(World of Valdira 01) The Way of the Clan (21 page)

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You see – it’s me who should worry about your status, not vice versa. Mine is one hundred ten points higher – I smiled widely – So, let’s go hitting mobs! It will get dark soon.

Giving me a demonstratively thoughtful glance, Keira turned around to approach the first mob on her way. A frog chosen as a victim didn’t have time to ribbit when the blade of the sword landed on it.

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I’ll be responsible for picking up loot – without turning back the girl dropped directing to a beaver that had just emerged on the bank.

‘Got offended’ – I concluded grasping the frog’s skin from the ground. But I said aloud completely different words:

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Yes, ma’am!

It’s not a problem. Let her stay insulted. I just can’t behave another way.         

It’s real art to be a leader of a party. Especially when the number of members is over a dozen and the party is operating in a dangerous location with high-level mobs. They have to react in time and heal a seriously-injured tank, reanimated the killed mage and so on and so forth. That’s why it a common practice when the part of a leader is played by a mage-healer or a paladin because both possess a powerful healing magic and aura. It’s a leader who is responsible for the party’s successful operations and safety. If someone dies – the leader is guilty, if the party is lost in a labyrinth – the leader is guilty. During a battle gamers aren’t standing still, they are constantly moving, fussing around backwards and forwards… it’s hard to monitor everything, the leader has to squirm. And such a difficult task is simplified a bit by an ‘open status’ option, it makes it much easier to control the situation.

‘Open status’ denotes an extremely simple and in fact harmless thing – the party’s leader gets an opportunity of watching my state permanently. There is a small semitransparent rectangular with my nickname and two multicolored lines and some important vales under it in the left top corner. The red line reflects the number of my health points available; the dark blue bottom line shows mana point… about one hundred points currently that’s extremely many for an eight-level warrior. A logical question can inevitably emerge: why on earth did I dump into intelligence so much?

I wasn’t eager to give a true reply. But I didn’t want to lie as well. I may be regarded as a paranoiac. Thanks god I’m not the only one.  Many gamers prefer risking and concealing their life and mana indicators from everybody without an exception.

Besides, Gosha gave me a clear and direct instruction – to advance my character as a one with emphasis on physical hit. If I reveal my mana and health points now, and if we suddenly lose in this enigmatic tournament even through no fault of mine… I’ll become a fall guy first of all for Gosha who spent a plenty of real money on me and for Keira as well who deleted her main character for that mission. All reproaches will be hurled at me. And it won’t matter that I’m not level-five as Gosha asked but level eight plus I got strength and stamina bonuses for working hard. People don’t like admitting their mistakes. It’s always easier to cast the blame on others. I can imagine all these angry words addressed to me in case of our failure: ‘if you had contributed fifteen spare points into stamina and strength instead of intelligence, we would have won!’, ‘Ros, why on earth did you do such a stupid thing? You should have increase agility for dodges and crits plus strength!.. Then you wouldn’t have flown away because of the last hit!’ and so on and so forth. It’s one thing when I’m taking part in this strange scheme with an odd tournament as a free service – then don’t expect anything from me. I just couldn’t do and that’s all. Shit happens… But it’s totally another when they hire me, pay me real money and demand well and truly. As Gosha is an experienced gamer he won’t trust my only cheap excuse – I wanna be a combat mage. He’ll just ask me: ‘ why couldn’t you suspend advancing currently useless intelligence until you leave the Cradle? Why didn’t you contribute five or, say, ten into intelligence instead of fifteen?!’ And he’ll be right. As a banker in the real life and as a gamer in Valdira. Since there is only one science working here – mathematics . Hard math. Plus 15 to stamina means pure one hundred fifty life points, plus 15 to strength denotes a significantly increased hit, plus 15 to agility is an increased dodge chance and a raised critical hit chance. So if Keira knows my mana level, then in case of losing the tournament she’ll charge me with unserious treatment of very well-paid work.

Besides, they shouldn’t get offended as I’m reserved, they also muddy the waters! It’s not a usual way of preparing for a tournament! Even for a simple beginner-like one. Who is going to be our rival? A tournament implies a competition between several participants. In our case it must be a struggle of several combat parties of two gamers or NPCs minimum. There must be a reason why I am running everywhere with Keira as a party. They should have told me more. It’s unfair that I’ve known only today that I am going t be a tank. Otherwise, I would have developed my character in a completely different way – well, until I got the status of Navigator. I would have tried to find a shield at once – before the first battle against rats. I’d have stolen a barrel lid, for example, and here you are, a nice shield, primitive one but why not! I would have increased my ‘parry’ skill by one or two points! I would have distributed the first two level points in another way! But… you enjoy riddling, postponing everything till the very last minute! I have to guess on the basis of miserable crumbles of information!

So that’s the way I was calming myself down while following Keira the warrioress who was striding ahead and had to pick up loot left after killed mobs. The girl didn’t need my help in a battle so far. Maybe she won’t need it at the tournament as well? It would be great…

Keira has softened a bit in the evening only. To be more exact at the very moment when I changed my weapon for an axe and a shield and, besides, bought her a +4 protective leather jacket with capacious front pockets that housed five small-scale healing potions. Yeah… the very leather jacket, my cherished dream, with polished copper buttons and a high collar… I gave it to Keira as the most unprotected in our party. She managed to reach level five, but life points were increased by twenty points only as she must have contributed the rest into her strength and agility. So that means she has got ninety life points only twice less than I have. After buying the jacket and weapon I had merely no money left. But still I managed to rake up some coins to buy five healing potions at the herbalist’s, gave them to Keira as well leaving one for myself I had gained it as an award for completing the quest.

A small but very cozy tavern met us with a muffled hubbub of voices and thick smell of honey ale. There were about fifteen tables with a couple of benches each clustered in a small hall. A bar counter stretching from one wall to another blocked the back of the hall. There were also broad shelves overwhelming bottles, small barrels and mugs. The saloonkeeper standing behind the counter was pouring alcohol to another guest by himself, he had never had any servers here. A modern approach with the Middle Age concept.    

We got our mugs – and I ordered beer for myself, as for Keira, she chose a glass of white wine – then we came towards a small table in the center of the hall. I’d prefer to take a seat at the wall but the girl had another idea so I had to obey and sit down in plain sight in the crosshairs of numerous eyes.

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Have you been here before? – Keira wondered sitting down on the wooden bench polished by hundreds of bottoms.

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Nope, - I shook my head sitting down opposite her and stealing a look round the hall. – As I was recommended keeping good terms with the saloonkeeper, I didn’t drop over here just in case. I could have blurted something wrong to the saloonkeeper and ciao…

There was a crowd of guests. A dozen of locals minimum and twice the amount of gamers-beginners who was sipping malty drink laid-back on the benches and discussing their impressions collected during the day that was coming to its end.

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Prudent you are – Keira sniffed and pat a sleeve of her new leather jacket with mere satisfaction. The jacketed fitted her like a glove. The only thing I could do was to stifle my jealousy saliva and to drink beer in small sips. Since alcohol was introduced into the game not for the sake of reality. Drink one beer – nothing bad happens to you. Moreover, it can raise your strength for a while, but decrease your agility. Drink two beers – strength will be the same level, but agility will drop more. Pour three beers into your mouth – your intelligence will start collapsing, you’ll be tongue-tied. Take four – no big difference, but sometimes a random unconscious giggle or grunting can emit from your mouth. But after the fifth mug you’ll have motion coordination problems. You are shaken from one side to another. You have to keep hold of a wall while walking. Good news is that all these effect don’t last long and there is no vomiting reflex. In contrast to me Keira didn’t care about the consequences of alcohol abuse at all. She finished her glass of wine by several gulps and grumbled:

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Haven’t you finished yet? Drink up and I’ll bring more.

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Have we got a drinking tournament? – I wondered lazily and sipped.

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Hush! You must do it, drink up!

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I’m sick and tired of all your ‘youmustdoits’  - I said – Keira, I can understand it, I’m not from your clan and maybe you just can’t trust me. I agree you can have some secrets and riddles. But the whole situation is one big secret. So and now it turns out that we must get loaded. I have never seen such an obligatory condition for a tournament!

Without saying a word Keira looked at me for some seconds, sighed and said in a completely different manner:

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Drink up. I’ll bring you another mug and take one for myself. Then we’ll have a talk. I won’t tell you everything but the situation in general. Anyway I was going to talk to you so you shouldn’t have worried so much.

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Agreed – I exclaimed cheerfully and brought the mug to my lips – Cheers, Keireya the Protectress!

After bringing drinks Keira sat down closer to me and bending to my ear started talking:

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Do you know there are loads of secret or just implicit quests and events hidden in Valdira?

Getting my nod, she continued:

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This tournament belongs to such a kind! It’s rather easy to get it but its main difficulty is not to get the quest but to gain implicit award bonuses.

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An award for winning the tournament? – I wondered.

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Right.

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And what are the bonuses?

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You don’t need to know it, Ros. That’s…

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…that’s the clan’s internal affair – I finished instead of her – Ok. We must win the Cradle tournament. I’ve known it before. But I can’t realize why there are so many strange conditions and requirements? Not to join any parties, not to spoil relationships with the saloonkeeper, not to die… it sounds wild!

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Actually it’s very simple – Keira chuckled – You mustn’t spoil relationships with the saloonkeeper as the tournament is held here in the backyard of the tavern.

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The saloonkeeper holds the tournament, doesn’t he?!

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No, he doesn’t. The tournament is going to take place here. But the saloonkeeper is just the owner of the tavern. But if you don’t get on well with him, he won’t let you in. His brolics will throw you away at one stroke. Have a look, they are waiting for an order.

I haven’t had a look, as I noticed two hefty dudes at the entrance when we entered. As well as their heavy clubs at the broad leather belts. The level of these ‘locals’ must be higher than ours.

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Ok, I see.

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The only obligatory condition not to screw up the tournament is relationships with the saloonkeeper. Neutral or friendly – it doesn’t matter, but not hostile. The other conditions – not to die in the game process and not to join parties before the tournament – are optional. We’ll take part in the tournament anyway.

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But?

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But if you don’t meet these conditions, award characteristics will be far lower – Keira explained patiently while I was keeping silent with amazement.

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Wait… but I’ve joined your party. We’re in the party now. You and me.

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Right. But it’s not just a party, it’s our first party. Another optional condition – a number of battles fought together. We won ninety-nine battles and have been together so far. We’ve been inseparables since our first mutual battle.

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Hrmph… it sounds intimate…