Dan saw a message above the old man"s head. It was a magician, no doubt it was. He was wearing a robe that was all covered in runes chains. The magician had on his head a hat. The magician leaned on a large staff, which was crowned with a large dried bone paw of a bird.

*

Karakar

Warlock. 107 level.

*

Dan knew right away he couldn"t handle this opponent. But he also saw the eyes of an old warlock.

There was no aggression in the warlock"s eyes. In his eyes, the sinner saw the calmness and wisdom of a man who was confident in his power.

Dan took the witch"s book out of his inventory and silently stretched it towards the warlock.

The book broke out of the sinner"s hand and flew towards the warlock, who cleverly caught it and hid it in one of the pockets of his robe.

" Wise move. Do your work, player. Then we will talk," said the warlock and left the house.

Dan stood there and didn"t want to turn around and face the child. He looked around and saw that the witch was practicing b.l.o.o.d.y rituals in the house. In one corner, he saw a strange stone circle on the floor. The circle was black with dried blood. And Dan had a good sense of magic in the house. Strange and bad magic he felt around him.

Suddenly, the pieces of the puzzle formed a picture.

A witch. With a child. She became a student of an old warlock and learned how to maintain life in her child. It was a terrible way, but the witch chose this way.

And Dan didn"t have a choice. To take the girl to the castle? No, he wouldn"t do that. The girl wasn"t evil. But she didn"t belong in this world anymore.

d.a.m.n it all, Dan thought. Then he took the cat out of the game.

Then the sinner took the dagger out of the inventory and hit the baby in the chest. He killed her with one blow. The little girl barely had the sparks of life.

*

[Congratulations! You have completed the quest to kill the Unclean. You get +1 point of spirit, you get 120000 points of experience]

*

Dan whispered the words of the curse again and went outside.

The old man sat on a rock at the door to the house and enjoyed the warm weather and the absence of rain. He looked at the sinner and smiled:

"The right choice, player. You chose life."

Dan didn"t understand the meaning of those words, but then he smiled sadly:

"You"d kill me if I showed weakness."

"That"s right. You"re an interesting player, a fallen inquisitor. And you wear interesting things. You think you"re ready for that kind of fate?"

"I don"t think, I don"t know. Why you call me a player. Don"t tell me you"re an agent of the administration. I won"t get over it."

"Administration. That"s not a nice word. But I hear you. I respect Anyge, but my path is long away from her temples."

"Anyge, Mother of G.o.d."

Dan was silent. He already knew the beginning of the creation of this world, but now he didn"t understand the old man"s words. The old man calls him a player, but he doesn"t explain. It"s hard to deal with a wise and secretive man. And it"s also not known if this warlock is a man. He teaches dangerous magic!

"You"ve learned so much so quickly, Dan. You know, in the ancient language, your name means "Judge". Funny you should be able to judge, fallen inquisitor."

"You know a lot about me. You know about people like me, about players."

"Now you know that I know, too."

"But I"ve never met anyone like you before. Local people and dwarves don"t call us players."

"So they respect their G.o.ds well."

"And who is your G.o.d?"

Dan knew right away he was asking the wrong question. So he decided to make it right:

"Sorry, it"s not my business."

The old man laughed:

"It"s really not your business. But I"m not sure what you know about your business. Do you know who your G.o.d is? You don"t have to answer that, boy, it"s not my business."

Dan kept quiet and tried to catch the tail of the idea, he thought he was saying stupid things. He has to say something important. But what? Quest! This old man"s a warlock can give him some kind of quest! It"ll be a very powerful task.

"Honored, I"m not sure, but perhaps we have something in common? Is there anything I can do for you?"

The old man scratched the sharp tip of his nose and thought. He took a close look at Dan"s belt. Dan saw that look. The gaze towards his cursed artifact, he noticed it well.

The Karakar warlock turned to the side and said:

"This book is on your belt. You can"t get rid of it. There"s nothing you can do for me."

The old man turned his head and looked into Dan"s eyes, he saw something in the player"s face. No doubt the old man saw something important to him because he frowned and whispered:

"Only I can help myself. Boy, you started a dangerous game. I hope to never meet you again. Don"t look for me, I"ll fly too far from these places. But even if you can get to me, don"t do it. There"s an unfinished deal between us. You gave me mine back. What do you want from me in return?"

"Knowledge," said Dan.

He never doubted for a second. The old man smiled.

"Good boy. It"s a pity that the Judge. The world falls into an abyss when a child starts to judge it."

And Dan saw the message.

*

[Karakar Warlock would like to give you the skill of the Eye of Wisdom. Do you agree? Yes/No]

*

Dan immediately accepted the offer. And he was happy to get another message.

*

[You have learned the skill of the Eye of Wisdom. The skill allows you to see the meaning of the phenomena and creatures of the world around you.]

*

Dan didn"t understand what he could see now, but he realized that the gift was very useful and would serve him well.

The sinner wanted to thank the warlock for his gift, but he saw that the warlock had disappeared. He vanished into thin air! He used the Invisibility! Dan laughed, he couldn"t be fooled by such tricks.

Dan stood by the stone for a short time and returned to the house. He hoped that the corpse of the child had already disappeared from this world and that he could find the stash and the cursed objects in peace.

He froze on the doorstep. The girl"s body was lying on the bed.

Dan didn"t want to conduct a search in the house with the little body of the girl he had killed lying next to him. He stood there trying to find a solution in this difficult situation. Then he shook his head. He spent too much time playing this game! He completely forgot what it was like to be a normal person.

Dan came out of the house and knelt down. He took the dagger out of his inventory and started digging the grave. The cat sat next to him and watched the owner"s work.

"p.u.s.s.y, go and kill some bunny. Or a skeleton. Go for a walk."

She jumped up and ran towards the trees. It was a good thing to do.

Dan buried the girl and went back to the house. He took a good look around the whole place and found two stashes. The witch kept a lot of money and a very good stock of herbs. Dan was surprised not to find a stock of prepared potions. On one of the shelves, he found some vials with mana recovery potion. He thought the witch used to be an herbalist and persistently experimented on trying to find a medicinal potion for her daughter. But the only solution she found was magic. Dan looked at the stone circle in the corner of the room. Now he could see a more detailed description.

*

The small altar. Allows to perform 1st level rituals and make sacrifices.

*

He didn"t want to know what rituals and sacrifices the witch was doing. Dan felt an unpleasant atmosphere in this house. It seemed like the walls of the house were soaked in suffering. But he liked the house. The walls were made of logs, there were no windows. There was a small fireplace in one corner. Dan thought this was a place to stay for the night. But it wasn"t until a little while later. Now he didn"t like the house.

Dan came out of the house and sat on a rock. He thought about it for a while and texted Nick:

"There"s a lot of work to do. The runes. The crypts. It"s a dangerous place for you. There are trophies. I"m waiting for you in four days. Get some food. You"ll take the trophies. Anna will be happy."

"You found the cemetery. What level of monsters?"

"20 and 30. Undead. Very much. The question is important and serious."

"We"re all right. Take care of yourself. I"ll meet you again in four days."

Dan stood up and walked towards the ancient hunter"s cemetery. He was a.n.a.lyzing the conversation with the warlock and trying to understand the old man"s words. The old man warned the sinner that the cursed artifacts would bring a lot of trouble. But Dan himself understood that his situation was not easy or pleasant.

All these questions and secrets did not like the player. He was happy to think that soon he could do an interesting and important job. The magic of the runes attracted him. He really wanted to understand his place in this world.

In the daylight, Dan saw that the hunters" graveyard was in a real hollow. It wasn"t a small ravine, but a real hollow that hid its purpose well from the surface view. An ancient trail led to the cemetery, but Dan was sure it wasn"t a popular place at all.

He wouldn"t restrain himself and went straight to the center of the cemetery. And he wasn"t disappointed in the sight of it. The closer he got, the clearer he could see the scale of his find. On his way he was surrounded by several thousand dead. Dan couldn"t count them, but he could see that the number of undead was enormous. And it was a strong army of the dead, averaging 30 levels, and it served as a guard for the place. There were three white stone structures in the middle of the cemetery. Dan stopped and saw that each structure was above the main tower of the hunters" castle. The structures were shaped like a pyramid, but the top of these huge pyramids had been cut. Dan couldn"t get close to the bottom of the pyramids. He was no longer helped by the condition of a living dead player. The undead was worried, and he felt like skeletons could attack him at any moment. He finally decided to go back to the beginning of the cemetery, when he saw that there were several dozen level 30 draugrs ahead. The sinner did not want to become a colleague of these dead warriors at all. He turned around and went to explore the crypts at the cemetery entrance.

It"s impossible to get everything at once and quickly. He had enough time to show his curiosity the next day.

The skill of the Eye of Wisdom proved to be a good gift, it was pa.s.sive and Dan had to develop it from the very beginning. But already now, Dan sometimes noticed interesting objects that he hadn"t paid attention to before.

Dan spent most of his time sketching the inscriptions and replenishing the stock of symbols and runes. He read the stories of dead hunters and realized that he would soon be able to surprise his friends with unusual news. With p.u.s.s.y, he decided the case was simple. He couldn"t refuse to let her want to hunt the dead and just let the cat go on a free hunt. She ran far from Dan and killed dead people. She had the nerve sometimes to go after Dan and get a refreshment potion. Then she"d go back to the cemetery entrance again. p.u.s.s.y realized that her master was unwilling to hunt now and was busy doing her stupid thing. Looking at the walls and writing on paper was not at all interesting to the pet. We can say that both partners have found a good business and decided not to interfere with each other to spend time in their own pleasure.

***

Ranger, a.s.sa.s.sin, and warrior were doing a nice job. They were going through a dungeon that needed to be cleared of monsters.

The dungeon was a convenient place to play. Alexander walked ahead and was the first to attack the monsters, Nick supported archery, and John also did not waste time and was good at helping in the fight. The dungeon was of the usual type, there were no ore reserves, only spiders and undead 20 levels. The guys were happy with the amount of experience and production. They had a large supply of potions, Nick was willing to spend time running to the castle to replenish the potions, but soon everyone realized the whole team would have to go back to the castle.

They decided to take home the trophies. Why dig up the stock so they could run back and forth? The clan paid a big price for fortifying the castle and the vault had to be replenished.

There was no labyrinth or branches in the dungeon. The guys would walk down the corridor and go out into the big hall, where they met a small group of monsters. And so they moved for three days. In the final room, they found the boss.

They stood at the entrance to the big hall and gently looked out for a strange monster that looked like a compound of a naked woman and a spider. The Queen of Spiders was horrible. A tall, naked woman, who was added to her height by her stabby, scarlet hair. The queen"s hands were clawed, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s were... huge! The Queen"s face was beautiful, but it was frightening beauty. Her hair moved like a scarlet snake, an evil smile never came off her face. Eyes stared at the entrance to the hall and the queen looked closely at the three players and their animals. She waited for them to come closer. But the players were in no hurry to get close to this monster. Starting from the belt, the female body would move into the body of a large spider carca.s.s. The woman"s head would rise above the ground a few yards high. She was exactly twice the height of a man. Scary, horror and fear! The guys could only see a little bit of information about the boss.

*

Queen of spiders

Type: normal

Status: Boss of the location

Level: 30

Life: 102000

Description:?

Perfect skills:?

Cla.s.s skills:?

Fighting skills:?

Immunity to arms:?

Stabbing:?

Cutting:?

Crushing:?

The magic of fire:?

The magic of water:?

The magic of air:?

The magic of the earth:?

*

"What a mysterious woman," whispered Nick.

"We are missed by our sinner," agreed Alexander.

"No, brother, I understand that he has a problem with women"s attention. But he won"t like that kind of partner," said John.

"You should visit the town wh.o.r.ehouse, Private," smiled Alexander.

"I wonder if she can get into this corridor."

John looked at the guys and explained his plan:

"We"re not going anywhere near her. We have an archer. He"ll shoot twice and run away. She"s not going to come in that corridor!"

Alexander turned towards the Queen and looked at her, and then he looked at the corridor ceiling and away. He made a conclusion:

"You have a disgusting eye, Private. She can pa.s.s if she bent over. But I like the idea. 102000 healths is a lot, but we"re already strong enough. We"ve got a decent amount of damage. She won"t kill everyone!"

The Queen of Spiders killed them all.

The guys have decided to launch a general attack. Berserk hit one side of the body, a.s.sa.s.sin attacked from the other side. Werewolves and a bear attacked from different sides. Nick stayed close to the hall entrance and started archery.

From the beginning of the battle, they suffered losses. The queen did not move, but her eyes were watching the players who were quietly walking towards her. And she smiled. Alexander was at one wall of the hall, John used the Invisibility skill and walked on the other side. The queen did not move. She opened her mouth and her tongue licked her lips. Suddenly her body seemed to explode and a cloud of fine drops and splashes of green flew in all directions.

Alexander saw the message.

[You suffered 1020 damage. You have been poisoned! You"ll receive 102 points of damage per second for 60 seconds]

Nick wasn"t hurt, he realized that their plan had failed and started shooting.

[You caused 240 damage]

[You have done 180 damage]

[You caused 240 damage]

[You have done 220 damage]

[You"ve done 170 damage]

The first arrow hit the queen in the face. And she began her attack. In an instant, she took off and ran forward. Running past the animals, she hit them with such force that the werewolves flew in different directions. The bear jumped on her and caught his fangs in one of her six legs. Before a.s.sa.s.sin and the warrior could think of the need for an antidote, they threw themselves at the queen. The queen paid no attention to the arrow damage, she jumped up to Nick and hit him with her claws and two front paws. Ranger died instantly. The queen wouldn"t turn back on her enemies, she jumped up and ran up the ceiling! Players froze. They couldn"t run that far and high on the walls.

"Antidote! Johnny, drink the antidote, you fool!" shouted Alexander.

"Yes, brother, now. How fast it is!" answered John. "Call Teddy off! They"re poisoned!"

Alexander clicked on the bear picture and that was it. That"s all he did. The queen jumped him from the ceiling. The warrior felt a great weight fall on him and could do nothing. He couldn"t move, the two-handed sword was useless. John threw himself at the queen at full speed, he wanted to hit and bounce. But his attempt to strike from invisibility failed. The queen could smell her poison beautifully. And she responded instantly to the attack. The claws of her three legs met an a.s.sa.s.sin jump. One of her claws. .h.i.t the head and broke the mask"s defense. The queen turned her body towards the killer and shone her teeth in a smile. She slammed something and hit it with both hands, without mistaking the place of the a.s.sa.s.sin.

John was able to make several blows and died. Alexander couldn"t move, he noticed with the edge of his eye that the group" strips of life quickly lost their red color. Then he realized he could move, but the queen did not give him a chance to get back on his feet. She bounced away from a few steps and her arms and front legs began to beat the lying body of the enemy quickly.

Alexander woke up at a temporary rebirth point and looked at his friends. The guys sat there and looked at him with silly smiles on his faces.

"Raising reports of combat. We"re looking at the amount of damage. Did we even get a chance to scratch that thing?"

"I dealt 1000 damage, four shots, I couldn"t do more. She"s got a combat skill. She hits four claws at once. I wasn"t hurt by the poison. The strikes caused separate poisoning. One attack was enough for me," said Nick.

"She can do 20000 damage in one blow," said Alexander.

"2040 and add 408 hand-to-foot damage from the poison," corrected Nick.

"Poison is nothing, you can drink the antidote," said John.

"You can, but once every four minutes," smiled Alexander.

"The boss of the Draugr Location had a recovery time for the skills. On average, that"s 300 seconds. A ma.s.s attack with poison can definitely be neutralized."

"But the b.i.t.c.h hits too hard, and she can escape from our attacks on the ceiling. I can"t get to her with my sword," sighed the berserk.

"There"s no point in calling out the pets, let them recover in their sleep," said Nick.

"That"s right, but how do we kill her, brother?"

"Slowly and long, Johnny," answered Nick.

"In this case, get your a.s.ses off the ground and run and beat that sc.u.m. Monsters are restoring health! I and John run to it and try to do as much damage as possible in one attack. I don"t care about the poison, I don"t care about the antidote. We do as much damage as we can and we die. Nikki, shoot a lot," said the berserk team.

"Yes, sir. I won"t miss, sir," said the ranger with a smile.

And they ran into battle.

Without a sinner with the skills of an inquisitor, these fights were a pitiful sight. Alexander confessed honestly that it was a tactic of pieces of meat. They did a couple of thousand damage and died. Nick tried to escape from the Queen in the corridor. It didn"t work out, she was very fast. He wouldn"t use the speeding skill and she caught up with Ranger and killed him with a blow to the back. But they noticed the main result of their attacks. The queen was recovering, but she couldn"t recover more than 2,000 points before another attack started.

Nick asked the boys to wait for him while he ran after Anna. The sorceress herself might not have reached the dungeon. She could have been attacked by level 17 wolves on the way. The guys said they didn"t need to interrupt the attacks. Next time, the whole clan should be called into the boss.

"It"s okay, we"re going to die 80 more times, it"s nothing, but we"re going to kill this beautiful girl," laughed John.

They died 94 more times. For their last fight, they called their pets, and Nick started the attack. The queen always went back to the far wall from the entrance to the big hall. Nick fired five shots, and all the close combat fighters poured their claws and weapons on the queen from different sides. And she died!

*

[Attention! Update mission: "In the footsteps of the Greats".

Warning! Update map: 19 desecrated locations detected. 6 dungeon-type locations.

Despite the difficulties in your way, you must clear 2 desecrated locations per month from monsters.

If you do not complete the task, your clan will lose 200 "Glory" points. [64:13:46]

Congratulations! You have successfully pa.s.sed the location of Spider"s Logue.

Award: 7 points of Glory. 1500000 points of experience. +1 point Spirit]

*

"And no achievement! Dan got the Dungeon Explorer! We got nothing! But there"s a lot of experience, I can"t argue with that," outraged John.

He was really hoping to get some kind of achievement with the poison damage. Achieving "the Poisoner" would be just perfect for the a.s.sa.s.sin. But he had to accept what they got. All players received Poison Protection 1. They got the bad trophies from the boss"s body. The game once again showed that it would be hard for him to play in terms of getting the booty. It was the archer who caused the main damage to the queen, so no one was surprised by the modest award of 70 gold and 14 spider silks. There was also a ring that added 102 damage by poison. Rings with increased damage were rare. So they decided to store it in the a.r.s.enal, no one wanted to sell such artifacts. There were no cursed artifacts. Delighted 2 chests of which the guys got another 62 gold coins and a large stock of spider silk. They didn"t count the bags with poison anymore, they acc.u.mulated a lot for pa.s.sing this dungeon. A rare dagger with added poison damage caught John"s eye for a while, but he wouldn"t change his weapon. His daggers were better.

The boys went back to the castle. All the way back, they listened to Nick moan. Ranger needed 18,000 points of experience to level 28. Alexander was quiet, though he didn"t take the new level either. John took it to a new level and he was more concerned about his pet"s development. They thought it was a good trip to the dungeon. It wasn"t such a victory as in Galatea, but it was also a pleasant event. They gained experience fighting a strong opponent without the skills of a sinner. The Inquisitor in this game was creepy. He was perfectly equipped to face monsters. But each player honestly admitted that he didn"t want to live in this world like Dan. No one wanted to feel like an outcast and catch the negative views of the locals. Did everyone else realize? That they were a little jealous of Dan"s skills. But they weren"t going to make a problem out of it.

At the castle, they were waiting for a victory dinner, they talked about fighting spiders and the rest of the evil. Anna regretted not going against the boss with them.

In the morning, the Warrior and a.s.sa.s.sin ran into town. Alexander wore an artificial cloak, which prevented him from observing. They didn"t want to draw attention to themselves. A wh.o.r.ehouse and a visit to the Killer Guild. That"s all the things that interest humble monster hunters in town.