by Sergei Katz
— I actually am experienced, — I grinned. — Only in another world, while in yours I’m just a beginner so far.
— It's time for us to go. — Alex took a rag from his bag, — Here, wipe your hands clean.
It wasn’t an ordinary rag, and with its help I quickly cleaned my hands, but the rag itself remained clean.
— Does our bald friend sell such a thing? — I asked.
— Yeah, he sells everything and will be glad to recoup some of his lost profits from you. The price he will ask of you can be safely divided by ten and this will be the real price.
— Do you believe that he would dare to do such a thing? — I was indignant. — Would he dare try to cheat me again, even after the show I put on for him?
— No, he wouldn’t be afraid; it's a bargain, not a hoax. You have no knowledge of bartering; your knowledge of what items cost is almost zero. As you don’t know the true price, the prices you are offered here will always be inflated.
— But I thought that I had friendly relations with the whole village! — I replied.
— That’s why a whole range of goods are available to you, but the prices have nothing to do with friendship. Friendship is one thing, but money is business.
— Got it. — I really found this logical: I had met traders like that in the real world. — Wait a second, — I asked the boy. — I need to do something before we go any further.
In the morning, I had learned how to turn off messages about new achievements, and now I applied the knowledge I had received. Why hadn’t I done that in the first place? I couldn’t say for sure, but it was good that I remembered to do it at least then.
Step by step, we were moving through the forest. Here and there we met different beasts, even a couple of bears, but with such support fire from Alex it was even easier to defeat them than it was with my Totem. There were a lot of different shots in the boy’s arsenal, and the arrows resulted in different effects.
— Well, here we are. That’s the quagmire, and from here on things will be much more difficult. The monsters are much more dangerous in there, and most importantly - more inventive, — Alex told me.
The forest seemed to have been cut short. There were lots of trees behind us, but up ahead there were hummocks, grasses, and trees that looked similar to weeping willows. If Alex hadn’t told me that it was a quagmire, I would have thought that it was just a new place, something like a hilly valley. I always thought that a quagmire was a kind of swamp.
— What, it doesn’t look like you expected it to? — My guide smiled.
— Not really, — I was honest, — I thought a quagmire was like a swamp.
— That’s right. What we see before us is an illusion. As soon as we step into the quagmire, everything will change instantly. There are many legends about this place, but nobody really knows where they came from, — Alex explained.
— Understood, — I said. — I had a strange sense of something not being quite right the moment I looked at this quagmire. Let's get moving - we don’t have much time, but we need to collect as many succulents as possible to fulfill the bald man’s order.
— Oh yeah! — The boy smiled. — He got himself into trouble this time: if you find not ten, but say, a hundred, he will have to buy all of it at full price. He can’t take his word back, because our local herbalist will gladly buy everything he doesn’t buy, and moreover she will be very grateful to you. Your ability as a herbalist is much superior to mine and your attentiveness is excellent. So, I’m sure we will find a lot.
I went in first, as we had already agreed, and Alex was following ten steps behind me. Like he said, as soon as I stepped on the bright green grass, everything started swimming around before my eyes. After a moment, my nose detected a strange smell, and then my eyes saw the quagmire in all of its glory. It was a torpid marshy goo covered with moss, grass and peat, and smelling of stagnant water. Our progress slowed down immediately. The mud was constantly sucking at our legs, and even the walking grass couldn’t completely protect us from this place. I dreaded to think what would have happened if I had come here without the walking grass, and without any knowledge about the place. It wasn’t for nothing that the cheeky trader didn’t dare to come here himself.
Less than ten minutes later, thank god for the fact I could accurately count the time by focusing on how much symbiosis I had left, we were attacked by one of the inhabitants of the area. A Swamp Turtle emerged unexpectedly from the water and attacked us. It behaved like nobody had ever told it that it was supposed to be slow. It was moving at an incredible speed, and on top of that, the terrain itself wasn’t allowing us to move quickly.
I was hardly managing to block the attacks, occasionally dodging them, and all this had to be done when I was practically standing still. The second problem was the Turtle’s shell. The turtle hid its head in it every time Alex launched an arrow at it, while the chitin-protected paws continued to attack me. I had already had to take successful advantage of the mild healing crystal, which had been gifted to me by the trader, several times. Clearly, the fact was that it was restoring my life completely meant that I still had very few life points left by the standards of this world.
Even together, we were causing the Turtle little damage. More from hopelessness than planning, I desperately threw one of the spiky thistles inside the shell. The result was incredible. The spikes wedged themselves between the Turtle’s shell and its head. This happened at the very moment when it was trying to hide its head again. Seriously scratched, the Turtle instinctively returned its head back out of the shell, and Alex's arrow went into its eye. This could be considered to be the end of the fight, and a minute later we had put an end to this vicious creature.
The dead Turtle left its shell behind. Alex said that this was an excellent material. Few people ventured here, so the shell was highly valued and could be bartered for something useful. We continued our journey through the swamp. We didn’t see any more turtles, but we were attacked by almost one-meter-long ticks and swarms of five-centimeter long mosquitoes. We fought fierce battles with the former, and I destroyed the latter with the help of the “Falling Leaves” spell.
Deciding to take a break, we headed for a small hill. On the way I noticed a bush, in the middle of which something unusual was shining, a little different shade from the color of the rest of bush. Already taking another step, I began to doubt what I had seen: the bush looked like nothing unusual to me. Anyway, I still went over to check it out. Spreading the foliage back, I didn’t notice anything at first, but after spreading it more, a small flower with three petals twirled like a spring caught my eye. As soon as I looked carefully at the flower, a name appeared over it.
The Swamp Succulent is a plant that hides from the unobservant traveler. The leaves of this plant are an excellent seasoning for many dishes. It grows in bogs, swamps and quagmires. The flower itself is used in many crafts.
— Well, here's the first one! — I showed the flower to Alex.
— Well done! — The tired boy’s face blossomed into a smile. — It has three petals, and this is very rare indeed: usually there are only one or two.
I neatly tore off the petals and added them to the collection in my bag. Then I pulled out my sword, which desperately resisted being used in such a mundane purpose, and carefully cut the rest of the flower stem.
But no sooner had I added the flower to my collection in the bag, I heard Alex cry out in agony. At the same time, I took a blow that took away 15% of my life points. Moving as fast as possible given the circumstances, I jumped clear of the bush and, before taking up a fighting stance, I cast the Falling Leaves spell in the direction of Alex's screams. I had already managed to confirm that this spell posed no danger to friendly beings.
As soon as the leaf spell had flown from my hand, I took up a fighting stance and attacked my opponent. In front of me was a Proboscis Bat: a bat like creature with a stomach like a toad. The same type of creature had attacked Alex. The creatures were bl
ue and jet black in color, so I couldn’t understand how we hadn’t noticed the enemy’s approach in the midst of all this greenery.
Alex resorted to a particular tactic: shoot, retreat, and then shoot again, but due to the nature of the terrain it wasn’t always possible to do so. His life points were declining rapidly.
A second, and in fact a much larger problem, was approaching us inexorably from the direction of the hill. The name of this problem was a Green Nasty: two meters tall, covered with grass and moss, looking a bit like a monster from a cheap horror film. Its beard was also made of grass, and even its ears were made of it too. On the left side of its chest was a flower that looked like a pink marsh lily.
If it wasn’t for our predicament, I would have been amused at such an absurd ornament on a monster’s chest. Unfortunately for me, I hadn’t even managed to take a half of my enemy’s life points. Alex and his Proboscis Bat had lost about a third of their life points each, and even then, it seemed to me, that my “Falling Leaves” spell had caused the majority of the damage. The boy had time to fire off only one arrow from five attempts, before having to retreat again.
— I have no choice. I must use everything I’ve got to destroy both Proboscis Bats before the Green Nasty gets to us, — I thought aloud. — We only have a minute or so. The monster might be slow, but the distance between us is short.
I started using “Slashing” strikes one after the other, and on the third slash I was lucky, inflicting a bleeding wound. Fifteen seconds later I had finished off my monster and then hurried to help Alex out. Seeing that I had dealt with my monster, the boy lured his monster towards me. As soon as I struck, the Proboscis Bat, having felt the depth of my sword's love for blood, switched to a more dangerous opponent - me. Another half-minute battle - and the second monster was defeated.
However, even as I struck the fatal blow, I heard the sound of feet squelching through the mud about ten meters away from me. Even without looking to see whether anything had fallen from the Bat or not, I turned towards the next enemy and blindly struck out, aiming where I expected the Green Nasty’s paws might have been. The Green one obviously wasn’t expecting this to happen, so I managed to inflict a serious wound: I cut off one of its ten-centimeter long claws along with a piece of its flesh.
The monstrous roar from the beast that was shaking in pain slowed down my reactions. The Green Nasty didn’t waste the opportunity and instantly attacked me, using one of its remaining claws. I couldn’t dodge the blow completely, and the claw scraped my side. The pain was incredible.
Your blood is infected with swamp venom. Every 10 seconds you will lose 1% of your life points.
“What the BLEEP! That blow has taken 20 life points off me and it will take another 30 more in the next ten seconds. If this goes on for much longer I am dead meat!”
I used the “Penetrating Strike”, in hopes of inflicting a crippling effect on the monster, but unfortunately the blow wasn’t even critical. My strikes and Alex's shots dealt it a mere 0.5% damage each. I didn’t know how much exactly, of course. I could only take a guess by looking at the reducing bar showing the monster’s life points after ten strikes.
I thought unenthusiastically: “The “Penetrating Strike” had only inflicted 2% damage ...but we had to keep going. We were out of mana. This time the thistle was of no help whatsoever - the Green Nasty just ignored it. This time there were no useful tricks under my sleeve...”
The fight seemed to have lasted forever, but at some point, I learned all the Green Nasty’s tactics, and only then did my “Sliding Movements” show results. This enabled me to strike more often, but didn’t get me any closer to killing off the beast.
Finally, the monster died with the last blow. I looked at the symbiosis counter: we had been fighting that damn monster for almost fifteen minutes, and if not for the treatment of the healing crystal we wouldn’t have survived. I had recharged eight times and used it only as a last resort. The Green Nasty had dealt almost 2,500 life points worth of damage to me. This clearly was an elite monster in this area, and it seemed that he had attacked us because we had torn off the flower.
Alex sat down on the spot, and I was also so exhausted that I didn’t have the strength to even talk. We stared at each other in silence for a while.
— We were lucky ... — Alex began wearily. — If we had climbed the hill, they would have attacked us all at once, and we would have been dead.
— I totally agree, — I sighed. — By combining our abilities, we did alright against the two Proboscis Bats and the Green Nasty, so let’s take a breather before we go on. Now we know where to find the Succulents, so things should be easier now.
After restoring our health, we continued the journey. In between more fights, Alex and I checked out every bush, but still couldn’t find any more flowers. There was another hill ahead of us. We approached it with caution and detoured around it, checking every single bush.
Finally, luck smiled upon us again, and Alex found another flower. This one only had one petal.
— Wait, — I told the boy. — I want to be ready in case the Green Nasty wasn’t alone.
The first thing I did was put the “Noisy Guard” protection spell in place. This would slow down any approaching enemies and give us more time to prepare. Then I sat down in the lotus posture and waited until my mana was restored.
The boy looked at me in surprise:
— Are you doing that because you find it comfortable or is it a special technique?
— In the world I come from, people sit this way while meditating, — I explained.
— So are you meditating and talking at the same time now? That's impressive!
— No, — I stopped the boy. — Now I am just resting - during meditation they keep silent and close their eyes.
— Oh, just like we do, except I don’t have enough patience for all of that. I just want to run off somewhere and do things.
We fell silent. After a couple of minutes, my mana had recovered.
— I think I’m done, I can’t do anything else in advance, — I announced to Alex after a while. — First, we pick a leaf, and ten seconds later we pick the flower. I want to understand what happens and when. If, of course, something happens at all, but I definitely feel that something will happen: it's not even intuition, I just have a feeling in my gut.
Alex tore off the flower. I looked around - nothing happened. The boy carefully observed his surroundings and also saw nothing. I stepped forward a little, closer to the edge of the “Noisy Guard” protection spell. I could clearly see energy pouring from one mushroom to another. I stood in position so that there were five paces from the mushrooms to the side of the hill.
— I'm ready to pick another one, — Alex warned me.
— Do it, I'm ready.
We were both tense.
Suddenly, out of nowhere two more Proboscis Bats appeared on top of the hill along with another Green Nasty, although it was smaller than the previous one. The Bats rushed at me hell as fast as they could. The first one struck my protective spell and immediately bounced off it and froze, while the second one bounced off it a split second later. I started counting down fifteen seconds, and as if on schedule, the monster who had received a smaller stun, rushed at me again. Alex and I had planned for this scenario in advance, so I attacked the Proboscis Bats immediately.
— We have fifteen seconds, — Alex's voice came from behind me.
We didn’t manage it in fifteen seconds, so we had to deal with both creatures at the same time. But everything worked out fine: the “Sliding Movements” were working in our favor, and that was enough to make the fight manageable.
After fighting two monsters, my health dropped to 32 points, but I managed to use the crystal before the Green Nasty was able to recover from the fifteen-second stun. This Green Nasty wasn’t the same as the first one – it was weaker and attacked more slowly. We dealt with it in about ten minutes, and I only had to use the healing crystal twice to recharge
myself.
Resting on the grass, I summed up what we knew at this point.
— Alex, the bald man conned us. He forgot to mention the small fact that every flower has a keeper with helpers. Also, the flowers only grow near some of the hills, not on all of them. From what I can assume, the more petals, the stronger the keeper will be.
— I should’ve known that he had left something out, because it was painfully easy to get him to agree to pay the full price, — the boy smiled. — As for the guardian of the succulents, not everything is so bad. Like this one, we can cut them down without too much difficulty, even if it takes a long time. We have already lost so much time: there are only four hours and a couple of minutes left.
— I have a suggestion, — I decided to share my plan with him. — We climb the hill and look through the next two or three hills. If we find a flower with one or two leaves, then we tear off the leaves and the flower, kill the monsters and rush to a new hill. If the plant has more than two leaves, we only tear off the leaves, and we move on. If need be, we will go to a new hill and search for more plants. When there are only thirty minutes left, we will quickly leave the quagmire and return to the village.
— You think very quickly on your feet, — the boy was surprised. — The hunters would have debated this for at least an hour. They discuss everything, and then vote if there are several possible solutions.
— Well, we're not hunters, — I smiled. — Do you agree with my suggestion?
— Yes of course! — The kid looked tired, but was still gung-ho.
— That’s the spirit! — I smiled.
I really liked this boy, and for a moment I even forgot that he was actually just a character in the game. His behavior and reaction were so humanlike. Getting to my feet, I walked briskly to the next hill, with Alex following behind.
Three and a half hours and a countless number of hills later, we had collected another twenty succulent leaves and torn off twelve more flowers. It turned out, that if you knew the exact location of the next hill, then you could get to it in about seven to eight minutes. Before that, we had literally just wandered around between them. It seemed to be part of the magic of the quagmire.