The Kartoss Gambit (The Way of the Shaman: Book #2)

by Vasily Mahanenko

  Achievement reward: damage cause to all the members of the Kartoss Dark Empire is increased by 1%.

  You can look at the list of achievements in the character settings.

  With some difficulty I struggled through the branches to the goblin's body and picked up twenty gold, an ordinary bow and a dozen crooked arrows. My loot had no stat bonuses, so I decided to sell it to an NPC trader. I had little desire to be seen by the other players with this rubbish — just so they could have a laugh at my expense. Never mind — a couple of extra gold coins wouldn't burst my pockets. After I summoned a Healing Spirit on myself, increasing my Energy and Hit Points, I had time to think. I just couldn't get my head around what just happened: what was this pointy-eared and bad smelling character doing in the neighbourhood of Beatwick? And, more importantly, why on earth was he so keen to hunt me down? From what I can remember of specific traits of dark goblins, they never hunt alone. Usually they form a pack — the larger the better. And now this naive mob decided to attack me one-on-one. This was all very strange.

  I shook my head in disappointment that I hadn't come across any wolves today, got up and headed back to the village. I will try a different direction tomorrow: perhaps I'll bump into the pack there, even if the Headman did clearly say that the wolves were roaming around somewhere in this area. Well, we'll see, I guess. The main thing was to avoid having this quest becoming a dead weight. I was extremely reluctant to lose any reputation, which, as experience showed, my Shaman would have considerable difficulty in raising. I did, of course, have some hopes for the daily +5 to reputation that I was receiving thanks to the First Kill, but having to wait a couple of years...

  I barely made two steps, when I heard a twig quietly snapping behind me. That couldn't be the goblin coming back to life, surely. I turned around. I closed my eyes, waited a couple of seconds and opened them again. Nothing changed. A stupid thought popped into my head that I should continue walking straight as if nothing happened. So much for my being upset at not being able to find the pack. There they are, the lot of them, with their level twenty leader, who was nearly as tall as me. Trying to do anything when you are surrounded by ten wolves is pretty pointless. One thing was comforting — the eyes of the wolves weren't red, a fact that stopped me in my initial impulse to summon a Lightning Spirit and bring down at least one mob before respawn. While the wolves were deciding what to do with me, I had to figure out how to get the heck out of here. I quickly glanced at the surrounding trees. That one I would never climb, the branches are too thick and close, that one is too small to take my weight, that one is full of some kind of thorns... Ah! We have a tree! Too bad it's twenty meters away. The wolves wouldn't let me get to it in time. After assessing the situation, I froze like a statue. How did that song go? "How sweet to be a Cloud, And not a floating... Shaman. Every little cloud, Gets kicked in the..." I didn't have time to think of where the cloud was going to get kicked. The leader of the pack came up to the body of the goblin, growled at it and then pierced me with a stare. I was having quite a day for staring contests with my canine brothers!

  For the second time today the surrounding world went grey, becoming covered in mist, and I saw a short 'film sketch' potentially titled 'wolf genocide' with a mob of dark goblins in the starring role. A band of small green-skinned bastards, armed with bows, took over a mine (a Tin one, judging by the ore veins), which was home to a pack of wolves. At the time of the attack the wolf cubs were seized and put into cages. An attack group of twenty wolves tried get the cubs back, but failed. An enormous female, most likely the leader's mate, fought until the very last moment and, in the end, the wolves took her off the battlefield wounded with many arrows. Half of the pack died at the mine, without ever freeing a single cub. The show was over and the world returned to its normal state.

  Quest available: "Last Hope Step 1. Saving Grey Death."

  Step 1 description: Save Grey Death, grievously wounded in the fight against the goblins. If the she-wolf dies, the leader would not survive his grief and will die together with her. If you complete the quest chain the wolves will leave the lands surrounding Beatwick forever. Quest chain class: Rare. Reward for completing Step 1: 250 Experience. Reward for the quest chain: Hidden. Penalty for failing/refusing the quest: None.

  'There are no quests in Beatwick', I chuckled as I accepted my third in two days. It's a pity that I wouldn't be able to carry out the Headman's assignment and get all those wolf tails. I had no desire whatsoever to attack the wolves now. I was ready to suffer through being ignored by the village residents for two months if completing a rare quest chain was at stake. I'll go and catch that Vagren if the worst came to worst. It was decided — I would help the wolves.

  I followed them to a small cave where the wounded she-wolf was lying. Though you may as well have called her a giant hedgehog: almost twenty arrows were sticking out of her in all directions. How she managed to survive this remained a complete mystery to me, but her fitful breathing was a clear sign that she continued to fight for her life. The enormous wolf came up to her, licked her nose, squealed something and gave me an expectant look, as if to say 'Now you do the healing.'

  Strange. Could a Rare quest be so easy? For a healer this was elementary- select, say the healing incantation and get the Experience. Maybe I made a mistake in choosing not to hunt the wolves — I might have had more to gain from helping the Headman. I just needed to summon the spirits five or six times to completely heal the pack leader's mate. And you get 900 Experience just for that? There must be a catch here, I can feel it!

  I selected the she-wolf, summoned a Healing Spirit and immediately saw what the matter was. The summoning had an unexpected result. No, the Spirit did get summoned and duly entered the wolf, giving her part of its strength, but all of the Spirit's strength, focused on the healing, was transferred to me in the form of damage. All five hundred and five units of it. It was just as well that part of the damage got deducted by my resistance, but the situation was still far from ideal. The one small blessing was the lack of pain.

  After restoring all my Hit Points, I took a moment to think. By the looks of it, the wolf had to be healed by non-standard means. But, in that case, which? What are we going to do with you, gorgeous? I have no bandages and the Spirits are bouncing off you. Should I feed some special herb to you? I read over the quest description one more time, but it didn't say a word about how to go about completing it. Nor did it contain a requirement stating that the quest could only be done by a healer. This meant that it could be accepted and completed even by Warriors and Hunters, who were unable to heal with anything other than bandages and potions.

  Lost at what to do next, I stroked the heavily breathing she-wolf. Even if she was an Imitator, it was hard not to feel sorry for her. Especially that...

  Please confirm that you have read the rules for completing the 'Last Hope' quest chain.

  The big sign 'Read the Rules' was beaconing and trying to catch my eye, so I pressed it right away. Let's see what rules they are talking about.

  Access to the 'Hidden quests' section granted due to the possession of the 'Last Hope' quest chain.

  Attention! During the 'Saving Grey Death' quest sensory filters are turned off by 50%. Please note that during this quest you will be feeling real pain.

  Your reading this has been put on the record. Should you decide to take legal action, this will be taken into account during the examination of the complaint.

  Please confirm that you would like to continue with the quest 'Saving Grey Death'.

  Filters to be turned off? I just don't get it. What do sensory filters have to do with healing the she-wolf? All right, I agree. Keeping in mind that I can feel all 100% of the pain, perhaps a miracle would happen and for a while the pain I am able to feel would actually be reduced by half. That would be great. All right, I'm prepared to feel the pain, what else?

  Damage taken. Hit Points reduced by 220: 450 (Arrow hit) — 230 (Physical defence). Total Hit Points: 420 of 68
0.

  Update of the 'Saving Grey Death' quest. Step 1': 1 of 20 arrows pulled out.

  No way I'm going on with this! Breathing heavily, I got up from the floor, where I collapsed from the pain that suddenly hit me. Could my 100% sensory input have been topped up with another 50%? The pain was so great, my muscles all began to spasm! I quickly summoned a Healing Spirit on myself, caught my breath, sat next to the she-wolf and had a think. Or rather made it look like I was having a think, because other than the thought 'I will not be able to take twenty hits like this in a row', my head was completely empty. This was crazy. No way the developers would come up with a quest that could be completed only through that much pain. They just couldn't. There must be some kind of a trick to make the arrows slip out themselves. I just have to think harder.

  The pack leader came up to me. He sniffed the arrow I took out and looked at me as if asking: "What's with the hold up? Get back to work already." How can I get back to work, you old grey, if it hurts so much? I can't take that many hits, I'm sorry. Although... Maybe it really hurts only the first time and it gets easier afterwards? Harnessing my willpower and realising that I was beginning to look like a real masochist, I touched the wounded she-wolf.

  Update of the quest 'Saving Grey Death. Step 1': 2 of 20 arrows pulled out.

  I was on the floor again when I came to myself. Like hell it's easier! I even blacked out! My Endurance ended up increasing by 20% — I'd get it to level twenty soon, if I keep taking the arrows out this way. A stalemate, by the looks of it: a pain either to give up or to keep going. And to keep going was way more than I could handle.

  The brainstorm that I tried to summon up petered out without a result. I just didn't understand what I had to do and how. That's it, time for a rest! I should come out of the cave and get some fresh air — perhaps then some useful thought would strike me. I couldn't even make a wild guess at how to take out the rest of the arrows. Well, no. I could, of course, but I had very little desire to go down that path.

  Searching the manual was no help either. First I was told that I could access the 'Hidden Quests' section, where I read that to complete the quest I had to heal the she-wolf, having pulled all the arrows out of her first. Did I rejoice too soon at gaining access to the manual? Even the hard-core trolls on the forums were silent about this quest. That's it, time to go for that fresh air and do some thinking.

  Either the floor was slippery or my legs hadn't quite recovered from my previous arrow-pulling, but the unforeseen happened. When I was getting up, I lost my balance, which made me fall down again — on the wolf that was standing next to his mate. I muttered something like, 'sorry, old grey, I didn't mean it', and started to get up again. The wolf just snorted, but didn't growl. Knowing that I was crossing all bounds of impudence, I leant on the wolf with one hand, while my other hand accidentally touched the she-wolf. Perhaps subconsciously I still wanted to complete this quest...

  Update of the quest 'Saving Grey Death. Step 1': 3 of 20 arrows pulled out.

  You transferred the received pain.

  The pack leader, whom I was leaning on, yelped in surprise and jumped aside. Just as well that he decided not to attack, I'm just not ready to battle a wolf pack here and now. But that doesn't matter right this second. What does is that I'm already holding three arrows out of twenty.

  I summoned a Healing Spirit on the leader, and gestured him to a place next to me. No slacking off now. I'm not going to do all the work for him.

  After the eighth arrow the pack leader was done. Each time he jumped aside, but proudly came back, until, after the eighth hit, he simply lost consciousness. At least he was breathing — I was beginning to worry I had left the pack without a head. Now just ten arrows needed to be pulled out, but where would I get another volunteer?

  As if by magic, an ordinary wolf wandered into the cave. 'I wonder, would the transfer work on them as well?' The wolf came up to me, sniffed the unconscious leader and then stared at me. So, shall we try it? I touched the wolf and then the wounded she-wolf. It worked! Though the wolf was finished after just one arrow. He yelped, jumped aside, his legs gave way and he slumped to the ground. I healed him, just in case, and left the cave in search of a new victim. And why not? These weren't real wolves, but Imitators, let them suffer for their leader. It's not like I should be the one doing all the work.

  I had to pull out the last arrow by myself. I ran out of wolves in the pack. I did not dare invite the she-wolves, who had less Hit Points than the damage caused by the arrow. They were women, after all, even if they did have tails: how could you put them in harm's way? So, I had to simply take the pain.

  Update of the quest 'Saving Grey Death. Step 1': 20 of 20 arrows pulled out.

  Quest completed. Experience gained: +250 Experience, points remaining until next level: 751.

  After I got up from the ground, where I fell when the pain hit, I got my breath back and summoned three Healing Spirits on the she-wolf. Now I could consider the quest completed. Grey Death is alive. She opened her eyes, lifted her head, looked around and immediately jumped to her feet. I did not quite understand what happened next. First an angry growl shook the cave. All the wolves came to themselves and jumped up. Then the she-wolf's eyes began to go blood-red and she lunged at me. At the same time the pack leader tried to jump in front of her. She crashed into me, taking off half of my Hit Points, but immediately her mate flew at her, pulling her off me and not allowing her to finish me off, while the rest of the pack ran from the cave, out of harm's way.

  The she-wolf got up again and was about to attack me, but the pack leader stood in her way. The wolves had a growl-chat between themselves, with the tone of her growl being higher and accusing, and his calm and reasonable. Just like an experienced husband talking to a wife who's having a bad day. I felt myself out of place in their family dispute and tried to quietly follow the example of the rest of the pack and sneak out of the cave, but then a message popped in front of me:

  Quest available: "Last Hope Step 2. Freeing the wolf cubs".

  Step 2 description: Free 10 wolf cubs taken prisoner by the dark goblins. If you complete the quest chain the wolves will leave the lands surrounding Beatwick forever. Quest chain class: Rare. Reward for completing Step 2: 550 Experience. Reward for the quest chain: Hidden. Penalty for failing/refusing the quest: None.

  Both wolves went quiet and stared at me. Both. Are they waiting for me to make a decision? Of course I'll accept the second Step. I would be getting more experience from it and would do some levelling up fighting the goblins. I just had to get an idea of where they are.

  "Settled down now? Time to show me where those green bastards set up camp," I said at last. In normal life saying something like this would sound ridiculous, but Barliona is not the real world and here even wolves, if the occasion really calls for it, could easily have a chat with you. The pack leader growled something in reply, came out of the cave and trotted off in the direction of the forest.

  I gathered some green branches, made something resembling a shrub out of them and saw a fairly predictable message:

  Attention, a new stat has become available to your character: Stealth. Stealth allows you to camouflage yourself in your surroundings. You become difficult to see both for mobs and other players. Once you reach the maximum level of stealth it will be almost impossible to spot you. There is some chance that you would be able to completely drop out of combat.

  Do you accept? Attention, you will not be able to remove an accepted stat!

  If I was still playing my Hunter I'd go for this stat in the blink of an eye! I liked roaming around Malabar forests alone, so I had to run away from mobs quite often. Having this stat would have meant quite a different ending to my trip to Kartoss. But by the time I started to read up on the advice of veteran raiders, I managed to reach level 33 and fill up all four of my free stat slots – though, admittedly, the stats I picked were also quite useful for a Hunter. I had no desire to reroll my character, so I camouflaged mys
elf by using special elixirs. Their property of running out both in terms of time and supply was something I learned in a hands-on fashion — at the most inappropriate moment. Well, no point digging up the past. But I would not be picking Stealth for my Shaman — the last slot had to be filled by something focused on attack. All my stats were either crafting or defence-based. I could end up with a poorly balanced build if I wasn't careful.

  After disguising myself as a piece of shrubbery, I was lying just a few steps from the edge of the mine, which was, in fact, a great big hole. However, smoking the goblins out of this hole was not going to be a simple matter. Those guys dug themselves in quite well — the only entrance to the mine was closed by enormous wooden gates and from below spikes were stuck into the ground all along the perimeter, preventing you from simply rolling in. Four hastily-made wooden watch towers stood around the mine boundary, with two lookouts in each — level thirty goblin archers. About a dozen green-skins got on with the everyday task of gathering Tin Ore. A separate tent, standing right in the centre of the mine, belonged to some big boss, since its entrance was guarded by a warrior. Near the tent there were about ten cages with the squealing cubs inside. It was just as well that we didn't take the she-wolf with us — she'd run right to them and try to free them. A few meters from the cages lay the bodies of the ten dead wolves. The goblins didn't even bother clearing them away — they'd disappear by themselves in a couple of days. I suppose it was possible to take the tails off them, which I needed for the quest. At least I'll get it half done: perhaps the Headman would accept it, even without Grey Death's tail. By the way, I first thought that to be the name of the pack leader, but the truth turned out to be quite different.