Not even reaching home, a book appeared, showing the time that was slowly running out.

"Here we go again," thought Vallynor.

"Is it him again?" grandma asked.

"Yes. Sorry, grandma, I'll go to the arena first, and then come to you," Vallynor replied.

"Okay, just don't end up inside with Anino again. Or else..." warned grandma.

"I didn't mean to. I didn't know he had brought new prey and was inside the arena," Vallynor explained.

"Because of that, I lost a whole day trying to remove the curse without killing you," grandma sighed.

"I'm leaving," said Vallynor, tired of grandma's nagging, and ran away.

"If you pull this stunt again, I won't save you. Got it, you jerk?" grandma shouted after him.

As Vallynor ran, he remembered how, after six months of living with Baba Yaga, the book had appeared on its own and opened with a warning that he had to return the souls in the form of gems, or else his soul would be confiscated by Farfalle.

At that time, he was still practicing the Forbidden Mantra of Souls technique and could not take the soul gems. Then Baba Yaga started threatening him to collect and return the gems, like a damn collector. He had to start training again in battles and collecting souls.

Over time, he and Anino came up with an arena with cells where Anino trained on the hunt, brought prey, and threw it into the cell. When enough were collected, Vallynor would go, like a gladiator from Olympus, and fight them all, one against all. At first, he fought with one, then two, and so on.

What prompted me to do this was my first battle with a multitude of enemies. Yes, it's too shameful, but I fought with an army of rats. Remembering this, I realize that if it weren't for necromancy, I would have been killed, and I would have resurrected somewhere there. I'm not sure where, but I would have been filled with mud, and the time of my fall would have accelerated.

So, I decided to train using the knowledge from that red book that Lev gave me. I also read the book of this world's history. Honestly, I've read so many games and manga that this book could be called a compilation of manga and games. When I didn't know what to do, I just took the book and read, passing the time and remembering my previous life.

When I reached the arena, I remembered how He and Anino, along with their dolls, built this crooked and ugly arena. But those days were very fun for me.

Thinking of myself, I was already prepared to enter the arena, but quickly stopped, realizing that I had made a mistake by not checking my surroundings. I looked around and confirmed that Anino was not on the arena. Then Vallynor entered the arena and reached the center where the circle was. Upon entering, he began to glow brightly with a reddish light.

The entire arena was sealed, and a crowd of monsters rushed in. Some of them began to fight each other, while others watched Vallynor.

Feeling that the soul of the victim had to be worth more than the others, they quickly decided and pounced on Vallynor. He pulled out the scythe given to him by Baba Yaga and began to hack at his enemies left and right.

Ten hands of souls emerged from his back. Each hand caught one or even two souls and directed them into the book, where the debt slowly diminished. Fortunately, the book was not a usurer with interest and did not try to deceive or increase the debt by delaying the time.

After an hour of continuous battle, the curse that had sealed the arena was lifted, and the seal disappeared, allowing the victims to leave the arena. It was Baba Yaga's curse. She had cast it on the entire arena, where all the desolate ones could not escape from the arena or cells if they entered. But this curse had its drawbacks: if you wanted to fight monsters, you had to be prepared to seal yourself in the arena with them until you killed them all.

And it didn't matter who they were - enemies or friends - you had to fight them. Once Vallynor accidentally entered the arena and started it when Anino was already there. Because of the curse, they both had to fight each other if they did not want to die from the curse. While Baba Yaga tried to remove the curse, thanks to the old woman who noticed us and promptly warned Baba Yaga.

Since then, sometimes Anino and I enter the arena together to fight and train, laughing at Baba Yaga.

As we exited the arena, the old woman suddenly spoke up:

"I see your book is acting up again. Have you finished for today?"

"Yes, I think I'm done for today. Don't you have to go into hibernation?"

"No, lately I've been recovering faster. I would have disappeared long ago, but I have a reason to live on."

"And, as usual, in a minute, you'll start complaining that Baba Yaga is a stupid and stubborn woman."

"I'm not complaining, but you should understand that the last time she cursed half the market. And you know why? Because she saw three of her exes there!!! ... She's a troublemaker."

"Interesting story. I liked it, or rather the moment when all the guys gathered to defend those three losers. Because of that, Baba Yaga got angry and cursed everyone, turning their heads into frogs and those who were half-frog from birth into ugly men."

"Vallynor, please don't talk like that. They are not losers, they just didn't get along with Baba Yaga."

"They didn't get along? They married her because of her body. And I would have fucked her myself if she wasn't an old hag. And most importantly, Baba Yaga! Brrr!" - While he was talking, he unintentionally imagined the naked old Baba Yaga, and shivers ran through his whole body.

"VALLYNOR, please mind your manners. You are talking to a lady," Baba Yaga reminded Vallynor.

"A lady who has never personally appeared, and I only know her voice," Vallynor replied.

"You know I can't," said the old woman sadly.

Vallynor pondered her words. He knew the old woman kept many secrets and didn't want to tell them. Over the years of their acquaintance, he had many questions, such as why she only spoke telepathically and what kept her in place.

She says very little about herself, while Baba Yaga talks a lot, but almost everything she says about the old woman is insulting. Vallynor realized that for this world, Baba Yaga is a troublemaker who disturbs others' peace, and if someone displeased her, she cursed them.

The most interesting thing is that Baba Yaga herself says a lot about the old woman, but her words are completely insulting. Vallynor understood that the old woman is a dragon and a queen, but he did not know what they were keeping silent about.

From the swearing and shouting at each other, Vallynor understood that they both had sex not only with humans. With Baba Yaga, everything was clear, from the photos of her exes, it was clear that her "dick fits", but with the old woman, it was a question - she is a dragon after all. How could she have sex with a human? This is a question that the old woman keeps silent about. In Vallynor's mind, a dragon with red cheeks from shame appeared.

"There will be no classes next week. I have to sleep for a while. And don't give in to that hag. I'm leaving," said the old woman.

"Stop!" Baba Yaga shouted from afar and, giving a kick, opened the door and ran towards Vallynor.

"I left. I don't want to hear her," the old woman said, falling silent.

"Here's the whore with a lizard hole. She ran away. I wanted to send a few curses through the connections... And why are you standing there? When she shows up again, don't just sit there like an idiot, call me," Baba Yaga continued.

"Uh, mm..." Vallynor stammered.

"Not 'uh, mm' and so on. Speak clearly and loudly. Now let's go, dinner is waiting," she said, turning and walking back into the house.

She was angry. They must have talked about it. And now all her anger would be directed towards... me.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"These creatures! She won't come back for a week because of this incident. Damn, Baba Yaga will make borscht with raw brains again. Damn, I hate eating brains, let alone raw ones," Vallynor thought.

Slowly approaching the house, Vallynor prayed that he wouldn't have to go all the way to the house. Otherwise, he would be forced to eat these stinky, raw human brains.

And all because they had another fight. As he arrived at the house, he closed the door behind Baba Yaga. In the kitchen, there was a plate of... brains. Oh no.

Vallynor held the spoon in his hand and poked at the chunks of brain in his plate, feeling disgust on his face. He had been living with Baba Yaga for quite some time, but he never got used to her quirks, like eating human brains. "Am I a zombie to her?" he thought.

He remembered very well the first time he was sold brains. Baba Yaga cunningly gave him borscht with human meat and brains. And when he saw a piece that looked like a nut, he thought it was the meat of some magical creature and ate it immediately. Then, because of the distinctive taste, he asked Baba Yaga what it was.

She didn't even look at him and replied that it was human brains. Her answer was so matter-of-fact, without any humor or anything, as if it was something ordinary. Vallynor fainted and officially received the title from the book which read, "Congratulations, you've become a cannibal."

Vallynor began to understand that Baba Yaga was a cannibal, but the fact that he had now also become a part of her group of cannibals frightened him. He was shocked and scared. Thoughts of him eating a person swirled around in his head.

Baba Yaga was initially frightened, but when she learned the reason for his concern, she began to laugh and explained that the brains and flesh of magicians help her mind to develop and improve her memory. After all, magicians need to know and remember a lot, and brains are more effective in this than flesh, which is better suited for training the body.

Baba Yaga sat next to the table, looking at Vallynor as if searching for something and poking the brain with a spoon instead of eating it. Suddenly the old woman spoke: "Recently said goodbye."

"Old witch! I told you not to feed the child with human flesh and brains. You've gone mad. Do you want to make him a cannibal?" the angry speaker shouted and insulted Baba Yaga.

"Aha! I knew it. Lately, my ass has been itching a lot. And apparently, not for nothing. You're not going anywhere, or rather, you're disconnecting. And just watching," Baba Yaga replied solemnly, staring into space.

"Get lost. Don't turn Vallynor into a cannibal."

"The flesh and brains of a magician are very helpful in developing the mind. So stop whining. We're not in the conditions where you get everything you want. Remember, the forest is dead."

"Almost dead."

"I don't give a fuck. It's useless, which means it's dead."

"... Wait, did you say the flesh and brains of a magician?" - realizing something unpleasant.

"Yes," Baba Yaga answered proudly and continued, "Last week, when I cursed half the market, your friends appeared before me. It turned out that over the decades they had changed their husbands, and some even changed their gender. And they were very unhappy. I cursed their new husbands. So, I quietly cut out and took the bodies."

"You're out of your mind. They'll definitely restore their bodies in a few years and start planning revenge. They're very vengeful. You don't care, let them burn for years. But you didn't think about Vallynor. He could fall into their hands. You know yourself that they'll immediately realize that he's not from this world, and we don't know how they'll react to him," Valentine said thoughtfully.

"You're right, we don't know how the Pope will react to a new soul. It's a mystery. But here's the problem..." - He didn't finish his sentence when a strong earthquake shook the entire world.

It was so strong that all the objects on the shelves and tables fell to the ground and broke. Even in the huge, seemingly ancient city. In the center of the city was a castle, and in its large hall sat an old man next to an empty throne. A powerful earthquake shook the entire hall.

The throne, which was already destroyed, began to crumble rapidly. Pieces occasionally fell from it, but before they even reached the ground, they turned into sand.

Looking at the pitiful throne, the old man was enveloped in sadness and anger at his own weakness. Whispering under his breath, he said:

"Another ten years, and this world will be lost forever. With all of us included."

Baba Yaga began to argue with the old woman, but stopped when she felt a powerful earthquake. The earthquake was so strong that almost all the items on the shelves, table, and so on fell, and most of them broke, while others fell silently.

Vallynor looked at Baba Yaga and waited for instructions. He noticed how her cheerful eyes cooled down, and he understood that he was facing a calculating person who showed her other side for a moment.

All of this happened in an instant. Vallynor thought he had imagined it, but he was no longer the same person he was before. During this time, he became stronger and developed not only strength, but also intelligence, reaction, and thinking speed. Most of these things are necessary for a mage, but Vallynor wanted to become independent and deal with everything on his own. Even if he hated sports, he practiced them to train his body and sensitivity to magic. Before, he was in a group of smart sleepers who criticized and condemned those who trained their bodies.

He believed in his eyes and intuition, and he felt that behind this harmful and impudent woman was a cold and calculating one. This incident confirmed his suspicion.

Baba Yaga looked gloomily around the room and said with pity, "My dear things. I have kept them intact for centuries."

She hardly cried, stepped on a few photographs, and knelt down in front of several broken jars.

"These photographs mean nothing," Vallynor remarked dismissively. "And that wonder boy from one of the photos has already fled. I learned that he fell, and she kept him in that photo."

Vallynor could not understand why Baba Yaga was sadly looking at the broken jars. The jars looked ordinary, and only the fact that they were colored made them special.

"And what is this?" After examining them closely, he noticed a heart with the word "love" on one of the red pieces. And he saw it only because Baba Yaga herself was looking at that piece, sighing frequently.

"Old witch... This..." After a while, Baba Yaga spoke.

"I know, the world has been warned that it will soon die completely," she said with pity.

"I do too... Aaaah..." After a brief pause, Baba Yaga screamed. Her scream was full of pain and suffering, and then she fell silent.

Everything happened so quickly that Vallynor couldn't even understand what was happening: Baba Yaga was sadly looking at ordinary jars, and then an unexpected scream from the old woman.

He couldn't react right away, but after a few seconds, he was ready to rush to help... But who? The old woman wasn't here, and he didn't know where she was.

Baba Yaga stood up, not even looking at Vallynor, took a broom to gather the trash, and said, "She won't die" and began to collect all the garbage. If she collected photos and other things quickly, she pulled the pieces of those colorful cans as if she was hurting herself in her soul while collecting them with her broom.

"How can you be so sure that she won't die? And why are you talking about her so coldly? I don't understand," Vallynor couldn't just accept her attitude towards the old woman. "She was crying with crocodile tears over the banks. But she doesn't care about living with the old woman."

She looked at him, indicating that she had read his thoughts. And she would have wanted to scream at him, but she was able to restrain herself. It wasn't his fault that he couldn't understand the whole situation, she was the fool. Taking a deep breath, she said:

"Someone very dear to me gave me these cans as a gift. Someone I will never be able to see again. And that fool will be okay for a while. But she will fall soon," after which she continued to collect the trash.

Vallynor didn't even know what to say. Picking up the fallen chair, he sat down on it and thought about the witch's words.

"Hey! Small imbecile, maybe I'm a witch, but I didn't allow you to talk about me like that."

Double standards. There she goes... Quickly distanced himself, don't repeat his mistake. He forgot again not to think directly about her.

After an hour of cleaning, Baba Yaga placed two plates of soup on the table, in which small pieces of brain appeared. Vallynor reluctantly sat down at the table with her.

Both were eating silently, lost in their thoughts. Ten minutes later, when Baba Yaga had almost finished her soup, she took a large spoonful of brain into her mouth and began to smack her lips and make various facial expressions, as if trying to understand or feel something from the piece. Then she cheerfully said,

"I didn't even know Iselda's brain could taste so good. When she restores her body, we should kill her again and steal her body."

Vallynor looked at her with disdain. It was not news to him. She had tried meat before and found it delicious, making notes in her notebook.

This was not the first time he had seen this strange notebook. When she opened it and began to write loudly, he could read the entry: "Iselda - mage, height 1 meter 87, red long hair…". It was described in detail how she looked. And at the end, there was even a note:

"High league prostitute. If you want to fuck, she will even give herself to a dog. She has fucked with fire and lava golems several times. The longest penis that entered her was 60 centimeters. Does she really have a black hole there? Easily manipulated."

Vallynor looked astonished at the entry about 60 centimeters. How is that possible? Does she really have such a "black hole" there? But where did Baba Yaga get this information?

"No, I have cursed everyone with the 'Eye of Wrath-Memory' curse, and when I'm bored, I follow everyone and gather dirt," Baba Yaga explained.

"Are you a stalker?" he asked uncertainly, although he already knew the answer. She had been spying on everyone.

"Who knows. I just observe others when I'm bored. But I don't do it all the time. The Eye does it for me," she replied.

"The Eye?" he asked uncertainly, not understanding what she was talking about.

"The Eye, come here!" she shouted so loudly that the eardrums of ordinary people would have burst.

After her shout, a squeak came from the floor, which became stronger with each passing second. A huge red eye emerged from the wooden floor. It looked at Vallynor for a few seconds and turned to Baba Yaga, quickly rubbing against her cheeks. Wherever the eye touched, a red trace remained.

"Stop it, or you'll stain everything with blood again," Baba Yaga quickly said, realizing that Glazik had started bleeding again. What a pesky creature.

Glazik stopped and backed away, beginning to look around. He rarely visited Baba Yaga's house, but he always knew what it looked like. Every time he was inside, he saw the same thing: jars, photographs that could remain in one place for centuries.

But now everything was almost empty, and it surprised Glazik. For the first time in his entire service, he saw changes in her house.

"This is Glazik. One of my subordinates. He appeared as a result of my experiment. He's the one who watches over everything and, if he finds something interesting, he reports it to me," explained Baba Yaga.

"He's the result of a curse?" he asked, pointing at Glazik. Glazik felt someone pointing at him and hissed disapprovingly. But he remained silent, waiting for new orders.

"Yes, he was my right eye. We were trying to create something that would help keep track of everything, but something went wrong, and my right eye was torn out and became Glazik. Glazik, you're such a good girl," Baba Yaga continued.

"Girl?" he exclaimed. How can it be a girl if she doesn't have reproductive organs? The thought of an eye with... but he quickly dismissed it from his mind. Ugh.