Web of Worlds

by Michael Atamanov

  Mental Fortitude skill increased to level seventy-three!

  Ah, now my defenses kick in? The pop-up message could be taken as little more than a mean joke. What the hell kind of raggedy defense was this? Enemy mages could just walk up and slam me to the ground! All my antimagic defense was torn into shreds in one blow. It was the same as trying to use a piece of notebook paper to block a shotgun shot. Hopeless. Nevertheless, I took the system message as something of a hint and put all three free points into Mental Fortitude, raising that critically important skill to seventy-six.

  “He’s resisting!” another mage came in after Gerd Avir-Syn and spoke with clear enjoyment. My attempts to defend myself amused him.

  “Pitiful vain attempts, doomed to failure,” the old Psionic Mage was categorical as ever. “Without magic and the chance to use his abilities, he’s no one. He also can’t kill himself. He’s just about to lose consciousness, then we can load him up.”

  Mysticism skill increased to level thirty-two!

  What was he talking about? Lose consciousness? I wasn’t even paralyzed anymore. I could move if I wanted to. Yes, I was still stunned and poorly perceiving reality, but my mind was working full strength searching for a way out of this situation. And that said nothing about a possible loss of consciousness.

  I could not kill myself? Arguable! I had four powerful fragmentation grenades in my inventory. That would be enough to send me and everyone else in this tiny little room to respawn. Just to be safe, I would actually have to first stash my Listener Energy Armor in my inventory, which had a shield that could absorb 12000 units of damage. Or maybe not. Then I would most likely be the only survivor.

  “Grandpa, what are you doing?!” Minn-O somewhat found her feet and threw herself reproachfully on her forebearer. “Release my husband and me at once!”

  A booming slap forced the girl to stay quiet, and the Princess began to sob, insulted.

  “Foolish chicken! You’d better keep your nose out of serious games, and you’d really better not raise your voice to the person your life depends on! Minn-O this is your chance to lay low and keep your head down! What do you think I did after I killed myself in the Geckho spaceport? Do you know? Of course not! I left into the real world and ordered your virt pod destroyed!!! In my presence, its fragile plastic was stuck through with a dozen metal bars. Even if the mechanism wasn’t fully broken, if you attempt to respawn in that capsule, you’ll be killed instantly!”

  “But... why?” I could hear unhidden horror in my wayedda’s voice.

  “Oh, for the mere reason,” the ghastly old man suddenly began to shout, “that you were not supposed to survive Coruler Thumor-Anhu La-Fin’s funeral!!! It was all planned down to the finest detail! We calculated the power and location of that explosion very carefully. All our competitors were to be elimintated in one fell swoop. And the people of the parallel world were to be officially blamed for the anti-mage terror attack. The La-Fin family estate was to be transferred to me as the closest living relative. I had even already come to an agreement with the most powerful La-Varrez dynasty to assert my claims in exchange for part of the inheritance. But you’re just such a beanpole it only ripped your legs off while all those around you died!!!”

  Mysticism skill increased to level thirty-three!

  The pop-up distracted me from the old man’s hysterical shouting. The skill responsible for mana-restore speed was growing very quickly. Maybe when my mana bar was almost empty, the narcotic intoxication had additional effect. After all, alongside the penalties to Constitution and Agility and especially to Endurance Points, I now had a huge 240% bonus to maximum mana and 67% bonus to restore speed for the same. I wasn’t really sure what was going on but, in any case, all was not lost. My enemies mistakenly thought I was an empty husk and no threat. And meanwhile my magic was gradually refilling.

  All the while, the ghastly old man continued sharing his plans:

  “But when you survived that explosion, we decided to use that and play things differently. Still I really didn’t like your headstrong and nasty character, so I destroyed your virt pod to make you obedient and silken once again. Now you’ll go with the La-Varrez family mages and do everything they say! They will add you to their faction and you can leave the game in a different place. But before that you’ll write a missive in which you recuse yourself from the status of junior wife of the idiotic dropout Gnat. In exchange for that loser, you’ll be given a decent husband from the La-Varrez dynasty with proper magical abilities.”

  What lowdown bastards! I was just seething with hate when I heard the old man speak. I had a sharp change of mind about the fragmentation grenades. I didn’t want to kill my wife. However other plans of action were coming to mind. The disorientation effect had faded and I managed to take a look around. There was still no lighting other than the flashlights in the hands of the mages. By the way, who specifically was here? I already knew the old Psionic Mage, but I quickly brought up the information about the other two:

  Gerd Hal-Fliter La-Varrez. Human. Level-111 Psionic Mage.

  Rota-Uli La-Varrez. Human. Level-98 Telekinetic Mage.

  Another Psionic Mage, this one more experienced even than Avir-Syn? Not good. What was more I didn’t know what the special features and strong sides of the Telekinetic class were, but this woman with short red hair was sucking all the Endurance and Magic Points out of me by periodically pointing her magic wand in my direction. Apparently she was having a hard time keeping my magic and energy stores emptied and it was tiring her, because the witch was doing it less and less often. In fact, the last few times she couldn’t even burn up all my mana.

  It took my great effort not to smile. After drinking with the Miyelonians, I still had serious debuffs to my physical characteristics, but was now stronger than ever in terms of Magic Points and their restore speed! The enemies couldn’t have guessed that, otherwise they’d have come up with something a bit more effective than trying to hold my mana at zero.

  Mental Fortitude skill increased to level seventy-seven!

  Yes, the Psionic Mage Gerd Poll-Itra was stubbornly sizing me up and not stopping her attempts to take over my mind. For now it was not working. And if at first the Psionic Mage found my resistance funny, now she was just getting more and more peeved. But seemingly she also wasn’t doing great with her mana stores because at a certain point the dangerous wtich turned away and drank two elixirs in a row. I had something like that in my back pocket as well. Ever since the Medu-Ro IV station, I had been carrying two thermoses of Miyelonian cocktail in my inventory which could restore energy and magic. But I was in no rush to drink them. I wouldn’t manage to do it without anyone noticing and that would be a clear sign that their control over my body and mind was not as complete as they thought.

  And what would I spend this mana on anyhow? A direct mental duel with stronger and more experienced enemies? Not even funny. Last time they folded me in two seconds. No, that was definitely not an option. Take control of the turrets? An elegant move. But there was still no electricity and all four turrets were inactive with a zero percent chance of taking control.

  However, there was a much more interesting target in the room to take control of. Every mage had a capsule sewn into their robe which could be activated by a certain signal and would kill the wearer if they were at risk of being captured. I couldn’t see these capsules, but they were probably there. To see them, I’d have to activate the scanning pictogram. And so I laid down on the floor, imitating a stunned and paralyzed person while I patiently waited for the cooldown to trip so I could use it again.

  Mysticism skill increased to level thirty-four!

  Here a smile crawled onto my face and I couldn’t hide it. Gerd Poll-Itra La-Varrez behind me was already cursing loudly before that, enraged by my stubborn resistance. What, did he not know a Listener was also a mage and that Gnat’s main statistic was Intelligence? I suspected that my Intelligence was no lower than the self-assured Psionic Mage’s, and his chances
against me one-on-one were very small. Actually, while the Scanning skill reloaded, why not give him a little job! I set four points into Intelligence which, along with the other two bonus points brought that figure up by six points to thirty-two. And with the two Intelligence rings, I was now all the way up to thirty-seven! How do you like that, Gerd Half Liter?

  Mental Fortitude skill increased to level seventy-eight!

  Astrolinguistics skill increased to level eighty-eight!

  My cursing and insulting vocabulary in the language of the magocratic world was noticeably richer and I suspected there were lots more four-letter words to learn. “Dried out blue whale penis jammed into the (censored) of a crested baboon,” was not even the longest phrase I heard.

  The Scanning icon finally changed color, reloaded. I had plenty of Magic Points and got right to work before the red-headed witch pointed her mana-burning wand at me yet again. So, what could I see? I had to zoom in the mini-map to get a closer look at the small objects. So then, here was what I was looking for:

  Radio-activated poison ampule detonator. Chance of making inoperable 77%. Total control chance 59%.

  As it turned out, the La-Fin Faction mages weren’t the only ones who used these. By the way, old Avir-Syn didn’t have one on him. He seemingly hadn’t changed clothes since the space port.

  Well, time to begin? I mentally ran through a plan in my head. Abruptly drink the two thermoses of alcoholic cocktail. Don’t fall over from drinking too much (not all that easy with reduced Constitution and basically zero Endurance). Then wait a few seconds for mana to load up enough to use my Machine Control and try to take down the two mages. And hope all the while that all three enemies would just stand by silently and watch...

  Hrm, that all sounded a rare kind of stupid. Let’s start from the fact the thermoses contained two quarts of fairly strong alcohol and I just physically wouldn’t be able to drink that much liquid fast enough. And meanwhile the guileful old man turned from Minn-O to me:

  “Why hasn’t Gnat crashed yet?”

  The red-headed witch answered Avir-Syn, again pointing her wand at me and sucking out almost all my Endurance Points and most of my mana:

  “I don’t know either. In theory he should have lost all his energy long ago and fallen unconscious! Clearly Gnat’s defense against magic is somewhat higher level than we thought. It’ll take more time.”

  “Then quit talking and go harder! The last thing we need is for him to come around, take out his scary Annihilator and shoot holes in each of us, one after the next!”

  Funny. If I had the Annihilator in the first place, I’d have sent these creeps to respawn long ago! But then I saw something even better than the deadly relict weapon. Gerd Tamara, forgotten by all, suddenly opened her eyes! Our gazes met and I didn’t spare any of my few Magic Points, immediately reading her mind:

  “Hold on, Gnat! I’m healing my joints right now. I just have to crawl over to a laser pistol someone threw on the floor over there.”

  Beaten half to death, her innumerable wounds probably causing ghastly pain, Tamara wasn’t bellyaching or complaining but reassuring me, a person in complete physical health?! Unbelievable!

  “I’ve got a better plan. Just defend me against magic attacks and I’ll take care of the rest!”

  Tamara closed and opened her eyes with exaggerated lethargy, showing that she understood. Three seconds passed and a brilliant warm wave of absolute harmony, happiness and complete assurance in my own safety rolled over me. It was hard to communicate these glorious sensations in words. I felt like a newborn baby in the arms of an endlessly loving mother.

  Blessing received!

  Immunity to fear. Immunity to magical effects. Immunity to psionic control.

  Magic Points regeneration sped up by 713%!

  Hitpoints regeneration sped up by 540%!

  Endurance Points regeneration sped up by 830%!

  Defense against physical damage increased by 13%

  Defense against magical effects increased by 77%.

  Duration: 1 minute, 24 seconds.

  How about that! I didn’t even suspect what the paladin was capable of! I waited five seconds just to make sure I had enough Endurance Points then slowly stood up to the surprised gazes of all three enemies and, demonstrating a complete lack of haste, took out the thermos of Miyelonian cocktail.

  “I don’t like killing sober,” I told my shocked enemies, taking a few big gulps of alcohol.

  “Rota-Uli, wake up! Drain him!” Gerd Avir-Syn shouted.

  The Telekinetic Mage came to life sharply and extended her magic wand toward me, but this time it had no effect. My mana and endurance were coming back faster than this mage girl could suck. Five seconds later, she herself was drained and lowered her hand, even forced to get down on one knee when she hit zero Magic and Endurance Points. I took a step, extended a hand and effortlessly plucked the intriguing magic wand from the enchantress’s powerless fingers.

  Wizard’s Nightmare. Light magic wand * modified.

  Burns through target’s Magic and Endurance Points, spending those of the caster. Efficiency coefficient: 3.4 to one Endurance Point and 7.4 to one Magic Point.

  Attention! This weapon contains the following modifications:

  +20% Magic Points

  +1 Intelligence, +1 Constitution

  +140% critical hit effect, Stun on critical hit

  Attention! This weapon was named Wizard’s Nightmare by its first owner. Name cannot be deleted or changed.

  Statistic requirements: Intelligence 23, Constitution 23.

  Skill requirements: Psionic 80, Telekinetics 80.

  Attention! Your character lacks the Telekinetics skill.

  Attention! Your character has insufficient Constitution to use this item.

  An interesting item and, in magical duels, it would often even be indispensable. But unfortunately it was not for me. And although I could theoretically get Telekinetics to level 100, then spend a long time stubbornly leveling it to 80, the chance of getting Gnat’s Constitution up by seven points... was slim. Should I really spend the two remaining statistic points now on Constitution and find a strong piece of “magic” jewelry to raise Constitution by another +2 or +3...? No, this wasn’t worth my time.

  “You’re not big enough for such a dangerous toy!” I told the redheaded magess with a smirk, hiding the wand in my own inventory. “And next time, before you try to burn through another wizard’s mana, make sure you’ve got enough to finish the job.”

  Mental Fortitude skill increased to level seventy-nine!

  Mental Strength skill increased to level eighty!

  I turned to the two Psionic Mages unhurriedly as they tried to take control of my mind with all their might or at least to mentally harm me in some way.

  “Hey there, you should be ashamed to two-on one somebody, especially from behind! And it was very foolish of you to forget the first rule of Psionics: if your target’s Intelligence is higher than yours by ten or more points, the success chance for a mental attack is precisely zero. I now have forty-two (this was a huge lie of course, but it’s always helpful to stupefy an enemy). Are you sure you want to grapple with me?”

  Authority increased to 59!

  “Gnat, behind you!” Minn-O shouted, but I didn’t have time to react.

  Medium Armor skill increased to level fifty-seven!

  Something gave a sparkle and my Listener Energy Armor forcefield sagged by three percent, then another two. I turned around, not even alarmed, more like surprised. I was wrong to count the Telekinetic Mage out. She was still on one knee but now shooting me with a Dark Faction laser pistol. I let her get a couple more shots off, watching the complete lack of success with interest, then I shook my head in reproach:

  “Idiot! You’re a mage, not a shooter! With such a pitiful pistol skill you couldn’t even kill a mouse, which is to say nothing of an armored target! I don’t think you’re hearing me... Is my accent really that hard to understand? Okay, I
’m sick of you! Die!”

  Psionic skill increased to level eighty-four!

  Machine Control skill increased to level seventy-eight!

  You have reached level eighty-two!

  You have received three skill points!

  I managed to break the poison capsule, all while imitating a mental attack! I ended the Telekinetic Mage and turned to the remaining enemies. And just then, Gerd Poll-Itra La-Varrez’s lifeless body hit the cold floor. What happened to him? I tossed a quick gaze at Tamara and Minn-O. No, they were not involved. The Paladin, her legs seemingly broken in a few places, had just started crawling towards the laser pistol, which was on the floor ten feet away. Minn-O then couldn’t move until that very second. It must have been Gerd-Poll-Itra controlling her mind. The experienced mage could seemingly smell things heating up and hurried to kill himself before he was taken prisoner.

  “Your last ally has fled in dishonor!” I turned to the ghastly old man. “But you and I are gonna need to have a very thorough conversation. As head of House La-Fin, I’ve just got too many questions for you. First off about the terrorism at the funeral, and working for a competing magical dynasty. And would you look here, a torture rack just got freed up!”

  I extended a hand and tried to capture the old man’s mind, but it didn’t work. Nothing. Just an impenetrable wall. But my opponent was also apparently flummoxed based on the Mental Fortitude increase message that quickly flickered past, bringing it to eighty-one. And what now? Should I attack him hand-to-hand and try to take the old man down? Sure, with a debuff to Agility and Constitution, with a 90% Endurance Points penalty? I’d fall in the first two blows. Should I just use the Paralyzer?

  By the looks of things, approximately the same thoughts were going through Gerd Avir-Syn’s mind. But the Psionic Mage was much better prepared. Instead of the flashlight, now in his inventory, the ancient mage was suddenly holding a carved six-and-a-half-foot staff made of black wood and capped with a human skull. What a familiar staff! Known by the name of Wrath, I had once picked it up off the ground after killing Leng Thumor-Anhu La-Fin in the Harpy Cliffs node! I wondered where Gerd Avir-Syn got this item. The former Dark Faction leader was known never to part with it! The skull at the top of the staff lit up blood red and a blinding bolt of white lightning shot out, striking me right in the chest!