The Secret of the Dark Forest ( (The Way of the Shaman: Book #3) (40 page)

"Fine, I will deliver it should anything happen to you." This took a huge weight off my mind. Slate is a key NPC and he, like a quest, has his own respawn timer, so there is no danger of Tisha shredding me to pieces should he die. She'd tell me off, give me a good kicking, but Attractiveness will remain the same, especially if I tell her how heroically Slate protected me. "Tell me, why is it that you have to be forgiven and what does this disc mean?"

"A long time ago, when I was the small and inexperienced younger son of the Werebeast Chieftain, my older brother decided to get rid of me. He tricked me into stealing the ritual disc, which Werebeasts use to communicate with our gods, and destroying it. At the time I thought I was doing something really important – that I was showing the entire clan that I too was able and skillful. ... How wrong I was! According to our laws I should have been executed, but father ruled differently. ... He banished me, which was contrary to the law, so he was deposed and the position of the head of the Werebeasts was taken by my older brother. The return of the disc would remove the restrictions on my return, so even if I were to die now, I would go back home with another hero and challenge my brother. Underhand deeds like these must not go unpunished in this world." As befits a key NPC, Slate continued to tell the tale of the injustice committed by his brother and the need for him to be brought justice, but I got the picture. Judging by the scale of this and the absence of any rewards, I’d gotten myself into a high-level social quest. On the one hand this was a scenario without any clear point to it, but on the other, if I remembered the Farstead old ladies ... . I wonder, does Anastaria know about such a special feature of social quests as variability? The old ladies landed me Leara's Dress in the end, which Reptilis used to ... Reptilis!!!

"Hi! You promised that you'd help me should I ever need it and now that time has come. Aren't you an Assassin? Now then. I have a hunch that you stole a certain scroll from the Emperor's Castle, which contains information on the Karmadont Chess Set and which I really need. If I am correct in my guess, is there any way that I can get it off you?"

After I wrote the letter and waved away the message that the recipient was currently out of the game, I jumped up and started pacing around the tent. If it is Reptilis who got his 'green paws' on the scroll, the agreement with Ehkiller could be reviewed. After all, this means he wouldn't be able to fulfill his side of it and in Barliona this would lead to enormous penalties. He may be all nice and helpful right now, with his offer to level up my fighters, but I had a gut feeling that he could not be trusted. It may suit him to play nice for now, but a time would come when another Elenium would come between us. No, you had to keep at least one ace up your sleeve. Let's see what he'd do.

After settling down somewhat, I began to go through my mail. It wouldn't be right to leave seven thousand letters unread, even if 99% of them are from Anastaria worshippers. "Take me into your clan, I'm a good healer! I'm prepared to work for free, just introduce me to Anastaria ..." There was a mountain of letters like these. ... Do people really think that after receiving such a letter I will have no other choice but to beg them to join my clan? It takes all sorts, I guess. ... Especially amusing were the letters full of threats and promises to catch me in reality and rearrange my face. All because I failed to reply to their letters – dared to ignore such handsome and important somebodies. Perfect ignore list material! After I blocked another player, I couldn't help smiling as I imagined how a crowd of upset people would break into the prison, find my capsule, pull me out and begin to beat me up – just to force the point that I should invite them into the clan and introduce them to Anastaria. I wonder if they'd shorten my sentence as an injured party if that actually happened?

"Hello Dan."

I was deleting letters almost automatically, so I almost missed one that addressed me directly. Dan? Not Mahan? Strange, who would know my real name? Realizing that I was suffering from brain-lag, I looked at the sender – Mirida.

"There was a big uproar on the forums on account of Anastaria and Plinto joining your clan, and also Dark Legion being out for your blood. I can see that you just can't keep yourself out of trouble. :) I have an acquaintance who is part of the group of celebrity exterminators, and, according to him, they've headed out to the Dark Forest to bump off at least one high-level player. These guys are proper thugs, twenty level-200s. According to the last video from the Heirs of the Titans, you happen to be in the Dark Forest right now, so try not to run into them. They will pin you down at a respawn point and keep you there until the Heralds intervene. Marina."

That's the last thing I need! Celebrity exterminators!

"Judging by your expression someone just 'made your day'”, noted Anastaria when she re-emerged from the forest, "wanna tell me about it?"

After telling Anastaria about the hunting party and seeing her smile and say that she could handle such a mob with one hand tied behind her back, I returned to reading my mail.

"Hi. Listen, will all that's been happening I completely forgot to tell you about what I managed to find out. Or rather what I haven't managed to find out. The histories completely lack any mention of phantoms, dark spirits or anything of the sort. I'm sorry I wasn't able to help you. Natalie.

That's it, the mail was read and four hours of my life had duly been wasted. I think I'm beginning to understand why Ehkiller, Evolett, Etamzilat, Undigit and their like rarely exceed level 230. They simply had no time for leveling up. If you actually wanted to manage a clan rather than just let things sort themselves out, you’d have to have a conscientious approach to it. In the last week I ... yeaah ... I spoke with my Officers only once, since I'd spent most of my time in the company of Anastaria and Donotpunnik. That's not the way to do things! As soon as everyone is back from leveling up, we’ll have to get together for a chat and figure out how to develop the clan together in the future. Sad though it was to admit this, I wasn't achieving all that much on my own.

As for the letter from Ants, it was a pity that she hadn’t found anything ... I had a hunch that we weren't dealing with phantoms, but with Spirits that were somehow no longer under the control of the Supreme Ones. That's why I thought that an explosion in the Astral Plane would destroy them. They couldn't have appeared out of nowhere; there had to be a story behind it. Was this something I could ask Anastaria?

* * *

On the second day of my solitude people started to leave the group: you could see from their frames how a player would gain levels – probably as they reached the Guardian's glade – and suddenly the group would have one member less. This continued throughout the day, until only seven people remained: all of them members of the Seathistles clan. At first I was surprised to see that my players didn't gain any levels, but then remembered that their mounts were bought in great haste and were pretty basic, so they would take longer to get to the glade. Anastaria spent the entire next day in the forest, so I busied myself with what had become almost a habit by now: leveling up in Jewelcraft.

"Why don't we go and see what the Fallen are up to?" I suggested when the girl once again graced me with her presence. "I'll start seeing these rings and ingots in my sleep soon."

"How's your progress?"

"Level 102 Jeweler and 87 Smith," I said, rather pleased. "I even managed to get a couple of Alexandrite stones from the Silver Ingots and Peridot from an Iron one."

"Alexandrite?" Anastaria's eyebrows flew up, "Will Barliona soon be seeing the Battle ogre from the Karmadont Chess Set?"

"I don't know," I gave the girl my honest answer, "I was glad to get the stone, of course, and even tried to imagine an ogre so I could make him, but ... it seems a certain time must pass between crafting the figurines – you can't make them too often. I can’t seem to do anything and I don't want to waste the stones, especially now that I'm out of Silver Ore."

"So why don't you buy some? Mail has been unlocked inside the Dark Forest."

"How? The only auction house that I can access is in Anhurs, and asking you all the time ... also isn't an option."

"Damn, I keep forgetting that you're still not a very experienced player. Are you familiar with the concept of a 'free broker'?"

"In real life yes, what's this got to do with Barliona?"

"Mahan! Don't make me angry now! Think!"

"Hold on, do you mean to say that there are players who just stand near the Auction House, receive letters and, having bought items at auction, send them off to their clients? You've got to be kidding right?"

"Far from it – add 10% commission and within a month you can earn so much that you may be tempted to drop everything and devote yourself to this line of business alone. Any self-respecting clan is certain to have several brokers who keep 24-hour watch next to the Auction House. I can give you a few names with a good track record and you may write to them directly. The reply usually comes within a day. I can even tell you that the Copper Ore that you received happens to be from one of them. And there's little point in looking at the Fallen – they're still trying to break through the wall, but won't manage it any time soon without any picks and axes. I dropped by a couple of hours ago. I must say that Plinto did a good job – not only did he block the entrance, but also managed to throw a few of your pinecones into the watchtowers. Now you can simply walk up to the gates without any fear of being shot at."

"Stacey, I'll be howling soon at this rate! Let's just go for a walk, loosen up a bit. What if I also want to have a look at what they're up to?"

"No need to howl, just busy yourself with something else. Have you solved the Dwarf equation yet?"

"No."

"So, what's the problem, then? You can sit there cutting out rings all day, but you don't have enough brains to solve a simple puzzle?"

Cutting! Another bulb lit up in my head. How is Stacey such a genius? Right, hang on a moment! We can come back to that later.

"If you insert all the spaces, the equation will look like this: 'three and five and two and nine take away forty'. The simplest answer is: -21. But the '5 and 3 = 7' line really has me stumped. It just doesn't fit standard logic."

"Exactly. That's the key expression. In what instance could there be an equals sign between the left and the right side? I'll give you a hint: this problem is given to children who are not yet familiar with numbers, but already know how to count."

Children? Anastaria was so sure that this equation had a solution, that I felt I was being a complete dolt. A problem for children who aren't yet familiar with numbers ... if they don't know numbers, how can they read what's written here? Or 'to count', rather. 'To count.' … But they can only read it and then count it ... read it ... .

"There really are two answers," I echoed Anastaria's words, as I finally understood the logic of the equations. There really is an instance where both '5 and 2 = 7' and '5 and 3 = 7' and you don't even have to resort to Dandelin–Graeffe method. "10 and 11. Let's try the first answer."

The world froze. Slate came out of the tent, went down on one knee and a whirlwind appeared a couple of meters away from me, out of which eight stout dwarves walked, one after another. The sleeves of their coats were rolled up, revealing powerful arms; they had bearded, soot-covered faces, enormous picks, which would destroy any ore vein with just one swing (and how come I know all this?) ... the legendary mountain smiths have graced us with their presence ... .

I glanced at the stunned Anastaria, who clearly didn't expect such a spectacle and, inviting her to follow my example, respectfully bowed my head before the legendary skills of these master craftsmen. Anastaria copied my bow, after which the dwarves spoke:

And the day when the world knew that a great one had come,

Near the river, each day in whose waters there meet

Dewren, exalted by a hundred creators of human souls

Forever proclaiming love and prosperity and –

Owren, her twin brother, who spent his whole life creating

Unique living plants that outshone the world with their beauty,

Rests a man whose fate's inextricably linked to the world,

The world, which was left by the Dragons forever ...

"Our battle brother will continue this tale," said Borhg. Then the dwarves went back into the whirlwind and sound returned to the world.

"What did the orcs say?" The first thing uttered by Anastaria had little to do with what just happened.

"More or less the same thing, but in different words," I said thoughtfully, as I tried to figure out which river they were talking about in this message. ...

"Altair's waters flow though almost all this entire continent.” Anastaria wasn't giving up that easy. "The river is called after one of the most beautiful stars in the sky and has its source near Elma. It goes through Malabar, Kartoss and the Free Lands and flows into the world ocean. Mahan, what was in the first verse?"

"Why do you think that they mean Altair?" I replied and tried to get to grips with my breathing, which had grown treacherously heavy. The orcs had spoken about the Shining Mountains, also known as Elma – the mountain chain that stretches all the way to the south of the continent from its northernmost point. If this refers to a river that has its source among those peaks ... this would actually really narrow down the search area!