by Sergei Katz
“It’s now or never!” — My “Sliding Movement” worked, and I used it to strike the opponent's neck.
I left myself open to an attack. The shield on my left hand was pierced by both knives and they penetrated all the way to the bone.
Your blood is contaminated with an unknown poison, and every ten seconds you will lose 2.5% of your health. There is a risk of further deterioration, with another five seconds of poisoning.
“That’s sad. I can’t even use the healing crystal at the moment,” — I thought as I watched my life points slowly deteriorate.
However, my strike also found its target: a positive critical strike and I had caused a bleeding wound. It was enough. My opponent’s lifeline briefly lit up red and then flat lined. I turned to face the approaching crab with the last bits of my energy. Upon seeing the death of its master, the crab froze, after which it began to change to a richer color. The air around it became misty, and for a moment Alex and I lost sight of it.
I threw a quick glance at the boy. All his clothes were ripped, blood flowed from small wounds all over his body, and it looked like he had been in a real fight. I quickly applied the crystal and restored my life points. Then I again began to look at the place where the crab had previously been standing. The air had become brighter, and turned into an egg like shape. Suddenly it ballooned and then burst like a soap bubble.
A Yeti King Crab appeared before our eyes. It was the same size, but everything else had changed. The chitin looked like armor, and was covered with unusual patterns. The claws looked as if they could cut through the trunk of a pine tree in one go.
— Alex, climb the tree as high as you can! — I shouted to the boy. — Don’t worry about me.
The crystal had rejuvenated my health, but I still couldn’t rely on my left hand. If I was honest with myself, my chances against such a monster were zero. The crab closed the distance between us before I could take another breath, and it attacked immediately.
— Don’t kill him. — I heard a voice that I hadn’t expected to hear again. — You just need to immobilize him.
The crab looked disappointed. Its eyes were shining with a desire to finish me off. It caught me without difficulty with one of its claws, and, one might say, gently scratched me with its second claw. My life points fell by 95%, and I froze. I was immobilized so much that I couldn’t even blink.
I heard footsteps behind me. Then I heard the sound of something being thrown, and, apparently, the fruit fell to the ground. Again, I heard footsteps as someone went to pick the fruit up from the ground. It appeared that my recently defeated enemy had picked up the fruit. Then the steps started getting closer. Before me stood my recent adversary, only he looked completely different. There was an incredible power within him, and even the crab looked weak compared to the stranger. His clothes looked similar, only at this moment the quality of the fabric was of a higher standard. I didn’t even know how to explain it, but everything looked expensive, not so much because of the style or fabric, but the impression I got from his clothes told me that the stranger standing in front of me was very powerful. If this one had asked me to leave the fruit I found recently, I would have done so without hesitation.
The stranger was looking at me with interest. There was no anger or resentment in the glance, only pure interest.
— You are a very interesting person, Newcomer. According to our calculations, someone like you shouldn’t be able to defeat our Lesser Transfiguration for at least another month. Not only did you leave the care of the Fairies early, but you also managed to defeat me in one-on-one combat. You used tricks, but you won nonetheless. I respect your abilities and will gladly agree to a rematch when you become strong enough. Promise not to disappoint my expectations of you, and do not make me regret that I didn’t kill you and your fellow traveler from the outset as I was supposed to. Anyone who has seen one of us in their true form during this year supposed to die. Okay, I've already lingered longer than I planned. My transformation will have to be conjured up again, and it's a time consuming and costly process ... Let's go. — The stranger nodded to his pet.
The crab followed him reluctantly, continually turning in my direction, and casting pensive glances, all the way showing that if it weren’t for its master, I would have made an excellent snack. As soon as the master and his monster disappeared from sight, I heard the sounds of Alex descending from the tree. My body slowly regained the ability to move, and by the time Alex arrived, I was able to move my hands.
— Who were they? — Alex asked hoarsely.
— I have no idea.
— Me neither, — the boy sighed, — I thought you had killed him, and then he suddenly got up and was many times stronger than he had been before. I felt a strong power within him. I felt it, even from a distance. The Yeti King Crab is generally considered to be a myth and they have long been considered to be extinct. This crab alone could have killed us in a couple of seconds. Anyway, the question is how did they suddenly turn up in our forests? We've hunted here for years, and have never seen them before.
— Lots of questions, — I sighed in turn, — but unfortunately no answers. Let's get back to the village as quickly as we can. I have had enough adventures for today.
CHAPTER 16:
BACK ON THE ROAD
It wasn’t evening yet, or at least that’s what my intuition told me. Basically I decided not to rely on my internal body clock, but there was no doubt that evening would fall in the next few minutes. Alex and I ran the last mile; otherwise we would have been late. At last we were standing in front of the trader’s door.
— Well, are you ready to have some fun? — I turned to the cheerful Alex.
— Of course! — The boy agreed. — Let’s do it. — I opened the door and we went inside.
The bald trader shuddered at our appearance, his eyes mingled with hope, the triumph of a future victory, and the sorrow of having to pay up in full. I took out all the twenty-five leaves that we had gathered. The trader, seeing the amount of merchandise in my hands, put his hands to his head, his eyes widened, and his breathing became intermittent.
— Well, my dear Heyyoubaldy, you shouldn’t have worried so much. We tried our best to get back on time and help you win a convincing victory in the cooking contest!
Alex stood just behind me, so I couldn’t see his face, but I didn’t need to. I felt that the boy could barely restrain his laughter, and I heard him sobbing slightly.
The trader's eyes grew even larger, and his bald spot turned white. It seemed that his greed was tempered by the understanding that payment was inevitable.
— By the way, dear friend, when you gave us this assignment, you neglected to mention that this plant was protected by guardians, and it almost cost us our lives. I hope you will bear this fact in mind, and also the fact that we, despite all the obstacles we faced, brought everything on time, even over fulfilling the order. I think the young man, — I nodded at Alex, — deserves a bonus beyond the agreed reward.
The crooked trader choked on a cough and looked at me like an enemy of the people.
You have completed the quest given to you by the trader Heyyoubaldy. Reward - 7 gold and 50 silver coins.
Heyyoubaldy looked as if somebody had poured a tub of cold water over him. He calmed down, quickly took the succulents and counted out the money. Then he asked me to leave him alone with Alex. I looked at the boy. He smiled and nodded to indicate that he was okay with everything.
— Well, I’ll be off then. We'll meet up again at the feast. I'll try your dish with pleasure, — I smiled at the trader, — and I'll be cheering you on.
— Don’t bother cheering for me, — said Heyyoubaldy earnestly. — Just wish me all the best.
I nodded in agreement. I no longer had the strength to care about what he said. Leaving the trader’s house, I returned to the house given to me by the headman.
As soon as I entered the house, a bundle of feathers called Copper Wing flew all over me. Happiness s
hone in the bird’s eyes, but he was flying with difficulty. I could read it in the eyes of this rascal of a Totem that he was already overstuffed with food.
I looked at the table in disappointment. Two dishes had been pecked to the last crumbs, and once again I wasn’t destined to find out what had been on them.
“This time you are going to pay for it!”
The bird landed on my shoulder and, looking into my eyes as if it was my best friend ever, it rubbed its head against me.
— Why are you so happy? I almost perished in the quagmire, which I had to go to without you. If it wasn’t for my new partner, a boy named Alex, I would have died there. He replaced you seamlessly, and I could even say that he was much more useful than you have been.
My Totem looked at me dumbfounded.
— Well, what did you think? It’s impossible to travel without money. Even if it was a well paid job, I still had a deadline to meet. I had to go, but I couldn’t go alone. I met a boy who was looking for something to do, and that's how it all happened.
The bird looked pitiful. The Copper Wing tried his best, waving his wings around and clicking his beak, to show that he was sorry and hadn’t done anything out of spite, and he promised that it would never happen again.
— Okay, where were you? You just took off at dawn without any warning.
My Totem nodded in agreement, proudly raised his beak and spread his wings. After a moment he was enveloped by a glow, after which the light left his body and flew through me.
Your totem has acquired a new ability, and you have been awarded an additional new bonus.
5% avoidance from critical attacks.
— I am impressed. So you really did fly off to attend to your duties as a Totem, and didn’t just wander about! Then I take back my words: you are an excellent partner and a good Totem. I will not replace you with Alex, and anyway the boy doesn’t even know how to fly.
The happy bird again rubbed against me and waddled off in the direction of one of the chairs at the table. I was incredibly hungry and planned to have a bite to eat, just enough to keep me going until the feast started.
— By the way, — I turned to the proud bird sitting on the chair, — do you recall that today there is a feast in our honor?
Oh yeah! This moment was simply priceless. My Totem realized the horror of his situation: it wasn’t only that he was stuffed full of food, he could barely manage to fly! Not only that, but the feast was due to start in a couple of hours. You could appreciate the sadness in my Totem’s eyes. I quickly captured this expression with my mind. One day I would put this picture online and I was sure that it would go viral, most likely, even being more popular than Puss-in-boots with its sad eyes. I was in an excellent mood, and looking forward to the feast.
There was a knock at the door. Without waiting for me to open it, Whatthebleep entered the house.
— I heard about what you brought to our bald asshole. How did you manage to do this? We have competitions here, and there’s even a prize for the first villager to outwit the trader.
— Didn’t Alex tell you? — I smiled at the old man. — Manipulation is an excellent ability to possess.
— So how much has it improved since the last time you used it?
I looked at the logs:
— It’s now at 3 points.
— That’s a surprise. It is still weak and yet it seems to be functioning well. That’s odd. Possibly there are other abilities making a contribution.
“The old man could well be right. The skill worked too well, even against such a professional trader and cunning bugger as Heyyoubaldy. I need to find an answer to this question somehow. Maybe the fairy book could help, although I very much doubt it. I still don’t know how to frame my questions correctly. If I ask a simple question then I get a simple answer, and apart from that the book seems to mock me every chance it gets...” — I reflected.
The old man snapped his fingers, drawing back my attention:
— What are you thinking about? Come on. It's time to start the feast, and by the way, you are going to be one of the judges adjudicating on the dishes in the cooking competition.
— I'm not a cook nor a gourmet, so how can I judge anything?
— You will have a chance to practice, and perhaps you will learn something new for yourself. Well, if not, just say which dish you preferred.
As it happened, I was only a guest judge. I was just given the opportunity to try everything in a relaxed atmosphere, so that I could then only vote for the dishes that appealed to me. To my absolutely unprofessional palette everything was very tasty, but what else could a person who only started to appreciate the taste of food a week ago say? However, I still gave my opinion on each and every dish. Since I didn’t know who had cooked which dish, I did it without any bias. As it happened, I preferred the dish prepared by the herbalist more than the trader's dish. If my vote was taken into account on a par with the other judges, then she would have won and my decision would have been pivotal.
Heyyoubaldy looked at me with reproach, and the serious resentment in his eyes was clear to see. It looked like he wouldn’t be selling me anything else in the near future. The happy herbalist ran up to me to thank me for my vote in her favor. Her new name was Votina, but I couldn’t even remember how it happened that I gave it to her.
— Thank you for appreciating my dish!
Before me stood a grey-haired woman, and, if it wasn’t for her grey hair, I would have credited her with being no more than thirty years old, while in reality she looked fifty.
— I'm sorry, but my vote doesn’t count for much. It’s more a mark of respect than a recommendation. Yet you still lost out to the trader.
— It's of little consequence, — the lady herbalist smiled. — He did all this for the sake of achieving the title of “The Best Chef in the Village”, and now he has it. Nominally, he won, but nobody in this world gives a damn what he thinks or does. Come to my shop tomorrow, and I'll help you choose everything you may need for the road. I don’t have such a rich choice as the bald one, but before the trade guild sent him here, I was well known as both a trader and a herbalist. So I still have some items that may be of use to you. Funnily enough, nobody cancelled my trading license. Usually, when a new trader is sent by the guild the person he replaces loses their license, unless, of course, he himself is a licensed trader.
Judging by the way her eyes were glistening while she told me this, the entire business part of the proposal was an excuse to invite me to visit her. The herbalist had an excellent figure and I couldn’t take my eyes off her ample bosom.
— I'll come with pleasure, — I smiled, taking my eyes back to hers.
Suddenly, we heard people laughing close by, and we involuntarily turned to look at what was so amusing for the villagers standing next to us. My Totem was flying above the table where the winners' dishes were being exhibited. He sniffed at them, sighed and moved on to the next dish. If I understood what was happening correctly, the bird only had enough room to try one dish and was trying to find the right one.
Watching my reaction, Votina chuckled: — It’s worth watching this caper and forgetting about business for a while.
— You have just given me a great idea! Thank you so much! — I thanked the stunned herbalist. — How can I take a snapshot of this?
I began to mentally record what was happening. I recorded four and a half minutes of gluttony. In the morning, I would try to show my Copper Wing just how badly he had behaved.
When I finished, Votina was still standing next to me:
— How do you feel about finishing off this feast by drinking the best tea in the world? — she asked.
Obviously, I had no objection to such an offer, even if I found myself a little surprised that it happened in public. However, everybody around seemed to be preoccupied by my Totem’s misadventures.
We quickly reached her house. It was clear that we weren’t there to drink tea. Votina was tireless when it came to sex an
d she loved to experiment. By the time I left her house it was already dawn.
I had only just managed to fall into a dream, when my Totem woke me up, because he couldn’t wait leave.
— Calm down, you crazy rooster! I have had next to no sleep!
The Copper Wing pretended to take offense at the term rooster. Well, he asked for it. As I had planned the day before, I found a way to show the Totem what he had been up to the previous day, and I displayed the images on the wall like a slide show. I had no idea that birds could blush in embarrassment. Naturally, I exaggerated, but that was exactly the impression that I got. My Copper Wing flew out into the street silently and sat in the courtyard of the house, patiently waiting for me to come out.
Having eaten food that had turned up on the table from nowhere, I threw a couple of apples from a basket of fruit into my bag and went out into the courtyard. My Copper Wing had already calmed down. He soared into the sky and began to circle above my head. I called the bird down, and my Totem landed in front of me reluctantly.
— We need to visit the herbalist and buy something for the road from her. I very much hope she's already awake after last night, otherwise somebody, — I specifically pointed at my Totem, — will get their beak broken for waking me up for no good reason.
Not knowing how much dirt I had on him, the Totem nodded gravely, and even tried to imitate fear.
“He was truly an unruly bird, but sincere and devoted to me, at least for now ...” — I thought.
We headed for the herbalist’s house. Yesterday, before I joined in the feast, Votina explained in detail how to find her house, as if in this village it was possible to lose your way, as if she was an NPC. For some reason, I knew from the start that the herbalist was a non-player character. On the contrary, Alex and Heyyoubaldy acted like ordinary people. They looked a bit strange, but communication with them was the same as talking to anybody else in the real world. Should I just leave without saying goodbye?
