Monster

by Sergey Belsky

  Slowly creeping to the source of the sounds I could hear the speech more clearly and having approached quite close I saw the speakers and heard their talk distinctly.

  Gram, a robber, level 24

  Gretham, a slave trader, level 24

  Palg, senior slave trader, level 25

  “So, how long will I have to wait for your leader?” asked Gram with unconcealed malice. “I want to see my gold!”

  “Calm down Gram, otherwise I will calm you down,” Gretham roared at him.

  “You shouldn’t, Gret, otherwise you will have to do his work,” Palg stopped his buddy. “You needn’t worry. Our leader will come and bring you the money for the slaves, especially for these slaves. You will get the double price, especially for this beautiful girl."

  “Maybe we’ll use her a little?” Gretham asked taking the grilled meat off the knife with his teeth. “The leader doesn’t care what state she is in; the main thing is to keep her alive and well.”

  “But she is one of the wanderers, how do you want to use her? It is impossible,” Gram frowned.

  “The leader will come up with something, I am sure,” Gret smiled. “He is very smart and incredibly cunning.”

  “Well, the girl is great, no less beautiful than the elves,” Palg agreed, also taking a piece of meat. “It’s alright that she is a wanderer. She has no patron saint, she doesn’t even have a weapon, that is why you managed to catch her. So, no one will help her.”

  “I wonder why she doesn’t disappear like the others?” Gram asked.

  “That’s a good question but I don’t know the answer to it,” the senior slave trader shrugged his shoulders. “Why don’t you ask her?”

  “Hey, pretty,” Gram smiled his almost toothless smile. “Why don’t you disappear? You don’t want to leave our good company, do you?” all three burst out laughing after these words. “Nothing wrong with that. I have an idea how to show you our humanity,” the robber looked at girl’s pretty lips steadily and pulled off his belt.

  I looked at those called captives and got very surprised. The first one was quite short and broad-shouldered. He had a big…beard on his face, yes that’s how it was called, which was braided into many little braids.

  Heavy chains cuffed his hands and feet tightly and were attached to big metal weights. Derergon seemed to describe something like this, calling these creatures dwarfs. The shorty was trying to set free, but he couldn’t.

  Grolm, The Blacksmith of the Underworld, ???

  Oh, question marks instead of the level. I wonder if he doesn't know his level, or is this caused by something else? That's strange, very strange. But the dwarf was nothing compared to another captive.

  This was the girl in white mantel with fair hair. The same chains curled around her thin paws…or rather little hands and legs. To my mind it was somehow awkward to use such means on so weak creature, I felt pity for those poor lads.

  And since the latter tried to talk to me in the cave not long ago then I think this is a great opportunity to contact. There was a message above her head:

  Almyona, The Healer of Equilibrium, level 48

  Chapter 47

  The priestess. The conflict. The journey to the underground.

  Alyona

  Having experienced a lot of very unpleasant feelings, the girl found herself in a small town, which was quite far from the dungeon. To her great surprise, she didn't find the staff among the tools. How come? It's impossible to steal it!

  The others were waiting not far from her including the armored leader of the squad steaming red with anger. The magician in red mantel was blazing and it seemed there will be local Armageddon around him soon.

  “Damn morons!” he shouted, “How dare they kill me?!”

  “You’d better keep silent, Redcliff!” the knight roared as all the rest stood silently next to him. “I let the demon down on them and they killed him. Where on earth did they get so strong monsters there? It’s only the first dungeon level.”

  “You seem to have forgotten the warning that this dungeon is not an ordinary underworld, but quite a big place with dozens of levels.” A girl said coming up to the group.

  “Yes, there was the warning,” the leader nodded. “Epic dungeon and stuff. But this is the first level and the moobs were waiting for us for sure.”

  “You are paranoid, Carl,” the magician blazed once again. “They should have understood then that we would go there every other day. Besides, they should have followed us, and the guys never noticed anyone.”

  "That's their problem, rather say the problem of poorly developed detection skills," the knight clenched his fist to the crunch. "That was the chameleon beetle. It's strange, but there is nothing about him at the forum."

  “I’ve lost my shield,” said one of the players sadly.

  “It’s your problem,” the irritated warrior dismissed him.

  “But…but…” the group member wanted to say something, but he was interrupted.

  “Who cares what you have lost there!” Redcliff spat. “I have lost my experience, damn you! And I wasted some gold in there as well, not much, but still. What kind of mobs they are if they can search in our inventory? You didn’t warn us about such things, Carl! You decided to ditch us?”

  “You’d better shut up, Redcliff otherwise I’ll pull your soul out of you and local guards will not be able to save you,” the squad leader roared at his comrade.

  "Will you stop quarreling, guys!" Alyona said. "We'd better ask someone for help, return to the cave and get our stuff back. Besides those beetles were quite unusual, I presume they are not just dumb mobs, but NPC we can talk to. I am sure if we talked to that beetle we wouldn't have got into such situation at all."

  “Look who has learned to think,” the magician spat again. “You’d better stand there mute, you, dumb head, who has lost her staff. Nothing would have changed.”

  “Don’t interfere, Almyona,” Carl kept roaring at everyone. “No time for you now.”

  "Go to hell, all of you!" the knight who had lost the shield shouted out. "I will buy a new one and I will stay alone, farewell." He turned around and went away.

  "Yes! Well done!" the magician grinned. "And I take another way. Almyona, will you go with me? But remember, you will have to brighten up my sleepless nights."

  “You’ll brighten them up yourself,” the healer sighed. “Sorry, Carl, but I need to get my staff back. I can’t buy a new one. That’s why I set off.”

  “Roll to hell all of you!” the knight twisted and teleported using the scroll.

  Alyona sighed again and headed to the auction since it's improper to walk without good staff. She has to get that staff back in any way because she had had it since the very beginning of the game and she got it together with the unique class.

  It was said in the warning that it is impossible to steal the staff and it was forbidden to leave it unattended for a long time. She never knew how long this long time was.

  Well, what a fool should one be to leave a unique scaling staff unattended? Right, no fool, but somebody has done it nevertheless because she didn't assume she would come across such a situation.

  She didn't want to think about the team, especially about Redcliff. How does earth ever tolerate such ... bad people?

  The building of the auction was almost in the middle of a small cozy town. There were just a few players there which was to the better. The slightly upgraded reputation influenced the opinion of the NPC positively and they smiled seeing her.

  Though, many people say that except the reputation there are many things helping to create the attitude of NPC to a wanderer. Such stats can include the personal attitude to the beauty of every inhabitant of Reynea, religion, belonging to a particular fraction, of this or that organization, country, and many others.

  Now a passing guard smiled to her while her reputation seemed neutral to them. As she was passing two-storied buildings with dark tiles on the roofs she kept thinking about the world she had come
from.

  Her studies, work, and stuff were very easy for her, she was really successful until some moment. Well, she needn't think about it now.

  A comparatively big building was visited much more often and not only by players. NPC were also trading different stuff very energetically like raw materials, weapons, and others.

  Coming up to one of the stands the girl activated auction's interface. She could use the standard one when there is a scroll with the searching option according to the name and class division of goods, but the girl liked it another way. The second variant implied the help of a special trader.

  "Could you help me?" she asked a plump man with a thick black mustache.

  “All yours,” he answered friendly, adjusting his collar.

  “I need a healer’s staff up to 50th level.”

  "Let's see," the merchant unfolded several scrolls, wrote something with the feather on them, after that he looked at them and having nodded satisfactorily, he said. "Here, have a look. There are about a hundred offers to suit you. The prices vary from a few hundred to ten thousand gold pieces."

  "I'll take it about one-two thousand," Almyona said and just then she understood that she couldn't see her fifteen thousand gold pieces in her inventory. Chills ran across the skin, from the awareness of where they are now. "Will you please excuse me, but I have to withdraw at once. I will use your offer later and recommend your auction to all my friends."

  “Never mind,” the merchant waved his hand. “I will always be glad to see you at our modest place.”

  The girl sniggered to herself. If this place is called modest it is scary to think of the usual one without speaking of luxurious.

  It will be useful to wander around the capital of Erenvar empire or around the kingdom of Mernor. There are fairly large representations of world auctions there. That was rather a curious merchant. He didn't even try to offer any useless services.

  Having sighed deeply the girl left the town and headed to the cave. She had no money to teleport to the nearest transition point to the dungeon, so she had to walk for 24 hours to reach the place.

  The main thing is to avoid PK players on the road, in other words, those, who kill other players. She had little chances to meet them there since the route was quite unpopular, but still, there was a high chance to come across top players.

  She could cope with monsters living here quite easy, even her scarce powers would be enough for that, she just took out a little knife.

  Alyona hoped very much that those creatures she had seen here before were the only inhabitants of the local forest. She wished they were no higher than 40th level. The route was very long and got very tired. She wished she could leave the capsule and have some tea.

  The parents still worry but the administration can't solve the problem the players like her had come across. Even Vladimir Arkonov, the Greatest Genius of the Humankind hasn't been able to cope with this task yet.

  Shaking her head Alyona understood she needed to sleep a bit before going on. Having started a small fire, which she hoped to scare some monsters off with, and having set a special guard spell she fell asleep.

  Chapter 48

  Unpleasant wakeup. Helen. The Knight of the Stars guidance.

  “Hey, pretty, wake up,” someone grinned couple hours later.

  “Just a moment, Mum, the alarm clock will go off only in five minutes,” the healer said sleepily.

  “I don’t know what alarm clock is and when it will go off, but you get up and be quick,” the robber kicked the girl. “We have to be at the meeting point in time.”

  The healer jumped and saw a man with a rather disgusting grin on his face.

  Gram, a robber, level 24

  "Now I'm gonna have you," the girl stretched her arms. "Look at you, little arrogant low leveled robber."

  “I’ll get some gold or maybe you? Though, better to get both.” Gram busted.

  The girl decided to use one of the attack spells, and it… didn’t work to her great surprise.

  "What's up? The magic doesn't work?" the robber grinned again. "Look at that bracelet on your wrist." He said and yanked the chain attached to that artifact.

  “Ouch!” the girl screamed.

  "This is the magic absorber." Explained Gram with smart air. "It allows catching slaves of your level. It is useless to set so weak guard spells. Move, I won't drag you two." The robber kicked the girl again and she fell on the ground seeing another captive next to herself.

  ***

  Helen

  Lintirionel had already lost count of how many wipes in a row their team had survived but they failed to defeat Kroark. Some men left the clan after hours of unsuccessful attempts. The father just grinned to that and wished them good luck.

  The only one remained out of the tops was the clan head who was now looking after his low-leveled men constantly grinning at their failures.

  But Helen was extremely persistent and in spite of using a special artifact allowing to avoid death fine, they still could not kill the boss.

  Hyde saw clearly that they just lack strength. As Mintakor used to say it is no use attacking Kroark being less than a hundred level. Helen tried to prove the opposite, but she couldn't.

  “What’s going on?!” the girl wiped away the tear with her glove.

  "Don't worry," Hyde said. "We just need to upgrade a bit and raise our level before going here."

  “No! I’ll get him!” the girl gripped her sword tightly.

  "Hold on, Lena," Mintakor jumped off a stone. "You are as stubborn as your mother. You see our squad doesn't have enough strength even considering the fact that you have studied the tactics of the fight with Kroark.

  So why do you go on with this pointless stuff? To stick it to me? No need to do it, I will cope myself. You'd better spend this time doing what Hyde has told you.

  Look at yourself. What did you achieve by not listening to me? You have died more than twenty times, ditched your men, some of which have left the clan, lost officer cloak, which can't be replaced.

  I understand it clearly that you somehow managed to get the hidden quest the goal of which is on the second floor of this dungeon. This quest considers the demolition of bosses only by one group without the help of high-level fighters.

  However, you are too arrogant. If I were you I would go all in. It means I would take the epics and legendaries from the clan stock, equip myself with best supplies, and do the same for every fighter in the squad.

  I would not forget about the enhanced bijou, the blessings of gods and would use the main artifact of the clan. In general, I would use everything I can get, if I knew that the goal will be worth the efforts, the spoiled reputation and the relations with my relatives. And now all of you move away."

  The girl didn't know what to answer to her father since he was right in every point. The Knight of the Stars stretched his arms and went to the boss looking at him carefully.

  “To begin with,” said the knight. “It is necessary to have a good set of armor, allowing to withstand the impact.”

  Kroark Karak gave a powerful roar and struck with his huge paw, but the warrior just put his arm bent at the elbow in front of him. There was a claw rattle on the armor, but no scratches on the gauntlet remained. The warrior seemed not to feel the blow.

  "I could do something like this even at the hundredth level and these are not the possibilities of the unique class." Mintakor shook his arm a little. "Now the strength. This is one of the most important parameters for you. It will be difficult for the paladin to find a decent armor without it. It will also allow you to damage greatly, not as greatly as the magicians do, but still."

  The Knight of the Stars scattered and crashed at full speed at Kroark, pushing the beetle a couple of meters away. The Lord of the Underworld used one of his skills and threw a little stone sphere that had appeared on his huge horn.

  This spell has one shot the men from Helen's squad several times already, but this sphere hit the energy shield of the c
lan leader, who seemed not to notice the attack at all.

  "The point of using your invulnerability is no less important." Mintakor went on as if lecturing, moving away and setting on again the energy barrier to prevent the attack. Well, your rollback is quite long, but even two seconds of invulnerability can help you survive.

  The main thing is to use them right or rather at the moment you need them. Though enough lessons, you know them well yourself, some extra emotions prevent you from concentrating." The Knight of the Stars took his crystal sword out and with a powerful blow cut the boss of the first level of the dungeon into two parts, sending him to rebirth. "Now you are all returning to the city, on foot. You will have enough time to think about what to do next. Meanwhile, I have to go," Mintakor waved his hand to everyone and disappeared, blinding everyone with a flash of light.

  “He’s done him good,” said Hyde wistfully, imagining himself doing the same on so high level.

  “So, humiliating,” Helen felt offended and she wanted to cry but she didn’t allow herself doing so. Throwing the sword into the sheath, she headed towards the exit, and her men followed her. “We are going to get him anyway. But first I am going to get my cloak back.”

  Chapter 49

  The slave traders. The stand. The Captives.

  Sel Er

  It was not clear what to do. The levels of the robber and slave traders were higher after all, and they seem more dangerous than the wolves. Well, what have I got?

  Five explosive balls and six death energy charges. It seems a couple of explosive balls will be enough and considering the effectiveness of death energy one charge will be enough to kill the senior slave trader. And if not?

  It doesn’t matter though. I’m dead anyway. So, if I die one more time I will be able to evolve and raise my level. So, I have nothing to be afraid of. I will always have chances to get more explosive balls.

  Having chosen the most opportune moment when all three were involved in some argument, I took two balls out of my spatial pocket and threw them one by one right into the fire.