After they left the first mining shaft, they followed Sam’s mana sense towards several other one-shot fractures. And unfortunately, all of them were on the same level as the first one. A simple corridor, then a few chambers to battle monsters and one giant hall to fight the boss.
Of the fractures they found and recorded, almost all of them were filled with golems, dropping all sorts of ores and metals with a sprinkling of earth-type skill books. Nothing special or anything that they couldn’t buy at the Auction House or from the Mage Tower.
Though both Sam and Katie kept a Ground Shake skill book as it was useful for both of their builds. And he saw Clarissa eyeing the many wall-type spells they found. Sadly, with Dan focusing on fire-type spells, there was nothing for him.
[Ground Shake: Level 0/10 (0%) (Active) A spell that allows you to stomp on the ground, releasing a pulse of mana, which shakes the ground in an area around you and breaks the ground up. The size of the area, the number of pulses, and their strength depend on the level of the skill.]
It was a rather good AoE skill for interrupting casting and simply unbalancing one’s opponent, and naturally, Sam knew a lot of alternate ways one could make use of it. The only reason he hadn’t picked it up yet was that the Mage Tower would have demanded he do a very annoying and grindy quest, while the ones on the auction were priced ludicrously.
Following the tenth one-shot fracture, they spent a little time resting, while Sam spent the duration of said rest casting his senses far and wide, pretending to try to find at least one permanent fracture in the area. When he obviously found none, as the only one he knew about didn’t exist because of his own actions, he decided to move their team deeper into the mining area.
Directly towards one of the most profitable permanent fractures.
After all, a fracture that basically provided an infinite amount of ores, was rather valuable. Now he only needed to ‘find’ it and make sure nobody else was there.
The team returned to the sunlight with their hands covering their eyes as it readjusted to the shining sun, and after a brief rest and equipment check, they turned their attention to the small mining town set up in the distance.
Usually, players would find it hard to enter as it was considered a vital part of the city’s infrastructure and was guarded twenty-four-seven by NPCs that were strong enough to one-hit anyone. Granted, there were ways around them, but why bother, when Sam had an entry token from the Silvercrest family who owned almost forty percent of the mines that the town serviced?
The journey to the gates was rather boring. The most they had to do was walk around giant carriages and other transportation methods, hauling ores and sometimes bars of metals toward Ironwood city.
At the gates, instead of heading toward the giant doors that were used by the miners and transporters, Sam directed them toward a smaller gate, guarded by two vigilant guards, clearly marked for entry for people who didn’t work there. Probably decreased the chance of injury around the large and heavy vehicles.
As the team walked up to the door, the guards’ gaze instantly zeroed in on the team, and Sam could see their hands tightening around their deadly-looking spears.
“Halt! This is the Ironwood Mining Outpost. You can only enter if you have authorization!” exclaimed one of them, while the other just cast his suspicious gaze at them, until it landed on Puffball, who chose that moment to yawn showing off its maw. Which was too big and filled with too many teeth to belong to a normal cat.
Sam could see that the man’s grip on his spear tightened so much that his skin was turning white and the tip of the spear was being lowered, pointed at Katie and her familiar.
Wanting to prevent any shenanigans, he reached into his inventory and took out the token that Lord Silvercrest had given him. It was a round token, around the size of his palm, naturally made from ancient ironwood and the Silvercrest crest prominently embossed on it with silver.
The moment the token was revealed, both guards lost some tension.
“We’re here on behalf of the Silvercrest family to conduct an investigation related to the… event that happened recently,” Sam declared, in what he hoped was a tactful manner.
The two guards nodded, and the one who spoke up reached out with his hand for the token. Sam simply handed it over, and they watched as the guards examined the item. A moment later, it was handed back, and the guard nodded.
To Sam, it provided a brief, almost fleeting, glimpse at the magic used to verify the authenticity of the token as his Mana Sense skill was still active.
“Seems to be in order,” the guard said. “What’re you planning to do?”
“We’re here to map out and observe any phenomenon left behind from the event,” he explained in a circumspect way. One never knew when they were being overheard.
The guard nodded in understanding and didn’t ask for more. He simply motioned toward the door while the other guard opened it.
They were ushered through and found themselves in a short corridor. Sam could practically feel the myriad of artifacts and spells that scanned them as they walked through. ‘Apparently, they take security seriously…’ Sam mused as he led his team in.
After getting through the wooden corridor, they emerged into a courtyard busy with guards rushing all over as well as official-looking people running while holding reams of papers.
“Ahh, I love the smell of bureaucracy in the morning!” he exclaimed softly.
“It’s in the afternoon, boss,” came the retort from Dan.
Sam just sighed and bid his team to follow him.
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‘Getting through the labyrinthine ways of the bureaucratic center of the mining outpost should have counted as its own dungeon…’ Sam thought as they emerged into the proper area.
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Katie’s hands were being healed by Clarissa, and Dan’s eyes looked empty enough that one would believe that he had lost his soul.
Even with the token, they were made to sign enough paperwork that without the magic of druids, would have probably depopulated a small forest.
But finally, they were through and ready to hunt for fractures!
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The area was bustling with activity. Miners coming up from their shifts, others starting their shifts. Material being moved all over the place, giant furnaces belting out thick, black clouds as they melted ores at stupendous temperatures with the heat and cloying smoke only held back by visibly straining magical barriers.
It was as chaotic as it was organized.
Sam had to work hard with his skill to pinpoint the origin of the fractures as the many pieces of equipment and artifacts being used by the miners in the outpost created a sort of mana-noise.
For a brief moment he closed his eyes and fully focused on the mana he could sense in the air. He used the same technique he used back in the ancient forest when looking for the ruin with the chalice and slowly began to exclude things from his senses.
Uniformly placed sources of mana? Excluded.
Mana moving in straight lines? Excluded.
And so on, until he only had solitary sources on his mental map. And because in his memories, the area looked different, as it was remodeled after one of the guilds tried to take control of the fracture, he really had to work hard to figure them out.
Finally, he compared the sources remaining on his mental map to the fractures he had experienced already, instantly pinpointing several probably one-shot ones and one big one that had a slightly different feeling than the others.
Opening his eyes, he looked at the others.
“I sense a few of them. One-shots first or the big one?” he asked.
“Oh! One-shot! I’m so close to leveling up!” exclaimed Katie cheerfully.
Sam looked at the others with a questioning gaze. Dan opened his status screen and then nodded. “Me too. Probably a good idea to do the one-shots first.”
“One-shots,” came the short and sweet answer from Clarissa. Sam was happy to see (and hear) that her tone was less severe and she was looking around the mining outpost curiously.
“One-shots it is!” he confirmed, then began walking in the direction of the nearest one. The rest of the team followed him with their head on swivel, taking in the sights of the mining outpost.
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As they progressed through the bustling crowds and loud machines, Sam couldn’t help but also look around. Seeing as the area looked very different from his inherited memories, he was rather curious. By the time the other Sam joined the game, the beginning of the fracture was over, and by the time he actually reached the level and ability to enter said fractures, the guilds were all over them.
Most of the surroundings of the permanent fractures that people found were devastated by wars between guilds wanting to monopolize them or city defense forces subduing the warring factions. Even this mining post was half destroyed by the time he first stepped into the area. They rebuilt it later, naturally, but by then it was more geared towards the exploitation of the fracture than mining.
Sadly, the miners' revolt was put down very fast. ‘Have to do something about that too…’ he thought with a sigh. ‘A reincarnator’s job never ends…’
They reached the first one-shot fracture without trouble; the miners were avoiding them like lepers. Apparently, they weren’t happy about the presence of the adventurers, based on the glares they were receiving.
The mining shaft containing the first fracture was locked down with a simple sign saying it was out of order. They simply walked around the sign and ignored the cries of surprise and warning of the miners loitering around the shaft entrance.
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Finding the fracture was easy. They just had to follow all the signs saying that there was mortal danger ahead before arriving at another brown portal.
They took a small break, eating their rations and drinking before they dived in without much fear.
[You entered a new fracture!]
[Fracture: Mining Shaft #1138-THX]
[A working mining shaft that has been temporarily closed down due to anomalous events. The workers are afraid to step in after one of their own vanished into the portal. They are waiting for the competent authorities to arrive and deal with it.]
[Time Limit: Until the Outpost Guard team arrives!]
[Charges: 1/1]
The environment inside was the same as in the previous ones, dark and rocky. However, instead of golems made of earth, they were only half earth. The other half was made of cloying clouds of coal smoke.
They were basically pieces of rocks and earth kept together by the smoke. Thankfully, they could still be damaged by physical damage.
“Let’s go for another localized genocide, guys…”
Katie let out a roar and instantly charged at the first monster approaching them.
The rest of them looked at each other, then rushed after the excitable girl.
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Sam jumped backward, shooting off a Wind Bullet to disperse the cloud of coal heading straight at him from the giant smoke golem. Dan was off to the side, holding back the small add-ons with a circle of white-hot flame, while Katie, with the support of Clarissa, was jumping around the giant golem, hacking away at its rocky surfaces.
He took a moment to center himself and then raised his sword, enveloped it in wind mana, and shot it towards the already wounded and slowing down final boss of the fracture.
The enhanced Wind Bullet ripped through the cloudy body of the golem, stunning it long enough for Katie to jump on its head and sink her razor-sharp greatsword sparkling with yellow energy into its head.
There was a moment of silence, then the unnaturally green eyes of the monster winked out, leaving behind inert rocks and clouds of disgusting coal smoke.
Then the rocks fell amid a giant roar, shaking the cavern they were in, while the smoke dispersed as if it was exploded from the inside. Sam simply raised a wall of wind between his team and the rushing clouds of material, watching as it was dispersed on it before turning into the now familiar rainbow particles as the boss vanished and left behind loot.
Sam watched as Dan walked up to the small pile of loot, while the notification screen happily confirmed they were finished with the fracture.
“Anything good, Dan?”
The scholarly pyromaniac reached down and picked up a shiny black crystal and a book.
“Err, it says that this is a Crystallized Coal, and the skill book is Ash Cloud,” he called out after examining them for a moment.
“Learn the Ash Cloud and give me the crystal. It is valuable to blacksmiths, so we can get a good price for it,” Sam instructed Dan.
Instantly, the book vanished into a swirl of mana, and Dan was furiously pouring over the description of the spell after carelessly throwing the shiny black crystal to Sam. He caught it, examined it for a second, then tossed it into his inventory. After all, it was just a somewhat fancy fuel for magical furnaces.
With that done, and the rest of the miscellaneous loot collected, they hastily exited the fracture and immediately headed for the next one.
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It took them the rest of the game time to go over all the one-shot fractures hidden around the mining outpost. The loot wasn’t anything to write home about, but at least Katie and Dan leveled up and collected enough drops that Clarissa was over the moon with her share.
Sam was glad to see she was warming up to the group.
‘Maybe with more people…’ he mused as they set down in one of the guest rooms at the offices after reporting to the outpost leader about the cleared fractures.
They were immediately directed at the guest rooms, with the people rushing out to confirm the news, but based on the faces they made, Sam was pretty sure, that even though they had no quest for it, they would be getting a reward for all the work.
Laying down on the bed, its quality rather middling, with Lucky curling around him, he closed his eyes and hit the log-out button.
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Waking up in his apartment, he put the helmet on its rack, stood up and stretched, then left the room to take care of his biological functions.
Returning to his office, he sat down at his computer and checked his emails for anything important, but aside from a few reports from Lucy, nothing interesting was in them.
So, he flexed his fingers gleefully, and with an evil smile, opened the Shadowlands website and began to type.
After all, he had an auction to set up…