“I'll find it,” Alex nodded, and turned to the table just in time. “What do we have for breakfast today?” He asked the maid who was laying the plates.
“Onion soup and buckwheat with meat,” she replied going on serving the plates.
“Great! Girls, wait for me here,” Alex took two plates and went into the room.
It was clean and simply furnished. There was a table, three chairs and small bed. The window faced the sunny side. A tap stuck out of the wall and there was a hole in the floor under it.
“Oh, here is a bath and a toilet for me.” Alex thought sadly. He put off the clothes, washed them and hung them up on the opened window. Then he found a small piece of soap, had a shower and finally had a meal.
“Have you enjoyed your meal?” Alex came downstairs.
“Yes, it will be enough for today,” Trix nodded.
“Then let's choose new weapons,” Alex took emeralds and went to the barman.
“Do you want to buy something?” He asked immediately.
“I need a bow and ...” Alex hesitated. “What weapon do you need, Rina?”
“My level allows you to use only magic staff,” she replied quickly.
“Well, we need the staff and the bow; I can pay three emeralds for each.” Alex thought and added. “And both weapons should be suitable for my assistants.”
“Got it.” Tradesman took emeralds and turned to the wall. “I have only one staff suitable for your level.” He gave Rina a small staff with lots of blue symbols on it. “It will upgrade your restoring speed.”
“And what about the bow?” Alex wondered.
“There are two bows for your assistant.” Barman turned to the wall with weapons again. “First one improves accuracy, second one - distance.”
“I’d like the one which upgrades accuracy.” Trix said suddenly.
“You have finally made a choice without my help.” Alex was surprised.
“First time was much more thrilling.” Trix answered and took her new bow.
“I’m glad to see you are happy.” Alex looked at the girls. They were excited about their new weapons. “Now show the Turk. It’s high time to hire him and ask some questions.”
“I’m Turk,” a warrior in heavy armor and with wide sword on the belt introduced himself. “I’m at Level Seventeen; my price is 500 gold coins.”
“Could you tell us something about your tenant?” Alex was upset. They found Turk easily but didn’t know what to do next. He demanded money and didn’t want to talk.
“We don’t have enough money to hire him.” Alex said sadly.
“We can take a task.” Trix offered.
“Probably.” Alex breathed. “Let’s go and find something.”
Alex wanted to complete quest with zombie again but his level was too high for this task, so they needed to search for more difficult one.
After a short search it turned out that he could take two tasks. The first one costs 420 coins and they have to kill five robbers at Level Four. The second costs 600 coins and the task was to rid the mill of one Level Six monster.
“We will deal with it,” Alex said to the miller. “Girls, let’s go.” Alex stopped near the door waiting for them.
“Why don’t you ask me why I have chosen this mission?” Alex didn’t like the silence.
“Why have you chosen this mission?” Trix asked.
“I have counted that if we complete another task successfully, we would have enough the money to hire Turk,” Alex thought and being satisfied with his acumen. “Secondly, there are five robbers, so I think that’s better to fight with only one monster, even if he is at Level Five.”
“The miller said that the monster is frightening and strong,” Rina remembered.
“The monster is only one and there are three of us,” Alex said reasonably. “And what is more, I am not afraid of any fabulous creatures.”
“Are you afraid of anything?” Rina asked curiously. “For example, I am afraid that they will kill you and we will have again to sit in the public house waiting for the tenant.”
“We won’t be able to complete quests then,” said Trix.
“Follow my example,” Alex raised his head proudly. “I’m not afraid of anything. Fear is not an emotion of real warrior.” Alex finished snobbishly.
Alex is a relatively brave man. He can work at heights and isn’t afraid of high voltage power. He doesn’t like horror films, because they rarely bring out any emotions. Alex has always been afraid of real dangers like a robber with a knife. But dogs are his greatest fear. Once when Alex was going home from school, a pack of stray dogs attacked him. He fought off them, but that fear doesn’t leave him.
“We will come in and kill the monster,” Alex frowned at the abandoned mill. –“I think it will be easy to do with our new weapons. What do you think?” Alex looked at the girls and they nodded.
“Then go ahead,” Alex took his sword and opened the wooden door. The mill was dusty and gloomy inside. The windows were at the top of the mill, so the light didn’t get well inside the room. Alex saw a two-meter shadow-figure near the opposite wall.
“It’s time for you to die and for us to get our money,” Alex hacked at the air with his sword famously. “Girls, I will attack and you should support me.”
“We are ready,” Trix answered and took an arrow.
“I'll take the right,” Rina said.
“Come on,” Alex walked a little forward. He calculated the distance and the chance of successful maneuver in advance. His current strength was enormous, and the power boiled in the muscles. “Come closer,” Alex saw that the huge shadow-figure started moving.
“Woooo,” the monster earned and finally went out to the lighted area of the mill.
“Damn it.” Alex was totally frightened. His hands got weak and he dropped the sword. His most terrible nightmare had come true.
“Wooooo,” two-meter monster earned again, showing his long yellow teeth. It looked like a huge dog who stood on its hind legs and had hands with big claws instead of front paws.
“Grrrrr,” he roared and attacked Alex.
“Quite stupid.” Alex was embarrassed. The monster jumped; hit him so strongly that Alex slammed into the wall. The bones cracked and the large lacerate wound appeared on his chest. Trix shot an arrow and hurt monster’s right hand. He earned and, turning to her, started attacking. Alex saw how he jumped on Trix while she was trying to shot one more time. She needs more time, he thought sadly.
Chapter 5
He didn’t manage to reach Trix, because suddenly the fireball hit him. Trix took advantage of it and dodged from his attack.
“Take this!” Rina shouted furiously and shot some more fireballs, which set fire to the monster.
“Woooo,” he earned and started running to put out the fire.
“I will finish off.” Trix put an arrow on a string and easily killed the beast with an accurate shot in the eye.
“Why didn't you attack him?” Trix ran to Alex who was laying on the floor.
“I'm afraid of the dogs,” Alex uttered embarrassedly.
“I think it looks more like a bear,” said Trix.
“He reminded me of Grayson,” said Rina, who was coming to them.
“Is that your neighbor in the public house?” Trix clarified.
“He’s also huge and red-haired,” Rina explained. “He was sitting in front of me in the public house. Tenants were always choosing him without even looking at me.” She furiously hit the beast with her foot.
“Looks like I won’t continue playing,” Alex said breathing hard. “Sorry.”
“Why do you apologize?” Trix didn’t understand him.
“You’ll have to go back to the public house and wait for the next tenant,” Alex said. “I will die and nothing will save me.”
“You can buy a healing pot in the public house,” Trix suggested.
“I will hardly get there.” Alex said sadly.
“Rina, help.” Trix took h
is right hand, Rina - left and they helped him to stand up. “I’m not going to come back to public house and wait for a new tenant.” Trix said angrily.
“We will drag you there.” Rina said confidently.
“I hope so.” Alex answered without enthusiasm.
He was semi-conscious during the walk to public house.
Hardly breathing, girls were dragging their injured tenant.
“Alex, wake up,” Trix bothered him.
“I feel bad.” He moaned, looked around and realized that he was standing near the bar counter.
“Do you want to buy or sell something?” He heard a familiar voice.
“I need healing pot,” Alex hardly got coins and pour them on the bar counter without even counting.
“Hurry up! Exact change.” Trix yelled.
“Here you are.” Barman gave them two bottles with red liquid.
“Drink!” Trix pulled out the cork and, putting his head back, poured it into his mouth.
“How can just one bottle...” Alex started to wail but then realized that he felt better. “Not bad.” He was surprised that the wound had healed up and he got better. He drank another bottle and felt an incredible rush of power as if he hadn’t been injured at all.
“What pots do you have?” Alex asked the barman.
“Pot for restoring magic energy,” he answered quickly. “It costs 40 coins.”
“Even if I’ve got less money now, I’m at least alive.” Alex said gloomily. “I’ll go and take the reward.”
After getting 600 coins Alex returned to the bar counter where girls were waiting for him.
“All this mess exhausted me.” Alex complained. “Do you want to have a snack?”
“We ate in the morning,” Trix said. “We usually eat once a day.”
“Who bought you food when you were waiting for the tenant?” Alex wondered.
“The publican gave us food free,” Rina answered.
“Let’s now forget about food. Things are bad. I’ve spent money on healing pot,” Alex counted coins. “Now we have only 600 coins.”
“So we can hire Turk,” Trix admitted.
“But then we won’t have money at all,” Alex doubted.
“Then let’s complete a new quest and earn money.” Trix suggested eagerly.
“Here’s a deal,” Alex thought and continued. “I will buy lot of healing pots and some energy pots for Rina. We will complete 5 robbers mission and then hire Turk.”
“So buy and let’s fight.” Trix was eager to start a new battle.
“Man, what’s the price of pots?” Alex asked the barman.
“40 coins for each.” He answered immediately.
“How many should I buy?” Alex asked the girls.
“We cannot take more than three,” Trix said. “And you neither.”
“But they are small,” Alex smiled. “This is your typical thinking again. Now I will show you how to break rules and get benefit from it. Give me four bottles, please.” Alex counted 160 coins.
“Take it, please,” Barman took money and put four small bottles filled with red liquid on the bar counter.
“Just look and learn.” Alex started putting bottles in his pocket. But when he took the fourth bottle, it cracked and the liquid poured on the bar counter.
“So where is the benefit?” Trix asked ironically.
“40 coins were just wasted.” Rina added.
“Well, let it be.” Alex mumbled. “What bottles do you need?”
“Three healing pots,” Trix said.
“And I need two energy pots and one healing,” Rina decided.
“Four healing pots and two energy.” Alex counted coins again. “Take your goods and I will look for the next quest.”
Chapter 6
“There are five of them and they are well-equipped.” Alex narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. The first one had a bow on his knees, the second pressed a huge ax to himself and the rest had short swords.
“Do you think they will deceive you and we will meet hundreds of thugs here?” Trix asked sarcastically.
“No... Are you laughing at me?” Alex marveled. “I didn’t think that computer girls could do it.”
“First of all, we’re real. Secondly, you told we should learn from you. So that’s what we’re doing. It itself ...” She thought for a minute. “We feel new emotions.” She finished uncertainly and thought to herself that it was not so bad.
“New abilities may appear.” Alex added. “You started to view the world in a different way when you had found out that it wasn’t real.”
“I’m sure that it’s real.” Trix disagreed. “And what abilities are you talking about?”
“Well, look. You always suggested calling out in a duet.” Alex pointed at the robbers. “But then they will be ready for the battle and the result will be unpredictable. They may kill us and you won’t be able to carry out quests.”
“Have you changed your mind? Do you want to continue completing missions?” Trix suggested.
“I’m just trying to explain that your plan isn’t good now and you need to think creatively.” Alex explained.
“So why haven’t we attacked immediately?” Rina asked.
“We should attack wisely.” Alex said seriously.
“You didn’t think so before,” Trix admitted.
“I almost died during the previous quest,” Alex reminded. “I don’t want it to happen again because of stupid hurry.”
“Why do you care if this world is unreal?” Trix marveled. “It turns out that if you die, it will be just fake, yes?”
“First of all, it’s really painful.” Alex flinched when remembered the injury made by the beast. I hate dogs, Alex thought again. “Secondly, I will get a reward if I win this game.”
“What should you do to get it?” Trix asked with interest.
“What the reward is?” Rina asked.
“I don’t know what exactly I should do,” Alex confessed. “And I’m not sure what reward I will get.”
“It’s quite doubtful motivation.” Trix said confusedly.
“Well, I suppose that the main prize is the opportunity to return to the real world,” Alex explained. “And I think we will soon find out how to win the game. You said that there were lots of tenants, but now there are significantly fewer of them. This means that they all somehow managed to win the game and get back to their own world.”
“They could have died while completing missions,” Trix suggested.
“You know how to cheer me up,” Alex hemmed, he didn’t think about such dynamic.
“Let’s suppose that you are right and there is another real world. Is it really better than this one?” Rina asked curiously.
“Quite controversial,” Alex thought for a couple of seconds. “I would say that it is more difficult.”
“Then why do you want to come back?” Trix was surprised, she had nothing to compare to it and lots of questions arose.
“Well, you want to complete new quests, although they are more difficult,” Alex provided an example.
“Did you have a high level in your world and take the most difficult tasks?” Trix suggested.
“So it was until I tried the quest "Working at the "Integral".” Alex said sadly. “Then I was completely satisfied with the payment for this “quest”, and I began to carry out only it.”
“Can we come to your world?” Rina asked hopefully. Alex was talking about something strange and unclear for her but extremely interesting.
“I don’t think so,” Alex shook his head. “But if we don’t concentrate on those guys out there, then I will trapped here forever.” he pointed at the five thugs.
“As I understand, you have already come up with an idea.” Trix said.
“You both will start shooting at the archer. Then you switch to a thug with an ax, if four of them approach them…
“They have light leather armor,” Rina interrupted him. “There is no protection from magic either. We can easily k
ill the archer and the man with an ax.”
“I’ll deal with the three thugs with swords, but you’re alert and help me if I need it,” Alex pulled out his sword. “Let’s start.”
Trix and Rina hit almost simultaneously. Shot arrow went into archer's chest and took most of his vitality, and the fireball beat the enemy to death. The thugs looked around, took out their weapons and started an attack. The bearded man with an ax was the next target. He was running, hiding behind his huge ax, so it was a little more difficult for girls to kill him. Trix realized that she could not hit the chest or head and started firing at the enemy's limbs. Rina, hit the ax with the first fireball, then she followed the example of Trix and shot the next three fireballs at his legs. After the third fireball, the bearded man fell and tried to rise, leaning on his hands. He was a perfect slow-moving target and Trix immediately finished him off with an accurate shot in the eye.
“I’m restoring energy.” Rina shouted, pulled off the bottle and started gulping.
“Take this!” Alex yelled and tried to hit the first of three thugs. The enemy didn’t try to strike the blow aside and to counterpunch, he just jumped back, waited for his friends and together they made an attack. “What the …” Alex understood that these thugs really differ from the previous. They attacked carefully and quickly, didn’t mess with each other and were trying to surround him. Alex was fighting off attacks and stepped back all the time in order not to be encircled. He took advantage of the length of his sword, because it gave the advantage of distance. “Help!” Alex shouted, realizing that he wouldn’t manage to stand for a long time. He knew the attack techniques but when he was thinking which one to choose, it was high time to step back and change position. Suddenly, the thug, who came from the right side, reeled and fell, there were about five arrows in his back. And the thug, who came from the left, fire, dropped his sword and rolled along the road. Alex was left alone with the last enemy.
“I’m restoring…” “I’m going round…” Alex heard his assistants.
“I will manage to kill the last one.” Alex thought with relief. He easily stroke the blows of the short sword aside, but the thug dodged all the time as well. “Nonsense,” Alex thought confusedly. The thug dodged the blow once again and got an arrow in the shoulder. Alex immediately made a slashing blow, and the thug barely parried the blow with his short sword. He jumped off, breaking the distance, and the fireball hit his leg. He felt to one knee, stopped moving and Trix shot in his hand. The thug dropped his sword, and Alex quickly stabbed him to death.
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