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

by Vasily Mahanenko

  "Anastaria! Plinto has fulfilled the conditions for acquiring the final part of the phoenix reins. Are you going to hand them over?"

  "They’re in my Personal Room," said the girl, discomposedly. "I give my permission for them to be taken and handed over to Plinto."

  "The Agreement has been fulfilled and is considered closed," concluded the Guardian and descended into deep thought once again.

  "You know Nick, I’ll bury you for this”, said Anastaria after some time. "I'll even complain to your wife that you've upset me. She'll have your head."

  "Stacey, then you should have thought twice before making the bet. I did say from the start, that I'd get my hands on them, sooner or later. Now my flame-wing will be the fastest in all of Barliona! This year I'll finally get the prize! The game's on!"

  "Are you done yet?" I interrupted this fascinating conversation. I'll find out later what this is all about – right now, with Donotpunnik giving us a rather cryptic look, it was time to get back to work. "Plinto, do continue. I get the deal with the Ash. What happened on the eastern side?"

  "Yes," added Donotpunnik, "you can also tell us how you managed to get through where other scouts were discovered."

  "Who are you calling 'scouts' exactly? Lanterius and Fogger? Their arms should be ripped off and sewn onto their asses, which they've been using for thinking anyway. You think I didn't see how they were 'discovered'? Any dumbass would’ve realized that mist, which covers every part of the ground must conceal lots of alarm-traps. Why the heck did they go on the ground? Are they so low on Agility they couldn't use the trees? Hopeless idiots ...."

  "Let's not get distracted!" I told my Fighter.

  "In short, it's simple: we were toast in any case. There were three barricades to the east. First came level 100–150 Vampires. I counted forty, but I might’ve been wrong, they kept moving all over the place and my line-of-sight radius wasn't very big. It was the trees, damn them. They had no special attacks, just physical damage and speed. About half of them had bows and black arrows, which probably land you with a curse on hit. We'll have to be careful and make sure the Priests keep their eyes open and cleanse any cursed players. The Vamps were waiting a hundred meters from the glade and had a boss with them: the Sergeant. Level 200, nothing difficult at the first glance, if you discount the 'Regeneration' buff: it restores 2% of total Hit Points every five seconds. The second barricade, a more serious one this time, came a hundred meters further out: three level-300 Elementals, five 350+ mages and one boss, concealed by black mist. According to his properties he was some sort of Lieutenant, level 400. There was no information on his race or abilities. While I was logged out I tried to look him up on all available databases – nothing. The Elementals are interesting too: there was fire, water and an earth one. There should have also been an air one, but it was probably somewhere else at the time. They have no special abilities, but they’re no pushovers, because these three stand very close to each other and we won't be able to pull them one by one. You'll have to figure out how to bring them down. The third cordon wasn't even a cordon, but the camp of the final boss, and is two hundred meters further out. There we had another mist-covered boss, a General of some kind, level-450, and six Necromancers, who were busy summoning the Ash. There was nothing else there. Catch the video and the stats that I managed to get off the mobs. When Ash started to form, I tried to interrupt it, knowing where this was going ... but ... as soon as I came closer, the General took me out straight away. Just three hits and I was pushing daisies. He only used a physical damage attack, so while I was under 'cloak' I managed to warn you about the Ash. That's it, I think."

  "Plinto," said Donotpunnik a couple of minutes later, after he reviewed the info my Fighter sent. "Listen, I'm lost for words. ... How did you do this?"

  On some level, I agreed with Don. It made for engrossing viewing: to watch Plinto jump from tree to tree, Tarzan-like, all the while managing to assess his surroundings, not allowing the trees to sway, and looking through the properties of each mob that came into view.

  "Mahan, as soon as the rest of the clan gets here," Plinto turned to me, ignoring the question, "I'll take charge of them. I see that you have two Warriors and one Rogue, all of them around level twenty. I won't touch the Druid, but these guys ... it's time they stopped faffing around and started leveling up properly. I'll take it upon myself to ensure that happens."

  "Then wait for them to turn up – should be about an hour – and you can begin straight away. Later you can put me through my paces as well."

  "Sure! No problem! You covered a hundred and twenty meters of the Rogue Obstacle Course on your first attempt," chuckled Plinto, "no going easy on you with that record to beat?"

  "A hundred and twelve," I corrected him, but Plinto was no longer listening; he’d stealthed and started roaming around the glade.

  "We'll have to give our scouts a good talking to," said Anastaria the moment he left us. "Who would've thought that a douchebag could provide such a thorough scouting report? Levels, descriptions ... did you see that on the second minute he even pointed out the movement trajectories?" she said to Donotpunnik.

  "Yeah ..." muttered my second advisor, looking somewhat at a loss. "This day is just full of wonders. ... Mahan, maybe you should take me into your clan as well? Just to complete the set. We could invite someone from the Heirs of the Titans and that'd be it – all the leading clans of Malabar will have transferred one leading player to the Seathistles clan. It's mindboggling. Stacey, how many First Kills do you have? About forty? Plinto should have about a dozen. Mahan has one as well. Seathistles is light years ahead now. There's also some NPC sitting in Mahan's tent: Slate. ... Will your leaving Phoenix affect your taking part in the quest?" he suddenly asked the girl.

  "No," was Anastaria's firm reply, "I joined up of my own accord – no-one paid for me – so I don't owe anyone anything. Let's decide what to do now. I propose we start with a brainstorming session. ..."

  "Before we start, I'd like to bring something to your attention. I already knew about the three bosses, but Plinto didn't say anything about the Lord of the Fallen, who was shouting announcements to the whole glade after the Ash hit. So there should be a fourth cordon, even though it was never scouted. ..."

  The attack plan was for the most part fleshed out by Anastaria and Donotpunnik, while I simply stood by, acting as a litmus test of sorts. If I went red – if I started to become unsettled – the plan was a bad one. If I stayed silent, the plan was good and worth considering. A worthy and solid role of a frog in a jar used to predict the weather. At least they weren't intent on making me croak.

  "On the whole, our knowledge about this territory is sparse," I finally heard Anastaria utter words I could easily understand. All these formations, raid add-ons, saves, pots, pre-pots, flasks, masks, casks ... brrr ... ."In the 15 years of the game not a single quest was discovered here. There is a map made by Newtonovich, but he drew it from atop a griffin, so it isn't much help to us. I've found nothing about Dark Forest Guardians, and nothing pointing to scenarios dealing with the cursing of the entire forest."

  "Same here: just the map and lots of unexplored territory. You know, I had a bit of a think. ... There's something that immediately jumps out in all of this ... why on earth is a player, who is hunted by the entire Dark Legion clan, roaming around thousands of kilometers away from Anhurs? All the way in the Dark Forest, which supposedly doesn't contain a single quest. And the place isn't exactly bursting with resources either – if you don't take the Guardian's glade into account. And then this mysterious Shaman, who's been dubbed a son of the Dragon, turns up and offers us a quest from a place that isn't supposed to have any quests at all. To top it all off, in the space of just an hour he gets to recruit the second and the third highest-level players on the continent. Guys, is there something you'd like to fill me in on, perhaps? It's a bit difficult to construct a chain of reasoning on the basis of incomplete data."

  It's tough to deal with people
who have a habit of using their heads instead of their emotions. Stacey cracked me right from the start and Donotpunnik too ... and here was me thinking that I was terribly unreadable and mysterious.

  "Right, so you don't feel like sharing, then," the Azure Dragons player summed up a few moments later, then looked at Anastaria, pursed his lips and smiled. "No, I really must take some lessons from you. You probably knew what was up even before Seathistles. ... Did the small fry get his hands on some other quest? And you're not going to tell me anything about it, are you?" Donotpunnik 'froze' for a minute. "Let's play a guessing game then ... the Emperors can be ruled out as the source – they're new and need at least a week before they assume their roles properly. The Princess ... I'm not sure, it seems highly improbable. That leaves only the High Priestess. Judging by what happened in Beatwick, Mahan has leveled up in Attractiveness with her almost as far as 100. And then there was the poaching of the three Fighters by Phoenix ... most likely in order to take charge of a quest. ... No, there just isn't enough information. ... Raster wouldn't have taken players into the clan if they didn't come with some benefits. … That means ... it wasn't Mahan who had the quest, but the Priest! He was the first to be accepted into Phoenix and the others just hopped on the bandwagon – the level difference is just too big. Then it could be those with whom ... yes, of course! Mahan is a prisoner and he probably spent time running around with these three when he was a normal player, but they ditched him and decided to offer the quest to Phoenix. How nice of them. What can I say? And you ...," Donotpunnik looked at Anastaria, "you're a known champion of justice. ... That's it, the puzzle comes together."

  No, dealing with someone who knows how to use their head isn't 'tough': it's downright dangerous! The slightest gesture can be used to read you and prepare ten different ways of responding! Perhaps Donotpunnik has a point and I should take a couple of lessons from Anastaria, while there's time ...

  "You were saying something about joining my clan," I tried to concentrate and forced out a chuckle. "Let's talk it over, I'm ready to hear your conditions."

  "I think not," laughed Donotpunnik. "Not much point in me crossing over – Phoenix has that quest now."

  "Making logical deductions based on incomplete information is an unforgivable mistake when it comes to this player," volunteered Anastaria, pointing to me. "As long as I've known him, he’s had the ability to respond to any sound logical argument with one or even two completely illogical actions or quests. So Mahan is right, Don. You should think about coming over ..."

  "This isn't a clan but a den of nutjobs!" Eric panted out as he finished running his tenth lap around the glade. Plinto had called for a break, so all three players dropped to the ground. "Like hell I'll do any more dying! I'll write a message to the developers and say that as soon as the clan is sent for respawn its head completely flips out and starts doing crazy things and ask them to give me complete immunity to every kind of damage. Perhaps that might get you to see reason ..."

  A little while earlier, if my swearing filter had been turned on, the first phrase I would’ve heard uttered by Clutzer when he came back from the Grey Lands and saw the Seathistles emblem above Plinto and Anastaria might have sounded something like: “What the "flying snail" is going on here?! Well I'll "quack a duck" from such a "cluster bunnies"! This is total "bunny hop," "noble lady's socks" take you ...”

  When in a couple of words I’d explained to the agitated players why we were now three players down (but also two players up), pointed out the First Kill bonuses and other advantages in protection from PK-ers, everyone seemed to calm down. That lasted all of two minutes – until Plinto came up to us, formed an additional training group and got my Fighters to run laps around the glade. He’d explained to me that it was high time these guys leveled up in Agility, Strength and Stamina, and that anyone not wanting to level up, would have his ass mercilessly kicked. It is impossible to die within a training group, so when the guys were about to protest, Plinto's knives reduced their Hit Points to one and all arguments stopped. It became suddenly clear that increasing your stats was extremely important ... and the clan leader had told them not to slack in any case. ...

  By the time the last players arrived (Antsinthepantsa and Barsina), the second attempt to leave the Guardian's glade had commenced. There were again three ten-strong groups, each with its own support group, although there were some changes to the Phoenix-led ten: an Azure Dragons healer replaced Anastaria, while she remained by my side. She wanted to have nothing to do with Hellfire and Ehkiller and they weren't too eager to spend time with her either. Plinto continued to make my Fighters run around the glade, making it clear that he had no intention of taking part in the battle, should one commence. To his credit – glancing at Leite, Clutzer and Eric's stats – I saw that in just an hour they increased their Agility by +3, Strength by +2 and Stamina by +4. Plinto didn't limit himself to running – there were jumps, rolls, sprints and rolls again. ... And it should be noted that as soon as the first leveling up took place any grumbling ceased. The result could be clearly seen and felt, which meant that it was worth the sweat. ...

  "Vamps spotted! Three of them, moving fast, no bows," a message from the central group of ten came up in the raid chat. "Wings, close in on the left and right, chase them towards us. Hellfire, get ready ..."

  The first cordon, if it could be called the first, was wiped out in just a couple of minutes. To 280+ level players a bunch of level-100 Vampires weren't even good for target practice, so the scouting Rogues took them out themselves. Only the Sergeant presented any real challenge. The level-200 warrior furiously attacked Hellfire, restoring his Hit Points with every attack. All three groups had to focus on this mob at the same time before they could send its Imitator for a rest. By the way, it was just as well he didn't attack me when we were luring out the Vampires that time. He wouldn't have even noticed my Spirits.

  After the battle at the first cordon each player got thirty-two gold, twenty-four Vampire Fangs and one Sergeant's Circlet. It looked like both the fangs and the Circlet dropped for each player separately, like the loot at the Dolma Mine. Even though they took no part in the battle, just for being in the same group my three low-level Fighters gained three levels each, but Plinto completely forbade them to allocate their new free stat points. I didn't manage to level up, but I had only a measly 140 Experience Points to go.

  From then on, however, we ran into a problem. The second, third and, according to my logic, fourth cordons were nowhere to be seen. The scouts found the place where the Elementals were (there really were four of them) and they found the place from where Ash was cast, but there wasn't a single mob in sight. They retreated, leaving us only the Sergeant for slaughter. Much to my disappointment, we failed to find a probable location of the Lord of the Fallen – it was as if he’d never existed. Either there was no fourth cordon or he’d managed to hide himself really well. After assuring the others that the search for the vanished mobs would restart first thing in the morning, I told the players they were free to go home. Anyone wishing to stay could stay, while those who had business back in reality could leave. I saw little sense in entering the Dark Forest during the night.

  "Eric, how much Copper do you have on you?" I asked my Fighter as soon as the glade was mostly clear. Of the free players, there remained only Plinto, who continued to inflict vigorous training on my Officers, Anastaria, who was energetically debating something with Donotpunnik, and Barsina, who was watching the guys being trained.

  "About thirty pieces. What do you need them for?"

  "Did you get as far as Tin?"

  "Yup. I've been saving it up for Bronze. ..."

  "Consider it a failed save. I only have eighteen levels to go until Silver, which I must do all I can to get through."

  "Damn, what am I supposed to do after Tin, then?"

  "Just keep up with the running, what else? Plinto! I think Eric's slacking off here, his Energy's all recovered now ..."

  I spent abou
t an hour making ingots, but unfortunately the thirty pieces of Copper was only enough for +9 to Smithing and three pieces of Lapis. In an ideal world, right now I would hop over to Anhurs, buy some Copper Ingots and Ore and raise my Smelting to 10% and Gem Cutting to level 2, but where would I get a portal here? And it would cost so much money that the subdued amphibious / terrestrial wildlife inhabiting the depth of my soul would kick the dust and bite the bucket. Or the other way round. Whichever way you turn it, they wouldn’t be feeling very well. Do I really need this? No; so the portal idea can be ruled out. Where can I get more Copper? What if I ask Anastaria for help?

  "All right, I'm off. Until tomorrow." By this point Donotpunnik had stopped arguing with Stacey, turned into a transparent silhouette and vanished.

  "Me too," said my deputy. "Time to go and scare my family with an unplanned visit. I finally have a chance to spend some quality time at home and I'm not letting a chance like that slip away."

  "Hold up," I stopped the girl. "Listen, is there any way you can use some of your old connections to buy and send me some Copper Ingots? Or even just the Ore. I really need them. ..."

  "Gimme a sec," Anastaria opened her mailbox and started writing a letter. A couple of minutes went by and her eyebrows shot up – she probably got a reply. "So that's how it is ..." muttered the girl and started to write again. Two minutes later there was another reply, which again did not please the girl at all, since her reaction was one capacious word: “Hmm." "How much do you need?" She finally asked.

  "About 10 stacks."

  "I'll get them," the girl assured me. "You'll have the Copper in the morning." With these words Anastaria became transparent and a moment later melted into thin air.

  After another twenty minutes Eric, Leite and Clutzer's Energy once again hit zero and Plinto and Barsina left us. As soon as Donotpunnik left, the lady Druid joined my running and jumping officers, wishing to do some leveling up in Agility and Stamina herself. She didn't seem to mind that Intellect was the main stat for her class: it was good to level up on all fronts. Good for her: she thinks like a true mercenary – never failing to take advantage of potential gain for her own dear self. If only everyone was like her.