The house from the outside looked old but well cared for. A few potted plants were hanging from the upstairs window; the walls were clean of the usual grime that became really familiar to Sam during his short journey with the little fey.
The only thing that was really unusual about the house was the complete lack of decoration made of iron. Instead, every facet of the house was made from the famous ironwood. Even the doorknob was made from the material. This alone convinced Sam that he was in the right place.
Squaring his shoulders, taking another look around, he stepped forward and, with a hand that hesitated only a little, knocked on the door.
He waited for almost a minute when he finally could hear someone walking very slowly towards the door. And when the door opened, he almost expected an extremely old man, in a bathrobe and slippers. Which was almost true.
The man who opened the door was wearing something like a robe, though it was definitively not a bathrobe, and the shoes on his feet were more like very fluffy loafers than slippers.
He was also wearing a rather respectable beard and mustache combo, all of it in silver-white with a few blacks, and for some reason, green strands of hair mixed in. The old man also had rather impressively bushy eyebrows that rose the moment he saw Sam standing at the door. Sam also felt a very delicate and gentle mana pulse go through him, no doubt looking for anything that could be a danger to the old man.
They spent the next dozen or so seconds staring at each other when the old man just sighed and spoke up.
“Well, what do you want?” his voice was old, but the expected weakness that was ever present in every old person Sam ever talked with was not present. Instead, his voice radiated a certain power that caused a small shiver to run down Sam’s spine.
“Good day, Sir!” replied Sam, followed by a respectful bow of the head. “I’m here to ask you a few questions.”
“About what?”
“The ironwoods, sir.” While Sam wanted to be circumspect, he knew that the only in with the old man was by being truthful. And who knows, maybe he was powerful enough to see through his lies.
The old man’s eyes narrowed at him the moment he spoke, and Sam could feel the gentle magic settle around him, now with a slight edge to it.
“I know nuttin’!” The answer came out more of a growl than actual speech, while the magic around Sam turned from containing a slight edge to being a literal storm of magic, poised to destroy him.
So he talked. Fast.
“The Silvercrest family sent me! To help them recover the Chalice of…”
“…Restraint,” finished the old man for him, a scowl on his face. And to Sam’s relief, the mana surrounding him quieted down a little.
But then the older man fell silent, looking directly at him, and Sam would have sworn that he looked through him, searching for something. Finally, after several minutes of uncomfortable silence, the man sighed, the mana vanished, and he began to turn around while spitting out a few words.
“You better come in then…”
Sam let out a relieved sigh, shook himself, and stepped through the doorstop while desperately ignoring the haunting laughter originating from somewhere in the street.
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The interior of the house was reminiscent of the exterior. Simple, but well kept. Lots of potted plants, several comfortable chairs, a merrily roaring fireplace, and shelves full of books that were no doubt full of mysterious secrets that most mage guilds would sacrifice the firstborns of their guild masters to possess.
The old ranger, Marak, led him from the door through a corridor to a living room and bade Sam to sit in one of the armchairs in front of the fireplace, while he gingerly sat down in the other one. He watched as the old man let out a content sigh as he eased himself into the chair with closed eyes, then turned his attention to the rest of the room, waiting for the other man to call on him. He was very aware of the fact that as far as the other man was concerned; he was practically nothing on the power scale.
Even his skill Discernment was only telling him that there was no chance of a snowball in hellfire that he could defeat the old ranger. At least the skill leveled up.
After another uncomfortable silence, the older man finally opened his eyes, and Sam felt another pulse of mana sweep through him and then through the room, finally stopping at the walls.
‘Probably for security…’ he thought as he looked apprehensively at the ranger sitting across from him, while the fire merrily burned, letting out a few sparks and odd cracks.
“The artifact you seek… The Silvercrest family seeks, exists,” began the ranger, looking directly into Sam’s eyes. “However, there is a problem…”
“Of course, there is a problem,” exclaimed Sam, rolling his eyes. “What is it? Was it stolen? A powerful monster decided to nest at the place it was hidden? Let me guess, there was even a prophecy about it?”
The old man stared at him for a few seconds, then chuckled a little.
“No prophecy, young man, so you don’t have to worry about that.”
“Then what do I have to worry about?”
“There is indeed a powerful monster.”
“Well, great… What is it? And why is it still alive if the Chalice is where I think it is?”
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Marak’s eyes narrowed at him at that, but he still answered.
“It is alive because we don’t know what the monster is. It is a powerful illusion user, and none of us are that good with them.”
“What do you mean us?” asked Sam, now officially curious. He wasn’t really worried about the illusion monster. At this level, it could only be a few things, and the area allowed him to further narrow it down.
“The guardians of the woods,” came the simple reply. “We walk the woods, protect them and make sure the cycle of life continues…”
“Why not call in some outside expert?”
The old ranger shook his head.
“Too big a chance that our secret would get out. Plus, the monster was content to stay there… Nobody needed that area.”
“Until now…”
“Until now, yes.”
There was another silence as the two of them stared at each other until Sam sighed.
“Let me guess… You want me to go there and try to get rid of the monster?”
“Hmm, I suppose… If you want to,” came the answer, with a slight smirk on the man’s face.
“Well, I don’t particularly want to, I need to…” replied Sam, thinking back to the Blood Contract he had signed with a slight ache in his heart. And based on how the smirk widened on the old man’s face, Sam was pretty sure the man also knew he was under the contract.
Curse his bleeding heart…
“Indeed, sometimes the need for adventure is just too great! Were I a few decades younger, why, I would be joining you right out of the door, such is the call of the adventure!” spoke the man, his entire tone filled with laughter.
“Very funny,” retorted Sam, glaring. “Now tell me what you want me to do, and I’ll leave you staring uselessly at the fire.”
The old ranger snorted, but the grin didn’t leave his face.
“Very well, my young friend. I suppose an adventurous spirit like yours should be rewarded!” he exclaimed then jumped out of his chair, completely ignoring his age and stepped up to one of the shelves that was filled to the brim with books, scrolls and stray sheets of papers and parchments. Sam watched as the man searched for a few seconds before exclaiming.
“Aha!”
Then he retrieved a scroll wedged between a book titled ‘Bounciest places in all the Kingdom” and another titled “You and your tools, how to protect them but still keep them useful!” Sam just shook his head.
‘Pervy old man…’
The man thankfully couldn’t read his thoughts and returned with the scroll and, with a quick and decisive motion, unrolled it on the small table between the two chairs.
Sam leaned forward and quickly took in the map that was revealed to him.
“The city is here, and you need to go there,” pointed out the old man, his gnarled fingers moving through the map as Sam scrambled to memorize the route.
“And what am I doing when I get there?” He asked, not daring to look away from the map.
The grin on the old ranger’s face was even bigger.
“What else, but what do you need to do? Deal with the monster, retrieve the treasure, and save the damsel. You know, my young but foolish friend, standard adventurer stuff…”
“Any other helpful information?”
“Yes.”
Sam just stayed silent.
“Make sure to prepare to deal with illusions.”
He threw an incredulous look at the other man, who simply raised his hands defensively.
“Just wanted to make sure. You never know with adventurers… Most of them are in the belief if they swing their swords hard enough, they would get through everything!”
Sam just sighed again.
“Alright, just tell me what you know about the monster…”
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A few hours later he found himself in the eating hall of the Cloudy Day inn, angrily eating his dinner while staring at his screens.
[You received a new quest!]
[To peek or not to peek?]
[Master Ranger Marak has told you of a mysterious illusion using monster plaguing the area where an artifact you seek resides. Your task is to scout out the monster and hopefully deal with it, in any way you decide.]
[Time Limit: As long as Lady Silvercrest lives.]
[Failure: Lady Silvercrest dies. The Chalice of Restraint gets destroyed.]
[Penalty: Death. The Fey will be angry with you.]
[Reward: Chance to retrieve the Chalice of Restraint. A reward from Master Ranger Marak. Additional rewards are possible.]
Because of course, the sub-quest could be complicated!
At least the rewards were good.
As Sam thought about it, he realized that based on the tropes that were prevailing in his last life; he wasn’t supposed to kill the monster, but rather befriend it and turn it into an additional defender of the city of Ironwood. Probably…
Sadly, the information he received from the old man wasn’t enough to narrow it down enough to make sure his preparations were hundred percent successful.
Finishing his meal, he stood up and began to murmur.
“Welp, time to do some research!”
It was mostly for the game system to know what he was thinking, as it would be rather hard to explain how he knew how to deal with dozens of different illusion-using monsters.
Then bidding goodbye to the waitress, thanking her for the food, he returned to his room, played with Lucky a little, then laid down on the bed, and simply logged out.
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Sam went through his routine, then after angrily eating something to sate his hunger, he sat in his office for a few minutes and stared at his whiteboard, trying to divine some kind of information from it.
Sadly, the other Sam didn’t have anything on his current quest.
By the time he joined the game, the city of Ironwood was already rebuilding from the effects of the Monster Break.
Sighing, he shook his head, stood up from his thinking stool and went to his computer. Might as well cheer himself up by checking on how the troll hunt was going.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be.
The moment he pulled up the first news site that talked about Magic Unbound, he was instantly bombarded with headlines.
Troll hunt gets trollish
Magic Unbound is the new game to troll people
Troll-ololo! The hunt is on!
And so on, as far as his eyes could see.
Apparently, the game exploded.
Sitting up straighter, he began to browse the net, checking everything out.
Minutes later, he sat back and began to massage his temples. Apparently, by revealing the secret of the Life of Blood skill book, he set so many guilds against each other that the fights and skirmishes between them caught the attention of a few big-name streamers’ (and of course uncountable no-name streamers’) and from there it was like a runaway train.
Based on the official number on the official site of the game, the number of players already jumped by a magnitude.
He stared at the counter as it slowly but surely ticked up and couldn’t help but curse himself.
“Architect of my own demise…” he exclaimed softly while leaning back and putting his hand on his eyes. “Why couldn’t I keep my mouth shut?”
‘Stupid, stupid, Sam! The butterfly effect! The more you do, the more things change!’ he lambasted himself.
Then, with a growl, he returned his attention to the screen and began his research anew.
If things changed, then his plans would also have to change.
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He returned to the game in a foul mood. Barely giving Lucky a quick pat on his head, he immediately headed out, leaving the staff perturbed, as he was usually very kind to them.
Thankfully, the new people were still stuck in the beginner towns, but soon they would be let loose…
He took a quick trip to the alchemist, buying some sparklescale powder, which allowed one to cover invisible enemies, causing them to become sparkling, which allowed people to hunt them. Then a few more potions, and then simply began power walking towards the gate that would allow him to begin his journey to the area where Old Marak told him the monster was.
A few people stepped away in fright as the young man stalked through the streets with a bloodthirsty smile on his face.