Текст книги "AlterWorld"

Автор книги: Dmitri Rus

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Текущая страница: 11 (всего у книги 22 страниц)

Chapter Seventeen

Teddy was good: tall, strong and perfectly alive. His old zombie incarnation was not a patch on this one. I patted his hairy head and, unable to control myself, gave him a peck on his wonderfully moist nose.

"Man, I missed you. We'll be together a long time now."

"Just look at them," a sarcastic voice said behind me.

I turned round—and shrunk back with a yelp. At about an arm's length from me, Eric sat astride his own bear. The creature was done up in gray and green camo patterns and bore the befitting name: LAV. From what I remembered from my army days, it stood for Light Armored Vehicle. On one side it carried the Vet Clan's logo: a shield with a star, enwreathed by an olive branch and a St. George's ribbon. On the other side was the bear's registration number 171, drawn in white paint by a rather unsteady hand.

"What on earth have you done with it?"

Eric sat up. "Cool, eh? I'm sure you haven't checked his settings yet. You can edit his appearance to your heart's content—within certain limits, of course."

I shook my head.

"Looks like AI's idea of limits offers a lot of room for interpretation. What's with the registration number?"

Eric rubbed his beast's muscly side with a look of nostalgia. "It was my lucky LAV, that one. Two years I drove it. In the end, it got scorched in Tskhinvali during the Second Georgian campaign. All my guys survived, though. So it's my lucky number. Come along, then. We need to get some grub. My stomach thinks my throat's been cut."

My bear was well-appointed with a quality bridle and saddle. He wasn't hard to mount but very comfortable to ride. I told Hummungus to follow Eric and dug deep into his settings.

Riding Mount: Hummungus (Red Bear)

Level: 1

Strength: 30

Constitution: 30

Attack: 10-20

Speed: 3 mph

Rider: 1

Weight-carrying capacity: 0

Special abilities: none

For your information: A mount can participate in combat alongside his owner. A mount can follow the same key commands as a summoned creature, plus special path commands. In case of death, a mount loses all of its current level experience and remains unsummonable for the next twenty-four hours.

Nothing difficult. I had to keep him safe: his respawning, albeit delayed, was already good news. I opened his appearance settings. Aha. That's where Eric let his fantasy run wild. It did cost him, though. Twenty gold for changing the pet's color plus another ten for each logo added. You could also upload your own patterns to change the bear's skin. Should I too go for camo? Or maybe, white with a blue stripe? And blues'n'twos on top, yeah right. In the end, I decided against trying the beast's patience. I was quite happy with the way it looked for the time being. Still, I had a funny feeling that the local mounts held quite a few surprises in store for me, including Barbie-Doll pink lions and fluffy rhinestone-studded ponies.

With a beep, the PM icon flashed. Again. And again. What's all the rush? I opened my inbox and my jaw dropped. That Elven chick, Taali, could cuss when she wanted to! I didn't even know you could convey the simple question, Where have you been all this time?, in as many F-words.

I chuckled and shot off a reply, inviting her to dinner at the Three Little Pigs and promising to explain everything there. She didn't answer. Could she be angry with me? Never mind. This could actually make a good acid test for our friendship. If she did come to the Pigs that night, prepared to listen to me and accept the truth—great stuff, we were still friends. If she didn't… well, then she was just another whacky gaming chick. In which case it wasn't meant to happen, as simple as that.

While I was at it, I checked my friend list. Both my rogue friends, Bug and Cryl, were online. I invited them to the Three Little Pigs, too. Bug replied straight away,

OK. Will pick up cash from the bank on my way.

Good kid. I'd have to look at the results of our Wardrobe op. If it worked, I'd better keep in touch with him. I had a funny feeling you couldn't very easily survive here on your own.

Cryl didn't answer, even though the green light of his online status kept glowing. Wonder if he'd blacklisted me by mistake? Pressed the wrong button? I'd love to cross paths with him again somewhere, he was too funny to lose contact with.

We arrived at the inn to numerous sighs of delight. Eric must have PM'd all his friends, impatient to impress them. They met us by the inn's gates. A small crowd gathered around LAV, studying and touching the patient phlegmatic creature. They preferred to give mine a wide berth, though. Hummungus cast warning glances at the strangers and bared his teeth, growling when someone came too close. The two Red Bear clones definitely didn't share the same character.

We could let them go for the time being until the next ride but Eric asked me to leave Hummungus near the inn for a bit of atmosphere. He sat his own beast by the opposite wall. Together, they made a fine pair of doorway statues, enormous and threatening.

I was already inside and walking across the hall nodding to a few players that looked familiar when Taali PM'd me saying the bears wouldn't let her in.

I waved to the instantly-wary Eric and walked out. The furious girl was keeping a safe distance from the doorway. I could see Bug hurrying toward us at the end of the street.

"Off, Hummungus. They are friends," I patted the bear's neck and walked over to Taali raising my hands in a mock gesture of surrender. I leaned over her, giving her time to decide whether she wanted me to kiss her or not. At first, she recoiled, her hands pushing at my chest. She paused and looked up into my eyes. Shaking her gorgeous mane of hair with determination, she grasped my neck. Her lips, hot and impatient, clung to mine. What a girl.

I heard a sarcastic applause behind my back. It was Eric, just making sure his new friend hadn't gotten into more trouble.

"Ah. So this is the girl who stuck by you through thick and thin when you were banged up? Pretty lady."

"Banged up?" Taali tensed. "What's he talking about?"

"Never mind," I shrugged. "I'll tell you later. Wait a bit, here's the rogue coming, he's invited too. Good guy, Bug's the name. We have a reason to celebrate."

She gave me a puzzled look. Had she thought I'd invited her to a candlelit date? I had to be losing my grip. I'd focused too much on my own problems just lately.

I touched her hand. "I'll explain it all to you in a moment," I whispered. "Just wait a bit. Everything happened too quickly, that's all. I'm sure you'll understand."

Taali squeezed my hand and nodded. "Okay. I was worried, you know. You told me you were going perma. I just thought you hadn't… or couldn't…" she sniffled.

"Hush, baby. The worst is already past."

She raised a puzzled eyebrow. I gave her a wink.

When Bug came closer, the alert bear needed a new dose of calming down. It wasn't a good idea to unsettle him any further and upset the passersby, so I gave him another pat behind the ear before clicking the Dismiss mount. The bear vanished into thin air. Excellent. With a regular horse, you'd have to clean him after every race, brush him, give him food and drink, check his hooves every five minutes. And this was more like calling for a cab: you just summoned him whenever you needed a ride, then folded him back into an artifact.

Taali only shook her head, watching. "You're a Necro, right? Hummungus used to be your zombie. And now he's more like a lapdog, all alive and obedient."

"That's where you got it wrong. I'm not a Necro, I'm a Knight. And as you can see, my Teddy is more than alive. Come on now, in you go. I think Eric's got a table waiting for us."

He had indeed. Eric had staked us a good table in the middle of the room and was now busy dictating his order to the waitress, waving his hands like an angler boasting the size of his catch. Looked like we were in for at least a roasted pig. He met my eyes and glanced toward the gong. How could I forget. My hand on Taali's elbow gently directed her toward the table.

"Go sit yourself down," I whispered. "I won't be a minute."

I walked out into the center of the room and picked up the heavy mallet. Conversations died down. The other players turned in my direction. I took a swing and hit the gong, filling the room with its vibrations.

Everyone jumped up from their seats, catcalling and clapping their hands. Someone whistled. It felt as if I'd just drawn a line under my past life and turned a new page. This was my new life now.

"The first round's on me. This is to living!"

I didn't get any gifts—apparently, I didn't look enough like a scared level 1 Elven maid to prompt a baby shower of sympathy. Which was good because I wouldn't have known how to accept it from so many strangers. Everyone was happy for me and drank to my future fortune. Which, for me, was more than enough.

Just as I was taking my seat at the table, Eric—who looked embarrassed for some reason—slammed the oak table top with a heavy triangular shield. He'd already grilled me on our way there, demanding to know my future character configuration. Now he seemed to have come up with a welcome gift. But why was he blushing like a schoolgirl?

"A gift. Specially for you. Hang on a bit, don't try it on yet. Let me explain first. There's a location, called Hatred Fortress. A real-life castle, I tell you, filled with very humanoid aggros. Not easy for a solo player, but quite doable for a full 100+ group. Mobs guard the walls in threes, usually two archers and a shield bearer who holds two shields covering them. Serious tanks love his left-handed shield—it's a rare drop, especially appreciated by Death Knights. Quit grinning, this isn't it."

He looked at my disheartened face and laughed. "This is its twin brother. A right-hand shield: extremely rare and just as useless. Useless for almost everybody but you. Those who've chosen a one-handed sword can't use it because then they can't use their sword hand. And those who've chosen to be ambidextrous, only do it because they want to use two swords. In other words, an object of unique parameters and equally useless. Enjoy."

I had a closer look at it.

Jangur's Battle Shield

Item Class: Rare

Slot: Right Hand

Effect: +20 to Strength, +20 to Constitution, +55 to Armor

Fences the caster off with a protective shield absorbing 500 points damage.

Cooldown: 5 min

Oh. My inner greedy pig clutched his heart and slid down the wall. As for me, I was nearing nirvana. This was my sort of thing. These were the kind of bells and whistles that came with unconventional leveling. A unique antique object, as useless as a handleless suitcase: too heavy to carry and too good to scrap. How many treats like this were stashed away in high-level players' rooms and cookie boxes? I wanted it all, in triplicate.

"Thanks, dude," I managed. "You couldn't have done better if you tried. You know my leveling pattern now. So if you come across something in the same league, just let me know. No more gifts, please. I'll be happy to pay what they cost."

I patted the shield one last time and forced it down the bag. This was one of the things I liked here: even now that I was perma-stuck, the world around had preserved certain virtual qualities. For instance, my bag was spacious enough to fit three dozen footsoldier's shields and the same number of spears. I preferred not to dig too deep into physics and wrote it down as local spatial magic. Easier that way. Could well be magic—who was I to tell?

Bug waved to me to attract my attention, then glanced around meaningfully: was it all right to speak openly there? I nodded.

The kid stood up and reported, "I took all the trash to a shop, got fifteen gold for it in total. Then I auctioned the more interesting ones. They weren't too special so they went off for a couple gold each, but it's still sixty-three gold plus fifteen, that's seventy-eight gold, nothing to sniff at. Half of it is yours, as agreed."

The sales mode window blinked open. Bug dropped off the money and PM'd me a detailed sales report. Excellent job. The kid was already level 16—not bad at all. His class wasn't easy to level: you needed patience and a good knowledgeable group. In gratitude, I sent him all my gray and black bracelets—over a hundred in total. This extra dozen gold didn't make much difference to me but it could help him rise another couple levels.

Bug didn't play hard to get. He thanked me calmly, accepting the gift.

Taali hadn't wasted her time, either, and had already made level 25. Ah, dammit, this wasn't the day to skimp. About ninety red bracelets landed in her bag. She was more express in her gratitude, earning me another kiss.

After that, we just relaxed and had a good time. A new future, excellent food, a few trusty friends and your girl sitting next to you—what else do you need to enjoy a night out? I took a moment to send my compliments to the innkeeper and inquire about a room. No problem, apparently, even though he strongly recommended I moved to the third floor. My new perma status demanded the keeping up of appearances. The inn's second floor was reserved for regular players who either wanted to stay overnight or sought some entertainment. It wasn't a proper place for a perma player to stay. I didn't insist. The new life had gone to my head and the money was burning a hole in my pocket. This was how I got myself a new monthly expense of two hundred gold.

We whooped it up until late at night. Bug was the first to bail out. Eric looked us over with an all-knowing stare and drifted off. The sad Taali thawed out a bit and even dragged me out for a dance a couple times to some artless tune from three local musicians who showed up later that night.

Finally, when the inn was almost deserted and she couldn't dance any more, she sat opposite me and buried her chin in her hand, staring at me with those moist, shiny, tipsy eyes. Then she leaned toward my ear and whispered,

"If you just wait a bit… I need to relogin. I still have two hours of full immersion on my limit left. You could show me your stamp collection."

Hips swaying, she headed for the ladies' room.

We walked upstairs together.

Chapter Eighteen

I'd had a lovely sleep. A clock somewhere in my peripheral vision showed a few minutes past nine. The PM icon flashed soundlessly: last night, I'd turned off all the audio settings. Sometimes I felt like a cyborg stuffed with implants. There I was, alive in a living world, but surrounded with pop-up windows of system messages, chat boxes and hits/mana bars. It would be a good idea to ask Eric about his experiences. An old-time perma, he must have a much deeper fusion rate.

I'd woken up perfectly alone. Taali had logged out a long time ago. Logical, really: no reason why she should spend the night in a capsule, and a 3D one at that.

I checked my inbox and saw her message. Oh well. I was accused of taking advantage of an intoxicated girl, followed by a vague promise of more of the same tonight. Women and their logic!

Next in the inbox were my two newsfeeds I'd subscribed to. Shame the third-floor apartments didn't come with room service. Would be great to order a coffee and some sandwiches to go with my morning read. Now I'd have to go and take a table downstairs. Only the fourth floor rooms came with chambermaids summoned by a bell. They were for high middle class—not the stinking rich who had their own mansions, towers or even castles, but for those who could afford to part with five hundred gold a month—a sum to be reckoned with, whether here or in the real world.

I pulled on my seedy newb rags. About time I got rid of them. Today had to be the day. As I walked downstairs, the kitchen regaled my nostrils with the delights of fried bacon. I couldn't resist it much longer and ordered a big fried breakfast upstairs in my room. It wasn't as if it could clog my arteries any more, was it?

The waitress promptly brought in a plateful of fried eggs, tomatoes, onions and crunchy wafer-thin slices of bacon. Plus some cheese on toast served with butter roses, a pot of jam and a large mug of steaming coffee. All included, just like in Benidorm. Spending money started to feel good.

Now I could finally have a good look around my new room. Last night I was too busy with other things. The room was twice the size of the one I'd had before. The large king size bed had already passed the stress test with flying colors. Also in the room were a desk, two chairs, a recliner, a carved wardrobe and a massive chest. Heavy curtains covered the tall wide window. Excellent. Still I wouldn't mind having a peek at the fourth-floor rooms, just to know what to aim for.

Once I'd satisfied my first hunger, I sat back with the ever-hot coffee mug and opened the newsfeed. First I checked the real-world headlines for what I wanted to know most:

The Easy Lease Company has been reported to have trebled their FIVR capsules lease deposits. It claims that over 16% of all capsules rented within the past year have been returned in non-operable condition. The most common faults include reflashed memory, tampered chips and hacked monitoring hardware.

The RusStats' records for the last six months have shown suicide rates in Russia to have dropped 21%.

Wages in all sectors related to development and promotion of new virtual worlds have reached a new record high. However, the industry experiences a severe shortage of qualified professionals at all levels.

Russia's three biggest companies specializing in virtual worlds tailor-made to private order have announced their being unable to accept new orders for the next two years. Despite the recent soar in prices, demand still far outpaces supply in this particular sector of the gaming industry.

A new high tech facility growing artificial intelligence crystals has been finally launched in Malaysia. This is hoped to decrease the deficit of AI crystals on the world market. The construction of the second phase of the project is said to be progressing ahead of schedule.

The tragic accident a week ago when the militant faction of the Femen radical group had detonated both of the Padishah virtual world's data centers caused our readers to commiserate deeply with the families of over a thousand perma players who inhabited the Padishah world together with over eight hundred thousand regular players. Yesterday, the backup database was finally installed on the game's new servers. Much to everyone's relief, the digitized individuals proved safe and sound and had even achieved a certain progress in the game. They expressed their surprise at the absence of regular players during the past week. The government is yet to comment on this remarkable event.

I closed the inbox and leaned back in awe. Just think what opportunities this could breed… prospects of immortality, even? And what if I got fed up with it all? Was there a way to finish my life permanently, so to speak? Because if there wasn't, fifty percent of AlterWorld's population in another thousand years or so could consist of half-witted level-100500 Dark Overlords? Oh well…

I copied the last news bit and forwarded it to Eric. Let him give it some thought. Doubtlessly, the powers that be had long been in the know. They must have already stripped down and reassembled hundreds of virtual guinea-pig worlds, improving living conditions in our overpopulated prisons in the process. I'd love to know what had happened to those half-baked worlds floating in the middle of virtual nowhere with their digitized jailbird inhabitants. A terrible thing, come to think of it. You create a virtual version of hell, fill it with undesirables, then pull the plug on the server. Would it mean eternal hell? Or did an unplugged virtual world gradually decompose? One day we might know all the answers…

Not good. That called for some quality comfort eating. I topped a slice of toast with generous layers of butter and jam. How's that for a calorie bomb? As I crunched on it, I opened the gaming newsfeed.

Top European clan the Prophets have successfully completed their three-day raid on the Fear Plane. The total value of the auctioned loot exceeds one million gold.

Nagafen slain! For the fifth time in the history of the virtual world, this powerful dragon was killed by players of the United Asian Alliance. They then proceeded to discover Nagafen's precious egg in the dragon's nest. The raid's main question remains, which one of the Allied castles will be marked by the Black Guard's winged presence?

Many of our readers expressed their surprise when the Golden B Amero clan had their patrimonial Gold Bastion listed for sale the other day. Bidding completed yesterday at the record price of seven million gold. The same day, the clan leader explained their reasons for selling the place in an open forum. According to him, guild rangers had discovered a new Colossus-class castle in the frontier lands. The proceeds from selling Gold Bastion will go on the new castle activation, as well as paying virtual property taxes and buying up the adjacent lands.

This is Russian cluster news. It's been eight days since the Fathers began holding the entrance to the Valley of Gloom. The notorious dark clan block other players' passage to the location. The analysts suggest the discovery of a new dungeon behind the clan's actions. As you probably know, every newly discovered location acquires a unique 50% bonus to experience and loot for the whole of two weeks.

The legendary Pain Blade has been seen in possession of Les Miserables clan leader. This is the second known specimen of its kind in our sector. It's not quite clear how Les Miserables came by the artifact considering that the Blood Lord's Dungeon has never been completed once in the last month, and the vampire boss himself has never been slain.

We congratulate Yanir, combat leader of the Dark Side clan, on reaching level 240. Way to go, Yanir!

On a lighter note. A level 1 newbie has been sighted in the tutorial zone of the Korean sector. Apparently, the beginning player has spent the last three weeks assaulting a training dummy with a bokken sword. Someone needs to tell him that his feats won't affect his characteristics until he leaves the T-zone.

Whew. That was me done newswise. Just by reading it, my new world had expanded from the size of a small medieval town to the more customary size of a planet. Time to move it, anyway. As a friend of mine used to say, the smaller the distance between your ass and the couch, the less money will fit through it. So up with my ass and off we go.

First thing I popped in at Gunnar's, the vendor of all things brutal, and made him happy by finally purchasing the long-desired Staff of Dark Flame. Much to my chagrin, he didn't happen to have any more yummies. That is, he had loads of cool stuff but all of it was quite commonplace—and not at all cheap.

I also visited the tailor recommended by the innkeeper. Thank God I didn't need to explain to him my need for new underpants, a T-shirt and a pair of socks. Game developers seemed to understand that wearing a steel cuirass or mithril boots on one's bare body in full immersion was not a gamer's idea of fun. So they came up with this interesting feature when you could wear two or three items per each clothing slot, but only one of them would bring bonuses and the others, marked as optional, would serve purely utilitarian functions.

Having finished with the undies, I also bought quite cheaply a few pairs of decent pants plus a couple of shirts and a lightweight suede jacket. Just for those days when I didn't feel like walking around like an armored wardrobe. I changed straight away and immediately felt a different person, way up the social ladder: not a bum any more but a noble adventurer. All I needed now was a new pair of shoes which didn't take much time in acquiring, either.

Closer to lunchtime, I popped in at the jeweler's on my way back to my room. He wanted twelve gold for the rings I had in mind: those with +5 to either Strength, Intellect or Stamina. The jeweler wasn't too forthcoming with discounts. Either he was a stingy old sort or he was paying me back for my neutral stance in the city.

After a hearty lunch, I took a strategic position in the recliner and laid out my trophies on the table. They started to take the shape of a nice raid kit. The Staff of Dark Flame and the shield ruled it. I decided to decorate the shield with the Sky Stone—the Admins' gift—for the extra +10 to Intellect.

Now I finally had time to inspect the Gnoll King loot. I reached to the bottom of my bag:

Gnoll King Charm

Item class: Rare

Effect 1: +3% to magic resistance

Effect 2: Pain Mirror. Gives a 3 to 100 probability of reflecting the damage dealt to you toward the attacker.

Effect 3: Servitude Mirror. Gives a 3 to 100 probability of reflecting the damage dealt to you toward your summoned creature.

Class Restrictions: Only Death Knight

I especially liked the charm's dual purpose, in both raid and PK kits.

As for jewelry, I still needed eight rings. Yes, eight, as AlterWorld's inhabitants didn't wear rings on their thumbs. There was another cool thing about it, too. You could replace earrings with a second charm: good news for most male inhabitants who weren't looking forward to sporting some fancy palm-size half-pounders like Dragon Earrings and the like. We had none of those medieval sailors among us who used to stick a gold earring in their ear hoping for a decent burial.

Finally, bracelets. I had to admit I'd overgrown the +1 to Strength ones I'd farmed from the gnolls.

Having said that, why hadn't I thought about the auctions? They should have a massive choice—granted, it was limited to only City of Light players, but they counted tens of thousands. Now. Where's that search panel?

I opened the sales interface.

Items available: 141.901

Oops. A bit over the top. I limited my search to "Buy Now!" items. I had no time for bidding gamble.

Items available: 103.811

That's better. I limited my search to items between 10 and 2000 gold.

Items available: 28.514

Right. This was something I could work with. Any other way I could trim it down further? After a thought, I limited the search to Death Knight items.

Items available: 354

That was it. I decided to weed it down even further. Show objects: gauntlets.

Items available: 16

Good. Now I could examine each lot personally. No hurry.

They had some interesting stuff there. Nothing too uber: most of the unique, rare and epic items were soulbound by definition. Those that weren't, cost a fortune and even then you had to put your name on a waiting list. This world had far more millionaires than available epics.

My problem was also in my particular leveling pattern. Most of the stuff here was meant for a classic semi-tank. Finally, I found something worth my while:

Gauntlets of the Soul Catcher

Item class: Rare

Effect 1: +34 to Armor, +11 to Intellect, +11 to Spirit, +11 to Constitution

Effect 2: Increases chances of dropping Soul Stones 7%.

Class restrictions: Death Knight

Price: 650 gold

That was just too good. And too expensive. I had to decide how much I could afford to splurge. I had, in total, just under 2700 in gold. I had to set aside five hundred at least as a reserve fund, to pay the rent and for emergencies. Ideally, I'd have to aim for ten times as much, twenty even. Just in case my grave somehow decayed with all my stuff in it: what was I supposed to do at level 100 in my underpants? I had to set aside another thousand for any unmissables—plenty of them around when you needed to have available cash there and then. Okay. I had twelve hundred to play with.

Having decided on the tactics, I still had to consider my strategy. Was it better to invest into mid-range items like that King loot? It sure would last me another thirty levels. Or should I aim for some choice top items like those gauntlets that would serve me indefinitely?

Finally, I decided not to bother with the mid-range. It was better to buy a few top things I really liked. For the rest, I'd have to make do with inexpensive gear, replacing it gradually with rare and unique items.

I pressed Buy. Immediately, messages started popping up, confirming the bank transfer. I ignored them and opened my bag, impatient. Oh, the beauty of teleporting. I couldn't take my eyes off the opalescent black armor. On one hand, sixty-five bucks for a collectable is nothing to sniff at. But on the other… If any of these things—like these gauntlets, for instance, with their intellect and spirit bonuses, damage absorption and rare items search—if any of them were available in real life, how many hundreds of millions would they cost? And in any case, was this world any different for me from the real one? The quick answer was: no, it wasn't.

I decided to look for some shoes.

Items available: 22

I looked through them. Nothing I really liked. How about a helmet?

Items available: 26

The first one definitely was meant for some tank, not for me. But the next one… was I having delusions of grandeur?

Crown of the Overlord

Item class: Unique

Effect 1: no extra characteristics

Effect 2: When worn, adds +3 to a summoned creature's level

Effect 3: Renders all the undead such as skeletons, zombies, spirits, etc. neutral and unable to attack first. Halves their aggro radius in case of the wearer's attack.

Class restrictions: Death Knight, Necromancer

Price: 1450 gold

Now that was the closest thing to a cheat. The item had been listed thirty minutes ago. It would be gone any moment. Every fiber of my gaming addict's being could sense the crown's concealed potential. I could only explain its moderate price by its class restriction, especially here in the heart of the Lands of Light. Dammit. This buy could crush all my financial schedule. Or could I maybe write it off under Emergencies? My inner greedy pig nodded enthusiastically. Could it be that my portable mini vermin was prepared to part with gold? Well, then I simply had to have it.

The next moment, the crown took pride of place on the table. It looked the part. With something like this, I could rule the world. Joke.