The Secret of the Dark Forest ( (The Way of the Shaman: Book #3) (8 page)

After accepting the flower generated by the system as the clan symbol, I went around the Profession Trainers.

First I dropped by the Mining and the Cartography trainers, where I increased the Hardiness and Scroll Scribe specializations to 10%. The next 5% would come at level 150 of the profession, so it was still some way off. I didn't even bother visiting the Cooking and Repair trainers – with my level in these professions there wasn't much for me to do there. Now only Jewelcraft remained.

"Welcome, how can I help you at such a late hour?" A colorful gnome greeted me elaborately. Sporting a red velvet dressing gown, tied with a patterned belt, the Jeweler constantly fiddled with his beard as if he had no other purpose for his hands.

"I've come to be trained," was my simple reply. I had a brief chance to look through the scrolls sent by Evolett and not one of them was for someone with a profession level lower than a 100. I was still too much of a beginner for them with my 42 levels.

"Please touch the book," said the trainer, clearly losing interest. It was a strange that only Jewelers required you to touch the skill book; other trainers that I had known managed without it. Not wishing to disappoint the gnome I put my hands on the book, where some incomprehensible symbols immediately appeared and came together to form a text.

The gnome quickly glanced at the emerging lines, turned around, took a step away and then froze. Extremely slowly he turned his head again toward the book, took another slow step back and stared intently at the text. An eternity seemed to go by (no more than a minute in actual fact) before the trainer recovered from the shock. What a strange Intellect Imitator this NPC has – it seems altogether too involved in playing out the role.

"The Cursed Artificer that has turned into the Blessed Artificer; the author of the Cursed Chess Pieces and the Orc Warriors from the Karmadont Chess Set; the creator of exact copies of the Dwarf Warriors from the Karmadont Chess set," the trainer breathed out loudly, tore his gaze away from the book and looked at me. "It's been a while since I've had such an interesting student," he paused and then said, chuckling, "with just 42 levels in the profession. Did you level up in your skill only by creating Rare and Unique items?"

"No, I ..."

"It doesn't matter," the Jeweler interrupted me "you've come to learn and I will teach you. What would you like to know?"

"I need all the recipes for my level and want to offer you this one." I opened my Jewelcraft recipe book, created a scroll with the Stone Rose recipe and handed it to the gnome. "I would also like to learn how to sift Ore so I can get precious stones from it. I think that's it."

The gnome gave me a businesslike glance, chuckled, took out a piece of granite from under the counter, as if it was just waiting for him there, closed his eyes and in just a few seconds was holding my Rose in his hands.

"Mahan's Stone Rose ...' I can offer 50000 gold for the recipe right now or you can get 60–70 for it if you put it up for auction. What would you prefer?"

"Send it to the Auction House. I'm in no rush to get the money, so no point losing out on the extra 10000."

"All right." The scroll and the Rose created by the trainer disappeared and I acquired yet another agreement, this time about the sale of the recipe scroll at the Auction House. "I have no scrolls for someone of your skill level – you should gain at least 10 more levels and come back then. As for the sifting, this isn't that hard to teach. It would be more difficult to actually get any stones out of Ore. You may have a decent drop chance for beginner level precious stones and rare minerals, but getting a Sapphire would be near impossible. The percentage chance is just too low. But if you still want it, it'll cost you 10000 gold."

Your character has acquired a new ability: Ore sifting (requirement: knowledge of the Jewelcraft profession). There is some chance of getting a Precious Stone from the sifted Ore. During the sifting the Ore disappears. The chance of getting a precious stone depends on the Ore level and the level of Jewelcraft profession. Crafting stat. bonus: when sifting Ore you have an additional (Crafting/5) percentage chance of discovering a Precious Stone, corresponding to the Ore level.

Damn! Double damn, even! And here I was thinking that Crafting would grant an impressive bonus in this case as well, but it only increased the drop chance by a minute percentage ... Only one out of a hundred siftings might end in success – or might not, should the dice decide to roll the other way. So it looked like I would have to buy the stones for making the Dwarf Warriors after all. Speaking of which … !

"Teacher, I have one more question. I did create the Orc Warriors, as you correctly noted, but when I began to make the Dwarf Warriors I came out with just copies – full and exact copies, but still only copies. Why do you think that might be?"

"What did you make the dwarves out of?"

"Out of Lapis Lazuli, as specified in the description."

"No, where did you get it? Did you mine it or buy it?"

"It was a gift."

"So there is your answer," smiled the gnome. "The Karmadont Set can't be made out of bought stones. The person recreating it must gather each stone himself. Either from a vein or from sifting or, as I see in your case, from smelting ingots. You do have Crafting, after all. By the way, as soon as you get a second Gem Cutter, you will be able to craft items that deliver up to +180 bonus to the stats. That's the limitation until you reach a third Gem Cutter. Anything else?"

"Thank you, I've found out all that I need to know," I heartily thanked the trainer. I now understood why I ended up with just copies of the dwarves. I had to gather the Lapis myself.

Anastaria's call caught me as I was about to reach the square, where I had headed straight after leaving the Jeweler.

"I'm in the square. Come over."

The solitary figure of the girl could be seen from afar under the lamp-posts. An occasional player running through the square might almost whistle as they spotted her, but they didn't dare to stop: Anastaria was known to be a cold and discerning beauty. Incredibly, she combined the qualities that most people all too often lack: brains, beauty and awareness of her abilities. This made her an incredibly dangerous opponent to anyone who might dare challenge her. As far as I knew, there were even special clans named 'We love Anastaria' and 'Anastarians', who were ready to shred anyone on her account.

"Looks like you were in no hurry," smiled the girl as soon as I entered the square "has being late for a date with a beautiful girl, as you put it, become the norm for modern men?"

"It's one thing if it's a date," I parried, "but there is zero chance of our meeting to arrange for my 'robbery' of Phoenix passing for a date. And anyway, you have so many admirers that being one of the multitude holds little interest for me."

"One of." Anastaria smiled once again. "I agree, there's little interest for a Dragon to be 'one of' anything."

"Look who's talking, oh 'Gorgeous one', vanquisher of sirens." I returned Anastaria's smile, noting with some pleasure that the girl's eyes momentarily widened. "Oh yes! I completely forgot! When was your birthday? Or is it still to come? I've completely lost track."

"It's already been and gone – last week, in fact. Why?" Anastaria stopped, turned around and stared at me. "Did you decide to give me a present? Like those Cursed Chess Pieces?"

"Why do you think so ill of me? You're ready to drag up those Cursed Chess pieces at the drop of a hat. That's not playing nice." I smiled and took the copy of the Dwarf Warriors out of my sack. "I realize I'm late with this, but it comes from the heart."

Anastaria was quite a sight. As soon as I took out the figurines, her face became a frozen mask and only the movement of her brown eyes indicated that she was still here. I decided not to reveal their properties, dragging out the moment of the handover. Stacey was doing her very best to hide her desire to snatch them out of my hands and have a closer look. She could see that these were dwarves well enough.

"Here you go!" I handed over the chess pieces to the girl and just had enough time to pull back my hand – so swift was the lady paladin's move to get them. Did these figurines really mean that much to her?

"COPIES?!" The girl's outraged voice seemed to shake the entire city. "You just palmed me off with copies?! You dared to think you'd be let off with copies?! And you call this a birthday present?!"

"What do you mean 'palm off'? I've made you a present and now you're screaming at me." I was rather enjoying watching the girl fly into a rage. When she was angry, she became so sweet that it was too easy to forget that one of the most dangerous players in Barliona was standing in front of me. "And you can quit play acting already. You may make a fine actress, but you're overdoing it a tad. You've been building an 'iron lady' reputation for yourself for too long to make the current hysterics all that believable."

"That's not playing nice!" It was like Anastaria was suddenly replaced. In the blink of an eye she regained a calm and slightly ironic demeanor. "You're not letting a girl savor the limelight! What if acting was my life's dream and you simply don't get my moments of inspiration? Do you know why you ended up with copies? I doubt this was what you were aiming for when you were making them."

"Yes, I figured it out."

"Mahan, we could make one hell of a team. Your inexplicable luck, my resources and analysts – it would a win-win for everyone. Look at how you grew in Beatwick – before the battle you were level 14 and now you’ve already reached 67. Players like this are highly valued in Phoenix. And what are the 'Seathistles'? Where did they come from? And where did you dig up such a clan, by the way?

"I didn't dig it up, I set it up. For now I'm its only member." I jokingly pushed out my chest, showing off the great hero that was standing there for all to see. "You said that you were interested in the position of a deputy in my clan. So, that position is now open. I'm inviting you to join me. But only after I get the four items off Phoenix. Come over – I've got cookies."

Anastaria's ringing laugh echoed through Anhurs.

"You are the first to try to poach me," chuckled the girl, "so you'd better tell me what it is you have that would make me consider your offer."

"That's easy. You already know about the cookies, and they are far from trivial. Now you know about the copies of the dwarves too. What else can I offer you ...? I don't even know." I paused as if thinking. "Ah! This too! I've found the Dragons! But I won't be telling where they can be found to just anyone. I even got to know one of them. Well, you saw all that … " On the one hand, if I was doing things by the book, I should have completely denied my connection with the Dragons – 'you were all just seeing things' – but on the other hand there were just too many witnesses to our little chat near Beatwick. "I think that's it. So give it a think – I don't offer cookies to just anyone!"

Anastaria walked next to me in silence for some time, probably gathering her thoughts. Of course I understood that inviting such a player into my clan looked stupid … at the very least. It's not like she would ever leave Phoenix – she didn't become the head of the clan to swap all that for Seathistles. But one can dream for a bit ...

"It's not enough," finally came the girl's voice, "just a tiny bit more and you'd be there. What else do you have that would tempt me to leave Phoenix and become a Seathistle?"

"That's it!" I said in surprise. "Is everything that I've offered you so far insufficient? You truly are insatiable!"

"You have a think and perhaps I'll go for it," Stacey gave me a serious look. "We're here. If you offer me something else once we leave the Thricinians it's quite possible that I would agree. Think, Shaman!"

Is she hinting at the Karmadont Chess Set? On the one hand only an idiot wouldn't realize by now that I'm the one that made it. On the other hand, no-one has any proof. No, for now I wouldn't be showing the Orc Warriors off to anyone. I have a different solution.

Despite the late hour, the representatives of the Thricinian faction were still open for business. And really, it's not like NPCs had much else to do.

"How can we be of service, Anastaria?" a strange creature addressed the paladin. It had blue skin, two small horns, hooves and a tail – the Thricinian race was unknown to the wider public. At one point I spent a considerable amount of time trying to find out who they are. I discovered that they are called Danrei. Apart from that, who they are and what their history was remains unknown.

"I would like to buy four items of the highest quality I can access, which would suit this man." She nodded in my direction. "We need Shaman items. Please show us what you have. Phoenix will foot the bill."

"Please follow me.” The Danrei addressed me and then turned back to the girl, "Anastaria, please wait here. Would you have some supper while you're waiting for your guest?"

What on earth did she do to earn such special treatment? We entered a small room and the Danrei asked me, "What are you interested in?"

"I need four items. Can you tell me if there is a set among the items of the level that has been made available to me? For a Shaman." I added, just in case.

"Yes, there is. Please wait here." The Danrei pointed me to a sofa in the room that we just entered. "The set will be brought out in a moment."