(World of Valdira 01) The Way of the Clan (14 page)

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Yup!

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But you told me only about beavers.

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Just because beavers are my neighbors, I can watch their games for hours. – the miller chuckled – That’s why I noticed they were lost. Who counts frogs? I wouldn’t have noticed anything unless our local fisher Lorny had said. He’s a frequent visitor here, comes to sit with a fishing rod and to drink some beer. He also came that day. He angle wormed, cast the line, but there wasn’t any nibble! I was sitting for three solid hours and caught no single fish. After that he noticed that nothing was murmuring or ribbitting in the deergrass as it used to do. He ran up o me with the question – what, he says, happened? Where did it go? So we discussed it with him, lifted our hands in dismay, drank a can of beer for two, then he left for one more…

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Please, wait a bit – I interrupted the miller who got immersed into sweet memories politely – When did all those creatures come back? As well as the beavers? In two days?

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You know… yeah, I think so… once the beavers started splashing in the water again, I heard ribbit-ribbit in the deergrass. And Lorny didn’t come home with a good take. Maybe the pond was in a fog… that’s why everything hid… but who knows? The essence is that water found its own level so there’s nothing to talk about anymore – summed up the miller and knocked his pipe out against his boot. – I have to mill five sacks of wheat until the sun set. Thank you, good man, you helped me so much with rats. There is no salvation from these damned rodents!

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Erm… thank you, sir! – I got the lay of the land quickly Having nodded the master of milling went towards the mill leaving me alone to stand on the bank of the pond staring thoughtfully at the stillness of the water. I wasn’t just standing, in fact I was asking myself questions and answering them by myself.    

What could cause the disappearance of the beavers? Only their death or, well, a critical failure in the game. It looks rather a failure but it doesn’t explain the loss of other living beings…

Well, then the other way.

What can cause the death of ALL mobs in the pond? The same answer – death. And a failure is quite unlikely in this situation. Imagine that the administration of Valdira could have been asleep at the disappearance of the beavers only, but the stopped ‘respawn’ of all the mobs in one definite location couldn’t have occurred unseen. They can’t have been playing solitaire, they must look at the screens from time to time… and gamers won’t miss it, somebody must have noticed it…

Hrmph… well, suppose it’s not just a failure, then we should accept the fact that it must be death dwelling in the pond for two days and eliminating all the mobs there simultaneously. Because no one can kill about fifty-sixty mobs by one hit… but for a… mage! Here it is!

For a powerful mage knowing mass and volume spells it’s as easy as winking to turn this pond into a burial ground. But is it possible to meet a powerful mage in the Cradle?! Although… those two NPCs that came to the Cradle and started a night hobnob here were using some magic indeed… including volume spells. Remember Vlasilena’s withered oaklings that an intensive spell covered that is likely to be ‘a freezing ring’ or ‘frost breath’.                       

But it was one-time spell, and the miller told me that the pond had been lifeless for two days and nights. Besides, during two days no one had spelt there, no one had fought – as it couldn’t be unnoticed for the miller’s eyes.

Damn it, damn it all! I can’t understand it…

Throwing an angry glance at the idyllic picture of the peaceful pond I stepped aside to the nearest tree, hid behind its trunk, entered the interface menu and pressed the icon of exit furiously.

Exit

Opening the lid of the cocoon I rose from the soft pad and stretched my body to loosen my muscles stiff due to standstill. They tend to be stiff – of course – I’ve been lying in the cocoon like a mummy in a sarcophagus for days. Earlier when I was working I used to travel by subway, go upstairs and downstairs, to have forced pursuits of leaving buses, to go shopping after all. Generally it was a typical regular physical activity. Alive but inactive. As a real flatliner… ‘I should do some sports’ – it occurred to me on my way to the fridge – ‘At least some push-ups or squats. Yeah, I should…’

Grabbing a bottle by uncertain fingers, I filled my stomach with cold liquid and felt better immediately. The upcoming headache weakened, my belly growled with delight. I lit two gas rings at once, dropped a pan and a kettle on the cooker and stomped to the bathroom taking off my clothes and leaving them on the floor. A shower… I need contrast shower hydrotherapy and an aspirin as soon as possible. And then a cup of coffee with cream and a huge plate of pasta. I’d better cook a simple broth and eat something liquid but it will take me much time to stand in front of the cooker…

Dressed in spacious boxers I was having my dinner in front of the computer screen washing down pasta by sweet coffee while clicking at links. I found the needed topic on Valdira’s forum once I ate half of my pasta. The topic was three years old, kept in the forum archive and had a simple title: “The Cradle! Why aren’t there any mobs in the pond? And what’s wrong with the water?’

It consisted of one page with a dozen of posts, most of them were equal to zero according to the informative value.

Something like:

‘Hey, dude, you’re bullshitting!’

‘What a newbie you are! There are loads of mobs!’

‘Aha-hah! Didn’t you try to dive? They must be hiding on the bottom…’

‘The OP is a complete noob!’

In one word it was a total nonsense and no comments by the administration.

I got interested in the OP’s message more:

‘What’s the hell? Why aren’t there any mobs in the pond in the Cradle? The guide says that it’s permitted to hunt for beavers there and you can sell their hides to the leather-dresser at a profit. But there are no beavers in the pond. There are no mobs at all except for the miller but I’m afraid of hurting him as I’m small and he’s big! Besides water in the pond bites very much. You can lose ten-fifteen hits at once if you dare to go into the pond! You can bear knee-length but deeper it’s a nightmare! I explored every corner there, almost kicked the bucket but there are no sign of a beaver! I lack cash for an axe, I’m a barbarian! Barbarians always walk with axes! All in all, bring the beavers back!’

After reading that message, I hardly resisted bursting out laughing as I was afraid of spitting half-chewed pasta on the screen. But then the laughing desire suddenly vanished away. I pushed the rest of the food into my mouth, washed it down by coffee and rushed to the cocoon. Thanks god, I didn’t have to run far. There was one guess glimmering in my mind.

A flash.

Damn the rainbow…

Entrance

So here I am, almost naked again apart from a gee-string and a leather belt with a dagger. Such an armed nudist. Mad and dangerous…

My rucksack, clothes and weapon were safe and hidden at the roots of a tree and disguised by last year leaves. I was going to dive, so I couldn’t care about my belongings. And you know gamers differ… and most of them won’t think for a long time to grab unattended stuff.

‘Water bites very much’ – the phrase that read on the forum encouraged me to master the profession of a diver. Because I had heard such an uttering before when being Crashshot I was sitting in a port bar, drinking wine and listening to gamers’ tall tales who were discussing furiously a recent sea-battle when several clans had been trying to storm the Achilots’ citadel. That idea led to an epic fail due to the powerful magic protection covering the citadel. I frequently heard such phrases as ‘biting water’, ‘toxic magic’, ‘corrosive acid’ in their discussion. Many achilots’ mages possessed spells with the same impact. But one of them was the most appropriate: ‘acid whirl’. A dreadful thing. It’s said to look like a green waterspout located under water, its dimensions and power depends on the power of the mage who created it. Or on a rank of the magic spell scroll.

The particular characteristics of the spell are the following. It can be cast under water only, it has a certain duration of its effect and can ‘attract’ all living beings nearby. And it’s essential that it’s unnoticeable from the surface. Actually not water but something like acid corroding flesh spins in the whirl. This acid increasingly spreads into different directions turning nearby waters into a poisonous shake. For example, if a beaver gets inside, it will be killed immediately. If I put foot in it, I’ll be able to survive for five or ten seconds. As for small fish with gills there is nothing to say – one inhale and alas. This magic can be cast by achilots only, other races can’t learn this spell. None of the aliens could be an achilot. They live under water and if they emerge on the surface then only inside a water bubble. But this condition can’t destroy my new-born theory – there are scrolls with single-use spells. I’ve used them once or twice while hunting far away from the city. You’d better not to go to the wood alone but if you dare such a stupid step then be so kind to provide yourself with healing potions and a bundle of scrolls with simple spells like ‘small healing’, ‘cleaning’, ‘regeneration’ and so on and so forth. To tell the truth I can’t imagine how many gold coins a scroll with ‘acid whirl’ spell can cost, but it’s not a problem to buy it if you have enough money.

Making sure that no one was watching me I went into water neck-deep and started swimming to the pond center striking my arms awkwardly. A gleesome message popped up immediately:

Achievement!

You’ve got a first-rank achievement ‘Swimmer’!

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

Your award for the achievement: +1% to the speed of moving in water.

Current bonus: +1%

Thanks a lot! That’s the achievement I’ve been dreaming about all my life! I closed the message and went on swimming.

I hope there are no angry pikes that enjoy biting swimmers’ feet. Beavers aren’t aggressive. They can attack only in response to aggression. Water was warm on the surface, it had heated in one day but I didn’t feel comfortable as I had to swim among water-lilies and their fleshy leaves splashed my face over and over again. Long strings of water grass were sliding along my bare stomach and legs. I started with fear at their every touch. There is only left to get entrapped and sink, damn it all… Gosha will be happy to hear that I managed to die heroically splashing about a shallow pond. By the way it seemed shallow, but at the moment I couldn’t feel its bottom under my feet. Swimming away from the bank far enough I inhaled some air and dived immerging into green gloom. A semitransparent timer popped up in front of my eyes, it was ticking backwards 01:59, 01:58. Two minutes. That’s the exact amount of time I could stay under water without a slight problem. If I stayed under water longer, my life points would start ‘ticking’ backwards. Besides, at an incredible rate. About ten percent per second from the maximum value of the life scale. When they pass away, it means death. I didn’t have time to look around when one more message appeared in front of my eyes:

  
Achievement!

You’ve got a first-rank achievement ‘Diver’!

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

Your award for the achievement: +1% to the time of breath-holding under water.

Current bonus: +1% (02:01)

Hrmph… it’s certainly good, but how shall I manage not to get a first-rank achievement ‘Drowned’… I gave the push by my legs and dived deeper peering into the bottom darkening in front of me. In fact it was rather shallow there – about two or two and a half meters. Damn that bloody watergrass completely blocking the view, without it I could see much better…

Over and over again I dived for a short period of time to search the pond bottom raising benthal ooze and frightening a school of small fry. It’s truly a paradise for a fisherman! I need to find a rod and go fishing here to get an achievement ‘Fisherman’ that I used to have and for the sake of fish. I’ll be able to sell it or cook for myself…

I found them after having checked two thirds of the pond and started to get depressed. I was diving subconsciously without believing in success. And suddenly my eye caught something foreign standing out on the black background. But it was so familiar to me. I had seen it millions of times. Checking my timer I made certain I had one minute left, dived deeper and swam closer to the foreign spot. Watergrass ribbons parted to open the view… I can’t believe it… a constrained guttural sound came out of my throat, I emitted a cloud of bubbles, pushed from the bottom and rushed up to the surface. I surfaced in the halo of splashes, I was gasping madly looking blindly at the sky blueness over my head but there was the gloomy picture I had just seen on the bottom in front of my eyes instead. Among watergrass, ooze and slimy stones I had seen a skeleton dressed in torn rags, it was lying face up and looking up by its empty eye-pits at the glimmering surface of water and just one step aside… a clot of silver mist was hovering softly in water in the form of a human body with its arms spread wide. Such clouds of mist are usually left when a gamer is killed together with his belongings, armor and weapon.

It appears that three years ago not two NPCs entered the Cradle and had a hobnob. Only one of them was ‘local’. The second was none other than but a gamer. But a gamer can’t go through the northern gate! A gamer can’t come back to the Cradle any way! A magic veil covering the gate won’t let him in, it will push him aside! Oh my gosh… it appears that he can… but why didn’t he return to take his ‘body’? And why do all the guides warn that once a gamer leaves the Cradle, he’ll never have a chance to come back?