Finding a Body (The Dark Herbalist Book #4) LitRPG series

by Michael Atamanov

  “Three million?” I was reminded that I had only set aside two million coins for that. It wasn’t that I couldn’t find another million. I had the money, I was just surprised that Valerianna had outspent our agreed-upon budget without even asking me.

  “No Amra, not like that! They’re paying the three million, not us! For a clan of cyberathletes like the Digital Amazons, taking part in this bigtime event on the side of the Dark Sovereign is a unique and very powerful advertisement to the whole real world! The Amazons are hoping to restore their somewhat forgotten brand, and they have lots of plans: selling clothes, cosmetics and Digital Amazon -branded sports nutrition, video games, comics and 3-D movies. Even adult products like sex dolls and robot girlfriends with the bodies and faces of famous Amazons . So don’t worry about wasting money, they’re paying their own way, and in spades!”

  * * *

  Iron Jeanette [AMAZON]

  Human

  Level-211 Amazon

  ALL THE DARK-HAIRED amazon lady had on was a golden tiara, an armored G-string and an ultra-miniature bra made of two golden threads that just barely covered her ample breasts. I suspected her equipment was not actually as basic as it looked and provided excellent defense against physical and magical damage. But to my eye it covered at most three percent of her body. The muscular warrior woman had a striking mane of tar-colored hair and was not the least bit ashamed of her practically naked appearance. She eagerly extended her hand in greeting:

  “It is a great honor to meet a Boundless Realm legend and someone who has taken part in such high-profile events as Goblin Herbalist Amra!”

  Successful Strength check

  Woah! Such an enthusiastic greeting would definitely have broken a normal person’s hand. Continuing to smile happily, I returned the powerful warrior’s handshake, which was more reminiscent of having my hand squeezed in a metal vice. Based on the tortured smile that appeared on Jeanette’s face, she also found my Strength impressive. But I wasn’t going to square off with this fortress of bones and unclenched my fingers.

  “I welcome the legendary Amazons to my lands! The whole southern wing of my castle is at your disposal. Make yourselves at home! And honorable bearded dwarves of the subterranean city of Dotur-Khawe, I am glad to see you in my castle as well! My servants will provide you with everything you need. As it is the castle cellars are bursting with fine food and strong drink for Vanessa and Tondik’s wedding!”

  Seemingly, my new allies and dwarves had prepared a response and gifts for the Dark Sovereign. I could see muscular warrior women shifting from foot to foot in the back rows with the Amazon clan tag, plus some short subterranean natives trying to obscure chests and cages behind their broad backs. But I jumped out in front with an important message:

  “Dear guests, the official celebrations shall come later. For now, I must leave you for a time. I have been gravely insulted by the undying in the city of Lars. They quartered my young niece on the central square just because she was my kin. And I could never forgive such a thing, even if I weren’t the Dark Sovereign! So in one hour I will lead a raiding party to get revenge on everyone who was in any way involved with Yunna’s death. And if the gods of Boundless Realm are favorably inclined, I’ll return victorious by evening. After that, I will be happy to chat with all of you over a flagon of strong drink.”

  The dwarves exchanged glances and started whispering. A heavily-armored and beefy level-250 Royal Guard took a step forward. Perhaps this was Vanessa’s brother from before, who she had pointed out to me in the subterranean city of Dotur-Khawe:

  “Sovereign, you have been kind to my sister, and welcoming and generous to us all. So we consider it improper as guests to just sit around and feast while our host risks his life in battle! Amra, allow us to come with you! For the dwarves of all clans, it would be a great honor to embark on a military campaign under your banner!”

  Dwarven and dark dwarven opinion of you increased by +10!

  Diplomat skill increased to level 31!

  Warchief skill increased to level 33!

  “By the way, speaking of banners...” Valerianna Quickfoot whispered beside me. “The Dark Sovereign really does need some kind of flag or symbol to raise his soldiers’ fighting spirit, and make them recognizable. We should figure that out...”

  “We don’t need to reinvent the wheel here,” I answered my sister also in a whisper. “We’ll use our old flag from the pirate galley: a fearsome white shark on a black background. The whole world watched the Great Hunt event and after the sea battle, all Boundless Realm associates that banner with Captain Amra and his band of pirates. Beyond that, I have certain plans for the Brotherhood of the Coast . With such a familiar banner, I’ll have an easier time coaxing them onto my side.”

  But Valerianna was decidedly against my idea. The sorceress cringed in dismay and shook her head:

  “Wrong choice. What does a shark have to do with anything here? What’s the connection between a cartilaginous sea creature and the game boss the Dark Sovereign, whose castle is in a mountainous land a thousand miles from any sea? We’d be better off using a black banner with no emblem than that confusing thing.”

  The mavka and I quietly bickered, while Iron Jeanette’s loud and dismayed voice rolled through the throne room:

  “Hey, Amra. This isn’t what we agreed on!” a flaming two-handed sword appeared in the muscular hands of the Amazon leader. I wondered where she was hiding that before. “No one can make me and the girls just sit around while the Dark Sovereign goes off to rip through undying flanks! We crave action, any way to prove ourselves! After all, what could be sweeter for a true Amazon than the ecstasy of battle, a river of blood and a bit of revenge to top it all of?! We’re all coming with you!”

  A battle cry rolled deafeningly through the room. “ Amazons never lose!!!” came the chorus of warrior women, supporting their leader.

  “And before you go anywhere,” a calm voice came down from above. I only then remembered that I still hadn’t spoken with the Keeper, “I need to finally have a talk with the Dark Sovereign and explain the changes to his abilities, skills and perks.”

  * * *

  I LOOKED AT my character sheet and was baffled, not knowing how to react...

  Name

  Amra

  Race

  Goblin Vampire

  Class

  Dark Sovereign

  Experience

  12000000 of 12500000

  Character level

  100

  Hitpoints (HP):

  9999/9999

  Endurance points

  6231/6231

  Statistics

  Strength (S)

  310 (1134)

  Agility (A)

  300 (657)

  Intelligence (I)

  50 (82)

  Constitution (C)

  300 (1240)

  Perception (P)

  50 (96)

  Charisma (Ch)

  200 (200)

  Unused points

  0

  Primary skills (8 of 8 chosen)

  Survivor (C S)

  52

  First specialization: double hitpoints bonus

  Second specialization: -10% damage taken

  Heavy armor (C S)

  45

  First specialization: no penalty to Endurance Points

  Athletics (C S)

  35

  First specialization: increased Endurance Point growth

  Dodging (A P)

  41

  First specialization: 30% chance of avoiding AoE-effect spells

  Stealth (A C)

  49

  First specialization: -20 discovery radius

  Exotic Weapons (A P)

  (25 + 18)

  First specialization: Flaming whip, additional fire damage, 5% chance of burning target

  Riding (A C)

  38

  First specialization: +15% movement speed

  Regeneration (C S)

  10r />
  Secondary skills (8 of 8 chosen)

  Veil

  22

  First specialization: shapeshifter (three times per day)

  Acrobatics

  26

  First specialization: take no fall damage from any height

  Alchemy

  42

  First specialization: make elixirs with more than one property

  Foreman

  82

  First specialization: increased loyalty from underlings

  Second specialization: larger list of races to hire

  Animal Control

  69

  First specialization: pet attacks improved

  Second specialization: pet defense improved

  Warchief

  33

  First specialization: soldiers immune to recruitment

  Diplomat

  31

  First specialization: fearmonger

  Superboss

  10

  Why did my class change? What was this game profession “Dark Sovereign?” Was that really a job someone could train for? That made me think of a Dark Sovereign Preparatory University, where students would be taught to assemble a group of monsters and carry out raids on peaceful cities. Then, after graduation exams, they would go off to various continents and see who could conquer Boundless Realm first. But even if it was a profession, what were its main skills?

  And where did my initial skill Herbalism go? Trading too had just gone up in smoke. Instead I had Heavy Armor and Survival, while Alchemy had been switched out of my primary skills for Athletics. None of the three skills even took advantage of the strong sides of the Goblin race, Agility and Perception, instead raising Constitution and Strength. No, I had no particular issue with Constitution but, for a Goblin, raising Strength came with a racial penalty of 50%... That was stupid to my eye. I’d taken the Alchemy skill long ago by accident, so I would have gladly traded that out for something more appropriate or at least have moved it into secondaries. But not for such a worthless replacement as Athletics! That alone lost my character thirty-two Agility, while giving very little in return.

  And the Regeneration skill once again improved Constitution and Strength. But that was total crap. Why should I waste a skill slot, especially a primary when, as a vampire, I already had decent regeneration? With my present Taste Tester at 223, I got back 150 hitpoints per minute. On the one hand, it wasn’t quite fast enough — restoring my health from zero to full took a whole hour. On the other hand, Taste Tester could still be leveled up a lot, and that would make my health regenerate all the quicker. Now onto that metal-bound chest lying next to the throne. I’d seen similar ones before, this was probably the brotherhood of vampires sending me a new collection of blood-sample vials. And I already had around one hundred untested samples left in the cold cellars of my castle, plus a couple dozen living creatures awaiting their fate in cages and aviaries. Given that, taking Regeneration as well as a skill was just wasteful.

  And now I had a mysterious new secondary ability, Superboss, which I could not find any description for. And as for some of my new specializations... here I just grabbed my head. I mean, who would have ever chosen those?! Even if I was drunk or half asleep, I would never have taken the Heavy Armor perk “no penalty to Endurance Points,” nor the perk “increased Endurance Point growth” to the Athletics skill. Amra already had a ton of Constitution, and these new skills put it beyond sky-high. I had Endurance Points coming out my ears, why bother saving them?!

  But as for the Flaming Whip perk, I liked that one. An excellent choice, really. It seemed created especially for the whip-wielding Dark Sovereign. I also liked the ability to shape-shift three times per day. Here, of course, I would have to take a closer look to make sure I wasn’t mistaken. And for some reason I couldn’t see what shapes I could take, but the ability to become, let’s say, a big fish and escape underwater would have been a big help. As would the Acrobatics perk that let me fall from any height painlessly. In fact, I was totally fine with all the secondary-skill perks.

  Nevertheless, I needed to have a serious talk with the Keeper and the corporate employees behind his winged back to correct the nonsense that had been wrought upon my Amra’s skills and perks.

  * * *

  THE CONVERSATION with the Keeper was really drawing out. I made the seemingly logical and even obvious complaints that the Dark Sovereign had no need for Regeneration, and that the skills they chose for me did not take into account the pluses and minuses of my race. But still I had to chew it over for him and prove I was right several times with a calculator. How the hell could you call this an improvement?! They removed a few skills that leveled Agility, the strong side of goblins, given their +1.3 Agility per primary-skill level. But in return I got skills that improved Strength, which for goblins was penalized by fifty percent. And every time, the Keeper had the same objections:

  “But the Dark Sovereign is a melee fighter! He needs Strength, not Agility! He has been using his Blowgun for a long time, and his main weapon is the Hair Whip, which does damage based on your Strength!”

  “But the boost to Strength from those skills is minimal! All those changes did practically nothing to the Dark Sovereign’s damage dealing ability. Damage per hit is up by less than seven percent! Plus I lost Agility, and that defines chance to dodge, parry, block projectiles and, most importantly, the chance and speed of a hit. That actually made my damage per minute fall! Is that an improvement?! And my hitpoints grew one and a half times: from six and a half thousand to ten thousand. But what good is that? The Dark Sovereign is just a punching bag now. He cannot dodge or parry, or strike back!”

  The Keeper objected again, and the conversation was going in a circle... And it was the same story with the Regeneration skill. He said that restoring health was important for any fighter, and there can never be too much regeneration. My objections that it was better not to let yourself take damage, and that required high Agility, or that there were lots of healers in the Dark Sovereign’s army ready to pitch in and restore their commander’s health were not taken into consideration. And neither were my arguments about Taste Tester and restoring health via vampiric abilities.

  The mysterious Superboss skill, as it turned out, governed regeneration speed for Direct Intervention Points, bringing that up one percent for every skill level. If the Dark Sovereign event were to last a few months, such a skill may have had a noticeable effect. But the decisive battles with the undying armies would be happening in the next few days, so the benefit of the fifty or sixty extra points I would probably end up getting was nowhere near obvious. I mean, it might kill one level-sixty enemy or respawn one level-thirty ally. That would have no impact on the outcome of the battle, and especially the war. There were no creatures that weak in either my army or that of my enemy. I asked to change the skill, and again hit upon some resistance.

  Finally I’d had enough:

  “Keeper, I don’t give a crap how the directors of the corporation see the Dark Sovereign! I’m the one who’s gonna have to play him, not some bosses sitting in luxurious offices who have never seen Boundless Realm firsthand and barely understand how any of it works! Do you want a strong monster that’s gonna be hard to kill? Zero-out Amra’s skills and perks, and let me rebuild them all from the ground up. By the end of the day I’ll forge my Goblin Herbalist into a real superboss, the ideal Dark Sovereign!”

  In response, silence. Seemingly, the upper leadership was conferring. A few minutes later, a clarification followed about whether I already had a plan in mind for the Dark Sovereign. Yes, I actually did know what I was talking about. I had a plan and an understanding of what I wanted in the end. But all these long disputes and negotiations were wasting precious time. I needed a character ready to do battle right now.

  My first mate’s execution was supposed to take place in one hour, so I couldn’t keep putting off the attack. My armies were lined up on the square before the castle and ready to invade the city of Lars
. Magic scrolls were ready to go, the Amazons had been made centurions and assigned to a group of one hundred NPC monsters. The shamans and mages had blessed the warriors with positive bonuses, and even the cyclopes wanted to come join the fight. So I answered the Keeper that I wanted a reset of my skills. But not now, after this battle was over.

  “Good. We await your changes, Amra. But for now...” the winged figure came down to the very earth and handed me three scrolls. “I don’t know what this is, but I was asked to give it to you. They said you ordered these scrolls. And they also asked me to tell you ‘the location is ready.’“

  One of the scrolls had a ribbon tied around it with the words “To Taisha’s army.” The other two were unlabeled. Yes, I knew exactly what these were. I immediately summoned a magical messenger with a package and letter for my NPC wife saying to activate the portal scroll at exactly midnight Southern-Continent time. And that was, strangely, a relevant distinction. Although Boundless Realm had not implemented true time zones, each of the three continents had different times meant to better coincide with prime gaming hours in the most densely populated regions of the real world.

  Alright, the final preparations were over. I walked over the Eye of the Sovereign and wished to see the city of Lars from a bird’s eye view. The crystal ball showed just a gray fog, so I had to go below cloud level just to be able to see anything. It was raining, the narrow little cobble-stone streets of the medieval city were empty. The city dwellers were all taking shelter from the bad weather. Only on the central square did I notice some signs of life and I went over to investigate. There was a perimeter around the square. The city guard was chasing gapers away from a high scaffold where the executioner’s assistants were dragging bundles of sticks and lumber. Seemingly, they were planning to burn my first mate Ziabash Hardy alive.