Rugrat gave George the Loch Ness like creature’s Mortal-grade monster core. The core broke easily in George’s teeth. They concluded it must be a beast thing as neither of them could bite the monster cores and only Rugrat’s Mana blade could cut them. Or they could be consumed in crafting.
As George was eating, Erik sat down and looked through his notifications.
==========
Skill: Hand-to-Hand
==========
Level: 59 (Journeyman)
==========
Attacks cost 20% less Stamina. Agility is increased by 10%.
==========
“Only one level increase—it’s a lot harder to increase at the higher levels,” Erik said to himself. He felt like he was much stronger with hand to hand than he had ever been on Earth, but the techniques on Earth were only half developed compared to the fighting styles in the ten realms. I’ll need to find a teacher or someone to help me. Erik thought before looking at the next notification.
==========
You have reached Level 37
==========
When you sleep next, you will be able to increase your attributes by: 20 points.
==========
==========
543,188/1,660,000 EXP till you reach Level 38
==========
Erik looked at his timepiece. They had arrived on Friday night but it was already closing in on Monday morning.
Once George was done with his meal, they broke their medallion and appeared in the prize hall.
=========
Erik West
Dungeon Points: 83,379
=========
Erik scrolled through the different items that he could buy from the prize hall. He had enough to get just one mid-level Expert item or he could get sixteen high-class Journeyman items.
“I could get high-Journeyman-level armor and then maybe a mid-Expert-ranked piece of gear,” Erik muttered to himself. “Or I could get maybe three pieces of low-Expert grade armor and some other items. Are there any armor sets?”
Erik looked through the information. His Ass Kicker set was mid-Journeyman level. He had relied on Rugrat to make his armor up to this point but Rugrat was dealing with multiple different projects: the formation sockets, his own armor and weapons, the rifles, as well as learning formations.
If he could get armor and save Rugrat from having to work on it, then it would be for the best.
Erik looked through the armor and then stopped.
Rugrat might not be able to but Taran and Tan Xue are also Journeyman-level smiths and looking to reach the Expert level. If I just replaced the plates in my carrier, that would be fine.
Instead of making traditional armor, Alva’s army used plate carriers and vests like those used in the modern militaries back on Earth. If the armor was broken, instead of needing a whole new set, one could take out the plate and replace it easily.
With this in mind, Erik went to the Expert-level smithing materials. Realizing that he had little idea what to look for, Erik sent Rugrat a message.
“I might not be able to turn those materials into a weapon but I can turn them into an armor plate,” Rugrat responded a few moments later. “Why not get something for hand-to-hand or Alchemy or cultivation?”
“There is no guarantee that whatever I get will increase my Strength right away. I want to check the tempering of my body before I get some unknown pill. I’ve already got some fighting techniques, getting more will only complicate things. Having armor to help me against powerful enemies—it’s one of the easiest things to get to improve my overall combat strength.”
“That makes sense. All right, send the points on over and I’ll see what I can get.”
Erik cut the channel and looked up into the air. “I, Erik West, swear on the Ten Realms to give Jimmy Rodriguez seventy-five thousand of my points to be used in the dungeon prize hall.”
A golden glow fell over Erik and the numbers on the notification plate changed.
=========
Erik West
Dungeon Points: 8,379
=========
Erik opened up the Alchemy and healing tabs, looking at the books that were there to see whether they had any books that could further his learning or could answer Alchemy questions he had been asked since he returned to Alva. Compared to the armor it was a secondary concern. The armor would increase his Strength in the shortest time possible and increase his survivability.
***
Tan Xue finally woke up. She didn’t know how long she had slept for or how long she had worked for. She moved to get up, feeling more energetic than she had in days, weeks—or maybe it was months?
As she moved, she found that she was grasping something. She focused on it instinctively. It felt as if it were perfectly balanced for her.
Her mind went back to the lost time, to what she had been working on—the Expert-level weapon she wanted to create. Then the idea had emerged. She knew weapons and farming equipment down to her bones but her smithing hammer was the other part of her soul.
With this delirious thought, she had set to smithing a new hammer. A hammer that would act as her tool to change all that stood in front of her. It was covered in runes and lines, with a formation socket on both sides.
It had brown veins running through it and as she reached out toward it, her Mana embraced the hammer, the two merging like a hand and glove. The hammer shone with power and faint smoke started to rise from it.
She didn’t need to look at her notifications.
“This is an Expert-level item,” she said with approval, feeling the strength of the hammer. Not only was its strength incredible but that strength enhanced her own abilities.
“Formed of enhanced Earth-grade iron, with innate attributes to increase Mana flow from me to the item I am smithing and an Earth attribute to increase and decrease the weight of the hammer as needed. The hammer is linked to my soul, bound to me with the possibility of two enchantments.”
She turned it in her hands, studying it, confused and excited by it. She had made it but believing that she had made it this far was hard.
She stood with a smile. “First, to get some formations and then I’ll need to find something worthy to smith!” Her hammer glowed, seemingly agreeing with her and eager to land its first blow.
She smacked its side and let out a hearty laugh, her excitement bubbling forth as she checked her skill sheet.
Expert level smith, I finally made it.
Chapter: March on the Fourth
All of the specialization courses had been completed. If they had been rough ore before, their training outside Alva refined them into finely worked metal. With their specializations, they had been forged.
Training was tested in the battlefield dungeon, with the sections using what they had learned to overcome their opponents.
It was eye opening as they could directly see the changes in their combat strength when they had only increased a few levels but their tactics and methods had changed completely.
Tan Xue had broken through into the realm of Expert smith. Instead of taking a break, she gathered the materials given to her and created new armor plates to be inserted into the soldiers’ carriers.
The soldiers, in turn, pooled their point earnings together and bought rare metals that Tan Xue indicated from the prize hall that would be best for her work.
With the armor’s simple interlocking plates design, she worked with the Journeyman smiths to enhance the Expert-level metals and added alloys to the Earth-grade metal.They stretched out the new metal as best as they could. They only had enough materials to create the breastplates. Their helmets, arms, backplates, and leg armor remained of the Journeyman grade.
The army, standing row upon row with their armor just visible under their cloaks, had a solemn air. No one dared to move or make a sound as they looked out at these assembled soldiers.
Beside each of them was a powerful black panther wearing its own armor. They had trained
in it so much that they had become comfortable in its use. Each of them was level thirty-one or higher.
The lowest ranked soldier was thirty-one, while the strongest was Glosil at thirty-six. When they had started there had been people in the fifteen or level sixteen.
Erik remained at level thirty-seven, while Rugrat was level thirty-nine with George beating them all at level forty-six.
Erik’s own mount was a black panther with purple eyes. Her name was Lola. She was level forty-one and the pack leader. Many alphas had tried to rise up, only to be thrown down by her. She had awakened her bloodline, a rare and lucky achievement.
Winter had ended and spring was coming, the fresh air entering Alva.
“We will meet again in the Second Realm and then move on to the Fourth Realm. Remember your training and follow your superiors’ orders. Alva will no longer passively defend but instead will begin to make its own quiet mark on the Ten Realms.” Erik looked out at those men and women, seeing the same emotions he had felt when walking up to a plane that would lead him to a warzone in a foreign land.
He had those same feelings now: the trepidation, the smiles and jokes to cover the crippling fear inside. The cold sweats and sleepless nights of waiting when he just wanted to get there and start.
He knew that once he got there, that his reality would change. He would still love be the same person but there would be a wall between him and what happened back home. The craving to spend time with his brothers and sisters. The complaints they had, and the way that everyone could be relaxed but change in a moment, reacting to any potential threat.
The way grabbing a rifle and your armor to run to the watchtower was just what you did—the lack of conscious thought, the need to just react, to just do.
They had a duty and they would carry it out even if it lead to their death.
Erik held their eyes.
“Let’s go,” he said, just as if they were going out for any other training exercise. Erik stepped forward and Rugrat followed him.
The soldiers moved into action. The sergeants grabbed their people as the special teams talked to one another. The gates opened and the families outside of the barracks saw them exiting.
They cried and hugged the soldiers as they flowed past, many heading to the teleportation pad, others heading out of the Alva Dungeon entrance.
Erik and Rugrat mounted up and rode out of the entrance.
They looked at each other and then looked away silently. They were riding to war again. They both knew what would come.
To avoid making a commotion, the soldiers dispersed to different cities through the teleportation pad, moving in groups of no more than four. Over the last couple of months, Erik and Rugrat had been taking people to the city Kaeju in the Second Realm so that they all had the location logged.
As they rode, Erik took time to look at his character sheet and his new gear, just to take his mind off where they were going and what would happen.
“Still no increase in Alchemy,” Erik sighed to himself. He had spent time lecturing for the alchemists of Alva while the Alchemy Lab was being raised up to tier three.
He had worked with the Iron Castle but didn’t make anything of a high enough level to increase his skill level.
He had gone and seen Old Hei, to ask questions on the Fourth Realm and to ask about Alchemy.
“Don’t chase the skill level—chase the knowledge,” Old Hei had said, like an old sage.
Although his words sounded strange, they made something click for Erik. He took his time to examine his weaknesses in Alchemy and thought about how to fix them, not much else to do on a march.
He wouldn’t see immediate results and it wouldn’t increase his skill level directly but it would make him a better alchemist and that would eventually lead to further advancement.
Erik had integrated his latest twenty attribute points into his character sheet already. When fighting he hadn’t needed to rely on his strength, agility and mana was more useful, agility to move and react faster,. Bringing his weapon onto target and the mana to heal people.
So he split it, ten points into mana pool to make up for his weakest stat, five into mana regeneration and five into agility.
==========
Name: Erik West
==========
Level: 37
==========
Race: Human
==========
Titles:
From the Grave II
Mana Emperor
Dungeon Master II
Reverse Alchemist
Poison Body
Fire Body
==========
Strength: (Base 36) +41
==========
770
==========
Agility: (Base 29) +48
==========
423
==========
Stamina: (Base 39) +9
==========
720
==========
Mana: (Base 8) +46
==========
540
==========
Mana Regeneration (Base 10) +45
28.50/s
==========
Stamina Regeneration: (Base 41) +33
15.80/s
==========
==========
1,031,924/1,660,000 EXP till you reach Level 38
==========
Erik’s eyes moved to his armor.
==========
Commander Boots
==========
Defense:
180
Weight:
3.7 kg
Charge:
1,000/1,000
Durability:
100/100
Slot:
Takes up foot slot
Innate Effect:
Stamina cost is reduced by 6%
Socket One:
Flow of the Healer—heal 8-15% faster
This is a set item. When two or more set items are combined, the abilities of the set items will increase.
Requirements:
Agility 34
Strength 23
==========
==========
Commander greaves
==========
Defense:
207
Weight:
9.7 kg
Charge:
1,000/1,000
Durability:
100/100
Slot:
Takes up leg slot
Innate Effect:
Defense increased by 9%
Socket One:
Flowing Water—Increase speed by 12%
This is a set item. When two or more set items are combined, the abilities of the set items will increase.
Requirements:
Agility 41
Strength 35
==========
==========
Commander carrier
==========
Defense:
279
Weight:
35.3 kg
Charge:
4,082/10,000
Durability:
100/100
Slot: Takes up chest slot
Innate Effect:
Strength of the user increases by 8%
Mana can be stored within carrier, increasing Mana pool by 10,000
Socket One:
Stone Wall—Defense increases by 15%
Socket Two:
Overclock—Increase users stats by 150% for 5 minutes. Can be used (2) times.
This is a set item. When two or more set items are combined, the abilities of the set items will increase.
Requirements:
Mana Regeneration 15
Agility 23
Strength 35
==========
The commander carrier was made from Expert-level materials, with Erik commissioning custom formations and Tan Xue able to pull two innate effects from the metal for Erik. He had only got the upgraded breastplate; the rear was still of the
Journeyman level, so it could only be called a half-step Expert-level piece of equipment. Instead of increasing the effects of the armor, the innate abilities increased Erik’s stats and Strength. This was what made an Expert-level piece of gear so powerful.
His overclocking socket took two thousand Mana to activate but it was a massive increase and a last resort. Tan Xue, Taran, and Qin had added in the innate effect of storing Mana in the breastplate. Even now, as he drew in Mana from the surrounding area, he was pushing it into the armor, which lined up with his upper body’s Mana gates, increasing its charge without needing to use Mana stones.
It allowed him to use overclock, power his increased defense, and draw upon extra Mana when he needed it in a fight. If he wanted to, he could also use his armor to power others’ armor. Erik kept checking his gear.
==========
Commander Helmet
==========
Defense:
212
Weight:
3.7 kg
Charge:
1,000/1,000
Durability:
100/100
Slot:
Takes up helmet slot
Innate Effect:
Increase defense by 5%
Socket One:
Stone Wall—Defense increases by 15%
Requirements:
Agility 14
Strength 21
==========
==========
You have equipped the Commander set.
For having 4 pieces:
Your defense increases by a further 10%
Stamina consumption reduces by 6%
Natural healing is 4% faster
==========
Gloves and eyewear weren’t part of the set. Erik examined the gloves that Rugrat had made when making his breakthrough about formation sockets.
==========
Tropic Thunder
==========
Defense:
157
Weight:
1.8 kg
Charge:
0/0
Durability:
100/100
Slot:
Takes up glove slot
The Fourth Realm (The Ten Realms Book 4) Page 12