While Sam was trying to make sense of the underlying mana of the world, the wyvern let out another roar, and with a few powerful beats of its wings, it began flying toward Ironwood. No doubt, the same scene was repeating itself all around the world of Magic Unbound.
Sam closed his eyes and reached out with his own mana, trying to spread it out like a blanket to smother the turbulent mana around him. Unfortunately, it fought back.
As the wyvern was followed by more and more monsters, some recognizable, some not, he simply continued to spread his mana around him, trying to wrestle control over the local mana. Every time he covered a patch of mana with his own, the mana lashed out, burning away his own until he reasserted his control.
This tug of war continued while the monster roared and charged towards the walls of the city while the guards simultaneously tried to calm down the panicked masses, hold back the excited players who could only see the walking bags of experience points in the monsters, and organize a coherent defense.
The mana buckled and bent under Sam’s control as he exerted his will over it. He narrowed his eyes as he tried to look beyond the turbulent surface of the mana ocean seething around them.
For a long moment, there was a tug of war between him and the world, as they both vied for control over the local mana.
Then Sam doubled down, channeling even more mana in an effort to assert his control and it seemed to work. The blanket of mana that he threw out in an effort to calm down the seething mana that was the result of the ritual performed far away basically broke the world.
Out in the distance, he could see the sky break a few more times, vomiting multicolored light onto the ground and with it even more monsters that soon joined up with the throng of mad monsters charging toward the city.
Returning his attention to the surrounding mana, he began constantly channeling his own mana and watched satisfied as everything began to calm down.
After several seconds of herculean effort, his own mana became one with the surrounding mana and finally, he could cast his gaze enhanced by his Mana Sense farther. Before he could even begin to puzzle out what was happening at the broken portals that led to a chaotic realm filled with multicolored light, he was interrupted by the surprisingly gentle ping of his notification.
[You set your eyes on the Firmament!]
[You achieved a breakthrough with Mage Sight!]
[Mage Sight is now Level 10!]
[You saw and touched what was not supposed to be seen or touched, you gained the subskill, Perception Filter!]
[Perception Filter: Level 0/5 (0%) (Passive) You are able to filter out that which should not be seen.]
[Mana Manipulation is now Level 24!]
[You have learned the skill Mana Gaze!]
[Mana Gaze: Level 0/20 (0%) (Active/Passive) You see more and understand more. You can see the currents of magic much more clearly and in greater detail. When not active, you are still affected passively by Level 1 Mana Sight. For every two levels in this skill, this passive Mana Sight is increased by a level until it reaches the maximum level.]
Sam stared at the notification, then back at the literal hole in reality, then right back at the screen just to see the percentage climb up steadily in the Perception Filter.
He was broken out of his musing by the first monster reaching the walls and ramming into them with an earth-shaking boom.
After shaking his head, he turned towards his teammates who were all standing and staring with open mouths at the hole in the sky, while the poor maid cowered behind them, shaking and mumbling gibberish.
He clapped his hands together, gaining everyone’s attention.
“Alright, we need to act!” With a gentle smile, he turned to the maid. “Silvy, dear, go down and join the others. I’m sure Lucy has everything well in hand.”
The maid nodded minutely, then stood up shakily and ran away as fast as her weak legs allowed her. He waited for the door to close behind the poor girl and then faced the others.
“Everybody has everything they need?”
Katie gave him a bloodthirsty nod while her sword was already spasming with a vicious yellow light. The glint in the eyes of her familiar, appropriately named Puffball, was also radiating its killer intent, ready to claw into anyone its mistress deemed to be an enemy.
Dan was vibrating in place, wisps of fire wafting off his caveman club. “Of course, teacher! Me ready! Me burn! Me burn a lot!” he exclaimed, trying to imitate how a caveman would talk...
Clarissa gave him a glare, but Sam knew there was no heat behind it. Over the days he saw that the two of them became right friends. It helped that Dan liked to go shirtless, and Clarissa appreciated the fact. She then turned to Sam and spoke.
“Where are we going, boss?”
Sam just grinned at her and raised his hand to point at something in the distance.
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They immediately headed in the indicated direction. Sam was in the lead, with Clarissa on Katie’s back, as she somewhat neglected the physical aspect of the game, so she didn’t have the ability to keep up with their speed.
As they moved through the streets, they were surrounded by panicking people as they tried to figure out what to do or where to go. It didn’t help that they could clearly hear the sounds of battle from the direction of the walls with a nice backdrop of roars, squeals, grunts, and all manner of monster noises.
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Their group dodged around guards rushing about while guilds of players and hastily assembled PUG teams tried to organize themselves into coherent units.
With less than glamorous results.
But Sam and his team didn’t care. They just sped up and dodged around the fights that broke out.
Arriving at the walls, they were greeted by the same guard captain who had them run around the area exterminating monsters.
His armor was dirty, soaked in sweat, and things better left unasked. As soon as they saw him, Clarissa stepped forward and hit the captain with a spell that cleaned him and give him a refreshed feeling.
The guard captain, proving that he didn’t get his promotion from a cereal box (Sam checked and there was cereal with toys in them in the world of Magic Unbound) instantly reacted, reaching for his sword but as soon as he felt the effects of the spell he relaxed and sent a small thankful smile at Clarissa.
“Samuel!” he called out, striding forward.
“Captain!” Sam called back, returning the greeting.
Arriving in front of them, the officer took a long look at them and then nodded.
“I need you out there, dealing with the monsters,” came the order without any hesitation, and with it, a small quest window popped up in front of him, and probably in front of his teammates.
[New quest acquired!]
[Monster Parade!]
[An unknown number of monsters are besieging the city of Ironwood. The Captain of the City Guard knows your ability and knows he can trust you. He ordered you to head out and to put a stop to this madness.]
[Time limit: As long as the gates hold]
[Penalty: Death. Loss of Property.]
[Reward: ???]
[Hidden Bonus: ???]
Sam simply accepted the quest, inwardly doing a happy dance, yet showing nothing on his face. In his inherited memories, nobody ever mentioned getting a quest like this. There were no hints, no whispers in the forums. Nothing.
That could mean either that there was no such quest then, or nobody could finish it, or more likely, the rewards were so good that they decided to stay silent.
He hoped it was the last option.
Looking at the captain, he threw out a salute.
“Understood, sir! My team and I’ll do everything in our power to make sure the walls stay standing.”
Receiving an approving nod, the guard captain threw out a quick ‘Good!’ and he was instantly swept away as a runner demanded his attention.
Sam simply turned to his team and took a last long look at them.
“Anyone wants to back out, this is the last chance!” he stated, waiting for them to speak.
Silence was his answer.
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After a final gear check, they ascended the stairs, dodging falling debris, rushing soldiers and players alike, and a few times even enemy projectiles that fell down the walls.
Arriving at the top, they were greeted with madness.
The area in front of the city was turned into a charnel house. Every square meter was filled with either monsters or players trying to survive. All around them were corpses piled high enough that some of the teams out on the field used them as makeshift walls.
And from the walls rained down all sorts of projectiles. From simple arrows to fireballs the size of a small house. But the monsters just kept coming.
He was about to speak up when there was an audible crack that could be heard, even through the commotion of the battle. The sound was similar to a wooden board cracking, though for some reason it sent a shiver down everyone’s back.
Looking up at the first crack in the sky, he swallowed as he watched what was happening to it.
The technicolor something that was inside the crack began to swirl around, then for some reason began to bulge out as if something was growing from it.
For a long moment, once again everything stood still, then the bulge separated from the rest of the technicolor material and hung up in the air for a few seconds before simply falling towards the ground. Surprisingly as soon as the multicolored blob of eldritch material was away from the crack in the sky, the cracks began slowly retreating from where they were expanding as if something was vacuuming them up.
The glob fell and hit one of the trees that was miraculously still standing, despite the sea of monsters doing their best to level the area.
The tree shone with the same light as the glob, then began to grow. And grow, grow, and grow even more. Until there was a tree that was several times taller than the city walls. At its base, between the roots, was a circular swirling portal, filled with the now familiar eldritch light.
‘The Fracture dungeon!’
Fracture dungeons were the first dungeons, and they only appeared once, when the Fracture happened. Each major city, like Ironwood, had at least one appear near it. Capital cities often times had two or more, depending on the population numbers.
He knew about a few artifacts and skills that came from these dungeons and most of them were unbelievably powerful.
Sam also knew something else. The Fracture dungeon was the key to the event. Defeat it, and the monster horde would stop receiving reinforcements. ‘It seems I found our target…’
Taking a quick look around, he found a spot at the base of the tower where there were no big player groups, only a few lone players supporting groups of tired guardsmen.
“Clarissa get on Katie’s back. Dan fire in front of us when we land. Clear?”
“Hell, yeah!” came the cheerful exclamation from Dan, while Clarissa clambered up on the armored Katie, who was visibly vibrating in place.
“Our goal is the tree!”
And with that, they jumped.
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Thanks to his wind magic, he managed to land directly on one of the Rock Bears, surprising one of the guardsmen, and squishing the monster into a paste. The guard gave him a relieved look, then began running back to his cohort, where the healer, one of the players, instantly began fussing over him.
Two thuds sounded out from next to him, and instantly, the area in front of them was ablaze in a sea of flames. Grinning a little maniacally, he launched his own wind magic, fanning the flames even further and making them even hotter.
Knowing that there would be no choice, that they would be unable to hear each other, he instantly began to sign to them. One sign was to set up the formation: Clarissa in the middle, Sam at the back, and Dan in front, bathing the enemy in flames while Katie ran around like an over-caffeinated rat, dealing with enemies that survived being on fire and/or Sam’s magic.
As the monsters surged around them, they began their slow trek toward the tree that was still somehow conjuring armies’ worth of monsters.
The first monster group that attacked them was the same group the bear that he squished belonged to. The giant bears, dotted with rocks over their bodies, ran at them, their eyes filled with madness and lust for blood.
Instantly, projectiles filled with white-hot flames rained on them, while Sam simply unleashed several layered Wind Flurrys. Katie simply let out an incoherent roar, supported by Puffball, whose head was the same size as the girl’s head. Naturally, it was smiling ear to ear, with enough teeth that it would make a shark jealous. She unfastened her blade from her back and, with a single, mighty swing, she was in the middle of the battle attacking everything that came close to her.
Though, thanks to their practice, she still had the presence of mind to dodge around the fire and wind projectiles. Clarissa simply kept a keen eye out, throwing a few heals here and there, but otherwise conserving her mana and strength.
In short order, the bears were slain, leaving behind mutilated and charred bodies that began rapidly decaying into multicolored flakes, leaving nothing behind to loot and harvest. Sam just nodded at the expected behavior of dungeon mobs, but he could see that the others were disappointed.
The in-universe explanation for the phenomenon was that they were created by the dungeons, which themselves were fractures from the dimensional void leaking into the real world. Everything they created was simply mirroring something from the real world. It looked real, smelled real, and could really rip your spine out, but inside it was filled with the same dimensional energy that made up the foundation of the dungeon.
The out-of-universe explanation was that the developers didn’t want players to cause monster breaks and then infinitely harvest the respawning monsters. Dungeon monsters only dropped loot in dungeons. That was one of the inviolable rules of the game.
Making another sign, they continued on their way, directly at the giant tree and the swirling portal at its roots.