Might as Well

After being done with recruiting SummerRose, Sam passed the torch to Lucy, with very firm instructions to make sure to hire her, no matter what. The skills that the streamer learned were, with proper logistical support, something that could elevate a minor guild among the major guilds.

And if a major guild put its entire wealth and power behind the individual?

Well, that would invite the other major guilds to try to stamp out said guild. Sam planned to do things smarter. In his inherited memories, the people who got their hands on the guy who originally got the crystal crafting skill immediately made him produce weapon after weapon. This, naturally, started a magical arms race.

Even the NPC kingdoms got involved with it. It ended in the creation of a new desert and a lot of angry people.

However, in his view, the power was capable of so much more than simply crafting fantastical weapons.

The first thing he would have SummerRose make was an elevator for the headquarters as he was getting tired and annoyed by the constant walking he needed to do to get to his own room. ‘Or maybe I should get a teleportation power? Nah, an elevator is simpler…’ he thought.

Standing up from his desk, he turned his attention towards less interesting pursuits. Like filling up his pantry, as well as acquiring lunch.

Sometime later, with his debuff gone, he walked into his friend’s office, with his spiffing new clothing.

With their company’s crafter getting their feet under them, while he was suffering under the debuff, he went on a little shopping spree.

He bought new shirts, geared towards combat, which meant they were tight and breathed well, over that he got some light armor, reinforced with high-quality metal at key areas, allowing him the freedom of movement. Magic Unbound was a game that prided itself in the freedom it provided to the people playing it. This showed in how it handled armor.

In traditional games a mage wore light clothing, an archer or rogue wore medium clothing, usually leather, and warriors and the like wore heavy plates. Here, you could, if you wanted, wear heavy plate and be a mage. Or be a warrior wearing nothing but your underpants. Naturally, your choices were only effective if you had the skills for it. Plus, certain metals inhibited the channeling of mana, so you had to keep that in mind when you went for a heavy plate mage build.

Seeing as he had no specific armor skills, only having the Mana Shield providing him with constant defense, he went for ease of movement. Sam even had the craftsman add a hood that could be pinned down when not in use, as well as commissioning one of the tailors to make him a sort of tight shawl that he could use to pull up and cover his face, thus increasing his stealth.

Though being honest, he just relished the chance to play ninja.

The armor was made from better materials than one could find in beginner towns. Ironically, it was made from troll leather, which was rather cheap and abundant after the mad rush to farm out the Life of Blood skill book. Sadly, the enchanter they hired wasn’t high enough level to add anything amazing to his armor but for now, he would be happy with a small sound reduction and durability increase enchantment.

[High-quality Troll Leather Armor: Created by a journeyman crafter employed by your own company. They worked extra hard to make sure to return your goodwill. Excellent quality, given the materials and the crafter. Enchanted to decrease the sound it makes during movement, as well as increase the durability. Thanks to the substance it was impregnated with, the troll leather lacks its customary weakness to fire.]

Plus, it looked cool, and now people wouldn’t mistake him for a noob straight out of a beginner village.

The secretary was at her customary place, busily working through a giant stack of documents. She gave him a once over, nodded in approval then silently tilted her head towards the door, indicating that Sam could go in, and returned to her work.

He still made sure to knock, but then used the doorknob and entered the office. Lucy was also busily going through a fat stack of papers, so while he waited for her to take a breather, he walked up to the giant windows.

Looking out, he took a look at the cityscape sprawled out in front of him. In the distance, he could see the tall chimneys bellowing out dark clouds as the smelters at their base melted ores in gigantic quantities. Even farther he could see the tall trees of the forests from where in the olden days the city got its fuel and source of building material. Nowadays they used coal or some magical means to heat everything.

Down below the headquarters on the streets of the city, the crowd moved as wave in one direction. From his position, he could barely make out a few details of them, even though they weren’t that high because the people were so close to each other that said details got lost in the horde of people, NPC, and players alike.

As he simply enjoyed the sights, he noticed something curious on one of the roofs almost across from their building, though the height was much lower. On the roof, crouched behind a chimney was a person, covered by some kind of cloth that was the same color as the roof. The only reason he spotted them was that they moved enough so that they could point their old-timey scope directly at his face and that displaced the cloth covering them enough that they became visible.

For a long moment, they stared at each other until Sam used his index and middle finger to point at his eyes and then at the guy. Sam couldn’t help but smile as he saw the guy freeze.

“Now why did you do that? I wanted to feed him some ludicrous information…” spoke Lucy from her desk, her eyes still on the document in front of her.

“Because it is fun… Who do they work for?” Sam asked idly, as he turned away from the window and leisurely took his place in front of Lucy’s desk.

She waved her hand negligently. “From what I know they’re from a smaller workshop. I think they are just looking for leverage for a better deal.”

Sam hummed in understanding. “What about everything else?”

“Silverton has started the construction. The mayor was very thankful for the influx of business as well as for the services we planned to provide, so they’re very accommodating.”

“That’s good. How about the streamer?”

Lucy sent him a look. “I don’t know why you want to hire her, but I sent her a standard contract, and she accepted it after a few modifications.”

“Anything interesting?” he asked, ignoring the look.

“No, nothing. In a week’s time, she will be living in our city as well as working in Ironwood.”

“Good, good…”

Lucy looked at him for a spell, then let out a small huff. “Honestly, Sam… Why do you want to hire her? I admit she is pretty, but aside from that I don’t see her crafting skill providing us anything worthwhile.”

Sam grinned at her. “First of all, how dare you think I wanted her hired based on looks alone?!” he exclaimed jokingly, then continued a tad more seriously. “Secondly, I know what skill she has. Creating those small drones is the best she can do without support. With our support… I’ll let you imagine!”

Lucy stared back at him and then nodded. “Alright, I’ll believe you,” she said, and Sam heard the implied ‘for now’ very clearly. “Where do you want her?”

Sam thought about it for a few seconds before answering.

“Set her up with her own workshop and start putting together a studio for her. You know, the usual. Assistant, camera guy, editor, the works.”

“You want her to be a company-sponsored streamer?” she replied curiously. Sam could see on her face as she worked over the idea in her own mind. “Do you think we are ready for that?”

“Not fully. Don’t advertise that we are sponsoring her. But make it clear somewhere half hidden, that she has a boss now and is not an independent streamer. Otherwise, for now, let her do her thing.”

Lucy nodded and started writing down a few notes. ‘Probably her ideas… She is scarily good at this!’

“Anything else?”

“No, unless you have something to talk about?”

“Yes!” came the unexpected cry from Lucy. “Please, take that berserker away. Her pet is scaring the workers…”

Sam couldn’t help but let out a chuckle at that.

“Alright, I’ll take the mini eldritch cat and its owner for a spin,” he said, and then glanced out of the window. “However, for now, I have to deal with something quickly…”

“Anything I can help with?” Lucy asked as she began to organize the documents on her desk.

“Nah, just have to deal with an issue…”

“Okay. Then I’ll write if something comes up and good luck with your issue…” she said with a deadpan face.

Sam nodded and stood up to leave, leaving Lucy to her witchy ways of dealing with bureaucracy.

“Thanks!”

Walking out of the headquarters, enjoying the sun shining down on him, as well as his spiffing new clothes, he walked around the commercial district a little. He mostly refilled his consumables, bought a few more rations and an additional water skin, just in case, then headed for the Auction House.

Once again, he was there to try his luck.

He sat down at a free place and just spent a long minute observing the people currently present in the Auction House. He saw noobs trying to sell things to hopefully get some money; veteran merchants who probably migrated from other games, surrounded by documents as they frantically moved between system screens; addicts who looked like they hadn’t slept in years, hoping to make one big trade and they would be set for life, as well as several guild people who were there to monitor the situation.

When the RMT service came online, a lot of people requested that the Auction House should be accessible from the browser or an application, but the company declared that the Auction House was part of the game, and if they wanted more convenient access to it, then they would have to find it. Or build it.

He opened the screen and began to hunt for bargains.

He picked up all sorts of crafting materials that he knew would have their prices rise with the advent of dungeons, mixed in with other materials that had decent prices. He went through the weapons on offer, but in the end, he only found either broken stuff or mass-manufactured worthless metals. Though, in the end, Sam managed to find a simple hunting knife that was enchanted to glow in the darkness, thereby providing light to the user. He bought it, thinking that it would be useful in an emergency if he ever ran out of mana.

Then, as always, he turned his attention to the skill books. Though he hoped to find some diamond in the rough; he was actually looking for something specific. Thankfully, it was a rather common skill book; he was just too lazy to go out and get it. He searched for the cheapest price and bought it.

Sam spent a few more minutes looking for opportunities but couldn’t find anything, so he simply had the material he bought delivered to the company, knowing that Lucy would handle it while picking up his new skill book, and learning it the moment he touched it.

[Basic Armor Mastery: Level 0/100 (0%) (Passive) You learned the basics of wearing armor. Decreases the Stamina consumption slightly while wearing any kind of armor.]

It was nothing fancy, but now that he was actually wearing armor, it would be useful.

Walking out of the city, hands at his side, humming slightly, with Lucky in his shadow, he headed towards one of the farming spots. The monsters, some kind of moss creatures that had a long and complicated name, but everyone just called Mossy, dropped a few materials that would become useful in the future.

The first trek of the journey was rather easy. Just follow the road until the rocky surface of the surrounding land became more and more grassy and the sparse forest turned into dark and mysterious.

At that point, he took a sharp left turn and headed directly into the dark forest. He had to push aside the undergrowth, but soon he was walking amongst giant trees with a few small clearings here and there. While the place was getting quite damp, on account of being close to a marsh, it was honestly quite beautiful. With the way the stray light beams broke through the canopy, illuminating only a few spots on the ground properly, it felt like a fantasy forest fitting into the game’s mythos.

He was about to head through one of those clearings when he heard a whistling noise. Unfortunately, before he could react, he felt something impact his always-active Mana Shield on his back, causing him to be pushed a little forward. It depleted the shield somewhat, but thanks to his ludicrous mana regeneration it was already starting to refill.

Looking down, Sam saw a generic-looking dagger that slowly vanished into nothingness as he looked at it. ‘Phantasmal Dagger Strike…’ he identified the attack and looked up.

Where before he was alone in the forest, now he was surrounded by seven people. Two behind his back, two on each side, and a lone one in front of him, wearing something that looked much higher quality than what the others were wearing.

Sam just smiled and reached for his sword.

“I have been waiting for you…"