Его не звали, но он приперся / They never called, yet he is here: Глава 28

Chapter 28

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 15:49

Once we were out of Melareth's official territory, we slowed down a bit and began to come to our senses, oddly enough. Actually, the line between civilization and uncharted territory is quite blurred, but you don't have to be a clairvoyant to notice the difference. It's just that from a certain point, the very space around you began to seem like an evil and unpleasantly screeching beast to you. I had missed this point during my wanderings, taking the light pressure of the environment as the norm of the new world, but after I visited the settled territories, it somehow became noticeable.

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 15:54

Except for me, only Hans, who had high perception and the right class, sensed this notorious "breath of evil. Losius and Taria sensed something, but too vague to say for sure. Hestia and Ygra sensed nothing at all but it was their home here, so everything is understandable. The phenomenon of "breathing" has no reflection in the Status, and cannot be analyzed or otherwise felt, but everyone who went on raids in these territories knows about it. The feeling that you are no longer at home, that you are now a stranger yourself, yourself no longer a hunter but a prey. Veteran adventurers and raiders simply ignore this pressure, getting used to it long ago, and those who haven't yet reached the right level - though it's different for everyone - simply don't notice it. It is also known that after a certain amount of time, from a day to a month, the pressure disappears until you go back to civilization, and then return to the wilderness.

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 15:58

But that's all lyricism.

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 15:58

If anyone should be afraid, it's not we. If I were monsters and other things, I would be afraid of our company myself, and I have every reason to be. High levels, dangerous classes, two legendary artifacts in the bag, and a full-fledged Hero in my guise for dessert. This list of trump cards is enough to drive another legend, if not kill it, then drive it away. It's not that we'll look for them intentionally, but I have to assume a possible encounter.

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 16:00

Obviously, we didn't stop, wanting to penetrate deeper into the white zone on the maps, so even if they spot us they wouldn't be able to reach us. At least not at once or suddenly. True, we now moved more slowly, more thoughtfully, giving time for proper rest and collection of reagents, and even farmed the occasionally encountered mutt. Most of them were goblins. The very edge of the wilderness - the monsters here are weak but numerous, and also a lot of common prey, which can pump even such a feeble as goblins are.

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 16:19

Hestia had a lot of fun here, during which she slowly crawled up to level thirteen, having closed her second racial talent. Now she needed to level up to the fifteenth and unlock a new one, preferably a useful one. The others, though they were pumping, were more in terms of coherence and trivial experience in dealing with weak and not-too-dangerous monsters. Even Taria had already outgrown the level of mere goblins, which she could slaughter by the dozens with only minimal precautions.

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 16:26

In general, we trained rather than pumped. Even I was actively joining in the training, assessing my new abilities. Especially useful and most notable was the emergence of precious control. The perception limits of the shadow sphere were now a death zone - any number of insufficiently strong opponents would simply die just by being within my senses. Creating more than a hundred shadow spears and pins at once? Easy! Track every living creature within a sphere and kill them all in one go? The light difficulty, no more, and if there are no particularly armored targets, no difficulty at all!

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 18:47

The limit of the subtlety of influence, as well as the plasticity of shadow techniques, has also increased, allowing me to create not just nets or clouds of needles from shadows but really complex constructions. A self-compressing net around a target inside a spiky ball wrapped in a stream of shadow power, where each drop would be a separate needle, and the balls themselves would be a dozen or so. Yes, it's very complicated even now, but I can create such an attack in a short enough time to use it in combat. And the power in such a punch is so powerful that even the really dangerous guys would get sad. Roche would probably have fought back, but he was more focused on the amount and type of energy invested than on the power of the blow, recycling my attacks into material for his use. But it would not have been easy for him to reflect and absorb such a flow, and the creature from the Edge, or rather its avatar, if not dead, would certainly have received a significant blow, after which it would be easy to finish it off.

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 18:52

So, control of my powers was the best thing I got out of this new crisis. There was no room or desire to practice my dreaming skills, but there would be time for that. But the shadowy power I had pumped up... I'm drooling! To check, I asked Losius to shoot me with the power of Heaven and was very pleased with himself. Satisfied how? Tired and not disappointed because to be satisfied after so many kicks are masochistic.

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 18:59

The simple shadow shields hold the Sky very poorly, though it's been easier since I've had more control. The multi-layered, waffle-cake-like barriers did the job, reducing Losius and me to an admirable one-to-one ratio, sometimes even skewed in my favor. Especially if I was able to discard the first layers of shadow barriers at the beginning, diverting the celestial power along with the top layers. But it's worth remembering that my connection to Shadow is much higher than Losius' connection to Sky, and if I were to fight a user of the same power but of a higher rank and grade, I would be sad and painful.

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 19:11

But the Aegis did not let me down, working to the best of my ability and feeding my paranoia in emergency mode. Well, I can't believe in a gift that gives bonuses but no negative consequences! Life has weaned me off forever. Aegis, on the other hand... well, it presses on the brain, and the longer you use it, the more you merge, the more powerful the pressure, but that's typical of The Shadow in general. I couldn't figure out exactly where the string was attached, but until I found it, I wouldn't rest.

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 19:14

The skill itself looked strange - like armor, tightly wrapped around my body in a monochromatic field. At a distance of about thirty or forty centimeters, all the colors began to fade to a dark gray hue. The body itself was, according to my companions, pure black and white, closer to black, unpleasantly reminding me of the effect of the fixed contract with The Shadow. There, too, my vision was fading... The Aegis activation was inextricably linked to the Gaze, making my vision very peculiar so I couldn't look at myself.

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 19:17

Each blow on the Aegis felt like a very cold wind blowing-unpleasant, but no more. There was no other sensation at all, which made you feel as if you were suspended in weightlessness or frozen in time. Each blow, according to the same Losius, made certain parts of the Aegis darken, becoming really black at the moment of maximum load. And on afterburner, when I activated the Aegis at full speed while simultaneously reinforcing the Form, I turned into a charcoal-black silhouette, seemingly flat due to the active light absorption.

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 19:19

I suppose it is this same afterburner that is the fine print that is bound to bite me in the ass in the future. In these moments, when I not only turn my body into a Shadow but also find myself suspended in weightlessness and emptiness, my body begins to feel a savage hunger and desire to take everything. To take feelings, memory, warmth, and joy - to take everything, to keep everything, to keep nothing. For the Shadows, such a worldview is taken for granted, but when combined with near-complete sensory deprivation, the pressure is much greater. If I hadn't increased my fusion with the Form and the intensity of the Aegis gradually, I could have gotten into trouble. But as it was, I just got in a bad mood.

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 19:23

Whether I've found a strings or something else, I have no idea, but I'm not going to lower my paranoia.

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 19:24

We crawl farther and farther away from the settled land, so I finally permit to examine the legendaries I brought from the Stone, which until then were kept in insulating containers, which were at the same time scabbards. Actually, finding such an artifact is, on the one hand, much easier, for in clairvoyance, they leave very noticeable traces. But it seems so only at first sight, though there is some truth in it.

Camrad_RIP 26.11.22 в 19:29

The legend of an artifact of the corresponding grade is too heavy and massive to be easily read. Trying to find an artifact, it is too easy to drown in that legend. Think about it, just imagine how many events, changes, stories, joyful victories, and bitter defeats this legend contains. Trying to feel this wave of events is possible, but getting out from under it is much more difficult. In principle, many visionaries could try, but it is to try. In order to do so, they need not simply decide, "Let's look for Valera... I mean, Valerium", but also to prepare the ground for this, and then to be able to catch not the legend, but the current position of the artifact. Difficult, very difficult, but still possible.

Camrad_RIP 27.11.22 в 19:48

I think if the visionaries of Melareth had known that these two artifacts had been stolen by us rather than dissolved into the Mist, I would have had to fend off another series of searching pulses. I would have managed by simply showing them the void in response, which would have made them think these artifacts had been destroyed, but it would have been difficult, I repeat it.

Camrad_RIP 27.11.22 в 19:49

In most cases, the search for really powerful artifacts, which are not additionally protected from search as well, is conducted by the "circles on the water" launched by the use of those artifacts. Exactly the use, the separately mentioned use, which happened quite recently and in the precisely marked point of reality, will be the sweetest clue. That is why I was wary of using or taking out trophy artifacts from their cases.

Camrad_RIP 27.11.22 в 19:51

Now, without rushing and without fear, I was finally able to properly "feel out" these trophies with my sense in order to make the necessary conclusions. I felt, understood, thought a lot, and even made a couple of far-reaching conclusions.

Camrad_RIP 27.11.22 в 20:02

Valerium, which is Valera, which is the spawn of the shit humor of the almighty System, and which was brazenly plagiarized by some dumb degenerate, well, Valerium was safe for us. I don't know how it was created, but the particle of chaos - or Chaos - that sits in it is so changeable that the trace of this weapon changes after almost every use.

Camrad_RIP 27.11.22 в 20:03

Maybe I could search for it with clairvoyance, but not the Melareth Seers, whose level I've already assessed. Unless another activation of the Shoreless Eye could do the trick, but they wouldn't let them activate it on such a shaky version! They'd done enough damage to the Eye when they'd transported the elite warriors through the portals, and they nearly burnt out the mythical artifact by trying to find our group of fugitives by relying on its power. And a third time to launch an already struggling structure? I don't think they would do that because without the Stone and the two Legendaries, Melaret is a formidable opponent for all of its neighbors, and even the bigger players can't destroy it without serious losses. And if they lose the Eye, they will lose the lion's share of their advantages, which brought them to their current position.

Camrad_RIP 27.11.22 в 20:15

In general, presumably - only presumably, but even this version is too shaky - they will not look for the stolen objects. At least because the probability of their disappearance in the misty clouds is much higher than the opposite.

Camrad_RIP 27.11.22 в 20:07

As much as I was pleased by the Valerium, I was equally disappointed by the Golden Needle, which is a battle sword of legendary grade. If the Valerium was hard to trace and virtually undetectable, this piece of iron, soaked by the Sun and the Sky to the very top of the throat and beyond, not only phoned, it phoned like the damn number four reactor and its sister, Fukushima. No, until you do not take it out of its sheath, it's normally hidden, but the activation of the abilities in it, like the laser beam that nearly cut through the Stone and damaged something in its guts, will immediately give off a flash on the radars.

Camrad_RIP 29.11.22 в 12:46

If no one will look deliberately, then nothing will happen, but with a deliberate and directed search... I'd just get tired of covering up every activation! Yes, with Dream's new skills I can hide the image of something from the clairvoyants. Yes, I'm overestimating the capabilities of these clairvoyants and the number of them, taking the maximum bar at once. But, damn it, I'm not going to risk it.

Camrad_RIP 29.11.22 в 12:47

That's why Losius now has the very sad look of a child who has just been deprived of his newly given computer because "you will only play on it, you'll ruin your eyesight, and in general, what if it explodes". I felt sorry for him, honestly. Fortunately, my broken descriptions - blind to deaf, as I have repeatedly said - the mechanics of clairvoyance were enough to convey my experiences. And here are all adults, and they know the concept of caution far better than I do.

Camrad_RIP 29.11.22 в 12:48

"So only in case of danger or in places where the eyes of the visionaries simply can't reach." I summed up with a wave of my hands. "After all, now you can beat most of your enemies to death with a regular stick. The new toy could be used against some particularly creepy creature, which I'm sure we'll encounter, my friend."

Camrad_RIP 29.11.22 в 12:50

"T-i-i-i-i-i-i-n!" Losius either growled or sobbed. "You have a fantastic, astonishing ability to horrify the hell out of me with your attempts to soothe and comfort."

Camrad_RIP 29.11.22 в 12:51

"I don't have a fucking doubt in my mind right now that we're bound to meet some powerful creature." Hans goes in without even flinching from my prophecies. "It's a fucking wilderness! There are all kinds of shit out here, and I still think I'm crazy for seriously considering hiding out here. It's worse than hiding from a flood in a burning chapel!"

Camrad_RIP 29.11.22 в 12:56

"And now you say it like you know what you're talking about!" Taria got up, smelling the fresh gossip. "Come on, tell me, where have you been hiding in the burning temples?"

Camrad_RIP 29.11.22 в 12:56

"What's the big deal." The tracker hesitated, clearly wanting to bite down on a long tongue, but he wouldn't give up the story.

Camrad_RIP 29.11.22 в 12:57

"A spring flood caught me and my boys in the field. We were young. We were very edge, even though we had only crawled out from under our mother's skirt. Well, we hid in the old chapel abandoned by our grandfathers. We were sitting, and Tashan, the eldest of us, found a pipe and a sack of tobacco from grandfather Mahas. His granny didn't let him smoke it, but he must have been running there after fishing to get a good smoke. Well, we decided that we were grown-ups, we had mustaches, and we could smell the smoke. Only it was not tobacco, but some kind of stuff poisonous and evil. Visions began ceilings with hands, eyes on the walls, and all that. Someone foolishly threw the charcoal burner over the place. We stepped away from the parish, and look, we're fucking on fire, and there's fish in the sea. There was a flood below and flames above, and we were between them, dragging an old bucket, and trying to put the fire down. It was a miracle we survived, and then we got a scolding from our elders for the burned chapel. Stop laughing like a horse!"

Camrad_RIP 29.11.22 в 13:51

Not everyone laughed, for Ygra was just asleep, not caring about our negotiations, and Hestia didn't like to laugh at all, but the rest of us managed for the five of us. In the end, having calmed down, we rested our tired bellies, which had already begun to ache from laughter. It was just nerves or something, but there was such laughter that even some strange beast came out to our parking lot. I choked him quietly with the shadows and dragged him into a small hole, sending him to The Shadow for permanent residence. No one will spoil the idyll here, even if it has two horns and a scorpion's tail!

Camrad_RIP 29.11.22 в 13:54

"What a little brat with a viper's temper!" Hans spoke out, even if it wasn't angry. "You'll have to answer for your jokes and pranks someday, you little girl."

Camrad_RIP 29.11.22 в 14:48

"I'm the little one?" Taria was indignant, and then she wrapped up a phrase she'd overheard somewhere. "I'm a girl? You don't have to humiliate me because I'm a mature, full-fledged individual with an established worldview and character."

Camrad_RIP 29.11.22 в 14:49

"Wasn't that "full-fledged person" just last night stealing candy from the emergency stockpile!" Hans replies caustically, hiding a smirk in his mustache.

Camrad_RIP 29.11.22 в 14:50

"You've been smuggling them, too, so don't blah!" She was even more indignant, embarrassed only for a second. "I'm sure because I couldn't eat that many, not even if I burst!"

Camrad_RIP 29.11.22 в 14:51

"Yes, I did." The man obediently agreed, immediately going on the offensive. "But I did it quietly, and you woke everyone with your rustling, you little trifle!"

Camrad_RIP 29.11.22 в 14:53

The dispute continued, dragging even Losius into its maelstrom, who tried to quietly live until some of the vanished candied fruits were blamed for his actions while Hestia only silently watched this mess from somewhere above. I could tell, without clairvoyance, what she was thinking, even if her misty face remained as impassive as ever.

Camrad_RIP 29.11.22 в 14:59

If even these clowns really managed to take down Stone while slaughtering the entire elite garrison, then Melareth, and the rest of the world, really don't stand a chance.

Camrad_RIP 29.11.22 в 15:02

"No, no! I won't take that crap, don't even ask for it." The tracker refused to own a revolver, not even trying to get his hands on a legendary artifact. "Even a bow is not my primary weapon, no matter what you think. And I have to learn how to use this machine all over again because I've only seen lead fires in pictures and only from a distance. This thing will do much better for small things, especially since there is much more in common between a crossbow and an arrow than between an arrow and a bow."

Camrad_RIP 29.11.22 в 15:03

I shifted my gaze to Taria, who was holding the Valerium in her hands right now, clearly trying to drill a hole in it with her gaze. It wasn't that she wanted to own the thing so badly, but she certainly didn't mind it. Except, the prospect of practicing wielding it until she collapsed and a little afterward didn't inspire her one bit. Hans or even I could help her with the daggers - although her skill level was already adequate - she'd have to handle the gun herself. I'd only seen them in the movies and pictures, and I was lucky to get out of the army for health reasons (inflammation of cunningness is a serious disease, isn't it?). Now, here, a little regret because there at least learned to peel potatoes, which I still do a shitty job, despite all my dexterity. Like a curse, honestly.

Camrad_RIP 29.11.22 в 14:45

"The shots will call the creatures out," Hestia murmured from above, just to remind us of this factor. "And there's a lot of things that can visit here."

Camrad_RIP 29.11.22 в 14:46

"Then it will be the problems of the creatures who came, not ours," Losius suggested logically. "Most of the really powerful monsters don't just walk through the woods. Most of them could easily be wiped out by us, even without the presence of Tin, for whom the legend isn't an insurmountable problem."

Camrad_RIP 29.11.22 в 14:35

"You overestimate me." I clarify, just in case, to avoid misunderstandings. "Even for me, a legendary scum would give trouble if it struck suddenly and had inconvenient properties. And it's axiomatic that legends have them."

Camrad_RIP 29.11.22 в 14:33

"I'm sorry, Tin, but the statistics of your meetings with legends do not speak in their favor." The aristocrat countered with a smile. "In all seriousness, we'll certainly be wary, and we'll be ready. But most of what this terrain spews out at us won't be deadly, after all. I hope not. I really do. I just really hope so, Tin. So let's not, for laughs, go looking for another adventure, okay?"

Camrad_RIP 29.11.22 в 14:26

The most offending thing was that with that last phrase, everyone looked at me in sync, even the awakened Ygra! And they were really sure that I could just do it for fun, to have another fight with some shit, changing the landscape of the surrounding forest and generally interfering with the quiet rest in the wilderness. I felt kind of bad for myself! As if I'd given them a reason to feel that way... too many times.

Camrad_RIP 29.11.22 в 14:25

Valerium is a force that cannot be underestimated. Both Taria and I agreed, and even an enviously whistling Hans, who was assessing the effects of Taria's training on the surrounding landscape. All joking aside, this artifact was indeed a very unpleasant thing for anyone, even if it did have its drawbacks.

Camrad_RIP 27.11.22 в 06:15

The projectile of pure chaos it released was a perfect weapon, truly perfect. The moment it struck the surface of something, the substance, difficult to discern even with my perception, took the shape and elemental aspect that was guaranteed to do the most damage to the thing, entity, or matter it struck. Trees were burned by some subtype of flame attack, rocks were crushed by corrosion or lightning, beasts were killed by the purest necrosis or the same flame, and water was simply vaporized or turned to ice. The more powerful targets, like the increasingly noisy monsters, took damage with the very force they liked the least. The result was an extremely unpleasant hit, guaranteed to kill - or at least wound - anything below twenty.

Camrad_RIP 29.11.22 в 14:21