“I’m thinking that it’s a pretty good training ground for our people. We’ve got powerful beasts right below us. Through fighting them, we can increase our coordination and our strength,” Rugrat said.
Egbert paused before nodding. “I could make some changes, limiting the power needed. I could just operate one arena and allow the monsters to spawn in there. I can set the parameters but I can’t do much more. If there is too much interference, then the Ten Realms will cast down the dungeon, destroying it and the people within.”
“So we can make it, but we won’t be able to control it. That’ll increase the difficulty. As long as there is a way to retreat, then it is possible to do it,” Rugrat muttered.
“It would take nine days for the dungeon core to get enough power to start up one of the arenas. Or it would be three Mortal-grade Mana stones or the equivalent in monster cores,” Egbert said.
“If someone wants to compete in the trial, then they will have to put that up for collateral. If they do well, then we can gain rewards for the dungeon as a whole and they gain items that would be useful to them. If they fail, they can abort and pull back. With medics and alchemists on hand, it should allow them to recover quickly. Though many will push forward more. The better they do, the greater the rewards. If they reach certain levels and we get enough back for the dungeon based on the Ten Realms trophy, we can allow them tokens to enter the trial grounds again,” Rugrat said.
“The chances of death will be high,” Egbert said.
“We can do what we can to mitigate that. But at the end of the day, all of our people have been in real fights, with few of them giving them the option to retreat or pull back. The lure of rewards will push them forward but their combat experience should be enough for them to pull back before they get into a bad situation.” Rugrat didn’t like the risks, but they could mitigate them to some degree.
“I will look into getting that prepared,” Egbert said.
“What about the other arenas? Can we break them down?” Rugrat asked.
“Certainly, though I would leave some of them active. They’re connected to the different floors. If we need to, we can use them to enter the different floors instead of just relying on the main teleportation formation. I built them with this purpose in mind.”
“I have to say that I’m impressed. It’s one hell of a plan and it worked well, allowing the dungeon to run much longer, cut down on the population of monsters, and give us secondary entrances into the different floors,” Rugrat said.
“I was simply looking to make sure that the dungeon could be recovered,” Egbert said.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“Well, to use them requires power. To break them down requires power. We didn’t have much of it and our people were too low of a level. I didn’t want to see anyone getting hurt. Also, no one has asked me, which isn’t odd as only you and Erik were ever part of the trials.”
“I’ll let Glosil and Blaze know, and it will be up to them what happens with it,” Rugrat said.
“Understood.” Egbert bowed his head slightly as Rugrat turned and left the library.
***
Erik looked up from what he was working on as there was a knock at the door. “Come in.”
The door opened to show Jen from the hospital as she opened the door. “Mister West?” She seemed confused about being asked to come to his office.
“Please, have a seat.” Erik stood and came around to the front of his desk.
She took a seat and looked at him with clear questions.
“I am intending to head to the Third Realm in some time. With this, the hospital, medics, and alchemists will not have someone to lead them in an official capacity. I want to make you the leader of the medics. You would be in a teaching role, so it would be your job to make sure that everyone is advancing their skill and look for new ways to pursue progress. You would also take on an assistant, who would be in charge of all of the administration needs of the hospital. Elise will have a list of people for you to look at. It is also my aim to make Fehim the department head of the alchemists,” Erik said, putting all of his cards down on the table.
Jen frowned and nodded. She had been expecting this to a certain extent, it seemed.
“Don’t worry. It’s not all bad. You’ll be able to use more resources and not have to pay for them. Also, you can use those resources to advance your own knowledge of medical studies.”
Jen seemed to brighten up at this.
“Taran is the principal of the academy and the smithy’s department head, but you don’t see him falling behind in his level. You will also get a larger remuneration from the government for your time and gain a percentage of the money made by what the people in your department sell.”
Erik wanted to offer the best rewards to those who were the best in their field so that they would strive for the position of department head. He hoped it would make people more competitive with one another, increasing the level of everyone in the department.
“Okay, I’ll do it,” Jen agreed.
***
Glosil and Blaze were both looking at each other and then Rugrat as he finished relaying the information about the secondary dungeon.
“So there’s a second dungeon that basically acts as a trial area where people can go in, fight beasts of their level or higher from the different levels of Alva Dungeon. We get power the more creatures that they kill and they can get rewards from the Ten Realms. Do we have a name for it other than ‘the other dungeon’?” Blaze asked.
“Battlefield Trial,” Rugrat said.
“How much power would one need to provide in order to use it?”
“One Mortal-grade Mana stone would be for the best, or the equivalent of monster cores,” Rugrat said.
“So a thousand gold a shot.” Blaze let out a deep breath and shrugged. “Well, there is only one group in Alva Dungeon that is capable of raising that kind of capital other than you and Erik. The hunting grounds of the Beast Mountain Range are being depleted with our actions. This will give people a new test that they can use to test out their skills in real combat and I know that Special Team One will be the first ones to try it out. The potential experience they could gain alone—if they do it well and they don’t try to push harder than they can go, never mind the rewards from the Ten Realms—they can start clearing out the lower levels before we get to them.
“Also, if it’s like the trial that you and Erik went through, then there is no penalty if someone just waits in the resting area. They can recuperate there, then move in to fight the next creature, allowing them to economically move forward. Then, when in trouble, they can use their medallions to escape. There is a margin of threat—hell, people could die in there—but it would be up to them if they want to take on the trial. I think it should be something that the combat school take over. We can offer positions to people who do well as a reward for their progress and use it to level up our people who have hit bottlenecks in their overall level. It would be expensive, but if someone has the Mana stones, they could simply fight the lower leveled creatures repeatedly, gaining strength to take on the stronger ones. How many people can take on the trial at once?”
“About one hundred and thirty different trials are set up, but Egbert will only be operating one of them at this time. If we have more power, then it would be okay to spend that kind of power to increase our fighting forces’ strength,” Rugrat said.
“There is one thing that we’re not looking at.” Blaze held his chin and looked at the other two. “This trial has been going on for years. You and Erik happened to come across people coming from the Second Realm to partake in the trial. There are a few months from now until the time of the contest is up again. Will they come again to try out the battlefield trial? What do we do if they come? If it’s not active, then will they leave or will they try to find out what is wrong and start searching the area?”
“That—I didn’t think of that
,” Rugrat said, sinking into thought as well.
“We have two options: let the trial go ahead, or don’t. If we have the trial go ahead, they are already paying to activate it. Then we just gain power from them taking on the trial, they get their rewards and we go our separate ways. If we don’t, then they might start looking around,” Glosil said.
“Looks like we’re going to have to let the trial run either way,” Blaze said.
Glosil let out a reluctant noise of agreement. They didn’t like the situation but it didn’t have many negatives to them.
“We can use the trial to our advantage. Egbert runs the trial; he can see what is going on—so could Erik and I if we wanted to. There are one hundred and thirty medallions, but there were only eighty given out at the end of the last trial. That means we have fifty medallions. If we were to give those to people in the First, or the Second Realm, give them a chance at the trial, we could bring more people to the trial, see what their combat capabilities are. If they’re good and they’re decent people, we might look at recruiting them into Alva,” Rugrat said.
“Like the trials that you and Erik want to create in the higher realm dungeons?” Blaze asked.
“Right.”
“I think we’ve got our answer,” Glosil said.
Chapter: Compressing Mana Core
Rugrat opened his eyes as he let out a deep breath.
"I think I'm ready to try and open my last mana gate," Rugrat said.
Erik looked up from the page he was writing on, trying to put down everything he had learned in the second realm for the people of Alva Dungeon to learn from.
"Core compression,"
"Yeah, I've compressed five drops of mana, now I need to bring them in to one another, combine them together and form my core, opening my last mana gate and allowing me to go through mana rebirth," Rugrat said.
"It's not going to be that simple," Erik said.
"I didn't think that it would, but if I have your help, the mana regeneration powder used on my mana gates directly, then I think that it should be possible," Rugrat said.
"I don't want you to rush into anything," Erik said.
"Rush into anything, I actually believed the Marine Recruiter," Rugrat grinned.
"Still, if this backfires then I'm not sure what is going to happen," Erik said. "I'd feel more confident if you had some more levels on you to increase your mana pool."
"Well the only place that we're going to get that kind of experience is if we go back down to the metal floor or when we go to the third realm. The realms aren't safe, yes it's a risk, but its a risk I'm willing to make to increase my fighting strength," Rugrat said.
Erik leaned back in his chair as Rugrat smiled, he knew that he had got him now.
"Okay, it will take time to get the different items together and I'll have a few assistants in case anything goes wrong and to learn if it goes right."
"Say in two days?" Rugrat asked.
"What's the rush?"
"We've been cooped up here for weeks, doing meetings on what about the future of Alva, but to have that future we need more things from the higher realms. I know that you want to go to the third realm about as bad as kids want Christmas morning to come around. Alchemist Garden sounds like it'd be pretty useful!"
"Damn you’re a pain in the ass, okay, we'll do it in two days, but only if we have everything ready," Erik wrote down a list of different items and held it out to Rugrat.
"Go to the alchemists and the healers to see if they can get all of this for you. I'm going to keep on working on this report," Erik said.
"Never thought that you would make your own life so boring," Rugrat grimaced as he got up and took the letter from Erik's hand which had turned into a one finger salute.
***
Rugrat had gathered all the materials that Erik had asked for. Erik had checked them and got a staff together leading to them being in one of the hospital's private rooms with a mana gathering formation placed on the floor.
"Okay, sit on the mana gathering formation. We're going to hook you up to an IV of mana regeneration solution, then we're going to have another IV with the same solution with the needles at each of your mana gates. I will also have mana regeneration IV in me as I compress my mana, pour it into the mana gates located in your shoulders. You'll have to focus on condensing all of that mana and guiding it into your dantain, forcing your mana drops together to create a compressed mana core," Erik made sure to highlight the steps to remind everyone in the room and get Rugrat focused.
"Okay so just focus on creating a core, got it," Rugrat nodded as one of the healers was cleaning his arm at the site of the IV and another was tracing out the mana gates putting wraith's touch on the different locations.
With the testing Erik had been able to asses not only everyone's skill level but their potential, if they were in the department because it was something to do, or if they had a real passion for it and drive to learn more.
These three he'd picked out because of their drive to learn and do more.
The healers started to insert the different IV's hooking Erik and Rugrat up.
Erik checked their work as he stood behind Rugrat who was sitting cross legged on top of the mana gathering formation, an array of needles sticking out of his mana gates.
Rugrat was already focusing the mana around him seemed to move in concert with his breathing, being drawn in as his mana channels and he expanded, blue lines traced up and down his skin as the others around him found it hard to draw any mana in from the surrounding area.
Erik used organic scan on Rugrat, seeing everything in real time.
He too started to compress his mana.
"Start the drips," He said to the alchemist.
They nodded and opened the Iv's the solutions flowed down and into Erik and Rugrat.
Rugrat was using the large amount of mana in his system to force the five drops inside his dantain towards one another.
They shook, fighting him before finally it started making headway, the amount of mana channeled into his body increasing as his mana gates started glowing.
Erik checked his hand placement, connecting the gates in his hands to the ones in Rugrat's shoulders.
Rugrat's mana system was focused on the singular object of compressing his mana drops into a core.
Erik's compressed mana entered through his gates, increasing the mana density. It seemed like the push that the mana drops needed as they moved forwards, it was hard to see that they'd even moved, but they didn't stop, just slowly converging. Rugrat let out a grunt as he kept on pushing, his mana channels increasing in size, quickly reaching their limits.
Rugrat’s dantain started to light up as the mana drops got closer to one another.
Then it happened, one drop met with another, as soon as they touched they collapsed into one another, creating a larger drop and releasing a torrent of energy that rushed through Rugrat's body.
Rugrat had sweat on his forehead as he took a few ragged breaths, getting everything back under control.
“Next!”
He once again started to exert control over his mana system, pushing a third mana drop towards the two combined drops.
It was like trying to force magnets of the same polarization together, but once you got them to touch, then the magnet would only get larger and stronger, making it harder to push another magnet closer.
The closer Rugrat pushed the drop, the slower it moved. Rugrat grunted, forcing it forwards, it pushed back against him.
He gritted his teeth the muscles across his body bulging out as his veins stretched his skin, his mana systems, stretched to their limit.
The stubborn southern boy did it. It wasn’t delicate, or graceful as the drop was bashed forwards. It advanced, but it didn’t go backwards, shaking as it got closer to the two compressed mana drops.
There was no give, there was no retreat. The marines forgot how to do that a long time ago.
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Erik could only support Rugrat completely, pouring out his compressed mana.
“Get in there!” Rugrat yelled, his face red as the veins on his neck popped out.
With the fear of the marine corps and a drill sergeant imbued in it, the drop touched the other two mana drops.
A surge of power tens of times more powerful than the first one rushed through Rugrat’s mana channels that were stretched to the maximum.
The mana being pushed into his body and the mana rushing out of his dantian clashed against one another, pushing Rugrat’s mana channels wider and surpassing their limits.
"Ready on healing spells and potions!" Erik yelled. The others looked alarmed but readied themselves, the alchemist checking another IV that was ready but not being used.
The healers rubbing their hands as their mana circulated in their bodies ready to cast their healing spells.
Rugrat let out a cough of blood as he tried to retain control and was only making it worse as his dantain was ruptured.
"Rugrat you stupid sounva bitch push it down!" Erik yelled as he pulled his mana out of Rugrat's body.
"I have this!" Rugrat said as his kidney was destroyed and Rugrat let out a yell, releasing his control as he couldn't handle the pain.
Rugrat screamed out as he tried to regain control as his mana channels were being destroyed from the inside. Blood started to stain his clothes.
Erik grit his teeth as he poured mana into Rugrat’s body, supporting him now.
His mana slammed into the mana built up in Rugrat's body.
He was forcing the mana into Rugrat’s dantain, the large new three drop core was pulling the energy in but Rugrat’s mana channels couldn’t hold the strain as they were breaking, leaking mana into the rest of his body, destroying and killing the surrounding tissues.
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