Готовый перевод Его не звали, но он приперся / They never called, yet he is here: Глава 29

Chapter 29

It's morning, the sun is up, and I still don't want to get out of bed. Everyone has those moments when you can't bring yourself to get out of bed, especially after completing something important. Or after wild stress. For me, both the first and the second coincided - the case I completed was really important and hard. There is a reason to be proud, your actions saved a lot of lives, and at the same time sent into oblivion an extremely unpleasant and dangerous creature, which had been ruining the world with its presence for much longer than the kingdom itself. And the stress of the process of destruction was decent - I don't even want to know the percentage of my chances of survival after the last attack. That's probably why I survived because I didn't plan to - everything always goes wrong for me.

In general, I didn't want to get up. I wanted to lie in bed, cover myself with a blanket, stretch sweetly, and have cherry pies. I didn't have any cherry pies in the house, though. Which means I will have to get out of bed and go buy them. And there's the town, with the pissed-off guards running around, and the caravans of corpses from the nightly massacre rolling through it. So I won't be able to buy pies. And well, it just can not, or it may be so that the quest to find it turned into another massacre. I get that shit way too often.

And if I decided to leave the comfort of my bed, I would have to do something about the bonuses I received from the System, which, based on pure logic, should be quite a lot. It's not like I slaughtered a wretched goblin, but the second legendary creature I've ever slaughtered. And something tells me that the only reason it was legendary was that it wasn't in any better shape at the time of our encounter. It gave its followers far too much versatility: physical power, a tremendous increase in characteristics, its special magic, strange rituals, and barriers covering the whole city at once - all too much for one creature, even if legendary. I never managed to figure out exactly what I was up against in that fight, and I'm still not sure if I need to know.

There are a few bad suspicions, but they are nothing more than unformed thoughts, which could be a trivial game of the inflamed mind. And clairvoyance cannot check either, since there is nothing left of the creature that this skill can catch on to. At first, it was closing in on itself in all spectrums, and now it was swallowed up to the ground, all the way down. Looking for something in this situation... might be possible, but not with my current abilities. It would require too much specific skill to investigate, which I don't even need.

I get out of bed with a sigh - even though I don't want to be overwhelmed with problems, my thoughts are so wild that I can't figure it out without a half-liter. At least I need to have a proper breakfast because lately, I have been eating only food stolen from the shelves - round-the-clock supervision of a whole crowd of people requires constant attention, leaving no time for cooking. In case you forgot, I did it alone, so even if I had a warm bath and three meals a day, I wouldn't have had time to take advantage of it all.
T.N.

I ate a breakfast of cold corned beef and slightly stale tortillas, unable to taste the food. This night had really given me a lot, but I hadn't gone far from the edge, either. I'm surprised I didn't turn gray or stutter.

Okay, what's my Status? What wonders have the Admins given me for my heroic deeds, my amazing wit, and my legendary stupidity?

Summoning of the shadow: 4/7

Allows you to summon and impose your will on several lesser, weaker, and even full-fledged Shadows; to subdue and control a Shadow, the powers of the summoner are spent; a summoned Shadow can linger in reality without feeding the summoner for a certain period; allows you to force Shadows to serve as material for shadow abilities; allows you to use Shadows as anchors to use shadow abilities, as well as use their senses; allows you to easily understand Shadows and convey your commands to them.

I got two points at once, and the words about summoning full-fledged Shadows make me move this ability from the "fun but almost useless" category to the "don't touch without preparation or it will fuck you up" category. If even an inferior beastie can kill a standard human without too much trouble, then a full-fledged one, I don't rule out, has a chance to make the trouble even for me. I'll be sure to check it out, especially since situations, where it wouldn't hurt to set a vicious creature on someone, are not at all uncommon in my troubled life.

But I must remember to check it carefully. I doubt that this skill will allow me to pull and subdue those creatures that recently chewed the creator of the cult, but I can handle someone weaker than me. I can hardly be afraid of them (not after what I've been through), but I have to be careful. The last situation I remember was the result of the rash and stupidity of a self-righteous imbecile who thought he could solve all the problems of the world.

Actually, I see this skill as a kind of mix of support and reconnaissance - dangerous fighters with absurdly high stealth parameters, whose eyes I can watch and who are not sorry to send to the slaughter. Or with whom I can clear some door, which is also nice. I was also inspired by the note that shadows can serve as a relay for my class skills. An anchor for them.

So far I don't know if I can order the shadow to fly a hundred or two kilometers away, then look at the world through its eyes and jump teleported to the specified coordinates. But if it is possible, it would be extremely hard to overestimate such a miracle. I'm already very mobile (but not invulnerable, remember that, Kostya!), and with such capabilities, there will be no closed doors or unbreakable cells for me at all.

There are, of course, ways to prevent me from evacuating from the zone of unlimited f*cking, but it's the problem I can be a little less afraid of than usual, thanks to another bonus, and not a title, but a class bonus.

Grabbing the Shadows: You can move in and out of the Shadow realm more easily, and it becomes much harder to rip you out of the Shadows and back into reality against your will; it is much harder to cut you off from the Shadow realm without stepping into it against your will; staying in the Shadow realm consumes much less energy; your intangible speed of movement is increased.

It seems to be no bonuses to stats, but how useful it is! In fact, if I had this toy originally, I wouldn't be in a situation where I'd have to get this class upgrade at all. Too bad, too bad, you can't get full immunity against the abilities that cut off my steps, but I think at high levels it'll open up more than that. The main thing is to live up to those high levels, which is problematic considering the way I look for adventures on my ass.

Should I go and really get a job with the adventurers? I'm sure it's idiocy, but I can imagine their faces when I'm applying for a job and asking them to give me a rookie badge. The main thing is to arrive in the same outfit as always - especially the mask. To add surrealism to the picture of reality, so to speak.

I even had to slap my cheeks a few times to get the stupid idea out of my head. There's a difference between trolling, thickly mixed with banter, and a banal suicide. I've already drawn too much attention to myself by not thinking of killing all the witnesses to my triumph because of the stress. It's a pity because I won't get another chance to throw my loose ends in the water. All sorts of personalities might come down here and start digging and digging. Most likely, I would have to "run out of town" in order not to get on the radar of the parties interested in me.

To be honest, I didn't feel much excitement. I may have made a mess of my image as the masked man, but linking him to an ordinary, useless alchemist would be extremely problematic. All sorts of clairvoyants might have been a problem, but after I learned how to fight the likes of them, I was given a new title and a new skill. Just for countering all sorts of homegrown Sherlocks and Vangas, and on their own turf, too.
T.N.

Outside of Existence: Confrontations between two clairvoyants are very rare. Even rarely do these battles reach their logical conclusion. You managed to win this battle, so get the reward you deserve. Bonus: +5 to the skill Unexistence.
T.N.

And the skill itself, which I discovered a little earlier, also appeared in the status. Maybe the name of the received skill is not particularly suggestive, but if it is inferior to the same clairvoyance in terms of usefulness, it is only at the very least. To simplify this information as much as possible, the following can be said: unexistence allows you to muffle, distort, deceive, obstruct, and otherwise interact with a branch of clairvoyant skills and abilities. With further development, this miracle would make me a blind spot even for divine powers.

Of course, at the lower ranks, I shouldn't expect much. Even what I demonstrated in the battle with the mutant bitch was a leap above my head. And even swinging that skill would be a problem and a pain in my ass. The whole point of the system was that I needed to practice my chosen skill constantly if I wanted to develop it. Without dagger waving you can't grow knife fighting, without destroying a live opponent you can't increase instantaneous killing, without regular work with reagent fission you can't develop essentialism. And to improve the unexisting skill, I would need to actively counter all sorts of prophets, psychics, interrogators, and other brats, which automatically makes developing this skill even more dangerous and stupid than ignoring it.

The sanest option that came to my mind, after much deliberation, was to find my pet prophet or a fortuneteller, who could be used as a kind of sparring partner. I would benefit, and he (or she) would develop.

But where do I get a representative of one of the rarest classes on all of Alurea? All the owners of the really well-powered classes of this type have been sitting in a golden cage or on a golden throne for a long time. And all this mysterious me, come to them and shouting "PvP or pussy", quickly take under the white hands of their security service. So I'd have to figure out some way to train the new skill myself.

Blocking your own clairvoyance? It's like arm wrestling between your right and left hand - even in a rough idea, it sounds very funny.

The most delicious reward I got was not for killing the main creature. At least because it wasn't me who killed it, and I already had the title of legend's killer. I was rewarded for the way I killed it, and even more for the fact that I managed to survive the process and come back. I doubt that many people can boast that they have walked in the depths of the Shadow and are still in their right mind and memory and not even stuttering.

Step Beyond the Edge (Shadow): Many places are better to talk about in whispers. Some places are dangerous to even think about. Places that are almost impossible to get to and from which no one returns to tell about the horrors waiting there. And yet, sometimes some people survive even there. You have become one such person, which gives unflattering testimony to your intellectual development. The Shadow Plan has always been considered one of the most unfriendly, to say nothing of the really deep layers of it, where those from before time itself dwell. We will not comment on your intelligence, but simply give you your reward. Bonus: +10 to all stats, +15 to Shadow stats, +2 class ability points.

The bonus is, of course, pleasant to the point of amazement, but I don't want to repeat such a procedure. Yes, I was explicitly told that a similar bonus could be obtained again for exploring the depths of other plans than the usual Shadow, but I'm not so frozen to farm that kind of chthonic creepiness. I got lucky once, got over my luck, and I'm done with that kind of tourism. I'd rather go somewhere by sea - beaches, waves, palm trees, pirates, sharks, blood... All this would be a much more pleasant pastime than risking my life, soul, and ass for the sake of bonuses.
T.N.

Now I'm thinking that thought, and it's like my whole new life doesn't look like that! Risking all my holes for a possible stat bonus.

Miserable life.

In addition to the achievement bonuses, I got level thirty-one and, most importantly, a whole bunch of (very small) goodies for achieving multiples in characteristics. The perception was over a full hundred points, and energy was a hundred and fifty - a very good score for my level. I was also pleased to see that Shadow had reached a hundred, and the rewards for that were going to be amazingly cool. And dexterity had almost reached one hundred and fifty, literally five points short.

The twenty points I have are scattered between energy and dexterity, to which I still add the necessary points. I still don't want to spread myself out in several directions, but I'm too eager for another reward, and I can try to sacrifice one level to see what the result will be. A short warm-up, combined with a flexibility exercise, allowed me to quickly adapt to the increase in agility, and another shadow training, within my sphere, helped me get used to the increased reserve. After distributing the stats, my characteristics, pleasing to my eye, look as follows:

Characteristics (standard):
Strength: 80
Dexterity: 150
Endurance: 85
Perception: 106
Concentration: 110
Energy: 169

Characteristics (class):
Shadow: 108
Dreams: 49
Inspiration: 28

It looks impressive, especially at my level. Sixteen points of class improvement also warm my heart and make me almost die from an unwillingness to spend it. I wish I could close that shadow class down to Rank 3, but I hate to waste it. I know it's stupid, but I still don't want to, even if it kills me!

Without deciding on it, I start the process of choosing rewards for high characteristics, starting with the seemingly most useless perception. In theory, perception is one of the main characteristics of the alchemist class, but so far I'm satisfied with what I have in this aspect. I will admit, however, that the rewards look pretty good. Also, you can't look a gift horse in the teeth, otherwise, you have a chance to get punched in the face by the giver.

The perception has reached 100! Choose a perk!

- A piercing gaze (rare; active);

Inquisitive eye (rare; active/passive);

The first skill was analogous to X-ray vision, allowing one to see through walls and obstacles due to the energy invested in it. At maximum input, it was possible - a purely theoretical assumption - to pierce a mountain with one's eyes. A very useful thing, both for combat operations and for everyday earnings. Very useful for someone, but absolutely useless for myself - the shadow sphere could do the same thing, only further, better, fuller, and also passively.

On the other side was an inquisitive eye, which is of little use in combat at all. The skill passively increased my ability to read traces, find clues, and collect ingredients for alchemy. In active mode, it was all the same, only even cooler. Basically, I can easily see how to use this ability in combination with the same clairvoyance. When I need to try on the role of the old Holmes, this is a good thing to do. I am not a stranger, but I can also use this ability to help you collect alchemical reagents. As a result, I chose the inquisitive eye, leaving the other option overboard.

After perception, I moved on to dexterity. Here the choice was more difficult, because the stat was for me, if not the main one, then the first among the auxiliary ones. The best of the worst, so to speak. I couldn't give up dexterity - I was too often forced to rely on close combat, where a split second could make all the difference, and the delay was synonymous with death.

The Dexterity has reached 150! Choose a perk!

- Spider Touch (epic; active);

- Leaf in the Wind (epic);

The first option offered me the chance to feel like Peter Parker - an almost imperceptible waste of energy that allowed me to move on any surface, even run on water. Walking on walls or climbing to the top of an impregnable tower was a simple task. I could do something like that now, for shadows were a surprisingly versatile tool, but with skill, I could do such things much better. Not by an order of magnitude, but much better. Besides, using this skill would free up some of my concentration to keep myself in position, which would increase the attack of the shadows.

Everything would be fine if it weren't for the fact that I just don't need it, since I've closed the shadow steps. Seriously, if it would be cheaper and faster for me to just move to the right position, why should I bother? So it turns out that the gift was a dead-end development. If I had gotten it a month earlier, I would have taken it. But I didn't get it then, which is extremely fortunate, and now I don't need it at all.
T.N.

Leaf in the Wind was an epic rank for a reason, too, for the skill allowed me to control the gained inertia in a very wide range. Up to stopping a crossbow bolt with your bare hand (if you knew when and where it would come from). This would have been an invaluable gift to some lover of heavy armor, but it was still very useful to me. I still fight a lot in close combat, and my clairvoyance and sense of danger let me know what I'm going to be hit with, when, and how, so I can always compensate for inertia. I'm not sure how much of a badass this skill is, but I'm sure it's a good one, and I'm sure I'll be able to get out of it in a single blow with a dagger.

Naturally, if the ability had been that cool, it would have been legendary, not epic. The amount of weight and applied force I could work with was severely limited. Actually, the limit was only slightly greater than my body weight - the ability was tied to dexterity, not strength. And it was designed for sudden changes of the attack vector and reducing the friction of the air against my body, not for forceful confrontation.

I still chose the Leaf in the Wind - you can't have too many reinforcements for close combat.

The energy stat was my favorite, perhaps. It's a consequence of the constant lack of reserve early in my career, I wanted more power all the time. Concentration was important too, in many ways even more important than naked power, but once I chose it, it would be stupid to change the priority. I had too much invested in this stat to refuse to increase it further.

And this decision fully justified itself over time.

The reward options available to me were truly magnificent. Perhaps it was here that I did not know which treasure to appropriate and which to refuse, weeping bloody tears. I wanted everything at once, and the fate of the Buridan donkey seemed closer than ever. I would have spent the rest of eternity in indecision, unable to choose one thing.

The energy has reached 150! Choose a perk!

- Magic boost (epic, active);

- Magical Pulse (epic);

Both perks did essentially the same thing - increased the reserve recovery rate. But that's how they did it! It was just a song, the kind of fairy tale I'd been dreaming of!

Boost allowed me to cheat for a few minutes with nearly infinite ammo. The temporary increase in reserve and its recovery rate allowed me to make many massive shadow attacks at a time without risking exhaustion. Then, of course, it would be very bad and take a long time to regain my energy, but the short-term booster that turned me into a walking, weakly vulnerable howitzer was definitely worth it.

It's a really useful perk, especially when confronted with those stronger than my beloved. It's not like I have to do an encore of the same thing I did to the deceased creature. It's the kind of thing that would make a drastic difference on the battlefield in the future, giving me time to either destroy an enemy or run away from it at the drop of a hat.

The Magical Pulse didn't give me such a steep boost, but it worked constantly and continuously, had no cooldown, and accelerated the recovery of my reserve. Usually my reserve is restored in eight to nine hours of sleep, but that's if I have more than a third of it left. The less that remained, the longer it took to recover, and a full void would take about a day and a half to fill. The pulse rate accelerated this figure at least threefold.

Moreover, the rate of refill also depended on the fullness of the reserve. If the "magic purse" was completely empty, it could hardly be filled more quickly than without a pulse, but as long as the reserve was more than two-thirds full, an hour's respite would be enough to fill it to the very brim.

Either a few minutes of maximum activity, after which you will recover for a week, or the ability not to be exhausted at all until it's too late, and the process of getting back into shape will be accelerated.

It's a really hard choice - you need both. And situations, when I could use any of these two skills, in my life I have met. Boost will help when meeting another unkillable bastard, and Pulse - in long battles with a lot of moderately dangerous opponents.

The ordinary cultists gave me a lot of trouble, forcing me to drink potions and vomit rainbows from their side effects. With a Pulse, I could handle it without straining. The main creature nearly ate me alive (it was really starting to digest me!), but with the Boost I would have a slim chance of a successful escape.

What to choose, I don't know.

You have to do what real men do in such situations - think hard, make a decision, show your will, and flip a coin. And then the mechanics are simple - if you want to do it again, then do it again until the "decision of fate itself" is what you would like it to be. I wanted to get the Pulse and the Boost at the same time, but the coin never fell on the edge. And even if it had, the System wouldn't have cared.

I took the Pulse of Magic in large part because my memories of the "battle" with the cult master were still very fresh. I remember the power of that abomination, I remember its overwhelming superiority. The Boost would have helped me land a few blows. I might have even been able to seriously hit the avatar. There's a chance I might even have had time to retreat. But I couldn't win anyway, and the chance of escape was still too small.

I'll be able to use the bonus from the Pulse the right way.

But the gain from the Boost - I'm not sure.

For dessert, I left the reward for Shadows. I will be frank - I savored this situation, as one savors a good wine or a great dinner prepared by a skilled chef. If the award for fifty points in shadows was epic, then for getting a hundred in class stats I was given the first legendary. I mean, for the characteristics achieved, the first one.

The Shadow has reached 100! Choose a perk!

- The Right of the Shadowborn (Legendary);

- The Shadow Domain (Legendary);

Hold me seven, because six can't hold me any longer! I didn't want a new Playstation as much as I want this precious. Especially since it's immediately clear to me what I'm going to choose. The other option is great, too, but it doesn't fit my fighting style and, most importantly, my lifestyle at all.

The Shadow Domain allowed me to subdue a certain territory, after which the boundary between the Shadow plan and reality gradually thinned in that territory. The Shadow itself became denser there, and in the darkest areas, passageways to the deeper layers of the plan appeared. The place attracted Shadows from all around, but they weren't supposed to attack me first (they shouldn't, it seemed). My shadow powers were enhanced in the area I occupied, and the fee for using them was reduced - the closer I got to the center, the stronger they were. Even multiple shadow lashes would be free of charge.

And the best part is that the longer you live in one place, the stronger the bonuses and the wider the territory. Pluses to the characteristics appear, even if they only affect the territory under your control. At that rate, you can live for a decade or two in a remote village, and then you won't be eaten out by even a dozen Heroes and five Chosen.

That's awesome!

Absolutely fucking useless!

Because even if we forget that the weakening of the boundary between the plans is hard to ignore and even harder to count as something good, there is still a major flaw. I'm fucking cuckoo for living like this! Sitting as an owl in one place is a great idea if you have internet and your own computer. And sitting in one place in a medieval world, at any moment waiting for a probe-team of eliminators to descend on your head - it's a total f*cking mess!

So the choice of the Right of the Shadowborn was obvious from the start. All the more so because their bonus was just as good, albeit of a slightly different kind. The first and most important thing in this situation was the simplification of summoning and subjugating Shadows. A really big simplification! The energy expenditure was reduced by an order of magnitude, the Shadows themselves resisted much less, and were much more scared of the one who had summoned them.

But the summons is not the only thing! It was no less pleasant news that a holder of the Right would not be attacked unnecessarily. That is, unless I provoke a Shadow myself (and unless it is very hungry, and they are always hungry), I will not be touched, even in the deeper layers. Unless I show my weakness and fear, of course. But the mere fact of being able to reduce the risks of dealing with such an audience was worth spending my bonus on.

There were also a lot of little things - an increase in the speed of the shadow form, the enhancement of the debuffs imposed by shadows and the effect of hard-to-heal wounds, reduced cost of shadow control, but these were just little things. Or rather, they weren't little things, but compared to the previous two, they weren't worth paying attention to.

That was the end of the rewards accumulated during the long night, and the last scone had been chewed up. I had to get up and start preparing my laboratory for departure.

I didn't even think about staying in the Kraj - it's too hot in here now. What if more strange types came, or if the walls were stormed by greenies? The latter is very likely, since the numbers are still growing, and the guards and adventurers are more and more weakened than ever. Perfect timing to slaughter any who aren't green and fatten up on human flesh.

In short, I was going to take advantage of the commotion and get out of the Kraj with a caravan of refugees like myself, who had suddenly realized that it would not be safe to be so close to the Wildlands, even behind strong walls. They would hardly pay any attention to me, so I had the perfect excuse to run away. It's a pity to leave Grandfather and his little brats here, but I wouldn't drag them with me. And the grandfather himself had recovered quite well after the forced hunger strike, had put on fat and accumulated money, so as not to disappear without my help. My clairvoyance made it clear that he would not die of old age in the next five years, during which time his charges would grow up. There are dangers beyond old age, of course, but I am not their baby-sitter! I rescued him at a critical moment, allowed him to earn enough to make a safety cushion, even gave him a couple of potions to strengthen him, just passing them off as an herbal infusion, all for you. The rest is up to you guys, the rest is up to you.

It's a pity to leave the house, but there's a magistrate and his solicitors for just such cases - I won't get all the money back, but I will get at least part of it back if I turn the house over to the city. Luckily, the equipment is mobile enough, for I didn't buy any bulky stationary equipment. And the rest can be stored in crates and bags, and I can rent myself a wagon and drive safely to the nearest village.

Actually, I could sell the equipment, leaving only the lightest and most transportable items, but it would not be done quickly. It is one thing to have a frightened craftsman eager to get away from a dangerous place, but valuables left behind would arouse much more suspicion than an attempt to drag them away on my back.

And I'm quite attached to alchemy, I must admit.

I may have acclimatized to the new world, but I haven't had time to settle down yet. I must simply change my place of residence to another town near the Wildlands. Luckily there is more than one. I would have to get "lost" first, perhaps becoming a victim of bandits, so that I could stop lugging with a clear conscience at the official walking speed and switch to a cruising run, but these are the details. The main thing is that it is in my power to get to the next extreme point and settle down there. It could even be with a new identity and a new name. Or the same, because I haven't decided yet.

All paths are open.

Just don't stand still.

The walk along the Kraj was gloomy. Really gloomy, which is not surprising in such an atmosphere. I didn't buy any pies, because there were none, and I walked in secrecy, just to calm my nerves.

Went home to the old man's rather spruced-up shack (the kids told me where they lived) to tell him that I preferred to leave town. Paid him his underworked month's salary and another as unemployment benefits. Just to do some good. Listened to a stingy but sincere thanks, advised him to take care of himself, and then left the house without staying for dinner. There was a certainty in my heart that this trio would not be lost.

I robbed a few looters who took advantage of the confusion to enrich themselves. The last group I robbed was dead, for the guards were angry after that night, and they were not going to spare anyone. First, they'd check to see if you had black blood in your veins, and only then would they question you. And since corpses don't talk, there's nothing to ask.

In fact, I noticed that the remnants of the thieves folk, agitated by the killing of almost all of the underworld guilds (except the smugglers), were fishing in troubled waters until the situation calmed down and the guards took them seriously. Fucking rats! I managed to prevent three murders, two robberies, and one rape. Thanks to the shadows, I managed to make it look like a mixture of luck for the victims and bad falls for the thugs. I even fed one man who escaped and hid in an alleyway to a summoned lesser Shadow.

It was a sight to behold: a short, yard-dog-looking thug still running through the alleys. A moment later a black cloud covered his head, cutting off his desperate scream and sucking the life out of him. The corpse looked both desiccated and frostbitten - not to be confused with a trivial stabbing. I had to cover up the evidence of the crime by dumping the body in The Shadow, to feed the inhabitants there.

My summoned unit, by the way, became much thicker and denser, even taking on some semblance of the stable shape of a toothy blanket. I had to use my powers of persuasion to send it back - it wanted the banquet to continue. And yes, these things have no sense of gratitude. They just can't physically. She still hated me and dreamed of destroying me, but she was scared shitless and was ready to obey my orders, even without the infusion of forces in my call. She even left almost voluntarily, just for a hint, to give her the image of a threat and promises of a f*cking beating. And don't even ask me how our communication was going - it would be impossible to explain in words unless it was in swear words.

"Excuse me, please, if you could help me, kind sir." Such a phrase from the mouth of a very pretty girl dressed as a typical townswoman may arouse the desire to "be a man" and help in many people. Especially if the maiden is pretty, and also unobtrusively and not at all vulgarly bows down in a bow, revealing the neckline of her dress.

I, who had come out of stealth and was on my way back from the magistrate, where I had sold my house for half the price, after all, believed it on six out of ten. Quite a good acting, as for one who had not been taught by any Stanislavski. Once I agreed to help get the laundry basket out of the gutter, I was carefully led around the corner, where I was met by slightly less caring guys with knives.
T.N.

It's a classic scam. I'm not at all surprised that even in this medieval age it is known. This girl isn't actually a gangster. I mean, not really a gangster. Just a group of marginal citizens decided to make a profit during the panic and confusion. And they act brazenly, against all the "thieves'" rules.

First, they do not pay tribute to the higher-ups, which, however, is understandable - almost all of them are killed off. Second, they work dirty, leaving no living witnesses: both experience and risk reduction. The latter, incidentally, is a lot of the total scumbag. All the thieves are trying not to kill because it is fraught with problems and possible disapproval of their superiors, who will be punished for the excessively audacious subordinates. But these guys don't give a shit. Some get off on killing, some just don't care, and some, like the girl herself, hoping to steal some money and get out of the hated city. The victims (there were three more before me) didn't care at all.

And no, she wasn't scared of getting herself killed, or going around in circles: her cousin was in charge of the gang. It wasn't certain it would save her, but the quick money was worth the risk she was willing to take.

"Hey, kid, are you..." To finish the standard phrase from the phrasebook of street thugs I do not allow. Because I have no desire to listen to all this.

Hit one in the solar to instantly kill him with a ruptured lung. Two more to wring their necks. The penultimate one to stab his dagger under the chin, still clutching it in his hand. The last one, trying to escape, was accelerated and forced to test the wall with his head. The wall, by the way, was stronger.

The girl only had time to widen her eyes in surprise when she found herself alone with a very tired and in a shitty mood (the magistrate's rats were blatantly robbing me of money when selling the house, and I had to agree to their terms to play the role). And I was somehow very sad, sad, and despondent - just the right moment to bring some goodness and understanding into the world.

I interrupt her attempt to speak with a raised palm, after which I calmly and even boredly warn her:

"Before you start feeding me a story about an innocent girl intimidated by evil bandits, you should know that I'm a good sense of lies. Now say what you have to say."

Apparently, my gloominess and complete indifference were convincing enough that she would not even try to twist the truth, although she had as many as three sob stories in stock - for the guards, for ordinary men, and her associates, if there was a conflict between them.

"I'll do... whatever you say," she whispered.

A really good actress, without any exaggeration. I could have bought it if I hadn't had clairvoyance... No, I wouldn't have bought it - high perception and an inquisitive eye.

"And if you try to stab me with an awl needle stuck in your dress." I go on in her place. "Though there was one thing I wanted to check anyway, and at least I didn't feel sorry for you."

And, before she could scream or attack desperately, he poked her forehead with a finger that wore a softly glowing ring. He really ought to test it on someone he could kill later, as a precaution.

The girl instantly lost consciousness and collapsed on the cold ground.

Fuck.

Now I have to drag her halfway across the Kraj to interrogate her. What a great way to spend an evening, Kostik! And the funny thing is that until the status check, I will not even risk to fuck her. I don't know what she's been given. What if the ability to change the sex and orientation of her lovers with just a kiss?

Ah, Kostik.

You are unable to live in peace.

I can hardly suppress the urge to wring her neck and leave her beside the cooling accomplices. Then I pick her up in my arms, throw her on my shoulder, and calmly head home (not home anymore). Only that I have to walk on the rooftops. Until the moment of eviction from the laboratory is still a week and a half, so there is time to get ready. And in about three or four days to go out with the caravan (they will now depart a lot). I'll have time to decide on my burden.

* * *

The maiden appeared - perversion is noticeably above average, as requested, in two rolls checked. Combat skills (9 out of 100) are about zero compared to MC.

That's it.

Tired as a dog.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1agWlTBRaGa4tlGF1nAr9dZd-PZqxTy-D/view?usp=sharin - Maiden's Dress.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14DkmB2eCdm9yFcZj_UqgzRzWZbE_4F9Z/view?usp=sharing - Girl.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h9IPH704zd549wi0v3uQha8l4KeBLH7E/view?usp=sharing - Once again.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vEYCvd8h0emUrdhow7WNvfWxHrrwHMZD/view?usp=sharing - Another variation.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JF1UbjenHwu7gt9DQItf--pDG0qWq8FL/view?usp=sharing - The version of the appearance after the Ring effect suggested by Andrei0287, only the hair is dark.

That's all.

I want back home.

Внимание! Этот перевод, возможно, ещё не готов.
Его статус: идёт перевод

Переведено на Нотабеноиде
http://notabenoid.org/book/80370/522739

Переводчики: Camrad_RIP