Vampires were dangerous non-living creatures. The vampire"s greatest strength was his mind. The vampire lived long, hundreds of years. He acc.u.mulated experience and knowledge about his place of residence. The vampire"s power was to have a reliable link to its followers. The head of the clan could count on the absolute loyalty of his children. Vampires had their own special measure of counting, they respected the number 6.

The small clan had a head and six followers. The middle clan had thirteen vampires. The big clan had nineteen vampires. Vampires were not afraid of sunlight but did not like daylight. The light increased bloodl.u.s.t and made them eat more. An ordinary vampire needed no more than one quart (1.136 liters) of blood per month. The vampire"s main weapon was their fangs and their mastery of the short blade. Vampires used daggers, they carried swords but did not respect sword fights. Vampires respected intrigues. Solving cases with weapons was the most primitive way to solve issues and problems. When bitten, the vampire could paralyze the victim with his spit. Also, the vampire"s saliva was like a drug, it anesthetized the bite site and plunged the victim into a state of euphoria.

The vampire"s main weakness was his pride. A vampire would never give up the opportunity to have a one-on-one fight. In the case of victory, the vampire received recognition and honor, and no one wanted to share eternal glory. Vampires had a well-developed ability to be invisible. Only years of training and skill use made vampires the best killers in the world. The first strike was always behind the vampire.

Dan was sitting by the fireplace thinking about his chances. He had a good chance of defeating a vampire. He remembered the big pile of bones at the cemetery, and they were bloodsuckers" bones. The dead fought the vampires on equal terms. Dan knew that every creature in this world had its own protector. He didn"t know the name of the vampire protector, but the dead and vampires were deadly blood enemies.

In light of new information, it was unprofitable to engage in a vampire clan. The third stage of the quest for the army of the dead promised a reward of 100 points of Glory and it was already a solid prize. The sinner had to deliver 30 alive or 50 undead bodies to the cemetery. Dan had almost destroyed the harpies in the nest, but there were still a few flying creatures left. There were few vampires, 19 vampires are the maximum number. But the vampires had servants! But the servants were normal living people. Dan didn"t want to kill people. Everybody has their own destiny and no one"s easy. He has no right to kill people, even if they chose to serve the eternal bloodsuckers.

The bloodsuckers had their place in this world. The cities were populated by exiles from clans. They worked together with other creatures. Ordinary vampires visited the cities to eat, but they knew the measure and did not seek to cause trouble with their thirst. Ordinary drug dealers and unusual creatures those were once created by a G.o.d, and left to exist and multiply in this world.

Dan decided to do something simple and in the measure of his curiosity. He"ll clean out the harpies" nest and meet the vampires. One blow of the dagger he will survive, and then he will apply "Autodafe" and deprive the enemy of invisibility and maneuver. It"s a good thing that Invisibility was common, not a fighting skill. His level of "Autodafe" could only weaken the combat skill, Kate could completely deprive the enemy of the main advantage.

If the operation is successful, Dan will take a good look at the enemy"s lair and look for stashes. The skills of "See the hidden" 7 [Pa.s.sive] and "Eye of Wisdom" 4 [Pa.s.sive] were very difficult to develop. A redhead cracker could spend time in town and climb the houses of the rich, which gave him experience and skill development. Nick didn"t even steal stuff! He didn"t want to mess with Guild. He just hacked into stashes and defused traps. Sometimes he"d spend time researching interesting information, but he wouldn"t touch the archives of the old Dor families. He never touched any unique artifacts, but the clan already had accurate information about the location of interesting artifacts.

The sinner"s reflection was interrupted by Jane, who immediately received a message from him about a new addition to the pages of the clan chronicle. The girl came to him on business. She had already trained all the members of the clan to cast the "Feather" spell. Her skill "The Teacher" was difficult to develop. She needed to teach a hundred members a new skill, but those hundred members had to fully develop that skill. It was only then that Jane could gain a new level of "Teacher" skill. The skill of weight relief was enthusiastically received by the players. Inventories were endless. But the weight of the contents restricted the player. Now, Jane was teaching the two most important spells. The hunters immediately chose increased physical protection and treatment. Galatea players also recognized the usefulness of these spells, but with great success developed the "Speeding up" from the Air Magic spell. Applying the skill looked fun, and the player could increase movement speed for a few seconds. Developing the skill to level 10 allowed the player to speed up 100% within 10 seconds. It was interesting for urban players to run away from danger and increase their movement speed at home in time.

Jane was relentless and strict in her training. Until the player developed a new skill to level 10, she did not teach the student new abilities. Everyone understood the need for such a solution. Jane could not learn by herself and give other players Cla.s.s and Combat skills. She could only learn simple spells and Improved Skills.

Dan was primarily interested in speeding up. He learned "Speeding up" on the first try.

"You"re good, watching your intellect. I won"t say who, but there is a couple of strong players with 25-point intellect. They couldn"t learn a simple spell for days," smiled Jane.

"Specialty helps," said the librarian.

"You didn"t spend any character points on intellectual development?"

"I don"t remember exactly, but I didn"t spend more than ten points on intellect," confessed Dan.

"I"m sure that if you raise all the character points to 100, the game will reward you with a new achievement. Think about it. Good luck with the vampires. If you find any interesting books, give me a heads up," said Jane.

Dan promised to be careful and read the new spell. Spending 12 mana allowed for a second to speed up by 10%. He grinned. He"ll have something to do on his way to the harpies" nest. At first, the spell was easy to develop, but it had a positive effect and couldn"t be used on an already strengthened character. Dan brought the spell"s image into the corner of his field of vision to control its activation. He thought that gradually they all turn into players who have before their eyes constantly hanging all sorts of pictures and gameplay values.

*

He came to the harpies" nest in the morning. Large hills became more common in this part of the forest. The harpies" nest was in a hill cave. Two guards were sitting at the cave entrance. Ordinary harpy, level 35, 26000 HP.

"Thirty fallen women for a dead man"s lunch. Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum," the sinner blurted out and called the first harpy to battle.

While she was flying to him, he applied the skill to the second harpy and met the first harpy with a sword.

[You caused 7800 damage]

[You caused 7300 damage]

[You took 140 damage]

[You took 210 damage]

[You took 170 damage]

[You took 220 damage]

[You took 160 damage]

[You took 110 damage]

[You took 170 damage]

[You took 200 damage]

p.u.s.s.y jumped one harpy to the ground and grabbed her opponent with the death grip of her mouth. Dan managed to get a few punches of feathers of two harpies but was able to successfully finish his opponent. The skill of the "Hammer of Witches" was simple, the skill did not require attention. The other skills the sinner activated with the voice command. And his fights began to resemble the performance of the master of patterned, he constantly and instinctively repeated the learned ligaments of the teams.

The sinner did not waste time collecting trophies and immediately ran to the cave entrance. Winged monsters are excellent rivals in some cases. They have large lairs with large aisles. Dan saw a new opponent. Another beauty with a short haircut swung her wings and sent some dangerous feathers in his direction. Dan"s armor was perfectly fine, and he was taking little damage. As he reached the den of the harpy, he managed to pump the "Speed up" to level 8. Eight seconds is a lot when it comes to fighting monsters. Dan tried to keep moving under the speedup and catch up with enemies as fast as possible. Hitting a two-handed sword always interrupted the enemy for a moment, this dangerous weapon had its advantages. Fighting was quick and Dan interrupted his run through the dungeon when he saw a message that made him very happy.

*

[Warning! Harpy Nest location detected. Location type: Dungeon.

Attention! A temporary rebirth point has been detected.

Do you wish to make a binding? Yes/No]

*

"This is just some kind of holiday! p.u.s.s.y, we won a prize," laughed Dan.

Now he was confident that he would soon gain much experience and Glory. A hundred to two hundred harpies were waiting for him in the dungeon. In the finale he will have a fight with a new monster, even in the dungeon itself can meet new types of a harpy. This was great news for the player, who took into account every pa.s.sed dungeon.

Dan made the binding and entered the dungeon.

He did not like the high ceilings of the wide corridor. Airstrikes will be inevitable. Dan only killed seven harpies and didn"t want to return to the cemetery with valuable cargo. He figured he"d kill 23 more enemies first and then leave the dungeon. In the cemetery, he"ll get a new a.s.signment. The reward promised to be just great, 200 Glory for killing 60 opponents! The sinner smiled, updated his performance and went ahead.

The dungeon dwellers disappointed him. He met no underground harpies. Ordinary beauties who liked to hide on small balconies at the ceiling itself and look for prey. They could look out all they wanted. But the beginning of the attack well-demonstrated the swing of big wings, and the sinner immediately applied "Autodafe" and ran back. He constantly moved, used speedup to protect the durability of his armor.

A couple of predators were doing well. An hour later, Dan killed the last harpy and decided to go back to the cemetery. He kept expecting a nasty surprise from the game. But to his joy, nothing unexpected happened. The sinner walked through the dungeon, collected trophies from the bodies of the harpy and put the corpses in a big sack. The sack was made by Emma. The artifact looked disgusting and creepy. The mistress knew in advance for what purpose the sinner needed the thing. A smile disappeared from her face, and she asked Dan again:

"Do you need a dead body sack?"

"Emma, this is on a mission! I don"t kill people! It"s not a body sack, but the bodies of dead monsters. I want to start a vampire hunt. It"s just a secret. You don"t tell anybody. You know, vampires are vengeful and you can"t expect anything good from them," Dan told his version.

"A sack to carry the bodies of monsters is normal.

Okay, I"ll do you one of those things. It"s okay to kill vampires. But why do you need their bodies?"

"Emma, there"s a business there, it"s a little secret, I got an a.s.signment from dead hunters I know. They want vampire bodies. They"ve got their own special conflicts there."

"You"re insane. Your dealings with dead hunters aren"t going to do any good!"

The sack of thin leather looked creepy. It was called scary.

*

The sack for carrying dead monsters.

Type: unique. Linked to Dan"s character

Capacity: 500 pounds (226.8 kg)

Durability: 1472

Weight: 1 pound (453.59 g)

Attention! The artifact allows only monster bodies to be carried.

The weight of monster bodies has been reduced by 20%.

*

With such an artifact, the execution of a strange quest became a pleasant walk to the habitat of reasonable creatures and back to the cemetery.

Dan was collecting trophies and harpies.

Sometimes he"d come across rare daggers, a few silver coins and a set of feathers. Harpy feathers were Emma"s material. She was already satisfied with the sinner"s work and even promised to make him a rare sack to carry normal trophies. The Ranger had a unique sack for trophies and goods. Making such an artifact again was not easy. But the rare bag also allowed reducing the weight by 10%, which was a good help in the game.

Dan made it to the cemetery in a day. p.u.s.s.y kept upping with him, but she didn"t like the rush. Now the cat didn"t have time to hunt animals.

The sinner was looking forward to future triumphs and improvements. He laid out the corpses of harpies at the foot of the pyramid and saw the long-awaited message.

*

[Congratulations! You have successfully completed the quest "Brotherhood of Arms". Quest results: Live 30/30 or Not Live 0/50 Reward: 100 Points of Glory]

*

He stood and waited to continue. After a minute of waiting, Draugr quietly scolded on the tongue of the living and left the cemetery. It seemed to him that dead warriors were murmuring silently at the failure of his plans to gain a huge reputation.

Dan ran to the witch"s house and decided to rest. In the house, he could cook a hot meal. He gave the cat a mission, and she went hunting. She did not like to eat fried meat, spices and dishes of dwarves led her to frenzy, the master recently stupid in front of her eyes and turned into an unbearable child. Why run so fast from place to place? She didn"t understand that. But she liked the idea of going to distant places to explore. They would move slowly again, so she could hunt new animals easily.

Dan was thinking about Jane"s idea. He liked the idea of having at least 100 points in each characteristic. The character"s harmonious development had its charm. He"ll always get new tasks from the dead to raise his spirits. The player shared a large stock of reputation and improved dexterity and intellect. He was able to become an Adept of Dexterity. But his intellect could only be raised to 83. He left 12 points of Glory in reserve to activate his transformation into a Draugr.

The Dead Quest has not been renewed. But Dan had already calmed down. All ahead of him. These guys in the cemetery are bound to need new food. There are a lot of zombies in the cemetery. The army of the dead has its own order and methods of organization. Even if they offer him to re-enter every step of the quest, it"ll be great. He"s not going into the harpy dungeon right now. He"ll visit it when he gets a new a.s.signment from the dead. But he"ll take care of the vampires. The player already knew that dungeon monsters aren"t real vampires, they"re game monsters. And real vampires are special creatures. It will be interesting and educational to test his skills against such opponents.

Dan waited for the cat to return with his prey, fried the meat, and had dinner. Then, he decided to sleep in normal conditions. No memory of the unpleasant events in the house disturbed him anymore.

Dan and Nick were more worried that their dreams had changed. When the players got Level 40, they were less likely to have nightmares related to their past lives. Dan, at Nick"s request, noticed these changes. Now he knew for sure that on level 50, the dreams were almost gone. And he felt like he was forgetting information about Earth. The knowledge of the old world was becoming more and more fragmented and faded images. Players made the a.s.sumption that the game makes them forget about the past, so they become special locals of the world Anyhorr.