The Kartoss Gambit (The Way of the Shaman: Book #2)

by Vasily Mahanenko

  Two minutes later I ran out of the scrolls and Reptilis's Life bar was still half full — the Spirits missed or were blocked by the armour too often. Or, more likely, it was stupid to summon Water Spirits on a semiaquatic. He must have resistances.

  "So you think your threads make you a good player?" I heard the lizard's voice for the first time in minutes. We stood opposite each other, breathing heavily, each trying to outstare his opponent. I don't know why Reptilis's breath was heavy, but I've been taking a real beating. Even raised my Endurance by one in this time.

  "If you little piece of shit, turned your brains on even for a second, you would've seen a 1 under my name. Do I need to spell it out for you or will you finally start using the body part you shove your food into? Do you think an ordinary player, who knows nothing about the game, would be able to get a 'First Kill' by level twenty? So your level 40 for me is child's play. Say your prayers, you flippin' lizard. I'll write a message to the admins as well, saying you tricked me out of five big ones in gold. We had an agreement. You are guaranteed to be dragged through the courts in the real world. Kiss 'good bye' to your Anastaria."

  "Fudge off. I'll drop you the gold in the Bank after I send you for respawn."

  Attention! You have the NPC and player profanity filter turned on. To turn it off go to the character settings (only for players aged 21 and above).

  To hell with it — I'll turn it off later. I have other fish to fry right now.

  The Shaman has three hands...

  Go hang, you green goon: the Spirit mode is up and running. For starters I need to remove the poison, which consistently kept taking off 220 Hit Points every five seconds. Having summoned a Healing Spirit, I was looking forward to the relief of being fully healed, only to suddenly discover that the poison didn't go anywhere. On top of that, Reptilis flew into combat again. Quickly chucking all the fire spells out of the active zone and summoning a damage Spirit on the kobold, I tried to think of what to do with the poison. I knew that Shamans were able to remove it in some way, but why didn't Kornik teach me this? Could I figure it out myself?

  I sent four damage Spirits at once at Reptilis, forcing him to stealth, and started to summon another Spirit, concentrating on an empty slot in the active zone. Work already!

  You are summoning a Spirit from a free slot of the active zone. Do you wish to add available Spirits to the slot?

  No, I don't. Damn, it didn't work.

  Do you wish to add an additional Spirit to the free slot?

  Yes, that's exactly what I'm looking for.

  The following additional spirits are available to an Elemental Shaman: Spirit of Control, Spirit of Cleansing, Spirit of Strengthening and Spirit of Intermittent Damage. Do you wish to add Spirits to the active zone?

  Yes! Right now! All the water ones, please!

  A healing Spirit on myself and a cleansing Spirit on top of that. Yes! The poison debuff disappeared. Now we'll have a proper fight! So, where are you, you puny croc?

  The effect of the Spirit of Control turned out to be very interesting. Reptilis continued to fling some nasty stuff at me, but he did it so slowly that I could dodge the incoming pieces of metal. The Spirit of Control had a 5-second duration, but it was enough for me to summon a Spirit of Water Shock on Reptilis, which caused intermittent damage. Small though that was, it allowed me to put about 10 meters between us and launch a couple more Damage Spirits at the kobold. Fire ones, this time. Slowly, but surely the reptile's Hit Points began to melt away. Reptilis used restoration potions a couple of times, almost completely healing himself, but my mana reserves were almost endless. Whoever said that Shamans were a weak class in PvP?

  "Mahan, stop!" a couple of minutes into the fight Reptilis had only 10% of his Hit Points left.

  "What's that? Decided to talk, have we, once you realised that you can't win by force? And where were you before, handsome? Not a chance: this is too good an opportunity to kill someone without being sent to the mines! You shouldn't have attacked me, you green bastard."

  "What do you want with information on Dragons anyhow?" Reptilis was no longer attacking, but just stood there and, wincing, took the hits from my Spirits.

  "I have a quest. And what do you need it for? To get to Anastaria?"

  "That's not the main reason," sighed Reptilis. "I told you how I became a kobold. Yes, I like this character now, but I haven't forgotten that once I had a clan and that I want revenge. Brutal revenge on the bastard who tricked me out of the money — one of the influential Phoenix players. He constantly hangs out with the Emperor. I want to make him duel me in front of the palace and for that I have to get a Dragon. Only that would get me into the palace. The moron from Phoenix highly values his place in the shadow of the Emperor, who, in turn, hates duellers and generally violence in any form. Whatever the results of the duel, both of us would be permanently banned from the palace. I may not give a flying fig about this, but for him it would be a far harder blow than a change of character. And now only you stand between me and my revenge, since you're not letting me have the Dragon. What can be so important about your quest?!"

  Reptilis was almost screaming now. Yeah, some situation we have here... I understood the guy very well: changing a high level mage for this joke of a character, finding a way to get your own back and then running across a Shaman who just wouldn't die. That's some trip-up.

  Although...

  "Hold on. If I understood correctly — you're seeking the way to the Dragons only as a means of getting into the palace. Would only a Dragon do?"

  "No, any unique item would work. But where would I get it?" Reptilis was gradually regaining his composure.

  "Do you have fifty thousand gold?"

  "What?"

  "Look," I took out the dress and opened up its properties for viewing. "Do you think the Emperor might like a thing like this? Fifty thousand gold and the dress is yours. What do you say?"

  "I don't have that much money right now," Reptilis grew thoughtful. "I can give you thirty now and will send the twenty, as agreed, to the Bank in a week's time."

  "It's a deal. But you do understand that I will still have to kill you now? I need to get to the Dragons. Really need it. And it's also no good leaving unfinished business. If I started to bring you down, I have to finish you off good and proper."

  "Go for it," Reptilis smiled, having fully regained his composure and apparently already making plans for the future. "If you sell me the dress, I'm fine with it."

  "By the way, a duel is a shabby move. I can propose an alternative..." I quickly described what kind of revenge could work at the Emperor's reception. "This way is much more interesting and saves you getting banned from the palace."

  "That's some twisted mind you've got there," grinned Reptilis, drawing up another agreement and making our deal official. The damned thirty percent evaporated to the Corporation and twenty one thousand gold landed in my pocket.

  A curious fact: I didn't feel a hint of greed when letting go of the dress. Even my inner Toad took its loss calmly. I could have sold it for three or four hundred thousand in Anhurs, but I felt I was doing the right thing.

  "What will happen to the wyvern?" I nodded towards the 'horsie'.

  "It'll be fine. It will stand there for a couple of minutes and disappear — I have the reigns. All right, you can finish me off now. I owe you twenty five thousand more. I won't forget. And thanks for the advice. Those Phoenix douchebags really got to me with their snarks — it's just a total shit-3.14."

  Ding!

  "What did you say?" I asked, holding my breath.

  "Now don't pretend you're just out of kindergarten and never heard swearing before."

  "Who cares about swearing? Can you please repeat your last sentence? Word for word."

  "I said: Those Phoenix douchebags really got to me with their snarks ".

  "In full."

  "It's just a total shit-3.14."

  I went to the settings and removed the profanity filter. Later on it
would be quite interesting to see what words the developers bestowed on the NPCs in Barliona. But that didn't really concern me right now.

  "All right, I'll be seeing ya. Perhaps we'll meet again," ten damage Spirits flew at Reptilis and a message appeared before me:

  Achievement earned!

  Killer level 1 (19 player kills until the next level).

  Achievement reward: Damage caused to other players increased by 1%.

  You can look at the list of achievements in the character settings.

  I waved away the questionable Achievement and took out the chess pieces. The Dragonkin wasn't going anywhere and I just had to check if my guess was right. Could everything really be that simple? For the second time that day I looked at the properties of the Orc Warriors:

  a2+b2=c2

  ||x||=√x12+x22+...+xn2

  1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21….

  Pythagoras' theorem. Euclidean space. The Fibonacci sequence

  Formulas which completely lack any connecting logic. But if I was right...

  Pythagoras. Euclid. Fibonacci.

  Pythagoras. Euclid. Fibonacci.

  Pi. E. Phi.

  It is true that few would be familiar with these three constants, but I was one of those nerdy people who try to explore a studied subject as thoroughly as possible. After deciding to be a programmer, I ended up memorising the main mathematical constants to their first ten decimal places:

  3.1415926536;

  2.7182818285;

  1.6180339887.

  I opened my in-built calculator, worked out the number I needed (13.8175802), and entered it into the text box. Well? Did I get it or was it more of the same old?

  The world froze. The Dragonkin, who was still standing in the door, fell on all four of his knees and bowed his head. A whirlwind appeared a couple of meters away from me, from which eight two-meter-high orcs walked out one after another. With yatagans. I've spent so much time examining the figurines that I could easily put a name to each of the orcs. Grichin, Grover, Vankhor... All the eight great Warrior Orcs stood before me and waited for something.

  I selected the closest orc and looked at his properties. He was level three hundred and fifty. I swallowed as I imagined these warriors putting themselves at my service and respectfully bowed my head to them, honouring their great deeds.

  Suddenly the orcs began to speak one after another:

  - That day the sky was covered with darkness and massive hailstones rained down,

  - When the Great Creator of things realised that his hour had come...

  - Only he could not die and so to his rest he departed;

  - Then he sealed the doors to himself for ever, disturbed by no-one to be.

  - Within a cave he hid all he knew, possessed and created.

  - Only the one who finds the way to him shall be blessed

  - Through the tandem of gods. Hero Karmadont found the way.

  - Raised of a servant, Emperor he became midst the echoes of the Shining Mountains.

  Holy cow! What does this mean? What Shining Mountains? Do they mean Elma — the mountain range stretching from the deepest south of the content right to the extreme north? In the morning its peaks sparkle like flashlights — it's so damn mind-blowingly enormous!

  "The Dwarves know more," added Grover. After this the orcs went back into the whirlwind and sound returned to the world. Hey! What about a quest? Or an achievement?

  I felt cheated. Was Phoenix really prepared to make me a Master just for these lines? I automatically looked at the properties of the figurines. They only contained the lines about their feats now. There was no additional text, let alone any text input field. Just your regular unique chess pieces, what they should have been from the start. The main thing was making sure that Anastaria didn't find out that I was in possession of several lines pointing towards some point on the map of Barliona. A point that contains the virtual creator of this world.

  Chapter Eight

  The Totem

  "Key!"

  I'm a man of steady nerves, but when the Dragonkin's malicious muzzle repeated the same phrase for the fortieth time, you developed an irresistible itch to put your boot in it.

  As soon as the portal with the Orc Warriors disappeared, the Dragonkin got up from his knees and, as if nothing happened, placed himself in the doorway of the hut.

  "I need the scroll that would take me to the Dragons," I approached the four-legged NPC.

  "Key!" the Dragonkin rumbled for the first time.

  "What key?"

  "Key!"

  "I found the clearing and met all the conditions. I demand to be given the scroll!"

  "Key!"

  I spent a frustrating half an hour trying to knock it into the head of this pseudolizard that the quest's requirements have been met, but it stubbornly refused to hand over the Dragon scroll. It just kept parroting one word: "Key". I had no clue what the key was or why it had to be given to the Dragonkin. Did Reptilis keep something from me? After all, it was his quest that got us here. Or was it something unknown to him as well?

  I sat before the door and stared intently at the Dragonkin. I couldn't jump this, so I had to think.

  "What about..."

  "Key!"

  "I've had it with you! Here's your key!" I put my hand in the bag and took out the first thing at random. It was the Eye of the Dark Widow, but who gives a damn anymore?!

  "Not this key! Key!"

  Well, at least there's some progress — new words and all that. So it looks like this NPC has been programmed with an algorithm for identifying a particular key. I took out the Malachite Jewellery Box, removed the Orc Warriors from it, replacing them with a piece of Tin Ore, and tried to hand it to the Dragonkin. Let's see how he reacts to this one.

  "The key is in the Jewellery Box," I lied to the Dragonkin, completely unabashed.

  "Open it!"

  "You open it! I'm not your servant! The key is in the Box, the Box is in your hands, this means that the key is in your hands."

  A second later the Dragonkin was staring at the thing he was just given. Here you go! It could only be opened by Jewellers, for everyone else the Jewellery Box was just piece of the scenery. The Dragonkin heaved a deep sigh, pressed the Box from both sides and it cracked like an overripe nut, with the ore dropping out of it.

  "This is not the key. Key!"

  Reading the forum and the manual got me nowhere. I had no idea where Reptilis dug up this quest and so found myself in a jam. I knew and felt that my quest would also lead me to this exact clearing, but the crossing over of two different quests had some unexpected consequences. Reptilis's quest got picked up first, moving my one aside. There was only one NPC, both of us came to him at the same time and started fighting in line with Reptilis's quest as well. A pity I sent him for respawn — could have done with punching his green mug one more time right now. Unfinished quests get reset every four months — time that I didn't have. If I fail to get the Totem, my rank would be demoted in two months.

  Looks like I'm out of options....

  "Speaking!"

  "Hi, Anastaria. This is Mahan. Do you have a minute? I need your help."

  "If it's not urgent, can it wait twenty minutes? I'm a little busy right now."

  "All right. Call me when you get free."

  I really didn't want to get involved with Phoenix, but it looked like there was no other way for me to get to the Dragons.

  "Hello again," twenty minutes later I answered an incoming call from the amulet.

  "Good day," a male voice greeted me the other end. What on earth? Where's the lady paladin? "My name is Rick Deadeye, you should have received the gear I made together with this amulet at the Bank. How did you find it? Is it to your liking? I tried to give it a neutral appearance, though the initial recipe had a flamboyant look. Imagine this: orange with bright green. I thought you would've refused to wear something like that."

  "Where is Anastaria?" I barely managed to interrupt the verbal torrent th
at hit me.

  "Unfortunately she had to leave the game for a while. She asked me to contact you, saying that you needed help. What can I do for you?"

  "Rick, I don't really know..."

  "If you are uncertain of my status, let me assure you that I can take all decisions right up to declaring war on another clan. I hope your request is not of this kind. I have little stomach for war."

  "Tell me Rick, what is your level of Eloquence? Or Chattiness? Whatever's the right name for it."

  "Oh, have you already met such players? My congratulations! This is a very rare stat. Even more rare than Crafting. But we're not talking about me right now. How can the Phoenix clan be of help to you?"

  I didn't have a lot of choice, so I sketched out my situation to him, as far as Reptilis's quest was concerned. Mine was broken anyhow.

  "The Dragonkin is standing in the doors of the house and demanding you give him a key: is that right?"

  "Yes."

  "And he has no intention of handing you the information about the Dragons, does he?"

  "How... ?" I asked, dumbfounded. How did he know? Didn't Reptilis say that this was a unique quest?

  "No need to get so worked up. These Dragonkin are scattered throughout Malabar in memory of Dragons that had existed long ago. The key is the sceptre of the NPC from which you managed to steal this scroll with the quest. Yes-yes, I did say 'steal' — that's the only way to get this quest. At one time our entire clan was looking for a way to find the Dragons, but it was a futile effort. There are no Dragons in Barliona. We even contacted the game administration to verify such an absurd ending to the Dragonkin quests: just an ordinary hologram of a flying Dragon. But in any case, you have my congratulations: very few in Barliona get to touch the history of Dragons. Is this all?"