The Fourth Realm (The Ten Realms Book 4)
Page 27
“I’ve got you so far,” Rugrat said, still focusing more on the rifle more than Erik.
“Well, sometimes the dungeons can have trials in them right? Like the beast mountain trial. Most of the time, the trials are just killing things but what if we could get the dungeon to make a trial for crafting things? In a way, crafting things is refining the base materials into something more. It is also a way to increase the power of people. When we’re crafting, we’re spending mana all over the place. There is no such thing as a spell that uses all of it’s power. That wasted attribute Mana power can be consumed by the dungeon core.”
“So, you’re basically banking on the Ten Realms wanting to make people stronger with the dungeons?” Rugrat asked, using a length of wood to push small rag he was using through the barrel of his rifle.
“Yeah and then adding in one of those dungeon point reward systems so that if we clear out the battlefield dungeon in Alva, then we still have a way to use those points,” Erik said.
“Worth a shot to try your idea. Be a win win for both sides. The dungeon gets to clear the impure Mana in the area, it creates a trial for people that the Ten Realms seem to love, it increases people’s skills and power like other dungeons and then maybe it gives some rewards at the same time. Seems like standard dungeon procedure from the Ten Realms to me. It should work. People might freak out about it though, non violent dungeon rewards and all,” Rugrat said.
“Yeah, it might make waves.”
“The dungeon core in the valley is pretty powerful so it will be faster to set up. Could maybe even have Expert level testing facilities. It’s just a tester dungeon, if it works here, then we can get it to work in Alva as well as other places.”
“Break the damn system—alright.” Rugrat shrugged. “I’m going to make grenade launchers.”
“Redneck.”
Later that day as Erik was going to sleep he was greeted with a new screen.
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You have 5 attribute points to use.
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One into agility, two into mana pool and two into stamina. Agility and Mana pool so my hands are more dexterous when crafting and then the larger mana pool to increase my cultivation and work for longer. Stamina to work longer as well. Time to focus on building instead of fighting.
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Name: Erik West
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Level: 53
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Race: Human
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Titles:
From the Grave II
Mana Emperor
Dungeon Master III
Reverse Alchemist
Poison Body
Fire Body
City Lord
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Strength: (Base 36) +41
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770
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Agility: (Base 29) +68
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533
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Stamina: (Base 39) +21
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900
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Mana: (Base 8) +71
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790
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Mana Regeneration (Base 10) +55
33.50/s
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Stamina Regeneration: (Base 41) +56
20.40/s
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***
The next day, the special teams joined the searchers in the capital. They had been fighting for nearly a week straight and a break would do them some good. There were two army sections heading into the dungeon to increase their levels
Rugrat looked over administrative efforts while Erik headed back to the dungeon. Gilly and George had hunted all night and day. The hunt had gone well and their Strength had increased as a result. Gilly showed gains already by increasing in size. Up to this point, she had been largely sustained by the Mana of the dungeon instead of meat and monster cores. By eating these, her Strength was developing even faster. She might be a beast of Earth and Water but she had dragon’s blood in her.
Erik entered directly through the fifth floor’s exit. He created a chair from the roots on the floor with a thought and looked at the dungeon core that floated between the tree roots that were bent down towards it in reverence.
“I think that it might be bigger than the dungeon core in Alva at this point.” Erik observed as he looked at the soccer-ball sized dungeon core. “No time like the present.” Erik reached out and touched the dungeon core.
“I, Dungeon Master Erik West, wish to create a dungeon agreement with the Ten Realms. To create a trial to be administered by the dungeon. Crafters will be allowed to access areas based upon their ability, turning materials and ingredients in the Ten Realms into finished products.”
A golden light came down and surrounded the dungeon core.
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Blueprint required
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Erik took out the rough plan he had had one of the blueprint soldiers whip up. They had basically stitched together the plans of different crafting workshops from Alva and then stacked them on top of one another to make Apprentice, Journeyman and Expert level floors of all kinds of crafts. The trial construction would take a truly monumental amount of resources to build but thankfully they had a cities worth of items to use.
At the entrance of the trial there was a prize hall where one could use their earned dungeon points at. When someone was done with their trial, they would be returned there.
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Blueprint accepted
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Terms?
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A shiver ran down Erik’s spine. He didn’t know what he was talking to, really—what the Ten Realms actually was. But he knew that the changes in his body were due to the Ten Realms. Now he was talking to it directly.
He didn’t know whether it was like a computer program, or whether it was sentient. He didn’t really think that this was the time to figure it out.
The golden glow stayed around the dungeon core, waiting for his response.
Well, it didn’t reject me right away.
“Power to the Alva Dungeon,” Erik said.
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Unable to comply. Dungeon located across realms.
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“Prize hall points for every person that completes the trial.”
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Plan understood, Blueprint added, terms agreed.
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The golden glow around the dungeon core disappeared.
He thought that this might happen. Egbert had told him that the dungeon master had to propose the dungeon to the Ten Realms, then actually make it. After that, the Ten Realms might accept the dungeon and take control of it.
Erik accessed the dungeon core and used the dungeon map to place the new floor and added in emergency access tunnels that would be hidden in the valley and the surrounding mountain ranges. The strength of the dungeon core was such that the entire valley was under its domain.
The plans disappeared and the power that had been leaking out from the dungeon core was focused instead on the changes.
Earth started to move and firm up. Roots extended through the structure, weaving through the earth to create strong walls as the crafter’s trial was built beside the original Halls of Bala dungeon. Underneath it all, a new sixth floor was being created.
The sixth floor was laid out similar to Alva Dungeon, with the dungeon headquarters in the middle housing the dungeon core. Around it, there would be buildings made of roots and wood. Erik felt a little more relaxed. Now if something happened, they would have another place that they could move to and hide in.
It was being built but it would take time before it was completed.
“Going to need resources, I can get the monsters in the dungeon to help out, might need to transfer a few undead over to help with the building.” Erik said to himsel
f.
Erik input the crafting trial dungeon project to the dungeon core. The blueprint turned into a wire diagram in his eyes.
He altered the stairs from the tree above and made a new path, one that entered the original dungeon filled with five floors of beasts to be killed and armor to be claimed.
Erik queued up the building process, so that the trial rooms would go after the sixth floor with the dungeon core. The expansions would take time and it would take a lot of resource contributions to finish but if it worked here, then they could destroy it and recreate it in Alva.
They could also use it as a way to recruit new talents as they watched what was happening in the dungeon, finding candidate fighters and crafters who were good matches for Alva.
It would also create changes in the dungeon itself. Instead of being just an Earth and Water attribute dungeon, it would turn into a dungeon with all of the Affinities. Thus allowing it to draw in and cleanse more impure Mana—improving its function in the Ten Realms and also serving to help Erik and Alva.
Chapter: Changing Future
Erik woke up and pushed his sleeping bag to one side. He turned, sat on his cot and rubbed his face. A lot of things had happened yesterday. They’d taken over the Halls of Bala dungeon; he had come to an agreement with the Ten Realms and there was no knowing whether that would work out.
They’d freed the sentient creatures on the fifth level that had never seen the sun or known anything other than their one tiny floor in the dungeon. Beyond the the demi-humans powerful levels, they were like children and also wise elders at the same time. Erik couldn’t even begin to think of how old they were, or how they had lived in the dungeon.
After working on the dungeons new plans and setting it to work, Erik had toured the dungeon some more.
The rooms had been turned into houses for Fred and the others, each fitting them perfectly, complete with beds and chairs. They also had treasures and items that they played with; ingredients that grew from the walls of the dungeon, nurtured by the pure mana of the dungeon were nothing but food ingredients to them. There was a Mortal-grade cornerstone that created a massive mine of mana stones. The demi-humans ate the Mortal stones to increase their level but they also carved designs into them, creating glasses, sculptures, games or furniture.
To anyone else, such acts would be extravagant and wasteful with all of the Mortal stone chippings; to them it was normal.
Erik checked his Experience bar.
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18,657,376/30,600,000EXP till you reach Level 54
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He was 54 but he didn’t feel all that secure in that knowledge, knowing that there were people from the fifth and sixth realm who were just soldiers here.
He really wanted to rope the demi-humans in to help out Alva but at the same time, he vowed to not push it. They might be old souls but everything was new to them. He hoped that they weren’t discriminated against by humans but he knew it was a faint hope that was bound to be crushed.
He let out a tired sigh. He had seen people from across Earth and across the first four realms. He lived in a dungeon once built by the genius gnomes but destroyed by a human’s greed.He’d seen the best and worst of people: those willing to give their lives to save their friends and those rushing into battle for the sheer chaos and destruction of it.
All I can do is be who I am and hope it’s enough to help a few people.
That belief was why he wouldn’t push a job onto the demi-humans but let them make their own decisions. They might have hard lessons ahead but they were not his choices to make.
He got up and headed to the showers. “Hot showers in the field—come a long way.” Erik laughed to himself, trying to clear his mind of worries.
***
A broken man’s head lolled forward. He was strapped to a chair, unable to do anything. Blood and spittle covered his face. His teeth were broken and there were cuts across his body. He couldn’t open his eyes anymore.
The man who had punched him stepped back and bowed to a woman working at a desk, calmly checking over reports and passing them back to another officer, who didn’t even blink at the casual torture happening off to the side.
The woman, even when working on reports, wore her armor and her sword was close by.
They were in a tent that was large enough to be a normal person’s home.
“So, he came from the west,” she said with a snort. “Is it so hard to tell us the condition within Tareng? You have the token of someone from the neutral cities.”
The man talked through cracked teeth and lips.
She shot a look at the interrogator, who flushed in embarrassment and stepped toward the man, listening to his words.
“He said that he came from Aberdeen, fled through the woods to the west. When he got to Tareng, they wouldn’t allow him in, General Ulalas.”
Ulalas put down her report. “How did he make it through the west?”
The interrogator listened to the man in the chair.
“They were moving with a mercenary group. They went past some place, a city filled with undead. The mercenaries bought them time. They lost two thirds of their people escaping.”
Ulalas smiled and picked up her report. “Take him out of my sight.” She looked at one of the interrogators behind the man. She nodded to him; he pulled out a blade and stabbed it through the back of the chair into the man’s heart. He let out a hiss of pain before slumping forward as the poison from the blade entered his bloodstream.
They picked up the chair and carried the dead caravan leader out of the tent and past carriages that were being searched. They tossed him into a pit of other bodies, a mage expressionlessly using flames to destroy those in the pit.
Back in the tent, Ulalas finished her report.
“He might have come from the west—put some scouts out in that direction. We can’t let the people of Tareng get away. It will take another two weeks before the madness overtakes them. We can’t let anything go wrong,” General Ulalas said.
“Understood, General.” The officer standing next to her moved out of the tent to send out her orders.
***
The Alvan army’s leadership was gathered around the briefing table for an early morning meeting. All of them had breakfast in front of them as Erik took a sip of coffee.
“Starting today, Special Team One and Two will clear the dungeon completely. I want to have a gauge of just how difficult it is. We will have one section from the army entering the dungeon in the morning and clearing the first two floors, then a second section heading in the afternoon. One half-section will be compiling all of the items recovered from the city for half a day, alternating with the other half section to get some free time. We will have two sections on standby at all times, ready to react if we come under attack. The remainder will continue to recover items from the capital.
“Once the special teams have assessed the dungeon, they will alternate clearing the dungeon and assisting in recovering items from the harder traps we’ve found in the capital.
“How are we looking inside the capital?” Erik looked to Glosil, who stood, while Erik took his seat.
“We have cleared most of the unstable buildings and are in the process of clearing the land, having the undead turning the stone into bricks and organized in open areas. The castle’s outer wall has been repaired and our area of the castle has been repaired while the undead are focusing on the inner wall. We have piled up most of the storage items and valuables that were easy to gather. I’ll direct you to the trap map,” Glosil pointed to a map with different markers on it, from blue, green to yellow and red.
“Blue, lock pick or can probably bust it open with some tools. Green, formation detected, yellow, powerful formation. Red, looks pretty damn bad, I have picked out teams for the red and yellow locations, the others we’ll sweep through.
“We have most of the valuables out of the houses, most of them are piled up on the street and need to be organized. The un
dead are working on collecting and dropping them off at the castle district to be sorted. We’ve found more carts and have prepared them near the totem. The sorted items are organized into storage rings and added to the carts, so if we need to bug out we can have our mounts hook into the carts and take most of our loot with us.”
With that Glosil sat back down.
Rugrat raised his hand and everyone looked over.
“I will be working on making weapon systems, one called a mortar that will shoot explosive projectiles over very large distances and a grenade launcher that shoots an explosive over pretty far distances. Rifles are good with dealing with one or two targets but if we can get an explosive into a group of tightly packed combatants, it’ll be pretty damn effective. Also, I’d suggest we have the scout sections and the special teams scouting the area around us to the east and particularly to the west. We have alarm formations but we don’t know the terrain or what we could find down there,” Rugrat said and looked at Erik.
“Good point, I forgot about that. They can set up observation posts as they go so they can go on longer patrols and out further. Do you want to coordinate?” Erik said.
“Lieutenant Yui took the scout training as well, why don’t we leave it to him?”
“Yui?” Erik looked at him.
“I’m up for it,” Yui nodded.
“Anything else that we’re forgetting?” Erik asked.
Domonos put up his hand.
Erik pointed at him.
“The troops are asking how long till we’re done.” Domonos asked, almost sheepishly.