Настучать в бубен / Hit the tambourine: Глава 18-3

* * *

Camrad_RIP 14.09.24 в 12:36

The first round of protection was not difficult to get past. It was ridiculously easy. It was just a grid of alarms, not serious at all. It was clear that the house had been inhabited by the representatives of de Marek only recently, and the protection was not their own, but imported, based on amulets. No, it was better than nothing at all, but against Stepan, his retinue, and his skills of agent work it was not enough. Especially since the guys obviously didn't match the elements of defense to each other, the first layer, that's for sure. Special bloodhounds found these weak points in twenty minutes and spent another three hours looking for trap marks on those who would buy such a simple vulnerability. They didn't find them, making Stepan sitting in his cave with his back against the totem, shake his head, sighing disapprovingly. There are no professional saboteurs on these simpletons, really.

Camrad_RIP 24.09.24 в 16:15

The main violin was played by the spirits with the sphere of the Hardness and rare aspects of Kinship and Transmission. These entities without a clear form-image tasted the magic in the protective formations, and then calmly transferred the taste of this magic to the next intruders, making them completely and utterly invisible to this layer of protection. Further, everything was a little more complicated, the second layer consisted of separate screens, a couple of pulsating fields-analyzers, as well as several statuettes with tracking spirits. The spirits were summoned not exactly by shamanism, but rather by a mixture of it and classical magic, clearly an old work, perhaps a relic that had outlived its creator. It was not easy to deceive them, but he managed to pick a team of scouts, which moved in the blind zone of statuettes, not shining in their perception, as if becoming invisible to these spirits.

Camrad_RIP 24.09.24 в 16:49

The screens were even easier. Just crawl through the wall, because even though the screen exists inside the wall but there it acts somewhat weaker. And if we're talking about the spirits of the Hardness, which simply merge with the wall, perceived as an integral part of it, and create a passageway for other spirits that come out of the back side of the wall, it's just a pleasure. Working with the pulsing field, like a radar on a magic tractor, was the hardest part, even harder than with statue relics, but nothing extraordinary. All within his knowledge and competence. Pulses were not at regular intervals, but in a clear rhythm, which was not difficult to calculate, there were necessary spirits or calculated algorithms like mathematical equations. Agent work gave such a base too. And then he simply ordered the spirits to dive a little deeper into unreality, additionally covering them with the influence of another strong spirit, hiding them from the search pulse and not allowing the flashing.

Camrad_RIP 24.09.24 в 17:15

There was a fourth layer on the offices and bedrooms of his offenders, a fully functional field, dense and powered by a separate artifact in each case, and there could be something else in the office itself, but Stepan didn't need to get into it. His target was parrots, the most elite and the most tough, not carnivorous, rather omnivorous, but capable of hunting game, and in general quite dangerous birds, which could easily break the skull with a blow of a magic-enhanced beak, and with equally enhanced claws chip off a steel helmet. And they could speak, like a mockingbird repeating sounds or words they liked, some of them even realizing what they were hearing and saying. The intelligence of a dumb goblin still means some limited but intelligent.

Camrad_RIP 24.09.24 в 18:05

Their cells were also very well protected, there were additional barriers and another statuette hidden in the wall, but not from the gaze of Stepan's spirits, which could not see the invisible statuette, but saw a void in the wall, perfectly matching the shape of the statuette. Then it was only necessary to pick up the mode of spiritual perception to see the threat and pick up the keys to this spirit. The guys clearly feared for their trump card and, it must be said, not in vain. On the other hand, if they had behaved humanely with a random boy they met, none of this would really have been necessary. Chuckling nastily in his cave, the young man gave the order, sending a whole host of spirits of the suggestive type to these parrots, affecting all of them that could speak. The spirits were small and yet very weak in terms of energy saturation, barely perceptible so their presence was completely lost in the background of household magic enchanted cages of especially high comfort.

Camrad_RIP 24.09.24 в 18:08

The birds will have to learn a lot of new words. And sound out the words strictly at a given moment.

Camrad_RIP 24.09.24 в 18:09

Stepan couldn't resist and his snickering turned into a rather unpleasant and gloating laughter, sounding quite eerie in the complete darkness of the dungeon.

Camrad_RIP 24.09.24 в 18:14

He spent the next five days summoning more and more powerful spirits, strengthening his retinue, and making new contracts. Several summons for each element, with different aspects and typification of exotic properties, quite a few protectors, especially one of the spirits who could literally draw enemy magic into a subspace pocket-mouth and then regurgitate it on the enemy, mixing all the spells and add some toxic and corrosive magical energy from himself. Or that individual who makes masterful use of the concept of static electricity can accelerate it to the point where it can simply stop a target's heart with a jolt of electricity right under shields and amulets without disturbing them. Or another rather dark entity that can replace a damaged organ by eating it, allowing it to live in symbiosis for months until the liver made of spirit flesh is completely real. I also remembered the spirit of the darkness sphere and the vision aspect, which could make the eyes of victims unimaginably sensitive to light, and it could work in areas, being an ideal means of suppressing mass riots, where tear gas was not.

Camrad_RIP 25.09.24 в 10:37

There were more familiar entities wielding a few individual manifestations of their usual element or concept: arrow, blades, ball, spear, net, stream, battering ram, and direct attack with their own spirit body - and what these spirit-created spells were made of wasn't that important. Wind, water, fire, earth, light and darkness, and a host of other things. Pick an arsenal of your choosing. The essence of the dust sphere with the aspects of obstacle, protection, and fencing line could be arranged around the summoner literally automatically reacting defense, intercepting attacks with dusty screens in passive mode, and not distracting the shaman from business. And the defense was active, able to strike back at the attacker, too, with the power of a strong spirit, a very strong spirit. The total power of the entity remained within the limits of its rank, but the stock of these forces caused respect of other elders, even envy! The aforementioned Sleepwalker, while his reserve was not bad, was still slightly less than that of his counterpart a rank below him. An amazing ability, rare indeed, especially when combined with the combat aspects and the ability to support the shaman in a direct attack. However, the spirit demanded payment for summoning either an unrealistic amount of reserve or a very large mountain of offerings.

Camrad_RIP 25.09.24 в 10:43

The ability to save money on those offerings allowed him to spend almost no energy of his own, calling new spirits literally non-stop, stopping only to rest his brain and spiritual body, which was still tired from continuous calls, even with the support of the totem and the earth. In the breaks the young man helped his colleagues at work, politely refusing to get drunk by the fact that he could not drink, and also tried to deal with the problem of mice, which was increasingly becoming something purely personal for Stepan. Because his spirits, discreetly sent to keep the rodents away from the territory, were working successfully and quietly. Except that the transparent cat also worked and every morning workers checking the farmstead found new corpses stacked by the cat near the doors of the protected warehouses. Not as many as there had been in the beginning, that was true, but still quite a few, especially considering the fact that the entity ate some of the prey without a trace. And they weren't getting any smaller, every day about the same number of corpses ended up in their usual places.

Camrad_RIP 25.09.24 в 21:03

Scratching the back of his head in bewilderment, Stepan tried to figure out how this was happening and found no other option but to find a lot of mouse nests on the farmstead, from which new mice crawled out. To be honest, the theory did not stand up to criticism, so Stepan was forced to promise to get down to searching for curses on the territory of his residence. Yes, he wasn't getting paid for it, and yes, his employer had already tested this theory with several gifted people, but it had become a matter of principle! He's a goddamn Senior Shaman with System cheats and he can't get the fucking mice out of the not-so-large-scale backyard! With a sigh of regret about the impossibility of stretching the day in two or three, the Earthman moved the issue of working out the mouse infestation higher in the queue of the most urgent things.

Camrad_RIP 25.09.24 в 21:05

That night, back underground, instead of going to bed, he'd done one of the things he'd long planned and, admittedly, long overdue to do: he'd used endowment of system characterization on his contracted Lizard. It gave him about seven units out of twelve, which wasn't the best result, but it wasn't the worst either. The image of the spirit became even denser, its blades began to be perceived even more deadly, the smoke veil that served as a shield and a blade thickened, and even the body-state itself seemed to have gained extra centimeters. Well, in the manifested state, incarnated in the real world - not less than twenty centimeters exactly. In the cave illuminated only by dim lights, this figure looked threatening, powerful, and a little sinister, which made the shaman tense up against his will.

Camrad_RIP 26.09.24 в 12:49

Fortunately, a quick exchange of images with the Lizard, who was also getting used to his new self, confirmed Stepan's positive theories. Yes, the entity did not feel grateful to Stepan, it clearly saw the System as its benefactor, but it still realized, as much as it was possible for an immaterial being to do, that the gift had come through Stepan. Being bound by an existing contract, so extremely reliable that even the system confirmed it and counted it, the spirit was in no hurry to break the contract, nor was it in a hurry to pay the price for its summoning. The spirit did not become a senior spirit, it lacked some more characteristics and a general transition to a new state, which could not be achieved simply by characteristics. But he was close enough to the new rank, currently only slightly inferior to Squidward Plus, only, alas, in sheer power.

Camrad_RIP 26.09.24 в 13:20

Before the enhancement, the Lizard was an extremely strong exotic, extremely cool for his rank and strength, with unreal flexibility and a selection of properties with aspects. Now he had the added overall strength, reserve size, spiritual density, and flexibility of his smoke properties, but not the skill and ability to utilize his features. Before the Lizard had a very large, enormous number of unique traits for his level of strength, now he was not great for his strength, but simply very good. On average, it still came out stronger, and more efficient, but the gifting tool was still not that nagging. The good thing is that for spirits the knowledge and skills are not as critical as for mages. They are too different, their instincts prevail, not erudition so the Lizard will catch up with his new power very quickly, well, by the standards of the spiritual world. Stepan was almost certain that it would catch up in a hundred years!

Camrad_RIP 28.09.24 в 06:49

The last part of his fun after the mission with the parrots was to make permanent and status-certified contracts with those powerful spirits with whom he had never been able to legitimize relationships before. In the shamanic sense of the phrase, no vulgarity, don't even think about it. Having received the support of a powerful totem, a place of call, a lot of reagents and offerings, as well as the opportunity to constantly wear his favorite mask the issue of these contracts Stepan solved so quickly that even a little strange. Why did he take so long? No, he knew “why”, he knew that this ease was deceptive, and in hiking conditions, he would have wasted a lot of energy and time, but still, it was a funny situation.

Camrad_RIP 26.09.24 в 13:28

Minor Knowledge: ...contract with an elder spirit: He Who Hides Himself in the Rocks and Opens the Doors; contract with strong spirits: The Three Piglets; contract with a strong spirit: Leaves in Motion; contract with a strong spirit: Urkaguarri; contract with a strong spirit: Embracing with the Fire in the Last Goodbye

Camrad_RIP 25.09.24 в 10:46

Four new contracts and Stepan didn't feel the strain that would make him stop and take a break. It was even easier to put together the terms of the deals and make them than to expand his retinue's catalog with the new summons. The three boars stood out because they liked Stepan's nickname and the images attached to it so much that they literally changed their name-image of their own free will and entered their status under a new name. He chuckled, of course, but it was a little embarrassing to laugh at what was perhaps, if not his strongest call among the powerful spirits, then his most resilient and tenacious. They could be called a walking stock of lard, but they had enough lethality to crush fifty city guards with three adepts of combat magic almost effortlessly. The same ghouls, seasoned and old, properly reinforced and fattened, were crushed by these three without even minimal damage. To be honest, they could have been used against his main target, the vampires. They wouldn't have won, but they would have lasted as long as they had last time. On the other hand, that wasn't an optimal tactic either, especially with that cursed sword.

Camrad_RIP 25.09.24 в 13:53

The second of the contracts was a spirit of protection and blessing, a natural spirit, not dark but neutral, capable of manifesting itself in reality as a pile of slightly silvery translucent leaves. No, no Senbonsakura. The attack of this entity is practically zero but leaves can cover a target as tight-fitting armor a la latex super-suit, the degree of protection comparable to not badly enchanted full armor, and also enhancing and dispersing the aura of the one who is in this armor. A kind of lens-multiplier, but only for direct magic of any kind: It will not help with calls, but it will strengthen witchcraft practices, it will not increase puppet skills, but it will strengthen the spiritual form. In addition, the spirit could stick one or two leaves to the target, pumping up the reserve, giving punching power, and coordinating actions, being, in fact, an ideal amplifier of a crowd of small spirits, especially in coordination with the Milker.

Camrad_RIP 25.09.24 в 13:59

The third contract, which had a difficult name to pronounce, worked with stones, including precious ones, and metals, including equally precious ones. It is not rational to use the creature as a tracker of deposits and veins, as well as to search for buried treasure chests, but in terms of combat, oh yes, in terms of combat, this creature could do a lot. A very large portion of artifacts are made of a metal base, and gemstones serve as an excellent focuser of energy flow, whether you put them on display or melt them into the depths of the artifact so they don't shine in a vulnerable place. This spirit could temporarily and with considerable strain change part of the magical constants of a separate artifact, enchanted blade or armor, as well as staff or rod, if they or inside the core used semi-precious stones or at least powder of those semi-precious stones. In the best case, the enemy's equipment will be weakened very much, in the worst case for the owner, the equipment will become a pumpkin for a while or forever, but in Stepan's ideal conditions, the artifacts will burst so that shreds will fly from the body and aura of the victim.

Camrad_RIP 25.09.24 в 14:24

The last of the spirits on a perpetual contract was an Elementalist, able to burn and roast, and he was best at roasting, baking, and heating not only the air but even the bodies, ignoring much of natural resistance. An instantaneous rise in body temperature to the point of well done or at least medium rare would make anyone sad. Most of the spiritual entities did not know how to attack literally inside the enemy energy, and those that could, mostly acted through curses, vampirism, or decay, which is much easier to defend against, because it is expected most of the time. But such purely spontaneous, and secondary, are not the most common. magical in the original basis, the impact, changing a certain constant in a certain area, regardless of the presence of aura or flesh there ... this is a very serious approach. Resistance will help, good amulets that create a protective field rather than a shell or barrier will also be useful, but the trick is still very unexpected and sneaky. Just right for Stepan, who prefers to win quickly, cleanly, and without vulgar fights on the last drops of strength. If he could fulfill his preferences it would be perfect but the world, past and present, is criminally far from ideal.

Camrad_RIP 26.09.24 в 13:46

“The ideal is unattainable, I guess.” He said tiredly and got a bewildered look from Pirius' steward, who gave him another payment, making Stepan remember that he was not in his cave and change the subject. “Dear sir, what's all the commotion in the courtyard today? I didn't even bother to ask.”

Camrad_RIP 26.09.24 в 13:30

The man, who had not heard the first comment, understood the question, and when he did, he smiled with a slightly strained smile, behind which Stepan sensed hidden fatigue and long-standing irritation, which he had already come to terms with, but which did not become less irritating. Wiping his slightly reddish eyes, Pirius, the gray-haired and aging man, waved his hand sharply behind his back, pointing somewhere in the neighborhood of the lord's house, which Stepan had never been inside, and had never even sent spirits, preferring to check the thoughts and honesty of his employer during his working hours. Only once he checked the house itself to make sure there was no demonic altar there, at the same time looking for the source of the mouse scourge. He'd thought he could handle it, but now it was obvious that he needed to prepare not the random spirits, but a well-coordinated team of strong entities.

Camrad_RIP 26.09.24 в 13:51

“It's the honorable Fania, the honorable Trabius's beloved wife back from the country estate, which is also the main vineyard.” There was so much sarcasm in the word “beloved” that it made Stepan's teeth crunch. “And you don't need to know more than that, stay away from the big house, you don't need it. Better go to the southern brigade, Rjok's sick there, he's been coughing for two days, take a look at him there. If it's nothing hard, give him a kick, and if he's sick, let Derek give him some herb to sip or chew.”

Camrad_RIP 26.09.24 в 17:41

Derek was the name of an old but still quite intelligent and very unhealthy herbalist, who preferred not to be distracted from his winemaking experiments unnecessarily. Stepan was asked to see if the sick man was healthy and whether he should be sent to the alchemist at all, and at the same time to keep him busy so that he would not think about what kind of relations Trabia had with his honorable wife. The shaman knew these relations were colder than the Arctic ice, and even Sylvia could not be consulted. Even at the courtyard, it was spoken of, albeit in whispers. Rjok, by the way, was really ill with some form of lung pneumonia, so the Earthman, under the guise of examination, though he did not give any oath of Hippopotamus, Hypothalamus, and Hypotenuse, cured him of the disease, advised him to rest for a night and to go to work again tomorrow. And not to sleep in a draught, of course, or he'll get to the point where it hurts to piss.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath

Camrad_RIP 28.09.24 в 07:33

He went back to his room and went to the underground complex to work on his plans a little more. He was in a great mood because he was doing exactly what he wanted to do, and in perfect proportions - socialization and self-development, as well as regular walks around Dantmark, which, no matter how you put it, is still a very beautiful city. He would have said something like the classic “Life is good, and it's good to live!” but he was too afraid to badmouth it, so he preferred to keep his mouth shut.

Camrad_RIP 28.09.24 в 07:34

* * *

Camrad_RIP 14.09.24 в 12:36

To his embarrassment, the results of his revenge were seen after the fact, as he was busy working on more and more modifications to his dungeon, selecting new contracts, and preparing the first summoning of the elder entity. He was so ready for the last task that all he had to do was put on his mask and start kamling, but he did a lot of other things besides that. He had set up a full oxygen circulation system and humidity support, where fresh supplies for breathing were brought in through the spirit world, straight through, yet caressing his nose with notes of mountain freshness. Lighting became more permanent, special hollows appeared in the walls of the halls, which now housed glass vessels in which the very spirits of underground and non-solar light danced. By the way, he did not take the glass for this case from the stock of consumables, it would be too much, no. He simply grabbed those shards from wine bottles, which were going to be thrown away anyway, then cleaned them, changed their shape, fused them by cold transmutation into a glass ball and summoned his spirits inside.

Camrad_RIP 25.09.24 в 14:35

At the last moment, feeling some unnatural timidity before the coming procedure, he gave himself one last rest, going up to the surface and walking around the city. He didn't keep track of time, only coming to meals, and if the spirit tracker signaled that he was being searched for something, so he didn't realize what was wrong right away. He sat down in a fairly decent tavern, smiled in response to the dashing and sly smile of the pretty peddler, and began to eat apple casserole on cottage cheese, unwittingly listening to the surrounding conversations. And the conversation of two slightly tipsy, but still quite intelligible speaking men in the clothes of not particularly rich merchants or even just shopkeepers involuntarily absorbed his attention. He even put spirits in his ears to filter the words, emphasizing only the necessary conversation and suppressing the background noise, and he did not regret it.

Camrad_RIP 25.09.24 в 20:50

“Yes, they say the de Marecs were furious. I don't remember such a disgrace, but de Faler was shining, even though he tried to hide.” A full-bodied man, with the beer belly of a veteran alcoholic wrestler, chuckled drunkenly. “They got my third cousin's nephew as a junior deputy when they recruited the new squad. So, he didn't talk, but he said that the whole representation was laughing. And the younger Marek had the sense to say such a thing outright. Maybe it would have been all right.”

Camrad_RIP 25.09.24 в 20:59

“And don't tell me, I didn't believe it when I heard it, I thought it was rumors again, how many times they had prophesied that the farmer would fail.” The second of the interlocutors is also obese, but not fat, and even more sober, and he is questioning his interlocutor deliberately, deliberately pouring more, provoking him to frankness. “And here, one step away from success, and yet to fall so hard. Lothar really kissed him.”

Camrad_RIP 25.09.24 в 21:00

Stepan strained his memory a little and realized that he had missed not only the birthday celebration of Herbert de Dantrel's granddaughter but also the aftermath of the celebration, forgetting that he was in the middle of a dreadful revenge. Well, that's a common occurrence for him. He took his revenge, crossed off the offense from the list, and was too lazy to do control, as he always did. Rodislav Gastoldovich Yanin had not yelled at him enough for his love to distract himself at an important moment, he needed more. Shuddering at the last thought and at the mention of this chthonic crawler of the deep layers of the dark spheres, the young man began to finish his casserole and ponder on how he could admire the results of his labors.

Camrad_RIP 27.09.24 в 20:03

He walked down another alleyway, averting his eyes from random passersby, and moved into his dungeon and retrieved Sylvia's doll, connecting to her mind and senses. The old and experienced bloodsucker couldn't help but find a source of information that would at least verbally retell the story to the shaman who was eager for details. But, as practice had shown, Sylvia had something better than a retelling of events that had already happened. One of her partners, for a change, controlled not through blood but only through greed, was present at that dinner party, and also knew how to use amulets and was considered an under-adept of mental and illusions, a kind of self-taught, but talented and with access to specialized literature not for everyone. In general, he, suppressing a smile, even presented his partner with a crystal with a recording illusion directly from his memory. By the way, he specialized just in trading such recording crystals, both from memory and direct broadcast, like a camera. And he didn't create them himself; he had two adept amuletters on contract, the ones his father had paid to train.

Camrad_RIP 27.09.24 в 20:05

By the way, one of the adepts was an understudy who had dropped out when it became useless to teach without a very serious investment of money. Some bullshit with auric nodes, which made control practically unimproved. The other was a fully trained student with a closed patent, not a partial patent. But he studied not at the Neirat Academy, but at the Guild of the Unquenchable Flame, so his diploma-patent was valued even less than his incomplete colleague's. The guild, based in the free city of Dartman, was one of those organizations that tried unsuccessfully to compete with Neirat. In the last six hundred years, the academics hadn't even discouraged them too much, just making sure they didn't overstep a certain level of coolness or take on too many apprentices by dropping services. It was because there were so many people coming to Neurath that they couldn't physically serve and train all of them, so they allowed the existence of small guilds that had already received a patent for teaching and training from Neirat.

Camrad_RIP 27.09.24 в 20:09

Or they did not, acting at their own risk, but there were practically no such individuals on the territory of the Confederation. It was very difficult to compete, and academicians often did not even need special blackness and targeted liquidations, simple economic pressure was enough. Cut off supplies of reagents and equipment, where they were either a monopolist, a shareholder, or just the main buyer, and wait a decade until they fall apart. In other lands, farther away, it's more complicated with Hogwarts' power, so Chinese copies of it flourish there but they can't compare with Neirat, because they don't have those resources, knowledge, flows of material and, after all, so many super-densely located magical sources of marvelous power, literally merging into one magical field, thanks to which there are seven full-fledged magical towers with full power supply and other infrastructure in the city of the same name. And that's not counting a bunch of small mansions, underground laboratories, and the Academy itself!

Camrad_RIP 27.09.24 в 20:12

In general, Neirat had no competitors, even most of the usual magick guilds of various kinds were founded, in fact, by the descendants of Neirat or with their direct permission, being just a branch under a different signboard and without the same high quality as the main brand. Stepan had learned all this from Sylvia's memory, and only because between the two adepts-amulettes mentioned earlier, there was such a feud that one could just hide. One considered the other to be a sub-mage, which was studied in the rural school, the diploma of which decent people will not even let on the toilet paper. The second was piously sure that the first was a low-powered snob with a crippled aura, who could not even finish his studies and obtain a patent, limiting himself to a socially despised “incomplete” diploma, while knowing even less than his opponent.

Camrad_RIP 25.09.24 в 16:18

This enmity their employer was careful to maintain and warm up because in this way his two magicians would never agree to jointly demand more pay or better conditions of labor. After all, it would be enough for them to organize a joint Italian strike, doing exactly and only what was specified in their contracts and ordered by their superiors, in order to force their superiors to reconsider the terms of completion of those contracts and the amount of interest. And so, it is only necessary for one of them to start to rebel, as it is enough for a cunning rover to hint to the second one, throwing him a bone in the form of a temporary increase in pay and the latter will go out of his way to work for two, having squeezed out a part of the first one's earnings. In general, a complete victory of social engineering over magical power and without any mental magic, only on the pure knowledge of human nature.

Camrad_RIP 25.09.24 в 16:29

Stepan spent the time he had spent looking through some of Sylvia's memories of magic guilds and gift monopolies while she sorted out her affairs. You couldn't just yank a vampire out of her mansion and demand that she bring the record he needed with her. She had her own life, and her own subordinates, one of whom she was scolding right now for unsuccessfully searching for the escaped traitor, who had never been found. Either he had successfully escaped very far away, which was unlikely, because he had no time for it, or he had simply made a secret hiding place and was lying in it, thinking of where to go with the information still hot though cooling. The right hand of the lovely Malter, who lost her young chick, and who herself had saved the burned boy from agony, was already dissatisfied, and she was looking for the traitor with full force, wishing to tear off her irritation and hatred.

Camrad_RIP 25.09.24 в 16:46

By the time Sylvia was free and forced to say that she would try to talk to one of her informants, she often didn't publicize them, always hiding part of her own network, and no one in the nest knew how many of their parent's bloody puppets and debtors they really had, the shaman had learned a lot about the underbelly of the local magical training institutions. That's why he was even more convinced of how lucky he was to have the System and how the System was worth keeping silent about. Because they would kill him out of envy and try to dissect, analyze, and sacrifice him, if only to connect to this power, even a little bit, even as an illegal user, even as an evil pirate, even as a cheater.

Camrad_RIP 25.09.24 в 19:54

Sylvia left the mansion on a cloudy and starless night, used all her skills to check herself for tracking or beacons, as well as to throw off any possible tails, and went into the right alley, following the call of the spiritual pointer of the shaman influencing through the doll, and then found herself in the underground shelter. She looked around, thinking about how and for what purpose she could use such a base and such a useful toy, throwing a violet-colored crystal in a thin copper and silver frame. If Stepan had not managed to order the spirits to catch the thing, it could have hit her, and the crystal was very fragile: the lady obviously reacted the way she was used to with her subordinates, and they, for obvious reasons, had no problems with physical reaction.

Camrad_RIP 25.09.24 в 20:29

“Yes, Pann, you continue to surprise me, shock me even, pet of mine.” Her tone hid not only smugness and greed, not only the profits and combinations that were already flashing in front of her eyes, the possibility of taking over all the smuggling inside the city, but also a considerable shock, she also understood quite well, though not completely, what exactly this place was. “I suppose you're going to want to lick my sweet rose very badly now, and afterward tell me absolutely everything I want to know-know-know. Ah. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh! I'm going to sit down, my pet, I need to play with my big and juicy tits, don't you dare distract your mistress.”

Camrad_RIP 15.09.24 в 09:47

Stepan only nodded in response to her order, bowing to the inviolability of her will, and took hold of the crystal he had received, activating the mechanism of its control, which was intuitively clear, even without erudition. Actually, the methods of working with amulets, artifacts, wands, and other bullshit was a full-fledged knowledge in the list of available talents. It's not quite shamanic knowledge, but still a full-fledged module and branch of development. Ordinary gifted people have to be taught a lot to interact with the interface of even the most friendly amulets and not to mess up good things. There is even a whole subspecies of amulets that are created for training and practicing the skill of using them. This all could have been a nuisance if Stepan had been working with the crystal when he got to the first level. Now, at this very moment, he could perfectly use even very complicated artifacts with a lot of additional settings - puppetry, totems, general call practice, and spiritual operation without the necessary knowledge. All this knowledge, as well as others, however, too, contained some part of the skill of working with the mentioned artifacts, even if they were not shamanic in their essence.

Camrad_RIP 17.09.24 в 16:38

The young man figured it out quickly, he didn't break anything, and once he had figured it out, he checked the record for any attached surprises. To influence the mind of a person viewing such a thing, in fact, though quite difficult but possible. It's not a task for an adept, unless very experienced and with specific training, but for a skilled master. It did not negate the need to be careful not to stick your mental body and will wherever you could, or you might end up just like Sylvia, who was sitting in a corner on a stone, rubbing her pale nipples, which had long ago hardened to the maximum possible, with a concentrated and smug look.

Camrad_RIP 17.09.24 в 16:41

The Earthman would definitely start having bad thoughts, dirty, lascivious, and obscene - and they had because no one and nothing prevented him from just “turning off” Sylvia, without naked tits and fondling them - but the content of the record was much more interesting. He, even when he was just executing his revenge, wasn't going to send his spy spirits to that palace at all, because damn, that was idiotic. To risk burning his presence in the city and launching a high-intensity search for an unknown voyeuristic shaman just for the fun of it and the chance to see the result, which he already roughly imagined? No, if the event had been outdoors, he would have thought about it, but going into the centuries-old stronghold of the local ruler as a mere master, albeit a talented one? Thank you, but he's not that confident yet. Stepan counted not even on rumors, but on the memory of those who were at the meeting and saw everything personally - ordinary people were not invited there either, but there were servants and waiters of all kinds, and it was much easier to get into the head of some merchant or aristocrat than to lay a live broadcast channel through the palace protection. And here it was even better, I managed to get a ready-made recording without any additional effort - it was a pure pleasure, and it made him giggle.

Camrad_RIP 17.09.24 в 16:56

Stepan immersed in the recording, which was projected by a kind of illusion in front of his face, then thought, created a small notch in the stone right on the floor, the floor was designed for such manipulations and changes, yielding to changes at the first order and even without active chanting, obeying the already embedded influences. The water called from the depths of artesian water immediately began to flow into this notch, crystal clear and fresh, and the water itself became very bright, literally mirror-like. Another quick call with the totem, and now the spirit with the aspects of mirroring and transmission projected the image on the water screen, only the shaman had to immerse the crystal in the water, still controlling it through the water. Not paying much attention to the uninteresting parts, though not rewinding as quickly, the young man watched the events that he had put his hand and foot to, figuratively speaking, and that the representatives of the House of de Marek had put their whips to.

Camrad_RIP 17.09.24 в 16:43

He looked at Duke Herbert: he was a tough man, short and almost completely gray-haired, but not old in appearance, just over half a hundred. With access to the best alchemy and healers, it was no wonder he was about to hit one hundred and fifty. I looked at his granddaughter, a lovely creature of exactly sixteen springs, all blond, airy, and delicate, like a fairy. Her curly hair, her makeup, and her excellent dress, which cost the price of a couple of houses in a decent neighborhood, no less, added to the fairy tale. It was immediately clear that even if her marriage to one of the richest and most influential vassals of her grandfather would be purely calculated and dynastic, the groom would not have to overpower himself.

Camrad_RIP 29.09.24 в 04:31

He looked and saw the color of the city, the best of its humans and not only humans. There were elves too, even elven women. Still, the emissaries of the forests could not be uninvited to such an event. There were a couple of dwarves and a very respected hobbit, who wanted to give an honorary residence of a native Odessite, despite the fact that outwardly there was no resemblance. Fortunately, he didn't have to look for a long time. The creator of the record cut it to the necessary length to show the best part the special highlight of the evening which was remembered by everyone for a long time.

Camrad_RIP 29.09.24 в 04:34

“These are the birds that are nicknamed in the jungles of the south, a terrible and distant place where every creature seeks to kill a decent man and eat his flesh, the Swift Mockingbird!” Ilhero de Marek was ranting, demonstrating the characteristics of an excellent speaker or salesman, he held the audience very well. “It is said that once such a bird flew into the locked cabin of a pirate captain who died of a wound and slammed the lock on the door before he died, and after a week spoke from behind the door in his voice and words, preventing the crew from realizing that their leader was already dead. I know how much you, oh most beautiful and honorable Amarita, love these little feathered pests, and so I thought this gift would be to your liking.”

Camrad_RIP 29.09.24 в 05:10

And he was not mistaken, for the girl, though an aristocrat, but still too young, was captivated by the bright green-purple-scarlet coloring of the feathers, the exotic look, and the overall confident beauty of these birds, which had more magic than some untrained gifted. She just looked on with complete devotion and attention, and the old duke allowed himself a touching smile as he gazed at his granddaughter's happiness. Somewhere at the edge of the picture frame was visible the deliberately indifferent face of a representative of the very rival house that was brazenly beating out of Dantmark's markets. And then, as if wanting to finish off all the witnesses, Ilhero de Marek removed the sound suppression barrier, letting the birds speak. Stepan himself knew that he and his trainers, not even mages, only one of the three was a weak gifted, had spent a lot of time teaching these birds the right words. But what the birds were saying and mumbling was not what they had been taught by training and primitive analogs of mental magic designed for the small mind of a magic parrot.

Camrad_RIP 29.09.24 в 05:19

A second of silence was followed by a loud, clearly discernible in the silence that followed, “Herrrrberrt old dick!” While the audience widened their eyes in shock, while the expression on Amarita de Dantrel's face changed, the parrots, all at once began to express their opinions about the people around them. Loud and clear: “Dantrrrels are faggots, Dantrrrels suck my dick!”, followed almost simultaneously by: “Free the parrots, Inferrrno's armada to you ass!”, “Ilherrrro is a sodomite, Ilherrrro eats shit!”, “Marrrrek, Marrrrek is shitting himself!”. There were also other statements, not so redolent, like a legendary aphorism, which Stepan could not help adding to the memory of the parrots, which several times clearly said: “Sell the shed!”. To the birthday girl, so as not to spoil her, almost crying, mood even more, sounds soothing: “Amarrrrita is beautiful, Amarrrrita is good, Herrrrrbert is an asshole!”, but she is not too comforted by this.

Camrad_RIP 29.09.24 в 05:07