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

by Vasily Mahanenko

  "The Dark Forest," said Slate. "There are many bad stories about it amongst my people. Terrifying and full of horrors, this is not a place from which you return ... the birthplace of Vampires."

  "Vampires?" asked Barsina in surprise. "I thought they just stayed in their towns and didn't venture out much."

  "Of course," he continued. “Those towns are for ordinary Vampires, the domesticated sort, you might say. But the Dark Forest is the place of the original, ancient ones, who put founded many a vampire clan. The Reardalox Clan, if that means anything to you. According to legend, this clan is ruled over by the oldest sentient in Barliona, the one who still remembers the Dragons." I pricked up my ears, but tried not to show it. If Dragons were mentioned, quests that feature them might not be far behind. If I summon Draco the clan head would be putty in my hands. The main thing was not to show my cards until the time was right.

  "Right! Attention everyone! Our task is to get to the marked spot and find the Stone. If it was Reardalox's Vampires that did away with the priests, we'll have to do some thinking. But for now let's forget about Vampires – it's not like we can do much about them at the moment, even if they're actually hiding behind the next tree. Barsa, can you please check the forums and look up how to fight those things. Do we need stakes, garlic and other special gear or is the only difference between this and other mobs in the name?"

  "All right, I'll look. But I should say that starting out by foisting tasks you could do yourself on others is bad form. I'm not against you giving orders, but don't get carried away."

  "Hold on, don't go yet." I stopped the girl. "Here, take a look at my properties. I think that should make it clear why I can't look things up myself. The same goes for half of those present here." I opened access to the part of my properties where it said that I was a person of limited rights.

  "I'm sorry," Barsina turned red, thus earning an additional ten points of Respect with me. "I ... I didn't know. ... Why didn't you say straight away?"

  "Would you have joined us if I shouted 'A bunch of convicts are looking for a player ... Barsa, the fact that we've left the mines shows only one thing – we're reformed in the eyes of the law. I hope you have no issues with people like us."

  "No, if you didn't say I would have never known. ... Please, once again, accept my apologies. ... So, are there any other disadvantages to your situation?"

  "Pain: we feel pain. Otherwise we're just like other players."

  "They also take 30% off all gold paid to us," put in Clutzer. I looked around and saw that everyone was listening in on my conversation with Barsina with some interest.

  "Guys, I see that you've already finished the Clan Agreement, since you've gone into 'chill out and chat' mode. Can I have a read?"

  "All right, I'll go and leave you to it," smiled Barsina, while the others looked down, slightly embarrassed. "A Clan Agreement is a very important thing. Be sure to cover everything." With that the girl's eyes clouded over and she left the game.

  "Here." Clutzer surprised me. "We took a standard agreement and made a few corrections. We decided to change the structure slightly. The clan will have a Leader (that would be you), a Deputy, a vacant position for the moment and a Treasurer, also vacant for now. Then come the Officers, which would be the six of us, and then the Fighters and Recruits. A question arose about the Keepers – are we going to try to get our own castle like Phoenix, for example, or not?"

  "Not for the moment. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. What else?"

  "We set out the duties and powers of each and all – we didn't really change anything there. And also we set down that 30% of the clan's monthly income would be allocated for paying salaries. These would be proportional to the profit generated for the clan and to the member's rank. Also ..."

  Clutzer handed me the draft agreement, explaining all the amendments that they'd made in this time.

  "Good work." I accepted the agreement. "There is only one point I disagree with: namely, the one about making decisions that touch upon the clan's best interests. Right now it says that decisions should be made at an assembly of members with the rank of Officer and higher, but I propose that we leave this privilege to the Clan Head. To me, that is. What if the Emperor summons me and offers to send the clan to a Dungeon or complete a unique quest? What am I going to tell him? 'Can you wait a little. We have to decide this as a clan'? Can you imagine what would happen to our Reputation in that case? No, the clan should and must be consulted, but the decision should be made by one person and it has to be its Head ..."

  After five minutes of debating over certain points the entire Seathistles Clan accepted the agreement.

  "I call upon a Herald, I need to register a Clan Agreement," I spoke into the air, summoning the official representative of the authorities. Currently we were right on the edge of Malabar, but still within the jurisdiction of the Heralds, so one of them should hear and teleport here. You didn't need them for signing agreements with players, but a Clan Agreement had to be confirmed by a Herald. It was the only way it could be done.

  "You called me and I came. Please provide the text of the Agreement."

  I sent the Agreement to the Herald and his gaze clouded as he checked the legitimacy of the changes, after which he said:

  "Confirmed! Now and henceforth the Agreement of the Seathistles Clan is inviolable and can only be changed by an Advisor!"

  Then came the clap of the portal and we were alone once again.

  "If that's how it is, take me into the clan right away" said Elenium "I already saw the Agreement for myself and have a vested interest in the clan's speedy development. The more clan members that complete the quest the better it will be for leveling up the clan. So, I'm with you."

  "Me too," said Dukki and Sushiho at the same time.

  "Then, I welcome the new Officers to the Seathistles Clan," I mumbled, rather pleased, as I invited the guys into the clan. "But why did you decide to leave the post of the Deputy vacant?"

  "Because the Head must pick a person whom he trusts more than his own mother. You'll appoint whoever you end up choosing, that's how we set it out in the Agreement."

  "Right," Barsina was back before I could respond to Clutzer's words. "The Dark Forest is uncharted territory. Some maps do exist, but they cost a lot – up to a 100000. I even had a closer look at the small piece that was released for publicity: it was drawn from the air, most probably by a person flying around on a griffin and sketching what he saw. There's only forest and rivers – nothing that could be useful to us. There's not a word written there about Vampires, but I'm inclined to believe Slate. There is one legend on the official site that somewhere in Barliona there lives the oldest Vampire, the Patriarch, as he's also called. Very old, very wise and very dangerous. As for garlic and wooden stakes – Barliona has no such conventions. Vampires are simply very long-lived sentients who are forced to drink blood, or whatever it is we have inside us. The only warning was that they're very fast, about three times faster than any of us. That's it, I think."

  "Then I suggest we get going. We've already lost a great deal of time. We have an exciting journey on horseback ahead of us, so summon your mounts. I would give a lot to know where this path will end up leading us."

  "To the heart of the Dark Forest," Slate, who was doing an excellent phone mast impersonation up until this point, immediately volunteered the information. You had to give it to the developers for configuring the Imitators in such a convenient way. As soon as players start talking about the real world, NPCs appear to turn off or simply act as if nothing is being said. "All the paths in the forest lead to where clan Reardalox Vampires live."

  "That's where we should head then. Mount up, people! Adventure awaits!"

  * * *

  Three hours of riding along the foggy path were completely demoralizing. You got the feeling that we were moving along a narrow deep canyon, carpeted with twigs and deadfall. Our horses easily hopped over any obstacles, but that did little to lift our spir
its. We hadn't seen anything of the sun in all this time, hidden as it was by the thick canopy of the pines overhead. Thus we rode on, knee-deep in the mist, making the best guess of the direction in which we were headed and occasionally jumping over fallen trees. It was monotonous and tedious, but there was little to be done about it.

  "Right, sorry guys," Elenium finally said "but it's time for me to call it a day. We just spent too long getting ready. If anyone decides to continue, I'll turn on Follow.”

  "I have to go too," Dukki said immediately afterward. "Will you keep going?" he asked me.

  "Yes, it's not like we have anything else to do. Hook up the Follow to my horse. We may keep going for another two or three hours."

  "In that case, you can tow me along as well," concluded Sushiho. "We will meet up tomorrow at 18:00 server time, is that right?"

  The gaming avatars of three members of the clan flickered and became transparent, but didn't disappear altogether – the tethering was doing its job. This was quite a convenient feature when a group of players needed to get to a certain location. You select one poor sod to make the actual journey, attach a Follow to him and then you could be free to log out into the real world. This is the principle along which caravans function, transporting around players instead of goods. This is a very profitable business, when the distances are vast and people don't want to cough up the money for a portal.

  "Why did you decide to stay, Barsina?" I asked the girl. "Throw us your tether and return again tomorrow. Not much point in you hanging around now. It's night already."

  "I'll stay with you a little while longer. It's quite pretty around here," the girl said, surprising me. What did she find so pretty about this forest? "It's so ... oppressive, as it were. Makes you think. So I'm riding along, lost in my own thoughts. ... How long do you think it will take us to get there at this pace?"

  "Hold on, I'm just finishing sketching out the map, it should become clearer then." I put the finishing touches to the map, not missing anything that we'd seen that day: fog, brambles, fog, trees, fog ... more fog. ... "Right. We've covered around ... according to the map we've made almost no progress. But three hours of riding isn't much. It should become clearer tomorrow, so I suggest you go and have a rest."

  "I'll have time enough for that. How did you get this quest chain, by the way? I looked around in the manuals and it's a quest from the restricted section. That's not something you can just pick up any day. You've got the chain from the High Priestess too. In general, you're an interesting bunch: you haven't gained level 100 yet, but already have a First Kill under your belt. Can you tell me how that happened? Or is this a clan secret?"

  "No, it's no secret. It's just ... as they say – it was blind luck. I ended up being in the right place at the right time. Where I lived there was a lady who, on closer acquaintance, turned out to be a former High Priestess of Eluna. According to the conditions of the scenario (and I'm fairly certain of this now) there were quite a few such High Priestesses around Malabar – in all the key points of the scenario, but only one of these points was set in motion – the one that was unlocked in Beatwick. This is where the current quest originates. Simple luck, that's all. And how did you ended up being a 'gun for hire'?"

  "Didn't you read my agreement?" smiled the girl. "It just so happened that the same situation developed in all the clans that I joined. The Clan Head, Deputies or Officers would start to shower me with attention. I liked it at first, but once they'd crossed a certain line and taken complete leave of their senses, they'd begin to search me out in real life. ... So I had to leave and start everything from scratch. I don't want to join a women-only clan – those places have different aims to mine. All I want is to earn a comfortable living for myself and my family. So that's why I joined the ranks of the mercenaries. My goal in the next six months is to reach level 200 and officially register as a free fighter. It may not be the case with Phoenix, but other big clans such as Azure Dragons use the services of mercenaries."

  "So, that's why you joined us," I said. "Did you do it in the hope that the Rare quest chain may bring you a lot of Experience?"

  "Let me give you a piece of advice for the future: never ask a girl a question to which you already know the answer. Otherwise things will never work out between you and that girl."

  "But you're not here in the capacity of a girl – just an ordinary member of our group. You yourself asked us to forget about your gender ..."

  Thus we traveled on for another hour or so, until Barsina latched a Follow onto my horse and left the game.

  "Guys, you can also put a Follow on me and go to bed. I'll spend a couple more hours riding, but there's no need for you to suffer."

  "It won't work," said Eric straight away. "Wanted to turn on Follow a while back, as soon as we entered the forest, but we can't do it – just don't have the function. You can check for yourself. It gets turned on when you exit Barliona, but we don't have an exit button. So we'll be riding with you all the way."

  I quickly verified Eric's words and cursed under my breath. That's right – no Follow option for prisoners.

  "Then we'll set up camp. There's little sense keeping on going and we need to rest as well. It's nearly one in the morning already. Leite, you make a fire, Eric and Clutzer, put up the tent and I'll take care of the food." It was just as well that right at the last minute – straight after the Auction House – a food stall caught my eye, so I didn't just have a supply of prepared food, but raw meat too. This could be a chance to level up in Cooking as well ...

  "Barsina is a decent player, by the looks of it," said Leite when the lively fire fought back some of the darkness and the smell of roast venison spread throughout the camp. What else would four guys talk about if not about the ladies? (Slate didn't count, as he immediately went to sleep in the tent.)

  "I wouldn't draw any conclusions after three hours' riding," volunteered Eric. "When it's time to fight it should become clear who and what is riding with us. For now all you can say for certain is that she's a good traveling companion. She doesn't pester you with demands to explain every little thing, keeps quiet where appropriate and keeps up the conversation when needed."

  "That's what bothers me the most," Clutzer couldn't help adding his two cents. "If she plans to work as a mercenary in Barliona – even get an income from doing that – her approach should be completely different. She should be trying to fish any piece of information she can out of us to gain maximum advantage from this trip, but she just rode on and contemplated the Dark Forest scenery. At the same time she doesn't seem to be a scatterbrain. The conclusion being that something's fishy here."

  "Guys, I think you're overreacting." I surprised myself by suddenly coming to the girl's defense. "She's just an ordinary player, like so many in Barliona. The fact that she's not trying to drag any information out of us on the first day together speaks in her favor. And she did spend only three hours with us, after all. I agree with Eric – we can only make up our minds about Barsa after more time or after the first fight. She may well turn out to be a complete noob."

  "Still, I'd keep a close eye on her," said Clutzer, still unconvinced.

  After making the supper and getting my Cooking up to 6, I added our route to the map; then I took out the Smithing tools, walked a little way off from the camp so as not to disturb anyone and started to make ingots. I didn't feel like sleeping, so I decided to spend a couple of hours stocking up on ingots that I needed for leveling up in Jewelcraft.

  "Do you have a lot of Copper Ore?" Eric came up to me after an hour. “My main profession is a Smith, and as you said it's probably time to start leveling up in it."

  "Yes, I have some left." I took out all the Copper that I had: both the Ore and the ingots. "Here you go. Try to get as far as Tin – I have 50 stacks of it. I'll use up 10–15 of them now and leave the rest for you. What professions do you have in general?"

  "Level 13 Smith, so I have 7 levels to go before I can touch Tin. Hopefully this Copper will be eno
ugh. And Level 16 Miner. These are the ones that I've leveled up. Otherwise we all unlocked Lumberjacking, Herbalism and Fishing. Although they're all level 1 at the moment and there isn't all that much you can do with these professions in this forest."

  "That's fine – when we get back, I'll send you for speeded up leveling. Right now you should focus on improving your Smithing while you have some free time on your hands. Something tells me that we won't be getting all that much of it for professions around here."

  On my seventh ingot a miracle happened: as I was making another Tin ingot a large blue stone was left at the bottom of the smelting pot. It was Lapis Lazuli. A stone I obtained myself ...

  I left Eric where he was and returned to the camp, sat in front of the fire and opened the design mode. The images of the Dwarf Warriors hadn't gone anywhere, so I recreated the image of the stone I just got and smiled, feeling rather pleased. The Jewelcraft trainer was right: right now the stone exceeded the figurines in size by several times, which could mean only one thing...

  Congratulations! You have progressed on 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 chance to settle disputes on the chessboard instead of 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: A Battle Ogre from Alexandrite and a Giant from Tanzanite.

  Knights: A War Lizard from Tourmaline and a War Horse from Amethyst.

  Bishops: Troll Archers from Emerald and Elf Archers from Aquamarine.

  Queens: An Orc Shaman from Peridot and Elemental Archmage, a human, from Sapphire.

  Kings: The head of the White Wolf Clans, an Orc from green Diamond and the Emperor of the Malabar Empire, a human from blue Diamond.

  The Chessboard: black Onyx and white Opal, framed by white and yellow Gold.