Patch 17 (Realm of Arkon, Book 1)

  ***

  "I still say this is a great place," Max took a sip of wine from a simple wooden chalice, inhaled the smoke with gusto and gave the nearby sorcerer, who was contemplating the motley birds swimming in the lake, a gentle shove. "You're overcome by melancholy again?"

  Luffy took a suspicious look at the vessel in his hand, downed the contents in a single gulp, and stretched out on the grass, folding his hands behind his head.

  "I should stop lying to myself," he said sullenly. "The phone is silent, her mother isn't picking up, either, and when I called her friend, she got so scared she nearly soiled herself."

  "Well, she's doing all right, at least," said Max philosophically. "And so are you, by the way. This 'doing all right' thing may not involve the two of you being together, but she isn't the last woman alive, is she?"

  "A month ago, when they'd just brought me back from the hospital, I told her she was free right away. We wouldn't have starved, but who needs a guy with no legs? Why did she have to stay with me? Why lie?" The young man sat up in agitation and looked to the side with anger in his eyes. "They brought the capsules a week ago—you have to order them well in advance where I come from. We thought we could spend time here… Then this nightmare of a 'departure'—a neighbor died together with his son, right in their capsules… Then Alex called his mother, and she followed. Can you imagine?" The mage picked the chalice up from the grass and handed it to Max. "And then she calls me—this neighbor woman, I mean—and asks me to look after the apartment until their relatives arrive, and to call the coroner. It took me less than five minutes to decide… Xenia agreed to it, too—we had no kids, after all. But why did she have to lie to me?!"

  "You're a fool, brother," Max shook his head. "You lived with an amazing woman. Remember her and be grateful she didn't leave you when you were down in the dumps… Let's drink to her."

  "You're a real spoilsport, Max. Whenever there's a serious conversation, you sidetrack it, and I have nothing to counter with… Forget it. May she be happy and in good health," the young man finished his wine in a single gulp and stretched out on the grass again. "Thanks," he said after a while.

  "For what exactly?"

  "For hearing me out…"

  They finished digging late at night, having tilled the entire stretch of land. When the herbalist, whom they woke up in the middle of the night banging at his door, gave them their gold, they instantly leveled to three. Immalah mumbled, "Why can't some people just sleep the night away?" as he taught them their first profession by pressing his palm against their foreheads. Then he gave them a thin notebook containing descriptions of the Sunlit Forest flora.

  The companions spent the next three days running around the woods. Alisha, a pretty young elven maid who also turned out to be a herbalist, gave them about a dozen quests at once, all of which involved gathering local flowers and herbs. The stocky and somewhat beast-like druid tasked them with cutting off pestilential burls growing on some trees—he called those blighted fungi. Finally, by the morning of the fourth day, the friends had eradicated the source of the pestilence, which was an enormous mossy tree stump. They reported to Artainor, and then headed back to Mentor Almaren, cursing the entire local flora in low voices.

  There were substantially more people once they returned, and they had to spend eight hours in line before they could register the quest as completed, all the while listening to news from the outside world. The news was unremarkable, however—all the developments were expected. The panic and the hype were growing by the minute. The death of over thirty million people drowned out all other reports of current events and was discussed on every channel and all over the Internet. Several governments had already implemented limits on capsule usage while scientists discussed whether or not the Realm of Arkon could be considered a separate reality. Most people, however, didn't care much at all. Parents followed their children and vice versa. Many of those who couldn't find a place for themselves in the world had migrated, as well as the terminally ill, adventurers and thrill-seekers. Capsules skyrocketed in price and soon became impossible to find. One man claimed to have bought his for eight hundred grand. But the weirdest thing was that the same capsule could only be used by close relatives to leave one after another. Therefore, a mass exodus into this world wasn't likely to happen anytime soon.

  "Salutations, heroes," said Almaren in a strange voice as he rose to greet them. "I bid you welcome to my humble abode…"

  "You're trolling me, aren't you?" Luffy looked at him suspiciously.

  "Just a tiny bit," the druid grinned. "However, I'm truly grateful to you for the awakening of the soil."

  "Soil is all nice and good," muttered Luffy while examining a plain-looking wooden staff—his quest reward. "But we really didn't expect we'd have to spend three days gathering a comprehensive collection of herbs and flowers," he grunted, satisfied by the visual examination.

  "Oh, so it's hunting that you're after?" The druid shook his head in reproach. "Well, that's easy enough." He settled into his armchair, produced a blank scroll and started to write something on it…

  You've accessed the quest: The Majordomo of Venlamin.

  Quest type: normal.

  Find Majordomo Diplexius in Venlamin and deliver the message from Mentor Almaren to him.

  Reward: experience.

  "The Brown Hills are overcome with packs of rats—they feed on the bark and the soft heartwood of young trees," he explained to Max as he gave him the scroll. "Certain events that have transpired lately have made me focus on something else entirely. A week ago, Majordomo Diplexius asked me to send him a few hunters to destroy the pesky rodents. I have no free hunters at the moment, but the two of you should be able to handle the task without much trouble."

  "Kill a beaver! Save a tree!" Max looked at Almaren, holding the two-handed sword received as a reward for completing the quest on his shoulder for want of a sheath.

  "Something along those lines," nodded the druid. "You get the drift, but note that wood rats are a bit larger than beavers. Good hunting, heroes," the druid waved the companions farewell. "We're unlikely to meet again here—on the mainland, perhaps, two years later, when my service here is done. One more thing—I come from the Wood Moose clan and consider it a great honor to be compared to that animal. You should bear that in mind, young warrior…"

  "There's a place that's a lot like this one near Kiev, right next to the village of Rovzhi. When I was a student, we would spend nearly every weekend there during the summer." There was a hint of nostalgia in Luffy's voice. "The pines are just like the ones here, and the shore is just as steep. This puddle is a far cry from the Kiev Reservoir, of course, but…"

  "I can't remember the last time I went fishing," Max replied in the same vein. "There should be someone here who teaches the fishing skill—we should definitely find them tomorrow."

  "Don't you ever feel horrified when you think all of it is gone forever? After all, we're basically walking corpses, you and I."

  "Cut the crap," Max took his eyes away from the players splashing in the lake a hundred feet away and frowned at the mage. "How the hell are we walking corpses? As for beautiful places, I'm sure there are lots more of them here than back there."

  "But how is that relevant?" Luffy sighed. "There may be more beautiful places, but none of them feel like home…"

  "You're at it again, are you?"

  "Don't mind me—I get this way when I've had a few," the mage shook his head. "Still, it's a good thing we came here instead of staying at the inn… those drunken mugs depress me."

  "Remember the movie that came out recently—The Final Day, or whatever it was called? With another asteroid heading for collision with the Earth? They really partied hard there, knowing the end was nigh, didn't they? But why would you do it here? Did you notice that only one person in ten or so is actually doing something useful? The elves are supposed to be one of the evolved races." Max looked at the drunk elven maidens screaming and splashing each other,
and then his glance fell on the chalice in his hand. "At least they can't remove their undies in a noob zone. Thank goodness. I shudder to imagine what would happen here otherwise."

  "You're a snob, brother," Luffy snorted. "Why do you care? The two of us aren't all that sober, either."

  "I don't like seeing people behave like animals, is all. As for us, a bottle and a half each is a ridiculous amount. Also, we've been working like beasts of burden for three days straight—we deserve it." He rose in a single fluid motion. "Shall we go? The moon is out already."

  "Let's—it's high time we had some proper sleep. I'm sick of camping out in the woods."

  "Don't forget you're an elf—they're supposed to sleep up in trees, aren't they?" Max shot over his shoulder.

  "Let monkeys sleep up in trees," Luffy dusted his pants and followed. "But think how convenient this is—there are ten rooms tops in the inns, and they can house a hundred—and everyone gets a room of their own, unless they invite someone over. This hotel owner lady—the one that looks thirty at the age of sixty-something, what's her name…"

  "Paris Hilton?"

  "That's the one. Imagine what she could have paid for someone implementing that IRL…"

  "Like I care! We're not IRL anymore," Max turned over as they approached the massive door of the inn, with the din of inebriated patrons coming from inside. "At seven in the morning, right here," he pointed to the ground with his finger. "Tomorrow's gonna be a hectic day—don't you dare oversleep."

  "Worry about your own oversleeping," the mage grunted. "Let's get going before I pass out right here," he nodded at the bodies piled up next to the entrance, wincing at the smell of vomit, "right next to these folks…"

  "You have drunk ten times less, although you can surely try if you want," Max smiled, and the companions entered the inn.

  Max found it really hard to fall asleep that night. He never slept well in a new place, and now his unease was compounded by the wine and all sorts of uneasy thoughts coming to his mind. How would Alyona react to his arrival? What if she'd already found someone? What would he need to do to find her in the first place if she never checked her mail? Everything had seemed easy enough initially—log into the game, send a private message, and wait for the answer. But on the very first day it turned out that after the patch, which took place less than a week ago, the only way of reaching someone was by mail. It was impossible to send mail to the mainland from Sunlit Forest, so he'd have to wait until he got out of here.

  Then he started to worry about his friend. There was no information on Demon Grounds anywhere on the game forum—that plane was still being prepared for launch, so there was simply no one around who would know how to get there. Max eventually got tired of tossing and turning—he rose, turned on the light, opened the window and lit a cigarette. There were drunks singing tunelessly in the street. A woman was laughing loudly. The young man sighed. How would this new world accept them the way they really were? He sat down on a ramshackle stool near the windowsill—you needed money to change the interior of your private room, and he and Luffy had spent everything on missing pieces of equipment—and surrendered to contemplation. It was true that the players differed little from NPCs who had come to life now, the way Mentor Almaren appeared to have done, all of them following a preprogrammed pattern of behavior. In case of the elves, that pattern was affected by such qualities as pride and arrogance. If Almaren, like the other Sunlit Forest NPCs, was programmed to have a certain amount of benevolence towards players, the movers and shakers of this world were unlikely to cry tears of sympathy at the sight of a warrior dressed in rags. That meant they'd have to fight hard for their place under the sun—and, on top of all that, he'd have to find and protect Alyona, and then discover a means of infiltrating a locked gaming plane to save his friend. He could contemplate his place in this world later—he was no stranger to hardship and expected a lot more to come, yet Max didn't doubt himself or his ability to succeed for a second.

  He opened the character menu to distract himself, and took another good look at his stats and equipment. The best item out of those laid out carefully on his table was the two-handed sword received from the druid.

  Young Warrior's Two-Handed Sword.

  Sword: two-handed weapon.

  Durability: 200/200.

  Ordinary.

  Minimum level: 10.

  Damage: 15-27.

  +11 to strength.

  Weight: 9 lbs.

  His stats with the sword equipped looked as follows:

  Agility: 1.

  Strength: 35.

  Constitution: 30.

  Vigor: 8.

  Spirit: 1.

  Intellect: 1.

  HP: 300.

  Energy: 80.

  Mana: 10.

  Armor: 62 (31.2% physical damage absorption).

  Weapon damage: 16.05-28.89.

  Mighty Blow I: 42.80-68.48 physical damage.

  Max didn't know the exact formula for calculating the percentage of physical damage being absorbed by the armor vis-a-vis the player's level, but the fact that his 35 points of strength increased his damage output by 7% (5 points of strength being roughly equal to 1%) was indicated next to the stat. Having reached level 10, the newfangled warrior was faced with the selection of the skill that he'd have to learn first—either Dash or Mighty Blow. Max decided to invest the points in extra damage. He'd see whether or not he'd made the right decision tomorrow. He took another look at the learned skill.

  Mighty Blow I.

  Energy: 10 points.

  Instant cast.

  Cooldown: 3 seconds.

  Minimum level: 10.

  Required: melee range, melee weapon equipped.

  An instant attack that deals 100% damage on top of the weapon's base damage. +10 to damage for two-handed weapons or +12 to damage for one-handed weapons.

  Just like the guide recommends, he thought, minimizing the character menu. Whether the simple set of chain-and-leather armor that he had managed to buy for one gold could protect him also remained to be seen—it increased his armor class, but didn't boost any stats. He resented the fact that his utter lack of experience meant he'd have to listen to other people's advice—in his former life he tried to make all his decisions by himself. However, there was no choice at this point, unfortunately. And then there are the rats to take care of, he put out the cigarette and shut the window tight. He'd never have to kill anyone previously, so those who've spent a while playing such games had a definite advantage. However, Max didn't doubt himself—he'd kill anyone who would stand between him and Alyona or Roman—and, possibly, also Luffy, since they'd become close friends over the past three days and had decided to seek their fortunes together.

  The time on the wooden clock on the wall showed three AM—there was less than three hours of sleep left. Max turned off the light, stretched out on the bed, made an approximate plan for tomorrow, and only then finally managed to drift into peaceful sleep.

  The sun that rose from behind the trees transformed the elven village in an astonishing way—it played in the droplets of dew hanging from the blades of grass, chasing the layered fog into the woods and painting the slowly drifting clouds pink.

  "Why so grumpy?" Max chortled at the sight of the mage—scowling and shivering from the morning chill. "The early bird—"

  "Stays sleepy all day long," said Luffy gruffly, still half asleep. "Right, let's go see this Dyslexius…"

  "Hey, you guys," a level 13 elf hunter nicknamed Theophilus separated from a nearby group and approached them. "Let's go take care of the local miniboss—we're just missing a tank and dps," he sad with a barely audible accent. "It's a level 12 boar—we'll deal with him in five minutes."

  "Sorry, man," Max shook his head. "We've got a lot of stuff to do ourselves, but thanks for the invitation."

  "Have you shat your pants now?" the hunter snorted derisively. "Not enough cojones, eh?" the guy turned to address those behind him, as if calling them to witness. "The game'
s overrun by chickenshit noobs…"

  "Get stuffed, imbecile," Luffy butted in. "I bet this guy is the master looter in your group, isn't he?" he asked the young men and women standing behind the hunter. "Once you snuff the boar, this dope will grab everything for himself—there's no way you'll be able to take your share. So good luck to all of you," he chuckled, shaking Max by the shoulder. "Come on, let's move."

  According to the expressions on the elves' faces, the mage's words hit the mark, but the two companions decided not to wait for the situation to resolve one way or another. As Max was leaving, he just smiled back at the hunter, who was staring him down furiously.

  "Do we really look like such easy marks?" he asked the mage who was walking in front. Max had read a few warnings about con artists of this sort on the forum, and regretted having almost allowed himself to be taken in.

  "Perish the thought," the wizard hastened to reassure him. "You and that phallic symbol on your shoulder," he nodded toward the dully glistening two-handed sword, "not to mention the shining armor, doubtlessly make you look like a legendary hero of yore."

  "Accompanying Merlin the Great to the golf course?" Max pointed toward Luffy's poker-shaped staff, and they shared a merry laugh.

  "Heroes, eh?" Majordomo Diplexius—a tall, broad-shouldered elf with long silver hair in two long braids—put away the scroll and looked at Max with a mix of irony and scorn. "Well then, it shouldn't be hard for you to destroy a meager fifty wood rats in the Brown Hills."

  You've accessed the quest: Vermin Extermination.

  Quest type: normal.

  Bring fifty Wood Rat Tails from the Brown Hills, located to the north of Venlamin, to Majordomo Diplexius.

  Reward: experience, increased reputation in Sunlit Forest, 1 gold, unusual cloak of your choosing.

  "The rats are basically not aggressive," the elf explained once they accepted the quest. "However, the instant you attack one, you shouldn't approach any of the others without a weapon in your hand. Those beasts have something like a hive mind binding them together—you should bear that in mind. And another thing," Diplexius pointed toward one of the residential trees. "Pay Alaune Veliessa a visit. She might have a quest for you, too…"

  Alaune Veliessa's marlorien was surrounded by flowering vegetation growing in a fifty-yard radius—it was the lushest garden Max had ever seen. Flower combinations that seemed impossible created an unimaginable overall effect—one couldn't stop admiring them. Decorative hedges assumed the shapes of fantastical animals and seemed to come alive when touched by the rays of the rising sun.

  The owner, a middle-aged elven lady with very comely and symmetrical features, met them at the doorway of her home. She appeared flattered by the admiring looks cast at her garden by the companions.

  "You like it, don't you?" she inquired in a melodious low voice.

  "It's amazing," Max exhaled, having finished admiring the bush that grew in the shape of a sleeping panther. The wind was ruffling its leaves, creating the impression that the large cat was asleep and breathing steadily in its slumber. "How do you manage it?"

  "When your comrade becomes a Herb Whisperer, he'll also be able to do it," the woman smiled in return. "Why didn't you take up this noble profession, o young warrior?"

  "I'm not that young," Max shook his head. "If I find out how you do it, it won't seem like fairy tale stuff anymore, and I'm not sure I'd like that to happen."

  "What a great excuse, bravo," whispered Luffy, who had stood to the right, making Veliessa smile for a moment.

  "So you opine that your thirty-two years make you an adult?" she inquired with a touch of irony in her voice. "Well, it doesn't matter—be an adult if you want to." The woman stepped to the side graciously and invited them in with a gesture. "Come in and tell me what brings you here so early in the day. I have no wine, but I think you might like my tea."

  "I'm really sorry that you'll have to kill these animals," the elven woman shook her head when they told her about the purpose of their visit. "But I know it cannot be helped. Those rats breed at an alarming rate, and the forest is in serious danger. As you must have guessed," she nodded toward the rows of test tubes and flasks standing on the shelves, "apart from herbalism, I dabble in alchemy and have pretty decent command of nature magic. If you get me 10 wood rat secretion glands, I'll probably be able to come up with a spell that will substantially slow down the propagation of those vermin. I can teach you alchemy in return, with mana, HP and energy restoration potion recipes thrown in, or pay you a gold coin for those glands."

  You've accessed the quest: Ingredients for Veliessa.

  Quest type: normal.

  Bring 10 Wood Rat Secretion Glands to Alaune Veliessa in Venlamin.

  Reward: experience and a choice between 1 gold or learning the Alchemy skill, plus the recipes for Lesser Mana Potion, Lesser Health Potion, and Lesser Energy Potion.

  "If you add the recipe for this incredible tea to those of the potions," the mage nodded toward the steaming cup in his hand, "we can bring you eleven of those glands, no less."

  "It's hard to say no to you," the elven lady smiled at him. "I don't need eleven—I'll teach you for free, and even provide you with a pouch of tea from my personal stash."

  "Really, did you hear the way she pronounced the last phrase?" said Luffy in a dreamy voice when they left Venlamin, having consulted the map previously, and headed north, following a narrow path. "I'm really beginning to like it here…"

  "You mean they find it hard to reject you? Sure, I've heard it all," grunted Max without turning around. "By the way, how old do you think she is? If she finds my thirty two years youthful… What kind of experience does one need to guess a person's age just like that?"

  "You really are a wet blanket," the mage sighed heavily. "Was it really necessary for you to say that?"

  "I'm not trying to discourage you, I'd just like you not to get any ideas before we manage to get a good idea of how things work over here."

  "I'm not getting any ideas," Luffy grouched. "I have other things on my mind right now. By the way, any idea what these glands look like?"

  "We're not supposed to remove them surgically or anything," replied Max without a moment's thought. "You're just supposed to find them inside dead rats, or did I misunderstand what they said on the forum?"

  "Nope, you're right. And since you're so intelligent and well-read, you'll be the one to remove them, just in case," Luffy nodded toward the two-handed sword. "You've gotten yourself a slicer, after all, young padawan."

  "Right, even score," Max laughed, and the companions walked on.

  They noticed signs of the local rodents' activities well in advance. Two enormous hills well over a hundred feet each were completely devoid of trees, as well as the area around them. It didn't look like a woodcutter operation—there weren't even any stumps left. The rodents themselves were nowhere to be seen. According to Diplexius, wood rats were exclusively nocturnal. The steep hill slopes were pocked with dark caves, six to twelve feet wide. Max counted twelve of them.

  "Which hole shall we investigate?"

  "That one," Max pointed toward one of the caves. "I'll have to swing my sword around somehow, after all."

  Inside, the cave looked more like a rapid transit tunnel. There was enough light from the glowing green vegetation on the walls and the ceiling to see what was happening some two hundred feet ahead.

  "A little larger than a beaver, eh?!" said an outraged Luffy, observing the rats scurrying through the cave. "My grandpa had a sheepdog that was quite a bit smaller! And the stench!"

  "You've never really seen beavers, have you?" Max grunted as he got a better grip of the sword. "Did you expect the aroma of lilacs?"

  "Something less revolting would sure be nice…" muttered the mage. "Are you ready?"

  "I am."

  Luffy targeted the nearest level 10 rat, his hands flashed red for a moment, and a fiery arrow hit the mob in the side, taking off about a quarter of the rodent's HP. The wounded
rat squealed loudly and started hopping towards the foe. Max took a step forward and activated Mighty Blow, plunging his sword into the rodent's neck. There was a gruesome crunch; the rat bled, squealed, then dashed past the warrior and sank its fangs into Luffy's thigh.

  "Bastard!" the mag exhaled, wincing from the pain, and tried to push the mob aside, taking the staff with both hands.

  A blow of the two-handed sword threw the rodent to the side. The rat turned around and attacked the warrior this time. A sharp pain shot through Max's leg—the sensation was very similar to that of his neighbor's Irish wolfhound biting him in his childhood. Bearable, was the only thought that flashed in his mind as he dealt his third blow. The second Fire Arrow ended the battle—the rat convulsed, and then was still.

  "The smell has changed," Max winced from the spreading reek of burned wool, blood, and musk. "Although I can't say it has become more pleasant…"

  "This rat bastard screwed up my second casting," Luffy approached the rodent's corpse, limping.

  "You have higher damage—one blow wasn't enough to draw its aggro," said the warrior in an apologetic tone.

  "Doesn't seem life-threatening," Luffy rolled up his trouser leg and demonstrated an enormous bruise on his thigh. "I dread to think what would happen if it went a little to the left," he shook his head.

  "Don't stick your 'a little to the left' out much," Max chuckled, "especially when there are rats around. Although you shouldn't worry, anyway—you won't need it in Sunlit Forest anyway, and it's gonna grow back if anything happens. If it doesn't, we'll see a local healer about it…"

  "I don't find your moronic jokes amusing," the mage made his way around the pool of blood spilled by the mob, went down on one knee, and touched a patch of the mob's skin where there were no wounds. He grimaced and rose, rubbing his hands.

  "What's the matter?"

  "Look, why don't you take it yourself?" Luffy nodded toward the corpse and moved aside.

  "Wuss," snorted Max as he looted the corpse for a piece of rat meat, a twenty-inch tail and a gland—a slippery bluish piece of offal. "How are you planning to get your alchemy on? I heard some of the ingredients they use are even quainter."

  "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," replied the mage in the same vein. "I won't be able to carry much at this point, at any rate—I need a special bag. So, shall I pull the next one?"

  Some two hours later, Luffy inquired, "Are you sure you're not Korean? Maybe you have relatives there?"

  "You leveled to twelve? So why don't you shut up—there's nowhere else we can level this fast."

  Max was a gruesome sight—he was covered in blood and unidentified pieces of rodent anatomy from head to toe, much like a character in a horror B-movie. Once they leveled to eleven and learned Dash, things livened up a bit. The rats no longer reached the mage—the warrior would Dash to intercept them, and deal the second blow as soon as the stun wore off. There was just one mishap—inexplicably, three rats attacked the companions at once instead of coming at them one by one. This could have cost Max and Luffy their lives—fortunately, all three mobs attacked Max, and still the Scroll of Full Healing saved the day. The warrior used it once the pain became unbearable and the world before his eye flashed red, else they would have had to trot all the way back here from their bind point in Venlamin. The silver lining was that Max's Toughness skill increased by two percent.

  "Are you planning to stay here until we waste all the critters? We've already taken care of over a hundred mobs—they'll start respawning pretty soon."

  "There's next to nothing left," the warrior gestured forward, where one could vaguely discern a wall. "A dozen rats or so, and we can leave."

  "Reckon this is the end of the cave?" Luffy snorted. "It feels like we should have walked right through that hill a long time ago."

  "No matter. Let's snuff these and split. By the way, do you smell what I smell?"

  "I won't be smelling much for quite a while after today," the mage sighed heavily. "But it stinks like there's a stiff somewhere down there."

  "Exactly. So stop talking and set your sights on the next one."

  About five minutes later they stood near the far wall of the cave and studied the swollen and semi-decomposed body of an elven warrior that lay in the shade of an overhanging piece of stone.

  "The hell is this?" Max eyed the bloodied sword sceptically, put it in his inventory, and looked at the mage. "Can you make anything of it?"

  "Elementary, my dear Watson," the other replied, trying to breathe through his mouth. "The guy must have entered the cave, walked it all the way through, and died. The rats aren't aggressive if you don't attack them, or he would have died much earlier.

  "Brilliant," Max tried to perform an applause, and the rattle of his chainmail gloves echoed toward the entrance. "Won't you just tell me what the hell a level 40 elf was doing here, and how he might have died?"

  "Hey, I'm no coroner! I used to be the director of a travel agency, if you must know, although you don't need to be an expert to get an idea of what happened here," he nodded at the three lacerations on the dead man's chest. "A bear must have attacked him, and then he probably expired of blood loss. This is weird, though."

  "Exactly," Max shook his head. "What kind of a blow does it have to be for chainmail to get rent like that?"

  "Any bear could do it IRL, let alone here. Don't just stand there—loot the corpse and let's get out of here, I suddenly feel like a drink."

  "Why are you refined types always so squeamish?"

  There was a clinking sound, the corpse's money was shared equally between the friends, and each became two silver coins richer.

  You've accessed the quest: The Guardsman's Medallion.

  Quest type: rare, chain.

  Take the medallion of Guardsman Kiluren to Garrison Commander Istadior in Armilan and tell him about the fate that befell one of his soldiers.

  Reward: experience, increased reputation with the dark elves, 2 gold.

  Max fumbled with the small round disk made of hard brown wood for a while, lost in thought, and then gave it to Luffy.

  "There's nothing else—just the money, and this."

  "Do you realize what we found? Of course, I read a piece about some dude finding a scalable epic item in noobland, but I think it's a huge pile of BS. But we really did get lucky! You can't even imagine! The reward for completing a rare quest chain is a rare item!" Luffy attempted to read the symbols on the wooden disk, but failed. He handed the medallion back to Max with a dismissive gesture, turned around and started toward the exit.

  "Hey! What about the corpse? Aren't we supposed to bury it?"

  "Do you have any idea about how the elves bury their dead?" Luffy turned around and stared at the warrior in surprise. "What if they want to inspect the body themselves? We'll report like the quest tells us to, and let this Ibrahim send his own gravedigger detail."

  "It's Istadior…"

  "He could be Sir Isaac Newton for all I care."

  "Just admit it—you simply don't want to have anything to do with a semi-decomposed corpse!"

  "Well, do you?"

  "No."

  "So stop acting like Zorro," the mage snapped. "Let's get going—we need to report to the quest givers in Venlamin, and then walk for another five miles until we reach Armilan."

  There were a lot more people in Armilan by the time they got back, around four in the afternoon. The atmosphere in the village was festive in the best possible sense. Max had never seen so many smiling faces before.

  "Listen," Luffy gazed after a group of five girls with hair of different colors, and pointed at the enormous line before the mentor's marlorien. "When the game was just taking off, there must have been around fifty times more people here. How did the devs handle overcrowding that time?"

  "Write the tech support and ask them," Max grunted. "How should I know? Maybe there are several noob zones such as this one, or some other workaround. Mind how you twist your neck—you might break it
. A day or two more, and all of them will move on to all sorts of locations, and every quest giver will have a line in front just as long as this one. If it weren't for this medallion, I'd have sought the exit already—level 13 should be sufficient."

  The guards at the entrance to the garrison territory absolutely refused to let them through at first. They had to wait for the elf in charge of the guards for about ten minutes. He examined the medallion, nodded, took the companions to the biggest marlorien, told them they'd be invited, and set off about his own business. They sat down on the grass near the entrance. Luffy got a bottle out of his inventory, took a few swigs, and then passed it on to Max.

  "We might want to grab a crate of this wine with us just in case they don't have it on the mainland," he said as he crunched into an apple.

  "Grab one by all means—who's stopping you?" Max passed the bottle back, took a cigarette out of his inventory, and lit up with a blissful face.

  "What I'm trying to say is that you're the one who'll have to carry it—I won't be able to lift that much. Oh! What the…" the guy froze with his mouth open wide, pointing at something behind Max's back.

  A short tree growing nearby suddenly straightened out with a crack and started to move toward them, its lower limbs creaking. Passing no more than five yards from them, it stopped, glanced at them with its enormous unblinking eyes, and moved on, apparently having found nothing of interest.

  "I'll be damned," muttered the outraged mage, "that thing could leave me stuttering for the rest of my life. Fancy meeting a block of wood with eyes in the forest at night… You'll have to change your pants and find yourself a shrink right away…"

  "I guess you shouldn't worry about the pants," Max laughed, "but a shrink probably wouldn't hurt. An elf afraid of a Guardian Tree! Really!"

  "I've been blessed with a companion of great courage and intelligence, I get it," Luffy shook his head and took another sip from the bottle.

  "You should have read the guides and the forum posts—I spent the whole night in front of my computer before coming here."

  "Well, I didn't have that much time for guides. I had a brief look at what you need to do when creating a mage. I didn't plan to play much when I ordered those capsules. I had something else in mind, and see how it played out…"

  They were escorted to Istadior about fifteen minutes later. He turned out to be a tall level 240 elf wearing a silvery suit of armor. The garrison commander's hair was woven into a thick and intricate braid; his paleness and the circles around his eyes suggested he must have skipped a few nights' sleep.

  "Hand over whatever you have there," the elf took off his armored glove and threw it onto the table, where he'd already put the helm from the same suit. He took the medallion and examined it closely. "Where did you find it?"

  "In the Wood Rat lair, about half a mile north of Venlamin." Max explained in detail how they found the body of the guardsman and which cave they had visited.

  "Did he have any letters on him?"

  "No, just the medallion," the warrior decided not to mention the four silver coins.

  "Sata! What rotten timing." Istadior sighed heavily. "Here, take this," he placed four gold coins on the table, "and thank you."

  Quest: The Guardsman's Medallion.

  You received 2 gold.

  "Is there any way we can help?" Max uttered the standard formula for such situations.

  The elf thought for a moment, and then raised his eyes at the warrior, apparently having reached a positive decision.

  "A week ago, twenty guards went to Yltarin—an outpost in the far north, near the edge of Maeglyn Woods. Three days ago, we lost contact with them—the messenger falcon never arrived. And today you brought me the medallion of one of them." The elf rubbed his eyes, bloodshot from the lack of sleep, took a cup of some pungent tea and took a few sips. "I'm critically short of people—did you see what's going on in Armilan? I need you to deliver a letter to Yltarin and return with a reply by tomorrow evening," Istadior sat down at his desk, wrote a few lines on a parchment scroll, sealed it with his personal seal and handed it to Max.

  You've accessed the quest: Trouble in Maeglyn Woods.

  Quest type: rare, chain.

  Take the letter of Garrison Commander Istadior to Outpost Commander Neytan in Yltarin and bring his answer back to Armilan.

  Reward: experience, increased reputation with the dark elves, 2 gold, and a rare weapon of your choosing.

  Attention! The time for completing this quest is limited: 29:59:59… 29:59:58… 29:59:57

  "If you fail to make it by tomorrow evening, I'll send fifty rangers to the outpost," the elf took another sip from the cup and pointed at the door. "Hurry up—time is of the essence."

  "Dang, we'll have to schlep twenty miles north!" Luffy pointed at the mark on the map. "But then, journeying back and forth to get a rare weapon is a freaking excellent opportunity!"

  "I'd stop biting my fingernails if I were you," Max shook his head reproachfully. "You're an alchemist, aren't you? There'll be all sorts of ingredients to handle. Stick a finger in your mouth, and you'll wake in the graveyard."

  "Did anyone ever tell you what a negative Nancy you are?" the mage sighed heavily.

  "Well, that's just the way I am," the warrior smiled. Here's the village of Trin-da-ri-en—how do they come up with these names?" He pointed to the map. "We can spend the night there, and head for the fort, or whatever it is, in the morning. We'll only have three miles to go. By the way, he mentioned a certain Sata—who is she?"

  "As far as I remember, Sata is the local goddess of luck, or the other way round. We can read about it in the chronicles on our way. Shall we go?"