He left the guild building with conflicting emotions.
On one hand, Sam helped out a person who was being preyed on by a scumbag. On the other hand, the way he did it was pretty underhanded, too. Plus, he just ruined at least a decade-old friendship. But after witnessing the other Sam’s memories and knowing about Adam’s future ‘prospects’ he felt that while his soul felt a little heavier after his actions, it was, in the end, worth it.
Before leaving the city for greener pastures and maybe starting once again on leveling up as the current highest leveled player (at least the one who publicized it) was approaching level eighty while he was still around fifty. And with how the skills worked, the next time somebody with higher levels decided that he needed to die, his technical knowledge of said skills wouldn’t solve the issue. He would be deleted faster than a level-one bunny.
Thankfully, most of those people who were at the top of the charts were only grinding experience points and not really developing their skills, their only goal being the first to reach level one hundred.
Sam was looking forward to the explosion that would result from that.
In most games, level one hundred was a milestone, but the developers at Future Unknown decided to be cheeky and put the milestone at level one hundred and one. Thankfully, the step between one hundred and one hundred one was a simple and easy step, but it was still a pretty good mind fuck for all the people who were aiming to be the first to reach that level.
And the best part?
The developers only did it there, nowhere else.
The bastards…
He was currently Level 55, which meant, that if he wanted to stay ahead of his enemies, which he was slowly but surely gathering, he needed to get at least between thirty and forty levels in short order.
As Sam slowly planned out his leveling tour, he walked around Gladerest and checked out the city. He ambled around, looking for opportunities, but aside from some delicious food stalls, he only found a few shops selling luxury quality wild game. He shot off a message to Lucy to have them import some for Heavenly Forest (and charge extra for it) before ambling back to the supermarket to take a little real-life break, as his body was telling him it was time for some real food.
But before he could even start walking toward the accommodation that was arranged for him, he received a message.
[MonsterMind: Come back. Have questions.]
Sam was a little taken aback, but he still answered.
[Solar: Same place?]
[MonsterMind: Yes.]
[Solar: Be there in a sec]
[MonsterMind: I’ll be waiting.]
Shaking himself a little, he put away all the useless thoughts percolating around his head and refocused on the current issue.
‘What did Adam want?’
----------------------------------------
When he arrived back at the guild building, nothing was different. Nobody was giving him death glares, nobody was sobbing in devastation, and the secretary was still very perky and nice.
“Welcome back, sir!” she greeted him with cheer. “The guild master told me to direct you to his office. Would you like an escort?”
Sam shook his head with a smile. “No need, I remember.”
The receptionist nodded cheerfully. “Very well, sir. Have a nice meeting!”
“Thank you,” Sam said, then he headed deeper into the building, back to Adam’s cramped office.
At the door leading to said office, he hesitated a little, but after taking a deep breath, he nodded to himself and then knocked.
“Come in!” came the deep, yet gentle voice, tinged with a little sadness.
The man was sitting behind his desk, several crumpled papers sitting around the table, and his face looked as if he had aged a good few years.
“Hey!” Sam greeted him a little awkwardly, raising a hand. “Why did you call me back?”
Adam gestured toward the chair in front of his desk and, after Sam got situated, he began to talk.
“After you showed me that…” he fell silent before shaking his head and then continuing. “Well, after you left, I took a quick look around. I keep good records and my memory is pretty good. The easiest to check was the money. I hate dealing with banks, so it was always…him… doing the accounting, but I remember how much the income should have been. My name was on the accounts because we needed it for tax reasons… Though, now that I checked on it, I suspected it was another way for him to avoid paying his fair share.”
Sam said nothing as the man sitting opposite him was clearly working things through in real-time.
“I compared the numbers there to my memories. It was…bad. Very bad. So now I’m in a very bad situation, thanks to you.” Adam’s head rose, and he looked directly into Sam’s eyes. “I’m terrible at acting. The next time I meet him, he will know that the jig is up. I’m not well-versed in legalese, but I’m sure he placed several contingencies in case I discovered his ruse or something else happened.”
Sam felt it was time to speak up. “We have accountants and lawyers on call. Say the word, and we can help you.”
“If I sign up with you, right?” came the acerbic question from the giant man.
Sam shook his head. “No. Well, I wouldn’t say I would be sad if you signed up, but I would like to think I’m a decent person. If you need help, I will offer it even if you decide you don’t want to play the game anymore.”
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Silence followed Sam’s declaration.
Finally, after almost a quarter of an hour of contemplation, Adam spoke up.
“I hate moving… Always so bothersome…”
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After that declaration, he set up a quick three-way chat with Lucy and they hatched out a quick and dirty plan of action for Adam.
By the time they were finished, Lucy had already logged out of the game, with Adam soon following her, and no doubt calling up the experts they kept on call. Sam was pretty sure that with Lucy’s administrative skills, and enough money, they would be able to solve Adam’s issues.
And while it was a gamble to not get the man to agree to sign up with AFK, he felt that based on what he knew about the man, he would still join. If not? Adam would feel indebted to him and would be a great ally later, and he would have to go with his Plan B for the guild.
Leaving the guild building the second time, he headed back to his accommodation directly. He suddenly remembered, that he never opened the scroll the fey gave him in the fracture.
‘Probably, because I thought it was some kind of prank… you never know with those people…’ he mused as he ascended the steps leading to his temporary abode.
Closing the door behind himself, he used his illusionary runes to set up an area of silence as well as something that would hopefully cancel any long-distance observation. Though, he doubted how useful that would be against the fey.
Lucky immediately jumped out of his shadow and Sam was momentarily distracted as the shadow wolf used his mighty cute eyes to beg for snacks.
After satiating the cute wolf, he sat down next to the table and placed the scroll on it with the same care as one would handle a live bomb.
Careful study didn’t reveal much, so he picked up the small note attached to it with his name on it. Turning around the small piece of paper, he saw a few words written on it with elegant calligraphy, the ink shining in rainbow color.
Sometimes it takes a while to find the edge pieces…
“Well, that was vague as hell. As expected…” Sam spoke up tiredly, then after a few seconds reached for the scroll and carefully unrolled it.
Instead of the expected glitter bomb, he was bombarded with illusionary fireworks, causing Lucky to instantly abandon his snack and look around alertly while Sam blinked the spots out of his eyes.
“Fucking fey…” he grumbled and began reading the scroll.
It was, as expected of the tricky fairies, a gift and curse rolled into one.
An extremely rare skill that would collate several of his skills, creating something that would be better than the sum of its parts, but at the same time, would have tremendous experience requirements and upgrading would be almost impossible without the help of the fey…
[You received the scroll containing the skill, The Way of the Forerunner!]
[The Way of the Forerunner: Level 0/100 (0%) (Passive) You are ahead of the pack, yet your skills are merely a small piece of a greater puzzle. However, as a forerunner, you have nothing to base your development on. This skill will be your first edge piece to this puzzle.
It absorbs the following skills:
Basic Armor Mastery
Epic Breathing Technique
Tranquil Heart
Flow
Parry
The experience earned and subskill attained in these skills will be also absorbed and transferred to this skill.
The skill allows you to fight to your heart’s content, yet not be hampered by unconnected skills.
Allows you to wear any armor, as long as you make sure to understand how it works and what it does. Decreases Stamina consumption when wearing any type of armor.
You breathe, and the world breathes with you. Now that rhythm will be to your own heartbeat. However, anybody trying to get a read on your breathing or disrupt it will face great opposition. Raises stamina regeneration by 2% for each level of this skill.
Your heart moves you and moves with you in an efficient and harmonious dance. You resist mind-altering effects and a portion of those effects are reflected back to the source. The portion is 3% per skill level.
You also radiate an aura of tranquility that confers the resistance portion of the skill to your allies near you.
You read the flow of mana as easily as a book. And now you can write your own book. Increases your stability and the bonuses any movement or martial art skill provides by 2% per level in the skill when using more than one skill at a time.
Blocking has become even easier for you. As long as you are not disrupted, you are in the flow and only wielding one weapon in one hand, the defensive weapon movements’ stamina consumption is decreased. It allows you to more efficiently and accurately parry incoming attacks. Decreases the damage of the blocked attack by 1% for each skill level at the moment of blocking.]
[Would you like to learn it?]
It was a massive skill, that would absorb and alter several skills based on his preferences demonstrated so far. Fighting with a weapon in one hand, the other hand slinging magic, rushing about, and dancing to his own tune.
Yet at the same time, the experience points demanded by the skill would be tremendous.
‘Probably the system’s way to slow me down…’ he theorized as he pored over the skill.
But in the end, he didn’t have much choice. His physical skills were lagging behind his magical ones, and this would eliminate the need to focus on them one by one and simply go on with his play style.
“Not much choice there…” he grumbled out loud before clicking on the yes button.
Instantly, the scroll dissolved into light particles that swirled around him before shooting directly at his heart.
Sam immediately noticed how the game forced him to breathe differently. Yet it wasn’t uncomfortable, instead, he felt as if he had been breathing the wrong way all this time. The feeling was really hard to describe. It wasn’t like he couldn’t breathe before, but now it felt… right.
‘The game is scary sometimes…’ he mused as he stood up and began to move around the room.
Everything felt just a little smoother and a little better. However, only time will tell if he made the right decision.
He was about to log out when he received one more message.
[FireHotHot: Hey, bossman! Do you have time to meet my girlfriend?]
It seemed he was in luck. If he managed to get the woman on his side, then he would be set and he could focus on leveling finally.
[Solar: Here or IRL?]
[FireHotHot: IRL.]
[Solar: Ok. Call you in a sec.]
Closing the message screen, he lay down on the bed and closed his eyes as Lucky jumped up next to him and logged out of the game.
Exactly five minutes after he logged out, a bubble emerged from the table where the scroll touched it, rose into the air, and after a few seconds, exploded, painting the entire room with glitter.
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Thankfully, the university Dan attended was in the same city Sam lived, although almost on the opposite side.
Still, with modern transportation, it was just half an hour in a futuristic taxi, that somehow still smelled and looked like it came from the nineties.
The square where the restaurant he was heading to, was filled with university students, all of them talking about Magic Unbound. Sam overheard several people bragging about things in the game as he cut through the crowd, some of them pure nonsense and it took real effort not to burst out laughing.
Finally, he arrived at a mid-tier restaurant and entered it. It was some kind of fusion restaurant that had trouble deciding what kind of food it served. But they were serving big portions at affordable prices so uni students ate there no matter the confusion.
He spotted Dan sitting in a booth in the back, awkwardly glancing around while an admittedly beautiful girl sat next to him, cool as a cucumber, sipping on her drink. Sam waved at them, catching their attention and he headed over to them, mentally bracing himself for a tough negotiation.