The Fifth Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  “Come here. Let’s fix that.” Erik popped the shoulder back into place and used a healing spell.

  Storbon had his teeth clenched but as the pain flashed through his body, it dissipated with the healing.

  “Good work,” Erik said.

  Storbon smiled, proud.

  “The more you sweat and bleed here, the less you will on the battlefield! There are plenty of you trained to be medics. We can do a double course. You have one week and then we are heading to Vuzgal. I want to see you all qualifying in the Battle Arena! Get to work!”

  Erik looked over them all as fists and legs flew, everyone getting into it; they fought harder, pushing their limits.

  It went on for several hours before he let them rest and ask any questions they might have.

  "So, like how do kids work in the higher realms?" An Alvan asked.

  Erik stared at the man. Well I guess we should include more sex-ed into the basic education.

  "So, when a man and a woman really love one another, they get together and have se-."

  “I know that part! The leveling part!! Like how you have to be level ten, twenty, thirty etcetera to move up each realm, so everyone in the second realm is at least level ten to twenty and so on. What happens with the kids? I don’t see people from the higher realms coming back to the first realm to raise them or are the born at level ten, same with beasts as they ascend as well. Like are people from the second realm that are born there start out at level ten?” The Alvan’s face turning red as he coughed slightly.

  “Oh that’s much easier! I was thinking that our education system was failing for a second!” Erik cleared his throat.

  “Everyone is born at level zero. Just in the higher realms the mana density it higher, which can have the effect of opening up more mana gates, or unlocking powerful constitutions. Some people need trauma in order to unlock these constitutions. Once they’re born they need aid in order to survive in the harsh environments of the higher realms. What is a prize in the first realm is common in the second realm, you might have heard this before?” Erik saw heads nodding.

  “Well people with their younger kids, if they feed them right they’ll grow up just fine, stronger than people on the lower realms because they have a greater access to resources. If someone starts off in royalty instead of as a peasant, they’ll have a better starting position higher level resources and higher-level beasts and better trainers mean that people in the higher realms gain levels much faster than those in lower levels. If someone leaves say the 5th realm, they must be level 40 to enter it again, There are no work arounds. There is a fear in people born in the higher realms about going to the lower realms, as if doing so will trap them there. They are warned to never go to the lower realms as children. As for leveling up quickly, we’ve done it here before, you wound a beast, get a lower leveled person to land the last hit, massive experience overload, teach them crafting, more experience, heck you can use monster cores as experience pots to power level your kids.”

  “What about the beasts?” Another asked

  “If they reach a certain level they can be randomly transported to the higher realms by the ten realms. Beasts are nourished and gain levels different from humans, if they eat a stronger beast or powerful ingredients and concoctions or in mana dense areas they will increase in power. That is why most beasts take over places of power and high level resources. As long as their parents are in good health they’ll be born pretty powerful, no stronger than their parents and probably a few levels weaker. They will need to consume more to increase their power. The stronger their parents the stronger their starting level.”

  ***

  “How did the class on fighting go?” Rugrat asked Erik as he dropped down into a seat opposite him in the pub.

  “Few broken bones, lots of bruises. Trained the healers a bit and didn’t need any healing concoctions—call that a win,” Erik said.

  “Ouch.” Rugrat winced as two hot plates appeared.

  They thanked and paid the waitress before they ate.

  “How was teaching people about mana gates and Mana Gathering Cultivation?”

  Rugrat held the fork up as he cleared his throat. “You know when someone asks you a question, you answer them and they’re all like ‘my mind is blown, dude!’”

  “You know that sounds like a seventies stoner, but yes, I do. I did have three wives.” Erik grinned.

  “Had—guess it wasn’t so mind-altering to stop them figuring out what a bad decision you were?”

  “Nicely played,” Erik said.

  “Thank you.” Rugrat smirked. “Though, yeah, I thought everyone knew about the mana gates. Like we wrote down those notes, but there’s a big difference between notes, than seeing and talking to someone who has done it before. They took the positioning of the gates as being the same every time. They were trying to open up all of their mana gates and not increase their Mana Gathering Cultivation. That was a pitfall that we fell into but then we found out that you can do both; the two are related systems but increasing the one doesn’t mean you close off the other. It was interesting to see.”

  Erik grunted as he kept eating. Rugrat joined in.

  “Damn, that was good.” Erik finished his meal and took a deep pull from his drink. “It was a good idea, teaching them how to make shine.”

  “Well, hard to go blind with it, and higher proof. Still need to get some newer drinks down here to get us drunk, though. Damn Body Cultivation keeping us all healthy,” Rugrat complained before his expression changed. “Do you want to fight?”

  “Huh?” Erik coughed on his drink.

  “We’ve fought groups, but we haven’t fought others one-on-one. You saw in those arenas in the Fifth. People fight one-on-one up there. If we want to win competitions, we’ll need to do the same.” Rugrat felt excited just thinking about the tournaments in the Fifth Realm. “We have rifles and weapons and tools, but fighting techniques—didn’t you want to fight with your fists?”

  “Yes, but—” Erik closed his mouth as he frowned and looked away.

  A cold smile appeared on his face. “Don’t tell me you don’t want to fight.”

  Erik sighed and shook his head as he leaned on the table. The two of them looked at each other, the darkness, the dangerous part that lurked within seen in each other’s eyes.

  They could’ve stopped fighting after they left the military. Instead, they became private contractors. It was their skill, it was how they felt alive. When they were out there, it was scary as all hell, but they were alive. It was a drug, a straight hit to the vein of dopamine and adrenaline.

  The danger honed them. It strengthened them. Seeing those competitions had ignited Rugrat’s fighting spirit, his desire to be stronger, to triumph.

  “All right, all right. Sure, I want to fight, but I know you want to increase your crafting as well,” Erik said.

  “We can do both—fight each other, grow stronger, train in our skills. When we can’t advance anymore, what if we head to the higher realms, join those competitions?”

  “What about Alva, and Vuzgal, about Vermire?” Erik asked.

  “We helped them, but they got themselves to this point. Shouldn’t we take a step back, let them prove to themselves what they can do? Didn’t Delilah tell you to go to the higher realms, that they’ll stand on their own feet? It’s not like we’ll be done training in just a few days. When we return, Vermire should be stronger than ever, Vuzgal will be stable, Alva will have digested the loot we got from Vuzgal and the people should have reached a new level of crafting.”

  Erik was silent for some time, working it over in his head. “Okay, okay, let’s see what they can do.”

  Chapter: A Different Auction

  “How are the guests settling in?” Aditya asked his head of staff Armand as they walked through the castle.

  “There have been no major issues so far,” Armand muttered, looking tired and downtrodden, as much as he tried to hide it.

  “The auction?”r />
  “Everything is ready for tonight. The guards are checking on all of the people who have bought a ticket to go. No one will be allowed to buy the ticket on the night, to improve security.” Armand glanced to Pan Kun, who cleared his throat.

  “They’ve all been vetted by our doves,” Pan Kun said.

  Aditya nodded slightly.

  Those in the castle and in Vermire, other than the military, still believed that Aditya was their ruler, not knowing about the secret hand behind him.

  The doves were all unknowingly under the control of that hand.

  In a few years, their information network had expanded rapidly, covering kingdoms and empires, small outposts and large cities. Just the funds needed to support a network that large is a heavy cost.

  A messenger ran up to them, stopping and bowing as they caught their breath.

  “Speak,” Aditya said.

  “Lady Sumi of the Twilight Outpost has appeared. She is camping out in the fields in war tents. Their gear looks like it was in storage rings. She brought a full fifty Twilight guards with her,” the young boy said rapidly between breaths.

  “Always the dramatic,” Aditya sneered.

  “My lord?” Pan Kun asked.

  “Keep an eye on her. Do you think that fifty of her Twilight guards are enough to take on five of our Vermire guards?” Aditya looked at Pan Kun with a raised eyebrow.

  “Not in a hundred years,” Pan Kun said with genuine confidence.

  “Make sure the guys and gals don’t overreact,” Aditya said.

  “Yes, my lord.” Pan Kun bowed and left, tapping the boy’s arm and taking him away.

  “She is obviously coming with bad intentions. She might not have known who you were in the past but there is no hiding it now,” Armand said in a low voice, making sure that no one else could hear.

  “Oh, but things have changed a lot in the last couple of years, have they not?” Aditya’s voice dropped and there was a hidden darkness in his eyes.

  Armand looked at him, his eyes tightening before relaxing. “I’m not able to see through your plans from beside you—how can they?”

  Aditya reached out and patted Armand on the shoulder, taking care not to hit too hard and send him sprawling.

  “With time, Armand, with time.” Aditya had a soft look in his eyes. Armand had been one of the first people to help out a lost Aditya. It was with him and with his band of misfits that they had been able to build Vermire.

  “How are preparations going for the feast?”

  “Well, the food has been delivered and the layout has been altered in such a way that it will allow for hidden discussions. Those formations that were brought over to close off sound and to test people’s truth have been laid down. This is the only copy of the new floor plan. No other person has more than a tenth of this plan.” Armand passed Aditya a map.

  He glanced at it and tucked it away into his storage ring.

  “The stage is set. Now we just have to see who is willing to play the game,” Aditya muttered to himself.

  ***

  Lord Emmanuel Fayad stepped down from his carriage and looked at the Vermire auction house. He had seen many Blue Lotus auction houses in the First and Second Realm when he was younger.

  The auction house was clean, presentable—even a bit opulent in such a place as an outpost on the border of the Beast Mountain Range.

  He stepped down. Nasreen walked up beside him with three other guards; the remainder left with the carriage.

  “Lord Emmanuel Fayad of the Fayad family and Shadowridge Outpost!” an announcer said as he stepped into the auction house.

  Emmanuel smiled lightly as he looked at the other lords in the room. They had all gathered over the last couple of days, sending messages to one another, but only a few of them had interacted face-to-face.

  Emmanuel saw some familiar faces and went over to greet them.

  “Lord Emmanuel, may the sun shine down upon you and lengthen your shadows to reach new lands,” Isobel Kilroy said in greeting.

  “May your fires always be warm and the drink never stop flowing,” Emmanuel said.

  The two lords grinned to each other and shook hands.

  “The two eccentrics have met now,” Leo Adler said to Fang Ju, rounding out the rest of the group.

  “It has been some time since we last saw one another,” Emmanuel said.

  “With plenty of trade and gold to make us rounder,” Fang Ju said with a smile breaking through as the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes became more pronounced.

  “A man needs to eat to train!” Leo patted his stomach.

  “And a lady needs to drink to merry times,” Isobel added, her eyes cutting to Leo with a smirk. “Isn’t that right?”

  Leo coughed and blushed slightly but there was a smile hidden in there somewhere as he looked down to Isobel. She might be shorter but she wasn’t to be underestimated.

  “All of you have looked at the items that are up for auction then?” Emmanuel said as the group walked over to a more secluded spot away from the other lords and their guards who were meeting and talking to one another or heading right into the auction hall.

  The four lords’ guards fanned out, blocking anyone from approaching.

  “Low Journeyman-level weapons and high Apprentice-level formation plates. Seems like they’re goods set out to make the different lords fight one another for them,” Fang Ju said, the group turning serious.

  “If they’re willing to sell these items, what are they holding in reserve?” Leo asked.

  “Are they pulling them out just to show their strength? They said that they wanted to have an auction unprecedented in the Beast Mountain Range. The goods are too valuable for us to miss, but there is something else going on here,” Isobel said.

  “Have you studied their guards?” Leo asked lightly.

  The others’ eyes shone.

  “Don’t take bribes. They were a bunch of broken but loyal dogs before. Now they’re all healed up. That Alva Healing House is no small power.” Isobel’s jealousy wasn’t hard for them to miss.

  I wish I could bring them over to my side as well.

  Emmanuel cleared his throat. “They are organized. They moved in groups. Did any of you notice how they reacted when Lady Sumi showed up with her war tents and a sixth of her military strength?”

  The others all sunk into thought.

  “They’re confident against the Twilight guards, who are some of the strongest in the Beast Mountain Range. Their weapons and armor are a higher grade. It is conjecture, but I think that they must work well together. They weren’t ‘directly involved’ but who were those mysterious people who infiltrated the Zatan Confederation and weakened it from the inside?” Emmanuel left his questions hanging in the air.

  “Did you know that the Silaz boy, Wren, set up a new headquarters for his trading family?” Isobel said.

  “The Silaz family who deals in the trade of monster cores? Who lived in Chonglu?” Leo confirmed.

  “Yeah. They moved their base of operations here. I didn’t know it, but they’re selling mana stones here. Mortal grade mana stones. For gold.” Isobel’s voice was quiet and her eyes piercing as the others shook from her revelation.

  “No wonder there are so many high-quality items for sale in Vermire. Most of the kingdoms and empires that I know hoard their mana stones to use them for their formations to defend their homes or to increase their Mana Gathering Cultivation when they hit a bottleneck. Still, they treat them with more care than they do their own children,” Fang Ju said.

  “Where are they getting these mana stones from?” Emmanuel asked.

  “Well, his brothers, sister, and father seem to have disappeared. I’m guessing, and these are just my thoughts, but what if they went up?” Isobel said. She was rambunctious and impulsive on the outside, but she was sharp-witted and observant. All of them put a certain weight to her words.

  “Why come to Vermire? There are nations that would be willing to name them a
s the official chamber of commerce,” Emmanuel thought aloud.

  “Then they are bound to that nation. Why didn’t we become vassals for the nations, empires, and kingdoms that came knocking on our gates?” Leo smirked.

  “As you said, Vermire is no longer some simple backwater. With the Zatan Confederation issue, they were able to display their strength, gain the attention of other groups that were affected by the issue. Vermire’s hunting population and mercenary numbers have only increased, but the real new gold that’s being injected into the city is their ability to become a neutral trading ground. Groups that should be fighting can trade in the darkness of a bar. Vermire’s greatest trade is not the beasts and the items that come out from the Beast Mountain Range.” Fang Ju captured their eyes and the corner of his mouth lifted up. “Have you looked at their smithing sector or the warehouse district?”

  “It expanded when they increased the size of Vermire,” Leo said.

  “The smithies here never stop making simple weapons: spears, bows, helmets, and armors. Those goods aren’t heading into the Beast Mountain Range but being sold to nations in massive amounts. Their warehouse district is nearly filled with food storage facilities. Have you seen the number of cats around?”

  Emmanuel bowed his head slightly at Fang Ju’s observations.

  “Weapons and food, sure, things that people in Vermire might need, but not in those quantities.” Isobel shook her head.

  There was some noise from the front of the auction house as a woman walked into the venue with just two guards behind her.

  “Sumi,” Isobel said, her hands making her fingerless leather gloves creak.

  “Lord of the Twilight Outpost,” Fang Ju said, sounding intrigued.

  Lady Sumi gave off an easy air. With her clothes matching the armor of her Twilight guards, she cut an imposing figure.

  Her eyes moved over lazily to look at the four lords conversing in the corner. A smile spread across her face. It was anything but warm as she tilted her head to the side and gave them a small wave. She seemed to chuckle to herself and then turned to the lords who came up to greet her.