Pack Raptorhound. Level 38 Male. Bald Skull’s pet (1).
Wow! It wasn’t the reptile itself that interested me so much as the tracks it left. Four-toed, with broad splayed claws. And the creature had a long tail which sometimes touched the ground and left a trace. So that was whose tracks I saw in the ashes at Rumbler’s Refuge! It seemed the New Pharaohs regularly used these creatures to get around quickly. And the player who tamed them had the strange name Bald Skull. I wouldn’t mind meeting him, to share tricks of the trade.
Tracking skill increased to level eighteen!
Heavy Armor skill increased to level fourteen!
In the meantime, the raptorhound didn’t calm down, just kept hissing and snarling. When the boy whipped the lizard, it stopped obeying at all, just started to back off and hiss threateningly at the young Coachman. That brought new lashes of the whip.
“Stop!” my sister said, running forward. She threw her arms around the lizard’s neck, protecting it from new strikes. “Can’t you see he has a wound between the toes on his right foot? It’s infected. It hurts him to walk!”
Paying no heed to the coachboy’s cries of caution and the lizard’s fearsome hissing, my sister crouched down next to the dangerous beast and opened her first-aid kit. She took out some ointment and a sharp scalpel and started her operation.
“What the hell?!” the boy shouted. “Relax,” I said. “Julie’s a vet. She knows what she’s doing.”
Just in case, I used Calming Touch on the raptorhound three times until it finally stopped hissing and calmed down. The entire operation to open and drain the abscess took three minutes at most.
“Done!” Julie said, now a proud level 21 Veterinarian.
“Wow, you’re awesome…” the little boy said, changing his tune. “I wouldn’t have risked getting within biting distance. They’re all trained to catch runaway slaves. They can bite right through people. But I guess you’re free, so the raptorhound shouldn’t touch you.”
I looked at the little coachboy’s metal collar again. It was pathetic to see slavery among humans that so recently lived in a free world. I decided it was best to keep such thoughts to myself. We climbed onto the cart and clattered down the dusty road in a northwesterly direction. I looked out across the tended rectangular fields with interest. Not grain like I’d first thought. Some kind of vegetable. Thick stalks ending with clusters of small blue flowers.
“That’s the local flax,” the coachboy said when I asked him about the unusual fields. “They use it to make nice clothes for the first caste and the nobles. Simpler folk get clothes made of the rough fibers of this world’s version of ferns.”
More examples of inequality. I darkened and asked no more questions. But every time I saw workers in the fields, every last one of them in a slave collar, my urge to leave the lands of the New Pharaohs only grew.
* * *
Our destination turned out to be a small settlement of around twenty two-story stone houses. Practically a metropolis by the standards of the new world, a real center of civilization. Strong outer walls with guard towers, countless arrow slits and a drawbridge over a wide moat made the ‘Capital,’ as our guide called this stone village, a tough nut to crack.
I examined the fortifications, estimated the thickness and strength of the walls, but I couldn’t figure out how such a large town of five hundred people could fight off the night beasts. High walls and a perimeter guard weren’t enough. With so many people in one place, there would be flying night beasts like the Lesser Terror I’d seen, not to mention others even worse and more dangerous.
Our cart went inside and stopped by a large construction site where hundreds of slaves toiled to erect a huge semicircular building. We were greeted. I recognized Haze and Hulk right away, but this was the first time I’d seen that tall and musclebound man surrounded by twenty bodyguards. Dark, close-cropped hair, skin tanned almost black, a red tunic with an intricate and colorful pattern, a gold crown on his head bearing the face of a sphinx…
The Pharaoh.
What, no name, no level, no game class? Just ‘The Pharaoh’? But how could he hide his character information? Then again… I remembered that Haze had pulled tricks like that on me before, altering the information on his character, and his companion’s too.
Our coachboy jumped down off the carriage and dropped to the ground before the fearsome guild leader, pressing his face right down into the dust. Not a nice sight. My sister and I frowned in disgust, exchanged glances and decided to make do with bows, giving due respect to so influential a figure as the Pharaoh.
“Are these the transgressors?” I heard him ask Haze in a quiet voice.
Haze confirmed it. The Pharaoh asked me and my sister to come closer. We stopped three paces away, as close as his bodyguards let us get.
“Sergeant… An interesting nickname. Did you serve in the army?”
“Yessir!” I barked, deciding to play the role of dumb and obedient grunt. That usually works pretty well on higher-ups. Management loves a diligent dimwit.
“You’re a Beast Catcher by profession. Why do you need such heavy and uncomfortable bone armor?”
A strange question. I didn’t get the point. Did the Pharaoh want my giga-komodo plate armor? Or did he just want to know if I was wearing the armor to look good, or if I really used it?
“Yeah, it’s heavy. But it’s saved my life more than once in fights against the night beasts, and when taming dangerous monsters. It’s been nice to have in combat against the sherkhs, too. I’ve had the invisible ones shooting arrows at me before I even knew they were there, and stabbing me in the back with a poisoned blade too. The armor helped me withstand the first attack, and then it was just a matter of grabbing the sherkh and defeating him. They’re weaker than humans and they have no idea how to fight hand-to-hand.”
The Pharaoh laughed approvingly and spoke to someone I couldn’t see behind the thick row of tall bodyguards.
“There, see… He seems fine. A warrior by nature, served in the army. Fully worthy of carrying the mark of the first caste.”
“Perhaps so,” a young feminine voice answered. “But this Beast Catcher isn’t as simple as he wants to appear. I still cannot read his thoughts. And his sister hates us.”
The welcoming smile slid from the Pharaoh’s face, replaced by a predator’s grin. Whoever the unseen woman was, the guild leader clearly trusted her opinion. This was not good… It was a critical moment, and I needed to do something fast. I began to speak, choosing my words carefully.
“It’s true. We heard nothing good about the New Pharaohs in the river village and from the recent settlers. And my sister and I have only seen terror and violence against civilians from your punisher squads. Julie has no reason to like you. All the same, we’re human. And given that war between humans and sherkhs seems inevitable, we choose the human side. Especially since the Cartographer and the vallar are both among the eleven creators of this world. They told me that directly. As for reading my thoughts,” I took off my Wyrm Signet Ring, “I have nothing to hide! Read away!”
The bodyguards split, letting forward a short dark-haired woman in a luxurious emerald-green dress. She was young, no older than twenty-two, shapely and stunningly beautiful. And she held a tiny baby in her arms, wrapped up in a blanket. Strangely, I couldn’t read any information on the baby, unlike the mother:
☠ Victoria Bastet. Human. Female. Guild: The New Pharaohs. Level 78 Courtesan.
Courtesan? Odd game class. Her name bar was bright red, which, in combination with the skull symbol before her name, meant she was highly dangerous. And level seventy-eight! Wow. The Pharaoh might have been even stronger, I just couldn’t see his level. This meant that standing before me now was the highest-level player I’d ever met.
All the same, she didn’t look like a deadly monster to me, just an insanely beautiful woman. Inhumanly beautiful. It was for women like this that heroes did their great deeds, for women like this that wars began. Men would g
ive everything they had to spend a night with such a woman.
“Don’t even think about saying that aloud,” the goddess hissed in my ear as she approached. “The Pharaoh is jealous and sends my servants and bodyguards to the chopping block for the slightest suspicion. But I can’t forbid you from dreaming, soldier boy. Dreams, they say, sometimes come true. Time will tell…”
Victoria smiled, showing perfectly even white teeth, then slowly walked a circle around me. Then she approached my sister and fearlessly stroked the white crested reptile sitting on her shoulder.
“Charming! I heard you have an earthling kitten too.”
“Yes, Lady Victoria,” Haze answered for me. “Sergeant has a ginger kitten by the name of Whiskers. He is strange and dangerous. He escaped a locked cage in the lower tier of the Eastern Fortress last night. We don’t know where he is now.”
I couldn’t hold back a smile. I knew bars and padlocks wouldn’t hold Whiskers. The powerful Courtesan finished her inspection, returned to the Pharaoh and announced her verdict:
“You are right, my lord. Sergeant is a fearless warrior by nature, and a talented Beast Catcher. He could be useful to your guild, but he has a great love of freedom and is unlikely to obey out of fear or threat of punishment. The girl is the same, and she’ll follow her brother to the ends of the earth. Test them! Let them prove their worth! Have them catch the minotaur that lives in the southern ruins. I want to see that legendary beast in the arena against your best gladiators!”
“As you say, my beloved!” the huge musclebound man embraced and kissed his Courtesan gently, then turned to me and announced for all to hear:
“Did you hear that, Beast Catcher? If you can deal with the minotaur, then you and your group will remain free and can roam my lands to your heart’s content! If you fail, your heads will roll for your arrogance and for violating my laws! Oh, and before I forget,” the Pharaoh turned to Haze, “pay the Beast Catcher seven gold coins. That is what was promised, as I recall, for the bloodthirsty monster at the snowy pass!”
The Pharaoh and his entourage moved off toward the large construction site. Only then did the coachboy rise from his knees and sweep the dust off his clothes. The mighty Psionic walked over, counted out seven large gold coins. They were new and shiny, with the Pharaoh’s profile on one side and a winged lion on the other. Not a manticore. A sphinx, maybe, although the low quality of the engraving made it hard to identify the creature precisely.
“What, are you surprised?” Haze asked, distracting me from my inspection of the coins. “That’s what the Pharaoh is like. Terrible in anger and generous to those who earn his approval. And he knows all about the humans and the winged veyer on the river raft. Your freedom is in your hands!”
I nodded, showing that I’d gotten the message. Then I motioned my head toward the dark-haired beauty surrounded by bodyguards as she disappeared into the distance.
“Say, who is she?”
The simple question seemed to frighten Haze for some reason. He answered in a whisper, barely making a sound:
“Not so loud, Sergeant, if you want to live! She is Lady Victoria, a noble of the Pharaoh and his only partner. She is very strong in illusions and psionic magic, stronger even than me. She is jealous and brooks no competition. At her insistence, the Pharaoh executed all his other courtesans and lovers. Now Lady Victoria is our leader’s spouse, and…” Haze paused for a moment, then continued, “in practice, she is the true ruler of the New Pharaohs!”
Chapter 20 [Sergeant]
Territory of the Strongest Guild
FROM HAZE, I learned that Atlas had been taken to the other giga-komodos in the common stables, and that a watch had been placed on the river raft. Nobody was planning to arrest my companions, but any attempt to escape the lands of the New Pharaohs would no doubt be prevented. The strongest human guild had the necessary means and capabilities to ensure it. And the Psionic warned me that the Pharaoh and Lady Victoria weren’t known for their patience. This meant that although there was no specific deadline for catching the minotaur, we had to hurry — any delay would be taken extremely negatively and could have dire consequences for me and all my companions. Lady Victoria was used to all her whims being catered to immediately.
Well, if that was the case… I didn’t know if it was just sheer arrogance, but I asked the dangerous Psionic to give me a map so that I could at least get an idea of where to go after the mythical minotaur. Haze didn’t give me a map, but he did let me examine the one he had. I couldn’t hold back my cry of excitement. It was incredible! Clearly drawn by an experienced topographer, in color and in great detail, with the scale indicated, overlaid with a mile grid, lines indicating the heights of all the peaks and valleys, and the distances along the roads between known settlements. Even the depths of lakes and the great river were shown in many spots, even the fairways where ships could pass!
Incidentally… the great river, for some reason called the Northern Amazon, was shown on the map with great accuracy along with all its tributaries, its current and old blocked-up streams, its islands and its fords. And there were no waterfalls downstream all the way to the energy barrier itself! That meant that we could definitely use the raft to get out of the sandbox!
Judging by the map, it was around twenty-five miles from the Capital to the southern ruins where the minotaur was seen, and the path led mostly through tropical woods and swamps. Also, Hundred Skull City was marked with the same symbol as the southern ruins, along with three other areas west of the mountain range. But the ruins of the ancient fortress in the hills east of the waterfalls wasn’t shown on the map, and nor were the ruins in the marshes where I tamed the cruel arachnoscorp. Although its western part was thoroughly filled in and highly detailed, Haze’s map was covered with white emptinesses showing unexplored areas in the east.
I found the rough location of the ancient ruins I knew of, the borders of the Faraway Forest, the waterfall behind the river meadow and the range of hills along which I took the group of settlers to the barrier. Haze used a lead pencil to barely perceptibly sketch in the areas I pointed out, then, to my surprise, gave me a friendly smile.
“You really catch on quick, Sergeant! I hope you can handle your task from our guild leader. Then maybe we can talk about you staying for the long haul. The New Pharaohs will need all kinds of tamed creatures for the coming war — mounts, predators to fight against gladiators in the arena and entertain the rabble. There’s always work to be found for a talented Beast Catcher. The New Pharaohs pay well for captured monsters, let alone tamed ones, especially when the beasts are rare. And the more dangerous, the better. Like that high-level Chimeric Cougar, for example.”
“Where is that cougar, by the way?” I asked, only to be told that the guild Beast Catcher by the name of Bald Skull was working with her now. If the dangerous beast could be tamed, then it would guard the slave pens or maybe become a pet of one of the nobles. If not, the man-eater would probably be killed — it was too dangerous to leave alive.
“Here’s your giga-komodo mount,” Haze pointed at a marker on the map around two miles from our position. “You can pick it up. Tell them I gave you permission. There’s a big market there where the second-caste craftsmen sell their goods. Weapons, armor, healing potions, clothes, supplies for the road. I suggest you buy everything you need before you head out. By the way, there are mercenaries at the market too. For a price, they’ll go along with and help you complete your mission. You can also buy slaves, although the most valuable ones are taken from Axe as soon as he catches them — some for the mines, some for the fields. Only the useless dregs end up at the market. They won’t be much help for hunting down a minotaur. Except maybe as a live lure to distract the beast…”
I kept an impartial expression on my face with great difficulty while my stomach twisted in disgust. Only a minute ago, I had forgotten that this noble of the Pharaoh was such a bad man, even started to feel like I could get along with him. But his disregard for living p
eople, as if they were just useless trash… No, I knew I couldn’t get along with Haze. Or with his masters.
* * *
After a short meeting with my sister, we decided not to go to the market first, although we did need to buy supplies. First we visited the local Beast Catcher, to pick up Atlas and maybe find out some new beast-taming methods.
We hadn’t even walked half a mile before my sister suddenly yelped and crouched down, grimacing in pain and rubbing her right ankle.
“I missed a Luck check. Didn’t see that mole hill and accidentally twisted my ankle,” Julie complained tearfully.
Snowflake ran in alarmed circles around her crying mistress, unable to see the danger or understand the problem. I crouched down next to my sister, helped her bandage the swollen ankle joint. I picked up her trainer, already long past the point where sewing could have saved the sole, put it on her hurt foot and tied the laces. But the girl couldn’t go any further.
“Bro, do you think you could find a stick for me to lean on while I walk?”
I did even better — I lifted her onto my shoulders. The little Veterinarian can’t have weighed more than eighty pounds even with all her bags. With the girl sat on my shoulders, I started walking again.
Physique increased to 22.
Choose the learnable skill Tireless for your character?
The game message sprang up when my Stamina Points had fallen nearly to zero. Not bad. This was the second time I’d increased that stat. And as for that Tireless skill… I checked the game manual. It increased my Stamina Point total and regeneration speed. That sounded cool, of course, but I still didn’t want to rush the choice of my final skill. The next time I’d be able to add to my skillset would be at distant level fifty, and that would take a long time leveling and surviving in this complex world. What if I suddenly had a desperate need for something else? Best to make do with what I already had.
In Service of the Pharaoh (League of Losers Book #2) Page 18
