Chương 347: Chapter 333

Sam and the team destroyed the maddened shamans, the fight mostly consisting of them giving Melody a tryout of his new body, before joining and completely wrecking the poor boss monster. Then Sam stepped forward and used his Sword of Severance to slice the hung-up pulsating heart into several tiny pieces, causing it to fall into the fire. There was a brief shriek as if something died, but nothing else happened.

"Three down, two to go," he declared. Dan and Katie were poking around for more loot, and Clarissa was fussing over the stoic ronin goose, who looked away stone-faced, but Sam could spot the barest hint of blushing on his new face. Isabella walked up to him, the forum visibly open in front of her.

"They found the first four keys, Sam," she stated without any preamble, sending him the screen. Completely calm, he accepted it and opened the forum page she had sent. It was a complete guide to four keys to the hidden fracture, including the two they had just gathered – the location of the stained-glass window and a pretty good strategy to dealing with the mad shaman boss – and the next two they were heading for. Sam checked the information written there and found it mostly matched his own memories.

The other Sam spent a lot of time watching speedruns of the Northern Star. There was even an annual Northern Star run, where newcomers to the game – that is, under Level 100 – would challenge the five fractures, finishing at Ice Rumble and seeing how long they could last. Sometimes he even won a little on the betting. Though most of the time, it was a way for guilds to promote their new star teams or players and dunk on other guilds.

Still, it was great fun watching the event, so the strategies were burned into his head. Most of the current attention was focused on Ice Rumble, where thousands of players and hundreds of guilds were trying their very best to beat the challenge. As he quickly scrolled through several websites, he saw hundreds of live streams – mostly from inside the icy arena – broadcasting both the progress of the quest to reveal the secret and the ensuing chaos this event had created.

There were at least dozens of fights breaking out and ending every minute. Scandals happened faster than the gossip network could handle them, and from his cursory glance, he saw at least three different bans for inappropriate behavior.

'Gamers at their best…' he chuckled to himself. With a bit of trepidation, he opened his Shadowland account, and he was instantly hit by a deluge of requests, demands, and whining. Some were about the Ice Rumble, but there were other requests, too. The site has been upgraded in the last few months to a website dedicated to Magic Unbound – you could still post information about other games, but it was relegated to a hidden corner – so he had the option to use the built-in filter.

Nowadays, he was less active on the site, letting Lucy (and Tim) handle the information trade, but his account was still regarded with godlike reverence by the netizens for releasing important information in the past, so people hadn't given up that he would 'return' and bless them with the sweet, sweet data.

'Maybe I should do something about that?' he wondered thoughtfully before closing the window. He didn't have time to deal with that right now. Instead, he looked up the current record for the Ice Rumble. If they were on a time crunch, he wanted to know what he was working with. A minute of searching had given him the answer.

"Forty-one…" he said out loud.

"Workable."

"They're already there?" Isabella asked, while also reading through the forums.

"Mhm. Fast, but not impossible."

"Can we do it?"

"We've already done the hardest part," he replied. Then he clicked through his friend list before landing on Lucy. The call rang once before she picked up.

"Yes?" she asked, staring at him, waiting for the request. He never called her mid-quest, so the fact that he had stopped her from joking or being sarcastic.

"Did you see the event frenzy in the north?"

"Right exactly where you are?"

"Yap."

"How could I have missed it?" came the deadpan question. Sam smiled.

"I need you to keep tabs on the highest wave reached in the Ice Rumble fracture. Then send me reports when the new wave is reached." She nodded.

"Anything else?"

"Are you selling cold resistance potions?"

"Who do you think I am?" she asked with a voice that told Sam she doubted that he even had a brain.

"I have been aggressively marketing them since you left for the north. I know how you are… So I just followed my gut instincts…" Lucy answered cheekily.

"Fair enough," Sam snorted.

"Talk to you later!" You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"Good luck!" He stopped the call and turned to the others.

"It seems we don't have time for idle walks in the forest. Time to leg it!" Following the roads was out of the question. The entire northern territory was crawling with people unfamiliar with the terrain, so the roads were full of players heading excitedly toward the action. Thus, the five of them sat on their mounts and rushed toward the next fracture. Funnily enough, Clarissa was carried in a princess-carry by her newly transformed and stone-faced familiar.

She spent the trip hiding her face behind her hands as the ronin rushed through the tundra forest with a stoic look and pep in his step. Sam made sure to record it for posterity's sake. Thankfully, with his newly enhanced senses, avoiding any monster group, or people trying to ambush other players – probably trying to make use of the chaos – the trip itself was uneventful.

"I still think we should've stopped to fight those idiots…" Katie grumbled as she got off the giant Puffball, who immediately shrank down and slinked away. Probably to bother some poor soul…

"Because, my dear friend," Sam began to explain with a roll of his eyes.

"The lead team is already at wave forty-three. And as fun as it would have been to go to town on those scrubs, this is more important."

"Bleh…you never let me do anything cool!" she whined, but Sam could see a smile on her face.

"Keep talking and no more ice cream for you, missy!" he retorted with a chuckle. They walked for a minute, stopping at a rocky outcropping to behold their new destination. It was a town built out of stone, barely any wood, and the only colors one could see came from the differently colored stones and rocks. It was pretty bleak. The town also sat at the foot of one of the main mountains of the northern mountain range, and was one of the earliest mining towns to exist.

It predated the current polity ruling the north, and most people living there would say it would exist long after it collapsed. Naturally, their main industry was mining – absolutely no processing – and training miners. Players wanting to improve their own mining skills would have to visit this place at least once to make contact with the masters and grandmasters, calling it their home.

From their vantage point, they could see a long line of well-guarded carriages – stacked high with raw ore – heading out from the town, while a stream of players entered, all of them very excited.

"Welcome to Tundra's Edge," he stated, grandly motioning toward the town.

"Where the tundra ends and where the mining begins." Once again, they were stopped at the gates, but as the fracture in Tundra's Edge was the easiest fracture, the crowd was much smaller, so they got through the inspection much easier and faster. A bit of standing in line and a bit of sampling the local fare – charcoal-infused steamed buns – and they were in. [You entered a new fracture!] [Fracture: On the Edge of Living] [Generations have mined this area. It has been redeveloped so many times that nobody really knows when the first cornerstone was put down. But the earth remembers. And the earth is angry, being exploited. Go and pacify the earth, lest their wrath erases the town of Tundra's Edge.] [Time Limit: No Limit] [Charges: Unlimited] The story was rather straightforward. People mined the mountain for generations, and the magic in the air had given sentience to the mountain. Who, naturally, didn't enjoy being mined. In conclusion: stone elementals.

They appeared in a small room used by miners in ages past to rest between shifts. There were a few old cots, cupboards filled with dented metal cutlery and bowls, and broken tankards lining the wall. Everything was covered by dust, as if they were the first ones to step into the space in ages. Sam barely had time to look around before they were attacked. The door exploded inward, showering them with splinters.

The explosion was followed by a thick stone arm ending in stubby fingers, reaching for the nearest person to the door. In this case, that was Katie. This fracture was somewhat low level compared to them, so while players who tried it within the recommended level range were rattled by the ambush, Katie – and the others – didn't even flinch.

The splinters bounced off their defensive magics – or disintegrated in Sam's case as the void consumed them – and as the arm grabbed Katie, she just smiled and flexed her thin arm. That released enough blackish-yellow energy to shatter the stone appendage completely. Stepping out of the room, they found themselves at a crossroads. A big junction, lit by dozens of torches, that opened up a dozen corridors, all of them leading in different directions.

But before they could deal with the numerous corridors, they had to deal with the lumbering form of golems, all of them turning towards them. They were twice the size of an average man, with thick arms, stubby fingers, small heads, but emanating a rather angry aura. They were the avatars of earth, here to take revenge on those who dared to defile the mountain. Sam raised his sword and slashed once, twice, then thrice. The first row of golems fell to the floor in pieces.

Then the rest of the team joined, and the battle – if you could call it that – started. Sam stopped in the middle and turned around. Careful to step around the debris that was the body of the golems a few minutes ago. The others followed him.

"Where to, boss?" Katie asked in a cutesy voice, leaning forward with her hand behind her back – attempting to look cute. Sadly, the fact she was wearing armor that a death metal band would call a little too much detracted from her cuteness. He grinned.

"How about a race?"

"Oh?"

"Everyone selects a corridor, and whoever chooses the correct one wins!"

"Question!" Clarissa called out, her new shadow, the ronin goose, standing behind her.

"What counts as correct?"

"Whoever finds the boss at the end."

"Alright, then what does the winner get?" Sam thought about it for a second before replying.

"You know what? Whoever wins will hear one of my secrets." The hall emptied within seconds, all of them rushing away, weapons ablaze, and a fire in their eyes.

"Really?"

"Meow," Puffball answered him from a nearby crate where the odd cat took a seat. Shaking his head at the situation, he chose a corridor randomly and headed down it. The location of the boss was always randomized, so he had as much chance to win as the others.

"Oh, yes! Oh, yes! I won! I won, baby! Wohoooo!" Katie was not a gracious winner. Isabella was sulking, Clarissa was even more stone-faced, and Dan moped in the corner. Katie started to dance. She found the boss monster – a gargantuan stone golem, speaking in broken language, demanding the destruction of all manmade structures – and carved through it with enthusiasm rarely seen in the world. The key in this dungeon was the mossy beating heart of the golem – crushed under Katie's foot.

Stopping her dancing, she hopped over to Sam and leaned closer, while turning her head to the side.

"Please whisper it in my ear." The others watched on with jealousy, clearly wishing they were in Katie's place. Sam really hoped they were just playing up their excitement, but with this bunch of weirdos, he was never sure. Sam rolled his eyes and leaned closer.

"I actually have a plan to take over an island nation," he whispered after some thought. He actually had one. One of them would fall into deep debt in five-ish years from now, which would mean buying up properties would be super easy. Katie turned her head and looked at him with a weird look on her face.

"You're so lame…"

"What? What were you expecting?" he asked incredulously. After all, he didn't lie. Katie reached over, grabbed his shoulders, and began to shake him.

"Tell me your crush, you idiot!