Getting a second profession could not be canceled. Which means I can't be a Demonologis-Druid anymore. I even tried with grief to find a way to recreate the character, but found no hints of it. When I left the game, I saw the three menu items again. That's just by clicking 'Exit the capsule', I received the message 'The function is blocked' in response. The 'Call for help' option allowed me to achieve the same result. And when I selected 'Back to the game', I got the message: 'The function is temporarily blocked. Until the end of the block 29:41'.
Cursing everything, I remained in the capsule, waiting for the moment when I could return to the game. At this time, I was studying my psionic abilities. Since I have problems inside the game, it is worth using my abilities in real world to compensate them. At the moment, I interested about possibility of interfering to the computer that controls the game. However, at the astral level, the computer was not visible at all, and the wires leading to me were connected to some network equipment, the wires from which stretched quite far and were lost in the tangle of other communications.
Without achieving any results in hacking the game, I returned to virtual reality. Looking around, I noticed that there were several players standing next to the comatose Dramg, while actively discussing something. I did not approach them, but rather disappeared into the forest, heading in the direction of the teleport. Moreover, I activated 'Invisibility' on my wristband, thus avoiding unnecessary attention. I guess I should stop thinking about all of this as a simple game. I relaxed uncomfortably. It is urgent to make a plan for my development and a plan to capture the Tower of the Dark Lord.
In general, the idea of collecting records and capturing the tower with minimal forces looks quite interesting At least I wouldn't have to organize a guild with thousands of players to chase into war in the name of myself. Of course, the idea of capturing the tower alone looked crazy. But only as long as I followed the standard development scenarios.
The murder of the Kright-Worm showed that the game developers had not thought of all the possible scenarios of events in the game. These 'bugs in the game' remained until they were noticed by the administrators. Since the majority of players were adepts of the Earth, they simply follow the rules, guides and traditions without trying to ‘crack the system’. This behavior was more typical of Air Adepts. But because of their small numbers, and the influence of the 'Earth' environment, many vulnerabilities in the game were never discovered. Which meant that I could find them and use them. After all, my name is Cheater, and hacking game rules is exactly what I should be doing.
When I moved to the City of Crabs, I first of all went to take the exam for the 7th level. Killing another 'fat' boss did not cause any problems, although I had to constantly heal myself, as the enemy hit me with magic that could not be dodged. I didn't continue to take level eight, but went to do the Druid quest. But before, I looked at the requirements for the Emergency Rescue spell. To create a talisman with it, aquamarine was required, which was a high-level resource.
A quick search on the market revealed that no one sells aquamarines. And one of the sellers, when I asked him if he had an aquamarine, laughed and said that there are no such stones on the City of Crabs. And even if they exist, the price for an aquamarine starts from 10 gold, so nobody has enough money to buy even one stone right now. I would argue with the quantity of money, but on the whole, the situation was clear. I won't be able to use this spell until I get level 10 and go to the outside world.
When I got to the Abode of Life, I went to the NPC who acted as administrator.
“I want to become a druid.”
“Are you sure?” - He asked me gloomily.
“No, I'm not sure!” - I snapped. – “I'm healer of Air Element. Whom else can I become? A Priest, maybe? Or do you have a quest to change from healer to werewolf?”
“Okay, okay, calm down.” - The NPC responded and... fell silent.
“How to become a Druid?” - I asked him a direct question.
“You need to be a seventh level healer, and take a quest from me to change your profession to druid.”
“So?”
“What?” - This bastard made an uncomprehending look. Seeing his arrogant face, I had a strong desire to find in real world the one who plays the role of this NPC, and put acid through his veins.
"I'm level seven healer. Give me a quest to change my profession to a druid.” - I repeated.
“Oh! Yes, of course. Why didn't you say so right away?” - After that, he fell silent again, testing my patience. – “Okay, okay, here's your quest. There are some problems at the Western Hills outpost. Go there and help them. Find a commandant named Sneaky Sly Tail. He'll tell you what to do next.
There was a notification in the interface, and I saw a new quest. The first step in it was to find the commandant. Glaring at NPC with an evil look, I went to the teleport.
“And neither hello nor thank you...” - I heard the offended voice of NPC.
Look what he wanted. Thanks to him. For such a hack, let him thank me for letting him live.
Reaching the right outpost, I went to look for the Tail. I had purposely not read the quest guide so as not to be influenced by the deleterious influence of the Earth Adepts. I would do this quest as a true Air Mage, using the scientific method of trial and error.
“Hello.” - I greeted the commandant, whom I could find by the players scurrying back and forth, who also passed a quest to change their profession here.
"There's been a disaster in our hills.” - NPC immediately got down to business. Judging by his voice, today he said this phrase for a thousandth time. – “Go and kill.” - In confirmation of these words, the interface dinged again, notifying of a change in the quest.
"Who to kill? Where? And most importantly, for what?” - I didn't let this freeloader to bypass his work. Behind my back had piled up a dozen of people who wanted to take the quest, but I wasn't going to give up so easily.
“Oh! ...” - Sneaky Sly Tail sighed heavily. - "There's been a disaster in our hills. There was an influx of players who wanted to change their profession. Go and kill them all. And then I'll make you a druid right away.”
The interface dinged again, and I read the notification.
'Alternate profession change quest received. In 24 hours, kill 1000 players performing a profession change quest. Task class: Epic. Reward: Epic. Additional reward: Changing the main profession to a Druid.'
My eye started twitching from the arbitrariness of the local NPC.
“And what was the trouble before so many players appeared?” - I persisted, determined to get an answer. The people behind me made a noise of displeasure.
“Recently, crowds of earthworms have crawled out of caves under the Western Hills. You need to go to the caves, kill at least a hundred worms and find out what is the cause of this disaster.” - Judging by the slurred tongue, the commandant had been repeating this text since the very morning, so by noon he decided to shorten it in order to speed up the passage of the queue of those wishing to take the task.
“Okay...” - I nodded, turning around and walking away. Judging by the absent look of the commandant, I can't get any details here.
While I was walking to outside, I looked at the description of the main task and found a pretty decent piece of text there, which explained the entire background of the quest. The local hills were pitted with a whole network of caves inhabited by Earthworms. These creatures were the source of the special earthworm shit that the Earth adepts needed to craft them. The worms lived in caves, the NPC went there from time to time to collect a valuable 'resource', and everyone was happy and content. But recently, the worms rebelled and began attacking the sanitation workers. And then they completely popped out of the caves, settled in the local forest and devoured all the valuable herbs in it.
In general, the players had to go to the caves and find the cause of the problems. Judging by the description, this was only the first step, because after finding out the reason, it should be reported to the representative of the Guild of Magicians.
The description said that this quest for a group of players, designed for a team of five players. I decided that I was quite capable of coping with it on my own, so I headed for the cave entrance indicated on the map. The dungeon turned out to be 'personal', that is, there was a separate instance for each group. After passing through the portal, I found myself in a cave created by talented designers. The vaults of the cave were made of stone, multicolored glowing crystals peeking out of the walls here and there, scattering the darkness. In general, the place was atmospheric and quite pleasant.
As I moved forward, after fifty meters, I met a large worm. Not just a big worm, but an enormous one. It was two meters in diameter, and its head was up against the ceiling at the height of a five-story building. It had 30,000 HP, which also did not add to my optimism. If all the worms are like that, then I'll die of old age trying to kill a hundred. However, I had no time to think, because the worm immediately noticed me and rushed to attack.
There was a sign above its head: ‘A well-fed Earthy worm’. Judging by the map, the word 'earthy' in its name said something about the element of the magic used, because next to the worm, the 'elemental shift' was up to a four of Earth. I'd never encountered such opponents before.
The words 'attacked' were a bit of an exaggeration in relation to the worm. It crawled forward quite slowly, so I was able to run back and use the spell Grow Nettles to create a large circle of nettles. In the original, this spell was pretty mana-intensive and created a circle five meters in diameter. I used two additional spells when I created the talisman, to reduce my mana consumption and increase the diameter of the circle. If it were up to me, I would have reduced the time to use the spell, because five seconds was a waste of time. But among the standard ones, there was no such spell.
I completed the spell at the very last moment, and bounced away from the impact of the worm, which tried to fall on me. Given its thickness, I could have been smeared all over the floor by such a blow. The circle of nettles was seven meters in diameter. There were a lot of 'pets' called Evil Nettles growing in that area now. They could only do one or two units of damage per second, but there were quite a few of them growing there.
The worm flinched, about to attack the flora I'd summoned, but I stopped it from spitting saliva and interrupted the cast of the spell with a Discharge. I ran along the worm's body, poking it with my spear. It stopped paying attention to the nettle and began to bend, trying to reach me. If this were reality, it would have scrambled the nettles back into the ground, just crawling over it. But in the game, the crawling did not do any damage, so the nettles continued their attack.
I had already thought that this battle would be quite simple, as the worm managed to surprise me. The stone spikes grew on its body, which flew in all directions. I had to stop the attacks and run away to the side, hiding behind a stone. Each spike did its own damage, and if a dozen of these projectiles hit me, I would just die on the spot.
For the next ten minutes I just ran in circles, unable to get close enough to the worm to hit it with my spear. I had to use Bombardment and run so that at least part of the worm's body was constantly inside the nettle circle. A couple of times, my 'plant support group' was blown away by the worm's aggression and mercilessly destroyed by a spit of acidic saliva. In this case I used Paralysis to stop the enemy, and then re-created the nettle circle.
The most difficult moment occurred when the worm did not kill all the nettles, leaving a few plants. When I tried to paralyze it, the nettle continued to attack the enemy, immediately dropping control. I had to figure out how I could `cancel' the nettle plants by destroying all the flora.
On the whole, destroying the Fat Earthworm was not so much difficult as it was tedious. Any attempt to get close to it resulted in a spike attack, which was almost impossible to survive. As a result, I simply ran in circles around the cave, hiding behind rocks from the same spikes and acid spatters. When the worm finally died, only a few copper coins and the same 'Crystal Shit' that the Earth mages needed fell out of it. Also, I got one worm out of the hundred I needed to complete the task.
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After taking a breath, I thought it would take too long to kill a hundred of these worms. Ten minutes each is a thousand minutes or seventeen hours of continuous battle. Fuck it! It's easier to find a group by cutting the quest time by a factor of five. That would be three and a half hours, which I can manage somehow.
I turned around and went back to the entrance, and through the portal I got out of the cave. The outpost was a few minutes' walk away. On my way there, seven teams of people in groups of five passed by, so I was sure I could find a group in no time. When I reached the square, where the players who wanted to join the group were crowded, I began to look at the names and professions of potential allies.
The number of people in the group was displayed next to the player's name. The standard group consisted of five people. I could assemble a group by myself, or I could join one that already had four people. In addition, I noticed that all players were warriors or scouts. This could be determined by their equipment. To see the exact profession it was only possible if the player himself revealed this information or was a member of the same group as you.
“Hey, are you a healer?” - A player in heavy armor shouted, running toward me. I looked at his name. His name was Fierce Chipmunk.
“Yes. Druid in future.” - I agreed.
“Element?”
“Air.”
“Come with us!” - The Berserk immediately rushed up. – “You won't find any druids here. There's already four of us. We' re ready to go right now.”
I received notification that Fierce Chipmunk was inviting me into the group and I immediately accepted.
“Cool!” - Berserk shouted. I quickly glanced at the list of players in the group and saw three Berserkers and one Ninja. Their second professions were different, so I didn't look closely at them. “Wait. Scout Healer?” - Chipmunk froze, losing all his enthusiasm. – “What kind of build is that? Druid-Scout? Really? I don't want to be in a group with Druid-Scout.”
“Well, fuck off.” - I replied leaving the group.
“What'd you say?” - The warrior immediately became angry.
“You heard me. You don't know anything about the game, so get the fuck off.”
“Hey, everybody, listen up!” - Chipmunk shouted at the top of his voice. – “He's the future Druid-Scout. He's a complete noob! Don't go in a group with him. If anyone invites him into a group, he'll have to deal with me!”
“Aren't you fucked up, freak? Let's duel, I'll kill you in five seconds. Hey, everybody. We got a berserker-idiot here who's afraid to duel with a healer.” - I shouted, too.
“What?!” - Chipmunk jumped up. People around him immediately began pointing and laughing. The natives were always happy when someone was publicly pissed on. – “I'm going to kill you! Berserk kills the healer with a single cast.”
“Less talk and more action. Or is that all you're good at is scratching with your tongue? No one's interested in your dreams. Fantasize somewhere else.”
The people surrounded us and actively discussed the unexpected amusement. After my words, they laughed loudly, pointing at the berserker and calling him a fantasist. That was the worst possible insult for an Earth adept, so Chipmunk began to shake in anger. Although he himself was a Fire Adept, public opinion was shaped by Earth Adepts.
“Duel!” - He shouted, challenging me through the interface.
I immediately accepted the call. The crowd began to clear a small space around us, forming a spontaneous arena. A sign appeared in front of me announcing the start of the duel, and then a countdown from five to zero began. We were now in the safe zone of the outpost, so using combat abilities couldn't hurt the audience. Someone immediately started placing bets, shouting out suggestions.
“'Five, four, three, two, one, Fight!”
As soon as the duel began, Chipmunk used his skill to approach me quickly and knock me down. The purpose of this attack was precisely the effect of control, since it did very little damage. This skill was quite dangerous, because knocking me down was effective even if the berserker just 'flew' past me. This made it difficult to dodge this attack. The best thing to do in such a case was to make a high jump, during which the target was open and had no chance to dodge the next attack.
All these thoughts flashed through my head in an instant as I looked at the lines of the future. As a result, I didn't dodge, but rather took a blow to the chest. It might have looked like I'd just missed the attack, but when Chipmunk collided with me, it wasn't me who flew away, it was him. That's how my Resilience worked. On impact someone had to fly back, and if it wasn't me, the tank was the only one left to fly.
Chipmunk, not expecting such trickery, got confused, which gave me the opportunity to deliver two spear strikes, while applying a Quick Heal to myself at the same time. It was used for half a second and restored 85 health. It was more than enough to compensate for the damage I'd taken. The tank had almost two thousand health points, about three more than I had. Except that my spear dealt about two hundred damage per hit, already taking armor resistance into account. So, I was able to damage twenty percent of my opponent's life in just a second after the fight began.
Fierce Chipmunk used a backward roll to get to his feet and get out of my attack zone, but the price was another stabbing with his spear. I quickly ran after him, and Berserker began to use his boosting skills one by one, as I could see from the glow around him. At the same time, he was backing away quickly, trying to buy time to use his abilities. Finally, with a tighter grip on his sword, the warrior lunged forward, taking a broad sweep at waist level. Again, he was expecting me to jump away. It was because the enemy had an ability that stuns a target at a distance. If I got caught in the jump, the stun time would increase to two seconds, plus my resilience would be ignored.
Again I didn't retreat or evade, but boldly stepped toward him, striking again with my spear. When my contact with the dangerously gleaming sword was almost inevitable, I used the Discharge, which paralyzed Chipmunk for a half second, allowing me to deal two more strikes. In all, I had already struck six times, reducing my opponent's health by more than half. However, my health was still intact.
With a roar, Chipmunk turned abruptly, and used the stun ability he'd been trying to catch me in flight the whole time. It was an instant cast, homing spell, so I couldn't dodge it. What's more, the stun strength was increased, so even I was stunned by it for a quarter of a second. That short delay was enough for the Berserker to reach me with his sword.
At the moment of impact the weapon was charged with two skills that should have dealt 350 damage in total, knocking out half my life. But I managed to use Righteous Shield, which surrounded me with a shield spell that absorbed 100 physical and thermal damage. And right after I got hit, I used Quick Heal and poked my opponent with my spear once more. He tried to dodge it, but since I'd foreseen his movement beforehand, it found its target.
After this exchange, I lost 170 health out of 700, and Berserk lost 1,260 health out of 1,940. Four more hits and he will be dead. The enemy realized this too, so he attempted to retreat to give his skills time to recharge. However, I didn't give him that opportunity. Two Quick Steps forward shortened the distance between us. The Chipmunk struck me with a simple sword strike that took only 50 health. It was an ordinary green weapon, after all. I managed to land two more strikes in the meantime, driving my enemy's health into the red zone.
Spinning around, the enemy was able to hit me again, leaving me with only 430 of my 700 health. He still struck with the same wide side-to-side swings that were hard to dodge. I responded with another strike, forcing my opponent to balance on the edge of death.
At that moment the berserker glowed red, roared wildly, and almost doubled his speed. Now his sword was flying like a feather, and I had to concentrate on defense, blocking his attacks with my spear. Since the shape of my weapon was well suited for such tasks, Chipmunk didn't manage to hit me even once in the next couple of seconds. I wasn't just defending myself, I also used a Paralysis spell. Finally, after two seconds, my opponent froze with his eyes goggling madly and his mouth hanging wide open. His appearance now resembled the scene of an action movie on pause.
I smiled brazenly into the enemy's face, used Quick Heal on myself while going behind his back, and then began to use the Grow Nettle spell. As soon as the nettle activated, I immediately struck the enemy in the back with my spear. The berserker's life was reduced to zero, but... he didn't die. He was now under the effect of the ''Rage of Fly Agaric'' aura, which allowed the berserker to stay alive even if he had a negative amount of health. However, this 'trust credit' was not infinite, plus it required an important condition - the berserker had to fight the enemy face to face.
When I stabbed him in the back, I hoped that he would try to jump forward, which would be considered 'fleeing,' and the aura would stop. But Chipmunk turned on the spot and tried to strike me, again using a wide horizontal swing. But this time, his strike was blocked by my spear. Now we were standing in the middle of a small 'clearing' overgrown with nettles, and time was playing for me. Just by blocking my enemy's attacks, I was doing damage to him. After a couple of seconds of exchanging attacks, I blocked his sword in an awkward position for a warrior and used Discharge again, paralyzing Chipmunk for half a second, then stabbed him twice in the chest, simultaneously shifting to the left and moving out of range of his sword strike.
Fierce Chipmunk tried to turn around quickly and stab me in the chest, but I took a trivial step to the side and evaded, not even using my evasion skills. And my next strike was my last in the duel. He fell to the ground as a lifeless pile of shit, and I once again used the healing on myself, bringing my health to a hundred percent.
“Just lie down like that.” - I spoke to my helpless opponent. Since it was a duel, he wasn't dead, he just lost the ability to move for ten seconds. – “Crooked sheep like you have no right to tell others how to evolve.”
I activated my Hero's aura, and the people around me gasped with envy and admiration. And a second later, the group's membership counter above the Fierce Chipmunk's head began to diminish until it disappeared, which meant that all three people left the group. I didn't wait for the defeated crab to regain its ability to speak, deactivated my aura, and quickly disappeared into the crowd. Some gawking spectators tried to follow me, but I activated the Stealth and literally 'disappeared' among the people, causing the spectators of the battle to turn their heads in bewilderment.
Five minutes later, there was no sign of the duel. Fierce Chipmunk went somewhere, and half of those present had already found a group and gone to the dungeon. The place turned out to be a 'passing yard' with a great flow of personnel. At last I considered myself relatively safe, went into the bushes, cancelled the Stealth, and then walked openly back to the square.
“Air Elemental Healer looking for a group!” - I shouted, glancing around.
In response to my voice, four 'stern' warriors turned around and looked at me with the desire of killing me on the spot. According to the map, they were four Earth adepts, surrounded by the energy of their respective elements.
“Hey, join us.” - Another berserker with a pair of axes approached me. His head was covered in a golden glow, and his face was full of enthusiasm.
I accepted the invitation and found myself in a group with one berserker and three ninjas. It was a profession of Scout, from which one could become an Assassin or a Hypnotist.
“Come on, I'll give you a quick briefing, and we'll go beat the worms.” - White Fluffy Fox waved at me. That was the berserker's name. Cool name.
After a dozen steps we entered a narrow alley, where a trio of thugs was waiting for us. At least their appearance screamed of belonging to this 'class'. Their names were appropriate, too: Evil Son of a Bitch, Toothbreaking Brick, and Last Furious Gasp.
“Hi. For what profession are you taking the quest?” - I wondered.
“These three are assassins, and I am a werewolf.” - Fox introduced his comrades. – “Are you a druid?”
“Yes, I am.”
“So, which one of you knows how to do this quest?” - Fox asked. Only Son of a Bitch raised his hand. – “Well, listen to me and follow my orders. If you do not slow down, in half an hour you will get your hundred worms.” - Half an hour? That Fox really is a tough guy. It took me ten minutes to get one. – “Everybody ready?”
“Maybe we should make me the leader of the group.” - I suggested my idea.
“Why is that?” - Almost an Arctic Fox was offended.
“I have a six percent bonus for poison damage.”
“Uh...” - Berserker muttered, glancing doubtfully at the trio of assassins. Assassins do most of their damage with poison.
“Also, I have a nine percent bonus to stun strength. And a five percent bonus to health. I'm also a Hero.”
White Fluffy Fox looked more and more despondent with each new argument, and the last one and my Hero's Aura buried him so thoroughly that he silently handed over the leadership of the group to me.
“Okay, now you can guide us forward.” - I nodded graciously.
“You are the leader, aren't you?” - Berserker finally lost his footing.
“Yes. And as a leader, I'm giving to you the responsible task of guiding our group.”
“Is that legal?” - Looks like I just broke Fox's pattern. It' a result of talking to Earth adepts all the time. – “Then what are you gonna do?”
“I'll control the loot distribution.” - I arched my chest.
“Aah!” - The fox coughed up blood, and the red liquid stained his chin.
“Also, if we set the record, I get a bonus from it.”
“Aah!!!” - This time there was noticeably more blood, and some of it hit the ground.
“And most importantly, I'm too lazy to guide you. You guys just organize yourselves somehow.”
“Phoo!” - Fox started literally vomiting blood.
“What's wrong with you?” - I asked. Although Berserk's health level was full and there were no debuffs, the scene didn't look very healthy.
“It's the effect of my headgear.” - Fox replied, wiping blood from his face.
“Crown of Swords?” - I asked, examining the headgear, made from blades.
“No, Funny Swordsman's Hat.” - Berserk took off his headdress and began to examine it. – “It does look like a crown. This hat enhances the visual manifestation of emotion. You can tell right away if a man is happy or not.”
“Ha-ha. It looks good on you.” - I nodded approvingly.
“Okay, let's go.” - He waved, and the three silent thugs followed him.
I noticed that all four were members of the same guild, the Autumn Maple Leaf guild.
“What kind of guild do you have?” - I asked.
“We're just getting started.” - Fox started making excuses. – “It's a guild for Fire adepts. A couple of earth adepts came in, too.”
I guess he took my question as a wanting to join the guild. So, if there's already Earth adepts in the guild, then my Air will conflict with them.
“Oh, I see, and there's an odd distribution of professions in this quest.” - I changed the subject.
“What's the oddity?” - Last Furious Gasp asked.
“Assassins and Werewolves have an affinity to the element of Fire. Druids, on the other hand, tend towards Water. That makes them less likely to be able to group together.”
“No, that's not the problem.” - Fox dismissed my theory. – “There's only Earth and Fire adepts around, anyway. Druids are few in number, and werewolves and assassins are very popular classes. So, they'd combine them, to keep the cave from becoming overcrowded.”
“What do you mean by overcrowded?” - I was surprised. – “Everyone has their own dungeons.”
“It's only at the entrance. Beyond that, it's common. Let's go in.”
We had just reached the entrance to the cave, and quickly passed through the portal. Then the whole group stopped at the entrance, looking around.
“Okay, now we're going to hit the boss.”
“The boss?” - Once again, I was surprised.