“Yeah, got married in Vegas,” Rugrat said. “We nearly got arrested.”
“Let’s try and, you know, not get arrested this time?”
“I do like that plan, but come on, get to know new cultures, people, and places. Then get arrested and see what their jails are like. It’s the full tour!”
“Rugrat, we are not getting arrested!”
“Never say never, my friend!”
“I...” Erik just looked at Rugrat and then drank through his keffiyeh. “Ugh, just filtered that a second time.” Erik moved the keffiyeh, trying to suck the alcohol out of it.
***
“This looks like it,” Rugrat said.
The two of them had gone through about half of their bottles. The city wasn’t small and although the girl’s directions were right, it was a two-hour walk to reach the stadium.
“Let’s get tickets.” Erik walked up to the stadium. Only a few people were outside; he could hear the sound of people talking from within the stadium.
“Two tickets for the formation tournament,” Erik said.
“All of the games or just this one?” the woman asked.
“Just this one,” Erik said.
“One hundred Mortal mana stones each,” the woman said.
Erik passed her the stones and they got their magically scripted tickets, heading into the stadium.
They stored their drinks in their storage rings.
Even if it is open bottle policy, just rocking up to a stadium with a bottle of liquor feels weird.
They presented their tickets to the guards and passed through, waiting to be out of sight of the guards before they pulled out their bottles again and started drinking.
After getting lost a few times, they were able to find someone to help them find their seats. They walked out into the stands, looking around at the people there.
“There has to be what, like fifty thousand people here?” Rugrat said under his breath as they passed people and got into their seats, smiling and nodding to the people around them.
Erik used his sound transmission device to talk to Rugrat, not wanting to let anything slip. “The Fifth Realm is a big place. Don’t forget, there are billions of people here still.”
“I thought it was smaller than the lower realms because it is hard to get into. A lot of people die in the Fourth and the fighters are in the Fourth Realm.”
“Yeah, but the population of the realms is really high. There are sects and clans because people only trust their families. They protect one another and have kids like crazy. With healers and alchemists, childbirth is rarely fatal and the children are already stronger than those on Earth as the mana and power of the Ten Realms is a part of them since they were created,” Erik said. “What are they doing down there?”
Rugrat squinted, seeing across the stadium easily. There were stages set up, each of them partitioned by a line.
“They’re making one offensive and defensive formation,” Rugrat said, able to pick out some of the formation parts that they were working on.
“Okay, so they’ve got a battle or something?”
“I’m not sure. I just got here as well.” Rugrat drank from his bottle and looked down, interested in what they were doing. “Hmm, that must be a technique.” Rugrat’s eyes fell on different people, seeing them use techniques.
One person lashed out with a sword. White lines of air appeared in front of him as he attacked the formation plate that he had stuck to a post.
The wind cleared and the man had a pleased look on his face, even if he looked paler from straining his abilities.
Rugrat took a closer look at the formation plate. The sword had cut into it but instead of shredding it up, it had cut out equal and exact lines into the metal.
“Impressive!” Rugrat said. “It’s a quick method and flashy, but he must be a sword user already, with a few sword arts. For him, using a sword is much easier than having to learn how to work with special carving tools. Just takes one mess-up and then the whole formation is ruined, though.”
“Look at that one over there. They’re using their mana to refine the metal and change it into their formation,” Erik said.
Rugrat looked over at the person who had a square formation plate hovering just above his hands that were moving as if he were one of those people who could solve a Rubik’s Cube in just seconds. Rugrat used the Eagle Eyes spell, getting a closer look.
He could see that the man had lines of mana between his fingers that were going through the metal.
“If I’m right, then it takes a ton of mana to do that, but you can make really complex formations. Though they won’t last for long,” Rugrat said with a note of disapproval.
“Why is that such a bad thing?”
“Well, there is two parts to it. It takes a lot of energy to create. That’s not so much of a problem, but it can make the formations really small. This is partly because of it using mana and partly because if it was much bigger then it would take more mana. Also, the material comes into play. He is working with wood as it naturally allows mana through it easier than metals. With a metal, it will take more mana to work on. Say the metal is stronger—more mana is needed or the formation needs to be smaller. It takes a lot of time to produce them as well.”
“So it’s limited in a lot of ways, so nearly every time, someone would make a small but complex one-use formation, a kind of trump card item?” Erik summarized, making sure he understood it.
“Yeah. Now, if you look at the lady three stages down, she is working with just a carver and then inlaying her formation. It’s rough, yes, but with the larger grooves and the inlay, she can put a lot more power through it, and it’ll last longer. It’s not fancy but it works,” Rugrat said.
They looked over the crowds. Others were talking like them, creating a low murmur over the stadium.
There were three hundred people on the stages competing against one another.
Some people had their formations fail at a critical point. Some were able to reset and start again. Others knew that they wouldn’t be able to complete their formation in the allotted time and could only hang their heads in shame as they left their stages and the stadium.
The timer in the middle of them all looked like an hourglass with a blue liquid at the top, turning into a gas and then turning back into a drop as it went through the neck, filling up the bottom with more water, counting down the precious seconds that the competitors had remaining.
There was little time for them to mess up at this point. If they were unable to complete their formation, then this would be their last stage.
Erik’s eyes passed over the different people, seeing the symbols that Elan had told him about. Although there were people from all of the sects there—they were in the majority; they did have the resources, after all, to get their people to this point—the others who had come from neutral cities or who had come up from the other realms were giving it their all, hoping to be black horses that made the sects pay attention to them. It was a sort of recruitment as well. If there were some good people among those who showed up, then the sects would fight among themselves to pull that person into their group.
Erik and Rugrat pulled out food and continued watching as people looked over at them, surprised by them having actual real food.
Crap, forgot about how most people here don’t have food but they go for Stamina potions and concoctions instead.
Erik and Rugrat looked at each other and shrugged. Although it was abnormal, there were more people here who had access to food. In the Seventh Realm, it wasn’t that abnormal to see cooks as people had the wealth that they could eat multiple times a day instead of just needing a few Stamina concoctions.
The gas in the top of the hourglass cleared and a gong was hit. People shook with the gong.
“Put your tools down and stop working!” a man said from his position as the officiator of the tournament. His voice carried across the arena.
“Damn, there must be a forma
tion in that to make it loud as hell,” Rugrat complained as he looked at the stage.
“Looks like some people weren’t able to manage their time well enough.” Erik looked at some people with pale or displeased faces.
Some people tried to cram in some more work but the referees walked over and immediately kicked them out, not caring where they came from or who they were or how close to completion they were.
“There were three hundred people who made it to this stage. Now there are only two hundred and thirteen left.” The officiator looked out among the people. “All of your formations will now be tested against puppets to see how good their defense is and then against a testing circle to see how strong they are offensively. We will start the second round right away!”
The stages were cleared by one group. The stone ground where the stages had been changed and shifted to create the eight smaller testing arenas.
Puppets were thrown out into four of the arenas while pillars were put into other arenas.
Formations at the side of the arenas all displayed “0000,” ready to calculate the scores of all of the different formations.
The competing formation masters were pushed forward. They went into the arenas and placed down their formation plates and any flags or other items that they had created.
Erik watched a man place down a formation with formation flags. He double-checked everything before he left the arena.
It was a defensive formation, so as soon as the gate had closed behind him, the puppet, a humanoid-looking creature with a sword and shield, stood.
“What is that?” Erik tilted his chin toward it.
“So, from what I’ve heard, puppets are kind of like robots. They have formations powering them. They can be made from bodies or materials like metals and woods. I thought that they were just gimmicks, not really fighters,” Rugrat murmured, his vision focusing some as he looked at the puppets in closer detail.
It rushed toward the formation, slamming into the barrier that the formation created. Finding the barrier, the puppet lashed out with its sword in a powerful attack that stirred up the wind within the arena.
Other puppets had been activated and were throwing themselves at the barrier with no care for themselves as they rained down attacks.
The attack formations targeted the pillar, hitting them with different attacks. The numbers around the different arenas started to change as the attack formations ran out of power and the defense formations started to collapse.
The puppets, after destroying the formation, would be turned off by one of the referees. The next formation master would set up their defensive formation as the old one was cleared away. This kept people moving quickly. Erik saw all kinds of formations attacking pillars with flames, lightning, air blades, the ground itself.
“Look at that one,” Rugrat said as the mana in the area was drawn into formation flags gathered around the formation plate. A whining noise built up as the formation started to shake with all of the power built up.
Suddenly, a pillar of multi-colored light tore out from the formation, burning through all of the energy that had been gathered, and striking the pillar.
People clapped as the numbers above the pillar shot up. Still, the pillar was unaffected by the blast.
“What? Where did the formation plate go?” Someone pointed at one of the arenas.
Erik and Rugrat looked over as the ground started to shake.
The stone lifted up and a golem rose from the ground.
“They made a puppet with a formation,” Rugrat said, impressed. After seeing the other puppets, he had started to have all kinds of ideas. His mind felt as though it were expanding past its barriers once again, allowing him to see further than before.
The golem charged the pillar and slammed into it. The small mana barrier around it flashed into existence, dealing with the attack easily.
The golem rained down hits on the pillar. The damage continued to mount and the numbers started to change on the counter above.
“I thought that formations was all about hiding behind walls and providing support to others,” Erik said, his realm-view changing as he saw these formations.
“Just how much can a high-level formation master change the flow of battle?” Erik muttered to himself.
“How much could they change it with an air carrier?” Rugrat laughed to himself but Erik could tell that there was something more going on in Rugrat’s mind.
“Air carrier?” Erik asked.
“If we can use the puppets, they must have some kind of senses. But instead of using a formation, they use mortars or explosives, or rifles. If we could do that, then we could have them aiming out into the sky. Anything that comes close, then it shoots out at them. Like our own version of reactive armor. As long as we have enough power, then we can keep on going. If we could get a dungeon core in it, a small one, then we use that to recharge and power it. Though it would mean putting the dungeon cores in a vulnerable system. Though if we used it as a tactical system, only to be brought out when we absolutely need it, it could assist us if we need it. When dormant, then they just wait in Alva. We secure our power and our people’s safety if anything happens.”
Erik could only understand part of what Rugrat was saying.
He left him to it as he took another swig from the bottle, watching the formation masters challenging one another as he tried to guess what their scores would be.
It took a few more rounds for them to clear up all of the formations. The puppets had to be replaced if they ran out of power and the pillars against the offensive formations were charged while the arena was covered in damage just being in the blast area of the formations.
The results were all added together.
“It’s smart. If someone made both just to make both, then their score wouldn’t be all that high—good but not high. Though if someone made a powerful defensive or offensive formation and then a decent formation or no second formation, then they could do really well or poorly,” Erik said.
“Defensive and offensive formations are the most used formations, so that way people have the chance to at least make one that they know. The problem is that everyone has different resources. If someone has better techniques, or better materials and formation blueprints, then they’ll be able to beat the others,” Rugrat said.
“The preliminary round of the formation masters is complete. These are the names of the fifty who will be heading to the second round!” the overseer announced. A formation in the middle of the arena activated and displayed fifty names in the middle of the arena.
The men and women who had competed against one another looked up at the screen. The audience started talking to one another, some cheering, others looking annoyed as the person they had wanted to do better had placed lower or not made it.
There were expressions of joy, helplessness, anger, and more among the competitors.
“Come on, I have plans to make!” Rugrat said.
“We’re taking the day off, remember?” Erik looked at him and raised his bottle.
“Just some notes?” Rugrat asked.
“Fine,” Erik said.
They tapped bottles and then tapped them on the armrests before taking a big drink.
Chapter: Quest of Fried Chicken
Rugrat started to make notes, filling up several pages of information.
“Come on, this is supposed to be a day off, remember?”
“Just a few more notes.” Rugrat didn’t look up; he only wrote faster, as if Erik were going to take away his sheet of paper forcefully.
They walked through the city, Rugrat writing notes while Erik looked at the passing people and the different stalls.
“Ever since you said fried chicken, I haven’t been able to get it off my mind,” Erik muttered as he pulled out ingredients and started chewing on them.
There are no chickens in the Ten Realms that I have seen but there has to be something like them. How many things back home taste like chicken? Or gato
r?
Erik smiled and he took a deep breath in. His entire body had been enhanced, from his muscles and skin to his reaction time and his senses. He closed his eyes. With consuming so many ingredients, different kinds of drinks and food from across the realms, he cross-referenced the smells around him, finding out the kinds of meals that were being prepared.
I had plenty of chicken back on Earth; it’s just a matter of finding it in my Alchemy skill book.
Erik saw the book in his mind. The pages blurred as information appeared. Come on, everything can be turned into a concoction, so chicken should be an ingredient and in here.
He felt as if the Ten Realms fought him on his thoughts, but it might have just been his mind playing tricks on him. He finally found what he was looking for. He understood the characteristics of chicken more than he had ever wanted to in his previous life.
Then, taking those characteristics, he started to search through the smells that he was getting from the area, searching out the similarities between the chicken and the other ingredients and meats that were around him.
Erik found something that interested him. He grabbed Rugrat, who was still working on his notepad, storing away information. The half-drunk, keffiyeh- and cloak-covered man with shining eyes followed behind as he laughed, nodded his head and worked on only what he knew.
They left the crowd behind and walked down a few streets as Erik continued to look for things that were similar to chicken.
There were herbs that smelled like it and then a blue and yellow fruit that smelled like it.
Erik bought the fruit and thanked the seller, spending twenty mana stones. The fruit apparently increased their mana circulation for a short period of time.
Erik took a bite of it, shivering. It was just odd. It tasted like raw chicken, but it had the texture of a plum and was slimy.
“That is just wrong, the texture and the taste. I can’t help but think that I’m getting poisoning from a fruit.” Erik checked his cultivation. It did speed up slightly, but it would take him eating the fruits constantly to try to get much of a benefit. It was a cheaper item to help those who didn’t have that much funds.
The Fifth Realm Page 47