Chapter 3: Bear

So we yelled at each other for about three seconds, and then I grabbed the sword that was so conveniently on the ground, picked it up and started rattling it on the knight's helmet. He hesitated, mumbled something and tried to cover his head with his hands, but I mercilessly drummed metal on metal until, through the clang and rumble, I heard a heart-rending:

- I beg you, stop it! Enough! Stop!

Well, and so on and in the same spirit.

He did not receive any damage, except for moral, at all. The strip of his health was as full as it was, and it remained, and the stupid [Immunity] flashed before my eyes. In the end, I realized that at this rate I would simply run out of steam waving a kilogram of metal and I would be kicked with steel boots, and therefore I needed to think about how to get the unfortunate Dorg Dan out of my mud house.

At some point, I noticed the articulation of the armor and plunged the blade into them with all my might. It didn't go very deep, most likely it rested on the chain mail, but it's not so scary, the main thing is a pleasant view of the wavering health strip of my opponent.

[Critical damage!]

Mmm... Wonderful!

Dorg Dan screamed like a pig, and then completely sobbed, either from pain or from fear. He stopped resisting and just muttered something there, which I didn't quite hear. It was, like, a prayer, but, again, I didn't hear it.

I stabbed the unfortunate one more time and, having made sure. that his health bar dropped to a quarter, he stopped picking at this tin can. The guy did not immediately realize that everything had stopped, but still forty seconds later he came to his senses and to a relatively sober mind.

- Take off the helmet - so that it would be more convenient to sew on in case of something.

The unfortunate knight obediently pulled off the bucket, from under which a dark blue face in a hood of chain mail appeared. Well, wow, the first aborigine and immediately a dark elf, but this is luck! That's why he was a girl, but then he was unlucky, so unlucky.

But okay, joy aside, we have a life-and-death battle here. I took a deep breath and put my sword to the elf's nose.

- Are you alone?

Darg Dan shook his head and, trembling with horror and fear, spoke in a squeaky voice:

"N-no, there are three of us... Teacher, me and brother.

Yeah, that is, a little earlier I managed to get acquainted either with his brother or with his teacher, it's a pity they couldn't compare the raincoats, I didn't pay attention to something, because the teacher should be at least somehow different from them? If all these three iron men are the same, then I was just lucky to catch the unfortunate, stupid and indecisive Dorg Dan. Lucky, nothing to say.

"Will they come here?"

"N-shouldn't, it's mine... The first dungeon... It wasn't supposed to end... So - he looked sadly at me and the sword at his nose - To interfere with the passage of the dungeon of the first level would be an insult...

Ha... This is really a beginner, level twelve, but still a beginner, quite green, even a flower, if I may say so.

Something I didn't want to kill him, it's unlikely he will be reborn, after all, only I, and presumably other keepers, have spare, so to speak, lives. Okay, I'm not some kind of monster, I'll wait until this boy grows up, gets rich, and then he comes to me with a more obvious desire to kill, and I'll finish him there.

By the way, he and I are of a similar build, of course, I am a little taller, but I really hope that the armor will suit me, or maybe the system will adjust it for me, as it was with the wand... In general, yeah.

- Get undressed.

The elf hesitated.

- Take off your armor - I said a little more sternly and rested the tip of the sword on Dorg Dan's nose.

The elf got caught malleable, weak-willed, but savvy, because he managed to understand that it's worth listening to someone who pokes you in the nose with a sharp thing.

He slowly pulled off his gloves, began to dig in the chest area, and then, with a look full of submission and fear, asked me to get off him. Well, yes, undressing with someone on your stomach is problematic, after all, we are not even in bed. A few minutes later, a pile of metal was lying in front of me, and the elf himself was standing a little apart from her in only trousers. Yes, he also had to take off his assistant.

A small skinny guy with huge goblin ears. Well, now I can understand his pleas to stop. I can't even imagine what satanic symphonies he heard with those ears inside his bucket during our brief battle. By the way, he healed his wounds quite smartly, with magic, if I understood everything correctly. I suspected that there was such a thing here, but seeing instant regeneration with my own eyes is quite another matter, these are not toys in which wounds are reflected only on the health strip...

"I... can I m-go?" - quietly, timidly.

- Where to?

- To the l-camp, to the teacher...

- So that he comes and cuts off my head? No, just sit here for now - and if you look from the other side, it just won't work to keep him here forever, if there is a camp here, then most likely his teacher and brother will come to see sooner or later where Dorg Danchik has gone. And if you look at everything from a third party, then they actually tried to kill me, even if they tried very badly, but they tried, so I have every right to sew the baby and think about the consequences when they come.

And with the fourth... I looked up at the guy who was shivering in the summer breeze... I have crippled many people in my "life before", beaten them, even cut them off a little, but never a naked, trembling child. A dent...

"But I've already given everything I could... There's nothing more to take from me! - the kid said a little bolder and threw up empty hands.

- You can still be stripped of a couple of elf ears and a little experience, so don't cackle to me here.

The guy quieted down and grabbed his head.

Mmda... What should I do with you, you unlucky little asshole? If I were a girl, I would have taken it to the harem, but here... The dilemma.

I sat down on my chest, rested my eyes on the mountain of armor and thought.

You can give him his armor and take only a sword for yourself, and take him to his relatives in this form, they say, "The sword missed, there was nothing in the cave, he will forgive-sorry." Judging by the appearance, the boy is rich, so he is unlikely to be much scolded for some kind of sword. In addition, in this scenario, you can keep at least this trio away from my house for some time, if not forever at all.

But if you prioritize, then armor, objectively, is much more valuable than a sword, there is more metal there. And they look decent, if he is the son of a local big shot, then they will forgive him for his armor, but here's the bad luck - he will come to the camp naked and what will he say? "I was robbed and humiliated by a first-level mob here!" - is that it?

- Em... Excuse me...

- Don't bother, I think!

No, it won't work that way, honor is not honor, if he comes naked, the teacher and brother will want to find out why he came the way he came. Maybe refer to the bandits?

- Boy, are there bandits here?

"N-no," he answered at my ear, "t-only wild animals and m-m-monsters.

Oblomingo, the squirrels couldn't exactly rip him off like that, which means everyone will immediately understand that something is unclean in the dungeon, and once they understand, they will come, do it cleanly and open the chest, and this cannot be allowed, oh, it's impossible.

"I-I'm sorry... there."..

Oh, the dent... Just don't tell me that there's dangerous stuff in front of the entrance to my cave.

- What is... "There"? - I looked up and saw a bear with deer antlers passing by.

[Crooked-horned bear, level 21]

I abruptly dived behind my trunk and pulled this poor guy up to me. There's not much space, but we don't seem to be quite visible, at least something.

- What didn't you say earlier?!

- I tried!

- I tried badly! If you see a bear, you whisper "Bear", not "Sorry, sorry"!

Dorg Dan was quiet.

- I'll know... I won't let you down next time...

- There may not be a next time! - for you, it may not be just for you, the big-eared miracle.

In principle, this is the denouement of the whole story. The valiant Dorg Dan was devoured by a bear, his armor disappeared, disappeared into thin air, I really want to believe that loot works here. To heighten the realism, I'll throw out the shell and helmet, well, I'll tear off a little bit of chain mail, the movements are too much, I'm used to being agile and fast, and I adhere to the idea "It's better not to take damage at all than to take it in armor."

It remains only to push the boy to the bear and everything will be a bundle.

I had already put my hand on his shoulder, he trembled slightly and looked at me with his childish eyes and waved his ears. A dent, a dishonest trick, and what's even worse - it worked!

[Invasion!]

Oh... The bear didn't pass by, that's sh...

[Danger! The heart of the Dungeon is under threat!]

Stop-stop-stop, where to?!

I looked out of the shelter and immediately then the swelling. This animal, literally, was digging up my hiding place! Here, dent, it's no longer up to the bluish boys, the question is already about life and death!

- Stay here!

I whispered, it was not enough that he still got in the way, and then he emerged from hiding and ran to the bear with shouts and insults. Quickly, even before the little animal had time to recover, I stabbed him with a sword anywhere, but it hit the bone, which made the wound come out not deep at all. He just got angry, there is no need to talk about fatal damage.

With a blow of his paw, this miracle threw me against the wall of the cave.

A flash of pain in the whole body, a blow to the head, darkness, the bear is already behind. It's convenient to be immortal, you can't say anything!

- A toy from the bookstore, I'm here! - the bear turned around, was slightly surprised, but did not give a sign and immediately chased me.

Of course I ran away. Well, now all hope for the title and endurance, with this opponent, neither Cunning nor Surprise will help me, and the sword, apparently, did not work, only my legs remained.