Chương 260: Chapter 251 - Interlude 24

"Hello, Grandfather!" The old man smiled – a real smile of love, not one reserved for the annoying busybodies who ran the company and thought of themselves as friends of her grandfather – as she took a seat at the table, tea already ready for her. Slightly warm and a dash of honey, just as she liked it. Lara reached for the cup, emblazoned with the graphic of '#3 Granddaughter' (she was the third-born grandchild), and sipped the silky-smooth drink. Then she let out a relaxed breath and looked at her grandfather.

It was rather unusual to meet up so many times in such a short amount of time. Granted, there was a chance that Sam decided to 'strike' back at her grandfather in some manner, and now she would be hearing about the fallout. Lara was an equal amount of afraid and excited…

"Hello, dear," he greeted her after she was finished with her first sip.

"How have you been?" She gave him a reproachful look, and he just smiled ruefully.

"Very well… How is your project going?" Still suspicious, she answered the question.

"Pretty good. The wall is almost finished and we already have several functioning buildings." There was also that secret project that Sam had brought to the newly built stronghold, but she had no idea what exactly they were doing in those giant warehouses beyond the basics. That kooky professor-type NPC was never available for her to question him. Not that she was going to mention that to her grandfather. Or anyone else…

"Good, good…" her grandfather nodded. Her eyes narrowed.

"Why do you ask?" He let out a chuckle.

"Now, now, dearest granddaughter. I was just wondering if there is any place in that stronghold for your family…"

"You want me to give the family a plot?"

"Well, not give. We would, naturally, pay for it." Lara snorted. There were times she cursed the moment she got to know Sam, but in these kinds of moments, she simply cherished them.

"I would… maybe if you asked nicely… but per my contract, the distribution of the territory is up to the company that financed the construction. Which belongs to…"

"Your little friend," her grandfather finished for her. She nodded with a grin.

"Oh yes! I have a few properties reserved for my own use, enshrined in the contract, but otherwise, I have no power over it." That wasn't strictly true, as while Sam insisted that she would have no power over the stronghold territory allocation on paper just in case her family got weird – once again proving his strange 'powers' - both Sam and Lucy assured her that the stronghold was her baby, her opinion would be respected.

And as both of them were big on trust and loyalty, she had no issue with the verbal agreement. Her grandfather just looked at her for a long time before letting out a sigh.

"He did this just in case I asked, didn't he?"

"Yup." Another sigh, though she could see a small smile on his face.

"Well, it appears I've lost this battle… but the war is far from over."

"Assuming you guys are fighting the same war…" she added her own few cents with a grin. Her grandfather chuckled before quieting down a little.

"Welp, then I suppose I shall cut this meeting short. Have to explain to your cousins they can't have their new guild headquarters…"

"Your attempts to guilt trip me are cute, grandfather, but they are not going to work," she replied with a slight glare and smile on her face. Her grandfather was much better at these social games, the play he was putting on currently was just to say he tried. He really hated when family members came whining to him to deal with something. However, she was also aware that her cousins and relatives could become a pain in the ass.

"If they really want those properties, they should submit a proper offer and I will make sure Sam and Lucy are going to take a look at it. If it is a good offer, I don't see why they would reject it." He reached over, patted her on her hand, and smiled.

"You're a good granddaughter."

"Of course, I expect an agent fee."

"Atta girl!"

"So, what are the final votes?" Stephen asked the room as a multitude of people and animals, monsters, elementals, and a few 'things' watched him on the hastily put-together podium. AzureTiger was standing to the side, slowly counting the votes with the help of her octopus familiar. Kim was also there, holding a notebook and making sure that the count was correct. However, for some reason, Stephen thought that she was only helping out because she had some issues with AzureTiger.

He had no idea what those issues were, but it was nice to spend more time with his girlfriend. After having an in-depth discussion about accepting the contract from AFK, they decided that Stephen alone couldn't decide the future of the guild, so they put together a simple document detailing the changes accepting the contract would bring, as well as the pros and cons and shared it with the main members. Thanks to their success, they had to change the membership into two tiers.

The main members, who either have been there since the beginning or joined early, and those who had proved themselves both with their skills and personalities. The other tier contained the hangers-on, newly joined people who hadn't proved themselves, people just there to acquire pets (they thought it would be easier to join, get a pet, and leave than pay the guild the service fee), and the various spies, ne'er-do-wells or busybodies.

And now, they were gathered in the main hall of their building, following a thankfully quick voting process. Stephen, himself was unsure about the move. When he approached the guy to ask how to get himself a cute pet, he didn't expect things to balloon to this size. He just wanted to have something cute and fluffy he could use to impress Kim and maybe get a date out of it.

Well, now he was responsible for a guild with member numbers in the hundreds, the security of part of a city, had to broker deals with various individuals, eradicate guilds that hurt poor fluffy animals and elementals, and just be a leader. Sometimes so many things happened that it hurt his head. This deal with AFK company would take a load off his shoulders and let him play the game without having to worry about a million little things. AzureTiger was in favor of the merger and even Kim supported the idea.

Hell, he even talked with his dad about it. Granted, the first hour of the conversation was just him explaining basic things about the game, but after those were made clear, his father patiently went through the contract with him, pointing out things that even AzureTiger didn't notice. And now he stood, slightly nervously as Slathy lounged behind him, radiating calmness and support. Choosing to get an animal companion was one of his best decisions ever…

Then he was broken out of his musing by Kim and Diana stepping up next to him and the room quieted down, even the various companions also quieted down before the decision was shared. Diana, the octopus still on her head like some kind of weird hat, stepped forward, and coughed into her fist.

"We have the results. The vote was passed. We are going to join the AFK company," she declared softly. The people began to politely clap, but otherwise, everybody, including Stephen, was a little confused about how to feel. Then somebody somewhere in the room spoke up.

"Now what?" Cynthia truly didn't understand her sister's aversion to everything but healing. It was so much fun jumping into the thick of things and delivering justice onto the myriad monsters that called Magic Unbound their home. With her trusty spear and magic at her side, nothing could stand in her way. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

After finishing with the beginner town, she and her friends left it very quickly as none of the monsters they were willing to engage with provided any challenge anymore. And those monsters that could withstand their 'awesome' power were so powerful that nobody wanted to chance it.

There were rumors going around in Greenwood that there used to be a wolf mini-boss, but after so many people tried to hunt it down to get at the pups to make them into familiars, the compilation videos made them very tempting targets, the boss changed into a wolf spirit that attacked anyone that went near the cave. You could defeat the spirit, but another would show up almost immediately, preventing people from moving toward the cave and annoying the mother wolf.

Naturally, the players couldn't leave it alone and a giant coalition formed to see what would happen if they defeated the second spirit. Turns out three more spirits show up. Smaller than the first two, but they were elementally charged. An earth elemental wolf spirit, a wind elemental wolf spirit, and a shadow elemental wolf spirit. Not easily, but the coalition defeated those too.

Cynthia watched the videos several times, and she always laughed at their faces when a giant wolf just dropped out of the sky upon the spirits' defeat and obliterated the players with a roar. Instead of trying to fight battles that were not worth fighting, she focused on her magic and skills. Frailty was her bread and butter. She already managed to upgrade it so that even one strike would make the entire body part of the monster vulnerable, not just the spot she had hit.

It improved their team's ability to deal with monsters a considerable amount. Then came another basic but useful skill that Clarissa's boss recommended. Pierce, which naturally increased the piercing power of her spear. Paired with Frailty and Flash Step, she acquired the Double, Triple, and Infinite Pierce skills, increasing her repertoire.

[Double Pierce: Level 42/100 (48%) (Passive) After landing a hit on an enemy with the Pierce skill, your attack speed is increased momentarily, and the cooldown on the Pierce skill is instantly refreshed, allowing you to strike again with the skill. Attack speed is increased by 2% and the damage is increased by 0, 5% for each skill level.] [Triple Pierce: Level 28/100 (37%) (Passive) After landing a hit on an enemy with the Double Pierce skill, your attack speed is further increased momentarily, the chance of making a critical strike is increased and the cooldown on the Pierce, Double Pierce skills is instantly refreshed, allowing you to strike again with the skills. Attack speed is increased by 2%, the damage is increased by 1%, and the critical chance is increased by 0, 1% for each skill level.] [Infinite Pierce: Level 14/100 (69%) (Active/Passive) After landing a hit on an enemy with your Triple Pierce skill for the third time, you gain a Hidden Power buff after every successful hit with any of your Pierce skills. For every stack of Hidden Power, the cooldowns of your Pierce skills are refreshed and your attack speed, damage, and critical chance are increased by 0, 5%. If you miss a strike, you start losing stacks of Hidden Power every 0, 1 second. You can choose to unleash your hidden power in one massive attack which removes all the acquired Hidden Power stacks on you, resets all piercing skills, and gives you a Fatigued debuff. For every stack of Hidden Power, the critical damage of the final strike is increased by 1%.] On her own, she could maybe strike any monster a few times before she had to unleash it if she didn't want to lose the boosts, but with the help of her friends, who had some nice control spells and skills, keeping the enemy still and allowing her to unleash insane amounts of damage was a child's play. Granted, smarter monsters were harder to immobilize, but even slowing them down was enough for her to build up stacks of Frailty and Hidden Power.

"You know… I really hate that we have to force those monsters to stop so that I can do my combo…" she complained to her friends.

"Yeah!" Dani agreed.

"I love the whole nature mage, but my Tangle spell is so much stronger than any other." Anna thought for a moment, then offered her opinion.

"So, we need to get stronger. Physically, we're already pretty fast, but I'm sure there is some kind of Haste magic that we can learn…" Cynthia nodded along.

"Excellent idea! Let's look up how to get faster!"

"So, how did it go?"

"They are putting together a team that would escort us to a new location near Ironwood," Darell told Brad as they hung out in his apartment again. They just finished with the game, updating everybody in the guild about the happenings and the future course of the guild. Naturally, some people were cursing them for selling out to a corporation, which was actually pretty funny. Solar, the man behind AFK Company and Chrysalis was famously not part of any famous family, group, or corporation.

Though, after showing up with that woman on his arm, Darell had some doubts, but then a few days later he heard a rumor that she was cheating on her boyfriend with Solar. Hard to really know what was true and what wasn't in the current world. Brad, simply continued to grumble.

"I hate that those idiots left…" Darell just shrugged.

"They were probably local plants that would have been found out once they were under the eyes of the AFK Company. Or simply chose our offer of freedom without any contractual penalty…" He didn't mind, he was more focused on making Glorious Artefact the best crafting guild, and dealing with those people was just a hassle.

"I still don't understand why we had to do that…"

"Something about weeding out the chaff, I think…" They sat there in silence, simply recuperating after that intense and emotional meeting.

"What about Charles? Has he reacted anyway?" Darell couldn't help but snort.

"Oh, yeah. He instantly went whining that I cheated and most definitely failed the test." Brad chuckled at hearing that.

"I think he was angrier about nobody caring about me 'failing' the test than us merging with AFK."

"Which means he'll definitely try something in the game."

"I told the same thing to the AFK woman I talked with; Lucy I think."

"And?" Brad asked curiously, leaning forward.

"They just told me that they will take care of it." Brad leaned back in his armchair and nodded wisely.

"Well, if anyone, it's them who could take care of people like Charles…" Darell was about to reply when his phone began to ding with notification sounds. Unlocking it, he opened the notification and began to read. Brad watched him silently, waiting for him to share the news.

"Apparently, some insane blood magic cult had decided to attack Sunspot down south. They hired Charles's guild to provide protection for a site from where they were going to launch part of the attack." Darell couldn't help but laugh a little.

"They used Charles's guild as ammunition. It seems with the way they worded the contract, it counted as a willing blood sacrifice. They all got insane debuffs!"

"They must be seething…"

"Oh boy, they are indeed very angry…" Darell murmured as he scrolled through his feeds. Brad also took out his phone.

"The forums are blowing up with it…" For the next few minutes, they each silently read the internet, trying to figure out what exactly was happening down south. Then Brad looked up and began to speak hesitantly.

"Do you think… they did this?"

"I don't even want to think about it…"

"All right people, places!" he called out while clapping enthusiastically. Around him his team ran around, making sure all the equipment was in tip-top shape, the coffee machine was filled out, serviced, and chugging along, the decaf was hidden and there were enough snacks to feed a small army. The rest of them were sitting at their stations, staring at code, graphs and everything else as the main screen was filled with different views of one particular city.

Sunspot, the city of the sun, but most importantly, a city for those who wish to hide in the shadows cast by the sun. And now, the same city was hosting their greatest enemy. A player who knew what they were doing. Or as the boss called him 'affectionally', the fucker.

"Anything so far?" Selene appeared in a nearby monitor and began to report cheerfully.

"As per your request, Solar aka 'That Fucker' is currently underground, taking part in the event that aimed to reduce the number of superfluous mercenary guilds in Sunspot. Based on appearances and from what we could infer, he isn't aware of the impending attack of the blood mages. Or that his caravan is planned to be sacrificed by the blood mage players."

"Good, goood… Is there any way we could make his life harder? A hydra maybe? Oh! I know! Two hydras!" Selene just gave him a smile that reminded him of the smiles his mother used to give him when he was young.

"One, that would be illegal and against company rules. Two, he already fought hydras and won."

"Damn that fucker," he exclaimed as he petulantly snapped his fingers.

"As you say, sir." He looked around and spotted a person who was apparently monitoring the happenings around Sunspot. Thankfully, there were other departments dealing with other aspects and areas of the game, so that their task force could focus on specific events.

"You!" he called out.

"What is going on overground?"

"Blood mages started to move. They tricked a lot of guilds – mostly the stupider ones – to 'guard' strategically important locations. They are planning to use those players to fuel the ritual circles they carved into the floors of the same building those mercenaries are protecting."

"Are those circles random, or do they have a plan?" This time another person spoke up, a woman, from another workstation where he could see her doing some off-the-wall trigonometry.

"They appear to be planning to create a two-pronged chain reaction that would culminate in an explosion that would vaporize all solid matter in the city. One above ground and one underground."

"Thank you, that makes… wait! You said all solid matter?" he asked incredulously. The woman double-checked her findings and nodded.

"Yes, sir. All solid matter."

"Selene!" he called out.

"Can they do that?" There was a brief pause as the AI processed the question and looked for an answer, before nodding.

"If they manage to detonate every important ritual circle both above and underground, there is a chance they can do it."

"In numbers?"

"IF we take into account all the players and NPCs present in the city and those who are in an actionable distance to the city, then their success rate is around 78% percent. Hundred percent if one of the gods presiding over blood intervenes, and zero if one of the 'good' gods act."

"That doesn't sound bad…" he murmured but sadly for him, Selene continued.

"If we amend those calculations with the F-factor, then the answer is around 30 to 40% percent," Selene explained serenely as everybody watched the team leader freeze in one place.

"Granted, those numbers are only valid if… that fucker aims to disrupt it."

"Wi-will one of the gods intervene?" he asked shakily and with a great amount of hope. Nobody has any illusions about which gods he was talking about. Selene, sadly, shook her head.

"No, unless something very-very out of the ordinary happens. This task was a divinely mandated task for the perpetrators. One of the stipulations was no divine help or interference."

"Does the fucker count as out of the ordinary for that? Or can we manually flag him as such?"

"Not yet for the first question and hard no for the second one," she let that one hang before adding.

"Sir."

"Damn…" he snapped his fingers again in disappointment. Then he was distracted by one of his people who was keeping an eye on the most annoying person ever (according to the team leader).

"Sir! They stopped!" He immediately rushed over to the big screen, which helpfully changed over to showcase that fucker standing protectively in front of several trembling healers, while the blood mages shed their disguises and began to surround them. The team leader began to eagerly watch the developing scene while two people in the back quietly talked, leaning against one of the desks and sipping from their cups.

"Do you think they have a chance?"

"Dunno man, blood magic is pretty powerful…"