Chương 346: Chapter 332

They were walking for half an hour when Dan spoke up.

"So, boss, are you really not going to explain?" Sam looked back at the rest of the team as they left behind Cursepond and the treasure hunter frenzy. With the fracture complete, they could head even more south, toward the bottom of the 'star' that covered the five fractures. A few player groups looked suspiciously at them as they walked away, clearly remembering that they hadn't arrived so long ago. Though, despite all the glaring, nobody dared to try to accost them, for obvious reasons.

Instead, the number of followers doubled. By this time, almost all the local guilds had realized that Sam and his team were in their area and going from fracture to fracture. Their presence at all the fractures had doubled – sometimes even tripled – and with an idle glance, Sam saw that even the forums were ablaze with speculation. He knew it was just a matter of time before the increased scrutiny would reveal the secretive route to the hidden fracture. Shrugging, he began to talk.

"It's pretty simple. If you look up the local maps of the fractures, you will see that five fractures create a perfect star." As he talked, the others stared at him. He stared back.

"What?"

"You're explaining yourself," Clarissa responded, sending him a queer look.

"You don't explain yourself."

"Well, I felt like explaining this one…" Katie gasped.

"Did our campaign of disapproving looks work?" Sam would say confidently that it did work. It was horrible to see the look on his friend's face. And while it looked somewhat alright on Dan and Clarissa's faces, but Katie and Isabella just looked miserable. It was like telling adorable little puppies that Christmas wasn't real and the Easter bunny had been run over. Then kicking them just for funsies… Naturally, he would never tell them that. He didn't want them to know the power they held.

"No. I just had nothing better to do," he replied. Hopefully, convincingly… Based on the look Clarissa sent him, he was less than successful.

"Aww…" Katie whined jokingly before turning to Isabella.

"Izzy, we need to practice our pouts more!"

"Sure, Katie," Isabella answered deadpan. Though Sam could see a light dusting of red on her cheeks.

"Anyway, what about the hearts?" Dan spoke up, bringing the conversation back to the original topic. Sam nodded and began to explain.

"While the ice heart we got was a powerful item – and crafting material – it was still suspicious. So, I had to see what happens if you destroy it. Plus, with the way the throne was the only thing not destroyed, it painted a pretty clear picture." Clarissa raised a finger and opened her mouth, then thought for a moment, lowered her hand, and grudgingly nodded.

"Alright, that made sense. What about the window?" Sam smiled.

"All the windows depicted a scene of battle or a life moment. There was only one window that did neither. And it contained a black heart. Coincidence? I think not." There was a moment of silence as the rest of the team digested the information, but before Dan could reply, Isabella let out a gasp.

"Check the forums!" The team instantly stopped and opened the forum. Sam didn't need to look for long before he spotted the first post. Northern Star – The hidden fracture – Click here to find the ultimate secret of the North! Clicking on it, he saw that it was exactly what the title promised – which surprised him a little. He didn't think that was allowed on the internet.

A description of the five fractures, and the location of the hearts for three of them – the one where they came from, and two others – with several guesses where the other two were. The post was already pinned, with several people adding their own knowledge to the pool, naming locations at the other two fractures. Some were correct, and some were so far away that Sam almost laughed out loud.

Scrolling further down, it was clear that the northern section of the forum was dominated by this topic, with all of the guilds bragging that they would be the first one to open the hidden fracture – whatever it may hold. There was another warning post about the northern government limiting the approval numbers for fracture diving, as the news of this secret had attracted a slew of new players, all of them ready to try their luck.

Another post detailed how the local government had marshaled its forces to reinforce key locations – namely, the named fractures and the supposed location where the new fracture would appear with enough force to stop an army. Humorously, he even spotted a versus thread where people started debating whether Solar could take on the deployed army on his own.

"Does this change anything?" Dan asked worriedly. Sam hummed thoughtfully, running through the scenarios in his head. Finally, after a minute, he shook his head.

"Nah. I think this is the system's response to our success. Wants to give a little pressure and some competition." They started moving again as he continued to talk.

"Imagine if we had done the quest without anybody knowing, only to show up with a new fracture. People would have gone bonkers. I assume this way, they lessen the complaints they're going to receive when we win the race."

"Confident, aren't you?" Clarissa commented dryly.

"If it is warranted, why shouldn't I? After all, I have the best team in the game. This thing will be child's play!" he declared boisterously to all of them with a grin. He was happy to note that he managed to generate a small amount of blush on the otherwise aloof woman. Their next destination was Whisperpine, a town near the absolute south of the northern territories. There, the environment was less icy peaks and more tundra forest.

Appropriately, the biggest industry was forestry and woodworking – producing most of the wood used by the rest of the north. It was mostly filled – aside from the civilians – with shamans, druids, shapeshifters, skinwalkers, and many other similarly themed professions. The druids spent most of their time taking care of the forests: regrowing what was cut down and making sure the soil and the environment didn't suffer because of the industry. The rest of them took care of the fauna and protected the operation.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. As they neared the town – built from local wood – they saw that the crowd outside the town was immense. They saw players from all over. There were a bunch of shivering people from the south, several warmly dressed ones (visibly sweating) from the north, and even a few who were wearing clothing from the other side of the sea. Though Sam was pretty sure he was the only one who recognized them for what they were.

He quickly sent Lucy a message to look out for travelers everywhere else – both for the danger they brought with them and both for the trading opportunities. Then he put them out of his mind and started to break through the crowd. There were a few cries of indignation, but most of them recognized them, so they simply stepped aside. A few tried to warn them.

"Don't even try! They're not letting anyone through!"

"Look at them going! Do you think they're going to get arrested?"

"Hey, isn't that Solar?"

"What? He thinks just because he is a hotshot, they're going to let him through? Bah!" Sam and the others simply ignored the jeers and approached the gate. The guard instantly called out to him, his face telling Sam that he had done this at least a dozen times in the last hour, and he was the very edge of a breakdown – or crashout.

"Halt! Entry only with valid fracture tickets!" Sam said nothing, just took the tickets out and showed the man. The crowd grew a little restless, seeing the tickets, but nobody tried anything. Sam didn't know if it was because of the guards, their reputation, or because Katie turned toward the crowd, grew twice her usual size, and was emitting some kind of dark aura that swallowed light, sound, and the hopes and dreams of men, while staring challengingly at the crowd.

The guard carefully checked the tickets, waving some kind of magical device over them, and when the device beeped once and a small light turned green, he allowed them to enter with a frown on his face. The team quickly scurried inside, the door closing behind them, cutting the sound of the crowd off, only for it to be replaced by the cacophony of the town of Whisperpine. Despite the continuously growing crowd outside of the town, the inside wasn't any emptier.

It was full of players, all of them rushing about, doing this and that. Though mostly they stood over tables, campfires as they conversed. As Sam and his friends proceeded through the town, they heard snippets of those conversations, and most of them were about the fracture or what the hidden fracture would look like. Most people – correctly – guessed that it would be a raid, but nobody knew for sure what kind.

Thankfully, due to the presence of the soldiers dispatched by the government, entering the fracture wasn't really different compared to the other places. They found the installation around the swirling green, tinged with a bit of blue, portal, and then stood in line until it was their turn. Their tickets were once again examined by a stern-faced and bespectacled official, who waved them through with minimum conversation and an aura of despair as he beheld the rest of the line. [You entered a new fracture!] [Fracture: Heart of the Madder] [A circle of druids and shamans had gone mad. They started eating and eating and eating. Never stopping. It is time to put them to rest and deliver relief to their weary souls. Also bears. Beware.] [Time Limit: No Limit] [Charges: Unlimited] They found themselves in an eerie forest that was suspiciously silent. There were no bird calls or any other animal noises. Even the wind seemed to be trying to keep a low profile.

Sam put a finger in front of his mouth and motioned the team to start spreading out. All of them nodded, understanding the message, and followed his orders. Thus began their adventure in the forest of murderous shamans. At first, their enemies were animals driven mad, the blood and viscera of their brethren covering their bodies. They fought bloodthirsty deer, stags trying to impale them, bears attempting to tear them apart, and one very ambitious sheep.

Puffball ate it, then spent the next five minutes hacking up balls of wool. Then came the shamans. The first few only fought with their own bodies, so mad they barely registered Sam and the others' presence, but the further they went into the forest, the more aware they became. Oh, they were still quite mad, but there was a guiding intelligence in their eyes as they used makeshift wooden claws and katars to try to disembowel Sam and the rest of the team.

After a few fights like that, the mad locals started to transform into giant animals – mostly bears, but there were a few wolves, boars, and one very big snake – and used shamanistic skills to empower themselves, or summoned totem spirits to rain murder and destruction on them and the local environment. Melody, the goose, was trying to match them with his own murderous aura and weird spirit thing, but the only thing that resulted was the forest almost burning down.

By Sam's best guess, they were about three-quarters through the fracture when a skillbook dropped. He picked up, allowed his clean aura to remove the dust, mud, and dried blood from it, then inspected it. [Totemic Transformation Mastery: Those who choose to change their bodies for other ones, this book provides knowledge on how to make the transformation much more rewarding.]'The hell? This dropped? Here?' he wondered, amazed.

It was one of those skillbooks that never appeared in the auction house – maybe in auctions. First of all, any shaman player or player with transformation skills wanted it. Secondly, it had a very rare drop, so you had to learn from a teacher. But good luck finding one. Sadly, his and Lucky's transformation skills weren't related to totems…

"Is that good?" Isabella asked, curious as Sam continued to stare at the book.

"Yes," he told her simply.

"Worth a lot?"

"Yes."

"How much?" She asked curiously, the others now also listening.

"Conservatively? Around a million."

"Gold?"

"No." There was a lot of teeth-sucking hearing that. Sam just smiled, turned around, and called out.

'Let's see if my hunch is correct…'

"Melody!" The goose perked up from poking the dead body of a giant bear and looked at him. Sam showed the bird the book and threw it at him. The murderous goose jumped and head-butted the flying book, causing it to break apart into rainbow colored pixels. Melody landed on his feet and closed his eyes, his entire body lit up with a swirling dark red energy.

The group watched silently as the bird processed the skill, then, after a few minutes of waiting, the dark red energy began to surge, covering the entire body, hiding it from their view. Then, as it continued to surge, it also began to grow and grow. And grow. It grew until it reached Dan's size. Thankfully, it stopped there, then it stayed there for a few moments, before it abruptly dispersed.

"What the hell?" Before them stood a six-foot-seven man, covered in samurai-inspired armor that looked as if it had started to rust away, and clothing that was more scraps than real clothing. The color scheme was gray mixed with white, and the accents were done in dark yellow. Dirty white hair was pulled into a messy ponytail, and in his hands – claws instead of nails – holding a katana that looked to be made for slaughter. The edge of the blade dripped some kind of ghostly red matter that reminded Sam of blood.

Melody's name on the party screen also changed. It now read: Melody, Unknown Ronin Goose. He opened his eyes, looked over them, nodded politely at Sam, then turned toward Clarissa, who tensed slightly as the giant 'goose' looked down at her. Melody stopped in front of her, fell on his knees, his head hanging low, and holding his katana in his palm, offering it up to her – like a retainer would for their lord. Clarissa looked back at them in panic, eyes clearly asking what she should do.

Sam grinned and signaled her to accept it. She turned back to her familiar and spoke up.

"Thank you for… serving me?" Melody's head rose, and there was a bloodthirsty grin on his face as a rune etched itself into his breastplate. In contrast to his general color scheme, it was glowing with the gentle green glow of healing energy. A brief perusal of his knowledge told Sam that the rune stood for the word song – or in this case: melody. The goose ronin then stood up, walked around his mistress, and took up a guarding position behind her, already looking around for more enemies.

Sam shared a look with the others, then they collectively shrugged as they continued the fracture. The end boss was a shaman sitting in a camp, surrounded by walls made out of bones, all of them sharpened. Between those bones, sinew was hung up, and all of them had organs hung on them like party favors. However, there was only one heart hung up. Right behind the boss, over a merrily burning blood-colored fire, still beating and dripping dark green liquid. Sam made eye-contact with the others, and the fight was on.