Настучать в бубен / Hit the tambourine: Глава 18-4

* * *

Camrad_RIP 29.09.24 в 05:19

It was obvious that he was not going to kill the scum immediately, especially since the scum had so far toned down its actions, in a hurry to please Master Miller, who was not very pleased with his recent quarrel and public loss of face. Stepan focused on what he had waited so long for and had only recently achieved. The summoning of the elder spirits, and now he was taking a simpler bar, not like a Dog-spirit standing close to the higher rank. And he wore the mask every single time. This mask was useless and even harmful for calling and summoning the inexorable pursuer. It could provoke the creature. Now, using the new shelter, the activated mask, and a generous expenditure of reagents, the shaman felt as if he had first played DOOM on the Nightmare difficulty and only then moved to the medium difficulty. The second of the summoned elder spirits was, on the contrary, standing on the borderline with just strong, and did not even have any special exotic properties. A typical elementalist on the solid, able to attack with his whole body, defend himself with it, directly control the ground and dirt, and that was it. He summoned him, exchanged images, fixed the contract for the coming summoning, and then sent the spirit, satisfied with the offerings, away.

Camrad_RIP 02.10.24 в 16:47

The matter was so easy that one couldn't help but want to cry out the classic “Is that it?”. It's one thing to realize with your mind that you are, in principle, ready to summon elder entities, but you don't want to risk summoning them outside the prepared area. But to see the extent of your readiness in practice is another. It's very motivating, actually. The black dog wasn't just difficult to deal with, it was also just very scary. It was too strong, despite the extremely reliable and maximally predictable ritual. And here... well, yes, it was tense, he had to pour in a third of the reserve, he had to spend time on a two-stage call, then conduct the third stage of the invocation right after the second and sharply activate the protection line. And still, it was heaven and earth, if you compare it to a dog, which made Stepan feel warm and a little pleased for himself and his OPness. Then he remembered again the image of how the dog had literally torn apart an old and experienced bloodsucker, even if not a high one, and his mood returned to its former level.

Camrad_RIP 02.10.24 в 18:17

The next decade was entirely devoted to filling the contract book with elder spirits, with one-time contracts for a few summonses, no permanent addition to the retinue or planting them in the totem. It was much more complicated here, like going back in time again. He could summon a dozen strong entities a day for the time being, but he couldn't do that with an elder spirit. Even with the support of the totem, even with the perfect offerings, some of which he had to buy from the store anyway, he couldn't afford to call an elder spirit every day. He had conducted three summons in the entire decade, one of which he stopped midway through, sensing the spirit's displeasure and grimacing in frustration. In his knowledge base, the spirit whose summoning he cut short was very much dependent on his own completely random moods. It could agree to be summoned repeatedly for free, it could charge a price, or it could attack the summoner. The shaman sensed the very aggression in the spiritual image of the presence of the unpredictable flame-like entity and stopped the call, activating an additional line of protection, which blurred and disconnected the trace of his call, so that the creature itself did not come to fight.

Camrad_RIP 02.10.24 в 17:53

The other two summons were much easier. One of them was perfectly suited to the small task of summoning an elder spirit with very rare aspects and a very fanciful sphere of creation. An entity as powerful and profound in its mastery of spiritual influence as the Sleepwalker. It was a craftsman if such a thing could be said of such a creature at all. He didn't need it, but he had an assignment, had the necessary reagents, and needed it for one of his planned upcoming summons. A spirit without a clear image could influence the materials and reagents, the very concept of the offerings, pulling them to himself in the spirit world, in an individually created pocket. Stepan was able to directly deliver an offering to the spheres, but here was a member of the indigenous population who specialized in such things. And not only deliver, but also change, remake, or combine, formulating the offering for a particular operation. Or not an offering, but something else. For example, processing the material for a totem, strengthening some material, and removing some of the harmful shades from the picture of the future call.

Camrad_RIP 02.10.24 в 18:21

In fact, it would seem that everything made by this spirit can either be done by yourself, compensated by additional calls, or by spending more time and effort to dialog with the spirit. But it seems so. After all, there are types of entities that need to be summoned for a certain time or they get bored, there are those for which it is necessary to conduct several separate and simultaneous calls, and therefore no concentration is enough and slack in quality to compensate. There are those entities that will simply refuse to come to the call unless there is a very specific and strange offering, which, perhaps, in a single copy existed hundreds of epochs ago in a completely different world, so now the spirit must be deceived every time with skillful fake. There were so many ways of using this invocation that a single enumeration of them would be enough for a small scientific work if Stepan wanted to write such a work.

Camrad_RIP 05.10.24 в 10:03

By the way, he completed the task and was rewarded with a random item of the “reagent” class from the elite segment of the store and a single token. The item turned out to be a kind of Petri dish, made not of glass, but literally of a frozen force field, self-sustaining and fueled by the magical background of the world until the moment of opening the main nodes. Inside it was a single leaf of a slightly bluish hue, which was not a material object at all. It was a purely phantom thing, and so phantom, so deeply immersed in spiritual reflection, that even Stepan would have had to cram all the concentration and density of spiritual transformation into one limb to prevent the leaf from flying away in the streams of ether. And it will fly away because it is very, very, very, not to convey how very sensitive it is to these etheric streams. It can be used instead of a compass to search for the smallest distortions of the ether, but only not for a long time, for it will be spoiled. It is more logical to bring it as an offering, many spirit-seekers, even the most fastidious and strong, up to senior or higher, for such a petal will break to pieces and go to the contract without talking. If you try hard enough, then on a permanent one too.

Camrad_RIP 02.10.24 в 18:24

The Token was a “small temporary increase in the attribute of Constitution” with five charges, which increased the specified characteristic by three and no more after application, for two and a half hours. With the power of the System reflexes and aura, control was adjusted to a sharp increase in the characteristic, and the toy could be used on anyone, not only on himself. In principle, Stepan wouldn't call the thing useless, though Spirit or Sensitivity would be much more effective, or the same source. Constitution was still a specific characteristic, as he realized, there were no normal users of warrior classes in this world, or rather, there were, but very few of them reached at least the equivalent of mastery. In the sense of few, even against the background of ordinary masters, they were literally few. The specificity of the class itself and the difficulty of its development against the more flexible path of classical or wild magic was affecting. Well, or Sylvia just didn't know about such individuals, she's not the omniscient Wikipedia.

Camrad_RIP 02.10.24 в 18:28

The second of the invocations that worked belonged to the suggestive types, which, taking into account the mask, the spiritual echo of the mark of passions, the prepared calls in several stages, as well as the preliminary conversation with the spirit without direct invocation, made this contract in some ways even easier than the second one. First, to create an appropriate circle, literally a circle indented on the stone floor. Then pour there, in the notch, even illuminating pale water in which previously diluted the necessary powders. Then prepare an offering in the form of a sack with crushed herbs and stone, and here even especially expensive gifts were not required. And then come out of the body and take up the summoning. The circle shimmering in rhythm with the heartbeat glowed, and the sack slowly fell out of reality, as if it had become too heavy for reality and was breaking through the thin barrier straight into the high spheres. The suggestor and Stepan, hovering on the very edge of reality, were saying all sorts of things.

Camrad_RIP 05.10.24 в 10:05

The mask in active protective mode allowed him to feel quite well protected from the influence on his mind, but that didn't mean that Stepan didn't over-insure himself in other ways, the main of which was the circle of the shining line. It was one of his strongest shielding techniques, working at the intersection of witchcraft and shamanism, literally cutting off some type of influence, forbidding it to cross the line. Wind will not turn into claws, fire will not catch fire, water in the body will not raise the pressure to a hundred atmospheres, and mental suggestion simply will not find the addressee. In the case of this entity, the glow was obviously customized just for the suggestion of the standard and part of the exotic types. The spirit, of course, in the database of the system name was listed as not aggressive, but, if the shaman protected his head insufficiently qualitatively, this power could force hit eat shit simply out of resentment for such neglect. And literally too - not for nothing, after all, a specialist in such delicate topics. But, since everything was done correctly, the result was correct.

Camrad_RIP 02.10.24 в 18:31

acceptance

Camrad_RIP 02.10.24 в 15:34

execution

Camrad_RIP 02.10.24 в 15:34

The spirit made a contract, secured it with the most powerful contract, which Stepan reinforced with a central totem and the best consumables, and then set out on his journey. Shifting through the tunnel passage woven by the ++Revealer, he emerges at the depth of the spiritual layer right in the middle of the winery site, taking root there and becoming as invisible as possible for the spirit, whose invisibility at a level comparable to that of the Sleepwalker is one of the aspects of his specialty. The task of the formless and devoid of image-appearance spirit is straightforward - to support the already summoned and pre-instructed to add to the team of spirits that control the flow of attention in the courtyard. So that every time Stepan wants to be called to do some shit, so immediately this thought will go away for one reason or another, no matter what. No time, no desire, he was given a day off, he still has a day off, that guy over there will do a better job, he has already been assigned something else - the spirit itself will open people's defenses and find the most suitable from the victim's point of view, why Pann should not be called, as well as in general to look for him or think about where he is wandering there.

Camrad_RIP 05.10.24 в 14:39

The most subtle impact. Minimal and so tiny that even a close inspection would have a chance of missing it. Well, if anyone thought to look for signs of mental control on winemakers and cheesemakers. In essence, it is not even a control, but a short injection into the right part of the mental body, not suggesting something, but transferring thoughts to a new direction. That is, it was better to do the work of employment and not to forget to pay the cat, so that the mice continued to die, and Stepan was not remembered. And yes, until now, despite the additional group of spirit-seekers, which were looking for underground passages and other ways to deliver mice, these same mice continued to climb into those barns, and the cat continued to choke and eat them as if he was in a real cat hunting paradise.

Camrad_RIP 05.10.24 в 14:49

By the time Stepan decided to eliminate Valdis, he hadn't solved the riddle, though he was dangerously close to spitting on his own plans and conspiracy, putting every single inhabitant of the farmstead to sleep, to summon the spirits that would cover it with cut-off barriers, and then use the best trackers to find the cause of the mouse problem, even if they had to literally dig and sniff every fucking pebble and look in every hole. It was close, but prudence, as well as the dense list of tasks that needed to be accomplished still prevailed and brought his thoughts back in a meaningful direction.

Camrad_RIP 05.10.24 в 14:53

While Stepan was innocently entertaining himself with the summoning of the elder spirits, which was an oxymoron from the point of view of the local shamans, he was also gathering information about his target in passing. Both through Sylvia, who had her little dossier on all the influential individuals of Dantmark, and by groups of spirit searchers, who conducted a primary analysis of the defense systems of Valdis' mansion. Part of the secondary analysis could be done, even for free, in order to please a generous and influential shaman with a lot of spiritual marks. Luckily, this morally dubious and really bastardized individual did not live in a magical tower. Otherwise, they would have had to catch him in the middle of a walk, which was not so much more difficult as fraught with accidental witnesses or victims. Unlike most of the magistrate's entourage, this guy had his mansion, purchased without moms, dads, and loans, given by a great uncle. The mansion, located in a wealthy neighborhood adjacent to the city tower, had protective charms. Couldn't have had them. They were quite good, even for a mere adept, but not even the slightest comparison with the tower. The Earthman would not risk climbing there, and even hoping not to reveal the fact of the shaman's interest in the tower.

Camrad_RIP 05.10.24 в 16:29

In fact, it would be impossible for a mere average adept to get such a mansion for personal use, as well as such protection on that mansion. But fortunately, Valdis had the prefix “de” in front of his surname for a reason. He had money in his family, which was not surprising when he was related to the head of the city's circle of mages. Although, it was hard to say what came first - the egg or the chicken. Throughout his career, Magister Miller had not been shy about using the influence of his relatives for his practice and development. Whatever it was, Valdis had a mansion, as well as a habit of spending time there, away from the gaze of his superiors, but within easy reach, so that he could immediately appear in the tower if necessary. Sylvia suspected, and Stepan was sure, that the mansion had its room for especially rough adult games, and maybe even more than one.

Camrad_RIP 06.10.24 в 14:02

A protective signal network, guard beds that are druidic constructs, screens on windows, tracking charms on locks, shutters, and doorknobs. That's the outside, the basic groundwork for a good mage's home. Valdis even made some of it himself, his magic was evident in the screens, and he had made the network himself, even if someone else had made the basis for it. The druidic billets were clearly the work of local drug dealers and mushroom growers, their products were used by almost all the local rich and noblemen who wanted to protect their homes and controlled territories with selectively aggressive flora. On average, the external defenses were not the worst, but they were unable to stop or contain Stepan, nor were they able to detect his actions. Clearly, he didn't open it in a couple of mouse clicks, going through all the lines, but he still managed to do it, and literally on the fly, being distracted by a more important mission.

Camrad_RIP 06.10.24 в 14:04

Inside the mansion were several deeply protected rooms, right up to the standard: an office, a basement, and a small laboratory for personal research. The defenses there were more exotic, advanced, and already clearly installed with the help of some of the more powerful mages, though clearly not personally by Magister Miller. In the rest of the building, the defense systems were roughly the same as outside - nets, screens on the doors, and rare vases in tubs with some of the leaves had been modified for scanning and surveillance. It would not be possible to turn away such “eyes” with standard spells, it would be necessary to use something non-standard. Stepan wasn't interested in the office, or the laboratory. Moreover, even through the protection, the spirits could pick up a feeling of not abandonment, but sterility and disuse. This individual had long ago abandoned his research. Or, more likely, he'd done it in the laboratories and ritual halls of the city tower, and in the mansion he'd kept in shape with standard workouts.

Camrad_RIP 06.10.24 в 14:14

Stepan did not go into the cellar either but confined himself to the small spirit of the life-sphere, the aspect of blood and agony, which, not without difficulty, for the cellar, was insulated to the best degree, better than even the study, and he caught the emanations of other people's suffering and spilled blood. It was old and dried up long ago, too. Sylvia had been right when she had said that Valdis had no time for fun. The spirits that had been swirling around in the interior left no trace of their presence, leaving again through the wall - standardly enchanted and reinforced with amulets in special niches, but not updated for a long time. The shaman had learned everything he needed, and he was not interested in anything else, because this house could not give him anything else, and the experience of opening the protection and analyzing it he received just crumbs, for practice he was given much more.

Camrad_RIP 07.10.24 в 17:54

Before enforcing the already signed sentence on the evil asshole, Stepan sorted out a small number of things that he had overdue. He had completed a small assignment that had almost reached its expiration date. It was tied to the call to the spirits of darkness, aspects of invisibility and concealment, which in his hall could be performed with closed eyes and without any preparation. In fact, that was why he had almost overdue it. He was always sure that he would be able to fulfill it at any moment, so he could take his time, not to put the quest in the task log, but to do this, that, this, and that, and then to fulfill the quest afterward. Well, almost to postpone, a little more and it would be a shame. They promised a random property as a reward, and Stepan did not throw away properties. He closed the task just three hours before the deadline, barely able to resist the rush.

Camrad_RIP 07.10.24 в 17:59

The reward was another drop of experience, an increase in affinity with the spheres of darkness and silence, an improvement in the effects of all concealment-type chanting, and the very property he had been promised. The property was called “strengthened auric nodes” and seemed to belong to the same branch of properties as “regeneration” and “subtle body resistance” already represented in his Status. In essence, it was a complex effect that increased the limit of the load that the aura nodes could withstand, especially in terms of rapid and sharp investment of a large part of the reserve. An ideal means of strengthening for wizards and warlocks, but also useful for a shaman, especially when it was necessary to summon several of the strongest contracts at once, helping them to incarnate themselves and feeding their powers. Yes, usually the process of draining the reserve is soft and unhurried for shamans, but things happen. Eels float on rivers, and Edwards in remote villages hide, and Evil Tit get in the way.

Camrad_RIP 07.10.24 в 18:02

The combination of all three properties gave a very noticeable synergy, increasing the overall effect. At Stepan's current level, it wasn't as noticeable as it would have been at the first level but it was still very significant. Again, now it will be much harder to cause irreparable injury by hitting an aura node with an assassin's blade, and easier for him to overcome curses whose effects are directed at aura nodes. If the curse operates according to other principles, then, of course, you will have to resist it on general terms the standard for a shaman's methods - either calling the necessary spirits, or squeezing and isolating the affected area with your own spiritual body. The bad news is that the state of auric nodes has changed in its reflection, now any healer can easily notice their abnormal strength and elasticity, which in itself can be considered a kind of “blood heritage” of the family of combat mages or elementalists with specialization in large-scale and powerful spells. Another area that will need to be covered with a Shroud, from which now and then there is a desire to somehow improve that Shroud.

Camrad_RIP 05.10.24 в 16:32

But, since the elite property refused to accept talent points, Stepan had to invest his honestly received talent points in the root skill, receiving “advanced mastery practice of calls” and then falling out of the clip for two days. He even felt a little guilty for having to lie to his employer, pretending that he'd worked his ass off trying to find out from the spirits the reasons for the mouse invasion. The bosses were understanding, and in the time allotted for recovery, he was not disturbed at all. He, accordingly, either laid down near the totem, feeding from it and meditating, or lay in bed. The possibility of instant transfer with a minimum of reserves allowed him to treat such a miracle of teleportation even easier than going to the toilet.

Camrad_RIP 07.10.24 в 18:06

The new knowledge was, as it was supposed to be root knowledge, voluminous to the extreme and, as it was expected of a raised to the rank maximum for the master, astonishingly powerful. The basis, as in all previous times, was all kinds of call practices, tricks, cunning, precise knowledge of rituals and whole groups of them, even more detailed tables of typification of offerings, allowing to find the keys to absolutely any spirit through ordinary dialogue. And every other knowledge in the Status still expanded the basis - combat and agent work, healing and curses, charms and suggestion, long-distance work and contracts, territory and totems, dolls and arrays, out-of-body and spiritual wandering. Each of these blocks of information extended the boundaries of the root, and each was accompanied by a list and catalog of what the call practice received through them. All in all, he managed in two and a half days only because he meditated nonstop and was constantly near the totems, feeding his body and mind with their presence. In field conditions, he would have been turned off for the whole five days, if he counted it together with sleep, and this under the most optimistic scenario. Let both call and dialog be the root skills of the class, let them be equal in importance and usefulness, but the dialog is much closer to reflexes and skills, while the practice of calls also has a huge amount of encyclopedic knowledge in its pure form, from which the head naturally swells.

Camrad_RIP 05.10.24 в 16:40

To put it matter-of-factly. He was now really fully, as fully as possible versed in summoning elder entities, at a level where he could call them regularly and in a huge assortment. Also, albeit cautiously and with huge reservations, he could, relying on all the accumulated power, overconsumption of reagents, summoning backup spirits, using a mask and under certain conditions, call full-fledged supreme spirits from the lower limits of power, and not just call, but also survived. And if very lucky, not just surviving, but even managing to achieve some kind of cooperation and fulfill certain tasks. Well, theoretically he could because in practice Stepan would only risk trying to pull this kind of shit in the next thirty levels if he had a gun loaded with adamantium bullets to the back of his head. Or if clawed demonic hands grabbed him by the balls. Or something else as unpleasant and guaranteed to be fatal as that, so he'd look for an alternative in that way.

Camrad_RIP 05.10.24 в 16:47

There were not many contacts and the most detailed calls of the higher spirits in his memory, but even this “few” would be enough to sign a death sentence for possessing such knowledge, well, if possible, and if it does not work out to negotiate, to subdue or at least to ensure neutrality. Simply because few sane people would want to have someone living in their country who could summon something standing on the border of a magister and an archmagister in a direct battle. Yes, it would be difficult, yes risky, yes he would not do it until he was sure of his safety, just as with the older spirits he could start summoning back in the Lyady, albeit with the same risks as the higher ones now, but he could do it, theoretically and practically. He would be eliminated or taken under control, not even out of malice, but simply because there was no desire to tolerate a completely uncontrollable element of such power.

Camrad_RIP 07.10.24 в 18:53

A higher spirit is a small army, accompanied by a master or even two, devoured on the march, from which only those masters with a minimum of retinue will survive, at best. It is a pestilence that covers a large city or a whole region, extremely difficult to heal by conventional means, requiring magical or priestly treatment, and without it having almost one hundred percent lethality. It is a storm front capable of drowning a small fleet of a trading expedition of several ships, despite the resistance of mages and ship altars. It is a wall of fire in the form of the angry face of an ancient king, burning even stone to the ground, sparing no living thing but those with the blood of an ancient kingdom that may never have existed in this world. It is a stone giant more than half a hundred meters tall, capable of throwing boulders over the horizon, knocking flies with them on the fly, and the power in those boulders is like an enchanted catapult shell.

Camrad_RIP 07.10.24 в 18:55

Even those of the higher ones that weren't fully martial were still impressive. It didn't matter if they could heal almost any wound, literally licking it with a cat's tongue or burning it in their fire like a phoenix, resurrect the recently or not so recently deceased, if his aura wasn't too badly damaged, find a lost thing on the other side of the world and bring it back in five minutes, maybe by stealing it from someone's safe, or carry you to the other side of the world, maybe right into the safe, bypassing the protection. But to hell with the higher ones, if Stepan can only lick his eyes at their calls for the near future. The main value of this promotion is the senior spirits, the expansion of the list of available calls, and the simplification of some of the old ones, including the one he has already outlined for his second elimination mission.

Camrad_RIP 08.10.24 в 11:38

Oh, elder spirits of every specialty and type, for every kind of knowledge available to the status, really, and each with their own complexities and quirks, each with their own conditions and dangers. How about a healer who can literally restore internal organs if you put a bull's heart or liver into the body instead of a damaged piece of flesh? Except that he would have to slaughter a hecatomb of these bulls, fifty of them, and for the next three years and three days he would be able to eat only beef and vegetables, and no alcohol until the heart or another part of the body becomes real. The curser was also not far behind, as he could put on very unpleasant and gradually gaining strength effects, which, in principle, are not difficult to remove, but they will return again and again if you just get into the sunlight, and each time they will return in a more severe form. This becoming a vampire, only without accompanying pros, but photophobia will be according to the testament of movies with Wesley Snipes, literally burning from long standing under the sun. In order to banish the curse completely, you will have to search for the spirit itself, which is constantly staying on a deep layer of spheres, but approximately next to the victim, though not in absolute proximity, renewing its influence time after time.

Camrad_RIP 08.10.24 в 12:01

The spirit of the fence and the line, which indwells a wall, fence, hedge, or even a circle outlined with a wand, turns this barrier into something truly insurmountable, literally sucking in enemy spells and sending them to the depths of the spheres. And also sucking in the lives of those who dare to come too close to the outside of the fence without the permission of the shaman-caller. And the older the fence is, the longer it has stood, and the more embedded it is in the world, the more this spirit can manifest its abilities. And, what is important, a peasant fence made of sticks, put up ten generations ago, will fit even better than a brand new stone wall made of the best materials and with additional enchantments. A special bodyguard for traveling in the world of spirits, which floats, flies, and stays behind the shaman, literally in his shadow, a reflection if you will, invisible and intangible even for more powerful than the shaman or the senior entity. And if there is danger, he will switch places with the protected target, hiding him in his pocket space, taking his place, and kicking ass. Outwardly and in the spiritual imprint this entity will look like an ugly and mutated copy of the shaman himself, making it seem from the outside that he has such a combat form. In the end, the creature could take over some of the shaman's abilities for the duration of the reflection, and the defendant, once in hiding, would be able to give orders to the rest of his retinue.

Camrad_RIP 08.10.24 в 12:04

Another twin-substitute that can serve as a transmitter bait. It takes the form and imprint of a shaman during a call, allowing the enemy to attack and destroy itself, dying and being reborn. But at the same time, the one who kills the bait will receive a vampiric-sucking effect, depriving exactly half of the reserve of strength and not allowing to replenish them. Even from a storage unit or a totem, you can't recharge. The strength will be lost as if to nowhere, but in fact in the reserve of the reborn spirit. And, as if it was not enough, the victim will sharply reduce the magical defense, resistance, and strength of shields, but only to attacks and influences of the image of whom he was going to destroy. And it will be a decrease of the level when the apprentice's magic arrow has all the chances to break the rigid segmental shield of a weak master. In a battle of any kind of equal opponents is almost a death sentence, unless, of course, the opponent is not able to recognize the trick or level the curse in time. For example, he could also cast a trick or something like that.

Camrad_RIP 08.10.24 в 12:15

I remembered an elder spirit whose strength and forte were in modifying the existing defenses of shamanic, witchcraft, or classical magical ones. To put him in the walls of a dilapidated fortress, the charms which have almost disintegrated without renewal for a hundred years, and he will patch them, remake, weave additional nodes, and connect the individual nodes together, achieving a very decent result. There were many such specialists among the spirits, many guardian-keepers who could build or strengthen protection, but this individual knew how to work with weaving charms. Yes, so work that if he were not a spiritual entity, very alternative thinking, another master with a specialization in protective and signal fields would not be shameful to take a couple of lessons from him. Alas, the spirit couldn't teach him, he was generally, in his normal state, completely unskilled in magic and didn't even understand what weaving was as such. Simply merging with the already existing protection, no matter what school, it seemed to connect to the information field of the universe, absorbing the image-knowledge of what a strong and correct defense based on a certain school would look like, and then became this knowledge, embodying it together with its manifestation in reality.

Camrad_RIP 02.10.24 в 16:19

The number of suggestive, bewitching, and lecherous spirits with exotic properties of the Autodivine type of entities of the senior rank was stupefying, as well as mild panic. There were guys much stronger and noticeably more useful, and more flexible than the very narrow contractual limits of the Veyatel. And what spirits of the same type could do, but higher ones... No, Stepan could not complain, he had more pure fighters, defenders, utilitarian specialists, trackers, and even transportation workers in his knowledge base, but still, he was startled. Some individuals even seemed quite suitable for conscription, despite their, ahem, bias toward one Milf.

Camrad_RIP 02.10.24 в 16:15

One of the spirits, on the very border with the Highest, was able to help a lot in tantric practices, connecting the partner and partner so tightly that they involuntarily acquired the strong properties of each other. Two or three, or better two or three dozen sessions in the form of a night of love, during which you have to plow so hard that you will be exhausted, and you can easily raise one or two characteristics for yourself and her. Each will be added to the characteristic that the partner has the highest, so it is better to choose someone with diametrically opposite development. The same goes for auric properties, like aptitude for some kind of magic or more malleable subtle bodies. There's a chance to adopt your partner's properties and pass yours on to her. In general, if it weren't for the fact that this spirit didn't work with the undead, Stepan probably wouldn't have held back.

Camrad_RIP 02.10.24 в 16:12

Having slept through the knowledge, Stepan ate a double portion of porridge first thing, and then once again walked through the battlefields of a feline spirit, staring puzzled at the fucking mouse corpses again. This time he just shook his head and resolutely filed the mystery away on the more distant list of important tasks, to Pirius's slightly mocking cough. No, he understood him quite well. Three certified mages had said nothing, done nothing, and understood nothing, not counting Maître Jasper, who wasn't the right specialty. And he, a self-taught understudy from the backwoods, wants to solve and understand everything on the first, or second, attempt. But Stepan is not a village understudy. He is a Senior Shaman with a System! Yes, he did not work with the problem in full force, both because of a lot of other things, and not wanting to leave traces of powerful calls on the territory of the courtyard, but still offended.

Camrad_RIP 02.10.24 в 15:37

“Yeah, well, don't feel bad, Shaman. It's not so bad for you, but imagine what it's like for Maître Jasper?” The sympathy in the steward's words is completely false, but he doesn't even bother to hide his amusement. “Sometimes I think he's lost sleep over those little buggers, you know? It's true, he told me, but it doesn't matter. The main thing is that your cat is crushing the scum, and that's all it takes, a moron can remove the corpses from under the doors with a shovel. How are you, by the way? You're not wobbly on your feet anymore?”

Camrad_RIP 02.10.24 в 15:46

His words were sincere enough, albeit rather self-serving. He didn't want to lose or ruin the health of an individual who was very useful to him personally and his salary. Stepan was not at all uncomfortable with this attitude. Just like at work in the Earth society, only here he reads feelings and thoughts like an open book. But if the case had been on Earth, and he had somehow summoned the same spirits as he did now, Stepan could put a couple of talent points on it, the result would have been exactly the same.

Camrad_RIP 01.10.24 в 19:09

“Yeah, I'm fine, a little overstressed, but it's nothing.” A little absent-mindedly, mentally scanning the space with his intensity and a strong spirit planted in his eyes and under the shroud, the earthling answers. “That is my grandfather's bequest. Difficult tasks are not given at once, and if the one who took up the task is also a fool, it is not without trauma.”

Camrad_RIP 01.10.24 в 19:10

Pirius grunted at the seemingly flat joke, but his mood soared, and he remembered the phrase. Stepan, of course, had no shortage of grandfather's aphorisms and old anecdotes for a man, but he wanted to get it over with as soon as possible and go to the shelter, to work on the invocations and drawing of a particularly complex amulet. Automatically nodding and answering Pirius' questions, he maintained the illusion of interested conversation. A skill he had honed on Earth, if not to a master's level, then to an advanced level, which made it a bit of a pity that the system hadn't recognized it. However, the ability to behave naturally in any social situation was formally considered part of the agent's skills, which was probably why the system didn't give him some “advanced master skill of not realizing shit and not letting it show”.

Camrad_RIP 08.10.24 в 12:24

“Yes, my respects to your grandfather, he must have been an outstanding man, and he taught you well.” Pirius was not stingy in his praise, but he was not a flatterer either, he just stated the facts, making him tense up a bit. “Believe me, I've seen a lot of peasant magicians, if he goes to shit in the closet and not around the corner, it's not bad. But you've got a speech that could be confused with a city dweller. Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that you've obviously never been to town and don't know the basics, I'd think you were just lying about your village. I've seen it... Well, let's go away...”

Camrad_RIP 08.10.24 в 12:38

He interrupted his unpleasant conclusions for Stepan, who had again misjudged himself somewhere because a small procession was coming towards them along the graveled path. A couple of very pretty maids, a skinny brunette with a stern face and a short brown-haired girl with a very pretty face, nice figure, and big eyes, as well as their, obviously, mistress-principal. She was rather swarthy, not black, but not just a tanned lady of about forty-plus years old, who had some light drops of Eastern gypsy blood in her. She was richly dressed, not worse than Trabius, but outwardly... her face might have been pretty when she was young, but now it was worn out, her figure, also once lush, had faded, there was a crease on her sides not completely hidden by the dress, and her belly was slightly protruding, not at all in pregnancy, and so on.

Camrad_RIP 08.10.24 в 12:40

Apparently, it was the first time Stepan had ever seen Fanya Borshakl, the esteemed and honorable wife of his employer. Frankly speaking, the impression was not very good. The look was wicked, insolent, and slippery-unpleasant, and her appearance too. Stepan, who had never been hurt by unattractive women, who had never spoiled his picture of the world, even involuntarily thought about the reason for his reaction. Well, how pondered? He stepped back with Pirius, tilted his head slightly, without subservience, but with politeness. He kept silent, still just an unfamiliar to her worker, and not an administrator and senior manager of the whole enterprise, as Pirius was. And quickly came to a conclusion - she behaved and behaved as if she was a beauty queen who came to this "farm", but she looked like a queen of the "farm". And more importantly, she assessed him, Stepan, as a piece of meat, with a fleeting glance, but still unpleasantly. If he had been a young lady, he would have compared it to the way a rude but rich peddler undresses a pretty townswoman with his gaze - a slight squeamishness and apprehension at the same time.

Camrad_RIP 01.10.24 в 19:34

But it didn't go any further than a glance. She nodded at Pirius's greeting and went about her business in silence, causing the man to exhale a little. Trabius' temper was stern but fair and calm, but his wife was a bitch so anyone could be reprimanded, even reduced in pay. It was easier for the head winemaker to put up with his wife's whims than to quarrel with her. Pirius, of course, was protected from arbitrary behavior, he just had too many things to do, but it was still not very pleasant to have such a meeting. As Stepan already knew from rumors and untold words, the winemaker's wife spent most of her time at the country estate, inspecting vineyards and supervising purchases of hops and grain for breweries. In spite of her bad temper, she was also from a family of merchants and knew her business well.

Camrad_RIP 07.10.24 в 13:01

"Phew, we made it down the slope without breaking a leg." Having uttered a local proverb, clearly characterizing his attitude to Fanya, who, judging by her name and appearance, actually had a little bit of Caliphate blood, he involuntarily looked at Stepan, as if trying to understand whether he had heard, and the latter, being a reasonable young man, pretended not to hear. "Well, go, go on, have a rest, or do something else with your magic. Don't bother me here."

Camrad_RIP 04.10.24 в 20:44

Stepan, like any other earthly man who had ever been a student, did not have to be begged twice, for he knew how to perform this task. He went to his room, having previously stolen a freshly baked bun from the kitchen, he went to his dwelling and began a long list of important things to do. This list tended to grow and expand so rapidly that one had to run desperately ahead just to keep it from lengthening too quickly. By the time the next preparatory call began, with a group of summoned spirits supplementing one version of the protective trait on the other side of the world of spheres, affecting reality too, he'd forgotten all about the mice, Pirius, Fanya, the winery farmstead, and everything else. The Earthman was immersed in his favorite, really favorite, business, and the rest of the world was in the background.

Camrad_RIP 04.10.24 в 20:45

* * *

Camrad_RIP 30.09.24 в 19:29

A shaman has long ago noticed two complementary patterns, which are either two sides of the same coin or two ends of the same horseshoe. The essence of these patterns is that as long as no one rushes and is not distracted, even very complex tasks are moving noticeably faster and easier, but, at the same time, if an individual like Stepan, no one rushes for a long time and do not kick, the task he performed tends to go very much away from the original idea. The balance, as usual, is absolutely in the middle. The main thing is to be able to balance, from time to time resting by choosing another task, easier. The young man approached the elimination of his opponent, even if the sadistic maniac didn't know about the fact that he had an opponent, with full responsibility, intending to make a definite “overkill”, even if killing the bastard could be much easier. No risks, traces, or indications that it was a shaman's work, not a classic mage or an ordinary assassin with a number of expensive amulets.

Camrad_RIP 01.10.24 в 19:58

In addition to the main task, he was also engaged in secondary tasks, which could be performed in passing. He worked with the memory of the merchant who had written him the letter of recommendation, making Sylvia's memory sublimation much more subtle and gentle, for example. He also accomplished, albeit a little late, the task he'd set for himself. To check on the victims of the vampire killed by the black dog to make sure they didn't die from the injuries inflicted by the bloody control. They didn't die without him, as it turned out: Edward and his horde had deliberately made people into billets for the ghouls, sparing neither their health nor their lives, while Riksar was weaker and was preparing a shelter for himself, not a place for the coming battle. The spirits did not immediately find the right place, despite the fact that Stepan saw it through the eyes of Sylvia, who was looking through the eyes of a black dog. When they did find it, when Stepan created a signal transmission and sent the seekers by direct teleport through the spirit world, it was too late. But late in a good way. The victims were indeed helped, and there were no corpses among them, everyone was pumped out, and questioned, the remains of the undead bastard were examined, and that was it. Well, in the sense that the victims didn't know anything else, the investigation was already conducted without them. They also took a sex toy that had gone crazy somewhere and whose brain and mental body seemed to have been irreparably mutilated, but the others were much luckier. The young man who had tagged a couple of these victims with beacons and then sent some spirits into their dreams had only been able to find out the basic details, not wanting to go any deeper than necessary.

Camrad_RIP 01.10.24 в 20:24

Stepan also helped Sylvia with another matter related to her personal problems. She needed to find out urgently, just yesterday, who one of her partners was working with and for what purpose. Who, it seemed, had decided to cheat her bloodsucking partner a bit. With no evidence or information, Sylvia risked being left without an inflow of new reagents for her alchemy and rare amulets being created by one of the fledglings. Not that the young man cared much about her problems, but it wasn't a bad way to utilize her skills and gain some experience. Getting into the head of a couple of assistants, analyzing the defenses on a trade representative, a rather clever spirit suggestor, actually turning off the victim's brain, but performing the functions of the brain itself, so you can literally read thoughts on the air - the spirit will broadcast them. The victim, which is important, does not even notice that he is not thinking with his brain, but with an astral prosthesis - no memory lapses, no loss of motor skills, only decreased appetite.

Camrad_RIP 08.10.24 в 12:43