Chương 20: Chapter 19

After logging out for a hot minute, and indulging in evil laughter, Sam logged back into the game and headed for the government office dealing with real estate. He planned to buy a few properties, as all isekai'd people knew, the real power was in real estate.

Granted, Ironwood wasn't the capital city, it was at most a mid-tier city in the Kingdom of Emerald Crown (they really like the color green, but the name came mostly from the emerald mine it was founded on), but naturally, Sam knew more than the average person. By now, most people playing the game noticed that it lacked one important thing that almost all roleplaying games had. Dungeons. Magic Unbound had no dungeons. No instanced content, no creepy caves to delve into, and nothing to farm.

But as the game was extraordinary in its quality, nobody complained yet. As they expected that a game of this magnitude would probably make them work for it. As Sam walked through the crowded streets of Ironwood, he couldn't help but grin when thinking about how the developers would implement the dungeon system. The first event of Magic Unbound. The Fracture. And the first thing it would do, after, of course, causing untold chaos everywhere, was making living around the capitals almost impossible.

And not because they were destroyed or anything like that. No, instead the greed of players and NPCs would make living there impossible. Staying near a mid-tier city like Ironwood, for now, was much more profitable in the long term. Plus, the quests were much easier to gather the required reputation to purchase a property. Sam looked up at the building he arrived in front of, then nodded to himself, Lucky dutifully following him, while also curiously watching the people around them.

Stepping through the gate, he didn't even take a few steps before somebody called out to him.

"Hey, you with the wolf! Stop right there!" Sam stopped and turned towards the speaker, who was one of the guards stomping toward them.

"Yes, sir? Is there any problem?" he asked politely. The guard, grumpy and glaring at him, stood in front of him and exclaimed.

"Indeed. Pets are not permitted in the Area Bureau! You either have to leave your animal out here or can't enter." Sam stared at the guard for a second, then shrugged and turned to Lucky.

"Lucky, be nice and wait for me here." Lucky instantly plopped down where he was, tongue lolling out, giving Sam a wolfish grin. Sam chuckled and returned his attention to the guard with a raised eyebrow.

"Will that suffice?" The guard, still grumpy but a little surprised, nodded.

"Er, yes. That'll do." And with that, he did an about-face, probably to return to his station. Sam just shrugged, gave Lucky another look, and continued towards the building. The Area Bureau, was a giant building, at least compared to the buildings back in Greenwood, with at least five stories above ground, and who knows how many underground. It was decorated in the same vein as all buildings in Ironwood. With iron and wood.

'Very original…' Sam thought as he beheld the wrought iron columns and wooden inlays everywhere. Still, he had set a task for himself, and no bad interior (and exterior) design would distract him from it. Thankfully, the part of the building he entered wasn't filled with people rushing around, trying to swim against the relentless tides of bureaucracy, as it was the Property Acquisition wing of the building.

More than likely several people tried their luck here, but according to Sam's memories of watching the internet and game historians analyze the past property trends of the game, most of the players who could afford (or think they could afford) buying lands were heading for the capital. And, of course, there were the quest requirements. He quickly stepped into the thankfully very short line, and barely a minute later, an exceptionally dressed young lady was leading him through the registration.

"Now that is finished, good sir," the young woman spoke up with a polite smile after organizing the papers on her side of the counter.

"There are some issues that I must bring to your attention." Sam just smirked at her.

"I don't have enough reputation to purchase land in the city. Right?" The woman blinked in surprise, but her training must have been great, as she immediately recovered and gave him another smile.

"Very good, sir. I'm glad you've done the research before contacting us." She took a little breath, then ran her eyes over him with Sam feeling as if the woman was looking through him.

"So, if you know about that issue, then how may I help you?" Sam gave her his best smile. Though, based on the twinkle in the woman's eyes, it really wasn't working.

"I was hoping… that you'd be able to point me in the right direction for increasing said reputation." Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. The administrator in front of him considered for a minute, and this time, Sam was pretty sure the pause was for the game to make a decision. Relationships with NPCs were tricky. Your stats could affect it depending on the NPC, as well as your look, clothing, and such, just like in real life.

But the most important thing, for generic NPCs like this administrator woman, was how you treated them. A lot of people tried but not many people could treat them like real people. Understandably, even Sam struggled at the beginning, but thanks to Lucky (and the fluff) and the owner of the Green Stump inn, he could actually see the life in the NPCs. Finally, the young woman nodded, and reached under the counter and retrieved a small pamphlet. Sam carefully took it and gave the woman a thankful smile.

Of course, the entire thing was a farce. He knew every way he could increase his reputation, from hunting down bounties of bandits to finding metal deposits or even finding ancient seeds of the trees the city was named after. But as always, there was no shortcut taking with Magic Unbound. At least until he could assemble a proper information network. But that was far away… For now, he had to follow the same path as the other players…

'Isekai'd, and even got foreknowledge, and I can barely do anything about it…' he grumbled to himself as he said goodbye to the woman, and went to find Lucky. However, as he stepped out to the courtyard patrolled by grumpy guards, what he saw caused him to stop in surprise. Out in the courtyard, surrounded by several confused guards, dressed differently than the guards of the Bureau was Lucky, who was currently at the mercy of a young noble lady based on her clothing.

"Who is a good boy? Who is?" She exclaimed softly as she kept scratching Lucky's belly, while the wolf rolled around on the ground, his entire body radiating happiness and satisfaction. Sam looked on, trying to identify the young woman. She was definitely a teenager, dressed in very high-quality clothing, that screamed nobility and not even the garden variety.

She had long blonde hair, an appropriately aristocratic face, thin lips, cute button nose, and as she worked on sending Lucky into wolf heaven, Sam could see her deep brown eyes. Still, nowhere in his memories could he find her. And Sam was sure that a future beauty like her, in the later stages of the game, would have been memorable enough.

'Lucky, you are really my lucky charm… the only thing to decide if you are a good luck or a bad luck charm…' he grumbled, then began walking towards his pet. The moment he started walking, the guards tensed, but he just nodded at them, then called out.

"Hey, Lucky! Have you been good?" The wolf, hearing his voice, froze for a moment, stopping his happy wriggling, while the young woman also froze. Then Lucky twisted his head so he could look up at Sam gave him a wolfish grin, then returned his attention to the still frozen young woman, batting at her hand as a small kitten would. Sam just snorted. Truly, a fearsome and murderous creature. The king of the forest… He turned towards the girl and gave a short bow.

"I apologize, my lady. I hope Lucky wasn't bothering you?" The girl let out a small breath and, to Lucky's devastation, stood up, patting her dress a little, then turned her gaze at Sam.

"Not at all, good sir. I was just waiting on my father." She glanced down at the almost silently whining wolf.

"Lucky you say? A good name." She murmured, then continued.

"Lucky was just keeping me company." Sam gave her a smile and nodded.

"He is good at that, my lady. Perhaps I could bring him around later for you to play with? After all, even fearsome wolves like Lucky need to relax…" The young girl giggled at him, calling the wolf on the ground fearsome, and dipped her head a little. She opened her mouth, probably to answer him, but they were interrupted by a boisterous yell.

"Lucrecia!" Sam watched as a man, taller than him by several heads, and shoulders wide enough to use as a billboard, the noble clothing almost stretched to its utmost limit on his muscled form. Sam's gaming senses were practically screaming at him that this was an important NPC. Though, the fact there was no mention of this man in his inherited memories, as the history of Ironwood was pretty well documented, confused him.

He watched as the giant man fussed over his daughter, and he simply made eye contact with the girl and mouthed 'Lucrecia?' at her. She just rolled her eyes back at him, while reassuring her father, that no it wasn't torturing to wait for five minutes. Then the man finally deigned to notice Sam.

"You!" he yelled, apparently only knowing how to communicate at ear-shattering levels, and pointing at Sam.

"My daughter told me that your pet has entertained her!" Sam simply bowed his head once again.

"Yes, my lord. Lucky is good at that. Back in Greenwood, he used to run around with the local kids."

"Ah-ha! I see!" yelled the man, looking between him, the wolf, and his hopeful-looking daughter.

"She also tells me that you have offered to visit us so that my darling daughter – "Father!" – could continue to be entertained by him!"

"That is correct, my lord. Lucky seems to like your daughter, and if he likes her, then he likes her. Who am I to stand in their way?" he finished with a wry grin. The noble stared at him for a second, then threw his head back and began to laugh. Loudly, of course.

"Excellent! Then come to the Silvercrest manor in a week's time, young adventurer, and we shall have you as a guest!" He turned around and immediately began to walk away, not even waiting for Sam to answer.

"Come, Lucrecia! Your mother must be waiting!" Lucrecia looked at him with an apologetic smile, and gave Lucky a fond look, then hurried after her father, their guards quickly following them. Sam stood there for a minute, ignoring the pitying or jealous looks from the guards of the Bureau while he searched his memories for the name Silvercrest. Finally, after a few minutes of frantic search, he found it.

'Ooooh… Now it makes sense…' he thought. Then, shaking his head, Sam motioned for Lucky and left the area with great haste. It was finally time to upgrade Lucky. And as he left the courtyard, he checked out his latest quest. [New quest acquired!] [Visit of the highest order!] [Lord Silvercrest has appreciated that your pet managed to get his only daughter to smile. He wants you to visit him in a week and do it again (and won't take a no as an answer). Bide your time, and visit his manor at the appropriate time.] [Time limit: A week] [Penalty: Failure to present yourself at the correct time will result in Lord Silvercrest hunting you down.]'A curse or opportunity?' he wondered as he finished reading while rejoining the crowds tussling in the street. As he already had access to a ritual room, he simply went by the mage tower and reserved one of the neutral ritual rooms, then began to hunt for materials.

Truly, he could have waited until he managed to gather ultra-super rare materials, but that would fall into the shortcut territory, and the system would penalize him for it. So for now, he was working with the highest material that somebody could have intuited based on his previous actions. A few magically charged crystals to provide power. A few vials of blood from swamp shadow murks, a fang from a shadow wolf, and a tiny piece of mithril, famous for being the best at conducting magic.

Though they were just mere additions. In reality, upgrading a pet at this level only needed one thing. An essence. Something related to the preferred evolution. If you wanted to evolve something that was made of metal? An Elemental core… You wanted your pet to fly? Air elemental core, or maybe the essence of some flying magical creature… And wouldn't you know? He had found a shadow spirit just lying around…

Grinning to himself, followed by Lucky, Sam eagerly climbed the stairs of the mage tower towards his rented ritual room, while leafing through the small booklet the receptionist handed him. It contained the basic rules of the ritual rooms, the dos and don'ts of rituals, and a few basic rituals that everybody should know. He couldn't wait…