Chương 174: Chapter 169

As he tried cleaning up the room with the ritual circle carved into it, Sam felt an urgency as the knowledge settled into his mind that he found the perfect leveling place. He was hilariously behind the other top players. Granted, he had access to skills and knowledge that would turn those people neon green with envy, but sadly, thanks to the game being based on numbers, they would, in turn, turn him into a smear on the ground. It was getting a little ridiculous.

Yes, he had a company like no other in the game, he had connections in places that ninety-nine percent of the players didn't even know existed and had skills that would be overpowered. Later. When he had the stat points to give the extra oomph to it. As Sam futilely tried to make sure nobody noticed that he accidentally melted part of the runic circles, he opened his notifications. [Congratulations! You successfully performed a modified focusing ritual….] [Would you like to name it?] Sam smiled a little, then spoke up.

"Ritual of Atlas." [Name accepted!] [Ritual of Atlas successfully performed!] [Runic construction of the ritual added to your Grimoire!] Suddenly, his grimoire appeared in front of him, opened in the middle, several pages fluttered by and Sam saw the runic circle being etched into the page with a brief flash of yellow light. The book then closed with a small thud and vanished. [Mana Manipulation is now Level 60!] [Mana Flux is now Level 2!] [Mana Construct is now Level 38!] [Adaptive Coordination is now Level 17!] [Journeyman Runecarver is now Level 20!] [Illusionary Runes is now Level 15!] [Corporeal Illusions is now Level 5!] A very respectable growth in his skills for only one 'small' ritual. Finishing that thought, Sam couldn't help but chuckle a little. Most rituals that players performed were maybe one or two circles and required them to pay exorbitant money to ritual masters to set up.

There were a few players everywhere who tried their hands at it, but so far nobody had realized their importance. Or if they did, they weren't sharing… And he even had a breakthrough! [You broke through with your skill, Spell Layering!] [You managed to connect the material with the immaterial while holding several separate threads of mana together! How?] [You learned the skill, Spell Matrix!] [Spell Matrix: Level 0/100 (0%) (Passive) You mastered layering spells as very few have before. You can layer (or connect any other way) together as many spells as you can. The cost of this action is increased by 5% (cumulative) for every two layers or spells.]"Wow, the system is sassy today…" he muttered as he read over the skill.

'One more skill I have never heard of… At least it's OP as hell!' Satisfied with his gains, he closed the screens and looked back at the carnage on the ground.

"Lucy will kill me…." He had met up with his team in the lobby of the headquarters, inventory full of supplies, armor not shined to avoid being spotted, and his trusty Moonlight sharpened by the best whetstone money could buy. Katie and Isabella were standing next to each other, chattering about something excitedly while Clarissa and Dan were next to each other, looking over some kind of document.

Sam knew they asked Lucy for help with setting up some kind of business that had something to do with frozen flames, but he wasn't really interested in it. Frozen flames were a valuable ingredient in a lot of crafting recipes so he didn't mind, but the other Sam didn't have a memory of the item being needed for anything special. Still, as always, with special materials and ingredients, Sam made sure that Lucy set aside a good number of them in a hidden vault, just in case.

He was mostly happy that the two of them were making more money for them and the company. Also – he took a deeper glance at them – not interfering with their business, he would have the chance to win the betting pot about their love life. True, Dan had a girlfriend, but Sam had some money on him getting a small harem. With Tim, it was just a question of how many girls he would accidentally seduce. Funnily, nobody bet on Katie and Isabella as everyone was pretty confident about what was going on there…

Stolen story; please report.

"Hey everyone!" he called out with a smile on his face as he approached the group.

"How is it going?"

"Good!"

"Pretty good!"

"The cow is wrong, as always!"

"Don't listen to this annoying gremlin!" He gave the two girls a deadpan look, then slapped his hands together while sending out the expected party invitations. They accepted immediately.

"Everyone ready?" Before anybody could answer his questions, they all snapped their heads up as a tiny but angry scream echoed through the building.

"You know what? How about we just go!" Sam exclaimed hurriedly as he began to shepherd the group toward the double doors.

"Preferably before Lucy finds me!" They left the city of Ironwood behind with Sam riding on the excited Lucky and the others on rented horses. They would use them until the last outpost near the direct route toward the Valley of Distortion. They would hike through the mountains, preferably without much hassle, but knowing the system their journey would definitely not be peaceful, then set up a camp in a safe spot and go farm the countless and ever-changing fractures that could be found in the Valley.

The place was kind of a raid area, as once in, you couldn't get out before solving the main issue. Which was the randomly appearing fractures that distorted both space and time (and sometimes more). In the other Sam's life, the place was found some time later by an exploration team sent out by one of the dark guilds to look for a convenient hiding place for their 'nefarious deeds'.

Naturally, the information was leaked within seconds as the criminal element didn't waste a second to betray, backstab, and do other things to each other's backs. This meant that the bigger guilds instantly descended on it and turned the entire area into a bloodbath. In the end, the people who entered were an amalgamation of a group made up of people from the winning guilds and those who had money to pay for a spot. Sadly, that was the last credible information that the other Sam and the common people could access.

Nevertheless, rumors had run rampant about what those who entered the Valley of Distortion found. From what the other Sam found, almost everybody who returned was at a much higher level and decked out in awe-inspiring artifacts. That, in turn, birthed another bloodbath. As expected of gamers… Sam hoped to avoid that fate. They would go in, all sneaky, then plunder the place for all its worth and leave like nothing happened.

Then, if the place was still standing, they would then 'discover' it and show Adam the place. A nice training ground for the guild as well as bait for spies and opportunistic people.

'If I survive Lucy…' he thought as he studiously ignored the incoming messages from his irate business partner.

"Where are we going?" Katie asked as they were resting in a meadow after entering the forest near the last outpost. Horses were left behind in the care of the soldiers, and they then proceeded on foot. Everybody else also looked up, a curious look on their faces.

"You know, I expected you guys to ask much earlier," Sam admitted. Dan just shrugged, but it was Clarissa who spoke up.

"You always have a good reason for your mysteries and at this point, I personally had given up on making sense of them. So, for now, I'm assuming that we are going to a hidden place that is totally awesome and we're going to loot something valuable…" she explained rather sarcastically. Katie nodded along while pointing at the other young woman. Dan just gave him a sheepish smile and nodded, while Isabella simply looked at him with an expectant look. Sam reached behind his hand and awkwardly scratched his nape.

"Well, broadly speaking, yeah…" Clarissa nodded with satisfaction, while Katie and Isabella simply grinned.

"Then why don't we continue?" Sam returned the grins and stood up.

"Very well! Team, roll out!" There was a moment of silence.

"Your references are seriously ancient…" The first leg of the journey was rather simple. Cut through the forest and head toward the mountains hiding the valley. Based on the maps he had access to, there should be a small pass they could go through, but before that, they would still have to do some mountain climbing. Which meant monsters…

"Get the legs!"

"I'm getting them!"

"Well, get them faster!" Sam pivoted around a swipe and parried the claws on another giant squirrel. They came in droves, and not even some heavy fire barrage, courtesy of Dan, deterred them from trying to consume them. Katie was amid three squirrels the size of two humans stacked on top of each other, whirling around as she tried to protect herself from the fast strikes while trying to slice'n'dice the monsters. Isabella was protecting Clarissa as the healer made sure to rain healing energy on everybody.

It was Sam's duty to protect Dan while the mage tried to freeze the annoying overgrown critters in place. He sprung forward, releasing a slash which in turn turned into several illusionary ones, and the squirrel, with a vicious look on his face, failed to dodge.

"One done!" he called out, only to have several other squirrels, even more enraged, fall on him, trying to get revenge for their fallen comrade.

"Hah! I already killed at least five!" Katie responded happily to his call.

"So lame!" Naturally, Isabella had to react to that.

"I'm at seven!" That was enough for Katie to prove why she was called a berserker. Sam just chuckled at their playfulness and refocused his attention on the squirrels. They were fast, dexterous, and given their nature, very squirrely. By his estimation, they were around Level 60 and some. Thankfully, their skill superiority carried them through.

"WUFF!" Sam turned around a little and watched as Lucky, tail wagging, happily chased one of the squirrels up on a tree.

'Are you a dog or a wolf?!' A few minutes later they stood over the corpses of their foes and were checking out their notifications.

"Oh, I leveled up," came from Clarissa.

"Anybody else?" Sam asked.

"Soon…"

"Maybe a few more squirrels…"

"If you allow me to kill a gremlin…" Ignoring the last line, Sam asked another question.

"Found any interesting loot?"

"Nah, mostly crafting materials… Unless we want to process the corpses…" came from Dan who currently had the duty to collect the scattered loot. Sam took in the damage and outright destroyed bodies of the monsters and shook his head.

"Not for this batch…" He received a grateful thumbs-up from the muscled mage.

"Ready to continue?" The rest of the trip was the same. Monsters of all kinds beset them, trying to prevent them from reaching their goal. More squirrels than one could find at a peanut factory. Bears of all types, including rockbears the size of houses, berserker boars with tusks as big as Katie's giant greatsword (though thankfully not as strong), rabbits with spikes instead of fur, and one very annoying invisible weasel.

Still, the army of monsters trying to eat them, granted them enough experience points that most of them leveled up at least once. Sam knew he leveled up, but he would wait until they reached the Valley before checking it. It took them almost half a day to reach the pass that Sam spotted on one of the old maps after leaving behind the forest and getting through some heavily rocky terrain.

The walls of the pass looked like they were sheared away with razors and they could see how the stone was layered there through the ages.

"Careful as we go through," Sam whispered as he cast his mana sense far and wide. Sadly, thanks to the abundant earth mana, he knew he couldn't sense most mountain monsters.

'Ugh, I just know the system is planning something…' As if to answer his unspoken grumbles there was a rumble in the distance and Isabella called out.

"AVALANCHE!" The rumble intensified, and Sam refocused on it, only to sigh.

"Those are golems…"