Princess & Cyberserk

A Walk to the City of Vampires

When Dan got acquainted with the map of this world he immediately declared that he would make his way to Night Hill alone. The distance between the two cities was very long. An ordinary traveler could cover it in three days. This was the case when magic was the answer. Magic and special equipment!

"We won't waste our time traveling together," Dan stated calmly. "That's silly. I'll wear the full kit for increased speed and stamina. I think a speed of 300 points will be enough for me to run four hundred kilometers in seven hours. At the entrance to Night Hill, I'll leave a mark to move. Then we can always move quickly to this interesting city. I will summon you with the Phantom spell."

"Fine. I'll spend my time in the library. There's enough interesting news in this world," Tom agreed. Then he shook his head and admitted that there was something more interesting to do. "No. I'll spend my time working in the forge! We need to develop our blacksmithing skills quickly. No one in the Community prevents us from gaining new ranks. We will easily be recognized as Masters. They will require us to pay dues and make valuable gifts to the Blacksmiths Guild. But that won't be a problem for us."

Dan agreed with his friend. Gold coins are always welcome. And a skill upgrade in the trade is certainly a needed achievement.

The young man took the purchases from the auction into his inventory. They bought armor and weapons to disguise themselves as young warriors of the orc tribe. 

Tom had the usual orc sword.

[Orc's Scimitar.

Damage: 44-50 (86)

Durability: 290

Weight: 2kg

Requirement: Level 39. Strength: 60.]

Dan was worthy of a more valuable weapon.

[Bloody Attack Scimitar. (One-handed sword, Rank 5 - Rare)

Damage: 70-80 (143 damage points attack with both hands)

Durability: 400

Weight: 2kg

Requirement: Level 39. Strength: 80.

Property: +12 Strength.

Blood Attack. Inflicts additional damage of 100%. Ignoring the opponent's defense.

Has the ability to cast a Bleeding curse on an opponent. Chance to cast a curse: 1% per 1 point of Strength.

Bleeding. Lose 4 points of health every 1 second for 60 seconds. Warning. Curse Bleeding can stack 3 times!

Cooldown: 40 seconds]

Dan, with his rare Orc sword, was capable of dealing a monstrous 5000 point damage! And that strike completely ignored the opponent's defenses. Friends purposely chose a sword that would pierce any defense with its first strike. Any second strike had the property of increasing damage by 12 percent. A normal strike dealt 600 points of damage.

Tom's attack performance was much more modest. He was forced to wear a set of orc armor for camouflage purposes. And the clone recognized for the first time that Dhroll was right and all things should increase the Strength. In his full combat kit, Tom had 148 points in Strength. He didn't care about mana and health levels. Speed and a little stamina were the only properties that mattered in combat. And friends were relieved when Tom increased these attributes by 24 points. 1353 points of damage were enough when attacking with Rage of Ars.  

They were pleasantly surprised to find that it was possible to purchase medium-gravity armor for orcs in this world. There were no spikes on this armor and it looked like a beautiful but reliable ceremonial item. What was important to Dan was that the full set increased defense by 300 points. Tom was disappointed with these properties. He floated the idea of not buying valuable artifacts at all with increased stats and protection! He could wear normal orc items that had no added properties. Defense mattered. But the clone didn't want to lose the set of characteristics that Dan could afford.

Dan didn't know what to do with it. Eventually, a set of armor for Tom was purchased and the young man kept it in his inventory.

The swordsman wished the clone good luck with the artifact making and left the Cozy Burrow establishment. He used the Walk of Caution spell he had long ago learned from Algrin. This simple spell had the unfortunate property of taking a long time to recover within twenty-four hours. But with the Ring of My Precious, all spells lost their recovery time.

[Walk of Caution.

Level 19.

Required level: 10.

Mana cost: 19.

Applying the spell allows you to get 100% disguise for 57 minutes. Any attack stops the disguise.

Cooldown: incast]

Dan enjoyed the fact that no one was paying attention to him. He replaced things with an increase in Strength with things with an increase in Speed. It was a more familiar and pleasant feeling for a player. Dan had already tested his abilities in Grossroads. He was interested in experiencing the impact of a large amount in each attribute. The tremendous speed of 444 points required a fair amount of stamina. Dan could run at an incredible speed for an hour. Then he had to stop and cast the Healing spell several times to regain his alertness.

There was an excellent road leading from the gates of the Community City to the vampire capital. Travelers were often encountered on this road. Trade was well developed between the cities. But the peculiarity of this world was that between the vampire capital and the Community hill, a small border place was created. It was a primitive village where Community workers could deliver their goods to customers. The vampires strictly enforced order and kept outsiders out of the territory that belonged to Night Hill. Mice and other citizens of the Community did not seek access to the capitals of elves and vampires. But vampires and even Orcs allowed themselves the boldest pranks. It was customary for the inhabitants of Night Hill and Deepwood to show their fighting skills and make the journey to have a few duels with the weaklings of the Community or the elves and gnomes of Deepwood.

Dan ran very fast but could notice vivid details in the world around him. He was surprised to see that the idea of tournaments for duelists was widespread in this world. It looked like fun. Business mice and other Community masters enjoyed keeping many special places clean. At these tournament areas, masters set up repair shops and traveling stores and inns to restore the equipment and health of duelists from the elf and vampire cities.

Dan chuckled and thought that the gnomes wouldn't let the mice earn gold coins in Deepwood territory. Surely all the tournament grounds in that area were served by gnome masters. The gnomes were excellent masters at blacksmithing. And they were very fond of trading. Anything a gnome couldn't make he could buy and sell!

The young man ran and made several stops to renew his invisibility skill and regain his agility.

The sight of the vampire capital astonished the player. He stopped and looked at the phenomenon of the city, which looked like a masterpiece of ancient medieval architecture. The high wall of Night Hill was made of black stone. The wall was very high but the city was situated on a big hill and its buildings rose above the wall. Dan noted immediately that the high towers of powerful castles were conspicuous. He knew that hundreds of clans of children of the Night lived in the city. This world was a strange place to which citizens from dozens of weaker cities had access. The city of Grossroads was home to seven powerful vampire clans. Many vampires of Grossroads were able to enter this world. Other vampires ended up in other cities and other places. Dan didn't think about this question. He wasn't interested in how people from planet Earth got to new places to continue their development. The fewer citizens from Grossroads got into this world, the less trouble for the young man and his clone. They had managed to make a lot of strong and unexpected happenings in quiet old Grossroads.

The quest from the gnome nation turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Dan and Tom were happy to get acquainted with the environment in the vampire capital. The quest only seemed difficult and full of insurmountable obstacles at first. How to find the true captors of the ancient drawing? What kind of vampires dared to commit this audacious crime? How to get into the vampire castle? The questions were many. But Grograb shook his head at the young man's naivety.

Dan was surprised to learn that the gnomes were willing to give full information to complete the quest. All the inhabitants knew perfectly well who humiliated the gnomes. In this world, gold had long ago helped to solve all the issues and find criminals. The gnomes could not find a daring mercenary to dare challenge the vampire nation! But Grograb knew that the insolent young man was a person capable of any audacity.

Now Dan and Tom had several plans in store for a pleasant quest. And they had no fear of the vampires' wrath.

Dan looked to the upper right corner of his field of vision. The clock showed that he had spent six hours on the road. Great! He has time to eat with the hobbits bef