The Karmadont Chess Set (The Way of the Shaman: Book #5) LitRPG series

by Vasily Mahanenko

  “You can say that again. As I hear it, the craftsmen working on the key in the Celestial Empire on the neighboring content, also have one item remaining. Only instead of the Chess Set, they’re crafting swords—they’ve already crafted five Legendary Swords and have one left…You’re probably right—the Corp is trying to even the playing field between our continents. And yet, we still have an advantage because we know where the entrance is!”

  “Speaking of that, you didn’t find a way in, did you?”

  “No. Neither magic, nor force can open it—the entrance is part of the landscape and has no Durability stat. So we need the other Chess Pieces. Did you check out the King quest? It’s supposed to be the most difficult! I’m even curious what all they put in it.”

  I looked up the properties of the King but encountered an astonishing phrase:

  The quest for this Chess Piece cannot be issued until you complete the preceding quests.

  “I don’t play like that,” Anastaria pouted and then grinned. “It’s too bad. I wanted to test myself. I looked at the Giants’ riddle, but it didn’t seem interesting, so we won’t even bother checking the coordinates. We have little time as it is.”

  “How’s your training moving along?” I changed topics, putting away the King. I’d make up my mind about sharing with Magdey and Clutzer sometime later—an item like this could be useful for me too.

  “As you see—I’m practicing my balance and concentration. In order to level up my Siren, I need to complete a special test, the gist of which is a run-of-the-mill obstacle course. I’ve already failed it twice, so Nashlazar said that I won’t get a third attempt until I learn how to keep myself balanced on a tightrope…And here I am. How’s it going on your end?”

  “I’m still working on that list we drew up. All that’s left of the fourteen items on the list is, uh—hang on, let me see—right, the second Dungeon, the Pirates, the Widow’s Eye, the Chess Set (I have one other set of figures to make), reaching Gem Cutter Rank 3, for which I need eleven points in my profession and to pass the training with the Patriarch. Why look at that! Six of the fourteen, including the Pirates and the Eye, don’t count. And I’m already making progress on the Chess Set and earning Gem Cutter Rank 3.

  “Hmm…Really,” Anastaria said pensively upon scanning the list. “I’ll admit I thought it would take you longer. But I wouldn’t strike out the meeting with Kreel just yet. It’s premature to consider this task complete until we’ve done the quest with him. You jumped the gun with your pupil too—she hasn’t completed her trial yet…Plus…”

  Stacey began to smash my pie in the sky ideas about having made progress: This isn’t done, this isn’t ready, this isn’t quite complete, that still has a detail or two missing…Really, what a brat she can be!

  “But on the whole, you’re moving in the right direction,” Stacey concluded. “Where to now?”

  “Now?” I echoed, finding myself brought back down to earth. “Now I’ll turn my attention to my student. Not far from our castle, there are several villages. We’ll go there and do some quests. I’ll evaluate how she handles them.”

  “Got it…I have another two weeks to spend here,” Anastaria said sadly. “Any news from Plinto?”

  “Nope. Dead silence. I imagine he’s also working on his coordination—balancing on a rope above a green puddle.”

  “That was acid.”

  “What?”

  “The basin was filled with acid that would instantly dissolve me and send me to respawn. The first time I fell into it, I turned into a human…I don’t know why but Nashlazar started hollering for some reason…Then she lifted me high up into the air and dropped me…By the way, try and become a Harbinger as soon as you can—you’ll be much better off facing players of any level. It takes a second—you teleport up to them, grab them around the waist, teleport high up into the air, drop them and teleport back to earth. Meanwhile, your foe plummets swearing like a sailor…I never imagined that a free fall would cause me to curse like that.”

  * * *

  I returned to Altameda only the next morning—and that was merely because Nashlazar kicked me out…

  “Mahan, I can’t maintain this pace of work!” Barsina collapsed into a chair and rubbed her eyes. “All these letters are beginning to show up in my dreams! ‘Let me join your clan,’ ‘please let me join your clan,’ ‘how can you have a clan if I’m not in it…’ At first I figured that hiring people for the clan would be interesting and fulfilling, but the more I do this job, the clearer it becomes that we need a specially-designated person for it. I mean, it’s a miracle if we receive less than a thousand letters a day! My in-game day starts with opening my mailbox, reviewing applications, then reviewing applications some more. It ends with—you won’t believe this—reviewing some applications! I’m a mercenary, damn it! I’m supposed to be running around Dungeons with Clutzer, leveling up my character—yet here I am dealing with this nonsense.”

  It was looking like the girl had had her fill. I had never seen our little Druid so stressed out. Abandoning both Anhurs and her training, my deputy had arrived in Altameda that morning to express her irritation.

  “Barsa, I’m not opposed to it—let’s hire someone. Aren’t there clans that specialize in recruitment? Or if not clans, then players whom you can pay to find people for you. Let’s ask them for someone we can use. You don’t have to be a hero…”

  “That’s basically why I came here,” the girl said in a calmer tone, realizing that I wasn’t opposed to spending resources or delegating responsibility. “I already have a contract with some players who do recruiting, and it doesn’t cost too much money actually—twenty thousand gold a month. Given the size of our clan, we need about five people who will do the hiring, build an incentives and categorization system, determine growth priorities for the various ranks…Damn, I sound like a human resources manager, don’t I?”

  “I’ll reiterate—I’m all for it, Barsa! If it helps our affairs, then…Wait, how many people are in our clan? I have to confess, I kind of stopped paying attention…”

  “In our clan? Just over two-and-a-half thousand people.”

  “But you said that the Azures and the Heirs were massacring us so bad that we started losing players?”

  “I did and we were…And I mean we were losing masses of people, especially all of the ones who’d joined because of Anastaria’s fame and then realized that being in the same clan as her didn’t really do anything for them. To the opposite, they found themselves hunted. And yet after you captured Altameda, after Armageddon and especially after you created the Stone of Light, there’re new players coming in non-stop. Every day, we’re getting hundreds upon hundreds of applicants, and not merely warriors—we’re getting craftsmen and gatherers too. Leite’s rubbing his hands from these numbers—even though he’s over here all the time, he still manages to draw up and sign new contracts for mining work. Basically, our clan is easily in the top 500 of Malabar at this point, even though we’re only at Level 6.”

  “So you’re thinking of wandering around some Dungeons?”

  “To be honest, not really. If you don’t mind, I’d like to work a little closer with Leite…”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You allowed him to govern the three villages. I want to take part in that. Playing and leveling-up is one thing…But I really liked administration and I’d like to keep working in that field.”

  “How much?” I understood what the girl was getting at. Barliona was not only a game where you could pass your time or earn a livelihood. One of the popular functions of Barliona was the education it offered—albeit one clad in a fantasy guise. Education, management, marketing, chemistry, physics—hundreds of various courses were taught by Imitators in specially-purposed Dungeons. The only drawback to these classes was their cost—from forty to two hundred thousand gold per course.

  “To become eligible for certification, I need to complete three courses, costing all together two hundred thou
sand. I don’t have that kind of money at the moment, but I am willing to pay it back gradually.”

  “Send me the contract,” I instantly made up my mind. I know firsthand how important it is to develop one’s skills. If Barsina decided to give up being a mercenary in order to become a manager, why wouldn’t I help her? Especially, since she seemed to have such a knack for it.

  “Here,” the girl, who had come prepared, smiled and sent me the contract. Glancing at the document’s terms and conditions—the money would be paid back over the course of a year or in one lump sum if Barsina left the clan—I signed the contract with my digital signature. Immediately, I was confronted with a prompt to approve the fund transfer. The girl had anticipated even this. It was as if she hadn’t doubted for a second that I would give her the money. Now how do you play with people like that?

  The next two weeks turned into an unending festival of crafts for me—Clutzer and Magdey got on my case and announced that until I craft clan rings for their Raid Parties, they wouldn’t let me leave Altameda. Leite and Barsa seconded them. They poured three mounds of jewels onto the table and forced me to get to work. I resisted up until the point that Fleita informed me that she had to study for exams and wouldn’t be in game for two weeks. Or rather, that she’d be there only for an hour a day, no more…

  So in general, the way things worked out meant that I had no choice and had to occupy myself with my crafting. The upshot of those two weeks was that I finally earned my eleven points for Jewelcrafting and leveled up to Gem Cutter Rank 3—and therefore crossed this item off my list.

  A week remained before we would set out with Kreel to kill the sleeping dragon when early one morning Fleita showed up and offered me a sheet of paper.

  “What’s that?” I asked, taking the document automatically.

  “My report card for the semester! I got straight A’s! Now Evolett can’t bug me about my studies!”

  “Well…In that case, get your things together!”

  “Where are we going?” the girl asked, surprised.

  “Since you’ve completed one part of your education, it’s time to start another one! It’s time to find out what you’re capable of as a Shaman!”

  Chapter Seven. The Outskirts of Carnue

  “I DON’T get it. What are we doing in this village?” Fleita grumbled yet again. “I can’t believe you’re forcing me to do ordinary quests! I bet all you ever concern yourself with is epic and legendary ones, but I have to do whatever comes along.”

  By ‘village’ Fleita was referring to Carnue—the capital of Lestran Province. Paying a visit of honor to our Governor, I reported on the progress we had made with the villages under our governance. And there really was something to be proud of. Before departing, I’d met with Leite to find out what had been accomplished, since I could hardly believe my own ears: The population of all three villages had grown by 50% since we took over. We were beginning to build new manufactories, since the old ones were at full capacity. The village craftsmen had completed their training, causing their goods to reach new peaks of quality. On the whole, the growth of the villages was pretty evident. Leite responded enthusiastically to my telling him the news that Barsina wanted to join his governance endeavor. Noting that she was one of the most capable women he knew—after his wife and Anastaria naturally—he immediately called her and began to discuss the degree of her involvement.

  The Governor listened to my report, reassured me yet again about his friendship and unflinching support, after which we set out to stroll around the city. Carnue was a city for players up to Level 100 inclusive, so I had high hopes of encountering quests here that would test Fleita as a Shaman. It’s one thing to know how to summon Spirits—it’s another to allow oneself to be guided by one’s feelings during the game. And it was this second thing I wanted to test…

  “Can’t you tell him, Draco?” The girl refused to give up, appealing to the objective—in her view—arbiter who was my Level 78 Totem. The three weeks that my Totem had spent in the Anhurs City Library had earned him 24 Levels. It had also earned me negative twelve thousand gold for the damage he had caused to library property. It turned out that my Totem was a very emotional kind of reader and had for three months now been obsessed with reading Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The problem that Draco encountered with the book was that, as an NPC, he could not open the book at the last place he had been reading at. As a result, the Totem knew the first twelve pages of this play by heart but could only cast longing glances at what remained. So when he discovered that he had a full two months in Barliona, the first thing he did was rush off to read the entire text. Romeo and Juliet, Eugene Onegin, Venus and Adonis, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn…Draco consumed one book after the next without pausing to take a breath—and whenever he encountered some poignant moment, the Totem did not hesitate to express his own emotions without concern for his surroundings. Joy, tears, sorrow, pleasure, anger…Even though the Library had the cheapest chairs in Barliona, Draco managed to run up a bill of five thousand gold in them alone.

  “No need to look at me like that! Draco flicked his tail. “If Mahan thinks you have to do it, then you have to do it!”

  “You’re always on his side!” Fleita pouted her lips. “Where are we going anyway?”

  “We’re just strolling around the city…”

  “Oh sure—‘strolling!’ I know all about you and your ‘strolls’…”

  “The old hag has respawned once again!” Tearing through the city’s monotonous hubbub, an unusual phrase reached my ears. I turned in the direction of the voice and saw Wild Catwick—a Level 75 Hunter. He was standing sideways to us, facing the city guard. Following his gaze, I saw an elderly woman, a little granny, who seemed to be looking for someone in the crowd. Judging by her properties, this lady belonged to the hallowed NPC tribe, so it was quite odd that Wild was speaking to her like this.

  “Hi Wild!” I addressed the Hunter. “Do you mind telling me why you’re talking to her like that?”

  “Mahan?” Judging by his surprised face, the player knew who I was. “You feel like being a White Knight or something?”

  “Nah, I’m just curious. It’s pretty rare for a player to be angry at an NPC—and you seem like you don’t seem merely crazy, so I became curious.”

  “Oh! I see. Well, see that hag over there?” Wild nodded at the grandma.

  “Is she looking for you?”

  “What? Oh—no! She’s looking for any player who has zero reputation with the Province. If a player like that comes across her sight, it’s curtains for him!”

  “Does she eat them or something?” I grinned, not understanding what Wild was talking about.

  “If only. That old bag of bones issues an impossible quest that you can’t refuse. Do it or don’t do it, you’ll end up losing.”

  “How interesting.” I pricked up my ears. Social quests popped up frequently in Barliona, but I’d never heard of one that was impossible to complete.

  “Oh please! This isn’t the Dark Forest or Altameda. This is nothing short of a trap that the devs have laid for unwary newbies.”

  “So tell me more. Maybe I should stay away from her too…”

  “There’s not much to tell. As soon as the hag spies a player with a Neutral reputation with the Province, she runs over and asks him to rid her vegetable garden of some rats.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Yeah! An ordinary quest, just like in the Tutorial, and the reward is about right too—several silver coins. Some players agree to do it. Out of naïveté I guess or kindheartedness. Maybe it’s the chance to relive those first few moments, pretend you’re a rat exterminator…But then comes the catch. If you refuse the quest, you earn –400 Rep with the Province, as though the granny is the Governor himself! And your Attractiveness with her and her sisters drops to zero, which means that you can’t talk to them again. The old lady has two sisters—one’s the owner of the local grub
joint, the other’s the owner of the potions store. Pretty vital NPCs to be able to talk to when it comes to this city…But! Even if you refuse once, the hag’ll offer you the chance to go rat hunting in an hour! And the penalty for refusing is the same: –400 Rep with the Province…et cetera et cetera…Do you get the picture?”

  “What picture? An ordinary social quest that you have to complete in the right way. What’s there to get heated about?”

  “It’s ordinary and all but then again it isn’t. Since most of the players who come here initially have a Rep of zero, basically all of them agree to do the quest. By the way, I forgot to mention, the hag will give you +400 Reputation for killing the rats. And so, the old lady asks you to rid her garden of the pests. You go there and start hacking away at the rodents. Everything’s just like in the Tutorial, only the rats are like Level 70–75. After you kill about 15–20 of the critters, a mini-boss shows up: A Ratherd goblin. Ratherd isn’t his name—it’s his occupation, like swineherd. He drops a rag that’s required for the quest—‘a goblin cape.’ Well and he also drops a healing or mana potion, depending on the roll. Sometimes it’ll be a ring or an amulet, though I’m not sure because I’ve never seen it firsthand. But again, that isn’t the point…”

  “Wait, so you’re trying to say that the hard part is killing the boss?”

  “No, just hang on! The hag takes the cape and says something like ‘so that’s where the good tablecloth’s been,’ and then she ends the quest and give you your Reputation. Seems like everything’s nice and peachy. You get a handful of silver and an Attractiveness bonus with her sisters. But here’s the snag—that night, someone offs the hag. As in like the revenge of the Ratheards’ Union or something. The two sisters blame you—saying that you didn’t finish the quest all the way and the dear old grandma-sister bought it because of it…As a result, your Rep with the Province goes down by 1500, with all that entails…A week later the hag respawns. Can you believe this crap?”