About five years ago, young Klein watched as they buried one of the Blind Lord's paladins. It was a modest funeral procession: there were only a few brothers of the order, Klein himself, and the old master-abbot Arthur. None of them were too familiar with the deceased, but there was no one else. The paladin had no relatives; like Klein, he had been taken in by the temple as an infant. And his comrades who fought alongside him lay in graves nearby. And then, gathering his courage, Klein finally asked:
- Teacher, this man - he served Aronis, like us. Why did the Lord turn away from him? Isn't he the god of luck? Why didn't luck favor him?
The surprisingly powerful voice of the old man responded to the boy:
- Klein, you know what Lord Aronis represents, don't you?
- Of course. He's the god of luck and justice, the supreme god of Order, opposing the gods of Chaos.
- Exactly. Luck, like justice, is blind, Klein. Just like our Lord. Sometimes luck is on your side, and sometimes it's not. You were lucky not to die in your mother's womb, but you were unlucky that your parents left you on the side of the road. And then you were lucky, for I found you and decided to take you in. Life, Klein, is built on a series of attribute checks. For each of them, our Lord rolls a twenty-sided die, and based on the result, decides what fate awaits you. Sometimes this paladin got lucky, sometimes he didn't. But one day, he rolled a critical failure on his die, and we see the result. All because luck is blind. In life, the best people may not be lucky, while the most despicable scoundrels may be. That's the fairness of life. Everyone has their chance, and each person's fate depends only on their decisions and chance. Our fate is just to pray for a lucky roll of the dice. This is especially true for Aronis's chosen ones.
A pounding sound echoed in the boy's head, and onto the empty gaming board in his mind fell a twenty-sided die, stopping at "17". The Intelligence check was successful, and Klein said:
- I'm one of the chosen, like me. Sometimes I hear the die rolling in my head... Does the Lord Aronis throw that die himself?
- Correct. The Blind Lord personally watches over his chosen ones and personally throws their dice. The rest are taken care of by his angels. And now, knowing this, tell me, why are you, out of all people, chosen by Aronnis?"
The boy, his eyes burning with enthusiasm, began to answer:
- Oh, probably because I'm very good at...
- Don't rush. Think, - interrupted the abbot, stroking the six-sided die hanging around his neck. Each side of the die bore the image of a four.
- Oh. - The light in the boy's eyes dimmed as he looked at his own die with a one. - I'm chosen because I was lucky...
- Correct. You were lucky, and you received strength inaccessible to others. But our Lord is blind. When luck is not on your side, don't think that God has turned away from you. Because in reality, He has never seen you.
Klein remembered this conversation forever, and now, when he was unlucky, he didn't curse God, but screamed in pain, watching the acid eating away at his leg. After the passage collapsed, they moved on, and the squad entered a large cave, where they were met by a bunch of goblins led by a shaman. A fight broke out, and now, standing as usual in the vanguard, Klein fell under the shaman's spell, failing a dexterity check.
- Damn it! Lia, cover Klein, I'll get him out! - shouted Robert, running to the wounded boy. The elf unleashed a stream of fire on the goblins, causing them to retreat or fall, covered in a smelly black crust.
Glen, as the second vanguard fighter, had to take on more opponents. And to avoid being overwhelmed by goblins, he activated the Rune of Fury on his body, instantly accelerating. The stone armor no longer covered anyone, so there was no need to spare his own spells.
Vasily, standing behind everyone else, sent one arrow after another flying, pulling them out of his endless quiver. It was his main pride and his main pain. This quiver contained a portal to a truly huge arsenal of arrows, giving the archer almost unlimited ammunition. However, there was a catch. It was not his quiver of arrows, but the storehouse of a spatial mage. And for each arrow pulled out of this quiver, Vasily had to pay, which left him perpetually broke.
Robert pulled Klein out himself, and Lia, as usual, unleashed an overwhelming amount of spells, although Klein noticed that she was casting much less, apparently running out of spell slots. But Klein didn't see Annie, but knew that she, as usual, acting in the shadows, was probably looking for an opportunity to inflict as much damage as possible with one precise blow.
But whom the paladin did see was Isabella. Now, finding herself in a sufficiently large open space, she was able to join the battle, and at the moment, with a fierce roar in the form of a giant three-meter bear, she tore apart goblins one after another. The small scoundrels swarmed around her from all sides, someone even jumped on her back, plunging blades into her, but the huge she-bear simply fell on her back with all her weight of a ton, and, rolling over, stood up again, and those who were on her were already difficult to scrape off the floor. No one else tried to climb onto her.
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When Klein found himself in a safe place, he gritted his teeth, focused, and began to cast.
- [Healing]. - While the wound closed up and damaged tissues disappeared, and flesh grew anew, Klein began to count how much mana he had left. Upon entering the dungeon, he had sixteen, later he spent six mana units on [Blessings] for himself and Glen in that battle in the tunnel, another one - on [First Aid] for this elf, and now two more - on [Healing]. There were still seven mana units left. Not much. Very little. He needed to work his muscles more.
With this thought, Klein got up and rushed back into the thick of battle, easing the burden on his comrades. It was an intense fight. The goblins were not as dangerous; in the large cave, they could better use their numerical advantage, but the adventuring party was able to use their wide-ranging abilities. Thanks to this, they had already reduced the number of enemies by almost half; now there were just over two dozen green-skinned ones left. The real thorn in their side was the goblin shaman. By Klein's estimates, if regular goblins were between the seventh and tenth levels, then the goblin shaman was around the thirtieth. The paladin would have been glad to be more precise, but he didn't want to waste mana on an inspection, and he needed a good view of the target to use it, and this creature was currently hiding outside the room, occasionally peering in.
At the beginning of the battle, he was with everyone else, but Robert, identifying him as a priority target, tried to kill him with a [Stone Projectile]. Due to the distance and the crowd of goblins, it didn't work, but they did manage to tear off the enemy's hand, after which the spellcaster immediately ran away, hiding in safety. And from there, he peered out several times, setting up his totems. Shamans irritated Klein: they couldn't cast spells like mages, druids, or wizards, didn't possess miracles like clerics or paladins, but had a talent for creating totems - constructions in which they could seal various spells. So, all the shaman had to do was to set up the totem, and it would cast spells on its own, using the mana of its creator.
And there were currently two such totems in the room. Another three lay in ruins, as by this time Robert had made a considerable effort, destroying them with [Stone Hand] and [Stone Projectiles]. However, he had run out of slots for these spells, and couldn't do the same with the remaining two totems. Nor could the melee fighters - there was a crowd of angry armed green monsters between them. Lia couldn't distract from holding back the crowd, and Vasily's arrows simply couldn't harm these totems. And so, right now, Klein had to dodge another [Acidic Projectile] released by one of them. The second totem released a transparent wave that passed through the goblins, causing them to seem even angrier, attacking with much greater force, and, Klein would swear, growing by about ten centimeters. Although even then they remained shorter than a gnome.
- Lia, watch out for Isabella, Glen, watch out for acid, Klein, move to the left, you're in the way, Vasya, help Glen, Isabella, smash! - commanded Robert, standing behind them. He could no longer use offensive abilities, but he needed to see the entire battlefield for better coordination, so he took a sling in his hands, throwing stones at the enemies, although he wasn't very good at it, so he often missed, not to mention that ordinary stones could simply bounce off armor and not deal enough damage. But better this way than nothing.
Klein stepped aside, as instructed, giving more room for the she-bear's rampage, and now she, roaring deafeningly, crushed goblins, crushing them like cockroaches and throwing them against the walls like sheets of paper. However, the goblins began to avoid her, making short attacks and instantly retreating, avoiding her retaliatory wrath, which enraged the druid, and the paladin feared that she would lose control. Such cases had already occurred, and Klein really didn't want to be nearby if it happened again. And he was nearby. And he didn't like it.
Apparently thinking about the same thing, Robert decided to help Isabella by using two spells in a row:
- [Earth Chains]! [Earth Chains]!
The ground under the feet of two goblins stirred, and their legs were bound. The she-bear took advantage of this opportunity to halve the goblins with one blow. Klein, however, wasn't sure if it was worth it, since each spell except for the stone projectile, Robert could use only three times a day. But if the mage decided it was necessary, then it was necessary; after all, he was the captain of their squad. At that moment, Vasiliy's cry came from behind - the goblins had reached him, still finding a moment to slip past the enraged three-meter woolen giant named Isabella. Robert reacted instantly, clapping his hands together and pressing them to the ground:
- [Wall]!
The archer screamed again, but this time from surprise: a three-meter stone wall suddenly grew from under his feet to the ceiling, giving the archer a perfect shooting position, with which he immediately got rid of the goblins that had broken through.
- Thanks, chief! You saved me straight up!
At that moment, Klein had to retreat urgently, as the acidic totem sent a cloud of poison straight into his position. The mental dice rolled again in the boy's head, and this time the dexterity check succeeded, pulling the owner out of the danger zone. Several ordinary goblins weren't so lucky, but apparently, they didn't care about each other at all. When the paladin prepared to dive back into battle, a hoarse deathly scream echoed from the passage, and a goblin shaman stumbled into the cave, pierced in the heart. With one precise lethal blow. Just like Anya loves to do. Following him, a fourteen-year-old assassin girl entered, wiping blood from her dagger, ready to kill anyone who tried to escape.
With the death of the spellcaster, his totems stopped working. The remaining dozen goblins gathered together, ready to fight to the death. Glen saw this as an excellent opportunity for himself. He infused mana into his rune, and the tattoo on his legs lit up with bright blue light.
- [Leap]! - the gnome barked and soared into the air. He landed right in the middle of the goblin formation, after which a shockwave spread in all directions from his landing. The ground shattered, and stones flew up a meter, along with the goblins. After they landed, many suffered concussion or severe bruising, which the adventurers took advantage of. Not a single one of the green dwarves could get back on their feet.