Настучать в бубен / Hit the tambourine: Глава 16_1

Chapter 16

Camrad_RIP 01.08.24 в 12:52

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Camrad_RIP 01.08.24 в 12:52

Raising the spiritual dialog to the current maximum took almost a day and a half, which disrupted Stepan's plans for a quick start to his hike. He deliberately left this task for last, when there was nothing important or time-consuming to do. That's why he could afford to take such a massive package of knowledge as relaxed and unhurried as possible. The transition to “advanced master practices of spiritual dialog” was one of the longest processes of assimilation in general, longer and more complicated than even closing a whole branch of suggestive knowledge that he had once been given by the Autogoddess. He even took a break for the first time in his life, getting up for a drink of water or rinse his face right during the assimilation, simply unable to stand the constant immobility, the continuous load on his consciousness.

Camrad_RIP 01.08.24 в 12:53

The transition to the master level was a qualitative leap, but advanced mastery raised the bar even higher, containing the experience of months and years of constant development, labor and work on oneself without sleep and rest, with the best teachers and no shortage of the rarest resources. Here we were literally talking about decades of exactly the same labor, only with even better mentors, with even greater investment of resources, with constant personal practice and their own research, and, again, always successful and with the full support of the whole world. It's not even about knowledge and time, it's about the fact that it's almost unrealistic to get it in such a way as to be engaged in this knowledge alone. You will have to provide practice, patronage, work on orders, and just get everything you need for a step higher.

Camrad_RIP 01.08.24 в 12:55

He needed to, but not Stepan, who got everything for nothing. That's why every time he was startled and had a slight attack of impostor's syndrome, which, in fact, he was, having found himself in the place of his unlucky namesake.

Camrad_RIP 01.08.24 в 12:57

The increased knowledge strengthened everything, everything at all, making it easier to communicate with spirits to the extent that one began to understand them even better than humans. However, Stepan had been haunted by this misfortune since his first contact with the natives, so it was nothing new. Improved understanding, the ability to give more subtle or grouped instructions in terms of meaning, - combined with the multiplicity of awareness coming to some kind of ultimate efficiency - a full-fledged opportunity to to form multi-step instructions without having to correct the spirit's actions every time the environment changes. Certainly not programming, we're still talking about possessors of completely illogical thinking, unless you specifically conjure the spirits of a machine with binary code, but it's still nice. Being able to give the spirits at least a few scripted instructions with variable solutions within a script is very powerful indeed. The young man has done exactly the same thing before, even with the same clearing, but there in the control of whole masses of guardian spirits and just the inhabitants of totems and totems helped, acting as a kind of spiritual anchors-servers-books, through which the spirits read the will of the shaman.

Camrad_RIP 02.08.24 в 20:57

And now he could do something similar, albeit weaker, without a totem, even if only when summoning protective spirits for a night vigil. Not to mention that this approach was quite multiplied if used simultaneously with those very totems. New types of negotiation, the ability to pressure, coerce, deceive, or even subjugate, in effect, brainwash an unruly spirit into obedience and service. True, with all the risks of sudden upheaval or breaking the subjugating chains of images. Methods of dialog with elders or even higher entities, and the former can be seriously called upon, even with high chances that it will be possible to come to an agreement and with an almost complete guarantee that it will be possible to part peacefully, even if without an agreement. Ideally, it would also be possible to move the practice of calls up, so that you know not only how to say, but also what to say, give and demand, but it is still impressive. Making a separate deal with the same Veyatel can already be attempted, especially reinforcing the mark of passions with a patchwork echo. Well, after Stepan had built himself a better clearing than the previous one, created a lot of protective circles, and also thought hard about whether he was crazy to summon this thing at all.

Camrad_RIP 04.08.24 в 00:54

Even the process of spiritual dialog itself is no longer exclusively shamanic knowledge. No, it was not. It has long since not been it in full measure, helping and in the directions of territorial magic, and in the work of his own spirit, not called: in the same charms and suggestion, in healing and working with curses, in disguise and manipulation of the aura. For the shaman, the spiritual dialog is, in essence, an analog of the control of magical energies, the same basic knowledge of high and classical magic, with the help of it, too, you can control your magical energy. And in a way that is almost diametrically opposite - not by directing and weaving the energy itself, using knots and lines of the aura, but by spiritual dialog. body pushing the aura, its nodes, and the magical power itself. It is difficult to weave charms in this way, although it is possible: too different approach, loss of efficiency, but when working within the framework of wild magic everything is different. For a shaman, classical spell weaving is like trying to type on a keyboard with the help of legs - it is possible, feasible, and with practice and quite effective, but why? Characteristically, the same pure witches can weave much easier, though more difficult, than wizards.

Camrad_RIP 04.08.24 в 00:56

Stepan did not suddenly become a great witcher, a specialist in spiritual practices, a monk or a spiritual chimeraoid-chupacabra. He didn't suddenly become one. All sorts of little things, which are shamanism only partially, and sometimes even formally, he skillfully used in his favor since about the time of obtaining the tenth level and the transformation of the spirit, but now the little things not only ceased to be little things but merged into a monolithic block of understanding. Working with one's own spiritual body, through which one exerts influence through the reflection of reality in the images of High Spheres: on the world, on other people, on a certain territory or biome, or even on pure magic.energy - this is witchcraft in its essence. Stepan just uses it on the basis of shamanic practices, as if, yes, yes, typing the text with his feet, and it still works and works very successfully, to the envy of many adepts of witchcraft! He had not yet become a spellcaster or anything else, nor had he ceased to be a shaman, but, at the current level, it was simply impossible not to touch joint or close directions of development. Let the prism of control have exactly a shamanic paradigm and methods in the basis, but the fact itself is indicative - it is from this, as Stepan believed, and will arise the ability to choose a secondary class.

Camrad_RIP 04.08.24 в 10:08

Again repeating, this promotion did not reveal something completely new and unexplored, it brought to a new level all that he knew how to do before, only slightly diluting the increased basis with some individual techniques or methods. As usual, the charms pleased, especially those that can now be created without the call of spirits, trivially performing those tasks that used to do small or even strong spirits of the sensual sphere with aspects of passions. Curses and healing, which complement each other and are often the same action, are only performed in different ways and in different types of implementation. Transmission of their images to the maximum distance, up to sending a message with spirits, which will carry your words for hundreds of kilometers and directly into the ear of the person to whom he need to say them. Or directly into the head, without using the ears or any other senses, exclusively ready-made images. Perhaps, even disguising your words as the thoughts of the person to whom you say them, as his or her own opinion.

Camrad_RIP 01.08.24 в 12:59

Obviously, he could also hide something unpleasant in such a message - preferably, of course, a charm or compulsion, given the shaman's specialization. Or he could simply open the transmission of the message to the outside, covering the whole city with it. And then it didn't matter whether the whole city would have a photographically accurate picture of the tits of the ruler's favorite wife, whether the evening breeze would whisper to them that they were all sodomites or whether their own shadows would come to life, and start making obscene gestures. In fact, jokes are jokes, but such a technique, amazingly useful for solving logistical or command crises and providing communication for an entire army, cannot be underestimated. Enemies of that army will surely appreciate it, trying to nail such a walking radio station first of all, if they are not idiots. And if they find out about the station. And if they survive the attempt to eliminate the station, which may well actively shoot back with a large caliber and will hardly walk without a security entourage. However, there's no way in hell Stepan will be forced to participate in hostilities with whole armies from both sides. This world, after all, was not his native home and city to be involved in local battles.

Camrad_RIP 05.08.24 в 05:54

He allowed himself to recover from the promotion for another twenty-four hours, just lying there, chewing dried berries bought from Kirik for the road, and doing nothing else. Only when the thought of getting up and walking, as in that biblical quote, did not make him sick and twitch in a fit of hysterics, did he set off. The forest in this region was, as Bastius and Cherz had told him, very rugged, interspersed with hills, rocky areas, brambles, swamps, and sometimes all of these at once. A large number of small brooks, either flowing or going into underground caves, made navigation and routing even more difficult. Roads were absent as a class, and even animal paths were cut off every now and then near the next obstacle. This was supplemented by the regular occurrence of beasts, either very fattened and evil, or a little magical and therefore even more evil, as well as traces of the activities of green-skinned natives.

Camrad_RIP 01.08.24 в 13:00

Stepan deliberately chose safe paths using spirits to guide the way and thorough multi-component reconnaissance of the terrain with different types of sensors, so most of the likely opponents simply did not meet preferring to bypass them even if he lost some of the possible experience for the destruction of the predator. The few beasts that did encounter him would quickly retreat when they received a wave of terror and a desire to get the hell away from the man. With his current abilities and involuntary specialization in working with brains and feelings, such tricks were not only more effective but trivially more profitable than direct combat in terms of reserve costs. And yes, there was also the experience of turning the enemy into a shameful fleeing with feces dumping instead of heat traps, by the way.

Camrad_RIP 05.08.24 в 05:57

Stepan made an exception only for the one and only creature he met, which was some very unpleasant shit with the bloodthirst option pumped to maximum. Resembling an anteater but the size of a bison the creature even had a characteristic jaw, but the long, several-meter-long tongue with many spikes and hooks the creature was not used for eating ants. With this hose this creature drank blood, lymph, cerebrospinal fluid, and life itself from its victims and not only life, but also pain, because of which it deliberately prolonged the pleasure, pulling out the suffering on a tiny drop, savoring like a sweet treat. Paralyzed from a single touch of its tongue, living creatures died for a long time, sometimes for days, while the creature satiated itself or simply played if it was fed. It wasn't a vampire, not even undead, just a magical mutant with a body and aura like this, either created by a sick mind or a random mutation.

Camrad_RIP 05.08.24 в 06:00

Stepan sicced a specially summoned spirit-taxidermist on this stuff, planting the summoned something directly into the half-corpse of the deer being finished by this natural sadist. The fight was bloody and quick. The body of the deer, driven by the will of an immaterial entity, was no longer afraid of paralyzing poisons, nor pain and ignored the already existing injuries of the physical body rapidly slaughtering the creature with its horns and hooves, breaking both in the process. And then, having thrown off the deer's body and taking a semi-material form, the spirit, having the look-form of a skinless chimpanzee which instead of hands has paws like Freddy Krueger began to pull the skin off the still agonizing beast. The creature summoned by the shaman, which in fact was not dangerous to humans and did not hunt them at all, and did not fight with reasonable prey, having chosen unreasonable beasts as its target, pulled this skin over itself, covering itself in a bloody blanket, still oozing with scraps of poorly peeled meat.

Camrad_RIP 05.08.24 в 06:03

Right before the eyes of Stepan, who was half a kilometer away and who was looking at what was happening through the spy spirits, the material skin began to lose its materiality, stretching over the spirit that howled in delight, becoming part of its spiritual body and power, making it a little stronger. The howl, audible both in reality and in the spirit world, would have scared away all the animals in the neighborhood, but the sadistic beast had scared them away even earlier while he was eating a deer screaming in pain which even paralysis did not prevent it from screaming. And then the image of the skinned chimpanzee changed to the same skinned mutant anteater: this image would remain until a new summoning, until a new beast, which this entity would skin at the will and order of the summoner, taking the skin oozing with the remnants of life and spirit as a reward.

Camrad_RIP 05.08.24 в 11:16

This ugly clash which gave a crumb of experience and only wasted time was the only moment during which Stepan fought with the local fauna. And it was only because the clearly unnatural nastiness simply disgusted him and made him not want to see it again. Another thing, if you encounter not with fauna, but with inhabitants more reasonable, even if the mind is not very pleasant: the very traces of life activity of green-skinned goblins. The young man watched an anime dedicated to a specialist in neutralizing green and small threats, so he was not going to underestimate such an opponent. That's why he stayed away from them and did not forget to hide his footprints, both with spirits and proper movement. The combination of knowledge of the hermit and the agent allowed him to move carefully without leaving physical marks, even if he didn't use magic. It wasn't on the level of a tracker-raider with sharp ears and many hundreds of years of experience, but in combination with trail-mending spirits, who could even put broken twigs back in place and splice them together, the result was goo enough.

Camrad_RIP 05.08.24 в 06:11

But he, alas, had come upon these traces a couple of times. As a result, he had acquired a strong antipathy to goblins, though not at the same level as that specialist in the extermination of the bearers of high culture. The gutted corpses hanging on the trees belonged to the same goblins as those who hung them. Three individuals, unrecognizable due to the lack of living space on whatever skin they had not been stripped of. Cut out entrails and meat parts, which, most likely, were used for fodder, traces of diligent and very sophisticated torture, ears, teeth, and genitals cut off for ornaments - high culture, yes, yes. Stepan, who had learned too much about this culture while he was asking the spirits of the place and the shadows of the murdered about the course of events and the reasons for such actions, was filled with this culture in his awareness.

Camrad_RIP 05.08.24 в 12:49

No mysticism, drama, thriller, or anything else unusual, just a competitive struggle between two medium-sized tribes of goblins, who had been conducting such forest maneuvers for not the first and not the tenth generation, and not even the goblin generation. The young man could try to avenge the cruelty against the slain if the slain didn't do the same when they managed to get a visiting hunter or a small group of them under the thumb of their hunters. No, they would have killed humans too, but there were no humans in this region, it was a "blind arm", nobody wanted to settle down, at most to set up a camp near the shore, while the leaky bottom of the boat was being repaired. And those who did settle could hunt goblins themselves, and sometimes they did.

Camrad_RIP 05.08.24 в 06:13

Stepan would have looked at it, suppressing the urge to vomit the spirit planted in his body, and then left, but he had an assignment. A small one, not from the Autogoddess. It was even somehow honorable. To create three vengeful spirits out of three tortured and partially eaten individuals, which then will follow their executioners and killers, tormenting them with nightmares and sleep deprivation until the first new moon, and only the killers themselves and no one else. And when the moon disappears, having completely vanished from the heavens and not protecting with its radiance from the appearance of very specific and specifically specified entities these murderers-executioners-cannibals will be chewed. The assignment promised an increase in one random property to a new level, as well as an increase in affinity with the sphere of death and non-life, aspects of revenge and persecution. Experience, again, although it was promised to be a little, crumbs on the background of a possible increase in the property.

Camrad_RIP 05.08.24 в 12:53

The young man stopped at the meat clearing for two days. He carried a couple of totems from his buried rucksack, used some of the reagents he'd collected along the way, bought some from the store, and made a few protective circles - he was going to summon entities that were, to put it mildly, creepy - and then performed a careful and tense call, despite the simplicity of the ritual. The still-hanging, decomposing, and stinking goblins were the perfect medium for the invocation. Before the shaman's eyes the ritual and call during which the young man calling the spirits simply stood motionless pulsing with his spiritual body entered its final stage. A grayish-silver haze flowed from the bodies of the creatures hanging on the tree, forming into ghostly figures of slain and tortured goblins. Exactly the same gutted, tortured, and tormented, but in their empty eye sockets blazing with attention and malice, they twitched like puppets with cut strings, moving more and more vigorously, literally tearing themselves from the invisible chain, seeking to catch up, to tear, to torment just as they had been tormented.

Camrad_RIP 05.08.24 в 06:18

A trio of strong spirits, quite specific and very strong in the battle against those who have mortally offended their "bases". Even if there is a shaman or witch doctor in the tribe of goblins, and they can be found among goblins, he will hardly be able to fight off the guilty tribesmen, even if the hypothetical green callers notice their presence. The spirits drifted away into the darkness of the night, not paying attention to the exhaled shaman, who only after their disappearance allowed himself to leave the protective circle and begin to clean up their tracks. In a way, for any competent gifted person, such energetic cleaning is analogous to the rules of good manners, like cleaning up after oneself after a picnic. Then again, if you leave trash and beer cans behind, there's always the possibility that someone will cut their feet on a shard of glass or the sharp edge of a can of sprats. Or that the trashing freak will be found, if not by receipts for beer and chips, then by genetic analysis, and then shove the trash so deep into the throat that the proctologist will take it out. Stepan wouldn't be in much danger of the latter, the spiritual echo didn't leave traces, but he didn't want to become the cause of someone's death or injury after contact with aggressive energies, even if some goblin would be injured and then die ignominiously. There was a good chance that someone innocent and undeserving of death would get into trouble.

Camrad_RIP 05.08.24 в 12:56

Received: "a small spiritual-energy protection"; increased affinity with the spheres of death and non-life; increased probability of gaining knowledge and properties of the branches of spiritualism and necromancy.

Camrad_RIP 05.08.24 в 06:19

Acquired talents are added to the Player's overall status.

Camrad_RIP 05.08.24 в 06:18

The aura twisted noticeably, twisted as if shot in the back, but instead of pain the sensation of hundreds of prickly and rough cat tongues on thin bodies, on the naked spirit, and then as if drying from a hair dryer working at full power, simultaneously with a cooling fan, slight tingles of static electricity and who knows what else. Fortunately, the aura rearrangement was over faster than the shaman's patience, as he lay on the damp and cool earth for a bit before he began to analyze the change in himself. The improved property made the young man less susceptible to various non-magical attacks of elemental and elemental nature: flames, frostbite, steel cuts, thorns, and storm wind blows. All of these will become less threatening to life and health. Reduced risk of disease, reduced probability of getting struck by lightning, even if caused by magic, but not directed at Stepan, the ability to chase away evil spirits and small devils simply by their presence, even without the active influence of magic gift and with a completely empty reserve.

Camrad_RIP 05.08.24 в 12:59

The improved property was unimpressive, but the reason for that was definitely the low Resistance. Funny thing. To increase this property requires a high Spirit, so Stepan could increase this protection to the third rank at this moment. He could if he had a talent point and no place to spend it. But the factor of strengthening the amulet is not only Spirit, but also Resistance, and one without the second almost does not help. If he had at least five units of Resistance, then the protection, at the current level, would be no less useful than the same mark of the high spheres, and in several directions. As a defense, the passive property of covering from the anger of spirits, and the ability to rely on this protection when call, letting the spirit closer and not afraid of his blow. If the spirit is not too strong, of course.

Camrad_RIP 05.08.24 в 13:03

Stepan would have thought it was a hint from fate that he needed to pump up his resistance, but no, Resistance was still a low priority, along with Constitution. The bonuses of high Spirit simply override any benefits from a single property, which enters into a powerful synergy with Resistance. What interested the shaman much more was the very example of a property that requires one attribute to develop, but a completely different one to work effectively. Perhaps there were others like it among the choices in the list of talents, but Stepan hadn't checked the help on this particular topic lately, so he'd have to spend an evening working on the Status. It seemed to him, albeit unsubstantiated, that the very property of the amulet was calculated on hybrid pumping of a warrior shaman, or even a warrior witch, a battle priest, or a very specific druid-werewolf, but there was obviously nothing to prove this idea. Only one's own intuition and reliance on knowledge that did not give a clear answer were not considered as proof, alas.

Camrad_RIP 05.08.24 в 13:06

The further road was not interrupted by any serious tasks or problems. If there were any, the shaman's skill of reconnaissance was enough for him to bypass them in a wide arc. The more problematic the problems, the wider the arc was. Two system assignments, quite ordinary, one of which, a small one, he completed, receiving as a reward a sprig of some particularly funny and rare wood, and the second, a small one, had to be rejected. It was necessary to kill three members of the Bead's crew with three different types of curses of his choice, using only images of their auras and guiding spirits from memory. After raising the spiritual dialog to the current limit Stepan could perform this assignment, and it didn't even seem hard, but he, as before, preferred to reject immoral assignments from the System.

Camrad_RIP 05.08.24 в 13:20

Unlike Milf, system quests with the brown coloring of fresh shit didn't piss him off or annoy him. There was a sense of strict neutrality here, offering all blackness as only one of the choices while allowing for the other paths as well. Do you want to kill and curse those who did nothing to you for the sake of an extra boost to a random meta-skill? Well, you're your judge, and you'll have to answer to yourself and the world for what you do for the sake of power. The Autogoddess with mocking superiority offered no other options for obtaining her favor and at the same time paid much more generously. Perhaps it was because of his constant greed and attacks of doubt, because of the fact that sometimes he sincerely wanted to agree to her assignment, that Stepan was so angry. He realized that if she offered him more, even if it wasn't clear how much, but more, he would hesitate.

Camrad_RIP 05.08.24 в 13:22

He rejected two assignments from the Autogoddess, both small, with a light heart, not even reading too much into the rewards, only the conditions were enough. Stepan did not know or understand why the lady was so attracted to her chosen ones wonking on different parts of her body and did not want to know. It was not for nothing that Lovecraft wrote about the terrible truths that the human mind could not bear. So he did not look for an answer to his questions, afraid to learn such truth and not to find what to do with this knowledge later. And even more afraid of finding out that she was doing it for fun. Despite all her strength, power, and power over fate and the System. The latter, perhaps, would not be more frightening, but certainly more offensive. However, all the knowledge of the shaman, who could make sure of the competence of the System and those who interacted with it, said otherwise. No matter how strange such an entity was, no matter what its quirks were - it was useless to evaluate it by the standards of the human mind. A whale couldn't get into the skin of an ant, and a mortal was unable to realize the will of such an entity.

Camrad_RIP 05.08.24 в 13:58

The road was calm, even if tense, and once he even walked through a small swamp, crossing a long but narrow strip of mire, not without the help of several spirit guides looking for a normal path through the swamp. And where there was no path through the swamp, he simply deprived himself of weight and put the animal spirit of the water viper into his body, stepping calmly through the mire as if on road asphalt. The second swamp, also narrow and long, but much deeper, he crossed differently, calling the guardian spirit of this particular swamp and asking him for the right of way. One step, and he was at the opposite end of the swamp, stepping calmly and confidently. Without a third of his reserve, though, and having spent at least two hours preparing the ritual of passage with all the reinsurances. He didn't regret it. No, it wasn't an assignment from the System, he just wanted to experiment with controlled conditions, to feel what it was like to be pulled through the spirit world with his body, even if it was someone else's will.

Camrad_RIP 05.08.24 в 14:26

The sensations were extraordinary, indescribable, and completely "UH, BLEEP", and due to working with the spirit outside the body and the specific skills already acquired from this branch, I was able to understand much more than just a gifted or even not too experienced shaman. Not in vain for the transition itself gave the experience an order of magnitude more than the call and contract with the spirit. The bar moved forward, stopping at the border at three-quarters of full. Standing and wobbling a little on his toes, assessing the experience, Stepan suppressed the irrational desire to repeat the procedure two or three more times, intuitively realizing there would be no more such a big increase. At the very least, he would need to summon another spirit and teleport to other coordinates to avoid repeating, because the system doesn't like repetition without creativity.

Camrad_RIP 05.08.24 в 16:17

The third bog was no less revealing. He did not walk straight through it, for its location allowed him to walk along its edge without getting his feet wet. It was just that this mire was inhabited by very special inhabitants, dangerous and frightening. No, there were such in the last two, how could they not be, but the third time the Krakozabras differed in the fact that they were not alive. Undead, and quite numerous. Spirits scouts, spirits readers, and a few combat guards took up the task. Stepan summoned them not by contract, but from his own necklace, choosing the best available without the need to spend scarce contracts, and even stonewalling the summons on the fly with the possibility of stirring up the undead with his proclamations. Of course, the reserve had to be drained to feed the spirits in the permanent retinue, but it wasn't much of a waste. The spirits collected images, talked to their swamp kin, and tried to see what had been here beforeю They being the elite of the elite in their rank of power and typification of aspects, they extracted answers quite confidently.

Camrad_RIP 02.08.24 в 21:05

Some relatively large caravan expedition had lost its way here long ago, many hundreds of years ago, no less, having wandered into these wildernesses, lost in the fog, and drowned in the swamp. Not without someone's help, because in the images the spirits captured there was a night battle, flying arrows, battle cries, and battle magic. The corpses of the slain were stripped, but not to the end, they stopped being just corpses at the beginning of the looting process, because the dying mage, definitely not the weakest, and also far from the light directions, being mortally wounded, put all of himself into the last exhalation of the necromancer. The victors retreated, leaving some of those who had not had time to retreat and their dead to join the army of the dead, but the army went nowhere either.

Camrad_RIP 02.08.24 в 21:12

The mage must have messed something up or, most likely, did not have time, because the undead came out of him strong, but dumb, sluggish, and lacking initiative, as well as the desire to leave the place of death. And so, the undead fell into sleep stasis, only occasionally awakening from their slumber when they were visited. In time, the swampy lowland on which they had taken the last battle had sunk even lower, the shitty quality of the dirt road had given up under the pressure of time, and the swamp had taken its place by the right of the one who came last. The creatures lay there, gradually losing strength and becoming more and more lethargic, more and more sleepless. Some of them, most of them, were finally at rest. Some of them could still be awakened if they were awakened very diligently and deliberately. Some continued to wait for the occasional visitor, alive, breathing, and oozing blood. Sometimes they showed up. Sometimes the local natives, short and green, would bring in prisoners for a special execution. Most of the undead were either the strongest and now barely surviving ancient dead, led by those creatures that had risen from the gifted, or relatively fresh goblins, which had not been completely eaten away and which had risen to join the ancient dead at the will of the undead mage.

Camrad_RIP 02.08.24 в 21:02

In fact, this small, but treacherous and deep swamp of four kilometers in diameter, contained about fifty constantly active creatures and twice as many creatures, which will awaken only if you literally fall on them. And an undead mage, who even now had lost almost none of his evil power and was still very dangerous. If it wasn't the ideal place to gain experience and get more levels, Stepan didn't even know what that ideal was. Clarification: an ideal for a classic hero of isekai fantasy, who can't live without going where he is not asked and not called. The young man only scratched his head, cut out a small totem mark, cleverly disguising it, leaving it a kilometer away from the swamp, placing it in an empty and abandoned hollow, and covering the hollow with a distracting ligature of signs from the inside.

Camrad_RIP 02.08.24 в 21:08

When he was done with his preparations, he picked up his backpack and went on his way, not even turning around and certainly not thinking of staging an epic battle here. Especially since he hadn't even been given an assignment. If anything, he would send a cohort of shock spirits against the undead with a whole host of supporting small things, when he would move far away and create a new clearing. Because he has no desire to go there now. It is unnecessary and useless risk. The undead is sitting quietly, does not go anywhere, and does not attack the shaman. Yes, he was almost certain that if he did his best and didn't skimp on the summons of powerful spirits and called Squidward, he could tear the enemy into a small British flag, but it was still a risk against an ancient and strong, albeit dumb, creature. A risk because he's not prepared to fight the undead in such an unpleasant biome. It's not a game to get into a conflict where there's a chance to die, even if it's not too big.

Camrad_RIP 01.08.24 в 20:51

Whistling a merry tune, the young shaman left the ominous swamp behind.

Camrad_RIP 01.08.24 в 20:47

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Camrad_RIP 01.08.24 в 20:46

The chance to use the Mark and play with the swamp dead in Left to Die came about the sixth day after he had left the swamp. During this time Stepan completed another quest, that granted him a powerful and high-quality potion of aura restoration, which will be able to correct the consequences of very strong overstrained shells. He went around another goblin camp, seeing for the first time representatives of another race with his own eyes, albeit by means of a contracted spirit, and remained in the opinion that he would have been fine without this spectacle. He scared away some magical bird - a woodpecker, either naturally so gifted that magic in it was like in a good apprentice, or once shared a body with a spirit, which has long since merged with the occupied body. He almost drowned his spear in the mire, sticking it into the ground to wipe the sweat pouring down his forehead, not noticing how it went down. He had put the weight relief on himself and his burden, and the spear, no longer held in his hand, ceased to be perceived as a burden.

Camrad_RIP 02.08.24 в 15:58

The spring warmth was gradually being replaced by the same spring heat, which made him want to strip down to his shirt or go for a swim. In one of the relatively clean streams, the young man did just that, because cleansing from dirt and stench with the help of summoned entities was not refreshing and brain-clearing enough. The first buds were swelling on the trees, the first shy sprouts of grass continued to green up, and the cold earth was warming up more and more during the day. At such a rate, Stepan thought, he would soon have to not warm up his surroundings before going to bed but arrange ventilation and cooling, a full-fledged air conditioner. The warming brought back the necessity to remember about all kinds of bites, which suddenly came to life and began to buzz around the shaman. In the sense of remembering that the spirit, which was engaged in the extermination of those who attempted on the young blood, asked to increase the rate a little. When he renegotiated the contract with this summoner, he came across such a remarkable place.

Camrad_RIP 02.08.24 в 16:38

The hill was high, steep, and rugged on three sides, more like a rocky peak about fifteen meters high, except that on the fourth side, the north side, there was a convenient, though abandoned, path to the top. On the same peak there was a small shrine, also abandoned, but still bearing echoes of an old and powerful force, standing on a source of magic that was not too strong, but not weak either. The same Killer Moose's source was noticeably thinner. Actually, the source was not too strong only by the standards of the system's knowledge, being the most powerful one Stepan had ever met. The source had been abandoned for decades, perhaps a hundred and fifty years since this place had been strengthened and pacified. The previously stabilized and cultivated stream was now polluted and became useful for magical practices, but nowhere near harmless.

Camrad_RIP 02.08.24 в 16:41

And also cursed, as evidenced not only by the characteristic energy pattern, as if powdered with ash and black sand in spiritual perception, but also by the many bones of small animals, both on the hill-peak and around it. A place of power wild, untamed, and far from high magic had once belonged not to shamans, but to witches. In the remnants of the former greatness, there was a feminine essence, closely intertwined with druidism and curses, even if there were no longer those who had provided it. Well, what greatness? Even when this place was at the height of its power, hardly a single equivalent of a master magician had cast sorceries and spells here, the marks and imprints were too crude. More likely this place was created and maintained by several generations of apprentices and adepts, maybe even two or three families. Five, at most six generations, deeper than that the young man and his scanning spirits could find no traces of the work of an intelligent gifted person.

Camrad_RIP 02.08.24 в 16:44

Before human witches came here this place belonged to a typical guardian beast, powered by a source. No need to summon seer spirits here to recognize the long past. Still, the bones of this beast, something bear-like, were buried in the base of the shrine, and a skull, whitened and cracked, was perched on the altar's dais even after all these decades. Apparently, the same witches who had finally decided to move away from the inhospitable land a hundred and fifty years ago had cursed their source. So no one else would have it, and also so something dangerous would not breed in this place. Maybe they hoped to come back in five or ten years and continue practicing, but obviously, something went wrong and no one came here anymore. The curse grew and took root, becoming from a simple block preventing the use of the shrine to a really dangerous one even for the gifted who had created it, and the shrine lost the remnants of the powers and spells invested in it. Today, the foundation of the altar and the shrine only kept the source in check, preventing it from going completely feral, and also served as the basis for the curse that kept the remnants of the circuit from falling under its own weight.

Camrad_RIP 02.08.24 в 18:12

The curse had a fairly standard structure. Staying in the affected area or connecting to a source infected with it caused the drain of power from the aura reserves and nodes, degradation of these nodes, as well as degeneration of the spiritual body. The approach is complex, genuine, and time-tested, just very strong due to so many years spent unattended and fueled by the shrine. Witchcraft tends to grow stronger with age, without the need to supplement or renew it, a kind of payoff for a coarser and more clumsy influence. Judging by the fact that the spirit watchers found several goblins and even one human skeleton among the tall and lush grass at the top of the hill, attempts to cultivate the place by the local tribes had been abandoned long ago, but were regularly repeated. The last corpse had even retained the remnants of its clothes and a nice enchanted bronze dagger, even now shining in the spirit's eyes with a decent charge of magic.

Camrad_RIP 02.08.24 в 18:18

Stepan had no reason to go there, not even the slightest one. But the System was generous on the assignment and, what is very important, the assignment was average, not Autogoddess, and also quite feasible even without risks. The time limit of two weeks could be a problem, but not at the third level of System Quests, when the quest can be safely put on hold and properly prepared for its resolution. Nothing immoral, nothing guaranteed to be fatal, although with the risk of getting hurt if you are careless. Although, the young man was not going to go straight through in a paroxysm of pathos demolishing the billet long ago left this place witches. This is the kind of assignment he likes, this is the kind of assignment he loves, this is the kind of assignment gives him as many as possible.

Camrad_RIP 02.08.24 в 20:21

System assignment ( average): to rid the old witches' shrine and its magical source of the curse, using any available means. For sufficient fulfillment, the curse can be dispelled by individual effects and piecemeal, gradually weakening the cursed background; for complete fulfillment, the curse must be removed by a single multi-step ritual on the first attempt; for perfect fulfillment, the curse must not just be removed, but transferred to an anchor in working condition (further use or discharge of the curse does not play a role in accomplishing the assignment).

Camrad_RIP 02.08.24 в 20:24

Reward: closure of current level, increased affinity with spirits of the spheres of Curses, Darkness, and Doom, increased effectiveness of all witch-type uses of the gift, one minor witch-type knowledge; when fully executed: two random meta-skills from the list of available skills will be raised to the current maximum; when perfectly executed: one random knowledge raised immediately to master rank.

Camrad_RIP 02.08.24 в 20:25

The only frustration is the lack of a chance to raise some characteristic by one, but even so, they offer a lot. And in this case, he knows exactly what to do and how to perform the task. For basic and complete execution, he could start doing it right now, without preparation, and with some chance of success. But for the perfect execution, he had to think about it properly. To think about which side to approach, because it was a very uncharacteristic request. He knew the base itself. He knew the mechanics of pulling the curse from the area and further use of the curse. To throw it at the enemy or seal it in a clay pot with all the necessary calls. But it is one thing to know the base, but to work with this base immediately at an advanced level, noticeably superior to that base - this is a completely different topic.

Camrad_RIP 02.08.24 в 20:30

First and foremost, of course, Stepan was concerned with protecting himself. Without a triple enclosing circuit and a couple of lightning rods for the curse that wanted to cling to his aura, he would never get to the active phase of the task. In the second place, he thought about the process of "pulling the blanket": it wasn't just a curse on the ground, a typical afterthought of witchcraft practices, no. The curse was clinging to the source and the shrine at the same time, at the same time feeding from them and spreading over the hill not as a blanket, which would be so easy to "pull off", but as spiky iron chains-tentacles, spiraling from the center of the shrine and clinging to the world itself with these spikes so tightly that it could only be torn from the root and in pieces. If the young man had been a witch-spellcaster, he might have had an easier time, of course. But if he were, for example, a classical mage of a high school, he would not even start simultaneous removal, if there is no specialized knowledge in malefic skills at the master level: too many individual elements and influences will need to be carried out at once, synchronously and without pauses, in a clear order.

Camrad_RIP 05.08.24 в 11:07