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

by Vasily Mahanenko

  The timer for summoning the Totem ran out and I was left by myself. There were no mobs and no Totem. I had no idea how to level up in such a situation. Only the professions remained, which was at least something.

  There was little point in going to the mines: my mining was already at a maximum and I saw little sense in mining materials that would produce only Dark objects. You couldn't sell them to players or make anything good out of them — they were just too dark for that. Now, if they could be cleansed with light, then... Beth!

  I couldn't restrain myself and ran straight back to Beatwick. I just happened to have Eluna's High Priestess at hand, who must know how to turn cursed things into blessed ones. Just switch their polarity somehow. If it was hard to bless neutral things, something that would take a great deal of effort, switching the sign... If this worked, levelling up could wait.

  "Mahan, is anything the matter?" Beth asked me, looking worried, when I flew into her yard — out of breath and dishevelled, but practically glowing from what we were about to do.

  "Beth, we need to talk. Come."

  The surprised woman followed me without any further ado. I shut the door and checked that no-one was watching us, making Beth nervous, closed the shutters and sat at the table, which already had the priestess standing next to it, almost spellbound and ready for whatever I was going to throw at her.

  "Mahan, what happened?" she whispered as soon as I lit a candle.

  "Beth, only you and me now stand in the path of darkness. No-one knows who is summoning the monster, who is cursing the land and who wants to drown us all in darkness. But I've come up with a way of surprising them all," with an ominous tone I started to mystify an already bewildered woman.

  "And what is it?" Beth's whisper became even quieter.

  "Look," I took out a piece of Marble, having first checked that it wanted to be a dark thing. "If you make something out of this piece of rock, the amount of evil in this world will increase. It wants to be evil. But you are a High Priestess! Can you do something to stop this stone being cursed?"

  "And that's all?" Beth's eyes widened. "You want me to bless a piece of Marble? Whatever for? Do you intend to stone the monster with these?"

  "Beth, do it first, and ask questions later," my plan was threatening to come apart at the seams. "Or is it impossible to change a cursed object?"

  "Ah! You want to change its polarity? Yes, that's easy. I should have enough strength for a stone like this, but then I'll have to rest for about an hour. I am, after all, a former High Priestess. But how would that help you?"

  "You'll see. The main thing is for you to do it."

  Beth took the piece of Marble, closed her eyes, and a bright glow surrounded the cursed material. The woman's face grew pale and haggard, blue circles appearing under her eyes, but she unwaveringly continued to hold the item I had given her.

  "Here you go," the priestess said in a weak voice, handing me the Marble. "I was wrong about the recovery time — an hour wouldn't do it. There's just too much darkness in it and I no longer have my strength. I will need three hours' rest or I'll simply keel over. But that can come later. What did you think up?"

  I took the piece of Marble from her, which still looked exactly the same as those lying in my bag, and used the 'Essence of Things' ability on it. There was light, lots of light, joy and kindness — not a single hint of darkness. It had to work.

  Taking a moment to concentrate, I entered the design mode, moved aside the prepped Dwarf Warriors, formed an image of the piece of Marble I was holding in my hand, opened the recipe for the Rose and embodied it in stone. An ordinary Stone Rose, which I had made many times. How could this become a blessed object? By itself it didn't seem enough. Without much ado, I placed the image of Anastaria in the central round petals of the Rose. Of everyone I knew, only she could fit the description of a 'Goddess'. The only thing I changed was removing the arrogance from her eyes and adding more gentle kindness instead. I didn't even realise how I did it. Then I slightly widened the face, making Anastaria a little podgy. Flicked her nose up just a little. Corrected the slits of her eyes. And... The result was not Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, but some homely, warm and smiling woman, which you could meet in reality as well as in Barliona. Now the Rose seemed superfluous, so I removed it, leaving just the face. I gave it an oval background and chuckled in satisfaction: I was pleased with the result and I could only hope that I didn't make a mistake during the design process. With that thought I opened my eyes.

  Item created: Blessed Visage of Eluna. (Neck-chain detail). Description: all dark beings in the radius of 10 meters will get -20% to their stats; it is impossible to hide one's true face from Eluna; a sentient wearing this item cannot be cursed. +6 Faith, +6 Intellect. Item class: Rare.

  +2 to Jewelcrafting. Total: 25.

  Recipe created: 'Blessed Visage of Eluna'.

  You have received the title 'The Blessed Artificer'. Do you with to replace 'The Cursed Artificer' title?

  Your reputation with Goddess Eluna has increased by 100. Current level: Neutral. You are 900 points away from the status of Friendly. The reputation with Goddess Eluna cannot be increased on account of the 'First Kill' Achievement.

  You received Eluna's Blessing level 1: +5% to all the main stats. Duration: until you lose reputation with Goddess Eluna.

  After agreeing to the change in the Artificer title, I attached the crafted Visage to a Copper neck-chain and handed the completed item to Beth, who was watching my actions with huge, lemur-like eyes.

  "Something like that," I tried my best not to give away the fact that right now I was experiencing a great desire to be jumping around the room from joy. Yes! I managed to create a holy object! It may have been useless to me because I had no Faith, but there were plenty of players levelling up in this stat who would pay good money for the Visage. Now I had to get Beth to make me as many blessed stones as possible.

  "This..." the priestess said, stumblingly, as she began to come to herself, "This is the amulet of the junior novice! It's lacking a few more stats, but this is it! If I am a priestess, then..." Beth put the chain with the Rose on herself and immediately the big dark circles under her eyes vanished and her face regained its natural colour. A small whirlwind surrounded the priestess, messing up her hair, Beth closed her eyes in delight and a smile lit up her face. It was beautiful and kind, exactly what a smile of an NPC playing the role of the priestess of the high goddess should be like.

  "The Goddess has received me back," Beth said in a satisfied voice, "she never turned away from me. How blind I was..."

  Your reputation with priestesses of Goddess Eluna increased by 1000 points. Current level: Friendly. You are 2990 points away from the status of Respect.

  "If we give all the villagers pendants like these, Beatwick would be saved," Beth continued. "I may not be the High Priestess, but even at the level of a junior novice I can do quite a lot. It would now take me thirty minutes, maybe less, to do one stone. I'll have to think of something to restore my strength faster. The Beatwick population is small, so we should manage this in a month. Give me all the cursed Marble you've got. I'll start on it right away."

  I dumped around seventy pieces out of my bag, promising to get more, and left the priestess. I didn't mention that I hoped to hang on to the stones. No point in disappointing her right now. I had just over a month until I could leave Beatwick, so I had enough time to gather more.

  The idea with the Visage made me think that it might be good to get on with making the dwarves. It's not like I had anything better to do. I went back to the summer house, took out the Lapis that Hellfire sent me, re-entered the design mode and got back to making the Warriors. Or, rather, the Masters. I corrected their gear where it didn't seem to fit too well and put the figurines next to a piece of Lapis. Strange. When I was making the Orc Warriors, the Malachite was several times larger than the figurines, which allowed me to make all eight pieces out of a single piece. Now, however, each dwarf filled up exactl
y one stone. Could this be linked to the fact that the dwarves are Masters? Who knows...

  After I embodied the last Warrior in Lapis I opened my eyes. Barliona should now be welcoming a Legend reborn.

  You have created an exact copy of the Dwarf Warriors from the Karmadont Chess Set. Resemblance: 100%. Item class: A copy.

  +2 to Jewelcrafting. Total: 27.

  And that's it?!

  I was staring in complete incomprehension at eight large fist-sized chess pieces. Something broke, but I just couldn't understand what that was exactly. The Dwarves were here and looked exactly like those I needed to craft, but they were simply miles away from being the Legendary figurines... Had someone already made those? I didn't have any more Lapis, so I wasn't going to repeat the experiment. It had only been two hours since I began my work. I had to ask someone about this, but apart from Anastaria I didn't know anyone who could give me an answer. Asking her was simply not worth the pain, however. Never mind, I'll figure it out myself. I'll catch the monster and get to it.

  In the six days that remained until the hunt for the mist beaster, Beth and I managed to get a ton of work done. Each day she blessed around twenty pieces of Marble, which at the end of the day I made into the Visage of Eluna. My reputation with the goddess didn't increase: it would seem that only the first creation of the amulet had a positive influence on the Imitator playing the role of the goddess. But, despite this, I managed to do some decent levelling up in various professions: Jewelcrafting went up to level 42, Intellect and Agility increased by 2, Mining and Cartography reached their next maximum. Now I could fly to Farstead and increase the level of my specialization. As soon as I reached level 45 in Mining, I went over to the smithy and, taking advantage of Slate's absence while he was travelling around the villages, spent two days mining Iron Ore. No point in it going to waste. During breaks between gathering resources and crafting amulets I levelled up my Smithing by smelting ingots. Although these too had to be given to Beth for 'whitening', it didn't really matter which materials you used to level up in a profession.

  Finally the day of the mass hunt for the mist monster had come.

  Six sentients, a rapid response force of sorts, gathered at the Headman's house to discuss the plan of the capture.

  "We have to split into two groups, with three people in each," the Headman began once everyone took their places. "I propose the following: I and my sons will be in one group and Mahan, Tisha and Elizabeth in the other. We will start from the side of the gates and they from the side of the forest. We will move towards the village centre and one of us is bound to spot the beast. Any objections?"

  "Yes," I added my two cents, "if we walk close together, the beast may take a fright and not attack. We have to split and move at a distance of a hundred meters from each other. This way we'll both have time to aid each other and not frighten the beast off.

  "I agree," Beth lent me her support, "if we split up we'll cover more ground. The monster won't have a chance to disappear."

  "Agreed. Now we need to figure out how we'll be catching him.

  "First of all we need to find out what it is," proposed Beth. "The beast is covered in a mist that prevents us from doing that, so Mahan and I prepared these things," the priestess took four Roses of Eluna from her pocket and put them on the table. "If the monster comes into the area affected by the amulet, the mist will dissipate."

  As soon as they realised what was lying on the table, all of the Headman's family backed off against the wall. No wonder — they were Vagrens. In the amulet's zone of effect they would turn into pooches.

  "The amulets should only be worn in the evening, so that no-one in the village would see you in your original guise," explained Beth upon seeing the Vagrens' reactions. "We won't get far without these, so you'll have to come to terms with using them."

  "All right, we'll put them on," the Headman submitted to the inevitable. "I have an immediate suggestion for how these amulets should be used."

  "And what is it?" asked Tisha, still sticking close to the door.

  "They only affect the beast at close range. If any of you run across the monster, try to put the amulet on it. It wouldn't be able to take off the holy object, would end up with many penalties and become more vulnerable."

  "A great idea!" Beth exclaimed. "That's how we'll do it! We still have an hour until it's time, so let's decide on how we'll capture the monster."

  "The beast is a lot higher than level 100," I put in. "I once caught it in a level 100 Bone Trap, but it barely took any notice of it. We need something more powerful to hunt it down."

  "Over 100 levels?" the Headman looked thoughtful. "This isn't very good news. All right, we'll think of something." He got up and left the room. While Beth's gaze followed him out, Tisha came up to the table and took her amulet. As soon as she picked it up, as small cloud enveloped the girl and, after it dissipated, there was a Vagren standing next to us. Or a Vagrenette, even.

  "What do you think?" barked Tisha, giving a hoarse laugh. Her low chesty voice was very unlike the bubbling stream of the girl's speech in her human guise.

  "An ordinary Vagren," I shrugged. "One head, four paws, one tail. I can't be sure, but since you're not scratching yourself, you have no fleas."

  "Vagrens don't get fleas, Mahan," replied the Headman who was back in the room. "Here you go. Try not to waste it- I only have six of them left. One each exactly."

  I looked at the scroll handed to me by the Headman. Ice Prison spell, level 300. This was strong enough even for Anastaria. Smashing the trap from within requires the trapped person to be at least 40 levels higher. Of course, it is possible to smash it open even if the difference is just one level, but it would take a very long time. It would be easier to wait for the 12-hour ban on imprisoning a character to kicks in. Barliona has the following rule: you couldn't imprison a player for more than twelve hours. Once this time had elapsed, the player was forcefully teleported to the closest safe zone and was given a 12-hour buff banning any PK activity against him. Neither he nor other players were able to do anything about that. Twelve hours later the buff expired and you could continue to make the other player's life hell.

  With the trap offered by the Headman the night monster was sure to be captured. It took him a few seconds to smash a 100-level trap, so it looks like he's probably around level 130. A 300-level trap is a huge overcompensation. Our Headman turned out to be quite resourceful.

  "The trap lasts for a week, so we'll have time to load it on a cart and take it to Farstead. Let the High Mage figure out what kind of a creature this is," added the village leader.

  Having settled our plans we took our positions. The night had fully descended.

  "Mahan, do you think we'll get it this time?" Tisha'e eyes were burning with the thrill of the hunt. "I'm practically shaking with tension. When I imagine catching the beast, my paws clench as I want to strangle the vile thing. It caused us so many troubles in the past two years, I've lost count by now."

  "It won't get away from us this time. Let's get going — the beast usually appears around this time."

  "Let's go Tisha," Beth pulled the Vagren after her. Tisha stood there for a moment, then slid away and ran up to me, licking me on the cheek: "For luck"" Then she turned sharply and, running on all fours, disappeared into the night. She was fast, but I still managed to look into her properties: 'Attractiveness: 83 points.' I have a feeling that whatever the result of tonight's hunt, I can expect a very interesting week. Especially during night-time.

  "These youngsters. A dog, but still flirting away like the best of them," sighed Beth and went to her position, leaving me alone.

  Exactly ten minutes later, as we agreed, I began to move towards the square.

  "YOU'RE PERSISTENT!" the voice behind me made me jump, "DO YOU REALLY LIKE MY TOUCH THAT MUCH? MASTER IS VERY PLEASED WITH YOU. YOU'VE GIVEN HIM MANY NEW FIGHTERS FOR HIS ARMY, ESPECIALLY THE YOUNG ONES — THERE IS MUCH YOU CAN TEACH THEM. I WAS ORDERED TO KILL YOU WITHOUT PAIN." />
  So the bastard showed up — right on time too. I quickly turned and looked into huge red eyes of the beast. What the heck are you? We had over ten meters between us, so the amulet didn't affect it.

  "Ordered to kill me without pain? Great, here you go then," I grabbed the amulet and ran at the beast. Even if it destroys me, I'll see who this is. "It's here!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. "Everyone come to my voice!"

  I needed a couple of seconds to get through ten meters. Next to nothing, you might think, but it was enough for the beast. Instead of jumping at me, it jumped about ten meters away, turned around and sped off towards the square. Run all you like, you're expected there too.

  "It's running towards the square! Look out!" without slowing from my first dash, I ran after the beast. The distance between us steadily increased, despite the fact that I was giving it all I had. I was clearly lacking in the Agility department — something to remedy later on. Perhaps I should start jogging every day...

  I turned into the neighbouring street as I followed the monster and practically ran into someone I didn't expect to see at all on a dark night. It was Slate, in the flesh. Where did he come from?

  "Mahan? What's with all the screaming? You're scaring the village and not letting people sleep. Did something happen?"

  "I... What are you doing here? Didn't you go fixing things around the villages?" I was really getting confused now. What was Slate doing out here? Even if he did return, he's an NPC and should be asleep during the night! 'Nighty-night, sleep tight and don't the bedbugs bite' and all that.

  "I just returned. I heard your voice yelling about someone running towards the square. That's why I've ran all the way here."

  "Mahan, what happened?" Tisha ran up to us. "Did you see the mist beast?"

  "Who?" asked the smith, but I already realised something. I remembered the first seconds of when I crashed into Slate. The same cloud began to form around him as around Tisha when she picked up the amulet. The Rose of Eluna allowed you to see someone's true nature. Slate wasn't human.