Rugrat pulled out tea, waving Hiao Xen off as he made to pull out his own tea set.
Hiao Xen smiled awkwardly. Some things they copied from the Ten Realms, and other habits came from wherever they came from.
“We had some things to take care of. Once the competition is over, there is more work to be done,” Erik said.
The two looked grim but Hiao Xen didn’t press. There were many secrets he didn’t know.
Rugrat passed out cups.
“Chonglu sends his apologies. He will be here shortly. He had some tasks to handle and was kept back.”
Hiao Xen took a sip of tea. His whole body felt rejuvenated. “Good tea!”
“Thank you. Never was much of a tea drinker, but I’ve been getting into it more and more,” Rugrat said.
They went through the reports on expansion, the academy, and the crafters.
“The crafter dungeon underwent a transformative change, nearly doubling in size and adding in many more Expert-level workshops. There are ten or so mid-Expert-level workshops. The combat dungeons also increased in size, and there are a few mutated types.”
There was a knock at the door.
“Come in!” Hiao Xen said before it opened, revealing Chonglu.
“Sorry I am late.” Chonglu cupped his fist and bowed.
“You are running one of the largest fighter’s competitions seen in the Fourth Realm—being a little late is fine. We just finished going over everything happening in the city,” Erik said.
“Which brings us to the next part of the meeting. Talking about the future.” Rugrat waved Chonglu over.
“We can’t go into it too much, but things might change here in the future. Hiao Xen, what do you think of Chonglu’s ability to run the city?”
Hiao Xen’s eyes widened before he sat back. “I think that he is ready to take over. It is a lot to do, but he has the staff and people here to support him. He has been grooming another to take over his position in the Battle Arena.”
“He needs some more training. You met him before—retired Captain Quinn and his people. I hired them and trained them up to deal with any issues that might arise with the Battle Arena,” Chonglu said.
“Good. And we want to be clear. We want to do this not because we do not appreciate your work. If we could, we would hire you away from the Blue Lotus, but it’s your home,” Erik said. “For now, we’ll keep it quiet, but after the fighter’s competition, Quinn will take over the operations of the Battle Arena. Chonglu will start to take over city-wide operations, and then we will release you from our contract to do as you want with the Blue Lotus. You have done so much for us that we can’t possibly give you enough to express our thanks.”
“I appreciate the gesture. Being in this position, although hectic, I have been learning every day. I have met new people and contacts who I would have never met in my previous position in the Blue Lotus. Being the acting city lord of Vuzgal has been an honor. With such an achievement, I’m sure that I will be able to help you in the higher realms once you come to visit.” Hiao Xen smiled. “I’ll miss Vuzgal. It was an honor to be trusted with the city. Though I am also excited to return to the Blue Lotus.”
“You are always welcome back. Many people will miss you here,” Chonglu said.
Hiao Xen was touched. He felt heavy and light at the same time. Moving on was as hard as it was exciting. He missed friends he had made over the last few years.
“I do have a small request,” Hiao Xen said, feeling guilty.
“What?” Erik asked lightly.
“Dougie…I have worked with him closely for so long; he feels like an extension of myself. I have not asked him personally. I wanted to check with you first. As I return to the Blue Lotus, with your blessing, I would like to recruit him as my aide.”
Erik and Rugrat glanced at each other and then at Chonglu.
“Although I would appreciate Dougie, I have people I can bring in as aides,” Chonglu said.
Rugrat nodded to Erik.
“Very well. We will allow it.”
Hiao Xen released a pent-up breath. “Thank you.” He made to stand but found Rugrat’s hand on top of his own, holding him in place.
“You’re our friend. Please.”
Hiao Xen was touched. They had gained incredible power but had never let it go to their heads. They had made him an acting city lord, someone from the Blue Lotus, and trusted in him.
He thought of how Erik spent his time helping his son, how he had saved the people from the Blue Lotus, was ready to wage a war over Dougie. Friendship is truly the one thing that can’t be bought or sold.
“People wish to meet with you—the branch head of the associations, guildmasters, alliance leaders, powerful traders, and such,” Hiao Xen said.
“Do we have to?” Rugrat winced.
“I slimmed it down to the people you should talk to. The traders were mostly dealt with by Elise. I spoke to the various sects and alliances, but there are some I think you might be interested in talking to. I discussed different agreements, trade routes mainly. Although the agreement is in place, the Ten Realms places a lot of emphasis on leaders meeting to talk and sign the agreement. You should meet with the branch head to show them face. All of them are looking to expand on your current cooperation. Some don’t want to talk through someone from the Blue Lotus. Others just want to do it in person.”
“Here I was thinking that we would only need to watch the fights,” Rugrat muttered.
“You are the city lords.” Hiao Xen smiled.
“I feel like wrangling these two into meetings will be harder than the rest of my job,” Chonglu muttered.
Rugrat and Erik’s expressions turned dark.
“If you show up, that is,” Chonglu amended.
Hiao Xen cleared his throat as Erik and Rugrat’s eyes twitched.
Too accurate, Chonglu. Good luck! Getting them here even a few days earlier was hell, but you can do it!
Erik and Rugrat were the first to look away.
“All right, we’ll meet with the different branch heads.” Erik slumped, defeated by the administration.
Blaze watched the various screens that showed his Adventurer’s Guild training. Trainers from across the realms were with his people, assessing them and eking out every bit of potential.
The training technique Erik and Rugrat had created was powerful and came with a lot of information, taking into account one’s nutrition, activities, and fighting style. When he was training, he was always focused on getting better weapons and learning stronger fighting techniques. He never thought about the role nutrition took in it all. The new weight training and resistance training allowed them to fully utilize their power. Blaze shook his head.
There was a knock from the door. He pressed a formation and opened it. “Emilia,” he greeted.
“Hey, boss. I have the latest results.” She walked into the office, her eyes turning to the screens that displayed the trainees.
“How do you think this batch is doing?” Blaze asked.
“They’re as strong as we were last year. Though we took the competition because no one knew who we were and there weren’t that many people competing. This year’s competition is going to be much harder. There are so many powerful people competing.”
“It will make things more interesting.” Blaze took the reports and went through the information. “Good. Everyone’s cultivation has increased faster than we predicted. This total body coaching has changed everything.”
“I thought that it was useless when we started, then I spoke to some of the people from the army. When they go through their medical certification, they have lessons on training other people. It allows them to accelerate their growth and draw more power out of what they already have. Knowing how fast they can run or how much they can lift gives them new goals to overcome. Did you hear about the twenty percent loss?” Emilia asked animatedly.
“I was just thinking about that. People were actually using twenty percent less th
an their overall power, and only in life-and-death situations were they using their total power.” Blaze nodded.
“With all the weight training, resistance training, and putting numbers to everything, we can push our bodies to the limit and draw out that power safely. Then learn to maintain that output and how to scale it up and down.”
“How are you feeling about the competition?”
“I don’t think we will place as well as we did last year, but I’m excited for it. Though will this change things about the attack?”
“The Grey Peak sect is organizing it. The Willful Institute is gathering their power and allies. These things take time. It should be another month before the fight starts.”
“What if they move things up?” Emilia rested her hand on her sword.
“Well, there are more people in the guild than just us. Under the command of Domonos, they will lead the attack and then we will move to support as needed. Don’t forget that this is a Third Realm city. They have reinforcements that have been fighting in the Fourth Realm, but they’re in the low level fifties. They could’ve gone to the Sixth Realm but are here fighting instead.”
“We have plenty of people in the level fifties, though they might not be as experienced.”
“Correct. And I will be sending down ten adventuring parties to assist in the attack. The announcement has gone out that the guild will pay for the transport of anyone in the Third Realm to join the battle.”
Emilia took in a cold breath. “Are you sure about that? There will be a lot of people willing to go.”
“It will bring the guild closer together, show that they are united. It is rare for all the members to meet up. This will bind them together. While they show the Willful Institute what happens when they mess with us, we will have to do the same here.”
“What do you mean?”
“I heard that the Willful Institute is sending down a high elder from their council to oversee the fighter’s competition. They will be bringing some of their elites. I don’t care about our placement in the overall competition, but I want to beat those bastards!”
Emilia grasped her sword. “If they dare to come, even if we have to break our bodies, we will take them down!”
“Don’t be so drastic. This is the beginning of our fight,” Blaze warned.
“Isn’t that why we have powerful healers and concoctions?”
“There are things they can’t help you recover from.”
“Don’t worry, Guildmaster. We will teach them a lesson. From the Fourth Realm to the Second Realm, we will tear them out by the roots.”
A hot feeling buried deep in his bones started to emerge.
Your people came for ours, to rob and to murder them. You might have turned a blind eye to it all, but we do not. For our fellow guildmates, for our fellow Alvans. For your attempt on our dungeon lords.
Blaze shook with rage. These people had saved him and his. They had protected him or been under his protection. His rage had reached a point where it could no longer be held back.
The Willful Institute will be our steppingstone, our example to others. Do not test Alva or those under its protection.
36
Vuzgal’s Second Annual Fighter’s Competition
Erik and Rugrat stood at the top of Vuzgal. The grand tower that supported the massive mana barrier array had been returned to its previous glory. Formations ran down the interior of the tower, modified by the dungeon core hidden underneath.
In the morning light, the carved and filled runes along the tower shone blue and silver in contrast to the white stone.
Erik pulled up his character sheet. He’d taken a power nap with the aid of sleeping powders and input the five attribute points he’d got from leveling up.
==========
Name: Erik West
==========
Level: 61
Race: Human
==========
Titles:
From the Grave II
Blessed By Mana
Dungeon Master IV
Reverse Alchemist
Poison Body
Fire Body
City Lord III
Earth Soul
Mana Reborn
Wandering Hero
==========
Strength: (Base 54) +51
1050
==========
Agility: (Base 47) +72
654
==========
Stamina: (Base 57) +35
1380
==========
Mana: (Base 27) +79
1166
==========
Mana Regeneration: (Base 30) +61
73.80/s
==========
Stamina Regeneration: (Base 72) +59
27.20/s
==========
He had placed all five points into Stamina. His Strength and Agility were high in stat points alone, and his Stamina was lagging behind.
Erik waved the character sheet away and looked over Vuzgal, taking in a deep breath of the crisp early morning air coming off the surrounding mountains.
Smoke rose from workshops that never ceased work. Traders were already heading through the totem and out of the five gates that connected to the Eastern and Western Roads.
Erik used the Eagle Sight spell. He looked at the secondary mana towers that ringed the inner city. Undead beasts and skeletons were powered down, waiting to be called on. Members of the Alva military patrolled the towers, scanning the city below. Erik’s vision blurred as he looked down to the base of the tower and the wall below, taking in the patrolling guards, gates, and checkpoints.
Erik pulled out his standard rifle, which he had mounted with his four times magnification scope. He cancelled his Eagle Eyes and used the short wall as a brace to aim at the outer wall. Nicknamed Bunker Way.
Erik looked at the barracks and command towers that dotted throughout the city. The city’s planning was first focused on defense and movement second, and it showed.
All the command centers could cover one another. The barracks were set up to quickly deploy reserve forces and have artillery platoons manning them constantly. They were set back from the exterior wall, so even if the wall was taken, they could continue to fire. Erik thought they would do away with the wall, but it made it easier to manage people visiting the city.
The wall was broken into three sections; the left and the right flank were on a forty-five-degree angle to the central wall. It was five meters tall with roving patrols. Roads led to ten different entrances. Beyond the wall was Bunker Way.
Tall four-story bunkers stood near the wall, standing above the one-story and two-story bunkers that proceeded them. The bunkers were a self-contained system so one would never see people moving around or know where they would appear. They could be empty or filled with soldiers.
Each of them was buried deep. Breakaway formations and explosives turned them into a death maze if they were breached. They were all built to be moved, so as the city grew, the defenses could be pushed out and upgraded.
Tamed beasts wandered around in front of the bunkers, eating the shrubs and grass, meandering through the barbed wire.
“Looks like this year’s competition is going to be even bigger,” Erik said, scanning the Battle Arena. Bars and restaurants were already opening while crowds gathered around the Battle Arena. Some were entering the venue to get their seats.
“If there’s a fight to be had, the people of the Ten Realms are more than happy to watch.” Rugrat turned away, making his voice muffled.
Erik lowered the rifle and turned. Rugrat was studying a big pedestal in the middle of the tower.
“That has to be the biggest formation socket I have ever seen.” Erik admired the pedestal covered in dense runes mana, like smoke blanketed it in a haze.
The pedestal was two meters wide and covered with a massive formation. It was a blue-and-silver circle, filled with runes and forgotten script. Triangles and squares were hidden within internal
circular formations. The formation was alive with mana, flaring and then dimming, spreading and receding.
“It’s a beast. In a half-second, it and all the primary mana formations can activate, covering the entirety of the city in a mana barrier,” Rugrat marveled. “Though it is just the fake primary.”
“Huh?”
“The towers are a little obvious, right? We have formations to protect them, but they’re big damn targets. The really powerful mana barrier formations are located there and there.” He pointed to the cliffs that lay to the southwest and northwest of the city and framed the valley the Alchemist Association commanded and the dungeons within.
“Inside the cliffs are four separate formations that, when activated, will create a mana barrier. They’re supported by formations built into the Sky Reaching Restaurant towers and the bunker systems. It is much uglier, but it is hidden and much more powerful, with four layers of backups. Even if one formation burns out, the second one can cover for it while another formation comes online.”
“Are they all socket based?”
“Yeah, so with some minor repairs, we drop the old formation and toss in a new one. Hmm, that could work with the rail cannons. If we were to put formations on the shells inside the cannon, they’re much bigger than the rifle rounds, so we can get more detail and larger formations. I always get the good ideas up here. Well, part of them.”
Erik walked to the edge of the tower, looking over to the Battle Arena. Even up here, one could hear the faint noises of the city.
“It gets bigger every damn time.”
“The fighter’s competition had to be broken down by age group and level this year, just to make it easier. There will be six competitions, between level forty and forty-five, then forty-five and fifty. For each five-level bracket, only people between twenty and forty are allowed to compete. These people are still young, but they have grown enough to be mature in their fighting style.”
Erik frowned before he shook his head, getting a questioning stare from Rugrat. “Sorry, I forgot that people in the Ten Realms can live for hundreds of years. Do you wonder what it would be like to live a few hundred years?”
Sixth Realm Part 2: A litRPG Fantasy series (The Ten Realms Book 7) Page 41