Survival Quest (The Way of the Shaman: Book #1)

by Vasily Mahanenko

  Experience gained: +600 Experience, points remaining until next level: 1170.

  Level gained!

  Skill increase:

  + 2 to Intellect. Total: 40.

  +2 to Stamina. Total: 29.

  +2 to Endurance. Total: 9.

  +1 to Agility. Total: 7.

  Free stat points: 10.

  Achievement earned!

  Tough as Nails. level 1 (4 boss kills until the next level).

  Achievement reward: damage dealt to all bosses increased by 1%.

  My first thought after reading the messages was that I was getting slow: I never allocated the stat points I got for the spiderlings. The additional five points of Intellect would have helped a lot in this battle. To avoid repeating the mistake I immediately put all the stat points into Intellect and then had a look around. Our loot had to be somewhere nearby. My mana was gradually recharging, so I started to summon Healing Spirits on the battle-worn group, which camped in the middle of the cave and appeared to have no intention of going any further.

  "Clutzer, get up! Our loot is here somewhere, let's look for it. Do you think we swatted that cockroach for nothing? And anyway, what's up with you people? We just brought down a boss! We did get knocked about a good deal, but we're all alive! Let's go - you're not going to give up half-way, are you?"

  "Mahan, we barely managed to kill this one and you're saying we should keep going," said Leite, despondently. "The next one would gulp us down without as much as a glance!"

  "Quit being such crybabies! You've all gained a level! Now we'll get some new gear too. We'll take this whole place out! Get up and let's go! Time's a ticking and tomorrow we have to be at the exit to start off for the main gameworld, but you're sitting here and sulking," I saw that my words were having little effect and barked: "On your feet! Fall in!"

  All three of them sprang up and stood in a line.

  "And now suck it up and go find that loot! Dismissed!"

  Skill increase:

  +1 to Charisma. Total: 6.

  'Yes, Reflexes are a terrible thing,' I thought as I watched the others searching for the loot. When the united world Government was formed, it made year-long army training compulsory for all eighteen-year-olds. If you failed to take part, the best job you could hope for was being a street cleaner. During this training obedience to the commander's voice was hammered into you well and good; there was little need to say anything - even half asleep you'd carry out orders just to avoid the disciplinary unit.

  Clutzer was again the one to find the loot. Did he have a nose for it or something? Aside from 120 gold each, from a small chest in a hole in one of the walls, the other items included:

  Leather Bracers of Intellect. Durability: 50. Physical damage resistance: 20. Stamina: +2. Intellect: + 6. Item class: Uncommon. Minimum level: 13.

  Mail Bracers of Strength. Durability: 50. Physical damage resistance: 60. Stamina: +2. Strength: + 6. Item class: Uncommon. Minimum level: 13.

  Mail Bracers of Strength. Durability: 50. Physical damage resistance: 60. Stamina: +2. Strength + 6. Item class: Uncommon. Minimum level: 13.

  Mail Bracers of Stamina. Durability: 50. Physical damage resistance: 80. Stamina: +8. Item class: Uncommon. Minimum level: 13.

  There were no questions about who should get what. As I put on the new bracers I thought that there was only one bad thing about this Dungeon: all the items we got were of the Uncommon type, distinguished from common ones only by a relatively small stat bonus, +8 in our case. Now, if we got Rare or Epic class items, then... but I was drifting off to the land of dreams again. I might as well have remembered Legendary or Scaling items.

  We didn't come across any obstacles on our way to the next boss. It's not like you could call a swarm of Rats that attacked us as soon as we moved down the corridor much of an obstacle. Eric was a living wave-breaker against a sea of level 5 Rats. They had just 500 Hit Points each, so we pretty much mowed them down. As usual, there was a 'but' - these kills yielded no experience. After the battle was over we simply divided the loot into four piles of approximately same size, without even looking at what they contained, and moved on. We didn't have that long until we had to return to the Dolma mine.

  The second boss put a smile on our faces. Quite literally.

  We kept moving until we came to the den of the boss - this time it wasn't sitting on the ground, but hovering in the air. A snow-white cross between a dragonfly and a scorpion hung about a meter above the ground. It had the body and the wings of a dragonfly and the head and pincers of a scorpion. You had to ask - what was the developer smoking when he came up with this one?

  White Guardian of the Queen. Level: 19. Hit points: 200,000. Abilities: Mighty Blow, Laughing Gas, Frenzied Whirlwind.

  "Right, it's debriefing time," Eric began, as the most experienced raider. "The 'Mighty Blow' should target either myself alone or anyone next to the boss. We'll have to check; if it's the latter we'll have to run away from the boss when it uses this ability. Frenzied Whirlwind will be like that Tarantula's Web, saved for the final phase of the battle. Mahan, you'll have to be careful how you spend your mana. What this Laughing Gas is - I have no idea. If we draw a parallel with the real world, this thing," he nodded at the dragonfly, "lets out a gas that will make us laugh. Knowing the kind of maniacs the developers tend to be, we can suppose that we'll be laughing until the time we take an antidote or die. We don't have an antidote, so, Mahan, your Spirits will have to sort it all out. This Guardian has fifty thousand Hit Points less than the spider, so it won't be ramming itself against the wall. At least it doesn't look like we'll have to deal with any additional mobs. Everyone ready?"

  "Let's do this," Eric said again after we all confirmed our readiness. "Waste that winged bastard!"

  I wondered what would happen if the next boss had a tail - would he shout "Waste that tailed bastard"?

  We made quite a lively start. Every Mighty Blow only hit the tank, taking off 30% of his Hit Points, but if Eric caught the blow with his shield, the damage was laughable. The dragonfly didn't fly around the cave and we didn't have to run after it, so our combined damage was respectably high. In a couple of minutes only 60% of the boss's Hit Points remained.

  And that's when the fun began:

  "BEWARE."

  I didn't really see what the dragonfly did, but suddenly the whole cave was filled with plumes of green smoke. I managed to hold my breath in time and looked at the others. Eric wasn't breathing, continuing to take the dragonfly's blows, Leite seemed to be behaving normally, but Clutzer...

  Just a couple of seconds after the smoke appeared Clutzer started to laugh uncontrollably:

  "Leite, can you believe it? We're whacking a dragonfly. He-he. A flying buzzing fly that thinks it's a dragon. Ha-ha. A fly! Can you imagine - a buzzing fly! Buzz-Buzz!" Clutzer started to grimace, using his arms to imitate antennae, and tried to headbutt the White Guardian. After a few seconds Leite cracked up and joined Clutzer:

  "You're some funky dragonbuzzer, man!"

  Right, we'd lost our DDs and the boss still had 60% of Life left. We had to snap them out of it, but how? I jumped to Leite, turned him to me and prayed that the developers turned off the 'deal damage - go for respawn' setting in the Dungeon and started to slap him about the face to return him to his senses. Leite looked at me with glassy eyes:

  "Mahan, you're here too! He-he. We're swatting some flies here, haha, but shhh!" Leite dropped to a whisper and pointed to Clutzer. "See that dung bug over there, with the huge antennae? I'm gonna chop them off in a minute."

  What to do? I was fighting off spasms as my body began to run out of air. Eric, red from holding his breath, was already at 40% of Hit Points, but any Healing Spirit summoning would mean I'd join our DDs, who were now chasing each other, the boss all but forgotten. At least they're not using weapons and just sticking to headbutts. I looked around in desperation - it can't all end so badly, just can't!

  Small mushrooms by the wall caught my eye. Not even
the mushrooms themselves, but the shining rainbow that hung above each mushroom. Nearly fainting, I ran to the mushrooms, fell to my knees and started to eat them. All or nothing! I just managed to put a mushroom into my mouth before feverishly starting to breathe in the air. Two seconds, nothing happened, then five...

  "Mahan!" Eric's shout was full of desperation and then turned into crazy laughter. No more tank. I grabbed the mushrooms and ran to the laughing group, calling Healing Spirits on my way. Eric was really getting demolished. Each hit of a pincer took off 10% of Hit Points, but this just made him laugh even harder. At least he wasn't trying to chase Clutzer and Leite, who had now started to hide from each other behind the mass of the hovering dragonfly. I ran up to Eric and managed to stick a piece of mushroom into his mouth between the blows, hoping that it would neutralize the poison. This really wasn't a good time to see the bar of 'Mighty Blow' starting to light up above the boss. It would bring Eric's Hit Points down by 30% in normal battle and one didn't want to think what it'd do now. Realizing that I could already be out of time, I began the summoning chant, half-expecting to see a message telling me that the Spirit cannot be summoned on a dead target.

  Hit! The clank of the blocked attack told everyone in the vicinity that it had been caught by the shield.

  "Mahan, I'm all right, get the others out!" Eric's shout took a great weight off my shoulders. Now the dragonfly's days were numbered. If the mushrooms allowed you to ignore the Laughing Gas, we just had to eat some quickly enough. As soon as Leite and Clutzer came to themselves the green clumps of smoke in the cave disappeared. We'd survived the 'Laughing Gas' ability, launched at 60% of Life: if this boss had a similar design to the tarantula, this ability will be used two more times - at 40 and 20 percent.

  I was right. When we head the warning, Clutzer and I ran for the mushrooms, leaving the others to work on the boss. I took a mushroom to Eric and Clutzer gave one to Leite, so we survived the following explosions of the laughing gas without any losses. The last phase didn't present any problems either - the boss started to spin, dealing damage to the whole raid with its wings and pincers. On one hand the damage was quite substantial, taking off 10-15% Hit Points in 5 seconds, but on the other, in these 5 seconds I had time to summon 4 Spirits, completely healing the group.

  Experience gained: +600 Experience, points remaining until next level: 570.

  Skill increase:

  +1 to Intellect. Total: 51.

  +1 to Stamina. Total: 30.

  +1 to Endurance. Total: 10.

  "Well, you 'dragon-buzzers', there should be a chest around here somewhere," I decided to poke fun at Clutzer and Leite, who went to search the cave straight away. I could bet a farm that Clutzer would be the one to find it again.

  "Mahan, come here! Your advice is needed," came Leite's shout, potentially making me a farm-less RL. Like some little kids - can't they do anything without me?

  When I came over and had a look at the loot chest, I made a mental apology to all the others. Well, well. The developers had compensated for the fairly easy battle mechanic of the boss with a very tricky access to the loot chest. There was a small corridor, about three meters wide, that went about twenty meters deep into the rock. At the very end of the corridor was our chest on a plinth, but the floor in between was covered with one big bright-green puddle. There were some small islands in it, but only at the end of the corridor, by the chest. Leite carefully touched the puddle with his foot and immediately jumped back with a scream, tearing off his boot, which was smoking; it soon evaporated right before our eyes.

  "The puddle... Durability... The boot..." Leite said, perplexed, standing on the stones with his bare foot. So that's it! The puddle destroys item durability. You live and learn; I should make a note for myself that such puddles exist. Nevertheless, it's important to try everything out for yourself. I took out one of the old rings, carefully touched the puddle with it and then put it on the ground. That's right, destruction in progress: the ring's Durability fell by 2 units per second, it smoked and hissed and then disappeared altogether.

  "Maybe we should just leave it?" asked Eric, as he watched my experiment. I don't want to lose what I'm wearing now for some unknown stuff in the chest.

  "I agree. Losing that boot was enough for me," Leite concurred.

  I looked at Clutzer. If he was also against it we'll be moving on. I wasn't too eager to take the risk either. Clutzer glanced at us and started to take off all his clothes, mumbling something under his breath, until he was wearing his character’s birthday suit: an undroppable loin cloth.

  "Mahan, I thought you had the smarts, but you just totally don't get it" said Clutzer and stepped into the puddle. Minus 10% to Hit Points.

  "Heal me already!" shouted Clutzer and headed off to the chest in some giant leaps. He really wasn't bad at making a fly-like impression. He grabbed the chest and hopped back.

  "Like I'll leave the loot to some tools! In the can they'd mess you up for stuff like this," mumbled Clutzer, wrinkling from pain, but clearly pleased. He acquired a minute-long debuff, taking off 10% of his Hit Points, so I focused on healing the hero of my inner zoo. The hoarding hamster put up posters of Clutzer all over its designated space and together with the greed-toad they demanded for him to be made an authorized representative of their family.

  Eric opened the chest, glanced inside, swallowed in excitement and looked at the others in shock. I examined the loot and understood why:

  Mardvir's Leather Boots. Durability: 200. Physical damage resistance: 70.

  Stamina: +10. Intellect; + 16. Magic, fire, cold and poison resistance: 30. Item class: Rare. Minimum level: 13.

  Rurok's Chainmail Boots. Durability: 200. Physical damage resistance: 100.

  Stamina: +9. Strength: + 16. Magic, fire, cold and poison resistance: 30. Item class: Rare. Minimum level: 13.

  Rurok's Chainmail Boots. Durability: 200. Physical damage resistance: 100.

  Stamina: +9. Strength: + 16. Magic, fire, cold and poison resistance: 30. Item class: Rare. Minimum level: 13.

  Halik's Chainmail Boots. Durability: 200. Physical damage resistance: 130.

  Stamina: +26. Magic, fire, cold and poison resistance: 30. Item class: Rare. Minimum level: 13.

  It took us a whole hour to get to the last boss. There were no more bosses, but there were swarms of Rats, Spiders and Millipedes attacking us at every step.

  In the end the final boss of the Dungeon appeared before us.

  A two-meter-high Rat sat at the centre of its den and waited for us to pay it a visit. The shimmering transport portal was immediately visible right at the end of the cave. Would it take us straight to Dolma? Good if so, no-one really wanted to go back the same way.

  Queen Aiden. Level: 22. Hit points: 400 000. Abilities: Phase 1: hidden, Phase 2: hidden.

  "What do you say, Eric?" asked Leite.

  "In the normal gameworld I'd not go in here without the manual," said the tank at last. "Hidden abilities mean only one thing - they are chosen randomly from the whole multitude of different boss attacks. If you don't study all of them and pass an exam on boss abilities with the raid-leader you won't be able to join the raid party. There is only one such boss in my memory and we spent almost a week preparing for it: we researched, read up, even bought a virtual boss trainer, to work through different combinations... Imagine this: one hit of the boss has to be let through because it heals, and the other avoided at all costs because it kills instantly. If you don't know which attack does what, you won't get very far. It's the same here. If we attack the boss now, there's a 98% chance that we'll die. But we do have the 2% chance of bringing that Rat down.

  "I'm not going to go for the last boss," I said after some thought. "In case of the other bosses I thought that we had a good chance of beating them, but here I'm convinced that we’re looking at a suicide mission. If we will be making a clan, I may as well tell you what a respawn would mean for me. I've levelled up to level 3 in Crafting, which allows me to add 3 addit
ional stats to the rings and to the stones I insert into them. Yes, you can attach stones to rings as well, don't be surprised - have a look at mine," I opened viewing access for my rings. "If I die, I'll be useless to the clan, because Crafting levels up through the creative process and there's nothing simple or easy about it. You cannot add free stat points to it, I've already tried. That's how it is. Risking this for items, even if they're incredibly good for our current levels, but set to become disposable junk a couple of weeks after we get out... is stupid. I don't believe that we'll get Scaling Items from the Queen. We already had some incredible luck with loot from all the other bosses."

  "I agree with Mahan. We'll make a clan and go on so many raids that we'll get more than our fill," said Leite, supporting my reasoning.

  "Yes, I understand that you're right," Eric agreed reluctantly. "It's just we're the first to go through this Dungeon and if we manage to down the Queen, we'll get the 'First Kill', an achievement that only about ten thousand people in Barliona managed to gain. It's divided into two parts - one is connected to a particular Dungeon and the other simply shows that we have it. When I was playing I never dreamt I'd get a chance of getting this achievement. Even though a new Dungeon appears in Barliona every half a year, only a very limited number of clans gets 'First Kill'. The kinds of wars that are waged over this are really something else. I once saw a broadcast of one of these battles, when the fighters of the Phoenix Clan, including hired players, protected the entrance to a new Dungeon. Almost three hundred level 130 players defended against the united forces of the other clans. They held out for just thirty minutes, but in these thirty minutes the Phoenix raid group became the first to complete this Dungeon. Hellfire, the leader of the Phoenix Clan, later said that in these thirty minutes the clan had to pay around a million gold to the fighters hired for the defense. Just imagine! A million gold to gain an achievement! And here we have a chance to do this at level 15! Completely for free! Yes, the risk is great, it's highly likely that we'll fail. But, dammit, I'd really like to try!"