Second Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  “Well, I guess that we’re doing the same thing, kind of, with me using formations on my weapons and you using spells. Though there are a limited number of formations that I can put on a weapon. I wonder if I was able to, say, have an acceleration formation on a weapon and then I used an acceleration spell on the weapon as well—would they stack up?” Rugrat and Erik’s eyes sparkled as they looked at each other with excited expressions.

  “Master stack, stack formations, techniques, poison, spells—altogether, it’ll take time to build up the necessary components but the power, oh the power!” Erik said, a scary smile on his face as his eyes shone.

  “Dude, that’s my role. Come on, I’m the eccentric one, the mad scientist. You just look creepy as fuck,” Rugrat said in a flat voice.

  Erik coughed violently at Rugrat’s words.

  Rugrat snorted and shook his head. He crossed his legs and started to focus on his Mana channels.

  “What are you doing?” Erik asked.

  “Shh. I’m trying to connect the four elements and find harmony between the ying and...” Rugrat swung to the side, one eye opening as a shoe flew past his face. “Hey!”

  “Trying to act like some sage? Try this out.” Erik tossed over a powder. It was the one he had been working on while waiting on Rugrat.

  “What’s this?” Rugrat caught the powder.

  “Something that should help you. It’s called Mana Revitalization powder. If consumed, then it will increase the speed that one can regenerate Mana at. I think that if it was used on a needle and then put on all of your Mana gates, then it would increase the effectiveness and regeneration speed.”

  “You want to turn me into a damn potion guinea rabbit.” Rugrat groaned.

  “Don’t worry, I can heal you.” Erik dismissed his worries easily.

  “You didn’t even deny it!” Rugrat yelled but turned quiet at Erik’s glare.

  “AS I WAS SAYING. With this, it’ll mean that as you compress your Mana then there should be more Mana fighting to enter your body. It’ll reduce your need to compress, wait to regenerate Mana and then compress again.”

  Rugrat looked at the powder again, its value increasing in his eyes.

  “It might also help you to increase the speed that your tapped Mana gate opens fully.” Erik laid down his last card as Rugrat passed the vial back to Erik.

  “All right, get your damn needles out.” Rugrat sighed.

  Erik pulled out the tools he needed.

  “Do I need to lie down?”

  “No, just sitting there will be fine. After all, it’s easier to circulate through your Mana channels in such a position.” Erik moved around Rugrat.

  He pulled out some of the new Mortal-grade iron needles Rugrat had made. He made sure that they were sterile before he used clean water and the powder, creating a kind of sludge.

  He pulled out a needle, dipped it into the sludge and then stabbed it through Rugrat’s skin, right into his Mana gates. His actions were quick and precise.

  “I can see them but I can’t feel them,” Rugrat said.

  “I am missing the nerves so they don’t hurt. Stop moving.” Erik moved around Rugrat, tapping in the last of the needles.

  Rugrat could feel the pressure outside of his body, the Mana that was gathering at his Mana gates, trying to force their way into his body.

  He felt Erik putting his hands on the Mana gates in the middle of his lower back and where his spine rounded.

  Rugrat focused on circulating his Mana for a few moments. He cleared his mind of everything else and started compressing his Mana.

  His rotations were slow but they started to speed up as he guided the Mana through his Mana channels. As his Mana became denser, more Mana flowed in through his opened Mana gates. Even the small sliver of Mana coming through his partly opened Mana gate increased.

  It filled up the space left by the compressed and circulating Mana.

  Rugrat added this Mana into his original Mana pool.

  Rugrat took in a deep breath and let it out. The Mana channels across his body that had a faint glow became brighter.

  Go! Rugrat forced all of his compressed Mana through his Mana channels and toward his core. As it passed through his Mana channels, more Mana was dragged into his Mana channels through his Mana gates.

  The Mana collected at his core. The thicker mist there started to agglomerate. The three drops that were waiting there shook as they hung at the nine, twelve, and three o’clock positions within his core.

  Entering his core, the mist he had gathered adhered to the walls of his core. Threads appeared and joined with the formed Mana drops. They grew, gaining a deeper blue hue as they shone brighter with greater compressed energy.

  Rugrat felt as if he were flexing every muscle in his body. He could see the changes, but they were slow. He continued to compress and circulate power through his body, gathering and forcing it into his core.

  The threads from the three drops disappeared. Rugrat’s attention moved to the six o’clock position. The tension in his body—it felt if he let up, he would collapse.

  A sole thread appeared like a seedling. It reached upward, painfully slowly.

  The other three Mana drops seemed to be fighting back against the new arrival. The pressure inside Rugrat’s core sent throbbing pain through his body.

  Rugrat grit his teeth and continued on. If he was to release the Mana he had stored up for this attempt now, then it would rage through his body. Pure, uncontrolled Mana would leave deep wounds in his body.

  It was a massive risk but they didn’t know what they would face in this dungeon. The golem had shown them that although they might be strong, there were much stronger things out there in the Ten Realms.

  Rugrat forged onward. The thread seemed to stop as a sphere began to form on its end. The sphere started to grow slowly, fighting against the pressure of the other Mana drops within Rugrat’s core.

  Rugrat kept on fighting. His mind started to go blank from having to concentrate so hard. He tried to guide the Mana that was entering his body into his core. As he was doing so, his compression failed and the Mana ran through his lower back, injuring him greatly.

  No! Rugrat cried out in his mind. He looked at the damage inside of his body. He was starting to lose control. With the pain, with the Mana channels in his lower body being savaged, the compressed Mana coming through was only making it worse.

  There was a grunt from behind Rugrat as Rugrat felt the weight on his body become easier.

  “What you waiting for, marine!” Erik growled.

  Rugrat grit his teeth and opened his eyes, pushing past the pain. His fighting spirit was ignited as he felt Erik’s Mana moving in through the Mana gate in his upper back. It was already highly compressed.

  Rugrat freely accepted it and drove it into his Mana core. Another thread formed under the fourth Mana drop, and then another, reaching out to the Mana drop and increasing the rate that it grew.

  As it grew, a greater suction force could be felt in Rugrat’s body. The Mana Revitalization powder served to open Rugrat’s Mana gates wider, but this was a hunger from the core of his Mana system. His Mana pool was growing, creating a pressure imbalance as it drew in more.

  Rugrat focused on compressing and pulling in Mana. He forgot about the pain he had been feeling. He only noticed the flow of Mana from the lower half of his body increased.

  He didn’t notice the green-looking energy that moved through his Mana channels. Wherever they touched the wounds created by the wild Mana, the green energy would dissipate slightly, washing away the wound as if it were never there.

  Once healed, more compressed Mana started to flow into Rugrat’s Mana channels through the Mana gate in his stomach and the one in his upper spine.

  Erik’s Mana pool wasn’t great but his control over his Mana and his Mana Regeneration were high. With him pouring out compressed Mana directly through the Mana gates, Rugrat only needed to g
uide it through his body and to his Mana core, where the fourth Mana drop was forming.

  Rugrat watched as the threads of Mana that connected to the fourth Mana drop left the wall of his core and entered his Mana drop.

  Gold Experience from the Ten Realms rose out of the ground and rushed into his body.

  Rugrat drank it in. His body was transforming; it felt as though his entire body were undergoing a baptism of Mana. His Mana channels expanded and Mana mist started to flow into his Mana core. The four Mana drops were like stars on a cloudy night, shining through.

  From his core, his Mana channels started to evolve, widening and strengthening them. Mana rushed in through Rugrat’s Mana gates. Mana gathered outside of Rugrat’s body. The gold Experience and the ambient Mana contrasted each other as Rugrat looked like some holy existence.

  The needles in Rugrat’s Mana gates were forced out. Rugrat sat there, feeling refreshed as his parched Mana channels were washed over with fresh Mana.

  “This is power,” Rugrat said. With the combined effects of Mana king and the new changes to his body, the Mana all around their tent rushed toward them, stirring up the sand and dust, hitting against the side of the tent as the Mana passed through, entering Rugrat’s body and filling his Mana channels.

  Chapter: Taran Exits Seclusion

  “This is so boring!” Julilah complained as she lay on her back, reading a book.

  “The more information we have, the greater chance we have of our formations succeeding,” Qin replied. But her mind was elsewhere as she looked at the formation plate in front of her, studying it once again.

  “You just going to stare at it, or are you going to carve into it?” Julilah complained.

  “I’m thinking about what I want to do,” Qin said.

  “Do you know how to work with metal?” Julilah asked as a sudden thought hit her.

  “I, uh, well, not really,” Qin finally admitted and looked over to Julilah.

  Julilah shot her hands and feet up in the air in victory. “Finally something that Princess Silaz isn’t good at!”

  Qin could only frown at her friend’s antics.

  “Well, you wanna learn? Come on, I might teach you if you say yes!” Julilah grinned and played with a chisel in her fingers.

  “Will you teach me how to work with the formations plates?” Qin sighed.

  “Yes, I certainly will—you just buy dessert tonight!” Julilah put her book to the side and got up as she moved to the formation plate.

  “Working with formation plates isn’t like smithing, but closer to engraving. The key is to plan everything out before you get to work. So before we work on the formation plate, we should work on something else and draw out a blueprint. Then we can work with wood. Master Tan Xue always said to work with cheaper items and prototypes until you reach the limit of how much you can practice with them. Then, once you have the diagram of what you want, you make your first lines. You don’t need to go that deep with them, just leave markings that match your formation, then you can make them successively deeper. If you start off making them deep, then if you mess up it’s harder to fix,” Julilah said, fully getting into it.

  Egbert, who had been walking through the library, looked over at the two girls as they were absorbed in the formation plate and looking over different formations they wanted to create.

  He passed by, unseen, as he hummed happily to himself.

  ***

  “Did you hear?” Davos burst into the barracks.

  “What?” Niemm asked, his voice a mix of tiredness and anger as he rolled over.

  “Taran came out of his seclusion and he made weapons,” Davos said.

  Niemm halted his movements as the others in the barracks stopped what they were doing and looked over to Davos.

  Davos was always looking for new gear, putting all of his gold into whatever he could get. There were standard weapons and uniform for people in the Alva military, but you could use your own gear if you wanted to.

  “What kind?” Niemm woke up a bit more, his interest piqued.

  “I’m not sure, but there were some people saying that he’s finally broken through to Journeyman level and he’s using Mortal-grade iron. He supposedly just left the smithy and went home to sleep.”

  Niemm raised an eyebrow at Davos.

  Davos coughed awkwardly. “Well, it seems that he passed out in the smithy and he was so loud at snoring that no one could work effectively, so Tan Xue threw him over her shoulder and tossed him off at home.”

  That makes more sense.

  “Journeyman items made from Mortal-grade iron—is it possible to get weapons like that anywhere in the First Realm?” one of the people in the barracks asked in a hushed voice.

  “I heard of it once from my grandad, said that it was one of the greatest weapons he ever saw and one of the imperial knight captains had to spend all their wages for a year on it,” another chimed in.

  Niemm’s heart rate picked up. With a grunt, he got off his bed and to his feet. “Let’s go and check it out.” Niemm knew that just thinking about a Journeyman weapon, he wouldn’t be able to sleep.

  Right now, he was using a spear that was high Novice ranked. He had his eye on an Apprentice-ranked spear. He was hoping to get back out in the Beast Mountain Range soon to earn the coin he needed to buy it.

  If there’s a Journeyman spear, I’ll need to check the stat requirements, but just how much stronger would I become? Might he have some heavy armor as well?

  Niemm’s excitement rose as he stepped forward. The others seemed to have a spell broken as they all ran out of the barracks and headed for the city.

  “What’s going on? Niemm!” Glosil asked as he was walking the parade square.

  “Sir!” Niemm snapped to attention as the others all tried to get into a position of attention, one tumbling over in the dirt.

  “We heard that Smith Taran has come out of his seclusion and has made a number of high-quality weapons. We wanted to go and look for ourselves, sir!” Niemm reported as quickly as he could.

  Glosil’s eyes shined as his eyes flickered to the dungeon’s center and the smithy. He half moved toward it before he seemed to remember where he was. “Well, what are you waiting for?” He then took off at a run, a grin plastered on his face.

  “Captain!” A few called out at his shameless actions.

  Niemm got his feet under him and ran after the speeding captain as a herd of fighters rushed toward the smithy.

  ***

  Tan Xue wiped the sweat from her forehead as she looked at the next completed item, a shield. She looked at it with a frown and let out an annoyed growl.

  “Is there something wrong, Master?” Julilah asked.

  “This metal here is too thin. I used a double combination enhancer and it increased the defense but also added a Fire attribute to the piece. I should have turned this into gloves for those melee types. It could add a new attack if they punched someone instead of using their regular weapons,” Tan Xue complained.

  “T-two innate effects?” a smith who had overheard said in a small voice. The man’s face was pale as he looked over at Tan Xue.

  “Rei! Get back to work! I want another seven high-grade Apprentice daggers and another three you make yourself without that forging blueprint by the end of today!” Tan Xue snapped out.

  “Yes, Smith!” the man said in a scared voice. His face turned even paler as he quickly turned to mind his own business.

  “Are two innate effects strange?” Julilah cocked her head to the side.

  “Somewhat. It’s the mark of a half-step Expert weapon. An Expert weapon can have two innate specialties, bound to their user and carry two enchantments. They’re leagues higher in strength than Journeyman weapons,” Tan Xue explained. Now that she had decided to take on Julilah as an apprentice, she poured out all of her knowledge.

  She had the young girl aiding her directly in the forge and welcomed her questions as she
worked. Hearing her genuine curiosity in something she was good in gave Tan Xue more energy instead of less.

  “Innate specialties? But isn’t this an innate effect?” Julilah continued.

  “Looks like someone was paying attention. An innate effect strengthens what is in the weapon and strengthens it, giving up to an additional five percent stat to the weapon. An innate specialty can give anywhere from five percent to twenty percent increase.” Tan Xue’s eyes shone. In all of her life, she had never seen an Expert-level weapon. Through reading a number of books and talking to other smiths, she was able to put together the requirements for higher-leveled weapons.

  “Expert weapons can also hold two enchantment formations. While the base attacking power might be anywhere from seventy-five to one hundred, a true Expert smith will be able to draw out the true power of the weapon. With the aid of a powerful Expert formations Master, that power can be further augmented. It is why formation Masters and smiths are called brotherly professions. Most of the items that smiths make at higher levels require a formation to be completed and many formation artists require high quality items to work on to improve their craft. Many have walked down the path of formations Master and smith.”

  Tan Xue remembered where she was and coughed roughly, trying to hide her embarrassed expression as she was washed up in the excitement of talking about higher realm weapons.

  Julilah let out a childish laugh as she swayed back and forth, hiding her mouth with her hand. “Master has this side to her as well!”

  “You!” Tan Xue threatened. Just as she was about to start with her famous tickling attack, she heard people running through the village.

  She looked over, becoming alert.

  Seeing the armored people running toward the smithy, she was a bit alarmed. Seeing their excited expressions and Glosil, who had been sitting at the council’s table, leading them, Tan Xue couldn’t really believe what she was seeing.