Second Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  Storbon, Setsuko, and Yuli were all headed to the academy. Ian, Yao Meng, and Tian Cui were still doing lessons and training in the barracks. While they wanted to develop their own skills in different areas, being in the Second Realm, they understood how useful skills were and had felt the bite not knowing enough in the Second Realm: getting scammed out of more gold than they should have, or not having a way to solve a problem that they knew there was a solution to.

  Setsuko also wanted to head to the market. She had a list of supplies they needed to gather and had storage rings filled with items to be sold. The funds would be divided up within the team and they could use it to purchase more armor, better gear, powders, and meals.

  While they were in Alva, use of the academy facilities was free. Their room and board was cared for and they could train as they wanted to with any additional gear or items they wanted to buy marked down twenty percent. They got a decent wage; in return, they had to pass eighty percent of their items on to the dungeon to allow it to develop. The remaining twenty they could do with as they wanted.

  Storbon and his people had carried out a number of different jobs, gathering all kinds of materials. They only converted the useless items for money and gear to support themselves. When they were heading back, they cleared out any remaining useless items and purchased items to help the dungeon.

  They’d already separated what to give the dungeon and keep to trade. It was enough for them to live comfortably in Alva for at least ten years. But with buying gear, it was lucky to last ten days.

  They were headed toward the dungeon core down the main path from the barracks as they saw a new set of buildings. There were warehouses being quickly erected, glowing blueprints showing those working on it.

  A group of about fifteen soldiers were helping out as well, speeding up the process.

  It was a massive warehouse district, easily four times the size of the original, and then a clear area. There were a few glowing blueprints waiting there but only one building had been completed. It was less like a building and more like a pavilion.

  Runes glowed on the pavilion as it powered up a glowing tablet.

  People were gathered all around the glowing tablet. They were scrolling through or looking at information on their different screens.

  As they got closer, Storbon could hear the different people calling out.

  “I’m looking to sell fifty wolf hides. If you’ve got any, we can add them together for a better price!” one trader called out.

  “I’ve got twenty wild turkeys here but I only need ten—anyone looking for any?”

  “Selling Stamina recovery powders, fifteen percent efficacy—anyone have a better price than seventy-one silvers each?”

  “Shall we go have a look?” Setsuko asked.

  “Sure,” Storbon said, interested in the glowing tablet and why people were yelling out different items to buy and sell.

  As they approached, Jasper walked over and pulled out a sign board from his storage ring. “All right, if you have something you want to buy, sell, double up on, put it on the board!” he yelled out, drowning out the people who were yelling.

  He passed a piece of chalk to one of the Alva military personnel and then headed back off to the warehouse district.

  Traders moved over to the party member and started to have him list out different things on the board.

  Setsuko and Yuli looked around in interest.

  “I’m going to check out that tablet,” Storbon said and left them. He got within a few feet of the tablet and a screen appeared.

  It wasn’t a tablet but a formation. What appeared in front of him was a series of columns, with different items. Some were on auction; others could be bought outright.

  The items were from all over the First Realm.

  Items went for two or three coppers, all the way to hundreds of gold. There was a few pieces of broken Journeyman equipment, Apprentice items here and there. Most were food supplies, crafting materials, and other things done in bulk. Although their unit price was low, they were sold in quantities in the tens or hundreds; few, if any, things were below two or three gold coins.

  It was simply at prices that normal people in the First Realm couldn’t attempt to pay.

  I remember hearing about this from Blaze. He said that the reason that the village was able to keep going was because of the money-eating village store. I saw this in the store with Elise, but I never saw it active and I couldn’t use it.

  He wasn’t offended that Blaze hadn’t shared the formation with everyone. There were few people who could spend more than a single silver in the entire village.

  A silver on the market was nothing but spare change.

  For the people of Alva, it finally gave them a true conduit out of the dungeon. A way to sell their goods to those who would be interested and could afford the price. It was untraceable and unknown.

  Storbon looked at the selling channels. A number of things had been blocked off. Selling items wasn’t so easy. If they were to dump items into the market, then the leaders of the First Realm would start looking around to see where all these goods were coming from at once.

  If they slowly started to bleed them out and hike the buying and selling volume of the First Realm market, then they could sell as they desired without making ripples.

  Setsuko appeared next to Storbon and started to go through the interface. She muttered to herself and started listing out prices on the market, doing equations and the like. Storbon hadn’t been good with math. Although people in the Ten Realms could read anything as long as there wasn’t any interference, math was still something one had to learn.

  Storbon smiled and closed the screen.

  Over by the large board, there were items being added and removed from the board frequently. Another party member had come over to help the first to organize it all.

  Storbon was about to head into the city when he saw Jasper headed over with a number of people who ran the dungeon’s warehouses.

  It looked as if Jasper had been waiting for them to arrive.

  They talked to him as he used the screen interface, listing different items for sale.

  I wonder just how much gold they’ll earn by clearing out the warehouses?

  He might have brought back a lot of items from the Second Realm, but the warehouses had items from before they came to Alva Dungeon.

  Food, weapons, armors, hides, meat, monster cores: as people had traded in different gear for gold to the Alva Dungeon council, the council had run out of money multiple times, but they had built up vast stores that had been left untouched.

  As trade went on, people could pay with money or materials as long as it met with the standards of the market manager. Most picked materials and items because silver, gold, and coppers were still in short supply.

  Erik and Rugrat had dumped thousands of coppers, hundreds of silvers and gold coins into the dungeon’s coffers. With this kind of liquid assets, the council was once again able to trade items for money. Their supply had rapidly increased until it finally cooled the other day.

  Now they must be offloading the different items in large groups and batches, timing them to make the greatest profit.

  Storbon nodded in agreement. The council gaining more money made sense to him. After all, it paid for his wages, the building and expansion of Alva Dungeon with its different facilities.

  People might complain and want more money back. If they got their way, then the dungeon would collapse, having no money to operate.

  Storbon and Yuli met up, once again heading toward the center of the dungeon.

  “I have a feeling that Alva Dungeon is going to be a gold mine soon,” Yuli said.

  “Oh?” Storbon had the same thoughts but he was interested in her viewpoint.

  “With just the amount of creatures that the parties kill, their resources are nearly all given over to the council and the party can get a monetary reward based on the dif
ferent creatures that they kill. All of those supplies are piled up to be sold—that would be a lot, but that’s not taking into account the fields. We can grow food here all year long without any trouble, and faster than anyone else. The reason that the farms are all in plots is because they’re testing out new crops. I heard that we’ve got enough crops for the entire year in just two months since we left. If we can get bigger farms with better crops, then we could make enough food for entire cities in the middle of winter, undercut the other cities’ prices, collect the pay and continue on. Though there is one problem.”

  “What’s that?” Storbon asked. She’d raised a few points he hadn’t thought about.

  “With all that money, we can spend it inside the dungeon to an extent, but we need more trade with the higher realms.” Yuli had a mysterious smile on her face. “I wonder if it won’t be long before there are traders heading to the Second Realm to get different goods.”

  Storbon knew that there were a lot of people who wanted to go to the Second Realm. Advancing was something that nearly every kid thought about. Now all of them could do that.

  “I expected it to some degree—you know, in the future. I didn’t think that it would come so soon,” Storbon said. With her words, he felt that they were true.

  “Come on. We need to hurry up or else we’re going to be late to class!” Yuli picked up the pace.

  Storbon only had to lightly jog as she ran. His Strength was much higher than hers.

  Storbon’s eyes shone. If I make friends with the right healers, then they might help me in tempering my body, or opening my Mana gates!

  These procedures were still in their infancy, with Erik or Rugrat watching over them to make sure that nothing went wrong. But as more people learned how to open Mana gates, there was about one person a day who perforated their Mana gate.

  For some, it took a few hours to open it all the way; for others, days or weeks.

  Storbon was willing to do anything that might increase his fighting ability.

  Chapter: Breakthrough

  “Qin, have you slept recently?” Egbert entered the nook that she and Julilah liked to sit in and conduct their research. There were a number of other desks around. All of them were taken up with someone who was trying to learn formations. After all, this was the part of the library that had all of the formation-related books gathered together.

  “Yesterday. Why? What is it?” Qin continued to read the book in her hands, not paying attention to Egbert.

  Even as he moved in front of her, her eyes were going back over the page as she thought of something and jotted it down before she flicked back a few pages to another piece of information. Then moved to another book buried under several others, checking a reference there.

  She let out a growl and angrily crossed off one of the items on a second list.

  “Did you hear that Erik and Rugrat have taught a number of people how to open Mana gates? They should be able to open yours so that you can cast those spells you thought of,” Egbert said.

  “I’m nearly there, Uncle. I can just feel it. These notes and I think I can finally crack the control formations. Mana gathering formations! Hah! I will return control over the entire dungeon!” she declared, getting angry looks from the others in the room who shushed her.

  She pulled her neck in and smiled weakly at the others, for her outburst.

  Egbert sighed. “Two more hours and you’re getting sleep.” Egbert moved away.

  Although Egbert was ridiculous at times, if there were people in the library, he would do what he could to make their time easier, even getting meals delivered and then say he forgot he couldn’t eat so he wanted to give it to someone else so it wouldn’t go to waste.

  People had come to respect him and the library greatly. He rarely had to clear up books or a mess as people made sure that they left the library as they found it, or else one of the people who spent a lot of time in the library would make sure to tell them to clean up their actions.

  He moved around the area. The formation array students spent some of the most time in the library and Egbert knew most of them.

  He talked to a few of them, recommended books and passed on some he had reserved for them based on their previous questions and his browsing of their contents.

  “Let me know how it goes and the information inside.” This was all he asked. He had plenty of time to read the previous books he had, but with these new ones, he wanted to get an idea of their content and use before he organized them.

  Egbert finished checking on everyone. I should go and check on those medical and Alchemy students. They’ve been strung out because of Erik’s upcoming test.

  “Yes! I’ve got it!” Qin yelled out at the top of her lungs, making Egbert jump and nearly very literally lose his head. He looked over at her as she held up a piece of paper in the air.

  “Qin!” There were certain things he would let her get away with, but causing everyone else to be distracted—this wasn’t just the library.

  “I found it! I figured it out! I think I know how to at least re-establish contact with the control formations,” Qin said in a much quieter voice, looking around with an apologetic face.

  The anger in the other faces turned to one of interest.

  There was the sound of moving pages and books being put down as the others made for the desk.

  Egbert arrived at the desk first and picked up the notes and started to read. He looked at the open book and the formation pictured within. He used a spell to look at the formation drawing in greater detail.

  He continued reading through the information and compared it against what he knew. “Where did you get the information on resetting the power formation contained within a complex multi-layered formation?”

  “Here.” Qin pulled out a book and then flipped through the pages. She pointed to a paragraph that Egbert read.

  He finished reading the notes and then went through several books before he put the notes on the table.

  No one made to grab it. All of them, including Qin, looked at him as he tapped his finger bone against his chin, making a clacking noise.

  “It should work in theory. I will tell Rugrat to look over it tomorrow,” Egbert said.

  “But Uncle Egbert...” Qin started.

  “You have not left here in two days and I know your Stamina is not that high, which means you’re all hopped up on Stamina powder and not food and rest. You have your notes and your mind will be clearer in the morning.” Egbert put his hand on her shoulder.

  Qin looked as though she were about to burst but finally agreed.

  “Kane, make a copy of the note and then you can read off it,” Egbert said.

  “Yes, Mister Egbert.” Kane, one of the formation students, pulled out paper and quill as he started to transcribe the note Qin had made.

  Egbert led Qin out of the library and to her residence, walking her to her room.

  “I really don’t need you to tuck me in, Uncle Egbert,” she said as the door to the kitchen opened, revealing Yui with food in his hands and a leg of meat in his mouth.

  He dropped the hunk of meat into the pile of food in his arms. “I was coming to get you. Time you put something in your stomach! Father would be worried sick!” Yui said.

  Qin ducked down under his tirade.

  “This might help with the fatigue lessening effects of the Stamina powder.” Egbert pulled out a small vial of powder to Yui.

  “Thank you, Uncle Egbert. I’ll make sure that she gets some real rest!”

  Yui Silaz lived for his little sister and sometimes that meant not being her best friend, but the big brother who had to make sure she ate and slept.

  Egbert headed out of the house and sent a sound transmission to Rugrat.

  “There is only going to be one way to test out her theory,” Egbert said to himself as he headed back toward the school. “I wonder how the Metal floor has changed.”

  ***

>   Everyone was around the council table. Rugrat, Erik, and Taran had even been roused from their pursuits, speaking to the seriousness of the topic.

  “How sure are you?” Erik asked.

  “I reviewed it three times and I think that it is indeed viable,” Egbert said without missing a beat.

  “The other levels, huh?” Rugrat said.

  Although they ruled over the living level, there were still five more levels to the dungeon that had been cut off for centuries.

  “What information do we have on the second floor?” Blaze looked to Egbert.

  “The second floor was made with the Metal attribute in mind. There were hundreds of creatures on the level that were of the Metal attribute. The gnomes had tamed them and used them as caretakers. They would process and refine the metals for the gnomes, allowing the floor to continuously provide metals necessary for building.

  “I lost contact with the level a number of years back. There were a number of creatures that were level seventeen at that time. Instead of allowing them to overflow into the Beast Mountain Range, I locked down the level. As time has passed, without maintenance, the different formations have started to fail. Now I can only control about five percent of the level. The information from it is limited.” Egbert waved his hand. The pillar of floors faded away as the second floor was pulled out and expanded across the circular desk; the lights in the room dimmed as a rough outline appeared in front of them. There were blank areas and hazy areas as well.

  “The Metal element is one of the most volatile. Not only does Metal encompass the actual material, but frequent lightning storms were normal. With the Mana gathering formations, these could be controlled and directed. Now the Mana gathering formations still work, but they only serve to create focal points for these storms as the power has nowhere to go. If we didn’t have that cornerstone above, then the Mana density in this level would continue to grow stronger, attracting all manner of beasts and people. The Metal Mana is incredibly dense and will limit our overall strength; when regenerating Mana, one will take in the metal’s impurities. Spells of the Metal attribute will increase in strength, while other spells will weaken.”