Survival Quest (The Way of the Shaman: Book #1) (3 page)

Well, the technician did cheer me up after all. He did that by giving me, for some unknown reason, the opportunity to choose my own name. The gaming name in Barliona was provisionally unique: in the same gaming environment you could meet three hundred ‘Bunnys’, a hundred ‘Kitties’ and endless numbers of ‘Pwners’, but the uniqueness was guaranteed by a composite word.  For example you could easily see Pwner the Great and Pwner the Charming next to each other, but there were no two Pwner the Great's in Barliona. However, prisoners were not allowed to pick a composite name for themselves, because usually these were generated automatically. But if they deleted my Hunter...

“Mahan,” I said, setting all my hopes on the fact that the name of my Hunter, who was taken from me, was already deleted from the system but not yet picked by anyone else. So what if I liked to play with this name? That's what I've become use to, despite the fact that it was just a surname.  Moreover, my hunter’s name had only one component, and I bought it from another player for almost ten thousand gold and had no wish to see all that money go to waste.

“Choice accepted. Welcome to the world of Barliona, Mahan. Users connecting from prison capsules have no access to the introductory training area. You will be transferred directly to the Pryke Copper Mine. We wish you a pleasant game.”

There was a flash of lightning and the world around me filled with colors. Though for some reason among these colors grey predominated.

Chapter 2

The Pryke Mine. The Beginning

T
he Pryke Mine lay before me in all its beauty. Great rocky cliffs, about 100 meters high, rose along the whole boundary of the mine. Their tops hung over it, forming a cap around the perimeter. Like the roof of a stadium, an association flashed in my head. No amount of effort would allow you to scale such a wall, although the scattered ledges seemed to dare you to try. 'Interesting,' I thought, 'I wonder if the mine is surrounded by mountains or goes deep inside the earth?' I should ask someone, in case the idea of digging a hole out of here catches on. Another thought was just as interesting: is this mine even connected to the main world or is it in a separate location within the server memory? I could dig a hole and end up nowhere. At first glance the mine itself comprised quite a pleasant-looking valley approximately several kilometers in length and about a kilometer wide, with a somewhat uneven surface. The valley was divided up in two parts: the first, about 300 meters long, contained wooden buildings, one of which I immediately recognized as the smithy. For now the other structures remained a mystery, but were most probably barracks for the prisoners. The second part of the valley was separated by an unimposing wooden fence, which had grown lop-sided and rickety in places. The shouts of prisoners and sounds of mining picks were ringing from that side of the mine. So, this is where I'll be working. The place where I stood allowed only limited visibility because the view was obscured by an enormous cloud of grey dust. It was strange: I could see the dust, but could not feel it at all. It was probably just a graphic effect imposed on this location to give it a more authentic look.

Not far from where I appeared and at some distance from the other buildings stood a house that sported the sign ‘Welcome to the Pryke Copper Mine.” Right, so this is the local administration office, housing some intimidating official who had the power to grant me access to the main gameworld.

Yes, access to the main gameworld. Just before I was placed in the capsule I looked up the contents of Article 78 Section 24, cited by the judge when speaking about the possibility of entering the gameworld. I somehow missed this part before, while I was preparing myself. Reading this even lifted my spirits somewhat. The text stated: “If the prisoner earns Respect with the guards at the place of confinement, he or she may be given the opportunity of being transferred to the main gameworld.” It contained a lot of other text that stated that for the first six months you would have to live in a special colony, even if you earned Respect on the second day of your imprisonment and that 30% of all the earned money would have to be paid to the Corporation upon leaving the mine. There was something else, which I didn't recall, but the main thing was that I had a chance of getting transferred to the main gameworld.

So my chief aim in the near future was to earn Respect and to get the person in charge of the mine to like me. Or the other way round: get liked and gain Respect. It didn’t really matter as long as it resulted in me leaving the mine. Great, I've spent just a few minutes here and I'm already making plans on how to leave.

Now I just need to figure out what I have to work, play and, in general, live with in the next eight years. I had to have a good look at my character, his stats (statistics) and description. When I was getting ready for prison I would never have imagined that they’d give me a Shaman, because all the forums said that prisoners usually get assigned either Warriors or Rogues. So these were the classes I read up on, pretty much becoming an expert in them. Not a single bastard wrote on any of the forums that a prisoner could be given a spell-casting class. Blast! I don’t even know how to cast spells and figuring this out by myself will be very difficult. 

I brought the window with the character description before my eyes:

Racial bonus: reputation gain with all factions is increased by 10%

What 'fantastic' stats. My virtual heart began to ache when I compared this Shaman with my level 87 Hunter. He looked so wretched next to my former character. Sigh…

Energy.
The biggest headache for all the prisoners. In the main gameworld even if Energy fell all the way to zero, the character simply suddenly stopped and rested for several minutes, waiting for it to recover, and then continued to carry out the player's commands. But they say that here things are not so simple. As Energy is lost, you get tired for real and your Hit Points slowly diminish. A sudden fall in Energy could even lead to character death. I would have to test this parameter in more detail, since I paid little attention to it with my Hunter.

Stamina.
It determines the number of Hit Points in the ratio of 1:10; the higher the Stamina, the slower the rate of Energy loss. What the ratio was in this case I didn't really remember, but was aware it existed. I must level up my Stamina as much as I can, as this is important for survival.

Strength.
This is the main stat necessary for mining ore. I didn't know what influence it might have on the ore itself, I found nothing about it in the manuals. This parameter also influences the strength of my physical attack. Because I'm not a melee fighter, the calculation is quite simple: Physical Damage = Strength + Weapon Damage. No modifiers. I'll have to do without, I guess.

Agility.
Ehh... Something I knew so well when I was playing my Hunter, but now I don't even know what to do with it. In my case Agility did little else than determine the dodge chance and the critical strike chance. So if I don't engage in melee combat, this stat will remain useless for me.

Intellect.
This is what Hunters, Warriors, Rogues and several other classes lack. In place of this statistic they use Rage. Intellect determines the amount of mana in the ratio of 1:10 and the rate of its regeneration, although the exact formula slipped my memory. Intellect also determines the strength of my magical attacks. Here we have a modifier: Magic Damage = 3 x Intellect. I had no idea how it all worked, despite having seen Shamans in action, as they banged their Tambourines, danced and chanted some sort of songs. There must be a reason they do that.

Not selected.
So here is that stumbling block, which makes virtually all the players rant about Barliona. They rant, but continue playing. Yeah, they keep burning their fingers, grumble, but still go for the cookies. In Barliona with the four main stats, which were fairly standard for all games, each player was allowed to pick additional four. What is more, they were not chosen from a set list, but you had to perform certain actions that would lead to the system allowing you to pick a particular stat. For instance, when I played the Hunter, I needed Marksmanship, in order to be sure of hitting the opponent and having a chance of dealing him triple damage. But then I knew beforehand that I would need this stat and spent some time hitting the training dummy until the system allowed me to select Marksmanship. Only four additional stats could be chosen, so picking them needed serious thinking. Of course it was possible to remove an undesirable stat, despite the system saying it could not be removed. But this could only be done personally by the Emperor and gaining an audience with him was often out of question for an ordinary player. Even if you managed to obtain an audience, the privilege of removing a stat cost around 20 thousand gold, so players wrote angry messages on the forums and threatened to leave the game. But after some time they usually simply deleted the old poorly calibrated character and rolled a new one. The game called and beckoned.

And then there was Jewelcraft. A zero level in a profession meant that, although it was included by default, it had to be activated via a trainer. Probably this wasn't that important - where would you find a Jewelcraft trainer in a mine?

I'll give you a brief view of how these statistics could be increased. With each level a player gains 5 points that could be invested in any one of the stats, thus increasing its importance. But that's not all. Certain activities level up the stat that ends up being used the most. For example, if I shoot a mob with my bow - not only do I gain Experience for the kill, but also gain a certain percentage in my Agility progress bar. As soon as the progress bar is filled to 100, Agility value is increased by one, the bar itself is reset in order to go through the same process again. Thus the more I hit mobs with a bow, the higher is my Agility. Here in the mine the main stat is Strength and it will level up before anything else.

I was suddenly torn away from my daydreams.

"Don't just stand there! Get a move on!" the rough yell of the overseer returned me to 'reality'. Judging by the manuals, all the overseers in the places of confinement were NPCs, but their programmed behavior model was completely in the hands of the designers building the locations. Since no-one likes prisoners, the guards were developed with appropriate temperaments. All this quickly flashed through my head, leaving my 'castle-in-the-air' thoughts of freedom, which I had began to put together, somewhat shaken.

"Move, move! The boss doesn't like to be kept waiting," the guard repeated, roughly pushing me in the direction of the local administration office.

The interior of the building turned out to be surprisingly pleasant and quiet. I had the feeling that I had ended up in a completely different world - there were exquisite statues, paintings on the walls, a large crystal chandelier, carpets, carved wood and a quiet cool breeze brushing past me. All of this made such a harmonious whole that put you more in mind of an out-of-town residence of some rich aristocrat than an administration office of a mine full of prisoners. The governor of the mine sat behind a luxuriously crafted table in a separate office. He was a huge orc, about two meters in height, green and menacing, like all the representatives of that race.

"Shaman Mahan," the governor's low and calm bass travelled across the room as he was reading some document — probably my case file. The orc's appearance reminded me of someone, but I just couldn't remember who exactly. The governor was calm and dignified, like the Snow Queen, though in looks there was little resemblance. But who did he resemble then? "Sentenced to eight years for the crime of hacking into the city sewage network control program which led to system shut-down. "Was it your idea or did someone put you up to it?" the orc asked the question showing virtually no emotion. Such a play of intonations, or rather their total absence, did not exactly inspire you to 'burst into song'. Songs. 'And now I will be singing my last song...' Akela!

That's who the image of the orc reminded me of! Akela from Kipling's 'Jungle Book', the Lone Wolf, Mowgli's mentor. A picture of the majestic wolf sitting on a rock from the ancient animated film rose before my eyes. That's right, if the wolf could be colored green, punched in the face to squash it and have his fangs pulled outside, you'd have the spitting image of the Pryke Copper Mine governor. Although no, for a complete resemblance you'd have to color the old wolf's eyes red.

"So, you're playing the silent game. Well, well. That's your choice," said the governor, while I enthusiastically dressed him up in the wolf's hide. Suddenly I was hit by extreme heaviness, my legs gave way and I fell on the floor, without taking my gaze off the orc. A message immediately flashed before my eyes:

Your reputation with the Pryke Mine Guards has fallen by 10 points. You are 990 points away from the status of Mistrust.

Attention! Racial bonuses do not apply on the territory of the Pryke Copper Mine.

"I repeat the question!" it was immediately clear that he knew how to raise his voice. He was good at it too: it made shivers run down my spine and I was ready to tell him anything. That's what I call 'influence'. He probably had his Charisma value bumped up sky-high. "Did you decide to destroy the Imitator yourself or did someone put you up to it?"

My body felt heavy and leaden, but something clicked inside my head and the ability to think rationally returned to me. Incidentally, lying down on the floor turned out to be ideal for having a good think. I should add this method to my arsenal in the future. So, I have two possible lines of action - to stay silent or give him the whole story. In the first case I will most probably gain a negative reputation before I am sent to work in the mine. The second option meant that I would tell one imitator how I destroyed another imitator. And would thus also gain a negative reputation - who knows how this orc had been programmed. One should expect the worst. So, I lose out either way... Darn, nothing else for it, I have to respond.