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

by Vasily Mahanenko

  “In that case, all we can do is die,” said Geyra unhappily. “My duty compels me toward the castle, yet my mind screams to run away…It’s unbearable to live with such a split in my consciousness.”

  “Is there really no other way to get into the castle? Launch ourselves in with a catapult, or scale the walls…”

  “I don’t know about the catapult, but we already scaled the walls. It’s a good thing that they’re not too tall—I survived the fall. As soon as you reach the parapet, some spell knocks you off and accelerates your plummet to the ground. It’s a handy measure against thieves, but in our case it’s also an insurmountable obstacle. There are only two ways into the castle—one is unrealistic and the other is through the gates, which are constantly disgorging a torrent of Level 380 phantoms…”

  “Wait, what do you mean by ‘unrealistic?’” I latched onto the word. “There’s another way into Altameda besides through the gates?”

  “You’re forgetting that I am the inheritor of Glarnis,” the girl smiled sadly. “The throne room of my castle was built from Imperial steel and remains intact to this day. If we wanted to believe in fairy tales, we could enter Altameda through that room…But we need to be realistic—it’s much more feasible to break into the castle through the front gates.”

  “Explain?” I could barely contain myself, guiding Geyra in the necessary direction. Now I understood why the developers had slipped me these mercenaries—so that I could make my way into Altameda through Glarnis! There’s no such thing as an impossible quest in Barliona!

  “A secret passageway from the Glarnis throne room will lead us to a secret area several kilometers from the now dead castle. I was not entrusted with the secrets of this passage, but as I discovered on my own—without a map, it makes for an impossible route. And you should keep in mind that only a member of the ruling dynasty can open the secret door. Me, that is. However, it is safe to conclude from the odd and random phrases that my father would slip about this passage, that this Dungeon is filled with dangerous and terrifying monsters that can drain the very soul from a living person. I am not afraid to die for my homeland, as long as I’m exacting vengeance on the phantoms as I do so, but I am terrified of being extinguished forever. To be cast into nonexistence for all eternity.”

  “Hang on. Tell me—if I take a squad of Free Citizens and clear the Dungeon of these monsters, will you open the door to the throne room? You understand perfectly well that we respawn from the Gray Lands and that it is almost impossible to destroy or drain our souls. My warriors will clear a path to Altameda, destroying all the monsters in their path, and you can come up behind us and join us before we enter the throne room. What do you think?”

  “It’s not all that simple, Shaman,” Geyra replied wistfully—and yet I noticed a welcome spark of curiosity flash across her eyes that suggested only one thing—sooner than later, so long as I kept pressing her, I’d gain a new quest. Oh how I live for just such moments! “The way to Glarnis from the Dungeon entrance is straight as an arrow. There is nothing complicated about it, and I myself have traveled it. Losing twenty warriors in the labyrinth that begins right under the castle…We managed to pass only two levels before we encountered a terrible monster that drew forth souls…Twenty of my brethren fell never to stand again in that labyrinth, purchasing with their deaths a chance for us to flee shamefully…Just in case, I will remind you—Altameda is located on top of Glarins, and only the owner, that is you, can access it. What can a Level 102 Shaman do against Level 300 monsters? The answer is simple: ab-so-lute-ly no-thing.”

  “You’re correct about that,” I was practically dancing from the emotions surging within me. “I can’t do anything against them. But you’re incorrect to assume that there is only one owner of the castle—Anastaria is my spouse and has exactly the same rights as I do. Will she do as a ‘guide?’”

  “Anastaria? Isn’t she the Paladin Lieutenant? The blindingly beautiful woman, with whom we fought the phantoms side-by-side that first day that we first met?”

  “The very same,” I confirmed. “At the moment she’s about to become a Paladin Captain, which will only make her stronger, so…Well, she’ll manage! She and I will go together, clear out the Dungeon and then you’ll open the passage to the Glarnis throne room. How do you like this idea?”

  “When are you setting out?” Geyra asked enthusiastically, instantly seeming eager as if she hadn’t literally a second ago seemed like she was about to go to her death. “I need a day or two to prepare the key for the door—it can’t be opened just like that. In another three days my people and I will be ready! The Glarnis throne room will allow us to reach any part of Altameda!”

  “Not so fast,” I restrained the girl. “Anastaria returns only in a week. She is undergoing training with Eluna at the moment. Will you be able to survive for a short while without terminating our agreement or rushing to meet your death at the hands of the phantoms?”

  “Now I have a goal,” Geyra said a bit angrily, “so I will manage! A week or two isn’t so long to wait when vengeance is on the line.”

  Okay then…I’ve discovered a way of entering Altameda, so now I need to heed the Patriarch’s advice and try to figure out why the barbarians fled. The developers aren’t in the business of dispensing useless advice. It’s worth listening to them. I didn’t want to reinvent the wheel, so I got out my amulet and called my Raid Leader:

  “Magdey, I will need you and your boys to take care of something for me…”

  There wasn’t any point in traveling all the way to the barbarians to discover why they had fled on my own. I didn’t know their levels NPCs, nor their language if it turned out that they didn’t speak the common tongue. And I didn’t have the Wisdom to understand foreign languages. From the perspective of raids, I’m a weak link that was best gotten rid of as soon as possible. How was I to survive under these circumstance? Ordering Magdey to go discover the reason for the barbarians’ flight, I set out to look at Altameda—the players couldn’t hurt me and NPCs required more than a mere order to attack me—they needed some good reason and being listed in a clan’s blacklist wasn’t one of them. In effect, I had a unique invulnerability at the moment that I could use to my advantage. The guards will grab me as soon as I approach within 500 meters of the castle, since my ‘Master of the House’ had buff vanished as soon as my reputation with Narlak hit Hatred level—so I could safely assume a cold welcome. And still, I was curious to check out the castle to see what had happened to it in the wake of the battle and my casting of Armageddon…

  “Why you’re not simply a bastard, you’re also an insolent bastard!” No sooner had I appeared near Altameda, than a squad of players flew up to me. Sending several arrows and spells at me just in case and making certain that my invulnerability remained as before, the players surrounded me as closely as they could from all sides. If they couldn’t attack me, they would content with barring my passage. Silly people…There were only seven hundred meters from me to the castle and I could use my Dragon Form for the full 30 minutes, so I immediately transformed, soared up above them and headed to look at my castle. The blessed ground of Eluna, which even I could not cross, was located a mere 100 meters from the castle. The guards were yelling something threatening and brandishing their swords from the ground and ordering me to descend, but I had no desire to indulge them. Let them yell—it’d do their lungs some good.

  What can I say…Even though Armageddon is the most destructive spell in all of Barliona, it had only caused 5% damage to my castle’s walls and gates. I unconsciously began to reckon up how much money I would need to invest into an ordinary castle to upgrade it to this level. It’s terrifying to even imagine the amount. Even the price of my release would seem insignificant in comparison to it.

  “May I inquire what you’re doing here, Daniel?” Ehkiller asked surprised. It was inconvenient to speak while maintaining myself in the air, yet I made an effort and got out my amulet and answer it without losing altitude in
the process.

  “Just seeing how much damage I did to my castle by casting Armageddon the other day. It’s looking like it’s not so bad, so I suppose you can expect me in short order…”

  “You don’t have any other scroll. It’s not nice of you to play tricks on an older person,” suddenly I discerned…satisfaction…happiness…in Stacey’s father’s voice. It seemed like Ehkiller had expected me to say something like this. “And yet…I can sell you one myself. At the price it cost me to make it. Ten million and the scroll is yours. Or, do you want two at once? I bet you won’t have enough money for two though.”

  “Well, you’ve had your laugh,” I replied seriously, understanding perfectly well that Ehkiller had just had his way with me. It takes some talent to put a player in his place like this, and the old man had plenty of this talent. “Listen, since we’re at an impasse anyway—maybe, we can make an alliance, clear out the phantoms and help me take my castle?”

  “No, Mahan! This isn’t my fight. My clan is a mere pawn here. I was offered a very nice reward to keep you from reaching the castle. And I can even let you in on some info—I can’t let you through for another couple weeks. Three weeks and two days, to be precise. That’s all I can say. I’m already playing with fire as it is. Good luck to you and stay away from Altameda. Over and out.”

  Three weeks and two days? What a weird amount of time.

  I didn’t risk flying up to the blessed land. Instead, I made a ceremonial pass around Altameda, flew away from the conflict zone and used one of my last teleport scrolls. Hello again, Anhurs…

  * * *

  “You have acquired the shards,” asserted the Thricinian when I placed the fragments of the sculpture on the table before him. “Our people are grateful for your achievement.”

  I instantly got a notification telling me that my reputation with the Thricinians had increased by 300. The blue-skinned Danrei made to gather up the shards, but I restrained him:

  “Please forgive me,” I said, but I believe that these fragments may be reassembled into a fairly beautiful figure. Will you assemble them yourself?”

  “Unfortunately,” the Danrei’s face instantly became downcast, “that is not in our power. There are no master craftsmen remaining among the Danrei who would be able to unite the fragments, as you called them, into one whole. A Free Citizen on his own is likewise incapable of recreating the original item. To do so a unity is required—and yet there have been prior attempts under the oversight of the Emperor himself that did not achieve the necessary result. Three times, the Free Citizens tried to assemble the shards, and three times they dissolved to dust, depriving us of a piece of our history for centuries.”

  “A unity?” I asked, even as I popped open the relevant manual. Right, there really is something like that…Uh-huh…Oh come on!

  A unity is a craftsman ability that a player unlocks automatically upon reaching Level 200 in his profession. The idea behind this truly singular ability was astonishing—the players’ consciousness would unite and thereby combine and pool each other’s crafting resources. A unity could be created only through the Sphere of Abnegation, a personal item of the Emperor. Players who wanted to experiment with it had to petition for an audience, wait their turn and then get their chance to create true masterpieces—statues, weapons, armor…The manual went on to provide images of the unities’ works with various unbelievable properties, but I got the main idea—under no condition should I give this guy the sculpture’s fragments right now. Even if I still had a long way to go to reach Level 200 in Jewelcrafting, still…By the way, who said that a unity requires profession Level 200 anyway? The manual? As if!

  “Terribly sorry!” I immediately replaced the shards in my bag and away from the Danrei’s eager paws. Another notification concerning a change in reputation, this time in the other direction—less three hundred—but I knew what I was doing. I needed a sculptor. Preferably two…

  “Barsa, what’s up!” I called the girl as soon as I left the Thricinians. “Do you happen to know who the highest-level craftsman in Malabar is?”

  “That’d be Svard,” my deputy replied without a moment’s hesitation. “He’s not in a clan and his Enchantment stat is definitely above Level 400. He’s even in the hall of fame.”

  “Enchantment is good…but I didn’t make myself clear—I need either an Architect or a Sculptor.”

  “A Sculptor? Chirona from Phoenix. She’s one of the few players who was allowed to work on the Imperial palace.”

  “Chirona…Thanks, I’ll remember that. By the way, how is it you know so much about craftsmen? I thought that your line of work had more to do with warriors?”

  “When the mass exodus started, I had to find new ones. These two I mentioned represent the peak of their profession, so I read up about them. But—my turn to ask—what do you need them for? Are you plotting something again?”

  “More or less,” I smirked. “All right. I’ll go see if she wants to work with us.”

  “Don’t forget, Phoenix is our enemy,” the girl reminded me before hanging up.

  “You don’t say…” I said into the already-disconnected amulet and instantly dialed Ehkiller. Let’s see exactly what kind of enemies we were…

  “Speaking!”

  “Ehkiller, this is Mahan again. I need Chirona, your Sculptor. I’m trying to recreate the Thricinian sculpture.”

  “It won’t work,” my father-in-law replied, as though our clans hadn’t just fought a battle. “Chirona and several sculptors formed a unity and tried to assemble it—but to no avail.”

  “That’s exactly why I need her—she’s worked in a unity before. As for things not working out…”

  “Okay, let’s assume you know something…Let’s assume that I ask her to help you…Let’s even assume that you somehow get your hands on the Sphere of Abnegation. Still, you expect me to believe that you’ve reached Level 200 in your profession—your work on the Chess Set notwithstanding?”

  “Ehkiller, I won’t promise you the world and claim that everything will work out for me, but I want to try very much. If it doesn’t work out, you can call me a failure, but if I’m right, I’ll be able to assemble the sculpture…”

  “Have you forgotten that we’re at war at the moment?” Judging by his voice, the man was grinning.

  “How could I forget? I’ve got an invulnerability counter blinking right before my eyes.”

  “Do you need anyone else aside from Chirona?”

  “As I understood it, the highest-level craftsman in our Empire is Svard. He’s the one I want to work with. Of course, he might not have a Sculptor…Anyway—we’ll figure it out.”

  “You want to form a unity with you three?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Chirona will mail you and send you her amulet. One condition—you don’t poach her from me. No job offers…I request that the Heralds attest my demand.”

  “That works! I request that the Heralds attest my agreement to Ehkiller’s demand. By the way, you wouldn’t know where I could find Svard, do you?”

  A notification confirming our agreement instantly flashed before me, but I swiped it away.

  “When he’s in game, you can find him in his workshop in Anhurs. Ask the guards where you can find Master Svard. They’ll tell you. Good luck in your creative endeavors…”

  What a war we have on our hands…It is unique and merciless…Well, I wonder what is supposed to happen in two weeks and two days?

  “How may I assist you, oh doom of clans?” said Svard, when he understood that I had come to the workshop. The craftsman’s voice was so hoarse and quiet that I had the impression as if he had eaten several quarts of ice cream in the frost, caught a cold and then screamed for as long as he could. He was practically wheezing out the words. A very strange phenomenon for the typically perfect Barliona avatar.

  Svard turned out to be a fairly extravagant Level 183 Mage. The extravagance of the blue-eyed and disheveled player without a clan symbol consiste
d in his utter ignorance of any logic to his dress—his steel cuirass was decorated with yellow flowers, his cloth trousers abutted leather boots of an acidic hue, a belt with steel buckles, a leather pauldron and a red hat that recalled Santa Claus. The fellow had reached Level 183 without ever discovering that one’s clothes should be of one type in order to attain the most possible use out of it. The player sitting before me clearly couldn’t care less about his outward appearance, since clearly he himself felt very well.

  “I need help,” I replied simply, glancing around the workshop. If you were to remove the various particulars—vials, mortars with powder, paintbrushes and paints—the Enchanter’s workshop would remain no different from the Jeweler’s workshop.

  “Enchantments don’t work on the Thricinians,” the Mage replied, scrutinizing my clothes. “Unless you have a special mark that indicates that the item may be integrated with others. But as I can see, you’re wearing the standard gear, even though one needs higher reputation to buy it…”

  “Standard?” I immediately latched on. “Are you saying that there are non-standard Scaling Items out there?”

  “Of course. You’re wearing several items from the Emperor and several from the Thricinians. I know all about items awarded for a victory in the arena and for the First Kill…The latter are the ones that have the ‘Integrated’ attribute. But you didn’t come here for that.”

  “True. I want to make a unity, are you interested?”

  “Have you reached Level 200 in your profession?”

  “No.”

  “Then I am interested,” Svard replied. “I’ve heard that you’ve been working on the Karmadont Chess Set, so I am willing to try to form a unity. I’ll say right off that my Crafting level is only at nine, and that’s with the bonuses I gain from items, so I wouldn’t count on me too much. By the way, are you aware that during a unity everyone’s design mode becomes visible to everyone else? Along with all its contents.”