Might as Well

The room looked half-finished, but even so, Sam could see the potential in it. Most of the floor and walls were finished, here and there missing some plates to expose the area behind it where either wire was laid or some other artifact was placed, pulsating with cheerful magic. The rest of the hall was filled with boxes holding all manner of devices and tools.

Instead of trying to make farmlands that they had to protect and then transition to hydroponics, they decided to start with some proto-hydroponics, using their rituals and high-quality seeds to start the basics of the process.

Though, they were only going with the proto-hydroponics for now as most of the devices depended on Liz. They were not complicated, but the young woman was still working on reliable mass production and anything they needed her expertise for was bespoke work.

Sam knew it was possible, as in the future a lot of things were mass produced. Though ironically, thanks to some developer shenanigans, projectile weapons, while replacing bows and crossbows, didn’t really become mainstream enough to retire every other weapon type. The good old sharp stick was still the king, even in the future.

Thus, his plan was to ignore manufacturing weapons and simply focus on everything else. There were hundreds, maybe even thousands of groups out there spending all their time, effort, and money on trying to crack the secret to manufacture high-quality weapons without the inclusion of expensive and hard-to-approach artisans.

He would be content with everything else.

“Sam!”

He turned around to the call and saw Clarissa approaching him in her work clothes. He was on site, helping out because the Magic Exhaustion debuff prevented him from doing anything interesting, but the team’s healer was there, as she was interested in gardening and growing even more plants that could heal people.

More than likely, assisting in the construction of this institution would raise her skill levels massively. Or grant her some new ones…

“Hey, Clarissa! What’s up?” he greeted her with a small wave as he put down the box he was carrying.

She stopped before him and crossed her arms over her dirty overalls.

“Why are you talking to my sister?” she asked with a glare.

“Because she asked for help?” he answered with a shrug. “Contacted Lucy and we talked about it and decided to give her a little help to see what she does.”

“That’s it?”

“Then she told me what kind of characters she wanted to make,” he continued with an excited grin. He kind of wished he thought of it first… “Then I started helping her because I wanted to see it realized!”

“What’s her plan?”

Sam shook his head. “Sorry. I promised I wouldn’t tell you.” Seeing Clarissa’s face, he hurriedly continued. “Look, Clarissa. Your sister looks up to you. She wants to impress you – maybe annoy you a little – and make you proud. She clearly wants to do it in the medium you’re the expert in. In the game.”

Clarissa opened her mouth to argue with him but Sam just waved his hand. “Look, if you don’t trust me, trust Lucy. She keeps in touch with your parents and makes sure that your sister keeps up with her studies and social life.”

That brought her up short. “I even had Tim go over and make sure they are secure…”

The talented healer closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Sam watched as she visibly counted back from ten before finally opening them.

After a few moments of more silence, she finally spoke up.

“It’s not like I don’t trust you in general, Sam,” she started to talk softly, looking into his eyes. “I mean I still think you’re hiding some humongous stupid stuff, but in general I trust you. I just… I don’t want my sister to fall into the same… hole I did.”

Sam just stayed silent, letting the woman standing next to him express herself.

“I was never good at learning, or school, or doing social things. As you know…” she explained sheepishly, glancing at Sam, who just nodded silently, urging her to continue. “She… Cynthia is the exact opposite. School is easy for her, she makes friends easily. She has so much potential. This game is great. I have fun, but in the end, it is just a game. I want her to have more…”

He reached out and put a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“I get that, but you can’t simply cage her. The more you limit her, the more she’ll rebel… Instead, be there to support her and cheer her up when she fails… As a big sister, that’s the best thing you can do.”

“You think I don’t know that? I read all the books about this…” she exclaimed, her voice still soft with a little warble in it. Lucky wandered over from wherever he was nosing around and pushed his soft head into Clarissa’s hand, which had dropped down to her side. The young woman absently began to pet the wolf, relaxing a minuscule amount. “I’m just… worried… that’s all…”

Sam nodded again and squeezed her shoulder trying to communicate his support.

“Well, then how about we all help to make sure your sister doesn’t…how do you say? Ah, yes. Doesn’t fall in with the wrong crowd, ok?”

She playfully glared at him, but Sam saw her turn away for a quick moment and move her sleeve near her face before turning back.

“She already talks to you. That’s the very definition of a bad crowd!”

“Moi? I resent that accusation, madam! I have never done anything that would warrant labeling me as such!” he exclaimed theatrically.

Clarissa just harrumphed.

“Enough of that. Just make sure she has fun and I’ll be happy. Now, where did you put that fertilizer?”

“Over in the corner next to the soil enhancer potions. I put a cooling rune circle around it to keep it fresh.”

“Thanks!”

“You know, my grandfather thinks I’m building a harem.”

Sam glanced over the enormous stone he was holding, walking with it toward a tower that was being built, and blinked at Lara.

“What?”

“The invitation to that stupid charity?” she clarified her statement. At least parts of it…

“Ah,” he nodded, then grinned at her. “I’m game if you guys are up for it!”

Lara just scoffed and slapped his shoulder, sending him teetering a little under the weight of the stone. In the background, Lucky, after turning the size of a pony, was giving rides to the NPC kids. There were already several NPC families living in the finished parts of the new town. Mostly working in the service and administration industry. But there were several who were looking for opportunities and were trying to set up businesses.

“No, thank you. You don’t have enough muscles for that…”

“Pity…”

He put the stone down with a thud, kicking up some dust, wishing very hard that his debuff would go away. Sadly, it was one of those things that wasn’t possible to cure without divine intervention. He cleaned his hand with a dirty rag, wishing he had his clean aura on. Working in this dusty environment was driving him up the wall.

“Did Dan complain?”

“Are you kidding? He was incredibly relieved he didn’t have to attend it,” she said with a shake of her head. “He told me to bring back some good food and to have fun. Then ran away. The coward…”

“You love that coward,” Sam pointed out playfully.

“Exactly. Have you seen his ass? I love watching him run…”

“Can’t really argue with that…”

“Good, then don’t.” she retorted with a smile before it vanished, replaced by seriousness. “What’s the plan?”

Sam shrugged, expecting the question ever since he invited her as his plus one to that charity event Katie’s family – or rather her father – organized.

“Go in, shmooze people, pretend I’m a bumbling rube and have no idea how to behave, and drive Katie’s dad up the wall.”

“That’s it?” she asked not at all believing him. Sam would have been hurt by the disbelief, but she was right.

“Depends on who shows up… I may have plans to drop a few nuggets of tantalizing information here and there, as I pretend not to notice people overhearing things.”

Lara just snorted. “Grandpa looked into it. Katie’s dad is making sure that everyone shows up. Naturally, they all think it was their idea, but the guy is clearly planning something.”

“Of course, he is planning something. Guys like that are always planning something.”

“And let me guess, you’re also planning something…”

“Of course, it’s just a pity that Katie’s father is bringing a knife to a balloon fight…”

Lara blinked at hearing that, then snorted.

“I’m pretty sure if I tell my grandpa that even he would show up.”

“Wouldn’t that make the national news? I checked, and he hasn’t officially attended any function in years…”

Lara eyed him a little before nodding a little sadly. “After grandma passed away he just couldn’t enjoy them as much according to him.”

“Well, maybe he needs a good laugh… I can practice my juggling skills.”

“I saw those at the last party, you need more time than we have until the charity event,” she replied cheekily.

“Why are you so mean to me?!”

“How is life treating you?”

Adam looked up from behind his desk, which was finally the right size, and looked at Sam.

“Busy, as you know.”

“I do indeed. Any issue I need to know about?” Sam asked placidly, as he leaned back in his chair. It was a really good idea to recruit the man opposite of him. The way he ran the guild was like magic. Based on what he knew of people, he was pretty sure there was at least one faction in the guild that was planning to rebel or try to take over the business and despite Tim’s tireless work there was also no doubt whatsoever that there were spies, but those didn’t really affect the running of the guild.

At least for now…

“There is…a faction growing…” Adam admitted reluctantly.

‘There it was…’ Sam mused. “Are they planning to rebel? Break away? Steal our vault? Dance the hula?”

“No,” Adam shook his head. “They’re demanding that we become more aggressive with the other guilds in the area. They want the guild to rule Ironwood and the surroundings.”

“But… that’s the plan? We drive out the other guilds and make bank. That has always been the plan!”

“They want it to happen faster…” Adam replied with a scowl. “I can’t really punish them, but I don’t have any targets to send them against…” he explained leadingly while eyeing Sam.

Sam thought a little, then summoned his system screen and called Tim.

It rang a few times before Tim’s face appeared in front of him. He invited Adam to the call and greeted the assassin, ignoring the giggles in the background as several maid costumes vanished behind the corner as the company’s security professional sought out a place where he could talk to him without interruption.

“Hey, Tim. Any guilds sniffing around the new town?”

“All of them,” came the deadpan reply. “You need names?”

“Just coordinates.”

“Which ones?”

Sam tapped his lips with a finger, glanced at Adam, then replied. “Give me a random assortment. A few dozen obvious groups, a few dozen hidden ones and sprinkle in a few super-duper secret ones.”

It barely took a moment for Tim and Adam to realize his plans.

The next few hours were spent on the call as the three of them made use of the bloodthirsty members of the guild to cause a little bit of chaos in the ranks of their enemies.

Economically they were already at the top around Ironwood, and according to the latest survey Lucy managed to get her hands on, they were also in the top thirty percent of businesses in the Emerald Kingdom.

Now, it was time to start to make sure that the guilds still staying in the area realized how much they were outclassed.

Well, at least the smaller, annoying ones. Sam and Lucy had no plans about destroying small guilds made by friends, classmates, or smaller workshops. That was just bad for business. But other dark guilds or guilds that had the chance to destroy them?

Now, those were fair game…