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

by Vasily Mahanenko

  “So this is the situation,” Stacey began as soon as we had landed, “there is an enormous mob of PK-ers running around here. I will bet that the Azure Dragons hired them to ensure that no one would reach the castle and live to tell about it. I suspect that the PK-ers themselves have signed a nondisclosure agreement, since there’s not a word on the forums about any 45x experience bonus.”

  “Stop describing the current situation and explain what you were talking about with the Mayor!”

  “The Mayor is an official. He cannot express his personal views, especially when that would harm the city or its economy. But what’s clear is that the Azure Dragons stumbled upon this castle while they were looking for some means of dealing with Geranika’s dagger. They quickly realized the benefits of grinding by killing the phantoms and somehow ended up in cahoots with the Nameless rulers of Narlak. I have only one theory here—a dumb old bribe. Barliona has that kind of thing too. Learning that Phoenix had already discovered the dungeon, Undigit dropped his attempts to break into the castle and committed all his men to your ordinary, run-of-the-mill grinding session. Considering that Don is already at Level 314, they’re doing a good job. What else do I need to explain to you? I guess that we should first…PLINTO!!”

  Making some sort of unimaginable motion, Anastaria fell onto me like onto a child and pressed me to the ground. Swiping away the notification telling me that I was permitted to retaliate because she had damaged me, even if just a little, I became all ears, since I could see nothing but the girl’s frame and cuirass.

  Stacey’s frame blinked four times as if someone was throwing darts at her, then her Hit Points dropped by 10%, but immediately went back up, not giving me the chance to help her. That’s how I spent the next several moments, pressed to the earth under the girl, who had suddenly become as heavy as if she were made of steel. A real hero, I!

  “Four down! Two have fled—I didn’t give chase. Let’s get out of here. There’s not much of a fight to be had here, and I don’t want to lose Mahan. He’s paying me my salary!”

  “Are you alive down there?” the girl asked, removing herself off me and giving me a chance to breathe. “Forgive me, but that was the easiest way to keep you safe and sound.”

  “Why what could they do to me? I’m past Level 100 already! As for you, it wouldn’t hurt you to lose some weight. You almost crushed me!”

  “You know, six Level 230 players who specialize in killing other players profoundly do not care that you are already at Level 100. I mean, like, not at all. Their goal is to send you back to respawn. They get paid to do it. I’m sending everyone the group…for some reason, it hadn’t occurred to me to do it earlier. We’ve got the PK marker on us now. We’ll have to sit it out somewhere for the next eight hours. I suggest we head for the ocean. They definitely won’t look for us there.”

  “I don’t know about you, but I’ve had it with flying,” I grumbled. “I only have five minutes’ flight time left anyway.”

  “Either way we need to get out of here. Everyone knows we’re here already. Ah! Here’s something from Donotpunnik…”

  Stacey got her mailbox and froze for several seconds as she read the message, after which she burst out laughing.

  “Begging our pardon, Donotpunnik requests that we stay away from the castle for several weeks. Preferably months, and even better, that we leave this place while we have our healths. He is very sorry to inform us that Undigit is compelled to declare war on the Legends of Barliona”

  “I don’t understand why he’s sending you the letter and not me, the head of the clan?”

  “He did send you a letter, but he CC’d me. I have Don set to immediate notification, while you’ve got him on the standard delay. Once you receive it, you can read it. Then we can laugh about it together again. The second ranked clan in Malabar has just declared war on the 30,000th one. It’s going to be hot on the forums tonight. Poor Barsa will have extra work to do. The players would never miss a chance to have a laugh at the cost of those who flew too high. By the way, Mahan, my advice is that as soon as you get Don’s letter, reply right away with an offer to him personally to join our clan.”

  “Say what?” I was stunned by such a proposal.

  “Don openly expressed his regret and that he’s speaking on Undigit’s behalf. And keep in mind that if he wanted to, he has the authority to declare war on whomever he wants on behalf of his clan. My conclusion is that he’s not too happy picking a fight with us, but can’t do anything about it. Offer to match his salary with the Azures, unless it exceeds, say, five million, and explain that you won’t ever ask him to violate his NDA. Send him a link to the Eye of the Dark Widow and tell him about some rare scenarios we have. Don’s been mentioning switching clans for a while, so why not do it now?”

  “Why five?”

  “That’s how much you paid Plinto, so it’s a good reference point,” Anastaria shrugged. “The amount doesn’t really matter. You can figure that out yourself. I won’t even mention how useful Don could be—you know it perfectly well. Considering that the clan competition is coming up, it’s an excellent idea.”

  “You think he’ll agree?” I expressed my doubts.

  “It’s worth a shot in any case. What are you risking by writing a letter? Nothing at all. But if it all works out, you’ll acquire a very intelligent, high-level and simply good person for your clan. On top of it all, he’s a tank. Think about it…All right, let’s get on our way. I don’t have any desire to respawn today.”

  Clan achievement gained: “The Praying Mantises versus…” The Legends of Barliona clan has completed the Nirriana Dungeon.

  Reward for completion: 100,000 gold, +7,500,000 clan points. This dungeon may be raided again in 7 days.

  There you have it…Magdey and the boys have already completed the first local Dungeon. Good stuff! Although they’d spent almost a day on completing it, I was happy with the results. At the current clan-points standings, we would reach the second level after another Dungeon, and that second level would grant us +10% to gold dropped from mobs. Small change, but small change was always welcome.

  “Dan, can I look at the cards?” Anastaria asked once we had landed beside a modest cliff. What an excellent phoenix Plinto has. He carried us both without even noticing the extra weight. Anastaria’s griffin merely flapped his wings as we zoomed over him, under him, before him…Plinto showed me everything that his bird was capable of, and I must admit that I still had a lot to work on. It wasn’t even a matter of speed, so much as feeling at ease in the air. For the phoenix, the sky was a native medium and he could maneuver in it in ways I’d never heard of.

  “Look away,” I agreed reaching for the bag, but the girl sitting beside me beat me to it and, without a hint of shame, reached into my bag for the cards. No, I simply must do something about her access to my bag! Watching the girl engrossed in studying the playing cards, I did that which I had wanted since the day we met and which I had not done, despite my access to it, until now: I finally checked Anastaria’s equipment.

  And so!

  Head—Epic, Level 295; Neck—Legendary, Level 299; Shoulders—Epic, Level 295; Boots…hmm…She was chock full of either Epic or Legendary class items. The weapon in particular threw me off—The Legendary Gleyvandir, a sword without equal. Its description was so opaque and indecipherable that, unless you quaffed some strong reagents, you’d be utterly unable to understand anything at all. But okay, I get the gist of her equipment, let’s keep going. Eighty-three factions encountered, seven of which burned with a bright red inscription: Hatred. As for her properties, Stacey had Healing, Faith, Wisdom and Charisma. Not a bad assortment, especially for a player who relies on divine magic. When I checked her main stats, I couldn’t help but swear—I need to get up to Level 343 ASAP! And do so with all the blessings that the girl had. Even the Emperor himself deigned to strengthen Anastaria by 20%.

  “Stacey, you also have several markers on your map. Will you tell me what they’re for?”


  “I was wondering when you’d get around to digging through my personals,” the girl smiled returning the cards. “Want to play Gin Rummy?”

  “Let’s. But you haven’t answered me.”

  “Plinto, you want in?” Stacey asked the Rogue, again ignoring my question. Or else indicating that she wasn’t going to answer it. Yep. Yeah, right!

  “Deal me in!”

  “Stacey, let me ask you again—what’s with the markers on your map?” If I understood the rules of telepathy, it was impossible for her ‘not to hear’ my question.

  “Are you prepared to bail me out of an Imperial Prison?” asked Anastaria enigmatically. “Ten million gold. That is the Emperor’s penalty for divulging such information. If you’re okay with it, no question about it, I’ll tell you here and now. If not, learn to understand me better, Dan. Everything I can, I’ll tell you myself. Even if there’s a penalty and it’s immense, I’d still tell you. But ten million, forgive me, is too much to pay simply to satisfy your curiosity. I can tell you one thing. These are onetime scenarios like your Dragons’ Dungeon, that are specifically for me. Are you going to deal or not?”

  “Hold on, I need to shuffle first,” I said and split the deck. “Maybe we’ll play poker instead?”

  “Hold ‘em.” Anastaria immediately agreed.

  “Texas,” Plinto echoed. “One gold small blinds. Shall we start?”

  “Let’s draw to see who gets to deal.” Fanning the deck I drew a Jack. Plinto drew an eight and Anastaria, unsurprisingly, a king.

  “Ante up,” said Plinto rubbing his hands enthusiastically and threw a gold piece into the pot. Actually it was difficult to call it a pot, since it was simply a virtual space on which our Imitators placed marks registering who had bet what and how much. For us, in the absence of a normal table onto which we could toss our chips, this basic system sufficed. “Stacey…”

  “Forgive the interruption,” the Herald’s bell rang just before my first card could touch the ground. “I simply wish to advise you that provisionally Free Citizens are prohibited from gambling. If you choose to continue, you shall be penalized. Please take that into account.”

  “In that case, I pass,” I was forced to say, sadly looking at the dealt cards. “Thank you Herald, for the warning,” I added, but the Emperor’s messenger had already vanished in his portal. Stacey gathered the cards, handed them back to me and said:

  “And so…you are forbidden from playing cards. This gives rise to a reasonable question: Why did they give them to you? It simply occurred to me that maybe as soon as we played a game that used all the cards, some secret item property would be unlocked. But now…what are these like the Pandora’s box or something? Open it and off to the mine with you. Although, I guess there’re some pluses here too.”

  “Pluses?”

  “Now we know for sure that we’re being carefully watched. Either by the Corporation directly or by the Imitators. They didn’t even let you touch the dealt cards, for that could already be construed as gambling. And yet the Herald showed up just in time to stop you. Had anyone ever told that you couldn’t gamble?”

  “Yeah there was this one time,” I replied, recalling the episode when I had popped out to reality and a Corporation official had explained to me what I could and could not do in the game. I remember it like yesterday—I couldn’t spend more than 24 hours a week in the Dating House.

  “Then we can only conclude one thing. Someone really doesn’t want you to return to that mine, Mahan. All we have to do is figure out the reason. The Chess Set, the Eye, our projections or the castle…We need to think.”

  The Eye? More and more frequently I’m catching Anastaria mention the Eye of the Dark Widow. She just suggested I show it to Donotpunnik and now considers it a completely suitable reason for why the admins might be watching me. And yet she herself had said that the Eye could not be valuable—a typical scenario for killing some boss. It seems like Stacey is equivocating here and I don’t like it…should I ask her directly?

  The Eye of the Dark Widow. Description: a hundred thousand years ago, before humans appeared in Barliona, the world was ruled by the cruel and capricious Tarantula Lords, who subdued all other races with their power. After a cataclysm, the Tarantula Lords vanished, and all the races tried to expunge the millennia of suffering under the Tarantula yoke from their memory, letting them be entirely forgotten. But in the depths of the Free Lands there still exists a cult worshiping these Lords, and its Patriarch dreams of bringing back the Tarantulas and submerging the world in fear and pain. Stop them or it will be too late. Go to the Emperor for further instructions. Quest type: Legendary. Level requirements: at least 100. Group requirements: at least 20 members. Reward: hidden.

  Gosh, so much text…A Legendary Quest issued by the Emperor. Stop! A hundred thousand years ago? But then what about the Dragons? Weren’t they the scourge of Malabar back in those days?

  “You still with us Dan?” Anastaria asked telepathically, perhaps worried that I had ‘crashed.’

  “Tell me, Stacey, why is the Eye so important?”

  “I already told you.”

  “Stacey, tell me the truth, please…”

  “My dad will kill me…”

  “Stacey.”

  “Let’s wait until Plinto logs out to reality. It’s a long conversation and I don’t have enough Energy.”

  “A few words at least.”

  “It creates another key to the tomb. Karmadont created the Chess Set so it’s not like he could’ve reached the tomb with it…an item similar to this one led him to it.”

  “And are there many such items scattered around Barliona?” I said aloud, retrieving the Eye.

  “I attempted three Dungeons, but we never once completed even half of one. By casting Hiding and Acceleration, Plinto managed to get further than anyone else the time that the raid of the Dark Legion was destroyed. That was when he acquired his phoenix. It was the Emperor’s reward for his efforts. Any Eye, Fang, Claw or some other Tarantula body part unlocks an attempt on a Dungeon, so the cost of any error is very great. At the moment, you can’t activate this quest—Magdey’s boys need a chance to level up a bit and get used to fighting with each other. In the Dungeon, the monsters are always three levels higher than the level of the group’s strongest player, so neither I nor Plinto can help—everyone else will be simply devoured.”

  “In other words, all these items are related to the Tarantulas, correct?”

  “Yes. Is something bothering you?”

  “The story in the description about how a hundred millennia ago the Tarantulas ruled all, just doesn’t make sense to me. As I’ve learned, back then it was the Dragons who were the scourge of Barliona.”

  “I suggest you ask the Patriarch. He should know the truth for sure. The question is merely whether he’ll be willing to tell it to you. Plinto, do you have any way of contacting your father?”

  “Nope,” the Rogue stretched himself on the ground. “He said that he’d be busy for two months preparing our new training, so at the moment no one can see him. When the second round gets under way, we’ll be able to ask. That information is definitely of no use to us for the next month or two. I’m going to leave you two to your sweet-talk and pop out into reality. Eight hours is too long for doing nothing.”

  “Stacey, I want to hear the full story—what is up with the Eye. What does it do?” I asked once Plinto had vanished.

  “All right…Look, the idea of getting into the tomb of the Creator has been bouncing around Barliona for about nine years now. In effect, it’s one of those long-term projects that no one is willing to commit to all the way. At the moment, the Celestial Empire has gotten the closest. All they have to do is create one more item and they’ll be able to open the door. You’re second after them: Already having three completed items, you only need three more to open the tomb’s doors. And yet, don’t forget that it still has to be located—and you still haven’t solved the ogres’ riddle. Third place is occ
upied by two players at once. One is from Astrum and the other remains unknown, although what is known is that he must be from Caltuah. Each has created two of the legendary items in the chain which leads to the opening of the Creator’s gates, so we can speak of them as contenders. Each one of you has 18 months remaining in the quest. As far as I know it, you are the third on our continent.”

  “I get it—there are better crafters than me. But you still haven’t explained what the Eye is.”

  “In four years, not one crafter has even gotten close to creating the whole thing. Initially, the time period was half a year, then a year, now it’s 18 months, but nonetheless, the players just can’t manage to fulfill the developers’ assignment. So they came up with the whole Tarantula idea. I don’t know how they shimmed them into the game lore, nor what they have to do with the Dragons, but I personally have had Discs, a Fang, and an Ear of the Dark Widow—all with descriptions similar to yours. My uncle has several more in his clan. They get First Kills too after all. The point of these items is simple—he who completes a Dungeon on his first attempt, receives a key to the tomb of Barliona’s Creator. I already mentioned the result—Phoenix never reached further than the Gray Lands, Plinto managed to get back out, but the third boss was too much for him. As a result we know for certain that there are at least four bosses in the Dungeon and they are several levels stronger than the strongest player in the raid party. But I already told you this.”

  “And yet when you first saw the Eye, you said that there was nothing important about it,” I smirked.

  “You’re a strange one! What else was I supposed to tell you? Back then you were a nobody to me. I didn’t even know your name. Now, yes, my father strictly forbade me from relating to you the information about the Eye, hoping to buy it from you at some favorable moment, but…I don’t want to introduce deceit into our relationship. If I don’t wish to tell you something, I’ll say: ‘My dear, forgive me, that’s not my secret to share.’ At the moment, there’s no secret about it. There’s plenty of info about the Tarantulas available from public sources.”