Chương 165: Chapter 160

Sam, having a quick thought, quickly detoured toward the bar, picked up a glass of water with a slice of thin lemon and bendy straw (that sparkled), and headed toward them with a few mischievous thoughts percolating around his head. Upon his approach, the other two looked up at him, the girlfriend with a cool look, while Dan was still sitting there, awkwardly. Making a decision, he plopped down on a free seat, and before anybody could speak up; he began talking, looking at Dan with a small smirk on his face.

"Well, Dan, I'm happy to report that I'm ordained as a minister at the Universal Life Church, so as soon as you guys are finished with your drinks, we can start. Even brought the paperwork too!" he exclaimed happily. Dan, in the middle of taking a sip of his drink, did a double take as soon as Sam began to talk, and when he reached the word 'ordained', he sprayed his drink across the desk, astonished.

His girlfriend just raised a carefully maintained eyebrow and reached over and began dabbing up the sprayed drink with a napkin.

"Cute," she said in a low voice, though Sam could hear the laughter behind the stoic words. He grinned and then looked back at Dan, who was wiping his mouth clean. The muscled physicist put his drink down and glared at Sam.

"That was not funny!"

"I beg to disagree," Sam said, but before Dan could argue further, he raised a hand up in a placatingly.

"How about you introduce me instead?" Dan continued to glare for a few seconds, but after a small elbow blow from the young woman next to him, he let out an explosive breath, closed his eyes, and then looked back at Sam.

"All right, all right…" he pointed at Sam and then, in turn at the young woman.

"Sam, this is Lara. Lara, this is my… guild master, Sam." Sam held out his hand, which Lara returned, grasping it hard and then shaking it.

"A pleasure." He just grinned as he shook her hand.

"No, the pleasure is all mine!" He let go of her hand and then returned to his drink, taking a sip while the others followed along, casting the group into a temporary silence.

"Sooo… why did you call me here?" Sam finally asked, breaking the silence. Then he grinned.

"Doubt it was for my stand-up routine…" Dan snorted, but it was Lara who spoke up.

"Maybe next time…" she started with a coy glance thrown at a grimacing Dan.

"We're here because I have been inundated with requests to join the guilds we have here at the university. It's rather vexing." Sam had the feeling that she wanted to use much harsher words than vexing.

"My rather uncouth boyfriend here," she continued, indicating a bashful, yet proud-looking, Dan.

"told me about you and how you're looking for talented people." Sam nodded but said nothing, wanting to see what she would say. She in turn waited for him to speak up and when Lara saw he wouldn't, she sent him a look that told Sam she knew exactly what he was doing. However, despite that, she continued.

"Danny told me you recognized my handle so that takes care of my resume. What do you say?"

"I did not say that!" exclaimed Dan. She shook her head while patting him gently on his muscled arm.

"Don't worry, I can read between the lines." Dan looked back at her, then after a few moments, he shook his head and let out a few almost inaudible grumbles. Lara turned back to Sam, her hand still resting gently on Dan's. Sam stared back then spoke up.

"And the real reason?" Dan opened his mouth to probably argue but Sam simply held up a finger to silence him. He fell silent as Lara let out a rather lady-like laugh. It looked and sounded well-practiced.

"I did my research. You have potential. Plus, I want to spend time with this oaf," she said, patting Dan on his arm.

"You or your family?" Sam asked. He had no idea who she was aside from her accomplishments in the game, but with the way she looked and talked, and what Dan told him about what was happening at the university he was pretty sure she was the daughter or granddaughter of someone important. The narrative practically demanded it. Every time he heard Dan's woes, Sam was a little more glad he wasn't reborn as a university student. She raised an eyebrow again but otherwise didn't react.

If she found Sam's skepticism offensive, it didn't show.

"My family," she agreed with a respectful nod.

"Grandfather does like to make sure I don't hang around with… unsavory people…" she finally said after a few seconds.

'Fucking knew it…' Sam grumbled inwardly while outwardly he held his poker face. He glanced around as he took a sip of his drink and now that he knew what to look for, there were at least two people who were pretending very hard that they weren't paying attention to them.

'All right, protective grandpa character… Lucy will have kittens…' Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"I suppose I can respect that, " was what he said, looking at Lara. She inclined her head while Dan was gaping at her.

"What? Your grandfather looked into Sam?" he asked, bewildered. Lara just smirked.

"Oh, honey. He looks into all of my friends." Her hand slipped from the top of Dan's into his palm, which led them to quickly intertwine their fingers.

"Don't worry. I made sure he didn't put any bugs in your dorm." Sam snorted and before Dan could freak out, he spoke up again.

"Why now?" She took her eyes off her boyfriend and looked back at Sam.

"After meeting Dan, I made my way toward Ironwood because he is based there and I had nothing better to do. I wanted to link up with him and do a few quests or just enjoy the game together," she started to explain.

"But on the way, I was attacked by a horde of monsters and had to do a quick strategic retreat."

"Which led you to an opportunity…" She nodded, a small smile on her lips.

"Which indeed led me to an opportunity…"

"And you want, my or rather, our guild's help to make use of it."

"Yes. Grandfather offered to buy me a guild, but that would be just…ugh…" She demonstrated her feelings with a dramatic hand wave. Sam understood it. For a woman who prided herself on building unconquerable fortifications, using a bought guild with bought loyalty was something that would be hard to stomach.

"What were you thinking about?"

"Well, I found a ruin of a fort that would be great to build up into a city. There is everything for it. With a few applications of mana, I could make it entirely self-sufficient."

"And you need gold."

"Gold and connections." Sam sent a side glance at Dan.

"I suppose Dan has been talking." Lara grinned upon hearing that.

"Heavens, no! It has been so adorable to see him trying to avoid certain topics. But as I said, I can read between the lines." Sam raised his glass at Dan for the effort, who, in turn, tried to hide behind his own drink while Lara quietly giggled a little. He took a moment to think, his fingers playing along the rim of his glass before looking up at Lara.

"You know… a merchant's most valuable commodity is trust. Once broken, they can never get it back. And here you are, trying to sell me something conjured out of the wet dreams of scam artists." Lara nodded in understanding.

"You want loyalty." Sam nodded.

"Yes. I want trust and loyalty. Dan vouched for you, but we both know that the moods of the… let's say elderly can be quite mercurial," he stated with a hard look. The woman grimaced but didn't disagree.

"We have several investments of similar natures and I have siblings and relatives. You don't have to worry about the… weather changing," she replied while Dan blinked owlishly.

"What are you guys talking about?" he asked in a whisper. Lara just reached over with her other hand and patted his cheek.

"I'll explain later, now shush. I'm enjoying this." Sam watched it play out, then posed his next question.

"What about when this opportunity proves profitable? How many relatives will come to request shelter?" Lara just smirked.

"They know I don't share." Sam idly looked at Dan, who looked completely lost. Poor guy was a genius with plasma physics but was pants at people. Admittedly, Sam was only keeping up because he was heavily relying on recognizing tropes and using quotes from his past life. Finally, after a minute of thinking he nodded.

"I suppose that's the best I can get, isn't it?" She grinned at him.

"I'll send someone over with the contract and we can start with that," he said then downed the rest of his drink.

"Now, tell me what you found." Lara straightened out with a relieved smile on her face then began regaling them with the harrowing details of her adventure. By the time Sam got home, he already received a message from Lucy that their lawyers were talking with Lara's lawyers. Then another message cursing him out. Chuckling to himself, he quickly typed out the opportunity that Lara would provide and sent it off to his friend.

With that done, he would need to wait for the legal side of things to resolve, so he had time to take care of the other issue. Returning to the game, he opened his eyes and then closed them. Opening them again, he carefully looked around then without moving an inch, he flexed his mana and cast a Clean spell.

'That hopefully removed most of it… Fucking fey…' he cursed inwardly as he clambered off the bed. It didn't escape his notice that the glitter that somehow clung to the walls had several glitter colors that were in the shape of a smiley face. Next to him, Lucky also woke up and sneezed, shooting glitter out of his nose. For the next half an hour, Sam made sure he hunted down the last of the damned glitter while inwardly planning his revenge on the fey.

'Maybe… an orphan outreach program… a dress an orphan event… hmm… those perverts might even enjoy that…' Leaving the room, he instantly headed for Adam's guild building. This time, however, he was in disguise. He wanted to see if anything got shaken up around there. However, when he arrived at the guild building he was rather surprised. There was a sizeable crowd, with the city guards holding a perimeter. Behind them, the building was in ruins with guild members picking through the debris.

Stepping next to a gawking player he spoke up in a low voice.

"What in the nine hells happened here?" The guy turned to look at him with an astonished face.

"You didn't hear?" Sam shrugged.

"Just logged in…" Inwardly, he cursed the glitter again.

"Oh, well, I heard somebody attacked the Circle!" he gushed pretty loudly. Another person naturally heard this and scoffed.

"Bah, that's old news! It was a civil war! Somebody tried to take over!"

"That's stupid!" a third voice added.

"This was clearly sabotage from a rival guild!" Soon Sam's surroundings devolved into an argument that spilled over the rest of the crowd with people gearing up to support their 'arguments' with steel and magic. As the guards rushed over to quell the rising tensions Sam slipped away. Hidden in a dark alley, he opened the messenger screen and sent a message to Adam. [Solar: You good?] It only took a few seconds to get a reply. [MonsterMind: You saw it?] [Solar: Yeah, it's ugly] [MonsterMind: Offer still open?] Sam grinned in triumph before sending a message. [Solar: Here is an address in Ironwood. Meet me there] [MonsterMind: OK] Satisfied with what he wrought, he took a look around and then sped away. He needed to prepare a few things just to make sure everything went well. With his current speed, he reached the supermarket building in a minute. He rushed in, dropped off a goodbye note to the old man leading the enterprise, then he was once again rushing toward the gates. Outside, he called out.

"Lucky!" His loyal companion emerged from his shadows, ready to be ridden. He jumped up the still-growing wolf and pointed toward the road.

"To Ironwood!"