The Quest (Dark Paladin Book #2) LitRPG Series

by Vasily Mahanenko

  “Ne-e-ewbie.” I heard the disappointed sigh. And I was immediately weighed, measured and found wanting, “Stu-u-upid. Just fo-o-od.”

  “Darkness take me, I don’t want to burn alive! I don’t want to die! I don’t! Give me a chance and I will prove you wrong, you disgusting monster! Archibald, tell him something!” My thoughts were panicked, I was confused with terror, and when I heard Archibald’s voice, I did not immediately realize that it was not a hallucination. I received a respite, however short it might be.

  “How did you survive? I was personally checking the transition lists! You were not on them!” I calmed myself down somewhat by convincing myself to rely on the catorian, not to go mad waiting for the torture, and perked my ears.

  Steve browsed through the lists quickly and nodded: Lumpen did not transition to this era. The workers of the Temple of Knowledge had confirmed that as well. However, apparently this monster could not care less about Archibald’s checks or about the steadfast word of the Temple of Knowledge people!

  “Interes-s-sted?” A sneer could be heard in the metallic voice of the monster. Even though that might have been an illusion: the Dark one was obviously limited in his emotions. In any case, Archibald’s question made him more talkative, or maybe it was the result of having some “fo-o-od”. “What can you of-f-fer me for th-th-that, Light one?”

  “That’s the wrong question.” Archibald shook his head. “You owe me your freedom.”

  “Li-i-iar! Not you-u-u!” Lightning flew again in the direction of Archibald, but missed him again. The necromancer pointed at me without turning. “Him. I appreciate. He will serve as f-o-od for only an hour. Bargain, you flea-a-a!”

  At that point I was totally lost. While it was understandable why Archibald would do it – he needed this information urgently, so he would bargain – but why would Lumpen want to lose such an advantage?

  Delrand crystal full of Energy,” Archibald offered and vanished again, appearing in a new place. The dust from the exploded wall was settling where he had been a moment ago. “You are weak now, and with the crystal you won’t need food for a couple of months.

  Instead of answering, Lumpen tried to hit the catorian once again.

  “Does this mean no? Or should I add something else to the crystal?” Archibald was actually starting to look like a flea, as he was jumping constantly.

  “Not interes-s-sted. Energy is not critical. Fabio is nearby. You bore me, flea-a-a!”

  “What do you want?” Archibald would not give up, escaping yet another lightning.

  “You-u-u, flea-a-a! You will be my s-s-slave.” The necromancer was playing high.

  The catorian demonstrated amazing agreeability:

  “Fine. Give me the contract with your proposals. We’ll discuss terms.”

  The necromancer stopped shooting lightning bolts at Archibald and screeched:

  “S-s-smmart flea-a-a!” It took Archibald no more than ten seconds to bring the terms to a mutually agreeable contract.

  “So then, I shall voluntarily stay for one thousand years in mental slavery, and then another thousand with regained consciousness; I shall thoroughly guard my life and health in order to properly serve the necromancer Lumpen; I shall not undertake any attempts to limit his power over me, nor shall I try to terminate my slave service before its due expiration in exchange for complete information to be provided to my teacher Gerhard Van Brast about the way by which the necromancer Lumpen was able to transition to the next era, retaining his full awareness. Last: if I were to be liberated prior to the expiration of the term, the contract shall be considered completed by me. Do you agree?”

  “Yes!” Lumpen screeched, rubbing his hands gleefully.

  “Then let’s not drag this out; I am calling Gerhard.” Archibald reached for the comm, but was nearly hit by a new lightning.

  “No.” The necromancer explained and pointed at me. “He-e-e will tell. Af-f-fter I eat.”

  “Lumpen, I agree for Yaropolk to convey information, but he must leave here alive and undamaged. I know what really happened to Anna. What’s the use of the messenger if all he is able to do is drool? I need guarantees. Otherwise, go ahead, eat, and I will find a way to get out of here.

  “I agree!” Lumpen did not think for very long, and his dark light washed over him. The agreement was in force now. “S-s-stand still, my s-s-slave!”

  More black lightnings sprang from the necromancer’s hands to envelop Archibald in the same way as they had enveloped Iven before. The puppet theater of the necromancer Lumpen received another high- level puppet. Having sent Archibald to keep Iven company, the necromancer proceeded to me. By that point I did not really care any more what my fate would be, because if Lumpen were to breach the agreement there would be no one to point fingers at him.

  Without any visible manipulations the necromancer dispelled the field that was holding me in place, and I finally hit the floor. I was shaking as if I had walked into forty degrees below zero dressed in my underwear and stayed there for half an hour. Lumpen took practically all my strength and Energy. With my arms spread I was lying flat on my back, hoping that the necromancer would give me a few minutes to replenish my strength from the crystal, since at this point I was not even able to crawl towards the door. And I wanted to go out of here not just on my own two feet, but also to try to curry favor with this Dark one. For that, according to Gromana, I needed to take off the anti-grav. What was it she had said? All Dark ones would be friendly to me?

  The necromancer’s hand twitched, pointing towards the exit.

  “Li-i-ight one, run, or you will be-e-e fo-o-od.”

  “I am about as light as you!” I rasped, pulling the cylinder with the source of Light off my belt.

  An invisible force unclenched my fingers, prevented me from putting the looped anti-grav into my inventory. Instead it flew towards the necromancer and floated at eye level in front of his hood. The necromancer raised his hand and, without touching the anti-grav, made it turn in different planes; then he spread his hands and the poor gadget was disassembled into components. The released source of Light was floating in the air right in front of the necromancer together with the parts of the cylinder without doing anyone any harm. If I had had the strength I would have whistled in amazement. How strong one had to be to so easily block the effects of the Light without as much as a grimace!

  “Interes-s-sting.” I heard a low hiss. After a respawn and a thousand years spent in confinement, Lumpen had not lost his interest in inventions; I considered that to be a good sign. The necromancer twisted his hand in the air, looked away from the cylinder parts – and they crashed to the floor. The Source of Light entrusted to me by Bernard collapsed and disappeared.

  The necromancer inhaled with pleasure as if enjoying the fragrance:

  “S-s-small Dark one with one h-h-hundred of Darkness-s-s. Nic-c-ce! How? Not my Darkness-s-s.”

  Despite the brevity of the question I figured out what he wanted. Guided by his curiosity about the looped anti-grav from our era, Lumpen wanted to know how such a low-level player had managed to reach 100 of Darkness without his artifacts. Apparently, there was no one able to compete with the necromancer among his contemporaries.

  “‘Shazal’ Treatise.” I sat on the floor, since it was inconvenient to talk while lying down, and I was still unable to stand up; I spilled the beans immediately. “This new era has strong Dark ones as well.”

  “Th-th-there were. Before I came along.” The monster corrected me calmly, looking at me in a different way now.

  During this time I was able to rest some and restore my Energy somewhat, so now it was possible to think of escaping. But there was one question remaining that I had to clarify – my own principles demanded it. I could not just simply run away without finding out the information for the sake of which Archibald had become a slave for two thousand years. It was one thing to be Dark, but being a lowly coward was quite a different matter, as I saw it.

  “How will I conv
ey the information to Gerhard?” From all the ways to clarify the situation I chose the most innocent one. As if I had no doubts that the necromancer would share with me.

  The necromancer said surprisingly calmly‒ indifferently, even:

  “However-r-r you want.”

  Cursing silently at damned Lumpen unwilling to help me figure out what kind of actions he expected from me, I found nothing better to do than just keep sitting on the floor.

  The necromancer meanwhile seemed to have lost all interest in me; motioning his hands again he was working on Archibald. It looked as if a puppeteer was getting used to controlling his new toy.

  At first the catorian was making simple motions in place – turned his head, his body, jumped. Then he said mechanically “Yes my lord!” and goose stepped towards me. I started crawling backward intuitively until I backed against the wall, but Archibald stopped a couple of steps away from me. His eyes, obscured by darkness, looked dead; that turned the catorian’s face into a terrifying mask that made you want to look away.

  “Used a slave.” I suddenly heard Archibald’s voice. His mouth almost did not move, which was confusing. Who used a slave? And what for?

  “I knew there would be restart. It’s always inevitable. And I knew I would not be offered a place in the new era.” The teacher kept ventriloquizing, and I realized that the necromancer had found a way to make it easy for himself, and was using thought-speech to comply with his part of the agreement, and convey the information with a touch of irony regarding the tool for this conveyance. Apparently, I was incredibly lucky. Had the necromancer decided to use me as food he could have preserved only my ability to talk and sent me like this, as a living information carrier to Gerhard. At that moment I felt infinite gratitude towards the hundredth level of Darkness, towards Bernard, and towards Archibald. “I found someone to whom a place was promised and enslaved him. Then I transferred my consciousness into an artifact. My slave brought the crystal into this world. He was supposed to find a strong being and resurrect me. But several hundred years passed by uselessly. Then Iven found my slave and killed him. Before dying my slave activated the crystal and transferred my consciousness into the weakest being around so that I could overcome it even though I had no Energy. I destroyed the consciousness of the subject, but I was not allowed to restore myself fully. Iven sealed me within the body and placed the matrix of his descendant on top. You know everything. I have fulfilled my part of the deal.”

  My video recorder captured the whole story that explained things as they were. Except for one thing.

  “Why did Iven only seal you in and did not kill you?”

  I did not really count on an answer; I guess I just bet once again on my Darkness. I wanted to find things out first-hand.

  “Passion: that’s the lot of morons ‒ that’s the reason. It was a deal. My slave was too strong for one Paladin, and he called up his Doll, counting on her help to battle my slave Leguria. But she did not make it. Anna was crazy, and needed to be destroyed. But Iven did not want to let go of that shell with no ghost. So I offered him a deal while grief clouded his mind. I needed life, time, and Energy. He needed his Doll. It was impossible to recover her mind; the only possibility was to replace her with an echo. However, the Paladin was glad to have even that. We bargained. He did not let me resurrect. I promised that I would replace the Doll with an echo that had an aura, and create the binding Reverse, so that no one would find out. He provided me an existence by sealing me in the body of his offspring. Moron! He thought that he conquered me! But he craved riches and power so much that he did not notice as he became my slave. I told him about the weaknesses of his enemies, and he defeated them, gaining respect. I told him about caches and monsters; he found them and gained glory. I told him about dungeons and castles; he entered them and gained wealth. The Light one did not understand that he had long proclaimed to my students that their lord was near. They are already here, ready to welcome me! I sense Don Fabio!”

  So that was it! Whether it was the hundredth level of Darkness at work, or simply vanity, now Lumpen considered me one of his followers, part of his army. Of course! A true Dark one would have no other path than to come under the banners of his Dark “God”.

  “What will happen to them?” I nodded towards Archibald and then at Iven.

  “You have heard all. Archibald is my slave. He was an interesting enemy to me for two thousand years. Those are enemies that command respect. I defeated him, and now he will serve me as long as he had the temerity to resist. Then I will let him go‒ but he will not want to leave by then; I promise. As for the golden Paladin – forget about him. He no longer exists. I have erased his personality; I have left only the memory of his skills in that shell. Now he is my battle puppet. Forever!”

  I considered the conversation to be over and was already getting up, when the door flew open, but I was unable to see who entered. The entire room was filled with fire; only around me a wall formed that the flames could not penetrate. The protection saved me even from heat. Frankly speaking, I did not understand who protected me against a horrible death in the fire; nor did I care at the moment. The wave of fire surged and ebbed, revealing my suzerain in full battle regalia. I finally knew what his class was. Bernard was a mage.

  “Forever is far too long, Lumpen. Don’t you know that?”

  “Coordinator,” Archibald rasped, now acting as a living shield for Lumpen. The skillful necromancer managed to merge his protection with that of the catorian, and now they were an impressive sight. “You should not have come here. The estate belongs to me. I am the master here, and you are an unwanted guest. I am within my right.”

  “I am not about to argue that.” Bernard looked around the room; his eyes lingered briefly on the new slaves. “I did not come here to do battle. I came to negotiate.”

  “It’s impossible. I will drain your world. You will try to prevent me. That is your purpose and destiny.”

  “In this Game anything is possible.” A weak smile appeared on my suzerain’s face. “You are right – I will not yield the Earth to you; I have my residence here and I am used to it. So I came to bargain.”

  “What are you offering?”

  “Gardish, a world with twenty billion inhabitants, in exchange for the Earth and knowledge.

  The necromancer kept silent, waiting for Bernard to present the entire proposal.

  “Restart is inevitable. You know very well that Coordinators are never included in the lists. My conditions are: you tell me the method and knowledge to survive a restart, and I give you Gardish instead of Earth. That’s not too much for someone who put significant effort into releasing you!”

  “Do I owe you too, Coordinator?” Archibald’s face scowled in a sarcastic smile; combined with the dead black eyes that looked even more terrifying. “Or are you clamoring for your share because of the vassal’s mark of this slave?”

  “Not this one. My vassal gained the trust of the Lecleurs, found out everything about you and the blockers. Then he helped Yari with the search. He acted on my direct orders. Are you going to check it?”

  “No need: I sense the truth; for that reason I am allowing you to bargain, Coordinator.”

  Whom did Bernard mean? There was only one person who at the same time was trusted by the Lecleurs and helped me: Devir. You blasted magical son of a bitch, master of compromise! Now I fully appreciated the scope of intrigue of the local players. But I was not allowed to stand with my mouth gaping for long.

  “Yaropolk, you will forget about everything you heard here. This is a direct order. No one should ever find out about this.” I quickly erased surprise from my face and nodded to my suzerain as dispassionately as I could. “Lumpen, I would like to take my vassal. I do still need him.”

  “So do I. He must leave the estate alive. Don Fabio will meet him outside the walls. While I have your vassal, I will decide what to with him next. I need strong slaves… or at least not morons.” The necromancer added after a pause, during w
hich he probably assessed my strength.

  “Yaropolk, you have heard everything. Go on with those instructions!” Bernard lost any interest in me and resumed his conversation with Lumpen. He could not care less that I was still in the room. “As you prefer. But during restart Yaropolk must be free. He is the Guide and it is too late to change him. It’s better to work with what we have.”

  “Accepted, provided he is worthy of becoming my slave: I will give him to you as a gift for the duration of the restart.” Lumpen did not pay me any attention either. Realizing I really had to clear out as fast as I could, I hurried to the exit. “How will you explain to the public that you gave a world of yours to the enemy? They will consider you weak.”

  “That’s fine. No one will dare accuse me openly. From time to time I will hold campaigns to liberate Gardish. I will coordinate them with you. I will organize a small regular army of the strongest players. I will bring them to you as dessert. You are going to like it.”

  I could not hear what occurred after that, as I turned a corner where I finally was able to catch my breath. My legs turned to jelly and would not hold me. I had no strength after talking to Lumpen, as if he sucked it out of me. I threw up several times and had to use elves’ ointment to restore my strength. I still felt sluggish, but at least I could think more clearly. I could kill myself now and respawn in an hour in Bernard’s estate. Cons: my suzerain will definitely discover that I am not his mental slave and destroy me. Pros: I will not end up in the hands of Don Fabio. While I had some chance against Don Fabio, with Bernard the odds were totally against me. I downed another vial of the healing potion, got up and started towards the entrance to the estate, passing the players and NPCs frozen in place. The entire estate was under the rule of Lumpen, who had gained control by inhabiting Elizabeth’s body; it looked like Sleeping Beauty’s castle. Just to think that none of that would have happened, had Iven not followed his passion instead of his duty.