The Secret of the Dark Forest ( (The Way of the Shaman: Book #3)

by Vasily Mahanenko

  After throwing me a meaningful gaze the manager departed. The waiters blurred into the scenery and the chef simply vanished. He was probably automatically removed from the building.

  "It was a mistake to let it go," chided Evolett as soon as everyone was gone, "she will still be fired – the owner will not stand for such a disgrace. This tavern's reputation has taken a serious blow in any case. When it comes to it, don't agree to anything less than three free meals a day for a year. You can send the request within the next seven days – they will agree to all of your demands. I'm sorry that I've become the unwitting cause of this situation. Nothing would've happened had I not invited you here. But let's not lose any more time. The map: I really need the full version. The change in Kartoss locations has meant an automatic update of all the maps so old maps have not become obsolete. I won't ask how you got it; I'll just say that I need it. What would you ask for it?"

  "This is a very abrupt jump," now it was my turn to smile "from fighting the Berserker debuff to selling the map – please let me catch my breath a little. I never thought that the map could interest you quite that much, so I haven't thought of what I could ask in return. What can you offer?"

  "It's not very nice to try to shift responsibility onto others. How am I supposed to know what it is exactly you might need? Are you suggesting that I should decide instead of you?"

  "You've missed the mark in trying to appeal to my pride. Unlike me, you know very well just how much this map is worth, so we are on very unequal footing here. After all, you've most likely already decided what you're prepared to pay for the second half, so there’s no point beating about the bush. Make your offer and I will agree or decline."

  "Are you feeling so completely unperturbed when talking to one of the most influential players in the Game?" Evolett had adopted a familiar, informal manner and was addressing me more directly now. "One gets the feeling that speaking to players of my level is something you do every day. Emperor, Heralds ... almost all the players that I know start to worry, stutter or confuse their words when speaking with someone of my standing. You, on the other hand ..."

  "Have I understood you correctly that you have no intention of making an offer?" I interrupted the leader of the future best clan of Kartoss.

  "One million gold," Evolett finally decided. "That's excluding the compulsory 30% that, as I know, you get deducted from every payment."

  A million gold for a copy of the map? This isn't just a good deal – it's the deal of the century!

  "But I have one condition," Evolett brought me down to earth "we sign an agreement that no-one else except you is to use this map. After this it couldn't be sold, gifted or exchanged. I don't wish to see another clan in Kartoss in possession of this information. This is my offer."

  "I agree." I didn't even have to think about this deal. A million gold for a bunch of virtual numbers is a very good investment.

  Skill increase:

  +2 to Trade. Total: 9

  Achievement earned!

  Moneybags level: 1 (9 transactions worth over a million until the next level)

  Achievement reward: the amount of money dropped by mobs has increased by 10%. This ability affects any players under your command.

  You can look at the list of achievements in the character settings.

  "I didn't think there existed a man capable of surprising me twice" a pleased Evolett stretched in his armchair after putting away the full copy of the Kartoss map I gave him. "After Beatwick and the opening up of Kartoss everyone forgot that Dragons have returned into the game and you are directly connected to this development. You even know one of them. And then the map. You are simply a mine of surprises. I have a proposal for you: if you're able to surprise me a third time I'll give you a present. This has no time limit – you can take forever, if you like. I'm just curious if you'd manage it a third time."

  "'Forever' is just too long. I prefer to act in the moment." With that I opened my sack, took out the Eye of the Dark Widow, uncovered its properties and put it on the table before Evolett. I'd been intending to start showing off the Eye for some time, since I had to start gathering the team to complete this quest, so now was as good a time as any.

  The Dark Legion’s leader's hands jerked in a grasping movement towards the Eye and his face turned into one big question: HOW? But he quickly controlled himself and regained his impassive demeanor.

  "In just two days you will receive the promised present." After a pause Evolett asked, 'How much?"

  "It's not for sale. I'd like to try this myself."

  "Then I propose an alliance. As soon as I cross over to Kartoss, only competent players will remain in the clan. We can help you do the quest. Naturally, all the loot will be yours and I'm prepared to pay for my clan to be included. Think about it, no need to decide now. Making an alliance with the first clan on Kartoss would bring many benefits.”

  "I'll definitely think it over," I promised Evolett and returned to my food.

  At the tavern's exit I was met by a respectable-looking goblin, the owner of the place, by the look of it. After a brief bout of bargaining I was granted the opportunity to come to the tavern three times a day for two years. I could also bring up to three people with me. Keeping in mind the buffs one could gain in the tavern, I considered this a good investment for my future clan.

  Speaking of the clan. With all these meetings, I completely forgot that I had been planning to drop by the Registrar. While there was still time, it was a mistake I had to quickly remedy.

  * * *

  The mark in the shape of azure Seathistle looked simply magnificent on my cloak and the see-through flower before my name indicated that I belonged to a clan. The Seathistles clan has made its début in Barliona.

  At first I wanted to pick a serious and intimidating name, like 'Wings of Terror', 'Night Legion' or 'Dragon', but then some common sense clawed its way back: why? Who was it that I was trying to impress? And for whose benefit was I thinking up excuses? Myself? It's just that the alternatives were even worse.

  The registrar, an old plump man with an impressive moustache and similarly impressive potbelly, stood by the desk, patiently penning something down. Registering a clan was abominably simple: you pay five thousand gold, pick a name for the clan from the list of available names and you've got your clan. The system automatically generated the emblem, which could be edited later – should you ever get around to it – then the clan emblem was slotted next to the player names and that was pretty much it.

  After paying the required fee, I opened the list of names. Just like player names, clan names had to be unique within each continent. The list of recommended names numbered over ten thousand and I had no idea which filter to use to narrow down my search.

  "Dragon." I tried my luck and saw a message that this name was unavailable. The recommended names of 'Red-nosed Dragon' and 'Gold digger Dragon Killers' and so on sounded like the products of someone with a small imagination and a big hangover. After going through a couple more possibilities that sounded interesting, I finally gave up. Will I really have to name it 'I don't care, I've been playing in Barliona for many years now'? I think not. After playing around with name filters and setting them to look for single-word clan names, I looked at the list of the names that came up: 'Phartizans', 'Floodland', 'Seathistles', 'Croutonistas' ... Hmm ... 'Seathistles' ... Why not?

  Name of newly-created clan: Seathistles. Please confirm.

  There were two buttons: 'Yes' and 'No'. I could see, of course, that the name sounded stupid and off-the-wall, but I liked it.

  Clan Seathistles has been created.

  Clan leader: Mahan

  Current clan level: 1

  Next level gained: 20 million clan points

  That was that. The registrar handed me a paper confirming my right of clan ownership and returned to his desk. I would have to go and read up in the manual what these clan points were and how to go about getting them.

  Due to the presence of players t
hat have earned the 'First Kill' achievement in the Mushu Dungeon, clan Seathistles receives:

  +2 Resource Points for all gathering professions

  +2% chance of creating a copy of an object for all crafting professions at no extra resource cost

  These properties combine with the properties of other Dungeon First Kills.

  I'll take two of those! How could I forget about this? The First Kill! Now I saw why Phoenix tried so hard to get at least one person with this achievement to join its ranks. At higher profession levels, especially with gathering (of Diamonds, for example) getting +2 to the gathered resource ... Mm ... I think I want another First Kill!

  After accepting the flower generated by the system as the clan symbol, I went around the Profession Trainers.

  First I dropped by the Mining and the Cartography trainers, where I increased the Hardiness and Scroll Scribe specializations to 10%. The next 5% would come at level 150 of the profession, so it was still some way off. I didn't even bother visiting the Cooking and Repair trainers – with my level in these professions there wasn't much for me to do there. Now only Jewelcraft remained.

  "Welcome, how can I help you at such a late hour?" A colorful gnome greeted me elaborately. Sporting a red velvet dressing gown, tied with a patterned belt, the Jeweler constantly fiddled with his beard as if he had no other purpose for his hands.

  "I've come to be trained," was my simple reply. I had a brief chance to look through the scrolls sent by Evolett and not one of them was for someone with a profession level lower than a 100. I was still too much of a beginner for them with my 42 levels.

  "Please touch the book," said the trainer, clearly losing interest. It was a strange that only Jewelers required you to touch the skill book; other trainers that I had known managed without it. Not wishing to disappoint the gnome I put my hands on the book, where some incomprehensible symbols immediately appeared and came together to form a text.

  The gnome quickly glanced at the emerging lines, turned around, took a step away and then froze. Extremely slowly he turned his head again toward the book, took another slow step back and stared intently at the text. An eternity seemed to go by (no more than a minute in actual fact) before the trainer recovered from the shock. What a strange Intellect Imitator this NPC has – it seems altogether too involved in playing out the role.

  "The Cursed Artificer that has turned into the Blessed Artificer; the author of the Cursed Chess Pieces and the Orc Warriors from the Karmadont Chess Set; the creator of exact copies of the Dwarf Warriors from the Karmadont Chess set," the trainer breathed out loudly, tore his gaze away from the book and looked at me. "It's been a while since I've had such an interesting student," he paused and then said, chuckling, "with just 42 levels in the profession. Did you level up in your skill only by creating Rare and Unique items?"

  "No, I ..."

  "It doesn't matter," the Jeweler interrupted me "you've come to learn and I will teach you. What would you like to know?"

  "I need all the recipes for my level and want to offer you this one." I opened my Jewelcraft recipe book, created a scroll with the Stone Rose recipe and handed it to the gnome. "I would also like to learn how to sift Ore so I can get precious stones from it. I think that's it."

  The gnome gave me a businesslike glance, chuckled, took out a piece of granite from under the counter, as if it was just waiting for him there, closed his eyes and in just a few seconds was holding my Rose in his hands.

  "Mahan's Stone Rose ...' I can offer 50000 gold for the recipe right now or you can get 60–70 for it if you put it up for auction. What would you prefer?"

  "Send it to the Auction House. I'm in no rush to get the money, so no point losing out on the extra 10000."

  "All right." The scroll and the Rose created by the trainer disappeared and I acquired yet another agreement, this time about the sale of the recipe scroll at the Auction House. "I have no scrolls for someone of your skill level – you should gain at least 10 more levels and come back then. As for the sifting, this isn't that hard to teach. It would be more difficult to actually get any stones out of Ore. You may have a decent drop chance for beginner level precious stones and rare minerals, but getting a Sapphire would be near impossible. The percentage chance is just too low. But if you still want it, it'll cost you 10000 gold."

  Your character has acquired a new ability: Ore sifting (requirement: knowledge of the Jewelcraft profession). There is some chance of getting a Precious Stone from the sifted Ore. During the sifting the Ore disappears. The chance of getting a precious stone depends on the Ore level and the level of Jewelcraft profession. Crafting stat. bonus: when sifting Ore you have an additional (Crafting/5) percentage chance of discovering a Precious Stone, corresponding to the Ore level.

  Damn! Double damn, even! And here I was thinking that Crafting would grant an impressive bonus in this case as well, but it only increased the drop chance by a minute percentage ... Only one out of a hundred siftings might end in success – or might not, should the dice decide to roll the other way. So it looked like I would have to buy the stones for making the Dwarf Warriors after all. Speaking of which … !

  "Teacher, I have one more question. I did create the Orc Warriors, as you correctly noted, but when I began to make the Dwarf Warriors I came out with just copies – full and exact copies, but still only copies. Why do you think that might be?"

  "What did you make the dwarves out of?"

  "Out of Lapis Lazuli, as specified in the description."

  "No, where did you get it? Did you mine it or buy it?"

  "It was a gift."

  "So there is your answer," smiled the gnome. "The Karmadont Set can't be made out of bought stones. The person recreating it must gather each stone himself. Either from a vein or from sifting or, as I see in your case, from smelting ingots. You do have Crafting, after all. By the way, as soon as you get a second Gem Cutter, you will be able to craft items that deliver up to +180 bonus to the stats. That's the limitation until you reach a third Gem Cutter. Anything else?"

  "Thank you, I've found out all that I need to know," I heartily thanked the trainer. I now understood why I ended up with just copies of the dwarves. I had to gather the Lapis myself.

  Anastaria's call caught me as I was about to reach the square, where I had headed straight after leaving the Jeweler.

  "I'm in the square. Come over."

  The solitary figure of the girl could be seen from afar under the lamp-posts. An occasional player running through the square might almost whistle as they spotted her, but they didn't dare to stop: Anastaria was known to be a cold and discerning beauty. Incredibly, she combined the qualities that most people all too often lack: brains, beauty and awareness of her abilities. This made her an incredibly dangerous opponent to anyone who might dare challenge her. As far as I knew, there were even special clans named 'We love Anastaria' and 'Anastarians', who were ready to shred anyone on her account.

  "Looks like you were in no hurry," smiled the girl as soon as I entered the square "has being late for a date with a beautiful girl, as you put it, become the norm for modern men?"

  "It's one thing if it's a date," I parried, "but there is zero chance of our meeting to arrange for my 'robbery' of Phoenix passing for a date. And anyway, you have so many admirers that being one of the multitude holds little interest for me."

  "One of." Anastaria smiled once again. "I agree, there's little interest for a Dragon to be 'one of' anything."

  "Look who's talking, oh 'Gorgeous one', vanquisher of sirens." I returned Anastaria's smile, noting with some pleasure that the girl's eyes momentarily widened. "Oh yes! I completely forgot! When was your birthday? Or is it still to come? I've completely lost track."

  "It's already been and gone – last week, in fact. Why?" Anastaria stopped, turned around and stared at me. "Did you decide to give me a present? Like those Cursed Chess Pieces?"

  "Why do you think so ill of me? You're ready to drag up those Cursed Chess pieces at the dro
p of a hat. That's not playing nice." I smiled and took the copy of the Dwarf Warriors out of my sack. "I realize I'm late with this, but it comes from the heart."

  Anastaria was quite a sight. As soon as I took out the figurines, her face became a frozen mask and only the movement of her brown eyes indicated that she was still here. I decided not to reveal their properties, dragging out the moment of the handover. Stacey was doing her very best to hide her desire to snatch them out of my hands and have a closer look. She could see that these were dwarves well enough.

  "Here you go!" I handed over the chess pieces to the girl and just had enough time to pull back my hand – so swift was the lady paladin's move to get them. Did these figurines really mean that much to her?

  "COPIES?!" The girl's outraged voice seemed to shake the entire city. "You just palmed me off with copies?! You dared to think you'd be let off with copies?! And you call this a birthday present?!"

  "What do you mean 'palm off'? I've made you a present and now you're screaming at me." I was rather enjoying watching the girl fly into a rage. When she was angry, she became so sweet that it was too easy to forget that one of the most dangerous players in Barliona was standing in front of me. "And you can quit play acting already. You may make a fine actress, but you're overdoing it a tad. You've been building an 'iron lady' reputation for yourself for too long to make the current hysterics all that believable."

  "That's not playing nice!" It was like Anastaria was suddenly replaced. In the blink of an eye she regained a calm and slightly ironic demeanor. "You're not letting a girl savor the limelight! What if acting was my life's dream and you simply don't get my moments of inspiration? Do you know why you ended up with copies? I doubt this was what you were aiming for when you were making them."

  "Yes, I figured it out."

  "Mahan, we could make one hell of a team. Your inexplicable luck, my resources and analysts – it would a win-win for everyone. Look at how you grew in Beatwick – before the battle you were level 14 and now you’ve already reached 67. Players like this are highly valued in Phoenix. And what are the 'Seathistles'? Where did they come from? And where did you dig up such a clan, by the way?