“Woohoo,” exclaimed Anton. “Finally, lvl-up! So, what's the loot? Yura, off your sphere and let's go have a look.”
I noticed that both apprentice necromancers and even the golem behind them had leveled up.
Sentinel Golem
Level 7
Black faction
So, there is a way of sharing experience? I should probably ask later how to form a group.
“Take your time, we still need to clear out the surroundings.” Yura stepped over the purple barrier and, lifting the unconscious body of the albino altered one, dragged him to the magical flame. Under the tongues of necrotic fire, the flesh broke down quickly, and the monster withered, never having a chance to regain consciousness.
The second disciple reluctantly trudged over to the pile of monsters’ carcasses and grabbed a pair of wooden-scaled hind legs. I recognized who they belonged to at once and rushed to my lost friend.
“Stop! Don't you dare touch him!”
Anton, twitched and dumbfounded, turned to me.
“Why you're so worked up?”
“This dog is my friend,” I said slowly, looking into impudent brown eyes.
Anton looked demandingly in the direction of his partner, who, attracted by the noise, stared at me. After a couple of seconds, Yura nodded and returned to his work.
The second disciple snorted and, grabbing onto the body of another creature, pulled it out of the pile. As soon as Anton stepped aside, I rescued the senseless dog in a flash. My spine bones creaked - it was me trying to lift the dog up. He weighed two centners no less. Puffing and groaning, I pulled him aside, and then started looking for still alive people.
In ten minutes, seven of the two dozen unconscious bodies remained. Dog and six survivors. And among them, one was level three - a strong, shaven-headed man of about forty, with a magnificent beard and mustache.
“So,” Anton's voice was heard. He, rubbing his hands, went to the withered wooden ball left from the heart of the Mother tree. Next to him lay items: three books, as well as some luminous twigs and pebbles. “Wow! Yura, here's a mind control book and a stick to craft the wand! Today's loot is pog!”
The lanky apprentice necromancer shrugged his shoulders and silently began gathering items, putting aside only a branch and a red stone in his bosom. The rest he began to stuff into the mouth of the golem, while I could only look at him in surprise. With each new item, the belly of the monster became larger and larger.
“Is there a vault in there?” I asked Yura, coming closer. The guy at that moment was trying to shove the last wooden shell into the hefty golem's throat.
“No ... Phew ...” Out of breath, he lowered and shook his stiff hands. “This is food for the Lord.”
“Food?” I asked in surprise.
“Yes, Teacher and other beings like him need system's items or objects infused with mana to level up.” Yura explained the fundamentals of the new world in a calm melancholic tone.
“You know so much. Maybe you know what's going on around?”
“Hmm,” my interlocutor arched his back and stretched. “Are you talking about what happened to the world?” I nodded. “Master didn’t tell us, but I believe…”
“Oh, what is there to think about - this is a game!” Anton approached us with a handful of bone tools. “I'm hundred percent sure this is virtual reality or something like that!”
“Are you serious?” I looked at him skeptically.
“Of course! Where else can all these lvls, magic and other crap come from? We ended up in the virtual world, and all these stupid altered species are just typical mobs.” And, without giving any of us a word to say, he continued. “Yura, let's go home already. I can't wait to have my wand crafted!”
“You won't get it anytime soon. Christina only has the skill's first tome, so it is unknown when she will be able to craft items from the sub-elite components.”
«Only the first tome? Strange, I could immediately create items from sub-elite…»
“Fuck, you're right ... Oh, man, you did upset me! Anton waved his hand dismissively. “Eh, let's go back to base?”
“Wait, I need to say something to the third and let's go.” He turned his gaze to me. “Your new ability.”
“You saw it?”
«Damn, this appraisal definitely is a cheat-like ability»
“No, But I sure do feel its effect on me! All life around you withers slo-o-owly.” Yura spoke in the same calm voice.
Anton's reaction was more emotional than mine, and he exclaimed:
“What? What kind of ability is this?”
“Necromancers and higher undead have it.” Once again, the first student brushed his hair off the face and started an explanation. “Master says it’s an elite ability transformation. If you ask me, its effect is somewhat reminiscent of radioactivity emission, only the radius is smaller, and, well, so far, the effective speed is slow. You need to turn it off, otherwise in the human settlements you will be quickly discovered and killed!”
“And how do I do it? Status!” I found a new ability right away with a glance. It, like the tome, had no description. "It's a passive ability."
“Ha! And how did you get to the seventh level being so dumb? You even enter the status through a voice command. Ah-ha-ha!” Anton laughed, but under my and Yury's disapproving looks, he quickly fell silent.
«Be patient, Sasha. Be patient! For now, they're useful to you.»
“Hah? You did not even realize it yourself; it was me who told you about it.” Yura reproachfully reminded his friend.
“I would for sure figure it out... Well, anyway! Look, third. Status has an icon at the top left. Here, select it like you do with a smartphone, with your finger, or mentally and drag it on your..., well..., for example, on your hand. The rest of the skills have similar icons. You drag it onto your body and use it as a hotkey.”
He rolled up the sleeve of his jacket, showing a dozen small tattoos.
“This is the status, and here I have Raise dead. I won't tell you what others do! Oh, right, only you can click them, so don't worry. No one will use your abilities without you noticing.”
I did everything as the little, but useful, asshole showed me.
«For now, I'll make three of them - status, lightweight tread and withering aura.»
Clicking on the latter, I looked at Yura.
“Fine now?”
“Yes, it's all right. Now we can...”
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“Rrrr!” Our dialogue was interrupted by a thunderous angry growl - someone's finally awake.
Anton hid behind the golem in a wink, and Yura's hands lit up with purple fire.
“Come here,” I opened my arms, smiled and went to the dog. He did not immediately recognize me and squintedly looked with his peach-colored eyes. “Come here, boy, or have you really forgotten me?”
I slowly approached the feral beast; he began to beat with a clawed paw on the ground, uprooting the grass and large chunks of dirt with it. With each step I took, the beast bent its neck more and more to the side, baring its toothy mouth. And then, boy finally jumped at me, pushing off with his hind legs. Claws and teeth flashed in the moonlight.
“Haha, you scared me!” I almost fell under the hefty weight that landed on me. The boy landed on my shoulders with his front paws and decided, if he couldn't bite and eat me, then would definitely lick me to death. Somehow fighting off animalistic tenderness, I introduced him to my temporary allies. They did not dare come any closer, and I do not think that he would have allowed them.
“Anyway, it's time for us to leave!” Yury reached for a dirty bag on the ground.
“Wait,” I stopped him. “I forgot to tell you, but this is my backpack.”
The apprentice necromancer stared at me blankly. And as usual, Anton intervened:
“I found it in the forest! This is my loot!”
“Well then, wanna duel, one on one?” I smiled and blurted out the first thing that came to my mind.
“You're level seven and.., and... I don’t have any summons or even a pet!” He fearfully replied and looked at his older comrade.
Yura eventually decided to support him:
“Sasha, that's not going to work; you're going too far. Tone down your greed! We've already made too many concessions.”
I looked him straight in the eye and said:
“For these things, I almost went on the way to the afterworld several times.” Feeling the timbre of my voice, the dog began to growl. “Therefore, I do not intend to give them away for nothing. But you shared truly significant info with me, and in general, it seems like you're a good person. Maybe we can agree on something?”
“And what can you offer us?” Yura chuckled and crossed his arms over the chest.
«Damn it, I didn’t want to show trump cards... But I won’t give them the items obtained by blood and sweat for nothing»
“How about I make you a weapon?” I threw the bait.
“Do you have a crafting skill?” Yura asked. “A blacksmith? Or something else?”
I grinned, anticipating their reaction.
“I can make an item from the sub-elite bones.”
The effect was like a bombshell going off. Anton screamed and began to persuade his partner to immediately give me all the items. Yura was also slightly shocked, but he tried to keep his face.
“Anton, do you have the blueprint with you?”
“Yes!” The boy with trembling hands began to rummage in his bag. “Now, now! I have both the blueprint and the materials on me.”
Anton took out a few white bones, a purple crystal, and a small yellow piece of parchment. He handed me the blueprint with incomprehensible hieroglyphs on it and asked:
“So, can you learn it?”
Blueprint: Soul wand
Requirement: Bone craft
Do you want to learn it: yes/no
«I hope it works!»
I breathed out and said:
“Yes!”
The system's voice rang out in my head:
Unable to learn the blueprint! Skill required: Craft magic weaponry.
«Damn it, what's that?»
I quickly opened the Bone transmutation skill.
[https://sun9-25.userapi.com/impg/j-Cuuyjl7luHOeCpMfpLlMG502Nn8ovQcTOr7A/QJf9LBgAM_s.jpg?size=622x485&quality=96&sign=d3cd72484d85f452f5acd11d2a308585&type=album]
«Oh, that's right; I completely forgot that I get skill points with every level... I could've learned it much earlier, after the fight with the sorceress! Okay, right now I'm interested in...»
“Learn craft magic weaponry ,” I spoke softly, and the female system's voice said once again:
An inconsistent learning of upgrades is impossible.
“Sure, sure!” I whispered in a loud, angry tone.
“Something's wrong?” Anton responded immediately. “If you don't have the required skill, just say so! If you damage materials...”
“Everything's fine!” I snapped, and no longer listening to the petty necromancer's tedious speech, I quickly learned two new upgrades, spending all the available skill points. Then I tried again to learn the blueprint, and this time the paper lit up with a yellow light, the hieroglyphs turned into words I could understand.
Soul Wand:
Processed pipistrellus bone - 25 cm.
Ruby - 1 pc.
Mother tree sprout - 1 pc.
Small soul crystal - 1 pc.
Below was a description of the sequence of actions to craft an item.
“I can do it,” as soon as I said that, Anton did a thundering cry full of delight. “But I don’t know if I have enough mana, only 16 units left.”
“Do it, do it! Come on, Sasha!” The lanky boy couldn't let me relax even for a second.
“Well, as you say,” I put all the items in front of me and started working with the bones. It took only four mana to infuse them, and two more for each other material. A total of 10 energy of Nihility was used in the preparation phase.
“Create the Soul wand.” the infirmly secured with each other materials dimly glowed and started levitating. Just a few moments later, the finished item fell into my hand.
Soul Wand.
Feature: bound to the soul-donor
Active ability: Wave of fear
Passive ability: Qualitatively enhances your ability to raise the undead.
Passive ability: Increases the energy of Nihility regeneration rate by 25%
I barely had any time to read the features of the finished item, as it was already snatched by the dexterous hand of a young necromancer. He began to rush around with his new want and shout obscenities laudatorily, without forgetting to mention my name. Even the usually reserved Yury could not stand it and hit him on the back of the head, taking the wand for himself, and began carefully inspecting it.
“Incredible! Average quality,” he said it very quietly, but not only Anton standing next to him heard him, but the same goes for me.
«So, it turns out there is also the quality of things! And I only did average one... Or is he trying to deceive me?»
“WHAT???” Anton yelled even harsher. “AVERAGE ONE?”
«..uck, well, so it begins»
“Yes, it's incredible. I have not seen a single thing higher than low quality.” Quickly added the First.
“Um, average quality, is that good?” I asked skeptically.
“This is, ooh ...” Yura restrained himself. “Just great! Anton show us what you can do with this wand, right now!”
Anton tore out the wand out of his hand so fast I thought he might have accidentally got it along with Yury's palm. Then he grabbed a bunch of bones all over around himself. After that, he activated a tattoo on his arm, made a couple of gestures with a wand in hand, and a humanoid creature rose from the ground two heads taller than me. Violet flame flickered between the joints of his bones. Embraced by magical fire, the giant took a couple of steps towards his creator and froze in place. Anton, pleased with the view, straightened up, lifted his chin and commanded:
“Your master orders, crush ..., mmm ..., there, that tree,” with a wand he pointed to a nearby linden. The monster with quick steps, turning into a run, rushed up to the tree, and with a wide swing struck once with the edge of the bone palm. There was a crack, and the monster's arm broke in several places; the tree also suffered some damage, but not so devastatingly. Then the summoned monster, having made a second blow, broke his other hand as well. As a result, Anton came to his senses too late and shouted:
“BACK! The master orders you to return!”
“A-ha-ha,” Yury, still calm up to this moment, laughed out loud, covering his mouth with the hand and, under the angry look of his partner, turned away.
The huge skeleton meanwhile, returned back to the young necromancer and froze in anticipation of the next command.
“Ohh, such a disappointment...” Anton waved the skeleton to follow him, and went up to his partner. “Yura, I need the second tome of raise the undead.”
“No one has it, but I believe now our team will have priority in getting it. Oh, I would like to get a similar wand myself...” The first disciple looked at me questioningly and handed over the backpack.
“Yeah, somehow, someday for sure...” I promised, looking inside the bag.
They began gathering up. Anton wanted to bend over to pick up the scattered weapons, but I decided to stop him. It was time for me to raise the stakes.
“Oh, since I crafted such a cool weapon for you and spent all my mana, leave these to me. It takes a long time to get to the camp from here, and even my pants are full of holes.”
Anton was clearly delighted - he would not have to carry all this rubbish on himself; and Yury was clearly not opposing such an idea. They left light and unencumbered; and finally, the first disciple informed me that their Lord would contact me in a day.
Left alone with the dog, I was able to rest at last. This long, long night is finally coming to an end; the street began to gradually get brighter - the sunrise was fast approaching.
It's been a busy day for sure! Do you agree, my friend? - In response, the dog laid his head on my knee and stared at me with a dumb request. I began to stroke and comb the rough skin of his, and he drooled contentedly, beating the ground with his needle-covered tail. With the death of the Mother tree, apparently, all creatures under her control received the ability Affinity with nature. I clicked on the status tag on my arm and began to sort through the updated stats.
[https://sun9-23.userapi.com/impg/6QoUHlaRX728qR5xFJDFRZ6RV1QS23YrK6hddw/MSMcsQvQUl4.jpg?size=558x682&quality=96&sign=276acd2badcbfc8ce9b8cb0231f4ca47&type=album]
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***
“My first disciple,” a low, ominous whisper thundered in the ears of the young necromancer with a cutting pain.
Yury's quick pace disrupted and, ordering Anton to stop, he leaned towards the golem's huge belly.
“Yes, sir, I'm at your command!”
“None of our people should know about the youth whom the Faceless introduced to us. He contains a mighty power that can help us ascend.”
“Sir, maybe we should go back and—”
The angry, dissatisfied whisper grew louder, and the First closed his eyes from excruciating pain, his face turning pale:
“For now, I can't do anything with him. His ability revealed itself too late. The submission contract places certain limitations for me as well. In my current situation, I can't break it. Therefore, as soon as he completes the task, we will seize his power.”
“As you say, Master.”