Might as Well

There was no time for anything else. Sam used the momentary lapse of attention that his surprise question netted him, and nailed the gaping woman with a simple wind spear, aimed directly at her heart.

She had a moment to realize what had happened and the next second, Sam watched as the demented and cursed life flowed out of her eyes.

Falling to the floor like a marionette that has its strings cut and with her, the magic in the room was gone, too.

It swirled around in an anticlimactic manner before sinking down to the level of the floor and into the blood left there. The blood shined brightly and Sam took a big step backward, not wanting to be in the radius of anything that was going to happen. But in the end, the blood simply burst into black flames and while it burned, Sam could hear a demented laughter in the distance.

As soon as the flames were out, he could see the ash on the ground, the barely existent breeze in this underground complex already messing up the circle that it was.

He spent a few minutes looking around to see if the final fight dropped anything, but it seemed the system deemed him too powerful for the fracture thus the demented demonic woman also only dropped a few reagents.

‘Pity…’

Then he turned his attention to the notification screen.

[Congratulations, you cleared the Ruined Tower Basement]

[Exit: Yes/No]

[Warning: If no decision is made within 30 minutes, the fracture will collapse and automatically eject the players!]

For now, he clicked on no and spent a few extra minutes by noting down the remaining runes that hadn’t been disturbed yet. The circle would be incomplete, but at least this way he would have access to some demonic runes for later. Plus, thanks to his future knowledge, he understood a little of the chanting so he knew what the purpose of the ritual was, so if he wanted he could, theoretically, restore it.

He found himself back in the same basement where he started with an additional notification.

[You defeated the final boss before they could activate their ritual. As the final boss was aware they were in a Fracture, you – with this action – have broken the Fracture. Fracture: Ruined Tower Basement has been destroyed.]

Sam whirled around, just in time to see the portal behind him sputter a few sparks and then blink out of existence.

[Extra Experience points have been awarded for the deed!]

Sam just blinked and dismissed the prompts. He cast out his Mana Sense and had Lucky smell around to see if anyone was there. The only thing he could somewhat sense was the very faint signature that followed him from the capital.

Relieved that he was still alone, almost expecting an entire army waiting when he emerged from the fracture, he found the nearest chair-size rock and plopped down on it unceremoniously. Lucky walked around a little, then he also laid down next to Sam, just in patting range.

He did so while opening the system and checking up on his gains. He had a weird feeling that this initiation-slash-test thing would more than likely escalate, and he wanted to see what he was working with. According to the forums, the highest leveled player was around the high sixties, which meant the power players were nearing Level 75, the first hurdle. Until then the leveling requirements were pretty linear, but at seventy-five until hundred that changed into a very steep exponential curve.

It was when the first players reached that barrier that the general public realized that the game wasn’t really intended for power players who chased after levels, and that foundation and skill control were much more important.

Granted, most smart people realized that and the guilds were probably having a conniption fit right around now when their scholars and researchers became aware of these exact issues, but the chaos would be truly ignited when this information trickled down to the ignorant masses.

According to his inherited memories, the game devs and the company behind Magic Unbound would weather the storm but there were moments when it was touch and go after they came out with their no character reset policy. It was either to continue with the seemingly gimped character or make a completely new one.

It was not a popular decision, but the devs stood by it.

He couldn’t wait to see it happen. So many guild businesses started at that moment that took off like rockets… Which he would copy like nobody’s business. There was money to be made, and he was going to be the person who made that money.

[Congratulations! You’ve leveled up!]

[You are now Level 44!]

[Gained 4 unassigned attribute points!]

[Gained 1 AGI for tearing through your targets!]

[Gained 1 DEX for being so accurate!]

After a moment of indecision, he quickly assigned his points, refusing to store them for later. Two went to STR to bring it up to the level of the others, still keeping his build pretty uniform. He planned to do this at least until thirty, but who knows what might happen?

Then one to PER and another to WIS. He took a moment to forlornly stare at his abysmal Luck but there was nothing to do about that. You can’t make yourself luckier. Plus, he was pretty sure the system was holding a grudge against him. Having a luck value of thirteen for so long was pretty suspicious.

[Mana Manipulation is now Level 35!]

[Mana Shield is now Level 74!]

[Mana Tempered Body is now Level 35!]

[Mana Gaze is now Level 12!]

[Controlled Slash is now Level 5!]

[Triple Mana Slash is now Level 5!]

[Mana Body Enhancement is now Level 70!]

[Synchronization is now Level 3!]

[Spell Layering is now Level 20!]

[Mana Construct is now Level 24!]

[Light Ball III is now Level 6!]

[Clean IV is now Level 8!]

[Ground Shake is now Level 5!]

The first part was pretty mundane. Some numbers went up, and he was looking forward to what skill he would get once he managed to max out the Triple Mana Slash skill.

[Wind Manipulation is now Level 17!]

[Aerodynamic is now Level 4!]

[Greater Wind Affinity is now Level 20!]

[Silent Casting is now Level 4!]

An expected increase, but nothing amazing. After all, he didn’t have to struggle much to reach this point. However, the next few notifications managed to get Sam to smile a little while he patted his companion’s head, who was very much enjoying the attention based on the panting sounds.

[Spirit Link is now Level 47!]

[Spirit Connection is now Level 5!]

He couldn’t wait until the Spirit Link was maxed out. The other Sam never managed to reach that kind of level, but every summoner who was brave enough to bare their skills to the public claimed that Spirit Link was the basis of much of their success.

Granted, that was one type of summoner, but he was trying to emulate them and not those who had thousands of different summons for every possible scenario. It was much easier to build up the skill with only one summon.

[Advanced Shadow Footwork is now Level 17!]

[Shadow Grace is now Level 9!]

[Shadow Burst II is now Level 6!]

[Shadow Mirage is now Level 22!]

[Shadow Transformation is now Level 20!]

[Shadow Shield II is now Level 3!]

[Shadow Cloud is now Level 6!]

[Greater Shadow Affinity is now Level 16!]

[Shadowstride is now Level 3!]

Another good haul. He was growing well with his shadow skill, however, sadly the same chance to upgrade his skill as he did with his wind magic was too far away for him now. The capital had a trainer in Shadow magic, but not a master who could help him evolve. Capital cities mostly had the opportunity for the players to upgrade their basic affinities and they needed to seek out trainers or opportunities to upgrade the more niche affinities. Shadow was in the middle, but in Sam’s inherited memories he knew someone who had Fear affinity mana and had to go through hell several times before they managed to upgrade it.

[Advanced Sword Mastery is now Level 19!]

[Basic Armor Mastery is now Level 55!]

[Resistant Armor is now Level 2!]

[Flow is now Level 54!]

[Controlled Flow is now Level 1!]

[Surprise Strike is now Level 9!]

[Corruption Resistance is now Level 12!]

[Shadow Resistance is now Level 20!]

[Multitasking is now Level 95!]

[Journeyman Runecarver is now Level 14!]

Satisfied with his growth, he gave the rest of the screens a once over, made sure that his meager loot was organized from the Fracture, and then stood up while stopping the patting of Lucky’s head who noted this with a small whine, but returned to his shadow in short order.

Sword still in hand, he looked around to make sure he didn’t miss anything, but after seeing nothing he let out a breath and with senses spread to the maximum, he headed toward the same hole he entered the basement.

It took a short jump, helped by the wind to arrive in the crumbling tower. The scene was the same as he left it, with one very stark difference.

Right outside of the tower, leaning against a chest-height crumbling wall, was a person.

They looked middle-aged in a dark uniform that had no identifying marks with their hands crossed in front of them. They had dark hair that was kept short and Sam could see the effect of sun on their skin, indicating that they spent a lot of time outside.

‘Probably my escort…’

Before he could speak up, the man shoved himself away from the wall, stepped forward, and gave him a shallow bow.

“Congratulations! You managed to complete the task assigned to you. Are you ready for the next one?”

Sam waved away the quest complete notification and eyed the man. A brief check with his Mana Sense told him that he had no chance in hell even harming a hair on the man. The mana inside him was like an overbearing mountain, tinged with the ferociousness of a volcano. The only indication that the other man noted what Sam did was a small raise of an eyebrow, but otherwise, he ignored it as he waited for Sam’s answer.

Sam, knowing he had no choice if he wanted to complete his goals, nodded and returned the bow, a little shallower just to spite the man. When he saw the small twitch in his escort’s eye, he had to suppress his smirk.

“I’m ready.”

The man nodded and continued.

“Your next task is to survive,” he stated, and within two blinks, vanished.

Sam stood there and let out a sigh. “At least they didn’t teleport me again…”

After another look around, he found his escort, his mana now more familiar at the edge of his senses. Now, he was pretty sure the man stayed exactly there to make sure Sam knew he was there but could hide from him if he needed. It was pretty freaky…

Then he turned his attention to the notification he ignored.

[You completed the quest: Demonic Demonstration!]

[Your reward is to participate in another test. Lucky you! Very Lucky!]

[New quest acquired!

[The Test of the Survivor!]

[Another mysterious person from the mysterious organization has given you a task. Very spooky. Also very creepy. Make sure you survive! Of what? Who knows…]

[Time Limit: Death or ???]

[Reward Mysterious]

[Penalty: Death]

Dismissing the screen, he looked around, hands on his hips. “Now what?”

Not knowing any better and not finding anything that he should survive around the ruins, Sam gave up and simply began heading back to the capital. At first, he wanted to do the journey on Lucky’s back, but the task he was given made him paranoid, so he simply used his shadow magic to cover himself and used wind mana to glide along the ground. Well, it was running with extra-large steps, but it was still enough for him to cross a rather large amount of space.

By his estimate, he was around halfway through the forest, near a small rocky outcropping, when he felt the need to stop a little and have a small snack. With a hop, skip, and jump, he was on the outcropping, covered by the rocks themselves from one side and the mountain on the other.

He quickly summoned Lucky, put out the wolf’s food, and then retrieved a canteen of water and a sandwich.

It only took a few minutes to polish off the midday snack and as Sam idly waited for his wolf companion to lick their bowl clean, he cast out his Mana Sense once again.

However, this time, he felt something.

Sam froze, closed his eyes, and focused on the skill.

He could sense at least a dozen people with the putrid mana leaking from them in small amounts, yet the rest of their mana was pretty well hidden.

‘Assassins!’

At first, he hoped that they weren’t after him, but then the quest came to his mind and realized that the assassins were definitely after him. However, Sam couldn’t help but frown. The enemy after him wasn’t strong enough to cause much trouble. That wasn’t exactly the greatest test…

Straining himself even more, he thinned out the mana that made up the Mana Sense spell and cast it out farther. The return information would degrade exponentially, but he only wanted to know if there were more people behind the assassins.

As the signatures began to appear on his senses, arrayed in a half circle exactly in the direction he was going, he couldn’t help but curse.

“So the demonic assassins are bait…” he mused as he retracted his mana sense and returned his attention to his would-be hunters. “How should I turn around this trap?”

There was no question to him about who was behind the trap. There was only one person he pissed off and influential enough who could accomplish this.

For a few minutes, Sam rested, making sure that his satiety was full and there would be no issue with going into battle and then stood up, stretching a little. He cracked his neck to the left and then to the right.

“Alright, Lucky. Let’s go ruin some assholes’ day!”