Chapter 12 (Part 1)

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  The first thing Stepan did was not the curse. There was only one reason for that, but it was an ironcd reason. The experience bar by the sixteenth level was not just almost full, it literally froze in nanometers from the transition to the new stage. The upgrade was so close that Stepan could expect to be promoted simply by sneezing too loudly. Though, he was already overdoing it a bit. The important thing was that before starting such a serious business, it would be good to solve this issue beforehand, just so that ter, when he would receive the reward for the assignment and raise the level at the same time, he would not suffer from a migraine, digesting several new gifts, especially if the Autogoddess would add something. That's why he sat down in a meditation pose and began to conduct a completely trivial adjustment of the totem network, preparing it for the next ritual. The experience of this came real crumbs, despite the peaceful development developed to the top. These tiny crumbs were still enough. He had expected to be done in two or three hours, but he was seriously mistaken. The process took barely more than forty minutes, with some of that time spent on preparation and pnning.

  The System tinkled with that inexpressible and inaudible stream of images that signaled a level-up. Goosebumps ran down his spine as the gift block went off and he received an additional skill from the Autogoddess. In a normal situation, the shadow of her presence at the moment of gifting could make his pants feel tight, but after a gift lesson from the best tutor, he'd ever had, the tightness almost turned into wetness. He had to take control of his own aura and body functions again, literally on a biological level forbidding his body to reach release. It worked, though it was quite close and even risky. Such maniputions with one's own aura had an unpleasant tendency to lead to injury or damage. The Earthman could only hope that such methods would not be necessary any time soon.

  Received: “Advanced basic techniques for inducing and correcting dreams”.

  The acquired talent is added to the overall Pyer status.

  This time the gift of Milf Goddess was of retively low uselessness, so he didn't have to anger too much. As it was, he used all sorts of sleepwalkers quite actively constantly summoning them regardless of the fact the talent had been given by the Autogoddess. The synergy with the same healing was quite pleasant and useful, even if it did not compare to how effectively this talent interacted with love charms. Combat attacks and curses, coming through the dream world or through the dream allowed him to find and calcute the victim, resonating effects on the area, due to the work with the territory to create common dreams for entire groups or filter these dreams in several directions, even the ability to look into dreams from a very long distance in many days of travel, which opened up due to synergy with remote control. As a result of increasing the old skill, which he would have been definitely sorry to spend talents himself, Stepan was very satisfied.

  He even analyzed the influence of his renewed talent on the charms, almost calmly and deliberately, just to systematize what he had received from the bounty of the divine. He had received a lot. He had long ago noticed that spirits of the Sphere of Feelings, Passions, Willlessness, or Desire with Lust through sleep often act much easier than to influence those who were awake. Well, how often? Not to say that this is directly axiomatic because there were also enough refutations with a huge reserve, but such a tendency for very many spirits is characteristic, in all spheres and aspects. Still, while a person or any other sentient being sleeps, their energy is as calm and defenseless as possible. The spirit becomes as close to the spheres as possible. Cursers, seekers, and even healers all use this same approach, searching for a loophole in the subtle body rexed in sleep. He had more tricks in the framework of healing dreams, so why wouldn't he have more in the framework of subjugating dreams? The only difference is that he can use some of them, while others he would prefer to put in the far corner of his memory and not to remember them.

  He finished analyzing the new knowledge much slower than he had been grinding in the st crumbs of experience, an hour and a half, maybe more. Every time he meditated like this for longer and longer, more and more time had to be spent even on a single added talent. It's a consequence of the very synergy that adds huge amounts of knowledge reted to the already opened specialties, which is much more than the base of the next gift. He involuntarily recalls the first of his promotions, when he still had retively few talents: the blocks of information were much less massive then. On the other hand, it was due to such a gradual increase in rates that he was able to keep up with this train, and the time of self-digging after the promotions grew not by orders of magnitude, not even by times. His brain, spurred on by his aura and gift, was slowly getting used to assimiting such huge arrays of knowledge.

  However, in spite of the fact that he had already fully internalized the improvement of his abilities, Stepan didn't even think of investing a free talent point in any of the directions. He had an important task, for which he was promised one point in the characteristic of corporeality or resistance, well, if he did not fail the assignment and fulfill it according to the upper bar. And having received this characteristic he would be able to raise his long-desired “mastery of a martial shaman” up one rank, which would make him not only more dangerous but also more adapted to all kinds of murderous behavior. He never wants to kill everyone around him, nor will he want to after the promotion, but the young man will be extremely pleased with the possibility of preventing the killers from killing him. Again, if increasing the characteristic will open some other, no less pleasant and useful options for leveling, then you can always think and choose them. Stepan had little doubt that he would be able to cope with the assignment, even though he would succeed at the first attempt. He had simply prepared too well, summoned and prepared a whole host of spirits, and envisioned even the worst scenarios. No, he believed in his ability to spoil any advantages and to fuck up everything, even more than Rodisv Gastoldovich Yanin, but there was a limit to his ability to make trouble for himself.

  It should be.

  As practice had shown there was indeed a boundary, and, moreover, he had never crossed it. Preparing three spirits accustomed to acting in a bundle, each was not inferior to SpongeBob, and this one was also summoned and assisted the three, in case they made a mistake. He had to order a little extra of the various offerings he couldn't get or repce on his own, but it was a real waste, tolerable, so he didn't have to go broke. Fibers from the rope of a hanged man, the kind that had been used to hang several men before it snapped, and dried mud from the battlefield, collected on the third day after the battle, in which neither side had won, but much blood had been spilled. Reagents of those that are not particurly expensive, just to get them right at the right moment is quite difficult, and to find out that a particur spirit likes this particur offering is even more difficult. Again to the question of the advantage of System knowledge, which allowed him to know exactly about these properties of inexpensive and unusual reagents, as well as about what spirits and invocations they are most suitable.

  The trio looked like amorphous amoebas of dark gray and violet-purple colors, circling around the naked shaman lying on the cold ground, every now and then giving off a bone-penetrating spiritual vibration, probing the dormant curse deep within the patient's aura. If it weren't for his systemic knowledge and soothing meditation, supplemented by an equally soothing herbal collection, there was no way in hell he'd have let those things into his aura with such calmness. He'd be exhausted from the strain. Luckily, despite the dark vibe of the spheres and aspects, as well as the ominous appearance, all three turned out to be very peaceful beings, no comparison to the leech that tried to kill him.

  The call was going on more and more intensely, the young man was literally filling his aura faster and faster with circuting power. Threads of the magic reserve, literally threads woven by the will of the shaman, came out of the main auric nodes, were picked up by all three cloud spirits, passed through their bodies too, and then returned back into the body and aura, already bearing the stamp of their will. In this very clever way, they would get a more detailed view of the curse itself without merging with the shaman's aura directly, which would be too dangerous and crude a way to interact. Such a subtle curse, requires a particurly careful approach, literally surgical precision.

  The spirits began to pour more and more of their strength into the shaman's reserve, pulling a new thread out of it every now and then, so the reserve did not overflow and did not harm the subtle bodies, despite the fact that in this circution not two or even three patient's reserves were already flowing from circle to circle. He looked at himself through the eyes of another specialized spirit, which made him see how the three were literally illuminating the necessary areas, obscuring the others with a fog of their will. From the outside it seemed as if he had become translucent and faded in his magical vision, that there was only one single bright spot left of him - a softly glowing gold concentrated in his loins and scrotum, forming into something like a ravenous ivy, a beautiful flower, a wheat ear, a woman's palm. The Prayer of Repentance supported itself, giving shape to itself, and spiritual vision allowed him to see his “enemy” not only in the form of a weave but also as an allegorical picture-image.

  The spirits begin the third stage only at his command and quite abruptly, impetuously even. Previously deceptively slow amoeba literally flow into the body and aura of the shaman, performing a modification of the cssical possession, and immediately out of it, and alternating. As soon as one spirit dives into the maelstrom of a body alien to him, the other two pick up the remaining threads, maintaining the circution and illuminating the curse with spiritual vibrations, and properly framed images. As soon as the one who had dived out, quickly but gently, without burdening the aura even in the minimum, the second one immediately dives in, and after his diving out the third one. And again, and again, and again in a circle, only now, after each dive, after the usual threads of reserve, there are threads of gold of divine magic. The trio mixes their, his, and the goddess's power into a single whole, then using the principle of simirity, washes out all traces of unwanted energy from the victim.

  It was not even necessary to help himself with his hand or memories of the Autogoddess's tits to release the remnants of the power-soaked semen, as it would have been necessary to do if the situation had gone according to a more dangerous scenario. The spirits silently and without distractions drew out all the divine power, then began under the active guidance of Stepan to drain the excess energy, taking the temporarily given own and giving the young man his personal. The reserve swelled a little, but not to an uncomfortable sensation, this procedure even slightly increased the reserve, even if it was not enough for an increase in the full characteristic. At this point in time the assignment was already completed, at the highest rate and the first attempt, but for Stepan nothing was over yet. The System did not pour a bunch of messages, so as not to interfere with the user and not to become a cause of injury.

  Stepan got to his feet, fully healthy and full of strength, not even cold, but rather sweating, approaching the opposite end of the clearing. Here was burning, bzing with an even and unnaturally pale fme, a fire lit in advance, in which were thrown the necessary offerings and even the right spirits that this fme supported and gave it strange properties, he had managed to pnt directly in the wood. A trio of curse breakers flew up to the fire, circling it and absorbing the offerings thrown there. The ritual was too subtle, too heavy, and the properties of the materials being sacrificed were too exotic, so Stepan worked the old-fashioned way, throwing reagents into the fire with his hands, not even thinking about helping himself with his spiritual grip. Not the case and not those types of donations. Here the key aspect of primary importance will be the purification in the fmes, its property of renewal and rebirth, for which so fondly remembered damn bird Phoenix. Each of the spirits was now full of not only power, not only gifts, but also imprints of Stepan's aura, subtle body, and even his soul, which was a risk. Ordinary shamans wouldn't care about such a risk, on the contrary, they would be gd to be associated with this trio, which could then be used for repeated invocations. But Stepan was accustomed to using his knowledge to the full, according to the perfect molds, and was going to make sure no traces and impressions of his essence were left in anyone's ghostly limbs.

  The easiest thing was to capture the spirits and tear out the excess from them, or simply destroy their vessels, or seal them for a thousand hundred years. But this is still not Stepan's method, since they helped him and honestly fulfilled all the deals so far. Yes, honestly, and so three dozen specialized spirits, a pack of jackals, used to torment their fellow spirits, now hidden in one of the totems, drinking its power and waiting for the order to attack or pursue the fugitives, was not useful. The spirits who had received the st of the offerings were one by one thrown into the fmes, which temporarily began to burn them too, completely and finally burning in that fire, without a trace. And a moment ter the burned one rose from the same fire, only now it was a slightly different, completely renewed spirit, in which there was no trace of the work with Stepan's subtle bodies. The spirits were reborn in this fire, their and the borrowed power burned, but they rose stronger than they had been. That was why they had volunteered for such a radical cleanup of all traces that they had become five to seven percent stronger for just one single task.

  For spirits, of course, such a procedure is not the norm and not a daily routine; it is something comparable to moving abroad and settling in a new pce for an ordinary earthling. So they changed their essence, nature, even sphere, and aspects, becoming from dark neutrals-healers to noticeably lighter fire healers. Now, if the need arose, they could not pull out curses by threads and piece by piece, carefully and gently, but burn them, even if still carefully and gently, piece by piece, so as not to damage the cursed. In short, it was better not to throw away their contacts figuratively speaking, even if he had to check whether they had changed too much to become useless entities. The character could have changed.

  But that was the routine, the usual actions of working with new and unfamiliar spirits, as these three had become after the fiery modification. And he, with the offerings he had selected, which were burned in that fire, tried to influence what his contracts would be reborn as, making them even more peaceful and contractual, even better healers than they were. All of this is the very basics of spiritual sculpting, of nurturing spirits and cultivating them to certain requirements, instead of finding a one-in-a-million suitable individual with the right exotic abilities. Having finished watching the spirits py a little more in the embrace of the now harmless fme, the young man gave them permission to leave, after which the whole three immediately dived into the fire, disappearing into the depths of the fme abyss, going to a new sphere of the spiritual world. Once again speaking in earthly analogies, Stepan had provided them not only with a move to the other side of the pnet, but also with a green card, an allowance for the first few years, normal housing, and medical insurance, so they were not moving blindly and with luck, but knowing for sure that everything would be fine, even better than it was.

  "Goodbye, assholes, goodbye." The shaman said huskily and tiredly after them, however, without any aggression, almost wiping away a tear in memory of such useful and, most importantly, honestly fulfilled their deal, entities.

  Having exhaled, he recognized one more stage of work as finished, and after that, he moved on to a new phase of his biggest ritual so far: dissolution of the prepared insurance and reserve groups. Here with howling and cheerful yapping the jackals-wolves, which today had neither to fight nor to catch up with the fugitives who had deceived Stepan's trust, but they were paid in full and with a bonus for good behavior. Here sighed a little disappointed, but still happy, sailing away independently Sponge Bob, who did not have a chance to eat divine power. He could just let him go, this spirit-polyp is not aggressive and not dangerous, but the jackals had to be escorted through the portal to the depths of the spheres, so that they did not decide to stay here and start to rule on the territory imbued with spiritual power and thus supporting them. Still, Stepan allowed them to stay here, and they could, in theory, use this loophole, deciding to hunt animals or people in the material world, or even drawing power from the totemic structure built by the shaman. A few healer spirits went about their business, which did not have to patch up the damaged aura if the curse happened to be pulled out not “gently” enough. They were followed by a few spare curse specialists who didn't have any work to do because the main three had worked cleanly.

  By the moment when all the temporary contracts, called for a limited time and strictly for a single task, had left, having received payment for staying with him and a little more on top, Stepan had time to cool down after the treatment and freeze like a dog in winter. Quickly dressed, pulling up his pants with his fingers, he wrapped himself in a cloak and for another half an hour just sat next to a quite normal fire, warming himself up. After the temperature bance of his body had returned to normal, he went back to the house, talked a little with Meld, took a quick test of his knowledge of herbs, forced himself to eat dinner, though he had no appetite at all, and y down on the bed. He could not sleep. He felt like a good massage: his body was like a leaden statue, and he could not move, though nothing seemed to hurt.

  He checked his aura over and over again and found no traces of hostile or not-so-hostile influence, but he was almost physically unable to stop checking it. Yes, he definitely did not like the process of being under such an effect, and he would not repeat such a thing, and even voluntarily. The main thing was that he would not be provided with simir or worse things without his good will, so to speak, suppressing someone else's desires by life circumstances. Only when his consciousness finally found its bance, when the st vestiges of joyful excitement as well as angry irritation had passed, only then he allow himself to rex and start receiving system messages, assessing what exactly had changed in him and what he had been given. Even before he began to perceive the gifts for the task at hand, it was obvious that the work with his healing had not gone unnoticed by the System either.

  Received: “advanced basic techniques for countering curses”; increased affinity with dark and cursed spheres; increased likelihood of gaining knowledge and properties of the Maleficism and Healing branches.

  The acquired talent is added to the overall Pyer status.

  It was the second time in 24 hours that his initial knowledge had suddenly been increased by one point but this time he was certainly not in a hurry, breathing slowly and calmly, inhaling and exhaling, slowly releasing the feverish tension and digesting the gift. But no, it wasn't really a gift, he'd put a lot of effort into it, even if it seemed ridiculous against the backdrop of what a normal gifted person would have to go to acquire such wealth. That is, if he had no other knowledge, then the advanced basics obtained could be considered analogous to a full-fledged five-year study with the best teachers, well, three years at most. But in combination with all the other knowledge, each of which had also expanded to counteract curses.... you can talk about years and years, if only because it's very difficult to find such a lot of knowledge in one pce under normal circumstances. And those who will help to bind them into one and adjust them to each other are even harder to find.

  Combat blows with curses of various sorts and methods of fighting with Malefics of the cssical school, calcuting their actions and creating an opportunity for your blow. In-depth healing is aimed at working with subtle bodies, to correct the damage that these bodies receive, and not only from curses or the consequences of emergency burning of curses but in general, too. Even more sophisticated hexes, and with an inclination to make them as invisible as possible or extremely difficult to remove, or even all of this together. Heretical, from the Autogoddess's point of view, but not in Stepan's opinion works with deactivation and calcution of charms, with how to remove them safely from themselves or others. Every bit of knowledge, every drop, every skimpy line in the Status at least somehow interacted with the gift he had received, even the tantric practices! Especially the tter, because, as it turned out, there were surprisingly many ways to remove the negative impact on the body, aura, and spirit with the help of synchronization of reserves and the subsequent resonance of subtle bodies in the most intimate sense of the phrase, and they were quite diverse. Not very good medicine. He would have asked for another doctor or at least a nurse, but seriously, it would be possible to treat himself from all sorts of crap by visiting a brothel. The main thing was not to treat oneself after the brothel, but from other shit.

  Having finished with the self-acquired knowledge, Stepan moved on to the completed task, gritting his teeth and expecting to see another unnecessary shit when he looked at the meta-skills, but immediately changed his mind. Of all the meta-skills taken, the only one that was still within the development limit was “lecherous development II”, so there was only one option for which skill he should have increased. Except that here Stepan was waiting for a pleasant surprise, for which he looked with wide-open eyes to the heavens and said to the admins of his system sincerely, full of gratitude “Thank you!”, barely restraining a smile of delight, begging on his tired face. Instead of the useless Autogoddess meta-skill he got another, also formally present from the first day, just not dispyed in the Status, even though not so long ago Stepan had thought - not seriously, but as a joke - to level it up. Yes, yes, that's right, no mistake - his built-in clock increased by one point!

  Even though he realized that it was even more useless than Milf's gift, because he would use that one at least sometimes, and had already used it, it was nice to be able to break the wait for the inevitable for once. But the more he read, the more his mood improved, because the improved clock, which the system called “temporal awareness II”, wasn't as useless as he'd expected. This meta-skill allowed him to feel time very clearly, always knowing it down to milliseconds, which was a great help in precise rituals, where the order of actions was important. Yes, shamanism has a much lower dependence on such precision than the magicians of cssical schools, but “less” does not mean complete absence. In addition to the main property of this kind of an unswitchable timer, he could now always sleep exactly as long as he wanted, waking up exactly at the right second, unless he drugged himself with sleeping pills or got hit on the head, and also... space-time distortion anomalies were affecting him less. No, he wasn't ignoring them or even gaining resistance, it was just that he would now always know if he was in a distorted time stream. In fact, the st aspect, although it sounds pretty cool, but even just to meet anomalies with space distortion - next to which time often malfunctions - is hardly possible. It's too exotic shit.

  But anyway it feels good.

  From the usual and already learned knowledge the promotion had already received the third initial talent in 24 hours. Now, the status was fshing with the update “Advanced Basic Practice of Remote Control of Spiritual Entities”, which suggested certain thoughts. It seemed that in situations like this, the system tended to raise not just random talents, but also those less developed than others. It made sense, and here he was also lucky that it wasn't some tantric rituals that had been raised, but a really useful thing that he would have raised himself if he had free points and wasn't so greedy. There were always more promising directions, so he had to look at those options that cked the usefulness to get to the top of the list of desires. This particur improvement greatly expanded the arsenal of tactical ways to hurt or please those around Stepan, especially those surrounding the shaman from a very respectful distance. It was already clear that almost any long-range effects, of those with which remote use was possible, would increase in strength, accuracy, and range. He could easily send a cursing leech, a relentless spy, an analog of a lightning strike, or a damn hex to fifty kilometers.

  What is there? Fifty kilometers is so, a zone of sure defeat and control of the sent spirit, and if you get fancy, deliberately conduct a lot of strengthening rituals, use the totem gde as a resonator, then you can get to Fantrel. To visit one magician, honorable artifactor, check, and thank him for all the good things. If the primary base of remote control and direction of spirits worked with the shaman and his aura, the second rank of knowledge, even though it strengthened the original idea, but much more focused on the possibility of creating artificial “extenders of the signal line”, so the greatest synergy of skills was manifested in retion to totem practice and work with sources. In other cases, the interpenetration of knowledge was simpler and was usually reduced to methods of attack, healing, spells, and the like, but at a greater-than-usual distance.

  This skill was even easier to assimite than the previous two, though it was nowhere near enough: as it happened, the young man was unwittingly moving in this direction himself, only his long-range actions had little to do with the real world. He, especially when searching for spirits to work with a gift from Gaia, used the clearing in the same way in a resonating call. Totems in such a case acted, in addition to the standard roles, as a kind of telescope to look into the world of high spheres not with one eye and on the edge, but deep and wide. A kind of mixture of a telescope and a probe, giving a glimpse where a normal shaman with his characteristics to look into is not so easy, if possible at all. Not leaving the body and searching for the necessary entities, knowledge, and images directly in the world of spirits, but something inferior to such a technique only a little, the very little. At least in a narrow direction, for which the lens was created together with the “filters” of that lens.

  The st of the system's gifts for the completed assignment was an increase in the characteristic that fell on the Constitution, bringing it up to two. The sensations were quite tolerable and even pleasant, but the increase from one to two was the minimum modification, so there was no special tension in the body and aura. It was as if every cell of his body, every bone, had been pierced with cold needles and washed in hot water at the same time - not too pleasant, but certainly not painful. Separately, he noted that of all the sensations from the increase in attributes, it was the Constitution that felt the most material, tied to a physical body rather than an energetic one. At high attribute values, it would probably feel quite different, but with his css, a new increase in Constitution would be far from quick. Still not the most useful direction of development for a shaman, though not without some pleasantries in case of its choice.

  He left the status alone, got to his feet, and began to warm up, feeling how easily his body, which was literally singing from the influx of strength, could be controlled. He, of course, was not a slouch, but he was not a gym bro either, and all physical exercises were reduced to an active rhythm of life and morning exercises, occasionally with a jog, so for him the spurt was noticeable. The growth of the characteristic didn't make him extremely developed, stronger, more resilient, and faster, but it was still a very, very noticeable upward and forward movement. Not only strength, but also body psticity, flexibility, and accuracy had increased, coordination and speed of reaction even not accelerated by aura had increased, and the limit of acceleration had also risen, though it was still worth checking. The ligaments and muscles became stronger, the bones also became stronger, and even though a quick inspection of himself did not show any increased number of muscles and explosive growth spurt, the body seemed to harden a little, the muscles became like lumps of dry veins, if you tense them and try to feel them, even vision and hearing became better.

  And also, as he felt from a cursory scan of himself, there was more life force, the very prana that could be responsible for a life bar (there really was one, by the way, but it wasn't usually spent on anything, so Stepan didn't look at it too often). Life became purer and thicker. With this stat increase alone he had added about thirty years to his life, even without alchemy. Not only did it make him more resistant to stress, injury, and wounds, not only did it speed up his healing and resistance to vampiric effects, but it also increased the value of his life force in a normal way to the spirits it can be sacrificed to. And for vampires, too. In general, most spirits accept magical power as payment, and simply offerings that please them personally, and therefore there are not so many entities that like blood and life, even if there are those among them who would not accept any other payment. Stepan had never thrown away his life and blood before, he had about as much life as any other gifted person of comparable strength. Yes, a unit of Constitution in an ordinary man and the same unit in a highly trained Adept are two very different units, but still, he preferred not to take risks.

  The young man had only worked with sacrificing his life a few times: a few trial balls at the beginning of his career, just to understand what the life force was and how to control it, and he sacrificed the crumbs, a mere pittance of a pittance, as well as a case of mass healing of vilgers who had inhaled toxic mold, and then it wasn't just crumbs, which made him feel bad. Now, no, he still hadn't thought about going that way, but if it was under extremely controlled conditions and with the utmost care, especially if it was on an assignment with a good reward, then yes, he might consider trying to feed the spirits with shaman life. This is actually not as dangerous as it may seem, though it is noticeably riskier than regur and cssic shamanism. A lot of weak shamans, who either have a very small reserve or no source at all, use life instead of fuel. The same green-skinned people, whose traditional bias towards life force has become a racial peculiarity that has seeped into Earth fantasy folklore, could consider such shamanism a full-fledged tradition. Dark spirits, again, are much easier to talk to, they love blood, they love it very much, the main thing is that they do not decide to take it all at once, instead of some stupid deals and agreements.

  The young man couldn't help and did the standard warm-up routine once more, even trying to do a somersault over his head. Well, the increased physical abilities allowed, that was a fact, but it would be worth a little practice because, at the first attempt, it came out only almost smashed his face. Fortunately, the guardian spirits of his dwelling assessed the rapid convergence of Stepan's face and the table as definitely risky, instantly creating a protective field, against which the head and face of the guy who had stumbled and flown somersaulted softly sprung. Standing up on his feet and rubbing his head, which was slightly buzzing as if after a powerful blow with a pillow, Stepan gave himself a mental kick and stopped fooling around, instead checking his aura once more. Just in case.

  There was no sign of the curse or the damage it had left behind, so he mentally sent another ray of goodwill in the direction of the trio of spirits reborn in the fmes. He even regretted a little that his new meta-skill of gifting characteristics didn't work on spirits, because he could have thanked at least one of them for all the good and professionalism he'd shown. He regretted it, and then nearly smashed his face in again, only now against the door, frozen in surprise for a long, long few minutes. Why on earth did he think it wouldn't work? A few frantic minutes of fiddling with the help ended with him never finding anything that prohibited such an action. He had thought such an approach and its prohibition to be self-evident, intuitive, just like the impossibility of imposing the gift on himself or reapplying it to someone already gifted, but he had been wrong. Even checked again, but no, it is still impossible to apply the gift to oneself and still only a one-time gift to one person or entity.

  This changed quite a lot, because even Sleepwalker, as cool and good as he was, would agree to sign another contract for such a blessing, much more useful for Stepan, for life, and with the transfer to his descendants. Frozen once again, the guy thought, thought again, and realized that it can not be so easy, otherwise he now has a way right at this very moment to recruit a huge retinue of senior and higher spirits. After torturing the help for several hours under the roar of his hungry stomach, he still came to a paradoxical conclusion, and the help confirmed it only after a direct and maximally specific request: he could amplify spirits with the system gift, but he could not use it as an aspect of payment and contract. This system prohibition, which, thank the admins, he came to at the moment of trying, possibly, cheating or bugusing.

  Spirits were not human. The concept of a gift through the System might not be understood by them, but it was quite realistic to convey such a thought to the smartest of them, that was a fact. And no less a fact was that it frankly broke the bance. If he could offer his services to the highest mages or rulers of major factions easily, even if it involved a lot of problems, in the case of spirits everything was more complicated. A different type of thinking, different rules of understanding, different everything. And the spirit in such a situation would perceive the System gift as a gift, but a gift from the System and those behind it, not from Stepan, who only pressed the button. He could strengthen his spirit retinue, he could pump the most useful spirits in this way, but thank all the gods, even Milftrix, that he did not think, for example, to bless the same Sleepwalker with a gift and then demand service from him for it. Because a mighty spirit would have found something to say to such insolence: the gift was given by System power, but the service is demanded by an incomprehensible little shit, which even a senior shaman considers only conditionally, at the expense of knowledge worthy of a master, but not the power of the gift.

  At least with people, there is no such problem, the reference also emphasized this: if you can agree to exchange something useful for gifting, then okay. Though, it's unlikely to happen. It's easier not to mess with such serious pyers, and with small ones too, or they will easily give up those who are serious. Or kill all witnesses to their possession of such a treasure. Or just use it left and right the love charms finally going along with the Autogoddess. In short, before becoming at least a very Serious Senior Shaman, about the fact that he has such a useful thing he can not talk out loud or even mentally. And so that he could not immediately become a Senior Shaman, easily gathering a retinue worthy of Dark Overlord, no less, the system has introduced such a clever handicap. All the same, a couple of useful spirits can and should be checked, and most of all Stepan was interested in the practical question: if he reinforces his call with meta-skill, will not decide to reinforce, due to the obliquity and non-linearity of thinking, and raise the price for their services? Laughingly, the question is actually quite logical and requires a qualitative practical test.

  Someday.

  Later.

  There was only one st thing left on the list of important things to do for the day, and then he could go to bed: investing his free talent. The choice had already been made, so Stepan only looked through the list of avaible options, updated after the promotion, noting a few particurly interesting ones. He did but invested his talent exactly where he had been pnning to invest it for so long, namely in the “mastery of a martial shaman” that had finally opened up by the time he was promoted. To be honest, he invested it, holding his breath and clenching his teeth, because the amount of absorbed and assimited promised to be very rge. This knowledge was clearly non-standard, which was quite obvious from the mere absence of the prefix “basic” or “advanced basic”, and it also fell into the cap of leveling immediately at the first rank, just as the spiritual operation, frozen at the advanced base, had previously fallen into the limit. If this was not a sign of elite talent, Stepan didn't even know what it was. Again, out of all the avaible knowledge, this was the most substantive, concentrating reflexes and tactics, experience and skill in battle with the use of other open talents.

  It took less than a moment for the System to update the status to include a line beled “the mastery of a martial shaman”, and Stepan, who hadn't eaten after the increase in Constitution, was immersed under a swath of images and memory that didn't belong to him, but was rapidly becoming his own. The previouse level of the skill belonged to this incredibly experienced Adept, a real dog of war, who had managed to fight against almost any standard and not-so-standard types of enemy, both gifted and not. There was also the experience of fighting one in alone, and in pairs, and one against many, and part of a squad, and against a squad, and even the squad leading, as against a loner, and against the same group. Now this knowledge was being supplemented, reflexes were changing, and tactical bundles were expanding. Now, instead of a veteran soldier, if we use earthly analogies, Stepan was infused with the reflexes and toughness of a veteran of the Delta special unit; instead of an experienced fighter, some damn professional shamanism breacher was formed; instead of a fighter who could do something in quiet and inconspicuous actions, a master saboteur, an infiltrator, and an eliminator-killer was born. Still a very strong Adept or a weak Master, just like the recipient himself, but much, much wider and deeper trained, lovingly coached, and damnably experienced in the application of what he had learned.

  Where before there were standard and not-so-standard tactics and combinations appeared the ability to modify these combinations, to use tricks and stratagems which one would not expect from the opponent, and have seen for the first time would not be able to pass on the experience. Where before there was knowledge and skills to counter standard schools and methods, now there was almost an almanac, representing even exotic directions and ways to resist them. Where there was an understanding of the battle and one's pce in it, now there was the ability to change this pce smoothly and technically, to go from one role to another in the same moment and then back again. Except close combat and pathos fencing with two sacrificial daggers, it all did not fit in any way. Downloaded through the System fsh drive, a seasoned pro was clearly trained according to the principle that states that a shaman or mage, who found himself in close combat on bdes, is a moron worthy of death simply because he allowed himself to be driven into this position. It might have seemed that one heavy-breathing Earthman was now suddenly cooler, if not than Chuck himself, then a hair and a half from his Beard, but Stepan, not without the help of the same knowledge, realized how deceptive it all was.

  It's funny to joke about full-fledged masters of magic, not on their own terms, and not from ambush. But there's no need. And the chances of whacking some even young magister or at least forcing him to flee will be extremely low only in case of catching such a magister in an inconvenient pce, unprepared and away from any support. They will be extremely low, but they will be, whereas direct confrontation is not considered an option. But yes, now, with such baggage of “tricks,” he can easily pass the interview in any Secret Watch or the Guard. But then he'll have to puff and expin how such a young brat got all the above experience and habits of their old colleague. And then, when you answer, welcome to the prison. You will sit there for the next eternity, if, of course, you are not eliminated earlier just in case.

  Stepan woke up a little broken and still hungry, so he started to eat almost immediately, and his body's urges to communicate with the higher ass(t)ral spheres should be quenched too. He came to his senses very slowly, spending the rest of the day and part of the night trying to get used to the new possibilities. Meld did without lessons this time. He was in his thoughts, hovering there with no contact with reality. Was he really getting along with his girlfriend? He didn't ask, of course, but gestured the boy away and continued to try one or the other of the simpler calls, assessing the changes in himself and his aura. He even sent some battle spirits across the river to the other side, only downstream, so they could shoot lightning at the beach. He evaluated the degree of energy loss during such a transfer of forces. It was much easier to make a path for this transfer through the spirit world by synchronizing with the summoned essence, so combat tactics could and should be diversified by the ability to fuck the enemy before they even approach.

  If only he had a machine gun and a strip of mithril bullets, it would be perfect, but he had to use substitutes, what a mess! Putting jokes aside, the young man has noticeably increased his strength, which was not very small before. And all of that at the expense of a single assignment. And not thanks to a single trick, but in general, in general, in all directions at once. The basis of strengthening should be considered the increased combat talent, but even so, he still did not want to test his newfound coolness in direct confrontation, as well as in confrontation in general. Yes, the system is incredibly cool in this kind of cheating as it will be perceived by all normal and not-so-normal mages, but the experience of a very cool battle shaman with a terrifying record, which became part of his consciousness and essence, does not cancel the fact that Stepan is not this mage-shaman-Mr. Bond anyway.

  He should, but he would not do it for reasons that were quite clear and did not require expnation. The problem was that Stepan had no doubts about the need to use his combat skills for the intended purpose. The world is such a pce that sooner, ter, after a month, a week, a year, or five minutes, the reason to arrange bloody meat and a pile of corpses will appear even the most peace-loving individual. At the very least, to avoid becoming meat himself and one of the corpses in that pile. It was with this thought that he finished his research, exhaled tiredly, stretched out on the bed, closed his eyes, and went to the world of dream spheres.

  SpoilerNext, it's a dream. Everything is very chaotic. Also, lots of references to local memes, other stories by the author, and even comments, so if this seems like unreadable gibberish - I've done my best.

  [colpse]His skill at understanding dreams had increased, but that didn't mean that he had become immune to dreams, no, he had just learned to get into other people's dreams or to conjure up different images in those dreams. And now the dreams came to him, and he saw in them images of all kinds, constantly changing. And there was a battle against hundreds of thousands of mechanical monsters that looked like humanized Zaporozhtsy Transformers armed with Druzhba chainsaws. There was an escape from a giant hamster ogre the size of a line cruiser perched on a child's tricycle with two jet turbines welded to it. The image of Stepan, surrounded by hordes of spirits ready for battle, of an unfamiliar half-elf wich has no eternal blood but overflowed with magical power fshed through his mind, in the company of a couple of real elven militants, as well as no less unknown man, also very magically powerful, which was covered by some Asian woman and orcish one, and all of them, standing back to back was being pounced on by hordes of demonic creatures, while all three men in this company were shouting in unison that they had seen group quests in Hell. He had a vision of an old and ruined city in the style of dark fantasy, on which rode, on a partially painted pink APC, some bald man with the face of a porn actor, firing from an autocannon at numerous reanimated mannequins without faces, but with anatomically accurately drawn genitalia, which they used as weapons, and in the pces where they were hit, the metal did not bend, but also turned pink, which made one intuitively understand that when the vehicle was completely repainted, something terrible, nightmarish, unforgivable would happen.

  Stepan, who woke up in the morning, in addition to the cssic statement “Holy admins, what nonsense!”, also decided that after the most active stages of assimition of system talents, it would be necessary to weave dream catchers before going to bed. The face of the damn hamster-titan even several hours after waking up caused a shiver just thinking about it. And mannequins with Ogf weapons in their hands also caused the involuntary effect of the ominous valley, and it was good that without involuntary defecation. And if among all the nightmares you had dreamed in one night and perfectly remembered, the invasion of demonic hordes was perceived as the calmest and not scary, then perhaps it's time to change something in life. Like not eating too much at bedtime. He was already overreacting, and couldn't even think of such things, let alone seriously suggest them.