The Secret of the Dark Forest ( (The Way of the Shaman: Book #3) (18 page)

"Is the Spirit scroll used in the same way as one with a normal spell?" asked Eric right away. "I won't have to run around with a tambourine and sing songs, will I?"

"No, you won't." I smiled. "You just select and use it. Well?"

Eric and Clutzer could use the scrolls I created just fine, so I sat down to craft a pile of them and the world ceased to exist for about an hour. Scrolls are a tremendously useful thing in the world of Barliona, but they did come with a number of limitations that you had to take into account. Firstly, you couldn't use scrolls whose level exceeded yours by more than 50 points. Otherwise you'd end up with avid enthusiasts who would roll up level 1 characters, buy a bunch of scrolls of Armageddon and start nuking cities. Secondly, a stack of scrolls took up one slot in your bag, you could only hold one stack in your hands, a scroll put down on the ground immediately disappeared and – most unpleasantly – you could only put 4 scrolls into one stack. If I hadn’t had the large bag that I received back at the Pryke Mine, I wouldn't have had any place to put the scrolls I got from Anastaria. This is why before large raids players would call entire meetings dedicated to choosing which scrolls would be indispensable and which could be replaced by a mage or a healer.

You got the paper for the scrolls from the Cartographer's Set, although it should be said that the Corporation tried to make some profit even on this front: for each white sheet of paper, which could only be used for making a spell scroll, a silver coin was deducted from your account. You could also buy a normal piece of paper to leave a message for another player, like Hellfire had done in Beatwick. But this sheet of paper would set you back 500 gold, without any visible benefit. If you had a Personal Mailbox, it was much easier to simply use that for mailing letters and items.

"Here you go." I handed Eric and Clutzer a hundred scrolls of Water Strike Spirit and fifty scrolls of Water Healing each. I had no idea what turn things might take and really didn't want to have to spend time on healing myself. "Eric, you were a tank, so you'll be a healer. You know the drill, so try not to let me down. Clutzer, with you it's easy: you see a Vampire, you use a scroll and then get the next one out. The scrolls contain 67 level Spirits of the 5th rank, so you'll keep the 100-level bloodsuckers happily occupied, despite the difference in levels. Ready? Let's roll ..."

The Shaman has three hands ...

I knew perfectly well that any song would do for activating the Spirit Summoning Mode, even a bunch of random sounds would work, but I had begun shamanism with this one, therefore ... truth be told, I've become attached to it. As long as the spirits are still summoned I won't change anything, following an old rule of programming: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I cast Strengthening and Water Shield on myself; I stepped into the mist and immediately rolled forward, in the hope of missing any potential arrows.

Damage taken. Hit Points reduced by 6445: 8236 (Arrow hit) – 1791 (Physical defense). Total Hit Points: 13195 of 19640.

I was ready to feel pain, but not of such magnitude. ... My vision began to darken, but even through the pain I forced myself to roll to the side. ... Two black arrows hit the place where I had just been. Great! Now, I'll have to try and make sure I get caught by as few of these as possible – then we'll be fine and I won't turn into a screaming bundle of pain. Eric cast a scroll of Healing and I began to roll randomly from one side to another, trying to get at least one Vampire in my sights. If I spot that pretty boy, I'll place a mark on him and that's that – there will be one less Imitator in Barliona. My guys will unleash all those scrolls on him and I'll give them a hand too. ...

Damage taken ... Damage taken ... Damage taken ...

I came to myself when I was in the middle of the flight into which the three arrows had sent me: I take my hat off to Eric. My tanking-wizened dwarf did his job by throwing in a Healing between the second and third arrow. It mattered little whether his timing was intentional or completely accidental. More importantly, during my flight through the twilight of the foggy forest I caught the glimpse of a rushing shadow: 102-level Vampire. I slapped a mark on him that could only be seen by players – those that were part of the same group – and rushed back to the cleansed zone, dodging from left to right like a rabbit. I'd marked the target, so there was little sense in putting myself at any more risk.

The chilling scream of a Vampire hit by two Water Strikes at once were music to my ears and a reward for the painful acquisition of +10% to Endurance. The targeted Vampire was still in our sights, so I could see well enough that, of his 120-and-a-bit thousand Hit Points, 10000 were shaved off with each hit by a scroll. And because my fighters were working together, using one scroll every two seconds, the Vampire simply had no time to get to a safe distance. ... I wondered whether he'd drop any fangs after we were done with him. That's still loot, after all!

Soon Eric and Clutzer were surrounded by light, which lasted for a couple of seconds and told the rest of the world that they had just leveled up. Both gained +2 levels from one Vampire and gained the 'David and Goliath' achievement to boot. They did have an 80-level difference between them and the mob, after all. The downside was that they killed the mob with the scrolls, which meant that they didn't level up their main stats. Progressing through levels and gaining skills are different things, to which you must pay most careful attention.

"One down, now I'm off to get the second. This time there should be less damage, but don't let your guard down."

"Does it bite hard?" asked Eric, probably meaning the pain from the arrows.

"Yeah, a bit, but I can handle it. Compared to a certain turtle that I once ran across, or turning into a Dragon, as I've told you earlier, these arrows are more like mosquito bites."

"You’d better watch that those bites don't send you into pain shock, or you'll freeze like a statue and we'll have to think of a way to get you out ..."

We managed to handle the second and third Vampires following the same plan of attack: I came out, caught a few arrows, howled in pain, spotted the bloodsucker, slapped a mark on him and then ran back to the protection of my turf, letting Eric and Clutzer continue to level up. It looks like these NPCs have a rather unsophisticated Imitator inside them since they fell for the same trick three times in a row. Too bad that Leite was sent for respawn. Getting 4 extra levels from three Vampires – as was the case for Eric and Clutzer – to top up his 19 levels would have been just great.

"Hey, Sergeant! Is that the best your mongrels can do?" I shouted into the Dark Forest when a further foray out of the protection of the cleansed zone brought no result. "You were going to destroy us, so you’d better get on with it! Or don't you have the guts? Well?! I'm waiting! Will I have to scream so loud that the entire Dark Forest can hear that you're a wimp?"

I did all I could to get the last mob to attack me, but by the looks of it this Imitator did his homework when he went to school, since he was much smarter than his subordinates. He completely failed to fall for my taunts and stayed quiet, as if he had never been there. Emboldened, I checked over the three mobs that we killed, picking up forty-two and a bit gold off them. I also became the happy owner of three pairs of Vampire-fighter teeth. Judging by the lack of description, these were items for some quest that we would now have to find and to gain. The third bloodsucker we brought down dropped an Uncommon level-80 cloak, increasing Agility by 30 points. That should come in handy – I can give it to Clutzer when he levels up enough. But where did the Sergeant go? I didn't want to continue our journey while leaving such a powerful enemy at our back. We should also wait until Leite returns. We should write to him just as well that we had the Mailbox – and get him back.

"Right!" I said to get everyone's attention. "We have several possible courses of actions, but they can basically all be reduced to two: we either continue on our way or we stay here. Personally, I'm in favor of staying. Firstly, we need to wait for Leite to get back and, secondly, for the rest of the team."

"Agreed," replied Clutzer. "The rest of the team is all above level 100, so they won't be so easily ..."

"Guys, you'd better take a look at this," said Eric, breathing out slowly and looking wide-eyed at something behind me.

I turned around and saw what had surprised our tank so much: a tree was vigorously growing out of the Wothe's grave. What had at first been a small shoot – that was probably first spotted by Eric – was now a young tree busily growing, both in height and in width. But the biggest surprise was yet to come. The glade – the territory of which I had recently been made Guardian – was rapidly starting to grow in size. The tree was sucking all the taint from the Cursed Forest and in some mysterious way converting it into the nutrients it needed for growth. A thought flashed through my head that by consuming blackness the tree might itself become black, but it soon evaporated. The healthy look of the oak bore witness to the opposite. Where the two zones met, the mist was being absorbed into the ground, as if by a giant vacuum cleaner: black stains fell off the trees, revealing healthy bark underneath, hit the ground and were immediately absorbed into it like a sponge. The strongest resistance came at the places where we destroyed the three Vampires, but soon even those spots fell under the fierce advance of a miracle being born. The purified area was also undergoing changes: all the trees on it were rapidly shrinking back into the ground, as if time had been set in reverse. The mast-like pines became smaller and smaller, turning into small trees, shoots and then disappearing altogether, clearing space for a meadow. These transformations had been going on for only ten minutes when we found ourselves under the canopy of an enormous oak. It covered the entire purified area with its shadow, which increased to no less than three hundred meters in diameter.

"The others will be sure to kill us when they see all this in the evening," I muttered the first thing that came into my head. "We should say that we found this glade already as it is and not created it ourselves ..."

"Guardian," Slate, who had just come out of the tent, bowed his head. But bowed it towards the oak instead of me! So is this oak the Guardian now? And am I just a dispensable 'place-holder'? Or am I indispensable after all? Damn, why is there always such a dearth of information?

"You may approach, Mahan.” Judging by yet another attack of goosebumps, all the NPCs in this forest spoke in high resonance mode: the sound came from everywhere, but it was clear that it was the oak speaking. Or rather, the Oak, which was alive and wanted something from me ...

I stopped a couple of meters from the enormous trunk and, doing all I could not to give in to my nerves, tried to imagine how many players it would take to encircle this giant. If I take up this much space then, supposing that the trunk is a perfect circle, we'll need around ...

"Seventy-two sentients with the same arm-span as you," the resonating voice sounded again through the glade. "What you're thinking is quite evident on your face, so have no fear: I can't read your thoughts. You have my thanks, former Guardian of the zone, for not letting yourself be destroyed and finding a way for me, the Guardian of the Dark Forest, to be reborn."

"I was not alone," I quickly managed to add, in case we were about to be handed many bonuses, or punishments – whatever luck had in store for us. "Everyone currently in this glade helped to bring about the birth of the Guardian. Even the one who isn't here right now, but will be back soon."

"I know. The Free Citizen who has been sent to the Grey Lands will reappear in my glade in ten hours. He will also receive a reward, just as all those present here will. But you were the Guardian of the zone and you sacrificed this gift granted you by Eluna so that I could be reborn. I know full well the extent of your sacrifice and what it was you gave up, so I will try to compensate you for your loss. Stretch out your hand ..."

Very carefully, as if fearing that it might hurt me, a branch stretched from the tree, touched my hands and immediately drew back, like a frightened dog. Taking no heed of the branch's strange behavior, I looked down and saw a small wooden object, whose properties were eloquently 'illuminating':

Left Earring of the Guardian of the Dark Forest. Item class: Unique.

That's it. No bonuses, no achievements, no ... nothing at all, in fact, except for this piece of wood and an incomplete piece of wood at that. The Right Earring was still out there somewhere. It was, of course, a unique and interesting object, probably with a story of its own, but this would be of more interest to real lore-fanatics of Barliona, like Anastaria. I'll sell this earring to her; she'll be sure to put it to good use. The gaming avatar allowed you to put on various earrings, bracelets or whatever else a player could think of, but these were purely decorative. Even a second neck-chain would give you nothing save an extra weight around your neck. Items that improved player character stats were quite strictly defined.

"I thank you, Guardian, for such a rare gift." Being polite to NPCs, especially those with whom you have Attractiveness higher than 80, should be a cast-iron rule for every player. Otherwise you’re no player, just a total noob. As for the gift ... what gift can a tree give? Just a piece of wood like this, so it’d be pointless being upset at the Guardian.