The Way of the Shaman

Barliona is a virtual world packed with monsters, battles, and millions of players. The only rule: no player should feel actual pain. Except for criminals, who are sent to Barliona to serve their sentences in its virtual mines — not in it for dragons' gold or loot, but purely to survive the virtual inferno.

Barliona is a world brimming with entertainment where the government backs the in-game currency — making it a destination for those chasing easy money, and a source of free labor for game developers who send convicts to work its virtual mines. Dmitry Mahan, sentenced to eight years, struggles with an unpopular class — the Shaman — and an equally unpopular profession: Jeweler. His fight for survival is anything but virtual.

Daniel Mahan has survived the mines and betrayal by other prisoners, and a retrial has released him into Barliona's common world. He could have kept a low profile. Instead, as a Shaman, he cannot help himself — soon he is a clan leader, taking fifty of the continent's top players to uncover the secrets of the Dark Forest.

A clan without a castle can accomplish nothing. High Shaman Mahan, leader of the Legends of Barliona, accepts an offer from the Emperor and the Dark Lord to vanquish the army of Phantoms haunting Altameda Castle. But the seemingly ordinary quest sets in motion a momentous chain of events — especially when three of the continent's top clans begin hunting him at once.

The winds of the Dark Forest have settled and Altameda has a new owner. Mahan craves new adventure — so the world obliges. New storylines, monsters, dungeons, and a new status await the High Shaman, who would rather do just about anything than endure the daily grind.

Daniel Mahan has served his sentence — eleven months of adventures in exchange for eight years in prison. But Barliona refuses to let go so easily, erasing the boundary between his two realities. It turns out leaving the capsule is not so simple. The Way must be completed.

Mahan believed he had taken his final step in Barliona. But the Corporation decides to resurrect the Lord of Shadow and his entire host, pressing the reset button on the darkest threat the game world has ever faced — and making Mahan an offer he cannot refuse.