He watched the bear that was making sure there were no other beasts in the area.
Take your time, stay a while. Rugrat coaxed the beast as he flicked off his safety.
The wind changed and Rugrat shifted his point of aim.
That’s a good mutated bear. It stopped shifting around and ducked its head to drink from the stream.
Rugrat cast a penetrating spell on the custom round within the rifle’s chamber. He let out a breath and squeezed the trigger.
The gun bucked as the round was sent flying, disturbing the gravel and debris around the rifle.
Rugrat worked the action watching the target.
The bear seemed to sense something wrong.
“Good hit,” Erik said, calm, emotionless.
Rugrat felt a tide of experience rush over him as his notifications pinged.
“One kill,” Erik pulled his eye away from the scope and looked to Rugrat who was covered in the golden goodness of Experience.
“Damn it is good to be a Master,” Rugrat said.
“Shit, really?” Erik asked.
“Oh hell yeah buddy,” Rugrat was grinning from ear to ear as he raised his hand. Erik laughed and the two of them high fived.
“Shit, if I can get Expert in Marksman I’ll be happy. You’ll get your Expert and Master level reward in one. Looks like the information we got on crafting was right.” Erik started to clean up his gear with his storage ring.
“Yeah, we were using gun fighter skills in battle and it increased our skill level. But pushing the limits of our weapons and our skills, our actual ability level is much higher. The Ten Realms just needs us to demonstrate it. Have you figured out a way to do it for healing?”
“I think so. Using alchemy in my healing methods might be a crutch in the eyes of the Ten Realms. So I need to heal people with just healing spells. I have pretty much used bandages, IV’s and all of the items that we had back on Earth from the start. I think that the Ten Realms is saying ‘hey you healed these things so that shows you have some skill in healing, but you healed most of it with external tools. Anyone can do that, a healer is someone that has healing spells’.”
“Yeah that is weird, using the medical gear makes much more sense. If you can’t use medical gear, can you use like tourniquets?”
“I don’t see why not. I just think it is anything that is actively assisting the person being healed. So if I was to even give them a stamina potion, well then they are healing themselves, so that is less for my skill to heal.”
“Shit, that is kind of cruel,” Rugrat had cleared up his gear and he moved back from the firing point.
“Well I wouldn’t do it on people that needed immediate aid, but people that have old injuries, colds, badly set bones, that kind of thing. Even when we started in Chonglu we had people get supplies in order to help us heal them. I just have to do without.”
“We should get going that influx of experience was massive and is sure to draw in some creatures,” Niemm said he was waiting with the rest of the special team, watching over their two Lords.
“Okay, let's head to the next spot,” Rugrat agreed.
“Everything go well? Niemm asked.
Rugrat just grinned as Erik sighed, checking his rifle. “He made it to Master level marksman, with one damn shot.”
“I’m up next, lets see if I can’t catch up,” Erik said.
They set up their position this time changing around who was shooter and who was spotter.
“Alright, we’ll do the left edge on that stream visible through the trees,” Rugrat pointed at it.
“Got it.”
“Right edge that rock out cropping.”
“Got it.”
“Nice, I’m going to look for items within four hundred meters. We’ll call that sector A, past four hundred is sector B. Keep rested,” Rugrat moved to the side, using his binoculars he could look over the entire area. “You want me to break into sectors?”
“No, should be okay. Remember I’m not even a hundred percent on the right way to talk onto the target.” Erik said.
“Alright, we’ll do this nice and easy.”
They were in silence as several small creatures passed their field of fire.
“I got something, bit bigger. Go to the stream by eye, about ten mils to the right. Sector B, range five-fifty.”
“Got it.”
“Go to glass.”
Erik looked through the scope. “Target is a grey, deer looking creature, opening in the trees. Has a dead tree to the right side.”
“Good, check your parallax and mil.”
Erik studied the creature, thinking of the other animals he knew the internal structure of, he picked out a perfect target and started taking up the slack in the trigger.
“Ready.”
“Left, point six.”
The rifle fired, breaking the silence as they heard the round crossing to the target.
Erik kept his scope on target.
The deer-like creature raised his head just as the round went through his ribs.
“Good hit.”
==========
Skill: Marksman
==========
Level: 82 (Expert)
==========
Long-range weapons are familiar in your hands. When aiming, you can zoom in x2.0. 15% increased chance for a critical hit.
==========
==========
Upon advancing into the Expert level of Marksman, you will be rewarded with one randomly selected item related to this skill.
==========
You have received the Eye of True Flight Technique book
+10,000,000 EXP
==========
==========
12,448,136/86,100,000 EXP till you reach Level 60
==========
“Not even a single point of experience from the actual kill. Creatures are too low leveled here,” Erik said.
“But we can still use our skills on them. Nice hit by the way, should be good eating. Lets bag those kills and get back,” Rugrat said.
Chapter: Adventurer’s Guild Mobilizes
“What is this about?” Derrick asked as he lazed over the chair, he was a handsome man with twin rapiers at his side. He wore cloth armor and his shirt was open revealing his muscles.
“Will you cover up!” Joan complained in a huff crossing her arms. She looked like a cute younger sister, if one disregarded her beast-hide armor, array of daggers, oh and the large black bow on her back.
“To bring all the branch heads together, it must be something big,” Kim Cheol said. He spoke slowly and was a larger man, wearing armor that covered his entire body and a helmet that had tusks on it, making him look like a hog when he wore it. His face was kind-looking as he rested his hand on his helmet that remained on the table.
“Still so noisy,” Stephan said as he read through his books, looking like a scholar more than a fighter.
Derrick’s eyes slid over to Emilia who was wearing her armor like Kim Cheol, but instead of looking like the Iron War Hog, she looked like a paladin.
“Pull those eyes back Derrick,” she said, her eyes locking on him.
“Just wanting to see if you’d like to test your sword and shield against my blades,” Derrick’s smile widened as his lazy eyes seemed to show life.
“Wouldn’t want to hurt that pretty face of yours,” Emilia said.
“Oh come on,” Derrick said.
“I’d be interested,” A woman had appeared at some time beside Derrick and was testing the curved dagger in her hands.
There was a scar running down the side of her face and she wore a mask that covered her nose and mouth. She wore medium armor and had her hair pulled back tightly.
“Lin Lei,” Stephan spoke out as he flipped his page.
She rippled before appearing behind Stephan. Even wearing a mask one could tell that she was pouting.
Derrick made to open his mouth and then closed it.
“Even Derrick
can’t beat Lin Lei,” Joan said proudly and winked at Lin Lei.
Lin Lei’s cheeks lifted in a smile.
“There are plenty of others to fight out there,” Kim Cheol said, calming Derrick’s pride.
“Seems you’re getting along well,” The door opened as Blaze walked out. He was a middle-aged man and age had only seemed to hone his strength, adding an edge to him. Before being the leader of Alva he had been a knight for most of his life. Once Erik and Rugrat became the leaders he had looked to return to the fight. The Adventurer’s Guild had come under his care. He developed people from trainees into adventurers that were able to spread their name throughout the cities and routes they travelled.
Six such people were the six heads of the Adventurer’s Guild. They had come from all walks of life. Blaze had seen something in them and brought them to where they now stood. With him was Jasper, his shadow, while Balze was the head, taking care of training and being the face of the guild. Jasper was the administration, he was the one that finalized the contracts, took care of the guild houses any minor issues and the daily missions.
All of them stood, even Derrick, as the duo entered.
They all bowed to them Blaze and Jasper nodded to them and took their seats. Jasper took out large tomes and tossed them to the different branch heads. Lin Lei was sitting in a seat already, attentive.
Emilia opened the large information book.
“Yes.” she said as a screen was just starting to appear.
The information book started to break down, light streaming into her eyes, making them glow, and finished burning as she closed her eyes.
The others did the same, opening the information books and assimilating what was hidden within.
Derrick blinked a few times after he had finished going through the information book and rubbed his head, thinking on everything he had just received.
This, can it be?
His eyes snapped open as Stephan talked first.
“This information, is it from the training area?” Stephan asked.
The room stilled. All of them had reached the point that they had gone to Alva to train their skills, accepting oaths had made them people of Alva. There had been three other branch heads that had joined Alva completely, two joining the military and one joining the Academy to learn.
“Yes,” Blaze said. “This is what we were waiting for.”
“Are we going to have an all out war with the Willful Institute?” Kim Cheol asked.
“Head-to-head with the Willful Institute?” Jasper smiled, but shook his head. “No, that’s not something that we can do right now, but we can reduce their strength while increasing our own.”
Silence fell over the room.
“Again and again the Willful Institute has attacked us and they have impeded the plans of Alva, we were waiting for this information and permission from higher. Now we have it. We won’t go for their throat, we will go for their arms and legs. With this information we can cut off their major businesses. We can take over their contracts. We will bleed them through a thousand small cuts,” Blaze’s voice turned colder and harder, his face turning into a snarl. “They killed our people, attacked them without provocation and when we asked them to punish those responsible, they treated us like sewer trash. Every person that joins this guild is our brother and sister. If they err, we will deal with them harshly. If they have been the victim, then we need to make sure that they can rest easy in the next life. With this we are not looking for retribution against the Willful Institute anymore, we will pull them out by the roots. We will push them to the edge. We have waited silently and they think we have forgotten. We haven’t, we were merely biding our time until they were relaxed and unaware.”
Jasper’s sound transmission device went off. He looked at it and then raised it up.
“Come on up,” Jasper said.
Blaze looked to Jasper.
“Sergeant Niemm,” Jasper said.
Blaze’s eyes widened a bit.
It wasn’t long until the door opened to the room.
Derrick felt his blood chill looking at the man. He looked younger than Blaze, but there was something about his eyes, the way they looked like they’d seen ten lifetimes already, and he moved like he was ready to attack at any moment.
Niemm looked them over with a brief glance, but Derrick felt that he had been assessed and categorized in a moment. Even though they were sitting in Hersht in the middle of the desert, a cool breeze ran through the room.
“Blaze, Jasper,” The man smiled as if seeing old friends.
“Sergeant,” The two of them rose and hugged the man.
“What are you here for?” Blaze asked.
“Erik and Rugrat sent me,” Niemm looked to the room. “It okay to speak here?”
“They’re sworn in,” Blaze said.
“Good, I have a dungeon core for you to create a dungeon to train in, simple survival dungeon, has four different rooms of different difficulties. Got formations, spell scrolls, weapons and armor, supplies,” Niemm took off a storage ring, breaking his binding with it and passing it over.
Jasper took it.
A dungeon, a damn dungeon?
“Where do you want the dungeon to be located?”
“Might as well have it here in the Second Realm, have more people come here and train, and far enough away from prying eyes so we can control most things in this area,” Blaze said.
Niemm nodded.
“Are you taking part in Vuzgal’s fighting competition?”
“We’ve got a few people that can make it into the Fourth Realm” Blaze’s eyes moved to the room. “Another group is training in Alva right now.” Blaze said.
“I’ve heard that the rewards are pretty good, wouldn’t want to miss out,” Niemm said. “I’ve got to head back up, can we get this dungeon set up?”
“Jasper, help him with it,” Blaze said.
“This way,” Jasper said and headed out of the room. The door closed behind them and Joan couldn’t contain herself anymore.
“That competition in two weeks, is that the one in Vuzgal?”
“Yes, so I hope that you’ve all been training, if you can place high enough then the rewards you’ll get will be able to increase your fighting strength rapidly. You can also see just how strong people are from the other realms. We’ll need that strength in the coming fight with the Willful Institute.”
Derrick balled his hands into fists in agitation. “When will we pay them back for what they did?” Derrick looked at Blaze with hot eyes, the anger rising.
“Fighting them head on will only lead to our destruction. Though a plan is being created. It will take longer, but I assure you that the Willful Institute will no longer exist in the ten realms.” Blaze checked for any more outbursts before he continued.
“You should all have your assignments. Additionally, I want no less than three people recommended by all of you for additional training, I do not want to make the higher ups displeased with our performance in the higher realms. We will strike out at the Willful Institute quietly and using the new resources at our disposal we will increase our power so that we can compete with them directly.”
The branch heads were an odd group and they had a lot of friction on the surface, but they cared for the guild deeply, otherwise they would not have their current positions. They all showed their determination and it was time that they were able to strike out against those that dared to hurt their people.
***
Hiao Xen turned from looking at the main arena to the other two beside him.
“So are we ready?” He asked.
“We have people coming in from across the realms to participate in the fight. Registration is in the hundreds currently,” Chonglu said.
“Our crafters and owned shops are selling items for fighters and body cultivators, we still have two weeks until the competition and people are excited. We have had to open Wandering Inns in the unclaimed regions of Vuzgal to host the influx of peo
ple coming in,” Elise said.
“The Auctions are all set up on different days as well?” Hiao Xen asked.
“Yes, I have checked with the Alchemist Association, the Fighter’s Association, Crafters Association and Blue Lotus, all of them will be having one auction on different days. On the days that they are not hosting an auction, we will host auctions. There will be auctions for items that we hold, others for items that people put up, and we will also open our bartering services up to everyone.” Elise said.
“With all of that anyone that is interested in fighting will come over,” Hiao Xen smiled.
“Good thing that we built those Wandering Inns before anything else,” Elise smiled.
“And for the competition how will it run?” Hiao Xen looked at Chonglu.
“For the first week we will check the qualifications of everyone, those who don’t make it won’t be allowed in. Those that do, they will go through a series of fights, a round robin to establish the top hundred. These fights will take place on the main floor and go on day and night. We have been able to purchase a number of formations that are able to project events happening in one place at another location. People can watch the different fights within bars and other places that pay a fee, that way we don’t need to have everyone entering the arena.
“Getting into the top one hundred will be based on elimination. If you lose, you’re out. Once we have our top hundred they will compete based on points a win is two points, a draw one point, a loss no points. Through that we will have our winner, the competition will last two and a half weeks in total.”
“Should be good. As the first competition in Vuzgal, we need to show that we can control everything in the city. I will talk to the military and see if they can spare some people to act as guards and assist in the running of the city, backing up the police force. I think that covers everything?”
“I think so, it should be good,” Chonglu said.
Chapter: Sha Clan
Esther Leblanc marched through the opulent halls. She wore a rapier on her hip and there was an array of pistols that adorned her chest and hips.
Her midnight hair was pulled back in a braid, contrasting against her milky white skin.
There were only guards waiting by the walls as her footsteps rang out against the fine floors, the decorations of the hall could only be called lavish.
Sixth Realm Page 3