The Kartoss Gambit (The Way of the Shaman: Book #2) (5 page)

So this green piece of slime is level thirty, too! Never mind, we've beaten bigger goons than you into a pulp — the main thing was not to let him get away far enough to shoot. As if hearing my thoughts the goblin gave a shout and started to make tracks fast. Where do you think you're going? Getting a better grip on my Tambourine, I went after the dark minion — like in the good old times, when I tried to make it into Kartoss by myself. Although that time I was the one running, with the Wild Pack at my heels — the main fighting force of the Dark Empire pitted against the players. They did get me in the end. I just couldn't run and at the same time take aim and shoot at three-hundred level-mobs. Now, however, I had one big advantage in that I could summon Lightning Spirits as I ran. The main thing is to keep an eye on Energy, while I'm singing them songs.

The Goblin went into the forest, trying to choose hard-to-reach places. Being small, he slid under the branches very easily, which was no simple task for me. The tree branches would not just knock the breath out of me, taking off my Energy, but hit me in the face, competing with the goblin in reducing my Hit Points. Before he reached the trees I managed to get that pointy-eared menace almost down to zero, but his life bar, though flashing red, refused to disappear. I saw that I would never catch up with the goblin inside such a forest and stood every chance to lose him, so I stopped and started to summon a Lightning Spirit. I needed just three seconds to...

The arrival of an arrow again took 220 Hit Points off me. Oh no, you're not getting away with it this time, you bastard! Take that! The last words of the song about the Shaman flew off my lips, the goblin yelped and his frame went grey. At last!

Experience gained: +200 Experience, points remaining until next level: 1001.

Skill increase:

+5% to Intellect. Total: 23%.

Achievement earned!

The Defender of the Empire level 1 (19 Kartoss minion kills until the next level).

Achievement reward: damage cause to all the members of the Kartoss Dark Empire is increased by 1%.

You can look at the list of achievements in the character settings.

With some difficulty I struggled through the branches to the goblin's body and picked up twenty gold, an ordinary bow and a dozen crooked arrows. My loot had no stat bonuses, so I decided to sell it to an NPC trader. I had little desire to be seen by the other players with this rubbish — just so they could have a laugh at my expense. Never mind — a couple of extra gold coins wouldn't burst my pockets. After I summoned a Healing Spirit on myself, increasing my Energy and Hit Points, I had time to think. I just couldn't get my head around what just happened: what was this pointy-eared and bad smelling character doing in the neighbourhood of Beatwick? And, more importantly, why on earth was he so keen to hunt me down? From what I can remember of specific traits of dark goblins, they never hunt alone. Usually they form a pack — the larger the better. And now this naive mob decided to attack me one-on-one. This was all very strange.

I shook my head in disappointment that I hadn't come across any wolves today, got up and headed back to the village. I will try a different direction tomorrow: perhaps I'll bump into the pack there, even if the Headman did clearly say that the wolves were roaming around somewhere in this area. Well, we'll see, I guess. The main thing was to avoid having this quest becoming a dead weight. I was extremely reluctant to lose any reputation, which, as experience showed, my Shaman would have considerable difficulty in raising. I did, of course, have some hopes for the daily +5 to reputation that I was receiving thanks to the First Kill, but having to wait a couple of years...

I barely made two steps, when I heard a twig quietly snapping behind me. That couldn't be the goblin coming back to life, surely. I turned around. I closed my eyes, waited a couple of seconds and opened them again. Nothing changed. A stupid thought popped into my head that I should continue walking straight as if nothing happened. So much for my being upset at not being able to find the pack. There they are, the lot of them, with their level twenty leader, who was nearly as tall as me. Trying to do anything when you are surrounded by ten wolves is pretty pointless. One thing was comforting — the eyes of the wolves weren't red, a fact that stopped me in my initial impulse to summon a Lightning Spirit and bring down at least one mob before respawn. While the wolves were deciding what to do with me, I had to figure out how to get the heck out of here. I quickly glanced at the surrounding trees. That one I would never climb, the branches are too thick and close, that one is too small to take my weight, that one is full of some kind of thorns... Ah! We have a tree! Too bad it's twenty meters away. The wolves wouldn't let me get to it in time. After assessing the situation, I froze like a statue. How did that song go? "How sweet to be a Cloud, And not a floating... Shaman. Every little cloud, Gets kicked in the..." I didn't have time to think of where the cloud was going to get kicked. The leader of the pack came up to the body of the goblin, growled at it and then pierced me with a stare. I was having quite a day for staring contests with my canine brothers!

For the second time today the surrounding world went grey, becoming covered in mist, and I saw a short 'film sketch' potentially titled 'wolf genocide' with a mob of dark goblins in the starring role. A band of small green-skinned bastards, armed with bows, took over a mine (a Tin one, judging by the ore veins), which was home to a pack of wolves. At the time of the attack the wolf cubs were seized and put into cages. An attack group of twenty wolves tried get the cubs back, but failed. An enormous female, most likely the leader's mate, fought until the very last moment and, in the end, the wolves took her off the battlefield wounded with many arrows. Half of the pack died at the mine, without ever freeing a single cub. The show was over and the world returned to its normal state.

Quest available: "Last Hope Step 1. Saving Grey Death."

Step 1 description: Save Grey Death, grievously wounded in the fight against the goblins. If the she-wolf dies, the leader would not survive his grief and will die together with her. If you complete the quest chain the wolves will leave the lands surrounding Beatwick forever. Quest chain class: Rare. Reward for completing Step 1: 250 Experience. Reward for the quest chain: Hidden. Penalty for failing/refusing the quest: None.

'There are no quests in Beatwick', I chuckled as I accepted my third in two days. It's a pity that I wouldn't be able to carry out the Headman's assignment and get all those wolf tails. I had no desire whatsoever to attack the wolves now. I was ready to suffer through being ignored by the village residents for two months if completing a rare quest chain was at stake. I'll go and catch that Vagren if the worst came to worst. It was decided — I would help the wolves.

I followed them to a small cave where the wounded she-wolf was lying. Though you may as well have called her a giant hedgehog: almost twenty arrows were sticking out of her in all directions. How she managed to survive this remained a complete mystery to me, but her fitful breathing was a clear sign that she continued to fight for her life. The enormous wolf came up to her, licked her nose, squealed something and gave me an expectant look, as if to say 'Now you do the healing.'

Strange. Could a Rare quest be so easy? For a healer this was elementary- select, say the healing incantation and get the Experience. Maybe I made a mistake in choosing not to hunt the wolves — I might have had more to gain from helping the Headman. I just needed to summon the spirits five or six times to completely heal the pack leader's mate. And you get 900 Experience just for that? There must be a catch here, I can feel it!

I selected the she-wolf, summoned a Healing Spirit and immediately saw what the matter was. The summoning had an unexpected result. No, the Spirit did get summoned and duly entered the wolf, giving her part of its strength, but all of the Spirit's strength, focused on the healing, was transferred to me in the form of damage. All five hundred and five units of it. It was just as well that part of the damage got deducted by my resistance, but the situation was still far from ideal. The one small blessing was the lack of pain.

After restoring all my Hit Points, I took a moment to think. By the looks of it, the wolf had to be healed by non-standard means. But, in that case, which? What are we going to do with you, gorgeous? I have no bandages and the Spirits are bouncing off you. Should I feed some special herb to you? I read over the quest description one more time, but it didn't say a word about how to go about completing it. Nor did it contain a requirement stating that the quest could only be done by a healer. This meant that it could be accepted and completed even by Warriors and Hunters, who were unable to heal with anything other than bandages and potions.

Lost at what to do next, I stroked the heavily breathing she-wolf. Even if she was an Imitator, it was hard not to feel sorry for her. Especially that...

Please confirm that you have read the rules for completing the 'Last Hope' quest chain.

The big sign 'Read the Rules' was beaconing and trying to catch my eye, so I pressed it right away. Let's see what rules they are talking about.

Access to the 'Hidden quests' section granted due to the possession of the 'Last Hope' quest chain.

Attention! During the 'Saving Grey Death' quest sensory filters are turned off by 50%. Please note that during this quest you will be feeling real pain.

Your reading this has been put on the record. Should you decide to take legal action, this will be taken into account during the examination of the complaint.

Please confirm that you would like to continue with the quest 'Saving Grey Death'.

Filters to be turned off? I just don't get it. What do sensory filters have to do with healing the she-wolf? All right, I agree. Keeping in mind that I can feel all 100% of the pain, perhaps a miracle would happen and for a while the pain I am able to feel would actually be reduced by half. That would be great. All right, I'm prepared to feel the pain, what else?

Damage taken. Hit Points reduced by 220: 450 (Arrow hit) — 230 (Physical defence). Total Hit Points: 420 of 680.

Update of the 'Saving Grey Death' quest. Step 1': 1 of 20 arrows pulled out.

No way I'm going on with this! Breathing heavily, I got up from the floor, where I collapsed from the pain that suddenly hit me. Could my 100% sensory input have been topped up with another 50%? The pain was so great, my muscles all began to spasm! I quickly summoned a Healing Spirit on myself, caught my breath, sat next to the she-wolf and had a think. Or rather made it look like I was having a think, because other than the thought 'I will not be able to take twenty hits like this in a row', my head was completely empty. This was crazy. No way the developers would come up with a quest that could be completed only through that much pain. They just couldn't. There must be some kind of a trick to make the arrows slip out themselves. I just have to think harder.

The pack leader came up to me. He sniffed the arrow I took out and looked at me as if asking: "What's with the hold up? Get back to work already." How can I get back to work, you old grey, if it hurts so much? I can't take that many hits, I'm sorry. Although... Maybe it really hurts only the first time and it gets easier afterwards? Harnessing my willpower and realising that I was beginning to look like a real masochist, I touched the wounded she-wolf.

Update of the quest 'Saving Grey Death. Step 1': 2 of 20 arrows pulled out.

I was on the floor again when I came to myself. Like hell it's easier! I even blacked out! My Endurance ended up increasing by 20% — I'd get it to level twenty soon, if I keep taking the arrows out this way. A stalemate, by the looks of it: a pain either to give up or to keep going. And to keep going was way more than I could handle.

The brainstorm that I tried to summon up petered out without a result. I just didn't understand what I had to do and how. That's it, time for a rest! I should come out of the cave and get some fresh air — perhaps then some useful thought would strike me. I couldn't even make a wild guess at how to take out the rest of the arrows. Well, no. I could, of course, but I had very little desire to go down that path.

Searching the manual was no help either. First I was told that I could access the 'Hidden Quests' section, where I read that to complete the quest I had to heal the she-wolf, having pulled all the arrows out of her first. Did I rejoice too soon at gaining access to the manual? Even the hard-core trolls on the forums were silent about this quest. That's it, time to go for that fresh air and do some thinking.

Either the floor was slippery or my legs hadn't quite recovered from my previous arrow-pulling, but the unforeseen happened. When I was getting up, I lost my balance, which made me fall down again — on the wolf that was standing next to his mate. I muttered something like, 'sorry, old grey, I didn't mean it', and started to get up again. The wolf just snorted, but didn't growl. Knowing that I was crossing all bounds of impudence, I leant on the wolf with one hand, while my other hand accidentally touched the she-wolf. Perhaps subconsciously I still wanted to complete this quest...

Update of the quest 'Saving Grey Death. Step 1': 3 of 20 arrows pulled out.