World of Karik: A Game of Villains 77 The Mark

Nothing but fighting again. For a while I was just looking around absent-mindedly. Paul, who was Vlada's assistant, handled axes, hatchets and ax helves masterfully. He was good at fighting with both hands, holding weapons in each of them. However, his left one was clearly inferior to the right one, so gloomy Cyril was the only one who was ambidextrous. I didn't find anything interesting about Lina, Marina, and Ravshana.

Dmitri, whom I wanted to thoroughly examine, surprised me. As I once assumed, he had a strange ability that allowed him to break his enemy's weapon. He had done that back then, in the duel with Nikolai. But then things started to get weird. First of all, he had no vulnerability. Nothing. Secondly, he had a geas icon. I couldn't see what its essence was though. I had sympathized with the blacksmith, and he turned out to be a black sheep. I winced...

I remembered who wore that bright red scarf that I had noticed in the old man's cave. The tall, ungainly blacksmith once had it on when he was on patrol. He laughed, saying that it would save him from the cold. That was a long time ago, even before the coup that was arranged by Petrovich. The blacksmith wore this scarf infrequently. There was nothing special about it which is why I didn't remember it immediately. His face, buried in that tasteless scarf, appeared in my mind. The redhead had been in that cave. He spoke to the old man and received something from him. Moreover, judging by the fact that I couldn't see his vulnerability, the geas had something to do with it. The blacksmith was clearly hiding something. I wondered if he had been there before or after Petrovich. Maybe this was the reason why the blacksmith was so precious toward our leader. I found some interesting things, but I was yet to decide what to do with that information. The only thing I knew for sure was that I had to be more careful with the redhead.

Cordyceps was still working, so I decided to have a look at Petrovich. I was sure that he had something to hide too. After all, both he and the blacksmith had visited that place... Why didn't I start with him? Why didn't I ever think of taking a closer look at Petrovich?

"What do you want, Cat?" the leader kindly asked when I found him. "Have you recruited your team?"

"Almost," I nodded. "I just wanted to ask you something. Could you maybe change your mind about Dmitri?"

I blurted out the question without thinking. Dmitri must've come to mind since I was thinking about his hidden geas. Petrovich sighed wearily, put his hand on my shoulder and answered me in a tone a father would his son.

"Cat, I told you that I need him at the base. That's it. You are free to go."

Pretending to be upset, I smiled at Petrovich and hurried out. I managed to see the most important thing. Like the redhead, he didn't have any vulnerability. Instead of that, he had a special attack — Lance Blow. And a geas. However, this time I was able to read a part of its description. That was enough to make me think about what could happen.

Under the terms of his geas, which the system helpfully highlighted for me, Petrovich had to bring at least ten people to the distant forest within a year. That's all I managed to read.

So that's why he was in such a hurry to move North. That's why he started to gather other detachments around him. Even if some of them died, he would still have enough people to complete his mission and not lose his attributes. Why were we going to the Forbidden City then? It would be easier to just head North. I wondered what other secrets his geas held.

One thing became crystal clear to me. Petrovich didn't want to leave this world. He had said that before. But it only became obvious to me now that this man had no reasons to come back. He was a nobody there. But here, life was endless. If one was stronger than others, they could climb to the top of the food and social chain.

The question I ended up asking myself was if I wanted to leave this place or not. Of course, I had thought about that before, more than once. Was it worth going back to the place where I was now a nobody from nowhere? Where I was hated, where I could die and couldn't reborn. Where I would have to work hard just to make ends meet. I wondered if I really wanted such a fate for myself. What did I really want…?

"Hey, Cat, why are you standing there like you're made of stone?" Stas, the archer from Vlada's detachment, was standing in front of me and staring at me. Seeing that I was alive, he sighed in relief. "I thought that someone had paralyzed you. I mean, who knows what kind of creatures can get to you here."

Stas Zakharov

Level 13

Age: 54 days.

Skill: ranged combat (bow)

Additional skill: Evasion

Vulnerability: Heavy armor reduces the main skill's effectiveness.

Nothing special. Same as Sergey. Stas's level was higher though, and he had a different type of weapon. Everything else seemed ordinary to me after I had revealed the blacksmith and Petrovich's secrets.

"I was just thinking," I answered calmly. "We are going to the Forbidden City soon… Petrovich asked me to recruit people."

"That's great," Stas nodded. "But I would appreciate it if you don't take me with you."

He managed to surprise me with his words. Having in mind how he fought when we attacked their base he was not a coward.

"What if I have already chosen you?" I decided to play with him. It was funny, but the system counted my little improvisation as a successful deception, giving me two dozen deception points.

"Well, I won't resist then," the archer said, sounding a little bit disappointed.
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"I'm kidding," I admitted. "But why are you asking me about that? I didn't think you'd be upset by something like that."

"I have heard many things about that place, Cat." Interesting revelation. "Nothing good. Did you know that Vlada had been there?"

I lost my ability to speak for a second. Today was a really strange day. I wondered why Vlada didn't tell anyone that that damned place was familiar to her. I also wondered why Stas gave her secret away.

"I didn't know," I shook my head. "She didn't tell anyone."

"And she won't," Stas sneered. "Our people know about that. Apparently, she doesn't want you guys to know."

"And you want us to know," I said, looking him in the eyes.

"Oh, go to hell!" The archer got angry all of a sudden. "She isn't hiding that! She just doesn't tell if nobody asks!"

Stas lost his temper and quickly left, not turning around. It was time to pay someone a visit.

It was slowly getting dark and cold, especially near the river where I found Vlada. She was sitting there with the business lady whom she was lively talking to. The ladies fell silent as they noticed me, and Olga suddenly said that she has to go and cook dinner. Women's intrigues!

"Vlada," I said. "We need to talk."

Having heard my words, Olga immediately hastened her step and disappeared from our sight in a few seconds. She might start gossiping.

"Sit down, let's talk," Vlada said with a slight suspicion in her voice.

I looked at her, thinking that she was very beautiful for her age despite the slightly faded strands in her brown hair.

"Tell me about the Forbidden City," I said finally, sitting down without taking my eyes off of her.

Skill: Sword Blow

Vulnerability: Attacks to the lower part of the body

Status: The Mark of the Abyss

Chapter end