After waking up, he did his usual daily routine, followed by a quick cleaning and a trip to the store. The weather was firmly in the spring phase and the sun was shining down on the city with enough strength that he only needed a thin jacket.
No matter where Sam walked, when he turned the music down in his headphones, he could only hear people talk about Magic Unbound. Young or old, it didn’t matter.
The elderly were chattering about how good it felt being young again in the game, while the younger people mostly bragged about their conquests, found loot, or damage numbers.
Standing in line at the shop, holding his weekly groceries (he could have ordered them online, but he wanted to spend at least a little time out of his apartment) he couldn’t help but overhear two young guys talking in front of him.
“…so you’re saying it’s possible?” asked one of them, leaning on the shopping cart before him.
“Totally!” exclaimed the other guy, widely gesticulating with his hands. “You know Lee?”
“The dude from the e-department?”
“Yeah, him! He shared some tips with me, so I managed to get the chant down to only a few words!”
“There is a difference between few and few. What number did you manage?” asked the first guy, clearly skeptical.
The other guy puffed up proudly, and Sam saw that two young women slowed down to listen to his words. His friend, leaning on the cart, saw them, but the second guy was oblivious.
“Be amazed, my friend! I got it down to three words! Three!” he declared proudly, and the skeptical look vanished from his friend’s face, while the girls let out small gasps.
Sam just shook his head as he watched the conversation degrade into half bragging and half the guys trying to pick up the eavesdropping girls.
It seemed the game was truly becoming a worldwide sensation.
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Returning to the game, he woke up in a simple room on a bed that was neither too hard nor too soft. It reminded Sam of every hotel bed ever. Lucky was lying on the ground, between Sam and the door, clearly protecting him while he was out.
Sam smiled and spent the next half an hour feeding the loyal wolf and playing with him. Then he opened the envelope, which to his surprise turned out to be bigger on the inside than its outward appearance would suggest.
Inside was the promised updated ID, identifying him as a proper Wind Mage, granting him some amount of discounts on spell books that he didn’t need anymore, now that he had Wind Mana Manipulation. Shaking his head at that, he reached further and took out a small scroll with the wind mana symbol on it. Wrapped around it was a small note.
Congratulations and thanks for the successful breakthrough! Here is a little something – Irene
Apparently, she managed to ace her own test. Sam unfurled the scroll and beheld a simple spell scroll containing one skill, which he immediately learned.
[Congratulations! You learned Silent Casting!]
[Silent Casting: Level 0/20 (0%) (Passive) You can cast your spells silently without much effort. Increases casting speed by 5% for each skill level.]
A very simple, but useful skill. Sam vowed to thank the woman in some way in the future.
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Leaving the crowded Magic Tower, with Lucky back in his shadow, Sam was once again left to decide what to do with himself. He could go to the Training Hall and get some extra training, but he felt like he had enough training for a while.
‘I need to get started on getting some reputation around here…’
The capital city was filled with opportunities. He only needed to make use of them. There were the expected plots of nobles planning to rebel, scheming to bring their fellow nobles low or to summon demons to solve issues that simple communications could solve.
Then there were the subversive elements originating from different countries that were in the city to destabilize the city and consequently the country. Greedy merchants manipulating events so they would become richer, psychopathic killers stalking through the night, and unknown monsters sulking deep below the city in the old abandoned mine shafts.
Also, one couldn’t discount the player base. The influx of players, guilds, and other player-led groups added to the chaos that embroiled the capital city. Because just like the NPCs, so did the players conspire to get more money, influence, and power.
Nothing happened in a vacuum.
Sam would need to maneuver through these happenings if he wanted to get some properties for his company.
The question was: Which one should he go for?
He spent some time walking around the city, just making sure that everything matched up to his inherited memories, getting to know the local landmarks, and memorizing the routes he would need to take to reach the Healer Guild or the Magic Tower if necessary.
The city itself was humongous, the districts separated by walls from each other, clearly showing the incremental increases in the size of the area the city covered over the ages. The oldest walls were around the royal palace, towering over the entire city, built on a small hill where the original entrance of the emerald mine was. It was long empty but according to rumors, it was used as an extension for the royal palace, as well as a storage while having several escape routes connected to it. According to his inherited memories, there were some credible sources that claimed that the kingdom’s secret police had their headquarters there.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Another busy area of the city, and the second oldest, was the Wharf district. It was a bustling district full of sailors and merchants as well as a rather extensive ‘emerald’ light district. Using the color red or ruby was frowned upon in the city. It made the city look like a mix between the emerald city from Oz and a generic fantasy city. Though the buildings at most were only painted green and not made from real emeralds. Naturally, some nobles had special greenhouses built from the precious stone to showcase their standing and loyalty to the city and kingdom.
This in turn meant that they had to invest more into thief deterrents as the kleptomaniacs couldn’t really give up on a freestanding building made of panes of emerald.
A vicious cycle that only a few people truly profited from.
The middle district of the city was where the government buildings and bigger markets were. The city and the army administration also had their headquarters there, causing the entire area to be full of self-important people trying to one-up each other. Naturally, as a consequence of this, this was the most expensive area of the city. Most players only entered if they had to because nobody had the money to participate in the ridiculous showmanship the nuevo rich insisted on.
Between the literal city center and the royal palace was the noble’s district, filled with giant mansions and mini palaces, surrounded by elaborate gardens filled with all manner of wonders from the kingdom and beyond.
Next to the central district was the commoners’ district, where most of the people lived and the guilds had their headquarters. This was where most players could be found, as well as several smaller markets for people to ply their trade and hawk their wares. It was also incredibly dense, with most buildings having at least one, if not more, upper floors. The alleys were particularly dangerous for the common people.
And to the south was the newest district, part of which was filled with common households with a few smaller markets dotted here and there, while the rest was filled with all sorts of farms and processing buildings for said farms. The area was almost always filled with construction work, and this was also the place where the less affluent criminals congregated. They were hidden under the dense layer of small shanty towns, either created by farm workers who were too tired to return to their homes between work, or people seeking a better life themselves, but ultimately not managing to do anything. A few lost souls who fell from grace or simply wished to vanish from the eyes of society joined them.
And all around the city, though more in the noble and central district, were patrolling guards. They called them the Emerald Guard, but most just called them Greenies affectionately, on account of the mostly green clothing they wore.
To Sam it looked rather garish, but as they say, when in Rome…
As he walked through the streets, watching and cataloging the players, he made note of their guild symbols trying to match them to the ones in his memories. He was mostly watching for those who would become the big players in the future.
Sam meandered through the streets, from the commoners’ district to the central district, where the guards took a look at him, but after seeing that he was in quality armor they left him alone.
For a while he just wandered around, checking out the markets, writing down prices of things and simply looking for a perfect spot to buy property in the city. The other Sam didn’t spend much time in Vividora, and only had knowledge about it because people bragged or sold information. By the time he reached a high enough level and was interested in visiting the city, he had other issues.
But Sam was here, and he was determined to do the same in the capital that he did in Ironwood and Deepanchor. The game was rife with opportunities and he was determined to latch onto them.
Speaking of opportunity…
Sam eyed the small park in the middle of the city, dotted with quaint little gazebos and crisscrossed with walk paths. In the middle of it was a small lake, filled with docile fish that people could fish for. Naturally, poor people weren’t allowed to fish, and any fish that was caught must be tossed back. If the fish was dead on arrival, the fisherman (or woman) must pay a fine. It was an activity made by and for rich people.
He entered the park and began walking toward the small lake as he took in the people sitting around it. Most fishermen were dressed in simple clothing that, while undoubtedly of high quality, looked like rags. There were a few younger men entertaining people while pretending to fish, but Sam’s target was one of the older gentlemen.
Thankfully, the game wasn’t completely heartless, and if somebody knew the hints, they could recognize these people.
Just to cover himself, he made his way to one of the benches in almost hearing distance from one of the youthful groups and took out a small notebook, and began organizing ideas that he had during his walk.
He wrote down fragments of plans, mostly for the benefit of the system, and partially to make sense of the chaotic thoughts swirling around in his head.
Then when there was a big ruckus from the group as the lead person said something and the sycophants pretended that it was hilarious and let out a chorus of fake laughter, he closed his notebook in a huff, stood up, and stalked away pretending to be annoyed.
Sam found his next spot to sit near an old man who had a rather big exclusion zone around him. Loud people kept far away from the man. As he walked closer, the old man looked up from his fishing rod briefly and looked at Sam who simply shrugged, pointing silently toward the loud group he was ‘fleeing’ from.
The old man let out an almost imperceptible nod and returned to staring at his rod. Sam said nothing, just took a seat on the nearby bench, and continued to work on his notebook, while inwardly geeking out a little on his subterfuge. ‘I love playing spy…’ he mused as he crossed out a few things from one of his lists that wouldn’t be feasible with the current budget of their company. Then he spent a few minutes making plans for his team and also wrote down a few ideas now that they had Tim for security.
Finished with it, he packed away his notebook and writing utensils, stood up, stretched a little, then walked a few steps away and took a seat on the grass. He folded his legs in front of him and took up a meditative position.
He took hold of his own mana and began circulating it. Then, after a few of those, he turned it into wind mana with a flex of his will and began gently playing with the surrounding wind. Nothing major, at maximum he only created a few delicate breezes.
But it was still a new thing, and he rather enjoyed playing with the mana. ‘I can’t wait to use it in a battle…’
However, a rather rude poke to his forehead soon broke him out of his meditation and practice.
His hands went up to the spot while he reflexively opened his eyes to behold the old man standing before him and staring at him slightly curiously.
“Ugh!”
The man snorted and opened his mouth, completely obscured by his bushy mustache and beard combo.
“What’re ya doing, kid?”
Sam, still sitting, looked up at the older man with salt and pepper hair and durable but ragged clothing and bowed his head a little.
“Just had a breakthrough, sir. Wanted to get more comfortable with the new ability. Sorry, if I bothered you…”
“Why here?”
“I liked the silence, sir.”
The older man eyed him for a moment. “Why are you calling me sir?”
“Because you are older and more than likely richer than me,” Sam answered with a small grin.
The man eyed him for a long moment, but before Sam could think that he made a mistake, the old man threw his head back and began laughing heartily.
“Hahahaha! What a cheeky boy! I like you!” he declared while reaching forward and slapping Sam on his shoulder. “Come on! I was bored out of my skull. Tell me stories of your adventure!”
Sam stood up, dusting off his pants, and followed the old man to the shore with a pleasant smile.
‘I do love it when the fish bite…’