Sixth Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  “Last man off the ground!” Roska yelled into her sound transmission device.

  The two sparrows moved beside them, ready for anything.

  Ten minutes later they were dropping back down towards the ground.

  Roska dropped first and ran forward, the others did the same, so they wouldn’t land on top of one another.

  Waiting for them there were Two Kestrels.

  They split up into two groups and ran up the ramps that ran down the Kestrel’s tail feathers. The cabin was inclined Roska looked around, checking everyone was loaded. The first Kestrel had landed, detaching the metal box. The box and rope was hauled into the cabin.

  Roska ran up the ramp and smacked the Crew chief on the back. He talked into his own head covering helmet as Roska sat down on the bench along the wall of the wood cabin.

  The crew chief pressed a formation and a tree limb moved to the middle of the ramp. The crew chief looked out of the ramp he was using the new belt fed-machine gun. A modified automatic rifle to accept belts of ammunition and could be split apart easily to clear.

  The pilot was up front manning spell formations as he commanded the kestrel who waved her wings pushing them all into their seats.

  Two secondary gunners were on each door wearing their aerial sharpshooter badges and medical patches.

  Roska looked through the portholes in the wood cabin of grown wood.

  The Kestrel took off and in moments they were above the trees and climbing. The three Kestrels and two Sparrows rose higher. Roska looked out past the crew chief, in the distance she could see the Willful Institute’s city.

  Roska let out a sigh, the tension fading from her body as the city was becoming smaller each second.

  “Alright, how is everyone looking?” Roska asked on her command chat with the rest of her team.

  “All good here boss,” Tully reported as her second-in-command.

  “Okay, everyone check your equipment, we’ll be replacing our mounts and heading to the Grey Peak Sect to stir up trouble and plant traces there.”

  “Looks like we’ll be busy in the future,” Imani laughed.

  “Time to earn our pay.”

  ***

  Blaze watched as the enemy started to weaken and pull back. Finally, they turned and ran, the guild started to give chase.

  “Not today, today we’ve landed the opening blows, if we chase them there is no knowing if we are going into a trap. Quickly gather up our people and head to the rally point!” Blaze yelled.

  They finished off the wounded Institute members and used healing concoctions and spells on their wounded. Unfortunately, three of their people had gone too far and there was nothing that could be done for them.

  The group mounted up and rushed away from the city.

  It wasn’t long until a group of Panthers jumped out onto the road, atop them was Niemm with his Special Team members, including some new faces.

  “How did you do?” Blaze asked as he sped up, the guild members relaxing slightly as they looked nervously at these new companions.

  “Well they’ll be feeling that for some time,” Niemm laughed and tossed over a storage ring to Blaze.

  Blaze caught it and looked inside, it was filled with piles of ingredients and concoctions. Being a city in the Third Realm, they were sure to grow a large number of ingredients and have their own alchemists working to turn them into usable products. The Institute had nearly forty thousand students, all of which needed resources to cultivate with. Now all of those goods and the items that the sect had been holding onto for years or decades were turned over to Blaze.

  “The Council approved the mission, we have enough resources. Use this to help bolster the ranks of the Guild, this was just the opening attack. The campaign is sure to be a long one,” Niemm grinned.

  Blaze nodded. Alva had reached the point where even these resources, while interesting weren’t enough for them to fight over, with their different outposts and the vast amount of high quality resources they were able to acquire everyday they had more materials than they had crafters to process them.

  They’re still working through all of the resources we got from Vuzgal still.

  “So what’s the next move?” Niemm asked.

  “We have their life-lines in our hands, now we squeeze and see what happens.” Blaze took out a sound transmission device. “Send a message to Elan, it is time to begin.”

  ***

  The message traversed the distance back to the city, there was a simple-looking trader who was sitting in a bar talking to the bartender.

  “Ah, ‘scuse me, looks like there is work for me to do!” He slapped down his money on the bar.

  “Come back anytime old Sawai!”

  He waved to the bartender as he pushed through the door, he made sure that there were no eyes on him as he stretched, there were guards rushing past the bar to the walls.

  Old Sawai accessed his sound transmission device and listened to the message.

  His eyes turned solemn and then a smile spread across his face as he headed to the totem in the middle of the city. Three totems later, making sure no one was following him he made it to the grand city of Vuzgal. Through a few bars and being escorted through some unknown tunnel he was brought through a hidden elevator to look over the city.

  The doors opened for him as the old man’s lackadaisical smile was replaced with a serious expression as he marched behind his guide.

  He entered a room where Elan Silaz was sitting. He looked up from his papers at Old Sawai.

  Elan glanced up, and Old Sawai could feel the pressure of Elan's gaze on his body.

  There was no trace of Elan’s level or his cultivation, though there was a power in his eyes of a man that could see through people’s lies and secrets.

  He was the intelligence department’s director and one of the few people who directly answered to the council and to Erik and Rugrat.

  “I hear you have a message from me?” Elan asked.

  “The Adventurer’s association won their fight. The Willful Institute took the bait as we predicted. The Special teams were able to sneak into the city and empty the warehouses and escape unharmed. I was sent a message by Blaze to move forward with the next part of the plan.”

  “Very well,” Elan nodded.

  Sawai bowed and left the room.

  He saw a flash of a sound transmission, not knowing the commotion it would create.

  Chapter: Calm Surface, Raging Depths

  In a tea house in the Fourth Realm, four men were sitting in a corner having a quiet conversation.

  “Did you hear that the Ghost Wolves Sect and the Thunderous Mountain Sect announced a trade agreement the other day?”

  “Weren’t they in an agreement with the Willful Institute?”

  “I heard that the found the Willful Institute were attacking their own caravans to drive up the cost of protection and goods. They broke the contract and have chosen to work together!”

  “That is audacious! To rip off such sects! What kind of tricks are they using against us smaller traders?”

  “You best watch out if you say you are from the Willful Institute these days. The Earth Dragon and Great Mysterious Sect have put their differences aside after it was revealed that the Willful Institute was the real force behind their animosity. Seems that they forced the two groups into a battle to try and suppress them both. They have contacted the Ghost Wolves and Thunderous Mountain Sects offering their protection. If these four sects can unite with their new anger for the Willful Institute, who knows what might happen?”

  “I think that you are right, it might be a good idea to take our families and assets and trade in some calmer waters than these.”

  The four men who were using their mana to talk to one another didn’ t think that there would be a monster with a domain in the same tea house as them, drinking the same simple tea.

  Erik sipped the tea as he looked out over the snow covered city. It looked calm on the surface, people going a
bout their daily lives. But in the back of tea houses, and behind closed doors everyone was talking about the latest developments surrounding the Willful Institute.

  The once powerful leg that they clung to for protection seemed to have now grown daggers pointing out in every direction.

  He looked to his drinking companion.

  “Seems that things are not going so well for the Institute, Mister Niemm.”

  “Not at all, while everything is calm on the surface, the different branches and roots are trembling. We’ve made sure to pay special attention to them all. The Trader’s Guild and the Intelligence department are more effective weapons than me or my team could be,” Niemm shook his head.

  “It is all about finding your enemies, weakness and their enemies tipping points. If they don’t have enemies then you can create them, a betrayal, the right information in the wrong places. Even the wrong information in the right places. Sometimes people just need a reason,” Erik drank his tea again.

  “I somehow feel that it is more brutal than a straight up fight.”

  “It is, but wars and battles, they are waged in the shadows and grey areas well before a true confrontation,” Erik’s eyes were deep, cold and rough. “At least this way the people that are not affiliated with the Institute will distance themselves. We cannot take it all down with our own power, so we borrow the power of others to do so.”

  Niemm looked out over the city he was silent for some time.

  “Should we head back?”

  “Yes, there is a lot to be done still,” Erik stood.

  ***

  The Adventurer’s Guild headquarters located in Vuzgal was a hive of activity, messengers could be seen entering a leaving with grave expressions on their faces.

  In the center of it all was Jasper and Blaze.

  Around them there were mounds of dust as they went through information reports. While the messengers brought in official messages, their assistants would also slip them information that Elan had gathered.

  “So far, other than our little fight, there have been no massive fights between the Adventurer’s Guild and the Willful Institute. The attacks seemed to have materialized out of nowhere and as information is passed the people that were on the fence about attacking or going against the Institute are now baring their fangs as well,” Jasper said.

  “What about our guilds around Elder Mendes’ location?”

  “They are all readied to fight. They are licking their wounds but from reports they are readying their forces to attack us and are talking to the leaders of the cities that we are based in to influence them and isolate us,” Jasper said.

  “While the traders and the intelligence agents are the blades in the dark, the other groups are all preparing to stab the Willful Institute in the back as they are fighting us. While they don’t expect to defeat the Institute, only decrease their power. We have some teams in the field, see if they can’t turn the minor conflict between the two groups into an unstoppable grudge,” Blaze said.

  “Thinking about it doesn’t the Silver Moon Sect have an issue with the sects in the fifth continent of the Third Realm?”

  “Yes, there were rumors that the Willful Institute’s students were stealing from the Silver Moon Sect’s fields, taking their ingredients,” Jasper nodded.

  “We have worked with them in the past, no?”

  “Yes, they are a harvesting sect, only based in the Third Realm. In the relatively peaceful realm, they have been able to become a power, paying off the surrounding groups with their ingredients and raising a number of powerful alchemists that have entered the Alchemist Association,” Jasper said.

  “All crafters have the ability to draw in massive amounts of support. Talk to the traders, see who might in the Third and Fourth Realm be interested in the ingredients of the Silver Moon Sect. In the meantime, why don’t we send a representative over to talk to them. It would not be bad if we can become closer, we are two sides of the same coin. They grow and trade while we protect and take on missions requiring our fighting abilities. If we can introduce them to more people in the higher realms then they have more routes to sell their products. If nothing else then their new found alliances will turn them into a strong wall that the Willful Institute needs to watch out for,” Blaze said.

  “That makes sense, but what if they don’t want to work with us closer?”

  “That is fine, the more people we have to split the Willful Institute’s power and people that are calm and could work with us in the future, the better. We need to plan for what will happen in the power vacuum of the Willful Institute losing their branches. If they collapse, then fighting over their corpse more people could die than actually fighting them,” Blaze said in a bleak voice.

  “Greed knows no bounds,” Jasper agreed.

  Chapter: Fall of a city

  Storbon walked through the fourth realm Willful Instititue controlled city with his team. They were attached with a group of traders, dressed up as their guards.

  “Well those guards weren’t very nice,” Tian Cui said out the side of her mouth.

  “Do you feel that?” Storbon asked.

  “What?” Tian Cui asked.

  “The tension, the fear, the bloodthirstiness?” Yao Meng asked.

  Storbon grunted as they led the traders to a warehouse at the edge of the city.

  The traders pulled their mounts and carriages into the warehouse and started to unload.

  “Cover us,” Storbon said, the others nodded as Storbon and Yuli headed deeper into the warehouse.

  They reached a large wooden crate. Storbon circulated his mana and braced the crate, he grunted as his muscles contracted and his veins expanded. He dug his feet into the ground and the crates shifted. He powered through as a doorway was revealed underneath.

  He stopped as the door was cleared.

  Yuli opened the door and cast a spell on her eyes as she pulled out a silenced rifle and headed down the stairs underneath, her head was covered by her helmet.

  Storbon dismissed his cloak, pulled on his helmet and grabbed his rifle in practiced moves.

  He followed Yuli down, a night vision spell allowed him to see through the darkness easily. Yuli reached another door, she slid it to the side and Storbon pushed inside. He swept the right, spotting the podium in the middle, and the blank stone walls Yuli pushed in and swept the left side.

  “Clear!” Storbon called.

  “Clear!” Yuli replied.

  They relaxed as Storbon lowered his rifle.

  “Looks like the cover remains intact,” he pulled a dungeon core from his storage ring.

  “Yeah. Though would you think that we would be using dungeon cores to sabotage a sect’s city from the inside? Niemm’s one devious bastard.”

  Storbon placed the dungeon core on the carved podium., The lines along the podium lit up with power as mana was drawn in toward the dungeon core and transmitted to the podium.

  ==========

  You have come into contact with a dungeon core. With your title: Dungeon Hunter, new options are revealed.

  ==========

  Do you wish to:

  Take command of the Dungeon

  Remodel Dungeon

  Destroy the Dungeon

  ==========

  “Take command, show me a map of the dungeon and surrounding area,” Storbon said.

  The screen disappeared and a map appeared above the dungeon cover. There was a faint image of what was above the dungeon, it became fainter and fuzzier the further up one went.

  “Okay looks like we’re ready here. Once we destroy the dungeon, we will leave no traces of the dungeon and the pillars supporting the main wall will collapse and it will fall apart,” Storbon checked his time piece.

  “They should be ready out there, right?” Yuli said.

  “I’m surprised that the other sects have been able to keep it to themselves.”

  “Don’t trust them to keep a secret?”

  “I don’t trust them to piss
in the right direction. Of course I don’t trust them to keep a secret.”

  Yuli snorted as she pulled up her helmet.

  “Check with the aerial forces,. Let's make sure that they’re ready to extract us,” Storbon said.

  “Yes boss,” Yuli pulled out her sound transmission device as Storbon used his own.

  “Yao Meng, tell our ‘traders’ to be ready to move, they can mingle, in four hours I want them back here. If they’re late, I’m not staying around.”

  “Got it boss.”

  The hours slipped by as the traders went off to different taverns and acted as they would normally. They secured their mounts and took down their carriages, placing supplies in the warehouse to sell later.

  The Special Team spread out over the warehouse. Monitoring the alarm formations, they pulled their cloaks over their armor and weapons as they sat around.

  Storbon and Yao Meng were playing dominos and spitting out seeds as they watched the area.

  “You’re going to lose,” Yao Meng said as he organized his pieces.

  “So you say,” Storbon checked the crate they were playing on as Yao Meng looked over his shoulder and around the area.

  Storbon put down a domino and then looked around.

  “What do you think about that,” Storbon chuckled as he saw Yao Meng’s sour expression out the corner of his eye.

  “I think that you have too many damn blanks,” Yao Meng grumbled as he picked up a piece from the pile.

  Storbon put down another with a grin. “What do you think of the additions?”

  “Jurumba, Foster, Sang So-Hyon, Rakovic and Jamie?" Yao Meng put down a domino his expression turning serious.

  "They're well-trained, better trained than we were when we became Special Team members. Stronger, too. While they were waiting for us, they've been exploiting all the potential in their bodies. High levels, mana and body cultivation, meeting our own. Though that is just training. They've been on combat operations before and they have fought in the Ten Realms in their own ways but only a few as soldiers under Alva. Jamie is quiet but focused, switched on. Rajkovic has a damn scowl on his face all the time, he'll get shit done. Only time he smiles is when he is doing something insane or he's in a fight. He'd charge into anything with that damn stupid grin. Not too much pre-planning, man of action. Sang So-Hyon has a chip on her shoulder, something must have happened there, sealed her lips tight, when she is fighting it's like she's getting something out of her system," Yao Meng looked to Storbon in question as he put down a domino.