Might as Well

The restaurant was nice, not some place he could have afforded before signing up with Sam, but not one of those super expensive and exclusive ones. The atmosphere was pleasant and, based on the smells he had been smelling, the food was also amazing. Lara was sitting across from him, in a nice dress that he knew probably cost more than his tuition.

Still, that dress looked amazing on her.

“I bought it on sale in the department store…” she spoke up suddenly with a mischievous smile on her face.

“What?”

“You had a look on your face when you were looking at my dress… You thought it was some super expensive thing, right?” she asked, a smile still on her face.

Dan couldn’t help but feel embarrassed. “Sorry…”

She just chuckled and waved her hand in a dismissive motion. “Don’t worry. I do look good in it…”

Absent any idea, Dan just nodded his head in agreement.

“Probably better out of it…” she whispered impishly, causing Dan to choke on the drink that he was taking a fortifying sip of.

“Don’t do that to me!” he coughed as he tried to make sure he wouldn’t be choking on his own drink.

Thankfully, Lara’s laughter was cut short by the arrival of an indifferent waiter as he placed the food in front of them. Lara was a bit of a foodie, so while she examined the meal provided by the restaurant in front of her, Dan had time to gather himself.

A few minutes later, with a big part of the meal consumed, they resumed their earlier topic.

“I’m still a bit miffed you didn’t take me with you,” Lara said. Thankfully, Dan could see that she wasn’t really angry.

“It’s not like Sam told us what we'd be doing, you know… And you were occupied with the fortress, so…”

She frowned a little then nodded. “Fair enough, I suppose. Now, you were just about to tell me what you got as a reward. The other guilds are practically drowning fields with blood trying to kill each other to be the first to harvest those fractures so I expect something special!” she declared as if she was ready to march down to the headquarters of Future Unknown and demand to speak to a manager on his behalf.

If Dan wanted to be honest, it was a pretty nice feeling. Also, hot.

“Well, the fruit we got provided a lot of experience points…”

“How many?”

“After completing all the fractures, we were around eighty. The fruit straight up gave us ten levels.”

“Ten?” His girlfriend’s eyes were the size of a coin. “At that level?”

“Yeah, I was also surprised. But that’s not all. I also got two skills. One big one and a small one,” he continued to explain while he also fished out his phone from his pocket. Magic Unbound, as with everything else, had its own app. It was more to check bids at the auction house, keep track of owned items, and stuff like that. But you could also open your skill and status screen any time and use it to brag to others.

There were already public service announcements about the safe use of the application and how not to get mugged while using it. Apparently, some people thought that if they stole the phone, they could transfer those items that were showcased. Fortunately, the app was only to look at things, you couldn’t affect the game in any way through it. Sadly, there were a lot of people who wanted to try it which paired well with the people who liked to brag.

Dan quickly went through the menus and opened his latest skill.

“The small one just transformed my Fire Resistance skill into Lesser Fire Immunity. Gives one percent total immunity to fire per ten skill levels.”

She grinned. “That’s amazing…”

Dan nodded his head, then grinned and slid his phone over to Lara, who gingerly picked up the device to read the skill he had gained after ‘consuming the red fruit from the Tree of Rewards.

[Eternal Heart Flame: Level 0/100 (0%) (Passive) Your heart has been ignited by the True Flame. It will burn as long as you hold fire close to your heart. Grants you a 1% increase in the effectiveness of your fire skills per level and increases health and stamina regeneration by 0,5% per skill level. Your fire spells also have True Damage. Every fire spell will gain 1% True Damage per 5 skill levels. May have other properties.]

For some time Lara just stared at the skill, then quickly scrolled up, checking his other skills. Dan just grinned.

“That’s a…lot of True Damage,” she finally said after staring at the screen a little more.

“Yes,” he nodded in response.

Honestly, his own response was similar when he first saw the skill. It was truly worth the amount of resources they invested into that tree. He already had a True Damage skill with a pretty long cooldown, but with this new skill, even his most basic fire spell would do True Damage. It would probably wreck a lot of things.

‘I wonder if there is protection against True Damage…’ he wondered as his girlfriend was doing some kind of math on one of the napkins. ‘Sam probably knows…’

He almost snorted at that thought. Of course, his mysterious boss would know things like that. It seemed nothing really could surprise that man. He had an answer to everything that happened in the game. And even though he always shared whatever information was needed, Dan had the feeling that the man knew much more.

‘I wonder what is preventing him from sharing? It’s not like he doesn’t trust us…’

His thoughts were interrupted by the dismayed cry of Lara. “Damn!”

“What is it?”

“I just did the math. With your basic fireball, you could destroy my best defense and kill me in thirty seconds!” she explained with a sour look on her face.

He reached over and grabbed her hand, intervening his fingers with hers. Then stole a fry from her plate with the other hand. Payback was demanded after the last date, after all!

“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure not to attack you…” he said, trying to be comforting.

She just gave him a look.

He sighed. “Alright. Next time the boss takes me somewhere, I’ll call you…”

She reached over and patted him on the head.

“Good boy… Now how about we pay for this lame food and take our discussion to a more private place?” she asked with a raised eyebrow and negligent wave toward her half-eaten food.

For a moment Dan wanted to protest, but then the words penetrated his mind. He took one last bite of his burger – which was not bad, but nothing special – and nodded enthusiastically.

“Yeah! We can go over the math with the computer’s help!”

As he turned around to find the waiter, he missed his girlfriend’s eye twitching.

“What do you think?”

“I think you’re the luckiest son of a bitch that I’ve ever met!” she said while glaring at her friend and business partner.

The asshole had the temerity to shrug and grin at her.

“I saw your quest list! You basically go to afternoon tea parties and get experience points from that. Now, who is the lucky one?” Sam said while leaning back in his chair.

“Those are not afternoon tea parties!” she exclaimed. “Those are very delicate political discussions!”

“With pastries, cakes, and fancy dresses?” he asked.

“I would call them social lubricants…” she said, trying to ignore as his eyes landed on a box of opened high-end pastries she was munching on when he entered her office. Her trusty familiar was picking away at an almond-topped one high above her, showering the poor carpet with crumbs.

Sam just snorted. “Sure, sure… whatever makes you sleep peacefully.” He then sat up fully, his entire body language shifting from a joking one to a serious one, causing Lucy to also sit up straight. The time for friendly jokes was over. It was time to talk about business. “Not to change the subject, but how about the materials we brought back? Is there enough space for them in the warehouse?”

She had to glare at that. If she hadn’t started a new expansion due to some cryptic comments from the man in front of her, they would be in a hot mess right now. Thankfully, they had the space to put the ungodly amount of materials Sam and the team returned with.

Surprisingly, some of them could be used to complete some of her own quests. There were a lot of nobles who would ‘casually’ mention that they were looking for certain materials. Then somebody would ‘mysteriously’ find it in their storage and hand it over as if it was nothing and they would be thanked and promised favors. Pretty basic stuff, but she could use everything to strengthen her position. Most nobles were pretty sexist and the fact she wasn’t about to open her legs for the likes of them limited her somewhat.

Her backing from the Silvercrest family, their company, and guild somewhat negated the fact she was born with ovaries, but surprisingly – or not if you knew the man – it was Sam’s own mystery that was her biggest supporter.

After her purchase of properties in the capital, it seemed the stamp on the paperwork was circulated in certain circles. Nobody even dared to mention it and immediately changed the topic if she asked about it, but Lucy could see the fear in their eyes.

‘What the fuck kind of quest did you do, Sam?’ she wondered silently to herself.

She didn’t get instant respect from anyone based only on that stamp, but the moves against her were seemingly being limited.

According to Tim, there were barely any assassins. Even if they came, they were the most basic ones, as if those nobles were simply going through the motions. It was fascinating, but she wasn’t about to question a good thing.

“What about the other distortions?” he asked, breaking her train of thought.

“Bloodbath,” she answered simply while reaching for a document. “The one we leaked has already been found and attempts were made to enter, but too many people are fighting.”

“Who has the best odds?” her friend asked with a thoughtful look.

“Who else?” she asked with a wry smile.

“Steel Lions?”

“Steel Lions.”

“Not Eternal Light? What about the poison crazies?”

“Light is pretty much in the second place. The poison guzzlers are trying to get rid of the Black Blood.”

“Still?”

“I heard they apparently figured out how to ask for help last week…”

“Wow… Have they tried reading the books in the library?”

She just snorted. “Do they look like people who go to libraries?”

Sam chuckled. “Point.”

“Why?” she asked curiously.

“There is a pretty complicated purifying ritual. You need a high-level priest and a rune master, but with the money a guild has, it’s doable.”

That was surprising. “That simple?”

He just grinned. “Well, there are some penalties…”

She hummed a little as she went over the new information. “Can it be improved?”

“Yeah,” came the expected response. “It’s complicated, but basic. That’s why it can be found in the library. If you want something better and less complicated, then you need to pay for it.”

“Pay where?”

Her asshole business partner just smiled mysteriously.

“Fine. Keep your secrets…” she grumbled, crossing her arms in front of her while Sam just snorted.

‘One day, I’ll know your secrets and then you won’t be able to laugh at me! Mark my words!’ she vowed to herself.

Then Lucy cleared her throat and continued. “With the income of this much material, we can start raising a few more promising crafters. Also, some of it will be useful at the fort Lara is building.”

“How is that going?”

“Pretty good. Adam made sure there was always a contingent of guild people doing monster clearing and other useful things around. However, on the downside, we can be certain that other people know we’re doing something there.”

“Do you think they know our plan?” he asked, not even looking worried. Lucy really envied Sam’s nonchalance.

“Maybe some distractions?” he offered.

She couldn’t help but grimace. “We’re using that tactic a lot. I don’t want other people to catch on…”

He nodded. “True… true. What about having another auction with a few seeds and other nice stuff from the distortion while telling people explicitly that it was from a secret Valley of Distortion?”

“So, you want more bloodbath?”

“It’s not our blood…”

“I mean, you’re not wrong…”

His new business partner was a monster.

Adam looked over the mountains of new gear in the guild vault and couldn’t help but shake his head.

After joining up with Sam and the others, he decided to do his due diligence and asked his grandmother for help to do a background check on Sam. According to his grandmother, it came back without any issues, though Adam suspected there was more to it as when they were discussing the results over Sunday lunch – mandatory now that he was talking to his family again – there was a peculiar look on his grandmother’s face.

Sadly, he was always bad at reading other people, so he couldn’t figure out what she was thinking. In the end, he just gave up, content that Sam wasn’t like his old friend. Who he last heard had joined some dark guild. Probably promising them information about him…

Thankfully, he had a boatload of processes worked out that he had never used in previous games, so knowing his ex-friend, he changed everything in the new guild. Made much easier by the huge influx of monetary support thanks to the AFK company.

All new password schemes, patrol patterns, organization charts, and everything else. He had almost half a dozen distinct templates at home for running guilds, but he mostly used the same one, as it worked perfectly well. The rest were only put together for fun.

It felt nice to make use of his hobbies…

‘What the hell do I do with this many weapons?’ he mused as several trusted NPCs were organizing the received items per his orders. ‘Wait, how are the contribution points?’ He quickly called up the system screen to check the point tally.

It wasn’t something new. Most big guilds had something like that, but they usually only provided scraps to the regular members. You needed to sign a contract to receive anything good.

But with all this new stuff that Sam and his team brought back, he could do a little PR.

Calling up the list of items in the guild warehouse, he quickly filtered out a few things he wanted to keep back, set up a few tiers for the rewards, and then sent out a message to the entire guild to check the contribution page.

So far, they mostly had things there from the company’s crafters. High-quality stuff, but nothing earthshaking.

The reaction was instantaneous. Even far away from the common rooms of the guild headquarters, he could hear the dull roar of people as they reacted to the new items.

Adam calmly walked back to where most people were congregating and stopped at the door, watching as everybody was excitedly discussing the new items.

“What the hell! How did they get this much?”

“Did you see? We can get basic enchanted weapons!”

“There are ice bows! Perfect for my build!”

“Dibs on the blood axe! I need it for my berserker build!”

“Hah, don’t worry… there are like three of them.”

“This is the best damn guild…”

“How do we get more points?”

“That’s right! There are only so many guild quests and donating stuff doesn’t get much…”

That was by design. Neither Lucy nor Adam wanted somebody to use money to get ahead of others. But hearing the guild members complaining, he simply pushed a button, and another notification went out to the players.

“Wow! Look at that! New quests!”

“Who wants to go troll hunting with me? Need a tank and healer!”

“Looking for fire mages! Anyone?”

“Earth mages come to me! We’re going as a team!”

And on it went, the people grouping up and heading out to do quests. Or more like gathering building materials for Lara. And run errands for her. And clean up the area around their new fortress.

Thankfully, Lucy helped with the wording so the players wouldn’t suspect they were basically doing chores. However, based on their reaction to the weapons, armor, and other items in the guild warehouse, they probably wouldn’t mind doing chores.

“WOOOOHOOO! I’m getting new armor!” One person yelled excitedly as they ran by Adam, completely ignoring the guild master.

‘I could probably ask them to shovel shit and they would do it…’ he mused. The game was pretty miserable with equipment drops. Getting good and well-enchanted equipment was pretty rare. Though, with the rise of craftsmen and women that would soon be a thing of the past.

However, for now, if regular players wanted proper equipment, they either had to be incredibly lucky, pay a lot of real-world money, or join a guild that was willing to share in exchange for services rendered.

Shaking his head, Adam turned around and began walking to his office.

He still had to go over the details, and then arrange for his own training. With the new guild, he temporarily put it aside, but knowing that Lucy was always near to keep an eye on the happenings and Tim running security, he wanted to use the opportunity to run a few fractures.

From what he had heard, Sam and the rest came back over level ninety, so he had to catch up with them if he didn’t want to be ashamed as a guild master. Quickly, he sent out a message to his current team to have them gear up in half an hour.

Then he shook off his coat and sat down in front of his desk, buried under a mountain of paperwork.

‘I can’t wait until those projects Lucy mentioned are finished…’

“Why did you change it?” he asked, sipping his coffee with his personally added fortification. Especially prepared for these kinds of situations.

Selena just smiled on the big screen. “By my calculations, if they completed all the planned fractures, the loot would simply make them invincible. Better to give them something a little overpowered and shiny, than let that happen.”

He hated that he agreed with that statement. Anything that made the life of that asshole better just exacerbated his ulcer.

“What about the other locations? How are they going?”

The AI’s digital face vanished from the screen and was replaced by a map with a few red dots representing the other valleys.

A few of them were highlighted and Selena began to talk. “At these, the attack on the first layer has begun.” The highlights changed to a few other dots. “At these locations, the fights are still ongoing.”

He took another sip, just immersing himself in the sound of clacking keyboards and mouse clicks before speaking up. “Can’t we make it easier to break through the distortion for those groups?”

Selena’s face reappeared, and he was met with a reproachful look.

“Alright… no cheating to fuck with that fucker.” He thought for a second, then continued. “Any catastrophes we could unleash on him?”

Selena just sighed. “The next event is almost a month away, barring anything happening.”

“What are the chances of that?”

“Seventy-eight-point-ninety-five percent,” came the robotic reply. “Rounded up.”

“Is it that fucker’s fault?”

“Partially.”

There was a tense silence as he stared at the cheeky AI, then he sighed again. “That fucker…”

Selena just smiled again. If he didn’t know better, he would have suspected that the AI was on that fucker’s side. But he was reassured repeatedly by the experts, his wife, the janitor, and a very confused barista down in the cafeteria that no, the AI was not out to get him.

“What skill did he even get?”

The digital avatar of one of the game’s main AIs vanished again and the descriptions of the skills the man got were displayed as well with a small plain character model executing it, showcasing the graphics of the skill.

“He gained two skills,” came the explanation from the beautiful voice. “The first one is Lesser Physical Immunity, which grants him one percent immunity against physical attacks per ten skill levels.”

“That’s not bad…” he murmured while inwardly going over what he remembered of the fucker’s skill list. “What’s the big one?”

“He got two medium ones.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, giving him a big one would have been a little too much.”

“Thank the gods for the small mercies… What did he get?

The screen changed, and another skill appeared.

[All-Speak: Level MAX (Passive) You speak all mortal, non-magical tongues.]

He read it and let out a breath of relief. “That’s not bad. At least it excludes magical languages.” Not that it helped with how much the fucker did with runes, but at least this would slow him down. Upgrading this skill would be rather hard at the current level.

However, he couldn’t help but feel some fear at the thought of what the other skill would be.

“And the last one?”

There was a brief black screen, and then another skill appeared.

The other people in the room who were definitely not paying attention to the conversation between their boss and the AI – and were definitely not taking bets about his reaction – watched as the man read the text on the screen, let out an inarticulate yell, turned around stomped out of the room.

One of them leaned out from behind their monitor and read the text that caused his boss to storm out.

[Shadow of the Dragon: Level 0/100 (0%) You have been under the shadow of the great dragon ruling over the mythical cardinal beasts. It has enhanced your abilities with shadows by absorbing all of your shadow-natured skills.

Increases your ability to control shadow-natured mana by a large degree.

Grants you 0,1% True Damage with shadow skills per skill level.

Allows greater ease of mixing shadow-natured mana with other types.]

Katie happily left the headquarters after they returned from their awesome adventure. She needed to stock up on cooking ingredients and while Lucy offered to have it done for her, she wanted to do it herself. She had her favorite shops to get stuff from and had raised her reputation enough that she could ask for some high-quality or special stuff.

Then she suspected Puffball wanted to whisk her away for another trip through the great unknown to test her new skill.

Or the cat was hungry.

Sometimes she had a hard time reading that adorable face.

Then a small portal opened up under her, showcasing a galaxy swimming in a soup inside a bread bowl, and suddenly she was somewhere else.

Grinning, she looked around, trying to spot her adorable familiar.

“Hey, Puffball!” she waved at the cat who was lying on a perfectly fluffy-looking cat bed. The cat opened his eyes, looked at Katie, then closed it down and went back to sleep.

Katie just grinned and unsheathed her sword. She had a new skill to test.

After consuming the fruit granted by that tree, she got some awesome skills.

One of them was a little lame, but probably useful.

[Instant Death Resistance: Level 0/100 (0%) (Passive) If an attack would kill you instantly, there is a chance that you won’t die. The chance is 0,75% per skill level.]

Good for a berserker, but nothing special. Still, she doubted anybody had that one, as she had no idea how one would get this type of resistance.

The next skill was much more useful.

[Armor of Greed: Level 0/100 (0%) (Passive) As you rampage and go through the excess mana left behind by your enemies, you absorb that mana and create a shield around you. The more you fight and the more enemies (or friends; we don’t judge) you kill, the stronger the shield becomes. As soon as you stop fighting, the shield will dissipate. You absorb 0,9% per skill level of the mana in the air left behind by your victims.]

While it wasn’t too useful for her, she still made sure to pay attention to Sam’s lectures about mana control, so Katie knew very well that nobody was a hundred percent efficient with their mana usage. This skill, when leveled up, would be a great way to support her fights. Especially against mages…

The last one was the one she was excited to try out.

[Fractured Strike: Level 0/100 (0%) (Passive) You witnessed the fracturing of the dimensions, you plundered their depths and saw their transformations. This allowed you to master a small part of it and made it your own. Every strike you make will summon a random number of ethereal weapon strikes copying your weapon. The number can be 0,1,1,2,3,5… with decreasing chance as the number goes up. The ethereal weapon strikes do the same damage as your own weapon and have a 0,66% per skill level chance to inflict a random debuff on the enemy.]

Very good stuff.

“Alright, sweetie! Mommy is ready!” she called out to the cat, who naturally didn’t react.

However, the environment around her immediately changed. Instead of pure darkness, she was in a meadow, with roses singing ballads in the background and minotaurs wearing cute cooking aprons charging at her.

The aprons were covered in pink hearts.

“Heh, cute.”

Then she launched herself forward, intent on trying out her super-duper new skill. By the time she reached the enemy, she was in a fight with turtles hurling magical ice at her over a field of fresh toast.

Though, one of the minotaurs was next to Puffball grilling up some fresh fish with a terrified look on their face.

“How are you, brother?”

“Pretty good, why?”

“I know father made sure no guild would accept you.”

“Except for one…” David answered with a grin.

Katie couldn’t help but frown. “What if he wanted you to join them?”

David, sitting across from her on her balcony, enjoying the fresh spring weather, drinking their favorite tea, and snacking on pastries, frowned.

“Why would he want them to?”

Katie thought about then shrugged. “I have no idea. Knowing him, it could be a dozen things…”

“Well, after what he did with the Steel Lions, he can expect stuff, but I won’t be doing anything to help him.”

“Maybe that’s what he wants?”

“Now that’s just paranoia for the sake of paranoia.”

Katie nodded and took a sip of her drink. “He could be waiting until you get some rank in the guild and pump you for information.”

David nodded. “Thought about that. But I have a plan for it.”

“If they want to promote me to an officer or higher, I’m planning on telling them not to tell me any important information.”

“Simple, but effective,” Katie replied, eyeing her brother. “Father won’t like it.”

“Tough…” he answered with a grin. “He fucked with my game, it’s natural I get back at him… But enough about me. How was your trip to…where did you even go?”

“Well, I can’t tell you where, but I can tell you some of what happened…” she replied demurely. The valley was gone, with only a few plants that had a dimensional nature remaining behind, so his father couldn’t really do anything to them, but there were still ways to harm them with the information.

But sharing some random things about the fractures wouldn’t tell her father anything actionable. At least according to Sam. Katie wondered if this was another step in a plan to fuck with her father, but ultimately, she was just happy that she could share it with her brother.

She hated seeing him sad.

‘Maybe some tales about my fights will cheer him up!’ she mused happily as she settled back into her comfortable chair and looked at her expectant brother.

“So, there I was, surrounded on all sides…”

Naturally, everyone in the family knew she had acquired a high-quality pet the moment she arrived back at Ironwood. Thankfully, they had the patience to wait for her to log out before pestering her for information.

Thankfully, Isabella managed to hide behind the NDA that Sam had her sign and thus left behind a gaggle of frustrated relatives.

Sadly, it wasn’t left at that.

While the others went around to stock up their stocks, deal with the company, or report to the healer’s guild, she was left alone. And her relatives tried to make use of that.

Several cousins tried to beat the secret out of her for some reason.

Isabella sometimes wondered how they managed to talk and breathe at the same time with that kind of intelligence.

She simply had Sable transform into her wyvern form and go to town on the idiots.

Her new skills supporting the endeavor.

[Battlefield rhythm: Level 0/100 (0%) (Passive) Every battlefield has its own rhythm. You are experienced enough that you can attune yourself to this rhythm. Takes 100 seconds to attune to it, which decreases by 0,9 seconds for every skill level. After attuning and as long as the battle lasts, you are more accurate and faster and your critical chance is increased. You are less able to be snuck upon, easily spotting any attacker.]

She didn’t know she would be leaning into the dancing and music aspect of her ‘class’ but with her new over ninety levels this skill practically guaranteed her win against anything her cousins could throw at her. Mostly because she kept them talking for a minute or two, then simply danced around Sable as her cute but deadly spirit played the role of the tank.

Isabella was disappointed she didn’t get a big active skill, but after thinking about it she was pretty satisfied with the skills she got.

[Magic of Music: Level 0/100 (0%) (Passive) Music has its own magic. You have begun to understand this. The more you know, the more secrets of this skill will be revealed. Currently, it grants you a decrease in the cost of music-related skills (including dances) and an increase in effectiveness. Also grants a 0,5% chance per skill level to activate another music or dance skill when casting one, creating harmony. If attuned to the battlefield, you gain a 50% base chance of that happening. May have other properties.]

A skill with secrets and immense synergy with her other skills? Yes, please! Just what the doctor ordered.

However, she reluctantly closed the screen and moved to log out of the game. After she destroyed those meddling cousins with their brilliant plans, they naturally went to cry to their parents.

And her parents, in turn, called her for a discussion. For a moment she watched all the regular players walk around town freely without the same issues she had to deal with.

‘Sometimes I wish…’