely.

  I was enjoying my favorite pastime – I was sitting leaning my back against a wooden fence and doing almost nothing. Nothing special and tiring. I was just rubbing the
handle of the broken sword with a piece of textile and keeping a look out at the opposite side of the street where Frol the Money-box’s shop was located.

  The only trouble I had how to rub the golden handle of the sword keeping it away from numerous idlers’ glances. By the way it was also the reason why I couldn’t come up to Frol and start talking to him. His rather small shop was overcrowded with gamers who had wasted the most of the day earning several coins and were eager to spend the ‘fortune’ wisely. My location allowed me to see not only the gamers clearly but the goods they chose as well. The performance must be boring but for a free ‘pantomime show’ that the majority of the gamers took part unknowingly after leaving the shop.

  Here is a broad-shouldered half-orc who made a monstrous grimace and swung widely the just bought axe to cut an imaginary enemy’s head. He didn’t get satisfied with the result and that’s why grabbed the axe by both hands and added a monstrous roar to the monstrous grimace demonstrating a significant row of fangs in his grin. By the way, this race has a hit bonus at the usage of teeth while fighting. If I’m not mistaken there are several combat maneuvers common only for this race connected with fangs and bites. While I was idly thinking over that subject, the half-orc satisfied with his performance rushed towards the rats’ barn. Poor rodents must have one more Last Judgment today.