Clan Dominance - the Sleepless Ones 2

by Dem Mikhailov

  “We’ll leave everything we don’t need, including the ax. You can take this stuff back; as for the rest of the pile, it’s junk we don’t need. Ready?”

  “I am.”

  I wasn’t satisfied by the answer, so I took a good look at Kyre, head to foot, and grunted; the girl became like a small pillar of polished metal. She was holding a huge sword in her hands; there was a buckler behind her back, and she had a helmet with a white bird with its wings open wide on her head.

  “And I’ll be in command,” said Kyre, nodding stubbornly.

  “No problem,” I agreed easily. “Be in command, memsahib. But wait for some ten or twenty minutes before you start giving orders; is that all right?

  She asked me why, which made sense, I guess.

  “You’ll see why in a moment,” I told her, heading toward a peaceful meadow with animals frolicking there happily. “Does your book say anything about deer?”

  “Deer? Not a word. It’s a coast of love without any violence or threat. A paradise of sorts. There isn’t a single mention of deer anywhere.”

  “That’s just perfect!” I exclaimed happily, stopping one step away from the silky grass.

  “Look at how beautiful they are!”

  I only nodded silently. The deer looked magnificent indeed. And I have seen no such beasts in the “other world.” I’ve seen deer aplenty, but they’d never looked like this before; they were never as beautiful as these.

  There was a large buck with a strong neck and enormous antlers; Level 47. A gracious doe with large and dewy eyes; Level 40. There were also three spotted fawns, whose age was roughly the same, but who differed in appearance and behavior alike. Something didn’t look quite right to me; and, once I took I closer look, I realized what it was: just two adult deer with three fawns. So either the coast of love did include violence, or the deer learned to give birth to triplets.

  Having noticed our presence, the father of the deer family just grunted, without showing any aggression at all. The fawns ran toward us full speed, shaking their butts in a funny way, but still stopping every now and then to nibble on a clump of grass or find out what a given particular flower tasted like. Completely inexperienced, the poor creatures.

  “Cuties!” Kyre was fascinated. “You’re so pretty, all of you! How lovely! Ros, just take a look at how funnily they run!”

  “Right... So there’s nothing written about the deer, right?”

  “I’ve told you there wasn’t.” The girl made a dismissive gesture without even bothering to turn her head. “They’re just mobs in a pass-through location; they’d probably brought them here to make the landscape look nicer. The legend has it that this place is not merely a reflection of Myrthe’s love; it also represents her dream. Maybe that was something that she’d wished for while still alive — her and Grym frolicking happily with their three sons. Or something to that effect...”

  “I get it,” I mumbled as I took a rolled scroll from the pocket of my jacket.

  I raised it over my head, and yelled ‘Stream of Fire!’ loudly, the deer still being within my field of vision. There was a soft crackling noise as the scroll dissolved into thin air and my fingers became tinged by a semi-transparent crimson mist for a moment.

  Before Kyre realized anything, a stream of fiery lava burst from the ground with a roar, the liquid fire erupting upon the peaceful meadow. It only took a moment for the fiery lava to erupt from the earth. In an instant, the deer parents were consumed by a fiery wave that kept on going; yet another, and the frolicking fawns turned to ash before our eyes. Finally, a hot wave of air blew into our faces, the smell of billowing smoke tinged gray... And that’s the end of your dream, Myrthe Sureblade. It’s all turned to dust.

  There was what would amount to a full page of system messages referring to experience received. Everything in the meadow was incinerated; all creatures great and small, from deer to bees and mice.

  You have leveled up!

  You have leveled up!

  You have leveled up!

  You have leveled up!

  “Twenty-seven,” I exhaled, looking at the enormous smoldering fire emitting whitish smoke.

  “Ros... Why would you...” Kyre was crying; possibly failing to notice the digital tears rolling across her cheeks as she stared at me in disbelief.

  “Wake up, paladin!” I roared. “You were the first to tell me it was a game. How did you intend to progress, given that the mobs on this bloody coast are around Level 50? What did you think would happen in a place where, as you say, dark horrors would be creeping out of the cracks? Get a grip on yourself, Kyre! You’re barely making any sense at all!”

  “The fawns...”

  “The fawns will restore in no later than an hour,” I said. “The same goes for the burnt grass. And if we find no other mobs, I’ll burn these again.”

  “This is a quest zone; they may not restore,” Kyre sobbed, making me squint in wonder.

  “What’s the matter with you, Kyre? You don’t look yourself.”

  “They were so pretty...”

  “Even rats look pretty in this world! But you’ve killed dozens to win the tournament. How many levels did you get?”

  “S-six...” Kyre said, calming down.

  “Four in my case,” I sighed. Four levels in a seconds. Four blanks drawn... Damn you, Gosha!”

  We leveled up drastically, but not free of charge. None of our skills has progressed. That was pointless growth; the way weeds grow — fast and strong, but yielding no fruit and drying up quickly.

  “Dump them all into Stamina,” I said menacingly, looking at the short message before my eyes,

  Points available for distribution: 20

  “We need to invest every effort into becoming tougher,” I added. “We’ll spend some of the scrolls here, and leave the rest for going through Myrthe’s madness. It was too damn early for us to venture here!”

  “You’re right, Ros,” Kyre nodded in agreement, wiping the tears from her eyes. “I’ve gone soppy. It’s probably the weariness and all those things that have been happening IRL. It may have been too early for us, but we’ll see this thing through no matter what!”

  “That’s what I wanted to hear,” I chuckled. “This is the Kyre I recognize. Come on, partner. We’ll keep looking for other “dream families” and incinerating them. Another scroll, perhaps, and then we’ll be doing it by ourselves.

  We met the next family after some five minutes, a couple of steps away from the burned-out meadow, in a small but thick fir forest. The green firs looked majestic and would have been a fine addition to any forest; however, one couldn’t help feeling them being out of place next to the golden beach and the tropical palm trees. And the fir forest was where we’d discovered another animal family — two grown-up wolves and three cubs; none of the latter capable of staying in the same place for more than a second.

  Once I saw the enormous male wolf with fur lighter than his mate’s, I felt shivers running down my spine — this Level 50 beast did look menacing. I had initially planned to activate the “swamp” spell, but then I noticed the owls in the branches, and a family of squirrels, hopping about happily. A family of badgers emerged from the rustling trees, paying no attention to the wolves, while the predators paid no attention to a free five-course meal walking by. No violence and no menace indeed. Parents walking about and taking their time on the green grass, warmed by the rays of the sun, paying no attention to their kids, as if they hadn’t existed in the first place, while cubs of every race played non-stop.

  And all of them came in couples... Well, in fives, in fact. This “coast of love” was beginning to evoke some primordial terror in me.

  I shook my head to get rid of the feeling, placed the scroll back in my pack, and fished out another one — Rain of Fire, guaranteed to cover this idyll completely. I rose my hand slowly, and excreted this ditty that had just come to my mind,

  “All the lovely animals, all creatures great and small. Wolves and owls and squ
irrels, the good Lord burned them all.”

  “Ros, what is it with you?” Kyre said, standing in front of me and lowering a sword ready for battle.

  “Nothing... It’s just that it’s not the coast of love, it’s some well-masked horror ride. Rain of Fire!”

  Achievement unlocked!

  You have received an achievement: David and Goliath, Tier 2.

  You can see the table of achievements in your character's menu.

  Your reward: +0.5% to experience received.

  Current level of the bonus: +1.5%.

  Once I took my last look at the ashes of the fir forest, I mumbled lugubriously,

  “Six levels more.”

  “Seven more,” Kyre chimed in as a distorted echo.

  I was at Level 33. Kyre got to 28.

  “We grow like mushrooms,” Kyre smiled wanly.

  “Yeah... And we’re as good as mushrooms in a fight,” I grunted. “Any picker would put us in his basket without even having to use a knife. Have you done anything about your unassigned stat points?”

  “In a second.”

  “We emphasize stamina,” I reminded, shaking my head ruefully. Kyre might need extra Stamina points; she’d be doing fine in the future — a Paladin is a glorified tank, after all, and even better than one in quite a few ways, but as for me...”

  “I know,” Kyre sighed. “Done and done. Now I’m a muscled girl with a thick skin. Have you distributed yours?”

  “I’m at it right now,” I replied.

  Fifty free stat points... so much and so little.

  I thought for a moment before I distributed stat points across three parameters and saw what I’d come up with.

  Character's current level: 33.

  Character's Basic Stats:

  Strength: 16

  Intellect: 87

  Agility: 11

  Stamina: 30

  Wisdom: 27

  The numbers on the bars in the corner of the screen grew ostensibly as I got a new achievement under my belt.

  Achievement unlocked!

  You have received an achievement: Top Shape, Tier 1.

  You can see the table of achievements in your character's menu.

  Your reward:

  +5 to Physical Defense

  +75 HP

  Current Defense bonus level: +5

  Current HP bonus level: +75

  Another thirteen points into Intellect, and my Wise Man achievement would get to Tier 3. At this rate, it should happen soon enough.

  “Got any achievements?” I inquired.

  “I have. Two good ones, and another one that’s nothing to write home about. Damn...”

  “Which one?” I was surprised. I pulled up the table of my own achievements and looked at them attentively. Nothing there I’d call particularly shameful...

  “Freeloader!”

  “You’re calling me a freeloader?”

  “I’m not! It’s what the achievement is called: Freeloader, First Tier. They’ve given it to me because I got ten levels as a member of a party doing nothing whatsoever!”

  “Right on... So, what does it give you?”

  “First-tier is not that bad. But I got a message that if I get second-rank Freeloader achievement, the amount of experience I get will go down by ten percent, and there are other fines as well. I need to get up by at least eleven levels by myself. And then there’s that...”

  “That what?”

  “A wooden statue of a sleeping sloth in my inventory with an inscription saying it’s the ideal souvenir for my private room!”

  “Well, yeah, but we still leveled up a bit”; I said, trying to put on a good front. “Let’s go ahead and reach your madness, protectress. You’ll be the one protecting me from it.”

  “The next cycle?” Kyre became all serious for a moment. “Wasn’t it you just telling me we’d need to level up a bit?”

  “I did,” I agreed. “But I know nothing about it. There are only a few glimpses based on a few fragments of a book I’d never read myself. I’ve never been there; I’ve never fought there; I haven’t really seen anything at all. We have leveled up; our Stamina is up a bit, too. We’ll be able to take a few blows. It’s time for reconnaissance, I believe.”

  “How about staying here a bit longer? It’s not like we have a time limit.”

  “We’d have to take a look first. If we find a mad Level 80 T. Rex with a funny cap on its head singing Jingle Bells under its nose, we’ll definitely have to linger here for a while. But none of the text fragment mention any evil monsters.”

  “What about the horror crawling from the cracks, then?” the girl said, going up a small hill covered in tall grass and looking toward the mist-covered icy peak. And the mist was really rubbing me the wrong way; it was an impenetrable veil with vortices clouding within, and dark grey tentacles protruding in every direction.

  I couldn’t help admiring Kyra’s figure. She could have been copied from some medieval painting. A knight in shining armor standing on a hill... a female version, staring into the distance, covering her eyes with a chain mail glove.

  “There are different kinds of terror,” I grunted, shrugging my shoulders. “You decide for yourself. I offer, and you do what I say.”

  “Come again?”

  “You agree to what I say, that is,” I corrected myself.

  “Let’s go,” Kyre said, having finally decided herself. Let’s reach the borderline between love and madness... Damn.”

  “Love and madness are but one step away,” I replied with a grin.

  “We’ll reach the border of the zone and then take a careful gander at what’s really going on in that mist, eliminating all the mobs we see en route and growing up a little.”

  “Aye, aye, captain!”

  “Do you see the windmill behind the rushes?” Kyre reached her hand out, pointing to a small structure in the distance. “Up there on the hill. That’s our next destination. Are you ready?”

  “Your loyal Sancho Panza is always behind you!” I stood at attention in a deliberately silly way, saluting her with my staff.”

  Kyre smiled in a barely observable way, and I exhaled in relief. That was something already.

  I couldn’t help being angry at Gosha. The girl’s just gone through a bunch of serious issues and needed a little more time to become more functional, and he’d all but forced her into the game cocoon. Spending all this time in a posh private hospital and feasting himself on exotic fruit, no doubt. In the meantime, muggings here has to play the clown, telling all the jokes he knows with a bit of improv thrown in the mix. My virtual face would crack soon at this pace, unable to deal with the tension of a careless idiot’s crazy smile...

  We should get this weird quest over and done with, the sooner, the better.

  Having caught my eye, which contrasted rather sharply with the happy smile, Kyre smiled again, and shouted, her sword gleaming over her head,

  “Onward to lunacy!”

  I could do nothing but obey.

  We had no hindrances to overcome or any sharp slopes to climb; we’d found a wide winding path of square tiles in two colors. I’d have said the colors had been chosen wrongly; cerulean blue and bright yellow. I had to look above it to keep my eyes from getting crossed, so I started to browse the environs just for the hell of it, since I’d no longer thought there would be an assault. None of the animals coming in fives and exposed to the battle scroll’s attack magic tried to attack, or even so much as run away. They’d all gotten incinerated without a single objection.

  The place felt plain weird. If you stopped thinking so much about it or being too attentive, everything pleased the view. The landscapes were sweet enough to drive you crazy, starting with the golden tropical beaches that we’d already seen and ending with the barren rocky slopes with happy caprine families prancing around, and all the clouds in the sky, white as snow, every other one looking like a furry heart.

  The chessboard path made a sharp turn sideways, winding over around
an oval lake covered in lily pads, with shallow banks. The water made a barely audible splash; a smudged golden line forming a wide arc over the surface of water, but I could still see the details — there was a goldfish family living in the tiny pond. And there was no darkness or murk one could see; even though the lake had been deep enough, the water stayed crystal clear, with a light sand bottom right underneath, with five multihued clams on the bottom, open wide. Two bigger ones and three smaller ones...

  I was beginning to hate the number five at that point.

  I stopped for a second, taking a few steps toward the lake, cupping the water in my palms and taking a careful sip. There was a flash of pink before my eyes, transforming into a soft pulsating glow, and I heard the song of a woman singing in a deep Southern soul-style, “Oh, lo-o-o-o-ove.”