Outside world welcomed us with morning coolness, sharp gusts of wind and small droplets of rain. Pakhom noisily breathed in cool morning air through his nose.
“It sure smells like summer, doesn't it, Sasha?” He turned around and winked at me with a wicked smile.
I somehow held back not to roll my eyes.
«Lost his sense of smell, yeah, sure…»
“We can go with a yesterday's route.”
“It's all right, Alexander, don't fuss,” he took out a cigarette from behind his ear and lit it. “I will show you the shortest safe way. Let's go through the yards - I'm ahead, and you, Sasha, will tail. We'll get to Savelyevskaya street...”
Pakhom quickly announced the plan of our upcoming journey. Frankly, I was worried about the mental abilities of his, but the suggestion of an elderly sociopath sounded surprisingly sensible. Apparently, Pakhom noticed my shocked look and asked: “Something's wrong?”
I coughed slightly, “No, no, everything is OK.”
“Then go ahead,” he straightened his backpack and, descending the steps, with a confident quick step headed towards the neighboring five-storey building. I let Katya move ahead, so that both strange fellows were in front of my eyes.
Pakhom moved almost silently - not a single piece of glass or pebble crunched under his boots. Our «leader» sometimes looked back, as if he was afraid that we would run away from him.
We crossed a kid's playground, and I noticed the place where Altered ones had lunch yesterday: there wasn't any traces remaining except some scraps of clothes.
We passed most of our silent journey without any incident - apparently, creatures roamed the spacious streets, and did not particularly look into the yards.
«On one hand, it’s certainly good - it’s safer to get the place and relax, but on the other, when will I ever get to the god damn 3rd level? »
Now the descent down appeared in front of us - a wide concrete staircase with rusty railing; which means that we're half way to the target.
Staircase was barely thirty meters away when Pakhom froze, as if hitting an invisible wall, and raised his hand up. A loud growl and fuss reverberated behind the neighboring house. Our "leader" took out a mirror from his bosom and looked around the corner of the building. We patiently waited, hiding next to the broken car.
After placing mirror back to its place, he quietly approached us. The old man's forehead was covered with large drops of sweat.
“What's there?” I whispered impatiently.
Pakhom just snapped: “Santa Claus with his reindeer cart! They are handing out gifts, go there and choose one.”
“Can you behave normally at least for now?” I asked in a loud whisper. “How many?”
“Three.” The old man rubbed his face with a trembling hand and continued. “There's a bus on its side in the middle of the road, and these... are eating someone. We need to go back and make a small detour.”
“Go back to where exactly? There are only three of them.” Surprisingly, I didn't feel even a bit nervous: yesterday's horrors made me bolder. “What are their levels and faction?”
“What?” Pakhom was taken aback.
A sigh escaped my chest. Do I really have to explain fundamental game knowledge to everyone I meet?
“Look at me. Do you get a notification?”
“So, that’s what you're talking about... And I kept cursing that mushroom soup.” He looked thoughtfully at Katya. “And why...?”
I cut him off abruptly, “I'll explain everything to you later. Grab your saber, we have to quickly deal with the creatures.”
The backpack had to be thrown off the shoulders and handed over to Katya - in the upcoming battle it would get in the way. After stretching my muscles a little, I went to the corner of the building. There was no point in asking the old man for a mirror - leaning against the rough concrete wall, I quickly looked out and examined the creatures.
They sat with their backs to me about ten meters away: red faction, all with one star, and their levels are zero, zero and one. There is no sub-elite, and this is just wonderful. Turning to Pakhom, I put my finger to the lips and whispered:
“Mine are on the left, yours’s on the right.”
Barely audibly unsheathed saber, and we slowly went out to the feasting creatures. Anticipating the upcoming impetuous battle, my heart pounded wildly. When the creatures were only a couple of steps away, level 1 creature looked around and instantly jumped at me.
My body reacted on its own, without prompting: a dodge and a counterattack. Palm with long claws fell on the asphalt. Claws??? Only now, when the creature was in front of me, I noticed the difference with yesterday's ones. Its ugly mug was covered with scales, and the jaw is slightly elongated.
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«What the hell, they should be a typical zombie! »
I switched to defense: the benefit of a long spear made it possible not to let the creatures get any closer; and for their mistakes, the bloodthirsty monsters received another cut.
Pakhom plunged into the fray almost immediately - seizing the appropriate moment and slashed the nearest reptile at the base of the neck. A powerful stream of blood sprayed out, but the creature did not die: with a hiss, it jumped on the old man and knocked him down.
«I hope he remembers that it’s the end if they do bite him. »
Fighting two was easy, I don't think I would have taken damage even from three or four. I effortlessly dealt with two weaklings and received a system notification:
You eliminated level 0 Altered, gained 2 experience.
You eliminated level 1 Altered, gained 2 experience.
After such an easy victory, I felt an incredible surge of strength, like I could fly and shoot with lasers from my eyes. I wanted to continue, and for sure, there was a third. I turned around worriedly: Pakhom, with crazed eyes, up to the waist covered in blood, was trying to cut off the head of the reptile. On the chest of the old man's prey, exuding a soft light, lay a thin book.
“Pakhom!” The old man didn't even look back. He raised and lowered the blade with all his strength on the monster's neck vertebrae. “Wake up!”
I touched his shoulder - he shuddered and stared at me with bloodshot eyes. After only about five seconds, some kind of clarity returned to his gaze.
“Is everything fine? I hope you didn't get bitten?” I snapped my fingers a couple of times.
“Y-yes, I mean no, it's all right.” He touched his neck, then wiped the blood from his face.
“Your spoils,” I pointed at the book on the reptile's body.
Although we needed to leave immediately, I had to spend a couple of minutes explaining some things to the old man. The book turned out to be a volume 1 Appraisal - the same one I got from Nastya. Most likely, this is the first thing that drops from the monsters.
“Uncle Pakhom, let me pour some water on you,” Katya used up our fresh water to wash him a bit.
After his first meeting with the monsters, Pakhom was no longer the same; it got even worse after he uttered status. He immediately reached into his pocket for pills and, putting a couple under his tongue, finally calmed down a bit.
Just in case, I returned to the monsters I killed and checked if any loot had fallen out, but alas.
“Okay, let's move on then.”
Nearby there was a long-awaited rumbling - my former house did not survive that morning. Without a word, we grabbed our things and rushed down the stairs. I don't know how none of us broke our legs.
Two creatures decided not to wait for us below and rushed up the steps to meet us - my heavy backpack slammed into a grinning face. The second one decided to taste the tip of my spear and choked. Two experience for me, but Pakhom decided to pick up the reward for another. Grasping the hilt of the saber with both hands, he stabbed again and again the creature stretched out on the asphalt.
“Pakhom! I shouted at him. “If you have gained experience, the creature is dead. Katya, follow me!”
Jumping off the last step, I ran to the right - there we were expecting another descent. But the stairs were too narrow, and "they" were already waiting for us.
Four creatures, interfering with each other, crowded it. All from the same faction - one of them wanted to go down, and the rest wanted to go up.
«This is… just a freebie. »
Raising my spear above the head, I unleashed several overhead strikes, clearing the way for us. Quadruple notification from the system about gaining experience, and we're down there. Ah, now I think I've figured out what attracted the monster who blocked other altered on the staircase.
Four other survivors stayed on the roof of a one-story store and fought off the crowd of creatures, that surrounded them, with sticks. As soon as they noticed us, a girl with brown hair and a short haircut jumped up and, waving her arms, shouted:
“He-e-e-elp! We're here!!! Save us!”
Fortunately, the creatures did not have the slightest bit of gray matter in their heads. We had some time to think. I climbed a little higher, moving away from the survivors and monsters’ vision.
“What should we do?” I nodded with my head towards the other survivors.
“Let's move!” Pakhom said without hesitation for a second. “These idiots lured everyone here! We can easily get around from that side.”
He waved his hand vaguely to the side, and then simply stared sternly into my eyes.
“No! Sasha, we won't help them! Although I am an old man, I still want to live. This is suicide! You will kill yourself, me, and Katya!”
Suddenly, the girl decided to participate in our conversation:
“They need our help.”
“Who even asked your opinion?” He jumped up, getting angry. “It's too early for you to give advice to us, adults!”
“There are so few of us left,” the girl calmly looked at Pakhom. “If we don't help each other, there will be no one left.”
Pakhom, who had already taken air into his lungs, froze and sat back down.
“Sure, sure! This old fool will sit down and listen to how you are going to save them.”
I smiled slightly.
“The plan is simple: I will lure them, and you, Katya and these poor fellows will get to the gathering place. Then we'll meet there.”
“I'm not going with him!” Categorically declared Katya.
“This will not work!” Pakhom declared even more categorically. “Are you out of your damn mind? You wanna die, all for some strangers? I do understand that you're young, and want to play a hero...”
“Enough! I will not die. The place is narrow here, they won’t come at me from the sides. I lead them away, and in an hour, I can kill them one by one. If anything, I can always run away. They are slow and dumb. That's it! Come on, take Katya and get out of here.”
Katya frowned and remained sitting on the pavement - well, at least some kind of childish reaction. But Pakhom wrinkled his face, as if he had eaten a whole lemon and, in slow motion, removed the backpack from his shoulders.
“Oh, I didn't want to resort to my favorites so early.” Rummaging inside the satchel, he pulled out two greenish grenades!!
“Damn, what the hell? Was it in your apartment all the time?” Goosebumps prickled my body. This old bastard could, in any of his fits, arrange a mini war in the house.
“Yes, just some f-ones, do not be so surprised! We got it a long time ago on occasion... I think that's enough for such a crowd. Do you know how to use them?”
I shook my head.
“Of course! These bastards screwed everything up ... Once upon a time, every schoolboy knew what to do with them. Well, in general, look: you unbend these antennas, then grasp it like this,” Pakhom turned the grenade clutched in his hands and slowly showed each movement. “Then pull out the safety ping ring and throw grenade away. You need to throw it as far as possible, even though there is a crowd, but you never know if a fragment will pierce your dumb head.”
Pakhom finished his briefing and handed me one grenade: from his look one could understand how reluctantly he said goodbye to his property. I weighed the lemon in my hand - I never thought it was so heavy.
“Will this be enough?” Holding a grenade in my hands I got tense - my palm was slightly sweaty. It seemed that it would explode right now in my hands.
“No idea!” Pakhom shook his head. “Let’s go before they get eaten.”