The Citadel (Mirror World Book #2) (16 page)

I cast another look at the cocoon. It had been lying quietly in my bag for almost two days now, occasionally drawing some energy from me. Dormant, basically. It was probably how it was supposed to be. Never mind.

Today I could go directly to the mines. I'd cleared the last pile of debris already the previous morning. Oh yes, and the door. I couldn't work out at first why it had kept coming up as an "object available for cleaning". But once I'd finally got around to it, it had become perfectly clear. It wasn't wood at all. The door was made of Dark Lythir which was some kind of local stone. I even received 10 tyllill crystals for handling it. Not bad at all.

All in all, these last two days of my cleaning gig had earned me 600 crystals. Just as Uncle Vanya had told me, I'd received 2,000 more from the wizard — plus another 300 on closing the cleaning quest that same morning.

I had smiled as I'd handed the onyx over to the wizard, watching his jaw drop. At first he couldn't believe I'd farmed so many crystals. He hurried to issue my reward, then scrambled upstairs to his lab. Not that he could have fooled me with his excited face and the compliments he showered upon me. This was, after all, an NPC playing his part, a piece of well-functioning software. His behavioral algorithm was the same regardless of the player. And still I'd enjoyed watching his stunned face: his eyes wide open, his cheeks crimson with excitement.

A poke to my chest cut short my reminiscing. I opened my eyes. It was Prankster back for another piece of cheese.

"You glutton! You'll explode if you're not careful!"

His black beady eyes and his moist twitching nose seemed to be saying,
Come on, master, quit the BS and give me some more and then we'll see who's going to explode.

"All right, all right. Take it and beat it."

He grabbed his cheese and darted to the top of the wardrobe. That was his habit: he seemed to like sitting up high.

Right. What was I about? Oh yes, the crystals. In total, my little stay in the Citadel had garnered me almost nine and a half thousand Tyllill crystals. Converted to Mellenville Reputation points, that was almost a thousand. Not that I was going to convert them quite yet. I wanted to reach a thousand first: a nice rounded number. Especially seeing as crystals' icons were the same type as money which meant they took up no space at all in my bag.

This morning the system had already bestowed on me my daily 30 pt. Reputation. Which made it 1950 in total. If you added the crystals, it was almost 3,000.

That was much better than I'd initially planned. Another 2,000, and I could approach the bank. Naturally, the 2,000 wasn't the limit. The more I had, the bigger my chances would be of getting a larger loan. And as for a permanent contract... well, if you added up all the days off, my trial period expired today. I'd worked well; I'd never shirked my responsibilities. Let's see what Weigner would offer me now. Somehow I didn't think it was going to be a problem.

Voices outside distracted me from my musings. What was that? Right under the wizard's windows, too. It had never happened before.

I scrambled out of bed and walked over to the window. So! A motley line of players was forming at the tower's front door. It must have only started a couple of minutes ago because earlier today, the square had been empty.

New players kept arriving. What was going on? Was it Varn's work? I wondered if selling him the quest information had been a bad deal after ll. Just look at that crowd! Quite a few Grinders among them, too.

It was a good job I was done clearing the debris. With such an attendance rate, you could forget farming any crystals. Liz had closed her quest on her very first day. She didn't much care for crystals: it was completing the quest itself that mattered to her. But I really liked clearing those piles of stuff. I kept catching myself thinking that I wouldn't mind if the Calteans attacked the fortress again. Who would have thought I'd become so fearless! Actually, I hadn't. But I was really pressed for time.

The noise grew. What had happened there? Ah, it was Tronus finally opening the front door. Immediately the crowd calmed down as he began dishing out quests. The process didn't take him long: apparently the program could handle several players simultaneously. You might think that the wizard was talking to you alone while in fact he was distributing quests to ten more people.

What happened next puzzled me a lot. The first ten players had finished their negotiations with the wizard — but instead of heading directly into the back yard, they turned round and hurried away. The next ten did the same. And the Grinders! Why would
they
go? Cleaning junk was something they were meant to do!

The whole thing looked wrong. Varn had nothing to do with it. No, this was something else.

It took about twenty minutes for the courtyard to empty again. I walked downstairs just as Tronus was closing the front door.

"Ah, it's you," he waved a weary hand. "Good morning, my friend."

"It doesn't look very good to you, does it?"

He shook his head. "You've nailed it, my friend. You absolutely nailed it. They all seem to have gone mad! I had to make up a schedule to receive them all. All of a sudden, everybody's dying to help me! For several months they've been giving me a wide berth and now they can't get enough of my quests!"

I was just about to confess when he beat me to it,

"You're gonna laugh," he said. "You remember I told you about those complex quests I made specially to get rid of them?"

I nodded, frowning.

"And," he went on, "this is incredible! Each and every one of these visitors asked me for one of them. Some ragamuffin dwarf demanded several! I decided to teach him a lesson so I gave him the most difficult ones. And what do you think? — he jumped with joy! The world has gone mad!"

I just couldn't understand it. Why would they do that?

"Never mind, my friend," the wizard said wearily. "I still have work to do. But you, you deserve a day off. You did a great job! Tomorrow I'll have to think what else you could do."

"Excellent," I grinned. "Make sure you have a really complex quest for me!"

He burst out laughing. "You be careful," he shook his finger at me, "or I might just do that. If I ask you to bring me some mother-of-pearl spillikins or even some Crast Stones from No-Man's Lands, you'll know all about it!"

After some more small talk, Tronus headed for his lab while I walked back upstairs to my room. I had to contact both Varn and Uncle Vanya and ask them what the hell was going on. They were bound to know.

I was already reaching for my room's door when my inbox pinged.

Sender: Weigner

What was wrong with everybody today? I slumped into the chair and opened the mail.

Hi man, how's it going? Enjoying being a frontier guard? Make sure you don't let the enemy through!

I smiled. Typical Weigner.

Doryl's saying hello. We might actually see you soon.

What was that supposed to mean?

You might be surprised but your temporary contract has already been upgraded to a permanent one. Great job, congratulations! See the attached file with your new work agreement. Take a good look, there's no hurry. And if you're happy with it just sign it and send it back to me.

You've done an excellent job! We're very happy for you. In any case, in five days' time you're to report to our office at 10 a.m. sharp. Lady Mel's representative wishes to meet you. A very big cheese. So make sure you're here on the dot.

Right, I'm off. See ya,

Weigner

I reread the letter and slumped back in my armchair, pensive. A new contract, they say. Issued even before the old one had expired. Why such a hurry? Having said that, there was less than twenty-four hours left. It might be their normal practice. Or just Weigner taking care of my interests. In which case he deserved my gratitude. I had to think of a way of repaying him.

Only an hour ago I'd been wondering about the permanent contract, and here it was! Excellent. Things seemed to be working out, after all. Let's have a quick peek at it, then.

I opened the file and spent some time perusing it. It seemed okay. Actually, it differed very little from my temporary one. The main difference was in its duration. I studied it again. Nothing out of the ordinary. A generic text, generic conditions.

I signed it and sent it off to Weigner.

Almost immediately I received his reply,

Got it! You owe me!

A smilie in the end depicted a cartoon guy raising a beer mug.

I had a permanent job! Which had been one of the Reflex Bank's main conditions. All that was left to do was build up my Reputation well and truly high.

Easier said than done.

I covered my face with my hands. Never mind. I was going to make it. I still had time.

My inbox pinged again. Weigner must have forgotten something.

I opened it. No, not Weigner. Uncle Vanya.

Listen man, there'll be no caravan this morning. Sorry about that. You'll have to take one in the afternoon. Make sure you get to the square by 4 p.m. Nothing to worry about, just a bit overstretched. Little wonder, considering what's going on. We can't sell fares fast enough. By the evening, we'll only run one wagon on the Drammen route. The rest are all taken. BTW, Varn is actively hiring. If you know of any drivers that are not yet with us, feel free to recommend them. Varn will offer them good conditions.

Take care

Excuse me? What exactly was going on? I replied, asking him as much. His answer came in after a couple of minutes.

You're never gonna change, are you? What's wrong with using the info portal? Read the news. You're too much, you!

I hurried to open the news. Now, what did they have there?

The closed auction results. We're happy to announce the lucky winning bidders at our closed auction-

Beautifully crafted boxes, chests and cabinets! Fellow Mirror World dwellers! If you don't know what to spend your hard-earned gold on, don't hesitate to turn to the vendors in your area for...

Not that, either. Next.

A new potion specially for Marium gatherers!

No, not that.

Wait up. What was this? Judging by the pages and pages of comments, this was what I'd been looking for.

Important news for all Mirror World dwellers! Today at 8.07 a.m., the Dark clan known as the Daredevils discovered the ruins of a Medium-class castle in the North East of No-Man's Lands.

Way to go, Daredevils!

And just next to it...

More important news for all Mirror World dwellers! Today at 9.15 a.m., the Daredevils
clan handed over the property rights to the castle ruins to the Dark clan known as the Caste!

I closed the info portal. No need to read any further. The developers had finally opened the colonization of No-Man's Lands.

Chapter Thirteen

C
astle ruins! So that's how it was now, then? Let's see if there was anything about it on the gaming forum.

I opened it up. Not much, but still.

I perused it for a while, then closed the info portal.

So what did we have? According to Weigner and Doryl, initially most of the game's territory had been unexplored. The first players had only just begun to level up, creating low-level clans, etc. etc. Gradually their best scouts had begun to venture out into the big unknown searching for new instances, locations and incidentally also castle ruins.

The latter offered not only the ruins as such but also the rights to a certain area around them. All the players had had to do was restore the castles themselves — which came in different classes — then pay the monthly taxes on luxury real estate. In other words, finding the ruins was good news, but then you had to start thinking about how you were going to finance the restoration works, the taxes and on top of that also the castle's defense. It stood to reason that only the most powerful clans — and especially their alliances — were capable of pulling this off.

The Daredevils... the name rang a bell. That's right! I remembered seeing some of them during the battle of the Barren Plateau. If I remembered rightly, they were one of the stronger Dark clans. The reasons of their surrendering the castle to the Caste could be legion but most likely, the clan's analysts had simply decided the clan had bitten off more than it could chew.

And as for the upcoming colonization... even I, a total newb in these things, could sense that something was brewing in the air. Why not? The initial carve-up of the territories had been completed. Mines functioned like clockwork. Everybody was busy working. But at the same time, top players like Count and the like had to sit on the walls, repelling occasional Caltean "attacks". Boring. Declaring a war on the Darkies wasn't a very good idea, considering you had to first cross No-Man's Lands to get to them. Local monsters would make quick work of you. Raids like these exhausted you even before you could get to the enemy's walls.

The best way to add some excitement to the gameplay and improve the cash flow in the process, was to make No-Man's Lands free for all. To put it short, changes were coming. Existing peace agreements between clans would suffer. New alliances would spring up, suggesting a new war. The timing was excellent because, if Dmitry were to be believed, the government was about to buy the game out.

That explained Tronus' sudden popularity and the caravanners' overload — as well as the fact that I'd received my contract a day earlier. From now on, human resources would be precious. Prices for zero-level stones were bound to soar. Most likely, common Grinders like my old buddy Greg might initially receive a productivity bonus to encourage better and faster work until production grew. But emerald prices were unlikely to change. Then again, who knows? We'd have to see.

I'd love to know what Lady Mel's representative wanted with me. I just hoped he wasn't going to look too closely into my history. They had their hands full without me. He might just ask me to work in low-level mines for a while, farming marble with a couple of haulers. Alternatively, he might ask me to joint their No-Man's Lands raids. Too many scenarios to consider.

An urgent system message distracted me from my musings,

Warning! Your Energy levels have plummeted 400 pt.!

And again,

Warning! Your Energy levels have plummeted 400 pt.!

In less than a second, I'd lost 800 Energy! I didn't have a chance to check any of it. The system continued spamming me with messages,

Warning! Your Energy levels have plummeted 400 pt.!

Warning! Your Energy levels have plummeted 400 pt.!

Warning! Your Energy levels have plummeted 400 pt.!

Warning! Your Energy levels have plummeted...

My body jolted. My lights went out.

* * *

I struggled to come round. An instantaneous loss of all Energy is no joke. I had a splitting headache. I looked at the timer. I'd only been unconscious for forty minutes but that was well enough for me.

I felt like shit. Colored circles swirled before my eyes. My sight blurred as if I was looking through murky glass. I couldn't hear a thing. My ears felt as if blocked with cotton wool.

With a shaking hand I pulled a vial from my belt, then activated a Stamina stone.

Phew. That felt a bit better. Come on, Energy, grow.

Yes! I felt human again. Both my eyesight and hearing were back. I could finally move my arms and legs. What the hell had it been?

I opened the menu. Oh wow. It was plastered with new messages, all red!

Warning! Your Energy is dangerously low!

You're about to lose consciousness!

Ten minutes later, they'd sent me another one:

Warning! Your pet is hungry! It's exhausted! Its Energy is plummeting!

Your pet is tired!

Emergency activation of the summoning charm initiated!

You cannot summon your pet for the next three hours!

I glanced at the clock. Less than two and a half hours left until the summoning. I might need to have some cheese ready for Prankster by way of apology. Then again, it wasn't my fault, was it?

I checked the next message,

Warning! The Cocoon of a Hugger is gone!

A new Hugger the Night Hunter is born!

What the hell? What did they mean,
'born'
?

Congratulations on your new mount!

My bag's icon kept blinking. I opened it to a new system message,

Warning! Some of the items in your bag have undergone transformation!

New name: Feather of a Hugger

Effect: use of the medallion summons your mount.

Restriction: Only Ennan race

Level: 0

This was my feather! So that's what it was, then: a summoning charm. Its effect must have been unblocked the moment the Hugger had been born.

I cast a zoned-out stare at its stats,

Main characteristics:

Name: [ ... ]

Type: Hugger the Night Hunter

Class: Relic

Level: 0 (1st stage of growth)

Satiety: 500/500

Experience: 0/50

Damage: 0 (activates when your mount attains Level 1)

Not much. I seemed to have a knack for collecting useless creatures. Let's have a look at its parameters, then.

Abilities: Hidden (available upon reaching 3rd stage of growth)

Experience received: 20% of the owner's combat experience without detracting from it.

Riding the Hugger increases your speed 20% (available upon reaching 3rd stage of growth). It also allows you to carry two additional heavy items.

Nourishment: The owner can feed his pet at any given time by sharing some of his Energy with it.

Warning! A pet's level may not exceed that of its owner!

This creature had some appetite! 500 pt. Energy just to feed it! And this was supposed to be the 1st stage of growth, whatever that might mean?

I opened the info portal. Let's have a look what they had on mounts. Aha... I see...

Apparently, mounts had three stages of growth. The first meant I'd have to nurse my new pet like a human baby. The longer my baby pet remained summoned, the better: that way he or she could learn by interacting with the world and getting to know his or her master. In other words, if you wanted a mount you had to spend all your waking time in the game.

The next two stages, although less problematic, also required certain attention. All in all, raising your mount was a boring and laborious process — but animal lovers didn't seem to mind. Some of them even complained in the comments that their mounts had grown too fast. This especially concerned all sorts of felines, extremely popular in Mirror World.

I wasn't really interested in all these games. Quite honestly, I hadn't counted on this scenario at all. All I had "gained" from it was yet another useless pet.

Where was I supposed to ride it without attracting attention? I could forget going into battle. This was just another Prankster, and a baby one at that.

Actually, what did it look like, this Hugger the terrible Night Hunter?

I activated the summoning charm. Admittedly I felt uneasy after what Master Adkhur had told me.

The air rippled, forming a weird-looking creature in my lap. Oh. How interesting.

So, kiddo, what were you supposed to look like? This Pierrot had some truly psychedelic imagination. I got the impression that he'd simply put together body parts from various animals, run the result through a simulator, then played with colors until he'd finally decided on ash-gray.
Eh voila!

The pet's body looked like cheetah's with long but disproportionally muscular legs. His tail was long like that of a snow leopard. A rather wolfish head sat on a long neck — probably also taken from
canis lupus
. The ears were definitely wolfish, pricked and sensitive like two radars. But instead of a pair of jaws, the creature had an aquiline beak and a pair of eagle eyes. Trust me to get a mutant pet. Actually, he reminded me of something I couldn't quite put my finger on.

"So what am I supposed to do with you, kiddo?" I asked an utterly rhetorical question.

He craned his head to one side, watching me attentively. He must have arrived at some decision as he squeaked softly, placed his front legs onto my chest and rubbed his beak against my chin. How interesting.

Gingerly I laid my hand on his back and ran my fingers through his fur. Actually, no, not fur: more like a bird's down. He squeaked again and looked into my eyes.

"I think I know what you mean!" I opened his interface and habitually located the Satiety icon. It was at 150. Not enough. How I understood him. Very well, let's have a bite to eat. Where's this Nourishment tab...

Would you like to feed your pet?

Energy required: 350 pt.

Accept: Yes/No

I clicked
Yes
. The Hugger's Energy bar filled up. His eagle eyes closed — hopefully, with pleasure.

Congratulations! Your pet is well fed!

Warning! Make sure you feed your pet regularly!

You might simplify the feeding process by synchronizing it.

Would you like to synchronize the feeding process: Yes/No

I had my doubts, considering what the last synchronization had cost me. I just hoped I wouldn't have any more problems. Then again, five hundred points were five hundred points.

"You're an expensive brat, aren't you?"

Synchronization successful!

Congratulations! From now on, the feeding process will proceed in automatic mode. Check your interface for changes.

I opened my profile. Below the Energy bar, the cocoon's icon had been replaced with one of a Hugger. I really had to sort out this Energy issue. Then again, it was doubtful that I would summon him often.

"What are we supposed to do about your name?" once again I ran my hand along his back. "Wish I knew what you would look like when you grow up."

I looked at him from one side, then the other. For some reason, I remembered an old Russian cartoon about a wolf who adopted a calf. "What if we call you... eh... Boris? It wasn't in the cartoon but I like it. What would you say to that?"

He didn't seem to mind. With another squeak, he started to try to chew the table top.

"Oh well. Welcome to our kindergarten."

* * *

I spent the next two days toiling in the mines. Not exactly crowded before the recent developments, now they stood completely empty. No one gave a damn about emeralds anymore. Just as I had supposed, every pair of hands had been employed to farm building resources. Back in the Citadel, I'd received constant propositions from clan head hunters offering work in marble and granite mines. Still, the moment they learned the name of my employer, they didn't look so eager. Leady Mel had some reputation in this part of the world. Which suited me just fine.

Seeing as the mines were empty anyway, I began letting my beasties out for a bit of a run-around. Prankster accepted his new friend as if he'd always known him. As I worked, they dashed around the tunnels, making a nice dent in my Energy. Actually, the Hugger didn't spend as much as I'd originally thought. Although no comparison to Prankster with his measly 50 pt., Boris wasn't such a burden on my body resources after all.