Might as Well

After Sam spent the remaining time in-game playing with an excited Lucky, he returned to his apartment in the company headquarters and made sure to check the jar containing the core of the Shadow Mana Fountain, then after seeing that it was still intact even though he could sense a little degradation in the enchantment with his mana, he laid down in the bed.

He enjoyed the sinfully comfortable furniture, then before he could be permanently swallowed by the high-quality pillows, he made a swift motion with his hand and logged out.

Out in the real world, he slowly got up and removed the helmet while basking in the early morning sun as it streamed through the curtains.

‘Soon, the first capsules will be coming out…’ he mused as he placed the helmet on its resting place and headed for the shower to get ready for the day.

With the meteoric rise of Magic Unbound, manufacturers were struggling to produce enough VR-capable devices to satisfy the needs of the populace. It wasn’t like there was a shortage, but there was a definite waiting period for the good devices.

Enter newly created companies that tried to shore up these shortages. With rather questionable products. Thankfully, he bought the best quality helmet he could get his hands on as a private citizen with money, but those people who joined the game right now and in the near future would have to suffer the low-quality counterfeit products.

And because of the introduction of the RMT, and the many stories all over the internet about people striking it rich as soon as it went live (some true, but most of them false), a lot of people wanted to play the game.

The other Sam also had to suffer due to this. As he only joined the game right in the middle of the gold rush, his helmet often crashed, and was so uncomfortable, that he developed a pain in his neck that never fully went away. Not even when he could afford a better helmet.

Thankfully, Sam didn’t expect anyone to die, as there were at least some safety regulations about devices, and thanks to their unique construction method, they were rather easy to test.

Not so much the capsules.

VR capsules existed since the invention of the VR itself. At first for the medical industry (and of course, the military) but slowly they seeped into the common market. However, as they didn’t provide more in relation to VR software aside from comfort, they weren’t exactly popular amongst the masses. Their prices didn’t help.

Before Magic Unbound they were the playthings of the rich and the frail.

And now that a huge surge of people wanted to experience the world of Magic Unbound a lot of VR capsule manufacturers saw the potential profits and they would decide to shift the production from high-quality capsules used by infirm people, to mass-produced cheap capsules. They would, of course, market them with some buzzwords and marketing dress-up promising that it would help people perform better in the game.

And based on the memories he had inherited the people would eat it up. Thankfully, the other Sam could only watch jealously as his little more affluent acquaintances bought themselves capsules.

And those were really dangerous.

The high-quality ones were precision-engineered over the years by humanity’s best minds. These ones were done by a back-alley engineer who may have a degree.

The other Sam never heard about any deaths, but he always suspected that the manufacturers, the company, or even the government hushed them up. However, there were countless stories about people getting electrocuted, suffocated, blinded, losing appendages, and everything in-between.

He walked out of the shower, dressed in his training clothes, and headed directly to the exercise corner of his apartment while absentmindedly turning on the television.

As Sam began his warm-up stretches and the announcer began to drone in the background, his mind wandered over his plans for the day…

After finishing his usual training routine, he went for another shower, and then dressed in comfortable clothes and did a little work around his home. He cleaned, he organized and he even went out to buy a few things. Mostly groceries, but he had run out of a few cleaning products.

The weather was warmer, heralding the end of winter and the approach of spring. Even more people were on the streets, wearing less clothing, though the cold wind still sent the occasional shivers down the people’s backs.

Completing the tasks related to his home, Sam sat down in front of his computer to do a little work.

He went over the particulars of the company, as Lucy made sure he got copies of every document she worked on (as they agreed in the contract), and looked for errors and such, but mostly he was just making sure that the financial part of their enterprise was doing okay.

Sam also made sure to read the notes Lucy made about the clients of the Heavenly Forest. He recognized several names, that he knew were jumped-up second-generation rich heirs that liked to flaunt their wealth. Exactly their target demographic.

According to Lucy, they were very satisfied, but every one of them complained that they didn’t have access to master crafters…

Sam shook his head and turned his attention to a different document. ‘Speaking of crafters…’

The framework for a company-sponsored crafter guild was already set, courtesy of Lucy, they only needed crafters. Thanks to the influx of cash due to the start of their business, Lucy, using the recommendation that Sam gained from the Silvercrest family, managed to buy a few plots in the crafting district that they would be able to transform into a guild headquarters.

He went to get something to drink, then after Sam sat back down in front of the computer, he opened the file containing the list of people applying for apprenticeships in their shopping centers.

It took him around ten minutes to find the first person he recognized. Sadly, master crafters would become invaluable later in the game, thus guilds would guard them jealously but even so, thanks to industrial espionage or simply because gamers rarely could stop themselves from bragging, almost all the biggest names were known to the populace at large.

And one of them was before him.

OneOreOneMetal

Despite what the name would suggest, the person behind the name wasn’t actually a master smith. Or rather wouldn’t become a master smith. He was obsessed with creating metals from ores, as well as creating the best alloys possible.

He was also famous for sharing the results of his research with the internet.

Doing a quick internet search, Sam found his username and saw that he was already posting about his craft. Though it hadn’t gained the same traction he saw in his inherited memories.

Nodding to himself, Sam made a note for Lucy to hire the guy, as well as a few basic notes about having him do the sharing of results regularly as a marketing ploy to gain more reputation, then turned his attention back to the list.

He didn’t have to look long for another familiar name.

SpringSeamstress

As the name implied the woman was and would be an excellent seamstress, focused on cloaks of all things. Every thief and assassin that gave a bit about their reputation owned at least one cloak based on her designs.

Sam continued going down the list, making notes of certain people, as well as blacklisting several that he knew from the other Sam watching dramas unfold, who would happily betray them for a moderately large payday.

He also visited Shadowland to see what was happening on the darker side of the gaming community. As expected, the guide business was thriving with an increasing amount of threads dealing only with Magic Unbound. Slowly, the game was taking over the site. Not that Sam minded, as it gave him more opportunity to ply his trade.

The other Sam was obsessed with collecting information. It mostly stemmed from the fact that he was eternally frustrated because he was always too late for every opportunity. Always missing the chance to rake in enough money to change his life.

While the current Sam was rather happy with his financial situation, he still couldn’t help but feel that he had to make up to the other Sam for taking over his life.

So, he did this by trying to become one of the best information brokers on the site. Plus, it felt rather exciting to know that he knew things that other people didn’t.

He also accepted the upfront payment for information about himself, from what he could find, a Silent Step intermediary. He wanted to know who wanted him dead, thus the deal.

Granted, the guy only agreed to tell him if Sam provided actionable intelligence. So, he shrugged and told him that the last place people saw the person they were looking for was Ironwood.

He mostly moved around concealed by his Chameleon mask so Sam wasn’t that worried.

Then he went and started looking for other opportunities on the site. After all, there was always some money to be made.

Sam worked until lunch, then did a quick trip to the diner that he liked, and after returned he continued his work until it was time to log in again.

Opening his eyes in the game, he found himself in darkness.

It took him several confused seconds to figure out that it wasn’t actually dark; it was just Lucky, who decided that the best place to sleep was on his body and his wolf companion’s bushy (but very soft) tail landed on Sam’s face, covering his eyes.

With a mouth full of fur he swatted away the offending appendages, causing Lucky to lurch up and jump down from the bed and begin to zoom around the room. ‘Sometimes, he is more dog than wolf…’ he thought with a chuckle as his loyal companion began to chase his excitedly wagging tail.

“Lucky!” he called out with a somewhat stern voice while trying to smother a smile. The wolf froze for a second and the next second he was in front of him, sitting on his haunches and alert.

Sam smiled and spoke up. “Back to my shadow. We need to get a few things, then it’s evolution time!”

It was obvious that the wolf didn’t understand more than ‘back’ and ‘shadow’ but it seemed he had understood the undercurrent of excitement in Sam’s voice and let out an equally excited bark before jumping into the air and diving into the shadows with his signature move.

[Congratulations! Spirit Link has leveled up!]

[Spirit Link is now Level 20!]

[Thanks to your relationship with your companion you learned the sub-skill, Spirit Ride!]

[Spirit Ride: Level 0/5 (0%) (Passive) Riding on the back of your companion has never been this easy. Thanks to this skill, you can travel on the back of your companion as one would on a horse with a saddle. For every level of this skill the comfort and stability of said ride increases by 20%.]

The sudden notification surprised Sam, but then he simply read through it, and after he was finished with it, he let out a chuckle.

“That will come in useful… Not that Lucky’s fur hasn’t been super comfortable…” he mused out loud as he started to don his usual armor and equipment.

After he was done with that, he had a small breakfast, prepared by the staff of the headquarters, and thoughtfully placed it on a small cart outside of his apartment.

The fact that there was a ‘hidden’ satiety system had long since been revealed to the entire player base, but aside from grumbling nothing ever came from it. Most people had to cook for themselves, or frequent inns or restaurants. He was lucky in that sense, that his food, at least when he stayed at the headquarters was always personally made by the chef responsible for feeding all the people in the building.

Finished with the meal, he checked in with Lucy’s secretary to see if there was anything new, but the woman just simply waved him away.

Nodding, he said his goodbye and headed out. There was a reservation at the Mage Association with his name on it.

The city was full of people, excited about all manner of things. He navigated through the crowds, dodging a few cutpurses that tried their luck with his pockets.

His first trip was to the Auction House to do a quick check to see if any material showed up that would be useful, but he walked away empty-handed, same as always. It couldn’t be helped, the players weren’t doing any content that would drop materials that would be helpful for him.

Then he joined the crowds once again and finally headed for the Mage Association.

The entrance hall of the Association was just as full as it was the last time he was here. He ignored the complaining and moaning crowd and directly headed for one of the doors leading to the corridors, which in turn led to the offices of the mages, workshops, libraries, and most importantly (at least for Sam) the ritual rooms.

At the door stood a dour-looking guard, decked out in shiny new enchanted armor, probably hired in a hurry. Sam showed him his reservation paper, and the guard gave it a cursory glance but his attention was on a small contraption, basically a stick with a hoop at the end, as he waved it over the seal at the end of the document that Sam was holding up.

It was essentially a magical metal detector that made sure that the seal was legitimate.

The artifact let out two gentle beeps and the burly guard grunted and with one meaty hand opened the door enough for Sam to slip through while he glared at several people who looked like they wanted to slip in after Sam.

The moment the door closed behind him, the harsh sounds of the people in the entrance hall were completely cut off, leaving Sam in almost complete silence.

He shook himself and then headed for the small desk in the corridor, manned by a young woman, reading some kind of book. However, the moment he stepped closer, she snapped the book closed and held out a hand without a word.

Sam simply handed the reservation document to the woman.

She glanced over it, then down in a big open book on the desk then after a few seconds of perusing she spoke up in a flat tone.

“Second floor, fifth room. Six hours. The extension will be paid when leaving.”

Before Sam could answer, her own book was already open and she was already reading.

“Thank you,” he said quietly, and following a conveniently placed map on the wall, headed for the nearest stairs.

Finding the room was easy. The hard part came after.

First, he locked the door properly, after affixing the ‘Ritual in Progress’ sign on the outside of the door, then took off his armor and replaced it with never-before-worn clothing. Simple pants and a shirt that he asked Lucy to source for him, made from unaltered cotton.

It wasn’t strictly necessary as he didn’t really wear any heavily enchanted items that could interfere with the ritual, but Sam wanted to be sure.

The next step was drawing the ritual circle.

He summoned his Grimoire, smiling a little at the memory of the nice librarian who taught him the spell, and opened it on the page that contained the specifications for the circle.

It wasn’t a complicated circle, but it was much more complicated than the basic one he used to evolve Lucky the first time.

Granted, Sam could have used the same ritual circle if he wanted, after all, it was designed to be used for that, but using a much more specialized circle would enhance the results, and more importantly, would guarantee a much more accurate result.

He got down on his knees with a small exhale, took out the chalk, and began drawing.

Over the next hour, he slowly and meticulously drew out a circle with several signs at auspicious positions and with a few smaller circles that would contain the reagents. The game wasn’t so hardcore that one millimeter of error would muck up the results, but still, he wanted to make it as perfect as possible.

Definitely not for the skill levels…

Soon, he sat back on his legs, his knees hurting a little, and took a good look at the circle.

A giant chalk circle, with a smaller concentric circle inside it. These smaller circles were connected by lines and runes filled the empty space. Inside the center circle was a triangle pointing up with each side holding one smaller circle, thus increasing the number of circles to seven, the most magical number.

As Sam checked the positions of the circles, he couldn’t help but chuckle, when unbidden memory of somebody trying to create a ritual circle with the funniest number came to his head. It took weeks to hunt down the succubus it summoned. ‘Maybe I should sell it and watch the chaos?’

Shaking his head, trying to get rid of the useless thoughts, he continued adding rune sequence after rune sequence. Around the smaller circles, he wrote rune sequences that would connect them to him, liberally using his heart rune, as well as a few lines he put together that would hopefully direct the ritual in a direction he wanted.

Finally, he sat back a last time and examined his work.

It wasn’t the grandest ritual circle, but he was rather proud of his biggest work to date.

The circle sat upon the smooth stone surface and was already shining gently thanks to absorbing a minimal amount of mana from the environment.

Softly, almost reverently he stood up and turned off the magical lamps in the room, and instead placed special candles, made especially for rituals.

With a small application of his mana, all the candles burst into flames, illuminating the room with their light.

He then called out to his companion.

“Lucky!”

The wolf emerged from his shadow, though this time it was a rather slow process as if Lucky could feel the importance of the situation.

Sam got down on one knee and gave Lucky a tight hug. He then led the wolf gently into the middle of the circle. “Stay!”

The shadow wolf let out a bark and stood perfectly still, even though Sam saw that his tail was twitching every now and then.

He gave the part-spirit a fond look and then began to pull out materials from his inventory.

The circle in the south direction got the fur of a greater wild silver wolf, to represent Lucky’s wolf aspect, as well as to ground it so as not to lose it. East got the metal that conducted magic the best, as to give a direction and ease the transition. West got a crystal that was excellent to store mana and give substance to Lucky’s new power. And North got the remains of a small shadow sprite found everywhere where darkness lurked. It would do nothing for the power, but it was an excellent representative of the dual shadow and spirit nature, thus giving the ritual an overview of the structure.

Then came the smaller circles next to the sides of the triangle. The left circle got a small jar, enchanted by him, of his own blood to solidify the link with Lucky, as well as to make channeling into the ritual easier. The right circle got meat from the first animal they hunted together, carefully preserved by Sam to represent the beginning of their relationship.

And for the last circle, he carefully took out the jar containing the core of the Shadow Mana fountain and placed it down to represent the future.

As soon as the jar touched the stone where the ritual lay the mana in the air began to move aggressively around the room. Knowing he didn’t have much time, he placed a few sticks of incense around the ritual, all of them to help with the transformation, and finally a circle of salt mixed with ash and iron dust around him and the ritual to prevent outside interference.

Usually, he wouldn’t do something like that, but he had interacted with the fey too much and he wouldn’t put it past them to meddle in the ritual for something interesting to happen.

Then he kneeled down in front of the ritual circle facing Lucky, who while still, was examining the surrounding materials with a curious look.

Sam closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, falling into the habit and activating Active Meditation. A few seconds later he opened his eyes and between two calm breaths, he slammed down his hand on the ground and began channeling mana into the ritual circle.

Instantly, the circle lit up like a fireworks display, dazzling both him and Lucky. Closing his eyes again, he focused his entire attention with his Mana Sense on the ritual. He also made sure to channel as much of his own mana into the ritual as possible. His mana, rotating at incredible speeds in his body, simply flew through his hand and into the ritual, as the light slowly began to envelop the items he had placed there.

Although his eyes were closed, he could see thanks to his Mana Sense that Lucky was frozen in place as mana swirled around his loyal companion. He didn’t really touch the mana over the ritual, he mostly made sure everything stayed on its path. Which meant he only reached out when mana seemed to escape the maelstrom over Lucky. He gently coaxed it back into the storm, while also continuously feeding his mana into it.

Soon the items in all the cardinal directions were enveloped in the light of the ritual, with said slowly changing from blinding white to gray and then black with a few strands of silver weaved through it.

Sam dug deeper, watching as the mana slowly encompassed the items in the inner circles, channeling even more mana into the ritual. First was his blood, which instantly evaporated the moment the mana touched it. Thanks to it, however, the control of the chaotic mana surrounding them became much easier.

Then came the meat, which also evaporated and the chaotic mana calmed down somewhat. Instead of chaos, Sam could feel and see the excited nature of Lucky seeping through the maelstrom.

He could feel the sweat dripping down his face and he had completely lost the sense of time. There was only him and the ritual. The mana swirled around the room, entered him and Lucky, while his mana rotated and moved around his body at increasing speeds, while he channeled as much mana into the ritual as possible, taxing even his ridiculous mana regeneration.

And in the middle of the circle sat Lucky, who was also slowly being swallowed by increasingly visible shadowy mana.

If Sam would have opened his eyes, he would have seen a shadow cocoon in the middle of the room, lit by the gentle light of the candles. The shadow making up the cocoon was dark enough that it swallowed all light that fell on it.

Then the magic in the ritual reached the Fountain Core.

Despite having his eyes closed, Sam was almost blinded by the extreme darkness that exploded from the disintegrating jar.

For a moment he feared that the mana would escape and tried to clamp down with his own mana, but in the end, it was unnecessary. The shadow mana basically gushing from the core spent half a moment thrashing aggressively, but the moment one of its tendrils made contact with Lucky’s cocoon it stilled, then as one, the entire mass of mana rushed at him.

Sam watched through his Mana Sense as the mass of mana first enveloped the cocoon, then slowly began to pour into it.

And continued to pour into it.

And continued…

Sam sat there, his legs going numb, but he didn’t dare to waver. It was too important. Instead, he directed his focus on the cocoon, trying to gauge how much of it was filled with mana.

Slowly, but surely he began to get a sense, which caused him to panic.

The mana was still moving into Lucky’s cocoon, but to his senses, it was already almost filled to the brim. He didn’t know exactly what would happen if it overflowed, but nothing good would come out of it. Of that, he was sure.

After a moment of indecision, he directed his mana to solidify around the Fountain core into channels, which redirected the mana. Then with an application of his will at the end of the channels, he formed his mana in receptacles. In a burst of inspiration, he made them egg-shaped.

The shadow mana resisted, but with a few tugs, it began to flow into the eggs he formed from mana, slowly filling them up, lessening the strain on Lucky.

Time continued to pass, and soon only drops of mana were coming from the core.

Sam was drenched in sweat, and based on the taste on his lips, blood was flowing from his nose due to the strain of channeling so much mana for so long.

‘I’ll have killer debuff after this…’ he mused as he watched the last drops enter Lucky’s cocoon.

Three drops…

Two drops…

One drop…

And it was gone.

The cocoon that was practically a black hole given shape was in the middle of the circle, and full of mana, from the ritual, Sam, and most importantly from the Fountain Core. And around the big cocoon were three small eggs made of solidified shadow.

According to his mana sense, he made the right decisions, as he could sense some manner of life from them. Sadly, he didn’t have enough energy to ascertain what he exactly created. Most of his focus was on Lucky and his transformation.

Slowly but surely the mana around the room calmed down, with most of them escaping the room, while a lot settled down around Lucky’s cocoon in the ritual circle.

Sam watched with bated breath as the mana froze for a second, and then the mana inside the cocoon began to churn.

At first, it was gentle as if a rocking chair was gently and rhythmically rocking back and forth, but very rapidly it changed into a small maelstrom, reminiscent of the one that was in the room at the beginning. Only, instead, it was contained in the cocoon.

Not even daring to move to take a deep breath and brush the matted hair out of his eyes, he continued to channel the last of his mana even if he felt like a wrung-out kitchen towel.

The storm of mana inside the cocoon began to pulse, the pulses traveling through the ritual circle and into his own mana circulatory system. He expected it to feel bad, but the only thing he felt was warmth.

Smiling slightly at Lucky’s behavior.

He finally opened his eyes and watched with rapt attention as the cocoon began to tremble, then shake until finally, he saw the first silvery hairline crack on it. The cracks continued to appear until the entire surface was covered by them. Though, several of them formed shapes that looked suspiciously like runes.

Then he heard it.

CRACK!

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRUNCH!

The fractures widened, and the silvery light shined through like the morning sun through cheap curtains, and then it exploded.

Fragments of shadows went everywhere, but because they were made of shadows, they just splashed against the barrier made by the salt line. The few that hit Sam did a little damage, but he barely flinched, as he was focused on the emerging form.

At first, it looked like a shapeless blob of darkness with a few flashes of silvery light. Then slowly it began to coalesce into a very familiar form. First the legs, then it was followed by an extremely bushy tail, and then last the head with an excited grin on it.

Sam looked up from his kneeling position and beheld Lucky’s new form.

Lucky wasn’t the smallest wolf, as he was big enough that Sam could ride on him for a while, but his new form put the last one to shame. Around six feet tall, with a length of at least nine feet from where Sam looked. His new body was made of shadows just like the last one, though it looked a little more ethereal with a very slight silvery sheen on some of the fur covering his body.

His claws were sharp, metallic silver, and glowed with light blue light that looked like runes. His fangs, some the length of a child’s lower arm also glowed with the gentle light of runes. His eyes were the same electric blue as Sam’s, glowing with unrestrained mana.

Finally, Sam felt the mana fully settle down, and the ritual reached its end. Exhausted he stopped channeling mana, and changed to a comfortable position, still sitting on the ground. The next moment the magic holding Lucky frozen dissipated, while at the same time, the salt, ash, and iron dust mixture sublimed into a puff of magic and then also vanished.

Lucky’s tail immediately began wagging at speeds great enough that Sam could feel the breeze created by it. Yet, he still didn’t move from his spot, instead, he tilted his head cutely to the side with a questioning gaze drilling into Sam’s eyes.

He tiredly nodded, and he was instantly consumed by the fluffy cloud of silky smoothness that Lucky had become.

As Lucky began to lick the top of his head while he was lying on his companion’s body, trying to regain his energy, Sam opened the notifications screen and began to read.

[Congratulations! You successfully completed the Modified Evolution ritual!]

[You have exhausted your mana!]

[You gained the Mana Exhaustion debuff!]

[Lucky has successfully evolved from Juvenile Shadow Spirit Wolf into Runic Shadow Spirit Wolf!]