Настучать в бубен / Hit the tambourine: Глава 19-4

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Camrad_RIP 12.11.24 в 16:10

The first thing Stepan saw when he looked into the system was that the experience scale had hardly moved. What had been added to it, not so little, was the result of an exceptionally conducted surveillance and listening to the magical-spiritual background of the network of worms. On the one hand, he was very disappointed, because getting a multiple of level ten and opening up the possibility of taking a second class would be useful now as well as one - or two, if Her Milfiness was generous - elite trait with an increase in characteristics. On the other hand, it would be torture to make such an important choice in such a cramped and dangerous environment, and he could get the right amount of experience, while no one would give him credit for “deeds”. And yes, his and Singha's performance of saving their skins from an extremely deep asshole was counted by the system as a “deed”, even though Stepan felt, intuitively and on the edge of consciousness, using the help tips, that this “deed” was one step away from a lower-ranked “act”.

Camrad_RIP 14.11.24 в 09:49

From the shaman's point of view, it was an injustice. But he understood with his mind and logic that what was a mortal danger for an Adept Shaman was not a walk in the backyard of a personal mansion for a Senior Shaman, but it was no reason to make it a true feat. Willful effort unpacked a pile of images, which had not been activated before due to the danger of the environment, and then the young man who looked into these images smiled. Sparingly, barely noticeable, not too happy, but he smiled - the situation in which he found himself, which had seemed almost guaranteed to be a grave before, suddenly took on a slightly brighter aspect. Whether it was the System playing along again, rewarding him for escaping the trap, or just luck, the situation had generally improved.

Camrad_RIP 14.11.24 в 10:01

A meaningful deed has been done!

Camrad_RIP 14.11.24 в 10:01

For a dive into those depths where the children of Reality have no access and from which they have no return, for the swiftness of decisions and the swiftness of their realization in reality, for a swift victory in the confrontation of wills with the spawn of the High Spheres in the place of his power there is a reward corresponding to a worthy deed!

Camrad_RIP 14.11.24 в 10:12

Gained: one characteristic unit to a Control attribute; three talent points available for distribution only to minor knowledge from the Contracts with Elder Spirits subsection; one talent point available for distribution only to minor knowledge from the Contracts with Higher Spirits subsection; one item from the elite list of the system purchase list (selection available from the list of previously saved elite items in the special list).

Camrad_RIP 14.11.24 в 10:14

Additional rewards from Liarat si Merrinal, Lady of Gifts and Giver of Gifts, loyal servant of Innelas Innelay: closure of one random branch of class knowledge up to the development limit according to characteristics; one of the artifacts in your possession is randomly increased in rank similar to the effect of the corresponding token; two random rare meta-effect tokens.

Camrad_RIP 14.11.24 в 11:36

Such a set of rewards was indeed inferior to the past deed, done, characteristically, also after meeting Singha. Just one point of free characteristics, instead of three, an internal toad and hamster would have set off a revolution if he had them. But here, three contracts with the elders and a full contract with the supreme spirit is exactly that, a perfect match for the coming battle. With such an entourage, he would be able to at least face an unknown creature in battle without dying in the first few seconds. The ability to select one of the elite-type system items he had set aside in the store's queue would be equally useful. He has thoughts on how to utilize this in the right way. The Autogoddess' reward is certainly autobodacious, but he wasn't really mad at her, didn't have the energy for anger, and was trying too hard to keep his cool. The situation was one step away from combative and permanently deadly.

Camrad_RIP 14.11.24 в 12:04

As for the artifact enhancement, he almost believed for a second that his favorite mask would be enhanced again, which he had to deal with separately as to what it represented now, after the enhancement, but Milfic Calamity remained herself from the beginning to the end. Enhanced indeed one of the artifacts belonging to Stepan, not the one with him now, but remaining in the cozy underground cave. And not the totem-center, which, after the promotion, would be of some use even now, through the barrier of the cauldron, but the very first of all artifacts of this kind, which Stepan has at all. Yes, yes, the System, by the grace of the Autogoddess, improved by who knows how many percent the same unfortunate stockings, which are still lying in the gradually dusting kitset. And yes, he would be able to find out what exactly he had received as a result of this “most generous gift” only after he had personally looked at and analyzed it - the help would give a more detailed report only when he came into physical contact with the kitset-casket. Now he could only find out what artifact had improved.

Camrad_RIP 18.11.24 в 10:59

The only thing that saved the glorious free city from the ass frenzy and the fiery rocket sent on a ballistic trajectory from here and towards Dantmark straight out of his flaming ass was that the young man was almost immediately overwhelmed with free knowledge. Quickly and forcibly calming himself down, having bought alchemy from three different vials from the System beforehand, he began to sort out the new knowledge, trying to do it as quickly as possible, because that's where you need to hurry and not waste a single moment. Strangely enough, either the alchemy was helping or he was very motivated, but learning a whole branch of knowledge, even if it was heavily pumped, was much faster and easier than he had expected. A surprise. Not a problem, but a pleasant surprise.

Camrad_RIP 19.11.24 в 18:09

Received: ''mastery of mental-sensory processing of protected targets''; ''elite mastery of mental-sensory processing of protected targets''.

Camrad_RIP 14.11.24 в 12:05

The acquired talents are added to the Player's overall status.

Camrad_RIP 14.11.24 в 12:10

Of course, Lady Milfistopheles could not ignore such a picturesque and tasty block of knowledge from her point of view. Again - why the devil did Stepan's combat skills exceed his brainwashing skills in any aspect? It's not right! It should be corrected and, here, it was corrected, let the isekai thank her for all the good things. Why is he silent and his eye twitching so funny? Jokes helped to relieve a little nervous tension, and the usual anger at the Autogoddess did not let him fall into panic despondency from the realization of the abyss of dangers that awaited him in the very near future. With the prospect of ending the future with a fat dot on the same dangers.

Camrad_RIP 18.11.24 в 11:07

The new knowledge was indeed similar to the analog of combat skills, though it was born from a subtype of agent work. Like agenting and combat grasp, it was pumped in a slightly different way, without the usual chain of base-advanced-base-base-advanced and beyond. At his current level, these skills were literally the maximum he could get with his characteristics, making him not just a competent specialist, but a natural elite of elites in his chosen field, able to work against targets of the level of dukes of free cities, masters or even magisters of magic, senior and high priests, or other persons of similar status, be it personal power and social standing. Yes, each such target would require a very careful approach, weeks and months of analyzing their habits, defenses, aura, mentagrams, character, very clever tricks, and rare consumables. But he realized with some amazement that he could, in theory, make Magister Miller fall completely in love with Duke Herbert's granddaughter in such a way that she would literally have him by the balls. Not in a month or two, with constant risks and the threat of disclosure, but he knew, in theory, what groups of spirits to use, what methods to use, how to break the impact into separate stages, influencing from hundreds of different vectors, merging them.

Camrad_RIP 18.11.24 в 11:13

The ironic thing here was that this knowledge was ranked slightly, but still higher than the same combat mastery. Still, it was born from another knowledge, no less complex, deepening and narrowing the specialization exclusively to working with the consciousness of a protected target and nothing else. For the owner of such skills all the masters of the game of thrones could start a small war, but, more likely, would try to such a master together and forget about the throne games with strife to bury deeper, especially against the background of the existing Master, which is pumped in this direction. If he correctly understood something about his namesake then only in this direction he was ready to pump. But he was simply obliged to show perseverance and persistence at a level from which even Yanin, Rodislav light Gastoldovich, would put for the exam “Excellent” automatically.

Camrad_RIP 19.11.24 в 11:16

The first of the two improvements simply increased the number and depth of working methods and added new summons and witchcraft tricks. It taught him to work not just on the protected target, but on the target protected by the pros, and it is the same professional-paranoid. The ability to counteract the defenses and precautions of those who know exactly how all kinds of charms work, countering the prepared defenses with specific and uncharacteristic methods of influence, which exactly against such defenses are designed. The ability to resist in such a peculiar duel of representatives of almost any type of mentality and social status, magicians and priests, warriors and rulers, humans and elves, orcs and dwarves, even fucking dragons, on which almost nothing brain-twisting does not work and therefore they allow themselves to be too relaxed, forgetting that it is “almost”. Up to the fact the idea of getting the status of one cheerful donkey from not quite a children's cartoon is quite real. Especially because true and experienced dragons and dragonesses can take humanoid form if they have the desire to do so and master this skill at the proper level.

Camrad_RIP 19.11.24 в 18:13

But the most powerful was a new promotion, bringing the knowledge to the third rank and giving the very possibility of multidirectional influence, when it is necessary to rely not on one trick, but on a whole pleiad of such tricks, of different types, different schools of magic, different approaches, which will merge into a single suggestion only at the very end. The efficiency of such an approach is off the scale, as well as labor costs, because to work, in truth, there should be a whole group of collectors of information about the target, as well as suppliers of the rarest reagents. But Stepan had a System, a System Store, and an encyclopedic knowledge of how one really needs and can drive through the brains of the masters of life. Not something to be proud of, but you can't just take and discard this knowledge, a good deal of which could well be used in many other areas of magical practice - from agency work to witchcraft, from long-range control to contracts, from working with arrays to totems. To be honest, he was getting uncomfortable at the thought of what he could do with the new knowledge.

Camrad_RIP 19.11.24 в 18:17

Just as a mental experiment let's take the head of some trading house, it is possible even female and pretty, so it would be more pleasant to experiment mentally. She's perfectly protected. She is well aware of the dangers of mentalists and sensualists. She has more than once dwarfed the heads of all sorts of smart guys with a vial of love elixir in their possession. Her defenses are top-notch. Her influence and wealth are equal to that of any other city ruler. Her paranoia is pumped to the limit and a bit beyond it. Even using elite elder exotic spirits won't guarantee it. Even a high spirit with the right specialization can be spotted by her defenses or her mind. You can even make this spherical in a vacuum businesswoman also not a weak gifted, a solid adept, no more and no less, because masters usually do not go into trade, and with that kind of money, it's hard to stay just an apprentice. This is such a fortress, which is not easy to kill, despite all the power of the System and a lot of contracts, and here you need to make her a faithful and obedient mistress. How to be then one fine-hearted isekai from a distant Earth, what to use, and how to subdue the chosen target?

Camrad_RIP 20.11.24 в 17:36

It starts with the wind blowing more often over her house, and the base of influence is not near where her shields can smell it, for there are as many signaling devices on this house as there are in the palace of old Herbert, for example. No, no, the wind originates in the very clouds, high and far away, only currents of air driven by an elder spirit with exotic properties reach down. These streams create the effect of a funnel, a sonic mouthpiece through which floats a white noise inaudible consciously, but catchable by the very recesses of the mind. Nothing like that, just a gradual relaxation and softening of the defense for one particular type of influence, and even not a particularly noticeable softening, if you do not look for it, this particular signature, and the master will miss, will not be able to notice.

Camrad_RIP 20.11.24 в 17:37

The surface of the mirror will be covered with some strange film invisible neither physically nor magically. From the film on the reflection will go barely noticeable waves, catchable by the very edge of the eye. Concentrating attention, distracting it, concentrating on the victim's appearance, persuading her to pay a little more attention and effort to this appearance, improving the mood, forcing a stingy smile to appear on the face, so rarely there. A very feeble one, only outside the presence of witnesses, for one must maintain the reputation of an iron lady. What iron lady? Mithril, no less, capable of bending crowbars with her gaze, or swords, as the local expression goes.

Camrad_RIP 20.11.24 в 17:45

The water in the bathroom is always checked with special care and partiality, as well as toiletries and shampoos. Our lady definitely knows about that and doesn't forget about it but there's nothing in the cosmetics. It's just that a group of exotic spirits, from the strong to the senior guide, penetrated that plumbing quite some time ago, merged with the water in it, became an integral part of it and that's why the protection lets them through. They are water, not even saturated with magic, just liquid. So what if together with their bodies in the foamy and fragrant bath there are particles of different types of reagents that do not harm and do not affect themselves, but accumulate on the skin and body even after wiping with a fine terry towel?

Camrad_RIP 20.11.24 в 17:49

Especially if even earlier other spirits had worked with the servants on harsh oaths and with voluntary, or not quite voluntary, mental processing, slightly distorting the already existing bookmarks in their heads, changing perception and slightly weakening the contractual bonds, so that it was not noticeable during regular scans and checks. There were no traces on the control anchors, which certified the contracts. The servants simply began to think that it was a normal part of their workflow - adding slightly different perfume to the bedding and slightly different cleaning potions to the laundry. Another maid will not notice or pay attention to the fact that the long-purchased magic crystals for lighting have for some reason begun to give a slightly different shade of color. Another servant will drop a drop of absolutely transparent liquid on the underwear of the mistress, carefully washed and ironed, not realizing that this drop fell from their own fingernail, on the tip of which a miniature spatial pocket was formed, which had already managed to dissipate imperceptibly by the evening.

Camrad_RIP 20.11.24 в 17:52

Writing utensils and ink on sheets of paper will become a little different, so the eyes of a busy and morally uplifted lady will pick out separate letters in boring trade reports. These letters will be formed into words, quite understandable, but not realized, especially since after the first reading these letters, left and slightly changed by the spirit of words and meanings, will lose the shadow of the presence of this spirit and become again just letters. And the trading lady is doing well, perfectly well even, she keeps her workload lighter and lighter. She manages to rest for the brief moments of respite, the honed mind is already routinely solving those tasks, which before were not a challenge, but a problem.

Camrad_RIP 20.11.24 в 17:54

Dozens of separate pricks fold, intertwine, penetrate under the monolithic protection, and braid the consciousness with an invisible cocoon, from which there is no escape, which will not be realized, until in one moment, no different from others, she will receive for her morning signature some such familiar documents, among which will be a contract on the complete transfer of all her assets and property to the power of an old competitor, as well as an extremely detailed marriage contract with the same competitor as a junior concubine or a full-fledged wife - it does not matter. She would sign and certify it with the same ease and certainty as everything else, accepting it as the norm, then change into especially revealing lingerie and a dress that covered neither breasts nor ass nor crotch, meet her new husband, and immediately begin to please him, spend a night of passion with him and return to work as his faithful assistant. As if it is so and so, as if nothing unusual, completely changed her life and did not happen, as if she decided to change the color of her nails, not to give her trading house and all the assets to a competitor. And God forbid someone try to convince her that it's all a spell. She will check herself and let herself be checked by outside experts. She will not forget to create a convincing semblance that it was originally her idea, that she was just bought out and that's why she ditched the old partners in favor of her new husband.

Camrad_RIP 20.11.24 в 17:57

This is approximately how such an approach to mental and sensual working out works, when there is no single attack vector, no direct blow with a blade, which can be repulsed, be it even by a pack of higher spirits - there are hundreds of individual needle pricks, changing the consciousness and will of the victim so that no standard and quite a few exotic checks will help. Even if it is clear to everyone and everyone that the impact on our example businesswoman with an iron character was really there, they will still not be able to prove it, neither to her herself nor in a lawsuit to seize the property with assets.

Camrad_RIP 20.11.24 в 18:00

This is just one example, which Stepan came up in minutes, while examples of those can be crammed into a dozen volumes with author's footnotes. Two sons of a sultan compete for the throne. They ask a shaman for help and pay well. One of the competitors will frequent the harem, will spend more time there, will be more interested in the life of his concubines, will admire the beauty of their clothes and bodies, and at the end of a year-long cycle of working out to distinguish him from one of the many and as one of the beautiful inhabitants of that harem will not help any Admiral Akbar. And what is it that the victim will get the idea to “play” his half-brother by pretending to be a new concubine? And there and then and fuck the throne and power, if the new life so liked.

Camrad_RIP 18.11.24 в 11:18

The example, of course, was not one of those that Stepan would agree to pull off even for a dozen levels of reward, but it was just a demonstration of the fact that his tricks were not limited to the female gender. Neither in theory nor in practice there is no difference between working on a beautiful maiden or a brutal man - you can liberate an outstanding scientist from the world of magic to the point that she decides to go to the elite concubines or make it so that in the barracks of some knightly order every seven days to choose the boss of the gym. Or turn them all, both the maiden and the knights, into suicidal suicides to attack the king at the next ball.
бос качалки

Camrad_RIP 18.11.24 в 11:21

The shaman spent half a day in meditation, which is really surprising for such serious and massive knowledge. That's what motivation means, the mother of labor feats. By the time he awoke, it was already dawning, and Singha had spent a good portion of her reserve fortifying the defensive line around their hill. She'd spent about three and a half hours adapting to the System and then decided to get down to business. Well, she'd gotten a little more experience, though it wasn't easy for her, now level thirty-one, to gain new experience. And yes, another injustice of the system read. With a formal level two levels higher than his she was many times weaker than him. Perhaps it was good that he “clicked the checkbox” and blocked her from looking at his own Status, having done it as a group leader. Otherwise, there would be a lot of questions and suspicions about why the hell he had such a specific leveling.

Camrad_RIP 20.11.24 в 18:11

The status of his unwilling companion, on the contrary, he looked over, albeit glimpsed, not as carefully as he might have wanted. The development was quite competent, though rather lopsided. He could say it with certainty, like a shaman to a shaman - Air, Wind, Storms, Gusts, those were the Spheres she and her family nurtured, the rest of them on a residual basis. No, her root call practices and dialog were also quite good, as for her level, her attributes were not bad, especially the class ones, also the Source stood out for the better - genetics and heredity were good. She also had a few decent properties, which were also sharpened to the wind, expressed by separate marks, but other elements were also given to her, such as Water, which she was able to call at the level of an adept, and the Flames and the Depths would not be completely deaf to her calls. From the non-spiritual spheres quite a decent level of communication with the Animal subspheres of birds of prey, as well as a little slope in the light sub-branches of the Healing Wind. Skills of out-of-body work, totems, and stationary calls with a focus on ancestral blood - this part of knowledge he did not have, which was not surprising.

Camrad_RIP 18.11.24 в 11:28

There was a lot of small knowledge or rather contracts, and most of them were labeled “ancestral”, and some of them were blocked since not all the spirits bound to the family's blood could be summoned, or they might come and the family wouldn't have an heiress. There are more contracts with strong spirits than Stepan's, but the quality of those contracts, even if certified by the System as sufficiently high quality and reliable, is not impressive. Either a rare summoning, special summoning conditions, a regular subscription fee to join, some other limiting factors, or all of these together. The six available senior summons picks were the same. The only normal contract she could summon was the guardian spirit she still had with her now. It was average, as for the rank, and average at best, but it listened to her as if she had not “advanced developed” in the spiritual dialog, but “master”, no less. And this spirit, while Stepan was learning the knowledge, followed her and found her. But now it does not leave her, because it is too strongly connected with her and someone, Stepan even knows who, tried to trace this connection. Thus activated the cauldron of the network of worms. In general, this spirit can't leave the cage now either, and it seems that it doesn't hear the call of its elder relative anymore. The mother is probably hysterical that she lost not only her daughter but also her trump spirit. But the spirit felt how evil and unkindly the witch's aberration began to press on him, clinging tightly to the defendant and blocking the pressurizing aura of evil will with his own spiritual body.

Camrad_RIP 19.11.24 в 12:43

"Good morning. Did you call, did he come by himself or did his relatives send him?" The shaman clarified hoarsely, swallowing saliva from his parched throat and starting to squelch his greed with thoughts of ordering food from the Store. "He doesn't really want to talk to me."

Camrad_RIP 18.11.24 в 11:31

"Hai. Her mother sent him away, following the trail of blood." She answered, yawning, her eyes slanting at the hint of sleep that had almost caused her meditation. "He could not leave now. This abomination presses, cutting off the call. Wind and sky to you, too."

Camrad_RIP 18.11.24 в 11:32

She didn't ask what he'd managed to get and whether he'd come up with a rescue plan. Though, she was as curious and vital as he was. It's also scary because she is a smart girl, though a fool in some places. She realizes that he may well try to fight his way out alone, or even use her to call the dark spirits and sacrifice her. To be fair, he had seriously considered those options as well. Not over sacrifice, of course, but over trying to escape on his own without coming into conflict with the guardian of the source. He has a Shroud and an improved mask. He roughly understood what exactly happened to that mask and, if he chooses the right contracts to replenish the retinue, has a good chance to slip through, wrapping himself in the Shroud tightly and distracting the network of worms with blows of spirits. Only the Shroud will have to be sacrificed, it, according to his own calculations, will literally tear with meat from the thin body, along with part of the gift, and cripple in the process. How badly and whether he will be able to survive the further journey home after that is an open and debatable question. As well as whether his cave is worthy to be called home.

Camrad_RIP 20.11.24 в 18:20

Stepan saw no use in heavy thoughts, focusing on the less heavy present, noting that his gift control had improved to a good level even by the standards of classical magic adepts. For a shaman, of course, not the most necessary attribute, but useful, especially for him with his multiple of awareness, because for the correct coordination of crowds of spirits must also feed them at the same time, separating the streams of strained reserve. And partial transformation becomes more flexible and dexterous, the higher the control over the gift of which the transformation is a part. The shaman, without distracting himself from his thoughts, gave commands to the spirits, fed all sorts of small things for reconnaissance purposes, and baited some rather large snake of medium venomousness, despite the size of a large python and the fact that pythons do not usually possess poison, planning to let the snake for kebabs. At the same time, he evaluated the control and the degree of its effectiveness in the explosive growth from the System. He remained satisfied with the evaluation.

Camrad_RIP 19.11.24 в 18:36

He started with the tokens, wanting to get rid of the most unpleasant emotions at once, and he experienced some of those emotions, but only some. The first token was quite usable, though of little use to him personally, because it was called “mass small warrior's blessing”, had five charges, and covered up to fifty creatures, increasing their Constitution by two and Sensitivity by one for half a day. For a simple ungifted person, it is very serious especially if we are not talking about peasants with pitchforks, but experienced and skillful fighters. The effect of the token includes the adjustment of reflexes to the increased stats so that a deadly and experienced fighter will become even more deadly. Three in the Constitution is not a small amount, especially if the Sensitivity will also increase. In principle, the thing is really cool, but not for Stepan, because he does not have a personal squad of fifty snouts in armor, and for a more compact group of bloodsuckers, this enhancement is not so cool, because you can not use the full potential of the token. However, raising Sylvia's corporeality from a nine to an eleven... wouldn't be an effect that could be easily ignored.

Camrad_RIP 19.11.24 в 18:27

The second of the tokens, alas, belonged to the Milfeyish category, called “Compulsion of Addiction: Hugged and Squeezed”, with twenty-five charges and a remarkably typical effect. The victim of this token, only female and only beautiful, gets a seemingly all-natural fetish for inflicting pleasure on her partner with her large and lush breasts. If the breasts are not large enough for jerking off with them, they will grow to the right size and this too will be perceived as completely normal by the victim and everyone around them. Those who already have forms are lush, there will be no growth of cleavage, since growth is not necessary. In addition, the victim will have a new shift in consciousness to showing breasts with more revealing outfits, deep necklines, and tight embraces of thin fabric. The last detail will be that the victim will prefer to cause pleasure fully dressed, removing the minimum of clothes, just to give the partner access to the hollow between the breasts, happily watching him cum on her tits and dresses, how the fabric of her clothes is soiled with streams of semen.

Camrad_RIP 19.11.24 в 11:44

Stepan didn't know how to use this shit and didn't want to think about it, but as a consolation prize, not otherwise, the victims get a general improvement in health, guaranteed to keep a pleasant appearance for as long as possible within the ticking age, as well as greater plasticity of the magical gift, if any, and a disposition to develop it. Not an increase in characteristics, but rather an increase in the effectiveness of training and a guarantee that long years of working on oneself would allow one to reach at least the peak of adept or even the lower bar of mastery. The young man doubted that there would be many ladies who would agree to change their sexual preferences even for such a prize. It looked very modest against the instantaneous growth of characteristics from gifting, and the payment, on the contrary, was noticeably more serious.

Camrad_RIP 19.11.24 в 12:28

That was the end of the Autogoddess' gifts, but Stepan still had four talent points to spend on contracts and an artifact from the waiting list. In the latter case, the choice was almost guaranteed, and he delayed only because he was reading through the list of available contracts, looking for the ones he needed the most. As much as he would have liked to acquire a higher offensive-defensive type fighting spirit that could be used to try to drag the rink against an as yet unknown source keeper, he couldn't. There were options. There were quite a few, but he sincerely doubted that even having access to the source and the vulnerability point of the worm cage would allow him to break through it with just a senior spirit.

Camrad_RIP 19.11.24 в 11:58

No, you can't, it's the higher spirit that must provide the escape. Fortunately, there was one such spirit in the list of available options, albeit in a single copy. There was a second one, but that one, also working with space and movement, specialized in mass logistics and road work, allowing you to drag a hundred horses for a hundred day's journey in an hour's ride on a seemingly ordinary road. Or drag you alone from one end of the Confederacy to the other while you stroll at a leisurely pace and nibble on a still-hot pie. Only for the full work of the spirit, the two points of interest must be connected by roads or paths, even if they are crooked. And preferably by a straight path. It is possible without it, but the efficiency decreases, and there are no roads here, in the deep jungle, where for thousands of years nothing but a network of worms and that which gave rise to it has lived and never happened.

Camrad_RIP 19.11.24 в 12:16

But the second of the available options was much more suitable, so Stepan made this higher spirit his first contract of such a rank. The conditions are quite good - four summons per year, and the countdown for each of the four charges is separate, not reset at the end of the calendar year, the possibility of transferring the contract by inheritance, but only one of the descendants, not all, and either the firstborn or the seventh in number. For such a serious spirit, the conditions are ideal, and given the specialization of the entity and its power even within the rank, it is difficult to imagine the depth to which the owner of such a contract would stick his tongue up the ass of local individuals. Space magic is a very separate facet of the gift, always associated with huge difficulties in mastering, huge costs of training and application, and huge profits from that application. The same city portals bring the creators and their families such profits that the logistics companies of old Earth would be envious.

Camrad_RIP 19.11.24 в 18:18

The contracted one was much more interesting because he was not a standard teleportation specialist, no. He specialized in breaking paths even in places where ordinary, not quite ordinary, and quite unusual teleportation failed. The spirit was quite skillful in precise pointing and laying a point bridge-connection in the right direction. He could become for a single person or even not too large a group a kind of portable portal arch, only without the arch. But, if necessary, such a thing could penetrate even into the protected and covered by appropriate barriers section of reality, literally gnawing its way to the desired direction. Not instantly, and not to say it was directly unnoticeable, but it could. It could also help escape from the place where teleportation was blocked and blocked, though with great reservations - still, the main forte of this spirit was to break its way into the protected zone, not to escape from it.

Camrad_RIP 18.11.24 в 11:36

Stepan couldn't find a more suitable spirit to escape the cage they were in, but even that individual couldn't break through the worm net right off their hill, the aberration too powerful and attentive, watching relentlessly simply because it couldn't be inattentive or not watching. Even with a higher spirit on a quick summon, it would need to access a weak point, to hit the net with the support of a magical source, which itself is part of the wormy something. Having a spirit doesn't even simplify his crazy plan, no, it just makes it doable in general, not suicidal. Except that in combat, the spirit won't help, and can't, it's practically powerless in reality, and in the spirit world it doesn't fight predators either, it runs away, confuses them, carrying either itself or the attacker. In a battle against the owner of the source help from him is not zero, but negative values, for the entity, will still need to cover from attacks. And yet, the young man had no better option than the spirit, called by the system name-image “Spokes-Piercing-There-and-Here”, so he had to work with what he had.

Camrad_RIP 18.11.24 в 18:01

He spent the second of his summons not on a fighter, but on a defense, albeit a non-combat one, designed not to fight the creature near the source, but to survive in the aberration zone created by the crap that lurked in the ancient city. A spirit with no form or even image, just pure presence, it was very good at resisting curses and delayed effects, especially witchcraft. The entity covered the aura of the target or targets, becoming a kind of film over the aura and spirit, inert, not interfering, but not helping either. In such a state, the “Glade of Slipping Evil” did not exist at all, being just a consequence, a magical effect, a kind of barrier, but not a spiritual entity as such. Stepan chose this contract precisely because in this form the spirit was remotely similar to a network of worms. It was not an entity either, but an effect, an influence, a presence that had no will of its own, but carried that will.

Camrad_RIP 18.11.24 в 18:03

In active mode this spirit was able, as Stepan hoped, to cover a couple of them, if not from the direct attacks of what sits in the city gone into the ground under its weight and the weight of centuries, then at least from the passive pressure of the vedic field, which will stuff the spirit and aura of each guest of this space of wonders worms, no matter sooner or later. One invocation per season, up to twenty-one days, but you can release the spirit and early, the ability to stretch the film of protection up to nine targets, but with each stretching multiple of three, the strength of the defense is weaker and weaker. There is no difference for two, but a three will already have a noticeable decrease in effectiveness, a six will have an even more noticeable decrease in effectiveness, and in the case of nine protected individuals, it will be easier and smarter to summon separate groups of strong spirits than this particular elder. Transferring a contract as an inheritance is possible, but requires a separate ritual and “acquaintance” with the heirs, which the spirit may refuse for one reason or another, especially if they are weak or the spirit does not have enough marks of the relevant characteristics.

Camrad_RIP 18.11.24 в 20:39

The third talent point, allocated for contracts, finally went to a fighter. Stepan was choosing the best options from the best. He settled on an entity whose name-image was described by the system as “Lu'ni Tru'ni”, weaving together whole streams of meanings, most of which the material brain couldn't even realize without being boiled in its skull. The essence had a clear external image, belonging to a very rare sphere of memory, being literally a memory legend, which became part of the spirit world and embodied in a full-fledged entity, which later acquired not only the image but also the power. The young man did not know this legend, suspecting that it did not belong to this world at all, having come from somewhere far away, but he could well appreciate the power, combat aspects, and exotic abilities of the entity and was more than satisfied with them.

Camrad_RIP 18.11.24 в 21:03

The image of the summons was specific, like a thin skeleton made of thin bones, as thick as twigs of brushwood, remotely resembling a human skeleton, but with three eye sockets, seven fingers, three joints on the arms, and a strange, perfectly round skull. These bones are black as night, literally absorbing light and any other radiation, but they are really thin, and the closer one looks at them, the thinner they seem. This thinness contrasts even more strongly with the tallness of the skeleton, not less than three meters with a tail a full embodiment of the spirit in reality. In the center of the rib cage, twisted as if the same black ivy began to grow there in addition to the bones, wrapping each bone with additional armor, is hidden the heart of the spirit, which looks like a black stone, shimmering in time with the heartbeat of the shaman who called this dolt. And on top of that is dense, perfectly fitting armor, as if molded from smoked glass, retaining the lion's share of transparency. The size of this armor was such that it would fit a humanoid of appropriate proportions with a normal skeleton and meat on that skeleton. But the thin wicker man still carries this glass dungeon as if it were a piece of fluff. What's strange about it? Spiritual entity for which weight and inertia mean nothing at all.

Camrad_RIP 19.11.24 в 16:31

The spirit is armed with a massive two-handed hybrid of a spear and sword, the hilt of which is about the same length as the blade, and the weapon itself is made of the same black material as the bones of the spirit's base image. And likewise, this weapon appears to be thinner the closer one looks at it. This subtlety, this weightless all-pervasive deadliness, is consciously manipulated by the spirit, seeping blows through shields, defenses, matter, and even space, delivering aura- and spirit-dissecting blows even from very considerable distances. This is backed up by the ability to stride longer and longer than normal as if teleporting a short distance, as well as the strongest resistance and defense to compensate for a very narrow attack arsenal. The strongest exot for direct combat against a single and strong target at his rank from those available to the shaman through the System. One single summoning per year, but for five days of continuous presence, or until released. A high degree of obedience, a good understanding of dialog, as well as complete contempt for danger. The spirit is absolutely indifferent to everything, he will go with a blade without a doubt, against a lousy goblin, even against an incarnate god.

Camrad_RIP 19.11.24 в 16:35

Stepan couldn't allocate the last talent point given for the deed for a long time. Because it depended on him what he would have to do not only with his plan but also with his unwilling partner. The smartest thing would be to call some defense specialist to cover himself from the attacks of the owner of the source of magic, which century on that source was sitting and accumulating power. Actually, the young man had purchased a contract with such an entity, although there were doubts and they were very significant. He also wanted to acquire some kind of memory modifier, which would be able to hide the secrets of the earthling from both Singha and her mother, who stood in her skill very close to the rank of the highest shamaness. But, he decided to himself, he had to save his ass first, and then he could think about what to do next. After all, this couple still had the mark of his Automilf Patroness on them, so he could, if he set his mind to it, fix their memories and shift their thoughts in the right direction even without a specific contract with an elder spirit. The more so because he could summon a suggestor with the right characteristics. Some of them he had already summoned and contracted, though the spirit had a slightly different slant on the aspects.

Camrad_RIP 20.11.24 в 17:13

Instead of a contract that works with memory and information, Stepan acquires a combat contract of a defensive type, a system marked with the name “Rest of the Serenity Keeper”. The name and the spirit reeked of something Asian as if had escaped from some novel about cultivators. The image of its manifestation also corresponded to the name and the sensation, for this entity covered a certain area of space with the petals of a lotus, ghostly, slightly transparent, and surprisingly strong. Physical, magical, spiritual, or any other damage by this spirit was stopped and leveled, the blows flowing down the indestructible petals, along the rest of the spirit's body, partially hidden in the world of spheres, into those same spheres and flowing away forever. The petals themselves were indestructible to the point that they could only be broken by a supremely powerful great spirit or god-like entity, but this was offset by the fact that the absorbed and redirected damage hurt the main body of the spirit, taking damage from so much crap passing through it. The petals would remain intact, but after absorbing a certain amount of damage, the spirit would silently and without a long goodbye flee into the mist, leaving it to deal with the problems on its own. To be fair, the Cultivator's absorption limit is quite significant, and even an attacking master fighter wouldn't suddenly saturate it.

Camrad_RIP 19.11.24 в 16:41

It is possible to bypass this obstacle, exotic types of attacks, designed to counteract absorbing fields, just can quite well, love, know-how, and practice opening such tins. But Stepan's defense against exotics is quite good, there is a crowd of minor, strong, and even senior spirits, who were engaged in this role. But to keep a direct flow of aggressive charms or physical attacks - the very thing that is needed. With physics in the first place. Most likely they will have to deal with it, as the enemy will clearly be some monster terrible outside and even more terrible inside. It would be better if the source was guarded by a duck, even a plastic duck, harmless and not dangerous... although, there is nothing to be done, because even a duck, for hundreds of years on a strong source, will mutate into such a monster that no one will be funny.

Camrad_RIP 20.11.24 в 17:16