Might as Well - Chapter 391 - Interlude 39.3 (Patreon)

A/N: My apologies for the late post. This weather wreaks havoc on my head, giving me constant headaches and migraines. I was about to sit down and do a last read-through for this before posting, when I said f-- it and turned off the computer because my head hurt looking at the screen. Went to sleep, woke up late... so here it is! Once again, I apologize!

Liam was not happy.

He had a pretty good setup back in Roserun.

When he started the game, he quickly realized that his talent didn’t lie in the usual unga-bunga territory. He was decent with warhammers, but instead of being mediocre on the battlefield, he transferred those skills into the forge.

Which was made even easier, as in real life he was a materials engineer. Granted, he had been between jobs due to redundancy during a merger, and instead of looking for work instantly, he decided to take a bit of time off.

The first in a few years.

That was when he came across Magic Unbound, and he immediately fell in love. He first started by trying to become the biggest and best warrior, but during a Fracture run, he found some kind of weird ore, and as they say, you can take the materials engineer to the laboratory, but you can’t take the urge to lick dangerous ores out of them.

Or something like that…

He decided to see what the ore could do, which in turn led him to awkwardly set up his own forge in a rented workshop. That led him on endless searches for more knowledge, tools, equipment, and materials, until he ended up with his own building, with several NPCs making sure he had everything on hand and players standing in line to get his materials for their equipment.

After all, he didn’t make any armor or weapons. He simply created specialized alloys for a variety of purposes.

Just like in real life.

Albeit with magic.

He was so successful that several bigger guilds tried to recruit him, but he never felt it necessary to accept their offers. Granted, he was tempted a few times, but back then he was still of the mind that this was just a game, something temporary, so he didn’t think long-term.

Then Liam finished with his small sabbatical and started looking for work.

Someone with his knowledge, both institutional and scientific, didn’t have to actually look. He just flipped a switch on his account, and he was instantly barraged by headhunters and had his pick of the litter.

After a month of interviews and tedious paperwork, he was once again working for some random company he couldn’t remember the name of, and doing whatever he was told.

However, this time it was much harder.

He had tasted freedom.

He saw what magic was capable of.

Real life didn’t have any of that.

He couldn’t just go into the workshop and throw together whatever he wanted to see what happened.

No.

There were meetings, research workshops, brainstorming sessions, catch-up meetings, and so much paperwork.

He lasted three months before he terminated the contract.

Thankfully, because he was still in his probation period, there wasn’t a big penalty for it, so he could swallow the cost and return to the game with renewed vigor.

So, after starting to actively experiment in the game once again, when the first offer came in for three times as much money as his previous salary, the only stipulation being relocation, he said yes almost instantly.

And that’s how he ended up in Roserun.

He didn’t much care for the city, but since it was filled with criminals, those criminals were also willing to drop serious money on anything that gave them an edge over others. And that’s what he did. He experimented and iterated.

Liam created highly specialized alloys using the most amazing ingredients, elevating his skills to levels he didn’t think anyone else in his specialization had achieved.

Being a niche crafter, with niche skills, even the usual rough crowd of criminals treated him respectfully, so he could even walk around the city without any trouble.

It was, in short, perfect for Liam.

Then fucking Solar came and blew it up.

He stared at the picture on his screen, sitting and leaning forward, his elbows resting on his knees. Liam let out a deep sigh.

Everything was lost.

His forge, small manor, warehouse, secret storage, and workshop. His NPC assistants, and a lot of gold. All of it consumed by an explosion that erased everything in its path.

The scientist in him tried to work out how Solar had done it, but as a business owner, he was incandescent with fury. The people he had contracted with had already sent a message that the contracts were null and void, as they needed the resources to rebuild.

That wasn’t really that bad. He had made enough money; he could theoretically retire right now if he planned to live a bit frugally.

Instead, he was angry at losing his highly specialized and personalized workshop and tools. Just building his smelting forge took weeks. Granted, he had the plans, and he already had ideas for how to improve it; that would still mean he wouldn’t be able to do anything until it was rebuilt.

Slapping his knees, he shook his head.

“Come on, Liam. You’re over thirty…” he muttered. “Time to stop feeling sorry for yourself and start rebuilding.”

Returning to the game, he left the respawn zone and headed for somewhere much more peaceful. Knowing who was behind Roserun’s destruction, he decided to head for the Emerald Kingdom. In his mind, that meant less chance of Solar deciding to nuke his next forge.

Naturally, before making any move, he used the crafter forums to see if anyone had any information about the location he had chosen.

It was a mixed result.

The capital city was almost impossible to settle down in as a crafter. Not because they hated them, but because it was an administrative center and most manufacturing happened somewhere else. Only the highest-quality things could be crafted there, like jewelry or decorations.

Everything else was banished elsewhere so it wouldn’t taint the nobles’ view of the surroundings with dirty, smelly smoke and fumes.

However, those same posts also pointed out that Chrysalis, the preeminent guild of the Emerald Kingdom, owned by Solar, was always looking for competent crafters.

“Hah, as if…” he grunted.

Two weeks later, he was walking into his own workshop, filled with enough resources to rebuild his old forge many times over, and a contract that made the last one look like an intern’s. Apparently, the forums were right. The moment he showed up in Ironwood, Chrysalis accepted him after a few tests, and a week later, when the background checks were done, he had his own workshop.

Grinning, with his hands on his hips, he couldn’t help but feel hopeful.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

Turning around, he looked at the door before letting out a sigh and opening it. “Yes?”

Beyond the door stood a maid, bowing politely. “Good afternoon.”

“Yeah, good afternoon,” he replied a bit awkwardly. He was never the best with people. That’s why he worked with metals. “How can I help you?”

The maid straightened and pulled a box out of her inventory. “I’m here to deliver this box on behalf of Chrysalis and Solar.”

“S-Solar? What does he want with me?” he asked, his eyes going wide.

The maid smiled a little. “This is just recompense for the damages wrought by the destruction of Roserun.”

“Oh,” he grunted. “I suppose now that I work for him, he wants to buy my forgiveness,” he stated, crossing his arms in front of him.

The maid shook her head. “No, sir. Everyone in Roserun who was innocent has been or will be approached with compensation. We just keep it quiet to prevent drifters and scammers from trying to get their own slice.”

“Let me guess… I have to sign something to accept it…” he grumbled.

The maid, however, shook her head. “No need, sir. Just accept the box and nothing else.”

Liam didn’t believe her, but he wanted to do some more research before he did anything else. So he just took the box and slammed the door in her face.

He threw the rather high-quality wooden box on a workshop table before opening it carelessly to see how Solar was trying to buy his silence.

Instantly, he was blinded by the color of gold.

Inside the box, which was deeper than it should have been, were several stacks of gold, piled neatly on top of each other.

Five minutes later, he found ten thousand gold coins and a contract with a bank that said he could take out another ninety thousand if he so wished. However, in the end, it wasn’t the shiny trinkets that caught his attention.

Not that he minded them. He had several nieces and nephews who could use the money.

Instead, it was a small booklet, barely more than fifty pages, seemingly handwritten.

[Magi-Tech Metallurgy Alloy Recipe Collection: A collection of alloys and their creation process for magi-tech equipment.]

“Now… what are you?”

***

As with every game ever, whenever something new is discovered, everybody falls on it like starving people on food, making sure to use it until they extract everything from it.

This happened with the idea of the great destruction wrought by the pandemic created by Solar after his destruction of Roserun. Cities, towns, and villages were wiped off the map. Countries were left missing whole areas from their territories, either lost to some kind of foul disease, or simply left to cease to exist.

Naturally, this burst of excitement also brought out the “haters.”

People didn’t like those who were actively destroying their game and the world of the game. Instantly, most of the people who committed those atrocities were found and ganged up on.

It didn’t matter if they were individuals playing at evil mad scientists or giant guilds doing their best to destroy their enemies. They still stood alone against the flood of players who simply wanted to play the game without worrying about a nuclear catastrophe or the atmosphere catching on fire or turning into mutated bunnies.

No matter how big those guilds or groups were, they were nothing against the giant corporations who had staked a rather large amount of resources on the game, and thus were doing their best to protect their investments.

It was mostly kept inside the game, but a few times people were beat up, families threatened, and so on.

It wasn’t a happy time for many people.

But as with everything else, everything fell into a balance.

The giant wave of destruction stopped, and people calmed down.

Yet, that didn’t stop people from planning to strike back, using the same tactics Solar had used. However, with people aware of the possibilities, plus seeing how easily Solar had infiltrated Roserun, they had increased their security, improved their defenses, and made sure that with every successful bombing, virus plague, mutated animal outbreak, or dance mania, or chocolate-to-broccoli transformation, they learned from them.

It became this eternal race between those who wanted to protect their “piece” of the game and those who wanted to watch the world burn.

Or see them transformed into mutated animals.

***

■

Welcome to the Future Unknown message boards. You are currently logged in, Fan_Theory_Fan You are viewing: • Threads you have replied to • AND Threads that have new replies • OR private message conversations with new replies • Thread OP is displayed. • Ten posts per page • Last ten messages in private message history. • Threads and private messages are ordered chronologically.

■

♦ Topic: Never guess what I saw!!!!In: Boards ► Magic Unbound ► Celebreties ► RumoursFan_Theory_Fan (Original Poster) (Simpiest Simp) (Unverified Fan Theorist) Posted On XXX XX XXXX:Guys! Guess what I have heard?I friend of friend is going to school with Clarissa (that Clarissa!) sister. And they saw her meeting up with Solar! THE SOLAR.They were totally having a date!I even have pictures![LINK] [LINK] [LINK](All pictures are blurry to some extent)

(Showing page 1 of 5)

►Bemehen (Certified Wizard) Replied On XXX XX XXXX:First!Is your uncles’s grilfriend’s dog sitter’s boyfriend’s friend’s grandma this shit with taking pictures?

►Varlak (News Fan) (Simp) Replied On XXX XX XXXX:Oh boy I can almost count those pixels!Do you have something better aside from “I super-duper promise it happened!”?

►Papa Munchy (Professional Paranoid) Replied On XXX XX XXXX:I knew it! I knew it!It was already suspicious that we haven’t seen him date anybody. Nobody with power and wealth like Solar would do that. They all date around or do worse. The fact that he is going for a distinctly younger [DELETED][USER BANNED]

►SinWatcher (Moderator: FanTheories) Replied On XXX XX XXXX:Take a break, please.Saying things like that is not okay.

►Seperal (New User) Replied On XXX XX XXXX:I came just for this. I was there! I saw them meet up in a very romantic place and go away while laughing. She was really close to him!

►Punteral (Veteran Member) (Puntastic) Replied On XXX XX XXXX:I assume you have evidence of this?

►Seperal (New User) Replied On XXX XX XXXX:Of course! I downloaded my recordings

►Bemehen (Certified Wizard) Replied On XXX XX XXXX:Man... It is clear that Solar is dating that Astran girl. There is no other way to explain his success. He is an Astran patsy!

►Tempura_Barbie (Veteran Member) Replied On XXX XX XXXX:Seriously, that has been debunked many times... Astran chick is with the fire fizard from Chrysalis.The current CORRECT rumor is that Solar is with the admin of Chrysalis. Somebody had seen them hold hands. (Very Lewd)EDIT: Leaving ‘fizard’ in because funny.

End of Page.   1, 2, 3, 4, 5

(Showing page 2 of 5)

***

The war didn’t start with a bang.

Well, technically, Roserun was a bang, but to most people, that didn’t mean that war had started. It was just two guilds attacking each other. Happened all the time, both in Magic Unbound and in other games.

Nothing unusual about that.

To most players, both casual and professional, it meant nothing.

However, to them, the war started when the news arrived that several hunting grounds were engulfed in rotting mist. The area was locked down by clerics who tried their best to hold back the miasma spreading even further.

They recoiled when they arrived at the town or village. They always stopped to do a last-minute supply run, only to find ruins and traps waiting for them, with the occasional monster moving into the free real estate.

The players started to get nervous when guild hunter parties would whizz by, occasionally destroying them just because they looked suspicious.

And naturally, they got angry when they realized that the prices of several items, ingredients, and equipment had begun to rise.

They didn’t care about the checks at the border or when entering bigger cities. They didn’t care about accidentally being caught in a bombardment while questing.

However, the moment it was proven that the prices were rising, people started rioting.

Both sides had to do some political and economic maneuvering just to calm them down.

On the Blood Army side, they came up with homemade, guild-created recipes that were much simpler and cheaper to make. People were instantly raving about how simple it was to make them, even without alchemy skills, and how cheap the ingredients were.

Granted, a few of those ingredients could only be bought from the Blood Army, but it didn’t really matter. They had their cheap mana and health potions back, so they were happy.

On the Chrysalis and Emerald Kingdom side, they immediately banned the Blood Army-created potions and set strict rules to prevent watering down potions and other alchemical creations.

Naturally, this did nothing to the prices and even increased them.

Lucy just shrugged, had a meeting with a representative of the crown, and the crown announced the very next day that they would be subsidizing potion manufacturing and development. Potions bought by the public from certain places would enjoy a set amount of subsidies, offsetting the price increase due to war inflation.

They also set up several grants for people and organizations who were experimenting with potions to see what they could achieve.

After all, everyone was clear that the greatest innovations happened not during peace, but during wartime.

People rejoiced and praised the leadership for their quick and forward-thinking decision-making. Consequently, by the next day, the market was flooded with “authentic self-improved” potions to take advantage of the subsidies and to try to get some of that sweet-sweet grant money.

Lucy, and by extension Chrysalis, didn’t really need to do anything about it.

The market was pretty self-regulating.

It only took a few days for the players to realize they needed to watch out for the proper seals and markings, leaving the grifters holding worthless colored water.

There were some complaints, but when no results came, those grifters could only abandon the idea and try something else.

After all, there were all sorts of opportunities in a war.

Because, in the end…

War never changes.