With Lucky in his shadow, his so-far trusty sword at his side, and his repaired armor on him, Sam stepped out of the city, dodging the crowds that seemed to have swelled another size since he posted his stupid post and began heading towards his goal.
Thankfully, dungeons weren’t a thing yet, so he knew he would have to fight the unknown monster out in the wild. Which made things easier and at the same time harder.
Understandably, dungeons made things easier because they were instanced content that somewhat scaled in difficulty to the number of people that entered them. And this instanced content ensured the security of the people who entered them. But with this came the danger. More powerful monsters, more traps and environmental hazards and so on.
While in the open world, monsters were easier to attack, ambush and defeat due to players being able to make use of the environment. Yet, at the same time, this made it much harder to do it.
Because if you could ambush the boss monster, other people could also ambush you.
Or if you are very unlucky, then simply a party that was travelling by would spot you trying to fight the monster. In the best-case scenario, they would acknowledge your right to the monster and leave. In the worst, you would be fighting two battles at the same time.
If you saw them coming…
As Sam walked along the road leading away from the town, once again wearing a different face thanks to his awesome mask, he couldn’t help but smirk, thinking about the chaos he caused with his post.
The guilds around Ironwood and anywhere where trolls could be found were at each other’s throats, fighting tooth and nail to acquire the Life of Blood skill book. It was such an amazing skill that everyone wanted it. Which was a little deviation from his inherited memories.
In the future-that-was the Life of Blood skill was famous, but it didn’t get such enormous fame as it did in his current timeline. Probably his post helped with it…
His smirk turned into a chuckle at that thought.
‘Can’t wait until those two idiots figure out Blood Magic…’
While he walked, acting as if he was oblivious to the world, he was actually using all of his skills to make sure he wasn’t followed or there weren’t any random monsters or bandits hiding around. His senses stretched as far as he could, feeling the mana in the air, in the forest and in the ground under him. His eyes were straining to see the smallest anomaly in the eccentric tapestry that the mana he saw was.
His mana ticked up and down as he continuously used his skills, while the levels of Sam’s skills slowly but surely rose.
After an hour on the road, whistling and seemingly traveling towards the next town over, he finally ascertained that nobody was on the road that seemed to be interested in him. Granted the other travellers on the road, single people like him, a few merchant caravans, or lone carts drawn by all manner of beasts were there, but everybody was engrossed in their own lives.
Even the players were more interested in talking about strategies and skill compositions or bragging about how many trolls they had already killed.
Nodding to himself, and spotting a rest station, which was basically a cleared part of the forest a few dozen yards away from the road proper, he slowly left the road and headed towards it.
He made a great show of stretching and groaning, despite not sensing anyone around there, but in case somebody was watching from the road, he wanted to make sure they only saw what he wanted them to see.
‘Probably wouldn’t fool a professional, but I’m not dealing with professionals… I hope…’ Sam thought as he glanced around. After all, it wasn’t paranoia if they were out to get you.
He spent a few minutes sitting on one of the logs that were in the rest station, drinking and snacking. Then, as he spotted a lull in the traffic on the road, and luckily a cloud hid the sun behind him, he stood up and softly exclaimed.
“Shadow Cloak!”
Instantly, his shadow shot up from under him, enveloping him and creating a sort of haze around him. At the same time, he jumped backward, then twisted in the air, and began running through the forest, away from the rest station and road.
He changed directions a few times, making sure to let the cooldown of Shadow Cloak go down, and restarting it every time he lost it.
Finally, after running through the forest like a demented (but rather edgy) squirrel, he stopped in a clearing, breathing heavilly, but grinning in happiness. He always enjoyed playing ninja, and what he did was the same thing he did as a kid while playing around, but with superpowers.
As Sam caught his breath, he took a quick glance at his notifications. He couldn’t help but be happy with what he saw.
[Your skill, Multitasking has reached Level 25!]
[Thanks to reaching level 25 with the Multitasking skill you gained Efficiency subskill!]
[Efficiency: Level 0/10 (0%) (Passive) Everything you do through multitasking is much more efficient. Decreases mana consumption of spells when using them simultaneously and stamina when using physical skills simultaneously by 1%.]
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Efficiency was a rather common subskill, still, it was a rather good skill for his build, so Sam was happy with it.
[Your skill, Mage Sight has reached Level 6!]
[Your skill, Mana Sense has reached Level 16!]
[Your skill, Discernment has reached Level 3!]
[Your skill, Advanced Mana Control has reached Level 7!]
Nodding in satisfaction, he took a last, deep breath, then took out a compass and map from his inventory and took a few seconds to orient himself, then took a few seconds to close his eyes and take a few deep breaths. Following that, he took out a simple black cloak, pulled it on, making sure that the hood of the cloak was covering his entire head, then turned on the Mana Shield, Shadow Cloak skills, covering himself head to toe, then with a last flex of his will he ignited the Mana Body Enhancement skill and shot off towards his destination.
He left behind a small clearing and a very surprised squirrel that fell out of the tree over him, as the sound of Sam’s departure managed to shock him.
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Because the Chalice was hidden at a place that was also hidden from the general public, the old ranger couldn’t exactly give Sam directions straight to the area. Instead, Sam was given several landmarks to find and follow.
The first landmark was a rather simple rock, called Candle rock by the people of the area, on the account of it looking like a melted candle. It was on the border of the forest around Ironwood town and one of the mountains called (quite creatively) Ironspark Mountain. It mostly contained iron and coal, with a few rarer metals here and there.
So, nobody cared about it. Until now.
Because recently a tribe of trolls had moved in. And with them came the players.
As Sam hid behind a tree thick enough that it would need at least four people to reach around it, he beheld a group of players apparently patrolling the area. Further up, he could hear the sound of battle.
Cursing to himself, he waited until the patrol moved further away, then after making sure his skills were turned on and Lucky wasn’t about to jump out of his shadow, he darted towards the next tree.
Holding his breath, he watched the players for a clue they saw him, but they continued to walk away, carelessly talking about some kind of pop star. Releasing his breath, he steeled himself and began darting from tree to tree toward his goal.
Soon, he found himself watching as a large group of people battling an equally large group of trolls. But while the trolls were wielding wooden clubs and primitive stone axes, they were bombarded by steel-tipped arrows, swords, spears, and all manner of other weapons, while a small collection of players, guarded by a few serious knight types were lobbing fireballs and balls of electricity at the trolls.
While the spells looked rather anemic to Sam, and he winced every time he heard one of the mages cry out ‘Fireball!’, the players facing the trolls cheered whenever one of the spells hit the monsters.
He spent a few minutes just observing them and the trolls wanting to gather intelligence on the current average combat capability.
Sam was getting ready to move, and he just waited for the Shadow Cloak to expire, while the group he was watching was celebrating a drop of the infamous skill book.
The skill expired, and he was no longer cloaked in shadows, staying absolutely still behind one of the trees he immediately renewed it and launched himself towards his next hiding spot.
Sadly, it seemed his luck ran out. As he was midway between the two hiding spots, one of the people fighting the trolls cried out.
“There is someone here!”
Instantly, the entire guild became tense, and different yells filled the air.
“What?” “Who dares?” “Which guild wants our spoil?”
Thankfully, before they could properly react, he managed to reach his newest hiding spot. He crouched down, ready to launch himself away, and listened carefully.
“Are you sure?” spoke up one of the guys. Sam suspected the guild leader.
“Yeah, boss! My skill pinged because it sensed somebody going by!”
Sam listened as the first man cursed up a storm, then asked another question.
“Where are they?”
“Sorry, boss, I lost them instantly!”
Another curse session. Then the man began to issue orders.
“Alright, if those assholes want to play with us, then we will play! Team one will stay here and continue farming. Team two I want you to be on guard! Team three increase the patrol radius!”
“””Yes!”””
Sam smiled at their actions, relieved they only sensed him momentarily, he launched himself away from the tree he was hiding behind once again heading for the Candle rock, leaving behind an agitated guild.
Even if by accident, if he could stoke the flames of the developing guild wars, then Sam was happy.
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Thankfully, there were no more interruptions on his way to the Candle rock. He weaved through the trees, ignored every monster that looked his way, and another hour after leaving behind the guild farming trolls (thanking the stars that they had no idea that proximity wards were a thing) he arrived at a small outcropping holding the rock he was after.
It jutted toward the sky, and upon Sam’s inspection, he had to agree it did look like a melted candle. If one squinted. But he wasn’t there to debate the naming sense of the locals. He was here to hunt a monster down and get rid of the blood contract. And of course, get all the sweet, sweet loot.
Slowly, Sam once again took out the map and compass, though after glancing at the compass, he put it back. Thanks to the iron in the mountains and some subtle enchantments that the ranger told him about, compasses were useless from this point forward.
He stepped next to the candle-shaped rock and began looking around, trying to spot the landmarks he was told about.
Finally, after a minute of straining his eyes, he spotted the first one.
An ancient giant ironwood that was recognizable because it had two trunks heading toward the sky. Then, after a few seconds, he spotted the other one. A distant waterfall that almost looked like a spot of bluish-white dirt on the side of a mountain.
His journey would take him between the two of them.
Now that he found the proper directions, instead of continuing with his journey, he quickly set up a tent hidden between some rocks, let out Lucky, fed him, and played with him for a while, then he crawled into the tent, and simply logged out.
He had been playing for a while; he had to take care of his biological function.
“Hopefully, with the bigger hype, they will announce the time restrictions earlier, because this is a murder on my sleep cycle…” Sam murmured as he ambled towards the bathroom.
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Finished with taking care of his annoying biological function Sam spent a few minutes checking the internet, watching almost in real-time as the hype of the game continued to increase, while on the forums the Troll Wars as the players started calling it continued to escalate.
He logged back to find Lucky snuggled under one of his arms, snoring almost silently but looking absolutely content.
Sam smiled and spent a few minutes just cuddling his wolf companion with the sinfully soft fur.
“Duty calls, you silly boy,” he called out softly, poking the nose of the wolf. Lucky blinked a few times, then simply grinned at him and barked enthusiastically. “Good boy!” He petted the wolf, then extricated himself from the tent, followed by Lucky, who upon seeing Sam dismantling the tent, yawned, stretched a little, and simply jumped into his shadow.
Which was followed by a single notification.
[Your skill, Spirit Link has reached Level 8!]
Sam chuckled a little, then threw another ‘Good boy!’ at his shadow, then activated his skills and shot off towards his goal, keeping the unique ironwood tree and distant waterfall in his sight.
He had the next landmark to find.