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

by Vasily Mahanenko

  Kornik loudly breathed in the frosty air, which was allowed through by the aura, pulled back his hood and looked at me with the enormous — once brown, but now faded — eyes of an elderly goblin.

  "I had no time to wait for you in Anhurs. Terrible events are coming and we must prepare for them. First, you need to get your Totem. Now we will pay the Dragons a visit. There you will swear an oath of allegiance to the High Lord. Then..."

  "I'm sorry, teacher. But I must get my totem by myself." When on earth did I get this impudent? "Thank you for your offer of help to speed up the process, but I must find my own way to the High Lord," if I understood correctly, that was the title of the head of Dragons.

  For a few moments Kornik drilled me with a penetrating stare.

  "All right. If you can provide a good reason why you must find the Dragons on your own without my help, I will agree. But your reason must be indisputable."

  "I cannot give you a reason. This... This is something within me — I feel that this is the way I must do things and if I accept your help it would mean a greatly inferior result," I decided not to beat about the bush and tell Kornik the whole truth. As ridiculous as it might be. Even if he's an NPC, he's a clever NPC with access to the information that I need. If I don't get help with sorting out my feelings, one day I'll go mad from the inner contradictions between logic and emotions. This isn't easy for someone who'd been guided by his head his entire life. And a pretty shabby one at that, I thought, remembering how I ended up in prison.

  "That is the most cast-iron reason that a Shaman can give," there was now a hint of satisfaction in Kornik's voice. "It looks like our training process will be considerably speeded up if you are able to follow your instincts. So let's not waste any time. Have a seat," leading by example, Kornik sat down right there on the snow. "To begin with, tell me what you know about Shamans."

  Is this another Prontho? The orc also asked me this question before sending me off to the Trial. I gave a pretty stupid answer at the time and was reluctant to make a fool of myself again. I opened the manual page on Shamans to refresh my memory about the steps and was about to gladly recount them to Kornik, when another bout of inner contradiction stopped me in my tracks. This isn't what the goblin wants to hear now, he is clearly asking about something else.

  "What do I know about Shamans?" I closed my eyes and tried to listen to my feelings, and then said slowly: "Shamans... Shamans speak to Spirits... A Shaman's spirit must be firm, steadfast, gentle and pliant..." my eyes closed and, completely immersed in my inner world, I even stopped noticing the biting wind. These words were said by Prontho and the Great Air Spirit, so I must be able to say them too.

  "All this is true, student, but these are someone else's words," Kornik's voice reached me through the web of my thoughts. "Don't use someone else's words, find your own."

  Antsinthepantsa's post popped up in my head: "Thinking is for mages, Shamans feel..." And that's when a light bulb lit up inside my head. I knew the answer I had to give Kornik.

  "You can't describe what a Shaman is. How can you describe the wind, the rainbow or pain? You can only feel it. Someone who does not accept the Shaman's essence would never understand what a Shaman is, while anyone who had attained this understanding wouldn't be able to find the words to describe this to the others. For me being a Shaman means to be guided by my feelings, for Prontho it's the sense of duty and for you, teacher, it's probably something else. For each of us being a Shaman is finding our own path and following it to the very end. What do I know about Shamans? Nothing and, at the same time, everything. I don't know the Shaman I would turn into after my training, I would have to get to know him all over again, and I still have questions for myself as I am now. But I know one thing — if you're a Shaman, you are unique. I'm speaking of real Shamans here — not just those who managed to get a Totem, but lack the ability to gain the title of a Great Shaman."

  Character class update: Class 'Initiate Shaman' has been replaced by 'Elemental Shaman'. Seek your trainer for learning to work with Elemental Spirits.

  Attention! You have earned the rank of Elemental Shaman without obtaining your Totem. If you are unable to obtain your Totem in the next two months, your rank would be brought down to Initiate Shaman.

  "The Supreme Spirit was right. He does have a chance," muttered Kornik. For some moments there was a silence disturbed only by the howling of the wind.

  "I have to teach you many things, my apprentice," continued the goblin a short while later, when I came to myself and opened my eyes. Sitting down in a lotus pose I prepared myself to listen to the Harbinger. I still had about thirty hours until I had to be back in Beatwick, so there was plenty of time left for training.

  "We'll start with the summoning of the Spirits. Right now you are an Elemental Shaman who doesn't have a Totem of his own, but who can still summon Elemental Spirits. In total, there are four types of Spirits: fire, water, air and earth. In turn, each type of Spirit comes in four classes: mass and individual damage and the same for healing. Yes, don't be surprised — even fire Spirits have the ability to heal."

  Right, I see. I will now have access to sixteen Spirits, but will be able to add only eight summonings to the active zone. So something will have to be sacrificed. This isn't much of a worry at the beginner levels, but starting from level 100 I would have to build my active zone according to the opponent. It is foolish to summon a Fire Spirit on a Salamander or an Air Spirit on an Air Elemental.

  "Each type of Spirit," Kornik continued, "accessible to you has its rank. The more often you use a certain type of Spirit, the stronger Spirits of this type become. You have to choose the direction in which to develop, because you can strengthen only one type out of four. The strengthening would apply to all the Spirits you can currently summon or would be able to summon later: from Younger to the Supreme."

  This is clear enough too. This marks the start of the work needed to level up a skill. You have to choose one school, or how the Shamans call them, type, and work with the Spirits of this type. The more often you summon, the stronger the summoned Spirit becomes. It's a pity that I bypassed working with the Younger Spirits or I would already have a specialization.

  "You have to understand that Spirit summoning is not free. You have to give them something in return. Either some of your Life or a gift. Simple Spirits require bread. Don't forget that if you want to reduce the amount of Life you give to the Spirits, you have to perform a sacrifice once a week. The sacrifice is made on an Altar, which each Shaman possesses. You will receive yours later."

  Something else that was bothering me has been laid to rest now. From the time I became an Initiate Shaman, I was wondering how to perform a sacrifice. The manuals didn't say a word about that. I once even left tea for the Spirits at Elizabeth's house, but it remained where it was. It turns out you needed an Altar.

  "And now for the last thing that you must know about Shamans. To remove any doubt that you are an Elemental Shaman, you must have a cloak. Here," a piece of cloth decorated with feathers appeared out of nowhere in Kornik's hands. I carefully took the item and unfolded it, trying not to damage the feathers. Will I really have to wear this? I'd like to be a Harbinger, like Kornik — no external attributes or stupid cloaks. I sighed and put on the cloak, looking at its properties. The miner's cloak I had from Pryke should have been replaced long ago and since Anastaria didn't send me one, I'll use what I've been given:

  Kornik's Shaman Cloak. Durability: unbreakable. Description: Increases the rank of the summoned Spirit by 2. The penalty for summoning all Spirits is decreased by 10%. + 15 to Intellect, +5 to Stamina. Item class: Rare, only usable by Shamans. Level restrictions: 20+.

  "Now the time has come to teach you. Henceforth you are an Elemental Shaman."

  Kornik lifted his hands, shouted something and snow (which still didn't penetrate the sphere) began to swirl around me and a series of messages began to flash before my eyes:

  You have learned how to summon the Air Spir
it of Healing. Spirit type: Air. Description: You appeal to the world of Spirits, summoning a Spirit, which gives part of its essence to the injured person. The strength of the summoned Spirit and the amount of the essence given is determined by Intellect and Spirit rank. Kamlanie time: 2 seconds. Cost of summoning: (Character level)/2 Summoner's Hit Points, Cost of Healing: (Character level)*4 mana. Restores (Intellect*3) Hit Points. Cannot heal earth entities: Dwarves, Kobolds, Gnomes, ... Bestows additional healing on air entities: Air Elementals, ...

  You have learned how to summon the Spirit of Air Strike. Spirit type: Air. Description: You appeal to the world of Spirits, summoning the Spirit on your opponent to take part of his life force with it. The strength of the summoned Spirit and the amount of life force taken from the opponent is determined by Intellect and Spirit rank. Kamlanie time: 5 seconds. Cost of summoning: (Character level)/ 2 Hit Points of the summoner. Cost of attack: (Character level)*4 mana. Damage: (Intellect*3) Points. Range: 40 meters. Cannot attack air entities: Air Elementals, ... Deals additional damage to earth entities: Dwarves, Kobolds, Gnomes, ...

  The Spirits of the air healing wave and air wall provided AoE healing and damage. Quite good, but in each of the learned summonings both damage and healing were three times less powerful than with a single target. This provided an advantage only if there were more than three opponents or injured parties. Otherwise you had to work with each target separately. I learned similar summonings for Water, Fire and Earth. They were practically the same, the only difference being in the names.

  A few things stuck in my memory right away: you could not heal humans and thaurun with Fire Spirits, orcs and trolls with Water Spirits and elves and pixies with Earth Spirits. It was the same with damage — each type had its limitations.

  "You have to choose the type of Spirit that you will be advancing, apprentice," I heard Kornik's voice after going through the entire list of spells. "A Shaman must make his choice at the start and follow it his entire life. No matter how wrong that choice might have been," did I hear a note of sadness in Kornik's voice?

  This made me quite thoughtful. On one hand the choice seemed obvious: fire. Damage from all four types was the same, but psychologically it's fire that everyone fears. I don't know the visual side of the summoning, but calling a Fire Spirit should at least send some sparks flying. One thing that stopped me was you couldn't use it to heal humans. Levelling up a Spirit type that doesn't grant you the ability to heal yourself is pretty stupid. Which should it be then? Earth, Air or Water? Should I toss a coin, perhaps?

  "Did you make your choice?" Kornik hurried me. So impatient! I'm having a think here and he's distracting me.

  "Yes, teacher. Water. I choose the water type."

  "Explain your choice."

  "I could refer to my feelings again, but this time I was guided by simple calculation. Fire and Air are immediately ruled out, because I, as well as my friends, are humans, gnomes and dwarves. If I can't summon strengthened Spirits on us, what do I need them for? Then we have Water and Earth left. I thought of choosing Earth, but saw that it comes with a limitation for elves. I may not have any elf friends, but I do have a few acquaintances. Then only Water remains. I don't know any trolls or orcs, aside from Prontho, who can be healed by an ordinary Spirit."

  When I mentioned Prontho, the goblin's face wrinkled up in a smile.

  "Yes, that stubborn fool can be healed by simple bandages, all right. He'd survive anything. So be it, then. From now on and henceforth your personal type of Spirit is Water!"

  Personal Spirit type determined: Water. Water Spirit summoning rank: 1.

  I added the fire and water spells to the active zone, filling up all the available slots. Now I could face anything!

  "Teacher, since we've mentioned Prontho, I would like to know what happened on that ill-fated day when he challenged Shiam. And where is Geranika now? And, the most important question — what is going on with me? Why do I keep taking one decision with my head, but a different one with my heart? When I let myself be guided by my head the result is complete nonsense."

  "Is this all that you wish to know," Kornik raised an eyebrow questioningly, “or do you have a couple more questions? Don't hurry, have a think, what if you missed something?

  Maan, Kornik seriously reminds me of Almis right now. What is it with NPC-Shamans? Are they all programmed to answer a question with a question?

  "No, this isn't all. I would also like to know why you flew all the way to Farstead to see me. What threat is Barliona facing? Why the hurry with the training and obtaining the Totem? What is it that Almis has to do? This covers it now, I think."

  Goblin's laughter echoed through the mountains.

  "According to all the rules you should have felt embarrassed enough to ask my pardon for your impertinence, bow your head and await my permission to ask questions. But it seems you haven't heard about these things called rules," Kornik looked at me shrewdly. "And that is good. Before I answer your questions, I would like you to summon a Spirit. We can talk anywhere, but training you without being noticed by Geranika we can do only here. Heal yourself!"

  Heal? No problem. There doesn't seem to be anything difficult about that. I selected myself and started to summon a Healing Spirit. How can this be a test? Just some fooling around, that's all.

  Damage taken. Hit Points reduced by 2036: 2316 (Fire Spirit summoning) — 280 (Fire resistance). Total Hit Points: 384 of 2420.

  The Fire Spirit did come with a visual component, and quite an impressive one at that! For a couple of moments I resembled a Bengal Light, with sparks flying off me in every direction. At least it didn't hurt: looks like your own Spirits couldn't cause you pain. But what the heck?! I wanted to be healed! It took considerable willpower to stop myself from summoning another healing Spirit. One was quite enough.

  "So festive and pretty," came the sardonic voice of the goblin, "but the result is not quite what you should get from a healing spell, is it? I think you should stop torturing yourself and try using a target," a practice dummy of the type used by players to perfect sequences of blows or spells appeared a few meters away from me. "Do continue."

  I selected the 30-level dummy and decided to summon an attacking Water Spirit on it. Even if I was wrong, I would simply heal the dummy.

  I was wrong.

  Attention!

  In connection with your death, your level of Experience has been reduced by 30%...

  The AoE Spirits deal three times less damage than a single-target Spirit, but this was more than sufficient. I had too much Intellect and too few Hit Points remaining after my first unsuccessful attempt. The respawn point was located just next to the spot where Kornik took me. The dummy was almost completely covered in snow now, a sign that the blizzard lasted all the twelve hours I was gone.

  "I was starting to think you decided to stick around the Grey Lands forever," came the grumbling voice of the old goblin. I turned around and saw that the teacher was sitting on an inexplicably acquired carpet and sipping a hot drink. Still surrounded by a golden aura, he looked me over jokingly and added: "I have a proposal for you. I will teach you the right way to use the Spirits, but you will be permitted to ask me only one question. If you manage to get to grips with the Spirits by yourself, I'll answer all your previous questions. Make your choice."

  Who says I must choose anything? I have the manual and the forum! Time to stop acting like a dope and start reading. So, the summoning of Spirits...

  The hour I spent on sifting through the available materials bore no results. The official documentation didn't say a word about how to use the Spirits. Or, rather, the information was there, but it wasn't what I was looking for. Everyone referred to some sort of a Spirit-choosing mode, but made no mention of how to enter it. As far as I could see, wasn't this exactly what was involved in putting the Spirits into the active zone?

  Stop! Where's the Spirit selection? Before, when I had just two summonings, I didn't bother cluttering my brain with such nonse
nse. But now the number of available Spirits has noticeably increased, so perhaps I should specify the slot of the active zone from which the summoning should take place.

  Let's try this. I selected the snow-covered dummy and, putting some distance between us just in case, I mentally selected the Spirit and began the summoning. So, what did we have?

  I didn't sustain any damage, which was great, but the fact that instead of damage the dummy had a healing Spirit land on it didn't seem quite right. At least it was a water and not a fire spirit. So it looks like first you have to choose the type of Spirit and then the summoning category: damage or healing. Let's try this.

  I selected the dummy again, chose a Water Spirit, repeated the Spirit selection and started to summon. Yes! Water spray flew in all directions from the dummy, almost immediately turning into icicles. It's quite freezing here, by the looks of it. Ending up outside the golden sphere was certainly not a good idea. But right now that was inconsequential — I did it! I managed to figure out the Spirit summoning by myself! I looked at the goblin somewhat mockingly and repeated the summon: dummy, Water Spirit, Water Spirit. Summon!

  "Hehe," the goblin gave a little laugh when the dummy became surrounded by a puddle of water where bodiless Spirits were dashing around, periodically causing damage. That's right. These were Water Spirits, but the AoE version. So my method wasn't working. I had further thinking to do.

  After a couple of hours of experiments it sunk in that I wasn't going to learn how to summon the needed Spirit by myself. Didn't have the brains for it.

  "You're not here to tell me you've given up already?" asked Kornik slyly.

  "I need a hint. At least tell me the direction in which I should be working," I mumbled sheepishly.