Such appetite! Now, I was talking to him, hiding my weapon, so that it was impossible to tell what type of weapon I have. Generally, I preferred to move in this mode, developing the habit of “masking". The weapon would be exposed almost instantly, plus its state did not affect the use of spells in any way. So, I wasn't going to show my weapon in front of a stranger.

"Yes, I understand.” - The Earth mage agreed with my argument. For people like him, the word ‘trade secret’ meant the most valuable thing a player could have. After all, it was the ability to make money that determines successfulness of the Earth mage

“Listen, how did you get here?” - I decided to clarify an important moment for myself.

"On the boat. In the north of the island there is a pier from which you can reach the Crab Island.”

“Super!” - I was happy. - "At least now I know how to get out of here."

"The ticket costs ten silver, though.”

I almost started “coughing up blood " from this amount. In three hours, I knocked out a little more than thirty silver.

“Damn! How can they be so greedy? Ten silver per trip!”

“But this price eliminates competitors.” – Dramg shrugged. - "So, how did you get here?"

"I got carried by water current.” - I smiled.

"How you able to catch the tidal current?" - Dramg asked.

"Rather, it caught me."

“That is... so, it was just luck?” - There was a hint of disappointment in my companion's voice.

“What do you mean, just luck? Luck is the main characteristic of Air mages.” - I offended.

"So, are you an Air mage?” - The Earth mage asked with a dangerous note in his voice.

"Are you one of them?" - I asked hastily.

"Which ones?" – Dramg’s eyes hatched, somehow embarrassed.

“Air-haters?”

"Uh...no. It's a complicated topic. However, what you think about me?”

"Well... I think you're nerd, but in general, it is not problem.”

“Nerd?” - He asked blankly.

“Yes. All adepts of Earth are boring types who pay too much attention to small monotonous details.”

"Do Air mages always think only of great things?" - My opponent chuckled in an unexpected philosophical debate.

“No. Air mages pay attention to small, but unique details, able to turn the whole situation. The adepts of Fire dreams of great achievements. Do not feed these people with bread, let them perform some feat.”

“Ha-ha. That's for sure.” - Dramg laughed. – “You are able to describe the essence of the elements in just a few words.”

"Well...” - I put my hands on my hips. - “... talent can't be drunk! Okay, I think we should get back to clearing the area of pirates. I'm going to keep cleaning the catacombs. Good luck.”

“Good bye.” - Dramg nodded into the empty space, because I hid in one of the corridors.

For the next five hours, I continued to farm of pirates. It was a dull business, but profitable. Along the way, I tried to find where the local “dungeon boss” was hiding, but I couldn't find him. I've already searched all the caves from top to bottom, but I couldn't find the main rebel or his treasury. I decided to get out of the caves, because my inventory was completely clogged with weapons falling from the pirates. I discovered this only when I couldn't pick up another “green” gun. I had to look through the contents of my “backpack” and throw out a strange “gray” dagger. Gray meant "broken" or "worn" things. They could only be thrown out or sold to NPC.

After checking the value of each item in the inventory, I decided to get out. I should have found NPC who could buy all this garbage. Although pirates were “neutral” creatures, this only meant that they could be attacked and killed. But you could also trade with them if your “reputation" allowed it. For every killed rebel, I got one reputation point with the Crooked Sword pirates. According to this counter, I've already killed 196 pirates. On the way out, I cleared two more pairs of rebels, bringing the reputation to a beautiful number 200.

In the village of pirates, I started asking the villagers about who could buy good weapons. Most of the pirates simply waved me off, but a few were kind enough to explain that there was a merchant in the village who lived on the outskirts of the north side. No one pointed out the exact place, but I just brazenly broke into one house after another, until I came across a dugout, inside which in front of me was a typical counter and a sly-faced man behind him.

I haggled like a lion for the weapons, but in the end the merchant added one copper coin to the original price. For just 90 weapons, I got about 11 silver. It was much less than expected, but considering the lack of talisman slots in these weapons, it did cost no more than 12-13 copper coins apiece.

“Do you have a yellow or green orthoclase on sale?” - I asked. Normally, crystals would only fall from bosses, but in high-level areas, low-level crystals could be purchased from a merchant. However, this in no way disturbed the balance of the game, due to a fairly simple circumstance.

“Of course. A yellow orthoclase costs five silver, and a green one costs thirty.”

At the first level, the price of five silver was simply too high, so it was easier to knock out the talisman from the boss or buy it from another player. I saw a yellow orthoclase on the market for 50 copper. But the price of the second stone pierced my heart.

"Thirty silver?!!" - I exclaimed, clutching my heart. – “Where do these prices come from?”

"What did you want?" - The merchant replied calmly. – “Yellow ones are quite common. But getting green is almost impossible. Thirty is still a good price. Take it before I change my mind.”

This bug is trying to shake up money using such dirty tricks.

“Well.” - I sighed miserably. – “I need one yellow orthoclase.”

Five silver coins appeared on the counter and were immediately swept away by NPCs hand.

“Take.”

I also grabbed a rock and began to study its characteristics. Yellow orthoclase was needed to create a talisman with the Discharge spell. It dealt 30 damage, and for one of them, it would stun with paralysis for half second, which was great for interrupting the use of abilities. This spell was used instantly and had a three-second cooldown. If you use the green orthoclase, the stun time increases to one second, making this spell much more useful. After all, this meant that for one second out of three, the enemy would just stand still. However, there was a negative side of this spell. It was only used at a distance of one meter and had no target, so it was easy to miss when using it. After all, “instant” cast meant the duration of the cast in a quarter of a second. And in close combat, this is quite a lot.

"By the way, do you have a red garnet?" - I asked the merchant, throwing the orthoclase into my inventory.

“Of course, I have. Seven silver.”

"How much?!!” - I shouted. Although red garnet was considered a higher-class stone, it was much more common. – “With these prices, you can sell stones to your clansmen. How much will they buy?”

Angrily, I turned and headed out of the store.

"All right, five silver.” - The merchant's worried voice came from behind me. Such a bug.

"Five silvers, and you give me a red garnet and a belt for talismans." - I put forward a counter-offer.

“Belt with two cells.” - The merchant immediately clarified.

Such equipment was designed for first-level players, and it cost mere pennies.

“Agree.” - I agreed to the terms of the deal, putting the money on the counter.

A second later, I got the stone and the belt. Talismans could be placed in weapons and on the belt. Starting from the sixth level, the belt had six cells, and the weapon had two cells. At the tenth level, you could take a belt with eight cells, but at the same time the talisman could no longer be inserted into the weapon. A player could have a maximum of eight active talismans. Some types of high-ranked weapons did not have slots, and then players had to make a lot of effort in order to find a belt with eight cells.

A two - cell belt was the standard for the first level. Each class had the opportunity to learn three skills. Two were placed in the belt and one in the weapon. I had two talismans in my weapon, and two more could be stuffed into my belt. If necessary, I could use all talismans with the same spells in them. For me, this meant that I could take two or even three Discharge spells and continuously keep enemies in a stun state. However, there was a feature in the game's mechanics that did not allow you to keep your enemies under continuous control. After all, then it turned out that, having struck the first blow, the aggressor received a guaranteed victory simply because the victim in principle could not leave the stun, and eight talismans allow to maintain this state of control indefinitely.

To avoid this, each time the target came out of “unconsciousness”, it received a half-second invulnerability for any type of control other than slowing down. And after that, for another one and a half seconds, the invulnerability to a specific type of control. The Discharge spell would paralyze the target with electricity. The Paralysis spell did the same, only its effect lasted ten seconds, but could be removed by taking damage. So, warrior's stun skill would stun the target for one second. This was a different type of impact, so in a team fight, you could paralyze your opponent for half a second, and after another half a second, stun them for a second. As a result, it was possible to organize a cycle lasting 2.5 seconds, in which the enemy could not do anything in a 1.5 second.