Survival Quest (The Way of the Shaman: Book #1) (30 page)

Experience gained: +600 Experience, points remaining until next level: 570.

Skill increase:

+1 to Intellect. Total: 51.

+1 to Stamina. Total: 30.

+1 to Endurance. Total: 10.

"Well, you 'dragon-buzzers', there should be a chest around here somewhere," I decided to poke fun at Clutzer and Leite, who went to search the cave straight away. I could bet a farm that Clutzer would be the one to find it again.

"Mahan, come here! Your advice is needed," came Leite's shout, potentially making me a farm-less RL. Like some little kids - can't they do anything without me?

When I came over and had a look at the loot chest, I made a mental apology to all the others. Well, well. The developers had compensated for the fairly easy battle mechanic of the boss with a very tricky access to the loot chest. There was a small corridor, about three meters wide, that went about twenty meters deep into the rock. At the very end of the corridor was our chest on a plinth, but the floor in between was covered with one big bright-green puddle. There were some small islands in it, but only at the end of the corridor, by the chest. Leite carefully touched the puddle with his foot and immediately jumped back with a scream, tearing off his boot, which was smoking; it soon evaporated right before our eyes.

"The puddle... Durability... The boot..." Leite said, perplexed, standing on the stones with his bare foot. So that's it! The puddle destroys item durability. You live and learn; I should make a note for myself that such puddles exist. Nevertheless, it's important to try everything out for yourself. I took out one of the old rings, carefully touched the puddle with it and then put it on the ground. That's right, destruction in progress: the ring's Durability fell by 2 units per second, it smoked and hissed and then disappeared altogether.

"Maybe we should just leave it?" asked Eric, as he watched my experiment. I don't want to lose what I'm wearing now for some unknown stuff in the chest.

"I agree. Losing that boot was enough for me," Leite concurred.

I looked at Clutzer. If he was also against it we'll be moving on. I wasn't too eager to take the risk either. Clutzer glanced at us and started to take off all his clothes, mumbling something under his breath, until he was wearing his character’s birthday suit: an undroppable loin cloth.

"Mahan, I thought you had the smarts, but you just totally don't get it" said Clutzer and stepped into the puddle. Minus 10% to Hit Points. 

"Heal me already!" shouted Clutzer and headed off to the chest in some giant leaps. He really wasn't bad at making a fly-like impression. He grabbed the chest and hopped back.

"Like I'll leave the loot to some tools! In the can they'd mess you up for stuff like this," mumbled Clutzer, wrinkling from pain, but clearly pleased. He acquired a minute-long debuff, taking off 10% of his Hit Points, so I focused on healing the hero of my inner zoo. The hoarding hamster put up posters of Clutzer all over its designated space and together with the greed-toad they demanded for him to be made an authorized representative of their family.

Eric opened the chest, glanced inside, swallowed in excitement and looked at the others in shock. I examined the loot and understood why:

Mardvir's Leather Boots. Durability: 200. Physical damage resistance: 70.

Stamina: +10. Intellect; + 16. Magic, fire, cold and poison resistance: 30. Item class: Rare. Minimum level: 13.

Rurok's Chainmail Boots. Durability: 200. Physical damage resistance: 100.

Stamina: +9. Strength: + 16. Magic, fire, cold and poison resistance: 30. Item class: Rare. Minimum level: 13.

Rurok's Chainmail Boots. Durability: 200. Physical damage resistance: 100.

Stamina: +9. Strength: + 16. Magic, fire, cold and poison resistance: 30. Item class: Rare. Minimum level: 13.

Halik's Chainmail Boots. Durability: 200. Physical damage resistance: 130.

Stamina: +26. Magic, fire, cold and poison resistance: 30. Item class: Rare. Minimum level: 13.

It took us a whole hour to get to the last boss. There were no more bosses, but there were swarms of Rats, Spiders and Millipedes attacking us at every step.

In the end the final boss of the Dungeon appeared before us.

A two-meter-high Rat sat at the centre of its den and waited for us to pay it a visit. The shimmering transport portal was immediately visible right at the end of the cave. Would it take us straight to Dolma? Good if so, no-one really wanted to go back the same way.

Queen Aiden. Level: 22. Hit points: 400 000. Abilities: Phase 1: hidden, Phase 2:
hidden.

"What do you say, Eric?" asked Leite.

"In the normal gameworld I'd not go in here without the manual," said the tank at last. "Hidden abilities mean only one thing - they are chosen randomly from the whole multitude of different boss attacks. If you don't study all of them and pass an exam on boss abilities with the raid-leader you won't be able to join the raid party. There is only one such boss in my memory and we spent almost a week preparing for it: we researched, read up, even bought a virtual boss trainer, to work through different combinations... Imagine this: one hit of the boss has to be let through because it heals, and the other avoided at all costs because it kills instantly. If you don't know which attack does what, you won't get very far. It's the same here. If we attack the boss now, there's a 98% chance that we'll die. But we do have the 2% chance of bringing that Rat down.

"I'm not going to go for the last boss," I said after some thought. "In case of the other bosses I thought that we had a good chance of beating them, but here I'm convinced that we’re looking at a suicide mission. If we will be making a clan, I may as well tell you what a respawn would mean for me. I've levelled up to level 3 in Crafting, which allows me to add 3 additional stats to the rings and to the stones I insert into them. Yes, you can attach stones to rings as well, don't be surprised - have a look at mine," I opened viewing access for my rings. "If I die, I'll be useless to the clan, because Crafting levels up through the creative process and there's nothing simple or easy about it. You cannot add free stat points to it, I've already tried. That's how it is. Risking this for items, even if they're incredibly good for our current levels, but set to become disposable junk a couple of weeks after we get out... is stupid. I don't believe that we'll get Scaling Items from the Queen. We already had some incredible luck with loot from all the other bosses."

"I agree with Mahan. We'll make a clan and go on so many raids that we'll get more than our fill," said Leite, supporting my reasoning.

"Yes, I understand that you're right," Eric agreed reluctantly. "It's just we're the first to go through this Dungeon and if we manage to down the Queen, we'll get the 'First Kill', an achievement that only about ten thousand people in Barliona managed to gain. It's divided into two parts - one is connected to a particular Dungeon and the other simply shows that we have it. When I was playing I never dreamt I'd get a chance of getting this achievement. Even though a new Dungeon appears in Barliona every half a year, only a very limited number of clans gets 'First Kill'. The kinds of wars that are waged over this are really something else. I once saw a broadcast of one of these battles, when the fighters of the Phoenix Clan, including hired players, protected the entrance to a new Dungeon. Almost three hundred level 130 players defended against the united forces of the other clans. They held out for just thirty minutes, but in these thirty minutes the Phoenix raid group became the first to complete this Dungeon. Hellfire, the leader of the Phoenix Clan, later said that in these thirty minutes the clan had to pay around a million gold to the fighters hired for the defense. Just imagine! A million gold to gain an achievement! And here we have a chance to do this at level 15! Completely for free! Yes, the risk is great, it's highly likely that we'll fail. But, dammit, I'd really like to try!"

"What are other advantages other than kudos points?" asked Leite with some interest now. Did Eric really manage to persuade him?

"The clan which has players with the 'First Kill' achievement receives some bonuses from the Emperor the entire time that such a player is in the clan; I don't remember more exactly. The player himself receives a gift from the Emperor for each such achievement, which is presented by the Emperor in person. Can you imagine what that means? Getting to the Emperor is even more difficult than getting out of the mine or even out of prison itself, and in this case he's the one that invites you to the meeting that takes place five months after the achievement is gained, exactly the day before a new Dungeon is announced. At the same time, each person has a right to invite two others with him to the audience. The bidding for such a place on the black market starts at one hundred thousand gold and it would hurt your brain to even imagine what figure it eventually reaches. This is what's going through my head when I'm looking at the Queen. On one side of the scales - Mahan's Crafting, and on the other a visit to the Emperor with two guests. So that's what I'm saying - we all have to decide on this."

"This is what I reckon" said Clutzer, "Wasting Mahan would be lame. But if we let the Rat go, we'd feel like suckers. So my proposal is this..." Clutzer laid out his plan. Put into human language, his words were leaving me more and more gobsmacked. The proposal had logic in it, even if it was the very crazy kind. It was somehow... unconventional. And looking at Clutzer you'd never tell that he was hiding such a twisted mind. I'll have to find out what he was doing time for.

"Madness, complete and utter," said Eric, when Clutzer finished. "But the weirdest thing is - it might just work and I think it's our only chance to down that Rat. Leite, what do you think?"

"Clutzer's a funky dude, but his idea is something else," agreed Leite. "I agree, it could work, but at such a price...  What the heck, I'm in."

"Then let's go to the positions proposed by Clutzer and begin. Clutzer - you're first, Leite's second and I'll come at the end. Mahan, your job is to stay put and not stick your head out. We start in exactly five minutes, I'm putting the timer on. Can everyone see it? Great, now to positions - as soon as the countdown's over, Clutzer starts us off. May whatever powers are out there help us."

I selected the Queen and put it into the frame in order to constantly monitor its Hit Points. As I went to my position I heard Eric mutter, "The stuff you come up with, you sodding dragonbuzzer."

I put myself in the designated position and looked at the timer. It was still three and a half minutes until the insane battle. Whatever the outcome, tomorrow I'll already be in some settlement in the main gameworld. A settlement is good: it means quests, achievements and faster levelling. I'll have to think about what to do in the remaining seven and a half years of my imprisonment. First I'll have to create a clan - it's very difficult to survive in Barliona on your own. Then I'll have to find Duki, Sushiho and Elenium, old acquaintances that I played with before, and suggest they join up with me. They're good guys, without hang-ups and haven't let me down once in the five years that I've known them. I will need access to the outside world, to the manuals so I'll need reliable players from the outside.

In the meantime I could not decide on my main goal. To be more exact: I did have a global goal, which consisted of me somehow getting my hands on a hundred million gold. But what I had to do to reach that goal remained unclear to me. What methods did I know for earning money? Stealing a clan's vault, selling a place for an audience with the Emperor, finding a treasure or making something incredibly rare and useful. All of this had to be done on an industrial scale. Perhaps I could sell the Orc Warrior chess pieces, but I doubted they'd bring in a lot - you needed the rest of the set. And my greed-toad would never forgive me. If a full chess set grants access to some place, losing a chance, even a very slight one to get to this 'place' was unthinkable. Forty seconds. Then there's Marina. If she's a free artist, I'm sure she spends a lot of time in the Game. It would be good to find here and tell her to her face that promises should be kept. I'd just take her by her...

BEWARE.

It began.

Clutzer's Hit Points, viewed in my frames, immediately fell to 50%: he probably got hit by some ability. Just a few dozen seconds went by and then the whole Dungeon was filled with a wild scream of the Queen. Clutzer's plan worked! The Rat's Hit Points quickly started to plummet, but Clutzer was now on his way back to his mine: he was the first to go for respawn. Then it was Leite's turn. The Queen was down to 60% after which Leite's Hit Points started to diminish fast. The Dungeon was filled by another piercing scream of the Queen and Leite followed Clutzer. The two minutes that the Rat needed to get close to Eric left its Hit Points at only 40%. Well, well. Now's the moment of truth. Eric ran past my hiding place with the Queen a few meters behind him. Just a few seconds went by and only one player remained in the Dungeon - me. The Rat's Hit Points went into a supersonic plummet: 35%, 30%, 15%, 1%, 1 Unit.

BEWARE.

I leant closer to the wall. The niche in which I sat may not have been the best shelter, but it was much better than catching who knows what in the open.

An explosion! A wave of air swept through the entire Dungeon, pushing me into the wall. I think I lost consciousness, because when I opened my eyes the Dungeon was filled with silence and a collection of messages hung in front of me: