Might as Well

Sam spent some time at the Silvercrest manor helping to set up Lucrecia dealing with a shadow familiar. While the egg was for a Lesser Familiar, the newly hatched small, but supremely adorable, wolf could still merge with her shadows.

And after getting over the hatching of her new familiar, the young lady of the manor began bombarding Sam with all manner of questions, ranging from the dietary needs of the young wolf to questioning if it would grow as big as Lucky.

Her face fell a little when Sam had to explain what it meant that it was a Lesser Familiar, but she soon perked up when the young shadow familiar walked up to her and began to poke her with its delicate nose.

As he watched her sit down on the perfectly cared-for grass, the lord of the manor sidled up next to him, with his eyes on his daughter.

“Thank you for this,” he murmured.

Sam nodded.

“No problem, my lord. I saw how much she enjoyed playing with Lucky,” he gave the lord a side-eye with a small smile on his face. “After all, this is the least I could do to repay your help.”

The lord snorted, rather gently compared to his usual ballistic personality, and continued talking without taking his eyes off his daughter, who was gently playing with the shadow wolf on the grass.

“You still think something is coming?”

“It’s in the air, sir.”

“Could it be you are overly paranoid, my young friend?”

“Maybe,” he answered, then after a second pause, continued. “Lots of new people, lots of opportunities. There is bound to be someone who would try something…”

“Hmm, you are not wrong, but still…” the lord answered, humming thoughtfully as they watched as Lucrecia was bravely defeated by the small wolf. Said wolf climbed on the stomach of his ‘prey’ and began howling in victory. Lucrecia, her mother, and the maids just cooed at it. “Keeping so many people at ready does have its costs. The city lord has also been nagging me. We can’t keep this up much longer.”

“Anything they stopped?” Sam asked, half-interested, while internally furiously thinking about an excuse that would convince the other man to extend the standby status of his forces.

The lord just negligently waved his hand. “Bah, a few guild fights, and a bunch of petty crimes stopped.” He hummed thoughtfully. “Though we managed to eliminate several Calon cultists, so that’s a pretty good bonus. At this level, that counts more like pest control than anything worthwhile. I can report to the city lord.”

“Sounds like fun times…”

“Bah, had better fights with hogs on hunts!” grumbled the older man, causing Sam to chuckle a little. Then he quickly fell silent and after another pause, spoke up.

“Give me another week. If I can’t find anything, then we can stop and I’ll help smooth things over,” he stated somewhat nervously.

There was a terse silence as he waited for the lord’s answer. Thankfully, to Sam’s relief, after almost two minutes, the head of the Silvercrest family finally nodded.

“I agree. You proved yourself to me, so I shall trust you with this. I hope it won’t be in vain.”

“Thank you, sir!” Sam bowed a little in response, then straightened out. “I recommend stocking up on supplies. If something happens, then the logistic lines would be disrupted.”

The other man just snorted. “This is not my first time preparing for the unknown, young man.”

“Right, sorry. I'm a little nervous,” he admitted.

The lord raised his sizeable hand and slapped him on his back. “You worry too much, my young friend. Just deal with it as you have with other things. I saw you fight. If it comes down to you and the enemy, my bet is on you.”

Sam gave him a small smile of gratitude then returned silently watching as Lucky pretended not to notice as the smaller wolf tried to sneak up on him, while the ladies cheered for it.

‘Hopefully, it would happen in a week.’ he thought. ‘According to the memories I inherited, this is the timeframe when the fracture happens. Based on the reports the other Sam read, I should be seeing the first pulses in the world mana…’

The moment the thought formed in his head, his always active, but relegated to the background, Mana Sense got his attention as he felt a gentle wave of mana, originating from somewhere far away, sweep over him.

It was gentle enough that he was sure only those attuned to mana would sense. However, as it wasn’t followed by another one, most would attribute it to someone doing some kind of large-scale ritual very far away and just shrug and go on with their lives.

If he remembered correctly, the first wave would be followed by the next one in three in-game days, then the next one in one day, and then it would accelerate until the fracture happened.

Putting it aside for a moment, he turned his attention to the people in the garden and began to prepare an excuse to leave the gathering.

He had preparations to make.

After leaving the manor, he charged directly at the headquarters, then up the stairs, and finally into Lucy’s office. He ignored the secretary and barged into the office without knocking.

Lucy looked up from her paperwork and Sam saw she was about to protest so he spoke up.

“Wait a second!”

He looked back at the door and saw the secretary looking rather cross with him, so Sam sent the talented lady an apologetic look and closed the door while speaking softly. “Sorry, emergency.”

After closing the door, Lucy opened her mouth again, but he simply shushed her and closed his eyes. For a minute, he used all his senses to look for anybody listening or otherwise observing what was happening in the room. Finding nothing and no spies, he opened his eyes and returned his attention to Lucy, who was slowly turning from angry to worried.

He made a motion for her to speak, and she immediately bombarded Sam with questions.

“What happened? What spooked you so much that you rushed in like that? I almost hit the panic button!” she exclaimed, still staring at him.

“You have a panic button?”

“Of course, I have. You know I hate fighting!”

“Right, right,” he nodded while walking to one of the chairs and collapsing into it. “It’s going to happen,” he then simply stated.

Lucy stared back at him incomprehensibly. “May I know what it is?”

“The first event!”

That caused Lucy to sit up straighter, her entire focus on Sam.

“How do you know?”

“Extrapolation. Usually, companies let players get comfortable, then bamm, undead apocalypse, or sudden alien invasion. You know how it goes.” Lucy nodded in understanding and Sam continued. “And today I felt a small mana pulse. Which means something big is happening!”

Lucy frowned. “I’m sorry, but one mana pulse does not event make…”

“Right, sorry. Forgot to include one silly little detail. The pulse came so far away that I couldn’t tell where it originated from. Which means it was super strong at the origin point. From that, we can extrapolate that somebody or something is using a lot of mana!”

“Could be a one-off event? Maybe a volcanic explosion or something similar?”

Sam shook his head. “The mana was neutral. It didn’t have the flavor of naturally occurring mana that would be present at volcanic eruptions. It felt too artificial…”

“I see…” Lucy spent a moment staring at nothing, and Sam left her. He couldn't come out and say what will happen, as that would mean a confrontation with the developers, but this much would be okay. ‘Hopefully…’

After all, it wasn’t beyond reason that an avid gamer would draw these conclusions.

Finally, Lucy spoke up. “What do you want me to do? Prepare for a siege?”

Sam hummed a little, pretending to think it over. “We don’t know what kind of event it will be. And while the game is rather unique, they are still making use of the tropes. So, if we look at it from a gamer and marketing perspective, then the next event would be something that would allow every player to participate, as well as garner a lot of attention from the media.”

“Are you thinking… monster horde? That’s the usual first event, right?”

“Maybe. Could also be a proper zombie apocalypse.”

“Makes sense. So, build up supplies?"

"Yeah, and increase the NPC guards.” Lucy nodded, and as usual, began to make notes at furious speeds. “Get yourself a basic set of armor and make sure there are guards around you. If the event breaks out, it would be a good opportunity to strike.”

Lucy nodded with understanding and continued to write.

“Also, please make sure that the Heavenly Forest is fully stocked for all eventualities. I want to maintain its reputation.”

Lucy looked back at him with an amused look. “Not even a monster horde can stop us from serving our patrons’ needs?”

“Exactly!” Sam replied with a cheesy finger gun. “People love that shit!”

Lucy chuckled and then asked another question.

“What about you?”

He thought about it for a moment, then realized something.

“What happened to the crystal girl?”

The answer came promptly. “She is on her way. With some merchant caravans. Because she is a streamer, she needs to travel incognito to avoid snipers. I think they arrive in three days.”

“Real or in-game?” he asked with a frown.

“In-game.”

“Ugh… I want her here now to help build up some more defenses and maybe some vehicles.”

He spent a moment thinking about it, then slapped his knees and stood up.

“You know what? I will take the team and meet her on the road. It’ll make everything faster.”

Lucy sent him a queer look but in the end, just nodded. “Sure, you do that. I’ll make sure we have enough canned beans to last through a siege.”

Sam was rather thankful for Lucy’s attitude. Sadly, he couldn’t really say that starting preparations in three days with SummerRose would be too late. Plus, there was a chance that the caravan could be waylaid.

“Where are they?”

“Katie and Dan are down in our small library, practicing.”

“What about Clarissa?”

“I set her up in one of the normal rooms over at the nearest supermarket. She agreed to a provisional contract, but it was still expensive,” she stated reproachfully.

Sam just shrugged.

“She is worth it.”

“Yeah, I’m sure…” Lucy muttered.

Sam just smirked. “You think I hired her because I’m horny, right?”

Lucy nodded with a scowl on her face.

“Don’t worry. She isn’t just a pretty face.”

“I will hold you to that!”

Sam stepped closer to the desk and held out a hand with a fist. “Good luck!”

Lucy looked back at him and hit his fist with her own. “Yeah, you too!”

He immediately sought out the two people he recruited for his eventual dungeon-delving team. He found them in one of the rooms Lucy had set up as a small library. It contained books about the flora and fauna of the surrounding areas, as well as maps and a few travel guides. Based on the last report he had read, she even managed to get a few magic primers added to the collection.

Dan was sitting at one of the tables, one of those primers was open in front of him, and was avidly reading it while making notes. Katie was sitting with her back to the wall, and her tiny familiar was playing in front of him with what felt like an enchanted ball of yarn. The tiny kitty would swat at the ball, sometimes with its regular-sized paws, sometimes with paws the size of bears.

The moment he stepped into the room, both of them looked up.

Katie gave him a shy nod and Dan a beaming smile.

“Teacher! What brings you here?”

“Get your stuff. We are going on a quest!”

Dan and Katie looked at each other and then nodded at Sam.

“When do we start?”

“As soon as possible. We still have to pick up someone else.”

Dan nodded, closed the book, made a note in his notes, then re-shelved the books as one would expect from a proper academic, while Katie simply scooped up her familiar, placed it on her head, and stood up. The tiny kitty simply melted on her head, leaving her looking like she was wearing some kind of odd hat. A hat that blinked at you.

His new barbarian mage friend was clad in new leather armor, apparently making use of the signing bonus to outfit himself from the abundance of troll leather, his shin guards were decorated with runes, that from what he knew provided stability for him and his club had grown twice as big. Though it still looked like a standard caveman club.

Katie was still in plate armor, but hers had also been upgraded. Sam could see several tiny lines of enchantment all over the armor, providing more protection and durability. Her greatsword was also changed. It hadn't become bigger, but one side of the blade was resplendent with serrated edges that somehow caused him to shiver when he looked at them.

‘Not going to ask, that’s for sure…’

He waited, somewhat patiently, for them to get ready, and when both of them stood before him, he sent them a party invite.

Parties in Magic Unbound were rather simple things. Basically, it allowed people to check others’ health (if they had the appropriate skill, which most healers had) and simply allowed the people in the party to communicate safely with each other. Experience distribution was always handled by the system and they couldn’t really add loot preferences. Though the interface had a dice roll option for when people wanted to roll for the drops. Otherwise, it was up to the party members to keep track of each other and anything else.

They accepted, and Sam was greeted by a simple notification.

[KittenKnight and FireHotHot have accepted your party request!]

Sam snorted at Dan’s name, and the guy just gave him an awkward shrug. He motioned them to follow him, and they set off in search of the last member of the party.

They found Clarissa sitting in one of the eateries in the building drinking tea and attempting to read a book while a line of people stood next to her, clamoring for her attention.

“…and we can offer you enough money to make it worth it!” he heard as they approached the shop.

Clarissa simply turned a page and spoke up in a flat voice.

“How much?”

Instantly, the guy’s aggressive demeanor changed, and began to stutter a little.

“I m-mean, we can discuss wages after a meeting with–“

However, he was interrupted by Clarissa coldly. “No money, no meeting. Go away.”

The guy opened his mouth to answer, but as Clarissa turned another page, he just hung his head and walked away dejectedly.

Before the next person could step up and make their pitch, Sam hurried over and called out to her.

“Clarissa, hey! Ready to go?”

She looked up from her book, nodded to him, glanced at the awkwardly smiling Dan and the shyly waving Katie, and closed the book.

Standing up, she adjusted her robe, picked up her staff, and ignoring all the grumbling people, walked up to Sam.

“Let’s go!”