Chapter 27
Having finished dealing with the Orkoid slaves, I, being mentally exhausted, simply sat in front of the fire and peered into the flames. The images of what I had seen just wouldn't leave my head. It would seem that after receiving Lona's memories, as well as what I had managed to do myself during the hunt for slavers, this shouldn't have affected me much, but I was still shocked.
According to a rather rough estimate, these creatures managed to kidnap about a hundred girls, which means they not only slaughtered this caravan, but also a couple of villages along the way, it is just not clear why they dragged corpses along with them, because out of this hundred, only 35 were alive when I arrived and of them 3 retained at least some will to live. This was even less than the 10% I expected.
I couldn't shake off the irrational feeling of guilt. As if it was my fault for coming so late. No matter how stupid it was, considering I had my own problems and plans for survival.
"Booms" - suddenly I got a hefty slap on the back of the head from Marymi.
- Ouch! For what? - I threw a look full of offense at the big mommy, covering the place of the blow with my hand
"Stop moping and come on, eat," the woman said sternly, shoving a bowl of meat fried over a fire into my hands.
- Okay, - I sighed and took a wooden fork in my hand, skewered a piece on it, but still didn't rush to put it in my mouth. - And where's Indiana?
- Digging a grave, - Marymi said, and then looked at me menacingly and barked. - Eat!
Under her pressure, I even somehow forgot about my worries and quickly threw a piece of meat into my mouth and began to chew. The meat was quite juicy, but, unfortunately, there was no talk of any spices , not even simple salt, which is why the meat seemed a little bland. However, meat is meat even in Africa and it is still tasty.
- Well? - the woman loomed over me, and I couldn't understand what she wanted this time.
- Mm? - I looked at her with a clear question on my face.
- How does it taste? - Marymi asked, looking at me expectantly.
- Taste? Delicious taste. - I hastened to answer.
- Really? - she asked, squinting.
- Uh-huh, - I quickly nodded my head, hastily throwing more meat into my mouth.
- Good. I cooked it myself. - Marymi proudly stuck out her chest, and then added with a small smile. - Eat and go to bed, you did a great job today, leave the rest to us.
"Thank you," I said, relaxing.
- Don't get too used to it, little one, I won't be looking after you for the rest of my life. - She said in response and walked towards the goblin camp, apparently intending to help Indiana.
- Not used to it, huh? - I muttered, looking again into the dancing flames of the fire. - Perhaps I really do rely too much on others, unlike her.
Lone, unlike me, was not so lucky.
Thinking about how different my beginning was from Lona's, I gradually emptied the plate of meat, then lay down on my sleeping place. And lying on my side, I looked at the tab with skill upgrades in the system with conflicting feelings.
I had 2 paths.
1. To be content with the memories that I already have, and to invest everything strictly in characteristics, avoiding the risk of Lona's memories influencing me. But at the same time losing the opportunity to learn what she spent many lives on.
2. Take the sage trait, take a risk and potentially become noticeably stronger right now simply thanks to knowledge, and also despite the penalty of 5 units of constitution and 4 units of stealth, get a huge bonus to wisdom of 20 units and survival in the form of 6 units, and also, it is a little unclear how, this trait should make me sexier?
- Come to think of it. - I rolled over onto my back and put my hand under my head.
- Her memories, and the body itself, have long since changed me, and strength and increased chances of survival are needed right now. - what I voiced seemed like extremely logical arguments in favor of accepting the trait, so gritting my teeth and preparing myself for my head to be filled with another wave of not the most pleasant memories, I finally invested my last skill point in the sage trait.
As soon as I pressed the accept button, instead of what I expected, I seemed to start falling until I fell on something hard. I didn't feel any pain, but I was very tense, the fact that there was darkness everywhere and only my body seemed to emit a little light, because of which I could see my limbs without interference.
- Funny. - a voice rang out from the middle of nowhere, similar to mine, only more mature? And I immediately jumped up and began to try to find the source of this voice, and it didn't take long to come.
- I've been looking for a way to end my suffering for so long... - a dark-skinned girl with grey hair and, perhaps, close to ideal forms of about 20 years old emerged from the darkness. - And in the end, all I had to do was wait for the one who would replace me.
- Are you Lona? - I asked, stunned, looking at the girl who had simply too many similar features, except that she didn't have cat ears. She was clearly just a person. Although, given her blue eyes, maybe not just that.
- Yes and no, - the girl opposite smirked. - I'm just a memory.
- ... and so... why am I here? - I asked, swallowing nervously. Still, I don't know how crazy Lona, who has clearly managed to reach maturity, can be.
- There is no need to be afraid. Even though your soul is different, you are still Lona Falldin. But... - the girl smiled seductively, but her "but" at the end made me feel cold inside.
- But? - I repeated after her, not waiting for her to continue.
- But you must pass the test. Prove that you deserve to receive my power.
"What kind of test will this be?" I asked, already beginning to pray in my mind that it would not be something perverted, because it is one thing to see rape in memories and quite another to become a direct participant.
- You recently cleared out a goblin camp in a cave using the knowledge and power you gained from my magical superstructure and also receiving help from others, but do you know what it was like without such bonuses? - Judging by her tone, it was noticeable that she was slightly offended?
Swallowing nervously, I decided to voice the unpleasant question that had arisen in me. "So you didn't always have a system?"
- Of course not! - exclaimed Lona, who seemed angry.
- Do you think these parodies of gods can't even handle their own pathetic patch of territory properly, they gave me power?! - growled Lona. - No, these two whores, having ruined everything, simply decided to shift all the responsibility onto someone else and couldn't even do that properly!
- I've died so many times that it's impossible to count them, and I don't even remember most of my lives. After all, some idiot came up with the idea of making it so that in order to preserve my memory, I had to give birth! How was an ordinary girl supposed to resolve the local apocalypse arranged by these quasi-goddesses, huh?! - With each word she became more and more heated, she was clearly furious.
- "Inhale" "exhale." - Having forcibly stopped her rage, Lona took a deep breath and exhaled. And then decided to continue. - I can't imagine how many times the cycle repeated itself, when I was lucky enough to guess such an absurd idea that the birth of a child served as a catalyst for preserving memories, and I guessed this, perhaps, due to receiving the features that a child born to me would have. In those cycles, it so happened that I managed to give birth several times in a row. And then I began to purposefully get pregnant, until I created something that these whores never dreamed of. A magical superstructure that, using a surge of energy from death, would give a chance to become stronger in the next cycle. Until finally, even the problem of the need to give birth to preserve memories was not fixed ... - she was clearly very proud of what she was able to achieve. And I was amazed. To be able to create your own system while being in such a finished world, it's just something.
- Well, almost fixed, - Lona corrected herself, wincing slightly. - The memories were sealed in the form of skills, to obtain which you had to kill...
- So... you'll find out all this yourself in the end. There's no point in retelling it. - Lona pulled herself up short, realizing that she'd talked too much. - Your task without bonuses from the magical add-on is to deal with the goblin camp in the cave, clear the cave, and you're through. Whether the slaves survive is of no concern to me.
Having set the task, she pushed me in the chest and the next moment, after a short fall, I found myself on the cold floor inside a dark, damp cave.
- Damn it. I can't see anything. - I cursed quietly, carefully getting to my feet.
"First of all, I need to figure out which cave I'm in." I thought, starting to search for the wall with my hands. However, at the moment I had only cleared two caves, one easier near Noer and another extremely difficult one under the fortress, and I really hope that they were talking about the easy one.
- Bitch. - I couldn't help but curse when, in addition to the wall, I eventually found with my hands another extremely distinctive feature that directly indicated where I was.
The wooden staircase that led from the cave up, I could still try to deceive myself that I was wrong, but it was extremely easy to get an answer. I started to climb the stairs up until I ran into a wooden hatch that I eventually opened, letting in the light that penetrated the room from the loopholes of the stone fortress, the upper part of which, fortunately for me, seemed abandoned.
"Didn't she want the test to be difficult?" I muttered, looking around the room that was filled with broken barrels.
What seemed to me to make the test so much easier? Actually, it was these very wooden barrels, they give me a chance to perform the goblin slayer tactics from the anime of the same name.
And if you consider that the hatch from which I climbed out is literally the only way out, then it's enough to go down carefully, and in a secluded corner set all this stuff on fire, and then just wait at the exit and finish off the most agile, breaking the ladder along the way to make your task even easier.
- But there's no need to rush too much. I need to sort out what I have. - I muttered thoughtfully, already habitually calling the system, only instead of the usual, the only thing I saw was the inventory that every inhabitant of this island has.
"I wonder if Magister Lona used this strange anomaly as a basis for creating her own system or something else?" I wondered, seeing that my inventory was, to put it mildly, not very rich. Just a couple of portions of dried fruits, 2 large copper coins, a piece of flint and a short blade that looked more like a dagger.
- Well, not much. - I commented on the find, and then looked around the walls until I found what I was looking for. An unlit torch that lay in the socket of the torch stand. After that, I stood up and tried to turn to the manna inside to summon a small fireball and light it, but only at that moment did a realization come to me.
There is no mana.
I can't do magic.
- Hey-ey-ey, this is not cool at all! - I started to panic a little. - I can't quickly light a fire using only a dagger and a piece of flint. And why the hell is there no magic, this is supposed to be a test for a sage, not a fucking rogue!
- So Lona, calm down, you don't have to do everything unprepared, you just need to go back to the city, buy a lantern and then everything will go like clockwork. - I tried to calm myself down and headed towards the exit of the fortress.
I was sure that by simply using the right means this test would not be a problem for me. And I was also sure that since I woke up in the middle of a cave there would be no orcs in the fortress itself.
- Scream! - suddenly they squealed disgustingly to my left when I turned the corner, and the next moment, without giving me a chance to fight back, they threw me to the ground.
- No! - I exclaimed in fear, remembering perfectly well what happens in such cases and immediately began to try to actively resist, I beat with my hands and feet, mad with fear. But now I did not have 20 points of constitution from the system. I had the most ordinary body of a 14-year-old refugee, my strength was not even enough to throw off the hand of the creature that began to tear my clothes with its claws. When I felt that my chest was completely exposed, one single sensible thought slipped through the wave of panic.
"you need to use a dagger"
A cold light flashed, and the Orcoid who had reached his victim grunted in pain when the dagger struck right in the heart area, but instead of joy, despair awaited me. That damn blade hit my ribs, and the next moment a fist hit me in the stomach, from which I almost lost consciousness, and the Orcoid growled as if warning me not to resist, tearing off the rest of my clothes with one jerk.
- Go to hell! I won't get fucked by such a nasty thing like you! - I growled, realizing that I couldn't do anything to him anymore, having initially made a mistake when I tried to plunge the dagger into his chest instead of his throat, which was now out of reach.
But I didn't intend to be raped in a damn illusion!
A cold light flashed, and then a puzzled roar was heard in the corridor of the fortress from Orkoid, who was now leaning over the rapidly bleeding girl, who had plunged a dagger into her chin. It was obvious that she was already dead.
***
- You haven't even been raped yet, and you've already chosen to commit suicide. You couldn't have survived what I did. - the voice of the sage Lona reached me in a tone full of contempt, after which I suddenly woke up in the middle of a stone cave at the very beginning of the test.