VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne

"Pre-made magic, hmm? Well, you certain are different from the other rabble, now aren’t you?" Mister Bloom said with a chuckle, before narrowing his eyes and steepling his fingers in front of him.

"So which of the clans do you belong to, and why haven’t I heard of you before?"

Valerie raised an eyebrow and smirked softly,

"Interesting. You know about those clans. Well... I shouldn’t be surprised, it seems all of the ultra wealthy knew something about this, and left the rest of us to fend for ourselves.

But what makes you assume that I am one of them? A lowly peasant can’t claw herself to the realms of the rich and powerful with just hard work? I thought that was the lie you always fed us?"

"Indeed it is," Mister Bloom admitted with a laugh, "and we both know how rarely that actually happens, so forgive me for the assumption. However the fact that you have risen to such a level with no help is extraordinary on its own.

Especially since your magic feels... different from theirs."

Valerie shrugged, trying not to seem too smug about it, even if she absolutely was.

"What can I say? That’s the benefit of talent. Besides, I got access from the source, whilst they are working off of rituals that got degraded every time they passed it down. God knows how many generations its passed through to become the slop they practice now."

"Slop?" Bloom laughed again, leaning back in his chair and slapping his hands against the arm of the chair.

"I can only imagine how they would feel if they caught you talking about their ancient wisdoms in such a manner. But don’t worry, I won’t tell. Still, if you aren’t from a clan, that means everything really does come from Dawd, so how did you acquire the items you sold to me from there?"

"How did you know that was there origin?" Valerie asked with narrowed eyes.

"Please... I have seen them plenty in my own exploits in the game. Oh yes, don’t look so surprised. A man like me does indeed play those games."

"Why?" Valerie scoffed, "You have anything you could ever dream of. What could you possibly want in a world like Dawd that you don’t already have? Even magic, you had that before Dawd. So what do you gain from it?"

"Isn’t it obvious? Enjoyment, just like every gamer does. Just because I have everything doesn’t mean it amuses me at all times.

Besides, there are other things you can do within the game, paths you can explore for yourself rather than letting others pull you up."

"Oh yeah? Like what?" Valerie scoffed again, brushing him off.

"Wouldn’t you like to know." Bloom said with a mysterious smirk, "But back to what is important. If you had access to items from Dawd, why not bring over more?

You could have sold items worth billions through our auction house. Even now, if you introduced a new source of mana through Beast Meat, you would have an instant market and shatter a monopoly.

You could make trillions. So why don’t you...?"

Valerie scowled, shifting in her seat in annoyance before leaning back and crossing her arms over her chest.

"Have you considered that perhaps I didn’t want your billions and trillions, because I didn’t want to become a rich snob like the rest of you?"

"No, it didn’t. Our life is fabulous, why wouldn’t you want that? No, it has to be something else." Bloom muttered without a hint of sarcasm in his tone as he bluntly explained the triuth of the matter to her.

He thought for a few more seconds, his eyes narrowing before darting back and forwards suspiciously.

"You hired Smith, which means you need things crafted, but you have that item made already so you don’t need crafting... you need repairing.

But why? You could just go to Dawd and... Oh. Ooooh, I see. You need him for repairs, not crafting. It’s a supply issue. Is something wrong with your method?"

Valerie narrowed her eyes at the detective sitting across from her. Why did he have to be so damned smart? She considered for a moment how much to tell him, and how much he could possibly figure out from her actions so far, before she eventually settled on an answer.

"Wouldn’t you like to know." She muttered with a sarcastic smirk, before it twisted into a withering glare.

"Even if that is the case, and I am not confirming that it is, what does it matter to you? You get nothing out of it.

You don’t get anything I bring over, and you can’t help me if you wanted."

"Which is exactly what I want to change." Bloom said eagerly, leaning forwards and letting his sleazy business man smile creep all the way up to his ears.

"I want to help, to improve the method. So, how do you do it?"

"...Why should I even tell you? I get nothing out of it, but you get everything. Not that you’d be able to replicate it anyways."

"Don’t you? I disagree. Even if you don’t want the money from the business such a venture could set up, you get more consistent supply lines managed by yours truly. That way, whatever it is you need Smith to work on, never runs out of raw materials and he can craft whatever his twisted, little heart desires.

Plus, you’ll get a crap load of money after I give you a very generous deal on the sales of whatever we bring over. So really, it’s a win win type deal."

Valerie scoffed and shook her head at his persistence. She had to give it to him, even though she knew it was absolutely impossible for him to help her [Eternal Companion] issues when it came to meat and the likes, she could still feel him slowly whittling her down.

But it really was impossible to fix that issue.

Of course... who was to say they had to?

Valerie tilted her head back and forth, rolling an idea around inside of her mind as she considered the possible outcomes and ramifications of it, and if it would even work in the first place.

It was an incredibly stupid idea. An utterly insane idea. One of the worst ideas she had ever had in her life. But she couldn’t deny that it sounded like it could work.

"I might have an idea," Valerie finally said after convincing herself to use her own idea, "However it will require a lot of set up that itself will incur a heavy amount of risk, possibly even death. Is that something you are ready for?"

Mister Bloom chuckled, smiling at her as if she was a toddler asking where babies come from. He just found such a question so adorable in the ignorance it held.

"Baroness, That is what Hazard pay is for. So, tell me about this idea you have."