“The Crafter’s Association is willing to wait. Though, I do have one more question.” She looked at Erik and Rugrat, as if seeing right through them. “In the records, there is supposed to be one very powerful dungeon located in the valley, sealed off by the city. Have you visited it?”
“We have,” Erik said, without any hesitation.
She studied them closer and sat back in her chair, pulling out a contract. “This is what we are willing to agree to.” She held it out and the oath lawyer with them took it, putting it in front of Erik and Rugrat. Elder Lu pulled out another contract as well.
“Three percent of all transactions held within Vuzgal. Twenty percent discount for yourselves and the rest of your army on our goods. A guard force of four thousand paid for by us. We desire a plot of land inside the city. Our tax rate will not increase and a council will be made of the powerful figures within the city. You will have at least thirty percent voting power of said council at all times. Adding a new member to the council will have to be agreed by all other members of the council. We also ask to have exploration rights of the dungeon.”
“Exploration rights?” Erik asked.
“We can freely enter and exit the dungeon as we desire,” she said.
“The dungeon will be open freely to all but it will cost one Earth Mana stone or a talisman to enter,” Erik said.
“Talisman?” Elder Lu asked.
“There is a recess in the entrance for a talisman. I’m not sure what it will do, but the dungeons come from the Ten Realms—I don’t want to mess with it,” Erik lied.
Elder Lu and Redding shared a look.
“It is good that we don’t stand in the way of the Ten Realms,” Redding finally said. “An Earth-grade Mana stone is expensive, though.”
“We can come to an agreement about Vuzgal first and then discuss the dungeon later on,” Erik said.
“In that case, we will reduce our guards to two thousand and ten percent discount with only two percent of transactions,” Redding negotiated.
“Five percent discount and three percent of transactions,” Erik countered.
Redding looked at Erik’s face before she nodded. “Very well.”
“And there will be no council. Rugrat and I will be the City Lords of Vuzgal, we will not interfere in the running of the associations and we ask that you do not interefer in the running of the capital.”
Elder Lu and Redding looked at one another.
“I will only allow a small branch be built there then,” Elder Redding said.
“That is fine, it can be built up over time, we are not in a rush,” Erik said.
I wonder if you’ll kick yourselves once you find out what kind of dungeon we have?
The contract actually changed before Erik’s eyes, amended to what they had said.
“It is a unilateral agreement. We don’t easily move into a new city and call it a neutral trading city,” she said, seeing the look on his face.
“The Blue Lotus will agree to the same terms.”
Erik and Rugrat read them over, checking the information contained within.
Rugrat pulled out a piece of paper and an ink brush. He copied down the information on the contract. It was special spell scroll paper but it wasn’t like the glowing contracts that the others had put forward.
With Rugrat using crushed reactive ingredients and imbuing them with his Mana, they glowed as he wrote out the contract.
“Looks good,” Erik said as they passed it to Xue Lin and Daniels.
They took it back to the two elders.
Rugrat’s printing wasn’t the cleanest, but it had gotten better with his carving out formations. Though they were still far from the elegance and refined script of the contracts the elders had offered.
“We haven’t dealt with those contracts before, but these should do just fine,” Erik said. This way we can make sure that you haven’t hidden something in the contracts.
They reviewed the contracts and signed them. The contracts were covered in a golden glow as the Ten Realms verified the contracts between them. Now, even if the contracts were torn up, the Ten Realms oversaw the contract binding them to one another.
“I will go and report to the headquarters now.” Redding announced as she took her leave and Daniels followed after her.
The door closed and Elder Lu seemed to transform as his face relaxed and he stood up.
“For what you did, for the sacrifices that you and your people made, even when one of our number went against you. The Blue Lotus owes you a great debt. One that we may never be able to repay, but one that the Blue Lotus will remember. You saved a city of people and a great number of my colleagues,” Elder Lu cupped his hands and bowed to them both.
Hiao Xen’s eyes went wide as Erik and Rugrat were a little stunned.
“Thank you,” Elder Lu said.
“We were just doing the right thing,” Erik said, his voice softening.
Elder Lu stood up and smiled.
“The Blue Lotus and the Crafter’s Association are lucky that you were there. I have applied to the higher realms for a special medallion and honor,” Elder Lu personally pulled out a box and opened it.
It was filled with emblems of the Blue Lotus.
“These medallions mark you as honorary elders of the Blue Lotus. You and your people will be allowed into any Blue Lotus. You can pay what the Blue Lotus members pay for items we offer. You will be respected as an elder. We will not interfere with your life and you will not need to deal with the inner runnings of the Blue Lotus. In the last one hundred years, there have only been sixteen of these given out,” Elder Lu intoned, his voice heavy as they looked at the one hundred and seven medallions. “For those that stood with us, when in our time of need.”
He offered the box and Erik took it. Seeing those medallions, his mind went to those that wouldn’t be going home. He questioned his decision still, he knew it was the right thing, but he would never stop thinking about what would have happened if he did a few things differently.
“Thank you,” Rugrat said.
Erik nodded as well.
Elder Lu cupped his hands to them.
“No, I thank you,” Elder Lu said. “If you are ever in need, do not hesitate to contact me. The Blue Lotus has all kinds of people. I am sorry about what happened.”
“Shit happens and Olivia was only doing what she felt was right and best for her people. In the heat of it all I was harsh, I wanted to shock her and I wanted a clear line of command. She meant well. Don’t punish her too hard,” Erik said in a humble voice.
“I’ll look into it personally. She will have to be tested before she can take on another powerful position like the one she had. Sometimes being unable to do anything can be much worse than being able to do anything.”
“Have you got another contract paper?” Erik asked Rugrat.
“Here,” Rugrat said, passing him the paper and a brush.
Erik pulled out a ripped contract and copied out the information within its two halves onto the new contract and passed the rough paper to Elder Lu.
“This is the agreement for the use of the Age Rejuvenation concoctions. Taking them away from people that need them isn’t fair,” Erik said.
Elder Lu was deeply moved as he took the contract from Erik’s hands.
“Thank you,” Elder Lu said.
Erik felt that something was amiss but he only nodded.
“We’ve taken enough of your time, please feel free to come to Vuzgal when you like. It’s not much now but hopefully we can change that in the future,” Erik offered.
“I’ll take you up on that sometime,” Elder Lu smiled.
He personally saw them out of the Blue Lotus headquarters. People talked to one another looking at Erik and Rugrat who were wearing their rough cloaks. They didn’t look noteworthy but from the way Elder Lu acted around them, others made sure to not approach and recorded their appearance.
“Now, what do you want to do with the rest of the a
rmy?” Rugrat asked as they left the main headquarters building, crossing the city towards the totem that would return them to Vuzgal.
“I want to recover our disabled undead, start to rebuild the city with them working around the clock. I want you to take a team back down, install the totem, and take our heroes home.” Erik looked over to Rugrat.
“I’ll watch over it personally,” Rugrat promised.
“We’ll have a ceremony tomorrow and you depart the next day, if possible. I will contact different people to try to garner interest or at least knowledge of Vuzgal and send messages to the other associations and the like. If we have more of the different associations in the capital, then we can reduce their individual power and get a greater say.”
“Will they all come over?” Rugrat asked.
“Maybe not, but we field them the option. Those who come over at first will get the same contract as the Blue Lotus and the Crafter’s Association. We test the waters and then we open up the dungeon to people. With that, anyone who comes afterward must take on a new contract. Those who came before will agree because they want an early advantage over them. And they will agree if they want to enter the dungeon. Once you have the totem up, we can start to transport materials to Alva. With Vuzgal, we should be able to increase our knowledge and pass it onto the schools. We have built up a lot of momentum to this point. It’s time that Alva shined.”
Chapter: Head Home
Erik knelt in front of each of the totems for the fallen, cracking a smile as he joked or talked about something that they had shared, his eyes unfocused. He had to look up to the sky frequently to stop the tears from falling.
He took a shaky breath and stood. He walked away from the totems before he turned back. His face was like a piece of stone as he snapped off a salute. In his eyes, he saw the faces of those who he would never see again—memories of him training them, seeing them in trouble, seeing them laughing. Scenes that warmed his heart now and cut it like a knife at the same time.
Erik wandered back as he headed to the inner city castle.
The Alvan army had taken over the castle as their own once again.
Erik laid back on his bed, his body tired. He had not slept in a long time.
His notifications screamed at him angrily.
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Skill: Throwables
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Level: 46 (Apprentice)
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Your throws gain 5% power
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Skill: Marksman
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Level: 65 (Journeyman)
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Long-range weapons are familiar in your hands. When aiming, you can zoom in x2.0. 15% increased chance for critical hit.
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Skill: Hand-to-Hand
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Level: 61 (Journeyman)
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Attacks cost 20% less Stamina. Agility is increased by 10%.
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Skill: Stealth
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Level: 49 (Apprentice)
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When in stealth, your senses are sharpened by 5%
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My marksman was a result of me being able to use firearms and combining it with the new skills and abilities in the realms. While I was fighting, I was able to understand more about fighting hand-to-hand and incorporating fighting with several styles.
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Event
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You have successfully defended Vuzgal.
Rewards:
700,000 EXP
+10% defensive bonus to Vuzgal defenders.
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Event
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You have saved the people of Tareng.
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Rewards:
120,000,000 EXP
Vuzgal gains the Title: Protector.
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City Title: Protector
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Vuzgal forces and their allies receive a 10% overall buff when fighting within the Capital’s territory. Enemies are debuffed 5% while in territory
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Erik let out a low whistle as Erik and the other members of the Alva military were covered in the golden glow of experience and the territory around Vuzgal was altered by the ten realms.
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You have reached Level 57
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When you sleep next, you will be able to increase your attributes by: 15 points.
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35,877,377/56,900,000EXP till you reach Level 58
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His fighting ability had increased but right now he just wanted to get away from even thinking about combat. But he knew that he would be dragged right back in, he always did. He had faced losses before, but he kept fighting.
He sat up and pulled out a notepad and a pen. He took a breath and started writing letters to the fallen’s families.
It looked as though it might be some time before he slept again.
Light started to creep in the next morning as Erik looked at the letters he had written. Paper littered his storage rings from his failed writings.
Still, those simple letters didn’t seem like enough but they were all he could do. He met up with Rugrat in the morning, letters in hand.
“Everything ready?” Erik asked.
“Ready. And I pulled the people coming with me, closest to them and the like,” Rugrat said.
They fell into silence.
“Get some sleep. We need you in your best condition,” Rugrat said.
“I can do it later. I’m going to check on the dungeon,” Erik said.
“Don’t get caught. And I’m serious about the sleep.”
“I will later.” Erik headed into the castle after handing off the letters with shaking hands. With the dungeon core interface, he was able to see under the city. Moving the ground underneath the city allowed them to see everything, ‘claiming’ it as part of the dungeon.
They had found all types of hidden areas around Vuzgal. It allowed them to locate loot in a number of caches.
Erik used one of these tunnels to head out from the castle and into the valley, coming out of a cave in the mountains with towering peaks to either side.
It didn’t take him long to enter the Bala Dungeon.
He accessed the plans of the dungeon and walked around. The new crafting areas had been completed. There was the original entrance that went into the fighting dungeon, but now there were new stairs down from a different entrance that reached a landing that had six corridors. Above each different hallway, there was a marker to show what kind of craft was practiced beyond.
These corridors spread out, ringing the main dungeon with crafting areas.
The first floor was for the Novices, then as the floors descended it went the Apprentices, then the Journeyman and finally the Experts. From the hallway transitions of Apprentice to Journeyman, there were areas filled with ingredients one could use for their craft. If the crafter were able to create an Expert level item, they would be randomly gifted a powerful item related to their craft.
After finishing, the crafting trial tester would get a token based on which level they had completed, allowing them to bypass the other earlier skill level floors on special staircases. If more than one person went down the stairs without a token, the door at the bottom wouldn’t open to allow them into the testing areas.
One could only take the crafting trial once per month normally if they had a talisman they could enter an additional two times a month, for a total of three times as long as there was space.
Erik didn’t really understand how, but the Ten Realms somehow took the power of the Mana that the dungeon core had refined as well as the different attrib
uted Mana and created growing fields, mines, trees, raw leather, as well as ingredients as per their agreement.
Erik took his time walking the dungeon. It was the first time that he had been able to find peace in recent days.
There was a noise behind him. He looked to see a small, cute-looking Gilga rapidly expanding and becoming bigger.
“Didn’t I tell you to stay in the city?” Erik admonished.
She cocked her head to the side and made a keening noise.
Erik could feel her care for him through their bond. He snorted, unable to get angry with her as he patted her side and scratched her scales as she made happy noises. Erik had forgotten how much comfort one could find with their animal friends.
Erik took some time, collecting himself before he got a call from Rugrat.
“Fred and his people have made some decisions,” Rugrat said. “Meet us at their cottages?”
“On my way.” Erik headed out of the dungeon and moved toward the cottages. He found the demi-human group standing there.
Elizabeth was hiding in William’s chest as Racquel was talking to Rugrat, kissing him on the cheek before heading over to stand with the others.
Fred stepped forward to greet Erik.
“We wish to travel the Fourth Realm. Now that there is no threat, we’ll head out. I hope that our paths will cross again,” Fred held out his hand.
Erik nodded. “Thank you for your help. I hope we will be able to meet again.” Erik and Fred shared an awkward handshake, Fred only recently having learned of the human custom.
“As do I,” Fred said.
They said their goodbyes. Fred used a spell to help Old Xern. They stepped into the sky and quickly headed away. It was abrupt, but they didn’t care for social norms and their straightforward actions were refreshing.
“Well, you should get packed up. We’ll be heading to Alva in six hours,” Rugrat said.
Time passed quickly as Erik sent out messages through Hiao Xen to the other associations about Vuzgal. He surveyed the damage to the city himself and put the Alvan army to work, rebuilding the capital and recovering the undead.
The Fourth Realm (The Ten Realms Book 4) Page 58