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46

In the morning I woke up in a great mood, the feeling of euphoria from a job well done and new clothes breathed a lot of optimism into me. I wanted to play tricks, and since there was no desire to go and farm mobs, I decided to walk around the town, besides, it was quite interesting and beautiful. The day was akin to a mood - the sun shone brightly, but there was no stuffiness, so I gave myself completely to the walk. Looking at the beautiful openwork houses, I did not notice how half a day had passed. I went out to the main square, in the middle of which there was a fountain, and it was surrounded by an auction, a market, shops of rich merchants, a dwarf bank and an arena, somewhat similar to the Colosseum. Near this very arena stood a herald and called everyone to take part in the tournament. Interested, I approached and this is what I found out: team and single fights will take place in the arena, since team fights did not interest me, I listened to all the information about them. But with single battles, things were as follows. Four groups were formed: from the tenth to the twentieth levels, from the twentieth to the thirtieth, from the thirty to the fortieth and from the fortieth to the fiftieth, the fights took place to the death, the winner of the group received all the lost experience, but only after the end of the tournament. The winner of the younger group could call the winner of the older one, if he won, he would also receive experience from that group, taking into account an increase of ten percent to all experience, if he was one step older, twenty, if two, and so on. In case of a loss, fifty percent of the experience from the reward of the caller departed to the winner. This is about experience; in gold, the reward was fixed, in accordance with the proceeds of the arena. Each winner accounted for ten percent of the proceeds. Also a prize from the city - three wishes,

            Having signed up for the tournament - a painfully tasty reward - I thought about what abilities I might need, also elixirs, scrolls, ammunition. According to my abilities, I only had enough money for one, if you take from magicians or from assassins. Or take abilities from other schools. I was not going to rush and make reckless mistakes either. One ability I need, namely, acceleration. I decided to think more about acceleration, certainly a necessary thing, but you should not rush into it, as there are many analogues. So I have to fight with what I have. From elixirs he took night vision. The scenery in the arena can change, that is, one battle takes place on a standard sand arena, the second on the island, the third in the forest, and so on, while the weather and time of day can change. From the scrolls I took entangling vines from the school of druids, a fiery wall and a hurricane, offensive spell from the school of air. There was nothing left for ammunition, so I didn’t even bother.

            I also wanted to bet on myself in the sweepstakes, but, having examined my two gold coins and not finding a button on them to make a hundred gold coins, I left this idea as useless. Therefore, sensibly judging that it’s not worth going to farm mobs for a couple of dozen gold pieces, I went to read my encyclopedias under invis. As a result, by the evening I earned as many as three units in intelligence and increased my invis by one.

            “The unique skill “Fade into the shadows” has been increased to rank 4. The hero becomes invisible, dissolving into shadows for 10 minutes. Rollback 12 minutes. Cost to activate 20 mana. Maintaining 20 mana per minute."

            Considering the fact that the countdown of the timer starts from the moment of activation, I will not be in the invisibility for only two minutes.

            After a delicious dinner of vegetable stew with game, I walked around the city, admiring the stars, and went to bed.

            Waking up, I did a short warm-up and, having a light breakfast, so that there was no heaviness in the stomach, I went to the arena. The arena greeted me with the noise of the crowd, which flowed into the seats, and I hurried to a separate entrance for the participants. As soon as I entered, I received a system message:

            “You entered the competition area as a participant, all private messages are disabled until the end of your participation in the battle. May the strongest win!"

            We were assigned each to a separate room with all amenities, the magic of space works wonders. I understood the rationale behind this approach, if we are put together, then we will be able to study opponents, and in relation to those who came out first, this would not be fair. I did not have a chance to sit in silence for long, and soon the manager came for me, inviting me to the sand of the arena. 

            The arena met me with hard sand, the noise of the crowd and the bright sun. The host announced:

— Meet! In our arena, two newcomers will come together in a fight! Right "Cultivator555"! - and, after waiting for the noise of the crowd, he continued, - on the left is the Mirage!

            I was also greeted with joyful cries, but while there was no time for them, a warrior stood in front of me, a man, hefty, but not like a tank, so I'll try the strategy of a quick victory. Opponents are not to be played with unless circumstances require it. At the signal of the gong, the warrior began to run towards me, but I just stood there, and when a few steps remained before him, and the smile of the winner played on his face, I slipped along his sword, driving the stiletto from the bottom up into the jaw. The force of the blow was such that he hung on the guard for several seconds. Then it dissolved. I was taken to the rest room, where all the clothes were instantly cleaned, and my strength was restored.

            I had to sit in the room for about fifteen minutes, after which I was again called to fight. The first round has already passed, and the audience imagined what to expect from us. This time I was put up against a horn whose daggers glowed with a slightly greenish tint, some kind of poison buff¹. For myself, I made a note to similarly poison daggers, only with the help of herbs, which I read about in the book. This time we started the movement at the same time, having passed half the way, the guy's nerves could not stand it, and he went into invisibility, I followed there too. I did not want to get a poisonous dagger in the back. Therefore, having passed a little more to the right, I took aside. He had the most ordinary inviz, so in a minute he already fell out of it and began to look around in surprise, while I, in invisibility, came close to him and drove the knife into his eye. Hits at the horns drop,

            The third opponent was again a warrior, I dealt with him exactly as with the first, there was nothing to be afraid of, he could not see the fights, just as he could not receive a message from friends who could control rivals. Therefore, the rest of the battles were not interesting, the tactics against archers and magicians changed a little, but only in the direction of simplification, all that was required of me was to go into invisibility after the start of the battle and, without going in a straight trajectory, approach the distance of impact, and then , saying ku-ku, drive the dagger into any unprotected place. In total, I fought eight fights, the ninth was the finishing one. While resting, I counted, it turned out that five hundred and twelve people entered the arena, and this is only between the tenth and twentieth levels! 

            The final battle took place against a hefty, shaggy man, as it later turned out, from the class of werewolves. While I was looking at the enemy, and he, in turn, was doing it to me, the host was overflowing with a nightingale:

            “And here is the final battle, meet! Unstoppable Bear!!!" - I must say that the hall broke through with applause, the announcer continued, - “and the invincible Mirage! Whose fights went so fast that we didn’t have time to consider it, ”the stands roared with laughter and applause, and I didn’t listen further, focusing on the enemy. Most of all, I was worried about his scent, I did not have time to get to the study of werewolves, because I did not expect to meet them here. Therefore, he prepared for a long battle face to face with the exhaustion of the enemy, making a note on sclerosis to buy a potion that beats off the smell. And it’s better to cast a spell on all clothes, like a non-falling buff.

            As soon as the battle began, we, without saying a word, went in a spiral, narrowing the circle. On the next turn, the Bear turned into a bear - a funny pun - and ran towards me. I, sensibly judging, that since he applied the turn just now, it means that he has a strong timing, went into invisibility and went in a spiral in the opposite direction, still narrowing the circle. It was sad to look at the bear, he stopped and, in an attempt to smell me, spun like a top. I did not attack, so that invisibility would not sleep, and moved in a circle so that the smell would not become static. Five minutes later he turned back, and while he did not recover from the changed sensations, came close and drove the dagger into the eye, the enemy did not even have time to get a weapon.

            Yes, my fights are not spectacular, but I have another task: to win. To win the show is inappropriate. But, even despite this, he went to his room under the chanting of my name by the crowd. There, the steward approached me and asked if I would like to challenge the winner of the senior division. Upon learning of my consent, he was surprised and snapped his fingers. An illusion of a young man rose from the floor, to which he nodded, saying:

“Study, you have five minutes.

            And went to warn my opponent. I looked at the illusion: a young guy with a sword and a shield. Judging by the fact that he won at his level, he is a good fighter, but rather a good one. Tactics I will choose invis and rapprochement. But first, I'll get on his nerves.

            Exactly five minutes later they came for me, I was asked to choose an arena, or rather, its design, I left the standard one. He paid no attention to the cries of the crowd, focusing entirely on the enemy.

            At the sound of the gong, I began to approach him, and he, immediately betraying an experienced opponent, retreated to the wall. Approaching a distance of several tens of steps, he slid into invisibility. And, stepping aside, he simply sat on the ground, the stands exploded with laughter. So I sat for ten minutes, the enemy began to get very nervous, but I decided to fool around a bit. He took the sand in his palms and began to toss, creating a dust cloud. And then the systems flew:

            “The unique skill “Fade into the shadows” has been increased to rank 5. The hero becomes invisible, dissolving into shadows for 11 minutes. Rollback 11 minutes. Cost to activate 20 mana. Maintaining 19 mana per minute."

            “The unique skill “Fade into the shadows” has been increased to rank 6. The hero becomes invisible, dissolving into shadows for 12 minutes. Rollback 10 minutes. Cost to activate 20 mana. Maintaining 18 mana per minute."

…

            “The unique skill “Fade into the shadows” has been increased to rank 9. The hero becomes invisible, dissolving into shadows for 15 minutes. Rollback 7 minutes. Cost to activate 20 mana. Maintaining 15 mana per minute."

            Yes, I found a bug! Being in the arena, thousands of people (and not only people) looked at me, due to the magic dome they saw me under the invis, but as soon as I raised the dust and disappeared from the eyes, the system considered that the invis had led several thousand people, so it began to sway with unimaginable speed. It should be noted that the game positions itself as a game without bugs. Therefore, if this is a system bug, and not a hack with a hack, the punishment does not threaten, on the contrary, a reward is expected.

            Like any Russian person, I am glad for a freebie, so I continued to work on pumping my invis. But he did not forget about the enemy, creating a dust cloud around him. People thought I was doing it to attack from the dust, but I was swinging and having fun.

            Soon, messages about pumping stopped flowing, which means that the bug was fixed. Pumping stopped at level forty-eight.

            “The unique skill “Fade into the shadows” has been increased to rank 48. The hero becomes invisible, dissolving into the shadows. Skill cooldown 35 seconds. Cost to activate 15 mana. Striking from invisibility deals additional critical damage equal to x18 level of agility.

            And also received a message from the administration, consisting of only one emoticon. Smiling at him, I came close to the opponent, who was as confused as possible, and simply cut him down.

            The cries of the crowd were simply deafening, and the manager who brought me into the room was already more disposed towards me. With a smile, he asked if I would challenge the older opponent, and, seeing my joyful nodding of his head, he caused an illusion and left, mumbling something about crazy youth.

            This time my opponent was an archer. Again, I ordered a standard arena and went out to fight.

            Seeing me, Maximus - that was the name of this foppish hunter² (why foppish, you ask? Well, what can you call a man dressed up in an eighteenth-century French dandy suit with all the frills and ruffles for a fight?), grinned happily and, waiting for the gong , threw a mark on me so that when I went into invisibility I would be visible to him, and stood in the Apollo pose, except that he held a bow in his hands. As soon as I approached the distance of the shot, activated the invisibility, the mark immediately fell off, since my invisibility greatly exceeded the level of his skill. He did not even immediately understand what had happened, and when he understood, he stupidly opened his mouth, into which my dagger flew in, writing out a beautiful crit. This is what one's own arrogance and considering the enemy as stupid and weak leads to. Although the fight was quite simple, it turned out to be difficult mentally.

            I did not dare to take a fight with an even older opponent, and so I rose decently. And I didn’t want to repeat the fate of the archer, imagining who knows what about myself. The difference of 30 levels is no joke.

            We climbed the podium together: me and a warrior of the forty-ninth level with the nickname Timur. The equipment on it was not particularly new, but all extremely solid. Timur was the first to receive the award, he received so much experience that he instantly rose to level 76. Gold he received twenty-four thousand six hundred and seventy-eight in terms of the number of viewers. But he greatly spoiled the impression on desire by ordering a million gold pieces. The head of the city was greedy, he would hardly have been satisfied by a request reduced by dozens, so he simply waved his hand to the side so that Timur would not interfere with him. Timur had gone far enough not to hear our conversation.

            By experience, I scored at the eighty-seventh level. Gold received seventy-four thousand thirty-four. The conversation about wishes went like this:

“Well, hero, what are your desires?” 

— First, this is a house in the city.

- Will be. It's easy, contact the office, they will issue it.

- Second, permission to trade within the city. 

- Even easier. You can get it in the office there.

- Third, access to a closed library.

            On my third wish, he simply waved his hand, losing interest in me, and turned to the peasant accompanying him:

- Watch, let them do it.

            Then he majestically departed.

            All that remained for me was to go to my tavern, since it was evening time, a whole day flew by behind these fights. As soon as I closed the door, an angel appeared in front of me:

- Player Mirage, you found a bug with a skill cheat, the decision of the administration No. 468986569 decided: firstly, leave you the skill level as the one who found the bug; secondly, the weapon of your choice. You have a minute to think, then I ask you to describe exactly your weapon. 

            After some thought, I began to describe:

- Scalable, dual, one-handed in the form of shoulder katana with grooves for blood. The color of the weapon is matte black so that it does not glare in the dark. The color of the shoulder scabbard. 

- Accepted, during the day there will be a weapon, a pleasant game.

            After that, he disappeared, and I broke into a smile: the dream of an idiot came true, an angel flew in, gave knives. Not a day, but a fairy tale. With such a wonderful mood, I went to eat and sleep.

Characteristics at the end of chapter 5:

Level - 87

Life 6800/6800

Energy 218/218

Manna 380/380

Strength - 59 (50 frozen stat points)

Agility - 68 (15 frozen stat points)

Intelligence - 76 (15 frozen stat points)

Wisdom - 64 (15 frozen stat points)

Constitution - 68 (15 frozen stat points)

Free Attribute Points: 445

Secondary characteristics:

Wits - 2

Skills:

Chains of Frost Rank 3

Skill "Disappear in the shadows" rank 48.

Buff - from English. buff. In video games, it denotes a player's power-up. 

Hunt - from English. Hunter - hunter. A character class that fights at a long distance and inflicts huge damage on the enemy, mainly snipers, archers and crossbowmen.