The Secret of the Dark Forest ( (The Way of the Shaman: Book #3) (25 page)

"Hold on ... you, the owner of a unique Totem, who has an acute perception of the surrounding world, have no idea what it means to be a Shaman?"

"Before your rather emotional exclamation just now I thought I knew what it meant to be a Shaman. Now I'm not so sure. Will you tell me about it?"

"Do you know Kalatea?" The girl was on a roll. "No? You should! And you're not a member of the Order of the Dragon, are you?" She continued to bombard me with questions.

"Not a member of what? Listen, I think I told you that I only became a Shaman half a year ago, having spent half of that time in a mine where I didn't really use any of my Shaman skills. I have no idea who or what you're talking about now. I asked you because you really helped me out when I was going through the initiation. Now this incomprehensible matter with this stupid intuition or premonition remains. I thought you might know what this is. And now you're trying to scare me with some Galanterea and Orders of the Dragons."

"Kalatea."

"What's the difference? Who the heck is she, anyway? Or 'he', even?"

"It's a 'she'. A lady Shaman. Level 360. She's not in Malabar, but in Astrum, the Empire that lies on one of the neighboring continents. The Order of the Dragon is an association of Shamans headed by her."

"An association of Shamans? I thought this wasn't a particularly popular class ..."

"That's right. On our continent, that is. But in Astrum players choose it quite often. It is part of their cultural heritage, after all, and it's held in high esteem there."

"I think I've lost you there. Can you start again, but in more detail?"

"I can start again," smiled Antsinthepantsa. "No-one would believe this if I told them: a three-month-old Shaman, who managed to get a Dragon and can make active use of his abilities, has no idea about the Order of the Dragon. So. The Shaman class appeared in Barliona just over ten years ago, precisely because players from both the Americas started to petition the Corporation to introduce it. For the first two years Shamans could only be created in Astrum; Kalatea was the first player who managed to complete the initiation in the Path of the Shaman. Essentially this class was especially created with her in mind. Kalatea was actively involved in the design of the abilities and development of the class quests. She was offered a job in the Corporation but refused, preferring to remain an ordinary player. But even now the developers often ask her for advice on various aspects of Shaman gameplay. By the way, she's the only player Harbinger in Barliona."

"Hold on. I read the manual – there are no Harbingers."

"Not in Malabar. The manuals are focused only on the continent from which the information request was made. So, we have Kalatea. That gal founded the Order of the Dragon (the association of Shamans), joining which is every Shaman's dream. I was only accepted there on my third attempt to join. Twice I've failed my initiation, and each time I had to delete my character and start all over. Only after I was given the chance to choose my Totem, did Kalatea agree to take me in. By the way, she's the one who receives new members personally, not one of her officers."

"You've deleted your Shaman twice in order to complete the trial correctly?"

"Yup. When I created the third one, I didn't think I'd make it through, so I gave her this name. When I did complete it, my first impulse was to delete again and re-create with a normal name this time, but ... Bussy turned out to be such a sweetie I didn't have the heart to delete her. So I had to stay as Antsinthepantsa. Oh, by the way! Let's level up our Totems while no-one's around. They will grow faster wrestling with each other than hunting down smaller mobs."

"I think that's a great idea," I agreed and summoned Draco. I told him what was up and sent him to fight the Black Panther. I just hoped he wouldn't leave too many burn marks on her with his acceleration. "So, what happened next? Kalatea founded the association and became a Harbinger. What has intuition got to do with it?"

"A lot. As I said, in both Americas there is already an established image of a Shaman: this trickster with a tambourine who is tuned-in to the surrounding world. I can't tell you all that much, since it is forbidden, but I can give you a rough idea. Did you notice how the premonition only works when you interact with the surrounding world and not with other players? Today, for example, when we were choosing the direction in which to go. Aside from the east side, which contained those who summoned the 'ash', all the others were blocked. And blocked at the level of scenario, at that. So, our class was lucky with its founder. Kalatea managed to convince the developers that the Shamans should also be given a slight, almost imperceptible feeling of disquiet when they are doing something incorrectly. After all, this is possibly the only hybrid class. The developers scratched their heads and together with premonition added the Spirit Summoning Mode – not to make things too easy for us. At the same time they have calibrated the perception of the system warnings in such a way that if you don't use them or ignore them they become weaker and weaker, until one day they disappear altogether. Every six months the Order of the Dragon carries out a re-examination of its members, to find out whether they follow their intuition or not. This was the Corporation's gift to Kalatea for her contribution to the development of the Game. Aside from Shamans, only Paladins have anything of the sort, but I don't know much about it. You should ask your girl, she would know."

"My girl?" It was a good thing I was already sitting down, or I would have dropped where I stood. "Whom do you mean?"

"Anastaria, of course." Antsinthepantsa gave me a strange look. "Am I wrong?"

"No, it's not like that." I would have been lost for words to express how I felt. Bloody hell! Someone actually thinks that Anastaria is my girl! A year ago I would have given half of all I owned to hear that! "We are just good acquaintances who have mutually beneficial dealings with one another. But a couple ...? Let's get back to Shamans."

"Well, that's all I have, pretty much. I'll tell Kalatea about you today. I'm sorry but I must do that, that's in our rules. So you should expect an invitation to a meeting in the next couple of weeks."

Natalie fell silent and began to watch our Totems dueling. Despite being three times smaller than Bussy, Draco won every fourth battle. By the looks of it, as soon as his intensification cooldown expired, he activated his ability and flooded the poor cat in fire. It was interesting to watch a Dragon letting the panther ride on his back while trying to bite one of her legs, but I was preoccupied by a different matter. In particular what the girl said about intuition – that these feelings that popped up on various occasions were triggered via the system. And there was me thinking that I was something else, that I was on the path to becoming a 'super-player' … but it turned out that there were more of these players in Barliona than you could shake a stick at ... that there were even Harbingers out there. ...

"Natalie, can you tell me if your intuition has ever let you down? Have you ever had instances when you trusted it, but the result was not what you expected?"

"Of course! This was the main requirement of the Corporation in order not to end up with unstoppable monsters instead of Shamans. Usually about eighty percent of the premonitions don't have any meaning behind them. Moreover, aside from being beset with this 'white noise', we also have incorrect instincts generated for us. These begin from level 100, so you shouldn't worry about it yet. Otherwise yes, about half of what we intuit is wrong. With situations like today, you can see straight away that it's the real deal, so that's straightforward. But the rest ... you constantly have to level up in Spirituality, in order to keep things on the right level. I hope that's one of the stats that you chose, yes?"

"Yup."

"Good, it'll come in very useful. Listen, I have a question for you now. Why do you need me on this quest? I wouldn't argue that it suits me very well, which is why I dropped everything in Anhurs and headed out here, but I don't get what Shamans have to do with it. It was clear that today a spell was used against us, not Spirits, so it's not like we can really make a difference here."

"How can I explain this ... if I let myself be guided by your words – the system whispered in my ear that this is categorically impossible without Shamans. I would even summon Kalatea here, if I could, to have a fuller team. When you write to her, say: “Mahan is inviting you to join him on a quest”. I can't explain it, but it cannot be completed without Shamans. You do know about Geranika, the new Lord of Shadow? He's a Shaman."

"So what? What do Geranika and the Lord of the Dark Forest Cursed Ones have to do with one another?"

"Who knows …? But I can guarantee that they are connected in some way. Guardian!" I addressed the silent tree. "I have two questions! Would you mind answering them?" I took the silence to be a sign of agreement and continued: "Why was I struck down with debuffs if you said that nothing can harm me on this ground. And do you know Geranika?"

"Ten years ago, a few days before my death," replied the Guardian after a few moments, using its favorite vibrations, "a sentient by that name came to the Dark Forest. He asked me to teach him about Ishni, but I refused him. The Shaman left, but two days later a caravan entered the forest that brought the curse with it. I've heard nothing more about Geranika."

"What is an Ishni?" I asked straight away, ignoring the fact that the Guardian failed to answer my first question.

"Ishni is not a what. Ishni is the heart of my forest. She is my Unicorn."

"N
atalie, can you tell me if this is the right way to level up my Totem?" I asked the lady Shaman, as soon as Draco's allotted time in this world had run out. In a couple of hours of fighting with Bussy, the Dragon's level had increased by an entire point, reaching 38. At this pace I'll be leveling him up till Chinese Easter, whatever that's supposed to mean. I'm doing something wrong and a fellow Shaman might have an idea what that is.

"What do you mean by 'the right way'? Do you mean fighting? Of course," replied Antsinthepantsa with surprise and then continued, sounding less sure, "Although I might be mistaken. Why, do you have some ideas about this? I don't think I can remember any specific articles on the subject from Kalatea. Hold on, I'll be a moment," the girl's eyes glassed over, indicating that the player had logged out.

I returned to my program of ingot-making when I realized just how alone I was once Natalie left me with no-one but the Prince around. I had used the two hours during which the Totems were vying to see who was stronger on crafting. When I bought the ore, I didn't really think of the fact that leveling up in Jewelcraft would require ingots and that I would still have to make them. My level of Smithing allowed me to smelt Tin and I didn't have far to go until Bronze, but that 'distance' still had to be covered. Keeping in mind that I could only level up in Jewelcraft by making things out of Silver, Gold and Iron and that Silver Ingots only became available from level 60 in the profession ... something told me that I was looking at a toilsome and vigorous grind ahead of me to level up. I could only place my hopes in the boost the Guardian's glade would give me – in the two hours I had left before it was due to expire, that is. Once again cursing myself that I omitted to switch on my brain in Pryke and level up Smithing virtually for free there, I continued to wear out the smelting pot.

After explaining who Ishni was, the Guardian had clammed up and was now completely refusing to talk. As soon as his Petrification debuff wore off, the Prince, who was dutifully sitting inside the Tent when it had all happened, came out and asked me to remove all the other debuffs from him. I summoned a Restoration Spirit and felt like going over and banging my head against the Oak for completely forgetting about Slate until now. Earlier, when the high-level players began to arrive and I was re-forming the group, the Prince completely slipped my mind. I sent him the invite and tried to talk him into temporarily returning to Anhurs. I was really reluctant to risk a life that was so dear to the Princess. Even if Slate wasn't a standard NPC – you might even say he was a key scenario mob – something irreversible might still happen to him, such as his Imitator unexpectedly hitting early 'retirement'. For that Tisha would lynch me, then reanimate me and lynch me again. The future Prince of Malabar carefully listened to my arguments, even agreeing with some, and then gave me such an earful that if he were Tisha's real husband I would have been immediately kicked out of Malabar. So I had to take the risk and keep him with us, making a note to ask Anastaria to secretly look after him just in case. ...

"Mahan." Natalie returned after about thirty minutes, giving me enough time to raise my Smithing to 36. And that was with the current speed of professional leveling up ... still too slow, really. The system looked favorably on my diligent ingot smelting and rewarded me with six pieces of Lapis. That meant three thousand gold for each, if I remembered the prices right. Not bad at all, but I was rather downcast upon consulting the manual. The next set of chess figurines needed Alexandrite, obtained by smelting Silver, which, as it now became clear, was still a long way off. I had to find a way of speeding up.

"The Order of the Dragon has no guides on leveling up Totems and Kalatea simply chuckled when I called her and asked about the correct way of working with them. This can mean only one thing: I’ve been using the wrong method to get Bussy to level 120. Damn!" cursed Antsinthepantsa, "why didn't I think of this before? Right, it will take around nine more hours for everyone to respawn, so I'll log out for a bit – need to have a chat with other Shamans. I'll find out how they do it. I've mentioned you to Kalatea, by the way, and she asked you to contact her. Here's her visor number, you can contact her there, she's expecting your call."

"Eeehh ... I can't give her a call," I said, noting down the number just in case in my notebook. "It just so happens that I have no access to visors for the next eight and a half years."

"Then use the phone, what's the difference?" asked Natalie, surprised.

"You don't understand. I don't have access to phones either. You see ... I'm currently in a prisoner capsule, my rights are restricted and I won't be free for quite some time yet."

As soon as I uttered the key word 'prisoner', Antsinthepantsa's face froze. Seems our society has instilled certain attitudes really well in us: it's good to be good and it's bad to be bad. And to hell with the tautology, you can't hide the truth: people aren't too tolerant of prisoners in our world. The dregs of society, social outcasts, the disgrace of the human race ... I've had enough chance to hear all kinds of labels in my time.

"I'm sorry," uttered Natalie, after she finally finished wrestling with her prejudices. "I didn't think ... I didn't mean to offend you ..."

"Listen, just hold off slapping me on the ignore list. Let me tell you who I am and what I'm doing time for and then you can decide what to do. So, it all began when ..."

I painted a colorful picture of how I ended up in Barliona in this capacity and tried to emphasize the fact that I had an agreement with Marina, that I thought I was working with a test Imitator and that I handed myself in as soon as I found out the consequences of my actions. It was a really good thing, after all, that my fighters and I had our red headbands removed. Judging by Antsinthepantsa's reaction, the majority of the players see convicts purely as convicts, law-breakers and not as people who had been successfully rehabilitated at the mines. It was even surprising that Elenium, Sushiho and Dooki took the information that I and the other clan members were ex-prisoners from Pryke so well. To be honest, I expected worse.

"I'm sorry," muttered Antsinthepantsa, this time looking embarrassed. Was I wrong, or did she go red in the face? "It was just so unexpected ... the 'Terror of the Collectors' ... I will be sure to read up on you today and tell Kalatea that you ... are somewhat out of reach."

"Natalie, before you run off, can you tell me if your senses have also been turned on? You looked embarrassed, your face reddened and this ... this can't happen with the filters on."

"Of course they're off." Antsinthepantsa looked perplexed: "Who would agree to spend over three or four hours a day in this world without feeling all it has to offer? Taste, smell ... I'm not Anastaria, of course, and wouldn't set pain at 30%, but I've raised even that to 10%, to keep my reactions sharp. I was even permitted to increase my neutral and positive sensations to the full 100. Are you saying that before prison you played with all the senses turned off?"

"Yup," I said, trying to keep my jaw from hitting the floor. "I read about the senses and several times almost went to the center to unlock them, but each time I was stopped by a reluctance to feel pain. Nowhere did I read that you could split the activated senses between pain and pleasure! I used to follow the topic quite closely; this wasn't the case six months ago!"

"You're right about the division of senses. This is a new feature introduced by the Corporation. Just three months ago all the capsules were replaced, practically for free. Until that time the senses were combined, feeling pleasure and pain came as part of the same package. But now it's all been separated. Why are you blushing?" asked Antsinthepantsa, when my gaming avatar went rather red in the face. Anastaria ... that time she tried to use the Sirens' poison on me and I explored her all over with my hands, thinking that she couldn't feel a thing. So it looks like the revulsion expressed on her face at the time wasn't from what she was seeing, but from what she was feeling. ... Damn! I've made such a fool of myself!

Until the Guardian's glade stopped providing the professions bonus, I managed to get my Smithing up to 42 – I couldn't get any further on Tin alone. To make Bronze ingots I needed Copper, all of which I had handed over to Eric. No Eric, no Copper. The Copper Vein, which was doing its best to attract me and get me to swing my pick at it, failed to generate much enthusiasm: I had no desire left to work whatsoever. After I repaired all the items I could, leveling up Repair to 5, I lay down under the Guardian and started to read Theodore's book. One shouldn't leave a source of free stats like this untapped. ...

"Hello Mahan. Listen, we need to talk." A little later Elenium appeared in the Guardian's glade. The players that were sent for respawn were going to start turning up any minute now, so it was good that my solitude should be broken first by someone from my own clan.

"Of course, did you manage to take that long holiday?"

"Yes, I will be in the Game in the next two weeks. This is what I wanted to talk to you about. You see ... I did something stupid, really stupid."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you remember the High Priestess taking me aside?"

"Of course I do, I just haven't had time to corner you and get you to tell me what that was about. You were given some kind of a class-based quest, right? Since you've brought it up already, do tell. Although, stop. Are you saying that you've already managed to break some condition of that quest?"

"No, the conditions are just fine. It's just ... damn, I'll have to tell you this one way or another. I shared it with Phoenix and they offered me good money and a place in their clan for the quest," blurted out Elenium and then sighed in relief. "I'm sorry, but I have to think about my family, so potential big money in the future is worth less to me than good money right now."

"Come again? I'm not getting you at all." I shook my head in incomprehension. Sergei had said something using apparently everyday language, but the meaning was completely eluding me.

"I ... offered ... the quest ... to Phoenix ... got an offer to join their clan," said Elenium slowly, trying not to look me in the eye, "and I accepted."

"When ...?" As it finally sunk in that what I'd just heard wasn't the fruit of my fevered imagination, my brain went numb. What does it mean that he gave away the quest and went over to Phoenix? Does this mean he's ditching me? It just doesn't make sense ... of all things, you wouldn't expect a stitch-up like that from Elenium. ...

"Last night, when Anastaria got here and you hid under the dome with her, I came over to Rick and showed him the quest description. I told you, I messed up. I should've talked with you first, but it's Phoenix, after all. ... Rick passed it on to Raster, their head of player recruitment, who contacted me today and asked me some questions. ... To be honest, I never thought that something like that could happen, but you know what being in Phoenix would mean to me, so I answered honestly about the circumstances under which I got my quest chain and then agreed to go through their tests. The test results were reviewed by Hellfire himself and he's offered me a place as a support group Fighter. Not a recruit – a Fighter right away, but ... he did it under the condition that I should leave Seathistles today and in no way give the description of my quest to you. He's right; it's only open to Priests and I can't share it with any other class, so ... phew ... I'm sorry, but this invitation means far too much to me."

"Sergei, didn't we want a clan of our own ...?" I had to force the words out. "How can all this crazy talk be true?"

"Dan, I completely understand what you're trying to say, but you have to understand me too. There's my wife and kid and a stable salary for four compulsory hours online with Phoenix on the one hand and you, a bunch of convicts, and some unintelligible salary from my contribution to the clan on the other. There's no way that I can sit in Barliona twenty-four seven, so my contribution to the clan would be minimal. This means that I wouldn't earn enough even to pay the subscription, let alone enough to keep a family. I'm not prepared to leave reality for Barliona completely, so Phoenix's offer to me was ... I need hardly say ..."

"Sergei, are you sure? Look how the top players are dancing around Seathistles, handing over piles of money. We have enough additional quests to earn us a whole load more. It'll all work out."

"I know all that very well! Stop trying to persuade me like I'm a little kid. It's not the clan those top players are dancing around, it's you. Once you're gone, everything else is gone too. The risks are just too great. What'll happen to the clan if you end up back in the mines? Do you know how hard it was for me to make this decision? But that's the decision I've taken and I'll stick with it, come what may. My entire life as a player I've been dreaming of being accepted into Phoenix and now when I've finally been given the opportunity, I can't let it slip away."

"Do you realize that what you're doing is called a 'common stitch-up'? I was counting on you and you quit the moment a lucrative opportunity beckoned. Sergei, I never expected something like that from you. Perhaps, Dooki or Sushiho, but you ..."

"Well, since you brought them up ... I asked Raster if there's a chance they would be accepted into Phoenix too. If I'm right, they're going through testing as we speak."

"WHAT?!"

"That's right," said a deep chesty voice that for some reason women find so attractive. Although for me it became the embodiment of everything that was bad about Barliona: Hellfire – in the flesh. "But Elenium's got it wrong. They have ALREADY done the tests. Their results weren't as good as those of the Priest, so I'm not prepared to offer them the role of Fighters. But Raster said that they'll do fine as Recruits and will go through a second round of testing after proper training. Elenium, have you made your decision?"