Chương 154: Chapter 151 - Interlude 14.1

1 As her friend ended the call, Lucy let out a sigh. It was irritating how he always knew what was going to happen and how to profit from it. Granted, the entire spectacle with the poison fracture was blindingly obvious to anyone, with a modicum of skill and the observational powers of a blind pet rock. What stumped her was how he managed to get the permit to purchase property in the capital, Vividora. Even with her connections, there was nothing she could do that would have gotten them the permit.

Nor could anyone else based on the whining of the public and non-public forums. When she went over to Vividora to look around the available properties, every time she met with the bureaucrats they treated her with derision and outright contempt until she revealed the document proving her legal right to purchase those properties, then the same people who glared at her for daring to waste their time suddenly became all sunshine and smiles.

Every time this happened, she noticed the NPCs eyes dipping to the bland seal on the scroll, their eyes tightening and some kind of emotion flashing through their eyes. She didn't recognize the symbol on the seal, even after some thorough research, but she didn't hesitate to take advantage of it. The payment for the buildings went through cleanly and surprisingly fast, and now she had three different properties in her hands. All of them in a city that everyone wanted to conquer. The warehouse was rather easy.

She just had to throw money at Tim to spruce up the security and their friends within the merchants, and even the Silvercrest family did everything else. After all, even if the Silvercrest family was a big name in Ironwood and the surrounding area, in the capital they were simply one of the many, many noble families who made the Emerald Kingdom their home. The building in the commoner district was earmarked for a supermarket and she had already started the renovation and construction process.

However, the building in the noble's district was another kettle of fish. The property that she managed to snag was at the edge of the district and old enough that the city was considering demolishing it before auctioning it off to the highest bidder. Luckily for her, she managed to buy it just in time. However, this also meant that she had to have it renovated to the exacting standards of the fussy nobles while making sure that the usual quality that Heavenly Forest was famous for would be represented.

Lucy was already hard at work churning out items and parts and the basic construction had started, but she had already received a letter from 'concerned' nobles who wanted to make sure she did everything 'correctly'.

'No doubt they're either angling for bribes to leave me alone or are going to try to sabotage me so that they can buy up the property even cheaper…' she mused as she re-read the latest letter where the concerned noble kept prattling about some kind of building code that she knew had been removed from the law books years ago. However, according to the writer, it was vitally important that her construction paid attention to it.

She snorted and threw the letter into the fire while the ravens perched above her let out a creepy chorus of caws that reminded her of laughter.

'Some people are just too stupid to live…' she thought mirthfully while reaching for the next letter. The preparations for the poison fracture were going well. As she had told Sam, she had released the earmarked items, making a tidy sum of gold on the market, but she still had a few boxes left that she was waiting until the last minute to sell. The prices were still going up as more and more people received the information about the fracture that was going to be open soon.

She was in no way or shape responsible for that. No sireeee… Most guilds operating in the Emerald Kingdom, and even a few from the neighboring countries already knew about and were preparing for it in hopes of striking it rich. And now the common people were also flocking to the fracture, setting up public groups, hoping to conquer the fracture first. There were two types of competition. The first one was to conquer the fracture first and then sell the guide of it to the government and to the people later.

Naturally, this included the prestige of being the first, thus a lot of people planned to stream their attempts. The big guilds were also recording, but they were either running ticketed streams with very steep prices or simply gathering material to study later. Liz also wanted to participate as she didn't really know about the machinations that Lucy and Sam had going on in the background, but a quick discussion with their incredible crafter, and the younger girl was convinced.

While waiting for the action to commence, she simply went over the situation. The Steel Lions under the leadership of Katie's father were dominating the scene, setting up a defensive fortification near the entrance of the fracture while their members went around saber rattling and having brawls with other guilds and intimidating regular players.

The Abyss Vipers were in the process of once again proving their general idiocy by indiscriminately killing anyone who made fun of their Black Blood skill and tried to set up a fortification like the Lions, but they didn't have the same logistical skills or general intelligence. So while the Steel Lion fortification looked like a well-organized military camp, the 'infrastructure' that the Vipers set up looked more like a circus camp that was overtaken by murderhobos with an unhealthy fixation on poisons and venoms.

The Eternal Light was also present, with a sizeable force of theirs waving their banners. They even set up an impromptu recruiting booth. Naturally, the other guilds copied them and soon the area turned into a guild recruitment fair with the other lesser guilds swarming to the area, increasing the number of players present.

There were dozens of lesser guilds present, and from what she had heard from her sources, thanks to the abundant recruitment material, there were several guilds founded there by random players who wanted to take advantage of the situation. She simply kept an eye out for promising talents and kept her own 'resources' away from the area. There were countless crafters employed by the AFK guild who wanted to head there, set up a small stand, and hawk their wares. Lucy had the distasteful job of denying them.

There was a lot of yelling and threats, and a few even left them. She didn't much care. They would be back after experiencing the world outside of the perfectly supplied workshops that her company provided them.

'It is a given that this will blow up…' she mused.

"I just hope it blows up in our favor…" The Healer's Guild was a hive of activity, as always. A healer sitting calmly and sipping tea meant that the healer wasn't saving a life. At least, that was the main tenet that the leadership at the guild held. Thus, there was always more work to do for any aspiring healer. Clarissa, escorted by a murderous swan (and Dan), simply walked up to the building, dodging all the annoying people who were there to hire a healer or find one that would join their parties.

"Looking for a healer to join our party!"

"Two tanks looking for a pretty healer!"

"Steam Lords are looking for 50+ healers! Levels not age!"

"Fracture delve team looking for a healer!

"Hey, pretty lady! Wanna join us?" a smarmy guy called out to her. Clarissa just rolled her eyes and held back Melody, who looked ready to shank the idiot, while Dan stepped forward, flexed his impressive muscles, and glared at the guy. The guy shrunk back, but before Clarissa could take another step forward, another took the guy's place. The next guy glanced at Dan but simply ignored him and smiled at Clarissa.

"Hey, you look like a high-level healer. How about a steady income helping us conquer fractures? We're a pretty big deal!" Clarissa just raised a judging eyebrow.

"What group do you belong to?" The guy puffed up his chest proudly and exclaimed.

"I'm one of the main leaders in the Forest Fighters guild!" Instantly, the nearby people who were listening in began to whisper to each other.

"Oh, wow. The Forest Fighters? They have several level sixty mages!"

"I heard one of them managed to master earth magic!"

"They are awesome! They conquered several fractures! I watched the videos! Super cool!" The guy listened to the empty praises of sycophants and began to puff even more, his face showing how much he enjoyed the praise.

"Sorry, never heard of it," said Clarissa simply, and began walking away, leaving the flabbergasted recruiter in his place. Dan followed her with a chuckle. Melody, however, stopped in front of the guy, honked at him aggressively, and then began to waddle after her. After giving the poison samples she had collected to the healers in charge of creating new antidotes, she reported on her experiences as well as having one of the senior healers check up on her skills.

The healer in charge of it simply nodded after some demonstration, told her to practice more, and shooed her out of the guild building. She left with her small entourage at one of the hidden backdoors, avoiding the crowd of recruiters, and headed for one of the smaller fractures near the city. Her new pet, and Dan's too, needed a few more levels. Thus, she and Dan planned to farm a little. In a small fracture, Dan's fire magic and her healing and shielding would be enough.

And if they needed more muscle or help, they could get one of the players who always hang around fractures looking for a quick run. She hoped that by the time Sam returned from wherever he went, Melody would be big and strong enough that she would be able to carry at least her. Admittedly, she was a little worried about what would become of her little murderous swan, but in the end, she just shrugged. If her swan shanked everyone who annoyed her, then her life would become much easier.

Dan let another spear of flame loose from his club and speared the angry wolf that was trying to attack them. The small fracture provided just enough experience that their pets, Melody and Hawky, were growing ever so slowly. Melody, the brutal swan, was almost the size of Clarissa and used her beak to spear her enemies with uncommon brutality. Hawky, on the other hand, was pretty chill for a bird that was almost permanently on fire.

The hawk used the flames to join him in burning their enemies or to burn away minor wounds on their bodies. It was a rather big surprise when it first happened, but Dan was happy with his gentle and very useful pet. Clarissa grumbled a little at that, something about losing out on revenue, but Dan didn't care much. The healing that the healer provided was much better than the one Hawky provided. Still, it gave him some ideas.

Dan planned to research it at the Magic Tower library after they got their pets up to the current max level, ready for their first evolution. Sam had already given them the formula and a few common reagents, but the most important key ingredients were left to them. As they tore through the fracture, they spent time discussing the pros and cons of all the reagents they knew about.

"What about some super metal? Giving Melody extra defense?"

"I have Katie for that. I want more utility. There is this alchemical material that is used for a lot of high-level healing potions. I'm thinking about buying some from the guild. I'm hoping if I tell them why I want it they will give it to me for free…"

"You're a star healer so the answer is probably yes…"

"It's very expensive…"

"How expensive exactly?"

"I doubt even Sam could afford it."

"Ugh, that's a lot of money."

"Yeah… What about you?" Dan just simply shrugged.

"I don't want anything expensive, just something that fits."

"Like?"

"Something like a shard of a frozen flame, or maybe a blue spark. Don't know yet…"

"Blue spark?"

"Apparently it's the captured spark of the lesser dragons, that they use to light their fire breaths…"

"Huh… they can do that?"

"Stasis spells… They're wacky…" There was a silence as they bravely ignored Melody brutalizing a giant boar, then Clarissa spoke up.

"Cast a flame!"

"What?"

"Cast a blue flame. I want to try it."

"O-okay…" Dan simply held out a hand, palm pointing upward and simply created a small ball of blue fire which was hot enough that the air around instantly began to waver. Clarissa reached out with both hands, holding it as close to the flame as she could, and after a brief concentration, she exclaimed.

"STASIS!" He could feel the mana in the air struggle for a moment before it snapped into shape and a distinct bubble appeared around his flame and he lost his connection to it. He stared at the bubble as it contained the frozen flames, then back at Clarissa.

"We are going to be so fucking rich!" Returning to the real world was always trippy. Dan put the helmet back in its place and looked around his dorm room. The new computer was still visibly struggling with his latest simulations, while several newer clothes were thrown around, courtesy of his girlfriend. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

The jury was out on if she was a honeypot, but so far, she hadn't asked anything about the company or Sam, or asked him to do anything weird or suspicious, instead other people started to notice him. Apparently, his girlfriend, Lara, was pretty popular, both for her looks and academic skills and a lot of student-created guilds wanted to have her join their guilds. Some for her skill, but most because they want the chance to woo her.

She admitted that she approached him because he didn't participate in all the posturing and petty drama. They also had some rather stimulating discussions about his specialty. Lara was studying energy systems, so her insights were rather useful for plasma research. He stretched a little and took a quick whiff of his clothing. It was okay, so he simply took his jacket and headed out. He was a little hungry, and the cafeteria called out to him. On the way, he was acutely aware of the countless eyes following him.

Some of them in awe, the university gossip twisting every small piece of information about him into an epic worthy of Gilgamesh, some of them jealously. Lara was really pretty. He deftly ignored them and simply hurried along the stone path connecting the dorm to the cafeteria building. He really hoped that the girl was not some stupid scheme dreamed up by one of the rich bastards attending the university, because he really enjoyed spending time with her. Liz decided she would take a day off.

Her plan to stream at the newly opening fracture was shot thanks to her bosses, and she wasn't feeling up to a crafting stream. Thus, a day off. Her audience was understanding enough, so after posting the announcement on the stream's website, she chose a simple dress and headed for a day in the streets of Ironwood. On the way out of the headquarters, she met up with Tim, who upon hearing her plans offered to escort her to make sure nobody tried anything with the company's crafter.

Knowing how many people wanted her for her skills, she readily agreed. So, the two of them headed out into the city. At first, they visited the supermarkets, looking around, checking the different shops, mostly looking for inspiration, but Liz was also hoping to find some enchanted jewelry that would help her with crafting.

Tim followed along, occasionally giving his opinion on the artifacts they found, or shooing away annoying people who wanted to suck up to somebody that was employed by the biggest company-slash-guild in the city. In exchange, she helped him choose a new snazzy cloak that would be perfect for his skullduggery. Plus, it looked rather fetching on him. All mysterious and spooky. Though his bowtie looked decidedly out of place. However, after some contemplation, Liz decided that it just added to the charm.

They spent some time sampling the newly opened restaurants, going through a few tasting menus, and drinking some outrageous concoctions. Her with her simple dress and Tim in his bowtie looked rather out of place at those locations, but after people noticed their guild emblems, they ignored their mode of dress and instead served them with a smile. Tim grumbled a little about revealing their guild symbols, but Liz wanted to make use of the reputation that their fearless leaders built up.

"Plus, what's the point of working so hard, if we can't enjoy the fruit of our labor?" she posed the question to Tim.

"You have a point… but from a security standpoint…" he answered after a moment of thought. She smiled and stepped next to him, looping her arm with his and leading him to his next destination.

"Oh, you're too paranoid. Lucy is watching us with the ravens. There is no way anyone would try anything. Plus, if they attack us, we are pretty strong…" Tim didn't have an answer to that one. Escorting VIPs was always a tedious task. Especially in a game like Magic Unbound. Thus, Tim was rather nervous as he followed Liz around the city. He made sure to interact with her, help her choose some new clothing, and buy a few exotic materials for experimentation while keeping an eye on the surroundings.

Tim had to make sure that a few suspicious-looking men didn't approach Liz, stealthily sabotaging their advance. Thankfully, they were low-leveled thus his job was surprisingly easy. They spent the day walking around the city, arm in arm, to make sure they didn't lose each other in the crowd, enjoying the constantly growing food and drink scene.

Checking all the stuff Liz ordered for poison and other additives was annoying, but it was nice to see the girl smile as she enjoyed the small bites of food that they were served. Sometimes, she convinced him to taste the food by waving her fork in front of him and entreating him to take a bite. Not wanting to hurt her feelings, he just smiled and took a bite of the food. Some of them were even nice enough that he made a note to return to the establishment later…

They ended the day by watching the sunset on one of the higher points towering over the city, where people could relax and just enjoy the sights. It was artificially made platforms, carved from steel to resemble ancient ironwood trees, and had benches and small tables at the top. Liz and Tim just stood there and watched as the sun set behind the horizon, illuminating the city they worked in. He made sure to watch their backs as Liz enjoyed the event with a few small oohs and aahs.

A few times she grabbed his arm and pointed at buildings that reflected the vanishing light spectacularly. As a cold breeze swept through the platform, he noticed Liz shiver a little, so he took off his jacket which was bigger than the one the girl was wearing, and offered it to her. She gave him a thankful smile, accepted the piece of clothing, and stepped closer to him. He rather liked that, as that would make protecting her much easier. With the increasing size of the shadows, he expected at least one attack.

As Tim held the girl close to him, his eyes continued to move around continuously, trying to spot any enemy, while above him a raven watched him and his charge in an exasperated manner. The space she was deposited, by the random portal that appeared, was rather interesting. No matter what direction she looked she always saw either the back of her armor, the top of her head, or the bottom of her armored boots. And when she started to move, the world moved with her. Sometimes.

Other times she moved, and the world was left behind and Katie landed on something new. She couldn't always tell what she landed on, but so far there was only one time when she landed on something that was alive. Not after she landed, but based on the remains, it was alive before she arrived. The walls sometimes pulsed with quiet sighs and sometimes they were filled with rather friendly tentacles that wanted to high-five her. Pretty funky…

She hadn't seen Puffball in a while, but she was sure that the silly cat could take care of herself. Cats were like that. Instead, she wanted to find something that she could fight and gather more experience. No sooner than she had the thought then one of the walls blinked and she found herself in a field where flowers were singing a rather metal song, with the bushes providing musical accompaniment and a phalanx of wolves, dressed in grandma clothing were marching toward her.

Katie just grinned and unsheathed her greatsword. Seeing this, the lead grandmawolf took off her helmet-bonnet from her three heads and let out a roar with four mouths, which the other wolves followed along. To the rhythm of the metal song. Katie made sure that the VR pod was recording and, with a roar of her own that blended seamlessly into the song, shot off toward the wolves that were raising their cooking pans, rolling pins, and silver cutlery.

They clashed over rocking out flowers as the stars fell and turned into butterflies that tried to eat her with their giant mouths, only to burst into sparkles after being cut into two as she continued to rampage through this exciting new place. Finding herself on top of a mountain, she faced the world-sized dragon that breathed fire at her and turned into flocks of dogs made of fire, flying with wings. Every time she defeated an enemy, another appeared.

Sometimes between blinks, sometimes things transforming torturously slowly, but always providing some manner of a challenge for her. She had to use every skill, every spell she had in her arsenal, sometimes in ways she never had previously. Letting out a laugh as a school of fish in schoolgirl uniforms tried to drown her in a river of orange juice, and simply swept aside the incoming liquid with a wave of her own energy. The chorus of disappointment from the fish was like music to her ears.

Still laughing she raised her weapon and began turning the fish into sushi. Puffball watched from her perch as her mistress went around and around in the space between spaces, as she, a cat the size of a moon that was sometimes the size of a regular cat, arranged events to happen that would help her mistress to improve. Sometimes she allowed one of the denizens to try their tentacles at defeating the girl, but she always stamped on anyone that wanted to really hurt her provider of scratches.

That was just not how things were done. Licking her lips after swallowing a bear-sized duck that wanted to take a bite of her master, she began calmly cleaning her paws. Around her, the space between space contracted and swelled, direction reversed, up became down, and left turned into triangles as her powers insidiously created scenario after scenario for Katie to test her mettle. Or sometimes just to have the girl laugh. Puffball found that her mistress had a rather similar sense of humor to her.

It was almost enough to forgive whoever tried to seal her away. Almost. They really didn't listen to her. Isabella sighed as she watched the preparation below her. The fracture that the government of the Emerald Kingdom found was in a location where a small inn once stood. The inn used the local hot springs to tempt the people to visit this out-of-place location. However, after a minor earthquake, the hot spring turned poisonous as arsenic and other odorous gases began to seep through the water.

And after the Fracture, this exact location turned into a fracture that, according to the reports they managed to get their hands on, was 'mighty poisonous'. This also meant that there were several small and big cliffs around the area that provided an excellent view of the area where the kingdom set up the entrance area for the fracture.

In the end, she couldn't convince the leaders of the guild to abandon this fracture and thus she simply volunteered for security, giving up her place for other people in the delving parties, earning a few queer looks but a buttload of favors. She and her assigned team were set up on one of the cliffs, ready to act if anybody wanted to do something unwise. Honestly, at this point, seeing the immense crowd gathered around the fracture, she was waiting for the spark that would ignite the fire.

No doubt, if that happened, her superiors would probably blame her for not warning them of the dangers. She could already see them shifting the blame to her, as she was the one who brought up the dangers first. Isabella knew Katie and knew that despite being a chaotic gremlin, the girl wasn't stupid. If she followed that Solar guy, then that meant that the guy was real. And with the way he warned her, she knew a hundred percent that he planned something.

Katie would never follow somebody who was not at least on her level of chaos. Sadly, she didn't have any evidence to support her feelings. And with the amount of money and fame on the table with this new fracture, she doubted she could have convinced the leadership to back down from it. While there was no announcement from the game company or devs, everybody knew that this was one of the bigger fractures that appeared, with seemingly almost every country having one of these appear at the same time.

It was simply the Magic Unbound's way of announcing the first raid. At least that was the prevailing theory on the forums and the eggheads her guild employed. Sitting on a small seat, she watched as the crowd milled around, waiting for the fracture to open. Sighing after a few seconds, she turned away, trusting the others to keep an eye on the situation, and took out her planner. She would become a scapegoat. There was no doubt about it.

But if the guild leaders were stupid enough to fall for something like this, then she definitely wanted out of it. There was no doubt that any other guild would welcome her with open arms, but the bigger guilds she would like to join were already named in her contract with Eternal Light as competitors. Thus, thanks to the non-compete she signed before she knew how stupid and single-minded they were, she couldn't really apply to them. Thus, her only options were to continue solo, create her own guild…

Or to join a small guild. From what little she saw of Solar, she knew he was a competent leader with a steel will to be able to resist Katie's dad. She liked that. Plus, seemingly, he had more than two working brain cells. A big plus in her book. Now the question was, how to approach them without the Gremlin torpedoing her attempt. She tapped her pen on the open page and looked away, staring at nothing, musing on the possibilities.

'I wonder… could I seduce him?' she thought, but then she shook her head.

'No, Katie would stop me…' Another few seconds of thinking.

'Maybe have one of my friends seduce him? No, they would never go for him, he is not rich enough for them.'

'Do I have anything worth trading?' It was a rather depressing realization that aside from her real-life wealth and connections, which Solar didn't really need with the chaotic Gremlin there, she had very little to offer upon joining aside from her personal power.

'I do have a lot of knowledge about Eternal Light… If they are already going to name me a traitor might as well go full in…' She wrote down a few notes, encrypted of course. No need to take a chance.

'What about items?' she mused as she quickly opened her inventory and took a look through it.

'Hmmm… this has potential…'

"A new fracture? What type?"

"Poison, Cactus."

"Ugh…" Stephen turned to AzureTiger sitting on the opposite side of the table, her octopus partner placidly sitting on her hair, calmly combing it.

"Do we have anything aside from antidotes for that?" The small girl took a moment to think and then shook her head.

"I got the recipe for the antidote that the guilds are using, but according to my analysis, the first raid fracture wouldn't be defeated by a simple antidote."

"I saw that recipe," spoke up the guy representing the alchemist of the guild.

"There is nothing simple about it."

"Yes, but it wasn't found in the dungeon. That's why I doubt it can protect people from whatever is in it." Came the argument from the girl. The alchemist thought about it and nodded thoughtfully.

"That makes sense…" Stephen also nodded and got a little more comfortable leaning against Slathy, who recently decided that Stephen was forbidden to use chairs. Instead, Slathy would serve the same function.

"Anybody else have any questions about it?" There was a little shuffling before somebody called out.

"Aren't we missing a lot by not participating?" Stephen shook his head. He didn't need AzureTiger to speak up here (as she told him before the meeting) to answer the question.

"Maybe. But more than likely, there will be a big battle amongst the guilds. I don't want to participate in that. Much better to let them work it out themselves, wait for the guides, and then attempt the raid." Kim visibly agreed with him.

"We don't lose money this way, and our precious partners don't suffer. You know how long it takes for them to respawn." Everyone stiffened upon hearing that. As a summon and pet centric guild, their pets and summons were rather high-leveled, thus their respawn time grew accordingly. The pet or summon of a guild higher up dying would seriously set back every timetable that AzureTiger had worked really hard on. They looked nervously at each other, the various pets letting out sounds of agreement.

Stephen subtly kicked the stupid snake that was slithering near his feet, not wanting to repeat the snake-in-boots situation. The hisses it let out sounded a lot like laughter. Stephen shook his head and spoke up.

"Alright, then it's decided. We sit back and watch and when the guilds finish with it, we go and give it a try. Any objection?" Nobody spoke up, and he could see the ghost of a smile on AzureTiger's normally placid-looking face. She really liked it when people listened to her advice. And people didn't like her reaction when they didn't follow her recommendations. Most people in the guild learned after the first 'accident' that it was something they wanted to avoid. With the issue dealt with, he spoke up again.

"Now with that dealt with, let's talk about that annoying Fyre guild. Are they still randomly summoning fire elementals?" One of their mages nodded and spoke up. He was dressed in a red robe, and a small fire sprite was hovering over his shoulder.

"Yeah, boss. One of the Higher Elementals even contacted me to… register their… displeasure." It was implied that said displeasure was not something they wanted directed at their guild.

"What do they want?" Stephen asked. The mage just gave him a look.

"What do you think?"

"Complete and utter destruction, plus salt the earth just to be sure?" He received a nod.

"Yes, but I managed to get a good deal for the salting." Hearing that, everybody perked up. The Higher Elementals had some rather nice stuff to give out. The rest of the meeting was spent discussing the actions they would take against the guild that decided that using young elementals as suicide bombers was a good idea and what they would do with their rewards.

"How is the raid-that-is-not-a-raid going?" he asked as he took a sip from his mandatory industrial-grade coffee with a dash of creamer because he was not a savage.

"Things are heating up," came the response from one of the people sitting in front of several screens observing several graphs.

"As of now, around half a dozen wars broke out, thanks to the new fractures." He hummed appreciatively.

"Reactions online?" Another person spoke up.

"Mostly positive. The people who were complaining about the lack of raids are now complaining about how there aren't more raids."

"The people who don't like raids are complaining that it takes attention away from other events." He nodded.

"So, the internet is the usual schizo self…"

"Yes, sir."

"What about our special players?" There was a murmur that filled the room after he asked the question. Most of it was exasperated… He just sighed.

"What did he do this time?"

"Well, sir. According to the system, he tricked several guilds into investing a lot of money into this fracture delve by manufacturing a lot of antidotes that will be completely useless in it."

"Oh, boy…" There was a general agreement throughout the room, as they all brought up the screen that described the player's information.

"What about the wolf?"

"Lucky is still cute, sir.

"Thank the gods. At least that's safe."

"Yes, sir." There was a moment of silence as he sipped the coffee again.

"What are the projections for the action?"

"Well, sir, it's not good. For the other people."

"Anything that people will complain that it's cheating?"

"Plenty…"

"Joy…"

"Any actual cheating?"

"Naturally none, sir."

"I hate my job."

"As you say, sir."

"Have you seen what's happening?"

"The new raid?" his friend asked as they ate their subpar public school lunch.

"Yeah. Want to give it a try?"

"Do we have enough healing? It's a poison fracture, right?" He thought about it for a moment.

"It's just a raid. We have done raids in other games. We get Mike to do the healing. Danny will take care of the tanking and we can do the DPS."

"Would that be enough?"

"Mike is pretty good at healing. I think it will be enough."

"Then sure…" As the two friends talked about Magic Unbound, a lot of people around the world did the same. A conversation like that happened countless times, with countless variations. Some were confident, some were anxious, but most people were looking forward to the first raid in the game. The fracture in the Emerald Kingdom was a poison-attributed fracture, while in other countries there were fire, ice, water, and other elemental ones, providing a lot of variety.

The emotions were high everywhere, and most of the gaming-related news sites were dealing with it. Guilds were online bragging about how they would be the first to deal with the local fracture and how they would humiliate their local competition. It was a veritable feast for internet trolls. There were streamers covering every facet of the event, from the small streamers with only a few views to the big streamers that thousands or even tens of thousands of people watched.

At this point, most of the gaming population was watching Magic Unbound, some with interest and excitement, while some were openly rooting for the game to fail…

"Do you think this will be enough?" They looked over the piles of piles of antidotes and health potions.

"Pretty sure!" He picked up one of the antidotes and looked it over.

"Are you sure that the antidote will work?"

"Hell, yeah! I got it from my contacts at the Abyss Vipers. They know their shit!" They looked at each other and grinned, and then high-fived.

"Yeah!"

"Ladies and Gentlemen! We are here in the Emerald Kingdom at the old hot springs where the new poison fracture appeared." The dolled-up woman exclaimed, holding something that looked like a microphone in front of her as behind her the government facility protecting the fracture was visible while all kinds of players were milling in the surroundings.

"We, here at GamingNews 3, are going to follow along the first delves and report live about the efforts!" The screen changed, her face relegated to one of the corners, and an infographic took over.

"As you know, the current predicted winners are the Steel Lions, as everybody agrees they are the best prepared. However, it is not out of the question that a surprise contender would beat them to it." The picture changed to a list of guild names. The pretty reporter smiled a little and then continued talking.

"Let's go over the known contenders. First, the Steel Lions…"