They spent a few minutes oohing and ahhing over the destruction, then he hastily ran over and used his rudimentary control over the element of earth and the help of the girls to quickly plant a few new plants in the place of the destroyed ones.
‘Better safe than sorry…’ he mused as he ran next to Lucky, who was carrying the three joyously squealing girls. It wasn’t fast, but the village wasn’t that far either, and the puppy dog eyes the girls had were only eclipsed by Lucky, who was bribed with a spare leg of roasted chicken one of them had in their inventory. ‘The traitor…’ he grumbled while making sure to jump over a tree trunk lying on the ground.
It didn’t take a long time to reach the outskirts of the habitable area around the village, where Sam made them get off the fluffy wolf and had him vanish into his shadow amidst a lot of grumbling and whining. However, he didn’t want to be even more recognizable than he already was…
“Sooo, what now, boss?” Cynthia asked as they began their leisurely walk toward the village.
“Well, you guys can do whatever. I need to head back to the city,” he admitted with a little frown.
“Why?”
“But it was so fun!”
“I got so many experience points!”
Sam smiled at them. “Listen, as much as I would like to spend time with you guys, I still have a rather absurd-sized bounty on my head. I can’t just go into public willy-nilly…”
“Booo!” Cynthia exclaimed with a laugh. “Fine, but I want to have another adventure with you. This was fun!”
Sam was about to answer when sensed a rather large amount of mana suddenly materializing in the village. Letting out a sigh, he began stretching. “Well, I think you’ll get that adventure sooner than you expected.”
“Huh?”
“What?”
He was spared from explaining by the same guy who was so arrogant before coming out of the village gate with another person, dressed in much more impressive armor (and sporting much more impressive mana) and pointing in the direction Sam and his new team left the area. Only to blink in surprise as he spotted them.
The other person also quickly found them and Sam saw their eyes narrow before a nasty grin appeared on their face.
“That’s not a friend of yours, I assume?” Cynthia asked quietly.
“What makes you think that?” he replied idly, while also making sure that nobody was trying to encircle them. Meanwhile, the man in charge called behind him and a bunch of other players emerged from the village, wielding all sorts of weapons, looking like a bunch of hooligans from an eighties movie.
As Sam and his friends came closer and closer to the village, they began to jeer and laugh, pointing at them and mimicking explosion sounds. Or something like that. Sam’s attention was on their leader, who was one of the few who had formed a Mana Core.
“My, my… little old Solar, in my neck of the woods? Will wonders never cease?” he called out with a victorious smirk on their face. “What brings you here?” Sam opened his mouth to answer, but the guy continued before he could even pronounce the first syllable. “And don’t even think you’re escaping. We made sure to prepare for you! Hit it guys!”
Sam wanted to point out that talking to him like that without activating whatever trap they had was rather stupid, but giving ideas to his enemies was not something he wanted to do so he stayed silent, waiting for the inevitable reveal.
Two guys, dressed in odd armor stepped forward, escorted by two other guys, who began to channel their magic, placing their hands on the armor covering their bodies, both of which began to glow in different colors. One shined brightly, like the midday sun, and the other with soft yellow light.
‘Ah, a shadow mana blocker and a wind mana blocker…’ he mused as he reached out with his mana and wove a globe of protection around himself and the girls. Invisible to all, but it would give them some area to cast spells.
Mana blockers were one of the first attempts by players to develop weapons against mages and magical defenses. But the initial cost of the artifacts was so high, they began using people to power them. Thus, their strength and functionality largely depended on the people who powered them.
And as always Sam’s luck was with him and he was clearly not confronted by the intelligence club members…
After a moment of build-up, both armors let out a pulse of different colored energy, which swept through the area and ended way behind his smaller group.
“HAHAHA! Now you won’t be able to use your magic! You’re trapped Solar, and the money is mine!” came from the enemy leader.
Sam just leaned toward Cynthia a little, hiding his mouth. “I still have no idea who these guys are…”
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Cynthia also covered her mouth and began to giggle. “They’re the Hill Masters. Apparently, they own these hills…” she whispered back, making quotation marks when she said the word ‘own’.
“Never heard of them…”
That caused the girls to giggle more.
Experimentally, he flexed his mana and cast a little gust of wind – invisible, but enough to test the effect of the block – and sent it into the area not covered by his own shield. The moment the first part of the spell entered into the area covered by the effect it dispersed into the environment. Granted, Sam wasn’t holding it too hard, but it was still impressive.
Another probe with his mana told him that he could probably break it with a few pokes here and there.
“So, you’re here for the bounty?” he asked out loud.
The guy just laughed. “Who isn’t, dude? You’re worth more than the building I live in…”
“Fair enough. I suppose there is no chance of convincing you to walk away?” he asked halfheartedly.
The other guy just snorted. “No way, dude! You’re worth too much! Right, guys?”
“Ohraaaaaa!”
“Hell, yeah!”
“FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!”
Sam just shrugged. “Fair enough…”
Then, with the same motion, he raised his hands and unleashed two waves of nothingness. The wave of magic – a glowing blackness – spread toward the group fast enough that they only had enough time to unleash a few life-saving spells and skills before the wave consumed their teammates amid some aborted screaming.
He kept up the spell for a few seconds, blanketing the area, separating his group from the aggressors – feeling the block vanishing in the middle – before stopping and letting everybody catch a breath.
The girls next to him were gaping, while the enemy camp, what few that remained, were also a tad flabbergasted.
Sadly, their leader was still alive, the ground around them untouched in a small circle. Probably some kind of defensive artifact…
“What the hell was that? We blocked both of your magics!”
Sam shrugged again with a small smile. Flexing on scrubs was always fun…
“I upgraded… Now… about that fight…” he stated as he pulled his new sword out of its sheath. “No hard feelings, right?”
The guy chuckled a little, and Sam heard him whisper to himself.
“I’m in trouble…”
“Anyway… I’m sure the village here has a few quests for you and I’m also sure you can find a few fractures that you could plunder…” Sam said to the girls as they stepped through the now unblocked gates. Mostly, because he felt at least one under the village.
The girls had the temerity to pout.
He just raised a finger. “No. Don’t even try. Go do your own things and stop hanging out with an old man.”
“You’re like three years older than us.”
“Five-ish, but who is counting?”
“Bleh…What about the bozos? What do we do if they come back?”
Sam looked at them thoughtfully for a moment before answering. “Probably die valiantly. But I doubt he is going to come back. Far more likely that they will send someone more socially aware to butter you guys up for some info about me.”
Dani gave him a thumbs-up. “Don’t worry. We’re great at stonewalling. Especially Anne. She worked in the tax office during the summer as an intern.”
He just laughed as Anne punched Dani in the shoulder. “Nah, play with them to your heart’s content. Accept whatever bribe they give you, and if you need info to drop just call Lucy. I’m sure she has a few dozens of ‘actionable information packets’ ready to go just for cases like this.”
They stared at him for a few seconds before Cynthia hesitantly spoke up.
“D-does this happen often?”
“You heard the guy. My head is worth more than some buildings. People are prepared to do a lot of things for that kind of money. I survived so far because I’m usually one step ahead of them. Or Lucy is. And you met Tim, right?”
“The guy with the harem?”
“Yes, the guy with the harem.”
“Then, yeah.”
“Well, he takes care of issues while stealing all the hearts…”
The three girls looked back at him with sparkling eyes. “Wow! You guys are like super prepared. So, awesome! Our classmates can barely put together a half-functioning guild. They only managed to stay kinda relevant because one of the guys’ family is rich.”
“Common issue,” Sam admitted with a chuckle. “But, I think it’s time for me to leave… Things to do, countries to topple, you know how it is. I’ll make sure you get the share of the drops.”
What followed was a needlessly dramatic and theatric goodbye so emotional that some of the old ladies watching from their windows even clapped when it was finished, one of them even calling for an encore.
“Report!”
Tim leaned against the wall as Sam swept into the room and began to talk.
“She is clearly fishing. I made sure she is paired up with some other fishers, to see if anything comes up from that. Otherwise, zero issues. A few broken hearts, but… we’ve all been there.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, boss. Double checked. Even had Lucy look over the data.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. You rarely target specific people. According to Lucy, you never talked to her…” Tim said though Sam could see the look in his eyes.
He couldn’t help but shrug. “Just a bad gut feeling. She reminded me of those femme fatales from the movies.”
“The laugh?”
“Yes.”
Tim thought about it for a moment before nodding. “Makes sense.”
“Anything else?”
Tim grimaced. “A contact told me that the demon followers are planning on something.”
Now that grabbed Sam’s attention. “Do you think they’re in league with the blood mages?”
This time it was Tim who shrugged. “Can’t tell you. I have a vague location and some even more vague warnings thanks to an old friend.”
Sam thought a little, throwing around ideas in his head before speaking up. “How likely that this is a trap?”
Tim actually looked pained at the thought, but he didn’t fully deny it. “More than zero, but less than… I would say thirty percent. Granted, there is a chance that my friend fully committed to the bit, but I doubt it.”
“Hmm… were you given a route to follow?”
“No. Just a coordinate. I checked, and it’s in the mountains in line with Ironwood.”
“Bugger. And what’s their plan?”
Tim spread his hands out. “Can’t tell you that. My friend was very hush-hush about that part.”
“Well, the last time they tried to summon a demon, so I would say the chances of that happening are rather high.”
“I thought the same. Demons do love their summonings.”
“Do you think we need a team for this?”
Tim thought about it for a moment before shaking his head. “I think the two of us would be enough. In and out, like ghosts.”
Sam grinned and held out his arm for high five. “I like the spirit! I need to send a message then we can head over…”
Tim returned the high five, the clap echoing a little in the room, before replying. “Thanks, boss. I know it’s annoying that my ex-guild mates are such a trouble…”
“Eh, much better now than in the middle of a blood mage invasion. Let the others know that they should keep up the patrolling while I do my thing, and we can meet at the backdoor.”
Tim saluted.
“You got it!”
Sam clicked on the party invite and walked out of the room with a small wave. Nowhere would be rather happy with the new information…
Owed bonus chapters: ---
Character Sheet
Status page:
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Mana Skills:
Neutral Mage skills:
General skills:
Resistance skills:
Familiar:
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