Chương 379: Chapter 362

Sam's escape from the chaotic Roserun was surprisingly simple. He used the chaos of the crowd to slip toward the harbor, blending into groups as he moved through the streets without drawing attention. By the time he reached the edge of the harbor district, he paused, taking in the scene ahead: guards stood stone-faced at every entrance and exit, while in the distance sailors swarmed across ship decks, guiding vessels out toward open water.

The congestion of so many ships moving at once only made the situation more complicated. For a moment, Sam considered a stealthier approach, but he knew he didn't have the time for that. Instead, he pulled up his mask and goggles, then downed another speed potion. The familiar buzzing energy surged through him as the world seemed to slow. After that, he flooded his body with enough mana to bankrupt a small mana crystal mine and launched forward in an explosive burst.

Mana erupted from beneath his feet, shattering the stone as he shot ahead, sword flashing out in a blur. The guards reacted instantly, but it was already too late. His blade passed through them without resistance, and within seconds, he dove into the water as the waves churned violently from the moving ships above. Shouts and alarms were quickly swallowed by the sea, though he could still see projectiles and spells striking the surface behind him.

Arrows, javelins, and spears plunged into the depths, their momentum broken by the water. Magic behaved in different ways: fire hissed and died at the surface, lightning spread in branching arcs across the water, and ice formed jagged trails that sank downward. Sam pushed harder, using wind magic to accelerate even underwater. He surged forward like a bullet, the pursuing magic fading behind him as the enemy lost track of his position in the depths. Sam dove deeper and deeper, avoiding the keels of the ships.

Diving deeper, he weaved beneath the keels of massive ships. Once he reached sufficient depth, he angled toward open water and poured even more mana into his wind magic. The result was a violent underwater burst that sent him rocketing forward at a staggering speed. For a while, there was nothing but motion. Dark streaks blurred past him, broken only by occasional flashes of color: light reflecting off submerged rocks, startled sea creatures, or faint shafts of sunlight piercing the surface far above.

But he didn't care. Behind him, he could feel the warmth of the Sunburst Runic Circle gathering momentum as the Runic Detonator Band finally triggered on the unlucky idiot he had found. There was a brief pause as the world held its breath, then the mana practically exploded behind him. The surge rolled through the water like a living catastrophe, expanding outward and upward, consuming everything indiscriminately in its path. The entire region's mana became a roiling storm.

Sam felt the pulses of destructive energy closing in, like an all-consuming fire nipping at his heels. He pushed harder, forcing more mana into his wind spell, accelerating himself away from the blast zone. As the water around him began to churn violently, he couldn't help wondering what it looked like on the surface if it was this bad down here.

For a long time, he kept going, mentally tracking the expanding sphere of destruction as it spread behind him, the mana in the water still seething from the aftermath of his actions. He didn't know how long he traveled before he finally felt safe enough to resurface. Breaking through the waves, he took a moment to orient himself and turned back toward Roserun. He scanned the horizon over the rolling sea, searching for any sign of the city. But there was nothing. No city. No ships. Just him and the churning waters.

Realizing he was still in a precarious position far from land, he dove back under and set his course toward the coastline where he had started. Might as well pick the recording equipment up. He emerged from the water, dripping and both mentally and physically exhausted. With a shake, he shed the excess water, then cast a quick cleaning spell to strip away anything else that couldn't be dislodge. Only then did he turn toward the mountain and begin the climb back up to where he had left the recording equipment.

Looking around, he could see that the environment had completely changed. The explosion hadn't reached this far directly, but its effects clearly had. The terrain was coated in a fine layer of dust and scattered debris, and several of the larger rocks he remembered using as landmarks were simply gone. The aftershock of the explosion seemingly rearranged the entire mountainside. Reaching the summit took only a few minutes with a combination of high-speed climbing and mana-fueled jumps to increase the speed.

There was no doubt in his mind that the entire region would soon be swarming with players, and he had no intention of still being anywhere near it when that happened. At the top, he moved quickly. The drones were collected, checked, and packed away with practiced efficiency, each piece secured as he prepared to leave. Without hesitation, he turned toward the hidden path he had used to approach the cliff in the first place. Within half an hour, he was still coated in dust, but far removed from the worst of it.

Not even slowing down, he descended the mountain at speed, swung up onto Lucky's back, and without a word, they were off. Knowing the kind of reaction his actions would cause, Sam didn't head straight back to Ferabor. Instead, he cut through the plains south of the Emerald Kingdom until he reached a partially forested stretch of land. From there, he made a sharp turn toward the coast, keeping his route unpredictable as he went.

Eventually, he found a small, sheltered bay where he finally allowed Lucky a short break. The silly wolf immediately began splashing into the waves crashing against the rocky shore, treating the water like an enemy that needed to be defeated. Sam, meanwhile, searched for a flat, dry enough stone and, after brushing it clean, sat down heavily. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. For a while, he simply stared out at the horizon.

The full weight of what he had done finally began to settle in. He had completely derailed the history of the game and its world. Whatever future he had once known, whatever sequence of events he could have relied on, no longer applied. As of this moment, his so-called "future knowledge" was effectively worthless. One action had changed everything. And strangely, Sam found he was mostly okay with that.

A small part of him still felt a flicker of unease at the idea of stepping into an entirely unknown world with no script to follow, but another, bigger part of himself felt that it was right. He was finally shedding the weights of the inherited memories and standing on his own legs. No more cheating. No more knowing about what came next. Just him and his questionable decisions. It felt… freeing.

A quiet chuckle escaped him as he finally looked away from the horizon and turned his attention to the persistent blinking system notifications. They had been flashing since he dove into the water, but he had ignored them until now. Now it was time to face the music. With a faint sense of apprehension, he opened them. Just as always, a deluge of screens slammed into him, filling his sight until he could see nothing but those system screens.

One by one, they faded, each dissolving into light, until only a single central screen remained, its text scrolling far too quickly to read. This continued until only one notification remained, and Sam finally focused on it, enlarging it to read properly. [Quest 'Salacious Sunny Shenanigans!' completed!] [As a reward for the unique way you solved the last task, you gain +1 LUCK!] [Congratulations! You managed to elicit the activation of the Sunburst Runic Circle!] [Due to the fact that you weren't the one who directly activated it, your experience point gain is halved.] [Congratulations! You've leveled up!] [You are now Level 185!] [Gained 44 unassigned attribute points!] [Thanks to your efforts on focusing on speed, you gained 5 DEX and 5 AGI!] [Thanks to accomplishing a world-changing magical feat, you gained 5 MAG!] [Thanks to surviving what you shouldn't have, you gained 3 STR, 3 VIT, and 1 PER!] Sam smiled, letting out a quiet laugh as he saw he had gained no bonus to Wisdom.

'Apparently, this wasn't the wisest decision… Who knew?' There was a brief pause, then with practiced efficiency, he distributed the newly gained points. Eighteen went into Endurance, pushing it cleanly to one hundred. Ten were allocated to Wisdom, just enough to maintain his regeneration. Six went into Perception, sharpening his awareness further. Another seven were added to Vitality, increasing his overall health pool. Two more were assigned to Strength, and a final point into Agility.

Now that Endurance had reached the hundred-point threshold, he would need to choose another attribute to bring up to the same level.

'Probably, perception…' he mused.

'It's already the closest. Or maybe I should focus on Magic?' The possibilities were endless. But before he could dwell on it further, the moment he confirmed the Endurance increase, his entire body reacted. Warmth spread through him in an instant: his muscles tightened, then loosened again, as if his entire frame had been briefly reforged and set back into place. Then, just as quickly, it was gone. [Your Endurance attribute has reacted with your Art of Etheral Body skill!] [Art of Etheral Body has gained the subskill, Touch of Life!] [Touch of Life: Level MAX (MAX%) (Passive) Your body has gone through several small changes, allowing the Art of Etheral Body skill to affect it more effectively. When infusing your body with mana, the cost is decreased by 1% per skill level, and the defenses are also increased by 1% of the skill level.] A very nice subskill.

Not a rare one, since a lot of people focused on Endurance just to survive in the brutal world of Magic Unbound, but it wasn't exactly useless either. With the amount of infusion he could sustain thanks to his mana reserves and the regeneration supporting it, it was still a meaningful increase to his survivability. Then came the skills. [Perfect Mana Core is now Level 70!] [Mana Weaving is now Level 90!] [Void Manipulation is now Level 95!] [Void Affinity is now Level 95!] [Illusionary Stealth is now Level 21!] [Master Runecarver is now Level 52!] [Thanks to your grand accomplishment, you gained the subskill, Grand Design!] [Grand Design: Level MAX (MAX%) (Passive) You tend to create grand runic circles. The bigger the circle, the better. The effectiveness of any circle you create on your own is increased linearly by size.] [Illusionary Runes is now Level 97!] [Art of Etheral Body is now Level 21!] It wasn't a large amount, but it was still satisfying to see the numbers go up.

Sam took a moment to review the changes again, eyes moving across the updated values with careful attention, before finally scrolling further down the screen. A faint mix of anticipation and unease settled in his chest as he continued. With equal parts fear and curiosity, he began to read. [Congratulations! You almost single-handedly destroyed a city!] [You gain the City Destroyer title!] [City Destroyer: Destroying a city is not a small task. However, thanks to your skill, from now on it is going to be much easier. Gain +10% damage against inanimate objects.] [Congratulations! You almost single-handedly killed an army!] [You gain the Army Killer title!] [Army Killer: Destroying an army is not a small task. From now on, it is going to be much easier. Gain 15% increase in the area of skill effects and damage of skills affecting an area.] [Congratulations! You managed to annihilate your enemy's stronghold!] [You gain the Crazy Strategist title!] [Crazy Strategist: You plan and plot. And no matter how crazy those plots are, they most often succeed. Reputation gain with any group not already allied is going to be twice as hard if they are aware of your identity.]"Well… could be worse…" he muttered. He expected some retaliation from the system, so he wasn't that surprised. [Congratulations! You managed to kill thousands of people with only one action!] [You gained the One Hit, One Kill title!] [One Hit, One Kill: All you need is one hit. If you manage to kill someone in one hit, your cooldowns are reduced by 5% for every kill.] Reading the text, he couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Now this is what I'm talking about! Hell yeah!" That single title alone felt worth the entire operation. Paired with Obliteration, it was going to be something monstrous. Still grinning, Sam let his eyes move further down the notification screen, attention narrowing as he reached the final entry. [Congratulations! For thinking of this harebrained scheme and then successfully fulfilling it while also pulling the wool over an entire city, you gain the Aspiring God of Tricks and Lies title!] [Aspiring God of Tricks and Lies: You touched on the domain of one of the chaotic gods. There is a chance they are impressed. Or think of you as an usurper. Who knows? You don't.] Sam stared at the title for a long moment. A chill slowly crept down his spine as he reread the description again and again.

"Well… that's not good…" he muttered quietly. Getting the attention of the gods was seldom a positive thing. Getting the attention of a god associated with tricks, deception, and lies was significantly worse. And with the looming conflict against the Blood Army drawing closer by the day, he didn't even want to imagine what kind of chaos those capricious beings might decide to unleash for their own amusement. After a few more seconds, Sam shook himself out of the spiral of thoughts. That was a problem for later.

Right now, he needed to reach a safe harbor – pun fully intended – and then log out so he could coordinate with Lucy. He had a strong feeling the entire world was currently going completely insane, and there was no chance he was leaving Lucy alone to deal with that mess. Besides, he was one hundred percent certain that if he didn't help, Lucy would eventually do unspeakable things to him in retaliation.

"Better face the music…" he muttered as he pushed himself off the rock and looked toward the shoreline.

"Lucky! We're going!" The wolf came sprinting back almost immediately, soaked from head to tail in saltwater and draped with strands of seaweed, proudly carrying an absolutely massive fish in his jaws. Sam paused long enough to praise him properly, promising that the fish would be cooked later, though considerably more time was spent trying to clean the silly wolf afterward. Finally, Sam climbed onto Lucky's back, and the two of them set off once more, continuing their journey down the coast.