Chương 386: Chapter 369

Despite the ever-present effects of his actions in both the real world and the game world of Magic Unbound, Sam still had things to do. Their company and guild were growing bigger and bigger, especially with the large influx of people post-Roserun. Most of them were only joining because of the hype, but there was a small percentage looking to find the secrets behind that power.

And despite Lucy and Adam, and to a lesser extent Tim and Lara, shouldering most of the staffing issues and everything related to them, Sam, as the nominal leader, still had to give his input at certain points. Especially when it came to spending money. While they weren't 'rich' rich, they were much more comfortable than any other guild in the area, and probably the world.

Technically, there were giant guilds currently playing the game supported by equally giant conglomerates that subscribed to the idea that quantity had a quality of its own, with membership numbers sometimes exceeding a hundred thousand. AFK didn't have that kind of pull, power, or resources, but they were still one of the richest guilds in their area. This necessitated some careful banking within the game, as the Emerald Kingdom's leadership didn't like it when a lot of gold accumulated in a single account.

Fears of inflation and that sort of thing. Plus, the power it afforded the guild would be a danger to the crown. So, Sam, knowing what happened to a guild that got too rich from his memories, always made sure that their liquid gold assets stayed under an arbitrary number that sat slightly below the official threshold he knew. It hadn't happened to any guild yet, or rather nobody admitted it had happened to them, but he wanted to delay it as long as possible.

Lucy was under orders to keep money moving, either into projects or into the RMT services. Any surplus gold income that wasn't used for R&D or the usual expenses would be sold to others. Who more than likely went and spent it in an AFK establishment. A pretty nice circle. However, even after taxes, they had started accumulating a decent amount of money in the real world too.

They paid out salaries for all the players contracted with the guild, paid dividends to the founding members like him and Lucy, and paid bonuses to the core teams and anyone who had accomplished something impressive. For example, coming up with a mass-marketable potion would net any alchemist a sizable cash bonus. But even after all that, their cash reserves kept growing. Currently, they had paid for the security service protecting Lucy, Sam, Clarissa, and Liz.

Katie and Isabella had their own families making sure they were safe, while Dan was under the aegis of the very protective Lara. Tim was handling his own safety. Sam didn't ask any questions. It was safer that way. They also paid a reputable accounting office to handle their taxes and then invested the rest, because letting cash sit idle was a crime in itself. Following Sam's careful advice, they invested long-term in companies that would last at least for the next ten years.

His future knowledge was barely useful anymore, but Sam was confident those companies would handle whatever he did. They made sure to invest outside the gaming market in case it went down or something happened. Nothing should happen to it, but seeing how many changes he had wrought, Sam was making sure to hedge his bets. He already had his own personal investments, including his shares in Future Unknown, which had given him a nice passive income.

Hell, he got emails every week asking if he was willing to sell them, always offering ludicrous prices. But that meant he had to take time out of his week to sit down and go over his paperwork. Sign a few things, thankfully only digitally, then review other things, reject attempts to purchase his shares, and so on. Sam also reviewed the reports Adam and Lucy generated for the others. Lucy usually kept him up to date with everything, but he spent less time talking with Adam.

The man was comfortable in his role as a guild leader, tweaking his system, and nothing outside that really interested him. Currently, he was leaning back in his office chair, a gift from Lara when she saw the 'cheap' chair he had been using, and idly spinning a pen in his hand. They had been talking about an incubation program where they would pick out small gaming groups and workshops and support them. They would be an excellent source of elite players or crafters.

Naturally, the final list of possible participants landed on his screen. Lucy had gone through them and graded them based on her opinion of them, including profitability and the chance of betrayal. Sam trusted her, but he still needed to go through them in case he saw people or workshops he recognized from the future. He let out a large breath.

"Haaaa…" Turning back to the screen, he started scrolling.

"Yep, yep, yep…" he mumbled as he continued scrolling.

"I don't recognize anyone." He was almost finished when he spotted a name. Chariot Workshop Sam clicked on it instantly, checking the roster. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Adrian Veyne, Kieran Solvek, Darian Vale, Lucen Marek, Soren Kael… He sat back and hesitated for a moment before adding a big, red DENIED next to their name.

Honestly, he had never heard of the last two, but the first three were rather famous for some really heinous shit they had pulled, or would pull. That was why he knew their names. It was burned into every gamer's memory. Adrian Veyne, or as he was known in the game, ChariotWarden, was a gamer who styled himself as a paladin: magnanimous, happy to help, and an all-around great guy. He also liked taking pictures and videos of people in 'compromising' positions and then blackmailing them.

The incident that revealed his actual personality happened when somebody, Sam suspected it was the person in the recording, leaked footage of him actually kicking a person who was begging for reprieve while laughing and saying things that would make hardened people flinch. The man, Adrian, went… feral… Sam shuddered, trying to suppress those inherited memories. He made a separate note for Tim to look into the guy.

If he had already started, Sam wanted him and his disgusting friends as far away from his people as possible. Shuddering again, he went over the list one more time just to make sure none of the names sparked any memories, then, with a relieved sigh, he sent it back for Lucy to do her magic. In the meantime, they continued farming the fractures on the Burning Island. The second circle of fractures started with those crystal beings in the crater, and it only got weirder from there.

After enduring multiple waves of crystal creatures trying their best to tear them apart seven times, they moved toward the next fracture while the greenery behind them slowly started to climb upward. There was less of it than before, as the volcano was alive and spewing lava and harsh gases everywhere – not to mention the acidic rain – but nature was still reclaiming what was theirs.

The second fracture portal was found in a small clearing, surrounded by yellow crystals with black bubbles trapped inside them, while extremely strong winds blew around them. It was as if every crystal was the core of its own small, personal storm. They entered and found themselves in the same area. The only difference was the small mounds of finely grated obsidian and other volcanic materials piled high all around them.

The piles of ash and ground particulate were probably twice Dan's height, and he was the tallest among them. Then the first bee emerged. They crawled out of the mounds of ash and obsidian, the vibration of their wings reaching Sam and his party before they launched into the air, creating great gusts of hot air. Sam let out a sigh behind his re-breather.

"Underground, we go…"

"Look at them! So fuzzy! Can we keep them?" Katie called out, pointing at them while jumping up and down with excitement. Sam eyed the bees, their lance-like stingers aimed directly at the team while acid-like liquid dripped from their tips.

"I don't think so…" he said.

"But based on the previous ones, I'm sure we're going to find a few eggs."

"Can you have more than one mount?" Clarissa asked. Melody, in his ronin form, stood behind her, eyeing the menacing bee cloud gathering before them. Sam shrugged.

"Why not?"

"Huh… I thought it was one and done…"

"Not really… It just means you can't spend as much time on their development if you have more than one," Sam explained.

"However, if you use one for movement, I don't see any issue with getting another."

"Alright," Clarissa nodded, a determined look crossing her face.

"Then I want a fuzzy bee mount."

"Got you," Sam replied.

"If there are any eggs, you get the first choice." BZZZ BZZZ BZZZ"For now, how about we survive this?" Dan commented as fire began burning around him and the cloud of bees shot forward, stingers poised and ready to strike. By the end, instead of heading down the cramped tunnels, Sam used his void magic to open a straight path toward the heart of the colony and the queen bee, creating a smooth, direct tunnel with extremely even walls.

For once, the amber crystal with the magical eye was not embedded in the monster; instead, it was located in one of the hexagonal chambers that held the larvae the queen bee had laid, behind a layer of thick bee wax. It stared daggers at Sam and his friends from there. The queen bee was gigantic; every rapid flap of her wings sent scorching winds through the chamber, while her body continuously produced acid that she used to shower Sam and his team. Despite all that, it fell remarkably quickly.

The team collected the loot, including a few eggs, and were left excited and eager to do it again. On the seventh one, the amber crystal shattered, and they moved on to the next fracture, while Clarissa was still contemplating which bee egg to choose. The third fracture consisted of a series of high-walled rock valleys with black-shelled snails hidden among the crags. Every time one of them died, it exploded into a humongous magma burst, sending lava and sediment everywhere.

Surprisingly, this did not trigger the other snails' explosions, but it did bury them under solidified lava. Because the boss of the fracture would not appear until all the smaller creatures were dead, they had to spend a significant amount of time finding and digging out the buried snails. At least the experience gain was nice. With every fracture cleared, Sam noticed the experience bar moving up in small increments. He still had not checked his gains, waiting until they were finished with the Burning Island.

Clarissa did gain a super-powerful slow curse skill book from the fracture, but otherwise, it was all gemstones and defensive skill books. Since none of them were using shields, those would go into the guild vault for other members to exchange for contribution points. The fourth fracture was another crystal creature fractal. However, instead of a crater, it was a small mountain made entirely of the same material, resembling, if one squinted, a small castle.

Inside the crystal creatures resembled humanoid figures reminiscent of medieval knights, moving with the grace of abandoned automata from a theme park exhibit, while still remaining dangerous on their own right. The final fight was against a crystal dragon with a single amber crystal for an eye, the black pupil with a vertical slit glaring at them with enough hatred that Sam suspected it did not particularly like them.

'I wonder why…' he thought with a faint smile on his face. The loot consisted of more crystal skill and spell books, which went directly to Liz to help expand her abilities, while the rest were reagents that went into their bags. The fifth one was the one that broke the mold.

Instead of some kind of mutated animal or crystal creatures, what they found inside the fracture was a small camp, with walls made out of shaped lava, huts erected to avoid the winds flowing around the mountain, and patrols moving around to make sure nobody snuck up on them. Hiding behind a small rock pile, Sam squinted.

"Well, we found the demons…"

"What are they doing?" Isabella asked.

"How should I know?" Sam replied.

"You always seem to know everything," Isabella stated as if it were given. The rest of the party nodded behind her. Sam let out a sigh.

"Well, this time I have no idea what's going on." They clearly did not believe him, but he ignored their disbelief and turned to Katie.

"So… you know what time it is?" Katie perked up.

"Is it the go in and fuck shit up time?" Her voice was hopeful.

"Correct."

"Yessss!" she celebrated, pumping her fist. Then she stood up, clearly exposing herself to those who were patrolling. It did not show, but Sam was sure she was grinning under her rebreather. The demons all stopped and pointed at her, while she raised her greatsword and launched forward. The conclusion was as expected. Standing in the middle of the devastated demon camp, Sam looked around.

"Spread out and look for clues," he said loudly.

"I want to know who, what, why, and how!" Dan saluted, while Clarissa and Isabella simply nodded and began combing through the wreckage. Sam also started searching, while Katie left the camp and began walking in a spiral to see if anything lay outside the perimeter. Fifteen minutes later, they were standing once again in the middle of the devastation, looking at the meager information they had found. It was mostly orders to hold the ground and to watch out for other demon clans that would follow them.

Nothing substantial. It was at that point that Katie's voice broke through the disappointed silence.

"Good news, everyone! Found another camp!" Sam let out a relieved sigh.