Might as Well

For a long moment, she just stared at Sam, squirming in place, wringing her hand and trying to say something but choking at the last moment. Her eyes were darting around but never looking directly at him, though he noticed she threw a few glances at him.

It was rather disconcerting how her behavior had flipped from being a maniac chasing after monsters into this shy schoolgirl persona. Probably explained why every piece of information that the other Sam had about her was so haphazard and crazy.

In the end, after a glance at the sun, he sighed and spoke up.

“You don’t have to decide now.” He could practically see the relief wash over her. “How about we go back to the city, get rid of the loot, and then we can talk again? Okay?”

She didn’t say anything, instead nodded her head vigorously, then turned around and began marching away from him.

“The other direction!” he yelled with a smile. Then Sam watched as she froze, then slowly turned around and walked past him, staring directly at the ground.

Sam chuckled a little, then began following her, now in the correct direction, and opened his menu. He hadn’t checked it since he left for the cave system and while the battle wasn’t the biggest, he was sure he leveled up at least a few times. Sadly, Lucky didn’t really get the opportunity to do anything, so he didn’t get anything. Thankfully, the maximum level wasn’t necessary for the evolution ritual. Granted, certain evolutions mandated maximum levels for the pet or minion, there were even certain evolutions that could only be achieved with pets that never got any experience points.

And seeing as the other Sam had no applicable memories that he had inherited about the type of pet Lucky was, he simply just went with his gut. Plus, with the advent of the Fracture, he would need a strong partner that would be able to watch his back.

As they trekked through the forests, occasionally murdering the odd monster that tried their luck at them, Sam turned his attention to his aggregated notification screen.

[Congratulations! You’ve leveled up!]

[You’re now Level 34!]

[Gained 4 unassigned attribute points!]

[Gained 1 DEX for always striking true!]

[Gained 1 END for going the extra mile!]

With practiced ease, he put a point into MAG raising it to 25, then the other three into STR, AGI, and VIT respectively. For now, he was still working towards a balanced build because he would need all the status points at a certain level later for another trainer. In his inherited memories, a lot of people cursed when they reached that part, as they had to scramble to farm enough points to complete the quest. Naturally, the people that came later came armed with the knowledge those early pioneers discovered.

[Mana Manipulation is now Level 12!]

[Mana Shield is now Level 51!]

[Mana Tempered Body is now Level 15!]

[Phasing Strike is now Level 3!]

[Extended Mana Strike is now Level 7!]

[Double Mana Slash is now Level 6!]

[Mana Body Enhancement is now Level 41!]

[Mana Disruption is now Level 8!]

It wasn’t the biggest increase, but he was happy. After all, every little bit counted. He threw a glance at his companion, but as she was happily skipping along and swinging her sword like it was a baton, he returned to his screen.

[Light Ball II is now Level 5!]

[Clean III is now Level 2!]

His mage skills hadn’t grown much, but that made sense, as he barely used them. Maybe later he would dedicate some time honing them, but for now, he was more concerned about spells that he would need for dungeon delving.

He had definite plans for taking several spells further than what he had, but as always he only had time for certain things.

[Wind Blade is now Level 9!]

[Wind Flurry is now Level 6!]

[Wind Bullet II is now Level 6!]

[Wind Bullet Barrage is now Level 6!]

[Wind Movement is now Level 11!]

[Wind Edge II is now Level 5!]

[Wind Drill is now Level 8!]

[Wind Affinity is now Level 24!]

However, his wind-natured spells were progressing very nicely. Not too fast, but steady enough that he wasn’t worried about the future. Granted, he wasn’t even close to the memories of the great wind mages and storm sorceresses that could cut a peanut from a mile exactly in the middle or conjure hurricane-level winds with a simple wave of their hands.

[Active Meditation is now Level 32!]

[Discernment is now Level 9!]

As they walked back toward the city of Ironwood, he occasionally looked at his temporary partner to make sure she was alright and to see if she wanted to say something as he had a feeling that she was watching him. However, she always averted her eyes as he looked up from the notifications. Shaking his head at the girl and returned to the shadow portion of the notifications.

[Shadow Cloak is now Level 20!]

[Shadow Footwork is now Level 21!]

[Shadow Cover is now Level 4!]

[Shadow Mirage is now Level 20!]

[Shadow Transformation is now Level 8!]

[Shadow Shield is now Level 3!]

Nodding happily, Sam made a few plans based on a few spells and skills he knew from the shadow tree while also checking some of the crunchier stats of the spells. He also wanted to get some minion summoning spells from the tree, as that would be helpful for being a solo player.

[Advanced Sword Mastery is now Level 7!]

[Mana Breathing is now Level 3!]

[Advanced Breathing Technique is now Level 3!]

[Calm Heart is now Level 33!]

[Steady Heartbeat is now Level 1!]

[Flow is now Level 26!]

[Focused Flow is now Level 2!]

[Multitasking is now Level 61!]

[Parallel Processing is now Level 4!]

[Journeyman Runecarver is now Level 7!]

Apparently, successfully using an enchanted artifact that he had made gave him some experience points in his crafting skill…

Fortunately, soon after he finished with the inspection of his new skill levels, they arrived back at the city gates.

“Come on, Katie,” he said quietly, indicating the way with one of his arms to the shy and crazy girl.

“Um, where to?”

“I want to introduce to you someone from my group,” he answered with a small smile.

“Why?” came the immediate reply, and Sam could see the suspiciousness in her eyes as thankfully, she didn’t lower the faceplate.

“I hope she can convince you to join us,” he answered gently, putting a slight emphasis on the pronoun. To his relief, the knight immediately relaxed and nodded.

“A-Allright,” she spoke, stuttering a little.

Sam didn’t comment, just started for the company headquarters with the berserker knight following him silently.

They arrived at the HQ a few minutes later. Sam simply took his new friend through security, idly noting that the people working seemed rather busy, then he escorted her up to the director’s office.

Once again, he made a note to talk with Lucy about installing a lift.

Approaching the secretary’s desk, the older woman looked up and smiled at them.

“Welcome back, sir. Your order has arrived, and I had it placed in your apartment.” She sent a curious look at the fidgeting knight and nodded at her, but the rest of the secretary’s attention was on Sam. “How can I help you today?”

Sam nodded in thanks, then spoke up.

“Thank you for that. Is the Director in?”

“Yes, sir. She is actually free, so you can just go in,” the secretary answered while motioning toward the door.

Sam once again nodded his thanks and motioned for KittenKnight to follow with one hand, while opening the door with the other one.

Stepping into the office, he saw Lucy at the desk, dressed in stereotypical director clothing (albeit with a small medieval twist) looking through reams of documents. She looked up at them, gave Sam a smile, and threw a questioning gaze at the knight, who seemed to be frozen in place.

“Hello, Sam. Who is your friend?”

“A new friend. I thought you could maybe talk to her, and then find a place for her around here…” he replied with a small smile while giving a pointed look at Lucy.

She nodded imperceptibly and turned her attention to the girl in shining knight armor with Sam doing the same.

“Alright, Katie. This is Lucy. She works with me. She can answer all your questions,” he said, while directing the berserker to a seat in front of Lucy’s desk.

“Hello, Katie!” Lucy greeted her with a well-practiced smile.

“H-hello…” came the hesitant answer.

Then the office became silent.

Sam watched for a moment, then sighed and spoke up.

“I’ll leave the two of you to it.” He turned to the knight. “Lucy is nice. You can talk to her normally.” He then turned back to Lucy, who was looking at them with a bemused expression. “Anything I need to know?”

She immediately produced a sheet of paper and held it out for him.

“Yeah, this is the summary. Now, shoo!”

Lucy turned back to Katie and began talking to her.

“So, as you’ve heard, my name is Lucy, and I’m the director here.” Katie gave her a small smile and nodded but didn’t say anything. Lucy looked contemplatively at her while Sam was just amused. “Not a big talker? How about this: tell me something about yourself! What do you like to do?”

Sam was almost at the door, but he slowed down enough to hear the response.

And his newest friend didn’t disappoint.

“I like to slaughter my enemies and bathe in their blood!” she exclaimed fervently, jumping up from her chair and waving her hand around as if wielding a sword. Then she froze, seemingly realizing what she had said, and quickly sat down. “Err, I mean kittens. Yes, I like cute kittens.”

Lucy threw a murderous gaze at Sam, but he just gave her a cheeky wave and quickly left the room.

Sam hastily retreated to his apartment, though he made sure to send a quick message to Lucy about hiring KittenKnight for a company-sponsored team.

Her only reply was an angry face emoticon.

Chuckling about the situation, he took out the sheet of paper that Lucy had given to him and gave it a read.

It was a summary of the businesses they owned.

The warehouse was operating normally, around 70% capacity, with the rest being used for temp storage. Naturally, the biggest income came from the identifying service, but based on the current situation, Lucy projected that the warehouse would provide a steady stream of income over the long term.

The normal housing was also filling up, although the shopping floors on the ground floor of those buildings were much more popular. According to Lucy, after a quick peruse of the forums, the fact that so many crafters were close to each other made everyone happy.

She also noted that they received almost an uncountable number of applicants to become apprentices to the crafters in the shops.

He quickly sent another message to Lucy for her to send him an email with the list to see if it had anyone he knew from his inherited memories.

Sadly, those journeyman crafters couldn’t take apprentices as they weren’t officially masters, and every crafter guild took it really seriously if somebody tried to muscle in on their territory. And Sam and Lucy didn’t have the economic or political power to go head-to-head with them.

Yet.

The rest of the paper was filled with information about the Heavenly Forest. The luxury accommodation was filling up nicely, and the income was more than the other businesses combined.

Apparently, Lucy overheard the people talking about buying gold just to get the services they offered.

After reading that, he couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

As a company, they sold gold on the RMT service, and these nice people bought it, then spent it at their establishment. It was practically free money…

Sam filed away the summary in his small corner filing cabinet in his apartment, then turned toward the boxes piled high next to the door.

He went over his order, making sure every item was good for the ritual, and when he was satisfied, he put everything in his inventory.

Then, with a quick goodbye to the secretary, he left for the Mage Association.

The crowd at the Association was much bigger than the last time he was there, with the people behind the counters working feverishly, while players complained loudly about the increased prices.

‘Supply and demand, my friends…’ he mused silently while standing in line.

Thankfully, his line moved rather fast, so after a few minutes, he managed to reserve a bigger ritual room for the next day. He paid the deposit, took the document proving said reservation, and quickly left the building.

He checked the time and saw he only had a few hours left in the day, which meant his playtime was almost over.

The time wasn’t enough for him to do anything, so he quickly ran out of the city, sought out a small clearing, and called out to Lucky.

“Hey, Lucky!”

The wolf emerged from his shadow and immediately jumped at him. Sam let the wolf bowl him over, landing on the ground and getting licked by the excited wolf. After hugging the adorable, but getting quite big, wolf for a while, Sam spoke up.

“How about we play a little?”

The wolf jumped off of him, and with a grin on his face and the tail wagging furiously, began to look around the clearing. A second later, he shot off, and before Sam could even wonder why he left, the shadow wolf returned with a giant stick. The wolf then placed it in front of Sam and sat down on his haunches.

“Wuff!”

Sam looked at the stick and then back at the wolf. He then picked it up with a smile on his face.

“Alright, you fluffy murder machine! Let’s play!”