Sixth Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  People moved to the side, their eyes shaking as they seemed to lose control over their mana system.

  Rugrat's easy going attitude was gone. He was a man at war.

  ***

  If one was to look at Erik's body, they would feel pain deep into their bones. His body was like broken charcoal; mercury, like blood, flowed from his body as it cracked.

  He hissed in pain as his thin body showed hundreds of wounds.

  There were several metal strips on his body, needles that he had inserted to make sure that his cultivation would only increase and not find a setback.

  Erik grunted powerfully as he pushed against the ground, veins stuck out of his arms and his forehead, breaking his skin and covering him in blood. He didn't blink as he stared ahead, waging an internal battle.

  His body was trembling. Giving up would be so sweet. But, surrendering is a poison of the mind and would eventually tear him apart.

  Erik stared at his elbow.

  Come on you mother fucker, all the way!

  He started ahead again, finding strength somewhere as he reached the top. He held it, his blood was pouring from him, staining the ground as he dug in again.

  Erik fucking West doesn't give up! One more come on you have it in you!

  He lowered himself, not seeing the testers watching him, that were barely holding themselves from rushing forward. The drawn dark faces of Roska and her half-team.

  Anyone that had seen some shit, or pushed their bodies to the limit would understand the deep respect in their eyes seeing another pushing himself past his absolute limits to reach a new high.

  Erik dipped down, flexing his back and stomach harder, trying to push his chest forward as he found everything wanted to sag and collapse.

  "One more," He said to himself, he struggled upwards, he seemed to reach his limit, holding and then pushing again. Inch by inch he got himself up again.

  Erik let out a hiss as he reached his last pushup. He climbed his knee forward, leaning backwards as he rested on his knees, fighting for air.

  His entire upper body was shaking as he drew in powerful breaths. The wounds on his body were slowly starting to heal, but there were so many wounds on his body now.

  His sound transmission device went off, Erik raised the wristlet and tapped a command.

  "I'll be there right away," Erik grunted and pushed himself to his feet. He used a clean spell, removing the blood as he took out another needle, he put it on his side and secured it. He put another on the opposite side. With a yell he hit the backs of the needles, driving them into his sides. Black and silver shot out from where the needle pierced his body he quickly pulled on a shirt before it got covered in blood and walked out of the room.

  "Command center," He said, looking at Roska.

  ***

  Glosil was shocked when Erik and Rugrat entered the command center. It was one of the few times they had only partially suppressed their cultivations.

  It has been nearly two years, or is it closer to three years since I have seen them in a battle. Out of all of our forces they train harder than anyone and they are always out fighting. With how relaxed they can be with handling things within the different areas of Alva. I forget just how powerful they are.

  Glosil was a little straighter as he saluted, his eyes were dark but in the depths they were shining with pride at being their subordinate.

  They moved to a conference room quickly and debriefed the two men.

  Storbon finished his report of everything that had happened in the city and Elan followed up with Wang Xi's view point and everything he had seen.

  "Options?" Erik adjusted his collar to cover his burnt looking neck. There was a bulge under his shirt where he was squeezing an IV bag of what must've been healing concoctions.

  "We move up the schedule, hit them everywhere. Where we can't use the special teams, use the CPD squads from Dragon Regiment. Have the Dragon Regiment in support and call general mobilization," Glosil said.

  "I agree," Elan said.

  "Why?" Rugrat asked.

  "We have a small window to weaken the Willful Institute in as many directions as possible. Once the higher ups start realizing that they are fighting on all different fronts, they can rally people together, they can move more forces and resources around. They can go on the offensive and worse, they can retreat," Glosil said.

  "Why is retreating bad?" Erik asked.

  "If they retreat, they will pool their strength. They lose a city that they would have lost already, but now they have one city with a strengthened core and the resources of two cities instead of one."

  "Do it," Erik looked to Rugrat.

  "We've started it now, we can't back out if we wanted to."

  Chapter: Keeping up appearances

  Mira pinched Chonglu with a frown.

  "Ow!" He said rubbing his arm.

  "You're cultivating too fast, that didn't even hurt you," Mira let out a humph as she turned away.

  "What's wrong?" Chonglu asked as he put his arm around her. She seemed to be trying to get away but she let him get his arm around her in the end.

  "I got back from my task just a few days ago but your mind is elsewhere," Mira said, her pouting face softened as she looked at him.

  "There is just a lot going on," Chonglu sighed.

  "You are the head of the battle arena and being groomed to be the leader of Vuzgal. Neither of those are small tasks. With the competition coming up it will be a big deal."

  Though you don't know half of the things that are happening in the dark. When I think of Alva, I used to think of it as a wide network. I never thought that it reached quite this far or had so much power. Looking at Vuzgal, it is only the tip of the iceberg.

  "Yeah, the upcoming fighting competition has me on edge," Chonglu lied. He couldn't tell her anything about Alva and what was happening in the shadows.

  "I heard from the Vuzgal Fighter's Association Branch Leader, Klaus that there are a few hundred fighters that will be coming over just for the fighting competition and the prizes. More are coming to check out the weapons and wares of the crafters. Really Vuzgal is impressive with how it can draw so many people to it."

  "In the past year Vuzgal has spread out its wings. All of the old land of the city has been recovered, there are new buildings going up everyday. Even with all the new buildings, prices for houses have increased by twenty times. Traders come from across the realm. People with money and without crafts go to the academy to learn. The Blue Lotus hosts an auction that is sure to pull people in from the surrounding cities once every other week and an auction to pull people from across the realm every two month," Chonglu said.

  "Seems that becoming a lord was your vocation," Mira smiled.

  "I became a lord the first time because we needed to settle down. I was not letting us raise our children between fighting."

  "You were always the mature one," Mira said and curled up closer to him.

  Chonglu couldn't help but smile and kiss her.

  "Through it all you haven't mentioned how strong the army has become how many crafters have been raised up by the Vuzgal Academy and decided to stay. Vuzgal's power in the beginning relied on others, now it can stand all by itself. Selling weapons to others, gaining allies and trade partners. Vuzgal is a feature of the Fourth Realm."

  "There is a lot happening."

  "In six months there will be the crafter's competition. The stadium has seven arenas, which are each bigger than your arena. Are you scared?" Mira teased.

  "The Arena is twice the size it was last year and is supposed to double again next year. The arenas for the crafters are only the same size as the original arena. Next year the Battle Arena will be as big as four of the crafter's arenas."

  "Who said that the crafter's arena's will remain the same size?" Mira asked

  Chonglu was at a loss for words.

  "I wonder what will happen at this year's fighting competition! It was so exciting last year."

  Chong
lu bopped her on the head.

  "What was that for?"

  "You are not entering the competition!"

  Mira pulled her neck back and pouted again.

  Chonglu smiled but there were worries in his heart.

  I would be happy if there are no incidents with the fighting competition.

  ***

  The Vuzgal Totem was paused for the night. They said that they were updating their formations and the defenses, not abnormal in the fourth realm. They could block people from coming in and going out so no one could teleport in and see their secrets. A stone wall inside the defenses around the totem shifted and shook, revealing a tunnel underneath. Men and women marched up the tunnels ramp. They marched out of the defenses and circled the Totem.

  Guards on the walls were alert, watching outwards.

  The totem filled with power and the guards disappeared in a flash.

  The next group marched into position and disappeared.

  Domonos watched over them as they disappeared.

  Things are moving faster than we predicted. Once the fighting competition is done, then I'll support Glosil being the commander in the field.

  The glow of the totem faded.

  A few minutes later it ignited again, a group appeared around the totem from the Navy, they marched down the secret tunnel that would take them to the barracks.

  Another group from the navy came afterwards, followed by a group from the air force.

  They'll cover for the missing soldiers in the coming fighters competition and they can start to train up more people for the navy and airforce.

  Seeing those men and women marching away from the totem Domonos felt his heart beating in time with their feet.

  Chapter: Rear Echelon

  Rugrat pressed the pins into place turning the rifle to the side he pulled on the charging handle.

  That takes a little effort to pull on, need to cultivate to Body like Iron stage or have a high enough attribute from leveling up. Though with it, even if you're out of mana crystals then you can fire the rifle at the lowest settings.

  Rugrat pulled a magazine out of his vest looking at the rounds. Mini sabot rounds with mana stone where the propellant and primer would be in a regular round.

  Rugrat was excited but his hands moved with mechanical precision as he slapped the magazine into the rifle. He pulled on the charging handle, cycling a round up and into the chamber, priming the formation powering pin.

  He looked down the sight. It looked like an ACOG sight but it was 100% Alvan made. Two rows of metal blocks rested along the barrel pointing off at angles. A floating heat shroud was between the two rows and under the barrel of the gun.

  Rugrat had put a bi-pod there. Rugrat placed the gun into a mount and tightened down all of the nuts that secured the weapon, making sure that it was lined up with the iron plates that were down at the other end of the range.

  He laid out a cord as he backed up behind the testing blast shields.

  Everyone related to the project and the military was there to see the display.

  "Fire in the hole!" He checked around and then tugged on the string.

  Rugrat felt the mana rushing through the weapon. Two blocks on each rack popped up, formations activating to cool them down rapidly.

  "Shit!" Tan Xue said.

  "Damn," Rugrat followed right afterwards as a screen appeared in his vision.

  ==========

  Skill: Smith

  ==========

  Level: 81 (Expert)

  ==========

  You are an expert on the human body and the arts of repairing it. Healing spells now cost 10% less Mana and Stamina. Patients stamina is used an additional 15% less.

  ==========

  ==========

  , you have been rewarded with one randomly selected item related to this skill.

  ==========

  You have received the tool: Healer’s hands

  +1,000,000 EXP

  ==========

  ==========

  45,948,136/56,900,000 EXP till you reach Level 58

  ==========

  A glaring hole appeared in the iron plates but Rugrat wasn't looking at it.

  I wonder if other groups that are working to create applications in the Ten Realms find that they get some experience for creating their components and then more when they finish it all? I'll ask them later. Thinking about it, didn’t Erik get a lot of experience working with Old Hei on that pill? Damn maybe the ten realms isn’t so bad. Just people aren’t working together so that’s why don’t hear of five people being able to break through into a higher skill level together.

  "Range is safe, get those plates for me will you?" Rugrat yelled to some helpers.

  They ran off to get the plates as Rugrat waited for the others to gather around him.

  He pulled out four items, putting them on the table with the weapon. Each were as long as his arm and as thick as his large thighs.

  "This is the AR Eight, as in Automatic Railgun version eight. Instead of using gunpowder, this uses only formations to accelerate the round out of the weapon. The rounds are fired at a much higher velocity and can impact with greater kinetic energy."

  These words that would have confused them before were now understood.

  "This weapon is prone to overheating, you have to watch out how many rounds you are shooting and how fast, much like when you are firing our modified machine guns."

  He tapped the rail of blocks.

  "These will disperse heat as quickly as possible, but watch out for it. You could deform the firing mechanisms. As for effective range, we haven't tested out just how far we can shoot these. Think that a kilometer of regular troops, say two to three kilometers for sharpshooters and above?"

  Sounds insane compared to people on earth dealing with hundreds of meters. Though with their reaction speed and their control over their bodies it isn't outside the realm of possibilities.

  "Though that is just stupid, our engagements are all within one hundred to two hundred meters thus far. Even based on the information from the higher realms. Forces can effectively engage one another at one hundred meters. With us doubling that effective range, in battles with distance we'll have an advantage. If fighting becomes up close and personal. Dial down the acceleration and increase the rate of fire." He tapped a dial above the trigger and forward from the fire select.

  "This will increase and decrease the velocity of the round, we are working on presets for close range, mid range and long range. This up here is a pressure valve," He tapped a dial at the front of the rifle under the barrel.

  "You crank this to either side and it will open and close the recoil valve. Meaning you get more or less air into the gas piston system that will create more recoil but your rate of fire will increase. All of these items are not formation linked, so we didn't have to waste formations on them and increased the energy directed to shooting. Rate of fire varies as well, we will be modifying as we go to create presets."

  "How does it operate?" Erik asked.

  "Similar to the firearms we have now, the round is fed into the chamber, a formation pin strikes the back. All of the mana stone that is inside the cartridge surges through the gun. A repulsion formation sends it into the barrel and more formations increase the speed of the round."

  Rugrat touched a large round that looked like a regular round but the bullet was a little spike out the top and picked up a round from the weapon that was much smaller.

  "This is the round as it goes into the rifle. This is it in the barrel, these formations on the cover, make it so that it doesn't mess up the barrel. Once it leaves the barrel it turns into this finned dart till it strikes the target. These darts have formations on them to increase their lethality"

  "Production time?" Glosil asked.

  "Each weapon right now is assembled in several parts and then pulled together," Taran said. "It will take a month before we can go into mass production and then we can create ten rifles in a week."
<
br />   "What about the ammunition?" Yui asked.

  "Ammunition is slower to make and more expensive, but we can create five a minute with one assembly line. We're hoping to step up five such assembly lines," Taran answered.

  "Also, this is just the regular service version, the sharpshooter version will have a longer barrel with more heat sinks and it will have four rows, two up and two down. With the higher heat management capabilities, you can shoot rounds with mortal mana stones powering them you can shoot Earth and even Sky level rounds. The machine gun version will have that longer barrel and a modified box magazine storage system. We're looking to combine the storage devices with magazines but it is the early stages. Bipods will be standard with the sharpshooter and machine gun versions."

  The helpers brought over the iron plates. People let out appreciative noise as they saw the glaring holes in the plates that got smaller with each pass through.

  "This should be able to bridge the gap that we saw in the Sixth Realm," Rugrat said.

  "Those orcs would be a lot easier to deal with, had to dump nearly half a magazine into them," Storbon agreed.

  “The rail underneath will allow you to hook up any extras you want; foregrips, bipods, grenade launchers and so on. For the rounds while they will have a base formation. You can of course put your own spells on them to increase their lethality or based on the situation that you are in,” Rugrat looked over the weapon and shrugged.

  “That’s about it, any questions?”

  ***

  “I hate this shit,” Rugrat said looking at Erik. The two of them shared a room still, Rugrat sat back in his chair as Erik was checking his rifle.

  They were both taking a rare break from their cultivating. They had been pushing their bodies so hard that when they had undergone medical examinations the medics didn’t know if they would be able to heal the hidden wounds if they continued. The two men, while determined they werent’ suicidal and they didn’t want a repeat of what had happened to Rugrat. Now if their bodies were to break, the power that would be unleashed would be no small thing.