The red drop of wilted yarrows was added in slowly, coating the powder. Slowly, the red and green merged, creating a yellow powder.
A notification appeared but he didn’t pay it attention.
Erik waited a few moments till he was satisfied. Pulling out a box, he emptied the contents of the cauldron into it.
Erik put his pinky into the yellow powder and put it on his tongue. He felt his muscles become looser and the need to just run and be free.
He opened his eyes and portioned the box out into vials, splitting them between Rugrat and himself.
“What’s this?” Rugrat might be able to appraise weapons and armor to a high degree, but this was an Alchemy concoction.
Erik was able to identify the concoction better.
==========
Awakening Monkey powder
==========
Effects:
Increase Strength by 6% for 3 minutes
Increase Agility by 4% for 3 minutes
Side effects:
Taking more than 1 in 5 minutes will decrease the following potion’s effectiveness by 25% each additional potion.
==========
Erik read it out to Rugrat.
“Did you get this concoction somewhere?” Rugrat asked.
“No,” Erik said.
“Then why does it have a name?”
“The Ten Realms remembers everything that happens in it. In the past, someone must have made the same concoction. As long as I can make it and understand at least eighty percent of its effects, then the Ten Realms will imprint the information of the concoction’s effects into my mind. Otherwise, I would just get a card filled with question marks and the effects that I had got right,” Erik said.
“Sounds complicated, but no different from how if I know everything about something I’ve made then I can appraise it easily, but then appraising other weapons and items is harder because I don’t know what’s gone into it,” Rugrat said. “What does the 25% reduced effectiveness mean?”
“It means if you drink more of them before the cooldown is over, then instead of getting four percent increase, you’d only get like one percent.” Erik stored away the rest of his items.
“So, I’m a regular Olympic sprinter with this? You think that the Olympic committee would let this pass?” Rugrat grinned.
“You’re already faster than anyone on Earth and they definitely wouldn’t, especially because you’d probably try to run the damn one-hundred-meter sprint in short shorts!” Erik said.
Rugrat chuckled but didn’t deny Erik’s words. “Let’s get a move on,” Rugrat said. He checked the exit of the alleyway before he moved out.
Erik followed him.
The traders were starting to go home as the bars were opening up and the restaurants were doing a quick business.
Erik and Rugrat moved through the crowds. People didn’t care about them as they moved off toward the wall.
Rugrat led them between two tall buildings and pulled off his cloak and doupeng.
Erik did the same as Rugrat jumped from building to building, using them to get higher until he was at the top of them. He lay down to reduce his profile, waiting for Erik.
“Shit, makes it look easy,” Erik muttered. He shook his head, and ran before he could start thinking about what he was doing. He jumped from wall to wall, trying to go as fast as possible or else he might fail.
He got to the top. Rugrat grabbed his hand and pulled him onto the roof.
They got down low on their stomachs, listening to see whether anyone called out.
“Up we go again. You’re stronger than me, so launch me up first then I’ll drop a rope down for you,” Rugrat whispered.
Erik made the okay sign with his hand.
There was a five-foot gap between the building and the wall. Then the wall was up a further twelve feet.
Rugrat took out two daggers as Erik squatted, cupping his hands.
“Good?” Rugrat asked.
Erik nodded.
Rugrat got up, shaking his hands to amp himself up before he let out a breath. He looked up to the wall and then to Erik.
He ran at Erik; he stepped up, planting his foot into Erik’s hand as Erik used all of his strength to squat up and throw Rugrat as Rugrat also jumped off him.
Rugrat sailed through the distance in the dimming sunlight. Erik dropped to the roof and looked at Rugrat as he hit the wall. His daggers dug into the wall. He was five feet from the top.
He used his upper body and feet to launch himself up three feet and then onto the top of the wall. He looked over quickly before rolling over the parapet.
Erik sat there watching where Rugrat had gone over, waiting for an alarm or the rope.
Come on, Rugrat. Toss the rope over. You’ve got it, come on! Erik’s entire body tensed, imagining the worst had happened.
No alarms were raised and people didn’t seem to have noticed.
It was only because he was watching that he saw the rope come down the side of the wall. Rugrat let it out slowly so it would draw less attention.
Erik looked around and started to crawl backward along the roof.
Finally the rope stopped descending.
Erik got up into a crouch and moved his body around. He took a breath, stood up fully and took off at a run. He reached the edge of the roof and jumped, sailing across the gap.
He hit the wall and grabbed at the rope. Panic struck him. The rope was too close to the wall. Erik couldn’t wrap his hands around it.
He started to fall down toward the ground.
“Shit!” Erik stabbed his hands forward and the gauntlets scratched against the wall. Erik didn’t have time to worry about the noise at this moment.
His fall slowed as he jammed his fingers into the wall. He felt his bones break and start mending themselves. He had to rely on the strength of the gauntlets, driving past the terrible pain.
He dropped another few feet before he came to a stop.
Erik’s hands were mangled, so he wrapped his arm around the rope, his hands useless. He used his feet to pinch the rope. Using the inside of his arm and pinching and pushing the rope with his feet, he quickly started to go up the wall. He used his other elbow to stop himself from dragging on it.
I can’t use healing spells. If I do, then the glow might alert others.
Erik heard a faint noise and then people rushing around.
In one of the nearby squares where people had set up pop-up diners, people were rushing to look on the ground, yelling out and pushing others away. It looked chaotic.
Seeing them distracted, Erik quickened his pace. He got to the top. Rugrat grabbed his neck and pulled him over the top of the wall.
Erik just looked at his broken hands. As he started to cast healing spells on them, the bones moved back into place.
Rugrat put the rope into his storage ring and nodded to another rope that had been set up on the other side.
Erik got up, still healing his hands. Rugrat helped to get the rope through his elbow again and Erik went over the wall.
He dropped down, his tempered skin able to withstand the friction. Rugrat jumped onto the rope as well and descended above him.
Erik dropped to the ground and pulled off his gauntlets that were bent to shit. His hands finished their healing.
Rugrat dropped down next to him and took the rope into his storage ring.
“Was that distraction you?” Erik asked.
“Well, I might be lacking in silver and coppers now,” Rugrat said in a hushed voice, looking up at the wall.
“You threw coins into the square?”
“Yeah, first idea that jumped into my head.”
Erik nodded and pulled on his sand-colored robe.
Rugrat did the same and laid down. “Just another five minutes.”
Those five minutes went by slowly as they pulled out their vials, ready to run.
The sun started to se
t, the light coming right in at the watchtowers.
Erik and Rugrat tossed the powder into their mouths. It dissolved and sank into their stomach before passing into their body.
“Now!” Rugrat said.
Erik and Rugrat stood and ran. Erik felt as if there were someone looking at him through a rifle’s scope, just waiting to shoot.
He just increased his pace as the two of them maintained distance from each other.
One hundred meters. Two hundred meters. Still, they were good.
Three hundred meters.
Erik started to hear yelling behind him.
“Shit!” Rugrat yelled.
They worked to pick up the pace. With each step, the sand poured over their feet, making it harder to move forward. It felt as though they couldn’t even put forward ten percent of their normal speed.
Erik and Rugrat fought onward: seven hundred meters, eight hundred meters. The sand dune dropped away in front of them.
Erik jumped and landed on his back. Rugrat tripped, recovered, and started running down the dune before he let his feet go out from under him and he shot down the dune with Erik.
“You good?” Erik yelled as they reached the bottom.
“Yeah, fuck sand!” Rugrat yelled back.
They kept running. They needed to put as much distance between them and Kaeju city as they could.
“Based on the map, there are three oases in the direction that we’re running. There is also a lovely rock outcropping,” Rugrat said.
“Rock outcropping it is then,” Erik said.
Rugrat put down a way point that appeared on the mini map in Erik’s vision.
They altered their path so they were lined up with it and ran as fast as possible.
As they ran, the wind behind them was already starting to cover over their tracks.
Chapter: Cheated by Yourself
Wilbur had been enjoying a nice drink when a man walked up to his table.
Wilbur looked up to him. He could sense something familiar about this man.
“King’s hand, it’s good to see you’re well.” The man in the cloak sat down and pulled out a piece of paper, placing it on the table.
Wilbur was about to signal to his guards who were hiding among the crowd to move on the person when he looked at the piece of paper.
His hand fell on the contract instead and up to the man who pulled his hood back.
Storbon’s face was revealed—harder, colder than it had been just a few weeks before when he had accepted the quest from one of Wilbur’s associates.
Wilbur might look as though he were just a noble patron of this tavern, but in fact he was the leader of the king’s intelligence gathering network.
Wilbur knew that there was a rat within the nobles’ faction. He just didn’t know who.
He had issued this contract to a number of groups to try to draw out the rat and get an idea of their strength and forces. Twelve groups had accepted. None had come back.
Wilbur now looked at this man in a new light. He was the person who had accepted this contract. He had also taken the time to find out about Wilbur and come to him directly.
A rare talent. Wilbur looked at Storbon. “Do you have results and information?”
“That I do, but the cost to get it was much more than I was expecting,” Storbon said.
Wilbur’s eyes thinned. It looked as if this man knew how important the information was. It might be too dangerous to let him go with what he knows.
“We can make oaths if you want. Otherwise…” Storbon tapped the desk twice with his right ring finger.
Patrons who had just been moving around the room closed in on Wilbur’s guards, as if talking to them while they had various hidden weapons on the guards.
Instead of turning angry, Wilbur smiled.
“It’s rare I get to deal with a professional. Name your terms.” Wilbur felt more confident in this man and interested in trying to stay on good terms with him.
“Five hundred gold should do it,” Storbon said.
Wilbur pressed his lips together in a frown.
Storbon smiled slightly and pulled out a piece of paper. It was a handwritten map that had been torn apart. It showed different locations in the forest and some of their strengths.
Wilbur looked on the map. His expression turned grave. His eyes flicked up to Storbon again.
“This was fresh as of two days ago. Who knows? They might still be there, and we reduced their numbers by about one hundred, maybe two hundred.” Storbon wasn’t bragging, just stating facts.
“We also got letters, orders, troop displacement, mercenary company names, and at least four nobles’ names,” Storbon said.
Wilbur looked into his eyes before he looked into his storage ring. He pulled out a card that had a gold, silver, and copper ticker along its side. The gold one said five hundred while the other two were blank. It was a cash card that sorted and organized money. A full cash card could hold ten thousand gold.
He passed it over to Storbon.
Storbon tapped twice on the table with his ring finger again. As the people in his team said their good-byes and removed their weapons, the other patrons in the bar didn’t even notice, going about their drinking and talking.
Storbon passed a storage ring over to Wilbur.
“I would start with Nobleman Li Tian. He seems to be something of a ringleader,” Storbon said. The money card disappeared into his own storage ring as he stood and walked out of the tavern.
His party also flowed through the tavern, leaving it. In just a few moments, it was as if they had never been there.
Wilbur checked the storage ring and the contents. His expression darkened by the second.
“Do you want us to deal with them?” a guard asked in his ear.
“No. I can smell the aura of death on them and I could feel his anger when talking about the traitors. If we try fighting them and the rats, then we would be only shooting ourselves in the knee,” Wilbur said. “No, we need to head to see the king. It’s time we flushed the rats out.”
***
Storbon and his group left that night and headed off to a camp location they’d picked out.
“Five hundred gold. With everything we looted from the mercenaries, we’re rich even by Second Realm standards.” Yao Meng laughed as they sat down for food.
“Still, it’s nothing compared to being back in Alva Dungeon,” Storbon said.
“Nah, though we’ve made it to level seventeen already. It won’t be long until we get to eighteen.” Yao Meng sat back as he ate.
“I just hope that things are going better for Rugrat and Erik,” Storbon said.
“They haven’t failed before—they won’t fail now. They’ve put it all on the line for us before. We owe them a debt to do all we can to help them,” Yuli said.
“Only two more months until they’re supposed to return.” Deni checked his sword and shield, cleaning and maintaining them.
“We’ve already been out here nearly two months,” Storbon said.
“Feels like it was a lifetime ago that we left but also just yesterday,” Yao Meng said.
The others seemed to agree. It was a different life in Alva Dungeon. They were home there. Here, there was nothing to fall back on but one another. It was chaos, but they were willing to embrace it to grow stronger—increase their strength and protect one another and Alva Dungeon.
“I miss Jia Feng’s boar stew with fresh bread.” Yuli sighed.
“An actual shower,” Deni chimed in.
“A room without you smelly bastards,” Storbon said.
Yao Meng threw a stone at Storbon, who happily grinned at their complaints as another night in the Second Realm passed.
***
Qin Silaz looked at her hand. Orbiting it was a spark of Mana.
It was highly compressed to the point it looked like a gem. After Erik and Rugrat had left her, she had been stunned by
the lack of pain in her body and the control she seemed to have over the world around her.
Her father and brothers had been overjoyed that she had been healed and stunned by her talent in Mana.
There were no mage teachers in Chonglu city. Mages were highly versatile and it wasn’t hard for them to move up to the higher realms as long as they could pass through a few stages of Mana cultivation.
So her father had made some quiet purchases, buying her a number of spells.
She learned the spell technique books and could cast the spells quickly, even when starting off. It only took her a matter of hours until she could cast them without an incantation, maybe a day or two until she could cast them without any motions, so-called insta-casting.
Bored with just adding more spells to her mind, thinking of them as too rigid, she had started to play around with spells and her Mana.
Her body was still adapting to the changes that had happened with opening her Mana gate. Her Mana was incredibly dense and contained a lot of power, increasing the power of her spells, but her capacity, or Mana pool, was tiny.
So she had to learn to be economic with her magic. She had always been a girl to read a great number of books. Now she spent her time going through every book on spells that her father held in the clan’s library.
She had finished those two weeks ago.
When I was sick, I shut off all ideas of going on adventures or seeing outside of Chonglu city. Now all I want to do is see what’s beyond those walls. See what’s behind this.
The Mana gem dissipated and was absorbed back into her body as a token appeared in her hand.
She still hadn’t forgotten Erik and Rugrat’s words, their instructions if she wanted to learn more and become stronger.
A smile rose on her face, excitement filling her.
She wasn’t naive. She knew that there were dangers beyond the walls of Chonglu city.
Her brothers and father tried to keep her from seeing it but it was the way of the Ten Realms. If it wasn’t for her father’s position, she wouldn’t have lived this long. She was incredibly grateful to them, but she wanted to go out and see the danger. She wanted to grow her strength so she could support them, so that she could do what Erik and Rugrat did—have the strength to make even powerful rulers bow to her.
Second Realm Page 19