A Trap for the Potentate (The Dark Herbalist Book #3) LitRPG series

by Michael Atamanov

  I raised my head in surprise, and Inessa Tyle laughed with an old lady's voice:

  “Yes, yes, Timothy, don't be surprised. I have been attentively watching all your video clips. Vampire, owner of a flying snake, alpha of the Gray Pack, commander of an army of Orc Pirates and the legal husband of an NPC thief... It's created a very unusual cocktail! But you still aren’t living up to your potential. All in all, Timothy, I'm not against you becoming the reincarnation of Fenrir, but I’ll only allow it under the condition that the Gray Pack will not attack cities or come to the most populated regions of Boundless Realm. All the same, no matter how you spin it, the vast majority of our players prefer peaceful gameplay, crafting, trade, and easy questing... Such players bring the company most of its money, and there's no reason to saw off the branch we're all sitting on.”

  I confirmed to the vice president that I understood everything perfectly and was not planning to break the game world, which most players liked just the way it was. And after that, I cautiously inquired why Inessa Tyle thought the new Fenrir had to me be. Say what you will, but I had only three out of the six Fenrir items, and some other player could easily start trying to collect them all as well.

  The old lady in the chair drank down her medicine and placed the glass on the table. After that, she leaned in my direction and said:

  “I would never allow someone I didn’t know to collect the whole set. But I like you. You're proper and honest. You help your friends and sister, and you aren't even remotely selfish. So, I feel like an old tortoise trying to give a golden key to a mischievous lad that's caught my fancy. Have you ever heard of Tortila?”

  I shook my head “no,” as this was the first time I'd heard such a name. It seemed Inessa Tyle was somewhat upset:

  “Mhm... I sometimes forget that I'm a prehistoric dinosaur who’s outlived my epoch. Modern youth don’t know about Buratino... Anyway, it doesn't matter. As far as I know, only you could have gotten several of the Fenrir items, and found out about the bonuses by doing so. The rest of the players see only cursed items, which are very hard to take off, so they don’t seem particularly valuable. Anyhow, I don't see the sense in wasting time throwing the Mask of Fenrir up for auction, or giving it to anyone else. You'll get your hands on it eventually no matter what. It'll just cost you time and money. So, I'll have that girl you were talking to in the office add the Mask of Fenrir to your inventory.”

  Would you look at that! I'll be honest, I could barely hold back from hugging and kissing the sweet old lady. I was overflowing with the wildest elation! Inessa Tyle, who had easily guessed my emotions, smiled good-heartedly.

  “You heard about one of the other objects from the Djinn Sultan. It's a bit far away, of course, but your flying snake will be able to get you there. The last object in the set is now located in Taisha's inventory. A few days ago, I'd have said that meant it was already yours, but I'm not so sure anymore...”

  “Why not?” I asked in surprise. The Vice President's assertion both made me glad and confused.

  “You see, Timothy, Taisha feels quite happy in the Legion of Steel and seems to be satisfied with life. Yes, I know you and her having certain understandings, but it's been two days since then, and lots has changed. Your girl has grown a lot in level and skill, made a bunch of new friends and acquaintances and may not want to return after so much time with the 'stars' of the game. And there is one more reason for my doubts, of a totally different nature. The In-Game Security Service has traced a few phone calls from Boundless Realm and believes it may have been your green girlfriend that hired the killers!”

  Now that was a twist... The news was clearly shocking, although I believed the Vice President at once, because it explained the strange fact that I was supposed to be murdered while in my virtual reality capsule. It seemed my NPC wife had made the wrong conclusions from Valeria's recent suicide attempt and wanted to make my Amra stay in Boundless Realm forever!

  Lower Fort

  I DON'T REMEMBER leaving the Vice President's office, it was like I was in a cloud. I hope I at least said goodbye to Inessa Tyle, although I was not totally sure of that. All my thoughts where occupied with what she'd said about Taisha. How could my virtual girlfriend have dared to treat me that way?!

  On the tester floor, Leon and Max Sochnier were already waiting for me. The clock was showing seven thirty PM and, theoretically, our orcs already should have been nearing the Lower Fort.

  “You're late, Timothy,” Leon reproached me. “You said we'd meet at seven twenty, and then all log in together at seven thirty.”

  I didn't try to defend myself or tell them I'd been on an urgent call to the VP. Instead, I suggested we not waste time and load up the game. In my work cabin, I didn't even have dinner, even though I hadn't eaten anything today except a light breakfast, and my stomach was slightly groaning in hunger. But there was no time for food now. I had to go into the game.

  A message jumped in about a few incoming letters and a package, but I didn't waste time reading them, having decided to handle the correspondence later. The letters had probably, after all, come from players who wanted to kill the rare vampire in the game, and were making me offers. And the package probably contained the spiky ball on a strong metal chain my sister and I had chosen today as my goblin's exotic melee weapon.

  So then, loading. The world lit up. I saw myself sitting on a sedan-chair on the ground. All around were some hurriedly nailed-together wooden buildings. Over my head was the evening sky, thick with clouds. Next to me was a whole horde of orcs and wolves with a friendly opinion of me. Meanwhile, on the mini-map, there were fifteen unknown players in my immediate vicinity!!!

  I shuddered in surprise, seeing so many undying next to my Amra. Who were they? Were they just here by coincidence... I saw a clan tag reading [LIGHT] next to a few names. It couldn’t be pure chance then. These people were from the same clan as Antonius Just, the Human Healer I had a firm mistrust of. These players had clearly come for my head. So, I acted more intuitively than consciously:

  “Orcs, on the attack!!! Take them all down!!!”

  Warchief skill increased to level 5!

  Foreman skill increased to level 47!

  It probably would have been good to at least take a closer look at the enemy for a start, see their levels and classes, but I was hoping to catch them by surprise. And it turned out to be the right decision. It was all over in just twenty seconds. I didn't even manage to take part in the battle and try out the fearsome-looking spiky metal ball on a chain, which I found a step from me. The dozen confused players didn't have time to get any serious resistance together and were literally torn to shreds by the horde of bloodthirsty orcs and the Gray Pack, rushing in from all sides. I barely managed to stop my warriors before they took down two inactive players, who were standing slightly aside, clearly away from their computers.

  “Tie them up!” I ordered my cutthroats, pointing to the undying prisoners. “I'll interrogate them later. Where's our Ogre Fortifier?”

  Shrekson Bastard ran up to me, looking somewhat strange and even funny in the dark armor suit with two head-holes. I saw a bloodied hammer in the titan's hands and the bright red Criminal marker over his head. Our ogre had managed to “caress” one of the enemies with his frightening sledgehammer. And it should be said that the Naiad, the forest nymph and I also had such markers over our heads.

  “Leon, I see a respawn stone right here in our fort on the mini-map and, probably, all of the people we just killed managed to change their respawn point there. You've got just an hour to surround the whole area with sharpened stakes! Don't let any of the undying respawn! If need be, let Max Sochnier and Valerianna Quickfoot help you. I might join up a bit later. And don't count on the other members of the squadron helping you out. NPC's cannot come near.”

  “Great idea, big-ears!” the forest nymph supported me. “But there are two things I'd like to know. First: how are you able to hand out quests left and right? Just now, me the ogre and the
naiad got a group, time-limited quest. And at that, the reward is so generous that we now have no choice but to try. And second, how were these enemy players able to track us down?!”

  “Nothing to fear,” the Naiad Trader jumped into our conversation, wiping blood from his trident. “As I already said, my nephew has the ability to create magical scrolls, and he could have made portals here for his clan. Or maybe they still had some left from their previous unsuccessful expedition.”

  Most likely, that was exactly what had happened. But as far as I knew, all teleportation-scroll copies made from one original could open a portal only to one specific point. That meant we needed to find that point and go there to meet the guests with traps and spears at the ready. First, I tried to use my wolves' sense of smell, and my Perception to determine where exactly the players had shown up. But I met with failure. Everything inside the small fort was densely trodden, so I couldn't follow the footprints. But then I got a better idea.

  I walked up to the two bound players, a level-88 Bowman, and a level-95 Paladin. Both were inactive as before, but that wasn't what I needed now. I twirled the spiked ball in my hands with doubt, and decided to put my new weapon in my inventory. I might accidentally kill the prisoners that way... Instead, I took out my dagger and made a small wound on the bowman's neck, lowering his health-bar by a quarter. It wasn't deadly, but it was immediately noticeable. I activated my Veil icon immediately, changing the logs. Here was the log the player would have seen:

  Damage taken: 331 (418 Dagger strike — 87 armor)

  But I changed it to something else entirely, much more worrisome:

  Damage taken: 331 (418 Vampire Bite — 87 armor)

  ATTENTION!!! Your character has been infected with vampirism

  You have just 48 hours to cure the disease, otherwise the effect will become permanent, and you will become a bloodthirsty vampire!!!

  Veil skill increased to level 17!

  I did the same with the bound paladin, then ordered the four orcs to guard the prisoners and immediately tell me if they woke up or moved. I then met with Ziabash Hardy and ordered my first mate to guard the fort, placing sentries on the walls and assigning posts and shifts. I told him to also make sure the rest of the soldiers were well fed and would be sent to the different buildings to get some sleep.

  After Ziabash Hardy left, I found myself in calm circumstances, so I set about studying the Mask of Fenrir, which had already been added to my inventory. But I froze stock still when I saw the fat chef walking around the camp with heavy bags. Tondik Exuberant still had just a rag-wrapped stump instead of a left hand, and his right was still missing two fingers! How?! Had the Elixir of Regeneration not worked?! I thought the chef would now be making dinner for my orcs, but he was still wounded and could barely handle his duties.

  “Captain Amra...” the fat dwarf’s only remaining eye was cast down at the ground. The chef clearly didn't know where to begin. “I immediately realized... Here's the thing... Captain, did you know... my neighbor in the tent Gnum Spiteful isn't some gloomy and fearsome mechanic man, but a dwarven lady from an influential family?”

  “Of course. I've known that for a long time,” I said, not trying to clarify that I had only found that out by coincidence in the subterranean city of Dotur-Khawe. “Wait, Tondik, can't you tell by looking?”

  “That's the problem, I couldn't tell...” the fat dwarf grew even more embarrassed. “I thought my neighbor was just a bearded redheaded dwarf, quarrelsome and squat. And that's why I was acting that way. I was rude, swearing, vulgar. We talked about the kind of things one is ashamed to discuss with a girl... What an idiot I must have looked like! But this morning, we started talking about our relatives, and...” Tondik Exuberant took a heavy sigh, “well, I know her family, and quickly realized who it was before me. So, I gave the Elixir of Regeneration to her. A dwarven man can survive with just one eye and one arm, but a pretty girl shouldn't feel mutilated...”

  During his speech, Tondik was looking at the floor and couldn't see that Gnum Spiteful had come up to us now on both legs without any crutches, and was carefully listening to the words of her compatriot. Vanessa didn't say anything, just gave Tondik, who'd just noticed her and fallen sharply silent, an approving slap on the shoulder. All the same, from the words that appeared before my eyes, I realized everything would be ok.

  Mission renewed: Marrying off a Son

  Additional condition completed: Make Tondik Exuberant a well-known dwarf traveler and find him a wife

  I asked both dwarves to start making dinner for the whole army, promising to send my “niece and nephew” Irek and Yunna to help them, along with the cleverest orcs in my squadron. We still had plenty of meat, and the orcs had discovered some provisions left behind in a store room by a previous expedition. There were all kinds of vegetables, rings of dried fish, corned beef and a barrel of beer, so there was no chance my warriors would go hungry.

  Finally, after dealing with the camp's defense and feeding the soldiers, I took advantage of a free minute and removed the Mask of Fenrir from my inventory. It looked fearsome, like a snarling wolf's snout.

  Fenrir's Mask helmet (unique item)

  +250 Constitution, +250 Strength, 50% resistance to elemental magic, +50 to reaction of the following: Demonic creatures, Mythical creatures, Unique creatures

  Attention!

  Your character's level is too low to use this object

  Requisite level: 125

  Just what I was afraid of. I needed a very high level to use the mask. And although I still had two Ifrit Hearts sitting around, which could remove level requirement, there were three more objects in the set... There was nothing to be done, I'd have to use one of the hearts. I popped the black stone into my mouth, and it gave a beat in my goblin’s toothy maw.

  You have activated a magical item

  You have the choice of what effect you would like to receive:

  I removed level requirement from the Mask of Fenrir and strapped the helmet onto my head. Immediately, my goblin's shoulders grew broader. His muscles even visually grew larger. No matter how I tried to keep my flap-eared Amra small, funny and inoffensive, I was looking less and less that way all the time. My goblin was now bigger and more muscular. Before my eyes then there ran a whole bedsheet of text:

  You have equipped four items from Fenrir’s Cursed Regalia

  Set bonus unlocked: all members of the Gray Pack will receive a bonus of +100 Strength, +100 Agility, +100 Constitution, +75% movement speed, +75% experience gain

  Mission completed: Fenrir's Legacy (2/4)

  Reward: 25000 Exp., +10 Animal Control, +50 Strength, +50 Agility, +50 Constitution, Gray Pack member limit raised to twelve

  The helmet looked very impressive, I could tell that as soon as I opened my character equipment window and looking at my goblin from all angles. The viewers would also like the snarling wolf snout with its scary fangs. But, the bonuses given by the unique object were much more important than appearances. It restored the Gray Pack’s member limit to twelve, so I now had two free slots for the Gray Pack! And also, I was just a handful of experience points shy of level fifty-two, less than three thousand. If it weren't for the curse, which gave a serious penalty to Amra's experience, I'd have already grown in level.

  All the same, I wasn't allowed to spend too long admiring my new item and noticeably increased combat characteristics — the tied-up paladin had come to his senses and I hurried to talk with the captive.

  Lancelot Knight_of_the_Round_Table

  Human

  Level-95 Paladin [LIGHT]

  The bound captive didn't look scared at all, more like surprised and slightly pensive. I walked up to the paladin and spoke first, immediately trying to take initiative in the conversation:

  “Lancelot... or more likely Sir Lancelot, given that you're a knight... you've most likely already noticed that you've been infected with vampirism. Yes, don't be surprised, I did it on purpose. Your friends were trying to catch a
vampire, and now I'll give them that chance. You have been tied up, and cannot escape the vampire hunters. If they did manage to move their respawn point here to the Lower Fort, your clan-mates can have as much fun as their hearts desire, killing a vampire over and over again...”

  Lancelot was clearly imagining everything I was telling him in great detail, and he didn't like the perspective. His face reflected not mere fear, but full-blown panic. And while he was in that state, I continued my speech, just working the man over:

  “By the way, in the early stages, vampirism is not all that serious and, for the first few hours, the disease is easy to cure. All you’d have to do is drink a Major Elixir of Health or an Elixir of Cure Disease. But if you take too long, the situation will get more complicated. Then, you'll need rare elixirs and purification in temples... Why am I telling you this? Well, I want to propose a deal. You tell me honestly why the members of your clan came to the Lower Fort, and I'll give you a healing elixir. By the way, if you do not agree to negotiate with a vampire for some reason, I have another option,” I pointed at the inactive tied up bowman.

  Trading skill increased to level 26!

  There was no cause for worry. The captive agreed to work with me practically at once. And the more he said, the gloomier Max Sochnier, who was standing next to me, became. My mistrust and suspicion when it came to his nephew was now one hundred percent justified. Yes, all of this activity of the clan Lifegiving Light had been organized by none other than Antonius Just, and with just one goal, to capture a vampire player by the name of Amra and give him up to anyone who might want to kill a bloodsucking monster.