It’s a nice idea, Tan Xue thought as she bent forward and prepared the plow blade she was working on.
Tan Xue was just getting into a rhythm when the door to her smithy was knocked open.
“We need a new Apprentice-level blade. We’ll take off fifty silver from your debt,” a domineering voice called out.
A shiver climbed up Tan Xue’s spine but she suppressed it as she looked around to see Black Eye and his gang standing there.
With him was a young boy who had a similar appearance to Tan Xue, but there was a sneer on his face as he looked to Tan Xue.
“Isn’t it touching having family reunions!” Black Eye laughed, clapping the boy on the back.
“Don’t try to call this bitch a part of my family, Mister Black Eye,” Tan Yan, her younger brother, spat.
Seeing the hatred, the anger directed toward her, Tan Xue’s heart clenched. And then she wanted to beat the hell out of her brother, to remove the lies, the trash that filled his mind and help him see sense.
As this thought entered her mind, it passed. Her eyes dimmed, knowing that it was useless.
She took out the storage ring Rugrat had given to her and threw it to Black Eye.
“Oh look, seems that you made something.” Black Eye laughed. He looked inside. His gloating look turned into a frown.
“Our debt is cleared. I don’t wish to see you again,” Tan Xue said simply and turned back toward her work.
There was a flash of power. Tan Xue felt a restraining power lift from her as her Ten Realms-assured contract was released.
“You think that you can get away from us just like that!” Black Eye yelled. “Get her!”
The others rushed forward.
Tan Xue whirled her hammer around, about to send it crashing into the first person there, only to see that it was her brother. A look of shock and pain flashed across her face as he punched her in the side.
Pain bloomed in her side as another hit got her in the face. The blows rained down as her hammer was torn away from her hands.
Finally the beating stopped. She was coughing on her own blood, her face caved in and her eyes bruised.
“Shit. Well now she’s no use to us.” Black Eye sighed as he took her hammer from her brother’s hands. He swung down viciously, hitting her knee.
Tan Xue cried out as he broke her bones with calculated hits.
“Big sister, Tan Xue!” Julilah’s voice came from the smithy opening.
“Oh, look who it is,” Black Eye said.
“No! No, don’t!” Tan Xue had tried to drive the little girl away, but it seemed that she had crawled into a place in her heart.
Two of Black Eye’s people grabbed the girl and pulled her into the smithy.
“You see, there’s a special formation in Kaeju—can’t kill anyone here. But there isn’t anything about accidents that might happen. Hold her steady,” Black Eye said.
They forced Julilah to the ground. Tan Xue watched her brother’s cold eyes and the smirk at the side of his face.
Even with the beating, she had still thought that there was some kind of connection, hoped that there was one. Seeing the look on his face as he looked forward to seeing Julilah getting hurt, she didn’t have any feelings other than loathing and hatred.
Julilah was gagged, unable to yell out as Black Eye grabbed the still red-hot plow blade and put it into the furnace.
“Well, this really makes it harder to get you a proper weapon, Tan Yan, though as a consolation, you can deal with this young one,” Black Eye said.
“Yes, Mister Black Eye,” Tan Yan said, excited to be picked out by Black Eye as he bowed deeply to him. He went to the smithy and checked the plow blade.
Anything he knew about smithing was all from his big sister Tan Xue.
He picked up the rough plow blade. It was glowing hot as he moved over Julilah. “This is going to hurt, a lot!” Tan Yan raised the plow blade above his head.
The cruel smile on his face froze, as did the entire smithy, when the door slammed open.
Rugrat didn’t pause. Flowing through the door, he fired at Tan Yan. The arrow took him in the throat, causing him to fall backward and the plow blade to fall on him. The crossbow disappeared; another appeared as he fired. He switched again, firing and hitting another man.
His movements were swift, accurate, and deadly as crossbow bolts seemed to follow one another in a constant stream.
Each was struck in the neck or eye with an arrow, dropping as they started to recover.
Black Eye yelled out as an arrow hit the shining shield around him. “You!”
A metal weapon appeared in Rugrat’s hands. It spat out metal shards, one after another, without having to change the weapon.
Tan Xue had never seen anything like it before. The weapon let out a terrifying amount of noise. Black Eye’s shield collapsed as he and his lackeys were cut down by the metal shards.
Rugrat checked the area, using his weapon on anyone still alive.
Once he confirmed they were all dead, he started speaking into his sound transmission device, rushing over to the shocked Julilah, quickly checking her over and moving to Tan Xue.
“I’ve got two wounded, Tan Xue and Julilah, my teacher and the kid I told you about. Non-critical, broken bones, bruises, pretty rough shape. One’s having trouble breathing. I’m doing first aid and they should be okay, but we need to get out of here. I just killed a bunch of people and the city formation should pick it up soon enough.”
***
“...Third Realm to resume my position in the Alchemist Association.” Erik read the letter and looked at the Alchemist Association emblem in the letter. It was a gold cauldron with three lines across it. A ragged scar marred the surface of the cauldron and time had not been kind to it.
Looking at it one wondered the history behind it, what it meant. Erik knew, it was the token of the Alchemist Association.
“Looks like I’ll have to go to the Third Realm if I want to repay him.” Erik laughed to himself.
He had heard of the stories about the Third Realm. A realm that was dominated with swamps and hidden locations holding all kinds of valuable ingredients. It was called the Alchemist’s garden and the swamp realm by many. Alchemist from the higher realms would even descend into their area to try to acquire higher-level goods. There were not only Mortal-grade ingredients but also Earth- and rare Sky-grade ingredients in certain myths. These ingredients were usually found in special places where they could gather a great amount of mana to grow and increase their medicinal strength.
Erik had only just come to learn the world of Alchemy; he was just an Apprentice-level alchemist. Even if he could make the Age Rejuvenation potion, he was only able to make that one potion to that skill level. He needed time to grow and learn.
He let out a sigh and looked around the shop as he put the letter into his storage ring. His sound transmission device lit up. Erik accepted the call from Rugrat.
“I’ve got two wounded, Tna Xue and Julilah, my teacher and the kid I told you about. Non-critical, broken bones, bruises, pretty rough shape. One’s having trouble breathing. I’m doing first aid and they should be okay, but we need to get out of here. I just killed a bunch of people and the city formation should pick it up soon enough.” Rugrat’s voice was blunt and orderly, falling back on his training.
“Understood. What’s your location?” Erik said, the joy from before doused quickly. He was already running out of the store and heading across the street.
“Smithy,” Rugrat said.
“On my way. ETA seven minutes!” Erik jumped up, getting on top of a railing before jumping up and onto a roof. With his increased Agility and Strength, jumping four or five meters was simple.
The streets were filled with people, so Erik took the fastest route—over the roofs.
Chapter: Fleeing Kaeju
Tan Xue opened her eyes. She flinched, expecting the pain of her body, and look
ed around frantically for Julilah.
Instead, she saw Rugrat and a man standing a little bit away, talking to each other.
“We need to get out of the city and fast,” the unknown man said. “How long until the crime is found out and we’re discovered?”
“It runs on a scanning-like system, so it’ll sense the deaths in three more minutes. Then it’ll send a message to the guard headquarters. They’ll need to dispatch people to this location, get information on us, and track us out of the city,” Rugrat said.
“Known tracking methods?” the other man asked.
“I don’t know.” Rugrat shrugged.
“So, eight minutes.” The man looked over to Tan Xue. “Looks like we’ll have to move fast.”
Tan Xue saw that Julilah was awake but sitting in a chair a bit away from them all.
“Tan Xue, this is my friend Erik, the alchemist. We’ve been through a lot together. Right now, we need you to trust us if you and Julilah want to get out of this city safe,” Rugrat said.
Tan Xue made to argue but she looked around at the bodies in her smithy, at her brother’s face, the look of shock in his eyes.
Seeing him, she felt pain. But she also remembered the monster he had turned into.
“What’s the plan?” Tan Xue finally asked, looking back to them. If they stayed here, neither she nor Julilah would have anything close to a life.
Black Eye was well-connected and there were people who would come after those connected to his death.
“We’ll take you to the Ten Realms totem. We’ll send you down to the First Realm, to a city that we know. From there, you can do as you want—you’ll be out of danger. We also have friends located in a nearby trading outpost. If you take this token and letter to them, they’ll look after you and give you a place to stay. They’re a group we stay with regularly. You can get your bearings there and leave as you want,” Rugrat said.
Tan Xue looked over to Julilah to see the scared look in Julilah’s eyes. “All right,” she said, making the decision for them both as she got up slowly. “Why don’t I hurt?” she asked, unable to get past that as Erik pulled out a robe for Julilah to get into.
“Well, we know some healing and he’s an alchemist and combat medic. Wasn’t that hard to fix you guys back up.” Rugrat passed her a robe.
“Let’s get going.” Erik moved over to Tan Xue. “Excuse me.” Erik picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder.
She could feel the armor underneath his cloak in her stomach. “What are you…!”
“You’re too slow. We only have seven minutes left.” Rugrat winked at Julilah and threw her over his shoulder.
She was about to argue when Erik jumped. He took two jumps to get onto a roof and started running. Rugrat trailed behind, carrying Julilah.
She could see Rugrat’s face. There was no smile on it any more, only a determined look.
How am I going to be able to repay this debt? she thought before she relaxed slightly.
Erik and Rugrat’s speed was impressive, enough to be on par with some of the high powered characters in Kaeju city.
After a few minutes, Erik and Rugrat dropped down into an alleyway, sorting out Julilah and Tan Xue.
They led the way toward the totem.
Tan Xue followed them, feeling a small hand grip onto hers. She was a bit stunned and nearly missed her step as she looked down at Julilah.
She thought of all the times she had pushed her away, how she had tried to do what she thought was best for the little girl. She looked down at her, seeing those young and scared eyes. She saw the fear in them, the fear of rejection and deep inner anxiety.
Tan Xue’s immediate reaction had been to shake her off, but seeing that look, she tightened her hand on Julilah’s.
They went through the different checks. Leaving the city was free; only entering it cost a fee.
***
Rugrat walked up to the totem and touched it.
==========
You do not have the required levels needed to ascend to the Third Realm. Do you wish to:
Randomly teleport to a location in the:
First Realm?
Second Realm?
Would you like to teleport to a previously visited location?
Would you like to send someone to a location you have previously been to?
==========
Rugrat clicked on the last option
==========
Previous locations:
Chonglu city—First Realm: Cost—5 Lesser Mortal-grade monster cores per person or equivalent
==========
Rugrat selected Chonglu city and two people traveling there.
==========
Requires:
10 Lesser Mortal-grade monster cores
==========
Rugrat pulled out some of the Common-grade monster cores that he was holding onto to increase his smithing skill.
Two spots on the ground were illuminated as the monster cores dissolved and energy flowed into the totem before flowing down into the complicated magical formation in the ground.
==========
Ready to teleport
==========
Rugrat turned around to the two and pulled out a pouch holding Black Eye and his people’s storage rings and items, as well as Tan Xue’s smithing equipment and her magical flame. He put them into Tan Xue’s hand.
“Travel to the Wild Reaches Trading Outpost and go to a bar called the Bloody Ram. There will be someone with an item on them that looks like the one with the letter inside. They’ll look after you,” Rugrat said.
Tan Xue wanted to talk but Erik shook his head.
“You’ve got to move. We still need to get out of the city,” he said.
Rugrat pushed them forward onto the two glowing lights.
==========
Do you wish to teleport?
YES/NO
==========
“Yes,” Rugrat said as power built up around the two of them. “Look after yourselves and hopefully we see you in the future.”
Julilah tried to move but she couldn’t. The formation locked down her actions as a flash of light appeared around them and teleported them away.
Erik and Rugrat moved back toward the city. They had to pay the guards to get past their checks.
Once through, they quickly made their way to an alleyway, before consulting a map. “Southeast is the closest wall to us,” Erik said.
“Okay,” Rugrat said.
The two of them took off at a run. They didn’t have time to waste on talking.
***
Erik aimed at the mouth of the alleyway as he heard movement there.
“Nachos,” Rugrat said.
“Fully stacked,” Erik replied as he lowered his pistol.
Rugrat entered the alleyway.
“Okay, it looks like people learned of the killings. There are guards going through the city and people from the Kerose Institute have been called out to track us. The guards have increased at all of the gates, but they’ve pulled them off the walls. I think I’ve found a way for us to get out of here.” Rugrat pulled out his map and zoomed in on the wall that was near their location.
“Right here, there are two guard towers. They look out on the desert and the patrol that was between the towers is gone. The wall is thirty feet high, though,” Rugrat said.
“Why do I feel like there’s more?” Erik asked.
“The wall is meant to keep people out, not in, so leaving we shouldn’t trigger any alarms. There are also no gates around, so we should be good to climb down the side. Also, it faces the direction where the sun goes down. Sunset is in two hours. We get down to the base of the wall, use the robes, and start crawling our way out. Then, when the sunset blinds all of the towers, we leg it. There’s a dune some eight hundred meters out. Once we’re there, we’ll have more cover and we should be beyond the range of their spells.”
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“Okay.” Erik opened up his storage rings and started to go through them, checking their contents.
“What are you looking for?”
“Anything that might give us an advantage, like Strength or Agility enhancing concoctions. I don’t think that I have anything, though.” Erik sat down and pulled out a cauldron. Flames shot out of his hand and wrapped around the cauldron.
“Okay, so if I use the Trena leaves and then the Geniss dust with a drop of concentrated juice from wilted yarrows, that should increase one’s Strength for a short period of time.” Erik pulled out three different ingredients. Flames appeared around his hands and took the ingredients from him as they started to prepare them.
“What are you doing?” Rugrat asked.
“Learning the value of support potions. I should make more. Maybe I could even use poison on my fists as long as I’m immune to it.” Erik felt his mind stirring as he thought of ways to use Alchemy to not only increase his healing abilities but his combat power.
Rugrat took up watching the entrance of the alleyway while the ingredients in Erik’s flames were changed and altered. The wilted yarrows were roasted; vapor rose out from it but it was captured by the flames and refined, creating a red sphere.
The Geniss dust was actually a rock that went through rapid heating and cooling until it crumbled into dust, the detritus in the Geniss rock being removed.
The Trena leaves were grilled slowly, turning from yellow to blue.
Erik put the leaves into the cauldron first; the flames inside were spinning around rapidly.
The Geniss dust was thrown in next. The dust melted onto the leaves, which started to fall apart, becoming a green powder.
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