Sixth Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  “I think that we’ve found it,” Niemm said.

  “Putting that Dungeon Hunter title to good use,” Rugrat said.

  “Might as well,” Niemm said.

  They had passed the title on to him earlier, realizing that they hadn’t already. Rugrat gave him one of his slots and Erik gave Gong-Jin the second-in-command of the Special Team Two of his Dungeon Hunter titles. They still had another three titles to give away, but they couldn’t waste them. Storbon, the original leader of Special Team One and now its second-in-command had the title so they didn’t need to pass it off to Niemm. Now with the people of the Close Protection Details coming close to finishing their training, it wouldn’t be long until there was some new blood in the Special Teams. When that happened, Storbon and Gong-Jin would be turned into special team leaders like Niemm and Roska.

  Erik and Rugrat had been cooped up working on their crafting skills and fighting techniques and had decided they should go and deal with the dungeon that they had noticed when they were running from Aberdeen.

  “Well, lead on. Let’s see what we’re dealing with,” Erik said.

  Niemm guided them through the forest.

  “Nice to be doing something for once. Read so many books on formations and smithing I think that my head might just pop,” Rugrat said to Erik, his eyes almost glowing in the dim light as he studied the area with his rifle in his hands.

  “Yeah I know how you feel. I’ve been stuck fighting to increase my alchemy and was just able to get it to level Seventy-Three,” Erik sighed, taking a glance at his skill.

  ==========

  Skill: Alchemy

  ==========

  Level: 73 (Journeyman)

  ==========

  Able to identify 1 effect of the ingredient.

  Ingredients are 5% more potent.

  ==========

  “Two more and you’ll be an expert,” Rugrat said.

  “Yeah, with learning the Flame Puppeteer my control and speed have increased. I was able to find some Expert level pills in among the information we collected from Vuzgal. There is the Masterful Healing pill and the Ascendant pill. The healing pill will help one recover their stamina and their health over a period of time. It is capable of bringing someone back from the brink without needing to look after them. The Ascendant pill is a training aid that one can use to greatly assist in mana cultivation.”

  “What about that Age Rejuvenation concoction for Elder Lu Ru?”

  “Well, I haven’t been able to make it. My control is better with the Flame Puppeteer, but taking apart Lidel leaves that are a century old is hard. I’m just looking to grind out my crafting, maybe later I’ll get inspiration,” Erik shrugged.

  They grew quiet as they traveled. They had been working on their crafts, helping to run Vuzgal, Alva and all of the associated parts of the system that they had created.

  It had left them feeling drained, but sneaking out to go and clear a dungeon had got them excited again.

  “There it is,” Niemm said. He came to a halt and pointed through the trees to a dark space between boulders.

  Tian Cui, another member of Special Team One and their resident assassin, appeared from the shadows.

  “We have taken a look inside, it looks like the entrance is clear.”

  “Damn, sneaking out like that, nearly browned my undies,” Rugrat said.

  Tian Cui smiled.

  Niemm pulled out his sound transmission device.

  “Deni, Yuli and Lucinda, keep watch on things out here while we go in and check out this dungeon, make sure that there was no one following us and that no one gets close to the area.”

  Erik didn’t hear the reply before Niemm started talking again.

  “The rest of you meet up at the entrance to the Dungeon. Yao Meng, you have point, Setsuko, right behind him.”

  They got off of their mounts as it would be hard to fight with them in the tight quarters of the dungeon.

  Gilly and George grew smaller, resting on their master’s shoulders.

  Erik absently scratched the back of Gilly’s head as Rugrat threw a monster core out and George raced off in his little miniature form to chase after it with an excited look on his face.

  Finding the monster core, his head returned to its normal size and he threw the monster core down his throat with a pleased look.

  Gilly bit Erik’s fingers, with her own temperings on the Earth floor she had reached a new level of strength, the Browns of her body were almost as bright as the Blues.

  “Hey,” Erik complained, he’d reached Body like Diamond stage but her little teeth still bit into his skin.

  She let out a shrill noise, not letting his finger go, a playful light in her eyes.

  “Little miss,” Erik grabbed out a monster core. She released his hand as he tossed it up. She moved, her head grew large to catch it and then became small again.

  The change in weight barely registered for Erik. He still hadn’t seen the limits of his strength since he had reached Body like Diamond. He’d been restraining himself in his fights with Rugrat, not wanting to maim or kill him. While it was training, they didn’t go all out else they might critically injure the other.

  Our control increases with each fight, but then we hold back from using all of our strength. It’s frustrating, part of the reason that we wanted to sneak out and challenge this dungeon. Being cooped up is boring, there are no threats. Nothing to get the blood going. If we were home bodies then we would have stayed home after we left the military, not chase after private contracts. Erik was stroking the appeased Gilly, his heart and head troubled. We always joked that we were fight junkies; are we?

  From the forest the rest of the special team appeared, riding on their panthers. Each of their beasts showed different markings as part of their bloodline had been awakened or their masters had increased their strength with feeding them attribute aligned monster cores and ingredients.

  Erik looked at the people with them. Storbon a man that had been a boy when he first met him, badly wounded, in the First Realm there was no hope for him to recover. Erik had worked to heal him and he had followed Erik and Rugrat becoming one of the strongest people in Alva.

  Setsuko Ket, her father was the leader of the farmers in Alva while she was one of the famed Rangers turned sharpshooters, sporting a repeating rifle; Yao Meng, a generalist, now the resident explosive expert after spending his time with the alchemists, and Han Wu of Special Team Two; Yawen, was one of the quieter members, an ace with a rifle and bow; Niemm, lead them all, a sword and shield melee fighter and professional gunfighter.

  Acting as a scouting screen was; Deni a sharpshooter; Yuli an elementalist mage and Lucinda a beast master.

  Yao Meng and Setsuko dismounted and moved up to the entrance into the dungeon, their weapons ready as they headed between the rocks and into the darkness.

  Erik cast night vision on himself as the group followed them. They squeezed between the rocks, finding a path leading down of tree roots, dirt and rocks. They entered a small room where there were no lights and there was only one doorway out. All of them had their rifles out.

  The room had dirt covering its floor as if something had come from above and broken into the dungeon, or had clawed its way out, creating the path that they had found. They followed behind Sestuko and Yao Meng, came to an intersection and turned right.

  The dungeon was formed from damp stone with moss on the walls. The ceiling was tall but unfinished with rough rocks.

  They passed alcoves that had been carved into the walls. They found another intersection and seeing a dead-end ahead, they turned right. Yao Meng stepped out, Niemm yanked him backwards.

  “Tripwire,” he pointed at the ground.

  Tian Cui moved up, traced the tripwire and disabled the trap.

  “What kind of trap was it?” Niemm asked.

  “Not sure, but probably mechanical.”

  “Keep a lookout,” Niemm said to the benefit of those up front.

&nbs
p; They pushed forward through a few twists and turns with two dead-ends. Finally, they reached another room with large doors wide enough for four people to walk through.

  Yao Meng slammed through the doors. Setsuko, Niemm and Storbon came in behind him. Erik saw three green-skinned large humanoid creatures; Swamp monsters were brainless creatures that only cared about consuming and spreading their rot.

  The group who entered fired their weapons as soon as they saw the swamp monsters.

  It was over in just a few seconds. The swamp monsters had been surprised and hadn’t had any time to react to the attack.

  Still with their powerful bodies, they took several hits before they collapsed.

  They took the time to search the room and loot the swamp monster bodies.

  ==========

  Earth Grade Iron ingot x3

  Mace of Fortitude

  Mortal mana stones x7

  ==========

  “Not a bad haul,” Rugrat said.

  “Bit lackluster compared to what we’re used to,” Erik said.

  “If it was any other team or group in the Fourth Realm that was just randomly exploring a dungeon it would be pretty good haul,” Rugrat said.

  “True, I guess that my sense of scale is a little skewed.”

  “Well, the last dungeon that we captured came with a city attached to it.”

  Erik laughed and looked to Niemm.

  “So where to next?”

  Niemm used his dungeon sense to scan the area.

  “It should be in that direction,” Niemm said pointing to a wall with a door in it. “Tian Cui you’re on point. Form up, let’s get moving.”

  Yao Meng gave the door a swift kick, sending it flying off its hinges and falling down into the corridor ahead.

  Tian Cui moved forward only to hear a noise coming from the hallway.

  Humanoid creatures with skin hanging off of them and eyes that were like hot coals from a fire charged toward Tian Cui.

  She took a knee and started firing, Yawen who was behind her, fired over her.

  The Ghouls were dying, but there were a lot of them and they were fast.

  Niemm let out a yell and charged forward with a shield, he hit the creatures, tossing them back in a wave of air.

  One avoided the attack and leaped, grabbing onto Niemm’s shield as they clawed at him and tried to bite his hand.

  “Pull back into the room, create a firing line,” the others in the hallways retreated as Niemm pulled a sword out from his storage ring and stabbed it into the Ghoul’s eye, killing it. He backed up quickly as the other Ghouls were getting to their feet.

  He moved out of the way and Deni who had a repeater fired down the hallway, striking the Ghouls and killing them. After a few moments there was nothing left alive, or even undead remaining in the corridor, just a collection of tombstones floating above them.

  Niemm sent Tian Cui and Yawen ahead again to scout the dungeon.

  “Path ahead looks clear. No traps either,” Tian Cui said.

  “Let’s move,” Niemm said.

  Erik looted the bodies, finding some alchemy ingredients from the Ghoul body parts as well as a few mana stones and a pair of slippers.

  I am so glad that we have other alchemists now so I don’t have to eat everything to understand ingredients. Erik shivered thinking about the things he had eaten to test out their properties.

  “Why the hell does a Ghoul have a pair of slippers? Did it not want to get it’s footsie wootsies dirty?”

  “Footsie wootsies?” Erik blinked at Rugrat.

  “What?” He shrugged at the incredulous looks from everyone.

  “Lets-keep going,” Niemm said.

  They headed down the corridor and kicked open another door into a new room.

  Storbon entered the room, the floor started to split apart and a dungeon core floated up out of the ground.

  “Check the room for traps first,” Storbon said.

  “Well, looks like we didn’t need to do much,” Rugrat said.

  “Hmm,” Erik said. It was a perfect dungeon raid, but I want to see more, do more, not just tag along.

  “Got an arrow trap here,” Yao Meng said, using a dagger to pull out the mechanism from between two rocks in the wall.

  “Don’t think that we’ve got anything else in here,” Storbon said after a few minutes of searching.

  “Well, then,” Rugrat walked up to the dungeon core, whistling as he input a few commands. He pulled the dungeon core out and they all disappeared.

  The ground started to change as they looked at the place the dungeon had been.

  “What did we get for loot?” Erik asked.

  “Mechanical traps, scythes, arrow traps, we can create Ghouls and swamp monsters and zombies and some creepy insects. Uhh we’ve got Mortal mana stones, about three hundred of them. And, uh huh. Am I seeing this right?”

  ==========

  Master level Scribe’s tools.

  ==========

  With these tools one will have an easier time creating master level prints.

  Increased Concentration

  Effects are increased by 5% on Master level items

  20% on Expert level items

  60% on Journeyman level items

  Increases the chance of succeeding on one’s project by 10%

  ==========

  “Well I’m sure that the scribes will be pleased. Who would think that something like that would be out here,” Erik shrugged and pulled out the dungeon core.

  “What are you going to do with that?” Storbon asked.

  “Well Alva is plenty strong, same with Vuzgal,” Erik tossed it up in the air and caught it.

  “Why not the Adventurers guild?” Yao Meng asked

  “Be able to give them somewhere to increase their people’s strength to take on the Willful Institute,” Erik said.

  “Niemm,” Erik tossed the dungeon core over.

  Niemm grabbed it.

  “Take this to Matt. Get some dungeon plans for somewhere for people to increase their strength. Grab some mana gathering formations and formations to hide the existence of the dungeon from the formation masters. Am I missing anything?” Erik asked.

  “What about weapons and armor of the Low Journeyman level? A strike force?” Storbon asked.

  “Recovery potions of different kinds,” Tian Cui said.

  “Spell scrolls for them to use when in dire need, support ones like stealth, detect life, night vision?” Yuli added.

  “Books on fighting?” Setsuko said.

  “Low-grade defensive formations for the guild headquarters?” Deni asked

  “That should do it,” Rugrat said.

  “Niemm, once we get back, talk to half of the team and run that down to them, get an amount for all the gear and put it on the Guild’s tab. They’ll have to pay it all back over time,” Erik said.

  “Get to make my first dungeon,” Niemm grinned.

  “This fucking guy,” Erik tilted his head at Niemm.

  “Well, you know it is pretty fun to make a dungeon,” Rugrat shrugged.

  “Let’s head back,” Erik said.

  They mounted up and headed back toward Alva. The roads to the West were dead, the fighting at Aberdeen was reaching its final stages and there were only refugees fleeing to the East. It had worked out well for Vuzgal as the refugees stopped in the city, spending their coin before continuing on, or settled there to create a new home.

  Along the Eastern road there were traders and people going to and from the chaotic lands stretching along the way, hoping to make their mark on Vuzgal.

  As they rode Erik patted Gilly, looking at the trees, the forest and stars above. He felt stifled, he had been the one charging forward all the time, now he was protected and coddled. Fighting made him feel alive. Now, even with the dungeon it was too easy.

  The Fifth Realm was fun to watch, but everyone is competing to join different academies. I don’t want to join some academy I want to face challenges, fight
beasts and people that are as strong or stronger than me and win!

  For the past several months he had increased his cultivation of body and mana, he’d reached new powerful heights, but his alchemy had only increased slowly and his level progress was painfully slow.

  Maybe it’s time that Rugrat and I headed off again on our own. A smile appeared at the corner of Erik’s mouth and stretched across his face.

  ***

  Rugrat breathed through his nose, he had sunk into a deep almost meditative state as he looked through his scope. He was using his old M40. He had loaned it out to the smiths so they could see how it worked and went together to create the Mark One bolt action rifles. They hadn’t gone into mass production with the Mark One before the M2 semi-automatic rifle was created and started to be mass produced.

  A new M1A2 the second generation of the rifle had been created by the smiths since it’s first issue, using a larger round and sturdier materials it’s power rivaled that of a Anti-Material rifle of Earth. They were passed out to sharpshooters and members of the special teams.

  Still, Rugrat had a special place in his heart for his M40.

  Rugrat blinked slowly, everything under his control as he slowly followed movement that had caught his eye.

  “Wind is picking up,” Erik said beside Rugrat.

  Rugrat clicked his tongue in response, his domain stretched over the barren mountain that they were posted up in. he could feel the slightest change in the wind, his mind worked through the calculations, adjusting for the different variables.

  “Movement, fourteen degrees,” Erik said. “Range, fourteen hundred meters.

  The wind rippled the camouflage tarp that hung over the two.

  The two men were like rocks as Erik checked the target area with his Ten Realms modified ranging spotting scope.

  Rugrat shifted his aim.

  “I have a brown tree, a small stream.”

  “Adjust upwards, see that boulder with a chunk out of the side? To the left hand side where the stream goes,” Erik replied.

  Rugrat scanned slowly, making his scope create a W across the area, keeping his eyes fresh with the strange movement.

  “Seen, looks like a supersized bear,” Rugrat said as he ran mental calculations. He changed the dials on his scope.