Sixth Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  “Sign over here,” Yao Meng said, they walked over to the sign which was pointing in different directions.

  “Dungeon entrance,” Erik said pointing at one.

  Rugrat took a look around.

  “The dungeons underneath Acal are some of the largest. There are smaller outpost cities located within the dungeon itself to support those that head deeper. The deeper one goes the stronger the beasts they will be able to face. It is rich in alchemy ingredients, rare ores and enhancers as well as materials for tailors,” Rugrat said.

  “To build a city on top of a dungeon, they have to be pretty ballsy,” Storbon said.

  “Well, remember they’ve scouted the best people they can find from the Fifth Realm to fill their ranks. Everyone here is an elite,” Rugrat said.

  “Which means don’t get into a fight,” Erik said.

  “Unless you have to,” Rugrat added,

  “Unless you have to,” Erik agreed.

  They passed areas that were marked out just to test people, others that were selling supplies and books that the students of the different academies might need. There were large markets where people were selling all kinds of goods, from tools for students to weapons and armor for adventurers looking to fight in the dungeon.

  People were hawking maps and other aids.

  Rugrat saw people taking orders for custom weapons and armor, or alchemists negotiating with clients.

  Mid journeyman level gear was the norm, Earth mana stones and Earth mana cornerstones appeared in hands and were exchanged freely. Here and there Experts with a large entourage moved through, most people vacating a path ahead of them.

  “It’s like New York, just sprawling everywhere with no end in sight,” Rugrat said as he looked over to Erik who was looking around at everything, too. Both of them were observing the area, taking it in, assessing people, getting to know the place and starting to blend.

  There was a hint of danger in the air that filled them but they were confident in their abilities and that of their people to deal with any issues if they appeared.

  Both of them nodded to one another and kept quietly observing the area around them: watching the people working the stalls, seeing how the different groups interacted, learning the customs and norms of the area and what they needed to do to blend in.

  The rest of the special team were on high alert, scanning the area.

  Rugrat moved forward so that they could hear him.

  “Use your peripherals, what’s around us, who is staring at us, who looks away as soon as you make eye contact, move your head around lazily, enjoy the sun, smile a little bit, less rigid, more natural. You’re back home, just taking a stroll. Break down the area into sectors so you’re not all looking in the same place, roving scan, not active scan.”

  “Look at the people’s mannerisms, check out a stall or two, flow with the people, don’t try to force your way through unless you have to,” Erik added.

  The special team had operated on their own, but it had been some time and they were in a new unfamiliar place and in charge of protecting them. Erik and Rugrat had spent plenty of time in different countries all over the world, their practices applying to being out in public as civilians and when they were tasked with an objective.

  The special team started to relax some.

  “Should we see what they’ve got for food?”

  “Nice sunny day like this, I could do with a beer or two. Should we find somewhere with food and drink, ask them about the place and the dungeon,” Erik asked.

  “Sounds like a plan to me. I hate how the menus and all the food changes every time. Vegetables are the worst, why do they need a new name in every city?” Rugrat sighed as he looked around for food places. He saw a restaurant with servers moving around quickly serving with a smile and the patrons laughing and joking with them.

  “Over there?” Rugrat said, looking to the rest of the special team.

  “As long as it’s not spicy,” Tian Cui said.

  “The more the spice, the more the love!”

  They got a table and sat down. Erik and Rugrat ordered drinks for everyone and they started to relax some.

  “So, this is Acal,” Rugrat said looking around. The city was colorful, there were main streets with carts picking up and dropping off people. Walkways were filled with stalls and vibrant fabrics. There was constant background noise. The city was all different levels with bridges crossing between different buildings.

  The new grew up in the places that the old had fallen or been removed. Everything seemed to sit on one another, built on top of the other in places and open to the air in others as there were markets and fountains. Nature crawled between buildings and up the sides of walls.

  “It’s like ancient Roman cities mixed with built up New York and shanty towns,” Erik said.

  “It’s kind of crazy,” Rugrat said as the beers arrived and everyone grabbed one. With their tempered bodies it was hard for the alcohol to actually work, but the taste was enough to relax them. They cheered, tapping their bottles to the table in salute and then took a drink.

  “When the server comes around again, let’s see how much information we can get from her,” Erik said, looking at Rugrat.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “‘Cause girls open up to you,”

  “‘Cause I’m irresistible, like a tattooed teddy bear.”

  “Sometimes I forget you’re a Marine, then you say something like that.”

  Rugrat opened his mouth to reply.

  If I reply, am I admitting it, or am I defending Marines? What does he mean? Too late now to say anything, I’ll just drink more beer.

  He took another sip. “Not bad.”

  The server came around and took their orders.

  “What is the best way to get into the Catacombs?” Rugrat asked the lady.

  She tapped her pencil against her chin.

  With her level she could command a kingdom in the First Realm with just a word but up here in the Sixth Realm she is a server. Power really is the biggest drug. It is why there are so few people that go down realms instead of striving to improve.

  “Well, it depends what you are looking for. The entrances that are closest to the different underground outposts and high yield areas are the most expensive. The places that don’t have an abundance of materials in the area, or are around active beast spawn locations are cheaper. Depending on the items and the experience one will get for killing the beasts, there might be different fighting guilds that monopolize those locations. Places with high level beasts or risky terrain are the cheapest. They’re in less populated areas or less frequented areas of the city. All of them are ranked, the highest quality ones are S ranked, all of those are controlled by the academies. There is no way to get access to them unless you are a high level student. It is said that they can be directly connected to an instance dungeon.” She must’ve noted a change as she explained.

  “The catacombs are all a dungeon, but an instance dungeon is a location within the catacombs where one might undergo a trial or some kind of test where they can get ample rewards. So there might be a survival dungeon down there, capture and hold dungeon, a simple clearing dungeon or a boss challenge dungeon.

  “Ahh okay, so dungeons within the overall underground dungeon,” Rugrat said.

  “A dungeon within a dungeon,” she smiled before she continued.

  “The A-ranker entrances are close to resources or instance dungeons. B rankers are just close to beast spawn points, B-rankers you will need some time to reach an outpost, a resource point, or an instance dungeon. C-rankers are points that can lead to beast spawns that are really hard to deal with, or areas that are highly dangerous. I heard that there was a dungeon emergence from one of the C-rankers not that long ago. The beasts got out and leveled people’s houses. It took some time for the guard to reach them and force the beasts back.” She shook her head.

  “Thank you, for the information, do you know where
we might get a map for the catacombs?”

  “I have a cousin that knows some map makers, I can check with him and get back to you?”

  “That would be perfect,” Rugrat smiled.

  She blushed slightly.

  “Happy to do so, I’ll put your orders in,” Her eyes rested on him for a bit longer before she headed back into the restaurant.

  “I love redheads,” Rugrat said with a pleased smile on his face.

  “Well, that is useful. Let’s see if we can get in through a B-Rank entrance and then trek to an outpost. We can set up there and then work through the surrounding area clearing dungeons,” Erik said.

  “Well, with the dungeon sense, it’ll be a bit easier to find things to clear, no?” Storbon asked.

  Erik scratched the back of his head.

  “You didn’t think about that did you?” Rugrat asked.

  “Might’ve slipped my mind,” Erik coughed.

  “What about the cores?” Yuli asked.

  “We’ll leave them, as we get higher in the realms there is no knowing if there might be other people who have our skills as well. Let’s not draw too much attention to ourselves.” Erik said.

  They got their food and started in on it.

  “So, why are there cooks up here and not in the other realms?” Lucinda asked as she tossed some pieces into the different beast storage items on her belt.

  “From Elan’s information at this realm and higher, all crafters are revered. In the first few realms people craft items out of necessity, make weapons, armor, and healing concoctions. The entire Third Realm sells the majority of their supplies to the Fourth Realm. In the Fourth Realm everyone is fighting for dungeons and cities. In the Fifth, people are competing to try and get accepted by a powerful academy. There they train to come out on top. Only the strongest crafters and fighters actually reach the sixth realm and join the academies here. Any edge they have is useful. In the Sixth, people start to not only learn how to fight but learn a craft as well. The creatures are much harder to kill and people that continue to only fight will be much less valuable to the academies. Competitions decide everything, actual battles are rare unless in the dungeons. The Dungeons are the testing and training grounds of the academies,” Erik said.

  “The cooking craft is a powerful craft, even with these basic meals we should be satisfied for at least a day. With high level cooking you can gain passive boosts that could last a few hours or a day, instead of a few seconds or minutes with spells. Some top tier meals can supposedly even change your body like how alchemy concoctions do and increase your stats.” Storbon said.

  “You’re learning to cook aren’t you,” Yao Meng asked.

  “Well, I want to eat something a little more edible than what you call food,” Storbon said.

  “You know, a man who cooks is really appealing,” Yuli said.

  “What happened with Shandra?” Tian Cui chimed in.

  “Had to break it off, was getting into too many long-term plans,” Storbon sighed.

  They kept eating and talking, relaxing a bit as they got used to Acal.

  Once they finished their meal, they headed over to the server’s cousin who took them to some mapmakers.

  Entering the store it smelled like musty old paper and dust.

  There were a number of people that were looking at different maps along the walls and behind glass that had powerful formations guarding them.

  There were students, fighters and people that were looking to make their riches or their story in the place. Rugrat paid the cousin and walked up to the front desk with Erik. There was an older looking gentleman sitting there who looked at Rugrat, raising an eyebrow. He was a man that had seen a lot in his life and little gained his interest anymore. There were signs of fighting on his body.

  “I would like a map of all B and C ranked entrances please,” Erik said.

  “Two hundred and forty Earth mana stones,” The man said.

  Erik pulled out several boxes, the man checked them and then stored them away. A woman appeared from behind a formation-covered door and the man passed them the map.

  Erik took it and moved to the side. Rugrat looked over his shoulder as Erik took out his original map, he tapped the new map to his, the new map started to crumble and fall apart the lines and details disappeared from it and started to appear on the old map in Erik’s hands.

  Once the transfer was complete, the two of them touched maps, transferring the information between one another.

  They headed out of the store to find the rest of the group waiting for them. Storbon walked over and they tapped their maps to his, transferring the information. The others milled around but they were checking the area passively.

  “Okay, what about this C-rank entrance, it should be cheap, there is supposed to be a group of beasts that are around level Fifty Five and their boss is level Fifty Nine,” Storbon said.

  Erik and Rugrat looked over, checked the position and studied the location on their own maps.

  “Level Fifty-Nine huh,” Rugrat said.

  “I think we should try something a little lower in level. I just reached it, you and our beasts are higher, though it has been a long time since we’ve actually fought in a dungeon,” Erik said, he looked between the two men and then continued to look at his map.

  “This entrance here, level Fifty Three and with roaming bosses of level Fifty-Five, that seems more manageable.”

  Chapter: Crafter's Competition preparation

  "Looks like construction is going well," Jia Feng said as she walked up towards Matt who was working on a desk.

  He turned around greeting her with a wave of his hand, before he noted something down on the massive set of plans that were in front of him.

  Ahead of him was a massive construction site.

  It took up a massive amount of space right on the edge of Alva, since the floor had been expanding with the larger dungeon core, they had a surplus of room now.

  "Come to check on our progress Academy head?” Matt looked up from the note he had hurriedly written. “The Dungeon core, its summoned creatures and the automatons are the heart of it all. They do the heavy lifting. Us humans are just making sure everything is properly bonded to one another.”

  "It is practically growing before our eyes," Jia Feng said.

  "Seven stadiums for each crafting discipline smithing, cooking, woodworking, tailoring, healing, alchemy and formation creation. Each Arena supports floors that can be changed at will with the power of the dungeon core. The alchemy arena can become a place to grow crops and alchemy products. Or a square filled with alchemy workshops for people to create concoctions. Healers can have practical simulation rooms, or amphitheaters. When not being used for competitions then they can all be turned into classrooms or host lecturers to talk to students and the public on their own topics. It took a lot of work from the formation masters to create the plates to change the balance of mana and attributes within the overall stadium and the different arenas," Matt said looking at it all, there was a shine to his eyes seeing it all coming together.

  "Will it be ready in time?"

  "For the competition? Yes it'll be ready in a few weeks, here the dungeon core can create walls in seconds and the automatons can bring in supplies and formations, that are too big or heavy for our people to move," Matt said.

  Jia Feng looked at the stadium and then at the plans in front of Matt, she frowned, looking back from the plans to the cleared space.

  "Won't it be a bit small with only work going on for a few weeks?"

  Matt laughed.

  "You are underestimating the builders of Alva Principal Jia Feng! The ground work takes the longest as we need to make sure that all of the formations are in place, that takes the most amount of time. The walls, the seats, the stairs and reinforcement, that will take no time. Each Arena can hold around ten thousand people. The main arena in the center can host forty thousand people, total capacity of 110,000 people."

  Jia Feng looked
at Matt who was standing there with a big smile on his face.

  "Is it too big?" She asked and then blushed at the variety of her questions.

  "Alva will grow with time. Think of this as a prototype, we are testing out everything here, we will see how things work, what needs to be changed and so on. Then we will take this stadium and replicate it, instead of there being one stadium for all the crafters, there becomes one for each of the disciplines and then there is one for the fighters as well."

  Jia Feng felt a tremor run through her body at the thought of so many stadiums within Alva.

  "I thought that I was ambitious when I was looking towards the future but it seems that I am well behind you Matt," Jia Feng smiled.

  "I am just merely looking at things from a planning perspective, after all if we continue to expand then we will need a greater number of facilities to support ourselves," Matt shrugged. "Is there anything else you require principal?"

  "No, I just wanted to get away and see how things are. I have a meeting later today to go over the events that will be happening and how we will organize everything," Jia Feng said. "Thank you for taking the time to talk to me. I'll let you get back to it."

  "No problem, if it wasn’t for the academy I wouldn’t be able to do half the things I can. An education is more powerful than any single cultivation manual."

  "Seems like everyone is trying to learn more these days! Keep up your studies!"

  Matt smiled and nodded his head.

  Jia Feng walked around part of the stadium, taking in the different automatons and the builders that were using different spells or their own bodies to move massive pieces into place.

  ***

  Jia Feng was the last into the meeting, there were all of the heads of the different departments of the Alva Academies, Kanesh and Vuzgal.

  "Look at how far we have come in just a few months!" Jia Feng couldn't help say as she looked at everyone there, brimming with confidence a glow around them all.

  They all smiled in happiness.

  "In a few short months we have added more Experts to our ranks in Vuzgal. Dozens of our own students and fellow teachers have become experts. As their share what they learned and believe we can piece paths together. Then it is a matter of time until we can come up with lessons and methods for people to reach the Expert level of their craft!"