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

by Vasily Mahanenko

  I had already rendered Anastaria several times, so two girls instantly appeared before me—one of the Cursed Chess Pieces, who regarded the world with a haughty gaze, and another—a prototype for the Amulet of the Novice—kind, white and soft. It was this image that I decided to work with now.

  I had no goal in mind, so I decided to surrender to the will of inspiration and the Imitator of Jewelcrafting. The time had come to rate me as a Jeweler. Everything I had created until then was no more than dust, since it had been created either per a quest or per the developers’ instructions. Now, however, I wished to make something truly unheard of, something that would really demonstrate how I feel about the most wonderful girl I have ever met in my life.

  First of all, I’d need a base—a trees’ branches and leaves interwoven and forming…No, that won’t do…better let it be flowers. That’s it! Long flowers interwoven to form a garland. Roses? Let’s try it…No, roses won’t do…Seathistles then! That’s it! Once upon a time this flower was the clan’s symbol and I had grown fond of it, so now it will serve as something else—intricate blossoms, long thin stalks, to weave a garland and a dash of blue reflecting the sky…What could be lovelier? The seathistle appeared right before my eyes, as if it had been waiting for me to remember it.

  The first difficulties began almost instantly, as soon as I began trying to shape the garland—I didn’t know how to properly interweave the flowers. It wasn’t difficult to multiply the seathistles, but to form them into one object…Here, the wire came in handy. I simply wound it about the flowers, arranging the blooms one after the other. Hmm…The ensuing garland was less ovoid or round than heart-shaped. Perhaps my subconscious feelings about Anastaria were playing their part? Hum, yes, I seem to have missed my mark, but okay, I’m still happy with it for now.

  I decided to fashion the rim of the heart with thick wire woven into a braid. Having made a loop for the chain, I got down to the hardest and most laborious part of my idea—mounting the girl’s image on the flowery heart.

  The white, fluffy and wonderful Anastaria. No sooner had I focused my gaze on the girl’s projection, than she began to float turning into the already familiar Priestess of Eluna. On my tenth attempt I obtained my desired result and realized that this was just no good. I would have to attach the image to the flowers first and only then adjust its appearance.

  The idea didn’t work out. I placed the girl’s projection on the flowery heart and frowned—false, ugly and banal. Stacey didn’t look good at all against a background of blue flowers. She was, like—well, “bull in a china shop” doesn’t really fit here, but that was roughly the idea—it’s not right to depict a player on a game item, unless you want the item to be binding. I was about to turn my back on my idea, when an excellent thought occurred to me! I didn’t need a binding! I could do something utterly different!

  Anastaria’s image returned to its prior place and I refocused my attention on the garland. As regrettable as it is to admit it, but I had overdone it—the center of the heart would have to be empty—then I could mount the figurines within it. Biting my lip from aggravation at having to destroy that which took so much labor to create, I fairly quickly cut out the internal part, leaving, nevertheless, a fairly thick band of flowers. All the same, enough seathistles remained. Inside the space formed in this manner, I decided to draw two figures—Anastaria and myself. It’s not very modest of me of course, however…

  To my surprise, the greatest difficulty arose not with Anastaria’s image but with mine. I had seen myself only several times and had missed several details—the length of my wings, the shape of my face, my ears. I could perfectly recall the Siren, but my image as a Dragon required me to use my imagination.

  When the interwoven shapes of the Dragon and the Siren had been placed inside the floral heart, the pendant was compete. A mere trifle remained—to add to the design tool the items I was going to make the pendant out of. The rim would be made of Bronze, of which I had several ingots in my bag. The seathistles from Lapis Lazuli, of which I also had plenty. As for the images of the Dragon and the Siren…

  The Supreme Spirits had “punished” me by giving me the Ying-Yang: the stone that I would bear until the end of days, or until I come up with some use for it…Taking another glance at the figures of the Siren and the Dragon, standing beside each other, I understood that I knew now how to use the stone of opposites. It was difficult to imagine two more opposed essences than a Dragon and a Siren.

  Item created: Monteletti, the Pendant of Antipodes…Description: Ere olden times, the Dragon and the Siren stood as foes, seeking to vanquish the other at first sight. But it came to pass that Dragon Julianox encountered Siren Romeolix. ‘Twixt them enflared a sentiment implausible, thanks to which, they overcame all obstacles placed on their journey to happiness. When the item is in the inventory or on the character: +15 Attractiveness to all NPCs; +5% to all main character stats. The item may be worn as an accessory and does not occupy a slot. Item class: Unique. Limitations: Item is crafted from the Ying-Yang Stone.

  You created a unique item. Your reputation with all encountered factions has increased by 500.

  +5 to Jewelcrafting. Total: 119.

  +1 to Crafting. Total: 10.

  The clap of a teleport sounded in my workshop as a portal opened several feet away from me and Anastaria emerged from it.

  “Thank you Reptilis,” she said to the wall, which was utterly empty. Or, it seemed to me that there was nothing there, for a moment later the wall came to life and I found myself facing one of my acquaintances. Kobold Reptilis, Level 147, Assassin. How quickly this guy is growing—only several months ago, when we last met in Farstead, he was still a good ways away from 100. “But why are you here instead of a henchman?”

  “Because everyone is equal in my clan,” barked the crocodile. “And the clan head has to sit in ambush just like the rank and fire. Otherwise he loses his skills. That’s it. I’m transferring you this body alive and well. There were no incidents to speak of during my watch. He was a peaceful object of regard.”

  “Best of luck,” said Anastaria to the Kobold’s back. Strange—as I recall, this guy was a fan of Anastaria’s, and yet now he’s so calm about her company that you could think that in the intervening time he’d met that one unique and irreplaceable woman who became his own personal ideal. But what could prompt Stacey to hire me a bodyguard?

  “Hi,” I smiled at the girl, who tarried beside the still-open portal.

  “Have you finished?” the girl asked calmly—and yet her words struck me with the force of thunder. There was neither a shade of emotion nor a touch of interest in what I had made in them. The girl was looking me in the eyes and in her look I read no hint of joy at our meeting. To the opposite—I read in them reproach. “Get your stuff, we’re expected.”

  “I think I’ll step out,” said the Jewelcraft Master suddenly, remembering that he had cows to milk and pigs to feed in the neighboring room. He left me one on one with Stacey.

  “What’s the problem, Stacey? Yes, I popped out of the game for a day, but that doesn’t mean I need a bodyguard and definitely doesn’t deserve your displeasure.”

  “Doesn’t deserve?” Anastaria half-sang, slightly tilting her head. “You consider six days of absence to be insufficient reason to be worried?”

  “WHAT?!” It was my turn to be astonished. Opening the calendar, I stared dumbly at the current date. If I recall when I sat down to work, there really were six days difference. The clan meeting I missed was blinking in the calendar—the same one I had set and the same one I had missed, as was becoming habit now…but how?

  “Dan, how much more of this? Yes, I hired a guard and, while I was at it, an informer, so that he could tell me when you returned.” Judging by her accusatory tone, Stacey was beginning to thaw. “By the third day, the forums were bristling with claims that the head of the Legends of Barliona had crashed—that you were an Imitator and not a player.”

  “What a bunch
of claptrap,” I replied haltingly, trying to figure out how I had lost six whole days. For me, the process of creating the pendant had taken only a couple hours—meanwhile, in Barliona a whole week had passed! Considering that our clan is short for time, I really did pick a good moment to be absent. “I was making you a present…”

  “A present?”

  “Here,” I offered the girl the amulet I had crafted. “I don’t know what people typically say in such situations, so…Well, take it!”

  Nothing augured misfortune. But hardly had Anastaria taken the pendant in her hands, when a light show erupted in the Jewelry workshop—golden winds enwrapped us and everything grew bright like when a unique item was created. The sudden bluster scattered the tables, instruments and materials, knocked down the shelves and ripped out the chandelier from the workshop ceiling, hurling it mercilessly out the window. All that remained of it was now slowly tumbling along the floor in the form of little candle fragments.

  “What are you doing…Why, heck!” came the voice of the gnome in response to the clatter. But as soon as he opened the door, he was immediately knocked back by a massive grinding wheel, the door shut behind him and chairs and a table piled onto it.

  After several minutes, two people remained standing in the center of the tornado that was smashing the workshop to smithereens—Anastaria and I. Objects were hurling past us like specters. The wind, which by that point had ripped off the roof, completely ignored the couple looking into each other’s eyes. When the floor under our feet fell away with a horrible screech and flew off after the roof, leaving us suspended in mid-air, I took a step toward the girl. As if prompted by her own premonition, Stacey too took a step toward me. Clods of earth began to rush past us—the floor was long gone—but the walls, as surprising as it was, held on. The door that had hidden the Jeweler was thrown ajar and I could see that the chaos in the neighboring room was no less severe than in ours, although the floor and ceiling there still remained. As for the gnome, he was nowhere to be seen. Either he had fled or he had flown off after the roof, or maybe he was hiding behind the giant dresser—the last remaining piece of furniture.

  “This is for you, love,” I said, taking Anastaria’s hands in mine. Gazing into her hazel eyes, I couldn’t care less that the girl had been angry with me only a few seconds ago, nor that in a fit of anger she could reject my gift. At the given moment, none of this mattered one bit. For the first time in my life, I sincerely confessed my feelings to a girl, without worrying about the response in the least.

  “Thank you, love,” said Stacey and, as banal and purple as it sounds, we submerged ourselves into the sweet world of a kiss.

  It lasted forever…I pressed Anastaria to myself, closed my eyes from pleasure and we flew off into the heavens. My head was spinning as though the girl had once more used her amorous charms, which theoretically should have no effect on me. Strange images of Dragons, Sirens, cupids and hearts spewed forth in my mind and the rushing wind finally reached us, cooling but not budging us where we stood. Now I understood what the expression ‘in seventh heaven’ meant—though I’d say I was easily in the 45th. Even the night I had spent with her, had not brought me as much pleasure as this kiss.

  “It’s a bit cold!” whispered Anastaria after a short while, trying to press herself closer to me and wrapping me with my tail. I covered her with my wings, guarding her from the piercing wind. Stop! My tail? Wings? The cold?

  “My son! You dared to bring a Siren into our world?” Renox’s thunderous growl resounded among the snow-capped mountains, triggering avalanches, and I realized what is located in the 45th heaven—Vilterax! The homeland of the Dragons of Malabar!

  “Destroy her!” ordered my virtual father and a flock of Dragons that had been wheeling several hundred meters from darted in our direction.

  “Don’t dare touch her!” casting a golden shield on Anastaria to protect her from the cold, I soared high into the air to block the way to the Siren. The Dragons slowed, flapping their wings and looking back for instruction to the giant green Renox. The unheard of had happened—a Dragon had stood up to protect his eternal enemy. “I love Anastaria and don’t wish her to be harmed!”

  Several Dragons were so surprised by my words that they even forgot to flap their wings and began falling, like immense boulders, onto the snowy mountain slopes. One of the Dragons, however, flapped his wings energetically and appeared beside me in a moment. Draco! Making a pirouette, he graciously turned and took his place beside me.

  “I am with you, brother!” my Totem assured me, menacingly bristling the spines on his neck. “The lovers who have caused the Ying-Yang to bloom deserve help in their struggle for happiness! Hear me, oh father!” Draco yelled to Renox. “They caused the Ying-Yang to flower!”

  “Everyone back!” Another wave of avalanches rumbled from the mountains and Renox landed heavily on the earth. “Are you sure, son?”

  “What’s there to be sure about? Take a look yourself!” said Draco in a satisfied voice and indicated first mine, then Anastaria, necks. Realizing that I wouldn’t be able to see myself without a mirror—I wasn’t that flexible—I looked at the girl.

  My amulet, transformed and enlarged to fit her new form, hung around the Siren’s neck. Against a background of blue seathistles, the Siren and the Dragon were intertwined in a passionate dance. Considering that when I made the amulet, these two creatures were standing beside each other, I could be certain that this was no longer my pendant. But this was not the only difference…According to all the guides and manuals, the Ying-Yang was a two-colored stone. The colors would flow into each other and be in constant motion, but there were only two. But now…

  What would happen if you took a rainbow and shifted its colors? It’d be beautiful but not ordinary. But what would happen if the figures made from this chaotic rainbow would also be in constant motion, as though engrossed in their whimsical dance? That was what was now hanging around Anastaria’s neck. Captivated by this novelty, I opened its properties and realized that they were no less astounding:

  Female aspect of Monteletti the Pendant of Antipodes…Description: Ere olden times, the Dragon and the Siren stood as foes… When the item is in the inventory or on the character: +15 Attractiveness to all NPCs; +5% to all main character stats. The item may be worn as an accessory and does not occupy a slot. Item class: Unique. Limitations: Item is fashioned from the Ying-Yang stone. When located within 100 meters of the Male aspect of the pendant, the common characteristics of the pendant’s wearers are increased by a further +15%. The pendant owners may summon one another once a day. The pendant owners can communicate telepathically. Item class: Unique. Limitations: This item may not be given to another player. This item is crafted from the flowering Ying-Yang Stone.

  “Then it was no mere rumor,” I ‘heard’ Anastaria say. “Say something, Danny!”

  “What rumor?” I shouted, imagining Anastaria’s image in my mind. I really had no idea what Stacey was talking about when she asked me to say something. Her voice had sounded right beside my ear, but at the same time somewhere inside of me. And yet I was certain that this was not a figment of my imagination—that she really was speaking to me.

  “Don’t yell like that! The capsule technology is completely capable of supporting telepathy, but the Corporation refuses to implement it, pointing to internal regulations and limitations. It looks like you and I got lucky! Unbelievably lucky! Oh man! Check out your Energy!”

  “Why, what’s wrong with it?” I managed to ask just as the long-forgotten notification appeared before my eyes:

  Energy level: 30. Stop, you angry Shaman!

  “Too bad,” Stacey said out loud. “I guess we can only use telepathy in emergencies, when we are far apart or need to discuss something very quickly. My 400+ Energy will suffice for about three minutes of conversation, and then I’ll have to take a break. I’ll dig around to find out what kind of amulet this is later on today. I’d love to try out the summoning feature, but that
can wait. At the moment…”

  “Have you two forgotten about us?” growled Renox politely, having approached us. “A Siren in Vilterax…I never thought I’d see the day. And who brought her here but my own son! I don’t even know whether I should be happy that he managed to get the Ying-Yang to bloom, or to despair because he’s fallen in love with a Siren.”

  “Allow me to inquire, oh Great Ruler of the Heavens,” Anastaria bowed to Renox deferentially, for some reason turning her head to the right. Due to the Siren’s anatomy, her neck (though protected by scales) was now quite open to the Dragon. “What do you mean when you say ‘got the Ying-Yang to bloom?’ What have your son and I done by turning the stone into a rainbow?”

  “Look on and learn, oh my sons!” Renox said with satisfaction, now regarding the girl with a new look. “No wonder she’s a Siren—she knows the rules of addressing her seniors better than certain Dragons!”

  Draco merely scoffed at this reproach and soared up from the ground. Renox watched his son’s flight, then turned back to me and the girl:

  “The Ying-Yang stone was conceived by Eversquetor, the eldest son of Barliona’s Creator, to be one of the aids by which a lover could find his other half. The stone is never wrong. If one lover gives the Ying-Yang to another and the stone blooms with the colors of the rainbow, then that means that the gods themselves bless this union. No one and nothing can tear the link between these lovers. However, when Eversquetor was no more, the stone lost a portion of its former power. It would bloom as before in the hands of lovers, but they would first have to open themselves fully to each other. To trust each other as they did themselves and to feel in their partner a part of themselves—that which makes two organisms a single whole. The Ying-Yang did not bloom for several millennia, so Eluna resorted to trickery—she ‘commanded’ nature to ‘celebrate’ any time that two sentient lovers were with one another and one of them had the Ying-Yang. The better the match between the lovers, the more powerfully the world around them ‘celebrates.’ They say that sometimes their feelings reach such an intensity that nature not only celebrates but grows chaotic and falls into a fit like an overgrown puppy—unaware of its magnitude, it may accidentally crush someone nearby or destroy something in the vicinity. But don’t worry—such a thing only happened twice in Barliona’s history. After Eluna’s cunning ploy, the stone began to bloom more and more frequently, uniting loving hearts. But never once, as far as I remember, has the stone bloomed for two Free Citizens. Not once!”