The Kartoss Gambit (The Way of the Shaman: Book #2) (32 page)

Spirit of Strengthening. Increases all the main stats by two percent for a minute and is totally useless in combat, as my fight with Reptilis had shown. There is no time to summon it. You have to either attack or heal. But what if I combine the Spirit of Strengthening with Healing Spirits? This would burn through a lot of mana, but then I'll get a useful buff as I heal. Knowing full well that reading the manual and the forums would be of no use, I still checked them just to be sure — with predictable results. Again, I had to rely only on my intuition...

First of all, let's try to select the Healing Spirit and summon the Spirit of Strengthening on it. Nothing. The Spirits didn't understand what they had to do. Then how about summoning both Spirits on me at the same time? Still nothing. First came one and then the other. Then let's try...

I was so caught up in the thrill of it all, that for a while I switched off, forgetting about the cold. During yet another attempt to combine the Spirits, I understood what had to be done. It was simple object-oriented programming. There is the 'Healing Spirit' class with its properties and 'Strengthening Spirit' class, with its properties. The task was to create a new combined class, inheriting the main features of the preceding classes. But where to get a design kit to combine the two? Should I ask Kornik? That green mug would have a right laugh, saying that his apprentice is a complete doofus and teaching him is a waste of time.

Why do Shamans need a Totem? Is it just for playing with or for riding? Well, Mr. Manual, don't let me down now at least:

Totem: A natural object used as the Shaman's emblem. Totems help Shamans to understand themselves. They act as a means of connection to the inner world and reflect the essences which make up the personality of the temporal, physical Shamanistic 'I'. Totems help to understand why Shamans are they way they are. They point out the strong and weak sides of the character, strengthen its merits and lessen its shortcomings.

Totem properties: Cannot be changed. Can be used as a mount (after incarnation) or as a Spirit design device. Totems are sentient and must be developed. Every fifty levels the Totem acquires an additional ability, dependant on the Totem type. If a Totem does not suit the Shaman, it can be removed.

Riiight. Everything became clear and simple, especially after reading the first paragraph. That's some dog's breakfast they've cooked up here. Why? To show how cool it is to be a Shaman? Brr... But I got the main bit. A Totem is a Spirit design device. If that's true, then...

"Hi. I need your help. Will you come?"

"Awe we going to pway?"

"No, we won't play. I have to get to grips with the Spirits."

"Awwight. I come."

A projection of a transparent little Dragon appeared next to me. Was I seeing things or did he grow a little? I thought he was smaller.

"Hewwo. How can I hewp?"

"I don't know myself yet. You see, there are two Spirits. One for strengthening and the other for healing. I have to combine them to make a new Spirit, but don't know how. Do you know how to do this?"

"Make a new Spiwit fwom two? Of cowse I know. Be wight back," the Little Dragon disappeared for a few seconds and then came back holding a crystal of some kind in his paws. As soon as Draco appeared a heavy thundering voice sounded: "The Totem Soul. The Shaman must keep it as the apple of his eye. If the Totem Soul is destroyed, the Totem will disappear forever and the Shaman will lose his strength."

Draco, still holding the crystal, shook his head and continued in his childish voice:

"Call the Spiwit you need here and then anoffer and then you get new Spiwit. Wet's twy, I'm cuwious."

A Totem Soul? It's the first time I ever heard about this. The manual and the forums make no mention of it at all. Damn, why is the internal help so truncated? If I could only get into the main net: that's where all the information about Barliona can be found. But here...

I heaved a bitter sigh, brought up the Spirit summoning mode, selected the crystal in Draco's paws and summoned a strengthening and a healing Spirit on it in turn. As soon as the Spirits settled in the crystal, a window with the description of the new Spirit appeared before me. The Water Spirit of Healing Strengthening. Next to the description there were two active bars with sliders: 'healing' and 'strengthening'. After playing around with it I felt somewhat disappointed. It turned out that the Spirits of healing and strengthening summoned separately give off a hundred percent of their force, while a combined Spirit does not equal in strength to the two Spirits making it up. Not only did the summoning time of the Healing Spirit increased, but the effectiveness of the healing and strengthening equalled to only seventy percent of the original. The sliders made it possible to increase one of the parameters to ninety percent, but in that case the other one fell to thirty percent. Such strengthening would be of little use. It also looked like the interdependence between the parameters was non-linear.

I changed the Healing Spirit to the Spirit I ended up with and carried out a similar operation with mass healing. I thought that this combination would be more useful. Now I'll play around with attacking Spirits.

I selected the crystal and summoned to it the Spirits of Water Strike, Intermittent Damage and Control. A triple kidney-shot at the opponent!

The maximum number of the combined Spirits cannot exceed the rank of the Spirits.

Damn! Looks like it was too early to celebrate... But, to be fair, it made sense — you had to level up the rank of the Spirits in order to play with combining them. I put together the water strike with intermittent damage, optimising the active zone. Two free slots appeared, where the Spirit of water shield could be summoned, which, in turn, could be combined with healing and drop a shield around the healed target, blocking some type of damage. Phew! Now let's roll.

I concentrated on the empty slot and started to summon a Spirit.

The rank of Elemental Shaman has access to the following additional Spirits: The Spirit of the Shield. Do you wish to add the Spirit to the active zone?

Finally! After acquiring the new Water Spirit, I combined it with healing and once again shifted it to the active zone. I won't be freezing now!

I summoned the Spirit of Healing Shield and gave a smiling Kornik a pleased look. Although no, he wasn't smiling, but laughing with impunity. I don't get it — what's so funny?

A minute later it became clear what made my teacher laugh so much. The water shield had a certain property: it was made of water. And it was cold in these mountains. Very cold. When I found myself inside an ice sphere, my shoulders slumped. Kornik is such a bastard! He knew that my focus is Water, but didn't stop me. Although, I'm not much better. I got so carried away that didn't think of how Water would react to cold. The shield should really be made of air, like Kornik's. But I don't specialise in Air. Bugger!

After waiting a short while for the shield to dissipate (another question for Kornik: why did his shied last a long time, while mine only a minute?), I started to free myself from my icy prison with my Mallet. Like some chick breaking out of an egg. Why wasn't the dome breaking?

"You awe doing it wwong," I completely forgot about Draco. He continued to circle me, observing what was happening with great interest.

"What's the right way, then?"

"You soodn't hit just anywewe. Find a spot and hit thwat"

"Will you help me?"

"Yup, found it. Hit wight here," Draco nosed a place in the ice capsule. If that's it — here goes.

"Move away a little, eh? There's gonna be a big 'boom' now!"

I took as big a swing as the confined space of the ice sarcophagus allowed me and hit the spot that Draco pointed out. Then came the fireworks. The ice barrier flew apart in all directions, as if it had been exploded, the icy wind was back, but the golden glow that surrounded me and Draco stood in its path. Where was this strange music coming from?

"Wow... It worrrked grrr... Grrrreat... Rrrr...., pllaying, crrrows," when I stepped back from the bright light, I looked at little Draco circling nearby. Although there was no more 'little Draco'. A young two-meter Dragon was cruising through the air around me. "Isn't it grrreat?" he said, happily, "I can prrrrounounce letter 'Rrrr'. It's brrriliant!"

I faked a smile and patted the Dragon on the back. I don't get it — did I just incarnate him? How on earth?

'Searching for your Totem' quest completed.

Quest 'The Path of the Shaman. Step 2' completed.

And that's it? Could all my tribulations with the scroll have been simply aimed at successfully getting out of the ice capsule with my Dragon? What happened to the unique bonuses? Where is the gaining of unsurpassed might? Where are all these things, I ask? And where are the Dragons, if it came to it?

"I greet you, my son," while Draco continued to 'grrrowl' at anything and everything as he learned to speak properly, an enormous green Dragon landed on the ground next to me. I should probably mention that I only now noticed that my Dragon was black as night. I got used to him being transparent, so it didn't register right away.

"I greet you, father," I bowed before the Dragon. I wasn't really getting the deal with the father-son stuff, but played along just in case.

"My name is Aarenoxitolikus, that green reptile that Kornik mentioned. You may call me Renox."

"Don't you go spoiling my apprentice," I heard the goblin's voice. "Quit it with all the role-playing: 'son', 'father'... He's a Shaman, not a Dragon."

"Dragon? How can I be a Dragon? I'm a human."

"You are a Dragon!" Renox's roar echoed through the mountains.

"He's a Shaman!" Kornik shook the mountains with a like roar.

"Hey therrrrre Dad!" Draco just finished me off. "Can you rrreally believe it? I'm alive again! And I've regained my memorrry!"

"People, can someone explain to me what the heck is going on here?" I probably looked stupid, but I really didn't understand a thing.

"Kornik, you start. I'll correct you, if need be," thundered Renox.

"A Shaman must have a Totem. Without it he's nothing. There are a myriad of ways to get a Totem. You can ask for one from your teacher or find it by yourself. Or you can do something unusual and pull the Totem out of the Grey Lands. Essentially, everything as it's meant to be."

"Mahan, I am astonished how you managed to understand the combination of Spirits with a teacher like this. Kornik, please lay aside your principles at least once and explain everything properly."

"Don't interfere with my educational process. I teach the way I want to teach. Do I meddle with your Dragons, trying to teach them how to fly? So you stay out of this too."

"Do you at least know what happened here?" I asked Draco, who was continuing to 'grrrowl' at the stones. Kornik and Renox descended into a deep ideological debate on the meaning of existence. It was useless trying to interrupt them and I had only two hours left until my return.

"Nothing special. I was a Drrragon, but a hundrrred years ago I died while fighting the ice giants of this worrrrld. I was only thrree hundrrred yearrrs old, just out of an egg, you may say, and in the first battle was careless enough to get hit by a rock. I wanted to help my family. My father had spent a long time looking for a way to reincarnate me, until he found out that I could be incarnated as a Totem. Even if it's for a short time, it's still better than total oblivion. He appealed to the Shamans and they summoned me to this world as a Totem. In the last hundred years no-one got a Dragon as a Totem and even if he did, I would have ended up as an ordinary naive and foolish little cub. Even now, when we return to your world — oh, I'm no longer growling my 'r's! — I would again turn into a small baby. To get my memory back over there I would have to be raised to level 200."

"And why did your memory come back to you here?"

"I was born anew. From an egg. And born together with a brother too."

"With who?"

"Surprise! With your dome you made an ice egg and with his breath Father turned it into a real one. Do you think you would've failed to smash an ordinary ice barrier with your Mallet? So from a Dragon Egg there hatched two Dragons. One who was reborn and the other... The other is you, brother."

"This one's at it too," it turned out that Kornik and Renox had been standing nearby and listening to Draco's tale, having stopped their debate. "Stop muddling his brain, or it'll boil over soon. Don't listen to them, they won't teach you anything good. Life is much more complicated than just being a Dragon. Looks like you'll have to be told what really happened here. A hundred years ago at the request of this green lizard, the Shaman Council reincarnated a dead Dragon in a Totem."

"Like you can talk about being 'green'," dropped in Renox, without a hint of offence.

"No derailing. Now then. So we did incarnate him, but we couldn't find any worthy candidates to receive this Totem. We tried out a few volunteers, but all died in the Dragon fire. Even Geranika wouldn't risk it. And then you turn up with a Dragon for a Totem. When Prontho found out he barely restrained himself from abandoning his mine to spread the word among other Shamans. He did restrain himself, his sense of duty was stronger, but he sent me a message. And I started to watch you. Right, I'm veering from the business at hand now. Dragons. Even if you simply incarnated the Dragon, he would have remained a non-sentient. Well, when I say 'non-sentient'... In time he would have grown smarter and learned to carry out your commands, but it would have still been a long way from a real Dragon. That would have happened if you took the standard path and accepted my help. But you chose the way of the Shaman. And in the end we have what we have. In this world your Totem regains his memory and can speak with his family — but no more than fifty percent of the time, because the rest of the time he must spend with you. It is also possible to return his memory to the Dragon in our world, but for that you need to bring him to level 200. When you go back he will have only one level and could only be summoned for two hours a day. For now this is all he can do. As his level increases, so will the time he can spend in your world. So that's how it is."