The Secret of the Dark Forest ( (The Way of the Shaman: Book #3)

by Vasily Mahanenko

  Numbers and letters on the chessboard: Platinum.

  After the death of the Emperor the chess set was destroyed. Now it is only up to you and your skills whether Barliona will again see this truly great wonder of the world – the Legendary Chess set of Emperor Karmadont.

  You have created the Lapis Lazuli Dwarf Warriors from the Legendary Chess set of Emperor Karmadont. While the chess pieces are in your possession, each minute you will regenerate 1% of Hit Points, Mana and Energy in addition to your standard regeneration, +1 to Crafting.

  Skill increase:

  +1 to Crafting. Total: 6

  +2 to primary profession of Jewelcrafting. Total: 44

  You created a Legendary item. Your reputation with all previously encountered factions has increased by 500.

  Our makeshift camp turned into a great pillar of light with my hands at its center. Aside from this, as I looked around I was able to get a clear view of the surrounding forest– the light emanating from the chess pieces had dispersed the fog for ... I couldn't tell exactly how far, but it was quite far. I would have a better look in the morning.

  The pure white light, together with an intermittently appearing rainbow and solemn music, was doing strange things to the surrounding world. The branches of the trees began to emit a black mist of some kind, which soon disappeared, dissolving into the surroundings, while the trees themselves ... they were being transformed. Right in front of my eyes branches took on the natural color of healthy bark, green shoots appeared, the black ground became covered with grass where flowers sprang up here and there. You got the feeling that the entire area had just been subjected to a Blessing. ... But I'm a Shaman! I don't know how to do things like this!

  "What the heck have you done?" Leite flew out of the tent. "What's going on?" I might've been wrong, but I thought I heard a note of panic in his voice.

  "Will you show us the Dwarves?" Clutzer asked after he read the announcement. "You just created them, didn't you?"

  "Sure, have a look." I showed Clutzer the figurines, which I was still holding in my hands, after first concealing their properties. I'll be the first one to read the description of the second riddle!

  "Mahan, duck!" came Eric's shout, after which the full weight of the chunky dwarf hit me at speed, bringing me to the ground. Three black arrows hit the place where I had just been standing but immediately began to melt in the light shining from the chess pieces.

  "Clutzer, stealth now! Leite, put on your armor! Level-100 Vampires! Three of them!"

  I rolled together with Eric behind a tree, got up from the ground and just caught sight of three pairs of red eyes dashing between the trees. They didn't enter the zone covered by the light, as if afraid of something, but they had an excellent opportunity to shoot us from afar.

  "That was the first warning." The surrounding space was filled with a voice – a terrible voice. It seemed to come from every tree, branch and newly emerged blade of grass. It vibrated, making you shake and causing a resonance that covered the body of your gaming avatar with goosebumps. Bypassing the brain, the effect of the voice made you want to fall to the ground, wrap yourself in a blanket and whimper – just as a result of being spoken to by someone who was infinitely more powerful. "If you fail to heed it, my warriors will not miss the second time. Leave my forest!"

  The red eyes of the Vampires dissolved into the Dark Forest and then there was silence. The pillar of light and the solemn music faded and darkness covered the surrounding world once again. The three black stains in the place where the arrows hit were the only reminder of the attack.

  "I get the feeling that the next time our choice of camping spot should be carefully planned in advance rather than picked at random," said Clutzer, speaking up. "That Patriarch has an interesting voice. Shakes you up enough to give you goosebumps. I don't think I would like to run into him one-on-one."

  "I'm afraid you'll have to," the Prince came out of the tent. "Only such a sentient could have captured a Great Priest in possession of a Stone of Light."

  "Good travelers," another voice sounded nearby as each of us were thinking over Slate's words, "please allow me to touch the purified ground before I die!"

  I looked in the direction of the voice and was stunned: it was a Woodwothe! The meter-wide fur ball was floating above the ground at the border of the dark and pure forest, hesitant to cross it. And I could clearly see why that might be – only scraps of its fur remained now; dark lines of it with rotting flesh were hanging in long shreds that reached the ground, feathers from a dozen black arrows were sticking out hedgehog-like all over its body and waves of darkness emanated from the Wothe in every direction. The warning from the Vampires had clearly been insufficient, so the Cursed Woodwothe of the Dark Forest had decided to pay us a visit.

  Chapter Five. The Guardian of the Dark Forest

  "Will we be harmed in any way if you enter this ground?" I carefully asked the Wothe as I very quickly tried to think of what to do next. It was such a pity that all the free players were currently off-line. I was desperate for information from the forum – the real forum and not my truncated version – that I wanted to howl in frustration at being so helpless.

  "I cannot harm the Guardian," was the hoarse reply of the Wothe, which by now had descended nearly all the way to the ground. Aside from the waves of darkness, which couldn't penetrate the cleansed area, it also had thin streams of dark liquid dripping off it – probably the creature's blood.

  "What 'Guardian'?" This word from the fur-ball unsettled me.

  "The Guardian of this ground: you. As long as you stay in this zone, no dark creature will be able to cause you or any of your group any harm. Even the Vampire's arrows would have simply bounced off your body and immediately disappeared. Inside his territory a Guardian is invincible."

  So there you have it. Now I've been roped into being a Guardian too. I just wish I knew what on earth this was, what you do with it and, most importantly, why me?

  "I grant you my permission to enter," I replied. If the Wothe sees me as a protector of sorts, perhaps I can fish a quest out of this NPC. After all, there must've been a reason behind the developers putting it here.

  "I thank you, Guardian." The Wothe floated, or rather rolled, onto the cleansed plot and a sigh of relief sounded throughout the forest. "Yeees! It's so good to be on pure ground once again ..."

  A black puddle began to form under the furry sphere that had now fallen to the earth, but the Wothe took no notice of it. It looked like it altogether lost interest in life and really was preparing for its final rest. Like hell it would! Where's my quest? And what about a bonus for my help?

  I selected the Wothe, spent four seconds entering the Spirit Summoning Mode and engaged in vigorous resuscitation. The 120-level Cursed Creature, with a crazy amount of Hit Points (over 500000) of which barely 10% remained, and burdened with some unintelligible debuff, which every ten seconds took the Imitator of the fur-ball 10000 Hit Points closer to its well-deserved rest, was silent, taking little notice of my efforts. No, you're not getting away that easy – I'll get you to do a thing or two for me before you head off to the Repository, or wherever it is Imitators are kept. You're not going anywhere until you give me a quest, and even if you do die, I happen to have a Necromancer on my team. He'll get you back up no problem, if need be.

  "Leave me, Guardian," croaked the Wothe five minutes later. "Your efforts are futile, they are only prolonging my agony. It is beyond your power to remove the curse – you've already done much more than anyone could imagine. You gave me a chance to leave peacefully."

  "You got that wrong, you woody wonder!" I wheezed as I continued to summon Spirits on the Wothe. The other three, along with Slate, stood nearby, shifting from foot to foot, not really knowing how to help me.

  "Mahan, can we do anything or will you manage?" said Clutzer, as if reading my thoughts.

  "I'll manage! On second thoughts, no! Guys, get those arrows out of the Wothe! Wothe, don't do them any harm, even
if it hurts. Don't touch the arrows with your bare hands! You'd better use the pliers – Eric, they will be amongst your Smithing Tools. Hop on it, everyone, we have to get this fluff-ball back up!"

  I continued to demolish my mana reserves without a moment's pause, but had little to show for it. All that I could do was keep the Wothe's Hit Points from sliding further downwards.

  "The arrows are out." Eric broke the happy news a minute later. "Though I'll have to throw away the pliers now. They've rotted! Imagine that – an item that can only be used for crafting corroded away completely!"

  "Guardian, I beg you to let me go," whispered the Wothe after another five minutes. As soon as the arrows were pulled out, the debuff on the fur-ball started to take off only 5000 Hit Points a second, which allowed me to heal the suffering creature back to almost half its total Health. "You can restore my health, but you cannot remove the Curse. As soon as you stop healing me, I will die. Make a decision, Shaman!" for the first time the Wothe didn't address me as a Guardian, but emphasized my class. "A Shaman's spirit must be firm. His entire life a Shaman must make hard decisions, which will make some perish and save the lives of others. You too must make a decision!"

  "I! Will! Get! Through!" I was almost shouting, whilst trying to drag the Wothe back to life. The Spirit of Cleansing was powerless against the debuff. Healing did nothing to it, and I began to get the sinking feeling that the system was rubbing my nose in the fact that not everything in this Game was within the power of the player by the name Mahan. There were things he couldn't change and the sooner this player realized this the better. Yes, I left the mine very fast, received the Totem in a spectacular manner and ended up at the center of the scenario that unlocked Kartoss ... but I couldn't even heal an ordinary Wothe ...

  A minute later my shoulders slumped. I managed to heal the Wothe completely, but the stupid debuff hadn’t disappeared – as I hoped it would if I managed to restore all the Hit Points – and methodically continued to destroy the creature. I turned away in anger and frustration, wishing to see nothing, but the silence that descended was soon broken by Clutzer's voice:

  "Why did you call Mahan a Guardian? When did he become one?"

  "He was the one who cleansed this area of the forest from the taint," replied the Wothe. "The forest might have been called 'Dark' before, but now it could be more correctly titled 'Cursed'. This pure area needs a Guardian in order not to disappear, so Eluna appointed Mahan. He may not see it himself, but creatures like me can see the Guardian's halo above his head."

  "Why did the forest become Cursed? Is the Patriarch behind it?" Clutzer continued his bombardment of questions, gradually helping to bring me back to normal. Why hadn’t it occurred to me that even a dying Wothe could be questioned?

  "The Patriarch has nothing to do with this. He has locked himself away at the heart of the forest and is doing all he can to fight off the Cursed Ones. The Dark Forest was cursed ten years ago, why or how I do not know. The trees whisper that a group of people came into the forest and brought the taint with them. Then came others who wanted to stop them, but they perished and a curse fell on the forest. For ten years I resisted it, but the curse was too strong in the end."

  "We've taken so many arrows out of you. If they didn't come from the Patriarch's Vampires, who on earth shot you?"

  "The Fallen. These are the ones who were captured and turned by the Cursed Ones and their Leader. You – and later I – were attacked by the scouting group of the Sergeant of the Fallen, the weakest Vampires of the Cursed Ones. May Eluna keep you from coming across a Lieutenant or a General ..."

  "So where is this Leader and who is it?" I blurted out, but no answer followed. Even though the Wothe's Hit Points hadn't yet gone down to zero, it became clear that its Imitator was making clear that it had enough and had now departed for some well-deserved rest, so it could enter a new NPC later on.

  Update of the quest chain 'Restoration of the Holy Relic, Step 2: Search for the Stone of Light'. Priest Midial's party has been destroyed. You must go to the settlement of the Clan Reardalox Vampires and find out from the Patriarch what really happened.

  "So it looks like he really does exist," mumbled Eric. "Our non-con team-mates would skin us alive if their quest doesn't get updated too."

  "It's a quest mob, maybe we should bury it," said Clutzer five minutes later, pointing out that the Wothe's body hadn't despawned. "It could stay lying here for a week. ... It just doesn't seem right ... polluting such a clean place, as it were. What do you say, Guardian?"

  "I agree. Let's bury it right where it's lying. Unfortunately we have no spades, so we'll have to use our picks. You haven't forgotten how to swing them yet, I hope?" I tried to cheer up the others, though my own heartfelt heavy. What does it mean to be a Guardian? Why didn't I get a message about it? What responsibilities have just been foisted on me? What if burying a Cursed Creature in a cleansed zone is against the rules? Bah! Why is it when you need those non-con players the most they're nowhere to be found?

  "Now I understand what you meant when you said that all kinds of rare stuff tends to gravitate towards you. We had next to zero chance of running across this Wothe," said Eric as soon as we started digging a hole. "This is a whole hidden branch of the quest progression and it doesn't even matter if we complete it or not, we're sure to get more rewards than before."

  "We'll see," I brought our daydreaming tank to earth, "we have to make it to the Patriarch alive and it's not like I can create Chess Pieces like these every night to defend us from such scouting parties. And remember that the Wothe mentioned a Sergeant, a Lieutenant and a General. If the voice of the Sergeant made us tremble, can you imagine what will happen when we came across his superiors? We'll have to keep guard every night, even with four of us being periodically absent. We'll have to have a chat with Barsina. What if she's actually able to live inside the Game for an odd week: who knows with these girls? My gut tells me that we have some tough going ahead of us, so we'd be getting ahead of ourselves if we were to start thinking of bonuses. We might even end up losing levels if we're not careful!"

  When everyone headed off to sleep, I decided to make a Malachite Jewelry Box with Lapis inlay, so that I would have somewhere to put the newly-created Chess Pieces. Jewelcraft didn't go up by a lot – just 35% along the progression bar – but with my 44 points this was quite enough. Before putting away the figurines, I took a look at the Dwarf Warrior riddle. There sure was enough there to wrack your brains over:

  If you fail to provide the correct answer to the question on your second attempt, the clue of the Dwarves will vanish forever.

  [Entry field]

  Number of answers submitted: 0 of 2.

  bnwtrufeoxrrzdmqsrzdgcrvyigowlqn

  7 + 1 = 8

  4 + 4 = 8

  5 + 2 = 7

  5 + 1 = 7

  It was good that I found the warning about the two answer attempts in the first Dwarf I looked at, since that stopped me from putting in random numbers as I tried to guess the correct answer. Judging by the parameters of the question, this was one of the versions of a cypher and you had to determine which type of cypher was used, find the key – if that's what was needed – decipher the text and type it into the entry field. For the time being I had no idea what to do with the four equations, one of which didn’t add up at all. What if this was the key to the answer? I would have to give it a real think, otherwise there wasn't much to do here – it was so 'easy' I'd be done in five minutes ...

  In my dreams, that is. ... It looked like solving this one was definitely beyond me. Here you either had to know the key to the cipher or use powerful deciphering Imitators, which would pull this line apart into its components. It looked like I might have to end up going to Anastaria for help, something I really preferred to avoid. It was strange that she hadn't contacted me after I created the figurines to offer her congratulations. Either our Lady Paladin is getting slow or she was out of the Game. No matter, I bet one of Phoenix's logged-in member
s is already writing Stacey a message with the news. This level of information would be relayed to her as a matter of the utmost priority ...

  "Leite!" Clutzer's frantic shout shook all the sleep out of me. Before I could even open my eyes, I flew out of the tent to see what had happened, although I could already make a pretty good guess. Leite's frame became gray: he had been sent for respawn. A quick assessment of the situation told me what happened to my fighter: just a couple of paces from our little glade three arrows were sticking out of the mist – three black arrows of the Fallen Vampires.

  "You have chosen to ignore my words." The terrible vibration of the forest again shook me up, giving me goosebumps. Something had to be done about that otherwise the Sergeant would give us all a fit by just using his voice. "For this you will be destroyed."

  "Bloodsucking bastards!" cursed Clutzer through his teeth. "Leite decided to have a look for what was out there in the forest and caught three arrows the moment he stepped out. There are three 100-level archers and a Sergeant of some higher level. They can down the three of us with a sneeze, and you won't fare much better. What if we set Slate on them? He is level 128, after all. Otherwise we'll have to wait until evening when the rest of the team turns up – which would be very far from ideal – and then hunt these things down, getting rid of them once and for all."

  "Slate is the future Prince, we can't risk him." I gave myself a good shake, chasing away any residual sleepiness. "I'll try to pop out in a minute and see what's going on. And you can stop looking at me like a total idiot! I'll pump myself full of Spirits, make a bunch of scrolls and give you half, which you can use to hit them with from a distance. We'll see who comes out on top and who gets a kicking. I already have the third rank, and with the cloak I can summon Spirits of the fifth. ... Right, forget all that." I smiled as I saw Eric and Clutzer looking at me with a silent question in their eyes: 'what the heck are these Spirit ranks and how do they work?' "The main thing is that we know that the scrolls will hit them hard and with precision. Eh ... If I only knew where this damned forest had its respawn point ... Leite could've been thrown a hundred kilometers away, which means we may never find him. Eric, can you check if you can use the scrolls that I make? Here," I opened the scroll scribing mode and penned down one with a Healing Spirit "the level difference between you and the scroll is less than 50, so it should be fine, but it's still best to check.”