Survival Quest (The Way of the Shaman: Book #1) (17 page)

Heaving a deep sigh, Kart supportively patted me on the back and went to the barracks. At that moment I sensed that Kart had given me an enormous clue, but what was it? I played back our conversation several times in my head and for a while could not understand what it was that struck me. Then it hit me:
"You have to look at the bigger picture and not just single out certain details."

I looked at the laid out sheets with the flower drawings on them and suddenly understood it all. Looking at the big picture! I sat myself down comfortably, closed my eyes and began to form one sheet after another in my mind. It was difficult and took a while, but I felt that I was on the right track. When the fifteen sheets presented themselves before my eyes, I added the Rose to them. Now I could begin. What I did before could not be called anything other than doing violence to the sheets - I bent them, forced some incorrect essences on them. It was all wrong. What I needed was to be found on a different plane.

I mentally removed the flower drawn by Alt from each sheet and moved the sheets aside. They were only getting in the way. The main work had to be done with the drawing and not with the sheets. I took the first flower, once again admiring its beauty, and began to make it three dimensional. I looked at the resulting model from all sides, correcting it here and there, adding details that were not visible on the initial drawing. After some time instead of a flat projection of a flower I was looking at a beautiful 3D flower, surrounded from all sides with broad leaves, dew drops rolling down them. Yes, that's the result I needed. Such a flower would look amazing together with my Rose.

I repeated this operation with the rest of the drawings and combined them into a chain, putting my rose at its head. The result was magnificent, but it was just a see-through projection. The main task still remained: to make the physical chain. I took the sheets that had I put aside, put them in the same order as the chain and then slowly began to bring them closer together. If I had been able to close my eyes in this design mode, I'd have closed them for sure - my nerves were that tense. This was the moment of truth, a make or break. Now I could even lose my Rose.

The chains combined instead of breaking and the sheets began to flow into the images of flowers, giving them physical form. Yes! I did it! I turned the resulting chain in front of me a few more times and opened my eyes. Although the daylight was fading, I was surrounded by light: a chain made of flowers shone brightly in my hands.

Item created: Kameamia (item name given automatically). Intellect +6, Stamina +5. Item class: Unique. Minimum level: 10.

Skill increase:

+1 to Crafting. Total: 2

+1 to primary profession of Jewelcraft. Total: 8

Attention! This item cannot be repeated. There is no recipe.

You created a unique item. Your reputation with all previously encountered factions is increased by 100.

I put the Kameamia in the bag and went to get Kart. We had to go hand in the quest, no matter what time of night it was. Such matters couldn’t wait until morning.

"Mahan, what the heck’s gotten into you?" asked Kart when I dragged him to see the boss. "It's the middle of the night, the orc is probably fast asleep by now. And we'll turn up just to tell him that we've failed the quest. He'll be cranky already from being woken up, but when he sees us empty-handed he'll tear us to shreds in the blink of an eye. Come to your senses!"

Ah yes, Kart doesn't know what I just did, so much for having faith in me. Never mind, let’s surprise him.

"Kart, we can't wait until the morning. Trust me. We really can't..."

"It might have occurred to you that the night is not the best time to interrupt my thinking." The familiar bass of the governor seemed even comforting on some level. I took out the Kameamia from the bag and put it on the boss's table.

"We did the quest. Even overdid it somewhat. Now our mine can confirm its status as the best around."

The orc silently picked up the chain. I was sure that for a few moments a shadow of a smile passed over his lips, but it quickly vanished barely leaving a trace.

"Yes..." the orc didn't say anything more for a couple of minutes as he held the Kameamia in his hands and then lifted his eyes and asked: "You are still here? I thought that being in the administration after sunset was forbidden."

Quest "Present for the Regional Governor" completed. Reward: +500 Experience, +500 reputation with the Pryke mine guards, +3 to the Jewelcraft profession.

Level gained!

I have 1029 points remaining until Respect, so now if I get busy with the Rats and increase my reputation by 50 points a day, I should be able to gain Respect in 22 days. Less than a month! It now looks like I'll end up in the main gameworld less than three months from the time I arrived in the mine. And it doesn't really matter that for another three months I'll have to live in some kind of a settlement. What's important is that I'll leave the mine.

Suddenly there was a melodious ringing and a light appeared above Kart's head.

"You've decided to leave us, then?" hummed the orc, looking at Kart's mystified face. "The transfer committee will be reviewing your case today. I expect you tomorrow evening with all your things."

Kart's last morning in the mine was a very busy one. He ran around the place like crazy, trying not to forget anything - to say good bye to some, to collect ring orders for me from others. He didn't spend much time around me: just brought all of his 400-strong stash of ingots and immediately ran off. I sensed that he was leaving me for desert. That was fine: if I'm the pudding, I'll prepare a little cherry to put on top. I went to the smithy and spent several hours trying to make new rings for Kart, which I could now make with a +3 stat bonus, thanks to levelling up in Crafting yesterday. Kart was a Warrior, so, keeping this in mind, he could use five rings with Strength and three with Stamina. It occurred to me that I should make some for myself tomorrow too.

I was almost out of the smithy, when I slapped my head and returned to my work station. Why was I only thinking of rings? What about a chain? I keep forgetting about it, but another +3 stat bonus for beginners is quite nice.

I'd been making Copper Wire practically on an industrial scale (about 200 pieces) and now, taking a piece out of my bag, began to study the recipe for the chain. There was nothing complicated there, it was a simple neck chain made up of small rings linked together. No coiling required, which was just as well: I knew I could make it for sure. After a few hours of work I connected the ends of the chain. That's it: perhaps a little crude, with some rings slightly bent (although, truth be told, they were all bent), the chain still did the job and gave a +3 stat bonus. It didn't really matter what it looked like, one could always wear it under the coat. I took a moment to think this over and decided that while Kart was still busy I could make myself a chain like that as well. This time I'd probably be faster too, since my hands would remember the process.

It didn't really go any faster. It was several hours of the same monotonous work (creating rings and then connecting them) which I could not speed up at all. By the time I was done with my own chain people started to return from the mine and Kart would show up soon enough too.

"You know, getting ready to leave here is not as simple as I thought," said Kart when he finally made his way to me. "Ten years is enough time to gain a good number of connections, habits and traditions. In some way it's a pity to let go of all this. It turns out that habits are terribly strong things. Who knows where I'll be sent and how people will treat me with this damned prisoner mark. Sakas will replace me as your right-hand man, handling various matters. You can rely on him completely, I had time to make sure of that. By the way, I've finished your order for you. Will you be taking it now?" Kart hastily changed the subject.

"Of course I will. Or you'll be gone together with it and there'll be no finding you in the rest of Barliona."

"Then here you go," said Kart and handed me the items. I had a look at their properties.

It was a leather coat. At first glance it could have been made by any Leatherworker. Its distinguishing feature, however, was a copper chainmail tunic that Kart had inserted into it. He had spent about a week working hard at it. It may not be as good as a steel or mithril one, but we had to start somewhere. Six Precious Stones that I gave Kart were skillfully added to it in the form of buttons, making it look much nicer than a standard one. I was initially worried that there would be the same story with the buttons as with the Rose and the ring, and they'd just not combine, but it all came out just as I wanted it.

Kart's Rat skin leather coat. Durability: 60. Physical damage resistance: 18. Socket bonus: Precious Stone buttons adding +6 Stamina. Item class: Rare. Minimum level: 6.

Damn! Why doesn't Kart have Crafting? An additional stat bonus would have fit right in on such a coat. Well no point regretting the impossible.

Them there were the leather trousers. The remaining two buttons went on the trousers, increasing their Stamina by 2.

Kart's Rat skin leather trousers. Durability: 50. Physical damage resistance: 12. Socket bonus: Precious Stone buttons adding +2 Stamina. Item class: Rare. Minimum level: 6.

There were leather boots too. Kart couldn't think of what to do with them, so he gave them extra durability with some copper chainmail.

Kart's Rat skin leather boots. Durability: 50. Physical damage resistance: 12. Item class: Rare. Minimum level: 6.

I immediately put on the new gear and had a look at my stats. With eight rings giving +2 Intellect and with what Kart just gave me, the stats should have been something to look at.

11 Stamina, 3 Agility, 5 Strength, 27 Intellect, 42 Armor and 27 free stat points... At level seven not too bad at all.

"This one's from me," continued Kart, taking out another item. "It's just too strange: looking at you banging on random stuff, like stones and picks. It isn't right for a Shaman. Sakas, who's a Woodcarver, and I did some work and this is the result." Kart handed me over an object of some kind.

I took it and could not believe my eyes. It was a tambourine, with a wooden frame that had Rat skin stretched over it. I was so happy I was speechless - why hadn't I thought of asking Kart to make me one of these before?

Shaman's Tambourine. Durability: unbreakable. Description: Using a Shaman's Tambourine during kamlanie decreases Spirit summoning time by 20%.

I now even looked like a real Shaman. I'll make myself some +3 rings tomorrow and will become a real Shamanic beast! Ah yes, the rings...

"I also have a present for you," I said, taking out the rings and chain. "Made them today, they're +3 each. There's also a chain - yours is the first one I made. I'd have added some stones to them, but the Rose stubbornly refuses to be combined with rings and using buttons for this doesn't seem right. So I'm sorry the rings are only +3."

"Never mind, it's an excellent gift too, thanks for everything. Now it's time to take our leave," we stood next to each other in silence for a few minutes. We didn't feel like talking, on account of the 'lump in the throat syndrome'. I would never have thought I could get so attached to anyone, and now it was difficult to part ways.

"All right, we're men after all. We'll live to see another day!" said Kart, glanced around the mine and went on, "When you get out, find me. It would be easier to serve the rest of our time together. I plan to stop in Anhurs, I have an acquaintance there. If you leave me a message at the 'Wild Horse' tavern, I'll find you. Deal?"

"All right."

Lost in thought, I watched Kart walk off towards the administration building. I had met him just over two months ago, which is not that long, really, but enough to get to know someone. And I liked him quite a bit as a person, so I will miss him a great deal at first. Never mind, we'll make it through somehow. When I leave here, I will definitely seek him out. The door closed behind Kart and I went off to see Rine - from this day on I would have to work on my own. Although... I did have around fifty subordinates and a new ‘right hand’, Sakas. I'd have to ask him what exactly the right hand of a supervisor in a mine does.

Chapter 8

The Pryke Mine. First months. Part 4

A
fter Kart left I decided to spend the first day in my section of the mine, just swinging my pick for a while. I knew I had enough ore to last a lifetime - the thieves working for me provided a stable supply and my bags also contained around 130 pieces for a rainy day, but I wanted a break from making rings, having grown tired of it. Of course, I’d have to make myself some +3 rings and think of how to make one with a precious stone. Inserting a stone into a ring was a good idea, but it needed a special kind of stone: neither the Rose nor buttons would work. That was something to think about. All of this would come later, but right now I just wanted to swing my pick. On the way to the mine I saw the prisoners' surprised faces and decided to keep quiet about my ability to make +3 items for now. I felt that as soon as this information was leaked, I'd be facing a new list of people wishing to buy a ring or two. First I had to sell all my +2 rings, of which I still had twenty left. No point throwing them away. I would hold off making new rings: for now I had enough money and, since changing my surroundings wasn’t likely in the near future, I needed a change in activity or I might just go mad. Thus, pick on my shoulder, I headed for my 20 veins. Eight rings with +2 strength, a chain with +3 and the clothing that Kart made me meant that it should take me at most four hours to smash these 20 veins without a break for water. I’d spend some time doing physical work and then see what could be done with rings and chains.

I made a plan for myself: to increase all four main stats and Mining at least to level 9 in my remaining month in the mine. Free stat points were good, but I had to be very careful about how I spent them. As long as I was able to level up with Copper Ore, my task was to increase my stats this way. I wouldn't be able to level up in Jewelcraft with rings and neck chains - level 11 needs new recipes, but there aren't any in the mine. Of course, I could invent something, like with the Kameamia, but the chances of doing that were so little that I didn't even want to try. When Kart left, he passed the reigns of ingot production to Sakas, so I wouldn't have to spend any time making them. It might still take a couple of weeks for Sakas to get his Smithing to level 6-7, enabling him to make the number of ingots I needed, but I had a supply of them for now, so it was fine. My 'gang' also included leatherworkers, so the issue of what to do with all the Rat Skins was solved as well. I really didn't want to spend time on levelling up additional professions.

Mining ore turned out to be even easier than I had thought. One hit of the pick took off half a percent of Durability and in five minutes the vein flickered and disappeared. I checked my Energy level, which had gone down to 94 units, and then moved on to the next vein. Now I understood why the prisoners were so eager to buy the rings: if it took me an hour to smash all 20 veins, it should take 2-3 hours for the rest of the mine. And then - you either went to rest, or... went to Rine or to the governor with a request to expand your section of the mine. In a 12-hour working day you could smash about 60-70 veins. So now a prisoner got 320-350 pieces of ore on average. At the twelfth level of Mining, you had to hand in 120 pieces. The remaining 200 pieces of ore could be sold for 40 silver, which was 10 coins short of a gold piece. That's a good raise for the pension, I chuckled and continued to bang on the vein. This meant I could sell the +3 rings for at least 15 gold.

I finished my tenth vein and started to call on the Spirits to heal the Rats. When they ran up to me and attacked, I diligently kicked them and, wincing from the bites, used this to level up my Stamina and Agility. Although with my level of armor Rats could only cause me 1 point of damage, the pain was almost unbearable. When the Rat died, a message appeared before my eyes:

Attention, a new stat has become available to your character: Endurance.

Endurance determines a player's ability to reduce any damage from an opponent by (Endurance /10) %. If the player is under a debuff that has "duration: until death", it is replaced by "duration: 24 hours". There is 1% chance for the player to receive a one minute buff 'stone skin', which additionally reduces sustained damage by 10%.

Do you accept? Attention, you will not be able to remove an accepted stat!

This time I had to think very hard. On one hand Endurance did not increase my damage, so if I picked it, I would have only one slot left for a combat stat. For a Hunter, Warrior and so on this was Marksmanship, for Intellect-based classes it was... I didn't know what it was. I didn't remember which stat increased damage for mana-dependent players; it would have to be something like Immunity or Amplification. As for Endurance...  All right, you can't have too much armor.

A new stat has been unlocked for the character: Endurance. Total: 1

Attention! Special conditions for Endurance stat used in prisoner capsules: for each 5 units of Endurance the level of pain felt is reduced by 1%.

I even froze for a few seconds, letting the last phrase sink in. So it looks like there was a perfectly lawful method for getting back in the game while bypassing the sensory filter issue. You just have to endure quite a lot. What can I say... Rats, you're really out of luck now. I looked around my section. Today seven Rats had spawned there. One I'd already killed. 'I have to be very careful with the others to make them last as long as possible,' I decided, and summoned a Healing Spirit onto the second Rat. Then the harsh levelling up in Endurance commenced.

I managed to make the six Rats last about three hours and when I was done with them, I gave a sigh of relief. Yes, acting like a masochist is no easy or pleasant matter, but the result - in the form of a 15% increase in the Stamina progress bar, level four in Agility, level five in Strength and level three in Endurance - was worth it.

When I finished with the veins, I increased my Mining to level 8 and handed in my daily quota soon after, noting with some pleasure the astonished expression on the dwarf's face. Ah yes, of course, if the Shaman has came back to the mine, there must be something going on. What about the rings, chains and stone cutting? He's probably up to something...  After I handed seven Rat tails and some ore surplus to Rine, my reputation increased by 15, leaving 1014 points to go until Respect. Now I had to decide what to do next. I had a crazy idea of asking Alt to draw some playing cards and open a casino at the mine. 'I wonder if there'll be a reputation penalty just for the idea or they'll wait until the first game.' I chuckled to myself. The next thought was more realistic:  if not cards, why not carve some chess pieces for myself? I know how to play and even enjoy it at times and I have no reason to believe that playing chess would be prohibited. After all, it would be evidence of moral reform in us degenerates and would improve the relations within the workforce. We might even make a betting totalizator for this. But no, not worth the dent in the reputation. One thing made me less than happy - I could not bring myself to make a chessboard and pieces out of granite. So I had to go to Rine with a petition.

"How are you, Rine? I've been so busy that haven't had time to ask after your health: please excuse my tardiness," I started to say, a stupid smile on my face, as I came up to the dwarf. Yeah, right: just a couple of hours ago I came and handed in my daily quota, and now I'm back again with the 'How are you?' and 'How's your health?'. How unbelievably stupid.

"Mahan, why do you always approach me in a roundabout way? Why not try being straight-forward? Tell me, what have you cooked up now? It's always these word games with you," interrupted me the grumpy dwarf.

"I'd like to make a chess set for myself, but our stones are no good for that. You travel to town - can you buy me several pieces of something inexpensive, but nice-looking? Just don't ask what - I'm not much of an expert with the stones yet. I know there's diamond, very strong and expensive. But that's all I know about precious stones."

"The stuff you come up with!" grinned the dwarf, thinking over my request and scratching his chin. "So you want to have some semi-precious stones presented to you. Who was it that shouted through all the mine that practically every vein had a Precious Stone in it and that Mahan was the best at finding them? Who threatened to bankrupt the mine, selling the stones at face value? Even bought a top-class pick from me; I all but gave it away to you, and now you throw your hands up and go: I didn't find any stones, please bring me some, kindly dwarves. Even remembered my health all of a sudden." Having had his fun, the dwarf became serious. "I can't make decisions like that. The list of the goods brought here is approved personally by the mine governor and he's the one that checks to make sure I've not bought anything extra. So it's the other place you want with questions like that," he nodded in the direction of the administration building.

I sighed in resignation, and went to my favorite place. The orc couldn't stand it when people came to him with requests. If I asked him to bring me some Precious Stones I could get into trouble, which I'd very much rather avoid. To endure an extra month in the mine for the sake of a chess set? Thanks, but no thanks. I'd rather make them out of stone or ask Sakas to make the pieces out of wood. With these thoughts I started work on making +3 rings. If I had time on my hands I had to spend it well and equip myself in the best way possible.

After I'd made the rings, I had around four hours left until the end of the working day and I decided to go to Kart's section to continue levelling up Endurance - the Rats in that section were still untouched. I was even curious: was my access to this section now removed or left in place until it was assigned to some other prisoner? I decided to quit guessing and, for the second time today, headed in the direction of the mine.

I still had access to it, but the Rats let me down. The section had only one representative of the 'grey tribe', whom I tried to avoid hitting altogether. I even tried to heal it, but my healing had no effect on the Rat. I could only stretch the 'pleasure' of Rat bites for forty minutes, which got my Endurance up to 5. It was disappointing that I could not really feel the 1% reduction in pain. Now all that remained was going back to the Smithy and getting on with making rings for everyone. I looked around Kart's section and decided to smash some more veins. I didn't have much left (just 34%) until level 9 in Mining, which meant around 13 Copper veins. The three hours until the end of the working day were enough for me to get through them.

When I started on the fourth vein something caught my eye. I turned around, bewildered, and saw a Copper Vein that looked very different from the others: it was larger and had a rich greenish tinge. I walked up to it, perplexed, put my hands on this pile of rocks and looked at its properties:

Large Copper Vein. Spawn chance: 0.01%. Required Mining level: 9 and above.

That's some stroke of luck! My eight levels in Mining and my +1 pick made it just possible to meet the requirements. With a better grip on the pick I readied to smash this pile of stones and see what it might drop. If an ordinary Copper Vein produced 5-6 pieces of ore, this one should give all 10 or even more. Let's see now. With my level of Strength and Mining such a pile shouldn't be much of a challenge.

In my eagerness I got carried away and went at the vein forgetting all else. A hit and then another and one more. What's that message?

Energy level: 30.  Stop, you angry Shaman!

Ah, this is my pre-set warning, put in place to prevent a stupid death from loss of Energy. It's been a while since I saw it, why did it pop up now? I came to and looked around. What the...! My Energy level was 30, while the Large Copper Vein Durability was at 40%. How long had I been hitting it for? Suddenly the horn signaling the end of the working day sounded through the mine. Wow, was I at it for nearly two hours? I went to get the water to restore my Energy and continued to smash the vein. ‘Just like my first day in the mine,' I chuckled; the first Copper Vein also gave me a fair amount of trouble. I spent another hour reducing the vein's durability to 5% and then sat down for a rest. My Energy level was sufficient to continue working, but I was mentally worn out: it's been a while since I got stuck like this with one ore vein. Only one thing puzzled me - why didn't Kart tell me about this kind? Despite such a small spawn chance, in his ten years of work such a vein had to appear at least once. The only explanation was that he never tried to smash it. He had to meet the daily quota, so getting distracted by such a strange and labor-heavy vein was pretty much pointless.

I sighed and went back to hitting the vein. 4% Durability. I wondered what dropped from veins like this. If smashing it needs such an unbelievable amount of effort, it must contain some sort of a bonus. 'Could it drop a chest of treasure?' I chuckled to myself. 'Yeah, right, and then some Pirate Flint would pop up, kick my ass and take the chest away from me.' 3% Durability. ‘But I'm not going to give him the chest. When Flint gets close I'll knock his wooden leg from under him with the pick. And then run like hell. A one-legged Flint won't be chasing me very far. Damn, but what about his parrot? Named Iago, I think. He can fly and can shred me to bits. So I'll have to give up the chest.’ 2% Durability. ‘Well, he can kiss my ass - the chest's mine. As soon as the parrot flies up to me, I'll send a Lesser Lightning Spirit at him. Or a couple of them. Or maybe a dozen, all at once. Now I have a Tambourine, thanks to Kart and Sakas, so Iago hasn't a chance. If the lightning doesn't get him, he'll die from laughter, looking at me dancing around with it.’ 1% Durability. ‘But while I'll be dancing with the tambourine, Flint may have time to hobble over. He'll have me then. Maybe we can share? Split it half-half, like good mates - they can have the chest and I all its contents. That should make everyone happy. Right, that's how we'll do it then.’