The Kartoss Gambit (The Way of the Shaman: Book #2) (16 page)

Working with Malachite turned out to be interesting and engrossing. It's probably great to be a sculptor! There are plenty of stones lying around: you just take a chisel, a hammer and off you go. Your own hands are your only limit. If they are clumsy, no number of Sculpting trainers would fix that. Any sculpture would turn into a Quasimodo. After I cut out the lid and put it into its proper place, I leant back on the tree and examined my creation. It was simple and fairly plain, even a bit crude in places, but for me the Jewellery Box wasn't just another crafted item, but something I put my heart into making. Eh... it's been quite a while since I crafted anything! This is way more interesting than mindless mob killing.

Item created: Malachite Jewellery Box. Free Jewellery slots: 9. Item class: Uncommon. Minimum level: 10.

Skill increase:

+30% to primary profession of Jewelcrafting. Total: 91%.

I placed the Orc Warrior figurines in the Jewellery Box, put my things back in the bag and went to sleep. All that was left to do now was wait for the morning and get to the place marked on the map.

Damage taken. Hit Points reduced by 1: 1 (Bite). Total Hit Points: 729 of 730.

I woke up from a sharp prick and immediately jumped to my feet. What happened? Although whatever it was bit me for only 1 Hit Point, it hurt a hell of a lot.

Damage taken. Hit Points reduced by 1: 1 (Bite). Total Hit Points: 728 of 730.

I instinctively slapped myself on the place where I was just bitten. What the heck is going on?

Experience gained: +1; points remaining until next level 1000.

Experience? I think I've completely lost track of what's going on. Maybe I should try to wake up? I looked at the hand with which I slapped at something. No way! How could I forget about these good old bloodsuckers? Mosquitoes! Totally ordinary mosquitoes, which are never in short supply throughout the expanses of the game. Unlike their real cousins, virtual mosquitoes are noiseless, which means it is practically impossible to track their movements. What's even worse, if one doesn't wear special clothing they take off one Hit Point at a time even from a player completely covered in plate armour. And, judging by the locations of the bites, they went through the armour as if it wasn't there. Of course, one or two bites presented little danger to the players, but when a whole swarm turned up, you would struggle to survive without area-of-effect spells. They'd eat you to death.

I looked around. Under the light of Barliona's second moon, which just rose in the sky, I spotted an enormous moving cloud of these insects. Barliona mosquitoes were two or three times bigger than the largest specimens in the real world, so spotting them was easy enough. In just a few moments I was entirely surrounded by this flickering cloud.

Maaan. If I only had something with mass-effect, I'd get a couple of thousand experience points right away. As it stood, I was looking at being sent for respawn. I got a better grip on my Mallet and looked at the cloud.

Damage taken. Hit Points reduced by 1: 1 (Bite). Total Hit Points: 727 of 730.

Damage taken...

Damage taken...

It began. I was furiously flailing around with the Mallet, getting around 5-10 Experience points with each swing. But it seemed that the mosquitoes were just multiplying on the spot, while my Hit Points were melting away.

Energy level: 30. Stop, you angry Shaman!

Dammit... Just what I need! I summoned another Healing Spirit on myself and it started to dawn on me that I wasn't getting out of this fight alive. Judging by the timer for my return to Beatwick, I've been fiercely waving that Mallet around for two hours, but there seemed to be no end to the mosquitoes. I was set to run out of mana in about two minutes — and that's despite my fairly fast level of regeneration! I was letting too many bites get through. These mosquitoes are going to eat me alive, as sure as rain. The battle wasn't without its upsides, of course. I reached level 23 in Endurance, which continued to increase steadily. Intellect went up to 57, Strength to 23 and Agility to 14. Even Stamina went up by four points, ending up at 34. Experience gain was a given: in two hours I gained two whole levels, bringing my free stat points to twenty. That's all very well, of course, but I still wasn't that keen on being sent for a respawn. Not keen at all. But if I continued to swing my Mallet, my Energy would fall to 0 and for two hours I would be at the complete disposal of the mosquitoes. The Shaman-shaped dinner would be served.

I had to think of something and quick. The mosquitoes wouldn't disappear until I disappeared. The sun, which should be here in a couple of hours, has little effect on them. They can fly quite fast, so I would not be able to run away. Nor swim away, if it came to it. Stop! Swim away! They can't go under water! So what if the bog is full of strange green sludge instead of water — I can live with sitting in it for a couple of hours. As far as I remember, that's the timer the mosquitoes have for changing their target.

Waving my Mallet around and still receiving Experience point by point, I hurried to the edge of the bog and made a running jump into the sludge. I knew I probably should have checked the depth first, but I was completely out of time. The level of Energy had passed 20 and was quickly making its way to 10. If it reached that mark, for the next two hours I'll be a statue. So I had to take the risk.

I was lucky. The place where I submerged myself, head and all, wasn't actually that deep — just up to my chest. I took a lungful of air, more on account of habit from reality, and dove completely under the sludge. Immediately there appeared a window telling me that I had enough air for three minutes. After that I would either have to come up for ten seconds or drown. But the air was full of mosquitoes, who would very gladly renew the timer for finding a new target. But then again... That's if they would manage to get to me in those ten seconds.

Moving slowly as I overcame the resistance of the mire, I headed towards Swiftbel's treasure and away from the mosquitoes. When just a few seconds remained until I ran out of air, I carefully came up and looked around. I managed to walk only about fifty meters, so I could see the swarming cloud of insects very well. But they could not see me! And this was great! I counted the ten seconds necessary for restoring my breath and was about to dive back in, when I saw a message:

Achievement earned!

Diver level 1 (27 minutes spent under water until the next level).

Achievement reward: Time that can be spent under water increased by 1%. Current time: 3 minutes 1.8 seconds.

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

Diver is a somewhat better achievement than the 'Romeo and Juliet' one I got a couple of days back. If I remember correctly, there were treasure-finding contests held among Divers. I would have to look that up when I get to Anhurs.

I surfaced to restore my air bar three times, until the mosquitoes were nowhere to be seen. My mana was almost restored and Energy was no longer drawing nervous glances from me every few seconds. Things were looking up!

Damage taken. Hit Points reduced by 2: 2 (Bite). Total Hit Points: 768 of 770.

You will lose 2 Hit Points every 5 seconds for 30 seconds or until the time you remove the Leech.

I had run out of any emotions by this point. I summoned a Lightning Spirit on the leech that attached to me and looked around. The closest island wasn't far — about a hundred meters away. If I were to swim it, I'd get there in a minute and catch my breath afterwards. It would also not be a bad idea to...

Damage taken... You are losing 2 Hit Points every 5 seconds...

There weren't nearly as many leeches as mosquitoes, but they had a very unpleasant trait: I had no idea where they were biting me to target them and hit them. Even with my sense of pain turned on to full, I didn't feel them bite, so I could only be guided by the messages on the damage sustained. I then had to stop and remove the evil bloodsuckers.

It took me half an hour to get through the hundred meters to the little island. At one point it even occurred to me to leave the leeches that latched on to me where they were to get to the islet as quick as possible, but after ten meters of this experiment my Hit Points diminished by twenty percent. So I had to stop, summon a Healing Spirit on myself and then get the bloodsuckers off me.

The little island met me with surprising calm and green grass. Almost completely drained, with just twenty points of Energy, I fell on the grass. The hundred-meter swim also gave a decent increase to my stats: +2 to Stamina, +3 to Intellect, +3 to Endurance and a new — 19th — character level. This treasure hunt was turning into quite a boost! In just a couple of hours of my search I levelled up by as much as it took me a month of work at the mines.

The place marked on the map wasn't that far away now — I could even see that islet about three or four hundred meters ahead. I had to get there to collect the treasure, but I wasn't rushing there headlong. My inner voice insisted that I must not take the direct route there, and I was in complete agreement with it. The watery surface that separated me from the islet with an unassuming tree in the middle was just a little too smooth and calm.

I sat on the grass for a think. I wasn't even thinking, but waiting for something. The island where I ended up wasn't that large — about thirty meters in diameter and almost completely round. There was something strange about it. Suddenly there was a barely audible splash of water. A shadow flashed nearby and immediately vanished, but I had enough time to select it. An Alligator, level 20. Another obstacle before the treasure, by the looks of it. That does it! I'm fed up with being the whipping boy. Level 20, you say? Great! Where did I put my Tambourine and Mallet?

The Shaman has three hands...

There came a subdued growl and the alligator immediately appeared on the surface. It swung its head around and, finding its bearings, headed in my direction. Come on over — here I am. One Lightning Spirit took off half of the crocodile's Hit Points, so I waited until it climbed onto the islet and summoned the second spirit. A piece of meat and an Alligator skin made for decent loot. I picked up the meat and threw it in the water. I'll lure these gators out one by one.

'One by one' didn't happen. As soon as the meat fell into the bog, the entire surrounding area started to move and alligators came out from all directions. Oops... I didn't really count on this when chucking the meat in the water. But... Let's see what I am capable of as a Shaman. Amount of mana: one thousand nine hundred and eighty; each Crocodile needs two Lightning Spirits and each Spirit costs seventy six points of mana. Therefore, I should have little problem summoning twenty six Lightning Spirits in a row. After that I would rely on my regeneration.

In total, there were forty alligators. I ran around the island constantly summoning Lightning Spirits, but it was so full of crocodiles that there was barely any place to turn. A couple of times it was very close and I had to use a healing potion, but on the whole the fight didn't present much of a problem. My mana regenerated fairly quickly, the crocodiles were slow, despite their large numbers, the Tambourine worked like a dream and the Spirits turned up immediately after the summons. When the last crocodile dropped out of the game for the next three days (the time it took for normal mobs to respawn), I reached level 21, gained +3 to Intellect, +2 to Endurance and an open path to the island.

I collected the loot and, after a short swim, reached my goal. Now all I had to do was climb the hill to get to the tree and meet up with the woodwothe.

A quiet splash made me freeze. I thought I downed all the local reptiles — what else could be splashing around here? Slowly, making no sudden moves, I turned around. I just knew that there was something odd about the island on which I was fighting the alligators. As it happened, it wasn't an island at all. It was an enormous turtle, which stretched out its wrinkled head as it moved in my direction. Like a tank. Only about forty meters remained between us when the turtle swiftly moved its head, caught something in the water and started to chew. A bar labelled 'Fullness' appeared above it, 5% of which turned green. So it wants to snack on me, does it? I selected the Turtle and looked at its Life Bar. Well I'll be... Level 100, one hundred and fifty thousand Hit Points. It would take me about a week to down it with my spirits...

The Turtle made another quick move, grabbed its next victim from the bog and chewed on it industriously. It's pretty nimble for its size. The level of 'Fullness' rose to 10% and then, just as unhurriedly, it moved towards me. Strange, I thought that no-one lived in the bog except for the crocodiles. What is it catching?

Think. I need to think and fast. I wouldn't be able to kill it. Nor would I be able to run away. Can I feed it? What with? Alligator meat! I have forty pieces of it right here! Around ten meters remained between me and the turtle, so I quickly threw all the meat I got from crocodiles out of the bag and ran some distance up the hill. Please, please let it work...