Survival Quest (The Way of the Shaman: Book #1) Read Online Free Page A

in places. The shouts of prisoners and sounds of mining picks were ringing from that side of the mine. So, this is where I'll be working. The place where I stood allowed only limited visibility because the view was obscured by an enormous cloud of grey dust. It was strange: I could see the dust, but could not feel it at all. It was probably just a graphic effect imposed on this location to give it a more authentic look.
    Not far from where I appeared and at some distance from the other buildings stood a house that sported the sign ‘Welcome to the Pryke Copper Mine.” Right, so this is the local administration office, housing some intimidating official who had the power to grant me access to the main gameworld.
    Yes, access to the main gameworld. Just before I was placed in the capsule I looked up the contents of Article 78 Section 24, cited by the judge when speaking about the possibility of entering the gameworld. I somehow missed this part before, while I was preparing myself. Reading this even lifted my spirits somewhat. The text stated: “If the prisoner earns Respect with the guards at the place of confinement, he or she may be given the opportunity of being transferred to the main gameworld.” It contained a lot of other text that stated that for the first six months you would have to live in a special colony, even if you earned Respect on the second day of your imprisonment and that 30% of all the earned money would have to be paid to the Corporation upon leaving the mine. There was something else, which I didn't recall, but the main thing was that I had a chance of getting transferred to the main gameworld.
    So my chief aim in the near future was to earn Respect and to get the person in charge of the mine to like me. Or the other way round: get liked and gain Respect. It didn’t really matter as long as it resulted in me leaving the mine. Great, I've spent just a few minutes here and I'm already making plans on how to leave.
    Now I just need to figure out what I have to work, play and, in general, live with in the next eight years. I had to have a good look at my character, his stats (statistics) and description. When I was getting ready for prison I would never have imagined that they’d give me a Shaman, because all the forums said that prisoners usually get assigned either Warriors or Rogues. So these were the classes I read up on, pretty much becoming an expert in them. Not a single bastard wrote on any of the forums that a prisoner could be given a spell-casting class. Blast! I don’t even know how to cast spells and figuring this out by myself will be very difficult. 
    I brought the window with the character description before my eyes:
     

     
    Racial bonus: reputation gain with all factions is increased by 10%
     
    What 'fantastic' stats. My virtual heart began to ache when I compared this Shaman with my level 87 Hunter. He looked so wretched next to my former character. Sigh…
    Energy. The biggest headache for all the prisoners. In the main gameworld even if Energy fell all the way to zero, the character simply suddenly stopped and rested for several minutes, waiting for it to recover, and then continued to carry out the player's commands. But they say that here things are not so simple. As Energy is lost, you get tired for real and your Hit Points slowly diminish. A sudden fall in Energy could even lead to character death. I would have to test this parameter in more detail, since I paid little attention to it with my Hunter.
    Stamina. It determines the number of Hit Points in the ratio of 1:10; the higher the Stamina, the slower the rate of Energy loss. What the ratio was in this case I didn't really remember, but was aware it existed. I must level up my Stamina as much as I can, as this is important for survival.
    Strength. This is the main stat necessary for mining ore. I didn't know what influence it might have on the ore itself, I found nothing about it in the manuals. This parameter also