+100 to all stats
+size increased to 100
+1,000 levels
Relationship with Light Beings: hostile
Relationship with Dark Beings: hostile/deification
Possible creation of a cult among semi-intelligent and intelligent NPCs and mobs.
Disables the ability to use Light Magic skills (levels 1-10)
Attention! If you choose this specialization, you will automatically leave your faction and will have to kill 50% of its members within 24 hours.
If you fail to fulfill this task, you will be permanently removed from the Game.
A shiver went down my spine. I read Cerberus’s description over and over again, not yet fully grasping what it was, but already realizing its alluring power.
Unsurprisingly, I almost missed the last, fourth specialization, located at the bottom of the table on a particularly dark background, as if tacked on the program code by a self-taught programmer.
Specialization XCUS-22309-SJSA-22032-11
Author: Blind Eye
I may be blind, but I’m not stupid! AHAHAHHAHHAH! Nice to meet you, by the way. You just found out my name, so what is yours? Ah. Yes. How can I hear it if I’m about to die? AHAHAH! God... I feel bad. My head hurts and all I see are glitches. Do angels exist in this world? What do you think?
But I digress. I was concerned by the fact that there wasn’t a normal specialization at the third rank of magic. Then again, being asked to kill everyone shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone practicing Dark Magic. Hah! Dark... It feels like no one wants us to succeed in this game.
BUT! After a couple of months of experiments, I created my own specialization!
A little late, though... The “end” has already come for us: the herd has chewed through about half of my allies, and is rocking the tree I’m sitting on... Moans... Screams... You know.
But all is not lost, right? If anyone is reading this, that means that I still managed to make, so to speak, an addition to the Game’s rules. I didn’t manage to get everything I wanted... but this should be enough to........
.........Damn it! It won’t let me write! All you need is to...... Oh, fuck off!
Still, thank you for using the services of our company. Don’t forget to leave your feedback, and see you soon in the next world! Hah!
I hope you have better luck than I did.
+Portal Operator skill
No restrictions.
Relationship with Dark Beings: hostile
Disables the ability to use Light Magic skills (levels1-10)
If I thought the choice was hard before, this made it even harder. I could abandon my faction, practically guaranteeing my own safety, or stay together with them and fight to the end.
I couldn’t help but wonder how many races had been in this game... Three dozen? How many of them had won? Zero, probably. Such an event would’ve been marked in some way. All the statues in the Hall were identical... Except for a single, flat slab with strange bits of code on the pedestal. Still, I couldn’t say that that belonged to winners.
What I did know was that the Giant had killed many factions, and that it was now running toward its next victims — us. We couldn’t leave the Mountain since we’d lose all the technological progress we had made, the Development Lab, and any chance of victory.
Could we open the hatch without the key? Also, what was stopping the Giant from clearing the entire area around our base and waiting for us to be devoured by the migrating mobs? A couple of years were nothing but passing moments to the metal titan.
And now for the challenge: find some meaning in your pathetic attempts to survive.
Really, what were we hoping for? To find the key and open the hatch before the Giant arrived? But who could guarantee that this would bring us salvation? According to the System message, the only way to survive is to ascend to Heaven or descend to Underworld. The hatch certainly didn’t lead to Heaven... But did it lead to Underworld? That was the big question.
Cerberus would allow me to escape, to survive, to at least save my soul from the Giant’s clutches. I was afraid that I’d collect all the fragments, open the hatch... and stumble upon an invisible wall with an inscription “Passage Closed.”
I couldn’t reach the next stage on my own. It was only possible with my faction. As I could’ve seen by Rosh’s example. He spent years in the waters and only reached land because he had gotten lucky by snatching the body of a Burgundy player and taking their place.
And there was no guarantee that the hatch wouldn’t become an obstacle for me.
So what?
I had access to the Lab outside the base. No mobs could defeat me and I’d have centuries to find a way out! At the same time, there’d be no Primordial Waters, no vast expanses of an entire planet riddled with secrets... Dark beings would see me as a God, erect dozens of altars, like the one the Faceless One had prayed at in the Hall! I’d gain power, crack open the Giant’s skull, and...
And I’d become the second Giant.
Live long enough to see yourself become the villain, huh? If it had been anyone else, they might’ve done that. But not me. I’d rather die than betray my faction and friends like Leshy did.
He paid a heavy price for his treachery. But I’d suffer much more. Rosh (even though he wasn’t a traitor in the full sense of the word) killed all Violet players, spent ten years alone in the Primordial Waters, and went mad, condemning himself to a life of darkness and eating worms.
He wanted to survive. And he did. But at what cost?
No one could stand the test of time and loneliness without a spark of hope. The “king” of the Black Pilgrims looked like an animal devouring its own servants. He lasted even shorter than Rosh. The latter had a stronger character, but even that didn’t help him in the long run.
Progl-Log? They managed to retain their sanity, achieving Symbiosis with nature and taking numerous animals under his wing, but they degraded physically, no longer able to move.
The “meaningless” attempts to escape weren’t the worst fate in this game, no. It was the fate of constant suffering. You’d become unkillable if you chose Cerberus... But that was just it — no matter what happened, you’d live and suffer.
***
“Select Blind Eye specialty,” I told the System.
Congratulations!
You have unlocked the following specialization: XCUS-22309-SJSA-22032-11 (author: Blind Eye)
+Portal User skill
At first glance, the Scarlet Baron seemed better than this specialization: upgraded stats, rare and legendary skills... However, the determining factor was the Portal User skill.
Scarlet Baron provided the Lone Portal Master skill but robbed me of the opportunity to teleport my allies. Blind Eye (I had no intention of calling the specialization by its actual name) gave me the ability to further upgrade the skill. In addition, by choosing the Baron I locked myself out of using certain Dark Magic skills. These included almost all the Parasite skills, which technically weren’t considered magical but were still, for some reason, related to dark magic, and some ESP abilities.
As I needed as many players as I could get in order to successfully retrieve the fragments, Portal Operator was a godsend.
***
Warlock
Level: 102
Faction: Gray
Specialization: XCUS-22309-SJSA-22032-11
❖ Rank: 3 [10/1,000]
❖ HP: 900/900
Evolution Points: ~15,000
Physical Characteristics
Size: 12
Perception: 9
Stamina: 10
Damage Resistance: 5
Mental Strength: 19
Speed: 6
Damage: ~250
Available paths and skills
Unallocated Points: 4
Genus (faction skill), level 3
Heir (unique), level 36
[ESP] (unique and personal skill), level 50
● Control (basic
skill), level 22
● Mental Transmission (passive skill), level 14
● Evacuation (unique, class skill)
● Mental Defense (unique, class skill), level 20
● Mental Attack (unique, class skill), level 41
● Dark Manipulator (legendary skill), level 22
● Mental Mask (unique skill), level 25
● Magic Compass
[D. Mutation] (legendary path), level 19
● D. Peddler (basic skill), level 10
● D. Scout: level 10
● D. Armor: level 7
● Mutation Transmitter (sub-section of D. Mutation)
❖ Linguistics: level 9
❖ Third Eye: (legendary skill), level 27
[Parasite] (personal path), level 49
● Laboratory (basic skill available to all parasites)
● D. Augmentation: level 45
● Connection: level 17
[Demon] (path of the Piper), level 30
● Rat-Catcher of Hamelin (legendary skill), level 30
● [Portal Operator], level 1
I immediately put all four free points I got for killing the Guide’s dogs into the Portal skill.
[Portal Operator], level 5
You can teleport 1 game unit and 1 NPC/mob.
“I can take either Rat or Worm with me... Still, not bad... But how many points until I can take players? On top of that, I need even more XP to level it further... Which I can get by killing high-level mobs... Well, we do need to do something about all those mobs coming from the north...”
This was the second problem we faced. The temperature dropped every day, the snow level grew even faster, and the amount of herds of migrating mobs grew along with it. Black Mountain seemed particularly attractive to them: protection from the cold wind, grain (we hadn’t had the time to harvest the crops yet), and a source of water.
Needless to say, we didn’t feel like sharing our home with anyone.
***
It could hardly be called a grind: the operation seemed too risky. The palisade was still under construction, so, in order not to fuck anything up, we decided to fight in the field. This time, a herd of elk came out of the northern forest: they were spotted by scouts an hour ago when the herd crossed a small stream near the Mountain.
I remembered almost being killed by an elk back in the Magi’s Abode. I got lucky that time: the big guy was scared off by an even more dangerous forest dweller, otherwise, my game life would’ve ended right then and there. But I grew stronger since then, so I’d have no problems knocking down an elk or two. Still, the upcoming fight didn’t promise to be easy: thirty large beasts against fifteen players. The odds weren’t in favor of Chernous’s and my squad.
The elks were smart and strong so the chance of me taming them was quite small. But I had a slightly different plan this time around...
We formed a semicircle, armed with iron-tipped spears and thick shields. Following Korzh’s advice, we cut down several trees, which were supposed to prevent the herd from just ramming into us.
“We should shoot them with arrows... But we have only five bows left. The rest had to be dismantled: White needed the bowstrings to fasten the generators,” Korzh explained. “I promise we’ll have more next time...”
***
I breathed in the cold air with relish and watched as the elks emerged between the trees. One, two, three... ten... the mobs stood indecisively on the opposite end of the field, close to the trees, looking expectantly at their leader, a large mob with a scar running across its face.
Amoeba’s admiring whispers could be heard nearby, directed at Valkyrie, who was listening intently:
“Just think about it! The cold forced them to make a large herd. Elk usually prefer to live in groups of three or four. Or even alone! They’re moving south, where there’s less snow, to find a place to spend the winter.”
Falcon, rubbing his frozen hands, sighed ruefully.
“You do realize that they’re here to kill us, right? Not to make friends.”
“Let the man finish!” Valkyrie exclaimed.
But Amoeba didn’t have time to finish. The herd stopped some three hundred feet away from us and decided to go ahead. Or rather, the leader decided: several archers ran out of cover and fired at the mobs, provoking them.
Risky? Definitely. But we needed meat (the cows were too valuable to be used as food unless we got really desperate) and XP. We could’ve hunted down less dangerous animals but Pavel had given out the order. I was in dire need of developing the Portal skill so I needed something strong to kill, and I needed it fast. Scouring the forest for adequate victims would’ve taken too much time.
The leader roared furiously, reared up on its hind legs, and slammed down hard against the ground, breaking the arrows that had sunk into it. The archers immediately rushed toward the fallen trees, having achieved their goal of pissing off the big elk. In my opinion, they retreated just in time: the elk roared and started right after them, followed by the herd.
***
If not for Korzh and his idea, the mobs would’ve crushed us with their mighty hooves, which were arguably stronger than our brittle bones. The only exceptions were Ivan and Rat.
The elk leader, eyes bulging with anger and poorly understanding the path in front of it, crashed into the first fallen tree. The trunk cracked, and the herd broke through the toppled pine. But this was only the first line of our improvised defense. The elks, running around and jumping over the obstacles, inevitably got stuck between the trees.
“Charge!” Chernous ordered and instantly disappeared underground, reappearing right behind the big elk a couple of seconds later, plunging the sharpened scimitar into its side. His example was followed by the rest of the group, who, shouting, attacked the scattered mobs.
I slid under the hooves of a rearing elk, pierced its knee joint with my spear, and, while it was falling, shouted:
“Activate Connection and Mental Attack!”
In a few seconds, my hands were on the back of the elk, my fingers digging into the flesh above the spine, as my skill consumed its mind, swapping it with mine.
Dark Augmentation worked really well: the knee joint was instantly healed, pushing out the broken-off spearhead; I could feel my legs become reinforced with armored plates, my body growing broader and more muscular, and horns, like thick branches, erupting from my forehead.
“Loki!” Chernous shouted, barely keeping a small mob that was trying to knock him off pinned to the ground. “Finish it off!”
I snorted and with effort leaped straight at the wounded elk, kicking it right in the head. Chernous retreated into his shadows again, only to appear a couple of feet away, directly on the thick neck of an elk, piercing its eyeballs with his sharp claws. I looked around: the herd refused to give up, pushing the players further back. The elk leader, with a scimitar protruding from its stomach, was butting heads with Ivan, who was trying to knock it to the ground. Several more elks were unsuccessfully trampling the jelly-like Amoeba who had spread out in the snow, and three more were chasing Falcon around...
Shaking my own body, which was firmly attached to the elk’s back, I covered the distance between me and the leader in two jumps and rammed my horns into its stomach. Unable to pull them out of the tough flesh, I shook my head violently... and heard a crunch. The horns were gone but the elk was dead. Ivan, panting, lowered his club on the head of the distracted mob, and it fell heavily on the cold ground.
***
The fight was over. Deprived of a leader and having received a serious blow to their numbers, the herd began a chaotic retreat.
“Elks aren’t particularly social animals. A herd is more of a convention for them,” Amoeba explained, wrapping himself around the head of the fallen elk and slowly digesting it. “Would you be so kind and end its suffering? I’ve lost my spear.”
I nodded and cut the animal’s throat.
We brought back a ton of meat, hide, and two le
vels, which allowed me to put eight points into Operator.
Portal Operator (level 13)
You can teleport 2 game units and 1 NPC/mob
It wasn’t much but it was better than nothing. Every minute we lost was a gift to the Giant running toward us.
***
Two days after our visit to the Lands, Ivan, Rat, and I headed south to the portal located in the Valley.
Chapter 11
SAND
Having nothing to do, Ivan and I made snowballs and tried to throw them to Rat who deflected them with his tentacle (which I had returned to normal after the well expedition). Ivan spat, annoyed that he couldn’t land a single hit, and threw another one but with no success: the tentacle cut it in half.
Watching him, I felt relief that I hadn’t picked Cerberus. Just the thought of having to kill them all made my stomach turn. I only mentioned the specializations in passing, and didn’t mention Cerberus at all.
“Look at that!” Ivan’s shout interrupted my thoughts.
I looked in the same direction as him and almost gasped. A sleigh, packed to the brim with coal, was racing across the frozen ground, pulled by three Werewolves. On top of the pile sat Greek, clutching the reins and trying not to run into any potholes.
“Oh, if I had a brush and some talent, I’d call this piece The Sleigh Ride,” I said.
“I’m sure Alfred Kowalski would’ve appreciated it,” Ivan replied. I looked at him in surprise: who would’ve thought that someone like him would know anything about art?
Putting away the snowballs, we went out onto the ice. The sleigh was heading in the direction of smoother ground, about six hundred feet downstream. Greek slowed down as he came up to us.
“I wish my ma’ was here to see me,” he muttered in greeting. “I’m riding a sleigh drawn by fuckin’ Werewolves to provide a fanatical mechanic with raw materials...”
Reborn: Evolution: A LitRPG Series (Warlock Chronicles Book 3) Page 12
