Настучать в бубен / Hit the tambourine: Глава 9

Глава 9

Camrad_RIP 07.05.24 в 12:06

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Camrad_RIP 07.05.24 в 12:06

The new talents turned out to be quite massive in terms of knowledge, but they were of no use right here and now. Working with sources, of course, was a very strong trump card, capable of strengthening any other knowledge through connections with the same source. Literally any kind of knowledge, from healing to curses, from combat call to cunning spells, just have the right support on the source and try to fully utilize its borrowed power. The problem, as usual, is in the realization. In order to add strength in such a cunning way, you need, surprise, have access to a source of magic, preferably cultivated, powerful, suitable to your aura and such, for connection and suction from which evil owners will not come to give you a slap on the face. Stepan was a stranger to this world, but even he realized that local mages had long ago divided all the normal sources near cities and towers, perhaps having built these cities and towers just for the sake of these sources.

Camrad_RIP 08.05.24 в 18:34

He and other such vagabonds were left with only such small sub-sources in the wilderness, which could be contaminated and therefore dangerous if used for a long time. Only apprentices, very weak adepts, and users of the system benefit from them. Especially the latter. For untrained novice magicians, such a connection can ruin the gift, crippling or simply imbalanced aura in the process of feeding, blocking most of the paths of development. The same sources, located in the backwoods, have power, cultivated to a sufficient extent, stable in themselves, and not occupied by all sorts of humans or elves - also have masters. Like that scary moose. He wonders if a posessed animal can defeat half a hundred guards in battle or not. If not in a direct head-on collision, but at the expense of the tactics of fight-and-run, he could quite well, as it seemed to the Earthling.

Camrad_RIP 08.05.24 в 18:40

With regard to contractual techniques, his opinion was somewhat different. It was this knowledge that allowed for a much more reliable conclusion of contracts, which was very important in the formation of a personal spiritual retinue. Again, the knowledge itself was not only about making deals, creating contractual anchors - by the way, they could also be adjusted for human use, the principle being quite similar - or ways to punish a violator, but also about the bargaining process, the ability to set conditions or reduce the demands of an insolent spirit to a tolerable level. In contacts with entities like this moose, Stepan could use such knowledge much more than combat skills. In fact, it was his ability to dialog and bargain that allowed that meeting to be resolved peacefully and without blood and bitten-off limbs. Stepan was not sure of his victory over such a creature, even if he had little doubt in his ability to at least seriously wound it before he died. But he could hardly be comforted by the fact that the killer would follow him a couple of weeks later.

Camrad_RIP 08.05.24 в 18:50

So the young man left the source with a quick step. He was in no hurry to let go of the fighting spirits, feeding them with portions of strength, and when he did get far enough away, he invested in defense instead of standard precautions. He fed the totems with additional power, created a duplicate signal network of watch spirits and a guard line, and there were two of them, and the second one was deliberately drawn much less noticeably than the first, and he did not go to sleep, sinking into a trance and continuously replenishing the reserve. All night long he had been feeding five very specific spirits that would, as the young man believed, attack the bond between the spirit and his meat body. And still, in spite of all the prepared means, he did not feel confident, remembering now and then how the moose came out from behind the tree completely silently and invisibly to all the senses of Stepan and his spirits. It was just as if a tank had crawled out from behind a corner in the pure Belarusian steppe. Only in reality, did such an anecdote turn out to be not funny at all.

Camrad_RIP 09.05.24 в 06:19

In the morning, having gathered all the power left in his circuits, the guy was even faster to break the distance between himself and the hunting grounds of the spirit-beast unable to move too far away from his stone. Even though no attacks happened, stealth moose did not come out from under a bush to bite the Earthman casting near those bushes for balls. The fugitive calmed down only on the third day though. He slightly reduced the intensity of defensive preparations. He had gotten a lot of experience for such preparations, though not as much as he had gotten for the negotiation process and the work with the altar. One way or another, but the scale of transition to the lucky thirteenth level, also called the damn dozen, was almost one-third full and growing little by little. Stepan tried not to stop this growth. Now and then he changed something in routine calls or tried to improve them in some way, and it also brought some results - apparently the system evaluated the novelty and effort, although it was very difficult to notice and track the difference in experience gain. Because of this, he was so annoyed by the lack of a digital display of the scale. It pissed him off, but there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn't play with a calculator. If there was a way to reduce everything to a digital roach, it was hidden among the meta-skills, and no matter how much of a fan of classic Lit RPGs the young man was, he was not going to spend his honestly earned talents on such bullshit.

Camrad_RIP 09.05.24 в 06:35

At the next camp, the young man was able to finalize the idea he had come up with after acquiring the contract skill - the creation of a one-time contract amulet that would work on people too. A small round stone, on which the lines of the magic sign, drawn with his own blood, are clearly visible. And if you make a deal with some clever villager, certifying it on this stone, then the fulfillment of this deal will be monitored by a very specific spirit that keeps the contract itself. It is a very unusual entity. It begins to exist from the moment the deal is sealed, before that being an unformed idea-aspiration, a pure conception of the spiritual spheres. And, if the deal is kept, then such a strange spirit will silently and quietly disperse and disintegrate into its former state to appear as a new spirit and a new plan somewhere else. But if the deal is broken everything is more funny, yes.

Camrad_RIP 09.05.24 в 06:43

At the conclusion of a contract, this entity receives, at the expense of the same contract, power over a part of the subtle bodies of the one who concluded it, limited by the terms of the deal, but supported by the spiritual plane itself. In violation of the deal, the spirit will also disappear, but together with everything it has power over, having torn the mentioned part of thin bodies. Such a thing will kill only a very sick individual or just an old man, but to seriously deteriorate health - it is easy. You can change the configuration and make the deal more or less lethal, but in this particular case, Stepan went for maximum reliability.

Camrad_RIP 09.05.24 в 06:48

However, this was not some breakthrough technology of higher magic. Similar contracts exist in classical magic, and a strong and experienced adept could easily block the rollback from such a violation, preventing the spirit from causing harm. And the apprentice, if clever and prepared, drawing a ritual or even trying to try the principle of semblance to reduce the damage to a random slave or even a sheep, will easily avoid problems. That is the amulet created by Stepan was, of course, a marketable commodity. It was quite reliable, capable of a couple of years minimum just to stay on the shelf, and the transaction itself will be tracked by the spirit for about a year. But it wasn't a breakthrough in the local magical science because of the presence of a large number of analogs. It could be sold for silver, but not for gold. And there would be problems with the sale too because the young man did not even doubt that such goods were regulated by any sensible authorities, or it would turn out that they were no longer the authorities, and their subjects were not theirs at all, and they owed unknown creditors two halves of the kingdom, the ass of a beautiful princess and no less beautiful prince, as well as their crown, scepter, and soul.

Camrad_RIP 09.05.24 в 06:59

The creation of the pebble brought a lot of experience. He repeated the experience a few more times, inflicting a few cuts, which he healed without leaving any scars. He played with the properties, conditions, and duration of the amulet, or even the possibility of using it as a conduit for a more complicated curse. And, judging by the fact that he managed not to create a ready-made prototype, but to guess approximately how to pull off such a trick, then at the conclusion of any contract will have to be very careful not only to the vague terms and ambiguous footnotes, but also to the magic structure of the contract. Although let's be honest, Stepan would only sign such contracts with local bosses if a hot demon poker or a mithril pitchfork were brought to his naked ass.

Camrad_RIP 09.05.24 в 07:03

"Eh, maybe I was wrong not to go to law school...." He said, only to answer himself a moment later. "No, no, it wasn't a mistake at all. Fuck lawyers."

Camrad_RIP 09.05.24 в 07:04

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Camrad_RIP 09.05.24 в 11:31

The landscape surrounding the shaman-traveler, only that his name was not Dora, was gradually changing. The swamps disappeared, and the overall density of the forest decreased, more and more often there were glades or whole areas of grass and bushes-covered fields, although there were even more ravines, and hills became more frequent. He liked the terrain much better, simply because of its novelty. Although protection from rain and bad weather was more and more difficult and expensive to put up, the nights were not getting warmer either. The sheer number of snakes, poisonous insects, and bites, which were only slightly less than near the swamps, forced the creation of new, more advanced repellent totems to eliminate the hissing and crawling problem. One particularly magical snake of a strange blue-purple speckled coloring, which stood out not only by the color of the scales, but also by the brightness of a fully developed aura, Stepan cynically caught, using the skills of a shaman-tramp from the relevant block of knowledge, and then decanted all the available poison and released.

Camrad_RIP 09.05.24 в 11:38

Then, remembering that snakes' venom took a long time to recover, so he could condemn a beast that had done nothing to him (apart from trying to bite his ass while sitting on a sun-warmed rock) to starvation, he caught up with it, pumped its aura with magic reserve, summoned a specific spirit with the help of a successfully available call, which would have to replenish the poison within twenty-four hours, and then let it go again. He still didn't have the skills of druidism or animal master, though he could do something in this direction, from the skills related to shamanism, it seemed to Stepan that there was something profane in the snake's farewell hiss.

Camrad_RIP 09.05.24 в 11:40

The system assignments were nice in that they were mostly doable, although there were some strange ones, like the assignment to plant small spirits in small animals. Experience, increasing the efficiency of the spiritual transformation, a little affinity with spheres, and a lot of animal corpses. At first, Stepan's manipulations killed the poor mice a little bit, and the first mouse, when he had not yet dosed the power, and the spirit he chose was not quite so small, was an explosion. Bloody, yes. The mouse was torn apart as if it were a hamster and not a water-type spirit, but a liter of nicotine was poured into it. Spirit suddenly evolved spontaneously. There was no way in hell it could be repeated. Isekai even made a pact with the spirit grateful to him for such a gift, sacrifice, and growth in strength. He was stuck in one of the cells of the rosary. When affecting a living creature a blood-water spirit could not let the blood stop even from a small scratch. The property is frankly weak, and it is easy to remove the impact, and on a strong aura it will not work, but the young man was interested in the process of evolution of the spirit. He understood something about it, but only distant fragments of knowledge, he did not have a full-fledged line of talent of this kind. The attempt to repeat the success, by the way, did not bring any results, except for the genocide of rodents, but at least he got the hang of supplanting, at the end he was sent back to the big world three slightly grown up mice with entities planted in them.

Camrad_RIP 10.05.24 в 22:17

Another assignment was to conduct a specific call of a fertile type, only of a darker orientation: it was necessary to make a small grove of slightly magical trees (nothing extraordinary, but their wood is a bit more expensive than usual species due to their lightness and strength) more wild, overgrown and united into one small forest area in spiritual terms. In fact, the creation-calling of a full-fledged guardian spirit that quite difficult and even somewhere risky, but with the mark of the roots and the same mark of the spiritual realms, he could afford the risk simply because there was no risk just for him. In the end, Stepan completed the call, although he got sweating as if he was carrying sacks of contraband on the border. The experience was quite noticeable, the affinity with the natural sphere was raised, and the reserve was replenished almost to the brim due to the feedback from the grove. The resulting spirit was strong and obedient enough. Now the young man could seek shelter in these trees at any time. He would be sheltered. Well, if he was really going to stay here and not go on his way, but he remembered the fact, so that he could use such knowledge, wouldn't he?

Camrad_RIP 10.05.24 в 22:35

The most memorable was, however, the last assignment, although it was also not related to Autogodess but remembered by another material reward: a full-fledged and very high-quality totem, in which sits a contracted spirit of a protective type, capable of creating quite effective protective circuits and repulsive fields against all sorts of dark, hungry and evil devils. And the spirit, which especially pleased Stepan, was light, sunny even - born from the rays of a warm summer day, absorbed the purity of this light, he was of little use even against frankly weak elemental spirits, but if he had such a totem during the battle with the Lanternman, the battle would have ended almost instantly. For the sake of something as fun as shining a light on a dead man's face, this spirit would easily abandon the totem. Stepan, a little tired of the constant contact and communication with mostly evil and dark entities, was genuinely pleased with this assignment.

Camrad_RIP 11.05.24 в 06:21

For the sake of accomplishing the assignment, he had to work hard, because the root mark was useless in this case. If it were not for the class-system balance, allowing not to ruin the relationship with the spirits of opposite and conflicting spheres (if you do not ruin this balance yourself with specific properties), granted when choosing the appropriate class on the first day, it would be quite a hindrance. And so at least there were no obstacles, only the lack of bonuses and pluses. He had to do everything himself, not relying on reinforcements, if you do not count the mark of the spheres (and let's be honest, it had to be counted, for it is also a great help). Undressed, which made him feel very foolish, even though there were no witnesses around, Stepan stood on the top of a gentle hill all day, from the very dawn, absorbing the sun's rays with his whole spiritual body. This time he did not form a third arm, but created a kind of spiritual flesh-aura cover over the entire surface of his body. It wasn't a defensive technique, although it was something he could try, even on the contrary - in such a state it was easier to cripple and damage this very spiritual body.

Camrad_RIP 11.05.24 в 06:25

But it was the perfect filter for light rays, allowing him to pick out the right spirits, summon them, and bind them with a contract. From the outside, it must have been amusing to watch the flickering rays of sunlight slowly accumulate around the naked guy, gathering into a full-fledged halo that on Earth could be used to cosplay, if not Jesus himself, then at least an angel of the Lord. This halo was eventually - which was getting close to sunset - crumpled into a big glowing orange, and then the glowing ball flashed brightly and illuminated the whole neighborhood with a very pure light. For the next couple of months on this hill and another three hundred meters from the epicenter of the flash the usual tools of invisibility will fail or will not work at all, spells or other abilities ranked higher will consume much more power. Not a bad way to deal with uninvited guests, frankly. If he ever decided to start earning money by creating magical alarms, this offer would have to be included in the price list.

Camrad_RIP 11.05.24 в 06:27

The totem appeared out of the void right in front of his eyes, standing on the autumn grass before the eyes of a young man who was freezing to the bone, frantically casting a warm wind on himself and pulling on his clothes with stiff fingers. The totem looked, to put it mildly, much more beautiful than Stepan's own handicrafts: elbow-length and as wide as his wrist, this small pillar was carved from snow-white wood, on which the same wood pattern was barely visible. But the usual carved patterns, decorating the product, but at the same time carrying a very significant meaning, covered this log with a continuous carpet. Sitting in a totem spirit was strong, and the post itself was a thing on the verge of being a master artifact, even if it did not reach such a bar. Ironic, perhaps, that the strongest spirit at his constant disposal, rather than one-time summons, was a light blesser - capable of destroying undead and darkness, casting out curses, or boosting his overall health. Ironic because most of the completed tasks and the most powerful servants in Stepan's retinue came primarily from the elemental, natural, and dark spheres.

Camrad_RIP 11.05.24 в 06:39

It was even more ironic that this particular spirit was of little use in battle, unless, of course, it was against a necromancer who had come to fight with a crowd of inferior undead under his control, with whom he had bound himself by threads of power. It was as if the world was urging him, Stepan, to go back to that unfortunate town, Fantrel, and visit the honorable maestro Rumorias Krellb. No, not even to visit him himself, but to send a spirit from the totem ahead of him, having smoked the totem with incense and other ways to temporarily strengthen the spirit, putting all Stepan's and spirit strength into one blow. The necromancer might not be killed but he would certainly be fried to a painful scream, and all his workshop, blanks, and tools, which were sharpened for the dead, would become unusable. But he kept the pleasant thoughts from him, for he was not going to return anyway.

Camrad_RIP 11.05.24 в 06:44

Not shortly for sure.

Camrad_RIP 11.05.24 в 06:45

As if as a reward for his diligence and willingness to put petty and not-so-petty grudges behind him, it wasn't long before he reached a damn dozen levels and got the coveted up. The event happened during another conflict with a vicious beast resembling a dog covered in hedgehog needles. The creature was definitely unnatural, but no control circuits could be found in it, so if it was someone's magical experiment, it was clearly derelict, having roamed the wilderness long ago. The beast managed to frighten first with the standard horror effect, but not for long. All the time flying near the spirits scouts noticed that the beast that came to its senses after a portion of paralyzing fear began to follow the man, and there was nothing good in that pursuit, only hungry. The creature apparently smelled the magic-soaked meat and was hungry for it, very hungry, and too dumb to seriously realize the futility of the venture. No, in theory, it could have waited until night and attacked the sleeping man, but Stepan hadn't been walking through these woods without reconnaissance for a long time. He always went to sleep in a protective circle, and it was quite difficult to miss a beast that wasn't trying to hide in his spiritual and magical vision.

Camrad_RIP 11.05.24 в 07:10

Sighing, not wanting to look around all the time, the young man stopped, dropped his knapsack to the ground, reached for one of his bracelets with his will, and clapped his hands audibly, as if he had practiced such a gesture for half a lifetime. From the outside, perhaps, the gesture was not graceful, but a kind of primal grace, as was the body that stepped sharply on the spot and stomped on the ground, the work of the legs and the slightly slouched back. The power that passed through his aura created a call, and those whom he had summoned showed up, and it was over. Two lightning strikes, the first weaker to disrupt his step and paralyze him, and the second with an investment of strength, and that was the end of the annoying and insolent beast's life.

Camrad_RIP 11.05.24 в 07:12

Stepan came closer and looked at the slightly smoking body, the needle cover on its scruff had torn off and exposed the flesh, thinking about whether he should cut out parts of the corpse or sacrifice the whole body at once. The beast, though magical, was not valuable, no real useful things could be taken from it, not even fangs and claws, its knowledge base, after scanning and probing, rated only slightly better than a normal wolf's. The system message, as well as the voice from Madame Milftrescu caused a feeble smile and a slight sympathy for the already dead creature, which at the cost of his life selflessly pumped up the isekai to a step higher.

Camrad_RIP 11.05.24 в 07:15

Received: “depraved development I”, “depraved development II”.

Camrad_RIP 11.05.24 в 07:15

Talents gained are added to the overall Player status.

Camrad_RIP 11.05.24 в 07:16

A goddess in her style, giving you double the meta-skill at once, allowing you to increase your experience from any action of a lewd nature. It didn't matter whether it was a luxurious debauchery in Sultan's harem with three dozen beauties at once or a dirty shag with a cheap whore in an alley - experience would give both though, quite different amounts of it. The first option right now could help Stepan pump up at least a dozen levels, and the second would only give experience for a little more than five killed beasts, like this one recently. But in general, the property is not completely useless, because the experience gain coefficient of this gift is much higher than that of the same peaceful development, very noticeably higher. So high that if Stepan had a lot of money and an elite brothel in walking distance, he would inevitably think about it. Also, any lewd actions, including masturbation or even just fantasies and lewd thoughts, if they turn out to be vivid enough, give a boost. And yes, fantasizing about the Autogodess was a good way to work the skill. Such a way to gain experience for the necessary level, while not straining above the necessary with all sorts of complex calls. Pumping for the very lazy, of course, but in case of knowing that a successful night will bring not only pleasure but also experience - it's not so bad if you think about it.

Camrad_RIP 11.05.24 в 07:22

The young man who had been pondering his future actions for a long time was back to thinking, even though he had made his decision somewhat in advance. Once again, he did not increase his call practice or combat calls. Although both were necessary he had to develop them to the current maximum limited by the characteristics. But this time, inspired by his success in the field of assignments and, especially, working with the spirits of sunlight, he chose something different, opting for a trait rather than knowledge. The Autogoddess' initial gift of a “tiny mark of the spiritual spheres” was replaced by a “small mark of the spiritual spheres”, but without the “gift” addendum, which pleased him even more than the promotion itself. This mark, even a small one, was clearly not an ordinary property, because he had not met it in the list of available options, but now, after taking the tenth level, it could be freely promoted. Strengthening the connection and authority of spirits of absolutely any direction, to the point that even the smallest of them were willing to work, if not for free, then for promises, while trying to help, agreeing to contracts without bargaining and long dances with a tambourine, even if only figurative.

Camrad_RIP 11.05.24 в 07:26

The price for this was a twisting aura cramp as if a rough tongue or a sharp blade had been swiped across his entire subtle and spiritual body, all at once and at the same time. Yes, for his current level, a small mark is a limit of development, very close to his current maximum. That's why it was unexpectedly difficult to undergo the transformation, the comparative weakness of the aura, on which hung such a valuable property. In essence, such a mark modifies not the shells of the gifted, but imprints on them the “credit history” of the shaman, like the mark of roots, but with a much wider coverage of available areas. Still, it was not very pleasant to see such a massive mark on one's spirit, “there is a great authority and an important person in front of you”, to put it mildly. He felt very irritated, like a snake shedding its skin and getting furious, or like a flea-bitten dog that had been bitten where it couldn't even scratch.

Camrad_RIP 11.05.24 в 07:34

He rested for two long hours, only after he had fully recovered to get on his feet and continue his journey, having previously sacrificed to the spirits the most alluring parts of slain spike-dog - mainly the guts and the brain - and before his eyes, he saw trees, trees, bushes, trees, hills, trees, ravines, trees, trees and, of course, trees. Despite all possible affinity with nature, despite the young man had changed his perception of reality through regular communication with spirits, despite his hardened character and spirit, he still began to hate the forests.

Camrad_RIP 11.05.24 в 07:37

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Camrad_RIP 09.05.24 в 11:32

The village appeared suddenly. As soon as he left the forest and climbed up the hill, he saw it immediately, and at the same time, he saw the river. The river was a wow, three hundred meters wide, no less, and the water was almost black. It shivered from the shrill wind. The scenery was so beautiful and, what shocked him much more, so different from the forest scenery, that for a while the young man just froze and stood there, smiling a stupid smile. Then he reminded himself of his past encounters with people and visits to settlements, forcing himself to become serious again and ready for the seemingly inevitable problems. It was still a couple of kilometers minimum to the village huts, most of which were covered by a pretty good wooden wall, albeit dilapidated, but from here he could tell that this was a good, prosperous place. Beautiful houses, most of which were located closer to the river, fishing piers and boats, as well as a high shore, protecting from spring floods (which made it necessary to dig a piece of the cliff for the pier, so there was a place to pull the boat). There should be no problems with fish here, it is a fact, and a small pier, obviously not made for fishing boats, hinted at the fact that water caravans could stop here and buy food or sell something of their own. It was a good place to live, nothing to say, but if someone evil decided to come along the same river to rob, it would be difficult to fight back, because from that side there was almost no defense, only to lock themselves in the huts, but when and where did it ever help?

Camrad_RIP 11.05.24 в 12:57

Stepan walked easily and bouncy, the full reserve and the spirit planted in his body, which was very strong, allowed him to start from a place no worse than Olympic champions, and the toughness of his skin and body had also increased. In systemic terms, the planted spirit temporarily raised the bodily strength not lower than three, and at the afterburner all five. Though burning not only the reserve but also life and blood. Of course, such over-insurance might seem too excessive, but, damn, there wasn't a single village where Stepan wouldn't find problems, so he decided not to wait for confirmation of the trend. Especially since in the gentle mode, the spirit showed almost no sign of itself, except for the slightly sharpened facial features, which were still human and not too scary, without the ominous valley. The latter, of course, was not a consequence of the sub-settler's caution, but of his intentional influence on himself and the spirit with his own spirit, the very transformation that leveled the effect on his appearance. Without this feature, the face would have acquired unmistakably unpleasant and inhuman features, and the eyes would have lit up like a cat's.

Camrad_RIP 11.05.24 в 13:00

The recent increase in the level and development of the once-given property led to the fact that any actions of a call nature became noticeably easier to work with, including the planting of spirits in oneself. They did not stop harming accidentally, just from the awkwardness of being in a material body, but they almost stopped deliberately pulling the leash and testing the shaman's patience. This particular spirit did. Otherwise, Stepan wouldn't have planted it in himself for such an important task as making a first impression, limiting himself to something weaker and more modest in his demands. After all, this one would still have to be fed roast meat while he was in his body, if not today, then during the moon. He was not averse to a kebab, so he and the spirit reached a consensus close to absolute.

Camrad_RIP 11.05.24 в 13:04

The closer he got to the village, the more he began to think that he had prepared the spirit for a reason, because there was something wrong with the village. He could hear no children's cries and saw almost no people, and even no working people, which made him think of abandoning his original plans and going back to the forest. He was ready for anything, he thought. For the village being overrun by cunning and sneaky brigands, or evil cultists of the evil demonic demons that were now maliciously demonizing. To the fact that they had everyone there drunk on the funeral of the headman's mother-in-law and now they're just hungover and taking the day off. That some undead had killed everyone there, and now he had to play the role of Ash from Evil Dead. The variants were invented one after another worse, but the spirits sent on reconnaissance did not find traces of suspicious and dangerous magic, as well as did not meet the crowds of armed evil-doers, sitting in barns and waiting for the naive shaman to visit.

Camrad_RIP 08.05.24 в 17:23

In fact, there was an epidemic in the village and it was not about a rock band straight from Earth.

Camrad_RIP 08.05.24 в 17:26

“Fros, the fool, bastard, took out of Dantra an oak barrel. A good one, even with a pattern, this one, the enchanted one, covered, with wax seals, so.” The local headman, or rather his substitute told him, because the main headman and the father of this guy, only a few years older than Stepan, could hardly walk now. “And he, the fool, had to calculate that these seals were, well, wine seals, like on barrels of liquor. He gathered the whole village and promised to pour a drink for everyone, even the kids came to look. But when he opened the lid, a terrible stench and some dust, bad dust, came out. Fros was the first to die by evening, together with his brother, Tum, and all those who were on the square fell sick, completely sick. All of them."

Camrad_RIP 08.05.24 в 17:37

If the lad's words were to be believed, it wasn't too contagious, and most of those who had been absent for various reasons from the village feast - the engagement of the headman's daughter and the blacksmith's son - hadn't gotten sick, even if they had been nursing the sick, but a couple of them seemed to have caught colds. The problem was that among the inhabitants of the Upper Ladys, there were almost everyone in that square. Those who remained were barely enough to at least throw food to the cattle, and to take care of their relatives and neighbors, but it was agony because they were not getting any better. Fever, vomiting, lack of appetite, strong diarrhea in case of something to eat, dehydration derived from these factors, as well as a wild cough - these were the symptoms.

Camrad_RIP 08.05.24 в 17:48

The first five died on the first night, simply suffocating in their own vomit and foam from their mouths. Another dozen died by the end of the second day from dehydration, most likely by shitting themselves bloody and dead. After that, the corpses began to appear less, and over the next three days only six died, five of them children. Stepan thought that it was not so much a contagion as some kind of poison that had been smuggled in that barrel and simply thrown away when they ran into a patrol. Taram shared his opinion, but what good was it to him if the village was likely to die out, and the messengers had not yet returned. Baron Ferdinal prefers to spend his time in Dantmark, while here, at most, his steward keeps order. While the news would reach him, while he would think whether the lord should be disturbed, while Lord himself would think whether he should be disturbed ... Under normal circumstances, this situation suited both the villagers and everyone else, because it was possible to give a smaller tax and a little less tax, - Taram did not say this himself, Stepan extrapolated from his words - but in the case of an unexpected disaster and epidemiological threat, it was not nice.

Camrad_RIP 08.05.24 в 18:25

“I'm going to ask you in a simple way.” The villager bowed to the waist and unmistakably guessed the gifted man in him, which was not difficult, given the necklace hanging over his clothes, the two bracelets, and the rosary beads clutched in his hand, and voiced his request. “I don't have enough money to pay the whole village for treatment. I still have enough for my family and neighbors, and no more, I won't lie. Yes, if a thrifty villager boasts, he has two more in his pocket, but really there is no money. We invested everything in the harvest, my father made up his mind. He persuaded everyone for three years to buy enchanted grain. And now there's no one to harvest the crops. I beg, I pray, your magician, at least one man per family, if you can. Otherwise, if the tax is collected in full, and they never forget to collect it, it means. If they do, there won't be any left for sowing, you know.

Camrad_RIP 11.05.24 в 13:24

This actor was still understating the money issue, or even whistling, though he was telling the truth that he didn't have enough. He had a cache for a very extreme case, no other way, and that was only for him. The shaman began to ask further questions, but the main problem did not change - the villagers were in bad shape, only half of them would live till the arrival of healers or priests from the nearest town, the harvest would be lost, the payment of tax would wipe out the reserves, and then the village would have to crawl out of debts for a couple of generations, and it would not be prosperous at all. Stepan didn't give a damn about economic issues, even the fact that the local governor on behalf of the baron traditionally didn't care about obligatory tax breaks caused by famine, disasters, robbery raids, or epidemics. But the people, especially the children, were pitiful, simply and humanly pitiful. That's all.

Camrad_RIP 11.05.24 в 13:26

The stingy practicality demonstrated by this hereditary greedy man was also sickening, and he wanted to kick him in the leg like a barbarian. And there was no pain when he said to raise men to their feet first of all, at least one for a house. New children will be born, and a wife or a widow can also be found for a strong household, but if there is no man-feeder and the main plowman, it's minus a homestead, and fewer homesteads, worse for the village, and therefore for the headman. No, with his mind, he understood his interlocutor, the tactics of survival were chosen more than just right, but from his “Children will die, it happens, but you will save the household”, something inwardly scratched, so much so that he wanted to do something bad to this Darwinist. The village savior-economist, unaware of the threat hanging over him, continued to agitate for the help of a stray magician seemingly really desperate to solve the problems somehow. Because it's dangerous to show weakness like that, no matter what kind of magician and how he would use such weakness, or even just bring some brigands. This understanding glimmered on the very surface of Taram's words, and Stepan's spirits picked up all these fears with ease. The more obvious understanding was that the man was deliberately trying to make him feel sorry for him, seeing as he was still young and, perhaps, not too beaten by life.

Camrad_RIP 11.05.24 в 13:19

"Stop." He said quietly but firmly, adding a little wind rustle to his words so the illiterate man would be struck to the bone. "I understand. I'll help you if I can. I'll take a small payment, a third of the standard small healing fee for a man. I'll take it after the healing and from whom I've healed, but you'd better not cheat on it, Taram. And yes, my name is Pann."

Camrad_RIP 08.05.24 в 17:55

Without waiting for a portion of gratitude and obsequious sycophancy from a man who was obviously not very experienced in this business, the magnificent Pann began to give commands to the instantly summoned people who could still stand on their feet. Though they could hardly stand, for the hard work and nursing of the sick left little time for sleep, and the limits of the human body were such that one could hardly cross them. The work he undertook was difficult, even titanic in a way, especially if you take into account the usual disguised as a “simple strong self-taught apprentice” aura, and with the price he showed himself to be even that even the most selfless. Just for clarification, the small fee for a healer is given for a minor injury, like a deep cut or a simple fracture, not for saving from the epidemic, because for such actions the rate is quite different (but Stepan did not know it anyway) and there is also a surcharge for the risk of voluntary entry into infected houses. And here, working for a third of a small fee per person, a normal healer would not have recouped the cost of the reserve and herbs. Any normal person or non-human wouldn't have signed up for such a fool's errand, but Stepan had an argument, even one and a half, in favor of such altruism: his conscience, which could be counted as a half, and a systemic sigment that came up in time - by the way, at least half a day earlier than it should have!

Camrad_RIP 08.05.24 в 17:59

System assignment ( medium): Heals the inhabitants of the Upper Lyadi settlement from the disease, using any of the available means, summons, or contracts. For satisfactory performance, you must cure more than half of the sick; for complete performance, you must not allow more than five people to die since receiving the task; for perfect performance, you must achieve a complete cure of all the sick.

Camrad_RIP 08.05.24 в 18:05

Reward: closure of current level, increased affinity with the spirits of the life sphere, contract with an elder spirit healer (low master level); at full execution: one random meta-skill, one random knowledge or trait; at perfect execution: Constitution characteristic reaches two units (if the characteristic is raised to two in any other way before the assignment is closed, the reward is burned).

Camrad_RIP 08.05.24 в 18:07

First of all, this was the first time he had seen an assignment ranked above 'small'. Before that, he had thought that only Autogoddess could give out a task above “standard”. Secondly, the reward itself was the sort of thing you'd take on, even if the penalties for failure included blocking new assignments for a month. Thirdly, for once the task was not only very generous in terms of reward, but also coincided with Stepan's moral compass, so he didn't have to think for a long time. In fact, the only thing that worried him in this situation was the possibility of losing his disguise as a disciple of a village shaman from the village of Assfordshire, because he would have to call with all his strength, which was not so small if you think about it.

Camrad_RIP 11.05.24 в 13:12

But problems must be solved as they arose, and one could always mention the existence of a family contract with some strong spirit, perhaps the same one that he would be given as a retinue for accomplishing the assignment. So Stepan yelled, commanded, ordered to drag the heavy ones to him first, and not the most important ones, threatening to add diarrhea to the beggars themselves if they tried to shove the village blacksmith into the queue first (he, by the way, was still feeling relatively normal, having taken the healing potions available from his personal stash), and also called as hard as he could, summoning the right spirits. Half an hour later, a tall and bright fire was already burning on the showplace, where the feast that had tragically “failed to happen” had recently taken place, and the shaman himself was drawing signs and lines with an obsidian knife right on the ground trampled by many feet.

Camrad_RIP 11.05.24 в 13:30