Survival Quest (The Way of the Shaman: Book #1) (10 page)

Powerless, I summoned the last Spirit of Healing on Kart, extending his life by a few dozen seconds. I have to do something, but what???

"Take... my... bag... I... give... you... full access... Hurry..." I heard Kart's barely audible whisper.

I quickly grabbed his bag and tried not to get too surprised by what I saw inside. There was no time for that, although its contents were surprising enough. Firstly, the bag was an incredibly large one. It contained 40 slots. Compared to my 8 this was enormous. There were several Copper Bars, some incomprehensible devices, but the main thing was the Copper Plate! Kart had a Copper Plate! And he said that he regretted investing in Smithing! There are no coincidences in this world.

Seeing Kart's Hit Points sinking to 35% made me unimaginably quick. I pushed everyone aside and like lightning flew to the mine, dipped the plate in the water and ran back. The water wasn't draining out of it. I had to make it! Kart must live!

When I returned, I didn't even have to push anyone aside - people immediately moved out of the way. I noted Bat's disappointed face with satisfaction, lifted Kart's head and carefully put the plate with water to his mouth. I made it! Only 10% of Kart's Hit Points remained. He began to drink the water in feverish gulps, slowly increasing his Hit Points and probably his Energy too. That's it, he'll live!

A few seconds went by. Kart sat up, looked at me and stayed silent. There was no need to speak, everything was clear enough.

Suddenly the governor appeared next to us. The enormous orc towered over all the prisoners, looking at us like we were little foolish children.

"What happened here?" his question, asked in a completely calm tone, made all the prisoners fall to the ground.

"We were loading the ore, Serk and Brick threw it to me on the trolley, where I sorted it" Bat began to explain. "Then something happened and suddenly the trolley started to roll; the chock probably slipped out from under the wheel. I was sitting inside it as it sped towards the smithy and was about to jump off when Kart came out of nowhere and hit the trolley. We all tumbled over and I almost died. You know Kart — he never liked me: so he probably decided to kill me. But he failed. It's just as well that my total Hit Points are a good 120. He may have stripped me of 101 of them, but I survived. And Kart fell down, which happens to anyone who inflicts intentional damage on another player. We were about to watch him die, but this jerk," he nodded at me, "found a bowl somewhere and brought water. Now Kart is alive and well and I don't know what to do. The law is the law: whoever deals damage should die and here it got all messed up."

"The law is the law. I agree," the orc waved his hand and a projection appeared in front of him.

***

"You useless bags of bones, hurry up with the ore loading. He could get up and go inside the barracks any time now. It's a perfect chance to finish him off," said Bat, sitting in the trolley and looking somewhere below him. "Did you check everything? It won't miss him?"

"It shouldn't. It's aimed directly at Mahan. Boss, are you sure we won't die? After all, this is dealing intentional damage to another player," mumbled one of Bat's two accomplices, probably Serk.

"Calm down. We've taken the bowl of water for a reason. You'll remove the wedge, get stripped of Energy and collapse, and then Brick will revive you with the drink. Get it, Brick? Just try not getting the water to Serk, you know me. All right, ready? Now!" ordered Bat.

"Boss, why are you sitting in the trolley yourself?" asked Serk, preparing to knock the wedge from under the wheel.

"I want to see him get splattered against the wall with my own eyes, see his surprise, his pain, and, of course, I want to be the first one to feel sorry for him, stroke his dead body, even shed a tear, if it came to it. One should level up in everything at once! Hit it!"

Serk knocked the wedge out and the trolley rolled down.

"Mahan, look out!" Kart's voice shouted and then Kart rammed into the trolley. The trolley, Kart and Bat tumbled into one big mass.

The recording ended.

***

"I didn't touch Kart, he's the one who attacked me," mumbled Bat, now looking less sure of himself under the orc's gaze.

"The law is the law," the orc murmured thoughtfully. "For intentional dealing of damage to another player Kart is sentenced to being stripped of all his skills. Kart, get up."

Deathly-pale, Kart rose and lifted his head, looking the orc straight in the eyes. They looked at each other like this for several seconds and then something happened that I did not expect: the governor turned his gaze away.

"The law is the law, Kart," repeated the orc, took out his sword and looked ready to take Kart's head off.

Damn you all. Why can't people live in peace? Why in order for some to live, others have to die?

"Stop!" I shouted. "Kart was saving my life when he rammed the trolley. He did not inflict any direct damage to Bat, so no law was broken here. And if someone has to be stripped of skills, I'd like to take Kart's place. Kill me instead — it's my fault that Kart was set up.

Your reputation with the Pryke Mine Guards has increased by 100 points. You are 801 points away from the status of Friendly.
 

'To hell with your reputation,' I waved away the message. 'What's the point of it if even at “Friendly” status people get their heads chopped off instead of getting helped?'

"Hm," said the orc. "A good exchange, a death for a death. But Kart broke the rules, so Kart will be the one to answer for it. As for why he did it, that's his business. Kart, are you ready?"

"Y-yes," mumbled Kart in a doomed tone.

The orc swung the sword and hit, and a small cloud appeared where Kart was standing, which hung there a few seconds and dissipated. The only sign of Kart was a pile of gold coins. All the prisoners stared at it, but in the presence of the governor no-one moved to pick it up.

"If anyone touches Kart's money, I will be very upset. Kart must pick it up himself," said the orc, turned around and left.

Suddenly Bat glowed, groaned, sinking to his knees, and started to half-moan something. A whole whirlwind surrounded him, lifting dust and hiding him from other prisoners. When the dust settled everyone saw Bat lying on his back and smiling with great satisfaction.

"Two levels!" Just imagine! I gained two levels in Meanness on Kart's account!" Bat shouted, as he got up. "That was... It was divine." Turning around Bat saw me. "You can relax now, Mahan, we won't touch you for sure until you're at least level 4, but after that..."

Kart is finished.... If he lost all his skills, that's it: as he himself said, in a few months he will wilt and be transferred somewhere else. And what do I do now? What's the point of levelling up in the full knowledge that in about three levels I would also be set up like this and sent for respawn? I looked at Bat's satisfied face and at the fact that he had only 19 Hit Points left. Gradually a plan began to form in my head.

What had Bat said? "There are just three people who have never died in this mine — Kart, Bat and me". Kart's already gone and I'll follow him soon enough.... So why wait?

I looked at Bat and began to plan my actions. Energy did not disappear immediately, but in about 2 seconds. The first strike had to come from above and from behind. The Energy will fall rapidly. The second hit must come upwards from below, so that the pick stopped over my head. By this time Energy will fall to zero and I will go down like a sack of potatoes. Correction: when hitting the second time I must lean over in order to fall forward. On top of Bat. The pick should inflict the third hit as I fell. 19 Hit Points. With the new pick I deal 19 damage, but how much armor does he have? What a pity that we don't get a strength buff with our evening meal, as it would have come in very handy right now. Bat is a Leatherworker and it’s clear that he’ll not be wearing low-level clothing, so it could block quite a lot of damage.

Bat turned around and headed towards the barracks surrounded by his people. Right, they've already written me off. I'm an expendable resource. Well, their mistake!

Less thinking, more doing! If Bat leaves then everything I just thought of will have been for nothing and I would never bring him down. Getting a better grip of the pick, I run after Bat. Suddenly Kiplev's song popped into my head:

Above me silence,

I ran up to Bat, swung up my pick and lowered it on Bat's head. Energy began to fall rapidly and the other prisoners stared at me, astonished. Just as well, less chance they'll interfere...

Damage inflicted. 6: 19 (Hit with the Pick + Strength) - 13 (armor)

That's some armor! But the main thing was not to stop now!

Sky, full of rain,

I sharply changed the direction of the pick's swing and took it back upwards. Bat was shouting something, the people around were shouting something, but none of this mattered any more.  It's all finished for me, I just had to end it all for Bat as well...

Damage inflicted. 6: 19 (Hit with the Pick + Strength) - 13 (armor)

Energy level was at 5, my feet were giving way. Bat was falling down, this was good. I had to lean forward to make sure I fell on top of Bat. Another 6 damage wouldn’t quite do it. Hells, and I was so close...

Rain is falling through me,

As I was falling down, drained, I hit Bat the third time. From above. Please let it be a Critical hit!

Damage inflicted. 6: 19 (Hit with the Pick + Strength) - 13 (armor)

That's it. It was all pointless. He survived, the bastard!

But there's no more pain.

But what’s this? I was lying with my face down on something soft. It didn’t feel like the ground. Something was blocking my eyes and I had no strength to lift my head and look around. Never mind, let's see if this works...

Damage inflicted. 1 (bite)

Bat's body flickered and vanished. And now it really was finished. Now I could die. There were no more people in the mine who had not died. Although, no. There's me, but soon I'll be gone too. The important thing was that I already thought of what to do with Kart to prevent him wasting away.

Suddenly I was struck with SUCH pain that I forgot all else. The world ceased to exist for me - it was replaced by pain. It tore me apart from inside, it ate away my skin and pierced me all the way through. I was pain and pain was me. I was probably screaming, wheezing, howling, but the pain would not go away; it only seemed to increase. Then it suddenly ended.

"...I repeat the question: Mahan, what happened here?" Air! It was an effort to make my body take a breath. The voice of the governor seemed like the gentle murmuring of a stream to me now. I was still alive and no longer felt pain. This was splendid. I focused on the orc. Well, would you show some emotion at last, you bastard? I’d just killed a person and the orc was standing there asking what's happened. The snow just fell down, that's what happened.

"Revenge. Revenge happened here. And this will happen to anyone who would touch Kart or me again."

"You were aware of the consequences of your action?" asked the orc. What was that? Did I glimpse a shadow of satisfaction? Or was I seeing things?

"Yes, I knew. And I already felt these consequences on myself."

"That's good if you did."

The orc once again grabbed the sword and plunged it into my chest. There was a quick flash of pain which seemed nothing compared to what I already went through and the world around me went black.

That's it. Goodbye skills.

I did not know how much time went by; something blinked and I found myself where I first appeared in the mine. Hello Pryke Copper Mine! I'm back. I took a step towards the barracks, but then fell to my knees and, as my jaw dropped, read the message that just appeared in front of me.

Quest accepted: "Revenge in the Mine!" Description: Speak to the camp governor.

Quest type: Unique.

Attention: in connection with death and the settings of this game zone all your skill and stat levels have been nullified. Have a pleasant Game!

I simply don't get this game! What quest?

Chapter 5

The Pryke Mine. First months. Part 1

"C
ome Mahan, the boss is waiting for you," boomed the guard, who just a week ago had barely refrained from kicking me. Although to say that he refrained would be an exaggeration.

Nothing changed in the administration building: it still had the same paintings and carved leather-covered furniture. ‘I wonder what's keeping this place so fresh and cool?’ I thought. ‘Is there a mage specializing in Cold spells in the mine?’

“Have a seat, Mahan!”  the orc’s heavy voice rumbled through the office.
           I sat in the armchair and couldn’t help thinking: ‘How many people actually sat down in the governor’s presence before? Or did I just happen to get lucky? For instance, the armchair was definitely not there during my last visit.’              

“So, we’ll start with the facts. First. You committed the first premeditated murder in the history of this mine. Before there were only injuries, arranged accidents, but no direct killing. Second. You tried to protect a sentient who helped you not to die. Moreover, you offered to die in his stead and self-sacrifice is very highly valued by the committee for the investigation of murders.”              A committee?  What committee?

“Today a committee was called together for examining the incident involving an intentional killing of a prisoner. A decision was taken that the sentient known to you as Bat was guilty of attempted murder. You were exonerated of any guilt and it was ruled that you had a right to revenge Kart. Your action and the attempt to sacrifice yourself for another merit a reward – here you go,” the orc handed something to me. I took some kind of a cloth and a message appeared before me:

Quest “Revenge in the Mine!” completed.

Reward: Miner’s cloak. +1 Strength. +1 Stamina. Item class: Uncommon. Level restrictions: none.

Your reputation with the Pryke Mine Guards has increased by 1000 points. Current level:  Friendly. You are 2801 points away from the status of Respect.

Experience gained: +600 Experience

Level gained!

Level gained!

Level gained!

Points until the next level: 400

Free stat points: 15

Well, I’ll be…  I wanted to jump for joy, but restrained myself. If the governor is a picture of calm, I should follow suit. But, dammit, this is great! Three levels, basically for nothing! And also a cloak that’s quite something for a low level player! But above all – 1000 reputation almost for free! This meant a radical change to my plans for leaving the mine, making them a lot more realistic! But three levels, it’s mind-boggling…             

“I’m done here. I can answer any questions you have. If I remember correctly, you love asking them,” said the orc, permitting himself a quick chuckle. Wow! We’re making progress!

“I wouldn’t go as far as ‘love’, but I’ll ask all the same. Why is meanness flourishing at your mine? After all, this is a correctional facility. Here by default there should be no such thing as backstabbing and dirty tricks, but, in fact, if these aren’t exactly encouraged, nothing is being done to discourage them… And then you see some committees getting together and making some kind of decisions. What’s the sense in this?”

"Good question. A person pays for their crime by being torn away from the world he is used to and forced to work. And work hard at that. As for how that person develops from then on, that is a personal matter for each particular individual, a decision he alone can make. Some choose the path of a profession, while others an easier way. For instance, my mine contains 185 convicts who chose the shady path of development. That’s from the total of 240 prisoners. This is entirely their choice and within the bounds of the mine they are free to do as they like. The only limitation is that with this skill it is impossible to leave the mine on parole and they know it. As far as the committee is concerned, although each death in the mine is investigated most thoroughly, if it is proven that it occurred as a result of an accident, even if an arranged one, the case is closed. The trio that wanted to crush you with the trolley were found guilty of attempted murder and removed from our mine to another location."

“Is it true when they say that once the prisoners are no longer able to level up their skills they fall into apathy, lose interest in life and get removed from the mine?”

"I can hear Kart’s voice in your words,” said the orc. "Apathy can at times arise if a sentient is weak and cannot get over such a big loss. Such a sentient is then sent away from our mine to another place, where he can begin his development anew.”             

“And where is this…” I began.             

“Enough! You are touching matters that do not concern you in any way. When a prisoner falls into apathy from losing all his skills, he disappears from the mine. It doesn’t matter where he goes. That’s all you need to know.  And now – go.”

“Another question, the very last one. You said that a committee was called together. When on earth did it have time to meet, if I died and respawned immediately after that? These two events just don’t fit in the same timeframe.”

“The standard respawning time is set at twelve hours from the time of death. The committee was gathered ten minutes after Kart's death, five minutes after Bat’s death and three minutes after yours. The meeting where the decision on all three deaths was reached took forty minutes. So they had plenty of time.”             

Twelve hours? Yes, in Barliona that's the limitation set for respawning after death. But I simply didn’t remember this time, it flew past me in an instant. Nice one. I wonder if the whole of the prison term could fly by like that. Eight years – in the blink of an eye… Eh, dreams, dreams.

When I came out of the administration building, something struck my eyes. There was a sense that something was missing from the surrounding world or, on the contrary, there was something extra or out of place, but I simply couldn't put my finger on it. Everything seemed to be there: the barracks, the smithy, the mine and the prisoners working in it, the ever-present heat and dust. Stop! Can someone tell me what happened to the ever-present heat and dust? Now I saw no such effects: the whole valley was clear and fresh. A small cloud shielded the setting sun, its burning rays softened to become pleasant and calming, and a refreshing slight breeze blew around me. Where would a breeze come from in a valley? It’s surrounded by cliffs! I saw no such change when I entered the administration building, but it wasn’t hard to admit that I liked the current environment a lot more. If that’s the bonus for my reputation increasing to ‘Friendly’, I should double my efforts to get to ‘Respect’. I wondered how the mine would change when that happened.

At the place of my death I found a whole silver coin: exactly half of what I had left after buying the pick. The orc probably said that he would be very upset if anyone touched my money. Although there wasn’t much to take, since I put everything I had into Rine’s pick with the attached obligation.

I decided that before heading out to work I would look into allocating the stat points I had gained. I had 15 free points. This was good. Adding 3 points to Stamina, taking it up to 7, I decided not to spend the remaining 12 points yet. If it took me a week to level up my skills this far, in the next few weeks I should be able to get them to an even higher level. But when the skills either stop increasing or begin to increase very slowly — or even after I leave the mine — these free points would be simply priceless.             

I was quite happy with the result of the day’s work: I broke apart 4 veins (22 pieces of ore, +4 Experience, +2 Mining, 40% Strength, +20% Stamina), killed five Rats (+50% Intellect, +20 Experience, +5 Rat skins, meat and tails). Now killing Rats was much easier – the status of Friendly permitted me to summon the Lesser Lightning Spirit, so before the Rats could get to me, I managed to knock some Hit Points off them. In addition, each strike of the Lightning Spirit made the Rat freeze for a few seconds, which enabled me to finish it off with the pick.
              After waiting for the evening and handing in my daily quota, I started to look for Kart. There was no sign of him at the evening meal and he wasn’t in the smithy. Where on earth did he wander off to?

I found him in the barracks. He lay still on the bed, curled up and howling quietly in a strange voice.             

“Kart, are you all right?” I couldn’t ask him anything more stupid, but I had to start somewhere.             

“Me?” replied Kart and lifted his head. Judging by the redness of his eyes, he must have got a fair bit of sand in them and had been rubbing them hard. I did not want to think about the alternative. “Of course I’m all right, what else can I be? For eight years I managed to avoid dying, survived where others bit the dust, but then you appeared and everything went to the dogs! Why the hell did I try to save you? Can you explain that one to me?” Suddenly Kart tensed up with pain, groaned and then curled up and started to howl quietly again.             

“Kart, did you eat today?” I asked seeing that Kart was going into convulsions.

“No,” rasped Kart. "What’s the point? I didn't go to the mine today, so I have no ore to give to Rine. What difference does it make when I peg out: now or in a couple of months, when I’m kicked out of the mine?”             

“You missed the mark, hot-shot. Get up and let’s go for a walk,” I summoned a Healing Spirit on Kart, grabbed him by the arm and dragged him away. “Walk with me and I’ll tell you an interesting tale on the way. Afterwards you can tell it to someone else – after all, you are the Master Gossip!”

Kart looked at me with incomprehension, but got up and followed.

“So, here goes. The story runs like this. In a Kingdom Far Far Away there lived an handsome lad… Or was he just good-looking? It doesn’t really matter. And so this lad got into an unpleasant situation – villains decided to do him in and run him over with a mining trolley. But the lad had a faithful Friend, who saved him, but at the cost of losing all his heroic might, which took him ten years to gain. And then the lad, that’d be the good-looking one, decided to help his Friend regain his heroic might, which the evil Dragon stole from him. But because he could not return the mythical strength to his friend, he decided to make his friend a renowned artisan, so that buyers would come to him from around the world and buy his wondrous wares, made with Smithing and Leatherworking crafts. You’re getting the gist of this, right? As far as I can see we have no smiths here at the mine and your Smithing profession was only at level four, so we’ll quickly re-level you in this. And your Leatherworking level was non-existent, so we'll be levelling that up too. I realize that a profession is one thing and a stat is another, but we’ll break through all the same!”

At this point we came up to Rine. Kart started to double up again, so I poured another healing over him. Blast! My mana was at zero and we urgently had to sort out the food. It’s just as well that there was still some time left.
              “Ah, the die-hards have turned up. Mahan, you already handed in your quota for the day. And don’t forget that tomorrow it’s 30 pieces of ore that you owe me. And you Kart… Seems you’ve decided to play ‘Who wants to be a lunatic?’ game. Why didn’t you go to the mine and work to get your quota today?”              

Kart stood there sullenly and looked at his feet. I could see that he had no intention of answering. All right, let’s play a trick and answer for him.

“Kart, your Mining is at 1 now, right? This means that today you had to bring in just 10 pieces of ore, if I’m not mistaken. Here you go, take it,” I said and handed Kart my surplus. “I think this will just cover your daily quota.”

Reluctantly Kart took the ore and, after thinking a moment, passed it to Rine.

“Oh, no. You can’t do that. The prisoner must gather the ore himself and then hand in the daily quota to me,” Rine began to argue, but I interrupted him:             

“Rine, I remember our governor’s words very well – the daily task of each prisoner is to bring in a certain amount of ore, determined by his Mining level. The boss did not once say that this ore could not be bought or obtained from other prisoners. Nor was it ever said that you have to work your hands raw in the mine: we were simply allocated a place for obtaining the ore to meet the quota, but whether it is mined or bought is up to us. For example, the governor personally promised me that if I find a Precious Stone, he would strike off my quota for that day. Consequently this proves that our main task is to hand in the daily quota. Kart’s quota is 10 pieces of ore, and it is lying before you now. What’s the problem?”             

“But this isn’t right…” said the dwarf, now sounding less sure. “If everyone starts to do this, then…”

“Then soon there won’t be anyone to buy ore from in this mine and everyone will be sent for a respawn,” the governor’s voice suddenly sounded behind us. “What Mahan is proposing is not forbidden. Prisoners have a right to work together. If Mahan wishes to hand in Kart’s daily quota for him, it's between Mahan and Kart.”             

Attention, a new stat has become available to your character: Charisma.
Charisma determines the strength of the character’s personality, his appeal, his ability to convince and to lead, and also his physical attractiveness. There is a chance that NPCs will offer the player unique quests.