The Kartoss Gambit (The Way of the Shaman: Book #2) (38 page)

"If you don't want to do this the easy way — fine. Let's continue our training. Lan, try the Ice Explosion," the earth next to me became covered in a crust of ice, bulged and exploded with a deafening bang, sending me on a riveting flight. While I flew, along with the stars flicking through my eyes came the messages that I received such and such damage and was healed that many Hit Points. As soon as I hit the ground, Tiger completely restored my health from 1, to prevent me doing anything stupidly suicidal. Quite the ace healer, not much else to say, really. Except for swear words. While PKers laughed their heads off, I did the only thing I could at that point: I took to my heels towards the forest, which I spotted a few kilometres off the road. I found myself thanking the developer who came up with the following interesting algorithm: the running speed was determined by the ratio of Stamina and Agility to the player level. Often low level players were much faster than higher level ones, but had a lot less stamina. Their Energy fell too quickly. Not wasting any time on the shouts of 'Stop or I'll kill you!', I entered the Spirit summoning mode as I ran and called a Strengthening Spirit on myself. Let me run a little faster, even if not by much.

A minute later I realised that I had miscalculated. Yes, I was faster than the PKers, but the AoE radius of the Ice Rain turned out to be too large. A wall of ice appeared right before me and I dove into it at full speed. Please, let this one-shot me.... Alas, Tiger was too good at his job.

"Why'd you stop running?" By now the players got on their mounts and were circling me at leisure. "Just when I was getting into the stride of things and relishing the thrill of the chase, the bunny keeled over. Onwards with the training! Lan, some AoE, please. Let's see how long he'll last. Tiger, you better stay on the ball."

They made me run around the area for about an hour. As soon as I stopped an icy rain began to fall next to me, forcing me to keep running. My attempts to resist by summoning Spirits of Control or Water Strike yielded nothing except a good laugh.

"Who the hell told you about the Eye?" I finally lost it and screamed at them. That's it, I just couldn't take this barbarity anymore.

"Had your fill of running, eh? No biggie, you'll keep at it, I'm having a great time here. Black market, you little twerp. Black market. Heard about it? You can buy many interesting things there — from the items that high-level players sell to the Merchants, to the information that the Merchants manage to pick up. Do you know how much you cost me? Thirty thousand gold! Plus teleporting here — ten thousand each. Dude, we're talking some real money here."

The incomprehension on my face must have been very obvious, since all three broke out in laughter.

"Dart, he didn't get a word you said!" Tigerrat put in as he finished laughing. "Little girl, there aren't just nice little boys running around in the Game, but nasty grown men too. Like us. Those who did time at the mines. Those who know what the red headband means. Those who have got nearly everyone and everything in this Game under their thumb. We're kings here! And those who have levelled up in Meanness, have access to this little bonus called 'Black Market'. A damn useful thing. There Merchants sell information about what they saw, identified and bought. Information is worth a lot in this game."

"Tiger, why don't you do a little dance for him too, while you're at it? You're getting way too chatty," the leader interrupted him and turned to me, "our information is correct, NPCs cannot lie. Hand over the Eye or we'll continue with the training. You know, I still have a problem with the way Lan summons Ice Rain on the move."

"Go to hell!" I growled. "There's nothing you can do to me, stupid dipshits."

"Oh, rly? This is a game, sweetheart,the gaming process of PK-hunting and training. And Tiger there, bless his bleeding heart, keeps healing you and stops you from missing out on Barliona for the next twelve hours. I really haven't a clue how you keep ending up right in the centre of our training zone. Are you doing this on purpose? I see you still don't get it. Let's continue with our session then. Tiger, Lan, let's roll..."

After half an hour of the chase I've ran out of steam. I tried to grit my teeth and stand under the rain of icicles, but would break after two or three minutes. The pain was too much. Endurance steadily increased, having gone up by three points since we met, but it was a drop in the ocean. The mythical five hundred points were distant and hard to imagine.

I almost decided to give these scumbags the Eye and be done with it, when I saw a flicker of a silhouette in the shadow of the trees, which we have gradually reached. A goblin! A plan immediately emerged in my head of how I could give these bastards the slip at least for a few minutes.

"Help! Coordinator's envoy has been captured and sent for torture! Help me!"

The three players glanced at each other, not getting where it was I just told them to go. Little wonder, since I was screaming in the language of Dark Goblins!

"For Kartoss, attack!" ten green-skinned minions of the Dark Empire jumped out of the forest. Hm... all of them only level 50. Against the three PKers these were nothing. A brief distraction. But the goblins didn't give a damn about that. A representative of the Empire requested aid, so it had to be granted. While the players got to grips with the new obstacle, I ran for the forest. Time was too precious to lose.

"Where do you think you're going?" I was once again enveloped in the Ice Rain. "We haven't finished our chat yet... What the hell is that?" asked Dart in surprise, when a drawn-out roar came from the direction of the forest. Hairs stood up on the back of my neck. Few in the game didn't know what that roar meant: the Wild Pack. The main strike force of Kartoss in its fight against the players: ten 200-level trolls riding their raptors. Someone's not going to have a very good time in a minute.

"Dart, let's get out of here — it's the Pack!" Lanus started to shout when a hale of arrows sped towards the players. The Wild Pack had arrived.

"Tiger, get the shield up. Lan, finish off Mahan — he's the one who summoned the beasts. Faster!" once again Dart quickly grasped the situation. Clever bastard. I had nothing to deflect a level 100 Ice Arrow, so could only stand there and wait to be sent for respawn. Hiding from magic was useless, since it went through everything. A pity, I thought I had managed to outwit them.

Hit!

I was still standing and watching how ten raptors with their riders emerged out of the forest and surrounded the dome put up by Lanus, while Tigerrat, in wide-eyed surprise, was sending magic arrows at me one after another.

"Arnamal dragorhalv rpanvvly?" a human dressed in black appeared next to me and was asking me something with a lifted eyebrow. He was completely unperturbed by Lanus's magical efforts to break through my incomprehensible defence. The stranger was entirely sure of himself and was trying to ask me something. But I didn't understand him in the slightest. I only knew goblin of the dark languages, so I made good use of it in my reply:

"The Coordinator only taught me the goblin language. I don't understand what you are saying."

"The man frowned, uttered something and touched my head.

You have learned a new language: Common Language of the Dark Empire.

"I'm asking you if you are all right?"

"Thank you, you made it just in time. A little more and they would've destroyed me and I wouldn't have managed to deliver the message."

"Don't kill them," the stranger shouted to the trolls. "Mages, commence enwrapment!" then he turned to me, "I permitted myself to be so bold as to protect you with a dome from these sentients," he pointed to the players, who had already stopped resisting after being slapped with the 'Stun' debuff. "We would not be able to hold them long, as in twelve hours they will disappear. An unpleasant trait of the free citizens. But they can lie down here until then. In eleven hours or so my warriors will send them to the Grey Lands: that way we'll gain a whole day. What does the Coordinator need this time? Did he run out of teleportation scrolls again?"

So my current theory about the Coordinator got smashed to smithereens. Teleportation scrolls! I am a blind and stupid ass for failing to think of such a simple thing! Why waste time on travelling between bases, when you can jump there at any moment? And no-one would notice a thing. This means that the entire village falls under suspicion once again. Blast!

"Exactly. Teleportation scrolls have run out and there wasn't anyone else to send. You know the current situation," I began to spout out anything that came to mind. I had no idea what I was talking about, but the main thing was that I did it with a confident face! These may be advanced Intellect Imitators, but they're still programs, so could well fall for it.

"All right. Do climb on," the stranger pointed to the sharp-toothed raptor that the trolls immediately brought to my side. "I don't have a supply with me, I'll have to ask the Keeper, let him make some new ones."

Keeper? This title is given only to NPCs in charge of a castle. Have I stumbled across something interesting? The main thing was to behave naturally, as if none of this was out of the ordinary for me.

I failed.

After an hour-long wild ride through the forest, we found ourselves in an enormous clearing with a Dark Citadel at its centre. My jaw hit the floor as I looked it over. There were 200-level ogres, goblins ranging from level 10 to level 100, dark orcs... The place was full of bustle and you got the feeling that you were right in the middle of the Dark Empire. When we came up to the castle I got the sense of the full scale of the local Kartoss operation: enormous walls, around twenty meters high and five meters thick and a deep water-filled moat... A typical Dark Castle of about level 400. The stranger smiled, looking at my reaction.

"Impressive, no?"

"Very," was my honest answer. "I would've never thought that such a wonder could be standing here."

"I agree. It was planned by none other than..."

"Who let the human in?" a terrible scream went through the castle.

"Keeper," my guide bowed his head, "this is the envoy of the Coordinator, who is in need of portal scrolls again."

"Does he snack on them or something? I just sent him a batch a month ago!"

"You know the current situation," the man in black replied with my words. Who is he? And what the heck is really going on here?

"All right, I'm coming down now. Wait there!"

"The eight free citizens and all the Heralds flying all over the place had caused us a world of trouble," my guide finally explained. "We were beginning to fear that the entire plan would collapse, but the Coordinator is pretty shrewd. I would admit that even I doubted that the idea of building a castle deep in Farstead lands, so far away from the ziggurat, was at all feasible, but practice has proved me wrong."

"Keeper, that isn't all," I decided to go for the big bluff.

"What is it?" the voice sounded once again.

"The Coordinator didn't send me here just for the scrolls. This morning several of those that turned have driven away the entire Beatwick herd. However, the Coordinator believes that it should be brought back. The residents are getting too worried. It's too early to show our hand." What was I saying? I was coming out with any old rubbish, as I improvised in the 'crazy as a coot' genre!

"Arr-r-rgh!" cursed the voice. "I already sent ten of them for slaughter, to give a feast to my Warriors. Will the Coordinator get very angry if these aren't returned?"

"No, but the villagers have to be compensated the cost of the lost animals. He warned me that this could happen and said that five thousand gold for a killed cow would be sufficient. Then the missing cows might be bought in the neighbouring villages," that was my sense of profit, which I had no idea I had, suddenly rearing its head. I had to get as much as I could out of the dark ones.

"Arr-r-gh thrice over! Fine. Wait there, I'm coming down."

"Our master sure is careful of his own safety," said the guide. I wasn't quite getting this bit: which 'master' was he on about now? "He is prepared to reimburse the loss of the herd, just to remain in the shade," ah, that would be the Coordinator then. Is he the local master then? Very interesting.

"Here are thirty teleportation scrolls and fifty thousand gold," said the 300-level goblin that came out of a small building. I was wrong. This was just a 300-level castle. The level of the castle was always determined by the level of its Keeper. "What do we do with the herd?"

"Let the goblins drive it back — take it as far as the village and leg it back here," I proposed.

"That's how we'll do it then. I'll get the Wild Pack to see this through," the goblin looked at my guide. "Why are you still here? Go!"

"Who's he?" I nodded towards the departing man.

"That? Our mage. And take no notice of his appearance. He is trying to copy his previous looks, the underbaked lich. I told the master that we should have taken a dozen ordinary battle mages, but no. Said it's easier with a lich."

"I see. How is the construction progressing? The preparation of the army? What shall I tell the Coordinator?" I was doing all I could to make some progress with the quest. I needed at least a slight hint to understand who the Coordinator was.

"We are finishing construction. Two blackeners have been built, but are yet to be launched. We are waiting for the third. The army is in full battle-readiness — prepared to fight off an attack of two hundred free citizens of up to and including level 300."