The Third Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  “Well, this sucks.” Erik looked at the schedule. All of their watches were in the middle of the night, meaning if they wanted to sleep, it’d be interrupted.

  “Isn’t it only a few days to get to the city? We don’t need to sleep that much.” Rugrat shrugged as he messed up his carving. He swore and turned the hunk of metal, starting again on a new side.

  Chapter: End of Beast Mountain Trial

  Elder Rei and the other sects that had been waiting around could only watch as the gates to the Beast Mountain trial faded away and the light in the stage dimmed, announcing the end to the dungeon trial.

  Medallions appeared in front of the different sects whose people had done well.

  One of the Willful Institute’s elders grabbed the medallions hanging in the air and stored them away. The Willful Institute had done well, placing in the top three of all the sects.

  Still, Elder Rei couldn’t help but frown at the results. “We will return to the Second Realm as soon as possible,” he announced as he made ready to move.

  The others followed him as the other sects left the battlefield stage empty.

  He needed to report these changes to the sect as soon as possible.

  ***

  Bobby O’Brien looked at the others in the room. He had long ago hidden his Demon Reaper sword.

  The people in the room were only those from the First Realm. None of the sect members were around. There were eighteen people in total, in different groups that they had formed before battle or when they reached the stage.

  All of them had gotten an offer for more Strength if they were willing to work for it.

  They had accepted and been teleported to the waiting hall. It was like the other teleportation halls that they had appeared in, where they could walk through the door and enter battle with the creatures on the other side.

  This time, when they went up to the door, they weren’t able to open it.

  They had been there for a day now as a new light flashed and nearly fifteen people appeared.

  Everyone went silent looking at the group. They released an unconscious pressure that weighed on all of the people in the room.

  These people aren’t to be fucked with. Bobby was ready to draw his weapon if he needed to. He might die, but he’d do it fighting.

  “Welcome to the second part of the trial, the application. My name is Blaze.” Blaze stepped forward. Like the others, he had custom armor.

  That must be Journeyman armor. Bobby compared the workmanship against that of his sword. He spent hours looking after the blade and he knew it intimately.

  His eyes widened as he realized all of the group wore Journeyman-level armor and weapons freely.

  Just who the hell are these people?

  “You’re all probably thinking, what the fuck is going on? Why did I agree to this? Well, we’re here to offer you a chance, a chance to hone your fighting skills to fight alongside us.”

  “Can we say no?” one asked with a sneer.

  “Sure you can. This is part of the dungeon, after all. You’ve come to the second part of it. If you want, you can say ‘I want to leave the dungeon’ and you’ll be teleported somewhere randomly outside of the Beast Mountain Range, though you must swear an oath to never spread any information about this second part of the trial. What does it hurt to get more information?” Blaze smiled.

  “What do you want from us?” someone else asked.

  “We’ve looked into your backgrounds. We’ve seen your skills, your determination. We want to offer you a place in our town. A place to train your fighting skills and the ability to challenge the Beast Mountain trial again and again. The chance to train in a craft, like Alchemy, healing, smithing, tailoring and more.”

  Blaze’s words created a ripple as people talked to one another.

  Blaze cleared his throat and the noise in the room quieted down.

  “To learn more, each of you will have to complete an oath to the Ten Realms to protect the people of Alva. Please step forward and complete the oath. Once we’re all complete, then we can head to Alva,” Blaze said.

  Not seeing any other option and interested, people started to step forward.

  They were given an oath to say by one of the people from Alva and then moved to the side once it was completed. It didn’t take them long to complete the oaths.

  “Egbert?” Blaze said into the sky.

  “One second—doing something.” The voice that replied was the same one that had talked through the trial and the one that had given them the offer to come to this place.

  “All right, there we go. This is coming out of your budget!”

  The room turned white as Bobby readied himself for an attack.

  They appeared in a large cavern, looking at Alva city.

  Guards and medics stationed around the teleportation array looked at them, talking in interest.

  “Follow me.” Blaze took off and walked toward a large fortress in the distance.

  The group talked excitedly to one another, looking at the medics and guards then the buildings in the distance, trying to get a better idea of just what Alva was.

  ***

  Roska and her team had arrived in Chonglu, meeting up with one of the military information officers who gathered information from the local populace and created an information network around Alva Dungeon.

  They’d been bundled into a caravan and sent toward the Beast Mountain Range.

  They had stayed in the trading outpost, waiting for the Beast Mountain trial to be cleared.

  Tully was now fully conscious and her limbs were healing nicely. With just healing powders, Yang Zan, and her own regenerative abilities, she would be healed in just a few days.

  Once she met with the information officer in Chonglu, Roska was able to relax, knowing that Alva Dungeon was safe, that Erik and Rugrat had been able to get a dungeon core for it and restore operations. It still needed more before it was fully operational, but at least their home was safe and secure for the time being.

  The rest of the team had all been able to finally relax and wonder just what they would get for the items they had acquired in the Second Realm.

  She opened the door to the house that their contact in the trading outpost had organized for them.

  She let out a whistle, bringing heads out of the different rooms. “Looks like it’s time to go home. Transport has been organized,” Roska said.

  “Woo-hoo!” Han Wu grinned and jumped. Gong Jin shook his head as Imani snorted at their antics.

  “Yes! Showers!” Hang Zan yelled from one of the rooms.

  “The cookhouse!” Tully yelled back from her room.

  Rosa’s stony expression crumbled as she laughed and smiled.

  Alva village had once only been a place she was stuck, unable to go anywhere else, but Alva Dungeon had become her home.

  “When do we leave?” Gong Jin asked.

  “As fast as you can pack your shit up!”

  ***

  “In conclusion, we’ve gained thirteen new people for Alva Dungeon from the Beast Mountain trial. A number of them have expressed interest in crafting as well as joining the military. They are being organized and sorted out by Blaze. Have I missed anything?” Elise asked.

  “Sounds about it,” Glosil said.

  “Now we just need to save up money to bring our crafting buildings to tier three,” Taran said.

  “And open trade routes into the Second Realm,” Jasper added.

  “Get our special teams into the Third Realm,” Blaze inserted.

  “And start capturing a few dungeons of strategic value,” Glosil reminded everyone.

  “Anything else?”

  “We could always use more books,” Egbert said.

  “Out, out—all of you! Go get to work and come back to me with your plans!” Elise shooed them away.

  The others all smiled. As time had gone on, their positions had been reaffirmed, with each of them getting a budget out of the treasury. More money had t
o be okayed by Elise. Instead of making group decisions, they had come to know their roles, their people, and their facilities so it was up to them to come up with plans and ways to execute them—checking with the others when necessary. The population of Alva was growing; if they continued to debate every decision, then nothing would be completed.

  The meeting came to a close as they continued their old tradition and headed to the cookhouse to get a meal.

  Chapter: Pill Press and Human Glowstick

  Rugrat scratched behind George’s ears. The firewolf was in his smaller form, sitting on his shoulders as they sped down the main road toward their next destination.

  There was nothing to do but sit there as they traveled. The wind was too loud to have anything like a true conversation unless Rugrat wanted to scream at the man beside him.

  Instead, he read a scroll on the body’s Mana system.

  He put it away with a sour look on his face. He still couldn’t find anything that might help him repair his Mana channels. If I can’t repair my Mana channels, then I might not be able to cultivate Mana Gathering.

  Rugrat fell into thought, frowning heavily. I’ll just have to look harder. There has to be something. If not, then maybe in the Alchemist Association, there can be something to help me.

  Rugrat glanced back at Erik’s carriage. He had no doubts in his friend’s skills or his determination. Rugrat was also pinning his hopes for a cure on him, but he didn’t want to tell him that, adding even more pressure to Erik’s life and the contest.

  They passed others along the road and didn’t run into any bandits.

  The other mercenaries were eager to show off to one another and leapt at the chance to kill animals that were startled by the noise and ran away from the carriages.

  Rugrat shook his head and settled into his seat. “Erik, wake me up if anything kicks off.”

  “Will do,” Erik replied.

  Rugrat closed his eyes and went to sleep, trying to forget his worries.

  “Coming up on our next city.” Erik’s words woke Rugrat.

  Rugrat opened his eyes, blinking to clear the sleep from them as he saw a city in the distance.

  “Hopefully they’ve got something for a smith like me!” Rugrat sent back.

  “I’m going to bet it’s more enhancers,” Erik said.

  “Yeah—alchemist garden. Makes sense. There’s not all that much fighting here and most of the production of weapons happens in the Fourth Realm. Someone can mine Mortal iron right out of the ground and there’s a low chance of finding Earth-grade iron,” Rugrat said, his initial excitement dulled.

  I can’t even create Mortal-grade iron with my messed-up Mana channels. If I can’t do that, I can’t even try to inject more Mana into the metal and increase its grade.

  “I have a feeling that the Fourth Realm isn’t going to be that easy to handle,” Erik said in a grave tone.

  Their chat ended there and it wasn’t long before they reached the city.

  The mercenaries and travelers who were staying in the city split away from the group. The core traders secured the caravan and had their own guards watching over them as the mercenaries were put on leave.

  Most of them went off in one group. Erik went to go find a place to buy ingredients and practice more Alchemy. Rugrat went looking for enhancers as well as information on a possible cure for his Mana channel issue and Matt went shopping.

  ***

  Two days went by. As Erik woke up on the second day, he had breakfast while reading the formula for the Mana Regeneration pill.

  All concoctions were mixtures, but pills were much more concentrated and compacted than the other two forms of concoctions. The pills were fundamentally different, as in the formation stage there was the pill core formation and then the tempering stage.

  The pill core was the center of the pill, the thing that drew in the medical power of the other ingredients. It was kind of like a planet’s core, pulling in everything else and allowing it to retain its form. Once the ingredients combined with the pill core, it created a newborn pill. This pill could be pulled out from the cauldron and used. Its efficacy would be higher than a potion or powder of the same grade, but it would be the simplest form of pill.

  In the tempering stage, a pill would increase in strength, the impurities removed and the strength of the ingredients heightened. Although it would increase in medicinal strength, it would be harder to keep compressing. It was like instead of pumping more air into an air tank, you were decreasing the size of the air tank, increasing the pressure but decreasing the size. The volatility only increased but then the pressure or power released would be much greater.

  Erik cleared away his food and checked the room was secure before pulling out his cauldron and handmade tools. He had gotten Rugrat to create a Mana Gathering formation so that as he was making the pill, none of the power would be able to leak and alert the other people in the inn.

  Erik began the preparation stage, taking a number of ingredients, burning, heating, crushing, and separating out what he needed from what wasn’t.

  Once he had all of the preparations down, he prepared all of his ingredients.

  Once that was cleared, they moved on to the formation stage. He took a few moments to compose himself, heating his cauldron.

  He took out the prepared ingredients and placed them into the cauldron, the formula already burned into his mind as he worked.

  Erik had to match the knowledge of the formula to the reactions in the cauldron as it started to shake from the building medicinal strength gathered inside it.

  The cauldron handled it well but Erik found that his flames were less effective, requiring further concentration and a higher consumption of Mana.

  He added in ash of Keao. There was a rumbling side in the cauldron. In a rush to complete the pill, he hadn’t allowed the previous ingredients to fully combine, creating an imbalance. Erik tried to fight it with his flames.

  There was a suction noise as the entire pill ingredients went up in smoke and the cauldron turned silent. Erik looked at the cauldron for some time before he retracted his flames.

  He recovered, thinking on the pill making process and where he had gone wrong and tasted what was left to use his reverse alchemist ability to see what he could learn.

  “Well, at least I know some of the ways I went wrong,” Erik said after a few minutes, pulling out another set of already prepared ingredients and started again. His movements gained a greater measure of surety, the instructions to the formula becoming clearer.

  He worked again and again, getting further along the creation process with each trial. Using his reverse alchemist and his knowledge to refine his ability and discover where he had erred.

  He simply couldn’t think of the wealth he lost.

  Erik was no longer the clean and professional alchemist from before. His appearance was haggard and between the multiple attempts, he seemed to be only moments away from falling asleep.

  Still, his eyes remained focused and his movements refined throughout the failures.

  The cauldron took up his entire focus as he studied what was happening inside.

  There was a mixture of the appropriate ingredients inside, creating a layered fog. As the flames burned and more ingredients were added, at the center a small core was forming. It grew, going from the size of a grain of rice to the size of a fingertip.

  Everything in the cauldron seemed to pause for a moment, as if the pill core took a breath.

  The floating clouds of fog rushed in toward the pill core, combining together and wrapping it up.

  Erik added in his final ingredients as he moved his flames around, encapsulating the pill fog that adhered to the pill core.

  He kept on heating, turning and compressing. Then it felt as if he had run into a wall as he heard a notification in the back of his mind.

  He paid it no attention as he looked at the dull blue pill. It had veins of different colors running through that let off vapors as it continu
ed to be rotated and heated, reducing in size.

  I wish I could create something like my centrifuge to do this for me.

  Erik’s centrifuge was really good, but it only looked to separate different density liquids. He needed to heat all of the pill at the same time and rotate that heat in order to compress it properly.

  As he went, the difficulty continued to increase, increasing the stress on him and his anxiety as he wondered how far he could go.

  “Another bottleneck?” Erik muttered aloud. He had been working with his Mana for so long it felt as though his Mana channels had been rubbed raw from constantly pulling in and pushing out Mana.

  He felt as if the pill were still the same grade it had been before, but it didn’t have so many impurities. If he was able to pass through this bottleneck, he could increase the overall grade of the pill.

  Erik thought about stopping. He had made his first pill, which was already a big achievement. Even if I fail in trying to increase it by a grade, then I might learn something from it and maybe the next one will be able to make it passed the bottleneck.

  Erik gathered his strength and increased the rotation and heat on the pill. The pill started to shake, fighting him. Sweat appeared on his forehead as he upped the Mana flames and the spin.

  It was as though he were fighting with a locked-up nut—he just needed to increase the pressure just a bit and it would come and he could make it!

  He felt as if he had cracked through something and a wave of vapor left the pill as it shrank rapidly.

  Erik tried to compensate and cover, but the sudden changes left him scrambling.

  The pill exploded, ringing the cauldron as if it were a bell.

  Erik looked at the pill vapor that came out of the cauldron, marking his failure.

  He let out a sigh and fell backward, lying on the ground as fatigue overtook his body and shut down his mind.

  He laid there thinking on the formation process as the darkness took him.

  As he slept, he dreamed of Alchemy.