Might as Well

As Sam followed the elderly butler through the halls of the impressive manor, he couldn’t help but note that while everything was the same as when he came last time, the faces of servants lacked the cheer that made the manor such a warm place to visit. Every maid, servant, or personnel that passed Sam and his escort was wearing a somber face as they hurriedly walked through the building, rushing forward to finish their tasks.

Apparently, the battle both outside of the city and inside affected the people…

He was led through the familiar corridors, to the doors that led to the office of the bombastic lord of the manor.

The butler opened the door and motioned for Sam to step through. He did so and was met by the sparkling gaze of a giant man, and the calculating gaze of his wife, who set before the giant windows overlooking the gardens of the manor, elegantly sipping some kind of beverage.

“My lord, allow me to announce, Master Samuel the adventurer!” the butler announced Sam with a small bow towards his employer.

“My friend!” came the loud exclamation from the lord, who strode towards Sam and enveloped him in a bone-crushing hug. Meanwhile, the elderly butler bowed toward the lady of the house and with quiet steps left the room, closing the door behind him. “I’m glad to see you’re alright after all that!”

Sam awkwardly patted the larger man on his back and tried to get some air into his lungs. Finally, after a second, the older man let him go and took a small step back, almost next to his wife, who was sporting a bland face. However, between deep breaths, Sam could see the laughter in her eyes.

He took a moment to get himself together, then sketched a short bow. “My lord, and lady!”

“Nonsense, my friend!” exclaimed the man, waving his hand in a dismissive motion. “You are a friend of the family, especially after your last warning.”

Sam nodded with a small smile, though he tactfully didn’t note it aloud that the man didn’t mention if he should throw aside the polite language used to speak to nobles and treat him as a friend. Thus he didn't. Better safe than sorry.

“Yes, sir.”

“Good, good!” the other man nodded, while his wife let out an incredibly small sigh. “Now! Tell us about your adventure outside of our fair walls!”

Sam opened his mouth to begin his tale once again, but he was interrupted by a delicate cough. A cough originating from the lady of the house. She didn’t say anything but pointedly looked at her husband and then at the table set up with a tea set and all manner of small bite-sized delicacies.

“Right!” shouted the man, slapping his forehead. “How uncouth of me? Please, would you take a seat?” he offered to Sam, who nodded, and with a quiet thank you sat down opposite the lord’s wife, while the man himself took a seat next to her.

They all took a moment to get situated, and the lady of the house made sure everyone had a drink, with the giant lord looking ludicrous, holding the small teacup in his overly large hands.

Finally, fully comfortable, Sam placed his own teacup on the coaster and began retelling his story once again.

“It started with this fracture in the sky…”

As soon as his story wound down, Sam leaned back in his seat, hoping that this was the last time he would have to recount the happenings of the monster siege.

They spent a few minutes in silence as the two nobles processed the information that he just provided, with the lord nodding to himself, his eyes closed, and the lady of the house looking outside the window with a contemplative look on her face.

Finally, it was Lord Silvercrest that spoke up, breaking the pervasive silence in the room.

“Well, that was certainly a story, my friend! I’m glad you managed to return to your home hale and healthy!”

“Thank you, sir,” he answered. “And how did you fare against your enemies?”

His answer was a bloodthirsty smile on the older man’s face.

“Those fools thought the chaos of the siege would mask their activities. They failed, naturally!”

Sam nodded and asked another question.

“Their identities? And their purpose? Because from what I heard at the same time your family was attacked, so was my company.”

“I assume from your tone that your impressive assistant managed to beat back the rabble?”

“Oh, no… They got away with some information…” Sam answered with an angelic look on his face that caused the other two to let out a chuckle.

“Well played, my young friend! Well played!” exclaimed the lord, then he fell silent for a moment and with a serious look on his face stared at Sam. “But let us move away from the topic of fools, and let’s get to the topic that you wished to talk about!”

Sam nodded once again and immediately began talking.

“Yes, sir. As you may have known, I received a missive from the office of the mayor that I shall receive a commendation for my efforts.”

“As you should! Your actions were exemplary!”

“Thank you, but I was wondering if you could intercede on my behalf with the mayor.”

“Oh, whatever for? You wish for a bigger reward?”

While the jovial tone was still there, Sam could see in the man’s eyes that there was only one correct answer if he wanted to keep the friendship between them alive.

“No, not at all! I just wish to ask that the good mayor keep the rewards private. I know my people and adventurers could get greedy,” he quickly reassured the man.

“Hmm, that is an interesting proposal,” the lord answered, looking thoughtful. “I shall talk to him and see what his opinion is.”

Sam bowed his head.

“Thank you, my lord!”

“No problem! Anything for the friend of the Silvercrest family!” exclaimed the older man, once again in a jovial tone.

Sam gave a tight smile, though he didn’t miss the slight eye roll from the silent woman sitting next to the lord.

“And while we are talking about rewards, I was hoping that you would be interested in a business proposition?”

“Oh, what kind?”

“These fractures. They represent an untapped source of wealth. If one knows how to exploit it…”

“And I assume you know how?” came the response from the other man, with a giant grin on his face.

“I may have an idea, sir.”

The grin on Lord Silvercrest’s face grew even bigger, and he leaned forward, his hands steepled in front of him.

“Oh, do tell…”

A few hours later, Sam left the office with a happy noble and a new quest. Happy that he managed to convince the lord of his plan, he followed one of the maids to the entrance door.

However, before he could leave, another maid hurriedly approached him.

“Sir Adventurer! Sir, wait!”

The maid that was escorting him stopped, and he followed her lead. Sam then turned towards the running maid, who managed to skid to stop in front of him. He saw that she was holding a small box in her hands.

She took a few seconds to catch her breath, then straightened out and instantly bowed toward Sam.

“I apologize for disturbing you sir, but the young lady wished me to pass this on,” she stated in one breath, then thrust the box at Sam.

He accepted it and then took a peek inside the box. He found several stacks of high-quality snacks and cake in it. Closing the box, he turned to the maid and gave her a small bow.

“Please, convey my thanks to the young lady. I appreciate everything she has done for me.”

The maid gave him a brilliant smile, bowed, then without further words turned around and almost ran away.

Sam gave the maid that was escorting him a questioning look, but all he received was a mysterious smile from the middle-aged woman. So, in the end, he shrugged and continued towards the gates. Ready to start on the next phase of his plans.

Back in his room, he sat down and opened the box. He could never say no to high-quality confectionery. One of the reasons why handling his weight in his last life was so hard.

However, when he placed all the available food on plates delivered by one of their maids, he found something interesting at the bottom of the box.

It was a series of small paper cards, each containing a name and brief descriptions as well as a few actions they had taken.

Quickly paging through the cards, he noted they contained the names of players and NPCs equally.

‘It seems her infatuation with me is quite useful…’ Sam mused as he went over the information the cards contained.

The information ranged from what certain people’s favorite food was (mostly for NPCs) and who they were currently talking with in regard to business and such. Sadly, most of the guild leaders young Lucrecia managed to get information on were so insignificant that he hadn’t heard of them currently or from his inherited memories.

Still, it would make gathering information on the players in Ironwood much easier.

Resolved to do something nice for the girl, Sam put away the cards to give them to Lucy later, then turned to something much more important. His new quest:

[New quest acquired!]

[Reap what you sow!]

[You approached Lord Silvercrest with a business proposition about the newly revealed Fractures. Go and make sure you fulfill your end of the bargain. Make sure to survey the locations under the Silvercrest family’s control and find as many Fracture entrance locations as possible.]

[Time limit: 1 week]

[Penalty: Decreased relationship with the Silvercrest family.]

[Reward: Contract with the Silvercrest family.]

It was a hard quest as currently nobody really knew how to search for Fractures. Sam suspected that he could find them with his advanced abilities related to mana sense, but following the map that he created from perusing his inherited memories would also be of great help.

He would need to play up the difficulty for the game system and the developers, but he got a nice map from the lords and he could pretend to do a little research while marking locations that he thought would hold fractures.

For now, he had a few other things to do. He put away everything, then called one of the maids.

“Please, take all of this to the Director,” he motioned the scrumptious-looking delicacies.

He could see the maid swallow her saliva upon seeing them.

“You can take a few for yourself if you want.”

“R-really, sir?” she asked with a hopeful look on her face.

“Hmm,” he hummed in agreement. “Yeah, no problem. Make sure to leave a few chocolate ones, though. Those are the Director’s favorites.”

“Thank you, sir!” she answered with a deep bow, and by the time Sam was out of the door, he could hear her chow down on one of the luxurious mini-cakes with a small moan of enjoyment.

Chuckling to himself, he headed for his next target.

The Auction House was full of people as always, but Sam had a sense that there were even more people there than usual. ‘Probably hunting for the spoils of the event, and hoping that the team that killed the final boss put something up…’

They would be waiting for a long time, as the weapons that they couldn’t identify inside the Fracture were already with a professional and Sam was just waiting for Lucy’s call to go and see what the results were. As for the Phantasmal Silk, he would need to head to the capital to find a Master Tailor that could work it, or wait a long time for somebody with the tailor profession to develop their skills. So, for now, they were in his vault at the bank, ready to be used when he or the others found an appropriate craftsman.

He wandered into the great hall of the Auction House and, after a few minutes of searching, managed to find an empty seat and immediately brought up the screen containing the list of items being auctioned.

There were dozens of land plots being put up at ludicrous prizes, though he made a note to have Lucy look into it. Then there were the random item drops as well as crafting items. He bought up those that were cheap enough while making a note of the trends to see where the highest leveled people were.

Then he went through the skill books to see if he could find anything interesting for himself or for his team. And as always, Lucy could always use skills that increased her efficiency and safety.

For a while, he browsed the list of skill books, then he had to stop and reread an item.

[Blood Magic Resistance Skill Book x17]

Apparently, somebody was farming deep inside the marshes. From his memories, the book was a rare drop from one of the monsters that looked like it was halfway between a mosquito and a spider. It was a truly disgusting-looking creature that liked to use Bleed causing status skills and so on. ‘To get enough skill books to put up for auction, they must have had spent a considerable time to farm that location…’ he mused as he casually bought out all of them. ‘Oh, well. If I meet them in the future then I will simply thank them…’ Sam thought.

While Blood Magic wasn’t a big issue now, in the future this simple skill would be something that many people fought over.

Happy that he gained something valuable for a relatively cheap price, he continued his browsing. Next, he took another look at the weapons and armor. They were around the time when several independent craftsmen (or craftswomen) debuted. And as Ironwood was a mining city, there were a lot of blacksmiths.

And lo-and-behold the list was full of shoddily crafted equipment with names like ‘Shadowfang’ and ‘Windripper’ aplenty. Several guilds sold their own weapons, including Steel Lions who sold non-enchanted middling-quality weapons, including shields with their own insignia. They were useless to him, but they did give him an idea. He quickly jotted down some notes and continued to browse.

Sam wanted to make sure he didn’t miss anything.

‘Huh, it seems I was really lucky today…’ he thought as he beheld a simple sword. It was not the greatest sword, but the crafter’s symbol on it was very familiar. Three stylistic rose petals. Clicking on the item, he saw it was from the Three Rose Petals workshop.

Smiling slightly, he clicked on it to buy it. Then Sam closed down the auction screen and went to pick up his items.

The books went into his inventory, with one of them being learned by him and the rest put away for the others. He took a few practice swings with the sword he purchased and he was happy to see that while it wasn’t anywhere near his Moonlight; it was an item crafted with dedication and expertise.

[Blood Magic Resistance: Level 0/100 (0%) (Passive) Your blood is resistant to being affected by magic. Blood Magic has decreased effect on you. Each level increases this resistance by 1%]

Now all he needed was to hire said workshop. Sadly, he didn’t know where they were located, but that was Lucy’s job…

He needed to get his team together and begin the hunt for Fractures…