Nameless

Chapter 1

Darkness. Complete darkness around. Although not quite... I could look around and notice some kind of change, as if the soft velvet of darkness allowed me to move around with my gaze. Where am I? Who am I? If I could move my gaze, then I must have eyes. However, I did’t feel anything, neither body nor hands... I tried to look at myself and I don’t see anything except the darkness itself. Stop, I had to think. I knew I was human, but I couldn’t remember how I got here, or when, I didn remember anything about myself... not even my own name. Did I exist? If I could think, then I existed, I thought, and the term philosophy had come up into my head. However, I did’t know how I knew this. Was I dead? I don’t remember such a thing. Did I feel bad? No... on the contrary. It was hard to understand, but being in the darkness was pleasant. So, what is it that I wanted? Why did I keep looking around? I felt the need for something... the need to move,to stop hanging like that in the darkness. How could I get out of here if I couldn’t even touch anything? Although if I could look around, maybe I could try looking more closely?

For some time, I had been looking around, carefully trying to see at least something, reflecting on how long it had been since the moment I had became aware. For some reason, I had a lingering feeling that something was wrong with my perception of time; moments that passed without thoughts were forgotten, as if they were getting lost in my memory to merge with the surrounding darkness. Finally, I saw something. Some barely perceptible threads, like a fine gray spider web in the dark. It was necessary to look more precisely and this caused me some discomfort. I stopped several times to rest, when the tension became unbearable, but the peculiar itch of impatience pushed me again and again to make efforts. As I rested, I noticed that the threads that I could barely see before were now easily distinguishable, covering everything around with a transparent web. And the darkness no longer seemed so velvety and pleasant, somehow it became deep, sharp... not hostile, no, but as if she was not satisfied with these gazes of mine.

Finally, I was able to see these threads without the discomfort that I previously felt. Now, I could not see the threads if I wished and relaxed, and in the same way if I focused I could see these translucent gray laces simply by forcing my gaze. They really surrounded everything around and were lost in the infinity of darkness, they seemed more like strange capillaries than straight lines of a cobweb. And now what? ‘Movement’, I thought, and stretched my gaze towards the nearest line. With surprising ease, I began to approach it. I could move! The joy showered me with a wave of euphoria. However, it was still impossible to see myself. Well, what are these threads? As I got closer, I got a better look and saw that this line where I was going to, glowed with a blue light that poured over it, like energy flowing in a waterfall without knowing where it is coming from and where is it going. What if I looked at another thread? The next line glowed orange... For some time, curiosity pushed me to flit from thread to thread, enjoying the variety of colors, trying to follow the flow of energy. Sometimes the lines were woven into strange tangles, sometimes they were broken, and sometimes their colors merged, changed, or were replaced.

It seemed like I had been watching all of this for an eternity, when suddenly I noticed something else. At first it happened by chance, after a glance my eyes got hooked onto something as it slid along the line. After looking closely and overcoming another ailment of discomfort, I noticed that in some places on the threads there were certain points, pimples or clusters, barely distinguishable in the stream brimming with color, but somewhat brighter. With new curiosity, I began to look for those lumps and, although there were few, I began to notice them. Sometimes they were very few, but closer to these makeshift nodes or plexuses of threads, there were more of them. A blue lump attracted my special attention, somehow attracted me, making me come back to it over and over again, and I decided to take a closer look at it. With increasing attention, I looked more and more closely. And when this ball of light filled almost my entire field of vision, for the first time I experienced pain. For a moment, everything turned red and pushed me back, or was I the one who backed away because of the shock of pain. It really hurt me, as if all I was being pierced with something sharp, intangible, but still harmful.

For a time, I hung in the darkness, recovering, it was velvety, loving and relaxing again, calling me to dismiss all these stupid worries and simply enjoy the emptiness. But curiosity pushed me again into action. After many experiments, I began to realize that the brightness of the lumpy color directly affected the pain I received from looking at them closely. The brighter the sphere, the faster and more painfully I moved away from it. This led to certain thoughts, and I started looking for less bright clumps. Ten, twenty tries, but the result was still the same. I began to move farther and farther away from the nodes, looking for clumps in the distant sections of the threads that were farthest from the others in search of less bright lines, and spending time relaxing from this sharp pain from my failed attempts. Finally, I came across a light gray thread, almost devoid of life and boring compared to all the colors I had already seen. I flew for a long time, trying to find a lump on this thread, and finally discovered it, barely glowing like a white clump against the background of a gray stream of this thread. Having decided to go all the way, I started to take a closer look at it.

A gradually expanding sphere took over my entire field of vision, pain appeared, staining the white glow with a faint pink cape, but it was bearable. The pain was growing, I was holding on, and being busy with this fight, I somehow missed the moment when the glow that overshadowed my sight disappeared, and I glimpsed another sphere ahead, surrounded by another glow and features that were completely known for me. It is a planet! — I realized with surprise, without understanding where in me this strange knowledge came from. The atmosphere, the clouds and the unknown contours of the seas and continents that loomed below. And I also noticed that I was inexorably drawn to this planet. I tried to examine myself again and saw nothing but the emptiness of space. For some reason, I couldn’t look back, limiting my gaze at a hemisphere directed towards the planet, which was getting closer and closer, since the speed of my approach though slowly, was increasing. Was I scared? — I tried to analyze my feelings. It seemed not... Does this planet have satellites? What is the star that illuminates this planet? — I had questions, but the blue of the globe already overshadowed most of my field of vision and I could not satisfy this curiosity that arose so spontaneously. I tried to move as before, trying to zoom in and tense my gaze, but it was useless. Like a moth, I was drawn with increasing acceleration to an unknown lamp, and the atmosphere had passed, rivers, fields, and forests could be seen, and the ground was drawing closer and faster. When there was only a little bit left, I squinted, more instinctively rather than expecting a hit.

Chapter 2

For a while nothing happened and I opened my eyes. I saw the blue sky and the cloud outlines, that for some reason felt familiar. Not immediately, but with surprise, I came to understand: I could feel!

I was lying on something hard and warm and felt cooled a little. Getting up, I looked around. On one side, the edge of a forest, on the other, ruins. I exist! — this thought ran through me as I examined myself.

Man, clear skin, arms, legs, everything was in place. Naked for some reason... I was lying down on a fragment of a black slab that was warm: probably the sun, that was approaching its zenith, heated it up. Basalt — a thought crossed my mind, that was very likely the name of this type of stone. And again, I didn’t know where that knowledge came from.

As I stood up, I looked closely at the ruins that were on the side, the forest didn’t interest me. It seemed that some time ago there was some kind of large building there, built with the same black stone as the one I was lying down on. Now it was collapsed and covered with shrubs and grass. One could only see the contours of a few walls and fragments of windows or openings in fallen pieces that were not completed covered by vegetation. Silence reigned and there was a certain kind of peace, or something like that it seemed to me.

So, who am I and why don’t I remember anything about myself?

After thinking about it, I scratched my head, noticing that at least I had hair. Trying to make an effort and finally remember something about myself,I’m surprised to discover a transparent window with text hanging in my field of view. Shaking my head I fou

nd out that the window kept a fixed position within my gaze, and after moving my hand I noticed it was intangible and that my hand could go through it. Augmented reality, this concept appeared in my head. "Good, I’m going to read it." I thought, and looked at the text.

Name: /none, introduce/ Level: 1 Experience 0/500 Race: human Hit Points: 10

Abilities: Strength: 10 Dexterity: 10 Constitution: 10 Intelligence: 10 Wisdom: 10 Charisma: 10 Ability points available: 10

Interesting... like in a game, — again, an idea of incomprehensible origin came to my head.

I was beginning to discard these thoughts as they were coming to me, since the lack of understanding of their origin was annoying. However, there’s no name, and this augmented reality it’s offering me to introduce one... But I don’t remember my name! What if a think about what name I like?

After a few minutes of consideration, I couldn’t think of anything. Strange... well, it’s fine, maybe I will remember it later on. But other thoughts came to my mind: it was necessary to find at least some clothes: the sun shone during the day but during the night it was probably going to get cold. Around there’s the forest but in it is barely possible to find anything more than burdocks, but these ruins were worth a look, there’s a possibility, that something is left there. The window, that was hanging in the air, disappeared as soon as I thought it was bothering me.

Walking between the stones covered with grass, I found the obscure opening of a passage next to one side of the remains of the building. It was possible in this opening to catch a glimpse of something like a gateway that was once huge, but now it was almost full of rubble leaving, however, a fairly adequate two-meter diameter path. As I got close, I noticed that the ground was made of, or covered, with polished blocks of the same black stone and it was partially enfolded with dirt and sand, and on the pieces of the gateway it was possible to see engravings in the shape of bones and skulls, pretty terrifying stuff. This time my strange knowledge didn’t pop up, which meant that the images of the skulls didn’t remind me of anything. It occurred to me that these images in the black stones should be scary, but after listening to my feelings for a while, I found out that they didn’t cause me any fear.

As I entered the dark hallway, I noticed two things. First, I could hear something like a "click" sound in my head and everything became perfectly visible, although in black and white. And second, I felt better, I recalled the velvety feeling of the darkness from when I was resting after my attempts to distinguish clusters. A semi-transparent window appeared before my eyes: "Darkvision unlocked, aptitude, racial, passive, it allows to see in the absolute dark". Out of my sight! — I undid the window with a mental effort and looked closely at the ground again.

There was not a trace of the sand and dirt that had covered the paving stones. So even animals didn’t enter here. Or are there just no animals around here: "It’s so calm outside", — I thought. And again a window appeared before my gaze: "Track 1 activated, skill, class, active, it allows to find, read and follow tracks; there are skill points available, you will be able to distribute them after you reach level 2." After I undid that window, I entered carefully into the deeps of the hallway.

After a few meters in, the corridor was blocked with rubble from a collapse, leaving only a small passage on the right, in which I walked into. Here, apparently, there was a great hall, probably it even had columns, the symmetric crumblings in some places gave me that idea. It took me around half an hour to search everything. I didn’t find anything useful, just that in the leftmost side there was a fairly large opening in the ground. There were three exits from the great hall, maybe even four, because the left side was almost full of rubble, and if it was symmetric, that meant that there were two corridors on the left and two on the right, so somewhere under the rubble there should be another corridor. Of those that were visible, the one on the left and the closest to the right were blocked by landslides just one step away from the entrance, so I went for the only one available.

This corridor was also blocked a few meters from the room, but there was a branch with steps that went down. After a while, this descent led me to the lower level corridor, where there were far fewer traces of destruction. Stone carvings appeared on the walls, with the same grim bone theme. In some places there were niches with statues of skeletal warriors or monsters, only partially preserved, and sometimes completely undone in black sand. The symmetrical passages on the right and the left displayed to me with a certain periodicity. Those on the left always blocked by collapsed stones right next to the hallway, and those on the right obstructed after a few steps. It seemed that these corridors led to rooms, since in one of those passages to the right, behind the rubble I could even see one of the corners of some kind of chamber.

The corridor ended with another staggered descent and beside the steps I noticed something black that stood out on the floor. As I approached with extreme caution, I saw something similar to rags, upon closer examination it turned out to be some kind of pallet, mantle, or hooded cloak. Judging by the remains of the bones protruding from the clothing, the owner of this cloak tried to get to the surface or, on the contrary, wanted to hide in the dungeons, but death caught up with him here. I picked up the mantle, shook off the bones, and rummaged it looking for pockets. I found none, but a window with text appeared before my eyes. "Mantle of Mor’s servant, cloak, quality: magic, grants +1 to armor class and saving throws, grants a +10 bonus to stealth in obscurity, non-attacked undead creatures ignore the mantle’s owner, it works only for Mor’s adepts." Well, the stealth in the darkness wouldn’t be bad, the only thing remaining was to find out who this Mor is... I didn’t find anything else around here, so, removing the dust from the well-preserved mantle, I put it on... at least it’s some clothes. I immediately felt noticeably warmer and started going down the same stairs.

The stairs led to another corridor, which was now going in the opposite direction, and immediately beside the exit I noticed another cloak on the floor tiles. Yes, it was like the first one, filled with bones, without pockets... and what is this? Lifting and tossing the cloak aside, I picked up an amulet. With a chain made of a strange material similar to small vertebrae and a round plate, it felt like bone to the touch, smooth on one side and engraved with skull eye sockets on the other. The window that came out out immediately informed me of what is "Symbol of Mor, amulet, divine focus for adepts of Mor". There was nowhere to keep that amulet, so I put it on my neck and continued.

This corridor was much shorter: I only counted two intersections blocked by landslides. In the niches there were now well-preserved statues of a kind of skeleton dogs that reached my height. I did not come across more remains of hooded people. The corridor ended at an exit that led to a small polygonal room. Several geometric ledges led to something that looked like an altar in the center, not far from which I noticed another pile of cloth on the floor. As I approached that altar and examined it, I didn’t notice anything unusual. The same engraving, except that much smaller and of much better quality, a strange hole in the center of the altar... nothing useful. However, underneath the cloak lying on the ground next to it was a black stick, two meters long, made of something that felt like stone to the touch, but very flow in weight. The pop-up window subserviently informed me of what it was "Staff of Mor, two-handed weapon (staff, bludgeoning), unique, indestructible, relic, grants +5 to attack and damage, while being held grants +5 to attack with spells and concentration, absorbs spells directed at the owner, replenishing their energy that can be expended on spells known for the owner at the rate of 1 energy point per spell level, current energy: 0/100. Every night, being in the hands of the owner, it recovers 9-29 energy points. If the owner expends all the energy of the staff in combat, there is a possibility of recovering 3-18 energy points instantly. It works only in the hands of an adept of Mor with spellcaster capacity." What a stick! How could I find out who that Mor is?... Judging from the design of this place, it’s some kind of dark local deity, and these ruins were apparently something like a temple, a temple destroyed a long time ago. Also, several of his servants were caught on the spot, and since I haven’t seen any other remains around here, this place must have been blown away with something really powerful... Although perhaps the winners simply collected the bodies of their own, leaving those of the enemies to rot in these corridors. Be that as it may, there was nothing more useful here, since this room was a dead end, and as I was walking, I was very attentive. Time to get out of here.

Leaning on the staff, I retraced my steps toward the initial room. It remained to find out where the opening in the floor led, so before I left, I wanted to examine it. However, it was not possible. Looking through the hole to see how deep it was, I saw a matte gray veil that did not let me see pass it. It seemed intangible, something like a radiance, fog, or an energy field, but I was hesitant to touch and check it, especially after what that last window said about magic. Ah, to hell with it! — I put aside this strange opening and went to the exit of the ruins.

Chapter 3

At the edge of the forest the sun was still shining, although it was already much closer to the horizon. Now, dressed in the cloak, I didn’t feel the cold at all. But I didn’t find any shoes, so I’d have to be careful. I needed to go out towards civilization, which, judging by the ruins, existed around here. I was no longer completely naked and I even had a relic staff, although if I believed the windows, for me it is as if it were a normal stick. In daylight, the staff seemed quite ordinary. Yes, wrinkled black stone surface... but it didn’t look like a legendary artifact. I was glad it was so lightweight. And it seems tough, I thought, hitting it against the palm of my hand.

Now I had to choose a direction. For starters, I walked around the ruins, looking for traces, any footpath, or paved trail debris, without success. Everything was covered with grass, it seemed that I had arrived here in summer. Which was incredibly pleasing to me, considering the way I appeared here. Among the grass, only a few stone fragments and black flagstones were visible. Well, I will have to go randomly. As I entered the forest, I peered closely at the bark of the trees. Where it is clearest and hardest, there should be the south. Although it was not clear how I knew that. After examining some trees, I really found that on one hand the tree bark was more porous, sometimes even covered with moss. This is the direction I am going to follow. "We are going north*, we are going north..." a strange thought crossed my head.

Another pop-up window informed me: "Survival 1 activated, skill, common, active, allows you to orient yourself, seek food and refuge in nature; there are skill points available, you will be able to distribute them after you reach level 2." By the way, a good thought on food. I realized that I wouldn’t mind eating something, and this meant that hunger would soon appear. And the first thing I had to do was to find water. As I advanced, I started to pay more attention to plants and trees looking for fruit or berries.

For several hours I was walking north, carefully avoiding clusters of bushes and trying to walk on the grass. I found no water sources, or anything edible. The shadows were getting larger and I’ve finally spotted some bright red berries in the next thicket. As I got closer, I grabbed and examined one of the berries. The window, that was already starting to become a regular thing, reported: "Wild raspberries, berries, edible, survival — success, 10 experience points obtained". There was something familiar in the shape of the berries, plus the window confirmed it, so for a while I lingered around the bush, diligently picking up and eating very tasty and sweet berries. "That’s it, I can’t take it anymore" I thought at the end, and after cleaning my hands with the grass, I continued on. When examining my sensations, I didn’t notice thirst, which pleased me very much. Meanwhile, it was growing dark. Above, over the treetops, the sun was still bright, but down here it was getting darker and darker, which meant that I needed to look for some sort of refuge for the night. More and more I looked at the surrounding trees, looking for something suitable, but suddenly I heard a strange noise. Turning my head abruptly, I tried to detect the source of the noise. I could only see something small, running across the ground and among the leaves and grass directly towards me with the speed of an arrow. More instinctively than consciously, I put my rod in the direction of this quick bulge, as this thing jumped out of the grass a meter from me and hit me on the arm. I felt a flash of pain on my forearm, and this little creature caught onto my hand. Screaming, I awkwardly struck this creature with the staff, holding it with one hand, and only now I noticed that this time the transparent window appeared in a corner of my field of vision:

" — Altered Squirrel (level 1) attacks. Dodge — Failure. Takes 3 points of damage. You current health points: 7/10. The squirrel uses active ability Rending Grapple — success.

— You attack the Altered Squirrel (level 1). The enemy’s active ability does not allow him to dodge. Deals 3 points of damage, squirrel current health points: 1/4. Attention! You deal half damage using the staff with one hand! The squirrel is stunned, the active ability is interrupted."

The little spawn that bit me so painfully on the forearm flew away from my blow a few steps, getting lost in the foliage. And everything happened so fast that I didn’t even have time to see it well. "The squirrels around here don’t seem right" I managed to think, when I heard growing noises coming from all sides.

Seriously scared, this time I was able to see two mounds in the foliage quickly approaching me, I took a step back and held the stick like a bat. It won’t be easy to catch me, beasts!

I was ready for the first jump and as soon as the animal jumped out of the foliage, I hit it with my rod in one sweep and I didn’t miss. The little animal was ripped to shreds, so much so that even a few drops reached me. Without leaving me a breath, the second animal also jumped out of the grass, and then I, without realizing how, I stepped aside, let this live projectile pass and hit it in pursuit with the staff. Unbelievable, but judging by the thudding sound, I hit him. Let’s see, what is that appearing in the corner?

" — Altered squirrel (level 1) attacks. Ready attack — success.Takes 10 points of damage. Altered squirrel (level 1) dies. You gain 50 experience points.

— Altered squirrel (level 1) attacks. Dodge — success.

— You attack the altered squirrel (level 1). Dodge — failure. Deals 7 damage. Altered squirrel (level 1) dies. You gain 50 experience points."

Great! However, I could still hear noises, so I looked to the sides. Here they are! This time, the quick mounds in the foliage came from awkward directions, too far apart from each other, so I started to back away, step by step, trying to get a more comfortable hitting. Suddenly, about ten meters from me, one of the mounds turned around and started to walk away, so I turned my attention to the one that was left. I moved my hands around the cane a couple of times, trying to get a better grip on it due to my concern...

And here is the squirrel! As expected, the animal leaped out of the grass, and I struck it with amazing precision, busting the creature into small pieces.

" — Altered squirrel (level 1) attacks. Ready attack — success.Takes 6 points of damage. Altered squirrel (level 1) dies. You gain 50 experience points."

I stood still again with the stick ready to strike, listening. It seems that those crunches were no longer heard, just a quiet noise in the foliage, where the creature that had hurt me fell. I carefully approached and pushed the leaves away with the end of the cane. How disgusting... The squirrel was the size of three fists, its fur was gray, fallen in places, and its entire body was covered in filthy bluish blisters with black veins. "Tissue necrosis" a rare thought crossed my head. "Funny way to call it alteration..."

Apparently, I broke its back with my blow, because the squirrel tried to crawl, scratching the grass with its front legs, but without moving its hind. "What a weird creature" I thought, and I ended the suffering of this beast with a blow from the tip of the staff.

" — You have finished off the altered squirrel (level 1). Coup de grace — success. Altered squirrel (level 1) dies. You gain 50 experience points.

The fight is over. Threat level 2. Congratulations! You have survived your first encounter, earning in reward an additional 100 experience points. Current Experience Points: 310/500."

Uh-huh, I especially liked the "your first encounter" part. "Such squirrels kill you in one go and you don’t even choke with them" I thought, while examining my weapon.

Oddly enough, there were no traces of blood or adherent debris so it was not even necessary to clean anything. I should look at what’s going on with my arm, but I didn’t feel blood running from the wound. And after examining the sleeve of the mantle where it hurt and not discover gaps, I decided to move away from the combat site first. It may happen that, attracted by the smell, someone more serious than these crazy rodents suddenly comes.

After about half an hour of walking, I finally dared to stop. I pulled the damaged hand out of the mantle and examined the wound. The site of the blow was already quite swollen, there were bloody marks of small teeth, covered with small spots of dried blood, of which there was very little, however. Apparently, the little beast was unable to penetrate with his teeth through the cloth of the mantle, which certainly reduced the damage. It’s good that I didn’t go to the forest naked...

Looking around for something like a plantain, I tore off a couple of leaves, chewed on one, and glued the resulting mush to the wound. Then I put my hand gently on the mantle and kept walking, dispelling another window, the contents of which I could not but rejoice:

"Survival — success, has found a plant with medicinal properties: celandine, earns 10 experience points. First Aid 1 activated, skill, general, active, allows you to stop bleeding, bandage wounds and stabilize characters with negative health points; there are skill points available, you will be able to distribute them after you reach level 2."

It was getting dark around me as I stubbornly walked north, though if I keep going a little further, I would no longer be able to make out the bark of the trees to determine direction. I couldn’t find suitable trees, so in the end I stopped next to one of the biggest trees I have found so far. Its trunk was approximately two of my arm lengths in thickness, and a pair of large, forked branches seemed to be visible in height.

Holding on to the bark and pressing the stick with my body in front of me, I started to climb. Slowly but surely, I climbed higher and higher, gradually evaluating the branches around. Finding a more or less suitable branch, I settled into it, placing the staff firmly into the branches so that it was oblique in front of me, to limiting my possible movements while I sleep, at least a little. Although for some reason I was sure I wouldn’t move much.

Below it was already completely obscure, although the sky had not yet completely blackened. I lay relaxed on the branches, which were digging into my back quite uncomfortably, however, thanks to the cloth of the mantle, this was quite bearable, until after a while it even stopped bothering me. Only now did I notice how tired I was, the wound on my forearm itched unpleasantly, and all the muscles in my body ached, making it difficult to sleep.

While I was immersed in the analysis of my sensations, the sky is completely darkened and it was covered with masses of stars. A strange silence reigned and only a soft wind whispered around with the leaves that surrounded me. Suddenly I noticed some brightness and turning my head trying to orient myself. This glow was a pale, phosphorescent white, and it seemed to come from where those ruins in which I appeared. Observing that radiance and trying to hear any possible noise coming from below, I fell asleep without realizing it.

Chapter 4

I woke up because a ray of sunlight penetrated through the gaps between leaves and hit me directly in the eye, having already warmed up quite a part of my face. After removing the staff from between the branches and stretching, I carefully got up and observe the surroundings. The forest stretched as far as the eye could see. Throwing the staff down, I watched it fall, noting how it dug into the ground next to the tree. Now I had to go down, which was not as easy as it seemed. My muscles, which had hardened from sleep and ached from yesterday’s effort, made me clumsy, and I nearly fell off the rough bark of the trunk a few times. But luckily, I managed to hold on and soon I was back on my feet in the grass.

A window appeared again before my eyes, confirming that everything that happened yesterday was not a dream:"Climb 1 activated, skill, general, active, allows you to scale up and down ropes and different types of surfaces; there are skill points available, you will be able to distribute them after you reach level 2". Dispelling the window and completing a couple of stretches to warm up my muscles, I picked up the staff and kept walking north.

For several hours I walked through the forest, surprised by such unusual silence. As much as I looked, I did not find anything edible, nor any water sources. When the sun passed the zenith, I sat down to rest on a trunk of the fallen tree that I found. My legs were shaking with exhaustion and the soles of my feet, even though I tried to walk on the grass, were sore from the punctures of branches and sharp stones that I had stepped on. Hunger and thirst were actually not outstanding in me, but now they felt very clearly, which did not contribute to my good humor.

After resting, I continued walking. It was already getting dark when proximally to the next thicket of bushes that I was trying to surround, I noticed a small tree, whose branches showed fruits. As I got closer, I plucked a small slightly oval green fruit from a branch. A pop-up window customarily reported me: "Unripe wild pear, fruit, edible, survival — success, 10 experience points obtained." After plucking it, I took a bite out of the pear. The fruit was not very sweet and the pulp strongly numbed my mouth, but it was unexpectedly juicy, so I went back to bite it.

However, I was not meant to eat the pear, as the nearby bushes crackled, so much so that I jumped in fear, tossed the bitten fruit aside, grabbed my staff tenaciously with both hands, and started to walk away from the bushes.

A small beast, smaller in size than a dog, covered in short hair and with two sharp fangs in a characteristic snout, leaped out of the bushes.

— A boar! — it crossed my mind a thought, — just a little small...

Despite its size, the animal turned out to be very aggressive and rushed shrieking at me. I managed to dodge it and describing with my staff an arc above my head I hit him in the back, while this pig skidded while turning, causing him an angry cry of pain. As I raised the staff for another strike, the beast accomplished to turn around and slash my left foot with his fang. This fang result to be incredibly sharp and I felt blood flowing down my ankle.

— Piece of...! — I screamed and with all my strength discharge my weapon on that little beast.

I hit him in the area of the head and would not say I heard, rather felt the crunch of the bones due to the vibration of the staff. After screaming even more violently, the boar tried to slash my right leg this time, but by a miracle I got him away, back and making another spin with my staff, I hit the animal again. After this blow, the boar seemed to stand quiet, but just in case I took a couple of steps back, lifting the staff ready to strike and looking hysterically around me.

— Wild boars often go in a herd, — an idea was spinning in my head, which made the situation so much more frightening.

But seconds ticked by and there was no crackling of branches or squeals, and no one jumped out of the bushes to avenge their mate. Even the damn pig lay motionless, only slightly jerking its hind legs in spasms.

— The system window! — I remembered at the end and noticed the text that appeared in a corner of my field of vision.

" — Young boar (level 2) attacks. Dodge — success.

— You attack the young boar (level 2). Dodge — failure.Deals 9 damage. Health points of boar 8/17.

— Young boar (level 2) attacks. Dodge — failure.Takes 4 points of damage. Your current health points: 6/10.

— You attack the young boar (level 2). Dodge — failure.Deals 9 damage.The boar passive ability Relentless activated. Health points of boar 1/17.

— Young boar (level 2) attacks. Dodge — success.

— You attack the young boar (level 2). Dodge — failure.Deals 11 damage. The young boar (level 2) dies. You gain 100 experience points.

The fight is over. Threat level 2. Current Experience Points: 310/500."

Whew! It looks like I’m lucky and this creature was alone. How is my leg? Putting the injured leg forward, I examined it. At a height of an ankle span was a straight cut, about four centimeters long. It seemed very deep, because blood was still pouring, already staining the entire right side of the foot. Shit, shit, shit! — I cursed, frantically trying to figure out what to do. There was nothing to bandage with, the fabric of the cloak was too thick and I was sure not to tear off a strip... nor was there anything to cut. It only remained to look for vegetable substitutes and I rummaged around. After finding more or less long and dense grass stalks, I tore off a broad leaf, folded it in half, and, dropping onto the grass, pressed it against the wound. Blood continued to spurt out from under the leaf, so I pressed it tightly against my leg and started tying it with the stalks I found. It was painful, but even more terrible it seemed to me not to stop the bleeding.

"Survival — success; has found vegetable substitutes for the bandage. First aid — success, the wound is bandaged, earns 20 experience points."

As a result of all these manipulations, the blood seemed to stop coming out from under the leaf, which I hastened to check by wiping the blood around the wound with grass. Getting up, I limped toward the boar, almost slipping on the pears scattered around. Possibly the beast would have come here precisely for them and I could only hope that, the same as me, attacking all who would steal this food that it considered its own. If so, in the near future no other wild pig should dare to enter its territory.

After examining the boar’s body, I saw almost no blood; It looks like I killed the beast by breaking its bones and crushing its skull. Still on the way to these thickets, I noticed a large old tree nearby, thinking at that time that it would be perfect to spend the night. Earlier, I planned to go a couple more kilometers, but now it was becoming the end point of this day. Grabbing the boar by its hind leg, I put it on my back, noting that it appears not to weigh even 20 kilograms, and limped towards the tree in question.

As I got closer, I threw it there and started searching the surroundings for dry wood. Picking up some twigs and dry grass, and also dragging a small fallen log, I ripped a piece of bark a cubit long from it and returned to the battle site to pick pears. Returning and noticing that the twilight was already growing darker and darker, I chose a suitable branch from which I brought and with its help I plucked bits of grass, preparing a round platform for the bonfire.

Now was the time to set fire. I looked for a firmer branch, took a piece of bark, prepared dry grass, and started rolling the branch between my palms, pressing it against the bark. The process took a long time, and when I was finally able to ignite the dry grass and inflame a fire, it was already completely dark. After breaking a piece of the log that I brought and supporting it against the old tree not far from the fire, I ate one pear and started working with the boar. First of all, I opened his mouth and with the help of my staff took out the two long and sharp fangs. Then, using these fangs, I began to skin his body.

First, I cut the skin around the leg joints, made cuts on the inside of the thighs, and then over the peritoneum and neck, reaching the lip. Then, cutting with the fang, I removed the hide. Cutting the front legs along the scapula, I spread them off the trunk along the joints. After burying makeshift props made from the branches at the sides of the stake, I hung a leg over the fire, dispelling the window that had appeared at the time: "Skinning 1 activated, skill, general, active, allows to skin dead creatures, gut and tear them apart; there are skill points available, you will be able to distribute them after you reach level 2."

Approaching the fire, I examined my wound. Because I squeezed the stalks tightly on my leg, I felt numbness in my foot, so I cut them with the fang, holding the leaf with one hand. Removing it carefully, I saw bitterly that the blood was still spilling. There was no other way, tomorrow I had to keep moving, so the wound had to be cauterized.

Selecting a suitable branch, I lit it at the stake. I clenched another branch with my teeth and cauterized the wound, trying to do it quickly, decisively, and at the same time not holding the burning branch in the wound for a long time. Despite this, I shook with pain, and a piece of branch broke, getting stuck in the meat. After drying my tears with the sleeve of my cloak, I plucked the charcoal from the wound, noting with satisfaction that now the wound was no longer bleeding. A new window appeared before my eyes: "First aid — failure, has managed to stop the bleeding, takes 1 damage (fire), your current health points: 5/10. You gain 10 experience points. Medicine 1 activated, class, active, allows effectuates diagnosis, determines the severity of a wound or disease, how to treat them, and also evaluates the health status of a living creature; there are skill points available, you will be able to distribute them after you reach level 2."

I turned the thigh over the fire, which left the pleasant smell of roast pork, I sat on the trunk and leaned back, resting my back against the old tree. Around it it was already completely obscure and in the distance, there again was a pale glow that I’ve spotted yesterday. For a time, I sat, looking at the surrounding darkness and listening to the crackling of the drops of blood and fat that fell into the fire. Finally, I decided that the leg was ready and took it off the heat. The ham did not look very appetizing, it was pretty burned, but smelled provoking hunger. I threw more branches into the fire, hung the second leg over the fire, and sat back on the log, arranging the pears nearby, and started eating the roasted ham, holding the leg directly by the hoof.

Another window appeared before my gaze, the one I immediately dispelled, without even reading it much. "Cooking 1 activated, skill, general, active, allows cooking various dishes from animal and vegetable ingredients;there are skill points available, you will be able to distribute them after you reach level 2." Fairly soon I felt full and threw the bitten leg aside. I went to twist the other thigh at the stake and went back to the log to finish off the remaining pears. The coolness of the night and satiety pushed pain and fatigue apart, inviting sleep.

I got up, took the leg off the fire, letting it cool in the grass, tossed the leftover pears into the fire along with the bark, and, picking up the staff along the way, sat down on the log again. After examining the weapon, I was not surprised to find that it was clean again, as if I had just found it.

It was time to get ready for sleep. I picked up the fangs, wrapped them around the skin, and tied the resulting roll with the grass stalks. After examining the old tree, I saw that its lower branches were very close to the ground. Putting the staff and the roll of skin on the nearest wide branch, I climbed on it freehand. Repeating this operation, I climbed a few meters up, found a convenient fork and lay down on it, putting the scroll under my head as a pillow, and the staff again obliquely in front of me. My eyelids seemed to gain weight at every instant and I fell asleep almost momentarily.

Chapter 5

I woke up from the pain in my leg. It burned me mercilessly, and the fatigue that had previously pushed me to sleep had passed. With a groan, I whirled on the branch, giving off a fine bark dust with this movement, and looked down. The fire had burned down and at first glance nothing changed. The half-exploded carcass of the boar was still there, and the sour smell of blood sometimes reached even this height.

— It was very strange that this had not attracted any predator at night, — I thought.

I had to get out of here as soon as possible, games with luck tended to end at a very inopportune moment.

Climbing down the branches was easier than crawling along the bark, especially considering that I simply threw down the staff and roll of fur. Back on the grass, I did the usual morning warm-up, noticing that I almost didn’t limp. After picking up the roll, I untied it, looked for more long stems, and made something like a sack. There I put the roasted leg, after cleaning it with grass and scolding myself for my lack of foresight. If at night the carcass of the boar were to attract a predator, I would run out of food. I had to immediately put it on the roll and climb it on the tree with me... but at night I had completely forgotten to do it.

Hanging this makeshift bag on one end of the staff and putting it on my shoulder, I continued my journey. For some reason, I wanted to bury the carcass of the animal, but I had no tools necessary. Well, I think the corpse will be quickly consumed by scavengers...

Closer to noon, I was completely exhausted. It was hot and I was very thirsty. Even sitting on a stump, I found, I felt no rest.

— You have to keep walking while you have at least some strength left, — I said to myself, to encourage me to get up and stay walking.

A few hours later, I thought I smelled humidity. Some kind of freshness that came from the northeast, judging by the bark of the trees. Speeding up the pace, fueled by thirst, I strayed from my chosen direction looking for water. The freshness of the air intensified with each passing minute, which meant I was heading in the right direction.

Finally, after about half an hour on my wanderings, I suddenly spotted the surface of the water behind the nearby thickets. A few minutes walking around the bushes and I found a relatively free spot on the shore, next to a tree that almost hung over the water.

I stuck the stick into the ground and, holding the trunk of the tree with one hand, I looked around. It was a lake. Small, almost round in shape, with a very clean surface. It was completely surrounded by the forest, only on one side was a small grassy clearing that reached the same level of the water. This place was relatively far away and it was really impossible to distinguish anything else.

— But I will go there later, — I thought as I knelt and picked up water with my palms.

The taste of the freshwater of this lake seemed incredible to me, although perhaps it was due to my thirst. It seemed to me that for a long time I was kneeling like this, collecting and collecting water, without being satisfied.

Getting up at the end and drying my mouth with the sleeve of my cloak, I looked up at the sky. The sun had already passed its zenith. It would be appropriate to go to this clearing and eat, the idea occurred to me, so I headed there along the edge of the lake, thinking by the way about how I could manage to take some water with me. Apart from hollowing with one of the tusks a thick branch to make a kind of deposit and then tie it with some kind of leaf, I couldn’t think of anything. I even started looking around for suitable branches, but then I got to the edge of the clearing and all of these thoughts suddenly evaporated from my head.

There were bodies in the clearing. Feeling cold sweat pouring out, I slowly removed the bag from the staff, threw it on the grass, readied my weapon, and began to approach carefully. A few meters from the water there was a bonfire, and strange curved tracks could be seen that extended directly towards the lake. On one side of the campfire were a few scattered backpacks, and on the other, closer to the forest, lay two bodies.

The fact that they were precisely bodies was immediately apparent, as the grass was abundantly irrigated with blood and the bodies were terribly torn. As I got closer, I saw that they were two people, apparently men. One was lying on his back and had no legs; his body was covered with deep cuts. What was left of the second lay nearby. It was a torso and legs. His body looked like a chewed wound, as if a giant mouth had ripped off the top of a bite, and the bloody fragments lying nearby barely remembered the head or hands.

The meandering trails leading to the lake looked like impressions of blows with a giant whip, between which were drag marks, as if something large had been dragged into the water. Speaking of traces, huge footprints roughly three spans wide were seen in the scrambled earth around the bodies. Very strange and unknown, although the claw marks seen on the tracks caused chills.

The legless man held an ax in one hand, the other was unnaturally twisted and empty. Next to the second body lay a broken sword, which was barely recognizable by a piece with a hilt. And among the bloody remains were visible some splinters were once probably shields.

As I got even closer to the man’s body, I touched his face. It was cold and the blood around it was already dry, although it was clear that the bodies were fresh, and the massacre, which did not come to another word, had happened recently. A small window appeared that I immediately dispelled: "Track — partial success, has been obtained understanding of traces found without correct identification of all creatures; Medicine — partial success, the time of death and the nature of the wounds have been approximately determined. Earns 20 experience points".

On the man’s head was a thin metal helmet, split and dented so that it was embedded in the skull. He wore a chainmail, below which through numerous cuts looked ordinary shirt, which was probably light in color before but now was completely soaked with blood. On the neck of the dead man, I saw a medallion on a chain. I picked it up to look and saw a gold-colored oval metal plate with a circle in the center of which crossed four lines. The window that appeared reported: "The amulet of the Law and Order of Oum, amulet, divine artifact, subordinates the user to the master, being the conductor of different spells that affect the user in case of breaching the will of the master. Attention! The master of this amulet is dead, so the amulet is automatically configured to obey Oum’s closest cleric". I read this text a couple of times because I didn’t understand it very well, but a grunt distracted me from this activity.

Dropping the amulet and dispelling the window with mental effort, I stood up and looked at the sound source. At the edge of the clearing, among the trees, was a wolf. A great white wolf, waist-high at the withers, with snow-white fur tarnished scarlet on one side. I don’t know how long he stood there, but now he was growling at me, however, without attacking.

It’s strange that he didn’t jump over me while I was busy examining the body, I thought, maybe he just wants me to walk away? Thinking this, I began to retreat away to the opposite side of the clearing, keeping my eyes on the wolf and trying not to make sudden movements. One step. Other. Suddenly I saw with surprise how under my attentive gaze over the wolf’s head has appeared a semi-transparent box with the inscription "Wolf, animal companion, level 3" and below it, a kind of scale, partially filled with red. Apparently, I got too distracted with observing this, since my injured leg slipped on something wet in the grass, throwing me off balance. In order not to fall, I grabbed onto the staff, quickly leaning it in the opposite direction of the fall, and my cloak is opened, allowing the amulet of Mor hanging from my neck to come out.

The wolf, which until then had only growled softly, following me with his eyes, when he saw the amulet, radically changed his behavior. His fur stood on end, his eyes gleamed red, and he began to bend down to the ground.

— It’s going to jump down on me! — I thought, and prepared to fight.

The animal rushed toward me silently, fast as lightning. I was ready and managed to dodge him, hitting his body that flew past me with all my strength. I hit him, judging from the fact that my hands shook, but the wolf did not react to this in any way. Turning around instantly, he jumped on me again, and this time I couldn’t avoid him. Hitting with his jaws against my bare chest, unfortunately because my cloak opened, the wolf ripped off a huge piece of flesh. The force of the blow made me stagger, but I did not fall, and the wolf, moving away from me, landed very close. It was horribly painful and more instinctively than consciously, I hit the predator again. I heard the bones crunch, but the wolf didn’t even squeal, and looking at me with hatred, tried to attack me again. It didn’t work very well for him, and I, stepping aside, feeling life drain from my body with spurts of blood gushing from my chest, hit the beast again with my staff. The fear gave me strength and the blow came out very powerful, I think I even felt the skull of the attacking wolf being crushed. The predator fell at my feet, and I seemed to hear a joyous melody of victory inside my head, and my view was dyed black for an instant. I felt like I was falling to my knees, but an unknown force stopped me, even somehow pushing me up.

— What was that? — I thought, and immediately looked at my chest, expecting to see a terrible wound and protruding bones.

How big was my surprise when I saw the intact skin on my chest, with no signs of injury. Upon analyzing myself, I discovered that I did not feel any pain, on the contrary, I even noticed a certain euphoria.

— What’s going on here? — I exclaimed mentally, and looking for an answer I looked at the translucent window in the corner of my field of vision:

" — Wolf, animal companion (level 3) attacks. Dodge — success

— You attack the wolf, animal companion (level 3). Dodge — failure. Deals 6 damage. Health points of wolf: 14/28.

— Wolf, animal companion (level 3) attacks. Dodge — failure. Takes 8 damage. Your current health points: 2/10. Received a knockdown blow. Strength saving — success, you have been able to stay on your feet.

— You attack the wolf, animal companion (level 3). Dodge — failure. Deals 8 damage. Health points of wolf: 6/28.

— Wolf, animal companion (level 3) attacks. Dodge — success.

— You attack the wolf, animal companion (level 3). Dodge — failure. Deals 9 damage. The wolf, animal companion (level 3) dies. You gain 330 experience points.

The fight is over. Threat level 3. Current Experience Points: 810/1000.

Congratulations! You have reached level 2, your health points have been restored, all existing negative effects have been neutralized. Your health points increase, you have obtained new skill points that you can distribute from the character’s statistics window.

Attention! You have leveled up without distributing the initial abilities points. Gain Hardcore 1 achievement: all your abilities increase by 1, the gods favor those who overcome additional difficulties."

Curious... It seems like I’m really in a kind of very realistic game. I had no other explanation for these strange phenomena.

— I wonder if I will be resurrected if I die, — I thought.

My strange knowledge told me that in such games there is something like a certain number of lives, or even a constant rebirth of the player character with an experience penalty or some other type of similar punishment. However, I did not feel like checking it, the terrible pain of the last wound was still fresh in my memory.

Well, what did it say about the character stats window? As soon as I thought about it, a new window appeared, taking up almost my entire field of vision.

Name: /none, introduce/ Level: 2 Experience 810/1000 Race: human Hit Points: 20

Savings: Fortitude 0 Reflex 0 Will 0

Abilities: Strength: 11 Dexterity: 11 Constitution: 11 Intelligence: 11 Wisdom: 11 Charisma: 11 Ability points available: 10

Skills: Climb 1/5 Cooking 1/5 First Aid 1/5 Medicine 1/2 Skinning 1/5 Survival 1/5 Track 1/2 Skill points available: 10

Extraordinary Abilities: Darkvision

Achievements: Hardcore 1

Okay, so how do I put points on skills? For example, in medicine, how well would I need... The windows disappeared with mental effort, so "increase the medicine skill", I thought, and nothing has happened.

— Hmm, what if I look closer? — I concentrated on the line where it was putting medicine and suddenly a new window appeared above the one that was already: "Do you want to increase the medicine skill? Yes/No"

— It is very similar to how I moved in that darkness where I regained consciousness, — I thought, and concentrated my gaze on the word "Yes". The window disappeared and the numbers changed. Now, in medicine there was 2/2, and in skill points there was 9.

I see. Upon discovering how to deal with this augmented reality, I added one more point on tracking, deciding to deal with the rest later. After all, I was at the scene of a terrible massacre, with the wolf that I killed at my feet. Someone else might show up, and I’m not sure I can survive a new threat. I have to collect everything useful around here and get away as soon as possible.

Chapter 6

Dispelling the character’s stats window, I first examined the wolf. Like the boar, I killed him almost without spilling blood. His snow-white skin was beautiful, but I didn’t want to skin it. On the left side of the wolf, I noticed a deep cut wound, very similar to those I saw in the body of the man without legs. Judging by the condition of the wound, which had already started to heal, it was a few days old. Also, after closer examination, I found an amulet on the wolf’s neck, something like a small metallic curl in the shape of a leaf, tightly tied around his neck with string, such that it was not visible in the dense fur of the beast.

"Search 1 activated, skill, class, active, allows to inspect different surfaces in search of hidden details; there are skill points available to distribute. Medicine — success, you have identified the wound and obtained an approximate idea of when it was caused. Earn 10 experience points."

In addition to the bodies, there were backpacks in the clearing, and I decided to inspect them. There were three. Two were very simple, something like relatively well-made bags of hard fabric with straps. And one maded on leather, dark green in color, with intricate embroidery in the shape of herb stalks and flowers, with metal pieces to regulate the length of the straps. All three were scattered, their contents partially dispersed across the grass. In addition, in one of the backpacks there were visible marks of teeth and claws, which clearly was used to open it. Judging by the fact that it was scattered and partially eaten something like long strips of dried beef, I thought that the one who tore the bag was the same white wolf.

In each of the simple backpacks I found a reel of thick rope, about 5 meters long deeming it to the eye. The rolls, which occupied most of the space, turned out to be some kind of skin bedrolls with a felt blanket, so I assumed they were the sleeping accessories of the dead. To my joy, in each of the backpacks I found something like tanned leather bottles in which there was water. Also in the backpacks were sharpening stones, a little bit of some kind of grease wrapped in cloth, soap in a rag, several small knives with different blade widths, a couple of skeins of thread with needles, and leather bags with silex and somewhat similar to metal knuckles, I assumed it was a flint to light a fire.

In the green backpack there was also a sleeping bag, only it was of much better quality, thin and two-layer, with a knitted blanket and even a small pillow. There was also a metal canteen, from which, turning the lid, I immediately smelled the sweet aroma of the wine. In addition I found a mirror in a metal box, something like a whistle, a bag with a lot of coins and a box with writing accessories, in which in addition to a metal pen and an inkpot, there was also a set of colored chalks.

Emptying the contents of the two sacks in the grass, I put the simple bedrolls aside and put all the remaining belongings in that backpack that was not torn. Of edible, there were only a couple of pieces of bread and a few strips of jerky; the rest apparently had been devoured by the wolf. There was still enough room in the backpack, so I went back for my skin roll and stuffed it there. The contents of the green backpack I simply put back in the right place, deciding to take it with me with everything it has.

Next up was the headless corpse. Despite the terrible injury, his equipment was fairly well preserved. On the legs, the dead man had rough leather boots with laces. When I started to take them off, behind the backstay of one of them I found a decent knife without a guard. The pants were made of thick fabric with leather patches stitched in certain places. The victim also had a leather belt with eyelets and a small bag, opening which, I found two small empty bottles and one filled with a strange dark liquid. As I spun it around with my fingers, a window appeared informing me that it was"Potion of Cure Light Wounds, beverage, heals 4 to 9 health points".

Underneath the pants was something like breeches or stockings, which I felt apprehensive to remove. This man was also dressed in a shirt and chain mail, which despite being in better condition were also useless, given his upper part was completely torn. However, after lifting his chain mail, I cut four pieces of cloth from his shirt, two of which I used as footwraps, and put the rest in the backpack.

Wearing the pants and boots, I returned to the legless corpse. He also had a bag on his belt, but I found only empty bottles there, which were broken as well. All the rest of his equipment was irremediably ruined, so I simply removed the medallion from his stiff neck and ripped the ax from his fingers. I hid the locket in the green backpack and, considering it for a while, took the amulet out of my neck and put it there too. The wolf’s reaction was terrifyingly intelligent, and I didn’t want to provoke such aggression again at first.

When I decided to leave, a message appeared before my eyes, which led me to the idea that this game system that handles augmented reality evaluates my actions, penetrating in my thoughts in some way. "Search — success, three backpacks and three bodies were searched. Earns 30 experience points." Is this system in my head? Could it be that it’s just an implant in my eye? Although that miraculous cure is not explained by this...

I filled the skins with water, put the ax on top of the simple backpack, since I didn’t want to casually damage the green one, used the cords above it to fasten the weapon, put one backpack on each shoulder, and hurried out of the clearing. The sun was already starting to set and I should get as far away from this lake as possible.

I kept walking north, looking for a place to sleep. The forest here began to become less dense, the trees were further apart, and there were practically no large old trees. But the clearings were meeting more and more often and I began to notice more noise inherent to the forest life. At the end, it was almost dark, and I was still walking without finding a suitable refuge.

— So I’ll start walking in circles, — I thought, and stopped at the first fallen trunk that I stumbled upon.

After take off the backpacks and sticking the staff into the ground, I untied the simplest one and, arming myself with the ax, cut dry branches, as well as chipping some wood from the fallen trunk. Then I took the knife out of the backstay of my boot, ripped a piece of grass, prepare a bonfire, and lit it fairly quickly with the help of flint. After making a spit from the branches, I pulled out the boar’s paw and heated it at the fire. While warming up, I opened the green backpack and unfolded the sleeping bag. Now that I had a knife, eating was much easier and, sitting on the trunk, I ate slices of roast beef, taking a few shots of the canteen with wine.

Now I had time to think about the character’s points to distribute. The abilities names spoke for themselves, but I didn’t feel the shortage of anything and had no idea where to put the points. Also, for not distributing them, the system gave me an achievement, and judging by the amount of experience that the window showed me, I was close to the third level. Decided, at the moment I will not touch the abilities.

After looking at the list of skills, I noticed that some of them had a limit of 5 and others of 2. After looking at them more closely and mentally asking for details, I re-read their descriptions that were displayed at that mental request and quickly discovered that abilities that had a limit equal to my level were «class», whatever that meant, but those that had a limit of my level +3 were indicated in the description as general. In the beginning, it was clear that class skills were more valuable, so I certainly spent one point in Search. Of the generals, Survival seemed the most useful to me, so I put there 3 points and one more in Climb and First Aid. I kept two points, because I noticed that the abilities were suddenly appear in the list, depending on my specific actions, and who knows what I will find later. These free points could theoretically help me in these supposed unforeseen situations.

Sated of eating and having everything clear with the windows, I hid the canteen in the green backpack. Examining the roasted leg, I decided that there was still enough meat for one more meal and put it back in the skin roll and got this in the sack. Suddenly, I remembered the coin bag, took it out, and began to examine the coins in the uneven light of the fire. An image similar to the one on the murdered warriors medallions, only in much greater detail, was engraved on one side of the coins. The circle was stylized as a solar halo, and four intersecting lines were represented as eight rays emanating from its center. On the reverse of the coin, there was mainly an image of a kind of tree-shaped shield with well-detailed branches and leaves. Beneath this emblem were letters of an unknown form in connected-like style, engraved in a semicircle. Looking at them, I was surprised to discover that I could read them. This caused me some discomfort, my mind was screaming at me to see those letters for the first time, but when I looking at them I had a strong feeling of understanding their meaning and that made me feel something like itching in the brain. In most coins it was written Anleyn, although on some I found the Supleyn inscription. Incidentally, most coins were large and gold, I counted 158, and the smallest were silver, of these I counted 89. In addition to the material, they differed perhaps in the size and quality of the minted details. I belatedly thought I should have rummaged in the pockets of the murdered for coins. At that time, I was busier with the desire to quickly gather everything of value and go away. Besides, I didn’t examine their fingers for rings, although I suppose if there were any, they would have caught my attention, and I didn’t check the bodies for hidden pockets or some little bag hidden in the body either...

Well, after all, I got enough equipment that will significantly increase my chances of survival like to complain about. Also, if those people got here, then I can also get to where they came from.

Throwing more wood on the fire, I approach the backpacks towards me, put the staff with the ax next to the bedroll, and lay down on the bag, covering myself with the blanket and trying to sleep.

Chapter 7

I slept badly. Perhaps I was already accustomed to the unusual silence of the night, or the feeling of insecurity affected me, but the different noises, creaks and rustles of the fallen leaves constantly woke me up. Sometimes I seemed to see some kind of glow flickering among the trunks of the trees. It was like that whitish light that I saw before at night, but I realized that I had already gone far enough from the place where I first appeared, to be able to see it from the ground. As soon as I began to fall asleep, the sounds of nearby movement woke me up, and it seemed to me that some creatures were running in the darkness from tree to tree. I nervously threw more branches on the fire and tried to go back to sleep again. Almost in the morning I imagined something huge slowly steps nearby, shaking the ground with measured steps. Opening my eyes in panic, I tried to look closer, and it seemed to me that I even saw some kind of giant pile of branches sliding in the mist between the trees. However, when I finally woke up and rubbed my eyes, I didn’t see anything strange, deciding it was just my imagination in a pre-morning doze.

The dawn was just coming and the fire was already dying out, so it was quite cool. I jumped to my feet and did a set of exercises, stretching sore muscles and trying to warm up. I didn’t want to eat, so after taking a sip of water, I rolled up my bedding, tied both backpacks, threw them behind my back and, grabbing my staff, continued to move north.

By noon, the sun was bright again as before. Also, the weight of my equipment was now much greater, so I started to feel more exhausted when walking. However, he now had footwear, which significantly increased the comfort and speed of my march. I sat down to rest, drank some water and, putting a strip of jerky in my mouth, continued on my way.

So far I haven’t found anything that caught my attention and, to be honest, I didn’t really look around much. I had water, and also enough food for a couple of days. I could finally fully focus on getting as far as possible and getting out of this damned forest.

It seemed to me that during this day I advanced two or perhaps even three times more than I walked before. It was already getting dark, so out of habit I started looking for a some thick tree or a suitable shelter. In the end, after finding a giant tree nearby, I threw my backpacks to the ground and was already looking at the outstretched branches, when I suddenly heard a strange noise, I would even say it was screaming...

It was getting dark quickly, and although the darkness was not an obstacle for me, I did not want to recklessly rush to where the sound was. I mentally mapped out certain landmarks on the tree, so that later I could easily find it in the dark, put on my backpacks again, and went in the direction of the noise to see what was going on there.

For several minutes I crept slowly between the trees, stopping sometimes to determine the direction of the sounds. The closer I got, the sharper were heard occasional exclamations and sound of blows. Very similar to a fight, I thought, once again adjusting my movement. A particularly strong scream that echoed in the pitch darkness that had already descended on the forest prompted me that I was very close.

Suddenly, through the separated trees, I saw a path with a rammed surface. It’s a road! — an understanding came to me.

A little ahead, could see lights and flickers of many shadows. Without going out onto the road and moving from one thicket of bushes to another, I began to approach the light sources. Finally, I was able to get close enough to see what was happening.

Next to a skewed cart, lit by two lamps on hooks specially designed for it, a group of people were fighting with strange monsters. The van stood with its back to me, and I couldn’t not properly see what was happening in front of it, but I still spotted a huge anthropomorphic mass of bones towering a couple of meters above the roof of carriage. A man wearing cuirass was fighting the monster, and behind him there was another in a cloak, whom he could not see well over the edge of the cart.

Closer to me were six warriors with shields, trying to build some kind of formation; they were attacked by a huge dog-shaped bone monster. Judging by the reflections, these people were dressed in chain mail and in their hands they held some kind of metal maces with spikes. A couple of people already had wounds from the monster’s sharp claws on their bodies, and at the moment when I began to observe their fight, the bony creature attacked one of them and, not paying attention to the rain of blows that fell on him from all sides, it grabbed onto one of him with its jaws and forepaws. There was a grave howl and a heartbreaking cry of a man, and suddenly some kind of dark haze enveloped the monster. Amazed, I saw how the face of the man who had fallen into the mortal embrace of the monster was shrinking and aging before my stunned gaze, and after a few seconds his withered body fell lifeless to the ground.

I took a closer look at the monster, and as expected, a sign: "Bone Hound, level 8" popped up over its head. The red bar under this plate was more than two-thirds full. At that moment, the recognition came to me: I had seen a sculpture of a similar creature in the same ruins where I got the staff. It was a bit smaller in size... or maybe so it seemed to me due to the play of shadows and movement of this monster.

Looking at the people, who now remained five, I got the "Guard, level 4" signs to light up over their heads. Three red bars were full, one was missing about a quarter and another a little over a third.

From the other side of the cart came the majestic voice of the caped man: "Oh, Oum! I appeal to you! Illuminate us with your radiance in the moment of danger! Give us the power of your light to defeat the creatures of darkness! Give us strength to defeat the wicked!"

Turning my gaze towards him, I saw that with one hand this man was holding the amulet that hung from his neck, and with the other he was raising a mace above his head. As soon as he had finished his words, the weapon in his hand glowed brightly, creating a wave of light that swept around and disappeared. However, those warriors who were touched by this wave seemed to retain a part of this radiance around them, like a kind of aura. And their maces were now glowing with a soft yellow light.

The huge monster responded with a terrible grinding scream that rolled down the road in a wave of horror. I felt a swarm of goosebumps run over my skin, and a couple of warriors behind the van have been completely stunned, staying still with glazed eyes. The man who was fighting alone with the monstrous giant, showed no fear, inflicting two quick blows to the monster with his mace, sending a bunch of bone fragments into the air with each impact.

I looked at him better, and a sign lit up over his head: "Guard Captain, level 6", his red scale was almost full. Above the monster was now written "Bone Aberration, level 10", its red bar was also almost completely filled.

Encouraged by the prayer of their comrade, the warriors began to bludgeon the hound with new strength, emptying his health bar by more than half. Now the warriors’ glowing maces were noticeably more effective, crushing the creature’s bones and even ripping out some of them. The hound, despite everything, darted among the fighters like lightning, striking one or the other with its claws and even with its tail that looked like a long bone sword. In a matter of minutes, all five warriors were already injured, and one had its red scale even below half, while the creature still had a third of it.

Ahead, the captain bravely attacked the aberration, striking the target with almost every swing, landing two blows for each thrust of his massive bone fists. Although, judging from the thudding impacts and screams of pain, sometimes he took damage as well. During the minutes that I watched the fight with the hound, his health was depleted by more than half, while the monster by about two-thirds. The man in the cloak screamed again at this moment: "Oh, Oum! Hear my pleading! Grant strength to this worthless slave! Let his weapon become the scourge of the undead! Let it plunge them into dust with your light!" Gripping his amulet again with one hand, with the other he touched the captain’s shoulder from behind, then the warrior’s mace flashed with a brilliant burst and its tip lit up like a small star in the night.

Meanwhile, I missed the moment when the hound managed to grab another warrior, who suffered the same fate as the first fallen. Hearing his dying cry, I turned my attention to the battle that was taking place closer to me, and saw how, as the warrior’s life bar emptied, the hound’s scale filled proportionally.

Ahead, the captain showed miracles of courage, and his luminous mace literally tore huge pieces of bones from the monster’s body. The man behind him appealed to his god again: "Oh, Oum, heal these terrible wounds of your servant! Because he is fighting for the cause of light! Send him relief, restore his strength, so that he can continue the battle!" He touched the captain again, and a wave of yellow light came out of his hands. Even from here, I watched the blood disappear from his wrinkled clothes, and his red bar was almost completely replenished. The monster had less than a third of its scale left, so the man in the cloak came out from behind the van, heading to help the warriors in the other side.

Now I could see him better. His hooded cloak was dark green, and a chain mail gleamed underneath. Behind his back could be seen a kite shield with a round symbol that was already familiar to me, and on his neck hung a luminous amulet with the same engraved image.

— Much bigger than the one is hidden in my backpack, — I thought.

In his hands he held a mace, somewhat different in shape from those the rest of the warriors had. By the way, I noted that the guards had different weapons on their belts: some a sword, some an ax, but this one seemed to have his iron club as his only weapon. The hood came off his head in the heat of battle, and his long blonde hair blew in the wind. He did not have a helmet on his head like the guards, only a small metal band inlaid with small shiny stones. But what immediately caught my attention were his ears. They were unusually elongated upwards and had sharp points.

— An elf, — told me my strange knowledge.

Coming out from behind the wagon, the elf raised the amulet in front of him and exclaimed, "Oh, Oum! Banish these undead with your light of order! Incinerate them with your rays, because there is no place for this abomination on your land!" The amulet emitted a brilliant radiance that actually engulfed the bone monsters and dissolved several bones in them. Glancing over their life bars, I saw them emptying out a very decent piece.

The hound, barely having some scraps of his life bar left, grabbed again one of the wounded fighters, sucking his life out. However, what he was able to restore to herself was almost equalized by the elf’s magical blow, and it was clear that he was about to fall. The captain also went well in the battle with the giant, the bone aberration had its bar practically empty, and almost half of the warrior’s health was full. I seriously thought about what to do: keep hiding in the bushes or go out to these victorious people. Something told me that warriors heated by battle, having lost half of their comrades, would not be very happy to see a half-naked ragged man emerging from the bushes, moreover, wearing a dark robe.

While I was considering this, I suddenly heard a crackling of branches very close by. I turned my head and was astonished, right next to me, just a few steps away, was another hound. How he managed to get so close without discovering his presence was a mystery to me.

— I was too carried away by watching the battle! — I thought with horror. — And the noise of the battle hid the approach of the monster. I have no chance against this killing machine, — I told myself, for some reason too calmly.

The window "Bone Hound, level 8" that popped up above the creature’s head assured me even more in this. The hound turned its skull-shaped head towards me, and I saw two red lights glowing in its eye sockets staring at me.

Chapter 8

The gaze of these supernatural eyes was not fierce, but rather chained with a sepulchral chill. The monster did not show aggression, and suddenly I heard an alien, but clear, voice in my head: "Will you help me kill the elf?" I was taken aback and did not know how to react to this. The hound tilted his head very humanly to one side and the cold voice in my head continued: "Do you understand that if you go out with him, he will deprive you of your freedom... if he does not kill you on the spot?"

I looked where the wagon was to see how the Guard Captain, with his next series of blows, emptied the life bar of the aberration and it crumbled into a pile of lifeless bones. The hound was still fighting, but its scale was also nearly empty. The elf was approaching the three remaining guards, his lips moving, but I couldn’t hear his words. I looked at him carefully and a sign popped up above his head with a full red bar underneath: "Priest of Oum, level 8".

— Is there anything I can do? — I said mentally, — I can’t beat him...

— I will help you with that, — replied the voice, — I will give you the power to deprive him of magic... but in return you will have to give me his soul if you win...

I didn’t want to kill anyone, although, to tell the truth, my own thoughts about meeting with this group were very similar, which was quite unpleasant. How much easier it would be to hide in the bushes and wait for them to leave. Damn curiosity that pushed me to come here...

— If they win, — the voice interrupted my reflections, — the priest will detect that amulet you have in your backpack. You will not be able to hide, and the result will be the same as if you yourself surrendered to them.

— Besides, — continued the voice, showing evident impatience, — I can easily kill you... Decide, mortal, time will not wait!

— Alright! — I exclaimed mentally, more than anything because I didn’t want to die, — if I can do it somehow, I will help you...

The red lights in the hound’s empty eye sockets flashed and I felt an unearthly chill rush through my body from head to toe. The monster turned its head toward the road and lunged headlong towards the wagon. My gaze meanwhile was covered by a window with text, which I read immediately: "You has obtained the spell Sacrificial Curse of Mor, divine, level 4, necromancy, ritual, verbal, somatic, deprives the victim of the ability to use magic, either their own spells or embedded in artifacts; the cleric must see the victim and she must be able to hear his words; pointing to the victim, it is necessary to pronounce a curse, the meaning of which is to inform the victim that her soul is given to Mor; the effect lasts 1 hour for each cleric level, during which time the victim must be sacrificed to Mor. Attention! You are not able to use this spell on his own, you have access to its single use due to divine intervention".

Having dispersed the window, I thought that I was seriously in trouble, so I turned my attention to what was happening near the cart. And there was something to see. The Guard Captain who finished off the giant monster, began to bypass the wagon as the elf had done earlier. One of the guards finally dealt the last blow to the hound, after which it crumbled to bones that began to slowly melt, turning into black smoke. The priest approached to one of the warriors and, touching him, asked Oum to heal his wounds, and this worked, with the effect of light coming from his hands, already seen by me.

Suddenly, the aberration bones, scattered near the front of the wagon, began to fly into the air, gathering right behind the captain’s back in a new anthropomorphic form. One of the soldiers realized this and yelled at the captain warning him about the danger, pointing at what was happening with his finger. The captain began to turn around, but it was too late: the monstrous form of the aberration that formed with incredible speed, created something like a huge mouth instead of the head and it swallowed the captain half, lifting him to a pair meters from the ground.

With a disgusting chomping sound, the monster began to chew on the captain, and jets of blood spurted from its body in different directions. The glow of the mace within this mouth was noticeable, and I could even see debris flying outward, caused by the sharp bones of this improvised mouth crumbling as they collided with the enchanted metal of the weapon. The sign "Bone Aberration, level 10" shone again over the terrifying monster, instead the captain’s life bar was depleted and his sign turned gray and disappeared.

The elf, who had rushed to help the captain, stood in horror halfway, and the bone hound, who had previously stood next to me, swept past the stunned soldiers in the direction of the priest, quick as an arrow. To the elf’s honor, he managed to regain his composure and even pulled out a shield from behind his back.

— Hurry up! — he shouted to the remaining warriors, — Help me!

Two soldiers immediately snapped out of their stupor and ran towards the hound who was already showered the priest with a host of blows, most of which he managed to block successfully. The third turned in the opposite direction, apparently intending to escape. However, the elf did not disregard this maneuver and shouted at him, grabbing his amulet:

— Where are you going, scum?! — The guard who was about to flee, jerked at this cry, turned back with strange broken movements and threw himself towards the hound with a twisted face.

Thanks to the joint efforts of the guards, the elf was able to get out of combat, retreating behind the backs of the men, and immediately raised his amulet, summoning again his god to expel the undead. One more time, a blinding wave of light spread along the road, this time with very unexpected results for me. The light dissolved a couple of the monsters’ bones like the previous time, taking away a good chunk of their life bars, but suddenly there was some loud, cracking sound and the aberration, whose life scale was almost full, exploded with a flurry of bones, which began to transform right in the air into black smoke. The chewed corpse of the captain, of which only the half torso with legs remained, fell to the ground with a squelching sound.

What happened apparently not only came to surprise me, but also the soldiers, which the hound did not fail to take advantage of, grabbing one of the guards and drinking his life. Immediately after that, he launched himself towards the priest in the space that has been left open, successfully cutting him with his claws. The elf screamed in a thin voice and shouted:

— Here! Protect me!

As if whipped, the guards pounced on the hound, trying to push it away from the priest. He helped them as best he could, hitting the monster with his mace and this time blocking quite badly. I would say that his life bar was already about a fifth short, that of one of the warriors was half left, and that of the one who had tried to escape was almost empty. The hound’s had a little over two-thirds full.

The outcome of the battle changed in a matter of minutes, and apparently I would still have to fulfill my promise.

— After all, I should have climbed that tree and put myself to sleep, spitting on all this noise, — I thought once again, and getting up, went out to the road in the direction of the cart.

As I approached, the soldiers managed to push the hound away from the priest who was bleeding from a multitude of cuts. Barely finding himself behind his back, he cried out: "Oh, Oum! Pious and just! Heal your loyal servant! Close my wounds and drive away the weakness!" A yellow glow enveloped him and his life bar filled up again exceeded half. The hound at that moment managed to grab on and absorb the guard who had the most hit points at that time. The remaining wounded guard was fighting some sluggishly, the whole time I was approaching to the place of combat, it seemed to me that he did not hit the hound even once.

The bony creature leapt around the priest, preventing him from casting. His health bar was rapidly depleting. Most of the hound’s attacks caused the elf to scream in pain, and blood splatters gushed from each new wound. Judging by his scale, he had less than a third of his life points left, although the hound didn’t have many more left, either.

But suddenly the monster contrived to jump on the priest, and I, who at this moment was already only a couple of steps away from them, even stopped, because I already had an idea about how these grab attacks normally end. It seems that now the hound is going to drink the elf, freeing me from having to finish him off.

The priest apparently understood this too, because his eyes were wide with horror and he screamed:

— Here, casmere! Immediately!

The surviving guard, spurred on by this order, jumped towards the elf, shoving him with his shoulder, thus saving the priest from certain death, by taking his place. The hound’s jaws closed on the soldier’s body, the unfortunate man uttered a dying cry, and his life was transferred to the monster. However, the amount of life points replenished in this way was negligible, and the elf, taking advantage of the fact that the hound remain immobile while absorbing the enemy, unleashed a flurry of blows with his mace on him. The creature managed to separate itself from the man’s withered body and even stuck its sword-shaped tail into the priest’s chest, but the priest with a fortuitous blow depleted the monster’s health bar, and the hound began to crumble, turning into a black haze.

The elf’s life bar was almost empty, and his hateful gaze was now staring at me.

— He will be cured now! — A thought pounded in my head.

I couldn’t wait any longer, so I pointed my finger at him and holler:

— Your soul is mine! Uh... I wanted to say: to Mor! Now your soul belongs to Mor!

From my hand that was pointing at the priest, came out a black beam, striking him just in the place where a little earlier the hound’s tail had stuck. For an instant, the elf was engulfed by a gloomy glow, which gradually turned into deathly pale light and quickly disappeared. I noticed that the large amulet on his neck, which glowed brightly throughout the battle, was now extinguished. Only the two of us were left on the road next to the cart.

Chapter 9

Looking sideways, I read a message popping up in the corner of my vision:"Attention! You have successfully cast the Sacrificial Curse of Mor spell, your victim has been deprived of magic for two hours. If at the end of this time you do not sacrificed her to Mor, the curse will turn against you." It turned out that there was a lot more text in this quirky log window, mostly system reports about the battle I’ve witnessed, which I didn’t pay attention to at the time.

— Scoundrel! — exclaimed the priest, panting. He was covered in blood from head to toe, and his cloak looked more like a tattered rag than a piece of equipment. — Did you set these undead on us?

— Not at all, — I shook my head vigorously, — I was just passing by here and ended up in the wrong place at a very inappropriate time.

— You’re lying! — shouted the elf in response, — I can feel the power of this god of yours in your mantle! The words "god of yours" the priest seemed to spit out, and his face was contorted in an ironic grimace.

— Oh Oum! — declared the priest, even without waiting for an answer from me, — Punish this wretch who dares to rebel against you! Incinerate him with your light! Let the flame of your rays burn out the corruption!

The elf extended his shield hand, pointing at me with an open palm. However, nothing happened, and an awkward pause hung in the air. I noticed that a message appeared in the corner of my vision: "Priest of Oum, (level 8) is trying to attack you with the Scorching Ray spell — failure."

— What did you do?! — shouted the elf with an expression of absolute bewilderment on his face, which was turning into horror, — This is impossible! How did you do it?!

— So... I already told you... — this was very embarrassed for me — your soul and all of that...

— Scum! — uttering an insult, the priest rushed at me waving his mace.

Looks like he’s completely lost his mind, I thought. However, this was not a reason to be merciful with him... It was easy enough for me to dodge his blow, and I hit him swinging on the head with my staff.

" - Priest of Oum, (level 8) attacks. Dodge — success.

— You attack the priest of Oum, (level 8). Dodge — failure. Deals 10 damage. Health points of the priest: 8/66."

— Listen! — I still tried to reason with him, — we don’t have to kill each other... Just stop attacking me and calm down! I understand that your whole group died... But I have nothing to do with it! I didn’t touch them, I didn’t send any creatures. Really, I was just passing by here...

Instead of answering, the elf, with a mad cry, attacked me with his weapon and this time he was precise. The mace slammed into my side with force, and I felt and, it seems, even heard my ribs breaking.

" You trying to convince the priest of Oum, (level 8). Persuade — failure.

— Priest of Oum, (level 8) attacks. Dodge — failure. Takes 10 damage. You current health points: 10/20."

That’s a dastard! — my eyes were clouded by the pain, — you’re going to kill me so... Take it!

Screaming, I hit the elf somewhere on the neck with the usual up-and-down motion and stepped aside to let his falling body land.

" - You attack the priest of Oum, (level 8). Dodge — failure. Deals 8 damage. Health points of the priest 0/66. Priest of Oum, (level 8) is defeated. If within two minutes his condition does not stabilized, he will die. Attention! If your opponent receives a treatment that increases his health points above zero, he will recover his senses.

The fight is over. Threat level 7. Attention! You have defeated a weakened opponent, experience gained is reduced by 10 times. Receive 580 Experience Points. Current Experience Points: 1430/3000.

Congratulations! You has reached level 3, you health points have been restored, all existing negative effects have been neutralized. You health points increase, you has obtained new skill points that you can distribute from the character’s statistics window.

Attention! You have leveled up without distributing the initial abilities points. Gain Hardcore 2 achievement: all yours abilities increase by 2, the gods favor those who overcome additional difficulties."

I quickly dispelled the window, re-experiencing this uplifting sensation, accompanied by the sound of fanfare and an instantaneous blackout in my eyes. The pain left me, replaced by euphoria. This time I even felt stronger, nay it seemed to me that I had become bigger, my muscles took on volume, beginning to move under my skin, although this strange sensation of body restructuring quickly ceased. A message appeared before my gaze again, but I immediately made it disappear, barely glancing over it. I have an elf dying here.

"Persuasion 1 activated, skill, class, active, allows you to convince opponents to change their point of view or to act as necessary, using eloquence, facial expressions and other rhetorical techniques."

The elf lay directly in front of me, his face buried in the ground. I sat next to him and turned him over on his back, felt his pulse and examined his wounds. It seemed to me that I should bandage his head, where I had hit him so successfully with my staff, and try to straighten his neck in some way... I had no idea how adjust the vertebrae, and such an operation could definitely kill the priest as well. So I hurried to the cart to look for bandages or something that could serve as such. I threw up the curtain off the wagon and peered inside. There were benches that stretched along the sides, and in the depths a messy pile of all kinds of barrels, boxes, and chests. Under the benches were rucksacks and rolled-up bags, like the ones I had found earlier. I grabbed the first backpack which I got and almost immediately found a roll of cloth suitable for bandages inside.

Jumping out of the cart, I ran towards the elf and began to bandage his head. I hope two minutes have not passed yet, I thought, and immediately a window appeared:

"First aid — success. The patient is stabilized and is no longer dying. However, for its further healing, it needs to be at rest and under the constant care of someone who has the skill of medicine. Receive 10 Experience Points."

Uff, I thought, I didn’t kill him after all.

— Well done, — the already familiar cold voice sounded unexpectedly in my head, — you won, which means it’s time to give me what you promised.

— I wonder how? — I asked in the same way. — Should I stick a ritual knife in his heart? Well, I don’t have one... Or maybe doing something with the staff?

— Everything is much simpler, — it seemed to me that the voice in my head spoke with a slight tinge of sarcasm, — but I like your way of thinking...

This mental conversation took me by surprise, so I still had one hand on the elf’s head. And now a window appeared above it with the text: "Do you want to sacrifice the priest of Oum to Mor? Yes/Not."

I tried to consider my feelings. Did I feel sorry for the elf? No, he was indifferent to me. Did I feel regret, remorse, at least something that would induce me to save this priest’s life, receiving in return the wrath of an undoubtedly powerful entity? No, rather on the contrary, to tell the truth, his words about "this god of yours" did not go out of my mind. He also behaved quite badly during the battle... Very professional, yes, but with all this covering himself behind people. Surprised by my own cynicism and insensitivity, I pushed with my glance at the word "Yes", cautiously jumping back a couple of steps immediately after that. The hell you are! You will not make me tear his guts out or do some other nasty thing like that!

However, nothing particularly terrible happened. Suddenly, solemn, but slightly sad music began to play from nowhere, and darkness began to accumulate on the ground beneath the elf’s body. Spreading under him like ink stains, it gradually took on material characteristics, and from certain places around the priest’s body, out of this very darkness, spikes began to emerge resembling gigantic claws or fangs. They were the same black color and glowed in the lamplight. Grabbing the elf from all sides, they began to drag him into the swirling darkness on the ground, until he completely disappeared there, as if submerged in water. As slowly as they appeared, the blobs of darkness began to fade, until they left only the empty strip of road in place of the elf lying there earlier.

— Thank you, — the voice sounded in my head again, — as gratitude, I will give you some advice: if you are going to enter the settlements, put on that Oum amulet that you carry in your backpack. And if they will make you questions, tell them a lie, like that your master made a bet that you would arrive in Saoellum alone, or that he simply decided to punish you like this... But be very careful with the priests and do not approach near the temples: they will discover you in an instant. Oh... and something else: hide well my amulet and the mantle...

— Are you Mor? — I asked him directly, but the voice did not respond. No matter as much I asked, there was no answer: the entity left or no longer wanted to talk to me.

I was left alone on the road, with a pile of corpses around and a cart full of goods. I didn’t want to stay there at all and, after all, I went back to the tree next to which I left my backpacks. I was wandering in the dark for quite some time, because I hastily put the landmarks some muzzily and now I was having a hard time finding them. Finally I was lucky and almost by chance I came across my tree.

Throwing my backpacks with my staff one by one over the first wide branch, I climbed there, and repeated this maneuver several more times until I was high enough. Then I hung the backpacks on the branches, took out the sleeping bag and, unfolding it on the chosen branch, I lay down on it. Driving the staff in front of me like a spreader, I tried to sleep. I’m going to rummage in that cart tomorrow. And if someone finds it before, well... it will be their problem. I thought that the adrenaline from everything I experienced today would not let me sleep for a long time, but I was wrong: I fell asleep almost immediately, apparently I was already used to the safety of sleeping on top of a tree.

Chapter 10

I was awakened by the bright light of day. I pulled the staff out of the branches, threw my backpacks with the staff down and descended with my usual movements. After completing the morning warm-up, I thought it would be nice to eat something and took the boar leg out of my backpack. The smell it gave off was rather disgusting, so I decided it was rotten. After throwing the leg aside, I quickly ate some bread with the leftover jerky, drank some water, and after collecting everything, I headed for the road.

With the light of day, I quickly reached the site of yesterday’s fight, finding everything the same as I left it yesterday. My fears that someone would trip over the cart turned out to be in vain. First I went to the bodies scattered around and examined them. They looked so withered that if I had not personally witnessed yesterday’s battle, I would have thought that these people had died a long time ago.

After searching his waist bags, I didn’t find any flasks and only picked up a few silver coins. Something had to be done with the bodies. For some reason, I didn’t want to leave them like that, lying on the road, so I decided to bury them. The first thing I did was take off their helmets. Only two of them turned out to be intact, the rest were badly dented or cracked. Then, with some effort, I pulled off their chainmail shirts. None of them were in good condition, they all had cuts from the sharp claws of the hounds. I also took off their belts, gathered the clubs that were thrown around and placed them neatly next to the cart, where I was putting everything else. The pants of all the dead soldiers were almost the same as the ones I was wearing now, and their quality seemed to me too low to make sense in waste time with them. But I took off their shoes and put them in the same pile. After searching their pockets and hastily probed their dry bodies, I didn’t find anything particularly remarkable: a few more coins and a couple of simple rings. I found a leather bag with coins hanging around one’s neck, including some gold ones. The bag also contained a small wooden figure of an animal resembling a dog or wolf.

After removing all the amulets, similar to the one I had in one of my backpacks, I tossed them into one of their helmets, lined the bodies up, and returned to the cart. In one of the backpacks I already managed to rummage through yesterday when I was looking for bandages for the elf, now I randomly picked up another and looked at what was in it. As expected, the content turned out to be very similar: the usual things put together in order to make life easier on a trip. I was interested in food, and found very little. Well, I’ll pick this up before leaving, I decided, and got deeper into the van.

In those barrels where I could look, there were some kind of grain and vegetables, in some there was clearly guessed something liquid. In the boxes I found bundles of cloth, and in one of them various garments, which made me very happy. Most of the chests were closed, and of the two that I was able to open, one was filled with silver coins and the other, with different pieces of jewelry. The chests weren’t even half full, but there were plenty of coins, rings, and necklaces.

This did not interest me much, I had no reason to steal the cart, so I went back to the boxes with clothes and began to undress. Digging through, I was able to find underwear, which I gladly put on. I found several underpants, similar to knitted stockings, which after turning a bit between my hands I decided not to wear. But there were a lot of different shirts, albeit in very strange styles, which I thought for some reason. In the end, I chose a thin white shirt made of some material that looked like silk and put it on. I found it the strongest and thinnest, plus it had a second layer sewn in strategic places more prone to wear. Going through almost all the boxes with clothes, I finally found something akin to thick wool socks. Very uncomfortable, but there were no others. It seems that here those peculiar underpants that I found earlier replaced here the use of this garment. There were also pants in the boxes, but quite plain, made of cloth. My trophy pants, as well as those worn by the guards, seemed much more suitable for traveling. From the outerwear I found several light jackets and windbreakers, and here I stopped to think about it, so much so that I even sat on one of the benches, looking at the heap of clothes scattered around. I couldn’t find chain mail or any other protective gear, so I was thinking about wearing the one that was less torn of those that the soldiers wore, and immediately realized that wearing a chain mail over that thin shirt I chose would be silly. Reasoning like this, I once again examined the jackets I found and chose the lightest, rather simple one, of a rough fabric similar to burlap. It seemed to me that this one was breathable enough and that it will protect well from the friction of the metallic parts of the chain mail. After making my choice, I put aside one of the hooded capes, gray in color, because I couldn’t find a darker one, and started putting everything back into the boxes, folding the pieces carefully, trying to put it all same as before.

It took me quite a long time, so when I finally got out dressed, I sat on the side of the cart to rest for a while and even drank water from the skin. Among the barrels, I found some tools: a saw, a shovel, and even a pickaxe, so now I armed myself with the shovel and decided to take care of the bodies. Thinking that I would probably sweat on, I stripped to the waist and walked over to the corpses that I lined up nearby.

After measuring the bodies with the handle of the shovel, I stepped away a few meters from the road; I found a flat place for the graves so that it could not be seen from the road, and began to dig. I dug shallow holes, and there was no need to dig them much, because the consumed bodies were significantly decreased in size. A few hours later I finished seven graves, one next to the other. Then one by one, I began to drag the bodies of the guards and bury them. It was already getting dark when I finally reached the captain, whose chewed body lay in a pool of blood, which why I left him for last.

In front of the cart was also lay the withered body of the horse, and next to it I saw another corpse. It was a very young boy, apparently the coachy. He was lying a little further away from the horse’s body, and his head was unnaturally twisted. It was obvious that he fell and broke his neck. Spitting out in frustration, I dragged him to the graves, and had to dig another one for this poor fellow. Besides his simple clothes and Oum’s amulet around his neck, he had nothing else. Finally, I returned to the captain’s remains. I didn’t want to search his body, it was evident that his armor was no longer useful. I simply unbuckled his belt with a sword and took off his boots, which were of almost the same quality as mine, for I feel did not right burying something that could be easily recovered. His pants were also of better quality than those of the guards, but it was getting very dark already, I was tired and I really didn’t want to complicate it more, so I just grabbed the body by the legs and dragged him to his grave.

Already preparing to push the body into the hole, I suddenly realized that I did not make it wide enough, so I had to take up the shovel again, expand and deepen the grave until it seemed acceptable to me. I finally buried him and tamped down the resulting small mounds. It was almost dark now, I returned to the cart, put the shovel where I took it from, untied my ax from my backpack and went back into the forest. After wandering around in increasing twilight, I cut down some suitable branches, remembering where there were large stone boulders that I could make out. I carried the branches where the graves were, left my ax there, and then I brought eight stones one by one: six more or less the same, one larger and one smaller, and placed them at the head of the graves. Then I went back to the cart, took a coil of rope and a knife from one of the guards’ backpacks, and went to the graves for the last time. Using the ax, I made a kind of crosses from the branches, tying the crossbars with pieces of rope, and stuck these crosses as deep into the ground as I could, next to the stones. I don’t know why, but it seemed me like the right thing to do. Taking out of my pants pocket the canteen, which I picked up in advance from my backpack, I sipped a drink of wine, satisfactorily examining the results of my work. My hands were shaking from the strenuous work, and I even had a couple of calluses, but I was pleased. Although if at that moment someone asked me why, I would hardly know how to answer.

— Well, — I said addressing to the graves, — I do not know your traditions, nor if I am doing the right thing to bury you like this... but you were brave warriors and you died in a battle. Or maybe you weren’t brave... how am I to know. However, now you have gone to the another world, so rest in peace. It seems that here you have Mor for some kind of god of death, for skeletons and all of that, well, let he make sure that you reach your destination safely! So... have a nice trip!

I took another sip, screwed on the canteen, put it in my pocket, grabbed the ax, knife, and the rest of the rope, and stomped to the wagon. For a moment, I seemed to see an image of empty eye sockets outlined in each of crosses I made. But it was already very dark and I did not pay much importance to this.

Returning to the cart, already with the help of my dark vision, I gathered the food that was in those six backpacks and sat on the edge of the van to eat something. My muscles aches from fatigue, it seems to me that I overestimated myself a bit, so the idea of going back to climbing a tree again caused me dislike. I decided to spend the night in the van. Suddenly, a window popped up before my eyes: "You has buried the bodies of eight deceased humans, entrusting their souls to Mor. Your ritual was received favorably and has received a response. You get 450 experience points." How curious, I thought, grinned, got up, shook off the crumbs and began to pick up the stuff what I had scattered around to put it inside the wagon.

Placing everything neatly near the pile of boxes, I dragged some barrels that seemed heavier to the exit to block it, put my sleeping bag on one of the benches, lay down in it, and fell asleep almost immediately.