You have lost…
A dozen notifications popped up informing me of all the locations I had lost access to, but my full attention was concentrated on one tall person dressed as a High Shaman — the red cape, the hat with horns, the staff, and a mallet and tambourine hanging from his belt. Shiam’s dark hazel, almost black eyes were drilling into me like he wanted to incinerate me where I stood. I doubt there was an NPC in this game who hated me more than Shiam and I doubt there’s an NPC in this game that I’d be happier to dispatch for a good long rest. The Corporation had managed to concoct a program that I really disliked. And that was putting it mildly.
“Jeepers!” grinned Plinto, deciding that the silence had drawn out for long enough. “You two are staring at each other like a husband and wife who’ve been at it for a decade!”
“Theirs is a complicated relationship,” Geranika chimed in glibly, then turned to his brother and in an utterly different voice — one that radiated might and the impossibility of disobedience — uttered: “I forbid you from hurting Mahan or Plinto for the next ten days. He shall represent Shadow at the tournament. Are there any questions?”
Shiam’s face twisted itself.
“I have no questions, brother,” he all but spat out, turned on his heels and quickly walked out of the hall.
“My how serious everything is here,” Plinto went on mocking. “Searches and orders and prohibitions and questions. What was all that?”
Geranika decided that Plinto’s question was a rhetorical one and didn’t bother to answer him. Instead, a portal flared to life, dissolving the space all around it. Geranika had made sure that we were serious in our intentions and was now prepared to lead us onward. By the way! So it turns out that Plinto also refused the unbelievable bonuses for establishing a spy network in Armard. I will have to ask him why.
“What the hell!” Plinto blurted out when the game returned to its prior density. Geranika didn’t bother to take us around the various parts of his palace to show off its wonders. The Imitator was playing the part of the head of an enormous Empire who didn’t have time to spare whatsoever.
“Your first warrior,” Geranika said curtly, impassively staring at a player running through an obstacle course. In the form of an enormous cat shrouded in tattered fog. No — not a cat but a puma! A Druid? I tried to check the properties but couldn’t catch the puma in focus, as there were constant pendulums, axes and blades flashing between us. I shared Plinto’s shock entirely — the Rogue’s obstacle course in Anhurs, which I had once traversed a hundred meters of, was a playground for children no older than two in comparison to the monster we were looking at. I blinked and tried to get used to the rhythm of the pendulums, when a shiver ran down my spine — their movement was not subject to the physics engine! They moved so chaotically that a reasonable question occurred: How is the puma still running that course?
“All right. I’ll give it a shot. Doesn’t do to leave the girl on her own,” Plinto transformed in a flash. The chain mail vanished revealing a taut leather armor. Or cloth armor. It was difficult to tell what Plinto had donned, but one thing was clear — the Rogue had ensured he would have a full range of motion. Even his feet were now shod in moccasins instead of his customary combat boots. Looking at the Vampire’s gaunt torso, the only thing that popped into my head was — ‘a fly.’ He was basically a weightless gymnast, capable of performing miracles at athletic competitions.
“Anscenica, meet Mahan. He will lead the Shadow raid at the tournament,” said Geranika, offering his hand to the Elf who had managed to encounter a sharp pendulum blade after all. I smirked — an Elf Druid and she’s playing for Shadow? Whimsical combination. Not only are there too few Elves in the game, but they’re also playing for Geranika!
“What’s up? I’m Anna,” the girl smiled blindingly and offered me her hand. I shook it with pleasure, earnestly examining her. A pleasant, pretty face that was a little scary and fitted with incredibly deep, saturated gray green eyes which seeped fog and cute little elf ears living a life of their own. I realize that everyone tries their best to look like they’re in a fairy tale in this game, but even in this context Anna could easily be considered one of the prettiest girls I had ever seen. Eh, forget that, she was the fourth prettiest! Anastaria, Raniada, erm, that Mage chick who was always bickering with Stacey whose name I no longer remember…and now Anscenica. I sure am lucky with pretty women!
“Tell him about your abilities,” commanded Geranika. “Don’t forget to mention you lunar bind. A part of your trials will be this evening.”
“Okay. So…Where should I begin? Well, in general…Damn!” Anna began to stammer and vacillate. “Sorry, I’m nervous. It’s the first time I’m speaking to such a famous player. I’m afraid I’ll say something stupid. Stop! What’s got into me? Oh that’s right! My abilities…”
Having a conversation with Anscenica was quite the pleasure. She was a mad blend of competence, childishness and carelessness — all diluted with happiness and sincerity. Clearly, with substance and examples but at the same time so whimsically that a smile appeared on my face, she began to recount all her abilities. Plinto — who had failed out of the obstacle course in the meanwhile without having even reached the spot where we had first seen the puma — joined our conversation and began to ask all kinds of technical questions: the time it took to cast her spells, how long they affected the enemy taking into account Shadow Alignment, character properties, and development specifics. Naturally a great portion of these questions were quite private in nature, and yet the Level 155 Druid answered everything we asked her.
The day went by in a flash. Even though officially Shadow wasn’t an Empire that players could play for, there were plenty who did so anyway. Geranika introduced us to twenty-five who were, in his words, the most notable of the Free Citizens in his Empire. I was particularly pleased to meet a Paladin/Mage couple — a guy and a girl who decided to switch sides to Shadow with their entire clan…of two. On the other hand, now, joked Shadow Paladin Endiga Mizradin, the Silver Moon clan enjoyed the same status that Phoenix had in Malabar and the Dark Legion in Kartoss: The number one clan of its Empire, even if unofficially. To my astonished question of how a Shadow Paladin was even possible, Endiga explained that Eluna remained his goddess. She still hoped that he would return to the one true path and therefore hadn’t stripped him of his powers. Along with Geranika’s gifted Shadows, the Paladin’s powers were such a mishmash of entries that I got lost in his description after a few minutes. One thing was clear — we had a Level 247 tank and a Level 212 Shadow Fire Mage named Eyrie. The girlfriend or wife (I never did figure out what their status was) provided fire support under the principle of ‘even if the entire world is against you, I’ll stand beside you and feed you ammo.’ One provides the cover, the other pours Burning Shadows on the enemy. A volatile mixture.
“Finally, the last member of our team,” said Geranika, teleporting us to…a library! I’d gotten accustomed to not being surprised by anything in this game, but the creature that now appeared before us forced me to relive that forgotten feeling. Scorning all rules of decorum, I opened the properties of the girl (who was too engrossed in a book to notice us) to see who I was even looking at: A Profaned Biota. The system immediately offered I familiarize myself with this new race, projecting the image of a ‘typical’ Biota, but I swiped all that away. Not right now. Although…If the ‘typical’ specimen is what a Biota is supposed to look like, then Lorelei (as this player was named) looked quite atypical to her fellow Biotas. And not necessarily in a good way — but, well, different. Through her bluish-green skin, which resembled more that of a pickle than of a human, small and sharp thorns protruded — sometimes forming ornaments and sometimes simply chaotically. The black veins along her skin indicated that some disease was rapidly spreading through this creature’s circulatory system. And all together this looked both visually interesting and revolting. When Lorelei looked up from her book and over in our direction, I had to ma
ke a great effort not to start back — her eyes were perfectly green without even a hint of whiteness, an iris or a pupil. It was impossible to tell where the girl was looking, which stressed me out. I’d never considered the fact that I’d grown accustomed to looking at the direction that the person I was talking to or arguing with was looking in. I was accustomed to seeing the eyes of any sentient creature of our world. Not for nothing the devs had endowed even the lowliest mobs with pupils, figuring accurately that players might be shocked by their absence. I suppose when it came to the Biotas, they had decided to try something else. I suppose I’d jumped the gun boasting about my luck with women. By the way, it’s strange that girls typically create attractive avatars for themselves, but in this case…
“Erm…Hello!” I said the first thing that came into my head. “What are you reading?”
“As usual, Mahan is verbose and eloquent,” Plinto gibed, turning to the girl. “I’m Plinto, this is Mahan. Let’s assume we’ve been introduced. We’re assembling a team here and we need a list of your powers.”
“What — you’re not going to make some joke about salad, broccoli, a cactus or Cippolino?” the girl asked in a mocking voice, sliding the book aside.
“Cippo-what?” I frowned, unsure of what the girl was getting at. From a technical perspective, the Biota really could be compared to a cabbage due to the various leaves that covered her, but associating this creature full of shadow and shades with a lowly cabbage…I don’t know about you — but my brain isn’t capable of such abstractions.
“Forget it, you weren’t even born when children were watching that movie. Darling, tell me, why are you here and not at the obstacle course? At your Level 143, it’d do you good to use the grinding opportunities of the local facilities as much as you can.”
“I am increasing my skills, Sergeant!” Lorelei barked unexpectedly and erupted with joyful, infectious laughter.
“Oh really? You served?” Plinto’s brows rose higher.
“Something like that. One day with Paulie and Xander is worth a year’s worth of service.” Her reply didn’t clarify anything for me.
“I see,” Plinto smiled, while his face acquired a rare gentleness. “You live with soldiers?”
“What you mean, live? I survive with them!” Lorelei corrected him with businesslike irritation.
Here, I had to admit to myself that I had completely lost the thread of their exchange, ceasing to understand them just a little more than ‘at all.’
“Listen, my head’s hurting from this chatter, so let’s just get to your powers,” I asked Lorelei. “By the way, how do I pronounce your name? Is it Lo-re-LEI or Lo-RE-lei? Maybe, LO-re-lei?”
“The stress falls on the last syllable, so Lo-re-LEI, but you can simply call me Lori. As for my powers, you can look through them yourself. It’d take too long to list them.”
Lori didn’t waste much time and simply granted us access to her character’s properties. In everyday, reality terms, the girl had just appeared before us in less than her underwear. She was completely nude! And she’d even handed us an X-ray for the sake of thoroughness. Either I’m missing something, or the people playing for Geranika are strangely naïve — no one had said a single word about us digging around the properties or attributes of the players we’d met. Trying not to look at the items that Lori currently had equipped — half of which would drop if she died — I made a copy of her current stats, opened her spellbook and got down to reading.
Shadow Shield: You allow a piece of the surrounding world to enter you and summon a Shadow to defend yourself. The Shadows surround the Bard, absorbing the damage he is taking. Damage absorbed by each Shadow: (Intellect × 10). After absorbing its maximum level of damage, the Shadow vanishes. If an undamaged Shadow receives damage in excess of its maximum absorption level, excess damage is channeled into the interior world. Maximum number of Shadow Shields: (1 + Composition). Basic time of use: 5 seconds. Cost: (Character Level × 10 Mana).
I read over the Bard’s defensive ability several times until I understood that I was looking at a different version of the Paladin’s bubble. Considering that the Biota race was intrinsically inclined to Intellect, her shield would be able to absorb a lot of damage. Of course Plinto in Sprint could deal ten blows in several seconds, yet Plinto was one of a kind, while there should be many Biota Bards.
“This ability has nothing to do with the Biota race,” Lorelei explained to my comment that with a spell like this, a Bard is practically a Paladin with a ukulele. “And it doesn’t do to call Eid a ukulele. He won’t like that.”
“Erm…HE?!”
“You can see for yourself,” grinned Lori and pulled the strangest guitar I’d seen in my life out of her bag. In any case, it looked like a guitar to me. The twelve-stringed vegetable-thing resembled its owner in a way — clearly, it had been acquired in some Biota location. But I really was in for a shock when Lorelei began to play it. I never imagined I’d hear an electric guitar in Barliona.
The figure of a brawny warrior appeared next to the Bard, decked out in plate armor from head to toe.
“And why do we always find ourselves in some strange location?” the knight asked in a low, ample voice. “And among strange company,” he added, looking at Plinto and me.
“Let me introduce you,” Lorelei replied. “This is Mahan and Plinto. They will lead the raid at the tournament we are participating in. And this is Eid — the spirit of my instrument and at the same time a tank.”
The ghost knight bowed his head respectfully but didn’t offer his hand. I wonder if I could even touch him?
“Hey there, Iron Man!” Utterly unfazed by Eid’s transparent state, Plinto slapped him on the shoulder. “What great blood flows, err, used to flow in your veins?”
“I don’t believe that the word ‘blood’ applies to me. I was never like you. I am the soul of this instrument, created by a great luthier,” Eid informed us and in one fluid motion ‘flowed’ over to Lorelei’s right shoulder.
“All right, don’t stress it,” Plinto turned to Lorelei. “How long can you summon him for? And how does he tank? How does he heal? How does he…”
The questions and answers began to pour forth like a rushing river and I quickly got lost among its eddies and tributaries. Raid Leaders who know how to manage the players’ best attributes are either born or formed through constant practice. I’m ashamed to admit it, but for me this role was inaccessible. In any event, at the moment — it’d be a waste not to learn how to lead a raid with such renowned teachers as Anastaria and Plinto.
“Listen, if it’s not too much to ask, maybe you’ll play something?” After Lorelei had answered all his questions, Plinto stayed quiet for about ten seconds, calculating something in his head, and then decided to say what was on his mind. It had really been a difficult day — of the twenty-six meetings we had, I could recall about four of the powers that had been shown to me. It’s a good thing there’s a video recording of the whole thing and Stacey would help me figure everything out later. “First time I’ve seen an electric guitar in Barliona. I’d love to hear it.”
“No question about it,” Lori thought a few seconds and then strummed the strings. “I’ll show you why Geranika granted me the power that you mistook for a bubble. And you’ll get to see how I can buff other Shadow creatures around me.”
It turned out that Eid was a copy of a guitar synth from reality. At least, that was how Plinto described this miracle. The product of an advanced technology that combined the functions of a guitar and synthesizer, which allowed musicians to imitate the sounds of basically any string instrument. Even though this was far from my wheelhouse, when they told me that the guitar synth could be programmed with basically any sound, I began to realize what was going on. Sarcastically, I inquired how it could even be possible to program a string instrument with, for example, a flute? Or a drum? An organ? I didn’t really have that many words in my vocabulary for musical instruments, but I did have enough to ask this quit
e pithy question. And I received a very pithy response: It wasn’t possible. You could only partially add separate effects and plug-ins of other instruments into the traditional game. This was precisely why guitar synths hadn’t supplanted traditional synthesizers, while at the same time unlocking very interesting possibilities for guitarists.
Lorelei interwove an organ line into the guitar’s melody and the library filled with a deep music full of power and latent menace. When Lori’s voice joined Eid’s, I shut my eyes in pleasure and submerged myself in the music — reinforced with spells, the Bard’s voice literally forced the air to vibrate. Shivers ran up and down my body in packs, and a pleasant sensation began to unfold itself in my chest, as if a small sun was being born there and trying to fill me with its strength and energy. I wanted to run, fly and swim at the same time! The feeling was incommunicable — I’d never felt such an energy and desire to do something! My hands were literally shaking from my impatience to grab a shovel and start digging from the fence and until lunch. Amazing! Lori wasn’t simply a genius — she was stunning and the song…What song?! This was a hymn! A real, genuine hymn…
…to Shadow…
The sound and the song ended abruptly. I opened my eyes and…shut them. For there was nothing around me, aside from a strange, dark and swirling fog seeping from my own hands. Sighing deeply and dispelling my desire to fly, I opened my eyes again. The fog became transparent. Lori and Eid, who was covering her with his shield, were slowly retreating from the boiling and bubbling brick of the library’s floor. The desk that Lori had been reading at was half gone — the Shadows had consumed it. They were rushing through me trying to burst forth and destroy the surrounding world and, at the same time, I couldn’t do anything to stop them. I didn’t want this! All of me wanted nothing by to plunge everything into Chaos!
Suddenly a wild and piercing shriek sounded, rising in pitch to ultrasound. The Shadows whirling around me shuddered, as if they were alive and darted to the right. I followed their motion and saw a similar moil of Shadows beside me — Plinto also wanted to destroy the world. Our Shadows touched and, to my surprise, began to consume each other. Or destroy each other.
Clans War Page 22
