28 A modest reward for the winners

When Anna activated the scrolls, Dan immediately noticed the effects of the spells. The ground under his feet was shaking. He shook and saw the cracks crawling on the ground. All the monsters started falling into these narrow gaps under their feet. Even the banshees that were flying above the ground couldn't fly away from the danger. Flying creatures fell and plunged into the ground. Dan stood there and was afraid to make a move. He remembered well how dangerous magic spells could be. Some spells made no distinction between who is the enemy and who is the ally. But soon he discovered that he had nothing to fear. He was standing on a hard surface of the square. Around him, the bodies of his enemies were plunged into the ground. It was a terrible sight. The undead squeaking of his bones and the crackling and unpleasant rustling could be heard all around him. Skeletons and the rest of the undead were pulled into the depths of the earth by some force. Soon only the heads of enemies were left on the surface.

And Dan saw that not all enemies were dead! In the center of the square stood the main opponent. Dan did not doubt, he went towards the enemy.

*

Rebellious Draugr

Type: normal

Level: 21

Life: 13800/20000

Improved skills:

'Master of the Blade'. The weapon in this monster's hands is as dangerous as its master. This skill increases weapon damage and allows the use of special tricks and sword fighting techniques. [10/10]

Class skills:

'Invincible'. This skill increases protection and gives immunity from many types of damage. [10/10]

Combat skills:

'The Singing Blade'. Spinning a whirlwind, the monster strikes a powerful circular blow, destroying anything within its blade radius. Cooldown: 240 seconds. [10/10]

Immunity to arms:

Stabbing: 100%

Cutting: 80%

Crushing: 80%

The magic of fire: 60%

The magic of water: 40%

The magic of air: 60%

The magic of the earth: 40%

*

Dan saw that the enemy was dangerous. The sinner activated 'Autodafe'. The dead warrior went in his direction. The sword in Draugr's hands was already drawing patterns in the air. It seemed that the monster was stretching his body before the fight.

\"Can you do it alone? Or can I help you?\"

\"Good morning, Tarrok. I want to test it for 'Chains of sins'. Look, it'll be interesting.\"

\"Nothing interesting, I wasn't wrong about you. You're not a warrior, you're an executioner.\"

Dan didn't understand the words of the cursed sword. He hasn't tried that skill yet. Cooldown: 24 hours! He knew he'd gotten a strong weapon to use as a last resort.

For a moment, the sinner froze and activated 'Chains of sins'.

The action of the skill shook the player. He felt a great pain in his whole body. Suddenly the real chains burst out of him and flew towards the enemy. It was disgusting chains, they were covered with some kind of slime and blood. Dan found it hard to breathe from the disgusting stench. He shook his head and almost fell from a headache.

It wasn't pleasant to look at Draugr. Chains wrapped him from all sides, the dead warrior was grabbed into a vice and fell to the ground. The sword fell out of Draugr's hands. Dan could not move, he stood and looked at this strange and disgusting show. The chains wriggled with their loose ends over the monster's body and Dan couldn't make a move to the enemy. He was afraid he'd be hit by the skill effect.

\"Do grace, show respect to a respectable opponent. Kill him!\"

The voice of the sword was ringing in his head. Dan woke up and came quickly to Draugr. The sinner hit the monster on the head several times.

Such a victory did not bring any joy. Dan felt bad as if he had bathed in a bath with disgusting contents.

He took one look at the draugr's body, quickly took the trophies into his inventory. There were no cursed artifacts. But the sword was very good!

Dan heard the sound of battle!

This is no time to collect trophies! The sinner called the pet, and they rushed to help their partners.

At Anna's feet, when she activated the scrolls, there was a dead zone where the enemies were standing. She couldn't see them and now the hunters had many new targets to work with.

Anna laughed and cast spells in all directions. It was as if the players had gone mad and lost their focus and restraint. The figure of the warrior dealt quick blows and managed to evade the return attacks of the enemy. Next to the warrior roared and pawed a small bear. It was only level 9 but had already grown to Pussy's size. Next to them circled in a deadly dance, a furry figure of a dangerous creature. Scout, John's werewolf had taken many levels and now showed how dangerous werewolves are in battle. He was taller than his master when the werewolf stood on his hind legs, he rose above the figures of the players. Scout would choose his victim and jump towards his opponent, he would knock an enemy down and start tearing him down with his claws and teeth.

John was laughing and was already teasing Nick for greed. Kill, Ranger's werewolf remained a small, humble wolf. He was smaller than all the other pets. Even Alexander's bear was bigger! But the werewolf had a lot more anger than ordinary animals. The wolf could also knock his opponent down, he could chew and tear with his claws. It was impossible to sneak up on Nick and Anna unnoticed. The pet guarded his master reliably. Nick did not always have time to kill the enemy, and the enemy was close to the ranger. Then on the way of the enemy stood Kill and justified his name, destroying another monster.

The hunters temporarily lost the sense of reality, completely gave up the battle.

They stopped when everyone saw the message from the game:

:*

[Congratulations! You found the location of 'Ruin of Galatea'. Type: normal.

You got a new quest: 'Cleansing from Filth'.

Quest type: normal

Reward: Variative. +50 Fame points

Attention! By clearing the desecrated location, you can get a unique quest]

*

Anna, who first received such an unusual 'normal' quest, asked a question:

\"And what does that mean?\"

\"It means that the big brother who's watching us is a big greedy person!\" said John.

The guys laughed and Nick explained to the girl what immediately occurred to the assassin:

\"Now there's going to be more experience for killing monsters. Do you imagine how much experience you could gain? Almost twice as much!\"

Anna frowned and put her finger on it:

\"You don't have to provoke the game. It was a very tricky action, but you can't play this way. It's almost cheating! The game punishes cheaters. It's enough that I can become an expert on the Earth! I have to go to town, I have to confirm my new rank.\"

\"Attention, clan! I've taken the quest. But I have no desire to destroy the undead at night. What shall we do?\"

Alexander laughed:

\"No fighting with monsters. Our pretty girl did a good job. Anna, you're going to the center of the square. Our pets will guard you. The others are collecting trophies. There are almost 5,000 bodies! We'll be picking until morning.\"

Dan was laughing.

\"I just remembered carrying trophies from the vampire's grave to the castle. We've really got a lot of unpleasant work to do.\"

\"Well done, boys, get on with it. And I and the fuzzies will keep order.\"

Anna went to the center of the square. The pets remained in place, but quickly received a command from the masters and ran to guard the magician.

It was a boring and long job. Skeletons and zombies, banshees and ghouls were left on the surface. The player would go near the remains and agree to collect the trophies. The trophies were transferred to the inventory. The player took a step toward a new target. Not a single coin escaped the clinging hands of our heroes! The game was logical and fair. When the trophies were taken from the opponent's body, the body disappeared. The guys went back and forth, they came to Anna and unloaded the trophies from the inventory. The mountain of weapons was growing.

Dan got an important assignment, looking for archery skeletons. With his luck, he could count on better prey. But it turned out to be a stupid task, Dan got tired of looking for the remains of archery skeletons and began collecting trophies from all the skeletons in a row. The guys agreed not to make life harder for themselves.

At one moment, everyone realized that the job was moving very fast. One hour had not passed, and there were almost no undead remains on the square.

\"You're fine, but I'm going to be in the vault all day looking for all the wealth,\" said Nick sadly.

\"We're not complaining. The three of us are definitely going to stay here. We'll sleep in a house with a rebirth point, and in the afternoon we'll clean the city from the dead,\" shouted John.

\"I agree! I need to develop my Teddy,\" said Alexander.

\"I'm ready to stay, I'll tell you some important news. I got my specialty in 'Rune Expert'. And it scares me a lot.\"

Everyone's looking at Dan. Nobody understood his worries. The sinner explained that he would now receive additional Spirit points from the game. And that's not good! He'll increase his time in Living Dead status. This is very bad.

John was the first to express his point of view:

\"You're a smart guy, Dan, but sometimes you say stupid things. It's a very tricky game. It's insidious and cruel. According to her, you betrayed the spirit's way. But that's not exactly true, brother. You've stumbled and lost the Spirit's way, but the Spirit has not betrayed or forsaken you. The Spirit is your main weapon and your main defense. It is not known what danger you will face, but only the power of the Spirit will help you, Brother.\"

\"That sounded very religious and solid, John. I agree with you. Dan, you're with us, we'll be there for you. I don't want to talk about my fervent desire to have a Master of Rune in the clan. Then we won't need all those pitiful trophies,\" said Nick.

\"That's right, the sinner. Do not forget the possibility of repentance. These guys at the Company have grounded the game to our brains. If there's sin, there's always the possibility of repentance. Don't lose faith in yourself and the best in yourself. And show me the Draugr sword. I saw it. It's my size. I don't like that vampire toothpick!\" laughed the warrior.

Anna wasn't sitting still. She came up to Dan and started asking her uncomfortable questions:

\"Why didn't you turn into Draugr yourself? What are those creepy chains in your inventory? Did you see that? He pulled some chains out of the inventory and swaddled the little Draugr like a mummy. You're a scary man, Dan. We can't make you angry. You're scary in anger.\"

Dan didn't know which question to answer. He said that his chains were a skill. And a skill can only be used once every 24 hours. And he doesn't want to turn into a draugr. All the starts to feel is cold and hungry and angry at his enemies. There's nothing good about being a dead warrior. And in the state of the living dead to be strange, he feels everything, but there are unpleasant moments. It seems to him that he does not see all the colors, that the food becomes tasteless, it is difficult to explain in words.

Anna fell behind the embarrassed sinner and saw the skeleton of a swordsman who went out into the square. The magician threw the curse of 'the Swamp' on the skeleton and screamed with a loud voice:

\"Pussy! Teddy! Kill! Get that bastard killed. Scout, sit tight, they got a lot of training to do.\"

She wasn't scared of werewolves at all. The guys wouldn't tell her about their confrontation with werewolves in detail. For Anna, they were two of their own werewolves. They were like wolves, only much stronger and more useful.

When they collected all the trophies, the guys had to work as loaders. They'd run to the suburbs of town and carry the trophies to a house with a rebirth point. The building was in good condition. The room was large and the stairs to the second floor were intact. Dan had already firmly blocked the exit, he had moved many large pieces of stone and put a good obstacle at the top of the stairs. There was no furniture in the room, but he rested well when he slept on the floor. During his sleep, he was guarded by Pussy.

The boys did not complain of a lack of strength and quickly moved the trophies into the house. They ate and went to bed.

*

In the morning, Nick and Anna were leaving for the castle. Nick took only the gems and jewelry with him. The guys were ruthless and tough on the ranger. They said Nick had to move all the trophies to the castle vault quickly. He's the fastest and elusive, so let him run. Anna can keep an eye on the builders. She's got nowhere to be in a hurry. She has to deal with the new transformation of her class.

Alexander said very seriously that he was impressed. He is seriously upset. Magic is dangerous. Anna must make sure that the castle's defense against magic is at the highest level.

Anna says it's a matter of magic storage. Storage devices are expensive. But it can develop well with them. Storage drives need to be constantly replenished and it is a good exercise for the development of intellect and spirit.

Nick and Anna ran away to the castle. John and Alexander went to kill monsters, and Dan started looking at the ruins. He had the greatest luck and the skill of 'See the hidden'. He couldn't wait to develop his understanding of the runes. He slowly researched the house behind the house and collected trophies from the hiding places and knowledge from the walls of the ruins. He wasn't worried about the guys. These people were completely calm about possible death. They weren't taking too many risks.

Dan looked in his notebook and calculated that Anna had nearly 13 million experience points! Each of the guys got about 9 million experience points. Those were huge numbers. Dan and Anna got to level 27. Nick and Alexander got to level 26, and John got to level 24.

The guys were quick to kill their opponents on level 15 and level 19. They weren't even afraid to meet the banshees. Turns out this thing wasn't nearly dangerous to werewolves. Scout rose to level 27, John didn't invent new development options for the pet and went the sinner's way. He was developing a werewolf attack to the maximum. Scout had great speed, and the level of regeneration increased with the level of the pet. He didn't react at all to the magical attacks of the evil flying undead, and in one jump he caught a banshee in the air. Then pieces of rotten meat and scraps of clothing flew in different directions from the unhappy woman. Alexander listened carefully to the assassin and learned that werewolves are completely safe for the masters and other members of the clan. The connection between the master and the pet only strengthened with their development. Alexander understood this because he had a pet of his own, which never ceased to amaze him. The warrior was interested in experiencing the discoveries that Dan had gone through. Now, Alexander knew for sure that these animals had a much higher level of intelligence than ordinary animals.

They kept hunting. Dan suggested they kick him out of the general group and divide the experience into four. But the guys got angry and John said that 'the sinner is a diagnose'.

The game allowed the players to distance themselves from each other for a short distance within the same location and successfully share the experience. Dan was working on the same street, and the guys were cleaning up the neighborhood. They told him that if he stopped getting experience, it meant they had moved too far away from him. But there were only eight streets on the square. They'd already cleaned one. Staying in town for a week is not a good idea. They're not going to wait for Dan, and they're going to show their best skills in monster hunting.

Two hours later, Nick came running. He seduced everybody to interrupt his activities and gave them hot pies. He told the news. The builders aren't here yet. Michael's asking stupid questions about Anna. Anna is so excited! Now this greedy city guild of mages can choke on their greed. She doesn't have to visit the city guild and pay in gold to raise her magic rank. The Class Choice Room gave her the opportunity for a new transformation and the opportunity to obtain the rank of Expert of Magic of the Earth. The red-headed fox sits and thinks. She has a difficult choice of future prospects for the magic class.

The guys agreed that choosing a second transform is important and complicated. The third transformation is likely to bring new improvements to their classes. Anna doesn't have to hurry and it's good that the girl can safely make her development choices.

Nick raised an important topic for discussion:

\"As long as this fox isn't around. We need to talk seriously. What do you guys think about Anna?\"

\"Good girl, don't hurt her,\" said Alexander.

\"A couple more of these missions and we'll light up in front of the city. But she's a good girl. She's got a couple of attacking spells to learn. And she needs to find a pet quickly. Foxes are very rare animals. Brother, have you thought with your head? Foxes in the local woods are like mammoths. There are almost no foxes left. The local hunters beat out the redheads quickly and qualitatively. Their fur market is poor,\" said John.

\"Calm down, John. She wants a dragon,\" smiled the ranger.

Everyone laughed. Then Dan said that Anna was fun and if Nick had other alternatives, it would be good for the clan. They need reliable and competent people. And they need women, too.\"

John and Alexander were staring at Nick. He confessed:

\"I'm a recruiter. But Dan isn't the Master of the Runes yet. We're not going to rush into clan recruitment. We will not risk it. We're going to see what the situation with Anna turns out to be. A good girl is working in town now. Dexterity. Bow. I'm not going to give you a name.\"

\"How does the Master of Rune help us? Dan, did you get anything from his hint?\"

Dan looked at Alexander and confessed:

\"Alexander, in this world, runes is the language of magic. In other words, right now, we have no obligation to the clan, to each other. In the language of the runes, I can make up the text of the Oath. Do you remember the Vows of the Knights? I can write an oath of loyalty to the clan so that it will be impossible to leave.\"

\"That's great news, boy. The Oath! That's just great. What do you need to develop this skill? We will help you,\" said Alexander.

\"Will you climb the basements with me in the dust? I collect the alphabet of runes, I collect inscriptions of runes, runes chains. But I know a great place, guys. We work on the Galatea quest, and I run to kill a witch. Remember our Gandalf's torturer?

She tortured him on the altar. It was painted with runes. Gandalf once painted some pictures from his memory. It's a very promising place to develop runes literacy.\"

\"There are a lot of undead people there. It's a high-risk area,\" said Nick.

\"For a sinner, it's a walking area in the company of his non-living friends,\" laughed Alexander.

Everyone looked at the sinner. Before going to bed, they talked and Dan agreed to persuade and raised his spirit to 100.

The guys laughed at the sinner, who received new evidence that he is not completely lost to the world.

The player who raised his performance to 100 had an achievement Adept. Dan became the Adept of the Spirit, and his characteristics of the spirit increased by 5%. He wasn't upset but understood that the Master of Spirit achievement and a 10% increase in spirit would likely follow. The ranks of the school of magic hinted at such perspectives.

Nick filled his inventory and ran away to the castle. The boys returned to their usual occupations.

There was a week of boring and uninteresting games ahead, but these people knew the adventure was good when it rarely happens. And it's even better if they don't happen accidentally and suddenly, but warn about their approach.

But with a player like Sinner, it's hard to count on a quiet life.