Chapter 26: Three Red Dots

Nikola had no idea how he was supposed to find that shaman. He was sure that if he posted in a Facebook group, the people were going to ask him to go and search for the man in a reserve.

Maybe in a casino, if he was lucky.

His one hope was Jack.

It was getting more and more urgent to ask the man things as of late. Nikola picked up the platter with the food, eggs, grilled hot dogs, and some fruit salad, and made his way towards the other side of the lake.

Why Jack refused to move to them was beyond him. But the fact was, that the man still lived in his tent.

With the occasional trip to their bathroom, so he wouldn't have to go and bathe in the lake.

The tent flap opened, Jack poked his head out.

"Morning, neighbor!" Nikola was ready to butter the man up with everything he had.

After all, Jack's loyalty and active listening were best tested during a meal.

"What do you want?" But the man was blunt, as always.

"I need to find a shaman and to… well, I guess that Tangra's words were to take care of him. I have no idea yet if he should die or not."

Nikola really hoped that taking care meant a return to shamanism for the man. But with an employer like Tangra, that was going to be a nightmare.

"If a god told you to take care of something, then yes, it means killing," Jack took his peace offering and began to eat. "Ah, good stuff."

"Do you know of a way to find him?" Nikola persisted.

Jack snorted.

"Do you have any of his hair? Maybe something of his?"

Nikola shook his head.

"Then how are we supposed to track him? Do you even know his name?"

Another shake of the head followed.

"Then the only thing we can do is use your connection to your deity and hope for the best," Jack took an egg and placed it between two pieces of bread. "But you know, make me lunch as well, and I'll start on the search."

"Jack, you do know that you can always come and live in the cabin, right?" Nikola didn't like the fact that his best friend was at the mercy of the elements all the time.

Jack smirked.

"I can hear you when you praise Dimitri and chant his name. And that is from here. If I move into your love cabin, I will never be able to sleep again."

Nikola rubbed the back of his head.

"I'll try to be quieter," he said, as he felt his ears heating up.

"Why? So, Dimitri can turn me into a carpet?" Jack's smirk became wider. "Don't think about me, ok? I like it in the tent."

Nikola sat down by him. He looked at the lake.

A small horse pocked his head out of the water, saw him, gave out a neigh of pure horror, and then dived back inside.

"I miss the Selkie," Nikola said.

His stomach grumbled.

"Don't you worry," Jack said, as he threw a hot dog in the water. "They will come back once more. You just go back in the cabin."

Nikola nodded. Hoping for a lovely, scaled horse haunch to go together with his egg sandwich.

****

The usual customers were back. Nikola had walked around the sites they had been appointed.

There was no free space in the forest which didn't have something planted on it.

And that was the problem.

But he figured out that if he wanted to scold them, he better make it while they were eating.

The platters were placed on the table. The freshly squeezed juice was poured in jugs.

Nikola sat to the side, as goblins ate alongside sirens.

"Boss!" One of the goblins said, as he speared a hot dog. Nikola didn't want to feed his workers such a processed meal, but he had nothing left to offer them.

The Selkie were really smarter. They knew they were being hunted.

"We found mana crystals the other day! In the mine!"

Nikola blinked. Mana crystals?

"Can I or can I not turn them into dust and the dust into pills to unlock a level, System?" Nikola asked, as he smiled at the goblin and loaded his plate with more poached eggs.

He really should get some chickens. At this rate, he was going to deplete the local store's ability to supply basic stuff to the locals.

"That is a good question! Would you have asked if you could snort gold or silver, per chance?"

Nikola narrowed his eyes.

"You know, I don't think I like your negativity," he snarked back.

The system showed him a red screen with three dots.

Nikola closed the screen. It gave out an error message.

The system let out an ear-piercing error sound. The same one Windows computers give out when they are overheating because someone tried to run Skyrim on a potato, and they be begging for mercy.

"How dare you!" The system yelled in his ear.

"Oh, so you can speak?" Nikola said. Finally, he will stop getting walls of text!

"You ungrateful street urchin! I gave you my best advice! One more closed screen, and I will let you jump off a cliff!"

"I haven't expressed a desire to do so," Nikola protested.

"No, but I have!"

The smiley face at the end was possibly diabolical.

Nikola waited for the system to generate the new text. Then he took his glasses and began to read.

"Most mana stones can't be ingested. Their main purpose is to create ornaments. If you snort a mana crystal, you will start to hallucinate, followed by you foaming at the mouth, and, finally, death. So don't snort rocks."

Nikola nodded.

"So, all the cultivation books were but a lie?" He asked.

The system changed the screen to a lovely yellow.

Nikola knew that he was going to pay for this teasing, but he didn't mind.

The system cared.

It was going to tell him what to do.