The Secret of the Dark Forest ( (The Way of the Shaman: Book #3) (13 page)

"Hi. Come over."

"Coming."

"For crying out loud!" The NPC, a librarian by the looks of it, finally spoke up. "This is no place for showing off your Totems! This is a library, people come here to read the book and not get up to God knows what! Get that Dragon out of here, now!"

Antsinthepantsa stared at Draco, entranced, and didn't seem to hear the librarian. She walked over to my Totem like a zombie (is that what I had looked like as well?), stretched her hand and put it on the Dragon's neck. About ten seconds went by and Draco started to buzz with pleasure, stretching out his neck.

"All right, you can go now. I'll call you a little later," I told my Totem jealously. Here was me thinking that he responded to me alone, but the ungrateful reptile was very ready to volunteer his damned neck to be scratched by this Shaman girl.

After licking Antsinthepantsa on the cheek (something the panther failed to do to me), Draco dissolved in the air.

"A Dragon." It took her about a minute to regain her composure, as she stood mesmerized after the Totem disappeared. "So it looks like you're a kindred spirit if he decided to be yours ... and you already managed to embody him as well. How long have you been playing as Shaman?"

"Half a year."

"That's fast, but you haven't beaten me: I got your rank after four months. Right, I have to run now. Catch the invitation – let’s meet tomorrow. I want to have a proper chat with you. What if you know where Kornik is?"

"It won't happen," I declined Antsinthepantsa's invite. "I'll write to you when I get back to Anhurs. I'm off to the Free Lands today and have no idea how long I'll be spending there. It could be a day or it could be three months. As soon as I'm back, I'll be sure to write to you. I have questions for you as well. And I can tell you this much about Kornik: he ended up in the claws of Geranika, the new super-Shaman. I don't know whether he's alive or not, my information is over a month old."

"I've heard about Geranika, although I don't understand where he gets his power. According to the information that the Corporation supposedly leaked into the net, Geranika is a Shaman who somehow side-stepped working with Spirits. The Spirits of the Higher and Lower worlds have declared war on him but he's just laughing at them. I thought Kornik might provide an answer, but no-one's seen him in the capital for a good while. And now you say he's been captured by Geranika. What on earth are those developers cooking up? Anyway, I'm really out of time and have to run. Be sure to contact me when you get back. I am spending lots of time in Anhurs at the moment."

"It's a deal."

"Bye."

Antsinthepantsa's eyes glazed over and her gaming avatar became transparent and disappeared. A player had exited Barliona. Man ... I should have found what clan she belongs to. The emblem in the shape of a tree wound with a ribbon didn't belong to any of the leading clans, so there was a small chance I would be able to tempt her over to join mine. We need Shamans like that. I'll be sure to speak to her about this when I'm back in Anhurs. But for now, it was knowledge I was after ...

"Honorable Sir, I would like to touch the wisdom of the ancestors." I bowed to the librarian, who had calmed down as soon as Draco disappeared and gone back to sit in his own chair with a melancholic expression.

"What's there to touch? Here's the book from which you can gain all the knowledge about Shamans you may ever need."

"All?" I asked in overplayed surprise "even what happened during the fight between Prontho and Shiam? Or how to get Kornik out of Geranika's clutches?"

The librarian froze for a moment, staring at me with his gray eyes, and then slowly said:

"No, the book doesn't contain those things. The truth of what happened during the fight between Prontho and Shiam is known only to the two of them. You're free to ask either. As for getting Kornik out of Geranika's clutches ... someone will have to take a risk and venture into the lair of this lunatic. But I cannot entrust such a task to you. Only the Head of the Shaman Council can send heroes on such errands, so he's the one you need to speak to. I'm not sure that Shiam would send anyone out to fight his own brother, but you can give it a try."

"So what's useful about this book?" I decided to ask the librarian.

"It contains wisdom that Shamans have been gathering for centuries. Read it and you'll understand."

The librarian once again turned into a statue, so there was little else I could do but walk up to the table, open the book and immerse myself in reading:

A Shaman is a sentient gifted with special abilities to communicate with Spirits and supernatural forces; upon entering a state of ecstasy ...

When just two hours until the meeting remained, I managed to tear myself away from the book. It made for strange reading, really. I may not have understood half the words, and often the meaning of entire sentences eluded me, but I grasped the main point. That is, what this book was for:

Skill increase:

+3 to Spirituality. Total: 24

+ 1 Rank to Water Spirits. Total: 3

This book helped to level up in things necessary for Shamans: Spirit ranks, Spirituality, perhaps something else that I may not yet have. I only managed to read a little more than two hundred pages out of around two thousand, so I could see that I would be making visits here for quite some time.

I thanked the librarian and hurried to the place I should have visited first. It didn't really dawn on me until now that I was heading for the Free Lands, where finding mines would be a bit of a problem. In order to level up in Jewelcraft and Smithing I had great need of Ore, preferably in unlimited quantities. I also had to buy traveling bags both for myself and for the guys – they probably still had the standard ones with just 8–16 slots. I also had to think of getting a tent, since sleeping on bare earth would be far from ideal. Looks like I've become a bit too slack – it was time to get more organized. After silently berating myself with every kind of unpleasant name and disregarding all propriety, I ran as fast as I could to the gnomes, since these were the NPCs in charge of the Auction.

The Auction House itself consisted of a smallish pavilion, with an individual phase for each player. It was located on a small square, about 500 meters from the center of Anhurs. Inside it sat a gnome who provided players with the entry point for their offers and accepted their bids. The square where the pavilion was located was unofficially called 'The Market'. This was where players offering goods directly hung out, side-stepping the Auction House, which took off 3% profit from every deal.

"WTB 4 sacks with 200 slots each," I shouted before entering the Auction House, in the hope of catching a deal on what I needed among the local peddlers. Bags tend to be in demand, but ones for 200 slots, which a year ago cost 30000 gold, were not among the readily available goods. I was unlikely to get any of my own Tailors in the clan in the near future, so I would have to stock up at the Auction House.

"Why do you need them so large? Get four with 50 slots." A player immediately popped up next to me, looking me over from head to foot with his shifty eyes. He was probably trying to figure out how much money I had and how big he should make his markup. "I'll sell them at 10000 apiece."

I shook my head and shouted again for the larger sacks before following up with several for the Ore – starting with Tin and ending with Gold. The hawkers, stared at me with annoyance for interrupting their normal trade, but I took little notice. Every player was free to shout at The Market. Ten minutes later there were still no offers forthcoming, so I headed for the Auction House.

"Good day," the gnome registrar greeted me. "Do you wish to buy or sell?"

"Buy. Could you give me a selection of all the clothing on Auction with Crafting stat as the required feature? The type of clothing is unimportant.

The gnome's eyes clouded over – he was probably conducting a search – after which he said in a disappointed voice:

"Your search produced no results. There are no items with Crafting bonuses at Auction."

Right. So it looked like they were either entirely absent or had been immediately snapped up by players. Little surprise there, as such items could completely pay for themselves in the space of a month.

"Then let's look at bags. Search parameters: 150+ slots, sorting by price – low to high, filter by number of slots." I made the initial request to solve the storage problem right away. Each player can carry up to 3 bags, so buying at least one large one is a top priority task.

"Your search request has turned up 2042 lots, sorting by price has been applied," reported the gnome and a list of bags appeared before my eyes. The prices for 150 slots began at 18000, those for 200 – at 30000 and for 250 (which I didn't even know existed) at 50000. After quickly weighing up all the pros and cons I bought a 250-slot bag for myself, and 200-slot bags for the others. In total this purchase cost me 149000 Gold, but I was happy: now neither my fighters nor I had to worry about where to store things. As soon as the gnome handed over the bags, I put mine on and made a search request for Ore. Things didn't look all that great in this area: Copper Ore – 20+ Gold per stack (1 stack = 40 pieces of Ore), Tin – 100+, Silver – 180, Iron – 290, Gold – 500 and Platinum – 1000. I didn't even bother looking at the rest to save myself the disappointment. One bag slot could take 10 stacks, so I stocked up quite well: 80 stacks of Tin Ore, 200 of Iron, 300 of Silver and 100 Gold. As a result of this ruinous errand I only had just over 330000 gold left, but I wasn't worried: with Jewelcraft and Smithing professions I would be able to make a good return on these investments. I made a search for rings for level 50 with the maximum stat bonuses and found out that a Gold Ring of something or other with +13 to Intellect and + 7 to Stamina was worth 3500 Gold. Precious Stones, such as Lapis Lazuli cost upwards of 3000 each, so I whistled when I added up how much Hellfire had spent when he sent me 50 stones. ... Some gift he wanted to make Anastaria ...

"And one last thing. I need a Frontier Ranger Tent. How much is it?"

The gnome's eyes again became glassy and then he said:

"Tents like this sell for 60000 and above. In total there are three such tents for sale."

"I'll take the one for sixty thousand." I barely uttered the phrase when a window popped up to confirm the transaction. After pressing the 'Yes' button, I saw the most sought-after item for any intrepid traveler lying on the gnome's table:

A Ranger Tent.

Description: the best piece of kit for travelers setting out on a long journey.

Spaces in the tent: 10.

Comfort level: 6 out of 10.

Visual detection radius: 1 meter.

I stuffed the items I had got from the gnome into the bag and ran off towards the Temple. Now I was ready to head for the Free Lands.

"S
ince we're all here, let me do some introductions. All of you know me, so I will skip that part. Let's start with the ordinary residents of Barliona. Please give a warm welcome to Slate, the uncrowned Prince of the Malabar Empire. He's run into some family-related trouble: catch the quest description – we'll be doing it together. As soon as we complete the High Priestess's assignment, we'll all head off to a rather interesting place. I hope his family issues get resolved and he ends up marrying the Princess. The Prince is a decent Smith, Repairman and Warrior and will be very useful in our mission. I'm starting a group: accept the invite."

The longer I spent introducing Slate, the more astonished everyone’s faces grew. In the end it was a scene worthy of a painting titled: 'a herd of deer staring at the headlights.' Only Clutzer gave a nervous laugh:

"Prince of Malabar?"

"Your Highness," muttered Leite. All, including the non-convict players, bowed their heads and bent their knees, complying with the standard etiquette for greeting a monarch. We won't get very far if they continue treating Slate this way. Had they never had any contact with members of the Imperial family before? Although there was one exception – Clutzer didn't bend his knee, but briefly bowed his head as a sign of respect before immediately straightening up. Well done to him. But the rest ... they gave the impression of messenger boys in a huge corporation suddenly facing the managing director who has dropped in for a party – sporting a can of beer, lack of tie and plenty of determination to have a good time. It was a similar type of reaction, what with their obedient stances, lifted, or in our case bowed, heads and readiness to carry out any command ... such an awkward attitude didn't bode well.

"Right, guys! Relax. Take a few of deep breaths. So what if he's a Prince? Eric, Leite, snap out of it already! You'll have to appear before the Emperor to be honored for your First Kill in two months' time – is this the way you plan to react to him as well? "

"I thought you were fibbing before," mumbled Elenium. "The Emperor, the High Priestess of Eluna, the Heralds ... it just didn't sound real ... and now we have a Prince in our group ..."

"Please get up," said the future Prince, somewhat red in the face. "Just call me Slate, I'm not a Prince yet and if you don't help me I may never become one. So please, don't kneel every time you want to speak to me. Just think of me as the group's blacksmith."

"Slate is right," I tried to talk some sense into my stunned team "you better start getting used to the idea that our group has another member. Forget about his status. And in general, you should get used to the fact that from now on your standing in Barliona will change: I don't know whether it will be for the worse or for the better, but change it certainly will. We'll mix with Princes and Princesses, and even the Emperor will no longer be some distant unapproachable figure. Let's get on with the introductions. This is Clutzer. Like me, he made it out of a mine and now we're in the same clan ..." I started to introduce everyone in turn, recounting when and how I came to meet them. "What relationships develop between you guys is your business, it's not like I can force you all to become friends, but while we're on the quest I ask that you maintain normal professional relations, setting any emotions aside. Put off any arguments and so forth until we return. Everyone, I'm sharing both quests with you: that of the High Priestess and of the Prince."

"Mahan, we have a problem," Clutzer's voice came almost straight away.

"What do you mean?"

"Look at the quest description, namely at the limitations section. We don't cut it level-wise."

"What the heck?" I exclaimed, as I dug up the quest description. The overall level of the group amounted to 622, but it came up as 494(128) in front of the required 600-level limitation. 494 was the combined level of the players, while 128 levels were Slate’s. It looked like our NPC didn't count towards the total group level and so Beth wouldn't give us the quest. ... Where did it all go wrong? "If we are lacking in levels, we'll have to invite someone else. Any of you know someone who could take off to the Free Lands for a couple of weeks right this minute?"

"I'll have a look," was Eric's businesslike reply "I did play as a tank for quite a while and my contacts should all still be there." Judging by his appearance he went into mail-sending mode and was quickly jotting down messages.

"What about you?" I asked my friends from my former gaming life.

"I don't have anyone," came Elenium's honest answer "as soon as my son was born, I left Barliona for a long time – even got kicked out of the clan as an unreliable element, although I gave them my reason. You wouldn’t want to invite people like that on an expedition.

Following Eric's example Sushiho and Dukki began writing letters to their acquaintances.

"I don't have anyone to invite either”, said Clutzer. "I would be categorically against inviting any of my old acquaintances ... that is assuming they even managed to get out of the mines ..."

"I have a candidate," I said thoughtfully, weighing up all the pros and cons. "I'm not a hundred percent sure of them yet, but it still might be better than hooking up with a total stranger."

"Do it, invite anyone you can think of," said Eric quickly "I've already had three declines. Supposedly they don't have any time. Bastards. They know that I've been in the can and don't want to associate with a convict."

I made up my mind and started to write a letter.

'Hello Marina.

I know that I just recently wrote to you saying that we may only meet up in three weeks' time, but circumstances have changed. I urgently need a player with 106+ levels. As far as I remember, you've reached level 107 in Beatwick, so you meet the requirements. In essence, the quest is to make a trip to the Free Lands and find a precious stone. The assignment was given to me by the High Priestess of Eluna. I'm attaching a link to the quest chain. We're gathering in Anhurs right now and we have to decide quickly. Quest duration could be around a week, from 18:00 to 01:00 in the morning system-time each day."

After a little while Eric shook his head disappointedly to show that his search for extra players was unsuccessful. It was the same story with Dukki and Sushiho – there were no candidates prepared to suddenly take off for an indefinite length of time. Now we only had to wait for Mirida's decision ...

"Hi Daniel,

I'm quite far away from Anhurs at the moment, otherwise I would've happily accepted your offer. I don't have a portal scroll and riding Fluffy to the capital would take about two weeks.

Sorry."

"No-go on my front either," I said and sat down right on the temple steps, crestfallen. Can someone explain to me why the developers thought you actually had to be looking at another player before you could add him to the group? Why no long-distance invites? Is cutting us some slack with this against their religion or something?

"All we can do now is shout in the group-finder channel," concluded Eric. "I have done this often in the past and, in all honesty, I have to say that I always ended up with total third-raters. So it's a double-edged sword, really."

"Do we have any choice though? The person I had in mind can only be in Anhurs in a couple of weeks. We can't wait for her until then."

"Her?" Clutzer latched onto the word.

"Yes, 'her'. She's a Hunter, level 107 Beastmaster. We fought together against the Kartoss forces in Beatwick." I provided a neutral explanation, reluctant to reveal Marina's true face. I would have to have a chat with her first and only then would I tell the others who she really is. "All right – I'll start searching. Let's hope we get lucky. Clutzer, I have a little task for you. Can you look through standard Clan Agreements: we need to formulate a proper Agreement for our clan, one that will cover everything: joining, leaving, loot allocation, roles, structure and everything else you see fit, right up to the monthly salary for the players of a certain level."

"Why me?" Clutzer asked, surprised, although you could see by his expression that he was extremely pleased.

"Because you could only get to the Mona Lisa if you were able to think through all the possibilities. No-one could arrange everything more correctly and prioritize better than you. Guys," I turned to the others, "please help him. It's time we made this a proper clan."

After handing that task over to the team, I opened the group search channel and started to shout throughout Anhurs:

"Looking for a competent 106+ level DD for a trip to the Free Lands. Duration: at least two to three weeks; must be available in-game between 18:00 and 01:00 system time. We're starting a quest chain, details in the mail.

As soon as I sent this announcement, I was hit with an avalanche of letters:

"I cannoot from 18.00, hwe about 12:00 to 14:00? 64-level Rogue."

"I'll boost you through the Patris Dungeon. Cost – 10k gold."

"153-level Mage. Will accept 2020 gold per day. All the loot is mine. Have an agreement ready."

There was so much of this junk that I sensed people were failing to read the original text of the message and simply sent replies to anyone that popped up in the channel. There was little else I could do other than delete the letters or, if they sounded completely mental, stick the senders straight on the blacklist.

Attention! The official blacklist of the Dark Legion clan comes into effect in the next 5 minutes. Please confirm that you have read this message.

This came with a huge 'Yes' button that covered most of the view. Damn ... I didn't think that putting a team together would take this long. I was running the risk of ending up in real hot water. ... All right, not much I can do about that, I thought as I pressed the button, and continued to look through the letters. I urgently needed a competent player.

"Hi,

I'm a 147-level Druid. I have a few questions about the group: What's the loot allocation? What's the make-up of the rest of the group? Why aren't you using NPC mercenaries? Send me a link to the quest, so I can see what I need to take with me. What are the gear requirements? How do we get to the Free Lands? I propose we discuss all this first, before deciding whether I should join or not."

Ten minutes later I had finally managed to dig up a message written by an experienced Druid – or rather, a Lady Druid, since Barsina was clearly a female name.

"Hi,

We haven't discussed loot allocation yet, but I think we'll follow the standard route. Gold is divided equally among all and gear goes to whomsoever it benefits the most. If it suits several people at once, we'll let Lady Luck decide. The group is made up of 7 players between level 20 and 150, with 90 as the level average, and 1 NPC. We can't get mercenaries because the quest has a requirement for the level of the participants and so any NPCs’ levels do not count towards that (already checked). Here's the link to the quest. There are no gear requirements; I'll trust you to be sensible. We'll be ported to the Free Lands. I think that's it. We are currently gathered by the Temple of Eluna. You may join us – I'll explain everything you want to know once you get here."

Keeping my fingers crossed, I sent my reply to Barsina. Judging by her questions, she was a competent player – of the kind I really needed right now. The main thing was for her not to have any hang-ups or additional demands, or it might turn out that although she was asking for one thing now, in actual fact she was after something else completely.

"On my way. I'll ask you straight away – do you have the means of transport taken care of, or will the group depend on its level 20 members who wouldn't be able to afford a normal horse?"

I read over the message one more time and realized that I probably owed Barsina a present. Would some flowers do the job? Whether she decided to join us in the end or not, mentioning the mounts from the start was very much the right thing to do. It looks like she might have had a bad experience with a group in this respect, if she brought it up straight away.

"I think I found one," I told the others sitting next to me, "she'll be here in a minute. By the way, what are your transport arrangements? Does everyone have mounts?"

"I don't," Clutzer quickly answered. "Why? Are you saying there might be other options?"

Eric and Leite also didn't have anything, but Dukki, Sushiho and Elenium had better news. This meant that we would only have to buy four horses – preferably not the cheapest kind to avoid traveling at the speed of a sightseeing snail.

"Other options should and must happen. Sergei, do you know where they sell horses? Take our mount-less lot to the stables. Here’s an Agreement indicating that the gold for the horses should be taken off my account. Try not to get the most expensive ones, but not the worst quality either, all right? I can't go myself, since I'm waiting for Barsina. Move it, people, we're catastrophically running out of time!"

"How come?"