I woke up from a loud thunder rumble and a heavy downpour clattering on the windows. Still with a puffy face caused by all-night nightmares and a terrible dryness, I barely made it to the kitchen. A real flood was happening here – the water on the floor was already ankle-deep, and it began to overflow over the kitchen sill.
Grabbing some food and a bottle of soda, I went to the balcony and stared at the bad weather without much thought. The dog pack was nowhere to be seen. After that thunderstorm, I should find myself a new home... Maybe somewhere near the square? So that I don't have to go far for groceries. Memories of a monster in a hypermarket and a huge mind-controlling bump flashed before my eyes right then.
«Nah, fuck it! I can't even fall asleep with these creatures creeping around. Maybe I should move somewhere closer to their camp and just perhaps I might get on their good side? I will bring them skill books; this will for sure prove my usefulness! Moreover, these skills are useless to me. I wonder how Pakhom and Katya are doing there?»
Gradually, a heavy downpour was replaced by a rare rain, and then it completely disappeared. The air filled with herbal aromas, pleasantly wafting freshness, and the smell of linden. A large black cloud was rapidly flying away on its thunderous affairs, and I began to slowly gather my things.
The old clock on the wall showed five in the evening. Just the right time for a stroll after the rain to get some fresh air. Maybe I'll get lucky and find a suitable place, who knows? It's time to explore the surroundings anyway. The only places I've visited were close-by stores and this apartment. Lame!
I entered the makeshift butchery, the one I made in the second apartment, in a new clean suit and carefully, rolling up my sleeves so as not to get them dirty, fished out the sorceress' bones from the bag.
“15 mana,” I said out loud after checking my status.
I halved out the pile of bones and began to infuse them with the energy of Nihility: as in the case with the first spear, the bones of the sub-elite required ten mana.
«What should I make out of it?»
I really wanted my beloved yari back, but making another ineffective weapon seemed like a waste of resources and mana to me.
Maybe then a new club? But the old one is still good enough to crush their skulls.
On the other hand, I've lost my buckler alongside the Pakhom's saber. And this buckler, by the way, saved me, even though I broke my wrist using it.
Impatience to go out into the street accelerated my further thoughts, and, touching the pile of bones that had been cleaned, I said:
“Create bone shield!”
A few seconds later a round, milky-white buckler lay on the floor: it turned out to be a little larger in diameter than my previous turtle shell. It's a shame, but it had no specific features. I expected bone spikes, or at least a grinning skull in the center of the shield, but no, it had that perfectly smooth surface.
Having depleted my mana, I, armed with a club and a brand-new buckler, went out into the street. Taking a deep breath and feeling the surge in my every cell, I went in the direction of the survivors' camp.
“Awoo”
Not even a hundred meters later, a chilling howl rang out from behind. I turned around, purely on instincts putting up a buckler in front of the toothy jaw jumping at me.
The massive creature knocked me down and began frantically licking my face.
“Fu, away, get away from me!” Somehow, I pushed the hefty mongrel away and hastily wiped myself from the smelly saliva with the sleeve of the jacket. Opening my eyes, I stared in surprise at the strange specimen in front of me: he or she was a mixed-breed of a dog, a panther, and of something else: smooth, clean skin, shimmering with a dark sheen, without a single sign of hair. Mongrels wagged its elongated tail joyfully from side to side without stopping; its snout stretched out in a kind, smiling grin, and a square mouth with powerful jaws and long white fangs was ajar: a long red tongue sticked out. Orange eyes radiated with joy and friendliness.
Pack leader
Level 3
Neutral
«It's him?!» I was surprised beyond belief. «Did it happen after the dog ate that cultist sorceress meat? So, mongrel leveled up twice and transformed? Maybe I should have eaten it myself…»
Slowly approaching the dog, I gently patted the huge head and scratched behind his ear. The dog, if you can still call it that, has almost doubled in size. Standing on all fours, he was at the height of my stomach.
“What a giant you are!” No longer fearful, I stroked his withers. To the touch, the skin of the animal was thick, but elastic.
“Where are your friends?”
He turned his head sideways and stared at me uncomprehendingly!
“You didn't eat them, right?” To my question, the dog only licked his nose and wagged his tail harder. “All right, go play, or whatever you mutant dogs like doing.”
However, the stupid dog wasn't going to leave, and I didn’t want to turn my back at him either. What if something happens inside that mutated brain of his? After standing in a place like that for a while, opposite each other, I began to back away. The dog, too, slowly followed me.
Why the hell did he even stick up to me?
Having made up my mind, I turned around and quickly walked forward. I could clearly hear the mongrel's breathing becoming faster.
“Away,” I turned around and waved a bone club to the side. Clearly misunderstanding me, the mongrel’s playfully wiggled its tail and jumped from side to side. Maybe I should throw a branch to keep him away? It's a pity I didn't take a couple of bones...
Suddenly, the dog's expression changed; he raised his snout up and sniffed. Then, without any warning, it took off, raising a fountain of water from a nearby puddle, and rushed towards the building nearby.
At this time, a reptilian monster appeared from behind the dorm houses. In a mere five seconds, the mutant hound covered a distance of a hundred meters, and, in a jump, got to its prey, knocking it down.
Getting closer, I watched how, until recently, an affectionate dog gnawed off and swallowed whole pieces of flesh, breaking victim's bones with his powerful jaws. I felt uneasy to the point of goosebumps! I could easily be in the place of this pinned down monster. The leader of the pack lifted the bloody maw and approached me, clutching in his mouth a piece of the torn-out spine. Putting the gift-treat on the wet pavement, he slightly pushed it towards me with his nose, inviting me for the meal.
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“Umm, thank you.” Under the benevolent gaze of the dog, I tucked the club into my belt and leaned over for the present.
«And what do I do with it?»
The dog returned to his meal, and I quietly, so as not to distract a new friend from dinner, walked between the houses. That piece of meat with a bone had to be left in a thicket of grass.
Trying to get the dog off my tail did not work. Within a minute, he caught up with me and, heavily bumping me with his warm side, walked with me as a faithful companion. It actually turned out to be more fun and easier to go along with such a friend. The dog smelled all the dangerous creatures from afar. At first, I was a little upset that I was not getting any exp, but when we met a big group of altered in one of the courtyards, the whole potential of our partnership was revealed to its fullest.
The dog burst into the crowd of mindless green faction monsters, concentrating all their attention on himself. Fast, agile and strong, he brought havoc in their ranks. With such a classical meat tank, I had to play a typical damager: attacking from behind, delivering quick crushing strikes and finishing off knocked down and wounded.
Everything was fair: experience for me, and tons of meat for a voracious animal. How could he even eat so much?
I also noticed that the system began to give me less exp for second level monsters. Previously, I got 6 experience, and now it gave me 4exp. It seems that there is, after all, a certain penalty for the difference in levels. I think it's around 30%. “I wonder why then they don’t give more experience for creatures of higher level? System, hey! Unfair!
After eliminating the monster squad, I even won a trophy:
Alchemy recipe: Forest gift
Requirements: Alchemist Skill – Journeyman
The one-page booklet was covered with strange, incomprehensible inscriptions. Most likely these hieroglyphs can only be read by someone who has the right skill.
«That's still good! I am glad that in addition to skills and abilities, there are other professions.» I thoughtfully scratched my greasy head, which had not been washed for a long time. «But why didn't any equipable items drop? If this is a game, there should be the usual loot: money, some pants with holes or other garbage. I can't be so unlucky, right? Hm, can it be because my luck stat is 1?»
I stuffed the booklet with recipe in my backpack, close to the other skillbooks I took with me just in case. It's time to move on! Even my companion has raised his bloodied snout… Oh, surely, he smelled new enemies. It's time to get more experience!
However, the mongrel, instead of charging forth, moved closer to me and began to bump his head at me.
“What happened?” I asked my leveling companion.
In turn, he just whimpered some dog phrase and shook his head vaguely.
“I don’t understand, if there is prey, let’s go after it!”
There was an even more disturbing whining, and the dog began to bump in the stomach with his snout. His pokes were strong enough, and it finally dawned on me that the dog sensed danger and warns me. Just in case, I set a trap among the corpses, and we quickly retreated from the playground.
Once at a fairly large distance, I took a good position for observation - on a yard road between two overturned cars. The playground with the abandoned corpses was at my fingertips. I was interested in seeing what kind of creature will come out.
And sure enough, quite a bit of time later, a group of six familiar demonic creatures entered the courtyard, along with two people. Their clothes were somewhat reminiscent of the cinematic special forces uniform with a whole bunch of pockets. On their heads they had a protective helmet and goggles, a backpack behind. Each held a machine gun in the hands. I could not see the stripes and other things - too far.
The demonids, meanwhile, surrounded the corpses from all sides, and only after that the guys with weapons approached the bodies. They did not study the monsters for long, and they had already reached the place where I had set the trap.
«Fuck, of course he won’t step on it! Cause, well, these aren't some stupid monsters.»
The burly guy bent down and tried to pick up the strange object. The bone trap activated on touch and fired three spikes: the central one, breaking through the soldier's mask, pierced him exactly in the eye socket. System notification immediately popped up:
You eliminated level 0 Human, received 0 experience.
The will of the world #3 is dissatisfied with your deeds. You are temporarily deprived of the Aqen’s blessing. To atone for your sins, eliminate five creatures of a hostile faction.
“Fuck... what have I done?” A chill ran down my spine.
Their ranks were in turmoil, with demonids running around, snapping their claws and screeching loudly. The second soldier ran up to the deceased corpse and briefly examined the body, without touching the bone trap. Then he removed a backpack with a machine gun from his dead partner and, leaving the body, rushed back, in the direction from which they had recently come. The demonic scorpions also followed him.
All the while I was sitting on the ground in a state of shock. I killed him! Not a cultist, not a monster, but a human. He was one of the survivors for sure; their camp was only a stone's throw away.
«What do I do now? Maybe the system is wrong? What kind of a man is he, if he walked along with the demonids. Or, maybe, the orange faction is our allies? After all, there should be summoner classes and maybe they can call upon demons? In games, there's a whole bunch of different warlocks, necromancers, and other evil worshippers, who fought alongside the good guys. Fuck, fuck, how did I even get in a situation like this...»
Suddenly, an unexpected realization came to me.
«Most likely that girl was one of them. Maybe they won't know that I'm a killer? After all, even Pakhom and Katya have never seen my abilities. So how can they find out? It could have been anything - maybe some monster left a trap behind.»
My companion, sensing my unease, laid his head on my shoulder. Bloody mouth and smelly hot breath, unfortunately, did not positively affect my mood. I continued to think frantically.
«No, now you definitely need to forget about the camp of survivors. Damn it, it's the second time in a day. If for the first time I can at least excuse myself, now what? Why the hell did I leave a trap there? Dumb bastard.»
“Let's go! I need to urgently find some monsters.” I got up and sullenly trudged in the direction opposite to the human’s camp.
Not getting my worries, the tailed friend tried to somehow cheer me up. Occasionally rushing forward, he returned with a torn arm or a chopped off foot.
“You! I have to kill them myself! Leave them alive to me, you silly dog...”
In response, he just incomprehensibly spat out another clawed hand on the ground and wagged his tail.
It was already getting dark outside, but I still did not find any monsters! Did they hide in their holes, or what could have happened? I was about to turn towards the house, when suddenly the dog froze in place and, crouching down, let out a loud roar towards the open sewer hatch and the grass rustling around the hole. Buckler in front and club at the ready. I began to mentally prepare for an ambush.
The creature hiding in the bushes finally showed off its mustachioed red head. The mysterious creature turned out to be a cat-sized red cockroach, a vile creature staring at us with its black eyes, and a pair of its mandibles began to move non-stop.
The creature took a couple more steps out of the bushes and suddenly briskly rushed in our direction. For the first time I saw the dog miss: the cockroach, quickly avoiding opponents’ claws, spread its wings and jumped on me. The creature grabbed hold of the buckler with its paws and sprayed a jet of orange liquid from its mouth into my face. Gasping with disgust, I hit the immobilized creature with a club and the now dead body dropped to the ground. I managed to glance at the system's notification:
Inferior Swarmer, sub-elite (**).
Level 3.
Purple faction.
You eliminated level 3 Inferior Swarmer (**), received 27 experience.
“PTUI PTUI PTUI!”
Quickly wiping the nasty liquid with my sleeve and overcoming my nausea, I stared at the defeated monster. “I hate insects. He's so weak, no wonder I got so little exp and no loot, right, Leader?”
The dog went up to the corpse of the insect, sniffed the air, and lightly hit it with its paw. Was that to check if he was dead or not?
“Eeek, stop!”
The dog grabbed the cockroach carcass with his mouth, and crunched on it with its sharp fangs and powerful jaws, and then champed the thin chitin of the creature.
I always thought I had an extremely strong stomach, but this time it let me down. The dog, having finished chewing the cockroach, came up to me and licked my cheek sympathetically. I jumped up probably two meters high.
“Never do that again!” I glared angrily at the dog, who turned his gaze to the hatch and growled. “What, another one coming?”
I walked over to the hatch, and peered down warily, listening attentively for the rustling noise. The cockroach horde was moving up along the sewer walls. The system did not even single them out:
Inferior swarm, sub-elite (**).
Level 3.
Purple faction.
“Oh my God…”