“Speaking!” I answered.
“Mahan, this is Magdey. You asked me to call you when we reached the last boss of the Bloody Scythe Dungeon. Well, we’re here and we’ve cleared out all the mobs, so he’s all that’s left. Do you want in or what?”
“Of course!”
“In that case, I’ll have the mages conjure you a portal and we’ll bring you over in a couple minutes. Signing off!”
The Bloody Scythe Dungeon. An utterly unexceptional Level 190 Dungeon, containing three bosses and a huge number of mobs—and one little detail: This dungeon contains the fragments of the Thricinians’ history. I saw no point in fighting through the entire dungeon with my Raiders, but it was important to be there for the last boss in order to have a chance at recovering the shard. I needed to increase my reputation with the Thricinians; doing so would benefit my clan.
“So what do you want me to do?” I asked my Raid Leader as soon as I emerged from the portal. The entire raid group was bespattered with some green substance that was slowly flowing down their clothes, and yet, judging by their properties, posed no harm either to the players or their equipment. It was simply a rather unpleasant visual effect.
“Nothing complicated,” Magdey began to explain, wiping the green slime from his face. Noticing my unspoken question, he smiled and explained: “We just finished clearing some carnivorous plants from a hallway. This is their sap. It’s helpful actually because the boss assumes that we’re flowers and doesn’t attack us until we draw his attention. You should go dip yourself in that puddle of the stuff over there,” he gestured into some distance. “It’s not required though. Just stand aside and heal a tank once or twice. You’ll still get credit for completing the dungeon. I’m sending you an invite to the party now.”
I had no desire to dip myself in the green sludge, so Magdey smirked and began to explain the tactics: “The boss has three phases that alternate every minute. During the first we spread ourselves out…”
Listening to Magdey, I gained more and more respect for this person. In a calm voice, without any unnecessary emotions, he detailed the battle plan. To conduct a raid properly, each member has to know the tactics without relying on the Raid Leader’s instruction. Six or twelve hours of waiting to respawn was too steep a price to pay for being too lazy to read the documentation. At the moment, however, Magdey displayed no dissatisfaction with my lack of preparation and simply explained what had to be done.
The battle with the giant praying mantis that was the final boss of the Dungeon, involved no difficulties. Magdey led the raid group effectively and accurately, compelling everyone either to stop doing damage at the moment when the boss began reflecting damage to the players, or focusing on the boss’s minions—small bugs that would come bustling out of cracks in the walls—whenever it was necessary. Once the bugs reached the boss, they would heal him by 1%, so during that phase, the raid group’s main objective was destroying all the little stuff. My Slowing Spirits came in hand here by possessing the bugs and slowing their movement by half. As a result, in a mere fifteen minutes, an encouraging notification appeared before me:
Clan achievement gained: “The Mantis’ prayers fall on deaf ears.” The Legends of Barliona clan has completed the Dungeon of the Bloody Scythe.
Rewards for completion: 100,000 gold, +7,500,000 clan points. This Dungeon may be raided again in 7 days.
The Legends of Barliona clan has reached Clan Level 2.
Clan achievement gained: ‘From the world by a thread’—gold dropped by mobs increased by 10%.
At last! The second level should see us surge in the overall clan rankings. Maybe we’ll even number in the top ten thousand now! Despite the enormous number of clans in Malabar, the majority of them had never passed the first level—the process of leveling up the clan was simply too tedious and not everyone was up to the task of assembling twenty people for a Dungeon raid. The boss dropped about 100,000 gold, an Unusual Alchemy recipe, as well as five items that Magdey instantly distributed among his players. A notification appeared that three players had signed an agreement with he clan about some equipment, but I couldn’t care less about these details—I was interested in the shard.
“Is there anything from the Thricinians there?” Magdey asked approaching me and nodding at a small nave in the wall. There, on the ground, lay pieces of stone which seemed to have been the fragments of a sculpture. “Are those blue fellows really so concerned about some ordinary rocks?”
“They’re not simply rocks,” I replied. “Looks like a sculpture to me…I could be wrong, but perhaps rebuilding it will increase our reputation with them?”
“Are you a sculptor?”
“No, but I know where to find one. All right, let’s take the rocks and get out of here. Can the Mages cast a return portal?”
“No, only an entry portal. A return portal is only available from Level 200 onwards and requires three Mages to cast. I only have one here.”
“Then listen…” I told Magdey about Altameda and the grinding opportunities it offered. I also mentioned the conflict with the Azure Dragons. “So do you think you all will be able to finish off a half-dead Level 300 phantom?”
“I’d have to look into it,” the Raid Leader replied. “The difference in levels is very great. Not one of my current tanks would be able to survive even three hits, even taking into account the buff you mentioned. But…if we were to do this correctly…Okay, let’s do it this way—I have one more Dungeon in the vicinity. We’ll complete it maybe tomorrow or the day after and then head over to Altameda to give it a shot. If it works out—great. Then we’ll register ourselves there. If it doesn’t—I will get back to grinding other Dungeons. That’ll give us better results in the end.”
“Agreed,” I replied, shocked by such a thoughtful answer. No, I am really taking a liking to Magdey. He understands the appeal of grinding the phantoms very well, and yet insists on looking at the situation from multiple angles. Level 200 players would need a long time to defeat Level 300 phantoms. And that’s considering only normal phantoms. I’m sure that there’s a spectrum of difficulty just as in any other army of mobs. A hundred sergeants, a dozen lieutenants and one general. It can’t be otherwise, which means that Magdey has already assessed whether his boys could handle this job or not. It makes more sense to earn XP and gold for the clan than respawn after every battle with the phantoms.
“I have a teleport to Narlak. Want a lift?” Magdey asked. “This Dungeon is not very well situated. It’s practically on the border with Kartoss. There’s jungle all around, aggressive beasts, and it’s a half-day’s flight from the city.”
“Okay,” I agreed to the offer. I’d have to fly to Narlak either way, so why not now?
“There’s one more thing…About my title. Barsina and I agreed that…”
“I am aware of your agreement,” I interrupted my Raid Leader and opened my settings. To be honest, I had forgotten that Magdey only agreed to join the clan if we gave him the title of Baron. It’s a good thing he reminded me.
Earl Mahan, Head of the Legends of Barliona, confers upon Magdey of Amir the title of Baron.
“Does that satisfy you?” I asked the happy Raid Leader, who had already, judging by the flashes of light, earned several achievements.
“Wholly,” said Magdey and activated the portal. Tilting his head he pointed majestically at the blazing circle: “My dear Earl, only after you!”
Did I really just add another Clutzer to my clan? Why, the two of them will drive me mad!
* * *
“Mahan! By decree of the Narlak City Council, you are under arrest!” Hardly had I emerged from the portal when a guard ran up to me and pointed his heavy spear at my chest. Excuse me? Is this a joke?
“Magdey! By decree of the Narlak City Council, you are under arrest!” the guard parroted as anther guard appeared beside the portal that Magdey was emerging from.
“Leander! By decree of the…”
“Everyone stay out of Na
rlak!” Magdey immediately wrote in the clan chat. “They’re arresting us on the spot here!”
Of our 47 raiders, only six had managed to enter Narlak, including myself, so I again rejoiced at the swift reaction of my first Raid Leader. I say first because I have no doubt that we would have many more raids parties. If we wished to profit from the Dungeons, we would need more people.
“Please explain to me the grounds for our arrest,” I addressed the commander of the guards.
“Such is the decree of the Council,” he replied. “In pursuance thereof, all members of the Legends of Barliona are to be immediately placed under guard until the conclusion of the investigation.”
“Investigation of what?”
“This I don’t know. If within the next 24 hours, while you are under arrest, there are no further findings or conclusions, you will be issued a formal apology and compensated for any damages suffered. Such is the Council’s decree, which corresponds to all legal norms of Barliona.”
I could hardly restrain my tongue from pointing out that such legal norms in Barliona are reserved only for those who have Hatred relations with a city or province, but kept quiet. I suspect that the more I protest, the longer I’ll have to sit in the cell. There really was a law in Barliona allowing the authorities to put a player behind bars. Typically this was for some infraction, but there were instance when it was done as a preventative measure too. For example, if the player is rumored to be a murderer or PK-er. Then, if he enters a city, he may be incarcerated for 24 hours for preventative purposes. Afterwards, naturally, they’ll apologize and pay him a penalty—in our case—hush money, and then they’ll release us, but at the moment…I can already see Undigit coming to terms with the Council members about the arrest of my players and me. No, this is really starting to take the cake! After all, am I an Earl or some ordinary peasant? A player receiving a title was unprecedented, so there was a chance that the NPCs simply didn’t know how to treat Free Citizens like us. Well, no big deal—let me show them! After all, were all those lessons Clouter had given me on the etiquette, ethics and other protocols for treating the aristocracy in vain? By the way, I wonder if the developers had already thought of foisting this castle on me back then, or had the idea occurred to them spontaneously?
“If even one guard lays hand on me or my people,” I began to improvise, “I shall proclaim this infringement on the honor and dignity of Earl Mahan throughout the entire empire! In that event, under the provisions concerning nobility promulgated by Karmadont himself, I shall be in my right to destroy any culpable sentient! Either you present me with the specific accusations, along with evidence of any legal infraction on my part, or I demand satisfaction for this attempt to humiliate a member of the aristocracy! If the city leadership wishes to ignore the time honored laws of Barliona, let them dare! I demand an immediate session of the Council to answer for this travesty! Guardian! Please confirm my right to do so!”
“I CONFIRM IT! EARL MAHAN’S DEMANDS ARE JUST! THE COUNCIL SHALL BE ASSEMBLED!”
All of Narlak fell silent, as if the sound had been turned off. All at once. Even my five fighters kept quiet, staring at me in astonishment. Neither the guards nor the players hurrying past us—many of whom had heard the Guardian’s voice for the first time in their lives—none of them made a single sound.
“YOU CONTINUE TO WALK ON A BLADE’S EDGE, OH SHAMAN!” the Guardian continued after several moments, and the central square of Narlak, where the portal had brought us, filled with a terrible roar as the players and ordinary NPCs began to deliberate among each other about this turn of events.
“No big deal, we’ll make it,” I muttered, watching the guards put away their spears and look among each other haplessly. What lovely programming has gone into the Imitators—no system errors, or blue screens of death, or other bugbears of the past. An undocumented event had happened—so now they just stand and wait for the algorithms to update.
“Please follow us, Earl,” the commander of the guard said at last. I guess the system’s been reset and something interesting is about to happen. “Until the Council session ends, your people may move freely throughout the city. The Council will meet in an hour.”
“Magdey, tell your people to go ahead and teleport into the city. I suggest you head for the third Dungeon. You’ve no business in the city at the moment and perhaps this whole thing might end up costing us some money. By the way, one more piece of advice. I suggest that from now on we take the portal one at a time to have time to appraise the situation and notify the rest if something is amiss. One or two players is no big loss,” I smiled…
The guard led me down a strange path. It turned out that the Council of the Nameless did not meet in the city’s central square but somewhere straight ahead, to the right, straight some more, to the left, straight, to the left, one more left, through an alley, over an overturned cart, through a house…Unfortunately I had no city map, so I trudged after the guard not unlike a tourist, beholding the various sights of the city. Not that there were too many—though here or there, we’d come across a strange symbol marked on the walls of buildings—a four-leaf clover against a backdrop of a yellow sun. Either a rising one or a setting one—it was hard to tell. At the seventh such symbol, I finally asked the guards what this was all about. It turned out that all buildings marked with this symbol were inhabited by people from Astrum, the neighboring continent. A very long time ago, those buildings had been bought out and no longer belonged to the city. Moreover, the territory on which they were located, was considered the sovereign territory of Astrum, and the Narlak guard had no authority to interfere in the neighboring Empire’s affairs. So that’s how it was! I had better remember this—such knowledge could come in handy one day. Stop! Why, I could check this now!
Stopping beside one of the Astrum houses, I opened the mailbox and, paying no heed to the guards’ disgruntled muttering, wrote a letter:
“Kalatea, how are you? Forgive me for troubling you over such a trifle, but I want to determine how limited the Harbingers are. If I’m not mistaken, they can teleport anywhere within their continent, or, as it states in the rules: throughout the territory of their continent. Thus a question occurred to me—there are several buildings in Narlak that belong to Astrum. They belong to it both legally and physically, the ground they’re on included. The coordinates of this wonder are: 55432664:44711331. Although, to be more precise the second coordinate is 44711332, since I’m standing right before the entrance. Question—can you teleport here, or are Shamans limited to only one continent after all? After all, this is technically Astrum! I’d like to emphasize again that I’m simply curious. Thank you! Shaman Mahan.”
Having sent the letter, I took several steps and froze with a stunning thought—I knew the solution to the Ogre riddle! How had I not thought of it earlier? The lack of an entry field meant only one thing—that…
“Please forgive me, Earl,” the guard commander interrupted my self-congratulation. “We must keep moving. The Council will commence in forty minutes and we are not halfway there yet.”
Not halfway? What are they, meeting outside of the city? In my reckoning, in the past ten minutes we had gone from the center of town to its very outskirts. If the larger part of our journey still lay ahead…I don’t even know…Maybe the Council meets in some secret cave? Who can understand these clandestine conspirators?
The secret cave really turned out to be quite secret. In the sense that I haven’t seen a more luxurious manor in my life. Even taking into account my custom of studying the ornamental details of the architecture in Anhurs, the edifice I beheld after another half-hour of walking was like an elephant in a pigsty.
We really did leave Narlak and walked, in my estimate, about a kilometer in the direction of the mountains that could be seen in the distance. To the right and to the left of us, I could periodically see immense buildings, or rather villas. Monumental with enormous windows and statues along their entire perimeter, with carefully manicured lawns,
massive wrought iron gates and a yellow brick driveway leading to the building, these haciendas all but shouted: “We are inhabited by enormous bags of money!” Were I in reality, I would have gladly acquired, or better, received as a gift, such a home—preferably outfitted with a retinue of servants, for I couldn’t even fathom cleaning such a place on my own.
Constantly craning my neck at the extravagant properties, I missed the moment when we stopped and one of the guards rang the little bell. Realizing that I look a little dumb, like a rustic in the midst of a metropolis, I turned to look at our final destination and, cursing, tried to pry my jaw from off the floor. My sight was confronted by the pinnacle of the local designers’ craft—a hacienda of all haciendas, a house of houses and, to put it briefly, a real “oh boy!” By and large it was analogous to the villas I had already seen—the same massive construction, windows, statues, yellow driveway, manicured lawns and shrubs…But, still, this was something else! How beautiful it all was! Without even thinking about it, I turned on my video recorder—I had to send this to Stacey. She would appreciate seeing the residence of the local fat cats. Now I began to understand the players who would spend years on earning a reputation with the Emperors of all the continents just for a chance to see their palaces. If an ordinary country estate can make such an impression, I can only imagine what goes on in the enormous palaces. I would have to thank Evolett for inviting me to the Dark Lord’s palace.
“Earl, please follow me,” a prim butler told me without a shred of emotion and indicated the manor with his hand. The guards did not enter with us, as if they hadn’t the right to do so. They didn’t even exchange a word with the servant who met me, but simply turned around and trudged back to Narlak in silence. How odd…
And yet I encountered an even odder thing when I approached the building itself: Seven ornamented carriages, each of which was harnessed to four horses. However, what threw me off the most wasn’t that the city rulers had been transported to the estate, whereas I, an Earl, had been forced to walk the way like some unwelcome relative. That was no big deal—it happens, and I’m not too proud to shuffle my feet. No, I was thrown off by the sight of Undigit and Donotpunnik emerging from the last carriage in the train. What are these guys doing here? Players aren’t allowed to rule cities!
The Phantom Castle (The Way of the Shaman: Book #4) LitRPG series Page 25