Sixth Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  “Okay so they break it up into two sectors. On the left there are the crafting workshops, on the right there are the individual and group training rooms. The two sectors meet up in the middle where the highest density of mana is, in a big circle there are rows of training rooms, each sealed and isolated from one another.”

  He headed into the training facility he held up his ‘key’ which was a piece of metal with formations engraved inside the metal.

  The door opened and he stepped inside.

  Feels like stepping out of the airport in Texas, right into a wall of heat. Instead of heat, it is mana. Maybe it’s not really like Texas. So damn hot.

  Rugrat had a grimace on his face as he walked onward past the different rows of training rooms, people took their pills and concoctions, quickly opening the doors and rushing into the rooms. A green light turned red, showing the rooms as occupied.

  There are formations all over the training rooms, the walls around the facility stop the mana from leaking out, keeping it concentrated. The doors in and out are like airlocks, the formations a forcefield retaining the air.

  It is an impressive feat of engineering, taking the construction crews, formation masters and Egbert working together to see that this became a reality.

  People staggered out of training rooms. There were staff on hand to check on them. Some wore expressions of frustration while most wore ecstatic expressions.

  He moved through the different rows, he had to use his key on different doors. Each set of doors was like ascending to a different realm. As his body relaxed his mana gates opened and the mana within his body started to circulate faster. He stood outside of his training room.

  ==========

  Area of High Mana density

  ==========

  You have entered an area of high mana density.

  Mana regeneration is increased by 4.0x

  ==========

  “Damn, is that why people from the Tenth Realm are supposed to be able to cast powerful ass spells? With that kind of mana regeneration buff, you can load up your stat points into mana pool, and the higher mana density will refill the pool quickly without the need to drop lots of points into mana regeneration.” Rugrat sank into thought.

  The common thought is that people from the Seventh Realm don’t dare to come down to the lower realms because they will lose their power, there is something wrong with this, the pressure idea of the internal pressure of one’s mana system and the world around them. That sounds like crap when you think about it. I don’t lose mana by going up in the realms. I have focused more on my mana pool than my regeneration due to the availability and increase in mana density. This must be the crux of the issue. People in the Seventh Realm and higher are relying on their environment in order to recover their lost mana. It makes sense, humans are born and designed to rely on the forces of gravity to live, look at our digestion system, our inner balance. If we go to higher or lower gravity worlds, after generations wouldn’t we alter our bodies to get used to the new environment? The thing that would hold someone back in the higher realms is not their lack of mana regeneration but their lack of mana pool! When they leave the mana dense areas, their mana regeneration drops and then they are a big balloon with only a tiny pump! That is a weird mental image. Like a space hopper and a gnome cranking on a tiny pump.

  Rugrat snorted and put his key to the door’s lock. It opened with a click and he walked inside. The room was like a prison cell, there was a chair, a washroom, a desk and a bed.

  “Hello cultivator, your rented time has started. On the wall you will find a health sensor. You will need to take this off of the wall and place it on your chest before you can start cultivating. It will send updates to our health staff to make sure that you do not overtrain and lead to injuries upon your body and mana channels.”

  Rugrat winced thinking of how he had crippled his own mana channels. He looked at the piece of metal as the voice continued.

  “Once you have placed the sensor on your body and it is linked then you can hit the green buttons around the room, these will increase the mana density of the room up to the predicted level of the advanced Seventh Realm. Please refrain from taking training aides before you start your first session for the first hour. You should know your limits after that time.”

  Rugrat put the sensor on his chest and sat down in the chair. There was a green button beside him, he pressed it and all the buttons turned red as runic lines increased in brightness.

  Rugrat took a deep breath as the mana density started to increase rapidly and he used his organic scan to look through his body and see what was happening inside.

  My mana core has reached the peak of the Mist stage. Next I have to combine the mist together and start to fill my core, creating a liquid core.

  Rugrat’s face relaxed, becoming emotionless as he breathed, focusing his mind, he felt his fighting will rise from his bones.. Around him the room was starting to fill with a blue mist.

  Nice dense unrefined attribute filled mana. Rugrat thought in approval he started to open his mana gates, as he opened them it was like a dam opening.

  The mist around him started to shift, drawn to his fifteen mana gates. Rugrat felt his blood boiling feeling endless power within his body while his mind was clearer than ever.

  Compress! Rugrat ordered his body as his mana veins flexed their strength as he circulated the already mist form mana.

  Again! Compress it again! I can handle Liquid mana! Come on!

  His circulations increased in speed and the mana density within his mana channels rose. He held back from forcing the mist into his core, it started to shine brighter as it was forced together.

  Rugrat started to feel himself reaching his limits.

  The mana in the room was rushing through his mana gates, through his mana veins that were outlined in the mist, making him look like some kind of primordial machine covered in runes.

  Rugrat gritted his teeth but his lips raised in a grin as he opened his eyes.

  “Refine!” he yelled out looking at the ceiling.

  It was like a bomb went off in his body, the mana he had been compressing. Instead of being pushed deeper into his innermost core, the mana he had been compressing was refined through his mana veins. It flowed into his bones, through his muscles, his nerves, and his very cells, soaking every part of his being in the elements and mana of the Ten Realms.

  Rugrat felt as if his body had been struck by lightning, crushed by its own weight, he saw visions and illusions, but he persisted. The power ran through his veins, through his soul.

  Staff Sergeant Jimmy Rugrat Rodriguez, Second Reconnaissance Battalion, United States Marine Corps. Staff Sergeant Jimmy Rugrat Rodriguez, Second Reconnaissance Battalion, United States Marine Corps.

  Rugrat recited the mantra over and over again, steam rose off from his body as impurities were expelled from deep within.

  Mana escaped through his body but most of it passed through and entered his mana veins. The color started to change as the mana was purified repeatedly.

  Rugrat’s mind went blank as he kept up his mantra. A marine never gives up? Are you a marine or are you a an army brat? Come on, Erik has done this dozens of times. Are you going to let him win! Come on!

  His veins were like worms as he pushed onward, the pure mana passed through his body without issue. He directed it through his inner mana channels, compressing it more. His body fell into a rhythm as the element dense mana tempered his body and the pure mana compressed further.

  He couldn’t hold it back anymore as the pressure within his body was reaching his peak.

  “Liquid core here I come,” Rugrat grinned and gritted his teeth as mist of pure mana was drawn into his mana core.

  A sound like an emptying sink rose from his stomach. More threads of mana mist reached Rugrat’s core, it was a whirlpool in the middle of his stomach, all of his mana channels lead to his core as the mist started to condense in his core.

  Then in a moment t
hey transformed from mist to liquid the drops occurred in different places within his mana core but they shot into the middle of the core.

  Rugrat continued to cycle the mana within his body, to purify and condense.

  He pulled out a mana concentraion pill and threw it into his mouth. He crushed it with his teeth and drank it with a mana regeneration potion.

  Rugrat felt a ripple run through his mana channels originating from his mana core. He smiled deeper as a golden glow surrounded him. His body was the tinder and the mana was the spark as his body started to change internally.

  The shifting mist in the room turned into a raging maelstrom as whirlpools appeared around Rugrat’s mana gates.

  He exercised his full domain, removing all his limitations as the mist within the room became a deeper blue color.

  Through the chaos in the room, everything was orderly within Rugrat’s body. The mana that had been a raging out-of-control flood was now a tame irrigation system, supplying Rugrat’s body with everything it needed to undergo a complete evolution.

  Rugrat’s body glowed within the mist, his gates, veins and core outlined. One could see a grinning devil through the mist as he stretched his mana cultivation muscles.

  “Liquid core consolidated!”

  He laughed into the air as he drew in more mana but the raging storm that had appeared around him was relaxing, he had a drained look on his face even while his eyes were glowing with power.

  I wouldn’t be able to condense this much mana in my body if it wasn’t tempered enough. It could take me months or years if I was just using the ambient mana in the Earth realms. No wonder the people int he SKy realms never want to leave. If they have all of that mana then they can easily increase their mana cultivation.

  There was a noise from the wall. Rugrat looked over.

  “Ah crap! I’m late for my meeting!”

  ***

  Kanoa looked at the guards that were watching the walls and around, searching for Rugrat.

  “Where is he?” Miller asked as he scanned the area. They had brought a number of the civilians and a quarter of the military members from their group for the meeting.

  “He should be here soon,” Kanoa said, once again glancing at the fully armed men and women on the wall.

  Behind this wall is the heart of the Alva Army. All of their supplies, ammunition, weapons, armor, medical supplies, even rations. The main manufacturing facilities are all here.

  “Sorry I’m late!” Rugrat yelled.

  Kanoa turned around to see the other man, his body looked drawn and tired, but he gave off the feeling that he was filled with energy.

  Kanoa felt a wave of power rush over him.

  “Whoops, sorry my domain is a little all over the place, just made it into Liquid core stage, I consolidated but with any title change and cultivation increase it takes a bit of time to get used to! Alright, come on then!”

  Rugrat led the group to the gate. They had to hand over their gear, none of them had any storage rings. Then they got bright yellow badges that showed they were visitors.

  A few more sets of doors and they were into the facility.

  Big place, but only a few of the different buildings are operational. Kanoa observed the area with the others, there were patrolling guards here and there. Wagons were coming in and dropping off resources, while others were heading out. There was a group of recruits that were going through all of their kit.

  The Ten Realms natives were all stunned by their gear, but the fear of their instructors limited their curiosity.

  “In here we make the core supplies for our armed forces. We also have a large development group that work on different gear and upgrades to our gear that can be used by the Army. Right now everything is done in-house but I am hoping that in the future innovators will make their own gear and try to sell them to the military. We’ve already got some promising projects from different people,” Rugrat reached a warehouse and walked inside. The space was broken up into different areas, there were mechanical-looking creatures in one area, clothes in another, boots in another, ammunition was in its own stored area.

  Then there was an area tucked away in the corner that Rugrat led them to.

  The board had a question mark on it.

  Rugrat sat on a table and looked at them all.

  “You are all from Earth, from different areas, across military branches and civilian jobs. I don’t even know what you all do, though I asked for people that might know of military projects. What I wanted to do was bring you here and show you what is going on. First that there are people who are looking into different innovations, that we are developing in every way we can. Also while we’re looking to increase our ability, there is only so much that the four people from Earth can remember.”

  Kanoa felt the others shifting behind him. They had nearly been enslaved for their knowledge by King Ikku, they were hesitant to work on anything.

  “Back on Earth, Military Might was more of a buzzword than an actual tactical factor, if someone was pushed into a corner and their enemies were coming for them in every direction. You can bet that they’re going to use their strongest moves. Bye bye, so sad. A lot of the governments on Earth care more about their GDP over the readiness of their fighting forces, which means that they are operating with gear that is twenty, thirty, sometimes forty years old. In the Ten Realms there are no nukes, but there is military might. How strong you are, or the group you are a part of, is your protection.”

  Rugrat pulled out the two main-stay rifles of the Army.

  “We have a bolt action rifle that is the main weapon of our forces. We are in the process of upgrading most of our main-line forces with newer semi and full auto rifles. We have distributed grenade launchers, standalone six shot systems and underbarrel versions. We have mortars armor and more. All of this gear is good, but we have a problem. Advancement. As we reached higher into the realms, these weapons are less effective, which means that we have to be predictive, scaling and adaptive.

  “We predict the conditions in the higher realms and their abilities. We scale our weapons to defeat enemies on that level. So we might need to adapt our weapons, or our tactics, we might need all new weapons there are too many factors. Now, that is hard, but thankfully we have a whole other world to draw inspiration from.”

  “What if we don’t want to work on weapons?” someone asked.

  “That’s fine, there are plenty of jobs out there, think of this as me trying to sell you on the army. If nothing else you’ll look at us favorably and if you can give a hand you won’t be afraid to let us know how we can do better. There are not just weapons in the army; nutrition, training, cultivation, tactics, are all items we can work on. Heck even beast taming, beast raising, alchemy, healing, all of these crafters are directly linked to the Army and our operations.”

  “So we don’t have to be part of the military or your crafters?” another asked.

  “You are all temporary citizens of Alva. If you take the final oaths you pay your taxes and adhere to our laws, you are under our protection and a full citizen of Alva. You are free to leave at any time, no matter what. As long as you pay for your rent and you don’t break laws here, you can stay as long as you want. You can stay here for up to six months with that status. There are a number of people who are still temporary residents. Full citizens can come and go as they please with no worry about being escorted out.”

  “You kick people out who don’t want to be your citizens?” someone asked angrily.

  “This is Alva, if you want to come here, you are welcome, we only have limited resources. If you want to stay, awesome, but we need your help to maintain everything. If you don’t well, we don’t want freeloaders, we want people that are driven to push onward.”

  “So have you needed to kick out many people?”

  “Not personally, but there have been over two dozen people that were going to be removed. Over half of them decided to join Alva, but they had to get a Intern Citizen, mea
ning that they had to pay more taxes and there is a zero tolerance with any misdemeanors. Its crappy, but we want engaged, driven people to join us.”

  “That’s outrageous, you pick and choose your citizens?” another yelled.

  “If they want to join us or not that is up to them,” Rugrat shrugged.

  “I heard that you are the lord of all this,” one of the civilians, a teacher asked.

  “Yeah, Erik and I are the lords of Alva, Vuzgal and their subsidiaries.”

  “Doesn’t that make you dictators?” the teacher asked.

  “Don’t think of Alva and everything here like a city or a nation or whatever, think of it like a company. Erik and I are the founders, though there are all different kinds of departments that see to the needs of the people, future expansion and so on.”

  “So everyone needs to work for you?” the teachers started to get outraged.

  “Pretty much.” Rugrat said.

  “How can you do that? Putting everyone to work if they want to or not, forcing them into servitude! How are they better than slaves?”

  “Have you been watching the Ten Realms? This is not Earth, the strongest rule here.”

  “Because you are the strongest you can make the rules?”

  “No, because I own this place I can make the rules,” Rugrat raised his hand and a pillar of stone shot out of the ground getting gasps from everyone before he lowered his hand and the floor went flat again.

  “I am a Dungoen lord and this is mine and Erik’s Dungeon, we control it completely. Same with all of our subsidiaries. We are a company the size of a small nation. Thankfully our focus is on helping people and making sure that the people under our command are treated in the best possible way.”

  “How can we be sure of that?” the teacher snapped.

  “Look, there’s the door, you can leave if you want. You can’t reveal anything about Alva but you can do whatever you want. This is the way things are, accept it.”

  “Rugrat, what about the council? Are they elected?” Kanoa asked.

  “In a way. The council are the managers of everything. They are the leaders in their own fields of study. They have their position for four years, other than the leader of the military, they can be elected and changed in different circumstances. At the end of the four years, then those who have the greatest ability within the department have to appeal to their fellows, those with the most votes will get the position. Each council member fights for their department and works with the other council members to advance Alva as a whole.” Rugrat rattled off.