It was quieter here than on the other floors. People had their own rooms, securing their privacy as they could look out over the city.
Matt walked up to one door that the Alchemist Association guards stood in front of. He could feel the scanning spells they cast on him before they opened the door.
He walked through and saw Old Hei sitting at a table. He was nursing some wine and looking out at the city. The guards were in the room with him. Khasar, his captain, was opposite, drinking tea.
“Matt, you’ve done well with the design of this place and the food is incredible.” Old Hei raised his glass in salute.
“Thank you, Old Hei,” Matt said.
Old Hei’s smile became wider as he waved Matt to join them and poured him a drink.
“To your health.” Matt held up his wine.
“Odd thing to say to an alchemist. We’re supposed to be the healthiest, after the healers.” Hei laughed as they tapped cups together and drank deeply from them.
Hei let out a breath.
The two of them ate and talked about nothing important, just passing the time. It was nice to just relax and take time to talk as they let go of their daily worries and their need for outward appearances.
“Erik should be returning before he heads to the Fourth Realm. He’s preparing himself for the trip,” Matt said.
“The Fourth Realm is a dangerous place, a place where many have gone and most have fallen. It is a treasured land due to the fighting. It has disturbed the Mana, shaken it up and concentrated it, giving rise to dungeons of all kinds. The different empires fight over land, specifically land held by dungeons. Dungeons can increase one’s abilities plus the chance to give them hard-to-find resources. The empires might wage war but the neutral cities are the greatest power. They hold auctions, sell off resources, and buy items to be sold off to the higher realms.” Hei let out a deep sigh, moving his cup in his fingers.
“Have you been?” Matt asked.
“I did when I was younger and dumber,” Hei said in a voice that told Matt that there was a hidden story there.
“Come, let us see what is for dessert!” Old Hei said, forcefully changing the subject.
***
For the next month, battles raged through the Beast Mountain Range day and night. Sometimes it would be several times in just a few days, or days apart before a fight kicked off. Sections were paired up with the special teams; special teams were paired up with the platoons. Sides had indirect fire support or not. Erik and Rugrat were big believers that the basics were important, but the best way to learn was to do. In the fighting, the assigned groups came up with multiple well thought out ways to try to overcome the enemy: using hit-and-run tactics, creating ambushes, working to enter one another’s camp stealthily, creating multiple bases to make it hard for the enemy to find them, and go on counter-scouting operations, draining their forces.
This was what changed them from just recruits to soldiers: operating their weapons, breaking them down. What had been large tasks before didn’t even require conscious thought anymore, their brains focused on making the greatest use of what they had at their disposal, each of them adding their strength to one another when engaged with the enemy.
They adapted, using not only their standard weapons and tactics, but altering and readjusting them, using different weapons depending on their situation, allowing them more options on the battlefield.
Erik and Rugrat looked over the battlefield. The two forces were moving through the forest, and had engaged one another. They were fighting in ranged and close quarters situations as they were trying to gain an advantage over the other.
It was utter chaos, but both of the forces were working against one another, acting and reacting with no clear winner, both of them pushing themselves.
One side tried withdrawing and the other regrouped their strength: two different tactics but neither of them were wrong. They had moved beyond just searching and attacking the enemy immediately. Glosil looked to Erik and Rugrat with a questioning gaze.
“It looks like they’re ready for the next phase,” Erik said.
“Give them a weekend leave?” Rugrat asked.
They had been training for three months straight, five months if you included the leadership.
“They’ve earned it.” Erik nodded. For the first time in three months, a smile appeared on his face, proud of the fighting force they’d created.
Glosil knew how hard it was to earn Erik’s acknowledgement and stood straighter, seeing even that slight smile.
Chapter: Same Boys, Changed Men
“Qin! Qin!” Julilah called out as she entered Qin’s shop.
“What is it? You didn’t break the formation plates made by Tan Xue, right?”
“How can you break formation plates so easily! The army is back!” Julilah yelled with a smile on her face.
“They’re back?” Qin asked, brightening as she sat up more. Her brothers had been gone for three months without her seeing them once. She had spent more time in the library just to talk to Egbert. Her home felt cold and unfamiliar without Yui and the recent addition of Domonos.
“They’re marching in throught the checkpoints!” Julilah said.
Qin rushed out of the formation workshop and toward the barracks. As she got closer, she could hear the noise of boots hitting the ground in time.
She left the residential buildings and could see them passing the final checkpoint. All of them wore white gear as they marched into the dungeon and turned toward their barracks. They were broken up into groups; they were not snake meandering through Alva Dungeon as they left. They had changed. There was a gravitas about them: their faces were stony, emotionless as they moved as one. They were not people who just fought together; they were a unit of people, their reactions mirroring one another.
Qin had never seen a military parade before. A feeling of pride and awe welled up in her chest as she saw them all moving in complete unison.
She had a hard time trying to pick out Domonos and Yui among the men and women of Alva Dungeon’s military. She saw them and waved at them, but they didn’t seem to notice as they kept on marching. There were more lines on their faces plus you could see that there was a harder quality to them that was not there before. They seemed to be distant. She wanted to reach out and grab hold of them. She kept on running toward them, a smile on her face as the units entered the barracks.
People were allowed in but they were guided to the sides. They all looked as the formations of troops came to a halt, their boots smacking into the ground.
Erik and Rugrat moved to the front, slamming their feet down with perfect timing.
“At ease!” Erik called out. Everyone moved as one, resting at ease.
“All right, you will be given forty-eight hours of time to relax. Once you return, we’ll be issuing new kits and going over advanced lessons. Make use of your forty-eight hours of leave! You’ve done well.” His last sentence was quiet, with him smiling at the troops.
They straightened up as Erik tensed up.
“Attention!”
They all slammed their feet on the ground.
“Dismissed!”
The group turned and walked off to the side a few steps before they broke apart, smiling and laughing with one another before they headed for the barracks, or toward the dungeon and their families.
Qin saw Domonos and Yui and ran over to them. The two had found each other and were walking toward the gates when Qin came flying out of the crowd, nearly tackling them to the ground as she wrapped them up in a hug.
The two braced themselves, laughing and hugging her back.
“I missed you!” Qin said, trying to not let her emotions escape as she smiled up at them both.
“We missed you too.” Yui laughed, tousling her hair.
She looked up at him in annoyance, but it quickly broke into a smile as she batted his hand away.
“Shower first then get some food in?” Domonos asked.
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Yui said.
They headed off toward home. Qin kept on asking them questions the entire time they were walking, about what they were doing while training.
Domonos and Yui replied to her questions but they seemed distant when they talked about not sleeping for days, about being on watch, laughing about times when someone messed up or did something funny.
Qin smiled, but she didn’t quite understand it, steering the conversation away from training after some time.
They reached home and they went off to shower and Qin headed to the cafeteria. She picked up some prepared meals and hurried back home.
Domonos was on the couch, passed out. Qin stopped herself from waking him, seeing his tired expression. He had been so excited becoming a full-fledged member of Alva’s military it had overridden the extreme fatigue he felt. Once he had taken a shower, all of his piled-up fatigue had collapsed on him.
He must’ve gotten to the couch and passed out.
Qin went upstairs. “Yui! Dinner is ready!” she called out.
She heard snoring as she opened his bedroom door. He’d passed out on his bed. Looking at them both, by their expressions they had needed the sleep.
Qin sighed and closed the door. She wanted to spend the night talking, eating, and asking about what had happened, but it looked as though they wouldn’t be able to keep their eyes open.
Qin stretched and yawned, grabbing some food before she headed up to her room.
***
Qin woke up first, getting Domonos off the couch.
“Lieutenant Silaz!” he yelled. Within a few seconds a still half concious Yui opened his door.
“What is it?” Yui asked from above.
“Breakfast!” Qin said as Domonos rubbed his eyes and sat upright.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to pass out like that. You could have woken me up,” Domonos said.
“I didn’t want to. You both looked like you needed the sleep,” Qin said.
“Guess we did.” Domonos stood.
Yui joined them and they sat around the table, pulling out breakfast.
Yui and Domonos talked to each other about what might be happening in two days, talking about new weapon systems and on scouts, firearms, repeating ballista crews.
They were talking about trades whose only goal was to kill other people, or assist in killing other people with ease.
Qin listened. The more she listened, she knew that they were fighters, but it was just a part of them. It wasn’t all they were. She didn’t want to lose them to being just fighters; she wanted to have a part of them that was more than just killing.
She looked at her food, unable to taste it. For the first time, she thought of what being in the military really meant.
Her brothers talked about possibly going to the Fourth Realm. She had heard tales of the Fourth Realm—the death and chaos—and it was what her two brothers talked about. They sounded grim, but there was also eagerness in their voice, as they talked about being able to use their skills.
“Qin, is there something wrong?” Yui asked as he saw her looking at her meal blankly.
Qin looked up, not realizing how long she had been looking down for.
Qin forced a smile. The three months had changed them. She felt that there was more distance between them when they talked about the military. They were still the same people, but their actions, the way they talked, the way they moved had changed. There was a cold, analytical way that they studied the world around them. She knew that this was what they wanted, but she couldn’t help but wonder what she had lost in them.
She buried it down deep. If they want to be in the military, to put their lives on the line, then this is the cost. If it keeps them alive, I’ll support any training that helps them.
“I’m fine, sorry,” Qin said.
Yui frowned and then smiled, going back to eating his breakfast. “I heard that you’re running a spear training camp, is that right?”
“Well, I’m one of the assistants. Tully and Storbon will be teaching,” Domonos said, casually talking about a course that was made for the express purpose of making it easier for them to kill other human beings.
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The Third Realm Page 63