World of Karik: A Game of Villains 13 I Choose, He Chooses

And then a long and unsavory dispute started, in which I preferred not to participate. Petrovich insisted that we could not risk the safety of the base and that the newcomers were not worth dying the final death. It seems that the protection of level 20 was not absolute. And if the enemy managed to accurately pinpoint the location of our base, there would be trouble. Baldy and both girls, Fox especially, insisted that saving people was our duty. Andrei and Suren called for reason, and the rest were silent, digesting the new information.

"The Reaper's follower will show no mercy!" Petrovich practically screamed. Well, now I knew that information about these guys wasn't a secret.

"Even Max didn't miss a single dawn! You can't break the law!" I've never seen Baldy so excited. There was no way in hell that he cared about newbies, but what kind of law was he so afraid of breaking?

"They're living people, you can't leave them!" Fox's words were full of pathos. Was she up to something? Or was this just an attempt to make amends for those who had died because of her during the trial?

"May we die on the road, but not even trying is somehow inhuman," Olga was definitely worried about her own conscience.

Common sense told me it was better to listen to Petrovich, but Baldy's behavior and the fact that the old-timers were obviously nervous was thought-provoking. Obviously, things weren't that simple.

"OK, do it," Andrei finally decided. "Suren, Igor and I will go. We'll leave all of our valuables in the camp. We'll kill ourselves in case of danger, so no one gets captured. The rest of you, sit quietly and don't leave the base. If all goes well, we'll be back by morning."

"I'll go with you, I don't want to stay with these cowards," Fox stated categorically. "Push comes to shove, I can kill myself, too."

Hold on a moment, Fox. If a person is not ready to rush forward without thinking or if they follow the leader's order, they are a coward? I'd say you are just too quick to judge and unprecedentedly label others.

"Prove it," Baldy said briefly. "Or stay."

I didn't understand what he meant at first. And I wasn't the only one. Fox froze for a moment, then grabbed a knife and stabbed herself in the chest in one quick and violent movement. How did she have the strength to break her ribs? She had probably assigned some points received during leveling. What was I thinking about? I had no idea. I just knew what I didn't want to think about—about how a young girl killed herself to prove something. Even in this strange world, where you could die and come back to life, it was just too much.

"Then we'll go together, the four of us," Andrei said in a trembling voice. "Mike, let her out of the cemetery and tell her we'll be leaving in an hour. We won't wait for her if she's late."

"Cat, you're coming too," Baldy voluntarily added a name to the list of participants. Wait, Cat? Is he talking about me?

Still, Baldy chose an interesting nickname. Cat in Russian is kot, and my last name was "Kotov". However, given his level of the Russian language, it wasn't worth doubting the talents of the American Jones.

"I'm not going to commit voluntary suicide," I decided not to pay attention to the new discovery so far; it was much more important to get rid of the dangerous attention. Even my cowardice would come in handy. Now they would cancel their offer, and I would definitely have time to go to the swamp without being noticed.

"You don't have to," Igor grinned, shipwrecking my plans, and then explained to Andrei and Suren, "Cat proved himself at our campaign. We gotta train the guy before someone spoils him."

Having said the last word, he spat in direction of the forge to which Petrovich had gone off to. Yeah, those two weren't the best of pals. But why did I have to suffer? Also, Fox would murder someone if she found out that she was the only one who had to commit a suicide to get a place in the squad.

"As I said, we'll gather in an hour," Andrei did not object to Igor's invitation, and I could only silently nod. Okay, this trip was going to be useful. I would understand how newcomers came into this world. I still knew too little, and that meant that I had to collect as much information as I could.

"Holy mackerel…" Semyon had kind off backed off after yesterday, but he was again looming over me, wanting to know my opinion about the past events.

And something was telling me that this was not exactly his initiative. Is it possible that Petrovich recruited him? I had an idea how to quickly check that.

"They haven't invited Mikhail, but you'll take care of him." First, I threw the bait.

"What about him?" the ex-cop shuddered like a dog who had sniffed out a trace.

"Don't tell anyone. Olga heard that Petrovich...well...abused him." Would he really believe in something like that? Still, we all slept in one place.

"I remember hearing you reassuring him one time when I was sleeping..." Semyon's eyes widened and he immediately fell behind, fleeing to urgently check something.

Well, the esteemed Valentin Petrovich will now have difficulties getting under his skin. The cop won't trust the old schemer and the Major so easily now. Olga didn't talk to him due to her own principles, so he won't immediately find out what was truth and what was lie. And I would feel safer. Damn, all these intrigues… I wanted for things to calm down so that we could finally learn a little more about this world.

Deception: +400

My lie had never been that big before. The reward was pretty good. There were only two hundred points left until the next level. Perhaps I could get them before the campaign if I tried hard enough. It would be really helpful. As the fight with the skeleton had demonstrated, public usage of current level spells wasn't safe, so I urgently needed a new victim.

"You! Why are you tagging along, too?" Fox, resurrected and already dressed, immediately went to sort things out with me. Just as I thought.

"You think you're the only smart one here?!" she froze immediately and looked at me cautiously.

"Let's agree on one thing: you don't mess with me, I don't mess with you, and we'll see how it goes. I don't know what you can offer him, though," she shrugged and left, while I struggled to hide how confused I was.

The only conclusion that I could reach was that she wanted to reach the Reaper's follower somehow. But what could she offer him? Herself? Or all of us? If I survive these few days, no matter how, I would need to hide my tombstone somewhere else. I'd rather not depend on such companions.

Deception: +250

You have reached deception level 2.

Whatever it was, this strange conversation with Fox brought me the points needed to level-up. Wasting no time, I opened the description of the window containing level 3 spells. Mass Curse, to begin with. Once again I was given a choice: I could either reduce the cooldown time from 10 to 5 seconds, or the cost of activation from 10 to 5 health. Whoa, I haven't seen this in the description before. Did it appear because I increased my intelligence? This information alone could give me a huge advantage. It was one thing when you only approximately knew your abilities, and quite another when you could calculate and plan everything in detail.

Well, let's look further... Weakening Touch could increase the chances of an effect to almost 100%, or add the possibility that Curse would have the effect of a higher level spell. On level 1, it could cast weakening and poison. What about other levels? Interesting. The situation with Cure was similar: I could reduce the cooldown time, or health cost. I could also get +1% chance to cure injuries.

Reviewing information about Stone Skin I discovered a lot. First, it was not eternal; it lasted either for forty-eight hours, or until I received three thousand points of damage. Since I had already chosen Stone Gargoyle Skin, my choice was limited to this branch. I could increase the damage limit to six thousand or add a regeneration effect. Unfortunately, the effect of Quarter of Mind was not enough to see how much health it would restore.

But even without this information I couldn't wait any more. I had to decide on what to spend the three skill points. On one hand, increasing the curses' level and getting a chance to cure injuries looked like a promising option. On the other hand, my main goal was to keep my secret. Which meant…

You chose Gargoyle Stone Skin, level 2.

Spell

Level 3

This spell makes your skin as hard as an enchanted stone, increasing endurance by 22. The spirit of the stone grants you +3 magical protection.

Regeneration effect added. You regain 1 health point every 20 seconds.

Cooldown: 20 seconds

Costs: 90 health points

You chose Mass Weakness, level 2.

Spell

Level 3

Impact zone: 16 feet radius from the cast point

Reduces all enemy stats by 7%.

If opponents have blessings, there is a 15% chance that one of them will turn into a curse of the same level.

Cooldown: 10 seconds

Costs: 5 health points

Spell characteristics also increased, although the description said nothing about it. Pleasant surprise, I thought. More importantly, with reduced costs for curse and regeneration I didn't have to worry that I would be revealed in the first battle. I'll be saving Cure for later.

"Hit the road!" Andrei's voice shook the base, and I quickly trotted to the exit, taking a minute to visit Dmitri in the forge, to return the scythe and thank him for it. Fortunately, the Redhead was not upset that his gift had been returned so quickly, only nodded carelessly, checked the lashings on my armor and wished me luck.

Everyone was waiting for me, but I pretended not to notice the disgruntled looks that Suren and Andrei, who was leading the group, were giving me, and silently took my place beside Fox. Baldy guarded the rear just like he did when we first came here.

Only this time we did not walk along the trail much. Andrei immediately turned into the woods, and our path was now covered with moss and gnarled roots. The road to the field with the fire took three times longer than then. However, I understood that it was better to make a detour or two, than to let a dangerous enemy figure out the location of your base by following your trail. We were all silent. I tried to ask Suren a few questions, but he, along with Andrei, hissed at me so I decided not to bother them. Trying not to lose my breath I furtively watched Fox. She was getting more and more nervous with every passing minute. I wondered what she was planning.

"Ow!" Her loud shout answered my unasked question. "I think I twisted my ankle."

Did she think they would leave her alone in the forest? Definitely not. Judging by Baldy's predatory smile and the sword summoned from his inventory, he wasn't about to offer to carry her.

"But, I can walk," the girl followed my gaze and turned pale.

"Igor, no extreme measures," Andrei stopped him. "We're almost there. We'll figure out what to do once we reach the place."

In the end, I was the one helping Fox. Having muttered something along the lines of "can't leave such a girl in trouble," I offered her a shoulder, got an insincere "thank you" and twenty points of deception. Literally ten minutes later, we reached the familiar clearing. A couple of days ago I got here through the shadow world, doubting whether or not I should trust the man who had called me out of that strange place. Was it really true that everything would have ended for me if I hadn't gotten here? And today, a couple of hours from now, new people will come from the other side. They will doom anyone who near them or even arrange everything themselves, and they will believe that it's all over now, and that they will return to their familiar and regular life after a while.

But it will never happen. My hand unconsciously fell into my inventory and felt the sharp edges of the stone I took from the shadow world. I didn't know why, but it calmed me down. I wondered if I could discover some of its new properties using my new ability to "to see more".

Chapter end