The Kartoss Gambit (The Way of the Shaman: Book #2) (14 page)

I
sat down on one of the benches, which were scattered in large numbers in the centre of Farstead, and decided to do a full revision of all my quests. I had to decide which of them to do now and which I could postpone until I got out of Beatwick.

So, what did I have:

• 'The Way of the Shaman: Step 2. Find Shaman trainer Kornik.' Class-based.
  
• 'Searching for your Totem.' Class-based.
  
• 'The Hunt for Grey Death.' Common.
  
• 'Night terror of the village.' Rare.
  
• 'The Last Hope. Step 3.' The quest isn't there yet, but it should appear soon. Rare.
  
• 'The Eye of the Dark Widow.' This quest wasn't there either, but it should appear at level 100. Legendary.
  
• 'Search for the Dark Coordinator' Unique.
  
• 'Don't wake the wothe in its snoose.' Rare.
  
• 'Restoration of Justice.' Class-based unique.
  

Nine quests and only one of them a common one. Not a bad collection for a sixteen-level player. The first two quests, like the last, can definitely wait — until I am released from Beatwick. Number three to five are based in Beatwick — when I return tomorrow, I will decide what to do with the wolves and the Vagren. The Eye can be put on ice until the happy ever after: either until I reach level 100 or I sell it at the auction house. The search for the coordinator has to be started in Beatwick — I only wish I had some clue as to who it could be. If he's coordinating various tasks, he either has to keep travelling between different bases or receive a lot of visitors. I should ask Tisha or the guards how often there are guests in the village and where they end up calling. That leaves the old ladies' quest, which I would be dealing with today. But business first.

The enormous mage tower, where I went to get the portal scrolls, loomed over the entire town. Inexplicably, in each town, even Anhurs, the mage tower was always the northernmost structure. Only the wall or the gates would be north of it. No-one knows why that is, and if they do – they are keeping quiet about it. Perhaps there is some quest tied to that, who knows with those developers?

The tower met me with its standard double entrance. This was another feature of Barliona — personal development through the game. Through the main entrance you could enter the tower, climb five hundred steps and in the room right at the very top meet the local mage. It so happens, that each town has one resident mage. Within the bounds of the Empire they follow a certain ranking, but within a town there is only one, who is the local High Mage. Now then. The main entrance takes you to the mage directly, but the second one enables you to get a discount off him. When you use the second entrance, the system picks a theme at random and gives you a number of questions to answer. The first mistake stops the trial. Before the first question, the person who took the risk of choosing the second door is given a negative discount value, minus two, I think, and afterwards each correct question increases this value by one. Thus, in order to reach zero and pay the same price as the player entering the normal door, you must answer at least two questions. Then the work on the discount begins. As a Hunter I tried my skill with this only a couple of times. I ended up with questions on literature and art. In both cases I was knocked out on the second question. The nastiest part was that if you failed to buy anything from the mage after the trial, you could kiss good bye to normal prices. The extra charge amounted to 200% and was demanded by every mage in Barliona. So if you decided to try your luck — be prepared to buy transportation scrolls at an extortionate price. In the real world players set up special resources, where everyone posts the questions that they got, but the developers aren't paid for sitting on their hands either and constantly update the database. They say the corporation has a whole department focused on this alone. Never mind, good luck to them in their difficult work.

I almost stepped through the main door, when something inside me protested. Here we go again. Why on earth do I think that I would be able to get farther than two questions? Of course, I'm not exactly low on gold at the moment, but I'm not that eager to just throw away five hundred gold either. Damn. I have to go for it! Even if I don't make it, it will set a precedent that the inner voice should not be trusted.

You have entered the Door of Choice. The question theme has been assigned: Mathematics. Please confirm that you are ready to start answering questions.

Mathematics! I nearly jumped for joy, but tried to control myself. That was some stroke of luck! With my special interest in non-standard problems! My inner voice was right! With bated breath, I pressed the virtual button and awaited the first question. Generally in Barliona any confirmation is given by pressing virtual buttons. There is no voice control for things that influence the player or their character directly. In the first years after the game was launched there were a few unpleasant investigations when players imitated voices of other players and gained access to their characters.

Question 1. Name two numbers, consisting only of digit '1', the sum and the product of which are equal. Time provided: 4 minutes.

This was simple. I knew the answer to this one from way back before my imprisonment: 11 and 1.1. But, if my memory serves me right, I spent quite a bit of time solving this problem. Usually the first question is easy, to get the player in the working mood. Strange. I filled in the text field and pressed the button. I couldn't help feeling good about the three additional minutes that transferred to the next questions.

Answer accepted. Current discount bonus: -1.

Question 2. 1000 gold was paid for a teleportation scroll and the remaining amount to be paid for it is equal to the amount that should have been paid for it if what was paid for it was equal to what is yet to be paid for it. How much does the scroll cost? Time provided: 7 minutes.

Maaan... You'd do your head in, before you make any sense of that sentence. This has to be translated into human language: 1000 gold has been paid for the scroll and X more remains to be paid, and if X had been paid, X would have still remained outstanding. From this perspective this wasn't that hard a question.

1000+X = X+X. Therefore X=1000 and the teleportation scroll costs 2000 gold. I was really hoping that this wasn't a hint for later. I answered two questions and reached zero. I now had five minutes rolling over to the next round.

Answer accepted. Current discount bonus: 0.

Question 3. We have a ten-digit natural number. We know that its leftmost digit is exactly equal to the number of zeroes in the number written out, the digit following it is equal to the number of ones and so on until the rightmost number, which is equal to the number of nines. Time provided: 9 minutes.

Now this is more interesting. It's hard to name the number right away, so we'll go down the path of logical deduction. Let's suppose that the number contains only zeroes. Then the first digit should be a 9 — nine 0s and a 9. If we have a 9, then there should be a 1 in the last place. Then we have eight 0s instead of nine. We remove the 9 and put in an 8. We already have a 1, so we'll have seven 0s instead of eight. Now that we have a 1, we'll put it in the second place. But now we have two '1's. And we get a 2 and two less 0s. Damn, I'm getting confused. Starting again. I should write out all the alternatives on virtual paper. I opened the notebook and started to write down different steps.

We have — all 0s: 9000000001. Now there's eight instead of nine 0s. 8000000010. Then, we have a 1, and the number looks like this: 7100000100. Now we have two '1's, so in comes a 2. And we have fewer 0s again. Now the number is 6210001000. Checking. Six 0s. Two 1s. One 2 and one 6. It all checks out. I looked at the timer. There was 4.5 minutes left. Moving on.

Answer accepted. Current discount bonus: 1.

Question 4.

J + S = O; M * A = D; M + M ≠ 2M.

(O / F) + (M + M) — J = ?

Time provided: 8 minutes.

My first answer was no stroke of genius: (O/F)+(M+M) — J = WTF. Not in the slightest. M+M ≠ 2M. This was a bunch of nonsense, not mathematics. If each letter corresponds to a particular number, this formula cannot be correct. Therefore M could stand for two different values at once. This fundamentally contradicts what I know about formulas.

I immediately decided against numbering the letters of the alphabet and using that as the letter number value. The first formula was contrary to this logic, since Y has to be the greatest value. For a couple of minutes I couldn't even see from what direction I should approach this problem. The answer was buried here somewhere, but it would take a lot to dig it up. I looked at the timer. 4 minutes. Dammit! I'll be here trying to solve this rubbish until next winter.

Stop! Winters? Seasonal numbers? How about…

(10 / 2) + (3 + 5) — 1 = 12. So the answer is 'D'! A clever trick they thought of with M + M ≠ 2M! It really isn't equal!

Answer accepted. Current discount bonus: 2.

Question 5.

Continue the sequence: HHHeLiBO...

Time provided: 5 minutes.

Winter. Gold. The square of the hypotenuse. I spent the first two minutes trying to understand the logic and continue the sequence and then two minutes on trying to see if I could come up with any associations. Nothing. When the timer showed only a few seconds left, I typed in a bunch of symbols at random into the answer box. They say that if you give a monkey a typewriter and infinite time it would eventually come out with the complete works of Shakespeare.

Answer accepted. Current discount bonus: 2.

Your answer is incorrect. Thank you for taking part in the interactive questionnaire. Please note that goods bought at a discount cannot be sold to other players. Have a pleasant game!

Not this time. It also became clear why no-one was selling the results of their mental labour. There are probably many know-it-alls, who'd answer all the questions that I got in just a couple of minutes and get a discount so large that the Mage would have to hand over his goods almost for free. So they put a stop to such easy riches.

"Good day to you, traveller," I was met by a venerable-looking old man, wearing a long snow-white robe. "You have passed through the trial four times — a worthy result. In honour of this I will be providing you my services with a direct discount," the mage glanced at my red band, "and a small extra charge. I don't know what crime you've committed, but the band shows that you have not yet atoned for it in full. What is it that you wish to acquire?"

I left the High Mage the most pleased Shaman in Barliona. First, I bought five scrolls of teleportation to Beatwick and Farstead, with the transportation radius of the distance between the two. These scrolls cost me four hundred gold each. Now I can explore the surrounding lands without worrying about how to get back. I found out the cost of the teleportation scroll to Anhurs. And cried. Ten thousand gold with the discount. I think not. I'll use my feet when it comes to it. I also bought two scrolls with the Bone Trap spell designed for a 100-level creature. It cost me five hundred gold per scroll. I decided to try and take the Vagren alive. It might be expensive, but the reward for catching a creature of that level should be substantial. If black goblins started running around this region, chances are that the Vagren is linked to Kartoss too and I wouldn't mind getting an extra bonus from the Mayor.

"Good day and welcome! How can I help you?" Next came the Jewelcrafting trainer. It was time I got serious about getting to know the new capabilities of my main profession.

"I would like to be trained in Jewelcrafting," here I noticed the trainer's face losing some of its enthusiasm. He probably took me for a newbie wanting to study a rare profession from scratch.

"Please touch the book," he uttered in a distracted tone. Touch the book? Why? Damn, why didn't I take an interest in professions as a Hunter? That way I'd know what to expect now. But if I must, I must. I put my hand on an open book with empty pages, which immediately filled up with a bunch of symbols.

"Not bad, not bad," the trainer muttered in a completely changed voice, which now had notes of interest in it, after he glanced over the emerging scribbles. I had no idea what language it was written in and I understood nothing in the symbols and numbers that appeared in the book. "I see you have had clear success in producing Unique and Rare items. You are particularly proficient with rings. Would you like to choose a specialisation for yourself? Picking one costs two hundred gold."

A specialisation? I don't get it. What specialisation? I immediately looked in the manual. I knew nothing of specialisations within a profession.

Search: "Jewelcrafting and specialisations." The text that appeared brought me out of the dark realm of ignorance. Upon reaching level 10 in Jewelcrafting, you could pick your first specialisation: rings, neck chains, earrings, precious stones and custom jewellery. The first level of the specialisation gives a 10% increase to the speed of item design, to their durability and to the chance of crafting a Rare Item. The next level of specialisation unlocks when the skill reaches level 50, the third at level 150, fourth at 250 and fifth and last at level 500. You keep playing and learning, but will still die ignorant, eh? My Hunter did not have a single specialisation and I had no idea of all these special features. I quickly looked at the bonuses provided by my other professions.