Might as Well

Sam returned to Fitzgerald’s house in high spirits and carrying a box full of his ‘rewards’. A scroll proclaiming his mastery, several offers for work, a few brochures about continuing his studies in educational institutions – for a princely sum – and a simple silver-colored ring made from material perfect for enchanting with instructions to enchant it as soon as possible. The ring would be proof of his Mastery and if he didn’t enchant it, people would think he bought or stole the ring to enhance his image.

The box also contained his Master project with the comments, corrections, and annotations of the examiners. They told Sam to make sure to go over the notes before he used the runic sequence on anything more important than a garden shed.

Good to know they took what he created seriously, but also a little humbling to see many corrections on it.

Instead of knocking, he just opened the door, closing it behind himself fast, knowing that Sir Mipsy Floppington would take the opportunity to escape through it, which couldn’t be allowed…

He found his mentor in the workshop fiddling with a machine that was supposed to be the spiritual successor of the one that sent them hurtling through the dimensions while Sir Mipsy was sitting on the desk, wearing a tiny top hat and holding one of the tools in their mouth, ready to assist Fitzgerald.

Sam narrowed his eyes and cast his mana sense at the bunny. Suddenly being helpful? That was mighty suspicious after the effort the bunny made to make their lives a living hell.

Fitzgerald, however, interrupted his musings on how to catch the bunny’s next trick and expose it, with a giant smile.

“Welcome back, young man! Were you successful?”

Instead of answering, Sam just held up the decorated wooden box with a proud smile of his own.

The other man jumped up and did a little jig before striding forward and shaking Sam’s hand vigorously.

“Congratulations! I knew you wouldn’t fail!”

“Really?”

“Not at all. But usually, it takes prospective students two or three tries to clear the committee!” came the prompt response from the man as he kept shaking Sam’s hand, whose smile froze upon hearing how much his mentor believed in him.

“But you read my project!”

“Well, I wasn’t grading, was I?”

To that, Sam grudgingly had to agree.

Before he could further comment, Fitzgerald finally let go of his hand and took a step back while reaching for a set of documents hidden behind the device he and Sir Mipsy were constructing. The diabolical bunny – there will come a time when Sam would be able to prove it – was just staring at them, slowly and methodically chewing on a fresh lettuce leaf that was nowhere to be seen a few moments ago. The top hat still sat on the bunny’s head, very dapper-like.

“Interested parties… have made sure that I can only discuss this with other masters,” began Fitzgerald. “Thus, now that you achieved your Mastery, I can finally talk about it!”

Hoping that this was it, Sam tried to keep his excitement in check and cooly answered. “About what, sir?”

“You’re a rather worldly person, aren’t you?” Fitzgerald asked instead.

Sam looked into the man’s eye and sighed, inwardly cursing the game. ‘Right…fetch quests. Can’t forget about them…’

“What did you need me to get for you?” he asked in a deadpan tone.

Fitzgerald looked back at him, confused. “I don’t really need anything picked up… the interested parties had ensured I’m not hurting for any material or tool. Rather, I would like it if you could find me something.”

“Find something?”

“Yes,” the man nodded. “More specifically, a plot of land.”

Sam nodded and gave the system notification a quick read.

[New quest acquired!]

[Location, location, location!]

[Your mentor, Fitzgerald, wants you to find a plot of land. Listen to his request and fulfill it.]

[Time Limit: None]

[Penalty: ???]

[Reward: Continued working relationship with the man]

Closing the screen, he returned his focus to the other man. “What kind of plot are you wanting?”

Fitzgerald raised his hand and began awkwardly to scratch the back of his neck. “Well, you see, this workshop is big enough to house my prototype, but not big enough to fit any of the larger devices I had planned.”

“And you need a plot of land to build a bigger workshop?”

“Exactly!”

“Also needs to be easy to defend, reach, and supply, correct?” Sam asked with a small smile.

Fitzgerald just nodded vigorously. “I knew I chose well! You’re indeed perceptive enough to be my student!”

Sam just smiled and allowed the man to celebrate a little. Then he interrupted the impromptu dance.

“Then my job is done, sir.”

“What?” asked Fitzgerald, flabbergasted. “What do you mean?”

“Check this out!” Sam exclaimed and took out the latest map Lara sent to Lucy, which was then forwarded to him. Dan’s girlfriend had managed to clear a respectable area in the center of the ruins with the help of the guild and the people the Silvercrest family sent over, and they were probably ready for a few new buildings.

He made a small space on the desk, pushing Sir Mipsy to the side to the disapproval of the bunny, but Sam had no time for the feelings of diabolical rabbits. He spread the map out and began pointing.

“You can choose from any of these. Recently cleared, the foundation is good, protected twenty-four-seven by a guild of mercenaries and the Silvercrest family. The travel distance between Ironwood and it, is around an hour without any magical assistance. And with enough space to expand. What do you say, sir?”

Fitzgerald stared at Sam for a long minute, then at the map, taking in all the information. Finally, he pointed at one of the bigger plots on the map. “This one will do!”

Sam marked it on the map and nodded. “Excellent. I’ll notify the relevant people.”

Instantly, a system notification sound filled his ears.

[You completed the quest: Location, location, location!]

[You have a killer merchant instinct.]

[Reward: Continued working relationship with the man]

Sam grinned as he dismissed the screen and looked at his mentor.

“Anything else I can help you with, sir?”

The other man just gaped at him for a moment before shakily nodding.

“Yes. Now that you’re finally a master, I can start teaching you about my device and maybe we can use your paranoia to improve the design…”

Sam glared a little, and the bunny let out a chitter sound that felt like laughter to Sam.

“Here you go, young man!” Fitzgerald exclaimed as he slapped down a stack of papers on the desk in front of Sam.

“What is it?” Sam asked, eyeing the stack with a small amount of trepidation.

“Your paperwork for joining the Guild of Runemasters, of course!” came the unexpected answer from his mentor.

“Why would I need to join?”

“Well… first of all they don’t really like if masters are unaffiliated,” Fitzgerald began to explain. “They may get ideas, you know…”

“Would they cause trouble for me?” Sam asked with a frown on his face. Joining a guild would limit him somewhat, as all guilds had natural enemies among other guilds, not to mention the enemies they made over their long existence.

“Of course not! They would never do that…” came the sarcastic answer from Fitzgerald, who was grinning. “They’re the epitome of grace and dignity…”

Sam let out a long-suffering sigh and pulled the stack of documents over to himself. As he began to fill it out he idly asked another question.

“Do they have some kind of membership fee?”

“Yes, they have. You can see it on the last page…”

Curiously, Sam pulled out the last page from the stack and took a look at the number, only to immediately curse.

“Why the hell is it so high?”

“You are a runemaster, thus your income should be high. Naturally, this reflects on your membership fee,” Fitzgerald explained cheerfully. “The money you pay is used to support beginner rune carvers, if it helps…”

Sam just grumbled as he continued to fill out the forms.

Naturally, after that, they went over the plans that Fitzgerald was working on. They were so far simply plans for a building that would be perfect for experiments with portals – Sam made sure there were no ‘experiments’ with lemons – they sat down and Fitzgerald began to explain his device and how it worked.

Sadly, as fascinating as it was, Sam knew from the moment they started he wouldn’t be able to make use of it. His first thought was to see how the portal device worked and then transfer that knowledge into opening portals for his team and guild. But both Fitzgerald, his own knowledge and education told him that the device would be mandatory as the anchoring effect couldn’t be replicated without it.

And without the anchoring effect, no portal would work properly. Or at least they would work, but instead of a straight line, they would meander through the space between dimensions or simply cut through existing dimensions or even fractures, causing chaos and destruction.

Still, just in case, he recorded the basic portal rune circle in his Grimoire for any emergency situation.

Nobody would like what would happen, but at least he would be able to escape…

Hopefully…

Then, for a while, he played the role of assistant – and he was much better than Sir Mipsy – for the other man as he built his newest prototype. It was a monstrous device, but now that he went through some official education about runes, he could see why certain things were affixed in specific spots and the hows and whys of the rest of the parts.

It was still very chaotic, emblematic of Fitzgerald, but he knew it would work as intended.

A few days later, they left behind the capital and moved to Ironwood.

They stopped to introduce themselves at the local branch of the Guild of Runemasters, where the local head of the guild almost fell over when he heard Fitzgerald’s name. The fact that Sam was also a master, now with a shiny, enchanted ring and neat guild pin that marked him part of the same guild, didn’t even raise an eyebrow.

The ring itself was a neat project. It took some time to figure out what to enchant it with as while it was very receptive to enchantments, it only had one ‘slot’ for said enchantments. But in the end, with a little help from his mentor, he settled on one.

[Ring of Mastery (Enchanted): A ring symbolizing that you attained Master level in Runes. Made from a special alloy that is very receptive to enchantments. The enchantment on it allows the wearer to store mana inside it and retrieve it at a later time. Capable of storing 1000 units of mana. Current Mana: 1000/1000.]

A very nice emergency backup option. According to Fitzgerald, if he grew out of the ring such that his mana grew large enough that one thousand would be practically useless, there were ways to request better materials. Or he could craft his own ring based on the plans provided by the guild. After all, he wasn’t the first one to have a great amount of mana…

They didn’t linger much in Ironwood, as they immediately moved toward the ruins that Lara was working on. Fitzgerald was very enthusiastic about seeing the future location of his workshop. He was even thankful enough to offer to pay for it.

Sam had to refuse it several times, explaining to the man that his very presence and the results of his experiments would be enough as a payment. After all, Sam totally planned to convince the powers-that-be to place a portal in their yet-unnamed city after they were finished. Maybe even the first one…

The ruins were steadily disappearing, thanks to the tireless work of Lara, the guild members, and the workers the Silvercrest family sent over.

Travelling there was nothing special. As always, there were a few roving groups of monsters that coincidentally decided to snack on Sam and his mentor, but Lucky was luckily there to teach them the error in their ways.

It was around sundown when they reached the outer boundary of the construction.

They looked over the ruins, shadowed by the giant cliffs from one side and surrounded by forests that were in the process of being cleared out.

“Shall we see the location you’ve chosen, sir?” Sam asked as they basked in the view.

Fitzgerald just grinned. “Indeed, my young friend. Let’s go!”

Sam nodded and headed for a nearby group of guards that had already spotted them – not that they were attempting to be stealthy – and were walking toward the duo.