I got up at sunrise, had a light snack and quietly walked to training, I didn’t have to go to the site, Master Loiniel met me at the door and ordered me to follow him. We walked for a short time, as it turned out, the purpose of our trip was a small mansion, not far from the city center. They did not invite me into the house, they immediately led me into the garden. There was an area surrounded by trees. All the trees were fruit trees, but of all I recognized only apple trees and peaches.
First we started with a warm-up, it's hard to call a warm-up exercise in full gear, but compared to the rest of the session, yes, a warm-up. After the usual exercises to develop agility, strength exercises began, such as pull-ups with weights. Loiniel hung a blank to my feet to make it heavier, otherwise I don’t have enough swords behind my back. Next came the racks, I must say that this is the most painful exercise, not only did weights hang on each limb, Loiniel also put up the racks with a stick. Admittedly, the sense of his exercises was. I learned to flow from rack to rack, despite clogged and beaten muscles. By lunchtime, I was already empty, so I was released until tomorrow morning. Arriving at the room, he called the boy and asked him to run to the carpenter so that he could organize the transportation of all the furniture. He himself took a shower and took up reading, combining it with dinner. After spending a couple of hours like this, I went to check the work, and at the same time I will plan out a room for myself.
A team of loaders was already standing near the house, along with a cart, on which my furniture lay. I chose a small room for myself, not far from the library. I wasn’t particularly smart with the layout, I’ll put a table near the window, a bed in the far part of the room and a wardrobe not far from the bed. Everything is simple and at the same time practical. I did not want to leave the house unattended, so I went to the mercenary guild and hired a star¹ of five people, a cook and a manager there to guard. All of them cost sixteen gold a month in maintenance, plus housing and food.
Having dealt with all household items, he moved to his home. Yes, now there is a place that I can call home. I spent the rest of the evening reading books, in order to achieve something in this world, you need to understand it well. I stayed up late, which I regretted in the morning. No one canceled training, and Loiniel drove at an incredible pace. Jumps, flips, pull-ups, stances and punch combinations. How to fight against a rogue, how to fight against an archer, how to fight against a spearman, combinations against a sword and shield. Contrary to popular belief, against a warrior with a shield, a two-handed swordsman has a chance of winning, and decent. It's all about the technique of wielding such weapons, as well as knowing how to use other weapons other than mine. The only enemy which is extremely unpleasant in a direct face-to-face confrontation - these are warriors with a high indicator of strength, fully dressed in armor. It is possible to fight with such people only if you beat them ahead of time, from invis, preferably with poisons and other pillboxes.
In about a week, I was drawn into the training and no longer endured it as torture. It was still hard and painful, but already coped with everything easier. The parameters have grown by one, and where by two. A month passed at such a pace, I already thought that the end of training would come soon, when Master Loiniel called me and began a dialogue:
- It was good. In fact, I only select students for the black scorpions, this is a closed guild of assassins. Few are able to get there, but no one has been able to finish yet, there was only one girl who was able to complete half of the training.
- What happened to her?
- She quit, left, broke. The reason doesn't matter. You can enter there only once. It is easy to exit, at will, but only after each stage.
- And from the stage?
- From the stage?! and he chuckled wickedly. There is only one way out - death. I know that you are immortal. But for you, death is the end of learning, and accordingly, upon resurrection, everything that you gain will be lost. So decide if you go for it. All the difficulties that you encountered during my training will seem like a fairy tale. But the reward is well worth it. Your choice?
- Do I have time to think and prepare?
- Not. I expect an answer within ten minutes.
“You have access to 1 quest from the unique questline Black Scorpion Becoming, Path to the Scorpions.
Condition: reach the home of the Black Scorpions. Restriction: you can not stay in one place for more than a day. Reward: experience - 5000, admission to training in the guild. Agree: yes/no.
I didn't think long. I still have no idea what to do in the near future, except for pumping. And here she is, though somehow tricky, but they promise to teach a lot. That's why I accept the task.
- I agree.
- Then you have a day to pack. During the journey, do not stop for more than a day. All right, get ready to leave. I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow morning. And think about the vehicle you will be using.
- Thank you, master.
After our conversation, he went straight to the menagerie. It was on the outskirts, so I had to walk a decent distance. I found a manager in the menagerie and asked for a mount to choose from. The list of mounts was quite extensive, from an ordinary horse to an olive-colored mount. Perhaps my choice will seem strange, but I took a camel. This cattle perfectly suited my requirements, unpretentious, hardy, fairly high load capacity. And even though the video is clumsy, I can’t play a wedding with him. Bought a camel and immediately let him go. Magic allowed mounts to be released into a spatial pocket, while time stopped there, and the animal did not notice any changes. The pets also had a similar pocket. The only difference was that in order to summon the mount, you needed a bridle from him,
Having completed the business with the cattle, he went to the bank, having invested his savings there, and opened a book, with which it was possible to give receipts for certain amounts, as well as transfer them to another person who had the same book. The cost of maintenance was soo gold a year, but the security of the savings was worth it. Immediately wrote out a check for a thousand gold pieces for the manager of the house, but taking into account the fact that he can only receive money for the needs of the house, for a clearly justified reason for spending. So I can not be afraid that my money will be squandered or given a tear with them.
I had nothing to collect at home, I just removed the extra books so that nothing would happen to them during the campaign. He sent a cook with a security guard to the bazaar in order to buy spices, flasks, wine, dried fruits, crackers. I sent another guard to get food for the camel, I don’t know what they are interfering with, but with a small volume it is extremely high in calories.
In the evening I went to Nikos and said goodbye to an old acquaintance. We did not sit for a long time in order to have time to rest before the road. Therefore, by nine o'clock he was in his warm bed and sniffed in both holes.
Star - a squad of five warriors.
Early in the morning, so as not to waste time, I got up, had breakfast and went to Master Loiniel. The master got up early, so he was not afraid to wake him up. It must be said that the sleeping city is beautiful: dawn rose in the east, its red rays illuminated the spire of the town hall, touched the magic dome of the academy and sparkled in it with a riot of colors. It was like a miniature aurora borealis, under which a soundless salute exploded. This celebration of the eyes did not last long, about five minutes, the sun came out, and everything took on its colors. Immediately, the magic lanterns along the streets went out, a rooster crowed somewhere, and I realized that I had been standing with my mouth open all this time. Coming to his senses, he moved on. Loiniel, as usual, was standing on the porch, is he sleeping here, or what? After greeting, he told me to open the map, on which he indicated the purpose of my visit. He also handed over a tube of papers for the Scorpions. Thanki
Lunch was almost here, and in order not to remain hungry, I decided to go hunting. Yes, I understand perfectly well that there are crackers, but who wants to eat them? So go ahead! Into the forest! And don't look at me like that, I'm on the hunt, the environment will not suffer. There was a pleasant coolness in the forest, the birds were singing, somewhere not far away I heard the roar of deer. The deer attracted me, calling the camel away, I went into the shade and began to creep up to the place where I heard the roar. I had to walk long enough, almost an hour, and when I did find them, I fell asleep, stepping on a branch, so I had to catch up. Perhaps it was worth spitting on this matter, but I had already bitten the bit and did not want to leave without game, although I spent several hours on it. It seems to have overtaken, deer stood in a tight circle in a clearing and ate grass. I’m not going to make such an oversight anymore, so I tried to foresee everything: branches, wind,
I woke up to the accompaniment of a downpour, the rain charged like a bucket, and, judging by the sky, this is for the whole day. The mood has dropped sharply, like it or not, but you have to shuffle under the downpour, the time spent in this location is limited. I reluctantly had breakfast and took food for the road, and why didn’t I do this before? Fucking romantic. Hunt him, you see, serve, uuu, how angry I am. Okay, depressed, and that's enough, it's time to go. He called his hunchbacked horse, jumped up and rushed towards adventure, that is, he trudged along where the map ordered. In the whole situation, one thing was pleasing - the road remained strong, the camel's hooves did not fall into the mud, so we were going fast enough. The whole day passed in silence, I was already used to the rain knocking on the hood, and the next day was just as wet and cloudy. So a week passed, during all this time only once a horseman came across, and even that one, judging by the form, the messeng
The day was beautiful, today I had to drive through a pine forest. The sun broke through the tent of branches, playing like bunnies in the morning dew. The camel, to which I never bothered to give a name, easily walked along the coniferous carpet, breathing easily and naturally. Today I was going to make a decent push and leave most of the trip behind me. The road ran easily, from the soul poured out of nowhere a pop-up song: “You are a sailor, I am a sailor. You are a fisherman, I am a fisherman. You are on land, I am on the sea. We will never meet." Further, for the life of me, I don’t remember, but I sang these four lines for probably an hour, until a branch from a fallen tree flew over me. It was so unexpected that I choked on a sailor, and then, by inertia, it turned out that I was a crack. I didn't think about it, didn't think about it. I am sitting, thinking about the intricacies of fate and the love of a sailor and a quack, and what should she do, poor fellow,
It seems that the job is done, but it's too early to relax. The first desire was to wake up all the slaves, but after a little thought, I decided that it was better to leave this matter until the morning. Firstly, it is difficult to predict the reaction of people to a man in black who appeared out of nowhere and soaked fifty people. And if this appearance is also at night, but by the light of fires, uuuu. So we clear the leader's tent from the corpse and climb there on the bainki. The morning is wiser than the evening, although it is not clear why, the evening is older, which means that he has more experience. As soon as he fell into bed, he immediately jumped from a sharp cry right above his ear. This is the same girl who was with the leader, I was in the middle of a fight and forgot about the poor fellow, and she sits there, shaking, apparently, she hid here all day, and I accidentally lay down on her. And once such an incident happened, you need to calm down. To begin with, I took
Finally a city. The transition turned out to be tiring, so I decided to rest in the city for a day. The town is small, but located on an important trade road, so many caravans stop here all the time. The walls are not high, but thick enough, they are more from robbers than enemies from abroad. I decided to stay at the Prancing Pony Hotel, which is run by a young couple with a young son. I liked the hotel with a simple but interesting style. When I went inside, I was amazed: a simple house on the outside, unremarkable from the rest, inside looked like a marvelous garden. All the walls were covered with vines and, remarkably, with bunches of grapes. At the entrance, a security guard stopped me and warned that it was possible to pick grapes, but only visitors to the establishment, and as much as they need for food now, cannot take grapes with them to their room and take them out of the hotel. A reasonable rule of thumb is to ensure that there is eno
We were very lucky - by the time the undead broke into the city, we had blocked all the passages and windows, remade the chimney, closed the fresh masonry with oak shields, and collected firewood and supplies. And, most importantly, while working, people gained the determination to fight, now there was no crying, but only quiet and calm conversations. The people who showed their leadership qualities during the work organized the sorting of supplies without mention. The breakthrough occurred in the evening, at which time the parapet¹ of the bodies reached the top of the wall, and an avalanche of undead flowed into the city. We could not watch everything, I wanted to go out in invisibility for reconnaissance, but there are so many undead that they will trample the invisible. Therefore, one had to sit and listen to the growling, the beat of thousands of feet shaking the ground, and the screams of people. I really wanted to help them, but there was no such opportunity, our she
The further path was marked by the passage of a dozen more traps. And finally, in front of me is the wall of the secret passage. The hope of getting out outside the city was not destined to come true, gently opening the sash, I slipped out in invisibility right behind the zombies. Moreover, the zombies stood in a tight wall, shoulder to shoulder, and so far as the gaze spread. In order to inspect everything, I carefully climbed the wall to the roof, fortunately, my stealth skills have already taken a big step forward, and I'm not talking about the level of invisibility, but about understanding how to put a foot, how to move silently, which side to enter , so as not to impersonate any third-party factor.The view from the roof amazed me. All the streets were densely packed with standing zombies, they stood everywhere, on every free heel of space, all the floors of each of the buildings were occupied, where there was an exit to the roof, they stood on the roof, and all this without a si