Second Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  “Stable but bad,” Rugrat yelled out. He grabbed the girl, putting her over his shoulder. The hand holding her continued to glow with healing spells as he ran with the rest of the party.

  They weren’t trying to hide now as they rushed toward the teleportation pad.

  All around them, they could only hear the noises of the beasts that had come to join in on the fight.

  A creature broke out of the ground, sending Storbon flying.

  He used his body to protect Yuli but his head slammed against the ground as he skidded forward.

  Yao Meng, who was limping forward, dumped healing powder on his face and took Yuli.

  “Move your fucking ass, Storbon!”

  Out of reaction more than thought, Storbon picked himself up and moved forward, feeling punch-drunk: his vision swam and his brain felt as if it were too big for his skull.

  He saw a flash of lightning and pain ripped through his head.

  ***

  Erik glanced around him. They had exited the depression and were running full out for the teleportation pad.

  Beasts appeared out of the ground or came cresting over hills. Only a few of them, thankfully, had ranged attacks.

  Most of them went wide, but some of them didn’t.

  Their party was either wounded or helping out the wounded as they ran.

  Even in their condition, they were firing out spells, using spell scrolls, crossbows, and ranged weaponry to keep the beasts at bay.

  We won’t get to the teleport pad with just that.

  “How long will it take for you to activate your largest area of effect spell, Egbert?” Erik asked.

  “Forty seconds to a minute and a half,” Egbert said.

  Erik glanced around. “It better be close to forty seconds! Start casting,” Erik bit off as he fired a string of Mana bolts at a fast-moving beast. The attacks landed around it, throwing off its straight shot toward the party. But it was still closing, and there were more like it.

  The party was running faster than sports cars and the teleportation array was so close, but Erik knew it was going to be tight.

  Their rate of attacks picked up as the creatures got closer. A few of them were killed but they were in the minority.

  “Ten seconds!” Egbert yelled out.

  Erik rushed forward and sent out a fist, smashing it into the face of one of the beasts. Its face deformed as it was pushed to the side. A tombstone appeared above it before it landed.

  Erik jumped forward. Using the strength in his legs, he was like a missile as he kicked another aiming for Setsuko and Tian Cui.

  The wind was stirred up, creating white streams around his foot as it kicked the creature’s back, breaking its metal bones and sending it flying back. He had surpassed humanity’s limits and the limits of strength on Earth long ago; his hands and fists had more strength than sledgehammers from back on Earth.

  “Cleansing Light!” Egbert yelled out.

  Mana streamed from Egbert, spinning around to create a white ball of light that seemed to be made up of spell formations so powerful that they were white. One couldn’t even see through them all.

  The Mana stopped pouring out of Egbert. The world seemed to go silent as a pressure wave of air shot out from around the running party. Beasts that didn’t have a good footing were tossed back.

  The ball of light shot up and exploded. A wave of white light shot out.

  Erik felt as if his entire existence had been raised to a new level.

  ==========

  Blessed by the Cleansing Light. Attributes strength increases by 10%

  ==========

  The wave of white light slammed into the beasts as the party, now buffed by the spell, ran even faster toward the teleportation pad.

  Notifications started to stream in but none of them paid attention.

  ***

  Blaze was looking at the teleportation pad. In total, there were about thirty people with him: those from the military, medics, and Alchemy.

  They’ve been gone for a few hours now, which is either really good, or not. Blaze couldn’t help but frown as he looked at the formation pad and let out a sigh.

  “The power from the dungeon core, it’s being consumed,” someone yelled out.

  Blaze looked to the dungeon core. Power was descending into it but it wasn’t coming out into the floor.

  The power used wasn’t a small amount either.

  I have a bad feeling about this.

  “The formation is activating!” someone said as power from the dungeon core once again shot toward the teleportation pad just twenty or thirty seconds after the power was drained from the dungeon core.

  “Stand to!” Blaze called out. The fortifications that had been assembled were quickly filled as everyone focused on the formation.

  A blinding light filled the formation before disappearing.

  “Medics!” Egbert yelled out.

  What greeted Blaze’s eyes made his stomach drop.

  The party was all there, but their armor was scarred and cut up, broken in places. They were covered in blood and healing powder.

  Yuli and Qin were unconscious.

  Others dropped to the ground, fatigued and in pain.

  The medics and alchemists ran forward to check on the party. Stretchers were pulled out as people were hauled over to the hospital.

  Storbon trudged forward awkwardly on his foot, wincing in pain.

  Blaze went to greet him. Rugrat and Erik were already moving with the wounded toward the hospital.

  Both of them looked to be in bad condition. Rugrat’s arm looked burnt and his armor was melted in places.

  Erik’s left arm dangled from the side as he shuffle-jumped to move, clearly something broken inside of him.

  “Creatures from level eighteen up to level thirty or forty. I don’t know. They had a fucking ambush and everything came for us.” Storbon took off his helmet and slammed it against the ground, his face covered in metal dust and sweat.

  “You all made it back—that’s the main point.” Blaze grabbed him and looked into his eyes.

  Storbon straightened up, seeing his old commanding officer looking at him.

  “Yes, sir,” Storbon said, gathering himself.

  “Get over to the hospital and check on them,” Blaze said.

  Storbon nodded. He let out a charged breath and snatched up his helmet, storing it as he headed for the hospital.

  Shit. Blaze could only look at the stretchers as the broken members of the party were hauled away.

  Chapter: Path of Strength

  The faces around the table were grim.

  Everyone who had gone down to the Metal floor had been allowed to leave the hospital or was resting, their injuries taken care of.

  With all of the medics and alchemists, their skills had been put on display.

  Erik had been coordinating, taking on the worst wounded, but with five medics using healing spells and an alchemist giving the patient different solutions, they were able to quickly stabilize and get people back on their feet.

  Erik and Rugrat had called a meeting. They were still wearing parts of their armor as they worked together to explain everything that had happened on the Metal floor since they had left.

  Egbert leaned forward. Everyone turned to him. After hearing about the Cleansing Light spell, they realized the power that Egbert held. He might be powered by the dungeon but at the same time, the dungeon’s power stores, if they were allowed to grow, weren’t anything simple.

  “In the center, I could feel a powerful presence. It must be the current king of the Metal floor as it stood on top of the main metal mountain. Its body must have reached Body Like Iron in order to withstand the impacts and power of those lightning strikes.

  “I think that it would be at least level forty. I have been using the control formations on the Metal floor to investigate. The creatures around the metal mountain that fight for position
are in the late level thirties. I would not suggest that we head to that floor again until we have a large number of level forty combatants,” Egbert said. His words landed in silence.

  “Thankfully no one was too badly injured or worse,” Elise said. “Blaze, Rugrat, Erik, Glosil—what is the plan to move forward?”

  They looked to one another before Rugrat cleared his throat.

  “First, we look at the floor through the different control formations that are working.” Rugrat looked to Egbert.

  “The control formations that were reactivated have allowed us a greater understanding of what is happening. We were targeting the control formations that allowed us to see what is happening on the floor so we can see about seventy percent of the floor, though only about sixty-three percent of the floor is in any kind of clarity and fifty percent we can see completely,” Egbert said.

  Rugrat continued on with his plan. “Once we’ve got the control formations, we can map out the entirety of the floor. More teams will go in afterward to repair formations. We sneak in and out, get a better picture slowly. At the same time, we need to grow our strength, allow the teams here access to the Second Realm. Allow the special teams to venture to the Second and Third Realm, with the goal of upgrading their abilities, gathering information, and capturing dungeon cores.

  “Before we left, a third special team was formed from Niemm’s party. Nearly all of his people made it in and we have some extras. In the next round of training, we will look to build a fourth team if possible. We need to get stronger and the fastest way is by going up against higher-level opponents. This is only the first floor we’ve tried entering. We only have a slim understanding of what’s on the other floors,” Rugrat said.

  “When will you head out?” Elise asked Erik and Rugrat directly.

  “We need a week or so,” Erik said.

  ***

  Erik sat down in his room at the mansion, opening his notifications from the fight.

  ==========

  Skill: Hand-to-Hand

  ==========

  Level: 43 (Apprentice)

  ==========

  Attacks cost 20% less Stamina

  ==========

  ==========

  Skill: Marksman

  ==========

  Level: 48 (Apprentice)

  ==========

  Long-range weapons are familiar in your hands. When aiming, you can zoom in x2.0.

  ==========

  ==========

  Skill: Healer

  ==========

  Level: 53 (Journeyman)

  ==========

  You have become familiar with the body and the arts of repairing it. Healing spells now cost 5% less Mana and Stamina.

  ==========

  ==========

  Upon advancing into the Journeyman level of Healer, you will be rewarded with one randomly selected item related to this skill.

  ==========

  You have received the spell scroll: Hallowed Ground

  100,000 EXP

  ==========

  Erik moved to open the spell scroll and used it.

  ==========

  You have learned the spell: Hallowed Ground. Your spell book has been updated.

  ==========

  ==========

  Hallowed Ground I

  ==========

  Journeyman

  ==========

  A spell created by a religious sect, when cast, a three-meter area around the caster will burn with brilliant flames. These blessed flames will burn those who were enemies and stepped inside, but to allies, it would heal their wounds and wash away their fatigue. (3 meter radius—can be expanded)

  ==========

  Consumption of Mana based on area and effect. 175 Mana for 3 meter radius (+125 Mana for each additional meter)

  ==========

  Erik assessed the skill. When working with others or taking on a large amount of enemy forces, it would be useful.

  “Or if I could pull an enemy into the spell’s range, and hold them there, they’d bleed away Health rapidly. I should see if I can increase the healing and damage output.” He looked to the next notifications.

  ==========

  You have reached Level 25

  ==========

  When you sleep next, you will be able to increase your attributes by: 10 points.

  ==========

  ==========

  53,430/700,000 EXP till you reach Level 26

  ==========

  “If I got this amount of Experience at my level, the members of the special team and Qin must have power leveled hard. I hope Qin is okay. Either she’ll get through it, or not.”

  He shook his head and laid down, drinking more of the tea.

  “My Mana pool is only at one hundred and ninety. If I cast Hallowed Ground, then I can only cast one three meters big and I would only have twenty-five Mana remaining. It would take me seven seconds to recover the Mana I need to increase the area of effect by a meter, or increase the damage or healing output. I’m going to need to increase my Mana pool, but I don’t want my Agility or Strength to fall behind. If I do three to Strength, three to Agility and then four to Mana pool, that would cut down the second time I can increase the Hallowed Ground, going from seven to around three seconds. Cast couple of hits, second cast.” Erik took his last drink from the tea, thinking of ways to fight with the new spell as he started to drift off to sleep.

  ==========

  You have 10 attribute points to use.

  ==========

  Erik quickly input the attribute points, checking his character sheet.

  ==========

  Character Sheet

  ==========

  Name: Erik West

  ==========

  Level: 25

  ==========

  Race: Human

  ==========

  Titles:

  From the Grave

  Mana Lord

  Dungeon Master

  Reverse Alchemist

  Poison Body

  ==========

  Strength: (Base 26) +31

  ==========

  570

  ==========

  Agility: (Base 19) +32

  ==========

  255

  ==========

  Stamina: (Base 29) +9

  ==========

  570

  ==========

  Mana: (Base 6) +17

  ==========

  230

  ==========

  Mana Regeneration (Base 10) +36

  14.80/s

  ==========

  Stamina Regeneration: (Base 27) +31

  12.60/s

  ==========

  ***

  “Egbert, I have a question for you.” Rugrat walked up to Egbert, who was sitting behind the librarian’s desk.

  “Go ahead,” Egbert said.

  “That trial grounds that was used that was filled with different kind of beasts—what was that?” Rugrat asked.

  Egbert let out a sigh. “It was a battlefield dungeon.”

  Rugrat lifted his brow, looking for more information.

  “Most people think that the Ten Realms are just places with rules. This is true, but the Ten Realms rules and the way they work seem to be based upon progression. One must constantly progress or they will be eliminated, their power returning to the Ten Realms. The floors that are part of Alva Dungeon have all been blocked off, not allowing them to become part of the Ten Realms. It is only when these creatures die that their Experience is bled over to the Ten Realms and returned.

  “The dungeons are meant to be places where energy is returned to the Ten Realms—Mana, Experience, and so on. A dungeon that offers strong trials and stronger opponents will return more power to the Ten Realms. For this, the Ten Realms will reward the dungeon and they will reward one’s progress in a dungeon. With the battlefield dungeon, one
can kill creatures of different levels. The more creatures they kill, the more Experience that they receive and the greater the reward they will be given by the Ten Realms. The dungeon masters simply create a stage, supply the monsters, supply the building, and activated a dungeon core. The Ten Realms will then come into an agreement with the dungeon and randomly select loot to be dropped in the dungeons and from the different trials. With the battlefield, Alva Dungeon was able to gain more Mana and kill off some of the monsters below. It also had a secondary questline that you and Erik passed through.”

  “So all dungeons are made by people and by having people pass trials, then they can regain their losses and get a reward from the Ten Realms?” Rugrat asked.

  “Partly. There are very few dungeons that are actually controlled by people. This is because of the dungeon core. Getting one is incredibly difficult. First, you need a Dungeon Master or Dungeon Hunter title in order to defeat another dungeon. Otherwise, you can only get the rewards given out and that would be the end of it. The other way is to find a naturally occurring dungeon core that hasn’t turned into a dungeon yet. Dungeon cores have another name.” Egbert’s voice turned grave. “Mana seeds. They are crystals that are found in high concentrations of Mana. Usually within intersecting Mana ley lines. They grow by consuming the impurities of the Mana. At times, part of them will break off and shoot through the ley lines before they are lodged in at some location. The dungeon core purifies and strengthens the Mana around it, drawing in creatures and people as it alters the habitat around it, creating different kinds of dungeons. One can only claim a Mana seed before it has taken root and become a dungeon core, or when they are forming at a convergence of ley lines.”

  ***

  “That’s...well, damn, that’s not easy,” Rugrat said.

  Egbert sat there, waiting for Rugrat to collect his thoughts.

  “What about that dungeon? Can we still access it?”

  “It is actually a subset of Alva Dungeon but it isn’t powered right now. There are a number of teleportation spells and the like. The reason that there were so many tokens issued was simply to bring in more people. The more people who entered the dungeon, the more beasts they would kill or die and in return, the greater amount of power that the dungeon would be rewarded with,” Egbert said. “What are you thinking?”