Chapter 27

* * *

"Let's rest!"

Vacek walked around the carcass of another mutant squirrel and walked to the bushes, planning our next steps.

"Camp!" My hand, palm up, lifted slightly. Three paces in front of me, a flame of magical fire burst half a meter high, giving us a life and mana regeneration buff. The second rank had only me, and I used that skill constantly making sure that there was always a warming fire near Ila. Among other things, you could hide behind it. The magic flame wasn't impenetrable but monsters still considered it a barrier and even burned themselves a little. Additional protection in combat is an unmentioned game feature.

"Pal, how are you?" Yesterday Vacek tried to use a bow borrowed from a roommate (all these guys turned out to know each other - Vacek, Elli, Ila, and Alric were students and played from the dorm). He said - wants to know what the module is. Though the efficiency of his attacks increased dramatically his strength was only enough for an hour and a half, after which he strongly respected me, and now worried about me almost more than about our druidess. Well, let him.

"Fine. Just warmed up. How much do we need?"

The tracker gave an animation of the menu opening.

"One last batch, then there will be some strong elementals and a boss." The hazy cloud of the menu melted away. "The second time everything fell apart just at the boss. But we should be able to handle it!"

In the first one, as he had already told us, the group broke up, leaving Vacek alone. After that, he died five times and watched the beautiful animation of the quest's cancellation. Now he tried to pretend he wasn't the least bit worried, but now and then he exposed himself by fidgeting.

He could be understood. The heroic quest was available under many very strict conditions, and no second chance was given. Vacek had reached level thirty-one with us, and now came the decisive moment, which would determine whether he would have to remove this character or not.

Yesterday morning I browsed Q&A. For starters, I found out all about the heroic class quests. Almost without surprise, I found out that the Paladins as well as three other archetypes have no heroics yet.

In addition to the twenty-two types of fighters against Evil, the list included (ironically!) Knights of Death (the class is the same in all three dark deities, the only difference is the style of service. The Knights had to play the three canonical alignments of Evil - order-neutral-chaos), Merchant (actually a very difficult class) and Guardian of Portals. A reward of almost two thousand guilds and alliances was given for information about the heroics of the latter, as it was assumed that the only class capable of moving around the world of "Creators " other than with its own feet would be able to take "passengers" with it when receiving heroic status. The ×9 rate and complete lack of attacking skills did not contribute to its popularity. He was ahead of the Paladins only because of every guild's desire to have its own courier.

The second issue of interest to me in Q&A was the mode.

I had always been inclined to philosophizing and melancholic reflections, and even the film library had been selected according to the principle "I was walking home from work, saw a sad old movie, bought it to watch, thought about it a lot". So, having caught myself in another slip into thinking about the essence of Good and Evil, I decided that it was not worth putting it off, and drafted a request, for which I had to wait for a response due to the demands on the respondent.

While I was waiting, I had time to give my advice on drafting documents (a rating is never enough) and to dismiss the student, who had clearly confused the Net and Chaos and was looking for a fool on an officially moderated resource who would do a work for him for free. Just as the student was frantically canceling the request under my reproachful gaze, the connection trumpet sounded, and a bald, chipper old man appeared on the screen.

Grandpa was very quick to encourage me to buy his book and a course of relaxation exercises. Of course, I didn't buy it right away, but after getting acquainted with his account (Doctor of Medicine, author of many papers, and a "platinum confirmed" rating on Q&A). I quickly downloaded everything listed and last night, leaving the game, immediately tried it out. The simplest exercises like the ones you do in gym class, plus a funny relaxation scheme that I couldn't get through - I fell asleep halfway through, dreaming quiet normal dreams until morning.

This morning I left a grateful review on his profile, which turned out to be in the third thousand, and I ordered everything recommended on the list. It seems like a small world, but if you take a step aside, you find that there are giants like this retiree nearby. All right, exercises and pills, but how he processed me to buy a book!

The quarrel of my groupmates distracted me from trying to figure out how to use the exercises that help me to relax during these breaks... and not fall asleep at the same time.

"Al, how much longer are you going to lie down?"

"I'm an elf, and I'm supposed to admire the starry sky!"

"You're crazy, and you're supposed to be admiring the ceiling of your hospital room! It's daytime!"

"I heard it from a criminal! The sun is also a star!"

Jago and Knight surprisingly mingled, now and then bickering verbally.

Here's another problem - if our mercenary is a planted guy? It seems to be a logical scheme from all sides - to pump the PK class to perform "special" orders, to pretend to be a roleplayer. The main thing - he does not need to be high-level. Enough every time after revealing remove the character and start a new one. Penalties from the guards in such a game are not scary, you get used to it.

"Pal, your virt driving me crazy. How do you play like that?"

Gdag's voice brought me back to what was going on. I looked at myself. What's wrong? Well, my arms were crossed, so what? A glance at the monitor showed that I was sitting with my elbow oddly resting on the shield.

"I'm sitting in the chair, don't bother."

"Just don't fall asleep."

"I won't fall asleep, it's not time for sleep."

Gdag goes to Ila and talks about something. I looked at the monitor again, then at myself. My hand was resting on top of the shield armband. The module was attached to my arm with two bracelets and covered my forearm from the front of my arm to my elbow. Six "whiskers" about fifteen centimeters long, connected by a frame, diverged from the shield on the sides. It was an odd design, but it transmitted well the shocks and blows on the shield. I stretched out my arm and slowly began to extend my hand close to the frame, trying to look at both the virtual hand and the monitor.

Virt showed that the hand touched the inner surface of the circular shield and froze. On the monitor, too, at first, the figure touched the shield from the inside, but then suddenly the character appeared seated in the likeness of Rodin's "Thinker" pose with his limbs strangely twisted, and his hand was over the shield.

Interesting. This is the first inconsistency between the screen and the virtual space of the game. I took the sword module out of its sheath and carefully made the same movements with it. As with my hand - the sword trembled and at some point was over the virtual edge of the shield. Again, then again - the character's sword stopped, and then suddenly "shot out" over the obstacle, appearing aside, after moving the hand a little blurred and returning to its "real" place. Is it probably due to a mismatch in real and "drawn" dimensions? And how can this be used? And is it worth it?

"Wake up, folks! The last battle!"

It's the hardest one. I jumped up, checked my harness, then threw back my visor and adjusted the monitor. Trust but check!

"Guys! I beg you very much - without fanaticism, very carefully, no one dies! I can not do this quest more and re-create the character I do not want to. Please, let's do it now!" Vacek's voice was pleading, and everyone immediately confirmed that yes, let's do it, no problem. Nodding, our leader turned and set a target.

"Two dozen of the usual monsters we slaughtered in a quarter of an hour, in the usual nonstop style. Finally, the last hedgehog with a foot and a half of needles was slain and blue smoke billowed behind the trees."

"A fire?"

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"No, the first elemental. There will be three of them here."

The elemental - a cloud with legs - floated in the middle of the clearing but after the volley, it moved briskly in our direction.

"Let's run! He's got no body, nothing to tank!" Damn it, you should have warned me! I folded my fingers for a jump.

"What happens if it hits?"

"This is a vampire. Just hit it, and get out of the way in time. Ila, it's your fight, it's up to the healer!"

"Don't distract me!"

I had to jump, for such jerks on the treadmill I would not endure. Fortunately, the swords, spears, and arrows were quite effective, and soon the cloud melted away. The second elemental was a subdued Evil spirit of wood, with a thick armor of bark that was weakly taken by arrows.

"Folks! I have an idea!"

I quickly retreated behind Gdag and raised my palm:

"Camp. Camp. Camp." I had enough mana for seven campfires, but I settled on five, compactly spaced. "All behind me!"

A minute later, the elemental that had followed us into the fire was scattered in a pile of embers. I see, a test of intelligence.

"That's smart! Here comes the water elemental!" Vacek waved his hand at a small swamp twenty paces away, and a monster emerged from there as if on his command.

I looked at the mud elemental as if it were an old friend. How many of those I'd chopped up in the sewers!

"Beware, when he dies he will collapse and deal damage in circles!"

"And it will leave a puddle of poison, so don't just stand there!" I said.

Ila cast something beautiful, a thin green net around the bubble, and we immediately attacked from all sides, because it was impossible to tell which was the front and which was the back of the creature.

"Okay, the boss is about to come. He'll be here for five minutes. The plot is that Evil incarnates in the flesh is too radiating, so when the time is up, the fireball will be here, and we won't be spared, either," I healed Vacek. As is often the case, when he warned us, he forgot to bounce off the postmortem greeting of the poison.

"Oh, my gosh!"

I looked there. Charcoal, dirt, and bits of fog were coming together, intertwining, hissing, crunching, and... grunting.

"A sow?"

The three-meter-tall boar gave a glare with amber eyes, stomped his hoof, and shrieked.

"He's simple! All you have to do is heal and hit in time! Gdag, you're tanking! Pal, stay out of this!"

Yeah. I should not put a shield under this monster with my virt. It will consider me smeared on the spot.

"Whoo-hoo! Hey! Barra!" The warrior's shout caught the boss's attention, and immediately Vacek fired. The creature grunted unkindly and, deftly sidestepping the warrior, sprinted toward the shooter.

"War, what the?" The tracker fought back with a short cleaver, but his main weapon, the bow, was useless!

"Dim, I'm not pulling out!"

"Pal! Pull!"

I didn't have time to raise my palm - the boss picked up the tracker's body in his fangs and disemboweled him in one motion. The special attack. The warrior would have endured it but the light tracker was killed.

"Darn!" Vacek's voice was full of despair. "What the heck?!"

"I couldn't taunt him. No effect at all!" Gdag tried to hit the pig with his shield, but it was not distracted, jumping on the warrior and trying to break through to Ila. That one, with her feverish attempts to heal the leader, had risen too high on the mob's list of aggression. Finally, ignoring either the warrior or me, the boss leaped and crushed the druidess with a kick of his forehooves.

Vacek cursed.

"Everybody stay calm! Gdag, do damage! Al, turn him with his back to the mercenary, let him use his strike from concealment. Don't worry, we'll get him!" I took a step to the left, looking at the monitor. The survivors spread out around the boss and tried to forge through the thick hide. Calling the group's status, I began to heal. It wasn't working out so well, I had to pick my time to put my sword away and raise my hand.

"All right! Jago, how much do you need to go into concealment?"

"Five... Seven seconds!"

"Okay. Al, Gdag, keep an eye on the boss's hits. As Jago shoots - immediately attack and distract, we must give him time to re-stealth! We're working on the recruitment damage!"

The teammates confirmed their agreement with gambling shouts, and I looked at the monitor and healed Gdag.

Jago's silhouette trembled, showing his drift into concealment. Jump! The boss swayed and turned his snout toward me.

"Go ahead and shoot, I got him!"

Damn, I need a second glove! With one I can either move or use my sword.

The boss's life bar dropped a little, and Vacek and Ila supported the mercenary with loud shouts. I glanced at the timer. Three minutes into the fight. And the boss had two-thirds of his life. That's okay.

"Cheer up, people, cheer up! We're on time in terms of damage, but just don't let him kill you!"

The boss was flailing between us. Jago kept pulling him on himself, and we had to hold him back; at least the stun worked, and sometimes I managed to cut his leg tendons... or whatever was replacing them. The slashing had little effect on his skin, so I had to rely on the mercenary's crossbow and the knight's spear. I kept my eyes on the monitor, noticing the concealment trembling each time, and used the "strike of faith," turning the boss face toward me and back toward the mercenary ready to fire.

"One minute, guys!"

Ten percent. Well, shall we risk it?

"Hold still! That's the way we're going! We're on time, I'm watching!"

With fifteen seconds to go, I made up my mind. The boss turned his face toward the mercenary again. I leaped to the hovering side, lifted the module, put it close to the hide, and jabbed my sword into the shield. A second, two seconds... the sword flashed and was jammed up to the hilt into the shrieking boss. Crit! The pig demon settled down, his hind legs failing, and I jumped back.

The last blow was delivered by a knight who had just restored a Powerful Blow.

The defeated incarnation of evil collapsed, releasing a pile of smoke and leaving something like a clay and garbage dummy that immediately began to crack.

"Yeah! You guys are great!"

I got down on one knee behind the boss's corpse. I had to do a lot of work...

"Ila, are you running?" Only the druidess could resurrect.

"Yeah, almost there. Did you kill it?"

"Yeah, they were great! They held on like the top pros! The boss didn't stand a chance!"

"You're exaggerating. But yes, we are good."

"Pal, you're the best!" Vacek's emotions were just pouring out of him. Yes, death during battle and four minutes of waiting for a fate. It piled up.

"Uhu."

I could feel the sweat running down my temples. Well, that was fun!

"I'm here! Vacek, revive!" Ila took a quick sip of water, recovering mana only to revive the fallen man. The knight and the warrior were discussing something, going over standard socials in an attempt to show all their emotions.

As I approached Jago, I turned off all channels except my personal one.

"Why didn't you kill?"

"What?"

"Why didn't you kill me? I hung a camera on your char, it does not disturb in the virt. And three times I saw you getting ready to shoot. Why didn't you?"

Silence, then Jago smirked: "You're not observant, paladin. I've had my aim on you five times."

"Did Green face hire you?"

"Yeah."

"So why?"

"The hell I know. I didn't want to. It's more fun with you than usual."

"You're at about forty, right?"

"How did you guess that?"

"The damage is too high all the time. This is even though you were missed on purpose."

"Why didn't you tell them?"

"Why for?"

"Why are you saying this now?"

I smiled: "I'm only talking to you. Face to face. It's a rare opportunity to talk to a Range PK who has a contract on you."

Jago responded with the same smile: "The Warrior of Light is always on guard?"

"I am not a warrior of the Light, I am a Paladin Blake. Why don't you leave now? Before the guys figure it out? I won't tell them, but you have no business being here, either. All right?"

"Okay. Guys!" He turned to the group. "I'm not going with you, there are ingredients for poisons in the swamp. So good luck, thanks for the company and the exp!"

*Good luck! Cheers, rough! Bye! I reconnected the channels and waved, too - left, without putting my sword in its scabbard.

Five, you say? I counted eight. All the time I tried to keep the boss between Jago and me, but I'm sure a couple of misses weren't for the boss. Had we been alone... would he have put me down? That meant a failure of the quest, we wouldn't have made it to the boss from the respawn in time.

He was definitely hunting me - blessing and curse of the PK classes, they are not subject to the rule of auto-defense in a group against friendly fire. That's why he's playing the distancer, so he doesn't get hit by an ally. Kill me and the group will think the paladin is hit by the boss. Lucky turn with Ila and Vacek, I was able to drag out the fight long enough that Jago didn't have time to leave the quest area. And he didn't want to kill me and get caught in the cleansing fire.

Not that I'm judging him, no, everyone plays their own game, it's just that why have such an unreliable person on the team? It's true, now I have to look back more often. And I'll warn Vacek later. Or not.

"Paladin, are you coming?"

"Yeah! I'm sorry, I can't go to Barra-Marra today."

"Eh, I already set my mind to it!"

"Then unset it!"

"Ila, how long can you be jealous?"

"Now I'll turn off the computer and come to you, and then you'll know whether I'm jealous or not!"

Listening to them, I walked over to the pile of woodland junk that used to be the boss.

"Loot!"

It's empty. It's a pity, but that's not why we went there.

On the ground a little blink of blue. I don't get it...

As I leaned over, I found the edge of the iron peeking out of the clay. The kick did nothing, and my foot went through the pile, raising a cloud of dust. I thought and reached out with my gloved hand. I gently cleared away the fragment.

"Loot!"

Obtained item - a piece of old armor

I opened my inventory and examined what I found. Apparently a piece from a breastplate, with part of the embossed pattern. A swirl and a broken line. What could it be?

Rotate the image clockwise. More.

I see. These are the fingertips, and this must be part of the flower. It makes sense to ask the temple about this thing - where in the woods did it come from? A quest, maybe?

I wondered what kind of quest I would make up if I were the scriptwriter.

A task for an archetype, a light default low-level warrior, something like what we just did for Vacek.

Well, most likely, it's a quest through the dungeons in search of some kind of sacred relic. First I find out about its existence, then I start looking for the place where it is stored, then, maybe, collecting rare ingredients, a couple of puzzles, the final battle with evil and the coveted reward, fanfare, the joyful cries of cheerleaders. For three or four months a player stays in the game, gets persistent attachment due to the plushies and the result, and the same amount of joy for his coolness.

I have to ask on the web what scripted quests the paladins have, so I'll put an "X" in it. We should also read the scrolls more carefully: maybe there are fanfics on the history of Amala. There's all that was so pathetic, probably someone believed it. Ask the NPCs in the temple. Here, ask the priests of the other temples - there are three more in the city - about the Amalas' paladins. The information won't be worthless.

After a glimpse of the menu, I closed the window. Then I opened it and took a closer look. Yes, indeed: "Faith 3." I had a 2 in the morning, and not a single mention of it all day.

The last up was on the boss. I opened the log and started looking through it. Here's my hit... wow, six hundred damage!... here's "Quest Mob Killed!", here's life and mana recovery. No notification of the up. But the faith is still three units. Hidden up? Never heard of it.

"Pal?"

Later.

"I'm coming!"

* * *