Lucy rolled up the scroll, her eyes wide as saucers.
“How the fuck do you get stuff like this? The first time, I believed that it was luck, but this is like the hundredth time. No way you’re this lucky.” She placed the scroll carefully on the desk and turned fully toward Sam, her eyes radiating deep curiosity. “One day you’re going to slip up and turn out to be some kind of abomination beyond our dimensions, and I’ll be there to say ‘I knew it!’.”
Sam just rolled his eyes. “Bet you say that to every guy…”
She looked back at him with a look Sam couldn’t really place, before closing her eyes, letting a deep sigh, before opening them again and gently tapping the scroll.
“Ignoring all that, you want me to set up a greenhouse for these?” she asked, already considering the logistics.
Sam, however, shook his head. “I mean, you could, but I fear we wouldn’t have enough trusted manpower to produce enough for the coming fights.”
“Third party?”
“Bingo. I feel that the Healer Guild would probably appreciate a partnership.”
“We bankroll them, and they provide the manpower?”
“Exactly! Plus, with their connections, distributing the new potions would be easy.”
Lucy considered the idea for a minute before nodding. “Alright, that is a sound idea. I’ll get Clarissa to get me a proper introduction without all the politics slowing things down.”
Sam couldn’t help but snicker. “Take Agent Hawk with you. The crown should know about this…”
His friend just rolled her eyes. “As you wish. Also, while we’re talking about her, please, don’t alienate our only contact with the royal family because of her inability to come up with proper cover names.”
“Fine, fine,” Sam replied, waving away her concern. “Despite looking like she swallowed a forest worth of sticks, she actually has a sense of humor, you know…”
“That remains to be seen…”
“Hey, look on the bright side. At least the two of you can spend time together and complain about me! No better way to raise an NPC’s familiarity!”
Lucy glared at him for a moment, then grinned slightly. “You’re impossible…”
“Instead of impossible, I would call myself very improbable…”
“Just…go and do something crazy before I try to strangle you.”
“Buy me dinner first!”
“OUT!”
Still chuckling, Sam left Lucy’s office, knowing that the scroll with the ritual was in great hands and headed for another empty room. He still hadn’t caught up with his new skills, so he wanted to take a few minutes to go over what had changed.
He went through a rather significant fight, so he expected some nice level-ups.
Opening the system screen, he was instantly bombarded with a flood of notifications.
[Perfect Mana Core is now Level 60!]
[Mana Scales is now 201!]
[Thanks to suffering an incredible amount of damage without dying, you gained the subskill, Void Scales!]
[Void Scales: Level MAX (MAX%) (Passive) Due to the void mana permeating your mana scales, they have assimilated some of its properties. For every mana invested into the spell, it will absorb half the damage it protects you from. (e.g.: Currently 0,2 damage per level per mana, thus it absorbs 0,1 damage per level per mana.)]
[Mana Weaving is now Level 79!]
[For the extensive use of your mana-based skills, you gained the subskill, Void Edge!]
[Void Edge: Level MAX (MAX%) (Passive) Doubles the effectiveness of the piercing properties of your spells.]
[Void Manipulation is now Level 79!]
[Void Affinity is now Level 89!]
[Void Soul is now Level 75!]
[Obliteration is now Level 11!]
Sam stared at the Void Scales subskill, opened his mouth, then closed it after a few seconds.
‘This is too overpowered…or am I reading this wrong? Did the system glitch out?’ he furiously thought as he did some mental math. ‘And it doesn’t say protect, but absorb. The most important question is…how can I make use of that?’
Shaking his head a little, Sam refocused on the rest of the notifications.
[Abyss Sight is now Level 20!]
[Mana Gaze is now Level 20!]
[Mana Gaze and Abyss Sight have merged into Abyss Gaze!]
[Abyss Gaze: Level 15/50 (0%) (Active/Passive) You looked. And kept looking. That’s not normal, my friend… You are immune to being blinded by mundane sources, and sources that would visually impair or debilitate you are much less effective. You gain Truesight in a 10 m radius. 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, and the Truesight radius is increased by 1 m per level.]
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
[Mana Body Infusion is now Level 72!]
[Mana Architecture is now Level 99!]
‘The gifts just keep on giving…’ he mused. Truesight was one of the more valuable ‘sight powers’, so Sam was delighted to gain more of it. ‘I wonder if I can remember anything else about Mana Architecture?’
It was a foundational skill that most theory crafters and high-level mages all had, but at the moment, he didn’t remember any upgrades being popularized. ‘Probably so powerful that people just simply kept quiet about it…’ Still, he resolved to see if he could dredge up something about it from the mire of his memories.
Which, admittedly, were getting harder and harder to do. He changed so much and experienced so much that the initial clarity of the memories had long since faded. He was just lucky that he spent a lot of time writing down the most important things at the beginning…
The major beats were still around, as if they had a metaphysical weight behind them, but the details had long since begun to fall to the wayside.
Not that he minded it too much. At first, it was a crutch for him to get his footing, not unlike a child learning to ride a bicycle with the wheels attached at the sides. But with all he had achieved, Sam felt it would have been embarrassing to still heavily rely on the inherited knowledge. He was his own person, not just a vessel for the poor departed other Sam…
‘Hmm… I wonder what Mike is doing nowadays? I should look him up. Maybe some good old-fashioned revenge would cheer me up…’
[Illusionary Stealth is now Level 1!]
[Field Healer is now Level 24!]
[The Way of the Forerunner is now Level 99!]
[Master Runecarver is now Level 35!]
[Physical and Magical Resistance is now Level 69!]
[Illusion Resistance is now 41!]
[Corruption Resistance is now Level 85!]
[Fear Resistance is now Level 41!]
[Poison Resistance is now Level 27!]
[Necrotic Resistance is now Level 19!]
With that finished, his thoughts turned toward another update on his system screen.
[You destroyed another demonic entity. The quest ‘Prove yourself! Has been updated!]
Opening the quest screen, he saw that the counter went up by one more. Blinking slightly, a slow but wicked grin appeared on his face.
‘I think… It’s time for the team to do a little hunting!’
A few hours later, he entered another meeting room. This time, instead of an empty one, this contained his trusty teammates.
Clarissa sat in a high-backed chair, calmly talking with Isabella, while Katie, nearby, was animatedly telling something to Dan, who looked equal parts embarrassed and joyful. Tim was at the head of the table, sitting in his own chair, and looking through several documents. For once, his ever-present – and ever-expanding – harem was nowhere to be seen.
As he entered the room, everybody fell silent, but then a moment later, he was bombarded with greetings.
“Hey, boss!”
“Good day!”
“Sam! Hi! Guess what?”
“Don’t listen to her!”
Sam just smiled, returned the greetings, and took a seat at the table. “I’m glad to see everyone is in high spirits! Anything interesting happened?”
Katie opened her mouth, but Isabella, with incredible speed, reached over and slapped her hand over her mouth.
Sam decided that he really didn’t want to know and turned toward the still calm Clarissa. The healer just raised an eyebrow and flicked a system screen toward him.
[Flow of Battle: Level 2 (59%) (Passive) You can read the flow of any battle, allowing you to support your allies with the highest effectiveness. You are always aware of their health and mana, allowing you to heal them with pinpoint precision. When healing a group of five or more, your healing effectiveness is increased by 0,5% per skill level.]
“Finally got the party health screen… Only took me months of raising my relationship with the Healer Guild,” she grumbled, but Sam could hear the pride in her voice.
“Congratulations!” he replied with a smile.
Dan chose the moment to speak up. “I also got something nice!”
“More muscles?”
He grinned and flexed his pecs. “I mean, yeah, I got some more, but I was talking about this.”
Another screen appeared in front of Sam.
[State Transformation: Level 5 (34%) (Active) You managed to master the different states of fire, allowing you to transform your body into your mastered element. When transformed, the element in question has 100% plus skill level increased damage, accuracy, and the cooldown and cost of any spell is reduced by 25% plus skill level. Your health in a transformed state equals your mana, and when you run out, the transformation is instantly cancelled. Cooldown: 24 hours.]
“So, you basically become a Plasma Elemental?” he asked, remembering his spotty memories of certain elemental mages transforming.
Five years into the game. One of the biggest news stories that year was when one of the research guilds managed to achieve the transformation. And here was his overly-muscled teammate, who just did it… almost a year into the game.
Sam grinned and offered a high-five to Dan, who returned it with an equal grin on his face.
“I already tried it out. It’s amazing!”
Sam nodded, already planning out their new group composition, then turned back to Clarissa. “Can you keep him topped up?”
Clarissa nodded resolutely. “We already did some experiments. Without me, he can maintain the transformation for around a minute – while also nuking everything around him – but if I keep refilling his mana, we managed to keep him going for almost ten minutes.”
Dan just looked super satisfied and proud. Sam absorbed the information before starting to ask a few more questions.
Half an hour later, everybody was sitting around the table, looking at Tim, who was putting up a map on a fantasy corkboard.
Finishing with the last pin, he turned around, cleared his throat, fixed his bowtie, and began his presentation.
“As per Sam’s request, I looked into the newer fractures the enemy has been using, and selected half a dozen that you could assault with a smaller force and do whatever you want with them.”
Hearing that, Katie sat up much straighter, eyes fixed on Sam. “Wait! Does that mean that we are?”
Sam nodded. “We are, indeed.”
“Yes!” she celebrated with both hands in the air. “Finally, time to massacre those idiots! Mama wants blood!”
Tim cleared his throat again and then continued. “As you can see on the map, these are the nearest fractures to the border that had something to do with blood or blood magic.
“This one is very popular on the forums,” he explained, pointing to a pin on the map. “Apparently, it’s filled with goblins infected by blood magic. They are affectionately called Hemogoblins. Low-level and mostly for some of the new players in the guild. Taking it out would be more PR damage than any actual damage to the guild.
The next one is a little further behind enemy lines, but we managed to uncover that it is a plant-based one, providing ingredients to some of their foul potions and rituals. Tactical importance is low, as the ingredients aren’t unique. Still, taking it would slow them down.
For the third, we know little about it, but rumours say it’s full of berserker monsters. According to my contacts, it’s a niche fracture, but popular among some of their leadership.
Fourth and fifth are…”
Sam listened as Tim continued the briefing, already mentally planning out their route. First, the Hemogoblin, just because they sounded fun, then a few more strategic strikes before retreating.
Looking around the room, he watched as everybody was listening with rapt attention, even Lucky peeking out from the shadows between Isabella and Katie, getting double headpats.
‘This is going to be fun!’
Owed bonus chapters: ---
Character Sheet
Status page:
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