The healer’s area in the city of Ironwood was always busy. One part was made up of the NPCs visiting the healers for a variety of reasons, be that a small cold or broken bone courtesy of an ornery farm animal.
The rest of the crowd was made up of players. They were either hoping for a cure for some kind of persistent poison, curse, or the debuffs given by death. The game had been going on long enough that most people knew that debuffs gained after death weren’t curable by ordinary healers.
Sam knew that at this point, most people didn’t even think they could be cured, as most people lining up to see a healer were noobs. Later in the game, there would be healers who could decrease the penalty given after death but never fully remove it.
There was even an entire guild specialized in lightening death debuffs with the eventual goal of fully curing those debuffs, but by the time of the other Sam, they still hadn’t managed it.
The building that housed the healers was a big building, decorated in the same style as the rest of the city, and reminded Sam of barracks seen in movies. It was a long building, with lots of windows on the sides and two giant two-sided doors. One for people to enter, and one for people to leave. And Sam knew they had another door at the back, where those left who couldn’t walk under their own power anymore. That is, the dead.
For a while, he just meandered through the crowd looking for potential recruits, as not all healers could fit in the building, so they were sent out to help ease the pressure on the healers inside the building.
Another purpose of this area, which happened accidentally, was that healers could advertise themselves if they were looking for parties or guilds, or guilds (and parties) could set up recruitment booths for said healers.
Even now, he could see several guild recruiters milling along the edge of the area, looking for potential recruits. Blending in with the masses, he spent some time listening to the recruiters to see what they were offering, to make sure he was up to date on the information. After all, he was about to make a deal with a healer.
He was about to figure out how to get inside the building without being someone who needed healing, as the administrators were very strict about bothering the healers when he noticed a commotion.
Wandering over a small crowd that seemed to be forming he began to listen.
“…you can’t be real! Nobody would pay that much!” came the harsh yell from someone obviously quite angry.
“If you don’t have the money, then stop bothering me,” came the flat reply from a woman.
Intrigued, Sam elbowed himself through the eagerly watching crowd and beheld the scene.
A female healer, dressed in standard robes and holding a metal staff, was standing next to a stand advertising the prices of her services. Sam had to look twice to make sure he wasn’t mistaken. On the stand stood one simple line.
Ten gold per hour.
It was a ridiculous price, and the man arguing with her seemed to think so too.
“Listen, bitch! I was nice enough to offer a place in our Skeleton Crew guild, but obviously, you need to wake up to reality. Nobody will hire you at that price!”
She sent him a withering look. “Then why are you still here? Clearly, you can’t afford it…”
Even a few yards away, Sam could hear the guy dressed as some kind of punk rocker (though he could see the necromantic ritual artifacts hidden on his body), complete with a stereotypical neon green mohawk, grinding his teeth.
“Because I need a fucking healer, and they said you’re the best, bitch!”
The woman sighed. “And you think after you called me names I would happily go with you even after admitting you can’t pay me?”
“I told you! You get paid from the loot!”
“You mean after your people take their share I get to rummage through sloppy seconds and trash…” came the condescending answer, causing the guy to let out an inarticulate yell.
Sam nudged his neighbor, who seemed to be munching on some kind of mixed nuts treat, eagerly watching the drama.
“Psst, hey!”
“What?” came the reply, without the guy taking his eyes off the happening.
“What’s her name?”
“You don’t know? It’s Clarissa. Apparently, one of the best healers…”
“Ohh, thanks…”
Sam looked back at the arguing people and thought about the information he was given. Clarissa was a familiar name. In his inherited memories, she was called the Mercenary Healer, available to hire if you could pay the amount she was asking. Which by the time the other Sam died was a truly ludicrous amount. The cause of her modus operandi was quite clear, as she stated in an interview that she loved playing as the healer, but she was always burned by her group, so she gave up trying to join and instead decided to do it for money. If they couldn’t respect her and her craft, then they would respect the money she demanded from them for her craft.
It was a quite common tale in other MMOs as well as in Magic Unbound. The healers were mostly relegated to the back lines and were treated like IT workers. As in ‘If nobody died then why are they there, and if somebody died, why were they even there?’
Naturally, one would expect retaliation against this kind of mercantile behavior, but the Healers Guild was very clear on violence against healers just because someone wanted to heal. In short: Don’t. Otherwise, you or your guild are visited by some angry man with very big weapons cursed to inhibit healing.
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Thus, the lone mercenary healer could argue with a person representing a guild without fear of repercussion for rejecting them.
And now that Sam knew who he was looking at, he couldn’t help but smile. It would cost him, but he would get the best.
With that decision he stepped forward, using his elbow judiciously to make way for himself until he was next to the punk rocker and the healer who was looking at them with an impressive poker face.
Sam stepped up and pointed at the stand.
“That price is right?”
She looked at him, glanced at his armor, and nodded.
“Yes, either that or I don’t do anything.”
“Deal.”
For a moment, there was silence in the crowd, and Sam could hear several gasps. The punk rocker gaped at him, then before the healer could answer, he puffed up and stepped closer to Sam.
“Hey! I was here first!”
“So?” he asked in a disinterested voice. He knew about the Skeleton Crew. They weren’t an ‘Evil’ guild, just simply assholes who took necromancer role-play to the extreme.
“It means I get to hire her, you shitstain!”
“With what money?” he asked, reaching into his inventory and retrieving twenty gold pieces, and handing over the woman. “Here, an advance.”
She took the money and pocketed it without looking. “My thanks!” She quickly packed up her stand and took a little step forward, ignoring the punk rocker. “Where to?”
“Follow me!”
She nodded, and they began walking away, the crowd parting for them.
The punk rocker, however, kept yelling after them.
“Hey! Where are you going? We weren’t finished! Do you hear me, assholes? This is not the end of it! The Skeleton Crew will get its revenge!”
They were ways away from the scene when she finally spoke up. “Aren’t you worried about them?”
Sam just shook his head and answered with a mischievous smile.
“Nah, don’t worry. My friend’s eldritch pet can eat them for breakfast!”
“What?”
***
Once again, Sam dumped the confused healer on Lucy, who seemed rather exasperated after dealing with Dan, and hightailed out of the HQ building. ‘She’ll probably get back at me, but for now, I’m safe…’ he thought to himself as his feet took him toward the familiar Silvercrest manor.
Before starting the training, he had to deal with one more thing. His relationship with the Silvercrest family was great. After all, he saved the life of the Lady of the house and seemingly formed some kind of weird friendship with the young lady of the family, but he wanted to somehow cement this relationship further. As getting into an actual relationship with the young lady was out, for multiple reasons, he decided on another route. Namely, expensive gifts.
And what better gift than a lifelong companion?
He walked up to the gates and the guards immediately recognized him, which meant that the butler was there within a minute, escorting him to the back garden. There he was met with the lord of the manor busily punching several punching bags with his giant fists, dressed only in what some would call medieval exercise pants, leaving his glistening chest uncovered. A little away from the sand-covered floor sat his wife, sunning herself on a divan, eagerly watching the man do his routine.
Their daughter was sitting in the shade in a gazebo, busily scribbling on reams of paper while sometimes referencing one of the half dozen books open before her on the table, while maids and other servants waited on them patiently.
Sam followed the butler, who announced him with a measured voice, cutting through the loud grunts of the lord.
“May I announce, Sir Samuel, the adventurer?”
Instantly, the lord stopped his punching routine, one fist extended, only an inch away from impact. Both ladies perked up, and Sam could see several maids giving him a shy wave. He recognized them from the altercations that happened when they were curing the lady of the house. He returned the waves and then turned toward the rapidly approaching giant of a man.
“My friend! You returned again!” he exclaimed, then grabbed Sam’s hand that was still somewhat extended from the wave and began shaking it. To his relief, he didn’t attempt to hug him. “What brings you here, my friend?”
While the tone was jovial, Sam could see in the man’s eyes that he was prepared for anything. Thankfully, he wasn’t delivering bad news, but it was heartening to see that the man took his words seriously. He surreptitiously shook his head a little, which caused the other man to relax marginally, then smiled.
“I’m only here to deliver a gift to your family, my lord.”
“A gift!”
“Yes, you’ve been kind to me, so I thought why not return the kindness,” he replied with an easy smile. While the man and his daughter were rather weird, he actually quite liked them, so he didn’t even need to pretend.
“Ohhohoho!” chuckled the lord, while giving him a long look. “What manner of gifts have you prepared, young man?”
“Why something that can’t be purchased with money!” he declared and motioned the lord to follow him towards the gazebo where the young Lucrecia was sitting and staring at him eagerly.
“That I must see!” the lord exclaimed and followed them while the butler stepped up to him with a towel and light shirt, which he donned after cleaning himself of grime and sweat.
Soon, Sam was standing in front of the sitting Lucrecia while next to him stood the lord and his wife, with the man’s arms around his wife’s shoulder, watching him. The smile on the lord’s face was eager, while the wife’s was a little more worried.
The young lady stood up slowly, smoothed down her simple, but high-quality dress, and stepped forward.
“Welcome, sir!” she greeted him with a small curtsy that somehow managed to display her ample cleavage. Sam averted his eyes while steadfastly ignoring the chuckles coming from the parents.
He nodded at her, and then reached inside his inventory and retrieved the last Shadow Familiar egg.
The moment he revealed it the lady of the house let out a gasp of recognition, while the lord and Lucrecia just looked at the shadowy egg in confusion.
“Tada!” he exclaimed happily, enjoying the look of wonder on Lady Silvercrest’s face.
“Uhm, pardon me for asking, but what is it?” asked Lucrecia with a timid smile.
“Well, young lady, I noticed that you seemed to take delight in playing with my companion, thus I endeavored to provide you with something similar of your own.” He took a little breath and watched the young woman’s face as a smile lit up as she understood his meaning. “This here is a Shadow Familiar egg. With a little luck, you may have your own Lucky to frolic with.”
The answering squeal cracked at least one window and was accompanied by the booming laughter of the lord. He stepped forward and swatted Sam on his shoulder, with Sam only managing to keep upright thanks to his skills.
“A most excellent gift! A most excellent one, indeed!”
Sam handed over the egg to the waiting young woman, who immediately began to cradle said egg. She looked at him and asked in an awed whisper.
“How do I hatch it?”
Before Sam could answer, the lady of the house spoke up with a delicate voice.
“Just channel mana in it, honey…”
“Thank you, mother!” came the hasty reply, and Sam could sense as the mana began flowing from the woman into the egg.
With a small motion, he called upon Lucky, who emerged from the side of the manor and also started to watch the proceedings. Sam saw that several guards flinched as the gigantic wolf emerged, but he also saw several maids drooling at the sight of the fluffy and silky fur. Smiling to himself, he returned his focus to the young lady of the Silvercrest family.
A few minutes later, as he felt the mana fully saturate the egg, they heard the first crack. This was then followed by several others. Then the egg began shining in white light. The light at first only seeped through the cracks, then it slowly enveloped the entire egg. A second later, the light vanished and in Lucrecia’s hand sat an adorable little shadowy wolf pup.
Apparently, the system knew what it was doing.
Immediately, the poor beast was assaulted by several people yelling about how adorable it was. Lucky simply walked closer, took a deep whiff of the smaller wolf, which cowered in fear in front of its elder, then let out a simple bark, and sat back on his haunches watching as the Silvercrest family began to play with the eager pup.