Might as Well

[Mana Exhaustion has expired!]

Sam looked at the notification gratefully, then dismissed it. He then spent a few minutes flexing and stretching, glad that he had the same feeling he grew to enjoy back in his body. Being struck by that horrible debuff was worse than some of the sicknesses he had been struck with. He hadn’t been playing for very long, but the new feeling of the magic coursing through him, even though Sam knew it was not real, still managed to get him hooked.

Sam knew he had to be careful because it was exactly this feeling that was labelled as one of the newest addictions not long after the game reached its first anniversary. Still, there were techniques that would let him get a handle on the process. Sam expected, thanks to his inherited memories, that sooner or later he would have to deal with it, but he didn’t expect it would happen so soon.

Shaking his head, he gave Lucky a look, thankful that the fluffy, and now shadowy, wolf was still content to sit in his shadow. Only sometimes poking his nose out to smell something interesting. Then took the book he was reading and closed it with a quiet sigh.

After finally making progress on his runes, he briefly went over all the books that contained standalone runes, making sure to note them down into his new, nifty Grimoire then turned his attention back to his original goal.

Improving his language skills and acquiring a skill that would help him get more information more easily.

Some skills were much more convenient to get, for example, Combat Eye, which allowed one to read their enemy and pinpoint weak spots or attack trajectories, but he could collect those any time. What he was after needed much more time, and a certain amount of relaxed atmosphere.

By the time the other Sam joined the game, the ‘secret’ of the libraries were out, as well as the fact that you needed to actually learn languages to communicate with other races (boy, were the elf fanboys mad) and the libraries were actually fought over by guilds as they would fight over farming spots.

Even obtaining a few books to study was a great accomplishment at that time. Sam wanted to make as much of the time as he had available at the library. And with the librarian predisposed to help him, he wanted to maximize his gains.

Opening the book somebody he didn’t much care about wrote about the language of the dwarves.

‘I’m in a freaking game that makes every game look like it was drawn by crayon, and I’m studying…’ he grumbled inside his mind. Then he refocused and began to read.

“Um, excuse me?”

“Yes, young Sam?” the librarian replied, turning away from the shelf she was dusting.

“I was wondering if you ever heard a spell that would let me analyze things?”

Sam debated about trying to be circumspect, but in the end, he just shrugged and went ahead. It wasn’t like his request was such a weird one. Analyze or observe skill was a staple skill of every other MMO, so it was natural that players would want to get one here in Magic Unbound too.

The librarian raised one hand and started tapping on her chin with a finger.

“Analyze? Analyze… Hmm, let’s see… I wonder…”

He watched curiously as the older woman began to mumble to herself, waiting to see if he needed to get more involved, but in the end, the woman stopped her mumbling, her eyes lit up and a big grin appeared on her face.

“I remember!” she exclaimed, then reached over and grabbed Sam’s hand. Then, without any word, she began to drag him towards the back of the library.

Sam didn’t protest, just grinned at the success and let himself be dragged. Being friends with NPCs was really worth it!

A few seconds later, they were standing in a shadowy corner of the library, covered with even more dust. The librarian tutted disapprovingly and mumbled something about her helpers.

“Uhm, why don’t we clean up a little before you show the spell to me?” He didn’t want to clean, but it was a perfect moment to raise the librarian’s evaluation of him. And he was proven right when the woman gave him a tender smile but shook her head.

“Don’t worry, I’ll get to it soon. While I appreciate the sentiment, it’s not your job, young man. So, allow me to do my job, and provide you with knowledge.”

Sam simply bowed his head in understanding, then watched as Martha stepped up to one particular shelf and began to browse it. Then almost a minute later she removed a medium-sized book, covered in dust, but to Sam’s magical senses it sang with mana.

Holding the book gingerly, the librarian turned to him and held it out.

“Here you go, young man. The spell you asked about!”

He reached out and just as gingerly took the book with a thankful nod.

“Thank you, ma’am.”

The older woman just patted his head.

“Don’t worry, young man. It’s never a problem to help a splendid gentleman like you!”

After taking the received book back to the table that over the last almost week became his table, he sat down and for a moment stared at the book. He had hopes for what was contained in the book, but Sam was sure it contained at least a rare or higher rarity skill.

With a slightly trembling hand, he reached out, and under Lucky’s shadowy gaze, opened the book. Surprisingly, there was no light show, no flashes or other mysterious lights. So, with a heavy sigh, he began to read…

An hour later, he closed the book with a heavy thud and just stared at the book and table.

‘What the hell did I just read?’

The entire book was incomprehensible mumbo-jumbo about mana, mana sight and how it interacted with the world. Some of it made sense, some went right over his head, and some he only understood because he had his inherited memories.

Just as he was about to shake off the confusion, the notifications appeared, derailing his thoughts.

[You have read the Book of Fluxus Vitae et Mortis!]

[Your Mana Sight gained the Mana Flow subskill!]

[Mana Flow: Level MAX (MAX%) Your Mana Sight has sharpened beyond the normal, you can discern the greater flows of the mana.]

[Thanks to your tireless search for knowledge and diligence in studying you gain +1 WIS!]

[Thanks to your research you gained the skill, Discernment!]

[Discernment: Level 0/10 (0%) Your eyes are trained enough to discern the relative strength of those on who you lay your eyes. Thanks to also having the Mana Sight skill, you will also be able to gauge their relative mana level.]

“Not bad…” he mumbled as he read the skill. It might have seemed weak and useless and was actually useless at this level, but with a few supporting skills, the synergy it would achieve would propel it among the god-like skills. Plus, that was without leveling up the skill…

After getting the best skill he could, he finished his study of the languages, reaching level five in the dwarven and elven languages, while also beginning to study the dark elven language. Sadly, he couldn’t improve beyond level five without actually using the language, but for now, that was enough.

Then, while he prepared for his meeting at the Silvercrest manor, he began to run around the town.

Sam opened an account at the bank, depositing a small part of the haul he gained while robbing the bandits. It was nice to see the stuffy bankers treat him with much more respect than when he previously stepped into the bank.

Following that, he bought some new, more modern and, most importantly in-fashion clothes for his visit. There was no need to commit some kind of lame social faux pax by showing up in adventuring garb.

That was followed by Sam going around and knocking out a few basic reputation quests.

Getting herbs for the city guard barracks from the nearby forest.

Getting some fresh meat from the nearby forest.

Reducing the population of the moss snakes in the nearby forest.

Basically, he went out to the forest and, with Lucky’s help, decimated the local fauna and flora population.

He and Lucky got a few levels out of it, but nothing exciting happened. Sam mostly concentrated on increasing his skills and trying to master them. He got two points for Endurance, one for Dexterity and one for Agility on his level-ups, and the bonus points went into Magic and Perception.

The skills Basic Footwork and Basic Breathing Technique were, as their name suggested, basic, but they were absolutely crucial and were the foundation for pretty much every offensive martial art. And thanks to his hard work, he managed to raise both of them to level 9, and they were only waiting for a breakthrough.

Sadly, as they were combat skills, his breakthrough would have to come from a fight. Or if he took the effort to get a proper teacher, from them. But as of now, that would be a too big commitment.

Returning to the town, he unloaded the loot he gathered from the forest, earning the adoration of several green soldiers and the grudging respect of their superiors. The captain of the guard even nodded at him like he wasn’t disgusted by the very concept of adventurers.

Sam counted that as a win!

Satisfied, he decided to take a quick trip to see if anything could catch his interest in the Auction house.

Of course, only after patting Lucky on his head.

He needed all the luck he could get!

The Auction house looked like any other building in the city of Ironwood, but interestingly the population inside of it, and around it were a much higher percentage of players than NPCs. Granted, the workers were NPCs, but almost all the people inside were players bidding on items, or looking for opportunities.

Sam watched as people from several well-known and not so well known guilds and workshops were lounging around, staring at the auction house screen. He could even spot a few people wearing symbols from the ‘hidden’ guilds that were biding their time…

Aside from them, the entire building was full of people yelling, cursing, laughing, and generally just lamenting the fact that nobody had much money.

He just smirked, then quickly took a seat somewhere where people weren’t jumping around and opened the screen for the Auction house.

As of now, one could only search for simple items, materials and artefacts. But in the future, they would be able to auction off services, guild memberships and so much more. In some areas, Auction Houses even transformed into Slave Shops where guilds sold the services of their members.

That was another can of worms that Sam wanted nothing to do with…

The solution the company behind the game came up with was good enough for him.

Quickly running his eyes over the available merchandise, Sam couldn’t help but scowl.

‘Why are they selling all this shit? Those main characters in those novels always find easy gold the moment they open the auction screen!’ he complained to himself as he continued to peruse the rather lean selection.

Eventually, getting bored with the collection of random steel weapons, and barely used armors that he could buy at any armor shop, he opened the skill book tab.

And as he beheld that rather expected spread of common skill book, he sighed but began to scroll down, hoping to find something at least useful. Or, if not useful, at least cheaper than buying it anywhere else.

Apparently, Lady Luck was with him, because he managed to find a few basic skill books for basic spells cheaper than he knew he could buy them from the mage tower. Not hesitating, he quickly bought the Wind Blade, Electric Spark, Earth Wall and Water Bullet spells. He mostly wanted the Earth Wall and Wind Blade, as they would harmonize with his current build very well, but the other two would also become useful soon.

Then, after a moment of hesitation, and a quick glance at Lucky, who was curiously staring at all the strange people, he decided to bite the bullet and bought the Shadow Cloak skill book. It was not cheap at around 100 gold coins, but it was easier than going out and doing the quest for it, or simply hoping it would drop as loot.

Standing up, he was about to head for the counter to receive the goods he bought when he heard a commotion quickly spreading among the people of the Auction house.

“Holy shit!” “Have you seen this?” “How?” “How much?”

Sam looked up and watched as the entire populace of the Auction house stared, tense and excited at their screens.

He quickly opened the screen and went looking for the item that caused the tizzy.

Sam didn’t have to look far, as his screen was still on the skill books, and on the top of the listings was one book, set for 10 000 golds.

[Book of the Life of Blood]

[Life of Blood: Level 0/10 (0%) (Passive) Grants the user of the skill incredible regenerative blood, increasing their regeneration by 1% for each level in the skill.]

It was an amazing skill. At a maximum level, it granted a flat 10% health regeneration.

But Sam could only laugh at himself, then continue towards the counter to his new skill books.

The skill was amazing and incredibly rare at the moment (though when people get stronger, then killing trolls would be much easier) Sam knew one thing that made the skill some of the shittiest skills.

It was technically blood magic.

And it tainted the person’s own magic with blood magic, and a sufficiently good Blood Mage could make use of that taint…

And thanks to people not knowing this itty-bitty little tidbit, they simply almost farmed trolls to extinction for the skill. Which was followed by the Blood Dance, when two enterprising brothers realized the significance of almost the entire player base being tainted by blood magic and only around 5% of them having any defenses against it.

The hunt for them was (or will be) legendary…

Exiting the still buzzing Auction house, Sam headed directly towards the Cloudy Day inn, for a quick cleansing shower and a change of clothes.

Throwing another small glance at Lucky, he decided a quick grooming session was also in order before the visit.