Его не звали, но он приперся / They never called, yet he is here: Глава 27

Chapter 27

Camrad_RIP 02.11.22 в 19:38

"So you caused a commotion in the heart of Inkar, killed part of the retinue of the Sorz Crown bastard, and then kidnapped the bastard himself and gave him to the elves who are extremely angry at Sorz, offering to make soup out of him?" There was something in Losius' voice that made me want to clutch my daggers tighter at once. "I understand you correct, don't I?"

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 20:56

Some wild mixture of mirth, disbelief, and fierce, under-hearted hatred, in the performance of the usually calm and good-natured aristocrat, burned no worse than a gust of red-hot desert wind, and the curses previously used by the impeccably polite duelist only added color to the palette of experienced emotions.

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 20:57

"Well... Yes?" I answer cautiously, just not knowing how to respond to something like that.

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 20:58

"Awesome!" Suddenly my interlocutor almost jumps up and then turns to an even more shocked Hans. "This calls for a drink. And not wine, but something much stronger... What?"

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 20:58

After appreciating the strange glances cast at him by everyone around him, and even by Hestia hovering overhead, Losius calmed down a little, trying to pull himself together. It wasn't going well, for an angry cheerfulness still slipped from under his usual detached demeanor. After playing a little peek-a-boo, but clearly not finding our eyes understanding the reasons for this amusement, the young Asterium said with mild bewilderment:

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 20:59

"But, my friends, these are Sorzs!" And all this with such aplomb, as if it were some perfectly understandable truth, which any reasonable creature would be ashamed not to know. "Why are you surprised?"

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:00

"Well, Sorzs, okay," Taria speaks the way a nurse in an asylum should communicate with a particularly dangerous patient who is prone to fits of violent rage. "But so what?"

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:01

"I hate fucking Sorzs!" The guy blurted out faster than I could think, without the slightest hint of aristocracy, but with as much temperament as he could muster in his words.

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:03

"You are such a sensitive man, Asterium!" Taria, realizing that her companion had not gone cuckoo, regained her carefree look and went about her favorite business: pestering others with her jokes, even remembering the generic name Losius for the sake of it.

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:04

"That's not what surprised me, to be honest." Hans intervenes in the starting skirmish. "Here's what I think. Tin just made a commotion, if not the same as in that fortress, then pretty close to it. He made fun of the big-eared buggers, he ripped the Sorzs' asses off, he made another bunch of enemies, and if I understand the boasts that our leader was waving, he did it all at the highest level, almost at random."

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:10

"Well... Yes?" I answer, experiencing a sense of deja vu.

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:10

"Ah, forgive me sinfully, tell me, Tin." An expressive pause, followed by a gut-wrenching, incredibly soulful question. "Why for?"

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:11

I am silent.

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:11

All around is silent.

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:12

Ygra, secretly chewing on some clawed bird resembling a pterodactyl, foolishly tried to pluck ogre eyes out either from hunger or to protect the nest, is silent too

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:13

"Look, Tin." Taria can hardly contain her laughter now, keeping an incredibly comical expression on her face. "If you ever want to make a big joke, just give us a heads-up, okay? I'm afraid after one of your jokes we'd got to redraw the maps of the continent. If there's anything left of it."

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:14

The funny thing about this situation is that they should have all started asking different questions. They should be questioning my adequacy, hinting that such pranks are fraught with many consequences, and other things that I am thinking about myself right now. Except that they think no such thoughts, considering what happened almost the norm. Losius seems to be shining like a polished plaque, ready to embrace the world at large. If he were at home, there would be a feast of epic proportions, for the Asteriems really dislike Sorz and all its inhabitants.

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:17

Taria simply does not know the normal life of an adventurer, subconsciously perceiving all our adventures as the norm of the new life, although her track record already surpasses that of the vast majority of the hardened thugs. A standard adventurer, upon learning where and for what purpose this girl had been, would surely have gone gray before her time, and then would have gone bald.

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:18

Hans, strange as it may seem, understands the depths of the asshole we are in but doesn't give a shit about the consequences. He's been around long enough without being at the top of the food chain. An ordinary tracker, serving almost as a lubricant for the blades of more talented and powerful opponents. He's also a bit tired of his weakness and the snobbery of those around him, holding him at best as a tool of average usefulness. His few friends had long been either in the ground or gone from his life, while he, for some reason, remained.

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:19

My appearance, like my adventures, became an outlet for this dog of war, where he really meant something. Where his path, his decisions, and his road would not be just another trail that would overgrow the grass the year after he died, but something meaningful. Lots of ringing gold, high levels, and epic classes were more of a bonus than the real reason he's still with us. Even if he doesn't realize it.

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:21

It became very uncomfortable for some reason, and I wanted to shut my clairvoyance deep down, so it wouldn't work all of a sudden. For there are some things it's better not to be interested in. In any case, I now knew another secret that I would never confess - if he wanted to, he would tell me, and if he didn't want to, nothing would change.

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:24

Hestia was just used to her commanders doing stupid things, and my improvisation with the elves and Sorz was the most ambitious, but not the stupidest. At least I'd covered my bases and not put my subordinates in harm's way, which is phenomenal for a self-styled commander. Besides, my jokes are directed at people she would gladly kill in a particularly painful way. It's just that Losius is too emotional in his dislike of his neighbors, and Raimel dislikes them a great deal, too.

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:25

And Ygra?

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:25

She doesn't give a shit about anything but eating and sleeping, and no amount of intelligence enhancement will help her - it's not her nature to care about anything that her eyes can't see in front of her. I think if she had known that the world was going to end tomorrow, she would have shrugged her shoulders and gone back to her business. Provided she managed to explain what the end of the world is and whether it can be eaten, or at least knocked on the head.

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:27

In some kind of crazy team, I'm on.

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:28

So am I, for that matter.

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:28

So am I.

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:28

The question of pumping was quite acute because I had once again fallen into the old System trap: there are many options for investing, but not enough for everything, no matter how you spin it. And I had to invest in order not to accumulate a whole pile of new toys that would bury me beneath it. I also remember how I got the Price of Humanity and the consequences of investing too many class points too abruptly.

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:37

The first thing I did, however, was to open another message that offered me the choice of an epic perk for one hundred and fifty endurance points. I didn't feel like it before, and it's not a major stat for me. On the other hand, to refuse an epic is not stupidity, but a bloody clinic, after which Alurei can put me in a house of mourning so that I do not confuse the minds of others with my delirium.

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:38

The Endurance characteristic has reached 150! Choose a perk!

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:38

- Metabolic boost (epic, active);

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:40

- Iron Body (epic);

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:41

The first allows you to make yourself practically invulnerable to intoxication by alchemy for a short period, or to urgently remove even a very tricky poison from your body. It's useful if it weren't for the fact that I can do the same thing with an Inward Sight, only a little better. If this perk was passive I would have taken it, because passive perks overlap very well. The active skill isn't completely useless, but against the things I can't get out of myself, they won't help.

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:42

For example, if we remember my suffering after Taria's intoxication, it wouldn't have helped me if all my insides had already begun to decompose into mush. The bun would have been useful, no doubt, but not as much as it could have been.

Camrad_RIP 06.11.22 в 21:43

The second skill wasn't very useful, either. Yes, I would become very strong and it would be much harder to cut through my flesh, especially for conventional weapons. A noticeable increase in body weight while maintaining the same volume, it's an iron body, after all, can also be useful, especially in active combat. In peacetime, this effect is safely offset by a Leaf in the Wind, which allows me to play with my own mass as much as I wish. And I have enough dexterity and perception to control my mass without any distractions at all.

Camrad_RIP 07.11.22 в 05:01

Everything is just fine... But it's even less useful than the Boost. Well, I don't fight in the way this perk would fit. I don't fight! Some knights would be extremely happy with this perk, as well as a simple fighter or even a monk, but not me. I strike quickly and directly with shadows, not giving a chance for a second strike. No, in theory, I know how and in what situation to use this perk, but it requires very specific conditions.

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 10:26

I chose an Iron Body, but I didn't feel as much joy as I did from the Moment of Eternity. Apparently, the boy named Kostya got a little greedy, if even epic buns began to seem shallow, bland, and stale to him. That is stale, that is, appeared too late, when their appearance is not too necessary. But this is my problem, not the System, so this time I have no complaints to the Admins, limiting myself to the usual wish of anguish and diarrhea.

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 10:27

Okay, now for the tastiest part - the distribution of free points and stats. With the stats it's simple: I still have only three stats that serve as the basis of my fighting style, but I increase dexterity more by secondary pumping, while concentration and energy remain invariably useful. Especially since I boosted dexterity with Momentum, so it's not really needed anymore. It is all in one hit, as I said before, the kind of hit after which you don't need a second one.

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 10:30

The question is different: should I throw everything into energy, trying to get it up to three hundred and get a mythic perk, or not be greedy and throw stats into concentration, bringing it up to two hundred and thus getting a new legendary? It's harder and harder to get points, and mythic will be more useful than two legends in the long run, but it's still a long time to get mythic, and concentration is extremely useful. Moreover, increasing one magic stat without increasing the second little shortsighted.

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 10:31

Twenty points were there, and five more came in for level thirty-seven. Taken in the course of my operation Elven Tits. Which added up to twenty-five points. Fifteen of them I put into concentration, choking on tears of greed, and the rest I threw into energy. I was now forgetting about the other stats, concentrating on the energy, bringing it up to three hundred.

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 10:34

Well, and the perk, of course, how without it?

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 10:35

The characteristic Concentration has reached 200 points! Choose a perk!

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 10:56

- Plastic Essence (legendary);

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 10:56

- Precision Control (legendary);

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 10:57

The next bonus will be available when you reach 300 points!

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 10:58

The second perk is an evolution of the Natural Control I took a long time ago, which has already proven its usefulness to me many times over. If his big brother gives the same enhancement to my abilities, only with the legendary perk, I'm not even going to think about what I choose here. This particular legendary perk is relatively "standard" as far as that term applies to legendary perks, but its utility is mind-blowing.

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 10:59

The first, on the contrary, is much more unique, rarer, and more unusual, but I will not take it. It's not even the danger that restrains me but my personal dislike and the strange bonuses it gives me. Plastic Essence didn't add any enhancements, but it allowed the mind to become more plastic, pardon the obviousness. Resistance to mental and other influences is noticeably lower, but it's almost guaranteed to fall off your mind after a while. It also helps a lot in creating false personalities and images, so much so that other spies would chew their hands off up to their shoulders. If before I could pretend to be a goblin Kickass very well, then with this skill I could literally become one. And then the forty percent of my concentration that went into controlling the disguise would be completely free and actionable.

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 11:08

I, as a dreamer and clairvoyant, could use such a trick. I won't even argue. But... I don't want to, period. This skill seems too strange and wrong to me. Not dangerous, once again, to clarify this detail, just ugly. I am Kostik, not someone else. Yes, I can pretend to be someone like Kickass. But it would still be me, even if I was pretending. To devil first perk. I'm going to be able to do it on my own without any of those weird reinforcements.

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 11:11

Now all that's left is the tastiest part - the nine class skill points that I can't keep any longer. If it were possible, I would wait, but every damn time I remember that story about the battle with the freaks and the desire to munch immediately disappears. So get a grip on yourself, isekai, keep pumping yourself up and strive for the top.

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 11:14