Sixth Realm

by Michael Chatfield

“Please raise your right hand and repeat after me.”

  Aditya completed the Oath of Alvan Citizenship

  The golden light of the Ten Realms covered him as he lowered his hand.

  “Welcome to Alva, I am sure that you have a lot of questions and want to see more of the dungeon. Evernight can show you around,” Erik said.

  “Thank you,” Aditya bowed to them both.

  “Lords,” Evernight said in closing and pulled Aditya with her out of the headquarters.

  “Okay, we’ll check out the barracks and the academy, then we have to get back for that auction! Don’t worry now you have that medallion you can come down here and train through the teleportation formation. You could even buy a house or apartment down here. Oh, also the council leader Delilah will want to meet with you at sometime. Also Jia Feng, might want to talk to you about the sect while Elise will go over trade. Might be best to add you to the monthly meetings between all of the council leaders,” Evernight was mostly talking to herself as Aditya recovered from everything that had happened. He rubbed his storage ring, inside were the treasures Erik and Rugrat had given him.

  “Come on Aditya, lots to do now!” Evernight said close to his face, it made him jump, waking him from his daze.

  “Hey!”

  “There we go, looks like your brain is turning over again!” Evernight laughed and led Aditya on a whirlwind tour.

  ***

  Aditya, while he had some powerful people over seeing his citizenship oath, he wasn’t the only person that was becoming a citizen of Alva.

  On the other side of Alva there were a group of about fifty people that were joining Alva. From kids to adults everyone completed their oaths. Among them was a man in rough pants, he had shaggy hair and looked like he had just been walking for weeks. There was an easy-going disarming smiel on his face.

  He has changed in the last few years. Got to know the world more, made friends. Elan thought, proud as he saw the rougish looking man finish.

  Elan looked to Yui and Qin. They two of them smiled and Qin was the first one to open the door.

  Wren looked over his eyes glided across the room effortlessly. Until they reached the rest of his family. His movements became stilted and he pushed his hair back out of his face, looking at them all in surprise.

  “What? You said you went to the higherrealms?” He blurted.

  “Well we have. Qin works in the fourth realm didn’t you know?” Yui said laughing.

  “What is with all this hair? Are you trying to lure more girls home?” Qin pouted.

  Elan chuckled as Yui pulled his brother into a headlock.

  “Welcome to Alva little brother, you shaped up well. Need a haircut!”

  “Get off of me you brute! How did you get even stronger?” Wren complained but his eyes were shining seeing them all.

  “Welcome to Alva, there is a lot for you to learn, but if you want to keep on running the trading group I suggest you head over to the meeting in the 3trader’s guild’s bar. They have Lord Aditya going over,” Elan said, as Yui released him.

  “Lord Aditya, you know people are calling him the eking of the beast mountain range?” Wren said.

  “Yes, I hear it all. I was the one that created dyour informaiton network.”

  “Ah, yes dad,” Wren laughed.

  “Come on, you can bug him all you want later.”

  “I JUST GOT OFF OF WORK!” Qin complained.

  “I can’t slack fortoo long, what would the troops say?”

  “Just say that the Director of the Intelligence department stole you for a night. I don’t think that they would mind.”

  “I have a lot to do!” Qin said.

  “I’ll pay for dinner!” Elan sighed.

  “Great!” Qin jumped up clapping her hadnds. It was easy to forget that she was still a teenager.

  “Yeah the troops woulc be scared that you’d start telling me everything they did last weekend,” Yui smiled.

  “Now come on, we own the ebast mountain range, with your contacts and the trading house, it would be perfect to work with Aditya and push into eh rest of the realm. Even take the trading house up a few realms,” Elan said, putting his arm on Wren’s shoulder and dragging him away.

  “Nice hair Wren!” Qin yelled as he disappeared out the front door.

  “Good work on the trading company!” Yui said.

  “Hey!” Wren said as he was whisked off and his siblings quickly departed.

  Chapter: Raising King’s Hill

  Aditya finished greeting the highly influential representatives from various trading houses, kingdoms and empires.

  He walked into his own booth at the highest point in the auction house, looking over the hundreds of people that had come to participate.

  His eyes glanced over the Alvans that he had just met a few adays ago after becoming and Alvan himself.

  There are so many of them in every facet of the Beast Mountain Range.

  Looking at them all he couldn’t help but feel awkward.

  Compared to Alva, isn’t King’s Hill a little lack luster? The farmers and the cooks are stronger than these envoys and their highest ranked guards. Its no wonder that the Zatan confederation were played to death by Alva’s forces. If these men and women knew just how powerful our backer is, they wouldn’t dare to put on airs around the staff of King’s Hill, they would be meek sheep and even the King’s Queens Emperors and Empresses would send their children to the Beast Mountain Sect.

  The items for sale were rarities in the First Realm. There were sets of mid apprentice level armor, even pieces of peak apprentice gear. There were alchemical concoctions to heal and to aid in one’s cultivation. Blueprints to create weapons, armor, and gear—even if they were only partial Blueprints—created a storm of interest.

  These are just the scraps from Alva, to develop out their position in the First Realm. On the surface I am the lord of the Beast Mountain Range, underneath I am a recruiter to pass on the most promising applicants to Alva. No wonder they wanted people that would be fiercely loyal and hard-working. They don’t need people that are a high level, they can train them. Though having loyalty, that is a currency that cannot be bought.

  Aditya remembered talking to Lord Erik and Rugrat, how they had talked to him as if almost a peer, they had treated him with kindness. Aditya rolled his shoulders back and sat straighter, there was a new hardness in his eyes, underneath there was a fiery passion.

  Just how far can I build out Beast Mountain Range under their orders? What tasks might they have for me in the future if I prove myself? Could they train me in fighting, give me an education in crafting? I never had a formal education, if I had a teacher, what would that be like?

  The auction house was an inferno; people silently cursed one another in their hearts and turned bloodshot stares on fresh enemies when someone won a victory in the fierce duel of money.

  The winners were covered in excited smiles, breathing heavily as their eyes dared others to compete with them before their eyes fell on their new property.

  Silver and Gold were their weapons, their tongues, their tactics. Money poured into the coffers of the Alliance, the outpost leaders, many that were part of the King’s Hill administration couldn’t help but smile wildly as their eyes were filled with shining lights.

  I must bring all of the Beast Mountain Range under my control, then we can push to increase our power, with greater deeds I can show my loyalty. Evernight said that I could even own a home in Alva. Think of that!

  Adtiya’s world view and goals had shifted over the past couple of years, going from ruthless outpost leader to a man filled with plots, with ideas and backed with complete loyalty to those that had trusted in him and backed him.

  He touched his storage ring, a smile appearing on his face as he smiled.

  They might be two odd men, but they are good men.

  ***

  Lord Salyn had postponed his departure from King’s Hill in order to get information for King Ikku,
he sent a report on the auction and the growing power of the Beast Mountain Range. It was far from the Shikoshi Kingdom, but it had been able to gather so many elites with an auction their power was sure to grow with time.

  If they remained neutral it would be for the best and then the Empire should join the other groups in competing for the different goods and items that the range sold.

  His eyes moved unconsciously to where the Alva Healing House was located, a ripple spreading through his eyes.

  They must be related to Alva Village to react the way that they did. Though what can I do? Should I try and influence the Empress into attacking? She is prone to her outbursts, but she wouldn’t lead an attack that would get her more troubles instead of benefits.

  Salyn had a dark expression as he and his group headed out of the city, the hunt was back on, they were all well supplied, rested and with new mounts. He would track down the traitors and drag them back to the Empress.

  Chapter: Insight into Body Cultivation

  It had been three weeks since the auction, a month and a half since Erik had returned from the Sixth Realm.

  It might have been a realm to educate people, to grow their power, but that is only on the surface, in the massive dungeons underground, academies wage war against one another, for resources, for places of higher concentrations of mana. At the same time the Dungeon is fighting back, the beasts and creatures in its depths trying to claim the lives of students and the citizens under the academies that are as large as cities and nations.

  Erik walked into the body cultivation ward of the hospital. The rooms were separated out medics were checking the formations outside the different rooms and checking in on the men and women inside.

  Erik checked the information on the different read outs, he was just turning as a medic was coming the other way.

  “Ahh! No my notes!” The lady yelled as her notes went all over the place.

  “Sorry about that,” Erik said, bending over to help clean up.

  “Don’t worry about it, I was rushing around and not looking where I was going. I just came from class and I’m late for my shift. Too many questions.” She didn’t look up as she gathered her notes up and tried to get them in order. Erik passed her the ones he had retrieved.

  “Thank you!” She said with a cheery smile, her eyes creased in half-recognition but she dismissed it with a shake of her head before hurrying off to her next task.

  Erik smiled to himself and kept looking through the ward.

  He found a library that was filled with texts on the human body, theories and information on body cultivation and anything in between. There were a number of medics in the room sitting in chairs or at tables.

  Many of them have finished their primary education and are intern medics, they are following a qualified medic turning theory into practical skills.

  There were medics from the army as well as civilians. They communicated with one another freely, talking about different scenarios.

  Erik found a few new papers, books, and scrolls, a chair and started reading.

  Theories of body cultivation’s effect upon human’s musculature-unravelling the cleansing of one’s muscles stage.

  Bit of a wordy title. Makes me think of those papers that academics would write up.

  Erik opened up the papers and started to go through them.

  “Either someone from Earth wrote this or our medics are much more advanced than Rugrat and I in the medical sciences.” Erik said in excitement, leaning forward as he read the papers.

  “Excuse me,” a woman said.

  “Sorry, just one moment,” Erik held up a hand, he was so enthralled by the paper.

  It was as if explosions were going off in his mind, as the papers took ideas and thoughts that he had before, condensed and clarified them.

  “Huh,” he sat back in the chair.

  “Was it useful?” the woman asked.

  Erik looked over and noticed it was the woman who had dropped her notes.

  “Yes, it was. Sorry about that I just wanted to finish reading it all. Sorry, what is your name?”

  “Melissa Bouchard, from Paris, France,” she said.

  “Ah, you must be with the new group, sorry I didn’t know everyone. I’m Erik, Erik West. Are you working here now?”

  “Good to meet, you, I’ve heard good things. There were a lot of people in the group, yeah, I took up the position of medic. I wanted to learn the practices in the Ten Realms and then I came into contact with the information on body cultivation. Using the facilities, talking to the medics and those that had undergone body modification I’ve been applying my knowledge from Earth to body cultivation. I was the one that wrote the paper you were reading.”

  “Body cultivation is an active process through which one changes their overall cells. With the power of mana then one can change their genetic code, creating mutations known as ‘constitutions’,” Erik recited, turning to face Melissa.

  “Maybe we should talk somewhere that isn’t the reading room?” Melissa looked around at the people in the room who were looking over and then away, not wanting to show disapproval around Lord Erik.

  “Right,” Erik followed her lead out of the room.

  “You were interested in the state of research into body cultivation, I’m your guide. So please,” Melissa waved for him to keep talking as she guided him through the hospital. It had grown outward and upward, turning into more of a campus than a hospital. The real healing went on in the Beast Mountain Range, Vuzgal, and within the Adventurer’s Guild.

  “So, how is research on body cultivation going?” Erik asked.

  “It is one of the tri-alterations. Some call it the tri force. Think of a triangle with body cultivation at one corner, mana cultivation at the other corner. In the middle of the triangle you have mana, and at the peak you have techniques. Your body plus mana equals fighting techniques, your mana cultivation plus mana creates spells. The two types of cultivation combined together with mana added in create much stronger techniques. Now around this triangle are the five elements, wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. This is the system of the Ten Realms. The basis of true power. Everything else relies on ability, or proving you have a higher level or better technique.” She opened a door and they entered a clean office with papers and notes on the desk.

  “Okay, that is a good way to organize it,” Erik said. “Though

  “That is the start of all research, create the genius of it all, the categories and subcategories. There are multiple techniques one can learn that are broken up by the school of crafting or ability that they fall under. That is not what we are talking about though. Mana gathering is broken down into the different stages of cultivation. My fellow researchers into mana gathering cultivation created their own training ground to increase the speed one can increase their overall mana gathering cultivation level. Alvans were blindly increasing their body cultivation, temper their body with the elements, and grow stronger. That sounds pretty simple. They were looking at the result and the gains they get from the Ten Realms, not studying and understanding the process. They had created several training rooms at that point. We simply We are still studying just what happens in someone’s body when they temper their body. So far we have made some major discoveries.”

  Erik was listening to her every word, entrapped.

  “Firstly or First, when one is going through the stage of ‘cleansing of body’. They are opening up their cells for modification. It is like they open new gates in their cells, like how insulin tells cells to absorb glucose. It creates and opens those new gates. It changes your very cells,” Melissa shook her head.

  “It makes sense,” Erik said, thinking of the changes in his body.

  “Tempering your body is about withstanding the elements by the texts from the Ten Realms. Under a microscope we took some ‘activated’ cells from the cleansing body stage and we introduced them to environments with high concentration of different elements. Do you know what it looked like
?”

  “Like what?”

  “It looked like one of those videos where cells multiply hundreds of times in a second. A powerful evolution, a war between the cells was waged. The cells under these terrible conditions, grew and evolved!” Melissa let out a hot breath and shook her head. “What craziness is that! Cells evolving within a single person, not once or twice, but hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of times. There are reports of those that collapsed when they were tempering their bodies, they suffered grave injuries, some were deformed and others died! Now with modern cultivation most people use mild alchemical solutions or perform the tempering with the assistance of a healer to make sure that there are no issues. How is it so simple!”

  “It is rather dangerous and painful,” Erik argued.

  “Painful?” Yes, of course, your body is changing on a genetic level with you in it! You are not merely feeding your cells, you change them on a basic level. You unleashed your cells ability to be altered with poison, you tempered yourself with the elements of Fire and Earth reaching the height of Body like Iron! If someone hit you with a baseball bat as hard as they could it is hard to say how badly that bat would be bent!”

  “When you say it like that.”

  “It sounds crazy? Well, it is! What is happening here in the Ten Realms is incredible things that are simply impossible to do on Earth happen here all the time. Anyway we are getting off topic,” Melissa leaned forward and pointed at Erik. “Those cells that you have tempered with the elements, they are like bacteria that you could find in the arctic or in the permafrost of the poles. The most virulent viruses. They reach a point where they can not only survive in extreme environments, they can use the power of those environments themselves.”

  Lines appeared on Erik’s head as he thought on what she was saying.

  “So tempering of the body is tempering one’s cells. Somehow we don’t turn into puddles of goo if we suffer through it all and we can control the elements around us and go into areas with high concentrations of them.”

  “Right, we surpass the limits of any normal human being easily. Though that is not the end. The second thing I have discovered is potential!”