“It will be completed in another month. From the reports, the skeletons and builders should have enough done by next week to open the preliminary rooms.”
“Good. Leave them wanting more and show that there is more to come. Once we’re done with the second floor, we’ll look at building the third floor. But we will only be allowed to build it if our profits are high enough.”
“Yes, Manager Chonglu.”
They reached the front doors where Head Klaus from the Fighter’s Association was standing with a party of other administrators and powerful figures within his association.
“Manager Chonglu, it is good to see you!” he said at their arrival, with a wide smile.
“Head Klaus, I am sorry for the wait! The opening will happen in a few hours, but would you be interested in a tour of the facilities? If it wasn’t for the Fighter’s Association’s help and insight, we wouldn’t have been able to build this arena,” Chonglu said.
“Your words are too kind. But I am interested in what you have done. The Battle Arena has become a recent topic of interest and my association is always looking for ways to increase our strength.”
“There are a total of one hundred and thirty-seven arenas and we want to run a monthly tournament with the highest placed members getting exclusive benefits. The first one hundred arenas are built just for smaller spars for the public to view. The thirty exclusive arenas people will need to pay for and the fighters will get a percentage of the profit. The same goes for the six side arenas. The main arena will draw in people from across Vuzgal to see the strongest in the city go head to head. Each is specially built with reinforced materials and extensive formations so that the fighters can unleash their power while the spectators remain totally safe. Betting will be allowed on site, and there are items from the Vuzgal crafters that will only be for sale here. Though, I think you will be mostly interested in the lower level training rooms.” Chonglu led them into the basement and showed them the training rooms.
When they returned to the first floor, Head Klaus could only laugh. “I thought that the Battle Arena would be merely for show, but I was too short-sighted. Vuzgal truly puts all of their effort into every endeavor!”
“We aim to please.” Chonglu showed a pleased smile. “Could I invite Head Klaus to open the Battle Arena with me?”
“Certainly!”
They headed out to the front of the Battle Arena. All of the shops were empty of customers, with staff ready to greet customers, eagerly waiting the grand opening.
The group walked out in front of the building and people looked over.
It looked as though there were a few hundred people, most of them from the Fighter’s Association, dungeon divers or guards who had the day off from their regular duties.
“Hello, everyone. My name is Manager Chonglu of the Battle Arena. It is my great honor to announce with the esteemed head of the Fighter’s Association, Head Klaus, the opening of the Vuzgal Battle Arena!”
People clapped and cheered. It was a bit subdued but Chonglu’s smile only became wider as he wondered what the nobles and fighting sects would think.
“As a thank-you for coming to our grand opening, as long as you visit the front desk and register, then for the next month you will be able to buy a membership at a twenty percent discount! Now, I know you didn’t come to hear me talk!”
He went over to Head Klaus and they stood in front of a ribbon. They were both given a set of scissors. They snipped the ribbon as the people clapped.
Klaus laughed and he shook hands with Chonglu. “Well, let me know how much memberships would be for all of the Fighter’s Association members!”
Chonglu laughed with him, a pleased look in his eyes as others talked to one another, hearing their words.
“Please, come to my office. I have some fresh tea in and we can discuss it!” he said.
Those there for the grand opening streamed through the doors, seeing all kinds of counters and stores open. There were information boards across the floor. People stopped and read them, leading to excited discussion.
“Training rooms with higher mana density?”
“We can create private fights and choose the mana density, even invite people to come and view them?”
“Tournaments every month for all level ranges?”
“Look at those weapons! All of them are at least the mid Journeyman level and there are even low-level Expert weapons!”
“Formation sockets in armor and weapons? What are those?”
“Those memberships sound expensive—more like status symbols for the rich!” one scoffed.
“Or for training nuts,” another chimed in.
“Look at these rewards for the first placed positions in one’s level groups! Even the rewards for the top ten are incredible!”
“I thought Vuzgal only cared about the crafters?”
The sounds of the floor fell away as Chonglu, Domnique, and Klaus entered an elevator that rose up. Its sides were clear as they rose up, passing the first arenas that were walled-off squares with seating around them, then the second floor of arenas were spaced out more, with more seating. The third level of arenas was nearly twice the height of the first two floors, with much more seating and screens that would show the fight so everyone could see it perfectly no matter their seat. The final arena took up an entire floor and had nearly three times the seating as the third floor.
Chonglu’s office was the second highest box. It looked over the arena on one side and then over Vuzgal on the other.
The Battle Arena was only shorter than the mana barrier pillars and the Sky Reaching Restaurants and Wayside Inns.
It took up a truly massive amount of land, being 300m by 300m. The area around it only had stalls for a further 300m in every direction in case they ever wanted to expand it.
“The view is even better from here than it is in my office,” Klaus said.
Chonglu laughed the compliment off, but he was rather pleased with his office as well. I only came to the Fourth Realm a week ago and I’m already managing this entire place. If the arenas were full, it would have thirty times the population of Chonglu.
“Please, won’t you join me in some tea? Or would you prefer something stronger?”
“Something stronger. This is a celebration, after all! I was serious about getting those memberships.”
Chonglu walked to his desk, shooting Domnique a look. She bowed and departed, heading to manage the rest of the arena.
He took out two fine glasses and poured some of his highest quality drink. Hiao Xen had supplied him with a number of items, including supplies for entertaining different guests.
“Doing a deal for the entire association would be difficult, but what about a bulk membership package? One hundred of our gold membership packages at a thirty percent discount?” Chonglu asked.
“Thirty percent?” Head Klaus repeated, sounding as though he were thinking it over.
Chonglu passed him a drink and indicated for him to join him on his chairs looking over the city.
Klaus took the drink and sat down, sipping. “Mmm, good drink!” Head Klaus smacked his lips together.
Chonglu smiled. From Elan’s information, he knew that Head Klaus appreciated his drinks.
“Thirty percent is the best I can do,” he said. “I can make the times transferable between the one hundred memberships. So if one is not here, then their time can be given to others who are here.”
“And with only one hundred spots, it would create competition with the members,” Klaus mused. “Though I’ll need something else to sweeten the pot,” Klaus said.
“Well,” Chonglu lowered his tone, “the A-grade is only our highest grade training facilities for now.” He took a sip as Klaus gave him his full attention.
“S-grade training rooms will have a complete twenty percent increase of mana, though there will only be ten exclusive rooms.” He dragged out his words, seeing the agitation in Klaus’s body language.
“I
could give the Fighter’s Association first pick on one of the rooms every month and these rooms would allow up to five people to train in them at a time.”
“I’ll need a contract written up, but if it is as you say, we have an agreement,” Head Klaus said.
Chonglu raised his glass. “Good to do business with you, Head Klaus!”
“And you, Manager Chonglu!”
The two of them smiled at each other. They touched glasses and took a satisfying drink from their glasses, looking at the growing Vuzgal.
***
Tan Xue was in the Viewing Hall again, reviewing some of the smithing Expert recordings. The recording ended and she frowned, opening and closing her hand on the hammer that wasn’t there.
“It makes sense now. I felt that there was something missing. I thought it was just because I didn’t have the skill with the hammer as the Expert’s recordings. What I was missing was the other component of the technique, the mana circulation. No wonder I was getting different results in my smithing even when I was carrying out the exact same actions!”
Tan Xue sat on a chair and leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees.
“I’m reaching the limit of what I can do just by myself. I developed my knowledge about ores, minerals, enhancers, formations, and using them all together, strengthening up my foundations. I still have much more to learn, but my biggest block must be not having these techniques to draw out greater power.” She let out an annoyed huff and sat back against the wall. “There are techniques to increase the mana retained by the metal, techniques that work with the enhancers to make their effect stronger. Techniques to inlay formations into weapons at the same time, or to work specially enhanced metals that can’t be worked with normal flames or tools. Rugrat said that there should be techniques in the Fourth Realm. I’m supposed to stay here for a few months to train people, but Rugrat doesn’t have that restriction. I can send him to the higher realms and get a number of techniques.”
Tan Xue stood up, a smile on her face as she walked out of the Viewing Hall with determined steps, right toward the military workshops which were all Journeyman or Expert level, where only people who had taken an oath to Alva worked on secret projects like the weapon upgrades. It was a new addition shortly after Rugrat returned from the Second Realm.
***
Erik looked haggard. He had been taking Stamina recovery potions and Mind Calming pills together to keep himself alert and energized as he focused on the Flame Puppeteer technique. His fingers moved; the air around them shook as the flames within the cauldron twisted and changed into different shapes, as if they were alive.
The cauldron started to shake as the mana in the surroundings was stirred up and drawn into the cauldron.
The cauldron started to settle down and Erik waved his hand. The lid of the cauldron crashed to the ground and he pulled out a jade box. The pills flew out of the cauldron and landed in the box.
Erik opened his eyes. A smile appeared on his face as he closed the box and laughed.
==========
Flame Puppeteer
==========
Expert
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Your control over flames has reached a new level where you can control two flames as easily as you control one.
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Second flame costs 3x amount of Mana
==========
==========
For learning an Expert-ranked technique, you gain: 1,000,000 EXP
==========
==========
46,948,136/56,900,000 EXP till you reach Level 58
==========
Erik let a groan and allowed his body to fall backward. He pushed out his legs that had been numb, but as the blood returned, they started to ache. A wave of fatigue fell over him.
He had a look in the jade box. They were all Earth tempering pills. As high Journeyman pills, instead of being at their previous Condensed pill level of efficacy, these had reached the Inscribed pill level. Inscribed pills would never lose their potency and if they were in the right containers, then they could increase their strength. They were the second highest grade pill that one could create, under an Enlightened pill.
“And this is one of the weakest techniques.” Erik looked at his skill increase again.
A fighting spirit welled up within him. It had been too long since he had tried to increase the efficacy of a pill. Enlightened was just a few steps away.
“With these techniques, even the weakest of our alchemists and our crafters will have a chance to become Experts. Only a few of them will be able to pass beyond, but that relies on their ability. If they have more paths to study from, they might have an easier time figuring it out themselves. We need to get more techniques.”
***
“How are they looking?” Glosil asked as he emerged behind Sergeant Acosta and the training staff, who were eating together. They nearly jumped out of their skins as he smiled at them, waving them back down.
“At ease. Just checking in.”
“Well, we’ve been working with them for three weeks now. They have the basics down. It took time to get them to start working as a team, but they’ve really started to become teammates. They’ve been able to increase their combat capability, without increasing their levels. They have a good handle on operations at the fighting team and fighting squad level. It will take more time to work on anything more advanced. I think three more weeks should do it,” Sergeant Acosta reported.
“Very well,” Glosil said.
Chapter: Take Me Down to Vuzgal City
“Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty!” Rugrat half-sung as he checked the barrel in his hands.
He attached it to the upper receiver of the weapon system and used a fusing rod. It was just a piece of metal with a fusing formation engraved into it. Applying it against the receiver and the barrel, the two fused together seamlessly.
Rugrat checked the sights on the weapon, putting it into a form that made sure they were lined up perfectly.
He assembled the clearing rod that extended from the receiver to the barrel. Cranking it backward would extract and eject the round in the weapons chamber if the round didn’t work for some reason.
Then he lined the upper and lower receiver, pushing through pins, securing them to one another before he activated a fusing formation in the lower receiver.
“I was thinking of copying the AK design more, just have the top open up and then get in there. But with the two different receivers, even if we upgrade, the lower receiver simply supplies power to the upper receiver, so we don’t have to make them again and we can just change the formations of the upper receiver. Change one part instead of the entire weapon.”
“And don’t forget whose idea it was!” Julilah said from the other side of the workshop, where she had mortars with deactivated formations in front of her.
“Stroke of genius, Julilah.” Rugrat laughed.
He pressed the separating formation and the two receivers came apart again, just needing him to pop the pins out again.
“I heard that you might be in here,” Erik said from the doorway.
“What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in the Third Realm, doing Alchemy things?”
“Well, I was in the Third Realm. I mastered my first technique and I need to learn more,” Erik said. “Want to go to the Fifth Realm?”
“Let me get my coat!” Rugrat said.
“Is Elan in?”
“He should be around. Why?”
“We can ask him what competitions are going on in the Fifth Realm and then get a guide to them. We don’t really need to compete in the fighting but we can compete in mana stones to buy technique manuals,” Erik said.
“But I wanted to see how my skills are compared to others,” Rugrat complained.
“I’m not saying we can’t, just that we take our time—we watch the competition, get information on the people we’re competing against. Get a plan together before we do any
thing.”
“Makes sense. Feels strange that we’re literally picking out where we’re going to ascend,” Rugrat said.
“Safer, you mean?”
“I guess.”
“Let’s go and find Elan.” Erik sighed.
***
“You want to go to the Fifth Realm, by yourselves, to find techniques at a competition?”
“He’s getting good at this repeat after me stuff,” Rugrat said.
“Yes. So, is there anything going on? We’re not looking to compete and a competition that would have a lot of techniques even of the lowest grade would be a good start,” Erik said.
“All right.” Elan tapped on his sound transmission device.
After sending a few messages, he cleared his throat. “Okay, it looks like there is a general showcase going on in the city Arman—bunch of different sects showing off their people’s skills. It means that there should be all kinds of people there trying to sell high-priced wares. There are a few auctions going on. If you give me two days, I’ll be able to get more information on the organizers, get you a guide there and someone to talk you through the totem.”
“Can I have a window seat?”
Elan looked at him in confusion and then looked at Erik.
“He’s making an Earth joke about a plane, which is a flying beast, usually taken to go somewhere nice.”
“With all of that information, it seems more like we’re going on a vacation. I guess this is a plus of having a good information-gathering network,” Rugrat said.
“Let us know when you have things organized. I’m going to focus on tempering my body. Rugrat, you said that you have a copy of that Mana Gathering Cultivation manual, right?”
Erik and Rugrat talked to each other as they walked out of the room.
Two of the most powerful men I have ever met, and they’re not so different from anyone else. Sure, quirky in their own ways, and driven like hellhounds are coming after them, but good, decent people. Utterly insane and weird as hell, though. Elan smiled to himself and started to send out sound transmissions.
***
Erik and Rugrat headed down underneath the pillar and to the hidden underground city.
The Fifth Realm Page 35