As he walked out of the headquarters, Sam couldn't help but feel happy. Once again, he was back to playing the game as usual, not toiling away in a hidden dimension to satisfy some arbitrary quest requirement that he had no idea about.

Slightly humbled, he realized that playing the game with his advantages was providing him a rather different experience than the other players. Thus, his encounter in that void dimension came as an unwelcome cold shower.

'Was that what everyone feels when they play the game?' he wondered inwardly, while heading for the rendezvous point.

As he walked, he quickly opened the quest section of his menu.

Currently, he had three active quests. The one with the demons was tempting, but he didn't really want to leave the plane again for the Dark Lands, thus, the mysterious foreigner would just have to wait for a little longer.

Plus, he was pretty sure that if he left the Emerald Kingdom right now, the moment their enemies noticed his absence, they would descend on them like locusts, no matter what preparations they made.

Peaceful Land, peaceful life was another that would solve itself rather soon, as Lara was just putting the finishing touches on the city they had built. The many, many people they employed in their guild, specifically those who chose to deal with the plant life of Magic Unbound's world, in lieu of slinging fireballs everywhere, had made sure that the city was teaming with plant life. Sam even made sure to replicate the victory gardens he had watched a video about in his previous life. Per a city order, every building must have a small garden, filled with at least some plants or herbs that are viable for consumption.

They had rather strategic reserves under the city, plus the hydroponics would ensure that no matter what kind of siege their enemy planned, they would always be supplied with life necessities, but even then, one never knew what could happen. If this were real life (and he were acting against Farabor), Sam would just grab an earth mage and dig through a few miles of rubble and go sabotaging. However, thanks to the game system, it was much more complicated than that. Thankfully…

As for the quest from Nowhere, well, that would soon be finished if he had anything to do about it.

Once again, he would be using his future knowledge, which would no doubt bring down another batch of interest from the developers. Luckily, he had already prepared for it a long time ago.

Back when the Crysalis guild was doing its best to evaluate the Emerald Kingdom for potential training locations, that is, replayable fractures, Sam had tasked them with creating a registry of all available and known fractures in the country.

Which Adam took really seriously.

There was an entire branch of the guild that had the job to create, update, and maintain this registry, which in turn was usable by the entire guild. According to Tim, most of the big guilds had started their own in five minutes after the first known spy saw the public registry available with every access level in the guild.

Unfortunately for other guilds, that was exactly what Sam wanted.

It was much easier to steal one document than multiple ones…

As a consequence, their private registry, used by those whom Lucy and Sam trusted, was much better equipped than the public one. Especially after Sam created a few filters for it.

Thus, he had up-to-date information on several fractures that were perfect for his quest, and nobody could question him about how he acquired the information. After all, it was not his fault that his people were extra zealous about noting down all sorts of information…

Grinning slightly, he started walking faster, eager to get to the good part of the game…

Arriving at the meeting point, he was happy to see his usual team sitting around and talking among themselves. Well, more like Dan, Clarissa, and Isabella were sitting on some benches, while Katie was in front of them and was gesticulating dramatically, no doubt telling them about something she saw in the void dimension, if Sam went by the horrified faces.

He didn't even need to announce his presence, as his feet hit the gravel on this small opening between buildings, Katie's head snapped up and stared in his direction. Then, a second later, she let out an adorable squee and launched herself at Sam while the others used her distraction to shake themselves. Probably to get rid of the vivid images Katie conjured in their minds with her tales…

"Boss! Welcome back!" she exclaimed joyously and hugged Sam to herself with all the strength afforded to her by her character. Thanks to the spikes and whatnot on her armor, it wasn't the most comfortable hug, but still, Sam made sure to return it.

What was a little discomfort in the face of a friend's love?

He patted her on the back. "Hey, Katie! Ready to rumble?"

Thankfully, she let him go and took a small step back, and struck a pose. The rest of the team also stood up during the hug and approached him, offering their greetings at a rather lower volume than Katie.

Stolen novel; please report.

"I'm super ready! Can't wait to show you what I learned!" she declared proudly. Sam just let out a sigh, hearing that. While he was resting after his ordeal, he had asked Katie about her experience in the void, but the notoriously chatty girl managed to stay silent on the issue.

"Why do I feel like that's a bad thing?" he asked sardonically while turning a little and offering a fist bump to Dan and Clarissa. Isabella received only a nod as she stood a little farther away, watching him with an assessing look.

Katie had the temerity to pout. "Muuu, you are so mean…"

"Look, Katie. Once it's a coincidence. Twice it's an enemy action. Three times it is madness beyond the universe."

"I don't think the saying went like that…" offered Katie.

Sam shrugged. "If it fits, then it fits."

She tilted her head sideways, considering it, before nodding. "I can accept that…"

"Good to hear." He then turned to the rest of the team. "Ready to head out? Supplies topped up? Weapons sharpened? Skills learned?"

Dan let out a proud laugh. "Haha! Can't wait to show you the fruit of my research, boss! I think I achieved something awesome! My old professor was so proud when I showed him! He even had an idea for a paper," the muscled man explained with a grin. "I'm going to help him write it up in my free time!"

Well, that was one aspect that neither the current Sam nor the previous one had anything that they could have added.

"Good luck? Please warn me before you try to experiment with something beyond mortal ken…"

"Hahaha! I'm not Katie!" the big man declared.

Katie just let out a growl and punched him in the shoulder. "What's that supposed to mean?"

As Dan began to explain his words to Katie, Isabella and Clarissa stepped forward a little.

Clarissa began softly as usual. "I've completed my current tasks with the Healer Guild. They were rather thankful for my contribution, so we have some time, but they know something is coming, so we were warned to stay close in case a war breaks out."

Sam nodded thoughtfully. "Are they making you give up your position in Crysalis?"

Clarissa shook her head. "No. They just want to make sure we are ready and there are enough healers for the civilians caught up in the battles," she explained calmly.

Now that was something he wholeheartedly agreed with. That's why Farabor's plans included several public shelters for the civilian population. Granted, it wouldn't do anything against the blood mages whose main modus operandi was blood baths and bigger blood baths, but at least it would show the populace that they, the guild, the company, and the leadership, cared for the small people. Less chance for traitors and spies that way. Always a positive.

"I'll make sure we're not heading into the unknown this time," he told her with a smile.

"Not into the unknown, eh?" Isabella asked with a grin. "Kinda disappointed, boss. You took Katie on a jaunt into the primordial soup, and we have to be happy with some old-fashioned fractures. I smell nepotism…"

Sam just chuckled. "First of all. She followed me, so that's on her. Secondly, I can guarantee that with my luck, even a simple fracture will turn into a circus."

"Fair enough!"

Sam clapped his hands together, gathering all the attention on him. "As we are all ready, time to leave!"

"Hell yes! Dream team together, again!"

"After you, boss!"

"Finally…"

"Can't wait!"

Their target was a fracture near one of the logging towns dotting the kingdom. It was a fracture that could be run as many times as one wished, thus a small compound had developed around it. It was mostly just the representative from the crown, a warehouse to store the taxes, a small barrack for the guards that protected the taxes, and a few local establishments that served the players who made use of the fracture.

Sadly, for the players, it wasn't really a straightforward fracture that could be farmed easily, as it had multiple branching paths and several different solutions to it. Additionally, aside from being far away from a lot of important things, it required a rather high level to run it.

Most people went in with teams of ten, all of them around Level 90 or higher, and there weren't many of those teams around.

Sam felt that a team of five, all above Level 130, would do nicely for it.

They arrived in the town, with the imaginative name of Loggerhead, easily and without any trouble. Not even one random goblin attack! It was a miracle…

Ignoring the town itself, they headed for the small compound surrounding the portal to the fracture. They saw several groups from multiple guilds or players without guilds, but nobody paid any attention to them. Everybody was congregating around tables placed sparsely around the area and were either resting or looking at maps and notes as the teams tried to figure out the most optimal way to complete the fracture.

Sam had to hold back a chuckle seeing that.

The fracture they were heading for was a tricky one, so it got its fifteen minutes of fame, which in turn meant that some of the details from it got inherited by Sam.

Most people thought it had more than six branching paths, and most of the teams currently present were looking for the elusive seventh, considering its magical number potential. If he remembered correctly, starting from when it was located, which was around a month ago – according to their internal fracture registry – it took, in the other timeline, three months to solve the issue.

With all the changes present, he wanted to get it done before anyone with the correct skill set would wander this way and take what he wanted.

"Let's register…" he told the team, indicating toward the small shack set up before the portal, housing a bored government worker.

A few minutes later, they stood before the portal, did their last equipment checks, and after getting an all clear, Sam reached forward and touched the swirling energy.

Old hand at the feeling, he didn't even flinch when he was deposited into the fracture amid a flash of rainbow light.

He looked around and smiled in appreciation as he took in the small clearing they arrived in. All around them were trees reaching to the sky, so tall they couldn't even see the top as some kind of mist obscured it. The underbrush was also well developed, but he could spot the three places where the beginning of some kind of forest path could be seen.

However, before they could start the delve, he looked over the screen hovering before him and the rest of the team.

[You entered a new fracture!]

[Fracture: Pathless Forest]

[A forest grown to be harvested, left to its own for too long, and now it had grown to be a true wildwood that resists all attempts of human touch. It didn't take long for the druids to figure out something was preventing said attempts. Step onto the path and figure out what or who it is!]

[Time Limit: No limit]

[Charges: Unlimited]

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