Текст книги "AlterWorld"

Автор книги: Dmitri Rus

сообщить о нарушении

Текущая страница: 12 (всего у книги 22 страниц)

I had six hundred left on my balance. Time to switch to economy mode and check out jewelry. Should I look at craft items first? Why not. It couldn't be that expensive.

I sorted the items by price and parameters. This looked like a curiously interesting object:

Distraction Ring

Item class: Craft, Uncommon

Effect 1: +1 to Armor, +1 to Strength, +1 to Agility, +1 to Intellect, +1 to Spirit, +1 to Constitution

Effect 2: +1% to all types of magic resistance

Class restrictions: none

Price: 14 gold

The offer had a note from the owner.

My wholesale leveling of jewelry allows me to sell most items at cost price. PM me if you're looking for something in particular.

That was pretty logical. Those players who leveled craft skills were obliged to produce hundreds and thousands of items. What were they supposed to do with them if the market was oversaturated and you didn't have a hope in hell of getting a fair price from a shop? So everyone was trying to at least get their money back.

After some thought, I ordered eight of them. For that money, a very decent offer indeed. Then I opened the vendor's selling list. There they were, just as I thought: Distraction Bracelets, identical to the rings, only belonging in a different slot. They cost a gold more. I picked up a couple, then started looking for a charm. Having said that, the vendor had had enough from me. I opened other people's lists and stopped my choice at an unimpressive Knowledge Charm: +3 to both Spirit and Intellect. Cheap and cheerful.

I filled the rest of the slots with inexpensive and unimpressive items. I'd have to replace them all gradually at a later date. At the moment, I was dangerously close to a financial collapse.

Having said that, the idea of choosing myself a profession had lingered. It was no good throwing punches around for a living. I needed something more pacifist, something that would bring in money as well as self-enlightenment. I gave it a minute's thought and remembered a few recent scenes: the exorbitant potion prices and the shop owner's transfixed stare when I'd offered him some magic dust. I looked it up in the Wiki. So, I was right—the dust made the basic magic ingredient in most elixirs. And I was basically a walking factory of the above which made my offers very interesting. Naturally, I couldn't dream of competing with clan crafters with their hundreds of hired workers. But their produce hit the open market but rarely: crafters mainly only catered to their own clan's consumption. I dreaded to even contemplate the costs of a top clan's one-day raid.

The Wiki didn't have much on Alchemy—just a dozen pages filled with basic descriptions and primitive recipes. Unwilling to fall into the same trap that the developers had laid for newbs, I signed up for a complete manual. In less than a minute, it arrived in my inbox—a two-hundred page behemoth of an e-book. Apparently, the request was common enough to justify an automated mailing response. The size of the manual humbled me, but no one said it was going to be easy. Which was good news, really. It meant that a man of intelligence could always make a few bucks doing it and not get bored in the process.

I glanced at the table buried under heaps of armor. I just had to try all that stuff on. I changed into thicker clothes, ticked them off as optional and put on all the items one by one. I literally felt stronger. The life/mana bar went through the roof.

Someone knocked. The door swung ajar, letting in Taali. I turned to face her. She froze for a second.

"Holy cow. If this isn't Dark Lord! You think I could try on the crown?"

Chapter Nineteen

The next morning was busy. Taali and Bug were supposed to be coming at ten o'clock and I had lots of things to do before then. We planned our first mission—two days into the woods. Our agenda: farming, profession leveling and fine-tuning our teamwork. The other two had agreed unreservedly. With the weekend coming, they had plenty of spare time for a quality outing that promised decent dividends of both experience and mana.

Despite the fact that Taali had left rather early, I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before. I'd been studying professional manuals. That's manuals, in the plural, as I'd soon realized that alchemy had to be leveled alongside the flaying and herbal skills. Otherwise I'd have to rush to the auctions every time I needed some ingredient or other, which would cause my production costs to soar. So I'd ordered two more manuals and a detailed farming map of the area, then spent the rest of the night going through them.

In the morning, I had a quick bite to eat and started doing my Master Guilds rounds. I first went to the Alchemy Guild to get my apprenticeship status. Now I was free to level it up to 50 after which I was supposed to go back, this time to pay some solid gold for being promoted to journeyman.

You had to pay your way through the professional stages, seven of them in total. But at least my choice of professions was only limited by the size of my wallet and the amount of hours in a day. Talking about my wallet. I still had to splurge thirty gold on a basic alchemy kit that included some scales, metering spoons, measuring tubes, and a few basic recipes. I also had to buy another hundred vials for the duration of the raid. Good job you could stock them up twenty per slot, otherwise I had no idea how I'd have packed it all up.

Next, I visited the Herbalists and the Rangers Guilds: the latter, to study flaying and buy a skinning knife. I didn't actually need to hold it in my hand as long as I had it on the inventory list. That was almost it. One practice left to do. I searched the city map for the Happy Palate restaurant. According to the guide book, its owner accepted all and sundry for apprenticeships. The book was right: soon I acquired a fourth profession plus a set of spices and recipes in the vein of Spiced Wolf, Fox Relish and Smoked Bear. Almost everyone here had leveled cooking at some point, at least its first free stage. Which made sense: it would be stupid to starve to death next to a freshly killed rabbit. And once you reached the Famed Master stage, it opened your way to some very interesting recipes.

My inner greedy pig was past all hope by then. He even managed an occasional half-hearted nod when I was reading through the list of dishes available for skill points 450 and above.

As in:

Smoked Dragon Fillet

Level required: 100

Use: Restores 990 Health and 990 Mana over 25 sec. Must remain seated while eating. The character becomes well fed and gains 20 points both Strength and Constitution.

Apart from its apparent gourmet value, the freebies that came with the dish were motivation enough for any player to level cooking.

By ten in the morning, everyone was present and correct. Even Taali chose not to play the spoiled diva and logged in two minutes before time. Remembering our past experiences and the older players' advice, we set up our resurrection point right in the inn's courtyard.

Taali and I managed to do it ourselves; then I had to change Bug's bind point, too, as the kid knew no magic. To do that, we accepted him into our group, after which I selected him as target and cast the spell. Immediately a system message popped up,

Player Bug has agreed to the changes made to his resurrection point.

That was it. We headed for the gates, then toward the woods and further on, directly east, for about four and a half miles. When the town wall disappeared from view, I stopped the group and summoned the pet. Despite my level 32, the biggest stone I had was only 28: the one I'd gotten from the Gnoll Priest all those days ago. Never mind. Soon we were going to fix it.

My heart sank when I cast the summoning spell. This had to be my first field test with my custom-picked skills and gear.

The earth bulged. A zombie gnoll crawled out of a black mole hole. He was 30—not a wonder waffle, but not so bad at all. A regular Death Knight without all those skills and gear would have raised a level 20 pet, 24 at most. I done good, especially considering I only had two top items.

I started adding buffs to him: Fire Shield, Agony Armor, Strength of the Undead, Bigfoot. Their little icons appeared under the zombie's life bar. When you concentrated on any of them, a prompt popped up:

Strength of the Undead. Adds +30 Strength to the summoned creature. Time remaining: 59:31… 30… 29…

The timer kept ticking down. Knowing that it wasn't possible to keep an eye on the boxes in the heat of battle, I set up an audio alarm. Then I configured the quick access panel to farm mode. Stun. DoT. That was it. Time to get going. Or get riding. With that thought, I summoned Hummungus. His current speed was quite low so the others didn't have to run after him. But his presence added extra weight to the group and might discourage an occasional PK. I climbed aboard him and off we went.

I'd only basked in the comfort of Hummungus' saddle a hundred paces before my first find crossed our path. A lit-up contour of a small yellow flower blinked blue in the grass on my mini map. I bent out of the saddle to pick it, then studied it before shoving it in my bag:

Congratulations! You've found a Sunleaf flower!

Your herbal skill has improved! Current level: 1

Now we were cooking! Still, my initial joy quickly turned to impatience when I spent the next ten minutes constantly scrambling in and out of the saddle. Finally I gave up and ordered Teddy to follow me as I walked ahead picking new herbs here and there.

After an hour and a half of leisurely walking, we arrived at the spot the guidebook recommended. We'd already left Green Woods behind with their cute sub-level 10 creatures. Then we'd crossed Thick Woods with their occasional aggros, none over level 20. Finally, we fought our way through Sleeping Woods. Three times we had to protect Bug from various local monsters who thought him an easy prey. Of the three of us, Bug with his level 17 was the smallest, while the local wolves and bears could be anything up to level 25 and didn't wait for an invitation to aggro you back.

Now we'd reached the clearing that formally divided the Sleeping from the Wild Woods. Our collective reason decided it was best for us to split up, at least at first.

Taali and I were going to pull our beasts from the Wild Woods while Bug would go solo and do the same from the Sleeping Woods, then kill his prey not far from us. Taali would then heal him and buff him up while I would send Teddy to help him, making sure my mount wouldn't get more than 50% hits or strip Bug of his experience. That way we could avoid the level gap penalty while giving Bug a decent chance to level up a bit. True that it complicated both mine and Taali's existences, but the pure fun of it and a chance to get ourselves a good friend outweighed the cons.

"Where shall we set up camp?" She looked just too cute with those flowers entwining her helmet. The flowers had been my idea. I'd noticed the joy in her face when I'd bent down to pick the Sunleaf, quickly replaced by disappointment when I stuffed it into my bag.

Setting up camp was one of the great scout skills. I'd decided against leveling it, knowing that Taali had chosen it for herself. The skill had lots of bonuses. The first levels allowed you to choose a flat place and start a fire which you could then use for cooking and lighting and which also had a small life and mana regen bonus. Once you reached higher levels, you could make a stockade, a fire circle, a wickyup and a hut. It was definitely worth leveling once I was back to town, as I really shouldn't rely on Taali always being around.

I had a look around searching for a place that had good visibility and pulling properties and allowed for a bountiful hunt in the absence of other prospectors. Finally I pointed at a clearing some fifty feet away. "That's a good place, my lady."

Taali smiled and turned on her femme fatale look. Head up high, hips swaying, she walked over to the chosen point and began setting up camp. What a child she was, really.

I turned to Bug, "Any questions? Got everything prepared?"

"Always prepared," he answered sarcastically. "Three hundred throwing knives, four hundred bandages. Beverages, two full stacks."

"What have you got there?" I asked.

"Twenty flasks of ginger beer and the same of tea."

"Excellent. We should renew buffs first, then we can start. Let's go to the camp. She must have everything ready by now."

Just as we approached the fire, a message popped up,

Warning! You have entered a camp set up by Taali.

Status: free access

Within six paces from the fire, mana and life regen grows 1 point per second.

Warning! The camp does not protect you from aggressive creatures!

I nodded my gratitude to her. "Rebuff!"

Taali cast life– and armor-improving blessing spells over the two of us, then raised Bug's and her own Strength. That was logical. I didn't need a strength buff as I was too busy to fight, anyway. In the meantime, I renewed the zombie's bonuses. Hummungus hung about nearby, looking hurt. He really needed some freebies, too.

"Taali? You think you could cast something nice over my bear? I know you can't do it for the zombie."

She shrugged and exploded in a string of spells. A bunch of colored icons appeared on Teddy's panel. "Sixty mana," she said.

I nodded. "I see it. Come on, Bug. You start. We'll keep an eye on you for the first couple of pulls."

He picked up a throwing knife and bolted into the woods. Ten seconds later, we heard an angry growl. Bug ran out onto the road first, followed by a Grizzled Wolf.

I just shook my head. The Wolf was level 24, a bit too much for Bug. The kid reached the camp and turned round, meeting the beast with a blade in each hand. I waited a few seconds and told Teddy to attack.

What with his level 1, Hummungus was too young to tank properly. The best he could do was stay out of trouble and nibble at the wolf's side. Bug didn't hold well at all. His health kept dropping, so that soon Taali had to start healing him. After a moment's thought, I decided to cast a DoT. And again. Between Teddy and my DoTs, they stripped the beast of 30 or 40% life. Bug did the rest. The wolf met a sad end. But in the future, sending Bug solo wouldn't be any good. I had to come up with alternatives.

"Right, dude," I said to him. "I think we overdid it a bit. It's a bit early for you maybe, you can't really stand against them on your own. And if we get busy with our own mobs, then sooner or later we'll get distracted and get you killed."

Bug lowered his eyelids in agreement. Even though we'd already showered him with experience, he wouldn't last long without our support.

"You think you'll come into some cool abilities in the next level or two?" I asked.

Bug perked up a bit. "I think so. I get a bleed combo at level 18, and then a crippling hit with a 13% attack delay at 19."

"Okay. Let's do it this way. For the next hour, we'll work entirely for you. We'll be healing you and taking care of 50% of your mobs' life. Until you do 19. Then we fall back on our old plan. Forget the bandages. We'll do it as fast as we can. Ready?"

It worked. He did the two levels in forty minutes—even faster than we thought. I had to admit I'd overdone it a couple times, accidentally stripping him of his experience. Not overdone it, even. When I'd seen that things were under control, I got cheeky and spent the time leveling alchemy, only pausing to cast another DoT and tell Teddy to attack.

In less than two hours of our journey, my herbal skill had reached 32 as I'd harvested an impressive bunch of various plants, flowers and roots. I checked the available recipes. Apparently, I could now make a vial of Minor Life Elixir and also Agility Elixir. The latter I couldn't care less about, but I was sure Taali and Bug would be happy to use it. In any case, leveling my profession was all that mattered to me at the time.

I reached into my bag for my traveling alchemy kit. I placed two life roots into a measuring tube and added the tiniest metering spoon of magic dust. Then I placed the resulting vial into a special slot in the Transmutation Box and closed the lid. A red light flashed underneath it.

You've failed to make the potion! Try again!

The following ingredients are ruined:

Life Root, 1

A small pinch of magic dust, 1

Oh, well. I raised my head to make sure everything was under control and added the missing ingredients again. The lid flashed green.

Success! You've created a vial of Minor Life Potion!

You've reached level 1 in Profession: Alchemy.

I lovingly took out the vial. For some reason, things you make with your own hands make you feel better, which is a fact exploited by numerous brands selling you lopsided DIY furniture kits more suitable for dwarves that for human use. Ah, forget it.

By the time Bug screamed "Yes! Nineteen!" I'd already used up all the herbs I had, raising the skill to 23.

I proudly pointed at where three dozen tiny bottles were lined up by the fire. "Welcome to Dr. Death Knight's clinic," I said, filling my quick access slots with vials. Others followed suit, snapping up the rest.

A few minutes later, I gingerly stepped onto the moss of the Sleeping Woods. The first to meet me was the SUV-sized hulk of a grizzly bear. A couple levels higher than myself, he was perfect for a test pull.

I cast a DoT with a snare. The creature bellowed, causing wood rot to cascade below. I shook my head, stunned by his voice. Was it his skill or the developers' sick sense of humor again? Was there a way to put the sound down here? I bolted. A flower of Purple Cineraria flashed under some fir tree or other. I tried to memorize the place to be able to come back to it at a later date.

Both Hummungus and the zombie stood by the fire as I'd told them to. You couldn't get further than fifty paces away from your pets. If you did, the mount would revert back to his artifact and the zombie could follow one of two scenarios. He would either crumble to dust in the absence of his owner's control or turn into an uncontrollable aggro. If some Necro left behind a high-level creature like that in a newb location, it could keep devastating the area for a long time until finally killed by a stronger player. And as it didn't offer any loot or experience, few would bother laying an unleashed mob like that to rest.

I turned to the pet. "Attack!" Then I slowly moved to face the grizzly bear.

Now we had to wait a few seconds as agreed. No one wanted to pull aggro to him or herself. Finally, Taali swung her sword entering the scene. The tip of her blade drew some kind of pictogram on the beast's side. With a guttural shriek, she hit the creature with her shield, finishing her act. The battle chat started flashing messages.

Failure! Taali's sword has dealt a powerful blow, but the Grizzly is still resisting her attack!

Which was when I joined the fun. I first sent Teddy to attack him. Then I cast a DoT with a snare, and another one, ending by casting two heals over my zombie. Somewhere in the wings, I heard Bug's cry for help.

I turned round. The kid was pulling two wolves from the woods. Too early. He should have sat out our first pull and watch us handle it. I switched the target and cast Deadman's Hand over one of the wolves, adding a DoT for good measure. Once the spell wore off, he'd start aggroing me, and then we'd see. Was I a semi-tank, after all? By then the grizzly and Taali were at 30%. On my command, she broke off the fight to heal Bug and herself. The zombie was still holding while Hummungus kept nibbling at the grizzly's back. I cast a DoT over each of the three mobs and renewed Deadman's Hand on the wolf. Taali rejoined us as I cast several Life Absorptions. Too much for the grizzly who promptly collapsed, bellowing. Keeping an eye on Bug, we finished off the remaining wolf while the kid terminated his, too.

Phew. That wasn't too difficult. Good team work, without walking a tightrope. We could do it. We'd had a stress test instead of the easy one we'd expected, that was all.

"Regen," I said. They sat down for a mana-restoring meditation while I quickly rushed to get a plant I'd discovered earlier, picking up another Sunleaf on my way. My herbal skill happily jumped up another point.

I looted the corpses. The wolf dropped a couple of chunks of meat while my newly-acquired flaying skill gave me an Eye of a Wolf. It didn't cost much but could be used for Night Vision Elixir. Waste not, want not.

The grizzly dropped nothing but a hefty handful of copper. True, farming Soul Stones solo was much easier than as part of a group. Each group member lessened my chances. With two of us, Soul Stones dropped half as often—even less when Bug joined us. In theory, you weren't supposed to notice it that much because logically, a group had to kill more mobs than a solo player. But in reality, the stronger the group, the more ambitious its goals and the higher the monsters the players target. That raised both loot and adrenalin but dramatically lowered the group's kill chances. I didn't even want to calculate the chances to get a Stone off a raid boss attacked by a group of two hundred players. Such chances had to be too depressing to bother.

"I'm ready," the girl reported.

"I'm off, then?" Bug shuffled from foot to foot, impatient.

"Go ahead, then. Scream if you need help. Use your bandages and elixirs. I'll be going, too."

The hunt started to fall into a pattern. After another twenty minutes, Hummungus had finally reached a new level.

Congratulations! Your riding mount Hummungus has reached a new level!

Hummungus' current level: 2

4 Characteristic points available!

Excellent. The night before, I'd had Teddy's leveling all worked out. I was going to increase his damage, and as soon as Hummungus started to pull aggro to himself, I'd start working on his hits. And the next day I planned to invest in his speed a little. Until now, it all had been going to plan. I opened Teddy's menu with a steady hand and raised his Strength four points.

In yet another twenty minutes, a celestial glow embraced Taali and almost immediately, Bug.

"Ding!" they shouted.

A quarter of an hour later, it was my turn to celebrate. Level 33, finally.