“I know. I can share a personal experience with you. The game senses deception, so for some time you need to change. Not in Barliona, in reality. Take interest in the lives and business of others. Imagine yourself in their shoes, feel their emotions. Call someone who’s not expecting it. Show some sympathy. Find out how they’re doing, what’s new. It won’t immediately awaken empathy in you, but it’ll lay the foundations. Read sentimental books. Foster a pet from the sanctuary—”
“I get the picture. Is that how you opened empathy?”
Eredani nodded, but once more warned it wasn’t a quick process.
After saying goodnight, I logged out. Matty was waiting for me by the pod, looking ready to press the emergency exit button and drag me out if I’d stayed in there another couple of minutes. I rummaged around in my PDA memory and found the number of an auction employee.
“Good evening. You have reached the Buy-Sell company. How may we be of assistance?” said a pleasant female Imitator voice.
“I need the services of an auctioneer.” Responding to the machine’s greeting would have been superfluous.
“Provide a description of the goods, the quantity, and the maximum cost for one unit.”
“Demon ore, one hundred and twenty units, sixty gold.”
“One moment. Please touch a finger to the scanner. Thank you, Brody West.” The system had identified me. “Enter in the text box the name of a character to receive the goods.”
I handed the PDA to Matty and he entered his username.
Your application has been accepted and placed in a queue for processing. May I help you with anything else?”
“Yes.” Weighing up the pros and cons, I’d decided to risk it with Dheire’s cookery. “Twenty pieces of meat from the depth rats of Anhurs. Maximum cost of one piece — twenty-two gold. That is all.”
After entering my own name and confirming the order, I replaced the receiver, by which time Matty had already disappeared. On hearing he would soon have some ore, he’d shaken my hand and run to his pod, pulling his T-shirt off on the hoof. If only I had a fraction of his enthusiasm! Since Barliona had appeared in my life, the only thing which aroused me like that was sleep. On that pleasant note, I went to my bedroom and, without getting undressed, collapsed onto my bed.
Another week — another new group. Old questions, unconfident looks, and a keen interest in one question: will they be taken on or not? I decided to trust the teaching of the next group of candidates entirely to Helen, and to my surprise she managed well and I scarcely needed to intervene. Noticing proudly how quickly my students were developing, I relished the thought of an idle future where Helen worked for the two of us. The problem came from a completely unexpected direction. Due to the alignment of the stars, the little girl began to display a strange, even unhealthy interest in me. During recess she would bring me coffee and doughnuts, inquire about my wellbeing and weekends, smile for no reason, and violate my personal space. To begin with it seemed like nothing, but I sensed it getting worse. If at first I’d thought conversing with her would be excellent for developing my empathy, I now changed my mind, and scurried shamefully out of the hall before everyone else.
In Barliona, Eredani was already tired of training for the final obstacle, but I dug my heels in. The mere thought of dancing gave me the creeps.
“Look what I bought. Let’s go and see Dheire first, then we can train.” I opened my mailbox and showed him my purchase.
“You decided to go for it after all?” He was pleased. “What made you change your mind?”
“Practicality and the simulator courses. Looking for demon-rat meat, frightening Dheire with it, and fighting for your preferences is a long and impractical process. The results of recent trades have shown that prices depend on the current relevance of the goods.”
“Kvalen, it’s nice to work with somebody driven by common sense.” Eredani clapped me on the shoulder. “Let’s go level up!”
The instructor met us with a dismal look, but I understood him. The NPC was just tucking into a delicious meal when we ambled into his box room. In order to defuse the potentially ugly situation and not lose agreeability, I hurriedly dumped the meat on the table.
“Here you are, master Dheire. The best in Barliona!”
“The best?” he asked suspiciously as he poked it with a fork. “You’re lying, you goat-legged skunks. You think I don’t know what meat is the best? You can’t dec… O-o-o! This is Anhurs depth rat meat! Where did you get it?”
Rat Meat Supplier task completed
Experience: +43
Reputation with Light of Barliona faction: +18
Basic agreeability to Dheire increased to 40 points
“This changes everything. Master Dheire will now reveal to you the sacred meaning of cookery.”
Reference information
Agreeability to NPC
A character parameter fluctuating from 0 to 100 is determined by the attitude of the NPC to the player. Unlike reputation, which applies to a whole faction, agreeability affects each NPC individually, including NPCs of factions with a negative reputation. You can see the current agreeability of your character to an NPC in the NPC’s properties. The parameter can be altered by using temporary buffs, changing your clothes, interacting with the NPC, or doing something for the NPC.
Agreeability levels:
0-19: NPC does not converse with you or react when you speak. You do not exist for NPC.
20-39: NPC converses with you, gives you tasks, tells you how to get to places. 20 is the basic agreeability value for all NPCs you encounter, friendly or hostile.
40-59: NPC begins to trust you. You may receive a task to help NPC.
60-79: NPC trusts you. You are permitted to enter NPC’s house without their consent.
80-99: NPC may suggest to player to visit a house of assignation. NPC may tell player some of their secrets.
100: NPC is completely open with player, trusts them with all their secrets.
“Rat meat is valued for its aroma,” the master began, sniffing the meat with a blissful look on his face. It was definitely tainted. “The longer the rat lives in sewage water, the more aromatic the dish. Eredani, peel and chop an onion. I can’t be doing that, can I? Kvalen, you do the ginger. You’re going to help me.”
“But we can’t cook,” I reminded him gently, but he waved me away.
“A minor problem.”
New speciality available: cookery
Description: A manufacturing speciality. You are becoming a true cookery master. From now on you are able to create dishes that restore health and activate certain buffs.
“Do you have chef’s kits?” Dheire asked and waited for our nodded replies, before continuing angrily, “So why aren’t you getting busy? Meat doesn’t just cook itself. Look lively! Chop-chop!”
Where was Matty when you needed him? He would have organized the potion brewing in a trice. Swearing, I chopped, more than cut, the brown root as best I could.
“Hey, are you a tiefling or a ram? Who’s going to skin it for you, dipstick?” Dheire stamped his feet. I was afraid I’d spoil the whole show and agreeability would drop.
“Sorry, master. Thank you for the lesson. I’ll skin it now.” I bowed just in case.
Eredani wasn’t having much luck either. The onion had activated a Maiden’s Tears debuff, and he was smearing them all over his furious mug as he sliced it. Dheire clicked his tongue and shook his head as he silently watched the prisoner with one-hundred-percent sensations shower the unfortunate onion.
“Finished?”
“Yes,” Eredani sighed.
“Well done! Now bin it. I have no use for your salty onion. You might as well have spat or blown your nose on it!” I clearly heard the scrape of Eredani’s teeth, but he quietly threw the onion away and took another. The barrage, however, continued: “Hey, dipstick! Wet it with water! Do I have to teach you everything?” Eredani removed the debuff with water, and the self-satisfied master came to
inspect my work.
“Now the most important thing — spices. Salt, pepper, and my secret ingredient — helirium pollen. Kvalen, you’ll find everything on the second shelf, sugar too. Eredani, get soy sauce from the fridge. Bring it all here and remember the proportions. I’m only going to show you this once.”
Dheire mixed the onion, ginger, and spices, then added the meat to the resulting marinade, stirred it well, covered the container, and weighed the lid down. “Ideally, meat should be marinated for at least twelve hours, but I’m so hungry today ten minutes will be enough. Just enough to draw out the flavours of the rat meat and sewage. What are you doing just standing there? Light the fire and put the wok on it. You’re dawdling like snails!”
He didn’t let us rest for a minute. Even while the meat was frying in the strange pan, he found things for us to do. Standing in front of a huge mountain of dirty pots, I was irritated and grumpy. Why the hell did I have to clear away the leftovers after the whole training camp? I was about to refuse rudely, when Eredani shushed me.
Kvalen: It’s like he hasn’t washed up for a month! Does his toilet need cleaning too?
Eredani: If it does, you clean it! Don’t be stupid, Brody. There’s not long to go, so don’t ruin the whole game.
Kvalen: Thanks, adviser, but you’re on your own this time.
Eredani: Whatever the clanless clan chief says.
He sniggered and pointedly began washing the dishes, humming a song scandalously out of tune.
“Stop that! I’m helping already, so stop singing! I graduated from music school with distinction. I have perfect pitch.”
“All the worse for you,” he said, singing higher. “Wha-a-t is our life? But a ga-a-me!”
Eredani: Sometimes it helps to get down off your high horse.
Kvalen: Uh-huh. I hope he’s not going to make us eat this.
Eredani: Why? Are you a vegetarian?
Kvalen: No, but I have tried tofu and green eggs. Now I don’t eat anything that stinks of hundred-year-old socks.
“Hey, your hooves are on your feet, not your hands. Why are you taking so long?” Dheire complained after half an hour. The pile of dirty dishes had receded by just a half, on top of which we’d started with the cleaner items and left the pots and other heavy artillery for later. Plus it turned out we needn’t have bothered anyway because, clicking his tongue, the master made a pass with his hand, and the door of a dishwashing machine opened to our right.
“Hey, dipsticks! Who washes the dishes by hand when there’s a machine? You can tell you haven’t eaten for a while. Your brains have shrunk.”
Eredani: Sly son of a bitch!
Now both our teeth were scraping, and it didn’t go unnoticed by the instructor. He giggled in delight at his excellent prank, and one minute later the sheen of the washed dishes made our blood boil.
“Hey. You’ll never make true chefs. All you can do is waft your tails around and stamp your hooves. Get some forks, or are you going to eat with your horns?”
Grousing like an old man and shouting at us, the master opened the lid of the wok, and my belly produced a doleful rumble. The smell of freshly cooked rat was fantastic, just like that of any superbly prepared meat. Skewering a piece on a long fork, Dheire wafted the steam toward his nose with a hand and inhaled deeply, listening to his internal sensations.
“Yes! As I said, if you know how to cook it, rat meat is better than any delicacy. Attack!”
Boost received for 1 hour
+5 to Intellect
+5 to Stamina
+5 to Agility
Speed of regeneration of Health increased by 30%
Speed of regeneration of Energy increased by 30%
Chance of Critical Strike increased by 10%
You have learned a new cookery recipe: stewed marinated Anhurs depth rat
Description: An epic recipe.
Ingredients:
1 Anhurs depth rat meat
2 pinches of helirium pollen for the marinade
Restrictions: The player must be at least level 200, or cook the dish themselves. You may create no more than 20 copies of the recipe. You may not create a copy from a copy of the recipe. You may not study the recipe independently.
“Thank you for the lesson, master Dheire.” Eredani bowed so low he almost butted the master with his horns. Our humiliation had been worth it for the result. “You are truly a great chef. Teaching us a recipe with three boosts is invaluable.”
“Hey,” Dheire said, waving away the compliment, but we could see it had fallen on fertile ground. “You did well too. You brought me the best meat, so I did my best. Now go, I like eating alone. Don’t just stand there! Shoo, I said!” The change in mood was so sharp we shot out of the workshop like bullets.
“Epic strength!” Eredani said. “Three boosts! Brody, I have a task for you. Buy me some rat meat and pollen. We won’t sell the recipe yet — prices for ingredients will go through the roof. I have nothing to do at night, so I’ll learn some cookery. Ten percent crit via food is fantastic for raiders. Chop-chop, as Dheire said, meat doesn’t just cook itself. Call the man!”
“There’s no man there, just an office full of Imitators,” I muttered, pressing the Exit button. Eredani’s enthusiasm was understandable — we might be looking at a stable, if insignificant income. First we’d flood the market with our meat, then start trading recipes. Before calling Buy-Sell, I looked at the online auction — you couldn’t buy anything, but you could scope out prices and the availability of goods. There was a lot of depth rat meat, at twenty-two gold a piece. Not so much luck with seasoning — only just over two hundred helirium pollen, at forty-two gold per unit. Elementary mathematics calculated the prime cost of our meat at one hundred and six gold. Not bad. I had to search to find out where the pollen came from, and it wasn’t good news. You couldn’t buy it from NPCs; you had to collect it from bushes growing in level-two-hundred locations or higher. After giving a Buy-Sell employee a task to buy a hundred pollen and fifty meat, I returned to Eredani. He had all night ahead of him, so he could do some work.
Afterwards we started training. Eredani’s expectations didn’t bear out. He thought I would need four days, but in the end it took eight. It’s not fun recognizing how wooden you are, but you can’t fly in the face of facts — flexibility was simply not my strongest point. The players who’d paid us for passing had already long since completed the training camp and were now doing what Eredani did — training youngsters. The only positives from all this hassle were agility increasing by a point, and strength and stamina shooting up.
We also marked out a nice bonus from Eredani’s culinary success. He stewed fifty pieces of meat, twenty of which we split evenly between ourselves, and thirty I sent to auction, where they sold like hotcakes for 420 gold per piece. The auctioneer took his ten percent, leaving me eleven thousand gold richer. We would have to set a task to buy up pollen as soon as it appeared at auction. No matter how much it cost, we would reclaim our outlay and make a profit on top.
At long last came the happy moment when Eredani announced, “You’re ready. If not now, then never. It’s pointless teaching you any further. Let’s go.”
Achievement received: unparalleled high level
Description: You passed a minimum of twenty obstacles on the high-level course at the first attempt. Before leaving the training camp you will receive a High-Level Demon Hunter buff: a sixfold increase in experience, reputation, and characteristics growth rate.
Bonuses:
+8 to all main characteristics for completing 20 obstacles in succession at the first attempt
Step 4 task “High-Level Training” completed
Experience: +43
Reputation with Light of Barliona faction: +18
You are permitted to leave the training camp
I couldn’t. I tackled tw
enty-one obstacles easily, but I couldn’t go on. Lying on my back after crashing out of the course, I looked at the sky with one thought — I couldn’t muster the strength to complete it to get the bonus. Not now, not ever. Fuck it all. I wasn’t a dancer.
“Twenty-one out of twenty-five!” said Tarlin. The high-level course was supervised by the disfeatured instructor. “Waste of space! I always said a tiefling couldn’t become a worthy demon hunter. You can leave the training camp. You’re not going to learn anything else here. Next!”
A Second Chance Page 25
