The masks in the guys were simple, they did not cause any negative emotions and had no additional effects.

The guys ran towards the ancient city. The road to Galatea had already disappeared, it had become a small path. The guys ran fast, the area near the castle was familiar to them.

They stopped and rested several times. It was time to get a better look at the young werewolves.

The new pets were almost the same as regular wolves.

The pets had bigger muzzles and their fur was almost black.

The guys didn"t have to worry. The cat and werewolves wouldn"t pay attention to each other. The guys thought they weren"t going to get along.

When they reached the ruins of Galatea, they made a stop and ate.

Then the scouts started looking for a temporary rebirth point. John found it, and the group made a binding. The point was in a dangerous place. It was a building with only one floor left. The street on which the ruins of this house were located was the first street for the attack of the group.

Then a familiar part of a new life began.

Scouts and warriors killed skeletons and zombies quickly, even without the help of "Autodafe". Dan didn"t interfere in their fight, he destroyed the banshees.

The pets were very good. p.u.s.s.y was supporting her master. When Alexander saw the cat destroy the skeleton in several blows, he finally confirmed his desire to have a pet.

The city was unpleasant only with the view of the ruins. It was comfortable and almost safe to kill monsters in it. The street was a few steps wide. It had enough s.p.a.ce to meet two or three skeletons and not to be afraid of the enemy attacking from behind. The guys were just showering off their advanced monster-killing skills! They were making a lot of noise, hitting skeletal bones all over the place. But they didn"t meet a dangerous opponent.

Dan saw for the first time that on level 19, the hunter had a full advantage in the battle over a monster of equal level. Despite all the talk about how important it is to develop your character equally and harmoniously, Damagers remained Damagers. 50 prize points all divided between strength and Endurance. Damage and life, hit and survive. The scouts raised their dexterity a little, but it wasn"t a priority for them.

The new weapon of the sinner"s trophy was also important.

Alexander had chosen a unique vampire sword. The sword was unique in that it was completely untypical for this undead creature. The vampires were armed with daggers and short swords. Swords were narrow and resembled enlarged short swords. All bloodsucker weapons had the effect of vampirism and turned some of the damage into points of life to restore health. Alexander chose a strange sword that was larger than a normal vampire sword and looked stronger. The blade curved slightly and expanded to the blade"s sword head. The sword was unique, with a vampire effect and an effect on increasing damage. The warrior really liked it. The scouts had a richer choice. This was simple. They chose unique daggers with the greatest amount of damage.

Dan looked at the group"s work and immediately admitted that they didn"t visit the city for nothing.

In the city, the players spent almost all their money but bought a couple of skills that they liked. The most unpleasant discovery was that all the local skills were spending mana! All the races in the world were magical creatures, all the inhabitants had mana. But according to Nick"s story, they had little mana and it didn"t depend on the intellect and mind of the locals. As they grew older, the mana number increased slightly. But the local monster hunters treated their skills as a gift from the G.o.ds. Skills were a means of last resort. It helped in the most unpleasant situations.

The locals did not have any kind of status, they had no characteristics, but experienced hunters and mages felt their mana reserve well. Potions that increased mana regeneration were the most popular alchemists" products.

For players, it was easier. They could clearly see their mana supply and operate more freely with their skills. Alexander was able to buy the two easiest and most necessary skills, to increase physical damage and to temporarily increase defense. The scouts were richer and bought special skills for their cla.s.ses. No one wanted to increase their intelligence and spirit.

Dan took a close look at the battle of the warrior and the scouts. He quickly realized that without Tarrok"s help and in his normal form he was even worse than they were in battle. The warrior was on his way! He knocked down the skeletons and took several blows. John showed cla.s.s as well, the movement of his hands was impossible to keep track of! The a.s.sa.s.sin was no longer using the "hit and run" tactics. Skeletons and zombies flew bones and pieces of corpses to the side. Nick stood in the back and provided support.

The scout bought a good bow in the city, a little better than the usual bow of the hunter, and now killed the enemy. The scout hadn"t missed in a very long time, and he was always making good shots. In the guild of murderers, he was offered to buy nice little crossbows, a real killer"s weapon. But Nick refused to buy them. He had his own development plans. The arrows were cheaper than crossbow bolts and they were made in the village by a master carpenter. The arrowheads were made by Turin. Nick had no problem with the ammunition.

They were moving towards the center of town and soon found the crossroads. That"s where they had to stay. They cleaned out the pa.s.ses and started moving forward. And at that moment, Galatea was no longer a place for easy experience.

Archers and skeleton scouts appeared on the street! Undead levels went up to 18-20.

The story of Dan"s adventures gave good information. Now they had slowed down and Dan began to actively use the skill of "Autodafe". In doing so, he called in several skeletons with swords and spears at once. The group would attack the bone warriors and destroy the enemy. Now players began to take losses. First of all suffered armor. Health did not worry about the players, the weapons helped to restore health.

"I don"t like it," said Alexander. "We slowed down. I suggest we go back and clear two streets near our main attack direction."

"I agree we"re wasting time," nodded Nick.

The guys turned around and left for the suburbs. They decided to keep the place as secure as possible with a rebirth point. It turned out that even the banshees didn"t fly freely, the creatures had their own route. The banshees were guarding in certain areas. It was comfortable for the players.

Alexander was the first to take level 20. Then the scouts caught up with him, too. They got a message about a possible transformation of their cla.s.ses.

The guys shook hands with each other and decided to go back to the castle. Unlike Sinner, who immediately learned his new skills, normal players had to visit the Cla.s.s Choice room.

Dan surprised everyone with his decision. He did not want to go back to the castle with them!

"Guys, why am I wasting my time? I"m not really of any interest to the dead without activating the Draugr skill. You saw it yourself! They even slow down when I get there, I guess something breaks in the rest of their brains when they feel me around.

I"ll be careful! No dives in the new location! I"ll start searching for the bas.e.m.e.nts of the houses and looking for stashes. I need to develop the skill of "See the hidden". There"s one more important moment. n.o.body"s going to give me quests, but the game itself can give me a quest! She didn"t kill me for interfering in the game process. I"ve even got the performance points. Don"t worry about me. I promise I"ll stay out of the city center. I"ve got enough work to do. I"ve seen very strange symbols in some rooms. Go to the castle and we"ll keep in touch on the group channel."

"There"s something about it, I don"t see the problem," agreed Nick. "If you don"t find them on your own head."

"We"ll go and get a pet for Alexander," said John. "Don"t stick your nose in the new traps, brother!"

"We"ll leave you our food supplies," nodded the warrior"s head.

Three lucky players ran back to the castle, no matter how tired they were.

Dan smiled, rubbed his hands in antic.i.p.ation, and began his work as a librarian who loves to look for other people"s hiding places.

Galatea was full of surprises. The sinner wouldn"t let his notebook out of his hands. Most buildings had no ceiling. There were broken pieces of large wood and rocks on the floor. But the walls were standing. And these walls were often decorated with bas-reliefs and inscriptions in local languages. These inscriptions were Dan"s main prey. He wrote down the information carefully. In front of him, page by page was the history of this world.

And it was a strange story with an unhappy ending.

Sometimes Dan would find stashes, collect trophies and enjoy particularly unusual finds. He was delighted at the rich choice of costume jewelry. This part of town was close to the center of Galatea, in the hiding places, there were precious stones, jewelry, even bottles of wine! Dan was rowing all over the place. Now his load capacity had increased, he hadn"t spared any points to increase his strength.

The question of developing his character caused a good debate in the clan.

Dan refused to increase his spirit. He stood strong on that. He even said he"d refuse any spirit boost from costume jewelers and artifacts. He was afraid of the possibility of becoming a strange monster.

The guys said it was his development, his game and his personal business, but it"s ridiculous!

He remained a player in the Spirit"s path. And his damage and abilities depend on the spirit"s development.

"Decide as you like, Dan, but it"s wrong to leave a point of characteristics in reserve at this phase of the game. On the other hand, having a reserve for emergencies is a great solution. We"re the ones who play carefully and calmly. You"re the master of getting into extreme situations," laughed Nick.

"Normal dark paladin," agreed Alexander.

"Your dexterity upset me, but you"ve got p.u.s.s.y," said John and turned to the cat. "Thank you, beautiful, I hope for a new lesson from you, Master p.u.s.s.y."

And he bowed to the cat. This man never lost the opportunity to find new exercises to develop characteristics. "Catching a cat" was a great way to increase dexterity. The game probably had a lot of fun watching the a.s.sa.s.sin attempt to catch a clever and large animal. Even Invisibility didn"t always help the a.s.sa.s.sin. p.u.s.s.y could feel it perfectly well with her great sniff! In an hour of running and tumbling in a small hall, the scout got +1 dexterity. p.u.s.s.y got nothing but another portion of yummy from the kitchen. The cat liked Velida very much, the dwarf woman was not afraid of this animal at all.

There was also an important experiment to test the influence of Undead"s condition on the local people. Turin was told about Dan"s new side and warned that he had become an unusual living person. The dwarf frowned and quarreled in his own language for a long time. Then he said he wouldn"t kill the fool right away, first looking at him carefully.

The whole clan, except for Velida, was watching the experiment. It was morning, and Dan was in his strange "alive dead" status.

Turin met him silently and stopped him by moving his hand. Then he frowned and said:

"You"ve changed. You"ve become worse than the Inquisitor. I used to hate being around you, but it was a strange feeling, I just understood. That I couldn"t deal with you. Now I understand that you"re dangerous. I don"t know what you"re dangerous about, but it"s like meeting a city vampire. Yeah, it feels like you"re the same. It"s a shame you don"t love yourself so much, Master Dan."

"I"m sorry to have caused you and Velida more trouble. I won"t have breakfast with you and be seen in the morning. It"s only until noon I"m so insane."

"You"ve been hiding from me for nothing. And thank you for... For taking care of my wife. I"ll tell you what"s important. I immediately noticed that our Inquisitor has changed. He is now a more pleasant man, but there is no desire to deal with him."

So they decided Dan wouldn"t have breakfast with everyone, but he was ordered to have lunch and dinner at the common table.

"Don"t hide from us! That"s an order! You must hang on to your humanity, you must not lose touch with us," said Alexander briefly and cruelly.

Dan was remembering that conversation with a smile. He never understood whether he wanted it or not?

It was a pleasure to be with these people. He clearly felt that these people had no foolish hope of a happy return to a past life. The fact that they all turned out to be Dan"s criminals didn"t scare him. It was at the common table that Nick wouldn"t tell everyone what they"d done. But then, when they were working with the trophies, Nick told Dan a short story about Alexander"s crime. He wouldn"t hide his sins either.

"A cop. Killed a few times. Self-defense. Undercover work," he grinned sadly. "To destroy a gang, you have to lead another gang. I"m really in trouble. I"m sorry about that. But I"m responsible for the death of innocents."

They decided not to worry about John, let him remain a mysterious criminal. He blended in very well with this life.

The main thing that the guys decided at the meeting was to stick to the roots, to make the fight against monsters the main objective of their development. Who knows what the reward will be for fulfilling the basic mandatory quest? They"ll do the job, do it well. And the only people they"ll accept into the clan... Who are ready to kill monsters and really want to kill monsters?

Dan was looking at his status. He was a good novice hunter, even though he turned out to be a scampish sinner.

*

Name: Dan.

Cla.s.s: Sinner

Subcla.s.s: Librarian

Race: Human / Undead, the form of Draugr.

Level: 21

Experience: 2858000/3360000

Strength 80 [71 +3 +2 +4]

Intellect 47 [33 +2 +3 +2 +7] [MP 320]

Dexterity 32 [24 +3 +2 +3]

Spirit 78 [69 +3 +3 +2]

Endurance 80 [HP 8000]

Protection: 680

Luck 5 [Pa.s.sive]

"See the hidden" 5 [Pa.s.sive]

"Dungeon Explorer" 2 [Pa.s.sive]

"Self-control" 10 [Pa.s.sive]

"Psychoprotection" 5 [Pa.s.sive]

"Resistance to Cold" 2 [Pa.s.sive]

"Resistance to Fire" 1 [Pa.s.sive]

Improved skills:

"The Cognition of Evil" [8/10]

"Calligraphy" [8/10]

"The Perfect Nature of Evil" [0/10]

"Evil Affinity" [1/10]

"Cannibalism" [0/10]

Cla.s.s skills:

"Autodafe" [10/10]

"Spiritual power" [10/10]

"Tough Will" [10/10]

"Fallen" [0/10]

"Expert in Anatomy" 1/10

"Angry" [0/10]

"Ancient Languages" [10/10]

"Master of the Puzzles" [10/10]

Combat skills:

"Punishment" [10/10]

"Chains of sins" [0/10]

"Burnt wings" [1/10]

Extra cla.s.s skill:

"Horrible transformation" [10/10]

Available with 27 points characteristics and 4 points skills.

*

The new skills have made a big impression on everyone.

The transformation of the cla.s.s was the real transformation of the player. Dan often used the skill of "Burnt wings".

His figure grew slightly in size and big black and burning wings opened behind his back. A terrible fallen angel who could wave his wings and then all enemies would start to burn with magic flames.

Dan had a new stripe in his player status. It showed the number of Fury. The Fury was growing from confrontation with monsters, the strip was filling up pretty quickly, with 8000 Fury points.

When everyone realized the magic flame wasn"t harming allies, Dan began to use the skill constantly. He didn"t want to waste skill points on it. He didn"t want to actively develop his sinner skills at all. He"d live a great life without being invincible.

The fire did little damage, but it was a dangerous weapon. The undead did not reply to the attack! It just burned and lost its life. The radius of the skill was equal to the radius of "Autodafe" skill. Not that far. Not much damage, but everyone understood that the Sinner"s perspective was excellent. The skill required no mana, had no Cooldown. If taken to full development and 100 spirits, the ability to deal with 1000 damage seemed to be a very attractive and useful way to destroy monsters.

Dan bravely tested the "Evil Affinity" skill. He came close to the dead and soon calmed down. He didn"t even have to turn into Draugr to be a great spy among the dead.

The most unexpected was the skill of "Expert in Anatomy". Dan told everyone what he saw on enemy corpses as a weakness zone. And that tempts him to hit and take critical damage! He doesn"t want to hit the weak places! The skill development increases his Spirit! But he can"t control himself in battle! His hands themselves. .h.i.t monsters" weak places, and he feels great pleasure in knowing that he is causing critical damage. And he is quicker to kill monsters. When he got Level 1 skill, he was scared. But he discovered soon that the spirit increased temporarily, only during combat. That"s when Dan relaxed and enjoyed using "Expert in Anatomy".

John got upset and said loudly:

"You stole all the best skills from all cla.s.ses! That"s the main ability of an a.s.sa.s.sin. I"m not happy with you, brother. As a thief, you should increase your skill to open other people"s hiding places, not steal skills from your friends! Shame on you."

Everybody laughed and threw their fists at Dan.

Alexander seriously offered him a taste of the piece cut off from the zombie.

Everybody shut up in a moment. The warrior rubbed his bald head and said that zombies are unpleasant opponents and "Cannibalism" is beyond human behavior. But a piece of zombie is not a piece of human meat. If their friend became a sinner, he should be a responsible sinner. It"s normal to eat his new relatives on condition.

Everybody kept quiet. Dan didn"t understand whether the warrior was taunting him or seriously suggesting he taste zombie flesh? He looked Alexander in the eye. The blue eyes were mockingly and strictly looking at him. "What, rookie? You don"t have the b.a.l.l.s? Go home to Mommy!" Dan spit on the ground. They just killed another zombie and the warrior took the opportunity to test Dan. The sinner bent over and took a piece of the zombie. Took it to his face, smelled it, curled up disgusted, and bite off a piece. He chewed and looked at the players" faces.

Players froze and waited for a reaction.

Dan swallowed some disgusting tastes of zombie meat and honestly confessed:

"Like rotten rubber. It"s disgusting. I didn"t get any messages. I"m not going to eat that disgusting thing," said Dan.

Then he threw the disgusting piece aside and took out of his inventory a handkerchief. Wiped his hands and added a few words:

"I"m not going to eat this c.r.a.p all the time. But one piece of zombie can be taken every day. But I don"t recommend it to you, it tastes very unpleasant. But I don"t feel sick. Now I have to wash my mouth well to get rid of the taste of this c.r.a.p."

"Now I know you"re a monster, brother," whispered John. "I"m in the good sense of the word. You"re cool!"

Dan knew that his real power was his librarian skills. He understood the world more and more. His knowledge was growing, and Dan was even beginning to be afraid of that knowledge. He kept a lot of it a secret for now. A new clan, new connections with trusted partners, that"s great. But everyone has secrets.

His knowledge was a dangerous weapon. And Dan knew that the moment would come when he would use the new weapon. All his development, all his adventures are just the first steps on a dangerous path to the secrets of this world.