18 FIRE AND SWORD

One could've easily gotten carried away and too relaxed after such an obvious success. I failed to activate my Cure Wounds two times in a row, and after being hit by the monster's paw, I was almost sent to my tombstone. After that, I realized that it was time for a break. My endurance, however, increased by two more points, and I almost regretted having to leave the swamp and the violent, roaring creature. The spikes that were holding it in place suddenly disappeared once I was about fifty yards away. Another piece of interesting information… That's good... I don't have to worry about the Ghoul… I will be long gone by the time it gets to the edge of the swamp...

As it turned out, they were dissatisfied with my absence at the base. Andrei gestured me to follow him for a face to face conversation.

"Vasily," he started once we came to the water, "Tell me where you've been."

"In the forest," I said. "I asked Olga to tell the others."

"She did," the leader looked strict enough. "But still, due to new circumstances, I would recommend you to go easy on the initiative."

I never thought that my absence would spoil Andrei's mood this much. I looked at him trying to understand what had happened.

"You see, we've already lost a few men," he went on. "The Reaper could come back any time. And then what? Do you want to die for good?"

"I'm sorry, Andrei, it won't happen again," I said. It brought me a couple of points of deception. Really, did he buy it so quickly? That's strange enough….

"Sorry for pulling you away like this," the leader suddenly softened. "A lot has happened at once, you know? Igor dying, Lera leaving…"

"Of course, I understand," I nodded. But honestly, I didn't. If you're going to be a leader, take responsibility for the fate of those who trusted you up to the very end. And if you want consolation, go deep into the forest howl at the moon. It's a pity that such things are not to be said out loud.

"We'll be training the newcomers tomorrow," Andrei changed the subject. "I think you should come with us — after all, you've lost five whole levels…"

Suddenly he went silent. Looking at me, he contemplated things.

"Right!" Andrei said quietly, so that I was the only one who could hear him. "That's why you went into the woods, isn't? You wanted to try and follow Igor's example? Any progress for now?"

"Yes," I answered and confidently looked straight into his eyes, so hard that he eventually looked away. "A little bit, but it worked."

"Maybe we should all try that," Andrei thought out loud. "Let me think about it until tomorrow night… We'll discuss it after the hike. For now, we should include the newcomers into our plans."

"Wait." His shrewdness didn't sit well with me, but I couldn't hide my desire for not leveling-up. I didn't want to end the conversation with a discussion about my secrets. I would prefer a more neutral topic. One question had been tormenting me all day. "What about Fox's tombstone?"

"It's not here; we checked it the moment you told us what happened." I even slightly admired Andrei for doing so. "Looks like she took it when she proved that she could kill herself."

Well, sound enough. However, Andrei didn't consider one thing — who asked her to do it and eventually gave her this opportunity. I was starting to thinking that Igor was ubiquitous.

Andrei stared into nothing for a little while and then turned and walked to the cave. I lingered for a bit and then followed him.

Morning came quickly, and our commanders announced the reveille formation.

"Everyone here?" Andrei said, looking around. "Perfect. The newly arrived Dasha and Vadim are going on their first training campaign."

"Well, finally!" the archer snorted.

"Stop talking!" Alexander snapped. The girl immediately fell silent, and Andrei continued.

"Alex, Vasily and I will accompany them. Valentin Petrovich, Mikhail and Semyon will find some food, and Dmitri, Suren and Olga will stay at the base."

For a moment I thought that Petrovich and the Major looked at each other. Were they planning something? It was unlikely… Still, a lot of twists had happened lately. Petrovich wouldn't get involved into it. Perhaps I could discuss this issue with Andrei in the evening; he had proved himself reliable and sane, and I would like to feel safe in the base. Other people's intrigues did not contribute to this goal at all.

Having made the decision, I calmed down and wondered how and where would those get food? Were they going on a hunt? Only then did I realize that I've never thought about where the food was coming from. The only thing I knew was that it was scarce, and that the most delicious stuff came from a distant forest.

I glanced at Suren. The guy changed for the worse. Losing an arm had seemingly brought him down quite a bit. Keeping silent, he stared at nothing.

"Go!" Alexander commanded, and the five of us moved toward the cemetery where our first trial fight took place not so long ago.

"Alex," I remembered that he was never the one to refuse a chat. "Listen, are Petrovich and the guys going to the distant forest?"

"Where?" he asked, confused. "No, there's a place not far from here — it's pretty dangerous, but you can get food there."

"A warehouse?" I asked incredulously.

"No," Alexander shook his head. "A plain of sorts. Moose graze there sometimes, and wild boars happen to come there from time to time. So if they're lucky, we'll have meat for dinner tonight."

The guy smiled dreamily.

"And if they're not lucky?" I asked.

"Predators hunt there, too," he said. "And they are almost all above level 20."

"Got it," I nodded.

Talking about meat made my mouth water involuntarily. I wasn't picky, of course, but still… One couldn't endure long on porridge and soups alone. I hope they get really lucky.

Soon we arrived at our destination. Andrei immediately gave instructions to the archer and the fatty.

"Andrei, is there a place I could train on my own here?" I asked. Given our conversation yesterday, it shouldn't have been a problem.

"Just don't go too far," he said. It was nice that I didn't have to make anything up. I could work on my thing even though I was close to everyone.

Promising that I would be within earshot, I went in search of monsters that could be used as my training dummies. Some sixty feet away I came across an incredibly slow walking dead. Its clumsiness made it an almost perfect opponent for me. However, I decided not to be distracted by it. It was too close. Others could possibly see my unusual training. A little further ahead I found a level six, disgustingly putrid Caterpillar, level six.

Stone Spikes

It immediately ran into the spikes and got stuck, soaking the soil with an abundance of some unpleasant, adhesive substance that was oozing from its wounds. I activated Cure and immediately cast a Curse, just like I had done in the battle with the Ghoul. I once again ended up with the Fatigue status effect. It took me seven tries to get it, but it was worth it. Let's go!

I tortured the poor Caterpillar for a bit, earning another endurance point. My stats began to grow much slower after that. I expected that that would happen. It made sense, after all. The higher your attributes were, the more difficult it was to improve them each time. It took me half an hour to get another point. Looking at the bars of the other skills, I felt a little upset. My strength went up by only 2%, and dexterity by four. I'm definitely going to need a new tactic for these.

"Cat!" Alexander's cry rang throughout the forest. "Vasily!"

"I'm here!" I shouted in response, not leaving the zone in which the monster could hit me.

"Over here! Quick!" he sounded alarmed. "Something's wrong!"

"Don't leave!" I strictly said to the bound Caterpillar, and, after the Curse had disappeared, ran over.

Alexander and archer were standing near Vadim's collapsed body.

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"Maybe he chickened out?" Dasha suggested.

"Quite possibly," said Alex.

"What happened?" I asked, shifting my gaze from the fat man's corpse to Alexander. I didn't look at the girl. It was unlikely that the newbie could tell me something useful.

"He was killed by the Skeleton," Dasha didn't pay attention to me ignoring her.

"An hour ago," Alexander added.

The journey from the base to the cemetery took about twenty minutes. Despite him being in bad shape, he should have returned by now.

"Maybe he got lost?" I suggested although I did not believe it. Not even for a second. "Where's Andrei?" I added.

"He went to the base to find out what happened," Alexander said.

"Maybe we should go back, too." Dasha looked confused.

Alexander nodded and looked at me, "I'll go first… You and Dasha keep your distance, okay?"

Something in his voice bothered me, but I nodded and answered, "Fine."

We reached the base in less than fifteen minutes. The area in front of the cave was empty, and thick smoke was pouring from the forge. Looking closely, I saw the toppled cooking pot, next to which were a pile of wood and some rags... I shuddered. What I thought were rags at first was actually a dead man. Andrei.

"D-damn it!" Alexander gasped.

Gesturing to me and archer to hide in the bushes, he ran over to Andrei's corpse and bent over him.

"Where are the others?" The Major crept up to him so quietly that it took me by surprise.

"Leveling-up at the cemetery," Alexander answered casually. "What happened? Lera brought the Reaper here?"

What a fool! If the Reaper had been here, no one would have survived. Take your weapon out, you idiot! Should I come out? Warn him?

"Fortunately not," said another voice. Petrovich! Too late.

The man came out from the other side, lance at a ready.

"Andrei has left us," he said with fake sympathy. "Suren, too."

"What happened here?" Alexander looked around, anxiety and fear in his voice.

"Something that should have happened a long time ago," Petrovich replied. "I'm in charge now. Andrei and Suren have failed."

"You locked them?" Alexander said in a low voice.

I didn't immediately understand what he had meant by that, but then I guessed that he probably thought that the guys were sitting naked in the bunker with their tombstones. Like prisoners or criminals. But where were the others?

"I killed them," Petrovich smiled. "Broke their tombstones… Both of them."

Alex looked thunderstruck, the archer wanted to scream, but covered her mouth with her hand just in time. I felt a chill creep down my spine. My heart threatened to jump out of my chest. Is this really happening? I assumed that something like this could happen, but it was one thing to picture events in your head and quite another to face them in reality.

"You bastard!" Alex suddenly cried and summoned his hammer to attack the lancer who had seemingly been waiting for this. He dodged the attack with ease and pierced Alex with his lance. Alexander screamed, and Petrovich began to gut him furiously. Soon, Alex's body went limp, hanging loosely on the lance.

"What's happening?" Dasha whispered, her eyes wide with horror.

"Quiet!" I shushed her.

"Mikhail!" Petrovich called, knocking Alexander to the ground and pulling the lance out of his body with an unpleasant squelch. He even put a foot on the corpse to make it easier. "I hope you cracked his tombstone, too."

"I did," the Major confirmed grimly.

"Well done," said Petrovich. "I told you that he wouldn't understand. You even defended him."

The Major said nothing and stood looking at Petrovich with a fearful glance.

"Call Semyon," said the lancer. "We should clean up before Cat and the new girl come back."

So the cop is involved in this, too. A pity… I thought that my joke would keep him away for a while.

"Maybe they won't kill us," Dasha said with hope in her voice.

I looked at her grimly and said nothing. We had to decide what to do next.