Clarissa looked as if she wanted to say something but looked over to Rugrat instead, a hint of fear in her eyes.
“Oh, and we’ll need an oath by the Ten Realms that you never saw us,” Rugrat added.
He hadn’t missed Clarissa denying Erik’s request for buffs.
“I swear on the Ten Realms that I will not reveal anything that is related to Erik and Rugrat to any other soul without prior permission,” Matt said without pause. The light of the Ten Realms fell on him.
Clarissa grit her teeth and shot an accusatory look at Matt.
Louie followed up, with the others adding in theirs. Clarissa gave hers but glared at Erik as she did so.
“Didn’t think you’d side with a fucking Sha, Matt,” Clarissa spat before leaving.
Matt grimaced as he followed Clarissa. Some stayed to watch the wounded but the rest followed to have a meeting.
Rugrat whistled and circled his finger next to his head. “Loco.”
“Si,” Erik said and pulled up his notifications.
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Event
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You have killed the corrupted Elktas, the forest spirits of the Dervin Swamp. Investigate the Elkta and find out what corrupted them.
Clear the corruption from Dervin Swamp.
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Skill: Hand-to-Hand
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Level: 46 (Apprentice)
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Attacks cost 20% less Stamina
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Skill: Throwables
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Level: 28 (Apprentice)
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Your throws gain 5% power
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Upon advancing into the Apprentice level of Throwables, you will be rewarded with one randomly selected item related to this skill.
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You have received the item: Flowing wave
+10,000 EXP
==========
Erik reached out and a glow appeared above his hand. The light resolved into a throwing spear with intricate carvings up and down its body that looked like flowing waves charging forward against the cliffs, their momentum unstoppable.
“It’s only Apprentice grade.” Erik sighed and put it away in his storage ring as he appraised it quickly. Pretty but not the strongest item he could get.
“Pay the man if you want a throwing spear,” Rugrat said as he had unloaded his rifle and was checking it.
Erik read out his last notifications.
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Skill: Healer
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Level: 57 (Journeyman)
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You have become familiar with the body and the arts of repairing it. Healing spells now cost 5% less Mana and Stamina.
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219,739/700,000 EXP till you reach Level 26
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His healing skill was still increasing but he’d needed to heal more people with different injuries to increase his skill level.
He went back up to the event information.
Matt walked back from the meeting some time later.
“Matt, do you know where these screwed-up Elktas are coming from?” Erik asked.
Matt shrugged. “I don’t have a clue. We can take a look at the bodies, though. Also, Clarissa might not like it but they’ve agreed that you should get four of the Elktas of your choosing. If it wasn’t for you, two more would have died.”
“Do you know how to harvest Elktas and the useful bits?” Rugrat asked.
“I know a bit of how to take them apart. To the right person, they can be worth a lot. These ones are corrupted, so they’ve been absorbing Mana not to their Affinity, which has caused them to mutate. Makes them good fertilizer for mixed-Affinity plants. Alchemists are always looking for fertilizer. Might be best to just take them all and sell them. They’re worth a few hundred gold in total, not including the three monster cores it should have, and it should have at least one variant core,” Matt said.
“Let’s take a look,” Erik said.
They walked over to the Elkta. After a few minutes, they simply cut them up and stored them in their storage rings. They could clean them up and see which parts people wanted to buy later.
Matt had a dark look on his face as he smelled a piece of bark from the Elkta. “I think that these Elkta found something in the swamp with an Earth Affinity. The Elkta, finding the different attribute, went to go and find it and eliminate it and were contaminated.”
“Aren’t Earth and Wood the same thing?” Rugrat asked.
“The attribute system is lined up with the Eastern system, not the Western,” Matt said.
“Well, how the hell are we going to find that?” Rugrat asked.
Erik had a random thought and pulled up his titles. He used his ability Dungeon Sense. He looked off to the side. Four kilometers away, his Dungeon Sense had picked something up.
“Matt, do you want to come with us, or stay with your band?” Erik asked directly.
“I basically paired up with them for a job and to earn some coin. Clarissa tolerates me but she doesn’t like having another high-powered mage around—makes her feel threatened. If you’d be okay with it, I’d like to join up with you guys. I have some Sha contacts as well to help with weapons,” Matt said.
“Welcome aboard.” Rugrat slapped Matt on the back.
Matt stumbled forward but didn’t fall over.
“All right, we need to lose the group. Then it’s time to go hunting. Maybe we can upgrade our core again.” Erik gave Rugrat a look.
“A core core?” Rugrat confirmed. “Well shit, we need to get to that thing, though?”
“Yeah, but if we can get this, we can solve our money issue and strengthen our place, or we can take it over and make it a separate point for us to go to. I can do the test again at a later time,” Erik said.
“All right, I’m up for a challenge,” Rugrat said with a big smile plastered on his face.
==========
Event
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You have found the location where the Elktas were corrupted. Search the location.
Clear the corruption from Dervin Swamp.
==========
“This event is like the worst privacy settings I’ve ever seen on a phone and it doesn’t care. If I talk about dog toys, am I going to get blasted with ads?” Rugrat muttered.
“Phones—I haven’t thought about those in a while.” Matt laughed.
“Let’s go talk with the group and split.” Erik walked back toward where the group was, getting ready to move out.
Chapter: Gaining Power
Qin was in her old residence, looking out at the gardens as night approached.
“It feels strange, brother Yui,” Qin said, sensing Yui’s approach.
“What does?” Yui sat down in a seat opposite her.
They had dinner with their father and brother as well as a few of their old friends, only finishing a short while ago, but Qin felt different—strange and removed from it all.
“It feels like it’s home, but there’s a wall between it and me now.” Qin looked to Yui with a confused expression.
Yui took a deep breath and looked out at the garden. “That’s because this is merely the place that we grew up. It’s not our home anymore.” His voice was heavy, filled with memories and their past.
Qin fell quiet as she didn’t know what to say.
“You’ve become really powerful recently. Now I don’t think even I can defeat you.” Yui laughed, changing the subject.
Qin smiled slightly. With her being such a low level, being in the party that went to the Metal floor, her level had increased rapidly, jumping over ten levels in one shot.
“Are you okay from that trip? I know that it was hard on you,” Yui said in a soft voice.
“I’ve
never seen anything like that, or been in anything like that before.” Qin paused, unsure what to say, how to convey it to someone who wasn’t there.
“You were scared, terrified, but alive; every action you took had a reaction. You had a purpose, a driving force, and it was electric to be part of a team that had real and direct impact. You were running at your peak performance, and it was exhilarating but that fear never left, it never went away, you just had to push it to the side?” Qin said.
Qin was shocked by her words. The feeling from back then gripped her stomach in fear but made her legs, arms, and chest flush with energy. “I want it again,” she said in a low voice.
Yui shook his head and laughed. “Then I think it’s time you learned a bit more about combat magics.”
“I want it, but I was useless there, just some girl from a compound who has been guarded all of her life. I wasn’t able to do anything to help. So what if I felt purpose in it and I wanted to help out? I wasn’t able to,” Qin said, dismissing his words.
“It is easy to feel powerless. I know I did. When I started, everyone was able to beat me up. There are still a lot who can. I can draw with a number of them, but their techniques, their abilities—they don’t hold anything back.
“While I was studying fighting quietly here, I wasn’t in real life-and-death fights. The defense of their village put them through those fights, opened their eyes to it. It was only when I was in the Beast Mountain Range and fighting beasts there that I felt the fear of nearly dying. The knowledge of just how much the people around me relied on me. How my actions could lead to them or me dying. You’ve got a great talent in magic. Your Mana Regeneration is alarming. If you could open more of your Mana gates, you’d be one of the top mages,” Yui said with no shred of exaggeration.
Qin was about to say something when Yui held up his hand, silencing her.
A few moments later and she heard it too. Footsteps. She smiled at their familiar sound.
“Dad?” she asked as Elan appeared on the balcony too.
“I was wondering where you two had gone hiding.” He moved to the chairs. “This has always been a peaceful spot.” He took his time to look over the garden and the small river and waterfall in its center.
“As it is after dinner, are you interested in the business proposal that we bring?” Yui asked.
“Seems that you are a merchant’s son after all.” Elan smiled at his son’s tactics, remembering his father’s lessons. “Fine. Tell me what the terms are.” He looked at Yui in interest.
“Monster cores for sale in bulk, including Mortal variants. Also…” Yui looked around and listened to make sure that no one was close. “Purchasing of Mana stones—twelve hundred gold for a Mortal-grade Mana stone. Negotiations are open for Mana-grade cornerstones,” Yui said, dropping the bomb in Elan’s lap.
He frowned, his look becoming deeper and completely serious. “For those kinds of resources…” Elan shook his head as he saw the looks his children were giving him.
“I have a few people I can ask about this kind of thing. Mana stones are a symbol of power. In the First Realm, they aren’t that useful for people and they’re hard to move. Most are sold to the Blue Lotus for a flat fee of one thousand gold. There have been kingdoms in the past that have propped themselves up on a Mortal-grade Mana cornerstone.”
Yui and Qin looked at each other. They knew that they were expensive and worth a lot, but then the resources that they were in contact with day in and day out were not simple nor cheap items. They had become numb to it.
Although Alva Dungeon was burning through these resources rapidly, the cost associated with them was comparable to what small kingdoms could produce.
Being away from everything and just in Alva Dungeon has screwed up my sense of scale, what with Erik and Rugrat going to the Third Realm, Special Team Two in the Second Realm, Special Team One in the battlefield dungeon and having returned from the Second Realm.
“So how long are you with us for?” Elan asked.
“Four or five days. We don’t want to fall behind,” Qin said.
Elan’s smile weakened and then grew brighter. “I’m happy to see you so strong. You’re more than old enough to forge your own future. Just know that you will always have a place here.” He looked to them both.
“Thanks, Dad,” Qin said as Yui nodded, both of them touched by their father’s sentiments.
***
Storbon and the rest of the party grunted as they made it back into the teleport room and laid down on the ground.
“Screw the Earth floor—everything is twice as heavy!” Tian Cui complained.
“Don’t forget twice as strong.” Ian took off his dented armor and put it to the side, rubbing his side as he took a healing powder.
It was their sixth opponent—a bren, a heavy creature with six limbs to distribute its heavy weight. Its skin was like a boulder’s, worn smooth from constant sandstorms.
It could thump on the ground, creating a small tremor to make people fall over, and it could call up a small sandstorm, sending it flying at its opponents, cutting them with the high speed sand driven by high winds.
Yuli, Yao Meng, and Storbon were all cleaning out their wounds and pouring healing powder into them.
They looked out at the desert land. Setsuko and Glosil were dealing with the beast, breaking it down as the others treated their wounds.
“All right, let’s see if there is any loot in the rest of the desert.” Storbon pulled out a scarf and glasses, putting them on to protect himself. Random sandstorms happened in the battlefield and getting sand in your eyes wasn’t a good time.
He checked his wounds and trudged back out into the sand, walking counter-clockwise, looking around for anything that might be valuable.
“Hopefully can find something good this time,” Storbon said. I wonder just what this stuff is worth.
He knew that the hides of the harvested creatures would be worth a fair sum based on his tailor’s knowledge. Yao Meng, with his background in Alchemy, said that the ingredients would be useful as well, but they couldn’t come up with anything like accurate prices.
They’d all gained at least a level or two since entering the battlefield dungeon. Glosil was quickly catching up to them in terms of levels. Being a lower level than them and the beasts, his Experience multiplier was rather high.
He’d left behind the skin of an officer and showed his fighting talent. Storbon thought that he might be able to beat Glosil in terms of stats, but not in overall combat power.
“I hope the next one is a Water world,” Yao Meng said. “It’s the only one we haven’t seen yet.”
“We don’t have water-breathing potions and there’s no knowing if there will be any land on a water level,” Storbon said.
“Well, come on, then we wouldn’t have a chance!” Yao Meng complained.
“Egbert said that there should be some land but we don’t know how much,” Yuli said.
“Otherwise we make our own land, with Yuli creating an ice sheet for us,” Storbon said.
They were back in their combat mindset, fully engaged with the battle in front of them.
It was something that was hard to explain, but it pushed them all to remember their training better, to fight harder and increased their lethality through every means.
They looked like hell, but they fought like demons.
Hopefully we’ve passed enough creatures to allow us another round. I wonder what’s in the prize hall.
Chapter: Temple of Earth’s Divinity
“You really want to go with them?” Clarissa hissed as she talked to Matt. Louie and the other heads of the trading caravan were around as well, a look of disappointment in their eyes.
“I’ve made my decision,” Matt said, not backing down in the slightest.
“They might seem kind but they will turn on you in an instant,” Clarissa said. She might not like having another mage in the group but she knew the value of Matt. He was not only good with
magic but also talented in other areas as well.
The rest of the heads all looked at Matt as well.
“Seems to be a running theme in the Third Realm,” Matt shot back. His eyes thinned. He was a nice and calm guy most of the time, but he wasn’t blind to her actions or what happened around him.
Clarissa closed her mouth and looked away as if she had been slapped.
“He’s a Sha though,” Louie said, concern in his voice. “They’re a group that lives for fighting and hold the most powerful empires in the Third Realm.”
Matt let out a laugh and shook his head. “We’re from the same place. They’re a bit south from me.”
The others looked at Matt in alarm. All of them were born and raised in the third realm but he didn’t hide that he was from somewhere else. They didn’t know if it was the first or third realm. Some of them looked down on him for it, others looked at him with praise making it this far.
The way he talked about Erik and Rugrat it made it seem like they were much closer than just a realm apart.
“Maybe he’ll even make me a gun, though sounds like he’ll want some coin for it,” Matt grumbled before shrugging. “Well, have a good one. I’ll see you later!” With that, Matt left.
None of them tried to hold him back; he had pretty much admitted that he was a Sha as well.
Matt went over to Erik and Rugrat, who had packed up their gear. They had sold their mounts to the caravan. With three of them, they couldn’t ride just the two beasts and they were walking toward a fight. The beasts might flee in the fighting, and they didn’t have time to worry about them.
“Fifty gold, not bad,” Rugrat said as Matt joined them.
“Okay, so where are we going?” Matt asked as they started walking.
Erik used his sound transmission instead of talking out loud in case the others were listening. “We’re going dungeon hunting.”
The Third Realm Page 9