Cyberserk & Vampiress

The Grey City

The gray walls of the houses reflected the clang of sword blows and amplified the noise of the duel in the street of the strange town. The place turned out to be very similar to Grossroads. The friends could find similarities in the layout of the strange place and the familiar Grossroads. It was undoubtedly a city. When Dan, in the company of his support group, was able to eliminate the first gray strangers he advanced one side of the road from the temple.

In front of his friends' eyes was a large building that towered above the gray cover of mist. The building interested Dan and he soon found that it strangely reminded him of King Arador's palace. The building was guarded by gray strangers and the swordsmen had fought many battles. But they enjoyed getting through the place. The fights weren't very difficult because all the opponents didn't have swordsmanship skills. The monsters were fast and had good health reserves. But all the attacks of these puppets were predictable. Very soon Dan realized that he was getting bored with repulsing the same attacks of gray amateur swordsmen. But Tom said that this place provided a great opportunity to practice his techniques. There was a lot of boring but rewarding work ahead.

The friends were able to kill several dozen gray palace guards. They encountered no bosses or more dangerous monsters. The humanoid gray figures without armor had good hearing. Each fight attracted a few strangers. But these strange monsters had areas of responsibility. Friends and hobbits often ran away from the dangerous concentration of opponents. The gray strangers pursued the trespassers. But all the gray guards would quickly cease their pursuit and hurry back to their places.

During the fights, Dan and the clone did not use skills or spells. They were looking for the point of revival and were confident that they would meet the main gray monster in the main place. In the last important fight, they would need their supply of techniques and spells.

The hobbits felt hurt because Dan had ordered them to hide their daggers in their scabbards. Every weapon has durability. Unfortunately, the trophies were almost useless for the little braves to use. Swords and daggers did not add damage to the hobbits' strength! But Dan decided that the useful daggers should be saved for the final battle.

The hobbits used trophy one-handed swords. They did not know how to wield them The hobbits' attacks resembled the primitive attacks of gray guards. A hobbit swung his sword like a common stick and inflicted only 18 points of damage. But nimble helpers always managed to dodge the blows of monsters. The four-pronged quick attack tactic worked well against a single opponent.

"This place reminds me of King Arador's palace," Dan frowned. "I remember well this big staircase here. It leads to the second floor with the king's throne room. It won't be pleasant to meet the king's ghost in the hall."

"I am afraid we will meet the ghosts of the king and queen. If the ghost of the restless princess joins them, we will encounter serious resistance," Tom agreed.

The young man's hunch proved correct. They found a large hall but it had no throne and no gray monsters in the form of the Grossroads royal family. Inside the building, there were no decorations, and the empty walls were boring in their gray color. The world devoid of colors was very frustrating and brought on unpleasant emotions. But Dan had no time to lose his mood over the poor decoration of the strange place. Battles with the gray guards kept him from getting bored.

Unfortunately, there was no revival point in the great hall of the gray palace. The monsters were not revived and friends managed to destroy a group of room guards. They escaped from the palace several times and returned to finish off their wounded opponents.

In the empty hall, Tom made one conclusion.

"This place acts as a gray reflection of Grossroads. The temple and the palace resemble this part of a normal city. It seems to me that only one place is worthy of being the center of the city and of this place," the clone suggested.

"The center of Grossroads is the Tower of Destiny. It sits atop a mountain. Around it are the castles of the most ancient clans of gnomes and elves. I agree with you. We need to move toward the center of the map," the young man smiled and asked an interesting question of his faithful assistant. "Don't you think we're making this quest too easy? The resistance of the gray monsters is primitive and clumsy. We meet no mages or archers. Stupid and novice swordsmen are weak opponents. They are not even capable of organizing themselves into a group to mount a competent attack on us."

Phantom chuckled and shook his head. Tom meant no insult to Dan, but the clone had long ago realized one important part of their alliance. Dan Raven was incapable of grasping the full extent of the clone's knowledge. The knowledge of the game world was not held in the man's head!

"I will make a couple of important objections. First, you are a swordsman. Any mage in a place like this would quickly lose the ability to use his skill and be forced to fight like a novice swordsman. I don't envy a mage in this place. The monsters offer primitive resistance, but they're quite liveable and capable of inflicting wounds. The second detail you're missing is that you have three helpers. You can't understand the summoning school of this world. No offense, brother, but you're putting all your knowledge in a far corner of your brain. Any of the folk of the city can do the summoning of a helper. These creatures remind me of Elementals of the different elements. Dhroll told me that a skilled orc can summon the spirit of an ancestor. Dwarves can summon an Earth Elemental. Vampires have a helper that acts as a b****y double. Elves summon a strange creature of wood and grass. Mice summon an animal they call Totem. Elves have the coolest summons. Elves are arrogant and not as secretive as gnomes. In ancient times elves allowed themselves to brag to dwarves and wrote several books in which they revealed some secrets of their skill. The Spirit of Nature is capable of having the skills of an elf. In the picture, this creature looks like a humanoid creature made of wood and grass. Quite beautiful and sturdy allies. I'm sure the intelligence of these recruits is far inferior to my intelligence," Tom patted himself proudly on the chest.

Dan nodded his head and agreed with his aide.

"I'm not ashamed of my limitations. You read books in the library. When I renew you I get a lot of information. But it doesn't stick in my head! I wanted to be an architect. I read something somewhere about tax and market laws. But I'm a complete dummy in economics. I understand roughly how courts and police work. But this is superficial knowledge, which is ridiculous to any lawyer or jurist. I can't remember anything important about elves and vampires. To me, they are still fairy tale creatures from fantasy books and fairy tales."

"Don't break your brain," laughed the clone. "Let us leave the palace grounds and try to make our way to the center of the map. If we meet the gray vampires they'll show us the magical art of the local monsters."

The gray vampires showed the friends their skills. On the street of the gray town, the players encountered few opponents. But these monsters proved to be more challenging enemies than the gray humans. Different creatures demonstrated different capabilities in combat. Mages and archers proved to be the most unpleasant opponents. Each gray mage required special attention. Mages and archers were attacked with special care by the team. The hobbits armed themselves with daggers. Dan pulled his level 17 sword with a +4 Strength boost from his inventory. The sword would be retrieved by Tom and the phantom would always act as the main opponent. The clone would fight the enemy face-to-face and take the main damage.

After destroying a dangerous enemy, the guys would stop and regenerate their health. The indefatigable hobbits were constantly running into the gray houses and trying to find interesting trophies. But the faces of the braves remained sad. There were no interesting trophies or prey in this world. Dan worried that the feeling of hunger would weaken him. But after a few hours, he felt no hunger. The man was experiencing bout fatigue.

There was no scale in this game with a fatigue reading, but the player always took into account that fatigue existed. Fatigue did not reduce the amount of damage dealt, but it did weaken the player's reaction and movement. There was no dependence on Strength or Body. The player would get tired after a long run or a fight. The player would stop and be forced to gather his strength for a while. This became a habitual game moment of the new existence.

Friends were able to reach the center of the gray city. There were no lights or suns in the gray sky. Gray light illuminated the area evenly. The fog had not melted and hidden everything within a few dozen paces. Dan sometimes saw the place as a kind of dungeon in the open air. Walls of houses and a dense layer of fog limited visibility. Dark clouds loomed overhead. An unpleasant place with the unpleasant monotonous job of destroying gray monsters.

The large square atop Grossroads was where the Tower of Destiny towered. There was no tower in the gray city. At the top of the mountain was a large square with the vague outline of a structure in the center. There were many gray guards in the square. The friends spent a lot of effort to lure the opponents out into the street, along which the players approached the center of the gray city. Gradually, and after a series of fights, the swordsmen were able to clear a fairly wide corridor of neutral territory. As Dan approached the center of the location he saw the long-awaited message!

[Attention! You have found the Revival point within 120 hours.

Reward: Rebirth in 106 hours.

Have a nice game!]

"The creators are mocking us," grumbled Dan. "Now we have to wait almost five days in this place."

Tom patted Dan on the shoulder and laughed at his friend.

"Being able to waiting is a useful quality for a warrior. But you're not lazy. We won't sit still and be bored. There are many more sparring partners in this square. To battle, swordsman. I am dissatisfied with the quality of my counterattack. We have enough techniques that need improvement."