They looked at each other, one of them awkwardly hanging over an expanding cavern filled with roars of flame and falling debris, and the other holding onto something, keeping the first one alive.

Fire crackled as stone fell, creating a rather chaotic ambience as Tim pulled the exhausted Sam up to his perch. After some alarming creaking, the two of them scampered down from there until they were far away, in the shadows of a small pile of rock, sitting on several smaller rocks.

Quite frankly, Sam felt exhausted. His body was regenerating, but mentally, he just wanted to check out and fall asleep in the shower. Predicting the movements and actions of a greater demon NPC, one that was specifically big on secrets, was rather exhausting. Looking down on his body, he saw that most of his non-armor clothing was in tatters and only the modesty settings of the game system were holding it together. His armor, despite its high quality, was also hanging by threads, the wyvern leather falling apart. Hell, as he moved around, he could hear drops of acid and poison dropping from places that he didn't want to think about.

Both of them rapidly inhaled a set of healing potions, general antidotes, and even a bunch of mana potions to increase the speed of regeneration.

Looking over to Tim, he saw that sometime during their 'adventure', he had changed his robe to another one, as it was suspiciously clean and without any holes. However, under it, he was also basically wearing rags, even missing his signature bowtie. His hair was matted and sticking to his forehead, and his breathing was uneven.

"Let's…not fucking…do that again…," Tim gasped as he tried to get his breathing under control.

Sam chuckled. "Totally. We should bring more people next time…"

Tim opened his mouth to say something, but he was interrupted by an enormous crash. Their heads snapped toward the origin of the sound, just in time to watch the previously half-rebuilt castle, now more of a ruin than a building, collapse into itself, with great tongues of green flames emerging from within the wreckage. Miraculously, the illusory shield that hid the entire area was still intact and protecting them from observers.

"Let's hope they have insurance…" Sam said, causing Tim to break out into laughter. Sam soon joined him, and the two of them finally relaxed after a few grueling hours of excitement.

"So, did we get anything interesting?" Sam asked after they finally calmed down, following their merriment.

"They wouldn't be stupid enough to keep their actual plans in-game," Tim replied while he took off his tattered boots and took out a fresh pair from his inventory. "I found some instructions for the NPCs – maps and such – but nothing that would explain what they planned to do with the summoning."

Sam threw the ruined armor into his inventory and pulled out a generic backup to don. Meanwhile, Lucky sat next to them, gnawing on a bone, enjoying his reward for his hard work.

"They were probably waiting for the demon to give them a target. It would have been a quest that affected the entire country. The rewards, at least for them, would have been immense."

"But we stopped them," Tim pointed out.

"We did, indeed."

"That means they lost out on some prime loot," Tim continued.

"They probably didn't like that. Do you think they would get angry about that?" Sam asked idly as he used cleaning magic to get gunk out of his hair.

Tim just snorted.

"Apocalyptically… I'm pretty sure they're already planning your death."

"So, nothing really changed…"

They fell silent for a moment before Sam spoke up. "Did you find anything during your journey?" he asked, putting extra emphasis on the word journey.

Tim waved his hand around. "So-so… I emptied several storage areas, but this was not their main base, so we mostly got some extra potions and other consumables," he explained before grinning. "But! I found this!" Then he took out a black cloth from his inventory, letting it unfurl into a robe-like clothing.

"What's that?"

"Look at it yourself!" Tim said, before handing it over.

Sam took the deceptively thin-looking cloth, spent a second feeling the material that seemed rather durable to him, before reading the description of the item.

[Shadow Armament: An armor made out of shadows by an otherworldly craftsman who left no trace of their identity. It melds to the body and perfectly fits the contours, allowing for a perfect fit. As it was woven from shadows, channeling shadow-attributed mana into it allows it to repair itself. Increases the defensive power of shadow-attributed spells and skills. Increases the effectiveness of all stealth skills.]

He spent a moment reading it over before grinning and handing it back to Tim, who, surprisingly, refused it.

"Keep it. I found more of them," he replied with a grin matching the one on Sam's face as he unfurled another one.

They high-fived and both of them began to don the armor. As Sam put the new armor on, he watched as it spasmed for a second and began to shrink to adapt to his body perfectly. He moved around a little, enjoying the sensation, before channeling a little shadow-attributed mana into it, watching as the dark color darkened even further. It fit rather snugly, but it didn't hamper him. He jumped up and down a little, then nodded in satisfaction.

"Thanks!"

"No problem," Tim replied as he also put on the new armor. "Not the best, but it beats anything basic…"

Sam nodded. "Anything else?"

Sadly, Tim shook his head. "Nothing interesting for us. The guild treasury will like it, but everything we use is much better. As I said, this was just the place they decided to do the rituals. They may have eschewed their assassin roots, but the basic op sec is still the same."

"Any guess where it is?"

Tim just shrugged. "Beats me. Op sec demands a complete purge of locations when somebody leaves."

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"Bummer…"

Tim just let out a commiserating sigh. "Yeah, it's really annoying when the enemy is somewhat competent…"

In the end, they spent a few more minutes resting, then they did a little reconnaissance around the collapsed castle.

As they stood on a pile of crushed rocks and looked over the scene, Tim spoke up.

"Do we do anything about the illusion?"

Sam said nothing. Instead, he closed his eyes and dove deep into the mana present in the area. The top layer was covered by slowly dissipating demonic mana, but under it, he could feel the gentle but solid mana of the mountain interwoven with a sort of flowery mana.

He shook his head. "Nah, leave it. I doubt they will come back here again…"

"Indeed," spoke a cultured voice behind them, causing both of them to whirl around, weapons ready to strike.

There stood a man, dressed in impeccable clothing, with a familiar badge on the breast of his jacket.

Sam was the first one to react, retrieving his own badge and confirming the man's identity. Relaxing, when everything was on the up and up, he re-sheathed his sword and bowed a little.

"Sir. Welcome," he greeted the man. "How can we be of service?" Tim followed his lead, hid his dagger, and bowed as well.

The man looked over them before nodding. "Report!"

Sam glanced at Tim, who returned it before shrugging. Thus, Sam turned back to the man and began to talk.

They left the area, with people swarming over it, summoned by the unnamed man after Sam told him what happened with the Shadowed One.

When finished, he heard the tinkling sound of notifications going off, but resisted the urge to open the screen and watch the numbers go up.

Instead, they showed the man around, pointing out interesting places, before they were – rather rudely – told that they did excellent work, but it was time for Nowhere to take over the scene.

In short order, the two of them found themselves outside the barrier, the image of the castle ruin vanishing into nothingness as the hole in the barrier he had opened, closed down. The last thing they saw was the unnamed man walking away, barking orders they couldn't understand.

Tim opened his mouth, then closed it.

Sam just smirked. "Fun, huh?"

"Sam, I made it my job to become the most informed person in the Emerald Kingdom. I know which guild leader is cheating on their girlfriend and with whom. I fucking know the measurements of the top voted beauties. I still have no idea where you find these kinds of people…" Tim said in a rushed manner, as if afraid he wouldn't be able to finish saying it. "How the fuck do you do it?"

Sam looked back with a small smile. "Measurements, huh? Does Liz know about that?"

Tim just looked confused. "Liz? Why?"

Half an hour later, they returned to the forest and found a small clearing to set up a small camp to rest and to be able to log out. They could have forced a march to the city, but both of them were exhausted.

"See you later, boss," Tim said his goodbye and vanished into his tent as he logged off. Sam would follow him soon, but it had been a long time since he checked his skills, so he wanted to go over it before crashing.

Summoning Lucky, he laid down next to the giant wolf, enjoying the soft fur and the warmth radiating from him before opening the notifications screen. It basically exploded into his face as if being angry that he had neglected it for so long. But then the system began to aggregate them, update and filter out the unimportant ones, leaving him with a very abbreviated list.

Sam smiled at how the system had learned his preferences before nestling deeper into Lucky's fur and began to read.

[Congratulations! You've leveled up!]

[You're now Level 107!]

[Gained 6 unassigned attribute points!]

[You survived a battle against a greater demon +1 END and +2 VIT!]

Following his development plan, he put one point into Strength, three in Dexterity, one more into Endurance, and the last one into Perception.

'I wonder if I could get away with one of the stat exploits…' he mused to himself as he did a little math. 'Probably not…'

[Perfect Mana Core is now Level 25!]

[Mana Scales is now Level 151!]

[You survived many devastating attacks by the skin of your teeth! You gain the subskill, Last Drop!]

[Last Drop: Level MAX (MAX%) (Passive) Your knowledge and experience with your Mana Scale allows you to maximize the effectiveness of the skill. The last 1% of your Mana Scale is twice as powerful.]

[Mana Weaving is now Level 24!]

[Void Manipulation is now Level 23!]

[Void Affinity is now Level 31!]

[Void Soul is now Level 38!]

A nice increase in his new Void-attuned spells and skills, but he still felt he was missing something big. He had the utility and support, but no massive damage. He wanted that massive damage…

[Unknown Sight is now Level 8!]

[Mana Body Infusion is now Level 27!]

[Mana Architecture is now Level 49!]

[Solid Foundation is now Level 5!]

[Battle Meditation is now Level 99!]

[Steady Mind is now Level 5!]

[Illusionary Stealth is now Level 11!]

[Field Healer is now Level 12!]

[The Way of the Forerunner is now Level 74!]

[Adaptive Coordination is now Level 78!]

[Master Runecarver is now Level 27!]

[You understand the basics of runes very well, and you are capable of utilizing them. You gain the subskill, Runic Foundation!]

[Runic Foundation: Your understanding of the basics of the art granted you a solid foundation. Increases the stability of your runic creations as well as their resistance against attacks.]

Another good spread that made him stronger. Sadly, once again, the system didn't want to shower him with country-destroying area of effect attacks. Still, Sam smiled and continued to read while running his fingers through Lucky's silky-soft fur.

[Physical and Magical Resistance is now Level 17!]

[Corruption Resistance is now Level 57!]

[Dimensional Mana Resistance is now Level 39!]

[Fear Resistance is now Level 28!]

[Disease Immunity is now Level 89!]

Nodding with satisfaction, he stood up, stretched, letting out a giant groan, and headed toward the tent. He had a date with a shower.

Stepping out of the shower, with a towel around his waist and neck, hair dripping with water, he emerged from his bathroom as a changed man. Picking up the cup of sparkling water, he took a deep gulp then let out a satisfied gasp.

He stood there, looking out of his window, watching the hectic life of the future pass by until he heard his phone ring. Letting out a sigh, he spoke up.

"Accept, voice only."

There was a small beep, and then he could hear Lucy's voice.

"Hey! You alive?" she asked, her voice upbeat.

"Sure thing," he answered, walking over to the sofa and plopping down on it carelessly. "The shower helped a lot. What's up?"

"Tim sent me a report."

"Really?"

"Mhm. Crazy stuff…"

Sam took another sip. "And? You wouldn't have called just for that…"

"True," came the cheerful answer from his friend. "I called you because the entire guild that you two destroyed has gone to the forums."

"Oh no…" he answered flatly, smirking a little.

"People are calling them scrubs, but there are many more who are calling you a cheater again. Also, your bounty doubled," came the happy report, then a pause. "Correction. Multiply the last number you remember by two and a half. Wow, people really hate you…"

"Huh…"

There was a momentary silence before Lucy continued.

"Also, we got dozens of requests for interviews with several gaming magazines. Usual reply?"

"Yeah, give them a canned response."

"Sure, sure… What about the bounty?"

Sam leaned back on his sofa and thought about it. Then he had an idea.

"Hey, you got the names of the biggest dark guilds?"

"Sure, I have the list somewhere…"

"Put a bounty on each of their heads."

"How much?"

"Maximum chaos."

Another pause, then Lucy let out a small laugh. "You're evil…"

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