by Elian Tars
I frowned thoughtfully. I had, once again, been given food for thought. In all honesty, I had thought whether or not it was possible to commit suicide in a world where a “slaying” skill existed. I thought about it before going to the mayor. If, for example, it turned out that Elliot didn’t want to cooperate, he could’ve sent me to the headsman that had the necessary special skills, put a healer near us and the fun would start. One would cut, and the other would heal. You could torture the victim for a long time until they caved in and gave you extracted the treasures from their inventory and secret information from their head. Healing having no effect on me would just make things even worse — they could leave me hanging on a trestle for a day, until my HP recovered. It wouldn’t be fun…
Yeah, nothing ventured, nothing gained, as they say. However, without having some plan of retreat I couldn’t push for my rights before the high and mighty ones. So had secretly been I hoping that, as a last resort, I could bite off my tongue and be sent to resurrect. I instinctively believed that there should be a way to kill yourself if you got caught…
The Old Man proved that I had been right. However, that wasn’t an easy thing to do. I had read somewhere that samurai would undergo rigorous training to be able to do it. They didn’t train on themselves, of course, but on animals — they would cut off their tongues and swallow the blood of the poor creatures. For if you had to play the same trick on yourself for the first, and the last time in your life, you would have to swallow your own so that the enemy wouldn’t notice anything until you died from blood loss.
Thank Gods that I wouldn’t have to do it as I honestly doubted that I could manage to do such a thing.
Thank you, Old Man, for the teleport and the “last chance” skill.
Thinking about it, I spent a hundred of faith points and two skill points without hesitation on learning Elusive Darkness. Good thing that I had a couple in store — I hadn’t spent them before because I wanted to save up some more and level up both Tranquility of Darkness and Dark Side of the World. It seems like I’ll have to do that some other time.
I shook my head to get rid of the thoughts and get back to reality. My teammates were probably getting worried. It was time to go back. Or…
Maybe I should ignore the Oath that I gave to the mayor and run away with the legendary artifact? Dying once won’t be a big deal. It wouldn’t be my first time either… But would dying once be enough? Could the Oath take away all of my stored rebirth energy?
I pondered the thought. I even thought about calling my Patron and asking for his advice. Maybe that was why he gave me the teleport? Now that I thought about it, the Old Man never tried to directly control my actions. He only gave advice, encouraged and told me what to do to get strong. As for the rest, he didn’t care what side I would choose and who I would deal with. My Patron didn’t even say a word about the Quarter of Zurtarn. Did he fully trust me on this?
My thoughts were interrupted by a system message and a mild chill:
You have gotten too deep into the territory of Decay.
The Effect of Decay has weakened. You receive 1 point of damage every 2 seconds for the next 5 minutes.
What effect of Decay, God damn it?! What about the Glozeysk Crystal?!
“For how long will my Glozeysk Crystal work?” I asked, not for the first time today. But if the system had showed a timer before, now it kept silent.
It’s been several hours?! Have they been drooling under the influence of the illusion the entire time? Damn!
Quickly gathering my thoughts, I started casting Tranquility of Darkness. I managed to accelerate my regeneration on the fourth attempt. I turned around and started crawling toward the exit.
We got so deep into the territory of Decay that I began to feel physical discomfort — the chill hadn’t gone away. I’ve never felt anything like this before, the smell alone made me sick…
And if I felt such a discomfort, taking into account that I had some passive protection, then what was happening to my four companions outside?
Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, I found myself thinking about some really nasty things — maybe I should go away after all? I had the artifact. I would end up dying, but… That wasn’t a big deal. However, on my current level, even the Tranquility of Darkness wouldn’t be enough to cover the rapidly dwindling HP.
Isn’t that why the Old Man gave me the teleport?
Or maybe…
Did he give me Elusive Darkness so that I could flee? Or to do what I thought would be right without fearing the consequences? One could right their wrongs while they were free. Would it be wrong if I helped those four? They definitely wouldn’t last long without me…
...or with me, for that matter. I didn’t know how I could fix the slow decline of their HP.
Finally, I crept out of the cave, sprang to my feet and frowned. Each of the four fighters held a bottle of a yellow drink in their hands — the Glozeysk Potion. They would get an immunity to Decay for a few minutes and dispel the current debuffs, but that would only prolong their agony. But, despite the fact that this miracle of alchemy was a high class one, unlike the ordinary Health Potions, you couldn’t drink them non-stop. The limit was three phials every twelve hours.
“Oh,” Lade groaned, holding his cheek where an acid-green blister had started to swell. Its brethren was on Berg’s wrist.
“I can’t see anything…” Dina muttered, waving her hands helplessly in front of her.
“Let’s drink it,” the commander wheezed with some difficulty.
Following Arthur’s order, all of them drank a third of their phials. Their wounds disappeared, and some their eyes cleared. The leader stopped his gaze on me.
“I’ve got your potions, here you are…” he stopped speaking and frowned. Then he muttered in amazement: “You have no visible effects of Decay; you’re losing your HP slower than us… How the hell is that possible?!” In one leap he close the distance between us and, grabbing me by the shirt, raised me into the air. “Talk, Bale! We don’t have enough time to get out! We’re far from the border and a third of the potion gives us only four minutes of protection! Our lives are at stake!”
“I have already saved your lives once today,” I said coldly, looking into his eyes. “Put me down.”
Arthur gritted his teeth and, with a slight nod, complied with my request.
“Sorry,” he grumbled. “We don’t have much time. Especially you,” he made a very obvious hint that he hadn’t given me my set of Glozeysk Potions yet. Maybe I should leave them behind after all?
My eyes caught the sorceress’s gaze. She looked so sorrowful, the little vixen. She was really worth giving an Oscar to. She was acting, for sure… But I trusted her. Damn…
“I have an ability to accelerate the regeneration of all stats without being afraid of spending all of my mana,” I looked significantly at the healer and then back at the leader.
“But it’s not perfect,” Arthur guessed quickly. “Can you upgrade that skill? Can you cast it on others?” I nodded silently and the captain’s face beamed at once. He let himself sigh with relief and with a smile materialized a phial with some brown liquid in his hand. “Take it. Drink.”
I identified the bottle.
Minor Boosting Potion (common)
Alchemic
Modified
The drinker immediately gains 20-40 levels. The drinker’s level cannot be higher than level 55 after consuming the potion.
Duration: 6 hours
Next use: 5 days
I looked at the captain again and chuckled.
“Your trump card again?”
“As you see, we prepare well for our missions. I couldn’t give it to you earlier because of the time limit. Now drink.”
It turned out that Arthur truly believed that I could survive the fight with the giant, for only now did he offer me to stop being a burden. Well, they didn’t have to ask me twice. It looked like I would be able to get out of this without spending m
y faith points and calling my Patron and, what was even more important, without having the blood of four people on my hands.
“Give me that swill,” I said, taking the phial.
Chapter 29
Retreat
The swill tasted like tainted wine. Quite nasty…
But then I instantly felt a surge of energy, and dozens of system messages started flashing before my eyes, informing me about level ups and bonuses that each stat gains every ten levels. So it was plus ten for the thirtieth, plus seventeen for the fortieth and plus twenty five for the fiftieth level.
As a result, I reached level 53, and got fifteen free skill points. I immediately scrolled to the required menu.
Level 4 Tranquility of Darkness cost me two skill points, but for levels 5 and 6 I had to spend three. Level 7 wasn’t available right now. So, I spent eight skill points on it in total. I spent five more points upgrading Dark Side of the World to level 5. The remaining two points I saved for the future.
I spent half of the stat points on intelligence. The other half I equally divided between strength and vitality. My current stats, including item bonuses, looked quite impressive.
Level 53
Vitality: 101
Endurance: 88
Strength: 97
Agility: 93
Intelligence: 116
“You’ve grown a little stronger,” Lade chuckled, but became serious at once. “Your HP isn’t disappearing as fast as before, but it’s still in the negative.”
“One moment,” I replied, pressing my hand against my chest. I felt a surge of energy activating the upgraded Tranquility of Darkness and spelling dark smoke.
I looked at the people surrounding me and they warily looked back at me, but didn’t ask questions.
I managed to accelerate our regeneration on the third attempt. My HP soared after the buff. I wondered what the speed of regeneration was now. I would like to try it out in the living part of the forest.
I looked up at the group again. Well, all of my cards were laid out; I had to make the next move.
“I haven’t said anything before… My skill doesn’t work on everybody. But!” I raised my hand to prevent their discontent. “The most important thing is that it will work on Lade. The effect of Decay doesn’t decrease mana, but I will accelerate its regeneration. Do you understand?” I walked to the monk with confidence. He smiled a predatory smile.
“If it works on me, I’ll be able to heal others without being afraid of running out of mana. Ok, lad, let’s try it out!” he spread his arms as if revealing his chest for a hit.
After I cast the Tranquility of Darkness a couple of times, the monk’s smile became even broader.
“It worked! You surprise me, lad!”
I don’t know why, but I had no doubts that this guy could be loyal to Darkness. Though, I was a little surprised when the buff worked on Dina, too. The girl had such a kind smile that I forgot how dangerous her controlling spells were.
The buff also worked on the captain. Casting the black smoke on Berg, I hoped that the entire group would get my buffs. Especially on the gloomy ranger.
Yeah, right…
The Horror effect worked on him, and the archer started running around the clearing, panic-stricken for a few seconds.
“I told you that it doesn’t work on everybody,” I hastily said, before the other group members could make the wrong assumptions.
The ranger fell limply onto the rotten grass once the effect had passed. Lade came up to him and started restoring his HP.
“Bale, we’re still losing HP, though a bit slower,” Arthur said with worry.
“The spell has a weaker effect on other people,” I didn’t get into details. I had to keep some of my secrets. “Lade’s healing is our only hope. And if you want to survive, we have to run away from here as fast as possible.”
“Have you found the artifact?” the captain asked, narrowing his eyes. I nodded silently. “Good. Make sure to give it to the mayor.”
My face must have expressed uttermost surprise because the leader chuckled cheerfully and added:
“Of all of us, you have the best chances of surviving.”
And in the next moment, the effect of the Glozeysk Potion had ended. One after another, my companions began to breathe heavily and groan. Yes, I could slow down the rate at which they lost their HP, but they weren’t immune to the effects of Decay like I was. Although I wasn’t completely immune to it either.
“Be strong!” Arthur roared. “Let’s move!”
He ran first as it befit a captain. I ran after him, and the others followed. It was hard to see strong people suffering like that. However, I had done everything that I could for them.
“Heh, I wish our horses responded to whistling,” the green-lipped monk smiled, trying not to lose heart as he healed the others from time to time.
“There’s no time for idle dreams,” Arthur muttered, but whistled loudly just in case. The others followed his example, but without result.
“I can’t run anymore... My legs…” Dina whispered ten minutes later. She stumbled and fell, though she managed to put her arms in front of her.
“Let’s drink the potion!” the captain commanded, drinking another third of the yellow liquid.
The effects of Decay faded away and my companions got temporary total immunity and we ran at doubled speed.
We ran along the same road we used to reach the hidden cache. Lade, who was not only healing the others, but also encouraging them, smiled and said:
“Thank the Great Guer-shui that the local beasts had attacked us earlier! The road’s clear now!”
“C’mon, stop it! Knock on wood!” muttered Berg through gritted teeth. The constant rise and fall of HP was harder for the ranger to bear, than for anyone else. Though he didn’t feel pain while the Glozeysk Potion was working, and although endurance depended more on energy and not health, such fluctuations had their consequences. Even I felt some mental exhaustion. I couldn’t imagine how it was for the others.
Fifteen minutes later, when we had slowed down distinctively, Arthur allowed them to drink the potion again. Their first phial was empty now, and they had two more left before the permissible dose…
Coming up to the captain I quietly whispered:
“Aren’t you using it too fast? Try to hold on, try to save the potion.”
He looked at me angrily. I saw envy in his eyes. I didn’t have to suffer the way they did. However, he was able to pull himself together and nod with restraint.
We continued running.
“Arthur, I can’t do this anymore…” Twenty minutes later, Dina again was the first to give up. The girl plunged her nails into the acid-green blister that was covering half of her cheek. Disgusting slush spurted out of it; baring her teeth, she tried to rip off the mark left by the effect of Decay. To no avail… The poor thing could do nothing but twist her lips and grit her teeth harder.
“Hold on…” Arthur hissed, squinting his right eye.
Looking at my suffering comrades, I tried to calculate how much time we would need to reach the border. It had taken us five hours on horseback. Yes, we stopped to fight several times. Yes, the horses couldn’t ride at full gallop when they were off the road. But still, even if we don’t meet any enemies and only run, it will take us more time…
We had been running for almost an hour, and this quartet had already used up one potion. They drank three times and were able to endure fifteen-twenty minutes each time. I could conclude that the pain grew stronger every minute… But they had to endure it at least twice that much.
Someone groaned, followed by the sound of a body falling onto the ground. We stopped and turned around.
“Go without me…” Dina managed to say. The girl didn’t even have enough strength left in her to raise her pretty face from the black withered grass, which was on her lips, too. “I can’t go…any further… “
Berg was the first to approach the sorceress. Every move bro
ught him pain and that was clearly reflected on his gloomy face. All of them had already understood that the pain caused by the physical impact of the effect of Decay was the reason why their energy was going down so fast. Three of them were partially protected from it — my Tranquility of Darkness had accelerated their three main stats. But the archer… I was certain that we were all aware of the fact that he won’t be able to reach the border by himself.
And yet, he showed such heroism here…
Arthur caught up with Berg and, stopping him with a confident gesture, resolutely went to the fallen girl. Lade, for the record, didn’t even move a muscle, just gloomily observed what was happening,
And what could I do? Should one wounded carry the other? Should I would be the one to carry Berg when his energy bar gets empty?
Yeah, it would have been much easier if I had left these cripples and teleported back to the hunting lodge where my resurrection point was. But even the thought of it made me sick. I successfully stood against the Decay around me, so why would I let it spread inside of me? I didn’t want to be that guy who stands by the window, breathing in the diesel’s emissions and vainly grumbling to himself instead of going out and asking the driver to kill the engine.
And if I had begun to save somebody, I definitely shouldn’t bail midway.
“C’mon, beautiful, hold onto me,” I said picking up the sorceress, all covered with green blisters, into my arms. “Let’s go!” I told Arthur.
Berg fell about seven minutes later. Nobody seemed to be surprised by it. Our leader tossed him over his shoulder without so much as saying a word. The monk didn’t move again.
We ran further. The captain and the healer dealt with the Decay quite well. From time to time, Arthur would shout furiously into the air and his body would glow gold. It looked as if he was activating some of his buffs to temporarily lessen the pain. As for Lade, he put together his hands and, bringing them to his face, muttered something indistinct and then moved them over his face and body as if washing himself. He also glowed, but with blue light.