Survival Quest (The Way of the Shaman: Book #1) (7 page)

Now I just have to decide what to do about the hunt. I can't run after the Rat, since I don't have enough Energy and Stamina. Agility would be of little use: with a score of 1 in this stat I will only hit my own legs instead of the Rat. Should I perhaps put down some traps? Looks like I have my work cut out for me...

The Rat population in my lot turned out to be quite healthy — I counted around five of them. Like all animals in starting locations, the Rats were not aggressive and had 30 Hit Points. These nimble beasts constantly darted to and fro between the stones and only rarely entered open space for a few seconds, which made all my grand plans crumble before my eyes. Having selected one of the Rats, I examined its properties.

Pryke Mine Rat. Description: this darting animal appeared at the Pryke Mine right from the time it opened and has been a troublemaking headache for its administration ever since. There is a reward allocated for killing Rats. Hit Points: 30. Attack: 10. Armor: 2. Magic resistance: 2.

As no clear solution was forthcoming, I automatically began to go through my stats and skills, continuing my intense search for possibilities.

Race: Human. The first race in Barliona. The Capital: Anhurs... Looking further... Mining - character profession, enables the gathering of ore. As the level of the profession increases the rate of Energy loss slows down... Next... Class: Shaman. A spiritual mentor, who is able to communicate with Spirits and call them to his aid. The summoned Spirits help the Shaman to defend himself or to heal wounded comrades, and strong shamans can... Next.... Stop! Backtracking!

Shamans can work with Spirits! Why am I so slow? Didn't I make a special note to myself this morning to get to grips with the Shaman class?

It took me a bit of time to understand how to open the spell book, which I then selected and began to study. I only had two spells in the book, but these spells were really something!

Summoning of the Lesser Healing Spirit: You appeal to the world of Spirits, summoning the Lesser Healing Spirit, which gives part of its essence (life force) to the injured person. The strength of the summoned Spirit and the amount of the essence given is determined by Intellect. Kamlanie (casting) time: 2 seconds. Cost of summoning (before initiation as a Shaman): (Character level) of the summoner's Hit Points, Cost of healing: (Character level)*4 mana. Restores (Intellect*3) Hit Points.

Lesser Lightning Spirit Strike: You appeal to the world of Spirits, summoning the Lesser Lightning Spirit on your opponent to take away part of his Spirit (life force). The strength of the summoned Spirit and the amount of life force taken from the opponent is determined by Intellect. Kamlanie (casting) time: 5 seconds. Cost of summoning (before initiation as a Shaman): (Character level) Hit Points of the summoner. Cost of attack: (Character level)*4 mana. Damage: (Intellect*3) Points. Range: 20 meters.

Phew! I had to read this text several times to make something of it. They didn't exactly make it simple. And they were clever about it too. It is possible to summon Spirits before becoming an initiated Shaman, but you pay for it with your own Hit Points. At the same time the higher your level, the greater the cost. A bit cruel, really. But I still have to figure out how to use all this, especially as the very word 'kamlanie' remained a mystery to me, as I heard it for the first time. What is it and why did I have to spend 2 seconds doing it? All right, let's test it out. I looked at the area of my plot where the Rats were darting around and saw one of the rodents sitting on a pile of rocks and looking at me. Did I remind it of cheese or something? Well, you just keep sitting there and I'll...

"Spirit Strike!" I shouted and aimed my hands at the Rat.

My shout made the Rat's whiskers twitch, it turned its nose this way and that, but continued to sit as if nothing happened. What a flop!

"I call upon the Lesser Lightning Spirit to smite this Rat! Attack!" I pointed my hands in the direction of the Rat.

"Spirit! Summon! Drop dead!" I kept trying, but it began to dawn on me: something wasn't right here. Usually things like the use of spells, and especially summoning of Spirits, were explained during the initial training, which prisoners did not have! And the only magic that a Hunter, which I played before, could use were the spell scrolls. Blast, if only I could read the Game manual, but who'd give me access to that now?!

Maybe the problem was with the spell book itself? I carefully touched the pictogram drawing of the Lesser Healing Spirit, thinking that nothing bad would happen if the spell actually worked. Suddenly my hands contained a glowing projection of a cross. It was small, weightless and seemed to be stuck to my hand: when I opened up my fingers, the cross remained in my palm. I even shook it a little and the spell did not detach. Well, that's something. But how do I activate it now? I clenched my fist and tried to crush the cross and immediately saw a message:

Do you want to add the spell of Lesser Healing Spirit Summoning to the active section?

Yes, I do, now what?

The spell of Lesser Healing Spirit Summoning has been added to the active spells section. To activate the spell pick a target for healing, activate the Summoning with your thought and perform the shamanistic ritual (kamlanie) in the course of two seconds. Until you are initiated as a Shaman, you can use any object instead of a tambourine for the ritual. Attention! Due to the limitations imposed on this location, summoning Spirits to heal yourself is FORBIDDEN.

Available slots in the active spell section: 7 of 8.

Kamlanie has to be done with a tambourine? Does this mean that in order to heal or inflict damage I have to make a dance with a tambourine or even some 'tambourine stand-in' until I become a real Shaman? Now I get why this class is so unpopular: few people want to look like some dancing, muttering idiot. When I played as a Hunter, I saw mages, quietly standing there, stretching their hands towards the enemy, and firing lightning, fireballs and ice darts. No tambourine-accompanied dances in sight. That was real magic. And here... I was crestfallen. I remembered the Shamans I've seen before: it was true, dancing and muttering idiots was exactly what they looked like. And I can't even heal myself, they even stitched me up in this. Hit Points were lost as Energy fell, so a nice bonus like self-healing would have been very welcome. Dreams, dreams... Oh well, I still had the Spirit of Lightning!

Touching the icon of the Lesser Lightning Spirit Strike, I was ready to see its projection in my hand, but a message suddenly popped up:

Due to the imposed restrictions, using the Lesser Lightning Spirit Strike spell on the territory of the Pryke Copper Mine is only possible if your reputation with the Pryke Mine Guards is Friendly or higher. Current reputation: Neutral.

I slumped to the ground, entirely disheartened. How could this be — the bonus is there, but using it is 'out of bounds'? Why did they even leave it in then? 'Well, Mr. Rat, now you can celebrate! Your life will be long and peaceful,' I thought bitterly. Goodbye reputation and goodbye money. And happiness had seemed so close...

With a deep sigh I got up, put my pick over the shoulder and went to the shade to have a rest and restore my Energy. From disappointment and dashed hopes, as well as the annoying gaze of the Rat, which continued to stare at me, I mentally selected the Rat and grabbed my pick, pressed the icon of the Lesser Healing Spirit in my mind and imagined dancing around myself, banging on the pick like a tambourine and muttering the first song that came into my mind:

- The Shaman has three hands, o-o-o....

Take that, you grey-furred beast, drop dead and quit laughing at me.

The Rat gave a strange squeak and ran off making some weird sounds, but I took little notice of all that. My attention was held by the message appearing before my eyes:

Skill increase:

+10% to Intellect. Total: 10%

Your Hit Points have been reduced by 1. Total: 29 of 40.

The happiness that engulfed me (I found another method for levelling up!) was so great that I did not notice how something grey and incredibly fast jumped at me from behind the pile of rocks.

Damage taken. Hit Points reduced by 4: 10 (Rat bite) — 6 (armor). Total Hit Points: 25 of 40.

Attention! It is recommended that you turn off the detailed description of damage during fighting.

My leg was pierced by a terrible pain. Damn Rat, have you gone completely nuts? I give you healing and life and then you attack me for it? 4 Hit Points for a bite... Blast! It could bite me to death at this rate! Forgetting my pick, I kicked the Rat with full force. Its Hit Points did not fall by much, but the Rat bounded away from me, giving me the chance to catch my breath. I grabbed the pick with both hands and prepared for the next attack. So you want war? I'll give you war!

As a Hunter I levelled up mainly by killing mobs, so I didn't panic now and I had a clear idea of what to do with the Rat. I may not have a bow, but I do have experience, which is not so easily lost! The Rat quickly recovered from my kick and instead of biting my leg again, jumped, aiming straight for the throat. This is more or less what I expected of it. I swung the pick, caught it in mid-jump and made it fly off again. Critical hit! The Rat's body flickered and it was already a weightless rodent-shaped cloud that I sent flying; it quickly dissipated. Only my loot hit the ground in place of the Rat.

Experience gained: +4 Experience, points remaining until next level: 94

Skill increase:

+20% to Strength. Total: 40%

+5% to Agility. Total: 5%

+10% to Stamina. Total: 20%

That's some bonus! So many things levelling up at once and, more importantly, you get 4 Experience for one Rat. This way, if I kill at least 5 Rats and get through 5-6 Copper Veins a day, I will get around 25 Experience every day, which would mean that it would take me under a week to gain a level! The new level would bring new stat points and new stat points equals a new level. My life has a goal! But I must figure out why the Rat actually attacked me. Why did it dislike my healing so much? Does it generate aggro with mobs? I have to get someone to explain this to me.

Picking up the items left behind by the Rat (the Rat pelt, meat and tail) I went to have a rest. Around three hours remained until the end of the working day, in which I had to finish off the third vein and, as soon as my Health recovered, 'heal' another Rat.

In the remaining time, I managed to finish off the third vein (+5 pieces of ore, +1 Experience, +10% Strength, +5% Stamina, +50% Mining) and also complete a fourth one (+5 pieces of ore, +1 Experience, +10% Strength, +5% Stamina, +1 Mining Skill), thus increasing my Mining Profession skill to 3. Having once again felt the same euphoria upon levelling up, I made a firm decision to increase at least one stat as fast as possible, to see what kind of pleasure such an increase would bring.

As for Rats, I only managed to kill one more. I sung the song twice, thus 'healing' the next Rat, and dispatched it fairly quickly, letting it get close to me only once (+4 Experience, +20% Intellect, +20% Strength, +5% Agility, +10% Stamina). Although, truth be told, the Rat used that one chance to the full, biting me for 10 Hit Points. I did not see any more Rats — perhaps they had all gone into hiding. That was fine; for my first day I'd done more than enough.

The horn sounded, announcing the end of work for the day. Grabbing the heavy bag, I headed towards the exit. I joined the queue to Rine, so I could hand in my quota and sell the surplus, of which I gathered a fair amount. I also had to figure out what to do with the Rat tails. I waited my turn and poured out everything I had gathered during the day onto the table, noting Rine's surprise with pleasure.

"Not bad work, for the first day," mumbled Rine, still surprised. "Right, 10 pieces of ore taken off as the quota. Don't forget that it will be 30 pieces tomorrow. Now, let's have a look at the rest. As I said before, I am prepared to buy the surplus ore at 10 coppers a piece; you have 12 pieces, which comes to: 2 silver and 20 copper coins. Here you go," Rine put the money on the table.

Ah, yes. I forgot to explain about the ratio between the Copper, Silver and Gold coins. In Barliona it was 1:50, that is, 50 Copper coins made up 1 Silver, and 50 Silver made up 1 Gold (which could also be made up from some large amount of Copper, but who would change Copper for Gold?).

"As far as your Rat loot is concerned, I would give 1 copper coin for the meat and 3 for the skins, agreed?"

"That's not much," I said, surprising myself, because I never bargained before, not even at the market: I always paid the price that was asked.

"Well, only because you're new around here, and because I see you also have Rat tails  - we'll get around to them soon enough - I am ready to take both Rat pelts off you for 5 coins each and give you 2 for the meat. Does that suit you?"

Suddenly I saw a message:

A new profession has been unlocked: Trade. The higher the level in Trade, the better the price offered when selling and buying. There is some probability that traders will offer you non-standard goods.