We returned to the apartnt. Naya never let go of my palm, leading
by the hand all the way to the kitchen.
They finally gave us food. I instantly swept my portion clean. A funny thought even flashed through my mind to throw a piece of boiled carrot at her to hurry her up, but I was too hungry to throw food around.
Naya was still unperturbedly and very slowly finishing her soup.
"Well, what now?" I decided to break the prolonged silence.
"What?" she responded without taking her eyes off her plate.
"I don't know. We're just sitting and keeping silent. Boring."
I twirled the empty spoon in my hands a bit.
"And who are you anyway? Naya Helvard, right?" She blinked slowly.
"Is that like a 'yes'?" I clarified.
Naya nodded. "And is that a nod? Is it yes or no? Although, most likely, yes."
"Mm-hmm," she confird with a closed mouth.
"So, you are a mage. And also green-haired and beautiful," I summarized. "And ? Black-haired, black-eyed, and so people in the corridor said I'm so kind of Grandmaster. What is a Grandmaster anyway? Am I like super-duper?"
Naya finally swallowed her food and took a sip of water. The mug ca down on the wooden table with a dull thud.
"Yes," she answered levelly. "Everything is correct, except 'super-duper'. Grandmaster is a high title for a mage."
"A-a-a-a-ah... And what? The highest title?"
"No."
"Then why is it needed at all if it's not the coolest?"
Naya only sighed and remained silent.
I got up from the table, stretching so that the bracelet on my wrist clinked annoyingly again.
"Alright, I'm going."
"Where to?" Naya instantly tensed up.
"Take a walk, see what's what around here."
She resolutely stood up from the table, blocking my path to the door. "I'm coming with you." Then she thought for a second and corrected herself: "More precisely, you are coming with . I will show you the area myself. Let's go."
We walked along wide corridors, and a strange thing—it was as if I knew beforehand where everything was. My legs confidently led
forward on their own. Soon we reached a place that turned out to be sothing like a huge forge. I imdiately went inside.
"Wow..." escaped .
And what kind of thing is this? So huge colossus hissed loudly, and under the action of this hissing, a heavy hamr—or even a whole anvil—rose on its own and ca down with a crash, flattening red-hot tal.
The forge was simply colossal, and there was an unbearable noise here. I walked right between the rows. Wow, so many things here! So incredible technology. I stepped closer to the largest chanism to see how it worked. Coals burned brightly below, and a closed tank of water was located above them. The water boiled, turned into steam, and this steam pushed sothing up and down under enormous pressure. And exactly this started the rest of the chanism! What genius even invented this?
I stood there for probably half an hour and just stared at how it works. When suddenly a slightly elderly voice rang out from behind: "Hello, master."
I turned around. A man of about fifty stood before . His clothes clearly differed from what the rest of the workers in the forge wore—looked more solid and high-status.
"Grandpa, what is this thing?" I pointed my finger at the hissing colossus.
The man stepped closer and looked proudly at the chanism.
"Ah, this is a marvel of technology. We've been introducing it everywhere for a couple of years now. Behind it lies the future of our state."
"And what is it exactly?"
"It is a steam engine."
"I see-e-e," I drew out, not taking my eyes off the moving parts.
The man looked at
attentively. "You seem to have already forgotten , master."
"And who are you? Do we know each other?" I peered into his face, but my head was absolutely empty. Not a single clue.
He smiled softly. "And you are still the sa. My na is Algor Rov."
"And my na is Zenkhald," I smiled widely in return.
The man suddenly flinched. Deep shock reflected on his face.
"Why are you so surprised?" I didn't understand. "We're just tossing nas around: you revealed yours, I revealed mine. All fair."
But Algor Rov suddenly took the nearest chair and slumped heavily onto it. Tiny tears rolled down his face, dirty with dust and soot. "Thank you..." he began in a trembling voice. "Here I found a new life. A family. And yet I had already forgotten who I ca here as and who I beca here... I got arrogant."
He continued to say sothing along those lines. "I think I'll be going."
I hurried to the exit, never understanding how I was even connected to all this grandpa and his tears. I wonder, isn't it hard for these workers to breathe in such thick masks? Though, it's probably for... I don't know.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to
for the genuine story.
I went outside, where Naya was waiting for . "So how was it?" she asked.
"Cool," I answered honestly.
She led
further. "And right here begins the Magic Corps. Beyond this line is strictly a school of magic. And your job is located right here."
"Job? I have a job?" I was horrified.
We entered the territory of the corps. Thousands of small children and hundreds of adult mages passed by us. I listened to my feelings. They were all sohow... weak. Even compared to Naya, they seed completely fragile and faded.
"You must drop in here from ti to ti," Naya said edifyingly.
"And 'from ti to ti' ans 'no ti' and 'never'?" I clarified hopefully.
"They will tell you when you need to co."
"So, never," I quietly made a logical conclusion. Because if they don't find , they won't tell .
We walked further. How boring it was... At so point, my legs simply refused to walk. I lay right down on the smooth floor. Naya didn't even start to be indignant. She simply took
by the hand and continued to drag
down the corridor, enthusiastically telling
sothing about the schedule, the mages, and the structure of the corps along the way. And I just rode along the floor, looked at the ceiling, and rested.
106 years had passed since then. Seven cycles. Zenkhald Helvard had already survived seven resets.
Ah-h-h, how it hurts. Why did they even give
this cursed book? I lived normally for a whole century without it! Even made friends with the Goddess of Luck. She is annoying, of course, but, in principle, you can understand her—she acts like she's seven or eight years old, no more.
During this ti, Mount Slick had significantly expanded its possessions, and the lands of Growtar had fully rged into the huge State of Slick. And right now we were standing before the entrance to one of the newly ford problems. A strange cave. A small mound rises, and beneath it—the maw of a dungeon.
With
were Naya, Aurora, and so companions of Naya: a talkative dwarf and an unknown man. We went inside. Aurora imdiately threw invisibility over herself and dashed forward, bypassing the enemies. I didn't teach her illusions all these years for nothing.
At the very entrance, we were t by a pack of strange wolves. Without tails, and their heads were turned 180 degrees. "Allow !" the unknown man jumped forward and, without waiting for an answer, rushed into battle, laying down fifteen creatures.
Annoying. We ca here not to conquer caves, but for research. Where the hell did monsters co from in the caves again? They were exterminated a long ti ago! And here they are appearing again? How all this annoys .
I walked over to the corpses of the wolves. "Strange," I pronounced aloud.
"And what is strange?" Naya crouched nearby.
"They have no tail, and the head is inverted due to mutations, but these are just the most ordinary wolves," I hissed. "Strange and annoying."
We moved on. A couple of minutes later, our path was blocked by a giant slimy worm about five ters tall and two wide. It had two fully ford arms.
"Allow !" that sa man jumped out again.
SO TIRED OF HIM. I simply waved my hand. Gravity threw the man into the wall, slamming him so hard he imdiately lost consciousness. The worm turned out to be just as ordinary, but mutated. One movent of my thought—and it was torn to pieces.
Further on, all this began to alarm
greatly. This was not just a cave, but a multi-level dungeon. It can't be. Although I began to guess what the matter was, where did this co from here?
We went down a floor and stumbled upon humanoid deer with huge, over-pumped arms and short legs. I listened to my feelings. Hmm... very strange. The core! I felt that at its core, this was an ordinary deer. A huge amount of alien energy was simply poured into it. Physically, the body changed beyond recognition, but the core remained the sa.
There turned out to be fifty-two floors. And everywhere this freak show. There was even a three-headed bear, with two heads growing right out of its paws.
On the 51st floor, the opponents got more serious. A huge winged creature seven ters high. The skin is dark blue, beak like a vulture, body humanoid. It couldn't fly due to its enormous weight. It used its wings only as a shield. The creature shot fire, but at the mont of the volley went completely blind, and only having ceased the attack, began to orient itself again. It seed the creature was specially sealed here to guard the passage below.
"How annoying you are, dwarf!" I couldn't take it, again comnting on all this.
"Do I absolutely have to comnt on every step?"
"But I'm a scout!" he was indignant. "I must record information about these monsters and their weaknesses, so that it will be easier for others later!"
"I'M NOT JUST TALKING ABOUT THAT!" I barked.
"Then what are you talking about?"
"YOU'RE GAY!" I poked a finger at him and shifted an angry glare to Naya. "Why did you bring a gay dwarf with you?"
Naya smiled innocently: "And anyway, every girl should have a gay friend."
"OH CO ON!" I rubbed the bridge of my nose. My head was splitting as it was. "Alright, dwarf. Don't stand behind ."
"No-no-no, youth, I am not attracted to such young..." he began to justify himself.
"Better just keep quiet and write. And stop staring at my hips!"
I snapped my fingers irritably. The huge bird was instantly chopped in half by an invisible blade.
We went down to the last, 52nd floor. Ugh, what sli is here. It was a huge oval cave. Attached to the very ceiling was sothing resembling a giant purple cabbage. Veins with a blue glowing liquid pulsated along the walls, then they turned yellow, and this parasite spat sothing out of itself. It gave birth to new monsters.
All these freaks were created by it. I understood the scale: the parasite had put down roots to the very bottom, to the groundwater, and stretched to the surface, sucking the life out of the forest above. The monsters killed living creatures and brought their biomass to it. This was an organism too complex to be created by nature.
I carelessly waved my hand. The organism detached from the ceiling plaintively and crashed down with a wet thud, instantly dying. I walked over to its top, where it attached to the stone, cut the thick purple skin, and looked inside.
There was a number there: 789.
Sowhere far away, on the new continent...
"Experint 4873? Or 4872?" the voice sounded tired. "Lost count again. Let's start over. Branch na: 'Blood Crossing'. How much ti has already passed? Three thousand years of tireless work... How many tis have I reset the count? Five? Good thing the brothers and sisters are helping and doing the sa. I still rember grandfather's words. We must achieve this at any cost."
This is definitely an artificial creation. The core remained ordinary, but the body was modified. But what does "789" an?
I returned to Mount Slick and imdiately went to Mira's office.
"Well, and what's there?" she asked calmly.
"Yeah, here and there, what's there..."
"So that's why Naya and the dwarf went with you, then," she began from afar.
"And the man?"
Mira raised an eyebrow. "A man? I didn't send anyone."
"Uuuuh... alright," I hesitated, rembering that guy I slamd into the wall. "And have many such caves shown up?"
Mira ran a pointer over a huge map on the table. "Already discovered twenty of them just in the north."
At that mont, the door burst open with a crash. Aurora stood on the threshold. "782," she threw out briefly. "In another cave, the main monster had such a number."
"Ah, so that's where you went!" I chuckled. "And I was wondering why you threw on invisibility and imdiately ran away."
"SO YOU SAW EVERYTHING?!" she scread furiously, slamd the door with force, and disappeared.
An hour later, the Goddess of Luck dropped in and reported the number 781. Then official letters arrived from the Fear Demons—War and Ti. They indicated the numbers 783 and 784.
"Everything is clear," I drew out thoughtfully. "But still nothing is clear."
Mira silently spun in her chic chair. Damn, where did she get that? She won't tell , but I want one too.
"Well alright," I continued to reason. "Just excellent training for mages. Ordinary bullets don't penetrate this mutated shell. But firearms in the hands of a mage—that's OP. True, how many mages right now know how to consciously infuse mana? Few people can saturate objects with energy that don't require it. So they'll keep running around with their wooden staffs and learn nothing."
Mira nodded, stopped the chair, and smiled softly. I didn't understand this smile.
"Listen, Mira, your healing thing stopped working! I drank ten liters today, and I don't even feel sleepy. In the cave, I was so irritable that I almost killed one of my own."
"Then stop unconsciously neutralizing the potion in your body, then everything will work normally," she answered calmly.
"Hard," I admitted honestly.
"I know," Mira sighed. "I will try not to let you near that book anymore. You have already done everything that was required."
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