Might as Well

Immediately after logging in, she made sure to check her ensemble in the mirror of the room she was renting. Seeing everything was in place and wardrobe malfunction was not possible (she wasn’t one of those ‘bathtub’ streamers), her blue hair was still blue and even her limited make-up was still in one place, she nodded and turned towards the table in the middle of the room.

The room itself was nothing special, though thanks to her connections, which themselves were the result of her completing the quest she ‘received’, she could afford to rent one of the more expensive inns, with wide rooms, quality beds and actual baths. It cost some money to rent it, but she felt it was worth it.

Nonetheless, she wasn’t shy about making use of the opportunities to make money, thus being able to stream much more interesting things than the other streamers. Her popularity was climbing at a steady pace, though she was realistic enough to realize some of it was because she was a girl streamer, but she couldn’t do much about that…

On the table were several curious objects, a small box-like object, made of blueish-silver crystalline matter with several parts made of metal, three semi-spherical objects made from the same blueish-silver matter, and a spear with the head of the spear made from the same material.

She first took the small box, slipped it into an equally sized satchel that hung on her belt and instantly a notifications screen lit up in front of her.

[Energy Shield Activated!]

[Crystalline Energy Matrix Integrity 89%!]

Nodding to herself, making a note to herself to do some maintenance on the battery, she raised her left arm and poked at her very normal-looking bracelet.

Instantly, she was greeted by a holographic screen showing three lines.

[Crystalline Drone Number 00016 – Activate?]

[Crystalline Drone Number 00027 – Activate?]

[Crystalline Drone Number 00034 – Activate?]

Without hesitating, she touched the screen three times, and the lines vanished, replaced by an hourglass. Moving her attention from the small screen to the table, she watched with a satisfied smile as the remaining spherical artifacts on it shivered, then a small blue light flashed through them and slowly, but surely, began to hover about the table.

A second later, their awkward hovering was replaced by a much more confident hovering, accompanied by a slight hum that always comforted her.

The drones were rather cute, in her opinion. They were each the size of a medium medicine ball made of two bigger parts. Their brains were composed of a bluish-silver spherical crystal material that she used her power on, basically programming them. And the spherical material was held in a cradle of metal that had a small but cute face designed on it while two little stubs of metal with their own tiny balls of crystal hovered next to the drone as arms. It had taken her several iterations before she was satisfied with their cuteness and functionality.

And based on her fans' reactions (and the multitude of fanart) she had made a good decision.

One of the drones was for shooting at the enemy, another created somewhat solid shields on her prompting and the last one created chains that immobilized (at most slowed them down, but she hoped with a few level-ups it would truly immobilize) enemies.

With the three drones hovering over her shoulder, dipping and bobbing, she took up the spear which was also her creation. One part spear, one part magical foci.

As of now, thanks to her obsession with getting the drones right, she could barely do more than a few Magic Missiles and such, but one of her contacts has mentioned they had a lead on a crystal-based spell book so she was pretty pumped.

Doing a final check, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes for a minute, then exhaled and activated her streaming app.

Putting a blinding smile on her face, she exclaimed, “Hello everyone! This is SummerRose and today we are going to check out that scaaaary forest!”

As she headed towards the door, the drones following her, she began to read the comments and started answering her fans.

All in all, she was feeling pretty good.

“Slathy! Go for the middle one!”

The giant rabbit, now the size of a big child, didn’t show any reaction that it had heard Stephen’s order, instead, the rabbit immediately opened his maw, with teeth almost the size of a child’s forearm, and jumped at the lizard monster he indicated.

Soon, their group was standing in the middle of the cavern, all around them corpses of the lizard monsters while their pets and companions were either lazing around or curiously sniffing the corpses or the rock and detritus thrown around.

After he became a team with Slathor, Destroyer of Worlds, all of his friends decided that pets were cute so why shouldn’t they also get one?

So, excited at the opportunity, he took them back to the ranger who helped him, and after completing the quest to gather enough funds to pay the rangers to help them out, all of them got their own pets.

Kim also got a rabbit, which made him happy, as it allowed him to spend more time with her. Though based on some of the looks he was getting from his friends, he wasn’t really hiding his intentions too well.

Oh, well… Kim wasn’t complaining, so he wouldn’t say anything.

The others got an assortment of other pets: wolves, bears, some more rabbits, somebody got a falcon, and one guy got a snake.

It was a very judgemental snake.

Stephen felt judged every time the snake looked at him.

Those eyes…

As they walked out of the cave, bringing with them the spoils of their fights, they got to talking.

“These animals are pretty great! I can’t believe Stephen had such a good idea!”

“Hey! Watch the name!”

“Sorry, I mean Cactus…”

“Hell yeah! My bear is the cutest of them all! But you know what we should do?”

“What?”

“We should make a guild for people with animal companions!”

There was a moment of silence as everybody digested the proposal, and then the area was full of people talking.

Apparently, everyone agreed.

Stephen just walked with Slathor next to him, hopping cheerfully (yet menacingly) forward, and looked at his friends happily.

A guild sounded awesome!

Dave struck down with his halberd, listened to the satisfying crunch that the troll’s head made, then looked over the ‘battlefield’.

His elite kill team, empowered by the Life of Blood skill books, and the skill books that the Life of Blood skill books netted them, were going through the trolls like a scythe through fresh barley.

It was a stroke of genius to create the team. It contained all his most loyal minions, all of them criminals for life, and he had enough dirt on them that none of them would even think about betraying him.

The creation of the group was already paying dividends.

Thanks to being a small group, a lot of other guilds thought them weak and tried to muscle into their farming territory. But thanks to the power of his elite team, they were all soundly defeated, or stalled long enough for the rest of his group to arrive.

As his team finished the last trolls, he spotted his assistant in rather stupid-looking mage robes walking towards him with a frown on his face.

‘Probably not good news then…’ he thought, then called out to the man. “What is it?”

“We still can’t find him,” came the simple response.

For a moment Dave was confused. “Who?”

“Solar.”

“I still don’t remember…”

“The guy who could use the sword and magic at the same time and killed one of our quote-unquote bandit groups,” his assistant explained patiently.

“Ah! Why the hell not?”

“He simply vanished. For a little while we could follow him in Ironwood, but then…”

“I see…” he mused, bringing up his hand to scratch his chin. ‘Should I grow a badass beard?’

“Should we continue to look for him?”

Dave thought about it a little but then shook his head.

“Nah! Leave him be. He was a big shot then, but we are plenty strong. Especially with the money rolling in.”

“Understood, sir,” his assistant replied and, based on the movement of his fingers, he was already sending messages.

“How are we with the income from the skill books?” Dave asked, his mind back on the piles of gold they were raking in every day.

There was a moment of silence as his assistant checked something, then he answered. “Still holding around seven thousand gold coins. It fluctuates a little every time a bigger guild or workshop joins the game, but I think it won’t go higher.”

“And the gold farmers?”

“Real money is traded currently for ten to fifteen gold.”

Dave worked over those statements in his head, doing a little math, then looked over the battlefield and his men as they were harvesting the trolls. They weren’t just valuable for their drops, but even for their bodies.

Sadly, they were getting fewer and fewer experience points for killing them, and they killed them too fast. Their respawn timer was just too long. They would probably need to expand their hunting grounds.

Making a decision he turned towards his assistant.

“Put out a call to the people we know that we are looking for players. We need more muscle.” The assistant began to make notes, and he continued to issue orders. “Also, start planning a second elite team. Equipment, skill books and the contracts.”

“Yes, Sir! Anything else?”

Spotting a troll lumbering out of the forest, he shook his head and, with a roar, launched himself at the monster, his halberd raised high, ready to strike true.

The studio was well lit, with all the bright lights and background items that one would expect a news program to use that was geared towards presenting news about games.

In the middle was a curved desk, all shiny and clean, and behind the desk sat an exceptionally beautiful woman. Her blond hair was carefully arranged around her head, her makeup was picture-perfect, her assets were artistically covered, and she was speaking with a smile that was worth millions.

With the advent of the VR gaming scene came the need for information gathering and sharing said information. Thus the creation of internet channels on video sites that dealt with news about games. Then those, slowly over the years, grew into actual TV channels with everything that entailed.

Including pretty presenter people.

“Welcome everyone, to tomorrow’s news today!” she spoke up, with a steady voice, looking directly into the camera. “This is Katie Marchik, and you are watching TGN!”

The video changed, showing the woman from a different angle, and next to her head was a small window showing a graph that had several very vibrant red lines going up high.

“Future Unknown’s recently released game, Magic Unbound, is continuing its rise in popularity. According to the statistics that were published by the developers themselves, and correlated by several independent watch groups, the game’s popularity has risen by two hundred percent.”

A small banner appeared on the bottom of the screen and the presenter smiled.

“If you want to know more, please visit our site for more detailed information!”

The scene changed again, and the window next to her head was showing several people standing in line in front of a shop.

“Current research suggests that there is a steady decline in games sold, as Magic Unbound is currently dominating the gaming market. It seems, with the high fidelity and very complicated levelling system, this new game has managed to grab everybody’s attention. Both young and old.”

The woman smiled, shuffled the papers in front of her, and then continued speaking.

“Our research also suggests that many gaming workshops, including GoldenHare, BambooShoots and Silent Step, have made a decision to move their focus onto the game and leave behind their current games. As you know, these workshops boast memberships in thousands and have several experts in their ranks. Their move will definitely boost the game’s popularity even further!”

The woman paused for a moment, followed by an impish smile appearing on her face.

“Of course, this fame also aroused the interest of the corporate world. TGN has the word that several corporate research teams have been reviewing the possibilities that the game, Magic Unbound, could provide.”

The studio lights flashed a little, and when the lights died down to their previous intensity, the scene was changed back to the first one, with Katie sitting behind the desk, smiling at the camera.

“And now, thanks to Future Unknown, we here at TGN are proud to present the latest trailer for Magic Unbound with actual footage from the game. Future Unknown has assured us that they used footage from real players and none of them were beta players! So, my dear watchers can rest assured you will be seeing real gameplay!”

The scene began to darken, and the woman spoke one last sentence.

“After the trailer, I’ll be here, and we’ll be talking with an expert in martial arts about them in the game Magic Unbound. Happy watching!”

The video darkened fully, showing a fully black screen for a second, and then it was filled with all manner of colors swirling, while rhythmic music began playing.

On the screen, one could see a group of mages, in mismatched robes, pointing their foci at a giant tree in a middle of a swamp. The tree’s stump opened, and a massive maw appeared filled with nothing but darkness. A roar could be heard, and then the mages’ foci all lit up and fireballs began bombarding the monster.

The next scenes showed several craftsmen laboring over all manner of weapons, armors and artifacts. A blacksmith was feverishly hammering something with their hammer, while forge fire roared next to them. A beautiful woman was humming, sitting next to a window and stitching a silky cloth in their hands. A man covered in all manner of devices, both arcane and scientific, was looking through goggles at a small mysterious cube on a desk.

Following that were several farmers tending to their fields, and gardens. Alchemist harvesting and using materials. People venturing into forests for all manner of exotic flora and fauna.

The music began to speed up.

People fighting monsters, people fighting alongside monsters, even people riding on monsters. A werewolf tearing apart sheep monsters. A man dancing with his sword through a veritable flood of giant grasshoppers. Snake people besieging a village hastily barricaded, with the defenders looking through the gaps of the barricade.

And so on…

Finally, the scene darkened again, and the only thing that was shown was the name of the game.

Magic Unbound

They were sitting in a pub on the shadier side of the town. Everybody, even the servers were wearing cloaks that hid their features, and so did they. Everything was covered by some kind of magical fog, which made it hard to see anything further than their table, which was its exact purpose.

“So you managed to get something for me?” spoke up the man across from him.

“Yeah, got into contact with a guy who finally could get me some proper answers.”

“And?”

“We are good.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. Anything else?”

“The situation in Ironwood is proceeding as we predicted. The guilds are still squabbling over the trolls, leaving us the bounty in the city. And this opportunity…”

“Yes, this calamity will allow us to properly take over.”

“We still have a few steps in the quest, but my sources say that we are on track. There is nothing that can stop us!”

“Good!”

The second man hesitated for a moment as he watched the other man sip his probably shitty beer.

“I’m sorry to ask this boss, but was this shady darkness and cloak-and-dagger stuff necessary? Couldn’t we just talk in the offi…”

He was, however, interrupted by the other man slapping the beer mug on the table, rattling it.

“But think of the roleplaying!”

The second man just sighed…