The Third Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  There were also multiple sects that would come to this city to do trade, train, and learn of the outside world.

  It was carved into a small mountain, with the interior being carved out to create homes for the two million people who called it home. It looked like an anthill as it rose out of the marsh and swamp lands around it. For five kilometers around the city’s walls, one could see the growing fields where ingredient farmers worked.

  Once they entered the fields, everyone sighed in relief. They had only been stopping while it was dark and riding as soon as it was light. It had reduced their time to the city but it had left them exhausted.

  Matt had been in fights before, he had taken other’s lives, but he still wasn’t used to the kind of destruction that had come from the bandits’ attack. He was badly shaken by the sheer brutality. All he wanted to do was lead a peaceful life, to trade with others, see whether he could build something in the Ten Realms, and go on adventures here and there.

  So far, he had lived through multiple attempts on his life and he had killed other men, through his crossbow and his summons.

  One thing that Rugrat had said to him stuck in his mind.

  “Everyone says that it is either us or them. People who haven’t been in a fight always go and say that there is another option. Most of the time there isn’t. Either you put them down, or else you, or the people around you, will be the ones to die. The Ten Realms doesn’t know something like mercy. They might have escaped us but I doubt that they will get away from the Golden Arrow.”

  Life was cheap in the Ten Realms.

  Matt felt that he was lucky to get to know Erik and Rugrat, but he didn’t know whether he could fight alongside them so much. It was tiring having your life on the line.

  He was brought out of his thoughts as Lucy finished talking to the guard and paying the fee for them to enter Khusai.

  They passed through the massive gates, the sloping city—built into Khusai Mountain—revealed before them. They continued forward, headed for the trader district. The people in the caravan had relaxed around Erik, Rugrat, and Matt, telling them about Khusai.

  Along the face of the mountain, roads spiraled upward so that people could get to the more influential people of Khusai who lived at the peak of the mountain or the arenas that had been cut out at different heights.

  The traders and caravaneers all seemed to relax as their hands came off their weapons and they started to crack jokes.

  It wasn’t long until they got to the place that the White Orchid Trading Company was staying.

  Matt jumped down and stretched, seeing Erik and Rugrat doing the same as they moved toward him.

  Lucy and Boros also came up.

  “We cannot thank you enough for what you’ve done,” Lucy said.

  Boros stepped forward and held out a storage ring.

  Erik took it and took out a few gold coins and returned the storage ring. “It is only what we agreed on,” he said, passing it back.

  Lucy and Boros could only smile, slightly embarrassed. They wanted to use this as a show of goodwill and try to remove any tension between them.

  Erik didn’t want to be bound to them anymore and accepting gifts could lead to them asking for their help.

  “Look after yourselves,” Rugrat said as they turned away and headed out of the building that the White Orchid was using.

  “How much did they offer?” Matt asked, unable to help himself. They entered the street and passed other properties that were packed with traders who had arrived to make their gold off the people coming for the yearly Alchemist Association recruitment event.

  “Too much. With the amount they gave us, I’d feel like we owed them something,” Erik said.

  “Makes sense—don’t want to get tangled up in random problems,” Rugrat said.

  Matt looked at the two, blinking, as he was unable to form any words.

  “Don’t want to get into any random problems?” How many cities have you had to run from, or lords have you pissed off?

  After some internal debate, Matt was finally able to speak again. “So, what’s the plan?”

  “Uh, well, I was hoping you could help out with that.” Erik came to a stop, losing all of his cool factor from before. “You know Khusai, right?”

  “Yes, sir.” Matt grinned. “Though I don’t think they’ll have any of those erotica books you’re so into.”

  “Ugh, just made me think of that old skeleton.” Rugrat shivered.

  Erik snorted. “Well, I need a place where I can work without being disturbed.”

  “I need somewhere that I can smith, need to fix up your armor.” Rugrat sounded despondent.

  “Well, I still have a bunch of items from the temple to sell. I might not be good at crafting, but I can get you items from the market if you need, and sell the products,” Matt said.

  Rugrat grunted, noncommittal.

  “First we’re going to need a place, and not just an inn room that we have to tiptoe around. I happen to know a few places, but they won’t be cheap,” Matt warned.

  “As long as we keep it discreet. Those people from Girus might be here, so it would be best if you deal with it,” Erik said.

  “Okay.”

  “We’ll just hang out right there.” Rugrat pointed to the nearest bar.

  Matt raised an eyebrow. “Suuure you will. Just make sure you save some for me and chicken wings if they’ve got it!”

  “Can do!” Rugrat grinned.

  “Damn, I need a beer!” Erik said.

  “Dick.” Matt shook his head and flashed him the finger as he set off toward the rental offices he knew.

  Chapter: Advancements

  Matt was able to quickly find them all a place to stay in Khusai. After a day of resting, drinking, and eating, they moved into the new place.

  Rugrat went around, making sure that they had Mana Gathering formations placed so that none of the energy would escape the residence. It was away from the others as he’d learned that possible problem when he had been trying to work in his smithy in Hersht. He had Matt buy a sound dampening formation; thankfully they were relatively inexpensive.

  Once those were placed, they put down the smithy and Erik set up his gear inside one of the larger barns that was supposed to hold carriages.

  The back of Rugrat’s smithy was where Erik worked on his Alchemy.

  Between the two, they placed the dungeon core. It would grow stronger from being in a Mana-rich environment, purifying the Mana and feeding it into Rugrat’s furnace and into Erik’s Alchemy instruments and flames.

  They just had a few weeks until the contest started, so Erik sent Matt out with a list of supplies that he needed for the concoctions he planned to craft.

  Rugrat first worked on updating the tools Erik had, like the centrifuge and the tools to guide his flames and worked on the different metal equipment.

  Rugrat had to take frequent breaks, his face twisted in pain as he drank to try to dull it. Mana potions only made it worse. Erik didn’t say anything, focusing on his own work.

  Rugrat finished updating Erik’s alchemy tools and then began to repair Erik’s Ass Kicker set.

  Rugrat had to take even more breaks. The stress on his Mana channels was too much for him as he was working with Mortal-grade iron. The more Mana he injected into the iron, the easier it was to move it and it heightened the possibility of it increasing a grade to Earth-grade metal.

  He was frustrated, wanting to push through the pain and ignore it.

  The only thing stopping him was the knowledge that if he did, it would only make his condition worse.

  He had to give his body the time it needed to recuperate.

  In his breaks, Rugrat took time to look around the city to take it in and take a breather for the first time in ages.

  It was hard for him to do so as he would come back to see Erik in the middle of working on his pills, potions, and powders.

  Erik was studying the Journeyman-level potion Iron Skin, taking
his time to build up his knowledge with making the other Alchemy items. Part of it was because it was harder; the other was the expensive nature of the ingredients. Iron Skin was a mid-Journeyman-level potion but it cost nearly four hundred gold to get all of the ingredients. They all thought that this was a sort of control that the Girus lord had added; if someone other than his children were to get the formula, it would wreck them financially and put a large burden on their backers.

  Just three sets of ingredients were worth nearly a full Mana stone. Erik didn’t want to waste Mana stones, so he improved his ability with the lower-level formulas, starting to automate part of the formation process, having the prepared ingredients added in together through use of alchemical tools and then performing the final combination at the final stage.

  This was taking Alchemy to a whole new level as he was turning it into a factory-like process.

  With just a week to go, Erik finished working on his concoctions and rested. He slept, ate, and drank with Rugrat and Matt before he returned to his Alchemy station. He took out the formula for the Iron Skin potion and put it to the back of the forge so it was right in front of him.

  He took in a deep breath of the pure and dense Mana; his hands moved as ingredients appeared, falling into a line of containers as Erik started the third stage of Alchemy, preparation.

  Erik worked tirelessly. Through failure and through losing Mana stones’ worth of ingredients, he would simply see where he had gone wrong, adjust, and try again.

  Matt went pale as he saw the expenditure Erik was putting forth.

  Five days later, Erik was looking haggard. The Clean spell allowed him to remain clean even without needing to shower and his clothes were still fresh. But his expression was terrible; he drank a Stamina potion even as he worked.

  Erik pulled the lid of the cauldron off. Inside, one could see a grayish-purple liquid. Above it, there was a dropper with a container of crystals on a filter a few inches under the dropper.

  Erik maintained the movement of the solution in the cauldron as he adjusted the dropper, allowing a gray, thick solution out of the top container. It dropped on the crystals, turning more viscous before it passed through the filter and dropped into the cauldron.

  The solution started to bubble faster. Erik wanted to pour more of the gray sludge out but he held his patience—watching, containing, heating, and moving.

  The solution in the cauldron started to change colors—slowly, slowly, then it all changed at once. Erik stopped the liquid from coming through the crystals, swinging it away so it couldn’t fall into the cauldron as he dropped the lid back on the cauldron.

  The solution within was undergoing metamorphosis, needing all of Erik’s concentration. Too much heat, not enough movement, Mana, ambient temperature: all of these things came into play.

  Erik worried for three whole minutes after the solution had stabilized into a potion, thinking he had messed it up and his tired brain running on autopilot.

  Erik slowed the heat and opened the top of the cauldron tentatively. Inside, he could see a gray and light-blue potion with blood-like drops in it.

  Erik started to laugh, falling backward. He fell on the grass, pushing out his numb legs and punching his fist into the sky.

  He was ready to pass out as he smiled and looked at his notifications, eager to see the rewards for his troubles.

  ==========

  Skill: Alchemy

  ==========

  Level: 55 (Journeyman)

  ==========

  Able to identify 1 effect of the ingredient.

  Ingredients are 5% more potent.

  ==========

  ==========

  Upon advancing into the Journeyman level of Alchemy, you will be rewarded with one randomly selected item related to this skill.

  ==========

  You have received the item: Iron Castle

  +100,000 EXP

  ==========

  ==========

  623,470/1,055,000 EXP till you reach Level 31

  ==========

  Rugrat was resting between turns working in the smithy.

  On the work table, there were several different kinds of ores. It would be more accurate to call them different iron alloys that had been tempered and combined with exotic enhancers.

  He had collected dozens of enhancers from all across the Second and Third Realm. He had been working for the most part with the things that he knew: the Mortal-grade iron and regular iron. This was because he didn’t want to waste the expensive enhancers and he wanted to run further trials on them. Like with making his new rifle and components, testing was required to gain a deeper understanding of what happened to the iron once enhancers were added into the mix.

  Some increased the strength of the iron, some the flexibility; others drew out the elements in the metal, creating a lightning or Fire Affinity. Earth, Water and Wood Affinities were weak as they weren’t naturally suited for metals. Though they gave him ideas to use different ores that were more closely related to those elements with the enhancers.

  Some were easier to work with his flames; others more difficult.

  It was as if he were working with building block pieces. At first, he had been able to know what shape he wanted to turn them into and he had fumbled around until he had got it into that shape. Now, after doing that repeatedly, he had been able to put those pieces together into that same shape easily.

  Then, instead of using all kinds of different building blocks, he started to use the same colored ones. Then, he went and got an exclusive pack of blocks and wanted to replace those single color blocks, but now he wanted to style them, so that the new blocks not only fit into the shape he wanted, they made the item he wanted better than before.

  He had to look at a project not simply as separate parts—now, from the refining stage, he had to refine the iron into Mortal iron, then alloy it with the enhancers. Completing his preparation and his formation stage was smithing and hammering the metal into the form he wanted and adding in greater detail with his Mana blade.

  Not all of the metals were easy to cut with the Mana blade, requiring him to take breaks.

  Now the only part he was missing was the formations.

  There were formations all over the place, but most of them were handed down and although not expensive, it was nearly impossible to look at a formation and understand how it worked.

  There was one reason that it was nearly impossible to find a formation master in the Mortal realm: Mana density. In each overarching realm—Mortal, Earth, Sky, Celestial, Divine—the power of the realm was greater. Formations were Mana-heavy devices, requiring dozens of gems or Mana stones to power them.

  This was why an Apprentice-level formation master from the Second Realm at a young age was such a big thing.

  Formation masters were found for the most part in the Fourth Realm, invited to work on defensive or attacking formations for massive sums of resources. Then there were the formation masters of the Sixth Realm.

  Rugrat had been leaving most of his weapons blank for two reasons. One, he felt that his skills in formations were lacking, that if he were to place a formation on them that he would mar them. It was like using a crappy bullet with one of his rifles: it worked, but it was so unsatisfying it kept on pulling at his mind.

  The second was that he only knew the Mana Gathering formation.

  He had searched Khusai with Matt and still they hadn’t been able to find any good formations—just a few extremely simple ones, but they weren’t useful for Rugrat and their base price was two Mana stones.

  Rugrat heard Erik let out a yell in excitement.

  Rugrat peered over, seeing Erik looking at a pill bottle.

  Rugrat smiled and went back to his list, looking over the enhanced ores in front of him, continuing his tests on them all. They might have ruined a chunk of Mortal-grade iron, but Rugrat thought of it as a small loss as he could always evolve more Mortal-grade ingots.

  Rugrat paused as he looked
at an alloyed iron ingot.

  He might have damaged his Mana channels severely but he was still highly sensitive to Mana.

  A frown appeared on his face. He pushed the other ingots away and pulled out a plain Mortal-grade ingot. He put his clipboard away and put his hands on both.

  He closed his eyes, focusing on the two iron ingots, using his Simple Inorganic Scan.

  He pursed his lips. I feel like the Mana is transmitted easier within this ingot. I should get out an iron ingot and compare against the Mortal grade.

  Rugrat did so, moving between the three ingots. The Mana conductivity is only slightly higher than the Mortal-grade iron but it is higher!

  Rugrat looked up with a shocked expression.

  “Maybe I was going about trying to turn Mortal-grade iron into Earth-grade metal? We know that the grades of iron increase with the more Mana density they are exposed to, causing them to evolve. Little to no Mana, iron; bit more, Mortal grade; a leap higher, Earth; another leap, Sky. One can inject their Mana into the metal to force an evolution, or they can place the metal into a massive Mana array, using Mana over time to increase its level. What if there was a third way—alloying the iron ore with an enhancer that contains a lot of Mana? The Mana array to passively evolve the metal—what if I was to just alloy the iron with, say, a piece of Mortal-grade Mana stone? Would it become Mortal-grade iron? Erik!” Rugrat let out a yell/cheer as he ran around the back of the smithy to see Erik passed out on the floor.

  He stopped on his tracks, gritting his teeth for fear of waking Erik up.

  Seeing he didn’t even move an eyelash, Rugrat slowly backed away from Erik and went back around to his smithy.

  He pulled out his notepad, writing down plans and ideas.

  After some time, he looked up at the smithy, at his tools and the flames. If I can’t use my Mana, can I even call myself a smith?

  Rugrat just stared at it all. He had been in nearly crippling pain as he worked in the smithy, his Mana channels aching constantly, unable to work more than a few minutes before he had to take a break or he’d do more harm to himself.