25 STONES

The undead fell in front of us, exploding like a rotten vegetable. It was loud and quite unpleasant, and even made Lena retaliate and put her hands forward, ready to repel a possible attack. But nothing happened. The creature lay motionless. After a quick search, I had some copper coins at my disposal. And this was perhaps the most interesting thing about this monster.

"Check this out," I couldn't resist and I showed my prize to Lena and Cyril.

The girl's eyes widened in surprise, and the guy whistled.

"I've never seen anything like that," he said with a mixture of delight and mild envy.

I carefully examined one of the coins; it clearly had some etchings on it, but they were unreadable because of oxidation. One thing was for sure however, this world had surprised me yet again. I wondered who used this money. Maybe the people who built the Forbidden City? We had stumbled upon artifacts of an extinct civilization many times, but this was the first time that I've come across money. We'll deal with that later.

"Well, that's unusual," I nodded. "Carry on! Keep it up!" I ordered to Cyril.

We had barely made a couple of steps when another undead attacked us with a roar from a nook in the wall. And this time, to their credit, my paladins managed on their own. Of course, they made a couple of mistakes. They both got so carried away by the heat of the battle that they almost got themselves killed. It was my angry shout that made them heal each other before the monster fell with a weak roar.

"Here's a lesson for you," I said cautiously. "Keep an eye on your health and that of your partner. What if I hadn't been with you?"

"Okay," Cyril said. Lena smiled sheepishly.

The next hour and a half was not much different; our main opponents were the same undead creatures. A couple of times we ran across some rather strong creatures that resembled skeletons and which caused us some inconvenience. Oddly enough, even though they were level eighteen, their health was much lower than it should've been. But they dodged Lena and Cyril's attacks rather intelligently. I even had to join the fight once, or Lena would've definitely woken up at the base.

The cave turned out to be a real labyrinth. Its system of intricate corridors could've led us very far, preventing us from returning home any time soon. Innokenty and his minions sure found a nice place for farming!

After each turn and crossing, I made a sketch of the corridors that we had already passed, so we could easily find our way back. Writing notes on the pages of the Book of Masks wasn't the smartest thing to do, but I had no other options. I would erase my notes later.

"You are too chaotic when you fight," I started analyzing the battle again, taking into considering what I thought was writing on one of the walls. No, it's just those bizarre, pulsating streaks. "Remember that your task is to support each other. While one is fighting the enemy, the other must maintain their health. Learn how to quickly decide who will do what."

Lena nodded intently, and Cyril grinned. Is he nervous?

"Yes, that's right," I said sternly, looking at him. "Or do you have a better tactic? You're welcome to share it with us."

"Sorry, Сat," Cyril shook his head. "What you're saying makes sense, but... It's a bit pretentious, to put it like that. It's like something from the old action movies."

True. While training them, I imagined that I was a retired veteran coaching the newbies. I should be less of a show off. I should be more serious. But I couldn't admit that out loud.

"Maybe you're right." Cyril smiled, but then hesitated, suspecting that there was a catch. He wasn't wrong. "Since being nice didn't manage to drill the basics into your heads even after so many fights, I'll try other methods of training. By the way, you'd better take care of our guest."

I blurted out the last bit since a very ugly creature approached us from the darkness. Its gold, snake body ended with a human torso. The creature was about eight feet high. Wasn't there a similar creature in one of the old computer games? What was it? Naga?

Adept of the Cult of the Snake, level 21

Skills: Submission, Mental Protection

Additional skill: Poisonous Bite

Weakness: eyes

A good, and rather dangerous combo. The creature opened its mouth and hissed. Cyril didn't hesitate and he courageously rushed forward, shouting Lena to cover him. I hoped that the girl had heard him, as the hissing was deafening. I didn't like the thought of the possible outcome of this fight. The Adept's eyes lit up like two smoldering embers, and Cyril's hand passed by it, only slightly scratching the scaly body. I shouted, warning them to be cautious, but was too late. Cyril swayed and then froze. His eyes were bulging and staring into nothingness.

"Shit!" I swore and hurried to help Lena.

The Adept abruptly turned its gaze at me and hissed. Could it feel that I was stronger than the other two? An attempt to paralyze the monster as I did with the undead failed; the Adept simply ignored my efforts. I didn't want to invest more than thirty points of endurance points, but I seemed to be out of options. I could use raw strength, but I didn't like my ability wasn't affecting this creature. I had to analyze the situation, so that I don't make any fatal mistakes in the future. Firstly, I used my intelligence to see the Adept's exact level of magic protection — level two. Strange, it should've worked then. Maybe its mental protection is the problem… Well, let's double the dose. Done. It worked!

"Cat, what should I do?!" Lena's scream brought me back from the realm of calculations and probabilities. She was struggling against the mad Cyril. Her question was immediately answered. As soon as the Adept froze, its control over Cyril disappeared.

"Uhh!" he panted. "It had me under its control! I tried to resist, but my feet moved on their own!"

"No time for chit-chat!" I shouted. "Finish it off!"

This Adept was a very serious opponent. Fortunately, each of us had several bottles of the Tincture, since my wards wouldn't have been able to even scratch the mob without them.

"Try to hit it in the face!" I shouted again. "Or better yet, right in the eyes!"

Lena tightened the rope she had used on the Adept, and, sharply yanking, forced it to tilt its head. Well done, girl, quick thinking! That's rare to see in a fight. The Adept hissed furiously, its golden body writhing, trying to free itself from the rope. Lena barely managed to keep it contained. Cyril methodically struck its abdomen, but its health was dropping slower than I would've liked it. It seemed that it had almost fully recovered, which meant that I would probably have to participate in the fight.

Lena pulled the rope, putting all of her weight into it. The Adept's head leaned forward; its unblinking yellow eyes seemed to look straight into my soul. I felt sick and began to sweat. My head started to hurt as if I was suffering from chronic migraines. My hands refused obey me. It took me a lot of willpower and effort to make myself release a wave of flames at its shiny eyes. The Adept hissed like a broken pipe, twitched, pulling with itself the rope-girl and Cyril, who had managed to plunge one of his daggers directly into the blazing fire of the Adept's left eye. But it was too late. A couple of blows to its weak spot quickly made its health drop to zero pretty quickly.

The Adept fell heavily, covering the shrieking Lena with its body. Cyril rushed to her, lifted the monster, and gave her a hand.

"Phew!" Cyril exhaled noisily. "We killed quite the beast."

"I thought we wouldn't beat it," Lena's voice was still faltering.

"Well done," I encouraged her. "Your lasso helped us a lot. We would have had to jump to reach its eyes without it."

"How did you guess its weak spot?" Cyril asked. He didn't seem suspicious, just curious. Or he really wanted it to seem that way.

"It made sense," I replied calmly. "No one likes being hit in the eyes. And this one could use hypnotization. I had to get rid of it somehow. So I decided to burn its pupils a little."

No one dared to doubt my words. There were no more questions. I must be careful in the future. No one had to know that I could see a little more than they could.

"Time for a short break. Get yourselves cleaned up, we'll continue in fifteen minutes," I looked at them with the corner of my eye and went to the wall. Exhausted, the two sat onto the ground.

What were those veins on the walls? The first time I saw them I considered them a part of the landscape, and didn't give them much importance. But now I stared at them, trying to figure out what they were. Pondering, I approached one of the walls and leaned my hand against the unusual... What was this? Glass? Stone? The veins were hard and somehow warm, unlike the walls. I tried to dig one out with my hands, but failed.

"Cat, what are you doing?" Cyril asked.

"I wanted to get piece of it as a souvenir," I muttered in response and swung my scythe.

The blade cut the air, and struck the vein with great force. With a thud, a piece of the unknown material fell out of the wall and rolled across the floor. I picked it up, and my lips stretched into a pleased smile. It seemed that this place was good for something more than just training. Dmitri will be delighted.

Red Elenite

Used as a catalyst for alchemical reactions.

I couldn't believe my own luck. Had I really managed to find one of the alchemical elements so easily? On the other hand, where else would I've found such an ingredient, if not in a cave? Dmitri had mentioned catalysts, neutralizers, and amplifiers. I wondered if only one of the three would be enough to work on armor and weapons.

I looked at my followers, who were watching me with curiosity, and asked myself if I could trust them enough to ask them to collect Elenite for me? They did kind of believed me. They made that choice for some reason. After all, the fact that I was practicing alchemy had long ceased being a secret. What's with me today? I keep trying to hide the obvious.

"Lena, Cyril." I finally made up my mind. "We need to collect more of these stones."

The girl's eyes widened, the guy frowned.

"More souvenirs?" he chuckled.

I shook my head. "Not exactly. If I can understand their properties, you and I will get more powerful weapons."

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"This red thing can enhance weapons?" Lena asked mistrustfully.

"Possibly," I said evasively. "That remains to be found out."

Cyril shrugged and went to the wall to observe red veins, which, it seemed to me, began to glow slightly. After careful examination, he broke off a whole layer of Elenite with one accurate blow. Then he swung again, struck another vein, and went to work as a real miner. I joined him and started chipping pieces of the stone with my scythe. Getting carried away, I didn't immediately notice Lena's disapproving gaze.

"Do you really suggest I do that?" she asked indignantly.

"You can pile up the pieces."

After half an hour of active work, a decent pile of red Elenite lay on the floor of the cave. We had to stop once to fight with a Skeleton that had accidentally wandered into the cave, but in general, we mined in peace and quiet.

"Now we have to stuff it all into our pockets and inventory," I said, looking at Elenite that was really starting to glow.

"Cat," Cyril said anxiously. "Should it be doing that?"

"I don't know," I said honestly, looking at the increasingly luminous pile of stones.

The Elenite pile was shining so brightly that everything around us turned red.

"It can't be good," said Lena. At that very second all of the stones that we had collected crumbled into burgundy dust.

What now?