The Kartoss Gambit (The Way of the Shaman: Book #2) (30 page)

I felt cheated. Was Phoenix really prepared to make me a Master just for these lines? I automatically looked at the properties of the figurines. They only contained the lines about their feats now. There was no additional text, let alone any text input field. Just your regular unique chess pieces, what they should have been from the start. The main thing was making sure that Anastaria didn't find out that I was in possession of several lines pointing towards some point on the map of Barliona. A point that contains the virtual creator of this world.

"K
ey!"

I'm a man of steady nerves, but when the Dragonkin's malicious muzzle repeated the same phrase for the fortieth time, you developed an irresistible itch to put your boot in it.

As soon as the portal with the Orc Warriors disappeared, the Dragonkin got up from his knees and, as if nothing happened, placed himself in the doorway of the hut.

"I need the scroll that would take me to the Dragons," I approached the four-legged NPC.

"Key!" the Dragonkin rumbled for the first time.

"What key?"

"Key!"

"I found the clearing and met all the conditions. I demand to be given the scroll!"

"Key!"

I spent a frustrating half an hour trying to knock it into the head of this pseudolizard that the quest's requirements have been met, but it stubbornly refused to hand over the Dragon scroll. It just kept parroting one word: "Key". I had no clue what the key was or why it had to be given to the Dragonkin. Did Reptilis keep something from me? After all, it was his quest that got us here. Or was it something unknown to him as well?

I sat before the door and stared intently at the Dragonkin. I couldn't jump this, so I had to think.

"What about..."

"Key!"

"I've had it with you! Here's your key!" I put my hand in the bag and took out the first thing at random. It was the Eye of the Dark Widow, but who gives a damn anymore?!

"Not this key! Key!"

Well, at least there's some progress — new words and all that. So it looks like this NPC has been programmed with an algorithm for identifying a particular key. I took out the Malachite Jewellery Box, removed the Orc Warriors from it, replacing them with a piece of Tin Ore, and tried to hand it to the Dragonkin. Let's see how he reacts to this one.

"The key is in the Jewellery Box," I lied to the Dragonkin, completely unabashed.

"Open it!"

"You open it! I'm not your servant! The key is in the Box, the Box is in your hands, this means that the key is in your hands."

A second later the Dragonkin was staring at the thing he was just given. Here you go! It could only be opened by Jewellers, for everyone else the Jewellery Box was just piece of the scenery. The Dragonkin heaved a deep sigh, pressed the Box from both sides and it cracked like an overripe nut, with the ore dropping out of it.

"This is not the key. Key!"

Reading the forum and the manual got me nowhere. I had no idea where Reptilis dug up this quest and so found myself in a jam. I knew and felt that my quest would also lead me to this exact clearing, but the crossing over of two different quests had some unexpected consequences. Reptilis's quest got picked up first, moving my one aside. There was only one NPC, both of us came to him at the same time and started fighting in line with Reptilis's quest as well. A pity I sent him for respawn — could have done with punching his green mug one more time right now. Unfinished quests get reset every four months — time that I didn't have. If I fail to get the Totem, my rank would be demoted in two months.

Looks like I'm out of options....

"Speaking!"

"Hi, Anastaria. This is Mahan. Do you have a minute? I need your help."

"If it's not urgent, can it wait twenty minutes? I'm a little busy right now."

"All right. Call me when you get free."

I really didn't want to get involved with Phoenix, but it looked like there was no other way for me to get to the Dragons.

"Hello again," twenty minutes later I answered an incoming call from the amulet.

"Good day," a male voice greeted me the other end. What on earth? Where's the lady paladin? "My name is Rick Deadeye, you should have received the gear I made together with this amulet at the Bank. How did you find it? Is it to your liking? I tried to give it a neutral appearance, though the initial recipe had a flamboyant look. Imagine this: orange with bright green. I thought you would've refused to wear something like that."

"Where is Anastaria?" I barely managed to interrupt the verbal torrent that hit me.

"Unfortunately she had to leave the game for a while. She asked me to contact you, saying that you needed help. What can I do for you?"

"Rick, I don't really know..."

"If you are uncertain of my status, let me assure you that I can take all decisions right up to declaring war on another clan. I hope your request is not of this kind. I have little stomach for war."

"Tell me Rick, what is your level of Eloquence? Or Chattiness? Whatever's the right name for it."

"Oh, have you already met such players? My congratulations! This is a very rare stat. Even more rare than Crafting. But we're not talking about me right now. How can the Phoenix clan be of help to you?"

I didn't have a lot of choice, so I sketched out my situation to him, as far as Reptilis's quest was concerned. Mine was broken anyhow.

"The Dragonkin is standing in the doors of the house and demanding you give him a key: is that right?"

"Yes."

"And he has no intention of handing you the information about the Dragons, does he?"

"How... ?" I asked, dumbfounded. How did he know? Didn't Reptilis say that this was a unique quest?

"No need to get so worked up. These Dragonkin are scattered throughout Malabar in memory of Dragons that had existed long ago. The key is the sceptre of the NPC from which you managed to steal this scroll with the quest. Yes-yes, I did say 'steal' — that's the only way to get this quest. At one time our entire clan was looking for a way to find the Dragons, but it was a futile effort. There are no Dragons in Barliona. We even contacted the game administration to verify such an absurd ending to the Dragonkin quests: just an ordinary hologram of a flying Dragon. But in any case, you have my congratulations: very few in Barliona get to touch the history of Dragons. Is this all?"

"Yes, thank you for your help."

"Then I'm off. Good bye!"

Well, I'll be! Some 'favour' Reptilis did me, the underkicked croc! Four months of waiting for the quest to reset! Good bye Elemental Shaman! Why is everything so crappy?

"Key!" The last words I must have said aloud, because the Dragonkin was at it again.

"I have no key. You can relax and go home now. Show's over"

The Dragonkin, like some obedient pony, turned around and entered the house. What to do? Go back? My spirits were so low that I wanted to howl. Why didn't I listen to Kornik and fly with him for the Totem? Decided I was smarter than everyone else, did I? After imagining the goblin's mocking eyes when I went back to him with my head hanging low, my spirits seemed to hit rock bottom.

Knowing that there was nothing left for me to do except return to Beatwick, I decided to make Anastaria's present. I had to make the Chess anyway, so why not do it right here? I had all the needed tools with me, as well as the holograms, and I didn't have to take any notice of the Dragonkin. Perhaps I'll raise my spirits at least a little this way. That settled, I sat down right on the grass and took out the holograms sent by Hellfire — the representatives of Phoenix and the Dark Legion and leading players of our continent. When the last image was copied to memory, I switched to the design mode. I was feeling so damn awful...

I immediately discarded four images of players from each clan, which for some reason were grey in my mind. If they were grey, it meant I didn't need them. I began to make the figurines from the ones that remained. Anastaria was, of course, the Queen. As soon as I pictured her in a mantle, with a crown, an up-turned proud chin and a haughty gaze, the image of the lady paladin started to flow, dissolved and then appeared in the form of the figurine I was aiming for, surrounded with a bright glow. The first was done. The image of Hellfire just refused to be formed into a King. The crown just didn't suit him and I put him aside and moved on to other figurines. Knights, Bishops, all the eight pawns and one Rook came together right away. Only two images and two pieces remained — a King and a Rook. Strange. For some reason I thought that Hellfire should be the King, but an unassuming and inconspicuous gnome, was wryly looking at me from the picture, as if asking: 'Try me!' All right. If he's asking, we'll have to go with it. I looked at the player's name: Ehkiller the Invisible. The name didn't mean anything to me, but there were no other options left, so I had to try him. If he fits, I hope Hellfire won't kill me.

He fit. As soon as I imagined Ehkiller with a crown and a cape, his image began to flow and took the shape of the King I was looking for. Strange — why him? Why not Hellfire — who without further ado turned into a Rook? I'll put it down to artistic license.

Things weren't exactly straight-forward with the Seconds either. Plinto simply wouldn't become the King, try as I might. Going by previous experience I tried to make him a Rook, but that didn't fit him as well. That's just crazy. Knight, Bishop, Queen — were all wrong. Only the pawns remained. Even in the design mode, where the consciousness was completely separated from the body, I swallowed. If Plinto finds out that I made him into a pawn, the Seconds will put me on their black list with everything that entailed. I hope that Anastaria will have a chuckle at the hint and won't inform that unbalanced person of the fact. The place of the King was taken by another player whose name was also not particularly known. And the Queen turned out to be the player that I saw with Plinto. I wasn't sure I knew what I was doing anymore.

When all the sixteen figurines took their places I exited the design mode, took Lapis and Malachite out of the bag, but right before re-immersing myself saw the Dragonkin right next to me. What could he want now?

The stones didn't present much of a problem. They had the same shape, so after forming one stone in my mind, I reproduced it in eight pieces of Lapis and eight pieces of Malachite. Just before combining the projections of the figurines with the stones I decided to add a few slight improvements. I tried to give all the Phoenix figurines proud and brave demeanour, but in the majority of cases the figurines acquired an air of arrogance, as if the rest of the world owed them. Only Rick, who spoke with me today, retained a human face. I made the Seconds look more fierce and angry. If they are to be green, let them resemble orcs. The result was quite interesting — only the King and the Queen failed to undergo this metamorphosis. The features of the other figurines became distorted with such fury, that it looked that they were the ones who owed Phoenix and had to pay it back this very second, but were all tapped out. So be it, then. Another instance of artistic license.

After tweaking their appearance, I combined the figurine projections with the stones and opened my eyes. Done. When I get to Farstead, I'll send the figurines to Hellfire. If he asked for them so insistently, I had to grant his wish. 'Happy Birthday', Anastaria, you'll have to find a chessboard for them yourself. Damn, I couldn't help feeling pleased after making something with my hands. And then I was completely overwhelmed by the excess of pleasure:

Item created: Cursed Chess of Balance.

Description: This has no precedent in Malabar's history: the first ever binding of an object to a particular player. From this point on a close bond shall exist between the players of the Phoenix and the Dark Legion clans. Every three weeks, the players represented as Kings in the Chess Set must play against each other until a winner is declared. If one of the Kings is offline, he is to be replaced by the Queen, Bishop, Knight, Rook or Pawn. Duration of the game: two hours. If no winner is declared in the course of the game, it shall be considered void. The item is uniquely identified with its creator: Mahan.

Depending on the results of the game played with the Cursed Chess, all the players represented on the board shall receive:

Three-week buffs in case of a win: +10% to all the main stats.

Three-week debuffs in case of a loss: -10% to all the main stats.

Three-week debuffs if the game was voided: -20% to all the main stats.

Item class: Unique, cannot be destroyed. The binding to the players is now complete. All the bound players have been informed about the creation of the Cursed Chess of Balance.

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

You created a unique item. Your reputation with all previously encountered factions has increased by 200.

Skill increase:

+1 to Crafting. Total: 4.

+3 to Jewelcrafting. Total: 22.

You have received the title 'The Cursed Artificer'.

I swallowed after reading the message. I'm screwed. If before I had some chance of avoiding punishment for depicting Hellfire as a Rook and Plinto as a Pawn, having created a chess set like that, I doomed the clans to eternal strife. They'll never forgive me this, even if I was a member of one of these clans. Who asked me to craft anything in such a mood? And what's that?

Item acquired: The Key to Dragons. Description: Ancient, as the world itself, Dragons always honoured beauty and uniqueness. After leaving this world, the Dragons instructed the guards that only those worthy should be granted passage to them. You have met their condition for obtaining the Key to the Dragons by creating a unique item in front of the Guard. Congratulations!