"With your intellect reserve, you don't have a problem with mana regeneration," smiled Dan.

"When I make a strong treatment potion, I spend most of my supply. 2500 mana for one operation. When a magician instantly spends 90% of his mana reserve, he goes unconscious for a few seconds. I just stand there and feel nothing. It doesn't hurt, I feel general weakness. And it's very good training to develop my intellect and spirit," added the sorceress.

"This is already serious," agreed the sinner.

"The magician's game is very difficult, Dan. It's like a mathematician's job. A magician has to do the exact calculation of the spell ligaments. The magician constantly trains different spell combinations. That's why I started working with Earth. Spells require less mana to activate. But that's only on the initial level. Do you know what geometric progression is?"

"I've heard of it, but I can't count these things," confessed Dan.

"1 rank of 'Swarm' spends 80 mana, 2 ranks spend 160 mana, and 3 ranks spend 320 mana and so on. Is the princ.i.p.al clear? I can only use 6 ranks 'Swarm', 2560 mana and I'm almost empty. I monitor the status of the 's.h.i.+eld' spell on you and update it. I'm slowing enemies down with the 'Swamp'. Now I can treat and help Bella in difficult cases. But to do my job properly and wisely, I need to keep an eye on my mana reserve."

"And what's the damage to the 'Swamp' spell at rank 6?"

"The amount of damage depends on a sorcerer's skill. My 'Swarm' deals 4200 damage in 4 seconds. A magician in this game can do huge damage in one blow, but to do so, he must take Master's rank in his magic school and acc.u.mulate 5000 points of intellect at least."

"5000 points of intellect! That's a huge number," wowed Dan.

"It's a month's game, I've got 300 intellect points or even a little more. You can earn 10 points of 'Glory' a day in town. Two years of play," smiled Anna. "We're going to be here long, Dan. I hope we're here for a long time."

He looked at in the eye and decided to cheer her up:

"And what's Swarm's damage at rank 10?"

"6700 at Earth's magic expert," smiled a red sorceress.

"Magicians are dangerous players," confessed the sinner.

"Smart magicians are dangerous players," laughed Anna. "To become a Magister, you must be able to activate any spell of rank 10 in the chosen direction of magic. 12 mana worth the 's.h.i.+eld of the Earth' Rank 1. Only 6000 mana, Dan, I'm working on it," she smiled.

Dan has realized that this information must be included in the Clan Chronicles. He was not interested in the features of other cla.s.ses and had already received a reprimand from Nick. Nick was serious and reminded the sinner that meeting other players was dangerous for him. The players have quests to kill the sinner. He doesn't recommend going and killing other players, but the sinner should develop the 'Fallen' skill as soon as possible.

Dan did not want to think about the problems, he filled the pages with the Bestiary, and admired the drawings of Betty. The creepy and unpleasant monsters in her exact images looked beautiful and did not cause disgust,

The night went quietly. In the morning the hunters decided to get as close to the main square as possible. To do that, they had to clean up the intersection.

It was a long and difficult battle. The detachment again divided into 4 groups and three groups of fighters were engaged in three directions, from which monsters came to the crossroads. Some players had already taken the new levels and quietly improved their characteristics. Everyone knew that the main award was ahead.

The battle did not cause difficulties, the hunters always had in stock 3 skill inquisitors to attract the attention of enemies. Kate activated both 'Autodafe' and 'Execution' and pulled the creatures from two streets. Nick's preliminary calculations didn't scare the hunters. There were about 400 monsters on each street. The players spent until noon at the intersection. During this time, they destroyed several hundred monsters and were able to get close to the main square. No one risked or rushed to get caught in front of the main boss. Nick and John chose a safe and comfortable building from which the sorceress could activate the spell scrolls. Ranger helped Kate and Betty looked at Ardogan. When the big ma.s.sacre begins, it's unlikely the girls will have time to study this monster thoroughly.

Ardogan was great and terrible. The tall figure of this monster's powerful body towered above the crowd of other monsters. She stood out against a dark and greenish background with her red, b.l.o.o.d.y color. Betty looked and awoke, the monster was completely skinned, and the appearance of a b.l.o.o.d.y body caused vomiting. On Ardogan's head was a huge jaw with pointed white teeth and fangs. His body was not decorated with skulls and severed human limbs. The boss's powerful chest was protected by a metal cuira.s.s, his arms and legs also had armor. In his right hand, Ardogan held a huge whip. He had no s.h.i.+eld. The big claws on his hands and toes threatened as much damage as a two-handed sword.

Nick carried the girls in his arms and ran with the speeding skill. The girls kept their impressions to themselves but said Ardogan was a strong opponent. 'Chains of Sins' will be a great ornament for this monster, he didn't deserve more.

The hunters went back to the shelter and ate. Then, the burglar and the sinner went to investigate the houses on the street. The other players went to the crossroads and slowly destroyed the monsters, which sometimes left the square and appeared from other sides.

The weather was pleasant on that day. The usual grayness of the sky and dense clouds, but there was no rain. Everybody felt high humidity in the air in this place. A pleasant surprise was the absence of moisture and dirt in houses and streets.

When Dan announced that the 'Chains of sins' spell had been restored, the squad began preparations for the main battle. Nick managed to buy four more 'The s.h.i.+ver of the Earth' scrolls in town. Anna admitted that the maximum damage to the scroll is 7800. And she's going to need six scrolls to make sure she safely buries all the monsters in the ground.

Nick was a little worried about her, Activating two scrolls is a matter of one moment, but launching six scrolls is three seconds. This Ardogan can react instantly and then the whole operation could go wrong!

There was a dense crowd of monsters at the entrance to the square. Ardogan could be seen. Kate was ready to take a chance and step forward to use the 'Execution' on the boss when the first spell of the sorceress began to work.

That's what they decided. Anna's acting fast. Kate and Dan are taking their blows. The entire squad is preparing to meet those monsters that will survive the total annihilation. And under Anna's feet, in the dead zone, out of reach of her eyes, there will be many monsters left. The hunters knew that after a successful attack, they couldn't relax.

Richard wished everyone good luck and the operation on the general breakthrough in levels began.

Nick took his wife in his arms and ran away to the right place. They could walk slowly and carefully through the rooftops, but the ranger liked to carry the girls in his arms.

Anna was wearing a cloak that promoted Hiding.

She saw Richard's message about the start of the operation went to the edge of the roof and looked at the large square filled with a huge number of monsters. There was no thought or excitement in her head. She activated two 'The s.h.i.+ver of the Earth' scrolls at once, ignoring the shaking surface under her feet. The sorceress quickly grabbed the other two scrolls, which her husband gave her and repeated the activation. He gave her the last scrolls, and she managed to get them in before the building shook so that they both couldn't hold their own and sat down so that they wouldn't fall off the roof.

Kate immediately realized that Anna had begun her witchcraft. The earth under her feet shook and the executor looked at Ardogan's head to summon him to the execution. And at that moment, she experienced real horror. Because the earth was already shaking under her feet and Kate leaned against the wall, so she wouldn't fall. But the most terrible thing was that she couldn't take her eyes off the face of the beast. Ardogan glittered at her jaw in an angry smile and walked toward her, gleaming with the scarlet color of her eyes. Kate realized that she was finished. That no one would stop that monster. At the same time she looked at the ugly face of the monster with cold indifference, and a smile appeared on her face too. At that moment n.o.body would call her a nice and shy girl. Blue eyes looked at the enemy with cold anger and challenge, the expression of the face has lost any kind of cute and shy smile turned into a real predator's smile.

"Kate! Work 'Autodafe'!"

Richard's loud and calm voice brought her back to reality. She saw that Ardogan's body was already entangled with nasty chains, and the tall figure of Draugr was approaching in high jumps to meet the main boss of Nazgor.

Players couldn't see what was happening in the square, they started fighting with the monsters that were standing in front of them. Messages from the game were all turned off. Everyone understood that these messages would be a lot and would be distracted during the battle to read the records of their achievements is not the smartest thing to do.

Dan knew that everyone was taking risks. And he took the biggest risk of all. The enemies weren't skeletons or other dead people who wouldn't pay attention to him. The Nazgor monsters reacted well to the presence of a sinner. So, he had to jump into the square from the roof of the building. And the powerful magic of the earth began to work on the square at that time. The sinner had no time to develop the skill of 'Chains of sins'. But he activated it every day and already got 1 point in development, which did not add time to the action of a terrible spell. 132 seconds of nightmare and suffering is a lot for Ardogan, but Dan couldn't figure out what damage this creepy skill does. The sinner's task was simple. He tangled his boss with chains and then jumped off the roof and ran to the enemy.

Two minutes is a long time. In this game, hunters have realized the price of every second in the battle. Dan knew it would take 30 seconds to kill the boss. But could he get to him in a minute and a half? No one knew the answer to that question. Anna's spells were friendly to her allies, but you can expect any trouble from the powerful 'The s.h.i.+ver of the Earth' baccha.n.a.lia.

Draugr jumped down and fell to the rocks of the square with a rumble. The awkward player couldn't stay on his feet and almost fell into the crack between the stones. Monsters were shouting around. Unlike the dead, these creatures could scream and growl loud and nasty. Dan realized he wasn't going anywhere! He'd have to jump over all those nightmare monsters that were already in the ground but kept waving their weapons in his paws. It seemed to him that some Abyss had even managed to summon the larvae. This immediately fell into a net of small cracks between the rocks. Dan was jumping over monster bodies and dodging blows. It was a terrible test for his coolness, but the cooled mind of a dead warrior was on his side. He sometimes fell from a strong earth tremor, which did not want to calm down after activating several consecutive spells. But there were never any cracks under his feet, and this immediately calmed the sinner down. He was already more confident in jumping over the heads and other parts of the bodies of monsters, which were silenced by the strong embrace of rocks and earth.

When Dan jumped up to Ardogan, the monster had already lost half his health but was still moving and the sinner began to kill the boss. A terrible whip fell out of Ardogan's paw. Several times Ardogan swung his claws away from the attacks, but Dan managed to dodge and strike. Nothing worthwhile. Nothing beautiful. The torturer's job.

Then there was the work of the cannibal and the trophy man.

It was only after he finished with that nasty part that Dan realized how much he didn't like to use his most powerful skill. He ran towards the rest of the hunters and took part in a battle that was a little excited about the ability of a fighter who plays in good and strong company.

After killing the last boss, the monsters were not stupid, but the hunters have already learned how to take a strong defense and gradually destroy the enemy. Nick warned them... That there would be about 3000 monsters on all streets of the city. They won't be bored!

The hunters have not been bored for two days. They were collecting trophies and tearing them down to safety. They took their time and thoroughly inspected every house, every roof in town. The eight streets and the crossroads between them were filled with a roar, screaming, and weapons ringing for two days in a row.

The joy of new achievements soon gave way to the calm and indifference of experienced monster killers.

The reward was excellent. It was magical. In the first moment, everyone sat quietly and waited for punishment from the Game for such ways to improve characters.

All newcomers for destroying all the monsters in Nazgor received more than 70 million points of experience and were able to gain level 40.

The veterans reached level 42, Anna got to level 47 and became the undisputed clan champion. She received 111,430,000 experience points for destroying monsters in the area alone.

The hunters realized that when they returned to the castle, everyone could make two new cla.s.s transformations. n.o.body knew what demands would be made by the Cla.s.s Choice Room, so n.o.body distributed skill points.

When everyone saw the main message of victory, it did not arouse much enthusiasm.

*

[Congratulations! You completed the quest: 'Cleansing from Filth'.

You get +1 to all the characteristics. +5 'Glory' points

Attention! Your Clan is honored to perform its duties.

The 'Shoulder to Shoulder' clan gets +50 Fame points.

Attention! The unique quest 'Nazgor Renaissance' is available]

*

The hunters sat by the fire, which was set up in the street and had dinner. The question of the unique quest was removed from the discussion. To own a property so far away from the main base was unrealistic and foolish.

Nick sat gloomily and looked sadly at a mountain of trophies against the wall of his house. His words greatly reduced the winners' good spirits and made them think of the little things in life.

"We have about 700 trophies. Most of them are swords. We've got 40000 pounds (18,143.69 kg) of trophies! 6 players who can carry 2000 pounds (907.18 kg) of weight in 1 trip. 20 trips, 120 days, 4 months to play in the Loader cla.s.s," Nick said with a sad voice. "Or we could throw a 200000 gold coin slide here."

"Have you considered the help of our pets?" asked Alexander.

"Of course," said Nick.

"I'd hate to lose a mountain of gold like that," said John.

"There's not going to be a four-month game of porters," said Anna funny. "I don't want to live without a husband for so long. Calm down, honey, I'll help you. Magicians don't care about their strength at all, but they love trophies. Thank you for the third transformation. When we come to the castle, I'll take not only the magic of Water, but also the magic of Air. The magicians have a wonderful 'Feather' spell. It reduces the weight of things. A fully developed skill will reduce the weight of things by a factor of 10. 4,000 pounds you can carry in 2 visits to Nazgor. Six days can be spent on carrying weights."

Everyone was silent and smiles appeared on the faces of the male part of the clan.

"You're a real fairy, sis," laughed John.

"I'm not going to learn to 'Fly' soon," laughed Anna. "Skills are beautiful and useful, but I don't want to waste skill points developing air magic. She's weird and pretty clumsy."

The next day, the hunters loaded up their equipment to the max and set off on their way back. They took their time, often went to rest. Everybody realized that Nick's total trophies had been significantly reduced. Armor was heavier than a weapon. But no one complained.

On the evening of the second day, there was an important conversation that changed the clan's policy. The veterans had already understood that newcomers significantly exceeded them in performance. And the policy of complete isolation is not suitable for a team of strong players. The hunters needed city quests. It was the best way to gain points of Glory, which could be translated into points of development of new skills and characteristics. No one doubted that the new transformations would provide excellent new skills in each cla.s.s.

The clan decided to stop the main quest for a while and s.h.i.+ft its attention to Dor. The clan had enough money to buy a building for Emma's shop. Emma said she would soon make a major leap in skill and the product would be of the highest quality.

Jane immediately clarified one funny moment. There's no need for Emma herself to have a good reputation. There are players in town that would be happy to join the clan, provided that they stay in Dor, but become employees of a luxury store.

"Master of the Runes, will you be able to take an oath from the new people in town? I understand they have no place in the castle, and we have our-special secrets," asked Jane.

"Honey. I don't know," confessed Dan. "At the town hunters' residence, I can work with the runes. There's a powerful revival point working there, so there's a source for the oath."

"I'd hate to change our relations.h.i.+p with Samantha," said Nick. "This is her territory."

"To which she has no right, brother," noticed John.

"Let's not rush into this. Two days of quiet travel to the castle and back, and getting game cla.s.s can reconcile smart people with the need to swear an oath to the clan," said Bella.

The clan eventually decided that when Emma returned, they would start working with the best materials and prepare the first consignment. The men will carry the trophies. Girls can have fun at their own pace, but its best not to touch the dungeons, it can hurt a sinner.

But Dan thought that he would soon cross the dangerous edge of the unknown at this speed of spirit increase. And it seems to him that then a certain person will get to him, and of all his resentments and grievances will seem like a childish babbling before the onslaught of Mistress Judge.

*

Name: Dan.

Cla.s.s: Sinner

Subcla.s.s: Librarian, Master of Runes.

Race: Human / Undead, the form of Draugr

Level: 42

Experience: 91 480 000/94 800 000

Strength 93 [84 +3 +2 +4]

Intellect 45 [31 +2 +3 +2 +7] [MP 450]

Dexterity 37 [29 +3 +2 +3]

Spirit 228 [200 +3 +3 +2]

Endurance 96 [HP 9670]

Protection: 740

Luck 6 [Pa.s.sive]

'See the hidden' 7 [Pa.s.sive]

"Eye of Wisdom" 3 [Pa.s.sive]

'Dungeon Explorer' 2 [Pa.s.sive]

'Threat to the t.i.tans' 1 [Pa.s.sive]

'Self-control' 10 [Pa.s.sive]

'Psychoprotection' 5 [Pa.s.sive]

Immunity to weapons:

Stabbing: 10%

Cutting: 10%

Crus.h.i.+ng: 10%

"Resistance to Cold" 12 [Pa.s.sive]

"Resistance to Fire" 11 [Pa.s.sive]

"Resistance to Earth" 10 [Pa.s.sive]

"Resistance to Water" 10 [Pa.s.sive]

Improved skills:

"The Cognition of Evil" [9/10]

"Calligraphy" [9/10]

"The Perfect Nature of Evil" [0/10]

"Evil Affinity" [1/10]

'Cannibalism' [1/10]

Cla.s.s skills:

'Autodafe' [10/10]

'Spiritual power' [10/10]

"Tough Will" [10/10]

'Fallen' [0/10]

'Expert in Anatomy' 2/10

'Angry' [0/10]

'Ancient Languages' [10/10]

"Master of the Puzzles" [10/10]

Combat skills:

'Punishment' [10/10]

'Chains of sins' [1/10]

'Burnt wings' [3/10]

Extra cla.s.s skill:

'Horrible transformation' [10/10]

Available with 0 point characteristics and 23 point skills.