Life for a squad courier in the Zone is full of dangers no less than those faced by a lone stalker. There are anomalies, monsters, mutants of all kinds. And of course, bandits.
So one day the veteran stalker, nicknamed Byryuk, finds himself in a hopeless situation. Because of someone’s betrayal from his own side, he ends up in the hands of bandits. There’s only one thing left to do: prepare for death. But then the Zone’s legends begin to come alive. First, the “Black Monk” with a rifle scope eliminates the bandits and saves Byryuk.
But later the “Black Monk” turns out to be simply a Jesuit monk returning after the war to his native village in the Exclusion Zone. Then the monk introduces Byryuk to his childhood friend—really, to a “Zone legend”: Byur’er, who is not a monster and not a mutant, but the last surviving goblin from the Chernobyl clan. Byryuk agrees to help transport him to his fellow goblins, though he doesn’t yet know where or how.
But this is only the beginning—there’s more ahead: goblin clans, Scottish “highlanders,” dark and light elves… all of this is still coming.