As he rushed through the greenery of the kingdom toward the city of Ironwood, Sam began musing about his plans. The ultimate goal, of course, was the Dark Lands, home to one of the biggest demon polities. Sadly, even with his recently raised level, the area was way out of his league, but he could certainly start making progress toward it.
The Dark Lands were nowhere in the world, as it was banished long ago in a pocket dimension without sun, only the light of the moon illuminating it by ancient archmages after an apocalyptical battle.
All pretty standard fantasy stuff.
Reaching the hidden realms could be done through one of the nine official gates that anchored the pocket realm to this one, each guarded by elite squadrons of paladins in the employ of the biggest empires around the world. Not even saving the life of an emperor would grant him the chance to even look at them.
They were also protected from the other side by the demons as the gates made sure that the pocket realm that held the Dark Lands didn’t drift off into the infinite emptiness in the dimensional sea. Nobody wanted that. Thus, going there through official channels was impossible in the short term.
And Sam doubted the demon he had met in that Administration building would be patient enough to wait for him to ascend to the throne of an emperor. By the time the other Sam died, there were rumors that one of the guilds was close enough to place one of their own on the seat, but both he and his alternate self firmly believed that those were just that, rumors.
The developers made sure that while smaller towns and cities were ‘relatively’ easy to take over, going after a country or even an empire would be a logistical, economic, and organizational nightmare. If the players wanted to rule, they would have to fight for it. Or play the deadliest game of all, politics, and ascend to the throne that way.
And even smaller cities that were ‘relatively’ easy to take over were nightmares in their own right. The guards could be supplanted by any medium guild, but if the person placed to lead the city didn’t have the right connections, titles, and most importantly, reputation that was required of the person of that station, they would soon find themselves at first ostracized from the circles of nobility and then kneeling in front of the king, queen or whatever the local ruler called themselves, while behind them the executioner sharpened their blade.
The forums were already full of guilds bragging about being ready to take over villages, towns, and even some third-tier cities. Sam just made sure Lucy had a list of those imbeciles in the Emerald Kingdom so their company was ready to swoop in after their ‘genius’ plans failed.
But back to the Dark Lands.
The official routes were barred for him for the foreseeable future. However, as expected of the demons, there were probably thousands, maybe even tens of thousands, of unofficial ways to access the Dark Lands.
Most of these involved arcane rituals or building your own gate using some kind of reagent or artifact from the Dark Lands to anchor the ritual, but those were mostly there to call upon certain denizens of the pocket dimension.
He already had the attention of one of them. He didn’t need more.
Thus, his options were narrowed down to the Shadow Tunnels. Which were small dimensional tunnels anchored to specific spaces or even artifacts that allowed hidden access to the Dark Lands.
Naturally, they were expertly hidden and protected by all manner of magic, curses, and monsters. Over the decade of memories that he had about the game, there were only three of these tunnels mentioned, and always in hushed whispers, with nothing ever being confirmed. They were insanely valuable. That’s why Sam spent so much time and effort to hunt for one of them, in the end, succeeding against all odds.
It was one of the pieces of information that the other Sam was killed over. He planned to smuggle goods through it and make a bank, then after acquiring initial funds, knowing he wouldn’t be able to keep it secret forever, he planned to approach the nearest kingdom to the location and offer up the tunnel for a position in their government.
The plan was much more complicated than that, but Sam had no need for that. The location of the Shadow Tunnel was seared in the other Sam’s mind, and thus into his. Reaching it would have to wait until he was around Level 100 and had a few more skills to his name, but starting on the journey would only make his life much easier later.
The Emerald Kingdom, or officially, the Kingdom of the Emerald Crown, was a country with much greenery but at least as much as a mountainous area. The lower parts of these mountains were part of the kingdom, but the very tops were usually a no man’s land thanks to the fearsome monsters and other fantastical magical phenomena. And to his knowledge, the best target for his demon-killing quest was to be found there.
Thankfully, he could get the resources necessary in Ironwood and start on the roads carved through the centuries by miners, explorers, and merchants.
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He approached the gates of Ironwood with a hood on and the Chameleon mask activated. Back at the capital, he was a small fry, but here, countless people wanted his head, or worse. Sam was happy to see that there was a sizeable crowd entering the city, most of them players, who would no doubt head to the supermarkets operated by his company to stock up and head back out to farm the fractures or the monsters of the world.
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Navigating through the streets, he took a little detour, making sure to check on the aforementioned supermarkets. Sam was pretty happy to see that the customers, merchants, and craftsmen (and craftswomen) were happily interacting under the new crystalline skylights.
Soon, however, he was at the company headquarters. In a side alley, he took off the hood, then meandered through several other alleys where he used the mask to change his appearance back to the original.
He walked into the building, head held high, and guards bowing to him. He smiled at them and nodded in greeting, but his eyes were on the shiny new doors behind the receptionists.
“Welcome back, my lord!” they greeted him at the same time with polite smiles on their faces.
“Thank you. Is everything in order?” he asked, casting his mana afar to make sure somebody didn’t plan an attack on the building at the exact moment he returned. Thankfully, aside from a few suspicious mana signatures, he didn’t see anybody.
“Yes, sir!” came the answer from the woman, while the man simply smiled. “As you can see, we recently installed the… elevator,” she stated, a little hesitant on the last word. “You can only use it to access the public spaces. You will need to request a key from the Director, my lord,” she explained with a small bow.
“Does it have access to the first warehouse?”
“Yes, sir.”
“That will do for now. Thank you for the information. Have a nice day!” he told them and walked over to the doors of the elevator. He pressed the button, which lit up with magic, and he simply waited for the elevator to arrive.
A few seconds later, with the most stereotypical ding, the doors withdrew, and he was met with a pretty sizeable room. He stepped in, pressed the button for the warehouse where he could unload the loot he gathered, and watched with glee as the door closed in front of him.
‘Finally, no more stairs…’
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Dropping the mountains of loot from the two fractures they ransacked into the warehouse where workers would sort and store them, he returned to the elevator and ascended to the highest floor possible. There, he left the elevator and returned to the stairs.
Lucy was sadly not available, as she was out of the office having a meeting with some city officials, but her loyal secretary was already waiting for him with the key, shaped like a metal card the size of an old credit card, made from a unique alloy and a strip of crystal that was the mainstay of Liz’s creations.
Sam pocketed it, left a few instructions and packets of information with the secretary for Lucy to peruse later, and returned to the streets. Ready to do a small sightseeing in the city as well as stock up on basic tools and resources while he waited for the others to arrive.
‘Maybe we can get some mounts while in the mountains…’
After being done with the round trip around the city for those, he headed for the Merchant Association.
He needed a reason to head into the mountains, and why not make some money off it?
The Association was bustling with people, all of them in pursuit of one thing.
Money.
He was very quickly recognized as one of the biggest business owners in the city and led to a separate room by a woman, who looked at him like Lucky looked at juicy steaks.
She bowed a little and took a seat behind the desk.
“How may the Merchant Association help you today, my lord?”
He gave her a tight smile. “I’m here to check what kind of requests the Associations have. We’re planning on heading to the mountains and I thought…”
“…why not mix business with pleasure?”
“Exactly,” he answered the woman, who was already paging through documents looking for the requested information.
“As you may know, we, here at the Merchant Association, are always looking for profitable opportunities,” she explained, while slowly selecting a paper. “For example, we recently received a rather sizeable request for materials from beyond the border of the country.” She then handed over the paper to Sam.
He took it and began reading it.
It was a list of materials that the Merchant Association would buy from them, minus, of course, the handling fee. And taxes.
“This seems exactly what I’m looking for!”
“Excellent,” she beamed. “Then let’s get a contract and–“
“Indeed. Let’s talk about prices…” he interrupted her with a grin.
Her professionalism only allowed a minor twitch of her eyes to show upon hearing that. She picked up a pen and held it ready.
“What were you thinking, my lord?” she asked with a flat face.
Sam just grinned again and began the negotiations.
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He met his team at the gates of the city, where a small temporary rest stop was set up for travelers who came on caravans or for those who didn’t want to chance the streets of the city with their carts. It also quickly became the official meeting place for adventurers.
“Looking for a tank! Minimum Level 30!”
“Healer! We need a healer for the mine!”
“Fire mage looking for a party!”
“Ice mage looking for smart people who don’t take fire mages into narrow tunnels!”
“Hey!”
On and on it went, the guards having to break up several fights that broke out between aspiring players. He could even spot some guild recruiters who were skulking around, and watching everybody.
He simply sat there and watched the people. It was rather relaxing, actually.
Soon, however, he was broken out of his reverie.
“Hey, boss! We are here!”
He looked up and saw Dan with Clarissa and Katie in tow, heading toward him. Just as they got off some rented horses, the poor, exhausted animals were instantly led away by the stable workers for their well-deserved rest.
“We really need to get some mounts for you guys…” he mused out loud as he got up from his seat.
Katie instantly grabbed poor Puffball from her head where it was dozing and hugged the eldritch cat to herself. “My precious Puffball is almost ready! I don’t need any stinky animals to ride!” she declared while the cat tried to claw itself out of the death grip.
“Really?”
“Yeah, one of my skills needs a few more levels, and bamm! Instant big cat!”
“That’s great and all, but we don’t have eldritch abominations as pets, so we actually need mounts,” Clarissa grumbled as she motioned at herself and Dan who nodded in agreement.
“I was thinking about hellhounds. Those are always on fire…”
Sam just shook his head good-naturedly while beginning to walk away.
“Come on, guys. I have an idea for the mounts!”
Clarissa grinned, mirrored by Dan, while Katie just petted her cat, who seemed to have accepted its fate with great resignation.