The Beginning (Dark Paladin Book #1) LitRPG Series

by Vasily Mahanenko

  “Why am I always the one having to pay for everything?” I quietly reproached myself for wastefulness, took out an elves’ potion and poured it into the mouth of the druid, who had never come to. Her flattened and shattered lower legs looked awful – her army boots were pierced here and there by shards of bone, and bloody slush from crushed muscles and skin was seeping from their tops. It was actually better that the girl was still unconscious: no matter how I felt towards her, I would not wish full pain from this injury even on an enemy like her.

  The bleeding stopped immediately, and the druid’s bluish face returned to normal color.

  “What?..” Nata opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw was my unshaved mug. “Where’s the Boar?”

  “Gave up the ghost. You sustained some damage, so we need to discuss the situation.”

  “What do you mean, some damage?” the druid’s eyes turned into angry slits, and she tried to get up. I had to put my hand on her shoulder to hold her on the ground. “But then why do I not feel anything? Wait… What happened to my legs?”

  Dolgunata twisted and sat up anyway, staring at her injured limbs wild-eyed.

  “What the…”

  “On the whole things don’t look too good.” I started describing the current situation, stepping away from the girl just in case. Who knew what kind of craziness might wander into her head? “You may slap any of the Paladins and go for respawn. In that case you’ll be restored and healthy, but you will lose an hour. We did kill the Boar, so we don’t really have a ton of time. In an hour he’ll respawn as well, and I really don’t want to have to face him again. The Chancellor will certainly upgrade him in some other way. Yes, you got it right: they do upgrade,” I added, noticing the druid’s narrowed eyes.

  “What do you suggest?” Nata found the strength to detach from her emotions.

  “As I see it, there are only two scenarios. The first one would be for you to die here and now by hitting one of us. In that case you would not be taking part in looking for the den and would not receive any of the loot if we find something. The second option would be for Sartal, as the strongest among us, to carry you on his shoulders. In that case we’d all take part in the search; then we’d get to the Kindo Logjams, pass them, and kill you in the wastelands. Or you could kill yourself after we find the den, and then catch up with us in the wastelands. In case of the second scenario we could use your extensive experience. I’d be fine with either way for you to kill yourself‒ it’s entirely up to you.”

  “I don’t want to be defective …,” Dolgunata said slowly, looking at her damaged limbs with disdain. “But losing loot is not my way either. I don’t feel any pain; did you use the elves’ ointment?”

  I nodded.

  “So then I’ll come with you,” the druid said reluctantly. “The effect of the ointment should last for a couple of hours. Where’s Monstrichello?”

  “Resting. The Boar was an extremely curmudgeonly character and didn’t wish to go quietly and painlessly. It took some effort. Sartal!” I turned to the reptilian. “You’re responsible for Dolgunata. Will you manage?”

  “I sh-sh-should,” our long-tailed companion confirmed, and carefully lifted the girl in his arms. “Sh-sh-she is light. I’ll be fine.”

  “Excellent! Now that the first issue is resolved, I suggest we explore the area. Let’s do the following: Logir, Teart and Refor — go that way.” I pointed into the forest. “Zangar and Marinar go over there. Sartal, Dirion and I will go along this road. We’ll meet here in half an hour and share what we find; keep an eye on the timer. Our goal is to find the den before our hairy guy with ill intent shows up there.”

  “We should not separate,” Dolgunata objected. “This is a very tricky area. Perhaps it does not have guards like the previous forest did, but who knows, what if the Boar had a gang? We should continue as a single unit.”

  “I agree,” Logir seconded her, “besides, we shouldn’t forget, it’s not very effective shouting through the forest. We should all keep together.”

  “Yari?” Dolgunata looked at me for making the final decision. I squirmed from too much attention, realizing once again that I don’t like managing people, and agreed:

  “So we’ll all go together. Zangar at the head, Logir at the back. Look where you are going and don’t forget about the skulls‒ there should be plenty of them here. Let’s go!”

  We didn’t have to go far: over his short career as the local Minotaur – the Labyrinth monster – the Boar managed to trample a pretty good path, which we discovered after searching for just a couple of minutes. Another short while later we entered a large clearing sporting a large pile of earth, as if a huge mole had dug it out. Once we came closer we saw a narrow passage leading underground.

  “The Den!” Teart and Dirion exclaimed simultaneously. “We found it!”

  “Quiet!” Dolgunata hissed. “There’s someone there!”

  “There are four," Zangar added; his eyesight was sharp as an eagle’s, but he could see in the dark like a cat. “Three small ones. One large. All smaller than Boar. Must kill.”

  “I’ll check it out. Get ready to catch the monsters.” As the highest level player I moved forward, having activated my artifact and the energy shield. Monstrichello was not there, so someone had to act like the tank; why not me? Since we had already come so far it would be stupid to turn back.

  There were stairs that led me to something like a cellar‒ a small cold room a meter and a half below the surface. My eyes adjusted to the gloom, and I saw the four creatures Zangar had mentioned: a meter-and-a-half-tall hairy copy of the Boar – the only difference were its large breasts full of milk and three small – about half a meter tall – balls of fur hiding behind their mother. The female Boar, as the system helpfully told me, was pushing her back against the wall, squeezing the little ones, and afraid even to move; she stared at me, and her eyes shone with terror. I saw a gleam of metal and realized there was a trap that had caught the leg of the hairy female. Caked blood and a torn chain indicated that the female had been suffering from this for some time, perhaps even before ending up in the Labyrinth. I took a closer look and grimaced: some of the exterior teeth of the trap had been covered with something nasty green in color while the female’s leg was swollen and dark; it was not very obvious at first sight as she was really hairy. The female was poisoned, and, as far as I could tell, hung on by sheer willpower. It was not clear if she was allowed to respawn in the Academy or not. By the way, that explained the Boar’s malice: he was trying to avenge all living things for the impending death of his woman. One of the cubs managed to crawl out from his mother’s protection and rolled over on the earth floor, but then righted himself, stuck out his chest and roared menacingly: “R-R-RA!” The young Boar had such a high squeaky voice, though, that I could not contain a smile: the cub could barely stand up on its hind legs, yet tried to protect his kin.

  “What’s there?” The players could see that I had stopped near the entrance, and was not making any attempts to advance farther; besides, they were bewildered by the unexpected squeaks.

  “Wait!” I shouted in response, and squatted down. The excited cub drummed his fists on his chest like a gorilla, trying to scare me and chase me out of the den. He even ran off away from his mother by a whole couple of meters. The mother squeaked in protest, but the cub ignored her, continuing to advance towards the enemy. Finally, there was no more space between us and the little Boar stopped uncertainly, not sure what to do next. His instincts prompted him to chase away the intruder, but the intruder not only refused to be chased away, but did not even act harshly, and even less aggressively. After emitting another menacing squeak the little one decided that he had been heroic enough, and strutted back to his mother, allowing me to calmly climb out of the den.

  “So what’s there?” the Paladins kept asking me, but I made a gesture suggesting they should calm down; then I came up to the druid.

  “Nata, I have some questions regarding the specif
ics of the Game. Are players allowed to acquire pets, and what do they need for that?”

  “Pets?!” There was a collective exclamation of surprise. “Are there pets inside?”

  “Not as such. Inside there’s a female Boar and three cubs. The female’s leg is injured, and I suspect she’d been poisoned. She’s not going to survive. There are three small ones: we need to do something with them, that’s why I’m asking.”.

  “In theory – yes, that’s possible, many players run with pets, but in practice I’ve never tried to tame a single one. You have to work with them all the time‒ they are worse than children, I’ve never had time for that. Here,” Dolgunata handed me a pasty. “Try giving this to him. Maybe it’ll work.”

  “Zangar?” I looked at the necromancer. “What do you say?”

  I have not knowledge,” the cynocephalian’s response was negative. “Do not need pets. They distract. Require time for them. Taming is possible, Nata right. Give pasty, try. I have surprise. Why need pet? You not hunter. You are Paladin.”

  “First of all, I am an explorer,” I objected. “Pets and everything that’s related to them would give me a similar scope of development as would visiting new places. It is a great untouched area for exploration; it would be stupid to deny myself a possibility to level up. Wait here, I’ll be right back.”

  Returning to the den I came closer to the female and squatted again. She squeaked something in fear, but did not even attempt to get away. There was foam already appearing at her lips – apparently, she was supposed to die any minute now. Cursing at myself for being silly and wasteful, I took out the elves’ potion – I had just seven vials of it left – stood up and decisively walked towards the dying Boar. The Boar’s family hissed, trying to chase me away; the female even tried to swing her arm to hit me, but her eyes rolled from the effort and she fainted.

  “Hang in there, furry girl! Don’t you even think of dying here on me!” In a habitual movement I opened the lid of the elixir, tilted back the female’s head and poured the liquid straight down her throat; I was a little startled by the two rows of sharp teeth and the black tongue. Pouring down everything to the last drop, I called Zangar, and together with the necromancer we opened the trap. I was not strong enough to do it alone.

  The Paladins, as one would have expected, forgot about my request to stay outside and tumbled into the den, wanting to see the Boar’s family for themselves. It immediately became very stuffy inside, so I cursed them out, telling them to get the hell out before we all died from lack of oxygen, which would prove to be a total waste of a potion. The cubs hid behind the mother and didn’t come out any more, scared by so many strangers; even the brave knee-high-to-a-grasshopper hero peeked out just a couple of times, only to retreat right away and hide behind his mother, whose color returned to normal now; she started breathing properly as well.

  “That’s a funny little beastie.” Besides myself, Zangar and Dolgunata (the necromancer temporarily had taken her from Sartal) still stayed in the den with me. “I’ve never even heard of them. Looks sort of humanoid, but the two rows of teeth indicate they must be related to sharks. Disproportionate arms with two elbows… The Game did pull them out of somewhere after all. This” – Nata pointed at the trap‒ “really does not belong in the Academy.”

  “I think I’ll take it as a trophy.” I opened my virtual shelf and grimaced — there wasn’t that much space there, it was crowded with empty elixir vials. I brushed off a dozen of those, and then managed to stuff the trap onto one of the spaces, surprised that the Game at least did not burden me with the additional weight. As soon as the trap settled in the inventory it became weightless.

  “R-r-ra,” the hairy monster groaned, and opened its eyes. It was amusing to see the terror and fear in them replaced with bewilderment, confusion and shock. Apparently, the female had thought that she was already dead, and was very surprised to find herself not in a better world, but in the monstrous Academy, full of scary players. “Gra-ra-ra? Ry-gar-ra?”

  “I may be wrong, but it seems she is trying to tell us something,” Dolgunata played "Captain Obvious", stating something that was already clear: there could be no other explanation for the female Boar’s gestures other than an attempt to talk.

  “Yari!” I my hand on the chest and repeated once again: “Yari!” Then did the same thing with the necromancer and the druid: “Zangar! Dolgunata!”

  “Rgragra!” our interlocutor figured out what we want from her, and also thumped herself on the chest: “Rgragra!”

  “Fine, we have confirmed that it’s sentient,” the druid joked testily. “What next? Are you going to teach her the common language? Don’t forget, just forty minutes remain till her sweetheart shows up, and he’s really not going to like it, seeing all of us here.”

  “Rgragra.” Ignoring the druid, I came up to the female and put my hand on her shoulder. “Rgragra.”

  “Iyarryi!” she responded, in turn putting her paw on my shoulder.

  “I see you have already found common ground with her,” Dolgunata continued to mock. “Ask where is the treasure here? Where is our loot?”

  “Rragr!” The female, glad to be understood, turned around, grabbed one of the cubs and handed it to me. “Rragr!”

  “R-r-a!” The little ball of fur roared, and I realized that it was that same brave offspring of the Boar who had tried to chase me out of the den.

  “Here.” I gave him the pasty. The cub grabbed it, sniffed, and immediately stuffed it into his mouth. I heard contented chewing, crumbs fell out of the mouth he still couldn’t control very well; the little wonder was trying to catch the largest crumbs in the air and stuff them back into his mouth. It was such a funny sight that it took me a while to notice the system message:

  You discovered a pet: Rragr, a delvian. Do you agree to take the pet under your control?

  I had no doubts. A pet would be yet another way to develop my artifact by expanding its knowledge. It would be possible to observe his development, record special features and differences from other pets. A lot could be done and achieved with the pet, so I agreed with the offer made by the system.

  Once I clicked “Accept”, a new blinking icon appeared on the status bar, requiring my attention. My experience suggested that the blinking would be a constant distraction, and then, at the worst possible moment, there would be a system message suggesting that I familiarize myself with the features of my pet; it would cover my entire field of vision and leave me vulnerable to an enemy’s blow. So while Zangar and Dolgunata whispered among themselves discussing something, I clicked on the jumping icon and looked at the new interface.

  The first thing that drew my eye was that the pet had no levels, nor other meaningful parameter values. All the functions of working with the pet available to me at the moment were just a few buttons: “Place pet in extratemporal pocket”, “Extract pet from extratemporal pocket”, “Current status inquiry”. That was it! Clicking on the first button made the pet disappear as if he had never existed, clicking on the other brought him back; clicking on the third produced a new pop-up window which finally contained some relevant information: name, current health status and attitude to the owner. According to the Game, currently Rragr had mixed feelings towards me. He was scared at leaving his family, but excited by the new horizons that opened up in front of him. The pet himself sat and looked at me so expressively with his jet-black eyes waiting for orders that I felt uneasy. I really needed to find out how to work with pets: at this stage it all looked extremely complicated.

  “Finally!” Dolgunata sighed with relief and shouted: “Come here, everybody!”

  I hid Rragr and tried to figure out what had gotten the druid so excited. Having made sure that I accepted her gift, the female hobbled to the right wall from the entrance and scratched the earth wall several times, uncovering a solid steel door. I finished with the pet just at the moment when the door was fully cleared of soil, and it opened with such a horrendous squeak that only one thi
ng was similar to it: my grandfather’s garden gate, whose hinges must not have been oiled ever since he built it. Behind the door there was a small storage – that was what had caused such an excited reaction from Dolgunata.

  “What?” The Paladins crowded into the den, making the female fearfully retreat from the passage, trying to protect her children.

  “Loot.” Zangar pointed at the room inside. “Yari’s luck worked. Need to change. Armor better than standard.”

  In the small room – literally six square feet – we found a rack with clothes. A lot of shining steel, a little lighter than what we were wearing, a greenish set of druid’s clothes. Dark robe for a mage and elaborate armor for necromancer with a crystal on the buckle shining even brighter. There were no doubts: the small storage contained precisely ten sets of armor, one for each group member, including Monstrichello after respawn.

  “Would you help me?” Dolgunata asked Marinar quietly. Zangar put Dolgunata over the mage’s shoulder and for a few moments the girls disappeared into the room. Naked legs and backs flashed, but to everyone’s disappointment no one was able to see anything more. Marinar was able not only to support Dolgunata, but also to cover the field of view.

  “I’m done,” we heard the druid exclaim, and Zangar pulled out the transformed girl for everyone to see. If one ignored the richer color of the clothes, the changes were minimal: a little more chainmail, additional arm guards, more feminine boots, from which the bones weren’t sticking out anymore… I don’t know what it did in terms of functionality, but from the standpoint of appearance Dolgunata really gained a lot with the new clothes.