Survival Quest (The Way of the Shaman: Book #1) (16 page)

Bloody hell! Do I even need this? Did anyone ask me whether I wanted to be a boss and be responsible for 57 people? All this was probably so clearly readable in my face that Kart chuckled and said:

"Calm down, other than paying a visit to the orc, there is nothing you have to do personally; your task is to make rings. Everything else is not your problem. By the way, you will automatically be receiving ten percent of the money made by each member of the gang. So you'll be paid well for your work."

"All right, I'll give you my reply in the morning. Decisions like these are not made in five minutes."

Next morning I went to the orc, handed him the list and expressed my desire to become a supervisor in the mine, in charge of the people on the list. The orc took a few seconds to examine the names, and then a chair appeared in the office and the orc said:

"Take a seat. And tell me why you need this."

For a while I sat there, unable to explain my decision. When I arrived at it during the night it seemed to me to be the decent and the right thing to do, but now, sitting in front of the orc I was not as sure. I finally made up my mind and looked at the governor.

"In short: it will make life easier for normal people."

The orc thought this over for a moment and then made a brief remark.

"He who takes a lot upon himself will have a lot to answer for. Remember this."

Your reputation with the Pryke Mine Guards has increased by 100 points. Current level: Friendly. You are 1685 points away from the status of Respect.

Attention! Changes to the description of the Charisma stat. The following skills have been added: people under your supervision receive extra Experience, percentage equal to your Charisma score.

Skill increase:

+1 to Charisma. Total: 3

After leaving the mine boss I went to the smithy to make rings. With a familiar turn of hand I wound the wire, connected the ends and ended up with a ring. It was just an ordinary ring, nothing special. How was it on the stat side?

Lesser Copper Ring. Durability 30. Strength +1. Stamina +1. Minimum level: 1

Well, yes, just an ordinary +1 ring. I threw it into the pile with the rest, took out more wire and began to make a new ring.

STOP! What the??? I ran like lightning to the pile of rings and started to look for the one I had just made. When I found it, I looked it over from every side, but nothing seemed to distinguish it from the rest: after all, I had used the same process to make them all. Where was the recipe? I opened the Jeweler's Recipe Book and, mesmerized, spent several minutes looking at the ring's description:

Lesser Copper Ring.

•                  
  Description: Lesser Copper Ring. Durability: 30. 1 random Stat from the list: Strength, Agility, Intellect, Stamina, Rage. A bonus is added on account of the Crafting stat: (Crafting level) random Stat from the list: Strength, Agility, Intellect, Stamina, Rage. Minimum level: 1.
  
•                  
  Crafting requirements: minimum Jewelcraft level 2.
  
•                  
  Ingredients: 2 Copper Wires.
  
•                  
  Instruments: Jeweler's Tools.
  

1 random stat from the Crafting skill... If Crafting increases the number of additional bonuses on my rings then I should put the maximum number of free stat points into it. I was saving up those 22 points for a reason. Possessing a +23 ring with the ability to change the stats at any time is simply heaven for a starting player. Easy said - easy done. I stopped and opened the window with my stats.

Attention, the Crafting stat cannot be increased by addition of stat points!

What the hell?! So it looks like there is no easy way to level up Crafting. So, what to do? Eh, I wish I had the manual, I'd look up everything I need to know straight away. But now I'll have to find out for myself, by blind trial and error. I found Kart and told him about Crafting and its effect on the rings I made. I'm not sure if it was the effect of my words on Kart or the fact that he'd been trying to make metal sheets for eight days without any success, but he finally had a break-through and made a sheet with the required parameters. Pleased, Kart gave it to me and got on with making the rest; I went off to try and figure out what it was I had to do with it.

The simplest answer that came to me was to link the edges of the sheet together, polish them and get a completed ring. But how do I attach a stone to it?

I came to Kart in the evening, still without a clue of what to do with it. To my surprise he was finishing his 20th sheet, diligently banging it with a hammer. This meant that his remaining time should be free. And after we hand in the quest he'll leave the mine altogether. I should ask him to make something for me to remember him by. Although, what could a Smith/Leatherworker make? Suddenly an idea struck me: I knew exactly what he could make!

"Oh, Mahan, it's good that you came by. Just imagine - I’m finished already! Only the first one gave me trouble as I was getting the hang of it, but it was all plain sailing after that. So you better not let me down! Now it's all up to you!"

"Kart, you've done very well for sure, but I’m here with a proposal for you," I said and described my idea to Kart. "Will you make it?"

"Mahan, are you kidding me? I have no idea how to make that!"

"But you had no idea how to make the sheets either, right? And with this you don't even need to measure anything to make sure every millimeter is where it should be. Let's sit down and think how to go about it. I'm sure you'll manage it! You have plans to leave the mine in a week's time and this way I'd at least have something to remember you by."

"So you already know what you need these sheets for?"

"Not a clue. If the worst comes to worst and I can't think of anything else, I'll just connect a Rose and a ring, which should give me the needed result. But there must have been a reason why you were given the task of making these blasted sheets. We just have to figure out how to use them. So, I can do the thinking and you can work on my request. All right?"

Skill increase:

+10% to Charisma. Total: 30%

"You have a deal; I should be able to get to grips with the first part easily enough, but the second might present difficulties. That's all right though, it's for me to worry about now?"

"Correct. By the way, tell people that from today I am able to make +2 stat rings: they will cost 5 gold per ring. If anyone wants one, they know where to come."

"Need you ask? I'll be the first in the queue! You're making some for me, right? Selling these rings should be easy as pie. You already have a week-long queue for that, so keep making them, I'm going to need the money now," Kart smiled, looking pleased. Yes, he's one foot out of the mine. I envy him...  How will I live here without him?

Leaving Kart to get on with my request I headed to Rine. My idea needed stones, if I didn't know what to do with the sheets yet (they just wouldn't form a ring, and there was twenty of them), then at least I knew where I was with stones.

"Hello, Rine. How's your granddaughter - did she like my present?" I began as I came up to the working dwarf.

"Oh, her parents heard no end of the stories about her rose. She runs around with it all over the place, doesn't go anywhere without it. Remembers me fondly for it too. What can I help you with?"

"I'd like to buy twenty granite stones off you. I seem to recall that you were prepared to sell them to me one copper a piece."

"You may as well remember something I told you a year ago!" Suddenly I seemed to be speaking to an altogether different dwarf. "What about inflation? And taxes? Do you know how much we have to pay for all these stones lying here? I can't sell them to you for a copper a piece. Each stone now costs 1 gold, and that's at a discount for you as a loyal customer."

Thirty minutes of arguing with the dwarf had zero effect. A gold for each stone and that's that. I didn't even level up my Trade by one percent. It was impossible with someone this stubborn. Dammit, hadn't I been promised a 20% discount on all goods after completing that quest for Rine?! Hard-hearted dwarf!

"All right Rine, it's a deal," I gave up. "20 stones at 1 gold each. But I'm going to be the one to pick them out!"

"Of course you'll be doing that," said the dwarf, satisfied. "Like I have time to dig around that pile. Pay 10 gold for the privilege of choosing the stones and off you go. You know where the pile is."

"Rine, what is this? Are you trying to make a business out of exploiting me? What's with these prices? 10 gold just for digging around the pile?"

"Yes, why are you so surprised? We're going through a crisis right now, on account of dire shortage of Copper Ore; which we have you to thank for, by the way. So we have to get inventive just to avoid going broke."

"Rine, I thought no alcohol was sold at the mine, where did you get some? I'm prepared to pay 30 gold for a bottle."

"What are you on about? What alcohol?" the dwarf asked, surprised.

"What do you mean, what alcohol? The normal kind that you drank before I came to you and that completely clouded your brains. All right, you forgot that I made the present for your granddaughter. These things can happen to a dwarf: I’ve heard all about it. But what shortage are you talking about? Yes, we are now buying virtually all the surplus ore, but during the last month the average level of the Mining profession at our mine increased from 9 to 11. Everyone started to hand in 20 more pieces of Copper ore every day. And aren’t you the one who collects all the surplus left after the processing? I only need half an ingot for a wire - what happens to the other half? Kart can't re-smelt it, there's a clear limitation there, but then our kind and, more importantly, thrifty dwarf takes the remains of the bar for himself, right? Absolutely free of charge too! And that happens with each item made in the mine! You make more in leftovers than you ever did in unprocessed ore that was sold to you as surplus! And I bet you have no trouble making new copper bars out of the unused bits. Just try and tell me this isn't so! I know you, you won’t lie to my face - if the income of the mine hasn’t increased from the time I started to make the rings I'll pay you 60 gold right now, just to dig through that pile. Well, Rine, don't you want to earn a lump sum? But if I am correct, taking 10 gold just so I can go through the pile is simply a disgrace, Rine. A big dwarven disgrace!"

Skill increase:

+1 to Charisma. Total: 4

+1 to Trade. Total: 5

"All right, but it's still one gold per stone from you, Mahan," mumbled the Dwarf, annoyed. "That's not a whim of mine, that's the price set by our boss after you made that Rose."

I left Rine to himself and headed for the pile. I needed just eight stones for my idea, but I did not want to take any chances and decided to have some backup. I turned each stone in my hand, trying to listen to myself, but didn't feel anything particularly supernatural. It might be that to start seeing the essence of things I'll have to walk around for two weeks with each stone, as I did with the Rose, to understand what it really is. So I picked twenty stones at random and went over to my Shaman's Spot. It was time to set my plan in motion.

Chapter 7

The Pryke Mine. First months. Part 3

I
n the evening I witnessed a somewhat entertaining auction. A large crowd of prisoners were arguing amongst themselves over their turn for buying rings with a +2 stat bonus. At some point someone shouted that he's prepared to pay 5 and a half gold for a ring if he's served before the rest, the crowd went quiet for a few seconds and then all hell broke loose... In a couple of hours Kart brought me a list of the people in the queue, which made for quite a shock when I looked at it:

•                  
  Dirk. 4 Rings with +2 to Strength, 11 gold per ring.
  
•                  
  Grom. 4 Rings with +2 to Strength, 11 gold per ring.
  
•                  
  Alt...
  

Altogether the list documented an order for 94 rings worth 800 gold in total. With my current level in Jewelcraft this meant four to five days of intense work. The opportunity for such profit was not to be missed.

In the morning I spent a couple of hours on creating the Rose, reducing it three times in size and then trying to combine it with an existing ring. I then tried to repeat this with a ring as it was being created. Then I simply tried to screw the Rose on top of a ring, but all to little effect: the number of stats did not increase. The ring had +2 and the Rose had +3, but when I combined them it did not result in a +5. I only got +3 Intellect, whatever I tried to do. After a couple of hours of experiments I gave up. I had jumped the gun when I thought that the orc's quest was as good as done. Things turned out to be not that simple: the ring (my plan was to make a gem ring) just wasn't happening. Well, technically it was, but only with +3 Intellect. When I changed the Rose's Intellect to Strength in order to have something useful in the mine, the Rose turned to stone dust and the ring reverted to its +2 bonus. A pity. I spent a few more hours creating my third Rose, but making it in the original size this time, put it on the table, spread the metal sheets around it and then tried to think. But the thinking wasn't going too well and I just stared at the sheets like I was seeing them for the first time. Not a single thought appeared in my head. After a while I felt that there was someone else in the smithy aside from Kart and myself. I reconnected with reality and turned around.

Alt stood by the table and looked at the sheets, mumbling something under his breath.

"Mahan," he turned to me, when I came up to greet him and ask what he was doing here. "I came here to buy some paints off Rine and saw your sheets on the table. Tell me, have you already picked a pattern for your chain?"

"My chain?" I asked in surprise.

"Aren't you making the Regional Governor's Chain? Before my imprisonment I saw several pictures where town governors sported these chains, made up of connected shaped metal sheets, with the symbol of the city at the bottom. So if you see the Rose as the symbol of the province," said Alt and started to shift the sheets around the table, "and connect the rest of these, you'll end up with quite a nice-looking chain. But you'll have to cut something interesting out of these sheets, to go with the Rose, or it won't look right. That's the kind of chain regional Governors wear."

'I need a present for the Regional Governor to confirm the status of my mine as one of the best.'
I remembered the boss's words. Then I finally guessed that the orc knew what we had to do, but had left it to us to figure out the way! That's why Kart's task was to make the sheets. I'm such a blockhead! Why did I get all hung up on the rings? I can also make chains, I just completely forgot about it - because of the high demand for rings crafting chains didn't make a lot of sense. I would probably never have remembered if it hadn't been for Alt.

"Alt, would you like to get a couple of rings with +2 Strength?" I asked Alt and, seeing his immediate interest, continued, "You’re entirely correct, I need some sort of a pattern that could be cut out from the sheets. I can cut it out, all right, but I can't draw it. You're the only one that can draw in the mine, so I need your help. On each sheet you'll draw a picture for cutting out and I'll give you two rings for the job. Deal?"

Skill increase:

+10% to Charisma. Total: 40%

A rather pleased Alt headed off to do his drawings, while I spent several hours on making the rings and instructing Kart, who was having real difficulty with my request. Certain elements came out well, but problems arose when it came to combining them: Kart was short of another pair of hands: to support here, bang there or twist over here. But, swearing and cursing the day he ever agreed to do this thankless task, he did not give up. 'Promises have to be kept," repeated Kart under his breath after he ruined another set of crafting materials.

Towards the end of the day I had more of a chance to do some work for myself. I leant on the smithy wall and took out one of the stones. I then closed my eyes and tried to feel what this stone wanted to be. I sat like that for a few minutes and understood that this stone just wanted to be a stone, since I wasn't getting anything else from it. But what if I tried a different approach?

I closed my eyes again and tried to draw with my imagination the shape that I wanted to get. It was slow going at first, since the shape constantly blurred, first becoming a Rose, then a pick, a couple of times there was even a Rat looking at me out of my imagination, but I forced these visions away and started again. I knew the result I was going for and I just had to force my brain to picture it. At last the desired object made an appearance: I was looking at a 3D image of the item. Now came the interesting part. I imagined a piece of stone next to this image and tried to combine them, connect my image to the stone. At first the stone and the item repelled each other like two repelling magnets, but my insistence and obstinacy did the trick. The virtual shape connected with the virtual stone. Pleased with the result, I opened my eyes.

Class ability "Change of essence" acquired: you are able to change the essence of a thing. Attention! This ability only works with inanimate objects and does not permit a change of essence in objects protected with spells of the 'Essence shield' level or higher. The level of the object whose essence can be changed depends on the character level.

Only now could I feel the wrongness and falseness of the stone. And I knew why - I felt the essence of the stone, which now wanted to be the object whose essence I had just imprinted. Just think what this could mean for future crafting work! I quickly removed all the unwanted bits from the stone and looked at the message telling me that I created a new Jewelcraft recipe and a Precious Stone with a +1 to Stamina. I had also increased my Jewelcraft by 9%, but it was strange that the discovery of this recipe did not lead to an increase in Crafting. So, Crafting does not increase with items made using a known creation path, but only with truly unique objects. All right, something to remember for the future. The main thing is that I managed it without getting stuck for two days like last time. I had to create just seven items for my idea to come to life.

All of the following day I  used the newly created recipe to make things I had conceived out of the stones, although I destroyed almost half of the stones while I was at it. Changing the essence of some stones made them crumble to dust. They probably really didn't want to be what I suggested they should become. It was their choice and it was just as well that I had some extra stones. I gave the crafted objects to Kart, explaining their purpose, and then began to make the rings - the waiting list was still there and people were already asking when it was going to be their turn.

Two days later Alt brought the sheets marked with the drawings. I spread them on the table and examined the designs. On one hand Alt certainly had talent - each sheet depicted some kind of a flower, many had intertwining leaves, some even had dewdrops and one flower sported an ant. On the other hand Alt was very far from getting the plan off the ground: when I asked him how on earth could any of this be cut out, he shrugged and said that his task was to come up with the concept and mine was to bring it to life.

Arming myself with cutters, files and metal canvases, I began the crafting work, removing millimeter by millimeter from the sheet. The smithy was filled with such an unpleasant and irritating squeaking that Kart grumbled, suddenly remembering that he had many things to do in the barracks, and I soon found myself alone. At one point I lost my concentration and made a wrong move, and the sheet simply broke into several pieces. I looked at the other sheets in puzzlement. Does this mean that if I make a mistake the sheet will simply fall apart? On one hand this is understandable: 20 sheets were too high a number for the Chain; but on the other, if I had to proceed like a minesweeper, the speed of my work would be drastically reduced. And I only had five days ahead of me.

I fastened the next sheet in a grip and began to work it with even greater care. I cut off the excess pieces by micrometers not millimeters this time, and then...

"Mahan, how long are you going to be making that infernal noise?" Kart returned to the smithy, looking far from pleased. "You're disrupting everyone's work - the whole mine is echoing this awful sound you're making, it's enough to make your ears bleed."

I jerked the canvas in surprise and once again was left with a pile of broken pieces.

"Hey, why are you destroying the sheets?" asked Kart, surprised, when he saw me going through the shards. "That's not what I made them for. Look, that's the second one you've broken. Just can't get the hang of it?"

I shook my head, took the sheet with one of the simplest drawings and went off for a think. I was doing something wrong, but what...

I closed my eyes and created a sheet in my mind. I was surprised how easy that was: probably by now I was used to doing these things. The drawing on the sheet took a bit more effort, but in the end I also imagined it on the metal surface. I had a three dimensional model of the sheet that I could begin to work with. As I touched the sheet to cut out the pattern it curled into a ring. Right, this piece of metal contains the essence of a ring, but for some reason I'm not feeling it. I’m probably not high enough level for that. It means that if I start to cut out the drawing, this sheet will fall apart like the others. What a stumbling block.

As soon as I unbent the ring back into a sheet, at the edge of my consciousness I heard a sharp sound of breaking metal and my virtual sheet broke into many pieces. I opened my eyes and saw the shards of the bent sheet in my hands. So if I'm crafting in my mind, the same thing is taking place for real? Which means that I created a ring out of the sheet and then broke it. It's quite convenient actually, the fact that I don't need to work with my hands, definitely something to look into. This didn't happen with rings made from wire: I built their model in my head or deformed them, but nothing happened outside my head. So why was it happening here? Was it because I was holding the primary material in my hands? I really must get to the bottom of this, as this ability will be very useful later in the game.

With my mind rested I got back to work. I had 17 sheets left and I needed 15 for a decent chain. This meant that at the most I had two more attempts to get my head around the rules.

Another sheet appeared in my mind.

So, each sheet contains the essence of a ring. But what if we try to replace it with a different essence? I sketched out the drawing separately in my mind and tried to combine it with the sheet. Once again, this had an effect like repelling magnets, I applied a bit of pressure, there was a bang... and I was left with only 16 sheets - and just one more try. I could not ask Kart to make additional sheets - this could fail his quest, as he was clearly told to make no more than 20 sheets. If he made more, his quest would fail.

The next sheet flew apart when I set aside virtual crafting and once again tried to cut it with normal tools. Right, now I really am like a minesweeper, no room for a mistake. I just had to decide whether to make it normally or by crafting it in my mind.

I left the sheets alone for four days. I completed all the rings on the list, increased my reputation by 56 points with the help of the Rats, now I had 1629 points remaining until Respect. The time set aside for the quest was running out, but as soon as I thought of making the chain, I was seized with involuntary shaking. I was afraid that I would fail and because of me Kart might not gain his freedom. The less time remained the greater this fear grew. In the end I got myself into such a state that I began to doubt whether I would be able to complete the quest at all.

Kart kept quiet, without hurrying or bothering me needlessly, since he saw the state I was in. Even the new people joining the queue for the rings started to come only at the end of the working day, not to get in the way of the 'mad Shaman'.

Tomorrow I have to hand in the quest to the orc.

"You know, Mahan," Kart said as he sat next to me. He looked at the sheets laid out on the table in the shape of a chain with the Rose at its head and continued: "I think that you should not stress so much over this. Even if you don't manage to get this done, the last month had shown me that it is possible to live in the mine not just by using other people, but by your own efforts. When I leave prison I plan to try my hand at blacksmithing. You wouldn't believe how much I came to enjoy swinging the hammer and seeing a result on the other end. Here at the mine we have a good chance to train ourselves up in this, so if we don't manage to complete the quest tomorrow, it's not the end of the world. Life will go on. You'll continue making the rings and when you reach the limit of your current professions, you'll start to level up in Smithing and Leatherworking. So you should not see being unable to complete the quest as losing. You have to look at the bigger picture and not just single out certain details, even the really painful ones.”