Allegiance has been activated. Current value: “Neutral”
“Hey, Paladin! Hello! Anyone home?” The panther roared in a human voice, distracting me from studying the game interface.
“Bagheera, ” I drawled with a smile for some reason, focusing my eyes on the panther. “'We be of one blood, ye and…”
“You really are a twit, rather than a creature ‘of one blood’,” the panther cut me off and then – I actually had to rub my eyes in surprise‒ turned into a girl.
“I repeat the question: how did you get information about this teacher?”
Unlike the throaty growl of the panther, in human form the girl had an amazingly charming voice. A strange patchwork outfit could probably be called a sort of a dress if it were not for parts made of chainmail and metal plates. However, even this incredible outfit could not conceal how tiny the girl was. On her feet the former panther wore not elegant green booties intended to underscore her graceful shape, but two heavy boots, looking more like army boots. But her face was the most amazing of all. I had not seen such so well formed, charming and attractive a face in my entire life. At first glance the girl looked human: twenty two or three years old. Two bright sapphires‒for some reason looking cold as the arctic at the moment‒ were watching my every move; her long chestnut hair was drawn into a simple pony tail, so as not to interfere with her movements. This shapeshifter, or, as the Book of Knowledge helpfully suggested, druid, was not wearing any headdress that I could see.
“One of the local teachers shared it,” I told her honestly, understanding that quarrelling with the panther at the moment would be impolitic.
“What teacher?” Her cold eyes showed some interest.
“As far as I understood, the chief one at the Academy.” I decided to inflate my value. If she was the very girl who had sent the two rogues for respawn, she would not have much trouble doing the same to me. I needed to interest her. “He got in touch with me from a remote location and provided the coordinates for this very yogi.”
“How do I reach him?” The druid kept asking. I looked at my Energy level and sighed sadly: there were just ten units left. In a couple of hours I would end up having to face the mages.
“He is not in the forest; he is sitting in some other place. If you want, we can set out to reach him together.”
“Pf!” the druid snorted contemptuously.”Why in hell do I need you? To distract guards while I run away?”
“Why do you run away from the guards?” I was surprised. “Don’t you know…”
“Don’t I know what?” Despite being pint-sized, the girl practically loomed over me as soon as I fell silent, biting my tongue. Why should I share important information? “There is a way to pass by the guards?!”
“Of course there is. Or how would I have gotten here? Since I have no weapons.”
“I see that… What’s the way to do it?” I nearly jumped with joy once I figured out that the druid did not know about the guiding beams. I could turn that to my advantage!”
“No, it doesn't work that way. I am offering a partnership. I share information, you help me get away from the mages.”
“No partnerships and no agreements.” The girl grew suspicious. “From whom do you want to get away?”
“From mages. In an hour, or two at best, my Energy will drop down to zero and I will be sent for respawn. Mages are waiting for me at all three respawn points. I need help.”
“So you are the one they are hunting?” The druid was interested. “What would prevent me from turning you in to them?”
“Information.” I shrugged my shoulders indifferently, even though I had a sinking feeling inside. “The mages don’t have it, or else they would have rushed after me into this forest. Since you don’t run on the ground, additional knowledge about the guards would be useful to you.”
“How did you gain it?”
“I am an explorer of the world. I had to figure out how the local monsters work. Have they ever caught you?”
“Twice.” The girl cringed. “And another forty times I got away. For some reason they would just stop the chase. Oh! Do you know why?”
“I do,” I confirmed, once again barely able to contain my joy. The panther rushing to get away from the guards must have managed to touch the guiding line, and the chase after her would stop. Even now the girl was standing touching just one foot to the beam.
“So, to sum it up — you will share information on how to avoid the guards; in exchange you want me to help you to get away from the respawn point where you will end up going in an hour since you don’t have any food with you. Right?”
“As if you have some,” I mumbled grumpily, looked at the druid and drawled in amazement: “Oh really? From where?!”
“I was taught to use inventory prior to the Academy,” the druid said proudly. “You can’t bring food here directly‒ only stored in your inventory.”
“Would you share it?” I said too quickly, and immediately scolded myself silently. I should not show how much I need to replenish my Energy.
“No, it doesn't work that way,” the girl mocked me. “How can one avoid the guards?”
We tried to stare each other down for about a minute. Neither one of us wanted to surrender first, as there were no guarantees that the other would keep his word. Since she refused to enter into an official agreement, one would have to rely on the other’s word only.
“Yaropolk.” I didn’t know what else to do, and stretched out my hand, introducing myself. Time was money, and in my case time was life. I couldn’t afford to waste it. “Paladin. You may call me Yari for short.”
“Dolgunata, a druid.” The girl hesitated for a moment, then returned my handshake. Despite the fact that I was wearing armor and the druid’s hands were covered with thick leather gloves, the feeling of close contact with her graceful hand was unforgettable. “Nata for short.”
“There are eight teachers in total in this forest.” I decided to give up some information to establish a partnership. “Five are open and available to everyone, and three are hidden. You can see here one of the hidden ones. I don’t know where the other two are.”
“What about the guards?”
“You need to be touching the guiding line…” I told her about the steel beams, without mentioning the symbols, however. That was not part of our unwritten agreement.
“What did you mean by the ‘chief teacher’?”, Nata kept asking, making my face darken. The girl was in no hurry to keep her part of the bargain.
“Food,” I reminded her, but was immediately put in my place:
“We have no agreement and you are not in a position to bargain. I am waiting.”
Good luck to you in the Academy,” I grumbled, then turned away and walked off. Dolgunata clearly demonstrated the main principle of the game: sink your opponents at every turn, while taking advantage of them to the max. I hoped for the girl’s sensibility and waited for her to call me, but she did not. Before jumping onto the main steel beam, I turned around — the girl lost all interest in me, involved in talking to the teacher.
Bitch!
Despite the fact that after meeting the druid my mood was right through the floor, I moved towards the Paladins. We needed to join forces. The map showed that my team was staying in place, not trying to move anywhere. Having spent fifteen minutes to get to another clearing while remembering to touch the steel beam, I peeked out from behind a stone boulder and assessed the situation from four meters above ground. It was, to put it mildly, not to the advantage of the Paladins…
In front of me I saw a wide clearing with a huge three-meter stone on it, all covered with mysterious runes; they were emitting an evil green light. As I watched, a small ball of sun-bright light appeared at the bottom of the stone; it quickly grew and turned into a cursing player. Someone was extremely unhappy at being sent to respawn. This was a respawn point! There was only one path leading to the clearing; now it was blocked by a crowd of mages. A lightning bolt flew from t
he hands of one of them, hitting the newly respawned player right in the head. There was an electric crack, a scream of pain, a corpse on the ground that disappeared at once and the raucous laughter of the raving players. It horrified me even to think what kind of person would enjoy killing! The mages needed to see a psychiatrist right away, and beg him for a lobotomy. There would be no other way to cure them at this point.
On the other end of the clearing, keeping the respawn stone between themselves and the mages, was my team. Behind Monstrichello, whose face was drawn and glum, there were Logir, Nartalim, Sartal and three more Paladins whom I did not know. Apparently also victims of the mayhem created by the mages. Despite an impressive company, the Paladins were not in a hurry to fight the mages for the right to leave the clearing, while the mages were in no hurry to finish them off. This was a stalemate which the mages broke up periodically by killing respawned players. During the ten minutes while I was sitting there trying to figure out a rescue plan, ten players were killed that way.
“Bastards!” A guttural roar from my side was so unexpected that I nearly tumbled into the clearing from my vantage point. The panther twitched her tail frantically a couple of times and turned into a girl.
“Eat!” she ordered, handing me a green patty. “This will fully restore your Energy.”
“Why?” I could not help asking, while nevertheless chewing the patty thoroughly. It had no taste, no smell, the texture felt like plasticine, but the growing Energy bar was making me euphoric. I gained an additional 12 hours of life!
“I needed to check if you were saying the truth. That’s number one. Number two – I needed to understand how far you would be willing to go to save yourself. Creeps and sellout scum should be eliminated. Number three – I need information.
“How did you find the location of the previous teacher?” Despite her help, my attitude to the druid was guarded. The anger had subsided, but an unpleasant aftertaste remained.
“I was running away from a monster when I heard your scream. It was too long and full of suffering for a guard victim, so I ventured to look, particularly since the guard was not chasing me anymore. You were squirming on the ground in front of the teacher, so I decided to question you first, and then kill. You know the rest.”
“Kill?”
“Never mind. What are you planning to do?”
“Even if I were to join the Paladins, there is no way we could fight through the line of mages. I would take them to the forest to the hidden teacher, then we would make a circle. There is a limited number of mages, so they are all distributed among various teachers and respawn points. We would catch small groups and kill them. Want to join us”?
“If you kill the mages, what next?” Dolgunata ignored me.
“We would train with all the teachers in this forest, then we’d go looking for the rest. There are five more somewhere else. If we keep together, we’ll be able to survive.”
“Reasonable. What can you offer for my help?”
“Information.”
“I am not ready to risk levels for knowledge that will be of no use in the main world.”
“In that case… what would you say about a granis?” I remembered the currency in my possession. If Dangard was so happy about getting a granis out of the elf, maybe the druid would also like that price.
“Are you initiated?” Nata’s eyes narrowed.
“I am not.”
“Then it’s not an option. If you were to be killed for good, you wouldn't make it out of here. Who would give me my granis then?”
“You will get a granis here and now if you help us,” I said, but the girl’s astonished look told me that I have no idea about the game currency.
“But you are not initiated! How did you get it?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I replied cryptically, trying to hide my own confusion. I received mine from Archibald, as a reward for the NPC I killed. Can it be that prior to entering the Academy recruits never killed anyone? Somehow I had a hard time believing that. So why was Nata surprised? “Agreed?”
“What do you want from me?”
“Call the Game to witness that you will help me and most of these 'pretty boys',”‒I nodded towards the Paladins huddling together‒ pass through ten teachers and finish the Academy successfully. As payment for this I will now give you a granis; the only thing is, I’ve never done this, so the transfer may take more than one attempt. But I guarantee that I will give it to you. If it is possible at all in the Academy.”
“No agreements,” after a rather prolonged staring match the druid forced through her lips. “Either you give me the granis and I help you, or we part ways.”
“Thank you for the food,” I said with regret. Staying in the company of this charming beauty was nice, but it did not help me get closer to my final goal. Given that at least four of the Paladins huddling beneath had weapons as artifacts, even if Dolgunata’s claws were to help us, it wouldn’t be crucial. “If I tell you where the chief teacher is, will you give me a couple more patties?”
“One,” the girl reacted quickly. “My reserves are also limited.”
The exchange was completed without an agreement, as if Nata had some kind of a hangup about that. Casting a parting glance at the clearing, the druid turned into a panther and left me. She was weird… beautiful but weird …
“You are so pissing me off!” Another electric crack and scream, and the guffaws of the mages were heard from the clearing. Someone else was unlucky. By the way, that’s a thought! Why should we only help Paladins? My experience of talking to Dolgunata demonstrated that other classes may include players who were, even though weird, still sane enough. And that a granis is quite a valuable thing in the game world. If we managed to get away from the mages, why shouldn’t we propose to other classes that they join our team? Many players, especially non-initiated ones, would readily give up everything they have in order to stay alive. We should use this!
It took me half an hour to circle the clearing and carefully climb down: the guiding beams wound and twisted in a complicated pattern, so frequently I had to move away from the respawn point rather than risk being caught by a guard. Holding onto an overhead beam with my hand, I reached practically the edge of the stone forest when I heard the Paladins talking:
“ I have two hours worth of Energy left,” said an unfamiliar voice. Must have been one of the Paladins who had newly joined the group.
“Same crap here,” Logir responded to him, and then I finally peeked out from behind the stone.
“Let’s kill all dem freaks!” Monstrichello rumbled, causing a howl of laughter from the side of the mages. It would be hard not to hear the tank’s roar.
“What killing: it’s my last level,” a lanky Paladin said despondently, then whispered with a hysterical note in his voice: “I don’t want to die!”
I was just starting to try to figure out how to call the Paladins without attracting the attention of the mages, when I heard a wild and horrible roar coming from behind me. A large cat dashed by me like black lightning, and behind her… she was followed by flying steel. Dolgunata had encountered a flying monster that looked like the nightmare of a person taking heavy drugs: a jumble of steel rods partially covered in black fog; it had three bright red eyes. The creature glided, breaking every law of physics, periodically emitting wild screams. My breath caught. I froze like a statue, and just noted from the corner of my eye that my hand was still clutching the guiding beam. It should not go after me…
“What kind of nonsense with a tail is that?” I heard surprised shouts from the mages, after which I felt better. The flying monster stopped oppressing my mind and turned itself into a detail of the forest, looking so much like an integral part of a nearby wall of reinforced concrete that even though one knew the nasty thing was there, it was impossible to see it on the stone.
“Quiet – I am one of us!” Nata growled quietly, so as not to draw the attention of the mages; her tail twitched nervously. The Paladins had
regrouped; they managed to place Monstrichello, who was covering himself with the shield, between themselves, the mages and the druid. "If you want to live, follow me.”
“Who are you?” Nartalim piped up at once. “Why should we listen to you?”
“Because you’ll just die here!” The panther shot back, and, making sure the flying monster left her alone, in one jump landed in the clearing in the stone forest. Follow me! I am with Yari!”
“But there are monsters there!” the lanky Paladin whined, but for Logir my name served as sufficient reason to believe the panther. Slowly, so as not to provoke the mages to action, she approached the panther, swallowed nervously and looked inside the stone jungle. She lingered, then swallowed and made a step towards the forest. Only now did I realize that I could clearly see the invisible line that separated the safe clearing from the horrors of the reinforced concrete chaos, and that just now Logir crossed that line, starting a ten-second timer. If during that time she did not touch a guiding line, a monster would appear.
“Here, quick!” I stepped from behind a neighboring stone. “Grab onto this block!”
“Why?” The femorc frowned, but then Nata came to my aid:
“Do what he says, or else a guard will appear!”
“Fine! But I don’t understand…,” Logir didn’t have to be asked twice; in just a couple of moments she was standing next to me. “Are you alive?”
“That’s a stupid question,” I grumbled. “No, I’ve been dead for a freaking year, and now you are talking to a ghost.”
“Logir, are you OK in there?” we heard Nartalim shout, and I had to show him by gestures that shouting was not optimal. I was right, as then we heard the mages yelling from the far side of the clearing:
The Beginning (Dark Paladin Book #1) LitRPG Series Page 13
