“We were better this time.” Trix said cheerfully coming closer to Alex.
“We were weaker, but we won because we were fighting unfair,” Alex looked around and suddenly he felt ashamed and disgusted. The girls did everything, and although he knew a lot of techniques, he couldn’t use any of them.
“A fight is never fair, someone is always better equipped or prepared,” Rina said.
“Where did you hear such a wisdom?” Alex was surprised.
“I heard this phrase in the public house while I was waiting for the tenant,” Rina explained. “I liked it, so I decided to remember it.”
“Did you hear something useful there?” Alex asked hopefully. He wanted to find out something important or useful.
“There will be no use of pairing two males,” Rina said pompously.
“Never mind,” Alex said disappointedly. “Let’s gather their weapons and go back. I think now we definitely have enough money to hire Turk and I will finally find out what's going on here.”
Chapter 7
“We have 870 gold coins,” Alex summed up. We got 420 for the quest, 250 for the weapons and another 200 we had before. It's time to speak with Turk.”
“You wanted to hire him,” Trix said.
“Yes, yes. We will first hire him and then ask everything,” Alex said. They went to the part of the hall which was full of assistants and, having found the Turk, gave the necessary amount to him.
“I'm Turk!” Blue-eyed thug with thick blond hair said in low bass voice. “Now I’m your assistant.” He was dressed in heavy white armor with gold inserts, the white sheath hid a wide sword, the golden handle of which was decorated with red stone.
“Great,” Alex said gladly. “Are you ready to answer my questions?”
“Of course,” Turk nodded.
“Mmm…” Alex had been waiting for this dialogue for so long, and now he didn’t know what to ask. “Where are we?” he finally chose the most stupid question.
“We’re in the public house,” Turk answered quickly and clearly.
“Let's do it in another way,” Alex thought for a couple of minutes. “Tell us everything you know about your previous tenant and what happened to you.”
“Gunther was my previous tenant; he was an alchemist at Seventeen Level. He gave me money. He listened to my oath of allegiance and offered to have a meal. I agreed and then…
“Stop,” Alex realized that he needed to change the question a little, otherwise it would take a lot of time to listen to him. “Don’t tell me about eating and sleeping. Tell only about important events in chronological order.”
“Got it,” Turk thought for a second and continued. “Gunther hired Kyle, a battle magician, and another warrior, Stoke. We completed all the quests in the public house, went northward along the road and were ambushed. At first they shot arrows at us, Stock was killed, the others were injured, then two warriors with swords jumped out at us. They thought that we were almost dead, but we restored our strength with the help of Gunther's pots and defeated them in a fight. And then we easily dealt with two archers. Our Mag-Warrior-Alchemist team turned out to be very strong in duels.”
“But everyone can buy pots.” Alex said.
“Gunther was an alchemist,” Turk reminded. “He knew how to make a pot that not only treated, but also increased the fighting characteristics. After searching for the attackers, we got thousands of coins, two swords and two bows, but, what is the most important, we got the sixth level. Going further, we saw that a lonely, injured, red-haired and tall warrior was fighting with another warrior and an archer. When they saw us, the archer and the warrior ran into the forest, and the red-haired man sat down leaning on a tree. He held a double ax in his hands, his mail shirt was torn because of the strikes, and the wounds were bleeding. He was sure that we would kill him, to be honest, I thought the same, but Gunther gave him one of his pots and offered to cooperate.”
“Tell me everything you know,” Gunther said. “And we will help you.”
“My name is Cyrus,” he was tall and had a thick red beard, which he scratched nervously all the time. “You are obviously new players. But how did you get Level Six?”
“We’ve completed all the quests in the public house, and then we killed four of the warriors who have backstabbed us.” Gunther explained.
“Were there two swordsmen and two archers?” Cyrus clarified.
“Yeap,” Gunther nodded. “Were they your friends?”
“What? No!” Cyrus waved his hands indignantly. “You are very lucky that you met them,” then he saw a confused glance of Gunther and started explaining. “Three groups control the road from the starting location. They attack weak new players coming from the public house. It’s a simple and effective way to upgrade level. You met the weakest group both in level and in set-up.”
“What is set-up?” Gunther asked.
“Well, it’s the squad,” Cyrus explained. “Your squad is almost perfect, just find an archer or a healing magician…”
“Where are your assistants?” Gunther asked. “I also would like to know what this place is and how long have you been here.”
“All my assistants died.” Cyrus honed sadly. “I’m alive thanks to you. Will you kill me when I tell you everything?”
“I don’t kill anyone without a reason.” Gunther said soothingly. “You may go if you want. But if you tell me everything, I will be very grateful for help.”
“Gratitude.” He smiled ironically. “I haven’t heard such words for a long time. I don’t know what this place is, although I’m here for a month. I completed first quests in the public house, then I hired a warrior, an archer and a battle magician. We went northward and felt into an ambuscade. Warrior was killed but we fought off and ran into the forest. We stayed there for a long time, being afraid of going to the road.”
“Is there something apart from forest?” Gunther asked.
"If you go northward along the road, you will see a small village called Grink, enclosed by a high wall of wooden stakes," Cyrus pointed at the road and continued "You can carry out quests, buy armor and weapons there are also better than in the public house, although they're more expensive."
"But it's not so simple, is it? Gunther guessed.
“There are about ten groups of different levels and set-ups hiding around the village,” Cyrus nodded. “I was lucky to get into the village only once. I bought a mail and this ax there,” Cyrus raised his hand with a two-hand ax, its blades were made from red metal. “But when I left the village, I was ambushed and two of my assistants died. And in the last fight they killed the magician and I was also almost killed. In general, now I am alone and I don't have money at all,” Cyrus kept his head down sadly.
“Then we need to keep together and get to the village,” Gunther suggested.
“Craig has seized the village,” Cyrus shook his head. "He has a strong group. They are at Level Eight."
"How do you know?" Gunther was surprised.
“I forced the Grink previously.” Cyrus confessed unwillingly.
“I see that you're not being straight with me,” Gunther looked at Cyrus. "Tell me everything you know or get away and don't hope that I'll help you."
"It’s dangerous to be in the city all the time,” Cyrus began to explain. "You don't upgrade. Roaming through the forest doing quests is also a risk. So I came up with the idea. We went out of the village noisily, set a compass and went back through the forest. We waited for a group that wanted to go into the village and attacked. This idea worked out a couple of times. But one day, when we successfully fought with the next group, Craig's group attacked us.”
“So much fun here.” Gunter hemmed. "As I see, you don't like fair fights."
"What is a fair fight for you?" Cyrus sneered. "Would you go through the forest shouting "Heeey, I'm here! Let's fight!" Do you imagine a fair fight to start like this?"
"And you did not try make an agreement?" Gunther asked. "Everyone does quests and s
tudy the map together."
"We tried." Cyrus nodded. "But this didn't work. They couldn't choose the leader or share a reward equally."
"In general, the situation is clear,” Gunther said thoughtfully. "I suggest you joining our group, but remember, I am the leader here."
“I am at Level Seven and more experienced, so I can command better,” Cyrus said grandly.
"No!" Gunther answered shortly.
“Well, I couldn't refrain from trying,” Cyrus said apologetically. "Yes, I agree, I agree! I have no other way out."
“Then get up,” Gunter gave Cyrus a hand. "We are coming back."
"What do you mean?" Cyrus was confused. "Where?"
“To the public house,” Gunter answered shortly. "And we need to hurry up, I think the road to the starting location is still free."
We ran along the road back all the time, although no one was chasing us, and the road was completely empty. We stopped just before the public house.
“I suggest having a snack first, and then I will explain my plan,” Gunther said breathing heavily. Cyrus nodded and we entered the public house.
"Oh my God! No!" We heard the woman shouting pitifully and then the sound of broken plates. A young girl dressed in a blue trench stood in the middle of the hall and cried. Broken plates laid near her feet.
"Wait," Gunther stopped Cyrus, who has already grabbed an ax and wanted to start an attack. "Who are you?"
“I am Lera,” the girl said through her tears, looked at us and fell unconscious.
“Get her up and bring to consciousness,” Gunther ordered. "I will order the dinner."
It turned out that she was a healing magician. She completed her first task successfully, hired an archer and a swordsman, then completed the second mission, bought a lot of weapons and couldn’t complete the third. Zombie easily killed her team, because they didn’t have magical weapon. Lera found herself at the starting location again, took her weapons from the place of death, but she had no money.
She was a healing magician and could not kill even weak thugs. Since then, she was hiding in the public house or in the forest nearby if someone came.
“We are looking for someone to join our team now,” Gunther said. "Will you join us?"
"Of course,” Lera said happily. "And if that's so, I will help you with something."
"Oh, what can you do?" Cyrus asked ironically.
"I've been hiding here for a long time,” Lera looked at Cyrus with displeasure. She obviously didn't like this tall man with an ax. “I explored the whole forest around the public house and found something interesting."
“I can hardly believe it,” Cyrus even went away, showing that he isn't interested.
“I found the coach,” Lera said grandly.
"The coach?" Gunther asked confusedly. "Explain, please."
"Let's go and I will show you. You will quickly understand what is happening, it's not far away from here." Lera suggested.
“Okay,” Gunter nodded. "Let's eat and go." We left the public house and went deep into the forest. In twenty minutes we ended up on a huge clearing. There were three two-storey buildings. The houses were stone with tiled roofs. There was a wooden sign with a picture on every front of the building. Roofs were painted in different colors. There were picture of bow and sword on the house with red roof. The second house had blue roof and a star on the sign. And the last one had green roof and the sign with a picture of a bottle.
“I was talking about these.” Lera pointed at the houses. “There you can train and upgrade your level.”
“I'll go and find out the price," Gunther looked at the houses and went to the green one. He went out in a couple of seconds and came back slowly. “At first I wanted to give Cyrus money to speak with a tenant, but the plans have changed. We will upgrade our levels and skills."
"Well, that's not bad, although this is not exactly what I expected,” Cyrus mumbled.
“Now I’ll upset you even more,” Gunther said cheerfully. "It's not cheap to upgrade the level. I'm going to got Level Seven for myself and my assistants. Lera will get Level Five. And there are no money left for you."
“That wasn't the deal." Cyrus rebelled. "You said you would help me."
“It will be so.” Gunther said confidently. “When we will force Grink, you will be very rich and you will get your squad back or hire new team. I will have some money for you to hire one assistant.”
“Let it be.” Cyrus thought for a second. “I will hire a battle magician.”
“Gunther paid for me…” Turk continued.
“You will tell me about the coach later.” Alex interrupted him. “Now we want to hear everything in general.”
“We spent the whole day upgrading levels.” Turk said. “When I went out, they all were waiting for me outside. We slept in the public house. In the morning, Cyrus hired a magician. We went northward to Grink and fell in ambuscade again.”
“Let's get out of the way,” Gunther ordered shortly. "We will go through the forest, but don't lose sight of the road."
“We have a large group,” Kir shrugged his shoulders. "Nobody will atack us. Any of the remaining two groups attacking new players, will run away. And it's easier and faster to go along the road.
“You're absolutely right,” Gunter nodded. “That's why we are walking in the woods.”
“I don't understand you,” Cyrus said blankly.
“You probably did not understand what I want,” Gunther supposed.
“You want to seize Grink, complete local quests and buy weapons in the village,” Cyrus said. "But wouldn't advise you to stay there for a long time."
“I want to unite all the groups,” Gunther explained. "So that everyone could complete quests, help each other and not be afraid that someone might attack them. But I don’t want to have people who attack new players in my team. That's why we will find and kill them. Now, go quietly and don't make noise. I don't want these thugs to run away. Lera, you will go first."
We were sneaking through the forest for about 10 minutes. Then Lera raised her right hand and clenched her fist. There was a gulley and then the road quickly went to the top. Gunther didn’t understand and Lera pointed at the bottom of the gulley. The slope was soft, there were some trees and bushes. And on the top was thickly treed.
“What’s there?” Cyrus whispered.
“Someone is hiding behind that chestnut.” Lera said hardly audible, pointing at the tree on the bottom of the gulley. “I see movements in the bushes. There are at least two people.”
“Stupid place as for ambuscade.” Cyrus said confusedly.
“Why?” Lera disagreed. “They are waiting for group to go down and attack. So you should either fight, or run away. And wherever you run, you will be a perfect target.”
“You’re right.” Cyrus nodded. “However, if the group doesn’t run away, attackers don’t have a winning position.”
“They may hope to attack suddenly.” Lera supposed.
“I won’t go down.” Cyrus scratched the beard nervously. “We cannot go there unnoticeably, there are little trees and they will see us immediately.”
“We can go down the road and attack first,” Lera suggested. "We see their position and we are stronger."
“You don’t need to run anywhere,” Gunther carefully examined the opposite slope of the gulley. "Kyle, do you see the bushed? Can you shoot at them?“
"We're about 70 meters away,” the battle magician said. "The distance is quite suitable."
"Cyrus, will your magician cope with them?" Gunther asked he agreed. “Then get ready, and fire at the bushes when I give an order.” Gunther took out bottles of different sizes and colors and began to mix the fluids. After some time, he left four identical bottles, and the rest he put in the pockets. Two bottles were filled with blue liquid, one with green and the last one with yellow. "Let's start!"
Both magicians began to shoot fireballs at the bush, where enemies were. Four fireballs were enough for bushes
to take great fire.
"Turk, you will go first." Gunther ordered. “Kyle will be next. Then Lera and I."
“I’ll guard here to see what's going on." Cyrus said quickly.
“Yeah. Or you can run away,” Lera said disdainfully. “I don't trust...”
"Turk, go!" Gunther ordered and I took out my sword and ran. Kyle followed him immediately. Gunther grabbed Lera, who didn't want to mobe, and dragged her.
“I think it's time to drink pot.” I shouted, running.
“It’s not clear yet what pot to choose." Gunther answered. "Now we will get there and understand." He finished uncertainly.
At the bottom of the gulley we saw two dead bodies and a stiffed man behind the tree with a gag in his mouth.
“We’ve been set up.” Lera shouted. “That’s Cyrus.”
“I don’t think so.” Gunther interrupted her. “They will kill Cyrus now and we will see where the real ambush…”
He didn’t finish his sentence because someone started shooting arrows. Cyrus’ magician died at once. He fought off two arrows, the third stuck in the mail, the fourth penetrated a hand with an ax and the last one hit in the leg. Cyrus fell and rolled down the slope.
“Drink!” Gunther gave him a bottle with green liquid. “Kyle, hide behind the tree and fire at them. Turk, go upslope.”
“I drank one bottle and understood that the level of agility upgraded. Firstly, it was easy to fight the arrows off with a sword. Then archers realized that I was the main target and focused on me. There were lots of arrows, some hit in my hand and legs. But they fell out of me and wounds were healed. I turned out and saw that Lera was giving me energy flow, and Gunther with a blue bottle. “Hurry up!” He shouted to me. I jumped three times and ended up in front of the first archer. I made a quick stab and his head rolled down the slope. On the right the second archer came and wanted to shot, but didn’t manage. Kyle shot a lightning at him, so he fell dead. I reached the last one easily, fighting off his hits. When I approached him, I stabbed him in heart, but his would healed and he tried to attack me again. I realized that he had a healer and started to strike quicker. After the fifth blow, he felt dead and I saw a man in torn yellow trench behind him.
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