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- The world welcomes you! said a beautiful, deep female voice.

It was the first thing I heard when I woke up, while I was in space, at least that's how I imagined it: the surrounding blackness, which seemed voluminous and endless, distant winking stars, a scattering of luminous gas clouds - this is a bewitching sight but it didn't last long at all. The world around me began to spin, and I ended up in a room. Small, with an area of ​​three meters by two, but bright. Large window, white ceiling and apparently whitewashed, log walls and wooden floor, surprisingly smooth. The furniture included good quality chairs and a table. On one of these chairs sat a man, he was offhand about thirty years old, well-built brunette, direct look, proud profile, you look like from the cover of a magazine.

“Good afternoon, Mark Viktorovich,” he began, “you probably don’t feel at ease, let me explain everything. My name is Nikifor Ivanovich Gromov. I am a representative of the Mir company. How are you feeling?

I felt pretty good, but the circumstances are a little strange: first the greeting that appears when you start the most modern game with full immersion, then a kaleidoscope of stars. A lot of questions have accumulated, and, apparently, now there will be answers. Well, if they communicate well with us, why not keep the conversation going.

“I must admit, I feel pretty good, but I have questions, and probably the first of them: how did I get here?

- Anticipating the answer to your question, I will ask, what are your last memories?

From the last memories, only that I went out to the store to pick up groceries, then it was already dark. Which, in fact, I stated to Nikifor Ivanovich

His version was somewhat supplemented: it turns out, while crossing the road at Lenin Avenue, he managed to save a girl who was being rushed by a car. To save her, I saved her, but the car flew into me, and ended up in a coma. The parents of this young inattentive person were rich enough to thank in such an original way - by acquiring a full medical capsule and connecting me to the World. My brain activity was enough, there were no contraindications to the connection. So while the body is recovering, the brain is at play.

“Therefore, let me introduce you to the company agreement, as well as go through character creation.

Handing me a thick folder with a bunch of words like "user", "service provider" and "obligated", he bowed. Having said that after reading and signing the contract, the game itself will begin, he allowed me to contact him on internal gaming issues.

As soon as the contract was signed, I was returned to space, where the same beautiful voice continued, as if nothing had happened:

- Choose a race...

There were a whole bunch of races on the list, ranging from the elves and humans we are used to, to hobgoblins and fairies. I was especially pleased with the hobgoblins - short, twisted and absolutely fluffy. I spent about five minutes over their image, I think the girls would have liked it if they had not had a heart attack in the first moments.

It's all good, of course, but I prefer to be human. Man is the only race that can be universal to some extent. This is the only race with which you can choose a development class after entering the game, albeit without subsequent bonuses. The rest will have an advantage over the human race in some specific way, for example, it is impossible to find archers better than an elf, if only for the reason that at each level they have a "+1" bonus to dexterity, and there is an accelerated pumping of the bow branch. Hidden branch is common among drow, although they are good archers. Gnomes are one of the best tanks, and those very cute hobgoblins are pet breeders, akin to druids.

- "Human" race is selected, customize the avatar.

It’s easier here: I left my image, except that I made it a little more fit and changed my hairstyle. There is nothing to go crazy about, especially since it is for a long time, most men, although they don’t care about appearance, still approach the matter in detail and try to calculate long-term things in advance.

— The avatar is fixed, enjoy the game.

There is a white haze of the portal around, and here I am standing in a clearing surrounded by huge oaks, and a path goes into the distance. I must admit I froze. Feelings are indescribable. In short, a fairy tale. The sky is so deep blue it makes you dizzy, the air is like honey. Birds fly around, butterflies and bees flutter from flower to flower in the clearing. From this state of admiration, I was brought out by a push in the back and a grumble, all sorts of people stood up here. A guy in only his underpants ran past me and quickly rushed off along the path. Apparently, my time is up. This thought was confirmed by a message that popped up in the periphery of vision:

"Introduce yourself to the headman of the village of Small oak forest: reward - experience 10. Accept: Yes / No"

Naturally, we click "Yes". But before you come to the headman, you need to understand a little about the management. What we have in the corner: a faded map, we will adjust the transparency, it is not visible on it yet, but we will take a walk and enlighten everything; ammunition - ordinary canvas pants and a caftan, bare feet, no bonuses, of course. A bag over his shoulder, in it lies a piece of bread and a cup, well, something. Next come the specs:

Level - 1

Life 100/100

Energy 100/100

Strength - 5

Agility - 5

Intelligence - 5

Wisdom - 5

Physique - 5

Free Attribute Points: 10

Strength - the force of impact and the weight carried, the amount of energy, the rate of energy recovery.

Agility - movement speed, chance to deal a critical hit, chance to dodge.

Intelligence - spell casting speed, spell power.

Wisdom - the amount of mana, the speed of its recovery.

Constitution - amount of XP, XP recovery rate, ignoring pain.

Resists:

Cold -5%

Heat - 5%

Acid - 0%

Poison - 0%

The characteristics are very mediocre, but this is not surprising, at the first level, I decided not to distribute free points yet, it is still unknown what I will need more.

I figured out the characteristics, but it's time to hit the road. I decided to run to the village, fortunately, to run not far, all along the same path. Having reached the gate, I saw a pop-up message: “Dexterity +1”.

It turns out that the characteristics can be raised by doing exercises, we will take into account. The village was really small. It is fenced with a palisade, the houses are small, chopped, stand in a row. At the end of the village there is a solid two-story domino, judging by the mark on the map, this is my destination. The headman turned out to be a strong peasant, about fifty years old, with a thick, silvery beard with gray hair.

Good afternoon (politeness is our everything), I'm new and would like to know if I can stop somewhere and earn extra money.

“Greetings, we don’t have inns, and no one will accept a stranger into the house for nothing, and judging by your clothes, you have nothing behind your soul. So do a couple of my errands, and I'll allocate you a room for the night. What's your name?

A message immediately popped up:

“Name yourself the headman, keep in mind that this name will be called you in the future, changing your name is impossible”

Next to it is a box for entering a name. And then I hung up, this is an ambush. The name is somehow not invented on the move, I try to enter my own, after which the expected answer followed that the name was taken. And the headman, don't be a fool, is already shaking.

- Kid, what's up? Did you forget the name or was it drawn into the philosophical jungle about the meaning of life?

Hmm, I'm trying Mirage. There is! Name free!

- Sorry, I really thought about it, call Mirage.

"Name chosen - Mirage"

“The task has been completed - to introduce myself to the headman. Reward - 10 experience"

Eh, with the initiative of me, there is the first ten.

- Well, Mirage, nice to meet you, I'm Anufry Osipovich. First, chop wood in the backyard, you'll be done in time for dinner. Let's eat and come up with your next task.

“A new task is available - Chopping wood. Reward - 100 experience, lunch, reputation with the headman Small oak forest + 5. Accept: Yes / No "

Wow, and here the task is more delicious, a whole level, and even lunch, but the most important thing in my opinion is reputation. After all, if there is a sufficiently pumped reputation, then more pleasant tasks will open, and there will be more rewards for ordinary ones. Therefore, without hesitation, I press "Yes".

I went behind the house, so spacious. But how much wood is there! There's a bunch, no, it's not! HEAP! At the same time healthy and knotty. In addition, it is clear that before that someone tried to chop - a pair of logs was split and an ax was hammered almost to the butt in one.

The headman looked at my dumbfounded face, laughed into his beard and left, while I remained scratching my head.

There is a lot of work here, but where has ours not disappeared? That's right, nowhere, our house was sitting. To begin with, he took a poleshko and began to knock out an ax. Fifteen minutes later, the badge-fly, pulled out. Sweat pours in a stream, energy dipped to one, but pulled out! After a bit of sitting and restoring energy, he began to chop wood, for a start he chose those that were without knots and smaller, and then he rushed at them so that his hands were trembling, but he pleased with two units to strength. I noticed that sitting or lying down energy is restored faster than standing. Moreover, if less than twenty percent of energy remains, then recovery slows down. Therefore, I chose a new tactic: I drive my energy up to thirty percent, wait for recovery and continue. But by the time the strategy was worked out, simple poles had run out, and I had to take on large ones, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not split them, in an attempt to cut it twice, he squandered energy and restored it. Finally, an idea hit me, and I decided to change my strategy. He took a small piece of wood, cut it, making several wedges out of it, created a crack in a large chock with an ax and began methodically hammering the wedges with a butt. And, oh miracle! It's gone! As soon as the first chock split, the system became generous with the notification:

“Ingenuity + 1, Wisdom + 2. Non-standard solutions to problems require remarkable intelligence and ingenuity. The higher the “savvy” characteristic, the more alternative solutions you can find.”

After reading the message, I fell into a stupor, of course, I do not pretend to be a child prodigy, but I remember for sure that there was no ingenuity in the characteristics! Okay, let's look at the characteristics, and, voila, among all the others I see:

Secondary characteristics:

Wits - 1

Well, not bad, it turns out that there are secondary characteristics that need to be discovered. I am also glad that the main characteristics are growing, and so far not bad, the pumping speed noticeably slows down with each next characteristic, but so far so good. And since I'm here for a long time, it means that we need to become stronger. So there is nothing to shirk, an ax in hand and to work.

According to the technique outlined earlier, he began to chop wood. With the same respite, however, they became noticeably less frequent, yet both strength and endurance grew. After several hours of monotonous work, when he was already covered in scratches from flying chips, dirty, sweaty, the work began to come to an end, a pile of firewood grew noticeably in the yard. Here the last chock is splitting, and with a joyful grin I am waiting for the notification of the reward. Waited a minute - no notification. Erase the joyful smirk - no notification. Walked around a bunch, jumped three times, said, "Kar!" - no notification. The elder is also nowhere to be seen. The house is locked, returned to the courtyard. I sat down on my ill-fated pile (if anything, I'm talking about firewood) and began to think. It noticeably sucks under the stomach, but I don’t know where to go, I don’t know, therefore, after conferring with cockroaches, I decided: I eat a loaf of bread and take firewood to the woodpile, good, not far here. By evening, the owner should come and present the award.

He stacked firewood the way dad taught in childhood: he built a well on the sides of the woodpile, laying firewood crosswise, and between them he already scored everything in the usual row. After I removed everything, I found a rake and began to rake the wood chips. Behind this lesson, the headman caught me. He looked unimportant, disheveled, downcast, as if he had aged fifteen years in a day. Seeing me at this work, he looked at me somewhat surprised and waved his hand, saying, let's go to the house. The system immediately responded.

“Completed the task - Chopping wood. Reward - 100 experience, lunch, + 5 reputation with the headman of the village of Small oak forest.

"Achieved the second level!"

Going into the headman's house, I followed him into the living room, where he gave me boiled potatoes and something like a fruit drink. He himself sat down opposite and, sipping a fruit drink, spoke:

- Sorry for not coming to dinner, a girl disappeared in our village, I will compensate for such a mistake with something later of your choice.

At these words, I even choked.

So the girl is missing? How did you disappear?

- But this is exactly what no one knows, she went towards the forest and did not return.

- So you have to look for it!

The elder's eyes lit up

-Are you going to look for it? With its second level, the whole village has been looking for a day, knocked off its feet. And there the inhabitants have levels from the twentieth. Walking in the dark into the forest is certain death, therefore, since they haven’t found it before, they won’t find it anymore.

At these words, he somehow abruptly drooped, as if the air had been let out of him.

From such pressure, to be honest, I was somewhat taken aback, the only thing that was enough for me was to ask if I could take an ax from the yard.

Having received a wave of his hand from the headman, like, do whatever you want, I took the remains of potatoes and bread, poured juice into a flask instead of water and went for an ax. Grabbed a gun and wandered through the village; I had no idea what to do, but I didn’t want to give up just like that either. He went into the copse behind the village, chose a dry birch, cut it down, hewed it in the manner of a stake, cleared it of twigs and bark. He grinned - we live, and now I got a spear. Went further into the forest. Not only did dusk come, but in the forest, under the trees, it was generally dark, and while walking through the oak forest, it was even more or less, but further, when spruce began to come across, it was not at all clear where to go.

The surroundings are really creepy: eagle owls are screaming, there are rustlings around, some kind of predator is growling, a quiet cry is heard. Stop! Cry! Trying to navigate by the sound and not run into a branch with my eye, I went in the direction from where I heard it. A girl was sitting under the old Christmas tree and crying, she could not walk, because her leg fell into a wormhole, and she did not have enough strength to get out. Seeing me, she squealed, so loudly that I was deaf for a few seconds, and when I came to myself, I realized that the whole forest froze from screaming, and only a wolf howled somewhere in the distance. It was scary. The girl, realizing that I was not a beast, but quite a person, crying, began to ask her to help.

Slowly releasing her leg and whispering some words of consolation along the way, he took her in his arms, by weight she was like a feather. Focusing on the map, he went towards the village, a minute later he heard the wolf howl again, much closer than the previous one. Out of fear, I almost crap myself, but let it run in such a way that any hare would envy. The only thing common sense was enough for was to hide the child's head in a shirt so as not to sit down on the branches. Fear is fear, and no one canceled low characteristics, so soon my endurance was already close to zero, and all I could do was barely trudge.

Walking past an oak tree, I saw that the roots had grown like a tent so that an exit and three walls were formed. That's where I climbed in, hiding the softly sobbing girl behind me. Looking intently into the darkness, he saw his death, not in the literal sense, of course, but two yellow eyes and the inscription "Wolf: Level 35" spoke directly about this. All that remained for me was to put the spear forward, which is nothing at all for this wolf. I can’t even pierce his skin, but fortune was on my side: the wolf jumped, while opening its mouth wide in order to grab it by the throat, and ran right into my larynx with a stake, impaling itself. At the same time, the blow was so strong that the stake that rested on my leg broke the bone, and I myself was thrown back against the wall and there the stake was squeezed, it was a miracle that it did not crush the girl, because she was a little off to the side. With his carcass, the wolf closed the entrance, and to me, even in full health, there would not be enough strength to pull this bulk out of there. Therefore, all that remained was to hug the girl and sit, listening to the darkness. So, sitting, imperceptibly fell asleep.

I woke up at dawn from the screams of people. At the same time, it was possible to understand from the sound that they were passing by about a hundred meters from me.

— Help!

Thank God, they heard me. When they approached, I heard the surprised exclamations of the peasants in the spirit of “nifiga yourself a wolf!”. The men pulled the animal out and began to help me get out, but I went into a cry of pain - the injured leg made itself felt. After the fight, on a surge of adrenaline, the pain was not so strong, and there I fell asleep from shock, but when I woke up and disturbed my leg, the pain returned a hundredfold. Seeing this case, they carefully pulled me out and saw a girl behind me. Already before this, the dumbfounded faces of the fellow villagers acquired a reverent expression, and immediately a message came:

“Reputation with the village of Malaya Dubrava has reached excellence. Now any goods will be bought cheaper and sold more expensive, it is possible to accept exclusive tasks. It is possible to return to the starting location after leaving it.

“A hidden task was completed - to save the girl. Reward - 3000 experience. Additional reward depending on your behavior."

I didn’t understand the postscript about the additional reward, but okay, so be it.

“Level 10 reached. All accumulated experience over 10,000 will be frozen until leaving the location (frozen experience 2500)."

There were also folded messages, apparently received after the fight with the wolf, but they already called me, so I decided to put them aside until the village. Seeing that in the near future I was not threatened with walks, the headman ordered:

- Ivan, Konstantin, cut down a couple of poles and fasten a cloak to them, let's carry our hero. Kirill, take Osip and take the carcass to the tanner, let him make something out of it on behalf of our village. - And to me: - be patient, Mirage, we will inform you to the village, and there Aglaya will quickly put her on her feet, she is our healer.

At this point, the peasants came up with an impromptu stretcher and put me on them, we couldn’t move while sitting, so we had to lie down and admire the clouds running across the sky. Of course, when they were visible through the branches. Having reached the village and approached a good house, located not far from the headman’s house, the rescued girl fell off the hands of the man who was carrying her and, shouting: “Mom!”, threw herself on the neck of the woman who came out.

- Aglaya, help Mirage, the wolf that was chasing your daughter, he decently broke his leg, and now the guy can’t go without your help.

Aglaya, and it turned out to be she, with the help of Ivan, took me to the house, gave me some bitter medicine to drink for inflammation and applied a compress. As I learned from her, potions that can quickly put you on your feet are made only by good alchemists who sit in cities, there are also life magicians who can heal in an instant, and in the villages, at best, people like her are healers able to understand herbs and use them to heal, making ointments and decoctions.

I lay with Aglaya all day, she managed to tell me a lot, for example, that her husband used to serve in the capital and is now there, but will soon arrive, her daughter, Nadenka, is a noble minx, but everyone loves her very much for her kindness. When she left me alone, I read the messages that came after the battle with the wolf.

You have killed a level 35 hardened wolf. Reward - 9390 experience"

“You killed an enemy 10 levels above you. Achievement David and Goliath earned. Reward - strength +5. The achievement reward may be frozen. To freeze? Not really"

“You killed an enemy 20 levels above you. Achievement David and Goliath 2 obtained. Reward: Strength +10. The achievement reward may be frozen. To freeze? Not really"

“You killed an enemy 30 levels above you. Achievement David and Goliath earned. Reward - strength +20. The achievement reward may be frozen. To freeze? Not really"

Everywhere I press “Yes”, given that at first she is pumped well with training and regular work, we have to wait. As a result, I have 35 forces in my stash.

Nefigovo gave me strength, at least become a warrior. It also encourages you to explore other possible achievements and get bonuses for them. There were systems about increasing dexterity "+3" and physique "+8", agility for running through the forest, and the physique was pumped over by endured pain, which I did not notice from the shock.

Toward evening, Aglaya visited me, and together with Nadenka, they brought medicine and pies, which the embarrassed girl handed me, and ordered me to sleep after we ate, promising that tomorrow I would be like a cucumber.

The next day I really felt great, and I was ready to devour even a bull. The hostess, seeing my awakening, smiled sweetly and sent me to breakfast, conveying an order from her husband who came at night: do not let me go anywhere and wait until he wakes up.

About an hour later, Aglaya's husband came and, driving the women out, began a conversation:

“I was told what you did for my daughter, don't get me wrong. A daughter is all we have, and there can be no other children. Therefore, to be fair, I must give you a choice. What reward do you want for salvation?

“The second part of the reward for the hidden quest “Rescue the Little Girl” is available. Attention! The reward depends on your answer."

I took a closer look at the man, who looked about forty, gray at the temples, his eyes became the color and the same look - sharp and cold. It's useless to play peepers with him, I'll lose before the start. Dressed in a simple loose shirt.

After some thought, I began:

“Sorry, I don’t know your name.

- Sergey.

- So, dear Sergey, I saved your daughter not for the sake of a reward, but I’m not a fool to refuse it, so I ask you to determine the reward that you consider possible. I will accept any and I will not say a bad word to you.

“Well, let it be your way. I'll teach you what I know myself, but first let's take care of our parameters, otherwise you'll be dead, that you'll break it with a spit.

Characteristics at the end of chapter 1:

Level - 10 (10,000/10,000) (2500 Frozen XP)

Life 900/900

Energy 150/150