Free The Citadel (Mirror World Book #2) by Alexey Osadchuk Page B

rest of the caravan like a giant steam roller. Nothing could phase him: neither the mud, tall grass nor the brambles. He shoved any large rocks out of his way with a single sweep of his enormous horn. Oh yes. A beastie like this could make a dangerous caravan trip feel like a walk in the park.
    Uncle Vanya shared his biggest dream with me. He wanted to take Kosma with him on raids over the Wall into No-Man's Lands. According to him, neither of them was ready yet. They still had some leveling to do. Well, in that case I with my zero level had no business being here whatsoever. Still, Pierrot's map clearly showed that all the Ennans' mega bonuses were located in the very heart of No-Man's Lands.
    Admittedly, the journey was quite pleasant. I'd expected to be shaken out of my skin — that's when I wasn't being mugged by all sorts of monsters — but the trip turned out to be perfectly uneventful. All I could hear were the guards' occasional hollering and the roaring of the draught animals.
    I stared hard into the window hoping in vain to see something interesting. A bare prairie lay around me: nothing but drizzling rain and the squelching of mud under the wheels. No, not so: a couple of times we did see groups of players out hunting. On seeing us, they did their best to clear our path, wary of exposing the caravan to some aggroed monster.
    "It wasn't always like that," Uncle Vanya commented. "When we first started out, players didn't give a damn about us. But we quickly taught them some respect."
    The closer we came, the harder my heart beat in my chest. My excitement grew when I finally saw the Citadel's walls in the distance. The rain had stopped, replaced by a veil of mist, equally cold and wet. Finally a black shadow, huge and unforgiving, loomed through the haze: the walls of the Maragar Citadel.
    I couldn't yet see its towers and merlons, only this cover of darkness hovering over me. It was spooky. The game designers had done their best. I was crushed by the feeling of the citadel's power. I just hoped I might get used to it.
    "Eh? Scared, ain't ya?" Uncle Vanya grinned.
    I nodded. "Sure."
    "Normal," he nodded. "In the mist, it's not as scary. It can give you a fright but nothing too bad. First time I got here in a thunderstorm. That was something, I tell you! I'll put it this way: I'm yet to see the sun shining over the Citadel's walls."
    "And this isn't even the front line," I said, turning my head this way and that.
    Uncle Vanya chuckled, watching me. "Forget it, man. This wall stretches from the Raldian Range in the South all the way to the Misty Mountains in the North. The Citadel blocks the entire Maragar Canyon. It was built with the purpose of protecting the Powers of Light from the hordes of the Dark and the savage monsters of No-Man's Lands."
    I gave him a puzzled look. "Yes, yes, I read the location's history on the info portal. It sounds awesome. The battles of Light against Dark... Legendary feats of fallen heroes... And so on and so forth. But it's only a fancy piece of fiction! A figment of hired writers' imagination!"
    The gnome smirked. "One can see you're new here," he shook his head disapprovingly. "Want a tip?"
    I nodded. "Sure."
    "Don't say anything like that around the old-timers. You might find it hard to understand but for many of us this world and this location are more meaningful than real life. Imagine having to spend several months on the walls of the fortress, warding off enemy attacks, unable to log out. Imagine fellow warriors fighting shoulder to shoulder with you — your friends who've covered your back hundreds of times. In these people's heads, the fine line between the virtual and the real worlds grows ever thinner. It changes them. For them it's much more than just a game. It's their life. A real life, free from the old order and its conventions. And what's more, many of them fight for the lives of their friends. Their gaming objectives don't matter any longer. I'm not saying people