Survival Quest (The Way of the Shaman: Book #1) Read Online Free
Author: Vasily Mahanenko
subject. The scanning of the subject has been completed. The synchronization of the physical data with the features of the chosen race has been implemented. Physical data has been set. Starting location has been chosen. Place of confinement – the Pryke Copper Mine. Purpose of confinement: the harvesting of Copper Ore. Character generation has commenced.”
In the initial loading window I was looking at myself wearing a striped robe with number 193 753 482. It would appear that quite a few prisoners have gone through Barliona in the last 15 years. The robe was supplemented with prisoner’s trousers and boots, whose total value could be seen in their striped pattern. Even the boots were stripy, at which I couldn’t help smiling. I looked like some sort of a zebra. One could say that I was dressed at the height of fashion. The pick in my hand completed the bleak picture of ‘Myself’, making it clear what I would be doing in the coming years. Only the pick wasn’t stripy, something to be thankful for, at least.
“Enter a name. Attention: a prisoner’s name cannot be composite.”
Well, the technician did cheer me up after all. He did that by giving me, for some unknown reason, the opportunity to choose my own name. The gaming name in Barliona was provisionally unique: in the same gaming environment you could meet three hundred ‘Bunnys’, a hundred ‘Kitties’ and endless numbers of ‘Pwners’, but the uniqueness was guaranteed by a composite word. For example you could easily see Pwner the Great and Pwner the Charming next to each other, but there were no two Pwner the Great's in Barliona. However, prisoners were not allowed to pick a composite name for themselves, because usually these were generated automatically. But if they deleted my Hunter...
“Mahan,” I said, setting all my hopes on the fact that the name of my Hunter, who was taken from me, was already deleted from the system but not yet picked by anyone else. So what if I liked to play with this name? That's what I've become use to, despite the fact that it was just a surname. Moreover, my hunter’s name had only one component, and I bought it from another player for almost ten thousand gold and had no wish to see all that money go to waste.
“Choice accepted. Welcome to the world of Barliona, Mahan. Users connecting from prison capsules have no access to the introductory training area. You will be transferred directly to the Pryke Copper Mine. We wish you a pleasant game.”
There was a flash of lightning and the world around me filled with colors. Though for some reason among these colors grey predominated.
Chapter 2
The Pryke Mine. The Beginning
T he Pryke Mine lay before me in all its beauty. Great rocky cliffs, about 100 meters high, rose along the whole boundary of the mine. Their tops hung over it, forming a cap around the perimeter. Like the roof of a stadium, an association flashed in my head. No amount of effort would allow you to scale such a wall, although the scattered ledges seemed to dare you to try. 'Interesting,' I thought, 'I wonder if the mine is surrounded by mountains or goes deep inside the earth?' I should ask someone, in case the idea of digging a hole out of here catches on. Another thought was just as interesting: is this mine even connected to the main world or is it in a separate location within the server memory? I could dig a hole and end up nowhere. At first glance the mine itself comprised quite a pleasant-looking valley approximately several kilometers in length and about a kilometer wide, with a somewhat uneven surface. The valley was divided up in two parts: the first, about 300 meters long, contained wooden buildings, one of which I immediately recognized as the smithy. For now the other structures remained a mystery, but were most probably barracks for the prisoners. The second part of the valley was separated by an unimposing wooden fence, which had grown lop-sided and rickety
In the initial loading window I was looking at myself wearing a striped robe with number 193 753 482. It would appear that quite a few prisoners have gone through Barliona in the last 15 years. The robe was supplemented with prisoner’s trousers and boots, whose total value could be seen in their striped pattern. Even the boots were stripy, at which I couldn’t help smiling. I looked like some sort of a zebra. One could say that I was dressed at the height of fashion. The pick in my hand completed the bleak picture of ‘Myself’, making it clear what I would be doing in the coming years. Only the pick wasn’t stripy, something to be thankful for, at least.
“Enter a name. Attention: a prisoner’s name cannot be composite.”
Well, the technician did cheer me up after all. He did that by giving me, for some unknown reason, the opportunity to choose my own name. The gaming name in Barliona was provisionally unique: in the same gaming environment you could meet three hundred ‘Bunnys’, a hundred ‘Kitties’ and endless numbers of ‘Pwners’, but the uniqueness was guaranteed by a composite word. For example you could easily see Pwner the Great and Pwner the Charming next to each other, but there were no two Pwner the Great's in Barliona. However, prisoners were not allowed to pick a composite name for themselves, because usually these were generated automatically. But if they deleted my Hunter...
“Mahan,” I said, setting all my hopes on the fact that the name of my Hunter, who was taken from me, was already deleted from the system but not yet picked by anyone else. So what if I liked to play with this name? That's what I've become use to, despite the fact that it was just a surname. Moreover, my hunter’s name had only one component, and I bought it from another player for almost ten thousand gold and had no wish to see all that money go to waste.
“Choice accepted. Welcome to the world of Barliona, Mahan. Users connecting from prison capsules have no access to the introductory training area. You will be transferred directly to the Pryke Copper Mine. We wish you a pleasant game.”
There was a flash of lightning and the world around me filled with colors. Though for some reason among these colors grey predominated.
Chapter 2
The Pryke Mine. The Beginning
T he Pryke Mine lay before me in all its beauty. Great rocky cliffs, about 100 meters high, rose along the whole boundary of the mine. Their tops hung over it, forming a cap around the perimeter. Like the roof of a stadium, an association flashed in my head. No amount of effort would allow you to scale such a wall, although the scattered ledges seemed to dare you to try. 'Interesting,' I thought, 'I wonder if the mine is surrounded by mountains or goes deep inside the earth?' I should ask someone, in case the idea of digging a hole out of here catches on. Another thought was just as interesting: is this mine even connected to the main world or is it in a separate location within the server memory? I could dig a hole and end up nowhere. At first glance the mine itself comprised quite a pleasant-looking valley approximately several kilometers in length and about a kilometer wide, with a somewhat uneven surface. The valley was divided up in two parts: the first, about 300 meters long, contained wooden buildings, one of which I immediately recognized as the smithy. For now the other structures remained a mystery, but were most probably barracks for the prisoners. The second part of the valley was separated by an unimposing wooden fence, which had grown lop-sided and rickety
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