Chương 159: Chapter 154

"So we are in agreement?" Isabella asked with a tired look on her face. The negotiations went on for a long time. Long enough that Katie got bored and began playing a game while Sam and Isabella went over the list she had prepared. The first task was to ensure Sam didn't step on some big toes by taking these items from Isabella. However, the young woman was quick to reassure him that all those items were hers, acquired through her own work. Looking at some of those items, he had to curse her luck.

Looking back at her, Sam nodded.

"Yes, we are. You can join us."

"Yes!" she cheered, pumping her fist up and down, which did things that drew Sam's eyes while Katie groaned in disappointment in the background.

"Awwww…" Sam shot her a glare and she mimed zipping up her lips. He turned back to Isabella.

"We will start slowly. You'll join us with your assistant, as agreed, but you'll be on probation for a while."

"Yessss…" Sam heroically ignored Katie and waited for Isabella to respond.

"How long would the probation last?" He shrugged.

"Depends on your actions. My… business partner will decide when the probation is over."

"Fair," she said with a nod.

"What about the rest of my people?" Sam grimaced.

"Katie, no matter how reluctantly, vouched for you." They once again ignored the almost inaudible boo sound in the background.

"However, neither you nor she can guarantee their character. I'm running some sensitive operations here. I don't want to jeopardize my company with potential saboteurs. Unless you changed your mind about leading a guild?" Isabella shook her head vehemently.

"No. Dear god, no. Never!"

"Alright. Then, as soon as I can find a competent person to lead a guild, they can cross over. Would that work?" She bit her lip in thought before sighing deeply.

"For some, but a lot of people only follow me because of money. If I can't provide instant benefit, they won't care." Sam nodded in understanding.

"That's life…"

"Yeah…" They stayed silent for a little while, only Katie's gaming and grumbling breaking the silence. But, in the end, Sam had to break it.

"Now, let's talk about the elephant in the room."

"Hehe, elephant…"

"Indeed, Eternal Light."

"Yes. What can you tell me about their reaction to me 'poaching' you?" Sam asked while doing the quotation marks with his hands. Isabella frowned but then began talking.

"Some wouldn't care. They hate me and you don't even have a proper guild. They'll probably think I'm desperate."

"And those who understood what happened?"

"They'll, naturally, lash out."

"With force?"

"Bah, of course not. They're rich kids. They'll use daddy's money." She smirked.

"Which will fail because you're one of the richest players around." Sam just smiled a little while inside he was sighing.

'At least some of them probably are guests of Heavenly Forest so we can spy on them…'

"But they will lash out, so you're going to work with my security personnel to hopefully preempt any kind of damage to the company. Fair?"

"Fair."

"Good. Katie!"

"Yes, boss?"

"Meet me at the HQ as soon as we log in. Escort Isabella there, please."

"Aww… must I?"

"Yes."

"Can I accidentally have her banished into eternal darkness?"

"If that happens, I'll find a dimension filled with fluffy peaceful bunnies that never fight and never cuddle you." Katie's gasp was loud enough that it was almost enough to muffle Isabella's snort of humor. Returning to the game, he did a quick inventory of his character, made sure there was nothing important happening in the capital, then quickly headed back to Ironwood to meet up with the others.

With his skills in mana control and Lucky's improvements, it took a comparatively short time to reach the city where his friends were waiting for him. They rushed through the countryside, and Sam felt rather lucky that the monsters roaming said countryside only tried attacking him three times. One irate giant bear he interrupted mid-meal, tried to express its displeasure with a swipe of his giant paws and a roar. Lucky, however, was faster.

His roar caused the bear to flinch and his claws were strong enough to separate the poor monster's head from its body. The other two attacks were probably from the same goblin camp. Sam simply obliterated them with a few Bladestorms and made a note of their approximate location for culling at a later time. He arrived at the Ironwood gates with an exhausted Lucky who was probably only on his feet thanks to the regular injection of Sam's mana.

The moment they stopped, the wolf let out a proud howl then practically tumbled forward into the nearest shadow. A moment later Sam could hear a gentle snoring. Smiling gently, he spoke up quietly.

"Thank you, Lucky…" Dusting off his clothing, he straightened it out and joined the crowd streaming through the gates of Ironwood. As he went through nobody stopped him, but the guard who saw him threw a quick salute and a respectful nod at him. He returned it and then continued navigating through the main street of the city. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Sam arrived at the headquarters a quarter of an hour later and, after straightening his clothing once more, he entered the building while greeting the guards quietly. In the entrance hall, dozens of people were walking around either with purpose or waiting quietly in front of the reception counter. Off to the side, he could see Katie in her armor, the visor of her helmet up and clearly in a bad mood. Next to her stood Isabella, in light armor, with two swords at her hips, hair up in a tight bun.

Her assistant, wearing stereotypical maid clothing and glasses that seemed to be always reflecting light, was standing behind her with a neutral expression on her face. However, the moment he stepped through the doors, the maid's head snapped up and zeroed on him. She leaned elegantly forward and whispered something into Isabella's ears, who instantly looked up and found him. She grinned and waved while Sam saw Katie let out a sigh.

Sam knew it was a bad idea to put the two girls together and more than likely it would either end in tears or the two girls trying to tear each other apart, but he found the entire thing hilarious. Plus, he wanted to see if someone would try to use the 'apparent' discord in his team to try to pull something stupid. As much of a ditz as Katie was, Sam trusted her.

And he trusted the fact that despite declaring to the world that she hated Isabella, the moment the other girl asked for help, Katie practically begged him to help. Naturally, Katie would never admit anything, but Sam could read between the lines. Plus, the world was practically functioning on tropes, so he had a few guesses about the reason for Katie's behavior. He returned the wave and approached the group. Katie was the first one to greet him.

"Hey, boss! I got you a pretty plump cow! When is the butcher coming?" Isabella shot a withering glare at the slightly shorter girl but instead continued to smile at Sam.

"Hey! Nice to officially meet you," she said while offering her hand. Sam grabbed it and shook it firmly.

"Nice to meet you, too. Hope we will have a fruitful cooperation."

"Indeed," came the placid response. Sam let go of her hand and motioned toward the lift.

"How about we move this meeting to somewhere more private now that we gave the spies something to talk about?" She nodded with a smile and began following him, with Katie doing the same, albeit a little more angrily.

"It will be my pleasure!"

"Lucy, this is Isabella and Claire. Isabella, Claire, this is Lucy, my business partner," Sam introduced the women to each other. Then he simply stepped backward, standing next to Tim, who was staring with fascination at the four women in the middle of the room as they stared at each other. Well, Isabella and Lucy stared at each other. Katie was visibly trying to get one of the ravens to fly on her arm so that she could pet it and Claire was just standing there, acting as a perfect maid.

"If something happens, jump through the window," Sam whispered out of the corner of his mouth at Tim. Tim just shook his head and answered the same way.

"Can't. We have enchanted it to be unbreakable and damage anybody who breaks through."

"Damn, what a mistake…"

"I know that now…" However, they were interrupted by Lucy.

"We can hear you talk. You know that, right?" Sam looked back at Lucy and gave her his most charismatic smile.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Then a moment later.

"Oh, hey! You improved your withering glare!" After the initial murder attempts via glares from Lucy, the group settled into their seats and the discussion began in earnest.

"So, she will be joining your team?"

"Yes. She is a Bladedancer. Buffs and decent DPS. Pretty good fit."

"And the maid?" This time, it was Isabella who answered.

"I was hoping, or well… Claire was hoping that she could get a job in the Heavenly Forest. She's heard there were some pretty awesome maids there." The woman they were talking about just fidgeted slightly behind her mistress. Lucy sent him a questioning look, but he simply nodded slightly. It was taking a chance, but Sam had a good feeling. Plus, the girl was so focused on her fetish that he doubted she would go for betrayal.

'Hopefully… you never know with perverts…' he mused while Lucy mulled over the request. Finally, she nodded.

"We can arrange that. She would start at the bottom and getting an apprenticeship would be on her. Is that acceptable?" Isabella grinned and nodded while throwing out a thumbs-up.

"Perfect!" She turned back to look at Claire.

"Happy, Claire?" The maid visibly reined in her emotions and nodded elegantly.

"Yes, mistress." She then turned at Lucy and curtsied.

"Thank you, miss, for the opportunity." Lucy gave her a weird look but then shook her head.

"Tim!"

"Yes?" The assassin stepped forward and spoke up.

"Please take Claire and get her situated."

"Right away!" He turned back to Claire and gave her a small bow and a smile.

"Please, follow me, miss." The maid returned the smile and Sam could even spot a little red coloring on her cheeks, then followed the deceptively dressed assassin out of the room. Katie meanwhile stood up and also began heading for the door.

"I don't think I'm needed here, so I'm going to see what Clarissa is up to. See ya guys later!" As the armored young woman left the office and the door closed behind her, Sam turned back to Lucy and Isabella and the mood of the room instantly changed. The levity was nowhere to be seen, instead, everybody was serious and focused. Lucy leaned forward, steepling her hands before her while resting her elbows on her desk, and began speaking.

"Now… let's talk politics…" The discussion was rather fruitful, and from what Sam saw, Isabella was pretty satisfied with the outcome. And he would no doubt get some complaints from Lucy later for dumping all of this on her, but he simply had to take the opportunity. Eternal Light would be a pretty big guild in the Emerald Kingdom, occupying a sizeable area.

He didn't have any inherited memories of Isabella, but as she moved in the same circles as Katie, he was pretty sure he just managed to remove a sizable support pillar from Eternal Light. They wouldn't get the same support from her family, at least until they proved themselves, but it was enough that the other guild would lose out on the support. Then there were the items she brought with herself.

Tablet of Light was a pretty good item that the Eternal Light guild used in the future to create some pretty great things. But now it was in his hands. And he was going to do something very crazy with it. He walked through the headquarters, then upon arriving in front of a specific door, checked that the light over the door wasn't on, and knocked.

"Come in!" came the call, and he opened the door, and then stepped through. Inside, he was met with the chaotic sight of Liz's workshop as dozens of cute drones flew around doing odd tasks or just simply dancing in the air. Liz was hunched over a big desk, her hand using some weird tools while another drone was in front of her, disassembled. She looked up and grinned as she put down the tools.

"Sam! What brings you here?" Sam stepped forward and took out the tablet from his inventory, which instantly began to pulse with gentle light.

"Brought you a gift!" he grinned. The girl's eyes went wide as she beheld the stone tablet in Sam's hand.

"Is that…?"

"Something like the tablet you told me about? Yes."

"And you think it will synergize with the other one?"

"Bingo!" She thought about it for a moment, then shrugged.

"Worth a try." As if knowing that it was a momentous occasion, the drones all around the room slowed down until all of them were hovering in the air or lying on some surface. Sam held out the tablet, which pulsed a few times before it started to hover in place. He took a step backward while Liz stepped forward and touched the hovering tablet. The pulses instantly sped up and the tablet began shedding light, which in turn started to swirl around the girl before simply sinking into her body.

She stood there for a minute, eyes closed, silent, and barely moving, only the slight rise of her chest showed she was alive. Then she opened her eyes, which coincidentally were shining with ethereal light, and grinned at Sam. Liz moved her hands, which told Sam she was doing something with her screens before a screen appeared before him. [Your friend shared her screen with you!] [The Tablet of Light found you worthy of its gift as you have already proved yourself!] [The Tablet of Light granted you the Knowledge of Light Geomancy!] [Light Geomancy: Level MAX (Passive) You are able to summon an ethereal book that contains the knowledge of how to build artifacts, items and, most importantly, golems out of light.] [The Tablet of Light granted you the Blood of Light and Eyes of Light skills!] [Blood of Light: Level MAX (Passive) Your has body stopped producing regular blood, instead, light flows through your veins. This light will confer to you and your body several blessings. You gain immunity to curses. The strength of your body is increased. Your base Stamina regeneration is doubled. Grants you the Light Affinity.] [Light Affinity: Level MAX (Passive) You have a great affinity for light. Light-like beings will be more favorable to you. The cost of the spells and skills dealing with and using light is halved.] [Eyes of Light: Level MAX (Passive) You are able to see the structure wherever the light touches.]