Sixth Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  A group of Orcs riding on their war hogs entered through one of the tunnels. The hogs looked like ponies underneath them.

  Seeing the ogres, the leading orc one with a mohawk and a halberd it wielded like a simple ax raised his weapon at the Ogre.

  Shamans called out their spells, buffs landing on the orcs as they rushed across the open ground towards the stronghold. They passed the orcs that were running across the ground to reach the stronghold.

  “Yuli,” Rugrat said.

  The clouds of infection gathered together, spinning up, becoming thicker, turning from a haze into a mist and then a storm cloud of infection.

  It dropped to the ground and raced towards the new riding orcs.

  The leader let out a yell as he brought his halberd back and leaned forward on his hog.

  The group ran headfirst into the cloud, causing it to move slightly, but they were lost in the greens and reds of the cloud.

  They burst out the other side, leaving streaks of the cloud behind them.

  “Cover the tunnels in it,” Rugrat said, his voice grim.

  “Bring me some,” Erik added.

  The cloud split into streamers and rested over the tunnel entrances.

  A small amount of the cloud separated and moved around the outside of the open area to Erik.

  He put his face into the poison and breathed it into his body before anyone could stop him.

  “Cover me,” Erik said. He sat down and Lucinda could see that he was drinking from his second camelback filled with healing and stamina potion.

  He took a few moments then pulled out a potion bottle. He breathed into it and a red gas with green light spots, the opposite color of the cloud that filled the room filled the container.

  “Drink this, it will protect you against the infection,” Erik passed the gas-filled potion bottle to Lucinda.

  “What did you just do?” Rugrat asked

  “I used my reverse alchemist ability and infected myself. My body fought off the plague easily and I could understand it more. Then I simply made a poison that would counteract the plague and breathed it out. It was an ability that came with my poison body. Quickly inhale it then your body will have the same resistance that I do toward it. Those infected orcs are probably great use against other orc groups, because the infection is so highly contagious and bred inside orcs but not as effective against humans because our bodies are slightly different.”

  Lucinda watched the orc riders reach the ogres. They slashed and cut at the beasts. If they were a moment too slow then the ogres’ hammers would shatter their bodies and the hogs they were on, regardless if they were wearing armor or not.

  The team watched the fight, antsy to be so close but not fighting. All of them expecting to be attacked at any moment.

  They quickly breathed in the gas inside the potion bottle. Remaining vigilant throughout.

  “I’m getting experience, but it’s limited,” Yao Meng said, using the communications device so that no one else could hear them.

  “We’re all close to level Sixty, that’s the peak of people in the Sixth Realm, and most of the orcs are below level Sixty and we are using tools to attack them,” Yuli said.

  “If we want to level up then we would need to head to the Seventh Realm, everything would be a higher level than us and we would earn experience from everything that we kill,” Rugrat said.

  “So what do we do now?” Lucinda asked

  “We wait,” Erik said. “They seem to have forgotten about us. We let the plague spread as much as possible, then we head toward that Dungeon core.”

  “Feels strange sitting here,” Yao Meng said.

  “We use the advantages we can get and that plague is a big one,” Erik replied.

  All of them got comfortable at the mouth of the large open area, watching as the orcs and ogres fought it out. The ogres took out a lot of them, but the orcs won in the end. Most of them were barely standing. The plague had taken hold, their skin was crawling and open sores appeared.

  Other orcs arrived through the tunnels, passing through the green clouds.

  The Special team waited and watched.

  Orcs that had survived in the stronghold started to fall over from the infections, the reinforcements were coughing and looking sickly as they left.

  Life was cheap here. Seeing a few orcs dying fights broke out over their left gear. Others just left not wanting to get involved.

  There were a few times where it looked like the orcs were going to head to the tunnel that they had created their walls and defenses at the entrance of.

  The defenses were hidden from the stronghold.

  “Why aren’t they coming over here?” Yao Meng asked.

  “Illusion formation,” Tian Cui said. “I have one active covering the area. They look over here and see a regular tunnel and it gives them the compulsion to not come this way. With their limited intelligence, they’re not able to see through the illusion and just keep on going.”

  “Hiding in plain sight. Would never work back on Earth, but just about possible in the Ten Realms.” Erik said.

  “Speak for yourself, I know some snipers that you wouldn’t be able to find unless they wanted you to,” Rugrat said.

  Over the next hour, orcs moved back and forth through the tunnels, most of them appearing sickly and infected as they passed through the clouds and kept going. Yuli pushed the clouds forward, sending wind down the tunnels to disperse the infectious clouds as far as possible.

  “Will this really weaken them?” Lucinda asked.

  “Infections and disease claim more lives than any other tragedy on Earth. Whole civilizations have been wiped out by them before, leaving nothing but their buildings. If one doesn’t know how to treat an infection or know about it, it can spread like wildfire and take out everything,” Erik said with a grim look on his face.

  He turned to Lucinda.

  “It could very well wipe out the orcs hiding in these tunnels.”

  She felt a chill run through her.

  Fighting them all would be nearly impossible, but killing them with a silent and deadly infection. They won’t even know what’s happening until it’s too late.

  Chapter: Empire of Alva

  Delilah and the rest of the council were assembled. They sat in the beating heart of Alva, its dungeon core floated in the middle of the room drawing in a truly gigantic amount of power from the different floors, refining them and then shooting them towards the mana-storing formation in the ceiling.

  The Treasury Department had just finished their report. Alva’s bank had plenty of reserves. Merchants were accelerating their growth as those with pre-approved and good credit history were able to get larger loans and securities. More people were putting their savings into the banks and there had become sectors that people could direct their money toward. It made the market more volatile, but places that were not getting funding before were now being supported. House prices were increasing in Alva and construction companies had been created. Buying from Alva and then building custom homes or large buildings within regulations to house more people, taking a load off of the council’s construction workers.

  “More businesses other than just traders are starting to appear, construction companies being the first. I have heard that a number of them are looking to train their people here and then send them to Vuzgal to assist or take over contracts there,” Delilah looked to Chonglu. While he was the manager of the Battle Arena, he was also the second-in-command of Vuzgal. He had been a city lord in the past, it was clear he was being groomed for the position of Vuzgal’s leader.

  He is the best leader for Vuzgal, he has managed a city before and he has been in Vuzgal for so long he knows how everything works.

  “Vuzgal is growing at an accelerated pace but all of it is upon the shoulders of our Vuzgal Construction department. Matt is doing his best but he doesn’t have the people to accelerate much faster, it takes time to train them. He heard about the construction companies down
here. He gave me a list of things that we can do to assure the safety of people working construction and a plan of how to integrate our people with other construction companies,” Chonglu took out a pile of papers and passed them out.

  Delilah scanned the contents that proposed a number of different departments that combined construction workers’ hands-on ability with an architect’s knowledge.

  “With these new departments checking blueprints that construction companies propose and then checking the ongoing work to make sure that the workers are safe and the standards are upheld. We can sell off plots of land and they can build on them, saving our strength. Matt and his construction department could then focus on building infrastructure, water, and waste piping, laying in defensive formations under the city, building up our defenses, maintaining and upgrading the government buildings. Get them working on making more crafter workshops,” Chonglu said.

  “Approved,” Delilah said. “Matt knows more about this, have him submit a plan for this all, he will take over the training and preparing of these building inspectors. He will start here in Alva and then expand it up to Vuzgal. Our first focus is defenses, our second is expanding Alva and then Vuzgal.”

  Chonglu nodded. Everyone was older than Delilah, but all of them knew that her orders came from Erik and Rugrat. With these two weights on her shoulders and how she had proven herself in her position, her word was final.

  “How is Vuzgal’s operation otherwise?” She asked.

  “Expanding, still,” Chonglu grinned a bit making Delilah smile and the others focus on him more.

  “The fight in the Battle Arena ignited the fighting spirit of a number of people. A lot of hidden experts or people that were hiding out in the Realms have come over and are training in the Battle Arena. They can earn money, fame, and position allowing them to become stronger. Crafters have taken it as a challenge and things are heating up; crafters showing their ability to craft better weapons with their skills while the fighters want to prove their fighting skill. More weapons and armor are being crafted every day, the competition has tried to boil over at times. The police force has stepped in and made sure that nothing has gone awry.”

  He looked over to the new member at the table behind Delilah. Captain Arenson, the head of the police force that operated in Alva and Vuzgal. The old warrior preferred a quiet life and looking after the people he loved. Being in the police force, he could deal with the smaller issues, taking a weight off of his army brothers and sisters. The police force gave a home to the retired army members if they desired it and gave people safety.

  He was not a native of the first Alva, but one of the people that had joined afterwards. Seeing a place where he could do good for the people in the city he had jumped at the challenge.

  Arenson nodded to Chonglu in gratitude.

  “Trade is only increasing, the trading district increased in size again, we have more trade caravans to the East every day and there is talk of building a beast-airport to transport goods further across the mountain ranges. The third realm has a number of these airports. In the mountainous areas around Vuzgal it should open up plenty of extra trade routes. It is hard to keep our construction up with everything that is happening,” Chonglu said.

  Delilah nodded.

  “Elise?”

  “Trade is growing all over the place. King’s Hill is growing aggressively and through their trade, they have been able to greatly stabilize their position in the surrounding area. As much as I hate saying this, I think we might need to add in more trading controls,” Elise sighed and leaned forward.

  “Through some reports shared with me by Captain Arenson and Mister Silaz, we have been able to see the impact of our trading. The kingdom of Choraz, their climate is not able to support large scale farming projects. It takes a lot of time to create farmland. Though they have great reserves of raw materials. Jewels and ores fill their mountains.

  It was a great trade, we gave them food and they would trade us resources well below market prices. The trade for food has increased dramatically and the lord’s fighting forces expanded. Instead of having their people work the land to create farms. They are forcing them to work in the mines and buying outside food. The conditions in the mines are bad and with so many people that don’t know how to mine being put to work it is leading to more accidents.

  “Through Erik and Rugrat we learned that just fighting our enemy with weapons is th least efficent way to cripple our enemy. We must attack them in a dozen different ways, economically, socially and only when every other avenue has been exploited do we fight them on the battlefield. Trading is its own battlefield and we have unknowingly been altering the very balance of kingdoms and nations in the different realms. We all know what happened with our traders that turned bandits. Even if the traders don’t mean to, their trading can greatly impact others. Looking at the Choraz Kingdom, our impact while good at first, now has changed the entire balance. Our traders earn great profits, but is that okay?”

  “What are you proposing?” Delilah asked.

  “I am not proposing anything, I am just saying that our traders now wield an immense amount of power that only grows with time. Currently, their power is being exerted in Vuzgal, King’s Hill and against the Willful Institute. Mister Silaz and Captain Arenson keeps tabs on them, but we should make sure that they are not starting to play politics, inciting a war and selling weapons to one or the other side without our authorization,” Elise shrugged.

  “Is that possible?” Delilah frowned.

  “Quite. If they wanted to, some of the traders could take over nations and kingdoms in the First Realm. They wield power in the Third and Forth Realms that are enough to purchase or establish a sect in the Second or Third Realm. In this situation we can turn a blind eye, what happens in Choraz is their own doing, or we can step in, reducing the amount of food our traders can sell so that it forces Choraz to change.”Elise looked at Delilah.

  “We have maintained a freedom for Alvan traders, as long as they trade according to our rules and do not disobey our laws they are free to do as they desire. If they step over it,” Delilah looked to Egbert, Elan, Glosil and Arenson. Her eyes were cold as they flicked back to Elise. “Those same laws that protect them will clamp around their necks faster than they can blink. That said our laws apply to our people. What is happening to the people of Choraz sounds bad. I don’t deny that. Though it is not our kingdom, we do not control it. We will help those that ask for help and that truly need it. Who know’s CHoraz could undergo massive growth, the miners now could become stronger more powerful people in the future and all of Choraz Kingdom might benefit. Why do we have the right to mess with their kingdom and won’t we just become weaker spending all of that effort for what? To feel better? They might hate us more for what we do. If they become Alvans or are in a city or kingdom we control, then it would be different.”

  “Yes Council Leader,” Elise nodded pride in her eyes as she sat back from the table.

  “Jia Feng if you could talk on the schools and crafters, Egbert on the changes to Alva, and then we will get to the military operations,” Delilah said.

  “We have expanded the Kanesh Academy once again. We’ve worked to plot out where we will expand to next so that we do not have to clear out houses to build. Vuzgal Academy has grown in leaps and bounds. We have been able to recruit a dozen Experts and half a dozen more of our people have become Experts. Our Journeyman ranks have swelled to massive sizes across all departments. The rate of people becoming Experts has only increased as debates and theoretical conflicts have been raised. Each person has their dao or belief and through conflict, debate and wealth of shared knowledge, these daos have been refined, altered and changed. Instead of hidden experts cultivating and learning behind closed doors ours have gone out, experienced the world, debated and talk with people of all disciplines and lines of thinking. It has created a revolution,” Jia Feng blushed and cleared her throat realizing that she was getting carried away.


  “So we have many new Expert Crafters. More people are heading out into the world to learn and then coming back to continue their education. The Academy produces a small profit from school fees that is being put into an education fund to be used towards purchasing books of interest, hiring more staff, increasing the size and ability of our facilities. There are two thousand teachers, Ten thousand full-time students in the Kanesh Academy, fifteen thousand part-time students. Not including the military. The Vuzgal Academy has four thousand permanent teachers, one thousand part-time teachers, Forty thousand full-time students, and Five thousand part-time students, again not including the military students. This does not include the free classes that are run in auxiliary Primary Education facilities. These facilities are attended to by people from across the Ten Realms, a number of high powered members send over their children to gain a basic education and be able to join the Vuzgal Academy.”

  “Congratulations, education increases all of our strengths. I didn’t realize that people were sending their children to Vuzgal to learn,” Delilah said.

  “It has been a pleasant surprise,” Chonglu agreed.

  Jia Feng beamed and nodded her head but she had a frown as she raised a hand.

  “There is also something else that I wanted to bring to people’s attention.”

  Delilah nodded for her to continue.

  “There are some people that are annoyed by how much money we are putting into training and maintaining our military. I think a factor is because most of them have not seen our people fight and they have become comfortable they think that the ten realms doesn’t exist anymore. It’s stupid and short-sighted, we can only have what we do because of our military. Though I wanted to share with everyone and see if we can come up with a solution.”

  Jia Feng looked like she had sucked on lemons while Delilah started grinding her teeth.

  Everyone looked to Delilah as she tapped her fingers on her desk.

  “Aren’t we scared about Alvans that go on trips? Shouldn’t we make sure that they are as safe as possible? I hear that joining the military can help to really strengthen people.”