The Third Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  “Thank you, Elise.” Egbert sat upright. “With their tier-three buildings, not only will they require Mana to function on a day-to-day basis, they will also need Mana stones or monster cores to power equipment or features inside.

  “Once a building reaches the third tier, then testing rooms will be added. These rooms cost Mana stones or monster cores to operate. They will simulate different materials that one might use while crafting and the person inside can use a fully immersive simulation to craft different items. They will not have a skill increase while using the testing room, but if they can replicate what they did in the testing room in real life, then they will be able to increase their skill quickly without wasting materials.

  “It will also allow people to work with materials that we don’t have, such as Earth- or Sky-grade materials. Then there are supportive crafting rooms. These rooms consume Mana, but they have built-in formations that will assist the crafter, making it easier for them to make higher quality goods with less failures.”

  Everyone in the room could understand how important these rooms could be in the future, but they didn’t look like Taran, who looked as if he had reverted back into a small boy with shining eyes.

  He even had to wipe away a tear at Egbert’s words, making the others look away uncomfortably.

  “A Mana stone to test out something, though?” Glosil asked.

  “Right now, materials only cost a few silver or gold, but more powerful items or materials can reach the hundreds of gold and even cost a Mana stone. Say you have a few dozen ingredients…” Egbert said.

  “I think I need a raise for equipment.” Glosil looked to Blaze.

  Blaze rolled his eyes as Elise let out a cough.

  “Glosil has actually touched on something that I have been neglecting. As we have increased in the amount of materials we are moving and people becoming more skillful, the rate of pay has stayed the same. How can we expect the military to look after us when we’re not even paying them enough to get a single piece of armor, or the farmers enough money to buy their own plants? I am putting forward a pay raise across all branches of Ava,” Elise said, looking pained as she did so.

  “Which is another reason that the tier-three buildings will have to wait,” she added.

  “I hadn’t been really thinking about it, but as you say it, it makes sense. While a soldier might fight for us, it is our duty to look after them—make sure that they are paid well for what they do. We want them to worry about their training, not about making ends meet,” Blaze said. “I have seen it before when soldiers aren’t able to make enough money—corruption, doing jobs on the side for other people. They’re just doing it for their families, but it can lead to nasty consequences.”

  “Agreed,” Taran said. “Also, with the tier-three workshops, the higher workshops can come with a fee to use if we supply the power. More than the cost of a Mana stone. If they have a Mana stone, then they can use it freely.”

  “Good suggestion. We don’t have many Mana stones and all we do have are currently stuck to the roof. If they can use their Mana stones, it takes the drain off us; at a higher cost, it puts it on them to get Mana stones. As we get access to the higher realms or can fight more beasts in the battlefield dungeon, I don’t doubt that Mana stones will be more easily accessible, but for now we need to try to curb our energy output. We’re still growing,” Elise said.

  She was slowing them from jumping forward. If they expanded too much too fast, they might end up with the same problem Egbert had: running out of power.

  “We have advanced rapidly in a year. As much as it pains me to say so, we really need to look to the future instead of just our short-term goals now,” Taran said.

  “Already a third of our population are not originally from Alva. As we advance, it takes them longer to catch up with everyone else. If we don’t consolidate our gains, we will be hamstringing ourselves,” Blaze said.

  “It is my hope that within six months our population will reach one thousand. Now that we have the infrastructure, we need the people to push it,” Elise said.

  The others were shocked by her bold statement but they agreed to it.

  “Truly, Erik and Rugrat picked the right council leader,” Blaze said. If it was him in Elise’s seat, he didn’t know whether he would have been able to do as much as her.

  “Yeah, because they didn’t want to run this place. Reminds me of someone else I know.” Elise pressed her lips together as she looked at Blaze, who squirmed in his seat.

  The others hid grins behind their hands.

  ***

  “Looks like those are the people tailing us,” Rugrat said as he followed George’s directions. He could sense two people separating out from the crowd behind him. They had left the upper regions of Khusai long ago; now they were underneath the mountain, where torches gave off oily flames, making it hard to see as they passed dark alleyways with people rushing from place to place and hiding indoors.

  A bottle could be heard breaking in the distance, people yelling at one another, small beasts fighting over scraps, and people wasting away in their drink.

  George let out a bark in Rugrat’s ear.

  “We’re close. Let’s deal with these two before we get Domonos. Don’t want to get pincered between the two forces,” Rugrat said.

  Matt started to silently summon his scarenn swarm. They all dropped to the ground as they were summoned, not making a noise and nearly invisible in the dim light.

  Rugrat led them down an alleyway. The two tails sped up to reach them.

  “Now!” Rugrat said.

  The scarenn swarm beat their wings and rushed forward.

  One of them started chanting a spell, but the scarenn rushed into their mouth, making them cry out in pain as their spell backlashed, dropping them to the ground.

  Rugrat put a crossbow bolt into the mage as Matt fired on the other who rushed forward. But the bolt didn’t penetrate; he leaped forward, tackling Matt as the swarm rushed to help him.

  The mage shot out a fireball. It missed Rugrat but hit the wall. The shockwave tossed him off his feet and into the other wall.

  Rugrat’s head was rattled. His vision swam as he fired at the mage. The bolt clipped their side, making them cry out.

  George shot forward, reaching his full length. He swatted the mage, smashing them into the ground before he lunged forward, his teeth ripping the mage’s throat apart.

  Dust rolled through the alley, making it hard to see. Rugrat’s head was pounding, his vision fucked. He pulled out a new crossbow, seeing Matt and the melee fighter on the ground.

  The scarenn swarm was getting into every crack in the melee fighter’s armor, stinging him and trying to force him off their summoner.

  Matt was using his empty bow to try to protect himself and push the fighter off him.

  Rugrat jammed his crossbow against the melee fighter’s head and pulled the trigger.

  The man slumped forward onto Matt.

  Rugrat fell backward as Matt wriggled out from under the melee fighter.

  Rugrat took a healing potion. As he started to heal, his head stopped bouncing around.

  “Come on!” Rugrat grabbed at the tombstone and took everything. A new storage ring appeared in his hand. Matt got to his feet and grabbed a fresh crossbow as Rugrat looted the mage. George remained in his full form as they ran, hearing people approaching where they had been fighting.

  Rugrat turned a corner, seeing a bunch of guards.

  “Rugrat? We’ve been sent by the Alchemist Association to help you!” a guard yelled out as Rugrat and Matt leveled crossbows at him.

  He pointed to an emblem on his chest, the same as what others in the Alchemist Association wore but it was black in color.

  “Shit. Why didn’t you say so sooner?” Rugrat pointed his crossbow upward. “I just need to get my friend Domonos and then we can meet up with Erik.”

  “Very well, lead the way,” the guard captain said.

  Rugrat nodded, ge
sturing to George.

  ***

  Luke Jonsain was pacing the villa that he and his sister were staying in. Well, the villa that he was staying in now. She had not reappeared after she made it into the third round of the trial.

  “What have you done now, brother?” Jing’er’s enraged voice ripped through the house.

  He had never heard of his sister being angry and was shocked as he went to the front, where his sister was walking in.

  “Send a message to Father. Erik West is a direct disciple of Expert Zen Hei, one of the three pill heads of the Third Realm,” she yelled at Luke’s butler, who nodded, his face going pale as he pulled out an expensive message scroll.

  “Who are you to order my butler around!” Luke yelled out.

  “Know your place, you idiot! Do you know what you have done?” Jing’er shouted back.

  “Just because you have made it through to the third trial, do you think that you are above your brother? I will show you!”

  “Luke Jonsain, you are under arrest for interfering in the processes of the Alchemist Association.” A woman’s voice came from above. There were three winged beasts in the sky, with a rider standing on them. Each of the riders had a black Alchemist Association badge. They were part of the Alchemist Association guards.

  “I...” Everything was moving too fast for him to understand just what was happening.

  A glow appeared on the butler’s wrist as he received a long-range message. He listened to it as Luke gathered himself.

  “Luke Jonsain, you are stripped of your position and your rights as a Jonsain. You are removed from the family. If you ever try to use the name of the family again in the future, the punishment will be death. The lord of Girus sends his deepest apologies.” The butler bowed to the guards.

  “It is not him who he has to say them to,” the woman leading the guards said.

  A bell rung out in Khusai.

  Journeyman Wu’s words rolled through the city.

  “Girus city of the Hechonate kingdom has violated the rules of the Alchemist Association’s application trial. I, Journeyman Wu, in agreeance with Journeyman Di and Rakesh, declare that Girus city will only be allowed three participants in each application trial for the next ten years and that the lord of the city be changed to someone with an upright and noble stature. The Jonsain family will only be allowed one person into the preliminary trials per year.”

  “Is that the Alchemist Bells of the Third Realm?” someone asked.

  The Alchemist Association had made the Third Realm theirs; as such, they had bells built in all of the major cities that would allow the alchemists to ask for assistance and pass on messages and decrees.

  Journeyman Wu had used the bells to pass down one of these decrees.

  One could see the death of Girus city and the Jonsain family in the future. They had been a powerful family based on their position in the city and their ability to create alchemists.

  Now that there were so few of them allowed into the coming trials in the future, their strength would decline. They would be removed from the running of the city and shunned.

  Members of the family might marry outward just so that they and their following generations would have a chance at prosperity.

  With only three spots for the entire city, people would leave, going to cities with more spots to increase their chances.

  Luke’s anger and vitriol was all drained as a chill ran through his body.

  He had thought his butler was lying; now he saw the realities before him.

  The three guards from the Alchemist Association dropped from their flying beasts and circled Luke.

  “No. This can’t be happening. What is this all about?” Luke yelled, trying to back away from them but finding no one there ready to help him.

  “You interfered in the trial and tried to attack one of the fellow participants,” the woman smirked, “and the Alchemist Association doesn’t take kindly to busybodies messing with their business.”

  Chapter: Promotion

  It had been a busy day.

  Julia was sitting down at one of the tea shops outside of the main arenas. She had gone at the behest of her granduncle, to see beyond her horizons.

  With the announcements that had come one after another, she had been surprised, and then she had seen his face.

  When she had been going into the Beast Mountain trial, there had been two men who had rushed across the stage under the attacks of multiple elders and made it into the dungeon.

  She and the others all thought that they were dead.

  Then she saw one of them as he walked forward to accept his position as one of the forty people who would be heading to participate in the third part of the trial.

  After everything was done, she had gone to the tea house across the street. She was nursing her tea, a pensive look on her face.

  Granduncle always thought that there were more secrets to the Beast Mountain trial than what one could see on the surface. Now I can’t help but think he was right.

  She had seen Domonos coming up from the First Realm to the Third. When it was just one person, she might think it a coincidence; he had been raised by a sect, after all. But this Erik West—he was a middle-aged man from the First Realm who had forced his way into the dungeon with his friend.

  Now he was standing at the top of the tier-two cities in all of the Third Realm. When she saw him, he was nothing more than a fighter, but in less than a year he had gotten this far.

  There just had to be something more to that dungeon.

  She swirled her cup of tea as one of her attendants moved up close to her.

  “A message has come from the sect. They want you to report immediately for your ascension,” the attendant said.

  Julia threw back the remaining tea, her eyes still distant.

  “The Fourth Realm,” she said to herself. Other members of her family had gone into the Fourth Realm and had told her of the things that she might find there. For some, there were riches and glory to be found; for the sects, it was a proving ground and a place of riches, if they could win their battles. To many, it was the end of their path.

  It was in the Fourth Realm that the competition really started. Julia would not only be fighting against those who challenged her sect, but those within her sect to get more resources to increase in power. It was where she could start to make her power base.

  This was her reward for placing well in the fighting competition against the other sects.

  She looked at the arena once more before turning away.

  The First Realm, the Third—everything else had to be pushed from her mind as she went into the Fourth Realm. Distractions could kill as surely as a blade.

  ***

  Domonos woke up and looked around the room. He moved around, readying himself for a fight.

  His movements paused as he realized that he could move, that he wasn’t in pain.

  “Don’t rip the IVs out!” a man yelled angrily as he moved forward.

  Domonos’s instincts had been trained over the last year to a peak. He could tell that the man was dangerous—that if he wanted to, he could easily injure Domonos.

  “Who are you?” Domonos demanded as he noticed that there were lines of liquid going into his body.

  “Erik West. Now don’t fuck up the lines there, Silaz!” Erik said.

  Domonos calmed down some as he tried to collect his thoughts. He remembered being under the tarp, being pulled out and dropped on the ground. The pain nearly made him pass out as he was pulled into a house filled of screams, both pain and pleasure.

  He had been thrown into a cage, a broken man, coughing as a rib had punctured his lung and was filling up with blood.

  Then there were noises—people yelling, sounds of battle.

  He blacked out, remembered feeling a healing energy through his body as he saw Rugrat’s serious face, yelling at someone.

  Then waking up here.

  “Because your body was so messed up, it loo
ks like you actually went through a body tempering, very basic one but your body is a bit stronger.” Erik checked the lines and sat in a chair.

  He looked like a simple man: strong, with strong features and blue eyes. He looked relaxed and at ease, but this only made Domonos feel uneasy as he sensed that Erik was truly relaxed. Not because his guard was down, but because he knew he could kill everything that was a threat to him in the nearby area without a worry.

  “All right, well, there are two options ahead of you. One, we split up here, or two, you come with us to Resam. I have a contest I need to do there to meet with a friend, then we can head to the First Realm. You can meet with your family. What do you think?”

  Domonos had placed his trust in others and been betrayed; people had stabbed him in the back, nearly killed him for a perceived slight.

  He had needed to rely on only himself. The sect might look nice on the outside but it was a battlefield on the inside with everyone trying to take from one another.

  Domonos looked at Erik. He hadn’t needed to save him. He could have left him alone. If he wasn’t wrong, the liquid in those lines were different potions. No one else other than his family might spend that kind of wealth on him.

  He wanted to trust them but history kept on pulling him.

  “If you will take me, then I can be a guard,” Domonos said.

  “Fair. Level twenty-four—guess you should have picked something up getting to the Third Realm based off just fighting. You have any supporting occupations?” Erik asked.

  Domonos shook his head in the negative.

  “You and Yui are too alike, focusing on just fighting. We’ll see if we can fix that. Now, before we do anything, I’m going to need you to take an oath, for not only the safety of the others coming with us, but for your sister, brother, and others like them,” Erik said.

  “Of course,” Domonos said.

  ***

  Journeyman Wu had sent a message on behalf of Journeyman Di to the administrators of the Alchemist Association to tell them about Erik and the fact that he had Zen Hei’s medallion. They might be a high existence in the eyes of the people of the Third Realm, but in the Alchemist Association their position wasn’t that high at all.