Might as Well

Sam watched as the two medieval suits walked into the house, then closed the door behind them. He then walked back to the workroom to see what the secretive agents wanted to talk about with the eccentric runemaster.

However, to his consternation by the time he finished the short walk, there was already a glowing band of runes revolving around the trio.

He heard nothing and could only stare as the older man energetically gestured toward the pile of cooled goop on the ground while occasionally pointing a finger at Sam. Meanwhile, the agents just stood there stoically, occasionally one of them – never both – nodded at what Fitzgerald just said but otherwise barely moved.

Sam leaned against the wall and at the lack of anything to do, as he wasn’t about to leave without getting at least a damned skill book for his efforts, simply stared at the scene and tried to lip-read Fitzgerald.

Sadly, the man spoke too fast and Sam didn’t know how to lip-read.

After almost an hour of total silence, the band of runes vanished in a sprinkle of sparkles and the sound of Fitzgerald returned to the house, filling it with his chatter.

“…and once again, please, tell him thank you,” the man finished his probably heartfelt speech – based on the body and hand movements and the single tear that escaped one of his eyes – and held out his hand to the nearest suit.

The medieval secret agent stared back for a long moment, then reached out and shook the offered hand a few times.

“We’ll be in touch,” spoke the other one with a deep voice before nodding his head in respect.

Fitzgerald fidgeted somewhat and then inclined his head toward Sam. “What about him?”

The agent glanced at Sam, then back at Fitzgerald. “Oh, he is with us.”

Fitzgerald’s eyes widened to the size of an egg, and he began to splutter. “Bu-bu-but then why did I spend the last twenty minutes begging for his life?”

The other suit just shrugged. “Because it was funny…”

Before either Sam or the flabbergasted runemaster could respond, the two agents simply walked out of the house, leaving the two men staring at each other.

“You thought they were going to kill me?”

“You were with them the whole time?”

They yelled at the same time, with Fitzgerald dramatically pointing at Sam.

Sam just shrugged. “It’s not like I can tell anyone…”

Fitzgerald raised a finger and opened his mouth, probably to argue, then lowered the hand and closed his mouth with a wilted nod. “That makes sense… but still…so much time spent in acting classes…”

Sam looked away, as he couldn’t exactly look at the man and feign sympathy. ‘Maybe he should ask for his money back for those classes…’ he mused as he clamped down on his facial muscles, preventing them from forming a smile.

Finally, after wrestling with his own body he succeeded and turned back, stone-faced. “What was that about, anyway?” he asked Fitzgerald, who was squatting on the ground and gloomily poking the melted machine.

The other man just shrugged. “They have known for a while that I was working on this. Sensed the emissions from when we entered the portal.”

“They want to develop it?”

“Indeed, they do.”

There was a beat of silence.

“Can I help?”

The other man looked at Sam and waved his hand in a non-committal manner. “We shall see… First, help me clean up this…thing.”

Sam raised his hand and began casting Clean everywhere.

After cleaning the workshop and sweeping up the remains, they moved to one of the free desks with a lot of empty papers and a few loose tools of the trade.

Fitzgerald leaned forward, resting his palms on the desks, and looked into Sam’s eyes.

“I’ve watched you during our adventure and while I understand that your control over mana may one day surpass my own, it didn’t tell me much about your knowledge of runes. Thus, I have a few questions…”

Sam looked back radiating confidence. He had studied a lot despite this being a game. Several nights were spent poring over rune formations and circles, trying to tease out the best possible solution. Or just going on walks to the nearest park to touch grass and to simply memorize runes and their meanings.

Hopefully, it would come in handy…

“I’m ready, sir!”

“Good,” nodded the other man. “First question then: What is a heart rune and why do we need it?”

What followed was several hours of questions and demonstrations that around the end turned into Fitzgerald explaining a few things that Sam wasn’t certain about.

Sam simultaneously felt elated at the knowledge of his teacher and dead tired because he kept having to answer harder and harder questions. Plus, the knowledge that he was doing it without any ‘supernatural’ help made him feel rather proud.

Yeah, it was nice dunking all the world with the knowledge that he somehow gained from his alternate self but accomplishing things with his own talent felt even better. Even if it was just for a game…

“Well, young man. I can honestly say, you’re no prodigy…” Fitzgerald said as they sat around the same table they had begun at. However, it was no longer empty, instead, it was filled with countless papers overflowing with runic sequences, different materials which have been carved onto, and other detritus. And at least half a dozen cups sitting haphazardly as Fitzgerald had a bad habit of drinking a lot of coffee, then forgetting that he was drinking coffee before going to the kitchen for a new cup of coffee ignoring the previous cup on the desk right in front of him. “But you do have talent in spades!” He started with an enormous grin on his face. “I would love to see what your masterwork would be!”

Sam had to blink at that. “Does that mean…?”

“That you may call me teacher? Naturally!”

“Thank you… teacher!” Sam replied, then bowed in his seat. “I won’t waste the opportunity!”

Fitzgerald just took a loud sip of his cup and grinned at Sam.

The next moment, a screen popped up in front of Sam.

[Congratulations! You have been accepted as Laurent Fitzgerald’s student!”

[You gained the temporary title, Apprentice!]

[Apprentice: You are an apprentice learning under a master. Increased experience point gain in the key skill of the apprenticeship.]

Fitzgerald let Sam enjoy his new position in peace for a few moments, then put his cup down, clapped his hands together, and exclaimed.

“Alright, my dear student! Let’s start with the most important thing!”

“Yes, sir?”

“Lunch!”

“What?”

“I’m hungry. Let’s go eat… we have been here for hours!”

Sam leaned back on his sofa, off from the world of Magic Unbound, closed his eyes, and let out a deep sigh.

Working with Fitzgerald was rather rewarding, as he was clearly a fountain of knowledge relating to runes, but his eccentricities made it rather hard to spend much time with him. Sam wasn’t much of a cleaning snob, but after the tenth cup, he simply gave up and collected all the unused ones, plus a few plates that were used for snacking, took them to the unsurprisingly very unused-looking kitchen, and washed them.

RING RING RING

He made a vague and tired motion with his hand, but that was enough for the system to pick up his intent.

Instantly, the TV switched on and as he opened his eyes a little he saw Lucy’s face looking back at him.

“Sup, Lu!” he grunted not wanting to expand more effort.

“Sam,” replied his friend. “What the hell happened to you?”

“You know how Katie and Izzy get annoying when they aren’t occupied by something shiny?”

“Oh, that bad?” she asked with a grin, clearly taking great pleasure in his suffering.

“I’ll survive…” he waved away her ‘concern’. “Why did you call?”

Lucy chuckled before answering his question. “Mostly to touch base and to see if you’ve done anything that would alter my plans…”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I have ‘See if Sam violated the universe’ penciled in every week to make sure I remember.” There was a beat of silence then she continued. “So, did you?”

“Weeeeell…”

“Oh god… what did you do?” she asked already frowning.

So Sam told her.

Lucy stared at him in bewilderment and sheer confusion. “How the hell did you manage to find that quest?”

“Well, this time I can honestly say it was sheer luck. I was just planning to get a few lessons on runes and not do…that,” explained Sam with a groan.

Lucy nodded absently, her mind already going over the possibilities.

“We can’t monopolize it. Or take ownership. They would murder us…”

“Doubt the system would allow it…” Sam agreed.

“Would they be open for investments? Maybe for a share of the profits?”

“That will be my next meeting,” he told her with a small smile. “I don’t know how deep this goes, but if I can I will try to swing a few percentages or maybe some future privileges for the company. It really depends on what the devs planned for it as this was clearly the opening for a quest chain, but I haven’t gotten the follow-up one.”

“Could be that somebody else needs to do that one? Or somebody else gives it?” Lucy asked.

“Maybe the next quest is about collecting materials or people?” Sam mused out loud. Lucy just hummed along, she was clearly unsure about how to continue the quest chain. “Whatever,” declared Sam finally. “I’ll figure it out later! For now, I need you to do two things!”

Lucy sighed again but dutifully took her notebook, ready to make notes. “Yes?”

“Talk to Lara, make sure to leave a well-defended location free for an eventual portal.”

“I assume with space for buildings for the government officials, guards, and such?”

“Exactly!”

“Makes sense. And the other one?”

“Please, see if there are any maids who would be willing to work with my current master… he really needs it.”

Lucy grinned at his discomfort. “What about Claire?”

“Nah, I don’t want to break up the lovebirds… Somebody who wants a change of scenery from the Heavenly Forest will do…”

“Understood. I will make sure to ask around,” Lucy replied while making notes. “Anything else?”

“Can’t think of anything for now…”

Lucy looked positively relieved.

“My-my, Sam. It seems you’re out of practice… that was positively tame for you!” she chortled. “Barely broke my bullshit-o-meter…”

Sam just snorted. “Come back when you have quests with such far-reaching consequences…”

Lucy just smirked mischievously.

Sam eyed the woman. “Alright, I’ll bite. What did you do?”

Lucy let out a proud laugh before calming a little down but still grinning. “Got a license to set up a winery!”

Now that caused Sam to sit up with wide eyes. “What? How? The nobles protect those licenses harder than their gold!”

Lucy shrugged and brushed off some imaginary dust off her shoulders with all the modesty of the cat who got the canary.

“Well, a little politics here and a little talky-talky there… you know how it goes…”

“Pull the other one…”

“Fine. Ruin my fun…” she grumbled a little. “I had a quest chain which led me to one of the officials who was in charge of inspecting wineries around Ironwood (not that there are many) and it turns out somebody was doing a rather bad job, thus I offered to take over the license using the fields at our outpost.”

“And what did this oh-so-generous offer cost you?” Sam asked, intrigued.

“One of the seeds you guys got at the valley. The inspector is experimenting with a new variety of grapes…”

“Well, not the cheapest but could have been more expensive… But you know what this means, right?”

“That he’ll come back for more seeds?”

“No. We need somebody who knows how to do wine…”

“I assumed Lara, Izzy or Katie know how to do it or know somebody…”

“Fair enough,” Sam answered, then he smirked.

“Not it!” he yelled, touching his nose.

Lucy stared at him with deep betrayal but instead of saying something she just stopped the call.

Sam stared at the black screen for a moment then stood up and stretched.

“Well, that woke me up… I’m hungry and I don’t feel like cooking…” He glanced out of his windows and saw that the weather was positively pleasant. “Let’s eat out…”

He slowly began to gather his clothes preparing to head out and maybe get some fresh air if he was lucky.