Готовый перевод Настучать в бубен / Hit the tambourine: Глава 20-2

Chapter 20-3

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He had been selecting the second of the elite segment properties all day long, taking breaks only to eat and fulfill his natural needs, raping the system help in every possible way with various unnatural types of queries. It seemed that when he finished collecting data, his version of the system sighed and wiped away the labor sweat. But that was it, a humorous moment to distract from the really important issues. Most of the available super-properties, and those were a little over fifty, he still discarded, rejected for various reasons, the most important and frequent among which was inconsistency with the direction of Stepan's pumping or evasion in some very narrow specialty. The remaining options were also cut for one reason or another until he was left with a relatively modest list of only eleven options.

Here it was already possible to work, although it was almost physically painful to cross out each of these properties as if you were making notches on your own bare nerves. The system knew how to seduce with missed opportunities. But nothing lasts forever, not forever the patience of the shaman, who is quite stumped by the agony of choice. And still ahead loomed the assimilation of a new auric modification. A special mode of auric nodes, in which the energy body of the shaman acquired some of the functions of the spiritual body, revealed the possibility of almost doubling the call potential. This mode consumed so much energy that he wanted to cry from the calculations because, without the use of meta-skills or tokens, such a property can not normally be used. And the consequences of overloading could easily cripple the spirit, source, and aura nodes at once, and if the spirit decided to jump up, it would be sooner rather than later. It was a pity. Two units of Power and one of Source weren't lying on the road.

From the options of development dropped out and a very funny mark on the spirit, which gave the analog of the same Mark of Spheres, but in a different direction. It's not bidding spirits, but scaring away aggressive predators. Calls of all sorts of evil and dangerous things simplified literally dozens of times and life for all shaman-opponents that could try to attack Stepan with their retinues became very complicated. Also with such a mark, he can easily scare away restless cemeteries or demonic altars by his mere presence, especially when combined with a ‘small spiritual-energy amulet’. In many ways, a very good modification, and yes two to Spirit and one to Sensitivity for a shaman was a perfect bonus, but it was not without drawbacks. Outside of pure call practice, such property was of little use, and some of the spirits of other, most good, such a ‘mark of inevitable retribution of great spirits’, will only scare away, as well as the most cautious dark ones. Stepan categorically did not want to reduce his versatility, believing it to be his greatest trump card. Any bonuses from the property that reduced that versatility didn't pay off.

Yes, it was very pleasant to know that your murderers, the beneficiaries of your elimination would be pursued to the twelfth tribe by nearly a dozen Great Spirits. Only he would not care at that moment, and he himself would prefer not to die and not to be killed, although his mind recognized that if he wanted to go out to the people, to formalize his status, it would be very successful to use such a “dead hand system”. But the Earthman was not going to reveal himself to the world, especially against the background of the presence in the same world of his sorrowful namesake, and therefore he refused this option with an almost light heart. Not exactly light-hearted, but the reason for his greed was the bonuses to the calls, not the opportunity to get revenge on his killers from the other end of the “GAME OVER” inscription.

He'd given up the one property that could allow him to survive death. The cost of such survival was too great, and it wasn't about losing some of his markings and contracts. To revive, the shaman would need to borrow someone else's body, not a hostless homunculus bred specifically for him, but another gifted one that needed to be struck, devoured, and literally digested. It was the agony of the donor-host, the process of disintegration of its shells and personality that revealed the possibility of perfect incorporation into a new vessel, even more ideal than if in a specially prepared and grown body by biomages. In addition, the recipient had to be gifted, preferably not weak, but not too strong either, or he could traumatize himself in the process of absorbing someone else's aura and even, partially, soul. Gifted and young, the younger, the better, the more you will be able to keep the marks and contracts, the less you will lose when transferring. While the shaman had initially taken this property more normally, a closer look at it made it clear that fuck it, just fuck it, it was too nasty. Even a set of bonuses to out-of-body travel and accelerated rebirth of the spiritual body, which would bring him closer to becoming a Higher Shaman, did not compensate for its nastiness.

He also discarded a very cool but very exotic aura and mind modification that would have literally opened his third eye. An immediate triple to sensitivity was certainly nice, as well as wild bonuses to all types of sensory, postcognitive, mind-reading, and even prediction and fortune-telling. The only cost was the need to walk around blindfolded at all times. The longer you don't look at the world with normal eyes, the stronger the property and its effects become, reaching full dispersal in a month and a half. And every time to guess at the present or try to look into the future to go blind for forty-five, bitch, days, it's even for Stepan too much. All the more so because he had to blind himself, not just close his eyes, for he could see without his eyes. It is important to cut himself off from any form of perception of the visual picture of the world. No, he still had the necessary knowledge that would make him a fortune-teller and clairvoyant, but such knowledge was in the form of too fragmentary and depended mainly on the summoned spirits, among which there were enough experts in collecting or analyzing information. In general, it was not his choice. However in another situation, if he had known that he would have the opportunity to take such a property on the thirtieth, he would have seriously considered adjusting the pumping.

The young man had not forgotten about the unfortunate misunderstanding that had visited his dreams and almost managed to get into his head - an unknown and insidious demoness was poisoning his existence by the very fact of his own existence, forcing him to be constantly on guard. He prepared for all possible trouble, gathered a whole team of specialized spirits, and called for a contract, albeit not permanent, but with several charges of summoning, a senior exotic spirit with very powerful aspects. Except how was he supposed to search for an obscure demoness, knowing next to nothing about her except that she could walk in dreams? No Vice specialization, no auric imprints, no Name, just the fact of her existence. You couldn't play a normal game with such cards, so you just had to wait and wait, ready to strike back. This is where the opportunity to pump a branch of fortune-telling would come in handy, and working fortune-telling not quackery! But if you knew where you were going to fall, you would have put there not even a straw, but a normal mattress, or even a trampoline. And how much easier it would be if he knew the name of this thing, at least one part of it if we are talking about a non-ordinary demoness!

One property was rejected after the other, and as a result, Stepan was left with exactly two variants that attracted him equally: “smooth fusion of spiritual and carnal structure” and ‘balance of spiritual-energetic symbiosis’. Both properties did not do exactly the same thing directly, but overlapped each other's abilities markedly, though their main benefits were different. Both systemic gifts increased the ability to travel in the spirit world and to indwell spirits in the body, but in the first variant traveling in the spirit world was the main basis, and indwelling was an auxiliary consequence, while in the second variant, everything was strictly the opposite. Stepan even tried to check the system for bugs, maybe he could spend one of his saved talent points on these properties, but expectedly he got exactly nothing - if there were bugs in the system, it was impossible to use them in such a way.

The Smooth Fusion worked on the principles of unity of spirit and body, continuing the work of spiritual transformation to its logical end, to the point where the flesh had already begun to act and change after the spirit. This allowed for a very effective use of spiritual shapeshifting, planting a beast spirit in himself and shifting with an ease that a full-fledged shapeshifter would not get. And that's not to mention that the limits of morphism and the forms of transformation can be very wide, up to turning yourself not into a wolf or a jaguar, but into a partially material co-bear from the unforgettable Dungeons and Dragons. But these are just side bonuses, whereas the main highlight is in that very partial materiality - the possibility, albeit with crutches, albeit not without difficulties, albeit not for long, but to pass to the spiritual world in the physical body. All it takes is to be able to make this physical body for a while not quite physical. The ability that older shamans learn for decades, for the sake of becoming a Higher Shaman, in his case will take the form of a complete and embedded in the spiritual body of the ancestral arcana, which makes you pseudo-high much sooner than it should.

And the whole point is that this annoying and ugly prefix ‘pseudo’ will disappear and disappear quite quickly. Yes, learning to switch from crutches to normal walking is difficult and time-consuming, but still faster than learning to walk those who were rolling around in a wheelchair and could only move a couple of fingers. He would be able to speed up his training, especially at the initial stage. He just needed to get enough time to get back to the practice of out-of-body spirit traveling. He couldn't get time for it - the training, or the calls, or the wormy shit, or something else. A very tempting opportunity, which was only strengthened by three points of characteristics in the power of aura. It was logical because it was through the nodes of the subtle and energetic body, where they were closest to the flesh, that this transformation-melding took place. If this property were the only one of the two remaining, the earthling would have chosen it almost without doubt, but it was not the only one.

The Delimiting Balance also made it possible to train spiritual wandering more effectively. This property also made it possible to survive a few minutes of bathing in the world of Spheres without the slightest difficulty on passive pluses alone, without suffering any injuries. Increasing the protection of the spiritual body, strengthening the defense of the physical body against everything spiritual, simplifying many risky calls, and reducing the danger of injury in case of some unplanned outcomes of the rituals. This is already very good. But the main strength of this property was that the body and spirit of the shaman became many times and orders of magnitude less susceptible to the effect of ‘astral diffusion’, as adepts of high magic called it or the ‘burden of the born in reality’, as fellow shamans would say. That time, when Stepan and Singha had nearly died diving into the depths of the spheres, he had feared that the matter and spirit of his body in the Spheres would drip off his bones like icing sugar in a microwave oven. The balance prevented him from losing himself and allowed him to feel clearly and distinctly where his body, no matter spiritual or real, ended, and where something else began - the world of the higher spheres, the essence of the spirit that had entered the body, some witch's territorial curse that gnawed into the subtle bodies of its victims.

Yes, it allowed him to throw off curses quite well, especially in combination with the same protection and opened up the possibility to train movement through the world of Spheres together with the body without unnecessary risks, even mentally-perverse crap will be much easier to counteract. But the main and most important power of this property is in the mode of settlement, which does not cease to be dangerous, but becomes no more dangerous than the usual call or the planting of spirits in the amulet feather, which is braided in your hair. Practically no effort or concentration will not need to be spent on the control of the spirit and its actions, because another entity, especially benevolently attuned, instructed, and skilled in symbiosis-settlement, simply will not be able to do accidental harm, and intentional, perhaps, too. There was no threat that the shaman's essence and his summoning would become so mixed that they would begin to fuse into one another - the very threat that had eaten up so much of the shaman's strength and concentration earlier, the threat that demanded maximum control over the indwelling.

With such a bonus, he could really expect to put an elder spirit in him while still having enough concentration to manage his retinue and shuffle his summons! In the name of Great Milf, he could even, theoretically, only with a contract certified by the System and with a long preparation, try to add a high spirit specialized in such a symbiosis to himself and withstand such a neighborhood for more than a couple of seconds without getting into a magical analog of reanimation and receiving a fantasy version of the Darwin Award! In addition, add three points to the Resistance, which will bring his spiritual protection to a very serious level, and increase the resistance to mental and spell influences. It would seem that all the ideal. It is just what the Shaman needs from all sides, overlapping the weakest aspects of his development. He already perfectly copes with the rest of the facets of the shamanic gift and the most ordinary standard calls.

Stepan would have chosen Иalance, but he just didn't want to and couldn't understand why. His thoughts kept jumping to the fact that even if the Balance suited him perfectly, for some reason he wanted to choose Fusion. Why would he need resistance if it was the most unnecessary attribute for a Shaman? That is, he understood perfectly well why he needed Resistance, but every time, even after listing the reasons for increasing Resistance, the young man returned to the same thought. He does not need to increase the Resistance, because it is the most unnecessary attribute of the Shaman. And the attribute that increases mental resistance so much is good for everyone, but why should he increase mental resistance with a super-property point, when he can pump it with Sylvia's help and let her jerk him off with her oiled pale tits? And again, he knew perfectly well why it would be important and the right decision, but he still wanted to spend the point on anything but this balance, it was wrong, he didn't need to pump it, it was better to develop something else.

Feeling himself boiling over, at the same time wishing he could find Sylvia and Jasper, ordering them to put oil on her pale tits and give him a double cock clamp with their tits, he was about to put a point of talent into the fusion. But at that moment, as he was walking out of the door, horny and distracted, clutching the summoned Malter doll in his hands, hurrying to fuck her pale slippery slick oiled tits before the assimilation of the talent began, he nearly tripped again in the same spot, slamming his forehead into the defenseless jamb. It seemed to be a little damaged, and the Earthman had to heal himself again because it was as if someone had kicked him in the head with a shoe made of solid gold, even if it was in the form of sandals - with that weight it could have been ballet shoes, but there was a ringing in his ears.

Shaking his head and considering it a sign of fate, the young man decided not to listen to his intuition acting strangely, choosing what he needed rather than what seemed to be more necessary, because the former was just too suspiciously well-suited to his plans for his pumping. Talent goes into “balance of spiritual-energy symbiosis delineation”, and the shaman, realizing that the idea of going and snatching Sylvia's pale tits right at the moment of aura and spiritual body modification was, to put it mildly, very bold, decides to lie down for a bit and try to take a nap. Of course, he was not able to doze off, but he was glad that the reorganization of his essence caught him not standing on his feet, but comfortably resting on a soft bed.

The new transformation caused the sensation of his thin body being poured into glass - strong, tough, fast solidifying, but hot and cool at the same time as if it were covering his essence with its cocoon, which separated what was Stepan from everything else. It was as if it were a kind of constantly existing wall that allowed him to see, feel, touch, change, and shift. At the same time shielding him from everything he wanted. It was also worth adding the damned Resistance, the growth of which seemed to be a press from all sides, which painlessly but intensively tamped and compacted the subtle body of the Shaman, making it less and less amenable to the world around him, obedient only to himself and his desires. It seemed to the Shaman that it lasted for several eternities in a row, but in reality, it was only a little more than a day and a half, during which he practically did not move.

At some moment he assumed a sitting posture in a meditative position and spent almost the entire time of his transfigurative trance in this state. He awoke from his withdrawal into the depths of his self exceptionally contented, but hungry and sweating. The servants, whose names he had never learned, and for which he was a little ashamed every time, pleased him with a whole tray of tasty canapés, as well as with a bath, hot and fragrant, for the remaining systematically purchased recreational compositions from the last time were still available. He satisfied his first hunger literally on the fly, devouring the canapés with a ruthlessness worthy of true dark lords, and then plunged into the warm water and almost moaned in pleasure. The hardest stage, if not for the consciousness then for the gift and subtle bodies, was passed and the most important and the most difficult of the necessary choices remained. The second class is an opportunity to diversify the build and get access to full-fledged branches of class knowledge and properties, which will have to enter into synergy with the already available status lines.

He was even going to talk to Sylvia and discuss his choice. She couldn't advise him on shamanism because she didn't have the necessary competence, but when it came to completely new classes, in which Stepan himself knew a little better than her, the advice of an experienced and much-seen bloodsucker would be at least interesting. He decided to open the new system message right in the bathroom - he wasn't going to choose anyway, not right away, but curiosity was eating him up, tormenting and tormenting him, it was worse than not being able to scratch when it itched. The necessary tab was found and activated. The young man immediately focused all of himself on what the system was pleasing him.

The thirtieth level of development has been reached!

The option to select a subclass has been opened. Available subclass selection options are provided taking into account the existing status modifications.

Available subclasses to choose from: Druid, Healer, Beastmaster, Malefic, Passionweaver, Enchanter, Sage, Artificer, Changeling, Priest.

A whole nine options. Pretty good, especially when you consider that only one of those nine options is engaged by the Autogoddess! Yes, all the classes are simple, but that's just fine. He still needs to pump them up and get specialized, only the base is provided here. Not all of these classes are straightforward, though. The ‘Passion Weaver’ is clearly a grade or two above the standard, though it doesn't reach THAT ONE class, which he didn't choose on the day he entered the new world. In principle, it's not surprising. Not even without the intervention of Great Milf. Because his most pumped-up branch is a brainfucker, no matter how you look at it. And this class wouldn't be so bad, especially when combined with the existing knowledge branches, the cascade of synergy, and the fact that the Earthling has already learned how to extract benefits even from such seemingly exceptionally perverse status lines.

He even imagined for a moment how he could use the only ‘trump’ subclass provided. Brain blows, frosts, psychic attacks, emotional burning, elimination and creation of agents of influence, brainwashing of all sorts of pretty peasants with sweet juicy slippery-greased peasant tits, which under the influence of his new knowledge would gladly pull up their dresses or, on the contrary, lower them, exposing such beautiful breasts with dark nipples, which could be licked and kissed, oiled and caressed with every touch. He saw it almost in reality, experiencing a serious passion, a desire to take and fuck the luscious juicy peasant bitch, having previously brainwashed her so that she would shake her sweet juicy slippery greased peasant tits in front of his face, shaking them so enticingly that he would not even want to fuck her, only to lick and kiss those tits, only...

Stepan suddenly realized that his fantasies had taken him somewhere wrong, because he was in the same house with a lot of gorgeous women, even if they were vampires, and now he was sitting in a warm bath and lazily jerking off, dreaming about some brainwashed titsy villagers. What's more, he almost managed to pick the Passion Weaver subclass in the heat of his fantasies! If he'd actually managed to do that shit he'd have to drown himself in the bathtub of shame. No, the class is not bad, of course, there are many ways to use it he sees, many ways he would like to use it, and not only for licking sweet juicy slippery greased country tits.... but, no, no, no, no more sitting here jerking off in the bath, it was time to get up and have a proper lunch, and Sylvia was obviously not going to deny him a little passion, he seemed to be so worked up that he'd almost done something fatally stupid.

A few minutes later he was dressed and hurrying to Sylvia's house consumed with desire and an annoying boner to indulge in some unbridled perversion in her company. He had not forgotten about his idiotic desire to take a kinky subclass, but he had discarded it like a momentary weakness, which was a shame to remember, and he was not going to choose such a stupid and breaking-all-his-plans variant of development. For some reason he did not think about how he got such an obsessive desire at all, not realizing that only by a very great luck he was able to stop himself from making a fatal choice.

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The subclass gave a considerable amount of bonuses when taken, but less than the first one. Characteristics received a stable increase every tenth, twentieth, and thirtieth level, just like the Shaman, but the first point of characteristics was added immediately as if the first ten were taken at the moment of choosing a subclass. But the instantaneous increase of five or six points, as was the case with the original classes, was not brought. But there were two free knowledge points, two points of minor knowledge suitable for the new class, and one point of properties, also class or neutral, not purely shamanic. Not as much as you might think, but this bonus will allow you to start using your subclass right away. Especially in combination with all the knowledge that already existed in the status, but multiplied by the high characteristics of the owner of the system.

The classes themselves also differed from each other, gave slightly different bonuses, and there was also a promise from the help, which stated that the Milfy Patroness would also somehow gift her chosen one, depending on the choice of the subclass. It wasn't hard to guess which subclass, when chosen, would give the greatest reward from the Autogoddess, and it wasn't hard to guess what types of rewards would be given. Again, the Weaver subclass promised three points of knowledge, six points of minor knowledge, three properties, and three meta-skills at once. You can't help but think about putting up with her exhortations and starting to swing the way the Great, - in terms of scale and volume, - namesake bequeathed. You will think about it, and then shudder and cast such thoughts far away, into the darkest corner of your subconsciousness. Leaving aside the jokes, there was still the same problem of choice, which in fact was not as serious as when choosing a super-property.

All the subclasses, with one exception, were exclusively from the standard list. Apparently, as he was now realizing, he was originally supposed to be offered not the measly five options he'd had from the start, but much more. Only Her Milfness Special Class had eaten up too much space, reducing the list of available options to a bare minimum. The young man was not surprised by this, but he was not angry, for he did not regret becoming a Shaman, and all the other choices that passed him by had already passed him by, so why should he foam with anger? What is more interesting here is that the classes offered to him are almost all based either on wild magic alone or can work on its methods just as well as on high magic. Makes sense, because the young man wouldn't have chosen the Wizard, Sorcerer, or Mage subclasses. There are too different, diametrically opposite approaches to work, they literally weave their charms like patterns, and for this to work you need to work with the nodes of the aura, not the spiritual body. And that means that if not to retrain, then it would be necessary to pump a parallel branch of root knowledge and after that to build up the meat of separate branches on it.

From the available ones, it was easy to trace the reason for issuing this or that subclass. Artefactor was given due to a bunch of totems and envolting. Malefic - for the ability to curse, and not just through spirits. Shapeshifter - for his work with indwelling in conjunction with the entities of animal spheres, and it's silly to talk about the Weaver. But part of these subclasses could be scrapped at once, despite the possible advantages of pumping them up. The same Artifactor, of course, can be useful, but it's a specialty that requires steady hands, a huge investment of resources, and an equally huge time to create real masterpieces, and can be easily replaced by a System Shop. The Beastmaster can be amazingly good in combat and support, being literally a version of a Shaman that controls a material retinue rather than a spiritual one. Yes, it can, but this retinue requires eating, sleeping, and constantly shitting, and even if you subdue and strengthen with specific spells someone strong, this miracle will have to be hidden and pumped somewhere. No, spirits are much more convenient, although the prospect of creating spiritual chimeras through the settlement and totemisation of still-alive and voluntary recipients, which may well be any evil beast beckons.

After some thought, Stepan was left with exactly four options as to which subclass to choose to maximize synergy with his existing strengths and overlap the weaknesses. Well, four and a half, if you count the Shifter but there are very doubtful advantages, with undoubted risks and rather narrow limits of the subclass, especially at the early stages. And at the later stages you have to choose either shamanism or the art of shapeshifting, because, in its base, the original essence of the beast will be in conflict with the planting of spiritual entities of any kind, except those suitable for the inner hamster. Or a deer. Or even the mighty chirp. A Priest, on the other hand. He'd checked with the Help, he could only become a priest of a local entity of the appropriate rank, and although he'd recognized the tantalizing symbolism of the opportunity to Glorify the Sun, he didn't feel good about such a career. If only because a priest never belonged to himself, only to his deity, and that was too significant a loss of freedom to accept without a very good reason.

No one was going to give him any reasons, even on the contrary, and the dubious possibility of getting ultimatum social protection did not please him as much as at the beginning of his career. If he had been offered a priest class at the beginning of his career, he could have accepted it, knowing very well from the information and simple logic that the local gods or goddesses would almost lick the bearer of the System. And just for a minute, he laughed at the thought of becoming a priest, and not of someone, but of Life Giving, Eternally Giving Birth, Earth Keeping, and so on, so on, so on. As Stepan knew from Shera's words, she had a principled position that forbade her to take male members of the clergy. Stepan was not the kind of man who would commit a life-changing act just to see how the sight of a man who was a priest of Gaia made others sick, but the thought was tempting. He wonders how the System and the goddess, whose aspects don't allow for male priests, would cope.

Anyway, about the choice.

Druid, Warlock, Malefic, and, with a caveat, Sage - these are the subclasses that should at least be taken seriously at his thirtieth level, and not just as a mental experiment. The Sage, alas, is almost immediately crossed out because of the same caveats. At first glance, this class, which is a classic literally textbook Taoist monk, fit almost perfectly. The same basis of the magical gift is to work with the spiritual body of his and the surrounding reflection of the universe, very good physical reinforcement of different sorts, survivability, armor, and resistance at the level, as well as the speed at which, after pumping, even vampires will seem a little slow. All would be well, but the very basis of such a method of development is in harmony with the universe, in the compaction of the spirit of his own, bringing it to a monolithic fortress and at the same time with the preservation of incredible mobility, capable of literally pulling in aspects of the world of spheres. To take from the flame the very essence of fire and pound the enemy with blazing fists, to take from the water its nature and become flexible, resistant to impact and instantly taking the former form and state, to adopt the hardness of stone and the vitality of wood - all this could a Sage.

He could summon spirits, too. Though, it was much more difficult for them than for Shamans. Their compacted and monolithic spirits worked for reception, drawing in the power and aspects, but it was much more difficult to make them give back what they had drawn in. Also, the active use of the Sage's knowledge was simply blocking Indwelling and Spiritual Transformation. In such a tightly compressed and forged spiritual body there would be no room for a neighbor, subtle bodies compacted to the limit would not let out claws and tentacles, certainly not without harm to themselves. It would be almost impossible to simply leave the body and walk around the Spheres because the body and spirit of the Sage are too united. Here, either go straight to the underside of the world in the physical body, noticeably more resistant to such extremes, or completely forget about this most important part of shamanic development. In principle, it was possible to buy the corresponding properties from the System, but it was not certain that after taking the subclass in the list of available options such properties would remain available for free taking. The class gave a unit to Sensitivity every tenth level starting from the thirtieth, a unit to Constitution every twenty and a unit to Resistance every thirty - not the kind of gifts that would pay for the trouble.

Malefic, despite the decidedly dark coloring of the class, was a very promising option, if only because so many of his charms and compulsions are essentially the same as curses, only inverted differently. Add to that the Autogoddess' gift of level thirty, which turns any attempts by the Shaman to use curses into very successful attempts, and things get even more interesting. The main problem here was that curses, though they can be created from wild magic, are no less a high magic, woven into classical weaves. Like Druidism, this trend also combines wild and high approaches, but where Druidism has this division almost evenly split, in this case, the preference is still for classical high magic. In the framework of system pumping, this will be expressed by the fact that most of the class talents for Stepan will remain either ineffective or blocked, and synergy with the main class will be available for a maximum of a third of the choices available in the lists. And the characteristics - Control, Sensitivity, and Source every ten, twenty, and thirty levels, respectively - are not the most appropriate.

On the other hand, no one would say that wild mages are bad at cursing. Maleficism is the very essence of influence on the spiritual world by methods of High Magic. It's just that in his case, you can skip that transition right away. Even taking High Magic out of the equation, there are still large-scale rituals, the creation of cursed objects, and combat curses, which are so easy to use in conjunction with Spiritual Transformation and the gift of Her Milfness. It's not so bad. It's just that the class itself is very nasty, unpleasant and, to put it mildly, designed for some pretty shitty things. No, a Malefic can drive mice out of barns. Damn, it's a shame he didn't solve that mystery. You can kill bedbugs and you can even heal, albeit in very tricky ways, not to mention lifting curses, which is also quite a business plan. But still, Stepan didn't want to, he just didn't want to, knowing very well how much the possession of certain facets of magic changed his worldview. His shamanic practices had changed him noticeably. He is now partly a different person, different from the young man who just came into this world. Shamanism is a neutral magic. Probably the most neutral of all types of gift control that can exist. All paths are open, there are no locked roads, light or darkness, good or evil, dominance or service - any outcome is at your service, just search the depths of the spheres for those spirits that suit your worldview.

Maleficism in its essence is harm, the infliction of intentional and directed damage. It is the very essence of the class, the essence of its core skills. Distortions of reality in such a way as to make adjustments to it, imperceptible, often unhurried, but always leading to the desired results. Such magic can be used for good, for deeds that are purely good and beneficial to society. But to use it for all sorts of vile things, you know, is much easier, many orders of magnitude easier. And that is why the attitude towards Malefics is also quite characteristic. It is not for nothing that the villagers call them - Damned. But even without villagers and other low public. If once a shaman decides to go out into the public and legalize himself as a shaman, in all his undisguised power, he will be accepted and put on a chain as part of the usual attempts to get a strong magician, no matter what school. But any ruler will try to subdue or kill a malefic of comparable power, or, if he tries very hard, to secure his neutrality and guarantee that this mage will not want to arrange something bad for this ruler.

In short, fuck the maleficism!

And Malefics fuck too!

Stepan had almost no druidic skills and knowledge. Only marking and, to a limited extent, working with sources. But at the same time, the Druid subclass was much more appealing to him. Firstly, he had a lot of talents available to him due to the completed assignments, which relate more to druidism than to shamanism. Secondly, Druidism is only slightly less neutral than Shamanism, though not as universal. If you want all sorts of blackness, welcome to the section of Dark Druidism, all sorts of sacrifices and other rottenness, if you want light, there are whole branches of Beneficence, summoning of good forest entities, mass strengthening and enhancing rituals, even healing. Thirdly, the fact that Druidism is inferior in versatility to Shamanism does not mean that this class is completely devoid of that versatility. There's attacking, defending, and household trifles, summoning, and creating a small personal army, and his favorite structures of echeloned defense, and stealth, albeit tied to the forests.

Again, while the Shaman is more versatile, the Druid is much less reliant on preparation. A Shaman has to regularly renew and renegotiate a bunch of contracts. Every battle or large and important call thinning the stock of ready-made summons, and a Druid once turning a cherry tree into an automatic turret firing armor seeds can use it for years. And if your guardian is destroyed, it's no big deal. As long as you haven't sizzled or destroyed the entire structure with the roots, you can always restore the destroyed, spending much less resources, time, and effort than to create a new construct. Again, you can grow fun weed and sell it, competing with the local drug business. If there's nothing to do, then you can do it in such a way that by the end old man Prostirus will think that he has a split personality, because all traces will point to the fact that he organized this second distribution network. Pluses to spirit, control and, strangely enough, corporeality, due to work with vital energy, which will need to feed part of his growths, completed this very attractive picture.

Actually, only one thing played against this subclass - the very stealth and the need to work strictly on the surface, in some kind of forest. Well, or underground, but outside the Underworld. And near the city there is a problem. There are already druids here, and quite well-pumped. They have long ago mastered the forests surrounding the city, processed them, set up there their rookeries, outposts and just traps and signals, and they will at least notice the competitor. Still, he, as a druid, having taken the necessary subclass, will not be stronger than them, and the game will have to play on the field of local masters of sickle and branch. Yes, it is possible to get around this problem, yes, it will not be difficult to somehow get into the heads of those druids who can notice his influence, especially with the new property. But the million-dollar question is, what's the point?

At the same time there was another option, already well mastered, some of the witch practices the shaman had been using for a long time and had successfully integrated into his build. Yes, some subclasses would be no less interesting than Warlock, but only if he had the opportunity to choose them ten or even fifteen levels earlier. With his current status, the choice wasn't clear-cut, sure, but it wasn't anywhere near difficult either. This was the point where the best became the enemy of the good. He has already pumped branches of witchcraft, has practiced using that very witchcraft, and has a very deep understanding of how to combine shamanism and witchcraft in an effective symbiosis. So what else does he need? It is worth admitting that Stepan realized almost immediately what he would choose. Except for the attack of idiocy that came over him when he almost took the Weaver. But for the sake of decency and not wanting to make a mistake, he checked and thought over the other options. What if the reference would suggest the perfect choice, which he had originally just missed out on out of sheer haste?

So, the Warlock subclass, i.e. the adept of witchcraft in its most direct and broadest manifestation. If there is a class as close to shamanic as possible, but at the same time not “exotic” and with increased awesomeness, it is the Warlock. Pluses to Power on the tenth, Sensitivity on the twentieth, and Spirit on the thirtieth, from which the Power, enhanced by the reward for the thirtieth level, immediately reaches the tenth, allowing him to get an additional free point when he reveals the related system message. Of course, he would like to put Spirit and Sensitivity in the first place, but there's nothing to be done. Witchcraft requires a lot of power or a lot of reserves, but the reserve these guys pump directly from the territory they subjugate, which also requires, among other things, powerfully developed aura nodes and channels. After a bit of thinking, not finding any mistakes in his reasoning except for the annoying thought of choosing a Weaver again, so that he could fuck sweet, lubricated, slippery, juicy country bitches with sweet, lubricated, slippery, juicy peasant tits, he makes his decision and activates the corresponding option with a mental effort. His aura immediately begins to tingle, and the familiar shroud of stupor descends on his mind as his knowledge begins to adjust to the new subclass. It's nothing new, more like a calibration of what he already has and a very important addition-change.

Lost knowledge: "advanced master practices of spiritual dialogue".

Lost Talent has been removed from the Player's overall status.

Knowledge received: “advanced master practices of using spiritual-witchcraft dialogue with the universe.”

The acquired talent is added to the Player's overall status.

The young man had noticed long ago that the root skill of the Shaman class allowed almost effortless and penalty-free use of purely witch games with territorial magic, as it was very close in its nature to what Warlock and Witches do to control their gift. Now the system confirmed his suspicions, renaming and augmenting the old knowledge, making it combined. Still a little more shamanic, but it reinforces the witch nature as well. It was not so much pure knowledge that had been added to the system; it would take about the same amount of time to assimilate three or four small non-contractual types of knowledge, that is, about four hours, maybe a little more. Stepan took his time, feeling how not the very basics of his knowledge were changing, but the little things that prevented him from using witchcraft the way it should be used by a normal spellcaster, not by a Shaman who had learned new tricks. No discoveries, cool tricks, or unusual techniques, just improving what he already has and, as the IT guys would say, fixing small bugs.

As soon as he assimilated new knowledge and realized the completeness of this assimilation, he, who had time to eat a big sandwich of fresh and still hot bread and cold ham with an analog of mustard, received a new gift. As with the shaman class, the choice of subclass gave two knowledge for free. But, if the dialogue was simply augmented and rearranged so that he got the appropriate line in the maximum set, then here a whole new knowledge was gifted. Admittedly, the Earthman was surprised, because he had expected the system to increase the territorial influence by one rank, but it seems that witchcraft, in addition to the analog of dialogue or energy control for high mages, had two root knowledge, like call practice. And, if he had already mastered the territorial techniques at a decent level, he did not touch the second side of witchcraft, although he knew about it, sometimes even used it in passing, but not actively enough to reveal the relevant knowledge.

Knowledge received: “basic methods of changing energy flows.”

The acquired talent is added to the Player's overall status.

While learning and subsequently using the ‘curse of locking paths’, the shaman understood and realized that the basis of witchcraft, in its very base, is equally the control of territory and the same control, only the flows of natural forces. Even in the skill base itself, without taking into account the synergy with a bunch of other status lines, this realization was surprisingly clear. Accelerate the flow of force in the body, and you get simultaneously strengthening, acceleration, and hardening. Accelerate it too much, and at a single point, some of the internal organs and its auric reflections will begin to lose vital energy. Accelerate the flow of force in the head properly, accelerate the perception, or weaken the hangover migraine. If you accelerate it more roughly in the same head, you will cause confusion of consciousness. And if you know how to put your will into these streams of force accelerated by you, then this blurring can be given a direction - here you have a charm, a spell of amnesia, coding from drunkenness or a battle curse of a wild migraine with dizziness, and if you press even harder, then burst vessels in the brain.

Slowing down also plays its part. In the brain it causes stupor, in the heart it will stop the heart, in the limbs it will cause weakness and numbness, in the eyes it will lead to blindness. But it can also plunge the patient into a healing sleep, stop bleeding, or not let the infected gangrenous limb die. Although here it is worthwhile to simultaneously slow down the flow of spread of infection and accelerate the washout of it from the energy and body. It would seem that there is only one basic action - acceleration and deceleration, but with the imposition of will, which is injected into the chosen current together with the reserve. Yes, just two techniques, but the result opens up a whole class, the widest in its application, very powerful and very versatile, although demanding and specific. Well, spiritual dialogue is essentially the same technique, just differently used and tuned to different frequencies. As it becomes more complex, acquiring many shades at high ranks of pumping. This acceleration-deceleration will be divided into hundreds and thousands of individual actions, creating a single spell, complex and multi-composed, adaptive, covering all possible options for the development of events.

Again, it is not the living body alone that can be used to practice this acceleration-deceleration, although it will be most noticeable and most effective, especially at first. In a constantly beating heart, even a couple of seconds of slow rhythm will lead to very serious consequences, not to mention stopping. But no, not just one living or not-so-living body will be the canvas for this knowledge, not only it is limited by the power of the Warlock. Accelerate the flow of energies in your vegetable garden - that's the acceleration of growth. But from the most basic acceleration-blessing, the vegetable garden will quickly begin to get sick or overgrown with weeds, which will also fall under the blessing and receive from it as if not more than any turnip and wheat. Slow down the same current and now there is a curse on the fields, and the peasants realize that they should not have thrown stones in the direction of the witch. Accelerate the flow of energy reflection in a steel blade, and it will flow like liquid, and become more brittle. Accelerate with the opposite willpower will begin to cut better, and the sharpening will last longer. Slow down the flow in an ordinary militia shield, maybe with special signs fixing its action, and the wood and steel will become stronger, but change the message, so the shield will become heavier and it will be inconvenient to carry it. Acceleration-deceleration as a tool, while by the power of dialog, it is possible to put the necessary consequence into this order to the universe - to improve or worsen, to wound or to heal, to put to sleep or to encourage.

Hundreds of options, really hundreds, even at the most basic rank of knowledge, it's just that all those hundreds, if you start with just the witch class alone, will be weak and not particularly impressive. Stepan's cheerful smile was caused by the fact that he not only has this knowledge, but he has the full Status of that knowledge and they all complement each other. In the first place, of course, is the bundle with territorial witchcraft. In this connection, both knowledge shows its true power. The ability to use the distortion of energies on one's territory with much greater efficiency and minimal, if not nonexistent, costs for simpler influences. And the ability to put stable and self-sustaining distortions into the very essence of the territory. It is these two factors that make witches and warlocks who they are, and the class of witchcraft adept a priori bound to the territory.

When combined with all the other knowledge, this basic foundation revealed such a wealth of knowledge that it brought a smile to his face and tears of happiness to his eyes. Well it wasn't tears of happiness, it was just that he forgot to blink again and his eyes were dry. Types of influences on the spirit, no matter its own, someone else's or called entity, no matter called in the usual way, located in the totem or inside the shaman - curses, blessings, strengthening, slowing down, submission, something else complex and including a lot of separate streams. Working with totems, improving their material basis, the ability to put them on the afterburner more effectively, at the expense of strength, increasing the efficiency of feeding and pumping spirits. And the joys that come with capturing the source... you could turn yourself into an artillery piece, if not a ballistic missile system.

Stepan sighed, tiredly and exhaustedly, and then, after he had just assimilated the knowledge, synergies took much more energy and nerves than the root basis, he put both gift class points into the new knowledge, bringing it to “advanced techniques of changing energy flows”, making it equal in development to the second main class skill, namely territorial influences. Now that was going to shut him up for a long time. He only had time to settle back into a meditative pose, sink into a trance, and begin to assimilate the new knowledge. It turned out to be a massive improvement, revealing many individual tricks and effects that could perfectly dilute his arsenal, both combat and defense, as well as preparation and defense, especially in relation to totems and arrays. Certain types of techniques stood out more than others, immediately falling into the sections that the shaman would definitely try out later.

He could create contact curses-attacks, only their contact ensured by touching a phantom limb. With his current abilities, he could turn his spiritual body into a spider's web, covering an entire area with contact, but the curses would be very targeted and concentrated, rather than weakened as they would be when striking an area blindly. Here, of course, the downside is that such threads of the spiritual body can be easily damaged, but no one forbids weaving these threads not from one's spiritual flesh, but from prepared sacrificial spirits, and then partially merging the resulting blanks with one's energy. If someone decides to strike back at such a connection, it will be much easier to drop the threads than to drop needles for a porcupine, and the result for those who will receive these needles in the face will be even more deplorable.

Cunning cyclic effects of acceleration-deceleration-acceleration are created around a controlled source, thanks to which it is possible to accelerate the source with unprecedented ease, to increase the production of quality energy ready for use. At the same time without losing the quality and softness of that energy. However, there will be a very high risk of overloading the source, for some, even very long, time either weakening it or making it unavailable for use at all. In terminal cases, it is quite possible to lose the source or permanently reduce its quality and stability. But in those cases, when the bubbling boiler is worth applying no one cares about the consequences, even so terrible. In the same work with the source can not forget about the ability to distribute powerful and long-range spells, especially if you use spirits for ultra-long-range observation and correction of such strikes - a great synergy with remote control.

The types of spells can also be very diverse and unexpectedly combined with shamanic tricks. Here, let's say, relying on the land and the source, we create a zone-point-substance of extreme acceleration of the flow of energies with negative coloring and a tinge of decay. Everything that such spells will touch, will immediately begin to rot rapidly, from supplies and equipment to those who are wearing that equipment. It's a powerful spell, simple but versatile, and like all accelerated fluxes, it disintegrates very quickly without control. But what if to control this spell we take a spirit, one can be involuntary, literally putting it on top of the accelerated current like a sheath. What if the spirit is voluntary and specifically summoned for such a thing? And if the attack is not thrown just like that, guided by his eyes or sensory spells, and using the spirit's guidance to open a miniature channel, dragging the entire structure through the multidimensionality of the spheres, not letting it start to disintegrate? If in the basic version, even a very carefully crafted rotting mass will weaken almost twice within a kilometer, then with all of the above methods of strengthening, you can count on the impact of kilometers from twenty kilometers. And when passing through the Spheres, taking a fraction of a second, the spell simply will not have time to weaken, will not weaken at all, not even a little. An army of evil orcs is just about to come to visit you, and you already fuck them on the march, while there are no shields, while the shamans are not ready, while the warriors took off their amulets, so that they would not discharge.

The attack is going through the Spheres, but not by spirits as such, the enemy shamans will understand the essence of the attack quite quickly, but they can effectively resist such a tactic only by overwhelming Stepan's attack with their own efforts. To block the underside of the Spheres, to put out guard spirits and kamikaze interceptors, to meet every suspicious distortion of the background with their counter-actions. And these are efforts. These are costs, which will be noticeably higher than those of a quietly drinking tea and chuckling shaman-warlock. And one after another these chimerical children of witchcraft and shamanism follow, beating with rotting and paralysis of heart muscles, madness and stoppage of blood flow, brittle bones and oblivion of one's own name, again, again, again. In this way even a strong army runs the risk of failing to reach its target!

In this world, as the Shaman found out, the locals were quite good at striking over the horizon. A circle of magisters could hit a neighbouring free city or the other side of the continent, albeit with varying degrees of success, especially if their attacks were expected and the defences at important points were still in place. But in such situations, they still hit already known targets, static, immobile and, preferably, additionally illuminated by saboteurs, which will leave amulets-guides and markers-signals in the neighbourhood. Damaging the defence circuits at the same time. Without a scope, you can only hit targets of the level of a government palace or something like that. Because it's been in the same place for centuries, you can't mistake it. Stepan's methodology allowed him to hit even mobile and small targets, finding and eliminating the enemy long before a direct confrontation. It was a combination of the doctrines of shamanism and witchcraft, which the system had refined to perfect efficiency. It is not a revelation in itself, the locals can reach such a thing and probably even successfully reach it. But it was the combination of the System, two branches of magical art pumped by the system, as well as the already prepared knowledge that gave the greatest efficiency. Because the perfectionism of the System always gave out only the best and the most honed, the most proven knowledge.

It took Stepan almost a day and a half to learn the new limits of his strength. Sylvia, who had come to visit and had thoughtfully brought a bottle of massage oil with her and had taken off her shirt beforehand, leaving her in only light trousers, had to leave, much to her and Stepan's dismay. However, as soon as she learnt that he had already come to his senses, the vampiress, who had a pathological desire to regularly caress his cock with her big greased pale tits, quickly finished another negotiation on the connection amulet and, having unfastened the collar of her dress, came to his room, She began to reprimand her pet for shirking his direct duties - to fuck his sweet mistress' big oiled pale slippery tits, and for that she would squeeze him especially fiercely until she forced him to come down on her breasts and face at least twice, but preferably three times.

"That's it, pet, that's it, my slave, my toy, that's it, fuck my pale greased slippery tits, cum on them, cum immediately, stain them with your semen!" Strictly and mercilessly she orders, not tolerating the slightest disobedience, repeating the phrase put into her head time after time and seeing nothing strange in it. "That's it, let it out, that's it, yeaaaaahhh, splash it, m-m-m, pour it out, pour it out, come on, that's it, yeaaaaah, m-m-m!"

He is amused and amused every time he hears her talk about greased slippery sweet juicy pale tits, amused by the way she repeats these words over and over again, words she would not normally use. It excites him that she has no control over it at all, and it makes him laugh at her defenselessness to his compulsion, at how imperious and commanding she is, not even realizing that there is something wrong with her. It had turned him on before, but now, it was in combination with the regularly repeated verbal trigger that made him feel especially smug. He was the master here, he was the one who realized the big picture and enjoyed his toy, and she, let her continue to consider herself the mistress of the situation.

This time he did not limit himself to her succulent lubricated slippery pale tits. He also fucked her in the standard way, laying her on her back and pounding her tender and tightly clenching pussy, at the same time groping and caressing her pale lubricated slippery tits in every possible way, recognizing for himself that he was getting more and more hooked on this type of intimacy every day - titfuck, between big and juicy tits. At some point, he admits to himself that he wants to fuck her juicy lubricated slippery pale tits even more than he wants to have regular sex with her. And not just her, but Jaspera and the other birds in the nest. he's getting more and more frequent. even Artemia, whom he had grown cold to because of her modest, though very attractive, form. These changes in his desires did not surprise him too much. He recognized the beauty of big tits and would be happy to diversify the menu of his love affairs with someone else. Even if it was some pretty village girl with juicy sweet lubricated slippery peasant tits, with dark brown nipples, so pleasant to taste, which he wanted to lick. However, he had to sit in four walls and continue self-development. It was quite a normal desire and only by a huge effort of will he kept himself from going for a walk in the city, maybe, to stumble upon that very big-breasted luscious village girl with juicy sweet lubricated slippery village tits, but, it must be admitted, it was more and more difficult with every passing hour to restrain these absolutely normal and not suspicious desires.

After a little rest, having successfully assimilated new knowledge, having raised his level and degree of danger, he practiced his new skills a little, having worked with witch's benefic on a room flower, a local analog of a ficus, standing in the far corner of the dining hall. When he was done, he went on to further sort out his gifts. First of all, concentrates on the things that would put less strain on his already tired mind. For example, choosing an elite meta-skill that he had been granted for his thirtieth level and the rank of Senior Shaman. It was not an easy choice, because there were exactly thirty-three options, and the unnecessary ones were about half of them, no more. By the way, there were also the analogs of gifting with characteristics from Her Milfness, only much simpler, not for a dozen units at most, but for five, but also from one to five, and also with a random result, but without the possibility of guaranteeing the maximum increase with the help of life-giving sex. It was impossible to use it on himself, not on the first rank.

There were separate meta-skills that gave three units to a characteristic, but to exactly the one you wanted to choose, one meta-skill for each characteristic. There were also those skills, that raised the characteristics of Stepan himself, but only one, but without penalties or problems, and for each rank of meta-skill, as the help suggested, will be a different increase. There was a skill that simply and uncomplicatedly gave one point of knowledge for every fifteen points invested in the knowledge, but at the same time completely random and all of the first rank. If this “gift of random knowledge for absorbed knowledge I” were to increase any of the already learned status lines he would have chosen it. With his current status, the bonus was surprisingly decent. The only thing was that he would have to choose completely random variants from the available ones, and there were not only useful but also harmful ones, like dedication to one element or sphere. All cherished universality will go to hell.

There was an opportunity to get Tokens at every level, an opportunity to buy tokens for system currency, with a separate currency reserve, only for the Token Store. There was a meta-skill that allowed to change Tokens or gift them to a “random fellow under the shadow of the system”, receiving in return either experience or a copy of one of the recipient's tokens. He didn't discard this option but put it aside to think about because, with his life and the abundance of gifts from the Autogoddess, he would be more than happy to use this method. Especially since many of these Tokens are even very powerful and useful, just perverted to the point of ugliness. Remembered meta-skill that allows you to temporarily strengthen any other meta-skill by two ranks. It would seem - nonsense, but this applies even to already maxed-out meta-skills, and it's worth just imagining what the same gifting will be able to do, regardless of characteristics or properties.

His attention was captured for a while by a surprisingly suitable option, especially with his way of getting into an adventure on the spot: ‘reliable retreat from danger I’. He won't be facing the second rank for a very long time, there's crazy characterisation requirements there, but even the first of the ranks is awesome. In case of danger, and not necessarily death, but also, let's say, capture, this meta-skill is automatically activated and takes Stepan three kilometres away from the place of attack, and also gives him a five-second pause, during which his thoughts and consciousness is not limited by anything, so that he can, for example, heal himself with another meta-skill and prepare for defence, if he is followed by unknown attackers. With his life experience it's definitely a ‘mast hev’ and he'd almost take that meta-skill if it weren't for the fact that he's not and can't be threatened here and now, and therefore he doesn't need to take that meta-skill because who the hell is he here to get captured by? He can't get captured because there's no one to take him captive, because he can't get captured because no one will take him captive, because he can't get captured. Unless he is captured by some pretty peasant girl with sweet juicy greased slippery village tits, but one should not run away from such women, one should lick these tits, sweet and slippery, thoroughly. If you get captured by them, you need to forget about choosing the specified meta-skill at all.

What meta-skill?

It doesn't matter.

In the end, after long and very diligent thinking, he chose one of the most interesting options, and also with wild requirements for characteristics, under which he even after all the improvements barely fell to take the first rank. The skill was called ‘partial-selective temporal fixation of the room with the possibility of preliminary preparation for action I’ and allowed him to pause not himself, but the world around him. The operation of the skill is extremely simple in description and causes the brain to explode when trying to realise how the fuck it works under the conditions of known magical axioms and norms. To begin, one must enter a room, any room, but no smaller than a standard room in a normal house and no larger than, say, a large lecture theatre at a university. His favourite underground hiding place, if you seal off the passages to the extra rooms, will do just fine.

After that, it is as if the time in the room starts to flow separately. The whole world stands still and does not move in time for twelve hours (but the meta-skill can be interrupted earlier), while inside the room the same twelve hours pass. And all that time could well be spent preparing. Reserves are restored normally, charms are woven, witches' effects are spelled, and even spirit summoning and calls work normally, somehow not conflicting with the paused universe! Although it will not be possible to send messages or maintain any kind of magical communication, the spheres are largely outside the usual understanding of time. It can be used only once every six months, but there are no restrictions on the number of participants in such a timeless meeting, unless you count the volume of the room taken out of the time stream. In general, it was a good purchase, and Stepan didn't regret the point he had spent. It was better than increasing some characteristics by one unit. Yes, it would also be very cool, but quests with a suitable reward also fall out quite often, but the opportunity to gain a lot of time for preparation at any time, which for a shaman, and for the adept of witchcraft, is very important - this is priceless.

Finished with his thoughts and choosing a reward for level thirty, he moved on to distributing the free characteristic point, and accepting another reward message. Power, after all, had reached ten, granting him a free characteristic point, which he was obviously genuinely happy about. Firstly, the power characteristic is the most important characteristic for a new class. Secondly, the opportunity to get another unit of characteristics for free physically can not help but be happy. The second part of the system message, which he had seen twice before, was not as pleasant as he would have liked. The system shut off the tap of freebies, giving the tap to use within strictly limited limits.

Reached ten units in the "Power" characteristic. One bonus point of characteristics received. The next bonus point will be revealed upon receiving twenty-five units in the "Power" characteristic.

A further achievement of the indicator of ten units in any characteristic will not give additional bonus points, instead rewarding a random property tied to the specified characteristic. On the next iteration, only the first two characteristics increased to the limit of twenty-five units will give a reward in the form of bonus points.

//‘There you go... A characteristic is much more valuable than a property, especially if it's an ordinary property rather than a rare or elite one’. - The shaman was a little upset, but not so much because of the freebie being cut off, but because he hadn't looked at the help beforehand, and he almost always did that, but he had missed it in the middle of nowhere. - ‘After choosing a meta-skill, I feel lost, like my head's overheated. No, I'm definitely not going to increase my stats in an inadequate state anymore! I'll take longer pauses in the future.’

He would have liked to invest points in spirit, bringing it up to nineteen, but he still too much neglected Sensetivity, which remained at thirteen, receiving only a single point for the class increase at the thirtieth level. Yes, Spirit is primary for the shaman, it is on it that the control of summoning relies. It is Spirit is the basis of any call, but he used to keep these characteristics in comparative equality. And now the skew is even too significant. Spirit allows him to call stronger entities, and gives him the opportunity to order them or to withstand the confrontation of wills, but at the same time, without Sensetivity, it is much more difficult for him to explain with these stronger entities. Stepan was accustomed from the very beginning of his training to put safety ahead of everything else, and was careful not to call those spirits that were significantly stronger than he was and that he could not control or order. He had to invest one point in Sensetivity, bringing it to fourteen, and another in Spirit, bringing it to eighteen. Thus the difference between his two strongest stats was four points. The maximum he could and was willing to allow - more was no good. He would have raised the intensity to fifteen, but alas, there were no points available.

The choice of properties for the witch class took longer, there were more options than when taking the shaman class. The existing aura modifications, as well as the higher characteristics, had an impact. Still nothing similar to the super-gifts for multiples of ten levels, but there were also quite a few. One property alone with a binding itself to the place could give from one, to at once six characteristics in the two main attributes. The result depended on how rigid a binding one chose. No less tempting were some types of aura modifications, which greatly increased the ability to other types of magic or areas of witchcraft, strengthening the characteristics and individual directions and branches of knowledge. There was even a relatively amusing property, clearly from the Autogoddess, which increased libido and caused an increase in sensitivity to the point where it was dangerous to look at naked beauties. Dangerous for underwear. But the attribute in power and control, free and without damage to magic, and libido can be suppressed by a separate spell. It sounded quite tempting, he even seriously thought about choosing such an attribute, imagining for a moment how he would cum at the mere sight of a random pretty peasant girl with juicy sweet lubricated slippery village tits, but quickly suppressed this foolishness. Okay, not very quickly. Not quick at all. And to be honest, he almost took it, only at the last moment overcoming the temptation to constantly cum from looking at the juicy, luscious, sweet, slippery, lubricated rural tits of crazy seductive peasant bitches.

He chose a property that was rather inconspicuous and not directly reinforcing, but still close to the elite segment: ‘freedom of distances and wills’ did not make him stronger in the slightest, did not increase the effectiveness of spells, and did not make them easier to create, no. This property ‘only’ significantly, literally times or even orders of magnitude from the norm for a standard witch, reduced the degree of the witchcraft adept's power drop in distance from the subjugated territory. Any warlock or witch would kill for such a thing - the ability not to weaken or not to weaken too much when moving away from the area of control, the ability to keep the connection with the area much stronger, and also to prevent the adept from being able to keep his or her power in the area. firmly, and the ability to keep the witch's control from weakening while the master is away..... it's hard to overestimate this gift. So far, the shaman has been slow to invest in the territory, only helping himself to the bare minimum in his camel dungeon, but that time will pass. Yes, it is possible to work witchcraft without personal land, it loses some of the effectiveness, but not all, not all, and here synergies with shamanism come out just great. But, not today and not tomorrow, the hour will come and he too will create a place of power, he will no longer hide from the whole world, and he will start to make himself known to the world. And, if by that time he is strong enough, the world will only have to wipe itself and accept the fact of its existence, putting up with the presence of an uncontrollable element, at least in order for this element to continue its quiet pumping in his call place, and not to ask questions about what it is prevented pumping.

And, when he did subdue some land, he would like to still have a lot of freedom, ideally tying himself not to a city, a forest, or some rock, but to the entire continent or even a planetary body. For this, of course, it is necessary to be not a master of witchcraft and not even a magister, and the effect of strengthening will be weaker, more diluted, but still very very pleasant prospects. Only first you need to become at least an archmage of witchcraft and a couple of other schools, what a small thing. In general, what teapot doesn't dream of being a steamroller, what lizard doesn't dream of becoming a dragon, what shaman doesn't dream of becoming a Great One and then stepping even higher? Adequate and sober-minded - this would be the most correct answer, but where is Stepan, and where is adequacy when it comes to a long, persistent, and a little bit crazy self-development?

The choice of minor knowledge occupied him for several hours. He was not even lazy to write down some of his thoughts for better understanding, then, however, burned the paper and literally dissolved erasing its energetic trace in the universe. There were more than a hundred variants, even purely witchcraft, not counting those that involved either shamanism or envolting. Many of the proposed minor knowledge had the potential no less than the Locking of Paths, and some of them even exceeded it, but only two points were given out. In the end, we had to settle on the options that overlapped with the other two of his weaknesses or strengths, rather than the strengths themselves. Although he was in tears from the knowledge of the name-image ‘Rotting Claw’, and with capital letters, and not just so - attacking super-dense witch's curse, causing reactive disintegration of auric shells and flesh withering with rot, designed to break through powerful shields and closed fields. Miller couldn't be killed with such a thing, not by such an attack alone, he would need to soften the defense beforehand, but an average bloodsucker, even of Sylvia's level, would go down at once and guaranteed, not helped by both non-life and blood supply. And a mage like Eel, even if you multiply it by two, will also die almost immediately.

And, most importantly, this Claw operated on principles almost opposite to Locking and required a completely opposite system of defense, while being an attack effective primarily against those creatures that cannot be frightened by Locking. Spirits, ghosts, purely energetic life forms like elementals and golems working on the energy frame, even de... de-- de... The details of the description of this little knowledge made one gnash their teeth impotently at not being able to take it. Other options were better, if not on their own, then when bundled with the tricks he already had.

The first point of minor knowledge went to the talent called “blessing of unity with the subtle world”, which was a very popular section of the benefit for witchcraft. Only the blessing itself belonged to those that most of the masters of witchcraft would not be able to cope with, and the other magister would fail, even with all the knowledge and reserves. This is a very subtle influence, quite close to shamanism. The essence of this talent is to give some object or subject some properties of the inhabitants of the immaterial world or, if the goal is already immaterial, to strengthen these properties. It is possible, for example, to give a person the ability to walk through walls or to allow a shaman to stay in the immaterial world much longer in a full body. It is possible, but this is a side effect, whereas the basis of the talent is that it creates a kind of energy frame, a spiritual-aural superstructure, which pumps through itself the forces of the spheres and allows to use them without harm and overstrain for the aura with the spiritual body. Even for him this benefit, while it works, will allow him to use more massive and large-scale strikes of witchcraft, scooping up alien power of spheres just as if it were his, and then mix it with his own and give almost triple the damage. But the reserve, his own forces, this effect ate up at a terrible rate, and it was unrealistic to use the borrowed power of the spiritual world to fuel this same talent, it was like lifting yourself up by your hair, and without magic.

He took the minor knowledge not to strengthen his witchcraft or to diversify his training with exercises on walking through the spirit world in a fleshly body, but because it affected the spirits as well. And the summoned spirit, embodied in reality under such an acceleration beats everyone and everything as if he had not left his native spheres at all. Roughly speaking, he became so united and one with the subtle world that he lost almost any penalties for being in the real world. The same Squidward Plus with such an acceleration would simply tear to shreds a standard and not particularly strong senior who also appeared in reality, even two of them. He with his zone of blindness will not yield to those seniors, and with acceleration, he will not lose even to three. Moreover, such an approach and strengthening will be the most effective in the case of working on the spirit planted in his own body. It will boost him especially strongly, but he will indeed have to strengthen himself too so that there is no imbalance and the strengthened entity does not hurt him. The reserve will drain so fast that without tokens or meta-skills he won't be able to dance for a couple of minutes, even if he spends minimal energy on the battle itself, but he'll be able to destroy like half of the Hulk for those minutes. Or a quarter of a hair out of Chuck's beard... okay, that's a little bit of a faux pas.

The second knowledge worked in conjunction not with shamanism, but with envolting, and it was protective, designed to supplement his favourite Anteroom in case it was breached. Where ‘defence by distortion of the anteroom of the spheres’ prevented an attack from touching the shaman, ‘creation of an envolt energy mantle twin’ protected against the attack that hit. The very essence of the skill was to create in the world of spheres his twin image, so identical that indistinguishable from reality, and then put this image on him and his aura, cover him with it, like a mantle. Not to put it inside, literally putting it on, but as if turning the image into a thin film that will cover you with reliable protection. And this reliable protection will be able to withstand a blow - one, not stretched in time, like bathing in magma, but a short-term impact, like a super-dense arcane spear or something like that. One blow, but practically any blow, if it's not a deity-level creature - the twin-mantia will take the damage and carry it with it into the world of spheres as soon as it's ripped from the aura and spirit of the shaman by the attack. It is a very difficult trick, especially to master. Without a minor knowledge, which would give about thirty-five years of constant and daily practice of this trick alone, it would be very risky to master such a trick. One could easily pierce one's innards with one's twin image, crippling one's energy; one could be a little careless with the applied film, and one could go for a swim in the world of spheres, when you, not the mantle, would be carried away there, or one could go on such a journey not entirely, but in pieces.

In general, it is quite clear why warlocks do not often demonstrate such tricks and why the billet itself is so complicated that with his current skills, a shaman will not be able to keep more than one two, or three twins. Later, when the witchcraft is pumped up to a level comparable to shamanism or at least envolting, then he will be able to produce, perhaps, as many as five of them. He could, but he wouldn't, as he wouldn't use more than one such billet now. Otherwise, all his concentration would be spent on maintaining this very twin mantle. With his current skills and attributes, it takes about thirty-five minutes to prepare, for the first one, and three times as long for the second one, and he can keep it suspended as long as he wants, but he can't fall asleep, it needs constant control.

He chose the second of the higher entities' summons as his last minor knowledge. He made his decision here almost instantly, as soon as he was able to flip through the options that opened up after taking the class. There were all sorts of tempting contracts available. There were even more contracts that were literally seductive and enticing. Her Milfness wouldn't be Her Milfness without adding something of herself. Especially strong twitching of the eyebrow caused one really chthonic bullshit ghost type, which completely rewrote the concept of normality and appropriateness almost in the area. Calling such a one to the ball in the ducal palace is quite possible to alternately fuck each of the lovely visitors of the ball, and then go into the sunset, while the victims and witnesses will perceive everything as normal. Instantly, very imperceptibly and inevitably - this spirit was the Highest only nominally, standing a step, literally a millimeter away from the next facet, from the Great Spirit. Stepan, who had no stronger contract to choose from, felt a very strange underlying desire to acquire this contract. It would be possible to go to some village and with a clear conscience to fuck mindblowing pretty villagers with juicy sweet lubricated slippery peasant tits.

It was unexpectedly difficult to keep from outright stupidity. He had to call for Jaspera's help, since Sylvia was busy and couldn't come to the rescue, and then moan with pleasure as the bloodsucker financier jerked him off with her oiled, pale and slippery vampire tits, taking stream after stream of seed onto her sweetly smiling face, seeing nothing unusual in her behavior. She at that moment considered it simply a show of courtesy to their nest guest, on the level of polite conversation, not even attempting to lick and absorb the seed, letting it cover her face in a thick layer of white mass. She also shared the latest rumors going around the city, including another task from the secret guards to find illegal mages and spirit summoners within the city limits. She even asked, politely and with a slight slyness, if the honorable Pann knew where she could find such illicit mages and spirit summoners.

He would have definitely answered something clever and witty, if her pale slippery lubricated tits had not at that very moment brought him to a new eruption, so violent that the vampiress had to cover her eyes and stare at her auburn locks, also stained with snow-white ribbons. Warmly bidding farewell to her mistress's guest, she went away without wiping her face and the pale juicy greased slippery tits that had spilled out of her dress. The shaman lay down a bit in the chair, got dressed again and after drinking a glass of cold drink like lemonade chose the spirit he wanted. The name-image of this creature was surprisingly innocent and even a little funny: “Little White Goat”, but listening to its images and description, he did not want to laugh at all, not even a little, not for a second. A humanoid-type animal-spirit, aspects of conflict, war, combat, mobility, and stability, the shadow of the sphere of space, the shadow of the sphere of feelings, but not passion only pure rage. It was an analog of Creepbear, only from the higher spirits, so strong and deadly that it was almost scary.

Also, this spirit was not summoned, but an indwelling one, designed to work in conjunction with a shaman. Either a very powerful one or one with many different properties. Without his recent upgrades, without his self-chosen property of resistance to spirit diffusion, he wouldn't have been able to survive five minutes of even the mere presence of this entity in his body, let alone the active use of its powers in battle. But he had the property. The sharply increased resistance and the increased effectiveness of the spiritual protection had raised Stepan's resistance to such damage. A Higher Spirit of the attacking type would have been a strong trump card, but the earthling had enough tricks up his sleeve, with a few older ones and a bunch of strong spirits. The Goat spirit was overriding his most vulnerable part, the fragile shamanic body. The goat revealed the strongest aspects of the chosen class specialization at its best. In active conjunction with this spirit, which will protect the shaman, and not try to break out at the first misstep, taking away the body in his favor... In this bundle, going up against a magister in direct combat doesn't seem crazy anymore. The chances of survival will definitely be there, not for Stepan, but for the magister, who will have to survive.

A single summons per year, renewal on the first day of spring, inability to pass on the blood contract to a daughter, only to a son, and only to the firstborn. No special abilities, only the ability to make short jerks-teleports through the spirit world pulling the shaman's body along with the jerk, returning it immediately, so fast that it seems to shimmer in superposition. And apart from that, only a huge, unreal speed, extreme strength, and resistance to any attacks, from physics to magic, as well as almost complete invulnerability to banishment, as long as the shaman himself has strength and concentration. And that's it. Except that nothing else is needed anymore. Ordinary blows of fists, hooves, and horns of this goat tear magical shields, aura, and flesh with equal ease. Speed allows one to catch up with fleeing or dodge a counterattack of an equal, survivability and resistance will allow one to survive those attacks, that couldn't be dodged.

A two-button paladin incarnate, only with goat bleat and very rare summoning. Exactly what you need to have in your stash for the most extreme case possible when all plans to fight from a distance and not showing your face has gone to the arse, and you need to save yourself from the enemy, which right at this moment is killing you. Obviously, you can't have such a trump card and not have practice in using it. That's why Stepan, having slept and meditated, waited until Sylvia and most of the nest, apart from Artemia who was busy with another amulet, were free and decided to organize a practical session.

* * *

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Переведено на Нотабеноиде
http://notabenoid.org/book/86785/581527

Переводчики: Camrad_RIP