Around it there was a series of defenses that had been made from rock, as well as people manning the defenses.
I never heard of a base or city within the Beast Mountain Range.
Niemm moved up to the defenses and got down from the panther. The others did the same and walked to the entrance. Niemm talked to someone there before they entered the defenses.
There were only five people there but they were all wearing higher quality leather under Journeyman-quality hard armor.
Their weapons were also of a higher quality. Qin noticed that Tan Xue was looking at the armor and weapons closely.
They were escorted into the tunnel in near silence.
After passing a few checkpoints and descending for some time, they reached a base. It was much larger than the ones they had passed so far and had a number of layered defenses.
“What is this place?” Qin asked as they moved through the base. She looked up at the ceiling way above that was glowing, making it seem like daytime.
“This is Alva Dungeon,” Niemm said as they cleared the base.
Qin, Tan Xue, Julilah, and Yui all stopped as they looked at the massive cavern and the small village in the middle of it, surrounding a large glowing pillar with magical runes and formations covering it.
It wasn’t like anything Qin had seen before.
Chapter: Away from Prying Eyes
Erik woke up slowly. As he opened his eyes, he was bombarded with notifications.
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You have successfully tempered your Bones!
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4 to Stamina
5 to Strength
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Quest Completed: Body Cultivation
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The path cultivating one’s body is not easy. To stand at the top, one must forge their own path forward.
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Requirements:
Reach Body Like Stone Level
Sub-requirements
Tempering of the Blood
Tempering of the Bones
Tempering of the Organs
Tempering of the Muscle
Tempering of the Skin
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Rewards:
3 to Strength
3 to Agility
3 to Stamina
5 to Stamina Regeneration
100,000 EXP
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Title: Poison Body
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You have tempered your body with poisons. With repeated exposure to poison, your body has taken on some of its characteristics.
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Once you have consumed and defeated a poison, you will not be damaged by that poison in the future. Your poison resistance increases by 10%.
You can recreate poisons that you have consumed. You can store poison within your body and excrete it on command.
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“Wait, what?” Erik sat up and re-read the notification a few times.
Rugrat, who had been on watch, looked over. He put his rifle down and let out a shaken breath. “Dammit! I nearly shot you!”
“I can make poisons and push them out of my body? Increased resistance to poison? Does that mean it’ll be easier to consume more concoctions?” Erik wanted to go and test out the effects of the Poison Body but now wasn’t the time.
“Sorry, just got something.” Erik waved at Rugrat and continued passing through his notifications.
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Quest: Body Cultivation 2
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The path cultivating one’s body is not easy. To stand at the top, one must forge their own path forward.
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Requirements:
Reach Body Like Iron Level
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Rewards:
6 to Strength
6 to Agility
6 to Stamina
10 to Stamina Regeneration
1,000,000 EXP
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Character Sheet
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Name: Erik West
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Level: 15
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Race: Human
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Titles:
From the Grave
Mana Lord
Dungeon Master
Reverse Alchemist
Poison Body
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Strength: (Base 26) +14
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400
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Agility: (Base 19) +16
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175
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Stamina: (Base 29) +4
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495
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Mana: (Base 6) +11
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170
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Mana Regeneration (Base 10) +27
11.85/s
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Stamina Regeneration: (Base 27) +23
10.75/s
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You have reached Level 16
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When you sleep next, you will be able to increase your attributes by: 5 points.
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33,769/225,000 EXP till you reach Level 17
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“I forgot how good it feels to level up.” Erik laughed to himself as Rugrat sat down in his seat.
“No need to rub it in.” Rugrat let out a sigh and rubbed his eyes. While Erik had been taking a nice nap, Rugrat had been staying up and keeping watch.
Erik rolled his eyes and started to get up. With the big changes his stats had gone through, there was a lot he needed to adapt his body to.
He started to move around as Rugrat pulled out the smithy snow globe and activated it. It expanded and adjusted to the area they were in.
Rugrat looked around the forge and pulled out Big Momma, unloading it and then stripping it down into its basic components.
“Why not start with the rounds?” Erik asked as he moved through a few fighting movements that he remembered from close quarters fighting classes.
Rugrat didn’t look up as he continued to pull the weapon apart.
“We don’t know how powerful the gunpowder you make is going to be. If we put one of the rounds into the gun and fire it, it could blow up the entire assembly. I’m using Big Momma here as a test bed. I’ll make a barrel out of regular iron and Mortal-grade iron, then a mocked-up testing chamber at one end.
“We fire the rounds through that, see how strong they are. If they blow out, they’re just blowing out the testers instead of the whole gun.
“Also, making the barrels is going to be the hardest part. Though I do have some ideas of how to make the rifling, I need to test them out first. Once I have the barrels and chamber down, I’ll focus on making cartridges and bullets from different materials. We’ve got a ton of testing ahead of us!” Rugrat sounded partly excited and partly fearful.
Erik left him to it and focused on regaining control of his body.
Rugrat studied the barrels, the chamber, and firing pin, making a number of drawings and noting down measurements.
Then he started to heat up iron and Mortal-iron ingots. He pulled out the iron ingots. Combining them together, he started hammering them out.
The metal transformed under his hands, being beaten out into a long length of round iron.
Rugrat used calipers. His precision was as good as any machine as the iron turned into a rod.
It looks like iron bars. I knew that we had left normal standards back on Earth, but this... Erik’s thought trailed off as Rugrat cut the rod down to size.
He used the other length of rod and traced out a line with string and affixed metal down
the second rod, then placed it into a clamped system so when pushing on the end of the modified rod, it twisted.
At the other end, a Mortal-iron-grade bit was attached.
He placed the boring device to one side and then clamped down the metal rod that was supposed to be the barrel.
He took out a drill that ran off a simple gear and had a Mortal-iron bit on it as well.
Erik, finally having adapted to his body’s new Strength and Agility, pulled out his Alchemy tools while Rugrat continued to make more devices to aid himself and then started cutting into the iron bar.
Flames appeared in Erik’s hand as he took out ingredients and prepared them. He placed them into his cauldron.
The two didn’t talk for a long time as day turned into night. Explosions rumbled through the cauldron and screeching noises came from within the forge as Erik and Rugrat swore at their failures.
“There we fucking go!” Erik said sometime the next afternoon as the top of the cauldron was removed, revealing a brown powder.
Erik took out the powder and put it into a vial. Erik tasted a small portion and then put another tester amount on the ground.
Hmm, seems pretty explosive. It should work, Erik thought as he used his own body to test out the results of his Alchemy.
He lit a piece of paper on fire and tossed it on the brown powder on the ground.
A small bang went off.
“Okay, time to make blasting caps and primers.”
Rugrat was working on a firing pin; his first barrel had been completed some time ago.
“Rugrat, for the primers, do you want to make them of metal?” Erik asked.
“I can premake the primers, but you’ll need to fill them, then top with wax before they get put into the cartridge,” Rugrat said.
“Okay, I’ll take like fifty metal primers when you’ve got a chance. I’m going to make some different primers and gunpowder.”
“Sounds good to me.” Rugrat turned back to his work.
Once he’d made one kind of primer, Erik found it a lot easier to make more primers and gunpowder.
He had ten different variants by the time Rugrat had completed the casings for the primer and cartridges to be filled with gunpowder.
The two men seemed to have forgotten everything else as they worked.
Rugrat completed the primer’s containers; Erik filled them up with the different types of primer powders. Rugrat made cartridges; Erik filled them with different types of gunpowders.
Rugrat made bullets from the materials he had; Erik used the bullet press to combine them altogether.
Like this, they created batches of rounds, four of the same combination and packaged together. Erik took them into his storage ring and then moved to the next part. Putting them together was slow. By the time he had put all of the rounds together, Rugrat had completed the next part of their upgraded weaponry: grenades.
Their fuse was simple, based off old grenades. There was a pull tab that, once tugged on, would ignite the fuse and then the explosive inside, hurling shrapnel around.
They didn’t have any more of the flammable substance from the three-headed forest snake and although it worked as an explosive, it wasn’t nearly as powerful as a purpose-built one.
If we don’t blow ourselves up first. Erik stood and stretched, cracking his back. He looked over Rugrat’s forge. He couldn’t help but be jealous.
It was Rugrat’s first time using the forge but he had quickly made it his own.
Erik and Rugrat had talked about their different crafts but this was the first time that they were seeing each other carrying them out at the new level they had achieved.
Erik watched Rugrat’s movements, his focus on the metal, the way he swung the hammer, not having to look where it was going to know where it would hit and what it would do.
There was a remarkable synergy between Rugrat and his tools, as if they were extensions of himself.
After making his decision to rely on only himself, Erik had removed all other tools, but now, his thoughts were changing.
Not having any tools or overusing them—both ways lead to problems. Don’t I use flames and the cauldron? I know a lot about my flames but I don’t know much about my cauldron. I just force it to do what I need. Since when did I stop thinking of things as just items? If I was back on Earth, I would just look at something as if it were used for one purpose. A cauldron is used to make Alchemy concoctions but with Alchemy, even the smallest thing can make a concoction fail. Every tool, everything that someone uses, should be understood down to the smallest level.
Erik looked up to Rugrat again, the harmony created with him in the forge, with his hammer, and his surroundings.
“No! Crap!” Rugrat yelled out as he twisted the metal and hit it furiously to undo his mistake.
“At times,” Erik muttered.
“Shut up over there. You’re distracting me! Go and do something useful—more gunpowder!”
“Do you know how hard it is to make gunpowder, rounds, and grenades right next to a furnace! I swear, I don’t know how we haven’t blown up!” Erik shot back.
Rugrat flipped Erik the middle finger even as he continued hammering.
Erik snorted and rolled his eyes.
Thankfully, Erik had been able to control where the powder was going completely and worked in the farthest place away from Rugrat so that nothing accidentally blew up. He didn’t want to have to heal that!
Erik returned to his thoughts from before and pulled out his cauldron.
He studied it. Since going down his path of not using any tools, he hadn’t looked into the cauldron. He didn’t know its limits, didn’t know its flaws and strengths. As such, he wasn’t able to know what he could and couldn’t do. He forced the cauldron to do what he wanted but now he was thinking how wasteful in concentration and Mana that must have been.
He had a wry smile on his face before he patted the cauldron.
Flames came out of his hand. They didn’t look aggressive anymore; instead, they wrapped around the cauldron and started to cover it and heat it up.
Erik didn’t have Simple Inorganic Scan like Rugrat, but his control over his flames had reached a high level. Through them, he was using them to test and learn about the cauldron.
Learning how to do things manually first is for the best, though once I know how to do it, using instruments can relieve the pressure on me. This might happen for lower-grade concoctions but at the higher levels, it’ll be necessary to learn how to make them relying on myself only.
A wolf-like smile appeared on his face. In the face of a challenge, an impossible wall that few had been able to cross before, he felt a thrill in his body.
It was what he lived for. Screw limits—he was here to break past them. A challenge? Don’t make me laugh—it’s just a goal to overcome.
Erik’s flames became stronger. How badass would it be to make Master-level concoctions?
Erik closed his eyes and started to learn about his cauldron while metal transformed under Rugrat’s hammer and tools, turning from metal blocks into components and testing items.
“Go and sleep! I want to open my Mana gate today!” Rugrat said.
“I’m busy!”
“I will rock you right to sleep!” Rugrat yelled.
“I...” Erik’s voice faltered. He wanted to say I would like to see you try, but calling Rugrat’s bluff wasn’t the best thing to do. “I’ll make something to help me sleep.”
Erik started to make a tea that was supposed to calm the mind. His own thoughts drifted toward his level increase.
I was increasing my Mana Regeneration so that I could open more Mana gates, but if we’re able to help each other in opening Mana gates, I no longer have to rely on my own. As I increase my control over Mana, then I will be able to increase the level of my Mana cultivation. There are Alchemy concoctions one can use to increase the chances.
Before, I was reliant on m
y body to increase my regeneration. Now, with a potion, I can increase my regeneration, my striking power, and the rest in leaps and bounds.
Fighting, I focus on melee—so greater Strength and greater Agility make sense. Then, when I use a concoction, or spell, because of the higher base stats, the greater increase in combat ability. I don’t really need to increase my Mana pool. If I can modify the spells to use less Mana and decrease the effects, that would be fine. I’m going to be fighting people close combat—I need spells that support me and others, not ones that do direct damage. I was only half becoming a monk; now I should go all the way: engage with weapons at distance, close in and use my fists and legs to win the battle as Rugrat moves around to get in good hits and deal with the peripheral. Looks like close combat all the way. Erik seemed to firm his resolve. “Two points in Agility, one in Strength, one in Stamina, and one in Mana Regeneration.”
With a plan, he blew on the tea and started to drink it. He started to grow tired.
Chapter: Unexpected
Although the others were stunned by the appearance of the hidden village, Tan Xue was wary of all the people who resided within it.
With her senses, she could tell that the majority were over level ten, but they had all remained in this village. Outside, they could have become nobles just due to their strength and level. They could have ascended to the Second Realm. Instead, they chose to stay in the First Realm in a hidden village.
What kind of secret do they have? What is this place?
They had to walk down a path into the village. After they left the base that was watching the entrance into the village, they passed a barracks. The sounds of fighting could be heard from there. Waves of Mana and shockwaves from fierce fighting rang out.
On the other side, there was a beast stable. A number of different creatures moved about, from birds to a large number of panthers. People were tending to the creatures or training with them.
She looked over to Lucinda, the beast tamer. She waved to some of the people over at the stables.
A school of fighting and another for beast taming. Although they’re both worked on in the other realms, the resources that are needed to develop these Experts aren’t small.
Second Realm Page 22