(World of Valdira 01) The Way of the Clan (10 page)

I put the package into my knapsack I got armed with a stick and started saying good-bye to the kind-hearted hostess.

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Thank you for your kindness and tenderness, Vlasilena! May your house be always prosperous!

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I’d like to wish you good luck on your way and let you meet good people only – Vlasilena answered in tune to me, then thought for a while and added – Do you still remember the story I told you yesterday evening? 

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Yes, I do – I made a dead-set.

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Well, I really know nothing more about it and I want to forget as soon as possible what I remember, but next day after the case Frol, nicknamed the Money-box, came to me – he’s running a shop nearby. So he came and started asking me if I had seen something or had heard something. He was trying to know why all my six oaklings had withered overnight. I retorted saying that I had been sleeping and I knew nothing and I was not knowledgeable about it, as for the oaklings, they were in the hand of God. So he left without having got what he wanted. If it bothers you so much, ask Frol, he can tell you something.

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Thank you, Vlasilena! Thanks a lot! – I bowed again and went to the gate.

I’ve got a foot in the door! Certainly it’s still not a quest with a good award, but there is something in it…

I was even happy that Gosha’s girlfriend is still fighting against foes defending the clan’s castle. Leave them struggling while I am hanging out around the area. Maybe, I’ll find out something useful…

Bang! A strike by the oak stick was perfectly targeted. A huge grey rat was thrown away and twisted like a whipping-top. The rat didn’t think about fighting at all, no way, it was hardly moving on its three legs, a disgusting creature was trying to reach a hole in the wall. If I hit it again and the rat will be done. I raised the stick to strike and when I was about to swing it, something whistled briskly and a stone landed on the rat. Exhaling an ear-piercing shriek, the rodent snuffed it… all the awarding points went to the gamer who landed the last hit. I turned around furiously and faced a fair-haired guy standing ten steps away from me. He was tossing another pebble in his hand. He was dressed like a beginner as well as me. But his clothes were still torn without any decoration. A piece of rope was tied around his waist.

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Hey! What are you doing?

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Sorry, I missed it, - a wide smile spread on his face lifting his hands in a helpless gesture – I was throwing at the barn wall but the stone hit the rat.

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Don’t say it! – roared I

What an ass-hole! Gamers call such creeps scavengers. They usually wait till a monster fighting against another gamer is exhausted and kill it by one hit to obtain all bonuses. Without spending either strength or life points. They aren’t punished for it as a rule cause they operate only in the areas where struggles between gamers are forbidden. Or they can boast quickness enough to escape from the penalty they deserve.

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Don’t touch my mobs, got it?

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Hey, take it easy, I told you – I just missed the mark. Don’t I know you? Yup, I’ve seen you pulling out stumps today! It was you, wasn’t it? Did you enjoy wasting time there…   

Without giving an answer, I bended to pick up the loot of the rat: a hide, a piece of raw meat and a long tail. The fair-haired scavenger got furious:

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I’ve killed it! That’s my loot!

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Oh, sorry, I missed it – I grinned angrily.

And wanted to add something else, but at that moment another rat ran out of the barn. I dashed at the wildly squeaking creature. I was holding the stick by both hands since a hit could be stronger that way. I tried to keep a distance from the agile beast. One brisk strike hit a half of the rat’s life off and threw it one step back not to allow it to touch my feet. Damn it! Nevertheless the rat wriggled out somehow and grazed me by its extremely sharp fangs; I immediately lost ten life points. Never mind, I’ll survive… I’ll have to stab it and…

Bang! Another peddle knocked the rat into the ground and it gasped its life out.

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Ouch… I missed again – the fair-haired smiled widely again trying to express a contrition grimace – How did it happen, I wonder…

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It happens – I assured him picking up three other items and turning to the gamer. – It happens…

Read his nickname… Dort Viderrr. Add to the list of enemies. The nickname holding over the guy’s head colored scarlet red. Done. If I meet him again, the system will warn me about the enemy’s emergence at once. The Sun will shine on my side and I’ll get rid of this Dort Viderrr… Such a black Jedi, what a surprise.

Although… why shall I put it away? I prefer hot meals, right off the stove so to say.

Looking around I made sure there was not a single soul, the barn was located on the outskirts of the Cradle right opposite Vlasilena’s house.

After our talk with Gosha I realized that day was at my complete disposal. Thus, I decided to postpone my visit to Frol the Money-box and ran through places I remembered to collect as many sidequests as I could. Thanks God they didn’t imply time limit.

Now I have to deliver two letters into two different corners of the Cradle, to visit a leather-dresser and to give him an order from one of the town-dwellers, to fill one feeble old lady’s barrel with water… stop, I’ve just completed that quest and got thirty points of experience and four coppers as an award. The lonely coppers were rolling on the bottom of my knapsack. The old lady tried to get rid of me just saying ‘thank you, honey’, but it didn’t work and I demanded the agreed award. I was not going to donate any more. That will do.

One of the quests was given by a local miller to decrease the population of rats living in his far-away shabby barn. To prove the completion of the quest I had to show the miller over a dozen of rats’ tails. I didn’t fancy going inside the barn as there were loads of rats. They would gobble me up without noticing. Thus I decided to wait for them outside – nearby the building. Rats would come out to inhale fresh air. So the best strategy for a single gamer is to divide et impera. The strategy was developed by me and approved by me as well. I was about to start implementing it when that home-bred bloody Dort Viderrr emerged… where he learnt to throw peddles, I wonder. He must have spent the whole morning on collecting peddles and practicing to throw them close-in.

I was developing another plan – a revenge plan. In that barn there was one good beam easy to climb on from a box put at the wall… rats couldn’t repeat that acrobatic stunt. The beam was connecting two opposite walls and the most important thing was that its end supported the wall exactly above the single door. During the previous quest I was sitting there for an hour while waiting for an appropriate moment to escape from tailed beasts that really hated me. I hope the designers haven’t fixed my simple trick… and I hope that the fair-haired ‘Darth Vader’ will be stupid and mean enough to take my bait.

Cutting eye at the gamer shifting from one foot to another behind my back I got a beaming smile in response. So what… I adjusted my backpack that had become a bit heavier, then slid through the open crack barn door and looked around fast. Eight fat rodents didn’t lose time and squeaking happily rushed towards me – what luck! A yummy food is coming into mouth! Without waiting for them blocking my exit I leaped to them close and fetched some sweeping blows on the rats’ backs straight off the reel. Damn it… I’m hitting too slowly. The lack of agility and skill of handling this type of weapon really harm me. One more hit… The rats didn’t get delighted with my cheeky behavior, they squalled furiously and dashed towards my ankles. I turned around to run like blazes towards the cherished box and finally managed to climb on it safe and sound – only one creep caught my bare heel. Minus eight life points… Jumping up I grabbed hold of the beam, then easily raised my body – thanks to upgraded strength – and cried like hell:

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Take that! Take that! One more! Face it! Level!

I was screaming out that non-sense while crawling along the beam towards the opposite wall. The enraged rats followed me raising their narrow muzzles to the ceiling and striving to reach my feet drooping from the split beam.

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One more is done! Take that, bastard! Wow! Sacks! Full sacks! What great loot!

The fair-haired gamer couldn’t ignore it and rushed inside into the happy hugs of the rat pack that won almost half of his life at once. The gamer was swearing while crayfishing waving his legs and hands. Without waiting for him to reach the door, I jumped from the beam softly to appear at the exit behind the dark jedi’s back, I slid outside without uttering a word. I shut the door by a strong kick and hurried to press it by my body not to let it open. The door started shaking furiously when Dort Viderrr knocked on it like the devil.

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Open it! Rosgard! Open it, son of bitch…

Then silence… breathless silence…

I was waiting till the rats that fixed hash the poor jedi calmed down and stepped away from the door – I was peering through the slit between the boards, then at the appropriate moment I opened the door and looked inside. The body was just one step far from the threshold. It was hard to call it a body, it was rather a clot of glimmering silver mist in the form of a human body dressed in a shirt and pants. Dort Viderrr must have found himself at the Entrance Gates again and had to run through the whole Cradle to come back here and take his stuff. So he would have nothing to take… If I decided to punish, I should punish to the utmost.

Controlling the rats I plunged my hands into the silver clot of mist and robbed the body fast ‘tearing off’ its bag and clothes. Then I closed the door and without examining the loot put it into my knapsack hastily. I hardly finished it when another rat jumped out of the hole in the wall. I did the rat down by three strikes, picked up the loot dropped and having estimated my life points decided to retreat.

Life: 21/110

Under the quarter. It’s too little. Especially keeping in mind the strict ban on dying.

Achievement!

You’ve got a first rank achievement – ‘Looter’!

You can see your achievements in your character’s settings.

Your award for the achievement: +0.1% to the critical hit chance.

Current critical hit chance: 1.2%

Another achievement. And another tiny bonus… One percent for a successful critical hit is given to each gamer from the very beginning on default. I got one tenth of the percentage from the agility point and the same amount from that achievement… not bad.

Making about thirty steps away from the barn, I stopped at the drain that I had noticed before; the water there was clean enough. First of all I took the clay bowl out of the sack, scooped some water, drank it to recover a few life points. But I was going to recover very slowly that way. So I decided to take out two pieces of bread and used them as intended. Very well! Now I can drink again and set off to fight against rats heroically. Until then let’s have a look what I’ve obtained from Dart Vader’s corpse. Surely I haven’t expected to find there a jedi’s lightsaber and I’ll be happy with any piece of cloth as I’m as poor as a church mouse. So what have I got here…

A set of beginner’s clothes.

A piece of rope.

A single piece of bread – that I scarfed down at once.

One more clay bowl.

A dozen of peddles that I threw far away in different directions. Although all those peddles were not simple stones – almost identical to match each other according to size and shape and rather heavy. The jedi did his best, say nothing! He must have crawled half the Cradle on his belly to collect such an armory.

Eight worn copper coins. That’s not bad!

I’ve become a proud owner of twelve coppers so far. Soon I’ll have a chance to be considered a village tycoon!

There was nothing else inside but for the sack itself that was actually worthless. I packed everything into my rucksack meticulously; stuffed the loot acquired from the killed rat, then got comfortable leaning my back against the trunk of a tree and started waiting for the story to continue.

The fair-haired emerged in five minutes – He was dressed in a diaper only. Like a limping goatling he skipped closer to me and screamed:

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I’ve lost half of my experience points, you god damned asshole!

‘Lucky you are, we’re still in the Cradle’, I thought. Outside the Cradle the killed gamer usually loses far more – minimum three quarters of the gained experience, sometimes even the whole level. I didn’t fancy wasting my time on explaining that. I scooped some water instead and increased my life points.

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I blackbooked you, got it? Pray to your gods, damned asshole! I’ll find you every day and I’ll kill you! Every damned day! And I asked my guys to ride you like hell! I won’t dare to leave the city! We’ll make such a hell for you here that you’ll delete your PC! We’ll bend you – you’ll never have a chance to unbend! Did you get it? Got it?!

You’re not the first, dude…

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Help me to pick up my stuff – the fair-haired suddenly dropped the subject. –Then we’ll hush up this problem. You’ll survive.

Yawning I looked at Dort Viderrr staring at me expectantly and realized that I wouldn’t be able to collect the needed amount of rat tails. That dude won’t let me in peace and quiet. I must escape now until he gets to know that his stuff has moved into my rucksack.

I stood up and walked away steering at a tiny church that could be seen straight I front.

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Where are you leaving for? Help me! Stop! Hey, now you’re definitely in trouble! Damned son of bitch! Just try to leave the Cradle! I’ll be waiting for you at the exit. Got it? I’ll be waiting for you!

At the Cradle exit? I won’t be so sure. Attacking other gamers is banned inside the city. It’s possible only outside…

If Gosha call me and announce that there is one more obligatory condition – not get on well with all other gamers, I’ll burst out guffawing. And then I’ll tell him to get lost.

First of all I delivered all the letters; it took me less than thirty minutes. Once I handed the last letter something that I had been waiting for a long time eventually happened:

Congratulations!

You’ve got a new level!

Your current level: 2

Points available for distributing: 5

Achievement!

You’ve got a first-rank achievement ‘Higher and higher!’

You can see your achievements in your character’s settings.

Your award for the achievement: +0.5% to the critical hit chance.

Current bonus level: +0.5%

The achievement bonus impressed me much but it didn’t make my day – plus half a percent would be almost insensible. But it’s just a first-rank achievement; let’s see what will happen once I achieve the next. First of all I closed the data page for beginners that had popped up in front of my eyes. That stage was clear for me. Then I entered my attributes and sighing distributed all five points with my heart broken. As a result I got the following:

  
Your character’s basic attributes:

Strength – 6

Intelligence – 1

Agility – 5

Stamina – 7

Wisdom – 1

I invested almost all points into agility. I was fine with my stamina so far. As for the strength I add just one point deliberately. I would be able to kill the same rats by two hits not by three as I used to do. It would save both my time and my health. Although due to the agility increase I had better chance to dodge, plus I managed to increase the critical hit chance a bit.

I might have decided wisely and distributed the points properly but still I had a feeling that something was wrong – hate that oddity of mine. I’m always dissatisfied by this or that and I always doubt everything.

Besides, it was time to think about what to become, to determine the future way of your character development. I knew one thing for sure – I was not going to become a ranger-archer. I was fed up with the late Crashshot. 

So, thinking about that important subject I wandered to the leather-dresser’s workshop.  A tight leather jacket caught my eye at once. It was hanging in plain view. Brown color, double row of polished copper buttons, a high collar and spacious pockets – it’s a dream come true not a mere jacket. But the price made me wince – fifteen silver coins. It must be one gold but for five coins.

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Welcome, sir… - a hefty man dressed in a leather apron over a grey shirt almost started his welcoming speech but glancing at my untrustworthy look suddenly changed his mood – What do you want, good man?

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Here is an order for you – I answered and after delving in my bosom handed the leather-dresser a sheet of paper carelessly – An honorable Chris asked me to…

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Yup, I know him – the leather-dresser interrupted me and threw a couple of coppers to me casually. – Take it for your service.

No doubt, I eagerly caught the coins. Two coppers…

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Thank you very much, sir – I said through my teeth with a forced smile – Can I help you somehow?

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Nope – said the leather-dresser sharply to finish our conversation.

Congratulations!

The quest ‘Deliver an order to the leather-dresser’ is completed!

Award: two copper coins and 40 experience points!

Well, at least I’ve got experience. As for the coins, they could have been more generous.

Leaving the leather-dresser’s workshop I stopped frozen to the spot striving to decide where to steer my bare feet. Definitely not to the rats – Dart Vader must be still there and I won’t have a chance to hunt there well. The quests finished so fast and I absolutely couldn’t imagine where to find new ones…

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Sirrah, hey, sirrah boy, come hither!

Turning around I saw an old man dressed in a robe standing on the opposite side of the street and intensely waving his hand at me. ‘Local’. I had never met him before.

Approaching him, I showed the well-known half-bow and looked at him with a questioning smile.

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Sirrah, ain’t I right that you’re a messenger? Well, that you’re sent wherever with letters and parcels? I want you to deliver one packet…

‘Hey, gramps, mind your word, otherwise, I won’t respect your great age…’

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Erm… - I hesitated.

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No? Oh, that’s a pity… I’ll have to deliver it on my own. I didn’t want to bother my old joints in vain but nothing doing… - muttering the old man closed his robe flaps, turned his back on me and trotted short towards the gate.

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Oh, sorry! – I woke from a stupor and screamed loudly. – You’re right, you’re right, sir! Yup, I am sent, I’m sent! I’m sent by everybody everywhere! And you can send me! Oh damn! I mean – yes, I’m a messenger!

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Well, good news! – the old man got delighted. – I saw you out from the window why not to know if you’re a messenger or not, I thought, you really look like… Wait… are you really a messenger? Ain’t you just making a fool of a miserable old man?

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You can ask the leather-dresser to prove. I’ve just handed him an order sheet from the honorable Chris. And before that I’ve delivered two more letters.  Don’t worry, sir… sorry, I don’t know your name, sir.

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My name is Polunie – answered the old man, he seemed to calm down and then was estimating my look by glaring at me. – Well, you don’t look like a hedge-born tramp. Your clothes are clean, you look neat and tidy… but why ain’t you wearing any shoes? Messengers don’t walk barefoot…

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Shall I deliver your letter to a far-away destination? – I lost my enthusiasm. He could send me to another city or some village but I couldn’t leave the Cradle. In that case it would be nice if the time of his quest was unlimited. The letter could travel with me in my rucksack until I got to the required destination.

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Nope, it’s not far away. Just two streets from here – Polunie calmed me down and then got strict at once – That’s why I can give you five coppers maximum. Don’t ask for more! It’s not a sack of potatoes, just an itty-bitty packet. Do you agree?

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Yes, I agree, dear Polunie! – I answered without thinking and took a small stringed textile packet and five clinking coins from the old man. An info about the acquired quest popped up, I knew from it that to take that task it was required to complete minimum three similar delivery quests before. Ok. That’s why the old man called me. As for shoes he was right – I had to buy some.

On my way to the herbalist curiosity overwhelmed me. I couldn’t resist it and opened the packet, thanks god, it was easy to untie the string as it wasn’t sealed. There was a shabby book named ‘Elementary Herbology and Potion-making’. And it determined my decision. If the book had been a mere love story or a fairy-tale book – there were lots of them in Valdira and you could read any of them if you wished – I would have delivered the packet to the destination pronto. But the book had a practical value. That’s why I decided to get delayed to read it from cover to cover. Thanks god it consisted of about thirty pages – it was called elementary for a reason. Such a book could be found in any book-shop and it wasn’t very expensive – it cost about two silver coins.

I chose a nice place to get comfortable under a shade tree and immerged into reading. Half an hour passed when I finished the book. As an award I got two skills, intelligence increase and a summary of some medical herbs that I could recognize among other herbs and collect them.

Your intelligence has increased by 1 point.

You’ve acquired a skill ‘To brew some small recovery potion’

  You’ve acquired a skill ‘To brew some small mana potion’

Now you know what a plant ‘Plantain’ is like.

Now you know what a plant ‘Camomile’ is like.

Now you know what a plant ‘Peppermint’ is like.

Now you know what a plant ‘Hypericum’ is like.

Small potions can recover twenty life or mana points each that’s enough on basic levels. But there is not much use of these skills, even if I find the necessary herbs, I’ll need special tools and consumables to brew elixirs. It’s hard, expensive and monotonous as well to become an alchemist. So I read the book just because it was free for me. Besides, it’s always nice to get an additional intelligence point.

And a humble achievement
‘Reader’
adding +0.5% to my reading rate.  

I wrapped the book neatly and brought it to the right address where I got a small recovery potion as thanks from an old herbalist. I didn’t buy anything from the old lady keeping my miserable coins safe. There was only one quest left incomplete. And I went straight to the famous barn to fill in this gap. It’s time to take up developing my character. Surprisingly I didn’t meet Dort Viderrr there. That’s for the better. There were some other gamers but they were behaving reasonably hitting their own mobs only and after gaining ten tails each they escaped to check in the quest. Everybody hurries to leave the Cradle and immerge into the real world of Valdira. Everybody except for me.

The rats’ nest was at my full disposal. I wasn’t going to leave it soon. I got armed with an oak stick and got down to business.

The war between me and rats didn’t end until the evening. It started phlegmatically and carefully – I took a break once I killed a rat and recovered my health by bread and water. But after leveling up, I contributed the gained points into the strength and agility that led to a significant increase of hit strength and speed. So I decided to move the battlefield inside the barn. I had to take a break once or twice. At first the rats managed to bite me to the critical life level, so I had to lie on the beam and chew stale bread. Then the stick split and I wound it by the piece of rope that used to be Dart Vader’s belt. Apart from the points gained due to upleveling I achieved the stamina and strength increase thanks to continuous battle – I tried not to relax for a minute and really did my best.