Survival Quest (The Way of the Shaman: Book #1) (22 page)

The Rat continued to throw itself at Eric, biting him again and again. It was surprising that the dwarf didn't fall down: when such a mass jumps on you, it takes some skill to stay on your feet. Eric stood there, teeth clenched, and hit the Rat, whose life bar was falling slowly but surely.

The Rat's sides were flanked by Clutzer, Karachun and Leite, who hacked at the Rat like it was a vein: taking an aim, hitting and looking at the result.

"Die already!" - Eric screamed wildly, jumped and made a devastating blow to the head. He probably scored a crit, because the Rat fell on its front paws and remained motionless for some moments. It's concussed, a guess hit me, and since Eric's health was at full, I decided to see how I would fare as a fighter. I selected the Rat to summon a Lightning Spirit on it and shuddered. Oh hell: level 14, 1000 Hit Points in total of which around 400 still remained!

Damage inflicted. 8: 36 (Lightning Spirit Damage)/2(level of opponent /Character level) -10 (Inner resistance to Spirits).

Dammit! What about all those Strength rings? Why did I ever take off all my gem rings? At least I didn't take the neck-chain off. 'Damn, just hope my mana will last,' I thought angrily, again selecting Eric and summoning another Healing Spirit. The Rat had recovered and started to chew on our tank once again.

When only 20% of the Rat's Hit Points remained, it suddenly began to increase in size, its eyes started to become bloodshot and its fur took on a bloody tinge.

"Mahan, give me all you've got, it's going berserk!" Eric's shout filled me with dismay.

Grey-furred damnation! When berserking, mobs inflict 100% more damage, pain and general unpleasantness. If it scores a critical hit, Eric's had it! And I only have enough mana for 4 more Healing Spirit summonings.

"Hit it with all you've got! Let's do this!" I shouted and started to summon the Healing Spirits.

A Rat attack hit = minus 30% to Hit Points, a Healing Spirit on Eric = plus 10% Hit points. A Rat attack hit = minus 30% to Hit Points, a Healing Spirit on Eric! Plus 10% to Hit points...

Skill increase:

+1 to Charisma. Total: 5

The Rat suddenly flickered and disappeared. Yes! We downed it! It took more than a minute to bring down a Rat. Between the five of us! Trying to fight it alone is just pointless. It'd eat you in the blink of an eye. I looked at Eric and saw that he was surrounded by a whirlwind of light. That's right - he's reached level 13! That makes sense, we weren't attacking the Rat as a group and the prisoner it was chasing probably never touched it after seeing all its Hit Points, so all the experience for the Rat went to Eric alone.

I'll be damned... during the fight my Hit Points went down to just 20! I hardly even noticed! I urgently needed to find a Shaman mentor, or I'll bite it while I'm busy healing others. After getting some water, which was thankfully nearby, I restored my life and mana levels, and then had a look what the Rat left behind. No-one other than Eric was able to pick up the loot, but we could look all we wanted. There wasn't much to look at, though. Rat Skin, 3 pieces of Rat Meat. That's it. Nothing special, really; so much for getting my hopes up that our tank would get something useful. And he was our tank, because I was sure that after a demo of the Rats the number of people wishing to mine Malachite alone would plummet dramatically.

The majority of the prisoners started to disperse. There were still about two hours left until the end of the day, but no-one else wanted to risk going to the mine. That Rat really did leave an impression on everyone.

"I'm thinking that we should form a group," said Eric, when there was no-one else around. "I played Barliona before going to prison. I was a tank then and this time round too I fell back into my old habit and started to level up my Warrior as a tank as soon as freedom was on the cards. If each Rat has one thousand Hit Points and they take off fifty with each hit, you won't get far without a healer here. Mahan will heal and you three do the killing. We'll choose a section, kill the Rat, smash the vein together, get the Malachite and move on. This way we'll complete the quest. I don't see any other way."

"You got it, shorty," agreed Clutzer "Them's some crazy Rats, can eat ya like nuthin', groddy buggers. So I'm in with the group thing."

"Agreed," nodded Leite, "but let's decide now how we'll share the Malachite we mine. It won't be good if someone splits as soon as he gets the 20 pieces. I can do without any ‘happy surprises’."

"If you make a group you won't be able to quit it just like that, and the amount of Malachite for the quest would still be based on all of us," replied Karachun. "I'm fine with just one of us lugging this Malachite around, as long as we get the right amount of it. I say we group up too. That Ratling was just too big. If one of these spawns every hour, we'll never get the assignment done by ourselves."

"What about you, Mahan?" Eric looked at me, "Do you agree? This won't work without your healing. If you're in, then form the group: you were the fastest to react to the Rat and knew what to do, so you'll be the raid-leader. I've got one more question for you now: where did you get such a short name, like NPCs have - just five letters? We're all walking around with half-sentence tongue twisters and have to shorten them to usable nicknames, but when I first saw you I thought you were an administration representative - your name is that different from the rest."

"I agree that we should form a group and will send you an invite in a minute." I said, "I have an immediate proposal - we've downed the Rat and there's still enough of the day left before dark. There's five of us. I propose we take a walk to the mining section and smash at least one vein. We should start today. As for the name - before I was put into the capsule the operators gave me the chance to choose my own name rather than use a random one. That's why my nick looks like that."

I selected Eric, Clutzer, Leite and Karachun in turn and sent them each a group invite.

You have created a group.

4 people have joined the group.

Attention! Changes to the 'Bloody Malachite' quest. The amount of Malachite to be obtained has changed. New amount: 100.

Loot distribution: Each man for himself. The type of loot distribution cannot be changed in this location.

Well, well. The time had now come, I thought, to allocate the remaining 27 free stat points. Of course it would be nice to save them until I leave the mine, but if a Rat eats me, they'll be of no use anyway. I put on my Intellect rings again and began to increase my stats.

Let's think. For starters, I need to put about 7 points into Stamina, so I could summon a couple more Spirits. Damn, with this limitation I'll have to allocate my stats in a way that's far from optimal. Total: Base Stamina of 17, with the items going up to 26, thus at level seven this would be enough for 30 or so spells. 'At this rate I'll be a tougher tank than Eric,' I smiled to myself. Right, next - Strength. We'll have to be quick about smashing the veins, so 10 points to Strength would be just right. 10 points remaining. Intellect or Agility? I only need Agility for professions and it's of no use to me right now. So, it's Intellect. Although, stop. Why don't I try to put a couple of points in Charisma? Since I'm a RL - a raid leader - it could be useful.

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

I see. Same as Crafting. A pity, would have been good to increase my level of influence over others. I'll have to level up in it as the circumstances permit. Putting the 10 remaining points into Intellect and increasing it to 18 at the base and 82 with items, I opened up the group interface and examined the stats of the rest of the group.

Eric. Warrior. Level 13. Stamina 40, Agility 15, Strength 30, Rage 8. Yes, I was wrong, the tank overshot me in Hit Points by quite a lot. But that was good: the thicker his hide the easier it'll be.

Clutzer. Rogue. Level 12. Stamina 25, Agility 15, Strength 40, Rage 6. I guessed the class right with our slang connoisseur. I was also glad to see that he had enough Stamina: a smaller Energy loss meant more time for mining the vein.

Leite. Warrior. Level 12. Stamina 25, Agility 10, Strength 45, Rage 7. This also made sense. In a mine you didn't need Stamina that much, especially if you're a Warrior, so the emphasis was made on Strength, to mine the ore quicker.

Karachun. Warrior. Level 12. Stamina 25, Agility 10, Strength 45, Rage 7. Leite’s clone, by the looks of it.

If they all have level 12 in Mining, they shouldn't spend more than four hours on a Large Copper Vein, even if they go at it alone. And if all of us start smashing a vein - it should be finished in an hour at the most; this could mean about 10 veins a day. To sum up: it should take us 10 days to complete the quest. If not for the Rats it would have been easy enough. But the Rats...

Looking at the others I saw Eric staring into empty space and mumbling something under his breath. That's right, he was also checking his interface. It's good to play with someone who knows what they're doing. The rest were walking around nearby. Fighters - can't expect too much of them. They don't need to clog their head up with extra information, like who has how many Hit Points left. That's what the tank and the healer are there for - all they have to do is stand aside and swing their picks.

In a couple of minutes we were all ready to head for the mining section. A picturesque view appeared before us: an enormous plateau where in places plies of stone - Large Copper Veins - rose above the ground. It was very quiet, only the faint rustling of the wind and occasional squeaking of Rats could be heard above the section. The visibility was quite good, so we could see how the rather plump Rats were scampering around here and there. The area that we entered didn't have a Rat any more, but it did have a vein, which we surrounded and began to smash. The sound of our picks echoed through the mine. For a moment we stopped and looked at the Rats - the loud noise could have made them nervous and inquisitive where these five potential meals came from. The Rats didn't look startled and continued to scurry around their zones. Great - around forty minutes was left until the one we killed respawned and we continued working on the vein. Our aim was Malachite.

After a while an agitated squeak told us that the Rat had respawned and that it wasn't happy. By then the vein's Durability fell to 20%, which meant that it really did take us an hour to smash it. Great!

"Eric, grab it! Fighters don't attack without my command," I shouted an order, as if it was an old habit.

“We fight the Rat like the last time: Eric hits it on the face, the fighters stand on the sides and practice their Mining skill on it and I stand back and do the healing." Maybe I shouldn't have declined the Healing stat. You just stand there without doing a thing, hitting your Tambourine and singing songs, while the rest are doing all the work. On the one hand the role of the healer is well-respected, and, in view of the sensory filters being turned off, could even present a way of avoiding extra painful damage. On the other hand, this really isn't my thing. I just don't like being idle. I healed Eric once again, restoring all Hit Points, selected the Rat and summoned a Lightning Spirit on it. Let's see what happens this time, when I'm levelled up and with all my rings on.

Damage inflicted. 113: 246 (Lightning Spirit Damage) /2 (Opponent Level /Character Level).

WHAT?!

Repeating the kamlanie for summoning the Lightning Spirit, I once again saw:

Damage inflicted. 113: 246 (Lightning Spirit Damage) /2 (Opponent Level /Character Level).

Experience gained: +80 Experience, points remaining until next level: 396

Skill increase:

+1% to Intellect. Total: 43%.

Achievement earned!

Bane of the Animal World level 1 (10 animal kills until next level).

Achievement reward: damage dealt to Animals is increased by 1%.

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

Silence fell on the mining plot. I looked at the remains of the Rat, and the others looked at me, without saying a word. So it turns out that with the rings I don't just become a cheater, I go into godmode: ten Lightning Spirit summonings and the Rat's a toast. A couple of levels more and it'd take only 4 or 5 summonings.

"Mahan, is there something you want to tell us?" Leite broke the surrounding silence.

I was quiet for a moment and then said, "It's the rings. I'm a Jeweler and can make rings and neck chains for myself; with a bonus for any stat. You want to hear the rest or can you guess?"

"How much do you want for a ring?" Eric asked straight away. "I understand that you don't give them away for free but you do sell them, right? I’ve got to have a bonus like that."

"At my mine I sold them for 15 gold. I think that would be a reasonable price here too."

"Have a heart! Aren't we all working in the same group at the same job? Can you make it at least 5 gold a piece?"

"All right, let's make it five, I can live with that. My aim is to get enough Malachite, not to turn this place into an auction house."