The Kartoss Gambit (The Way of the Shaman: Book #2) (35 page)

Cursed Dog. Description: "Hatred and pain turned the gentle house pet into an embodiment of horror. Fear finished off the job and now the Dog hates everything that lives, everything which still contains a speck of kindness. 350 dark magic damage inflicted on all 'light' beings in the radius of ten meters once every five seconds.

Attention! This item cannot be repeated. There is no recipe.

You created a unique item. Your reputation with all previously encountered factions has decreased by 100. Your reputation with Kartoss has increased by 100.

You have received the title 'The Cursed Artificer, Level II': the strength of negative effects has increased by 10%.

To hell with all this! I quickly opened the reputations table and saw that my standing with the Malabar Emperor had returned to zero. If not for the daily increase, the reputation with the Shaman Council would have even gone into the negative. Why in the hells did I create THIS THING?

I took out my portable anvil, put the statuette on it and, taking a good swing with the hammer, destroyed my creation. Another characteristic of the creator — no-one besides myself was able to damage the item, let alone destroy it. Hanging on to such a 'wonder' was out of the question. Objects like these had to be destroyed right way, where possible. I had no desire whatsoever to become the second Dark Lord.

You have destroyed a Cursed Object. Your reputation with all encountered factions has increased by 100. Your reputation with Kartoss has fallen by 100.

Oof! I breathed a sigh of relief. Then I double-checked that my reputation with the Emperor had also been restored, just in case, and started to think.

So. In some incomprehensible way I created something completely ghastly. Something that I had no intention at all of creating. After destroying it I recouped my losses and even made some gains — leveled up in Crafting and Jewelcrafting, but the inability to control what I was making was very worrying. I entered the design mode and called up the image of Tiny Tim. Now, after it had already been created, this happened almost instantly. A normal, gentle fluffy dog. Where was my mistake? I didn't get it. I had to try once again, but this time I would be creating a Rose. Exiting the design mode and taking out another piece of Marble, I began to create a Rose. With a recipe it was quick: One-two and done. What did we have?

Cursed Rose. Description: hatred and anger created this flower...

After restoring my reputation via the same method, I sat on the bed. At least with using a known recipe I didn't gain another rank in 'Cursed Artificer'. Although my Jewelcrafting didn't go up either, but that didn't matter. I needed to understand what happened to me. Why was I only able to make cursed things? Was this because of my title? There was only a small chance of it coming into play during item creation, it wasn't a simple process, however. But now I'm churning out Cursed Items one after the other. What the heck? But, what about…

I took out the Malachite I got in Dolma and began to create for the third time. Something told me that the issue wasn't with me, but with the material I was using to make things. Right, what should I make — a Rose or Tiny Tim? No point wasting materials, the dog it is. Either way I'll get to the bottom of this.

The Happy Hound. Description: love and friendship surround this Wolfhound...

Recipe created: Wolfhound Statuette.

The statuette did not have any positive stat bonuses, but I didn't care. The main thing was that I could still create normal items. Gradually I began to understand the principle behind the creation of Cursed Objects. I shook out the contents of my bag on the bed and started to go through all the rings I created while I was in Beatwick. This ring is from the Copper I mined in Pryke. A normal ring with positive stat bonuses. But this Bronze ring had some of the local Tin in it. Aside from positive stats it had another interesting feature: -10% to Experience gain. Great. I looked through all the rings and set aside forty two rings which reduced the gain rate of Experience, Stamina, Energy and other stats. Even their description was appropriate: 'Wrathful Ring of something or other'. So it looks like I couldn't make anything from these materials, since there was always a chance of such 'surprises'. I looked again at the shattered marble remains of the destroyed objects. Phew! So, things weren't all that bad.

I took out another piece of Marble and made use of the 'Essence of Things' ability. I wanted to see what this piece of Marble wanted to be. At first there was silence, which many stones had when they didn't want to be anything other than a stone, but then I was engulfed by a wave of hatred, disgust and revulsion. And all of this came from an ordinary piece of Marble. So it looked like this piece of stone wanted to be a Cursed Object — it mattered little the actual shape it took. But why?

After coming to a decision, I opened the Spirit summoning mode, cleared one slot and started to summon Spirits. Right now I needed a Spirit which would allow me to contact Kornik. He was the only one who could explain to me what to do with all this.

I waved away messages telling me I had access to various types of Spirits and stubbornly summoned one Spirit after another. No, not that one. It's a different one I need. It grew dark outside, but I continued to summon, looking for the Spirit I was after. Am I a Shaman or what?

Do you wish to add the Spirit of Air Communication to the free slot?

Finally! I almost despaired and wanted to stop the summons, but my inborn sticktoitiveness would not allow me to quit this hopeless business.

Attention! The summoning of the Air Communication Spirit cannot be interrupted. Because this type of Spirit is beyond your rank, each minute your Hit Points will be reduced by 5%.

+2 to Spirituality. Total: 3.

That 5% wasn't much of a worry. I cannot die in any case, even if I will be summoning Kornik for eternity. So here we go: I have to find out what's going on here.

Kamlanie continued for exactly a minute, up until the point the first 5% of Life dropped into oblivion. The pain was so great that I gave an involuntary shout, interrupting the sending of the Spirit. Hm. Getting in touch with Kornik was going to be no simple matter. Not at all how I imagined it. After catching my breath and restoring my Hit Points, I returned to my exercise in masochism.

From my sixth attempt I was able to fully concentrate and ignore jolts of pain, as well as register the percentage increase in my Endurance. Five minutes, ten, twenty had gone by, but Kornik remained out of reach. Did he fly off to the Dragons again?

"WHO?" a desperate scream of pain, anger and suffering sounded in my head. Contact!

"Teacher, this is Mahan. I have a question..."

"RUN, YOU FOOL! RUN! N-N-O-O-O!" Kornik's choking scream struck me like a bolt from the blue.

"Teacher?!"

"Greetings, Mahan. I really have heard so much about you," a suave male voice barged into my conversation with the Teacher. "Let me introduce myself, my name is Geranika. Right now Kornik is my guest, so he's not really free to speak. And I will do my best to make sure he is unable to do this in the upcoming eternity."

"Kornik is with you?" I asked, stunned, continuing to concentrate on the summoning, as another pang of pain hit me.

"Of course he is. I always finish what I start. Remember this. Mmmm. I sense pain. What a pleasant feeling. Suffering, hatred, fear... Soon we shall meet and I will show you all the beauty of Kartoss. But right now you deserve to be punished. No-one should dare to break into my fortress in such a stupid manner. Good bye Mahan. I think you will understand that it is better to join up with me — after you feel this slight discomfort."

Geranika said something and I was surrounded by another wave of pain. For crying out loud! My Endurance had already reached level 132 and I was supposed to be feeling 26% less pain, but what I was going through now was quite unimaginable! I immediately remembered the 'Little Turtle' chewing me. This pain was on par with that and for some reason my eyes were really burning too! At last I mercifully sank into darkness as I lost consciousness.

"Mahan, wake up," Elizabeth's voice was like a ray of light in endless pitch-black. I didn't feel the pain anymore, so I lifted myself on my elbows and looked around. I don't get it... Why are my landlady's words the only ray of light? Why am I surrounded by darkness? Although no, it wasn't total darkness — symbols for the buffs and debuffs didn't go anywhere, shining brightly in their usual place. Right, I don't think I've had this particular debuff before:

Blindness. Debuff duration: 3 days.

Three days in darkness? Great. Could this debuff be taken off somehow?

"Mahan, your eyes!" I heard Elizabeth's surprised voice.

"What about them?"

"You don't have any!" my landlady was trying hard not to let her voice slide into screaming, but there were notes of panic breaking through.

I felt the empty eye sockets with my hands. Crazy stuff! There's no removing a debuff like that. I'll have to spend the entire three days in darkness.

"Don't worry. I'll be back to normal in three days' time. Can you tell me what happened?"

"We were getting ready for bed and then heard your scream. It was so full of pain and agony that we ran straight to you. Then the scream stopped, as if you were smothered by it. I entered the house and saw you on the floor. I called you and you woke up... Ah! You face is all covered in blood..."

I just about managed to calm my landlady down, wash my face and go to bed. Three days in darkness is just too much. I was hoping to spend them productively, but now it looks like I'll be stuck in the room the entire time. Damn! If I ever catch Geranika, I'll give him a piece of my mind. With that thought I drifted off.

The next morning I could think clearly again and tried to analyse recent events. Kornik was Geranika's prisoner. My teacher was out of the picture. A pity, he was one funky goblin, despite all his foibles. Geranika knows about me and promised that we will meet again. I'm really not liking this. I'm not a great fan of the idea of meeting up with a mentally unstable NPC, who could resort to using force at any moment. Why on earth has he turned up? It's not like I don't have enough problems of my own to be thinking about this creep as well. The other bad news was that the Spirit that I summoned took off a lot of Hit Points and that Geranika used it to blind me. Even if this was temporary, it was far from pleasant. To put it plainly, my attempt to find out why the resources gathered in Beatwick produce cursed items led to my being blinded. A total fail.

After spending half the day in bed, I realized that if I continued like this I would go mad. The darkness with burning pictograms and the hushed silence of the courtyard, where everyone was trying to be quiet so as not to disturb the sick, were not exactly cheering. I had to keep myself busy somehow or I would start to howl out of frustration. I tried to summon Spirits and contact Almis to tell him about Kornik, but that came to nothing. I simply couldn't see the panel with the Spirits. Could my eyes work in the design mode at least? Let's check it out.

Praise be to all the game developers — the design mode came with its own vision. That meant I had a way to keep myself busy. I grabbed a piece of something at random, really hoping it was either Malachite or Lapis Lazuli. As I recreated the object, I was glad to see it was Lapis. It was sent to me by Hellfire, so I could easily make something of it, without worrying I'd turn out another piece of evil junk. Only one question remained — what could I make? The Dwarves? Why not? Someone will have to make them anyhow. Might as well be me.

I decided to use Eric as the prototype. I could have used Hellfire too, especially since his image had already been created, but I didn't like this Phoenix clan member. And if I didn't like him, the probability that I would come out with something horrible was quite high. I needed the Dwarf Warriors.

Eric. The dwarf who didn't betray me in my hour of need, didn't fall for Phoenix's bribes, gathered everyone together and is stubbornly waiting for me to get to Anhurs. Honest, loyal and level-headed. A real dwarf. He popped up in the design mode of his own accord. Now I could modify him.

A sword, a shield, a helm... Argh. That's not it. The great Dwarf Warriors didn't look like that. Why didn't I ask Hellfire for their appearances and the descriptions of their feats? It just wasn't working with standard weapons. I needed help.

"Mahan, I brought you some food — you should eat," Elizabeth brought me back to the blackness outside by touching my shoulder. I quickly glanced at the debuff timer — it's been ten hours! Time sure ran fast in the design mode!

"Yes, thank you. Elizabeth, can I ask you something?"

"You can call me Beth, no need to be so formal. Do ask, of course."

I almost choked, getting a muffled laugh from my landlady. Eliz... Beth decided to switch to familiar terms... This could only mean one thing — the level of Attractiveness has reached the coveted eighty points. I better watch out or she'll start making them advances...

"Do you know the stories of the Dwarf Warriors from the Karmadont Chess Set?"