The Phantom Castle (The Way of the Shaman: Book #4) LitRPG series

by Vasily Mahanenko

  “Barsa, what’s the news with our raids?” I called the girl on the spot.

  “We have 23 players ready at the moment. Three tanks, three healers and seventeen warriors. Magdey recommended all of them, so I didn’t check them out too closely. I trust him. There aren’t any further candidates. I just turned away yet another guy who was merely after a projection. He didn’t know how to do anything yet had a pretty high opinion of himself. Are you asking because you have something or just for the sake of information?”

  “Twenty-three players. Tell me, what is their average level?”

  “They’re all around Level 170. Well, with the exception of one of Magdey’s recommendations—a Level 42 Warrior who could have a bit more experience. But our Raid Leader was all about him. He said that Quiphat, that’s the Level 42’s name, will prove himself. As I understood it, he is one of Magdey’s former officers or friends, who changed his character and started all over again. He’s only reached Level 42 so far. I was planning on inducting the whole lot of them into the clan this evening. You’re not against such a low-level Raider, are you?”

  “Why would I be? If the RL claims that he’s ready, why not believe him? What time are you going to induct them?”

  “Six o’clock server time.”

  “Wonderful! I’ll be waiting for an update from you.”

  Hanging up, I made another call.

  “Stacey, what are our plans tonight?”

  “Plans?” came the surprised response, almost immediately giving way to a mocking tone: “You want to take me out somewhere?”

  “Why not? You are an attractive girl with many redeeming qualities. Why wouldn’t I ask you out?”

  “What do you mean redeeming qualities? Are you trying to suggest that I’m overweight?” I could hear a note of steel in the girl’s voice. Still, I refused to be fooled so easily.

  “Oh please, Anastaria, that game doesn’t suit you. In short, I am inviting you to go out with me in Malabar today. After all, can’t I simply ask you on a date?”

  “So it’s even a date, huh?” There was so much sarcasm in the girl’s voice that, had she been there, I would have had trouble not strangling her.

  “Barsina is inducting the new raiders at six. I’d like to see that. How about seven?”

  “How should I dress?”

  “Dress normal. We’re just taking a stroll, unless you’re opposed to that. It’s a holiday, after all.”

  “In case you’ve forgotten, it’s Valentine’s Day.”

  “Seven at the Central Square,” I reiterated instead of replying and hung up.

  The idea of taking Stacey with me to Krispa had occurred to me suddenly. I had wanted to spend some time with her alone for a while now, but I had had no opportunity to do so since joining the clan. Someone or other constantly needed her or me to help them with something. But now, we could fly over to the edge of Malabar and visit one of its distant towns. To be honest, it was a silly idea for date—it’d be much easier to reserve a table at the Golden Horseshoe—but I was pretty sick of all the sitting around anyway. I wanted to get some fresh air, instead of once more cramming myself in a box of four walls with a genie waiter.

  “Magey, do you wish to join the Legends of Barliona under the terms previously stated?” said Barsina to our future Raid Leader. The raven-haired man with Central Asian features was standing upright and clearly savoring Barsina’s anxiety. Today, my little Druid was out of sorts—she was performing her first official induction ceremony. To give Magdey his due, he did not utter a word of mockery or sarcasm to fluster the girl further. His unabashed smile was that of an old acquaintance—or even simply of an older man observing his much younger relative taking her first steps.

  The clan induction ceremony itself turned out a bit dramatic. I had assumed that Barsina would meet with each new member one-on-one, send the invitation, sign the prepared agreement and assign them a clan role, but it didn’t quite happen that way. Gathering all 23 new hires together, the girl began to work with each one separately, forcing the rest to wait their turns. It was as though these players were all awaiting the grandiose honor of joining the Legends. I found this amusing, since according to the ratings, my clan did not even number in the top ten thousand.

  Having adjusted the clan properties which would allow all the Raiders to receive their projections as soon as they joined the clan, I watched the players’ grim faces break into smiles as the small projections of people, elves, gnomes and dwarves appeared before them. I was especially pleased with Quipha, the low-level Warrior. His projection turned out to be that of a particolored harlequin, balancing on a unicycle and juggling a torch, an orb and a ring. It was such an entertaining spectacle that I couldn’t keep myself from cracking a grin too. There you have it—our clan’s own in-house clown! If someone wished to have a laugh at our expense, now was the time.

  “Ready?” I asked Anastaria as soon as the clan induction had concluded. We had grown by 47 people today: 23 Raiders and 24 gatherers and workers. Not bad for the first day. I would have to apprise the results.

  Clan achievement earned: ‘Clan of Lumberjacks’ Rank 1. (Clan members have mined 1000 units of ore.) Resource collection rate increased by 1%.

  It took me a few moments to understand what I had done to earn this clan achievement. Then I realized that our workers had simply commenced with their work. Considering the enormous bonuses that First Kills grant, this was a pretty middling result. Although, I am nitpicking. The players would still need to reach the mines. Wait, no, I’m not nitpicking—our clan had already mined half of those resources back at the Guardian’s glade in the Dark Forest. But okay, let’s wait and see. Pretty soon the Herbalists and Lumberjacks would join the effort as well.

  “I’m ready,” Anastaria said eagerly, glancing at me with a secretive and curious look. I hesitated to imagine what ideas were milling around her head concerning our date destination.

  “In that case, after you.” Offering Anastaria my hand, I activated the portal I had bought from the Mage earlier and which had cost me, as I assumed, 12,000 gold.

  “How gallant of you,” Stacey replied, accepting my invitation. We stepped into the portal’s azure at the same time. I hoped only that she wouldn’t kill me when she found out what lay on the other side.

  “Guys! Anastaria is here! Let’s take her down!” As soon as we appeared in the central square of the border town, the chat exploded. I looked around and decided that this town wasn’t much to my liking after all. And not only because the chat was beginning to overflow with messages written in Kartossian. Nor that with a perfect reflex, Stacey whipped out her sword and deflected a flying dagger. And neither that the watchmen, who were typically posted at the entrance to the Mayor’s Residence, were at the moment lying on the ground moaning with 1 HP left—while about a dozen players were busy trying to break down the Residence’s front door. You can’t kill the key NPCs, only bring them down to within a sliver of death. Once the fighting ends, and at some point it has to end, the healers will restore the wounded. But no—more than anything, I disliked the deeply troubling notification that was now hanging before me:

  The Town of Krispa is under assault by the Free Citizens of Kartoss!

  What a date this was going to be.

  “Strengthening!” yelled Stacey, using her shield to block a hit from a Level 183 Warrior and with four quick slashes sending him back to respawn. The town’s central square was comparatively empty. Besides the watchmen and merchants strewn around, as well as the dozen players working on the Residence’s door, the place was deserted. It appeared that the rest of the Kartossians were pillaging the town and the central square had little to offer in that regard.

  “The Mayor’s Residence is straight ahead,” Stacey cried over her shoulder. “I’ll cut a path. You stay behind me!”

  “Okay,” I yelled in response, diligently following the girl’s orders. Theoretically, men shouldn’t hide themselves behind the weaker sex, but I experienced
absolutely no contradictory feelings. Considering our levels, experience and equipment, Stacey was hardly the weaker sex at the moment. She was more like an all-destroying cannon ball, hurling towards the refuge ahead of us.

  The crew surrounding the Mayor’s Residence was quite a set—several zombies, vampires, dark bloods and even an ogre. Yet such racial diversity did not save the players of Kartoss from destruction. Instead of calmly allowing the girl to pass, politely knocking on the door for her and asking on her behalf to let us in, this lot decided to attack Stacey. The highest-level among them was 192, so it took the girl just over a minute to sweep clean the threshold of the Mayor’s Residence. All that I had to do was stay out of her way and pick up the fallen loot—gold and items. Now that one could play for Kartoss, the rules governing city capture could have been changes, but earlier, during a city raid, all felled NPCs would always drop some random item conforming to the NPC’s level, as well as a small sack of gold by way of a bonus. There was one little nuance here—if the attacking player died within three hours after the city’s fall, all of the loot would fall to the ground. Considering that other Kartossians could then pick it up—well, I wasn’t about to give them the pleasure.

  “We need help!” yelled Anastaria as she reached the door. “Let us in. We’re under attack!”

  “Identify yourself!” replied a frightened voice from the other side.

  “Anastaria, Paladin-General of Malabar, and Mahan, High Shaman of Malabar! The square is empty, but any moment now more enemies will appear. We will help you organize a defense inside!”

  “Come in, but hurry!” We heard the rumble of furniture being moved, and the door creaking open to reveal a fairly comical-looking Mayor. Who could have imagined that in Krispa—one of the towns of the Lestran Province—a shaking and terrified green goblin would be appointed Mayor? He was almost an ideal copy of Kornik, excepting his ears which were as large as Mickey Mouse’s, while the general shape of his body suggested a sphere more than a humanoid torso. I had never seen a goblin so overweight in this game.

  “Where are the guards?” Anastaria asked immediately, helping the mayor prop the door shut with a dresser.

  “Rolling around the square! They were wiped out as soon as the battle started! The assault is being led by the Rogues Scialo and Siegfried, Free Citizens that are Levels 244 and 237 respectively. At the moment, there are 1,346 Kartossians in the city, all of whom are heading to…” the goblin began to say, but stuttered and paled before continuing in a whisper, “the square. Krispa is lost!”

  Turning to me and studying my stumped appearance for a moment, Anastaria said, “Mahan, tell me honestly—did you know what was going on here?”

  “How could I? I got a quest today to deliver a love letter to this place. That’s it! I couldn’t imagine that this was going to happen. I swear I had no idea, Stacey.”

  “All right, forget it. It’s not the kind of date I anticipated, but okay. Do you have a portal?”

  “Yup, back to Anhurs.”

  “Activate it. The Residence won’t last an hour against 1,500 players. They’ll simply bash down the walls.”

  “But why didn’t they capture it to begin with? Why ignore such a strategically important location?”

  “Because they don’t want to lose their loot! As soon as the Residence is captured, all the guards and merchants become invulnerable. The thinking is that there’s no further reason for a city to defend itself. So they killed everyone except for the Mayor and went off to pillage the rest of the place. But now that they heard that we’re in town…”

  “Do you stand a chance against them? I’m not even counting myself—I’m too weak—yet I haven’t seen a large-scale battle between one high-level player and many low-level ones. I’ve heard rumors that any Level 300 or above can destroy an army of hundreds on his own. Is that true?”

  “Yup, with one hand tied behind my back and all. Look, control and debuffs ignore level-difference, so any decent player facing an army of such size, adopts the only sensible tactic—the one where he runs like hell! They weren’t expecting us back there, so they never managed to coordinate a defense. That’s what did it. But now they know that I’m here and will make sure to focus me. My defenses won’t hold against the focused attacks of several hundred players. I’m not a tank. If there were fewer of them, I’d risk it. But fifteen hundred…that’s too much. Especially considering that at least two of them are over Level 200.

  “Does that mean that you will abandon the town to the ravages of this mob?” stuttered the local puffball, whose eyes were already brimming with bitter tears. I, meanwhile, was frantically trying to think of a plan. I really didn’t want to flee the town, but the two of us could hardly do anything—especially since I was forbidden from hurting other players. Stacey was right about the focusing. Despite the difference in levels, the mob would take care of her in a matter of moments. PvP combat often revolved around focusing one player or another. Effectively, the players would concentrate on one player within range of their attacks and thereby, all together, send their target to respawn in one or two salvos. Unless you were a tank, there were no good options for surviving such a tactic. Even if you were three hundred levels stronger than everyone, the number of attacks would easily overcome the disparity.

  “I beg you, oh great heroes,” the goblin went on, tears streaming down his puffy cheeks, “save my town!”

  Quest available: ‘Defend Krsipa.’ Description: The town of Kirspa is under attack by players from Kartoss. Cleanse the city of its captors. Quest type: Clan, rare. Reward: +24000 to Reputation with Lestran Province, +500 to Reputation with the Malabar Empire. Penalty for failing or refusing the quest: None.

  It didn’t take me long to come to my decision—the quest type was what convinced me. After all, what’s thirteen hundred players? Barely anything.

  “Magdey! I’m calling an emergency raid! Leite, buy some portals to Krispa—only make sure that the destination is the Mayor’s Residence and not the town square. Barsa, try to assemble another group of players. Make sure that they’re all at least Level 200. You have ten minutes. I’ll be waiting for you in Krispa. There are 1,300 players from Kartoss here. The Mayor has given us a quest to kick them out of town. Get to it everyone—the reward is an Exalted reputation with this Province! I don’t need to tell you what kind of rewards we’ll get.”

  “I’m starting to warm up to this date,” Stacey smiled as soon as I accepted the quest. I guess the quest prompt was sent to everyone in the clan because animated responses began to pop up in our chat almost immediately. “I was waiting for you to propose we do battle. Twenty of us won’t be enough, though. I suggest we call Phoenix too. Killer would never turn down a chance to lock horns with some Kartossians. If you’re on board, I’ll make the call and they’ll be here in twenty minutes.”

  “You’re pure gold, Stacey,” I replied ecstatically and unable to contain myself, kissed her. Perhaps I was acting impulsively, but the result only bolstered my confidence—instead of standing there like some ice princess, Stacey returned my kiss. “Make the call! We can use any help we get!” I wanted to say some more kind and gentle words to the girl, but right then the doors to the Mayor’s Residence shook from a blow. A bar labeled Durability immediately appeared above them, indicating that we had only a few minutes before the mob outside would have access to the building.

  “Plinto! I have a special assignment for you! Don’t wait for our guys to assemble and teleport to the Krispa town square this instant. It’s full of enemies, so be careful. We need you to lead at least some portion of them away from us. You’re the only one who can manage this, since you’re immune to control. We only have three minutes before they break down the doors.”

  “Me and my boys can be there in a minute,” Magdey replied right away. “Three tanks with healers are way better protection than some old door! All we need is a teleport scroll!”

  “Leite, hoof it to Magdey this instant! I’ll be expecting the
raid group here in a minute!”

  “I’m already on my way. I’m running downstairs as we speak. Magdey, gather your people at the square and I’ll jump over there.”

  “Plinto, your assignment stands as before! I need you to bait a part of the mob away from us.”

  “What are level are they?” asked my Rogue.

  “Two leaders at 244 and 237. The rest are all sub-200. There’s just under 1,500 of them,” wrote Anastaria. “They don’t have any particular defense or buffs. I’m running my healer build and I took out a Level 192 in four hits and several 170s in two or three. Door’s at 50%. We have less than a minute before they break it. I’ll be able to hold them about 30 seconds, no longer…Hurry up!”

  “I suggest we buy a teleport-blocking scroll. As soon as we jump in, we’ll block them from leaving the town,” Magdey chimed in. “Even if we lose, the bastards will have a nasty surprise!”

  “Leite?”

  “Ten seconds! I’ve bought the scrolls already. I’m activating the portal now.”

  “What’s going on with you, Barsa?”

  “There’s no one around at the moment. Or they’re all lying as quiet as snakes in the grass. I won’t be able to gather a group in ten minutes at this rate.”

  “Stacey, any news with Phoenix?” I asked the girl, who had managed to speak to Ehkiller in the meantime.

  “A group of 200 players, all over Level 180, will be at the town gates in five minutes. There’s no point in them coming here. They won’t all fit and, anyway, the mob will kill them piecemeal as they file out. Even if we end up retreating, they will finish the job.”