Chapter 29

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Mist, fog, gray shroud... Here I am again. At the edge of the field are a few loners who didn't want to cooperate, and one group was halfway to the center. But the infirmary in the camp is almost empty, only one guard sitting on a camp bed and talking with the healer - a sure sign that the spawning will be soon. Spawn - it's for the players, and if to believe the statistics from one of the forums, the chance of it's appearance depends on the ratio of players in the area and the number of guards incapacitated. Well, that's good. Today I'll just be beating monsters.

After another look around the field, I headed toward the figure marked in purple on the indicator. One of those who had marked me as a friend. It seemed to be a heavy swordswoman from the first line of the hastily assembled raid.

As I got closer, I stopped and looked around at the player's figure.

The textbook warrior maiden from the north - a blonde with a guitar-like figure.

"Tarrhana?"

The maiden looked back, frowned perplexedly, and then brightened up: "Paladin! Hi there! Are you here to grind? Or a new raid?" The mismatch between the proud, even a little haughty face and the girlish demeanor was fascinating. No, really!

"I'm here to farm. How long will you stay? I want to go to the center, on the edge is too boring, and not enough EXP. A group?"

"And I'm already in a group. Will you join us? Dimik is funny! He's a roleplayer, just like you!"

I wondered if she had been serious in that fight, and quite appropriate to her character. Even after the fight, on the way back to town, she acted with restraint.

"I'll go, it's more fun together. Who's Dimik?"

"Dimitriel, at your service, my sire! A traveling singer of magic. Ready to support you in battle with wondrous music!"

After looking at his face, from which no amount of virt remodeling could remove the characteristic features, I concluded:

"Ryazan."

The half-elf arrogantly creased his freckled face and shrugged it off:

"I would argue! Perm!"

"Оh? Well, I guess that's different. A group?"

A player invites you to join the group. Do you accept?

Yes.

"Welcome! I flatter myself with the hope that such a brave and armored warrior will be a reliable..."

I pulled a crossbow from behind my back and shot the elemental.

"Dimik, we have a biting monster here. Don't distract yourself."

The bard sighed with a wail: "Well they said you were a roleplayer."

A long thing with strings appeared in his hands. The melody was unlike anything I'd ever heard, but the magic was effective: the monster stumbled, froze, and then staggered toward the charmer, clearly enchanted.

"While I'm playing, he's coming at me. Chop it up, guys!"

An unknown skill worked perfectly; the monster had little defense and was slaughtered in a matter of seconds. I pulled the bowstring and wondered: "What else can bards do?"

Dimik made his strange instrument howl with one chord.

You have received a temporary buff - Music of the Soul.

Recovery increased by 10%

The defense increases by 2.

The duration is 9 min. 59 sec.

"I can buff on the attack. Or on accuracy. For one thing: I can do two at level thirtieth, and five buffs at once at level one. But only for ten minutes."

I see, buffer.

"Heal?"

The half-elf gave out a three-second tremolo, ending with one high note.

"Weak, but mana free."

"Listen, maybe you also know how to stun?"

The bard sighed: "I know how to charm. But the melody of the spell lasts fifteen seconds. It's not profitable alone. In a group, it's easier to pull on yourself while the damagers slash."

"I see. Then pull."

Why can't I play the guitar? I tried in the army, but I guess my hands are at the wrong end.

I had to admit that the bard had never produced a similar tune, so it was quite pleasant to be in his company. I recognized some of the tunes: apparently, the music was only needed to keep the spell active.

"Look, don't you feel sorry for your fingers?"

Dimik smirked. "I play with gloves on."

I nodded understandingly.

"Modules?"

"Nope. Normal gloves. And the only module I have is a guitar. I picked one to make it more comfortable, and I'm rocking it hard!"

Imagining a guitarist wearing gloves, I couldn't help myself: "Mm... Cool! You'd be rated in Vegas!"

The bard smiled.

"Everyone goes to Vegas."

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"Aren't you boys forgetting something?" You can't leave girls without attention. It damages them.

"My bad, fair maiden! I'll make it up to you right away." Dimick jumped up and, picking out the monster, hummed his beguiling tune again. The elemental, which looked like a bundle of twigs, stretched out its gaunt paws and staggered toward the half-elf.

After a dozen monsters, the order was established - the bard aimed at the enemy, I slowed down with a crossbow shot (sometimes it did not work, I had to quickly shoot again), and then the two of us and the female warrior sliced the enemy, trying to be at the side to have time to cover the nearly armorless half-elf.

Once there was an air elemental, which scattered us to the sides and crawled toward the bard with its remaining life. Before I could activate the jump, the musician intercepted his instrument by the fingerboard and knocked a hundred HPs out of the enemy with a single blow. Wrapping the fog around me (it was my turn), I clarified:

"Interesting things with you bards. Is this some kind of secret solfeggio?"

"A troll lute! A real stone tree! A combined string and percussion instrument that ungrateful listeners can't resist!"

"Dimik, it's cool! I saw this at a concert a musician was fighting with the virt!"

"Where do you think I picked that up from? Do you mean the "Flicks"? The summer concert?"

"Yeah, yeah, I was there with friends!"

While the bard and the warrioress were talking about their own things, I wondered about the future.

In three days of doing the quest, I got level nineteen and raised my faith to three. My real combat abilities were twenty-fifth, or even twenty-eighth. It's not much. And it's time to change the armor: although "light steel" is quite practical, its merits - only in durability and a slot for essences, and from the twentieth available other armor, though much more expensive, but increasing the characteristics.

An initial city is still a place for beginners. Simple monsters, uncomplicated tutorials, straightforward quests with a prescribed plot. There are almost no established permanent guilds, trade is limited to low-level goods, and even caravans come here half-empty - there's nothing for beginners to spend. So we'll have to depart from the old game plan in the group and bet on individual features. And I need damage upgrades, not slowdowns like we have now.

As I pondered whether to buy freshly made armor or whether it would be better to get a "change" with a reserve of four to six repairs, I barely managed to catch another elemental that almost got to the bard.

"Tarrhana, don't sleep!"

The girl grudgingly muttered: "You are the wrong paladin. They usually tank or heal. And you're running around on your own, taking targets away from honest female warriors!"

"I'm a proper paladin. I'm just very practical. If you stand still, for some reason, the mobs hurt you."

"Leave your quarrels alone, friends! Give in to the music, it will show you the way!"

The bard began to pull another elemental, and we raced to destroy it.

After half an hour, the girl gave up:

"That's it, I'm tired!"

I took my helmet off, grabbed a towel from the keyboard, and wiped off the sweat.

"And I'm going to drink some mineral water and continue!"

"Nah, I mean, I gotta go. Thanks for the group, guys!"

"Shall we accompany you into town?"

"I have an amulet."

With her arms folded in front of her, the warrior began to melt into the air and disappeared with a quiet pop.

"Look, Pal, I was actually told that you were a role-player. But it turns out you're a normal dude. What's your purpose in fooling people?"

I shrugged.

"No slyness, musician. What makes everyone think a paladin is so... um..." I nodded toward the camp. "Shall we go and give up the booty? And rest for ten minutes? It's been an hour and a half of fighting, and I'm wearing in modules."

"Okay."

The collectors gave us each respectable handful of tokens, and I immediately spent some on repairs, after which I continued:

"A paladin is not a cardboard tin man from fairy tales. What do you think a paladin really is?"

"Warrior of Light?"

"Bullshit. A warrior of Light, a warrior of Darkness... A paladin is a man who has taken some vows and enforced them by force, which he got just under his word of honor to adhere to certain standards. Light and darkness are the fifth things. That's what I'm wagering about - "being myself."

The bard hummed: "Being yourself" is usually said for another reason."

Not holding back a smirk, I retorted: "And I am a paladin, and no one tells me anything but my conscience and my Divine Patroness!"

"Logical! Oh..."

"What?"

"I missed the time! Bye... brother-paladin!"

The player put you in his friend list, now you can see his name

The bard sat against the wall of the tent, waved his hand at me, and froze. His face was petrified, and he finally started to look like an elf.

I looked at my friend list. Dimyriel wasn't there, but was "Doroj the 27th-level bard".

The bard's body scattered a bunch of sparks, and the line on the list went dark.

Not everyone wants to be themselves, right?

I spent the next two hours picking at monsters in proud solitude. I only stopped three times to sell the essences and the rest. The loners around me were not attractive, taking too long to deal with weak foes; once I took a priest into the group, but he quickly got bored and, excused by his business, left for the camp, quickly finding less aggressive and taciturn companions.

During another break, a guard came up to me.

"Brother Paladin?"

I looked closely and recognized the Philosophy Sergeant.

"Sarge? Need any help?"

"Thank you, we are fine."

I sat on a chair I'd brought from the kitchen. I used to move it into the corridor during the fighting, but now I was happy to sit down. The camp was empty and quiet, the wounded man had been cured, and the sergeant was obviously bored.

"Decided to help with the holding back of the local foul?"

I shrugged.

"It may be a small evil, but someone has to fight it as well."

The sergeant nodded accordingly:

"That's right. It's strange, this was once the frontier, the cutting edge of the fight against darkness. My ancestors fought here, and now I fight here."

Wary, I encouraged:

"Anything can happen. What do you know about those times?"

"Do I know? Nothing much. So, the stories of old people who heard something in their childhood. You have to look for the names of heroes, names of regiments, and places of battles in the old records."

Now that's really close!

"Where are those preserved? Temples and towers of wizards?"

"It's there, too. When I was young, I used to like to search in our city archives. I was bored. I spent money on... all sorts of things, and all I had to do was practice. Well, or to look for interesting things in the archives."

"Looking for something interesting? How elegantly you call it "good naping." Were you hiding from the tenth officer?"

The sergeant laughed: "And you, brother paladin, know what's what! Of course, I slept! After the night duty!" He winked. "But I read things, too, sometimes. When the frontier moved on, they put all the old archives in our town hall, you can find a lot there."

"Not for me. I'm new in town, after all."

"Well, if you're a good man... I'll put in a good word for you."

"I would be grateful!"

"However, our archivist is a very mean old man. He won't let just anyone in. If you were a full-fledged warrior of the temple... But he might not let you in, you ancient moron."

"I'm in no hurry. Stories about the past aren't going anywhere, work first."

"That's what I think, too."

I checked the text logs, and according to them, the sergeant hadn't said a word! A hidden quest? Grow up one step in the temple hierarchy? But to do that you have to complete the assignment! And finishing it without access to the archives may not be possible. Okay, we need to see all the articles about quests and quest chains! Put a mark.

"Well, Sergeant, you seem to have shown me the way. You see, you're guiding us, outsiders, too!"

"But by going my way, you're still going to leave."

"I will go away. If the path beckons, we will all follow it at someday."

"Yeah. I guess so."

Well, I'm kind of overloaded poor NPC. That's enough.

"Well, in the meantime, the path leads me into town. Is there anything you want me to pass on?"

"No thanks, brother paladin."

I got up, saluted, and headed for the road.

I turned the treadmill on for a medium-speed run and continued to think about the equipment. The armor would have to be ordered by caravan, and the second-hand is already here. But it would have to be filled with a full inventory, otherwise, I risk being left without armor in the middle of the battle...

My reflection was interrupted by an alarming red light, showing a sharp decrease in hitpoints.

Panicked, I raised my hand to heal, twitched, stumbled down the treadmill, and, before the stop worked, fell to the floor, bruising my elbow badly. When I got up, my avatar was still lying on the road.

You are dead! Please read the report!

Three men emerged from the bushes and headed toward my remains. The world flickered, the multicolored gray shroud hiding the road, the bushes, and the killers from me.

"Greetings, brother paladin. I see another opponent was too strong?"

I looked back at the priest standing at the altar and sighed.

My first experience with true PKs turned out to be unfortunate.

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