Chapter 25 – Multitasking

As Gwen led Sam out of the room, he followed her to meet up with the rest of his contingent back at their hotel.

While walking, Sam wondered if there were other missions in town. He thought surely his mission wasn't only to come to this town just to join the Academy.

As Sam himself had just recovered, he wanted to take the opportunity to enjoy himself and actually be in Willow as from the moment he got here in this world, he has been in battle or under threat nearly the whole time.

Since many of his abilities were glitched and gave him quite alot of advantages and cheats if he used them properly, he decided to use his time as efficiently as possible.

As they turned a corner, Tauriel, Selene and Alice appeared out of the Nexus with instructions to walk around town and have a look around. They split up with Tauriel entering the nearby mercenary guild to look for missions, while Alice entered the town tavern to listen for news. Selene on the other hand went to the marketplace to look around.

While still walking, Sam queried Gwen about Aristonia, about the surrounding countries like Serendale, where Princess Jemima was from, and Lathadar where she traveled from when she met him.

While they talked, several missions started appearing in his head.

From the mercenary guild, Tauriel read several missions:

[Animal Attacks in nearby farm]

[Baron's Daughter Missing]

[Escaped Criminal]

In the marketplace, Selene heard a few rumors:

[Multiple People Murdered in Poor District]

[Cursed Mansion]

[Forbidden Ancient Tomb]

In the tavern, Alice heard rumors as well, but some of them were repeats:

[Forbidden Ancient Tomb]

[Escaped Criminal]

[Attack on Stronghold]

Sam was arriving at the hotel with Gwen, so he mentally gave a few commands assigning missions and his familiars broke into teams.

As he already had Alice, Selene and Tauriel wondering around the town, in the Nexus, there were screens showing their position from their viewpoint.

The other familiars could appear any time within the eyesight range of either Sam or any of the other familiars who were outside the Nexus.

The two slayers Mindy and Faith took on the animal farm attack mission, while Phoebe took on the mission to find the Baron's daughter. Natasha and Alice took on the mission to track the escaped criminal, Selene would investigate the murdered people in the poor district while Sabrina would take the cursed mansion mission. Lastly Tauriel will head to the ancient tomb to look around.

Alex and Hermione were waiting as standby in the Nexus to back up anyone that needed help in a mission, and in case Sam needed help too.

He left the Stronghold mission as the group of students and instructors he was joining to the Academy of Aristal will be going to Stronghold anyhow.

He suddenly recalled that Jemima was heading towards Stronghold too. Maybe she had some news.

Through his mind link, he tried to contact Jemima to find out if she's heard any news.

When he contacted her, she was of course happy to hear his voice in her heard. Apparently they have yet to reach Stronghold as there were constantly under attack by orcs, but although they took some casualties, they were arriving in a couple of hours.

She was uninjured and safe, much to Sam's relief. But her guard detail wasn't doing great and had only a small contingent left.

He wondered to himself, could he send a familiar over to Jemima since she was his belonging? He didn't know what that made Jemima and Gwen. Were they his familiars too?

In his mind, he sent Alex over to Jemima and to his surprise, it succeeded and Alex materialized in the carriage with Jemima.

Just then, he heard Gwen's voice.

"Samsara? Samsara, are you alright?" she asked.

Sam looked around and found that he was in the hotel lobby with Merlin looking at him with a smile.

"Yes, yes I am fine. I was just thinking about something" Sam replied.

"It's good that you've recovered. It's the last day of recruitment before we leave, so I will be at the recruitment tent with instructor Gwen. These are a few of our best recruits. Just introduce yourselves. I am sorry the hotel is out of rooms, but you can room with Heracles over here" Merlin said.

"He can use my room. I don't need it tonight anyway" Gwen said as she handed him her key. Merlin raised his eyebrow but shrugged and walked off with Gwen and the other instructors following him.

"Hi! I am Aria and this is my sister Arisa. We are from the Four Elements Sect" one of the two pretty sisters said. Her sister Arisa simply smiled shyly and only said "Hi"

While it was obvious both were sisters, they had different physiques. Aria was tall and fit looking, with small but pert breasts but strong yet agile looking body, like a ballerina. Arisa on the other hand had rather large breasts and was slightly shorter. While Aria's body was like a ballerina, Arisa's was more like a cheerleader.

"My name is Heracles Hellstorm, and I am the heir of the Hellstorm Sect!" Heracles said, in an arrogant manner.

"Oh... my name is Sam..sara. Samsara" Sam answered.

As he scanned them, he could see their levels were higher than him. Aria and Arisa were level 37 and 30 respectively while Heracles was at level 32.

Heracles suddenly put his arm around Sam's shoulders and brought him to the side.

"I would advise you to not have any ideas about the sisters. They are mine, do you understand me?" he whispered in Sam's ears.

Suddenly Sam felt heat on Heracles hands that was on his shoulder, so hot that it felt that fire was burning his flesh.

He immediately entered the Nexus, much to Heracle's surprise and then cast [Heal] on himself, instantly healing his burnt flesh.

He exited the Nexus several feet away, behind Heracle's back and looked at him with a frown.

Heracles stared back and walked away, stunned on the inside that this mere level 10 punk could so easily escape his sly attack.

"Are you alright? Why is there a hole in your robe?" Arisa suddenly asked as she approached him.

"It's nothing" Sam said, looking at his torn robe.

Reparo

Hermione cast in the Nexus and Sam's robe instantly mended itself.

"Hey, you do magic!" Arisa said excitedly.

"Uh... only a little. I know some tricks" Sam said as he tried to deflect.

"Come! Show us what you can do" she said, grabbing him by his arm and dragging him along with her sister.

The way she held his arm, his elbow was between her large breasts, making Sam feel a bit uncomfortable.

He was only wearing a robe with nothing underneath. The last thing he wanted was to sport an erection which would make the whole thing awkward.

They sat in a corner and got to talk and get to know each other better.

Aria and Arisa were the 17 and 15 year old daughters of the Patriach of the Four Elements Sect. The sect was well known in Aristonia for being one of the most powerful, with each member having the power to control an element.

Aria and Arisa however, were prodigies and were able to control 2 elements each. Aria could control fire and earth, while Arisa could control water and air.

Aria dressed in black long pants and a red blouse while Arisa dressed in a light white colored blouse and skirt. It seemed to reflect their powers and personality as well.

Right as they were talking, Sam's body suddenly lit up signifying that he had leveled up to level 11. This was because Phoebe had just solved the quest of the missing Baron's daughter using her premonition powers.

Apparently the Baron's daughter had eloped with one of her suitors, a young trader who has left with his trading caravan. Phoebe decided not to report it to the Baron as she was a supporter of true love and knew from her premonition abilities that the Baron would have chased them down and punished the trader.

Even though Phoebe didn't report it to the Baron, she did inform the Baron's wife, who she knew was more understanding. Hence Sam received the points anyway.

Aria and Arisa looked at Sam with shock at his sudden advancement from simply sitting and talking to them.

Right at that moment, his body glowed again increasing his level to level 12. This time, Mindy and Faith had solved the animal attacks on the nearby farm. There was a wolf pack in the forest nearby, so they quickly took care of them.

Sam was embarrassed as Aria and Arisa stared at him oddly. Before he could say anything, he glowed yet again.

This time, Sabrina had just performed an exorcism in the haunted house, something she found easy to do, pushing him up to level 13.

"Uh... these are all the missions my familiar's are accomplishing. So I am getting the rewards from it" he said awkwardly.

"You mean, you can level up just by sitting around when your familiars are doing your missions?" Aria asked.

"Yes..." just as he answered, his body glowed yet again.

This time Natasha and Alice had recaptured the escaped criminal

"What missions are they undertaking?" Arisa asked.

"The ones left.... are.... investigating the murders in the poor district, and investigating the Ancient Tomb" he said, communicating with the familiars who had entered the Nexus after accomplishing their missions.

"Oh, so you already know about the Ancient Tomb. We were thinking of going to have a look, and maybe inviting you" she said.

"You want to come with us?" Arisa asked, hopefully.

Just then, Selene reported through the mind link

"I found out what is causing the deaths and disappearances of the people in the poor district. I just fought a demonic creature. It's immune to bullets and steel" she said as she transmitted her view to everyone in the Nexus.

"Again?" Sam thought.

"Well? Do you want to join us?" Aria asked

"Sure" he said as he instructed all the familiars in the Nexus to join Selene with the exception of Tauriel who was at the Ancient Tomb, waiting for Sam and the sisters.

Just as they walked off together out of the hotel, Sam glowed again. Alex had just escorted Jemima safely to Stronghold and had bid her farewell before disappearing to the Nexus again.

'You...you're level 14 now?" Aria said in amazement. They had just sat down with him for a few minutes and he had already leveled up 4 levels.