The Fourth Realm (The Ten Realms Book 4)

by Michael Chatfield

  Some of their undead were destroyed beyond repair, while others simply needed more magical power. They were creatures of the dungeon, so they could be reformed. They didn’t have a blueprint like some creatures that allowed them to be built with just a few reactants and the power of the dungeon core.Once they were completely destroyed, then they were gone and repairing them was incredibly power-intensive. But Erik put a priority on it. After all, they had plenty of power stored up in the main pillar.

  People from Tareng had left in a flood already. The Vuzgal totem had worked all night and day, with people heading back home. Some had asked about buying a plot of land in Vuzgal.

  Erik quoted them prices that one might have to pay in one of the much larger neutral trading cities that had at least three associations in it.

  Not many had been willing to spend that kind of money.

  Although the Blue Lotus and the Crafter’s Association had put down their claim, there were only a few people who had arrived to survey the area and start building. Erik saw that there was a great interest in Vuzgal. Although it might grow in the coming years, it would need time to do so.

  Erik had a plan to deal with that, but it would take time.

  “Make sure to send Matt and others along as soon as you can. We have an opportunity to build out Vuzgal. I want to make sure that it is the best that we can do,” Erik reminded Rugrat.

  “I’ve got the list. Are you sure you don’t want to go and deal with the council and their meeting about the future of Alva?” Rugrat asked, sounding incredibly close to pleading.

  “You know I need to stay here,” Erik said. “Don’t worry, just—you know, try to think before you say anything?”

  “Thanks for the pep talk,” Rugrat said sarcastically.

  “See you on the other side.” Erik raised his fist.

  “You know it, brother.” Rugrat bumped his fist and turned toward the totem.

  The rest of the group—around thirty from the Alvan army—headed to the totem with him. A flash covered them after a few moments of menu scrolling, headed back to the First Realm with totem parts in tow.

  “All right, let’s see if we can’t make a barbecue out of this and lift the no-drinking ban,” Erik said to Glosil, who was a little farther away from the totem, his voice loud enough that the others heard him.

  They smiled and a few cheered as they headed back to the castle.

  Even with the fire, food, drink, and company, the soldiers from Alva’s army were all subdued. They were starting to recover from the losses—well, recover was one way to put it. They were learning how to bury the pain so that they could keep on going.

  Erik and Rugrat had talked about the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder and how it affected people. Erik knew that there would be those among them who were affected and others who were able to deal with their issues and could continue to be in the military.

  He was determined that even if they had PTSD or other psychological issues, he wouldn’t abandon them or push them to the side as happened with the militaries back on Earth. It was easier to overcome it if they were still in, if that was what they wanted. Alva would see it as their duty to care for them as they had been willing to put down their lives; that was the agreement that they made serving in the military.

  Seeing them together, it allowed them to decompress some and realize that the fighting had stopped, at least for now.

  They talked about the people they had lost, or about things they had seen. War was no longer some foreign concept as the theories and information crammed into their brains by Erik and Rugrat had turned into reactions and tactics to be used to keep them alive.

  I wish that tactics and training were enough to keep them all alive.

  That night Erik increased his stats again, the gains they had made in the fourth realm had been immense, increasing the strength of the military to the point that they could enter the sixth realm freely.

  We’ll have to focus on our cultivation in the coming months, as we go higher, levels become secondary, skills, weapons, armor and cultivation have a much larger impact.

  He closed his eyes.

  ==========

  You have 15 attribute points to use.

  ==========

  Three to Agility, should keep the trend going, three into mana regeneration and stamina regeneration, then six into mana pool. I really need to start increasing my mana cultivation. I can’t let Rugrat get too far ahead.

  ==========

  Name: Erik West

  ==========

  Level: 57

  ==========

  Race: Human

  ==========

  Titles:

  From the Grave II

  Mana Emperor

  Dungeon Master III

  Reverse Alchemist

  Poison Body

  Fire Body

  City Lord

  ==========

  Strength: (Base 36) +41

  ==========

  770

  ==========

  Agility: (Base 29) +72

  ==========

  555

  ==========

  Stamina: (Base 39) +23

  ==========

  930

  ==========

  Mana: (Base 8) +79

  ==========

  870

  ==========

  Mana Regeneration (Base 10) +58

  35.00/s

  ==========

  Stamina Regeneration: (Base 41) +59

  21.00/s

  ==========

  Chapter: Heroes Return

  Rugrat and the people of the Alvan army crossed the familiar Beast Mountain Range. Their mounts were much faster than before and it didn’t take them much time to cross the ground.

  They had sent word ahead; as they got to the valley, the cave entrance into Alva Dungeon appeared ahead of them. They dismounted from their mounts. They took out carts. On each of the carts, there were two coffins. On each of them was the symbol of Alva’s army: a blue flame in the background with a crossbow and a sword crossed over it, with the words Serve, Protect, Defend, and Loyal carved into the circular emblem.

  The Adventurer’s Guild members and the policing force that had been caring for Alva stood at the checkpoints. They stood like statues as the mounts pulling the carts and the army marched into Alva.

  “Heroes, salute!” a commander called out. The people at the first checkpoint slammed their fists against their chest as one, making the heroes’ guard stand taller as they escorted their friends home.

  They passed the first checkpoint and reached the next, the same scene being carried out as people saluted their heroes on their return.

  They passed through the final checkpoint, entering Alva. People lined up on the main pathway from the checkpoint to the barracks.

  Family members held onto one another, crying as they looked at the guard as they marched forward, not stopping. Some, even as they tried to fight it, let tears fall down their cheeks. Regardless of reactions, they didn’t break their march. They didn’t dare to wipe their tears—this was their friends’ day.

  “Hero escort, halt!” Rugrat ordered as they came to the barracks, its gates sealed.

  “Who goes there?” Blaze asked from the barracks wall.

  “Lily Ershman! Douglas Sorrez, Zhi Smith.” Rugrat went through the names of the fallen, bringing new tears from the families. The rest of the guards stood there with their mounts, looking onward.

  “Alva welcomes home her sons and daughters once more,” Blaze intoned.

  The doors to the barracks opened. Inside, there were men and women of the merchant factions, from the farms, from the academies, from the Adventurer’s Guild—men and women who had all served in Alva’s army, welcoming home their heroes.

  “To Alva’s heroes! Salute!” Blaze’s voice bellowed through the barracks as these people who had been across the Ten Realms and that had rushed back to Alva for this ceremony all snapped off a salute.

  �
�Heroes escort, for-ward!”

  They marched into the barracks.

  They were finally home.

  Chapter: Alva’s Determination

  After Rugrat finished his duty and the fallen were placed into a hall for the families to see, he headed to the dungeon core. He called Egbert and Delilah as he took a collection of storage devices on a string with him.

  Egbert was there and Delilah didn’t take long to arrive.

  “This is a Ten Realms totem. I don’t know how many people we can get to work in the short term but this is our number-one priority. We need to get this up and running to create a link to Vuzgal so we can facilitate the movement of supplies to Alva. I don’t know if it will even work, a city totem in a dungeon, but we need to try. You will have all of the automatons at your command to build it and you’re allowed to use all the power that you need,” Rugrat said. “I will assist you in building it, and the defenses around it. We need to be ready for anything.”

  He turned to face Delilah. “People who are related to the deceased will be allowed five days off to deal with their losses. Others will be allowed the day of the funeral off. The council meeting will proceed as planned. I will be heading it with you. We will honor our heroes and that means that Alva will continue on.”

  “Understood,” Delilah said.

  “Get me Matt, and those in the blueprint office and the construction department. I want them to look at Vuzgal and its construction. We only have a limited period of time that we can build the foundation that others will build upon. We need to look at the different people we will need to run Vuzgal. Thankfully, we will be basically just the central government and as long as we don’t encroach on the contracts with the associations, what we say will be. We’ve got little time until the other associations gain interest, so we need to get everything in place now,” Rugrat said. “Now it is time that we consolidate our gains. We need to carry out some small actions across the Fourth Realm to make sure we don’t draw attention to ourselves and then we can look to Alva instead of external matters.”

  “Understood,” Delilah said.

  “We have a lot of work to do.” Rugrat turned to Egbert and they headed out of the dungeon headquarters as Delilah started to send messages. There were people living in different cities who would relay the messages through to those in the other realms who could relay the message on through the Adventurer’s Guild, the merchants, or the network of Alvans across the realms.

  It only took a few hours until Matt got a message and started his trip back to Alva.

  People went back to work, filled with a new determination. The funeral would be in a few days.

  Seeing their heroes return, those who had come to Alva recently felt a greater connection to it. Those who already thought of themselves as Alvans, were filled with a sense of pride and loss that they didn’t think possible. It had been their boys and girls who had died out there, for their dream, for Alva to grow.

  They weren’t going to let them down; for those who had sacrificed their tomorrow, they would work to build Alva today.

  Those who had left Alva on different trips came back. The city filled with people from across the realms.

  Rugrat visited the families of the fallen, passing them letters from the commanders who hadn’t been able to come.

  The families read the words from Glosil and Erik. New tears came forward, but there was not only a sense of loss in their cries, but also pride, proud of their loved ones and what they had been able to do.

  A location was picked out for the totem, opposite the teleportation pad. To the north lay the totem, to the south the teleportation pad, to the west the barracks and the entrance to the dungeon. The east was all farmland.

  Workers piled in, all taking construction jobs. Rugrat acted as the foreman, Egbert his assistant as the construction workers and the automatons worked together, building the totem day and night with the parts that had been carried from Vuzgal.

  The people of Alva threw themselves into work. The cafeteria became livelier as people came together to talk and to meet one another. Bars and tea shops did a brisk business as people from the other realms met up with their friends and family.

  ***

  Elan Silaz had gone back and forth from Vermire to Alva repeatedly. He had purchased a Mana gathering formation from Qin. The reason that he was able to sell Mana stones was because he had been able to get a Mortal Mana cornerstone. He had found out that allowing the Mana cornerstone to consume the power of a monster core could allow it to grow Mana stones. Monster cores were useful for increasing one’s level or being used in different crafts, but combined with a spell he had learned, he could contain more of the monster core’s power and force it into the cornerstone, greatly increasing its yield and multiplying the value of the monster cores.

  With the Mana gathering and Mana storing formations, he could just put the monster cores in and they would be consumed, automatically filling the cornerstone with energy. Mana stone mines usually got smaller as they grew larger because the Mana in a large area would be sucked dry. With him supplying the monster cores and isolating the Mana cornerstone with formations, Mana stones could grow much faster.

  He had looked at the Mana formation up on the ceiling of Alva Dungeon multiple times in jealousy. He could see the Mana stones that only got larger each time he returned.

  He had learned that Yui was coming back and rushed back to Alva. He had seen the procession entering Alva and then the barracks. He recognized his emotions and his thoughts. He wanted to become a part of Alva, to be someone to share that burden. He wanted to pay homage to those who passed.

  Like for many others, a barrier crumbled. He had seen Yui, Domonos, and Qin as people using Alva for their abilities. Now, seeing Yui and Qin in front of him, he knew that they were not using Alva: they were part of Alva, its beating heart. They believed in it in a way he found hard to understand.

  “Yui, I need yours and Domonos’s help to boost me,” Qin said suddenly.

  Elan and Yui looked at her. She no longer looked like a young princess but a woman of power. Her voice was calm and level, filled with a level of authority Elan had only recognized recently as he saw her dealing with her duties as a department head.

  “What for?” Yui asked. There was a new depth to his eyes. He didn’t just see her as his younger sister anymore.

  “Formations. The Crafter’s Association has formation schools in the Fourth Realm. In the Third Realm, there are sects, but formations are still a closely guarded secret. In the Fourth, they’re much more widespread. I have been fumbling around with formations. We’ve put them together and upgraded a few. Even a beast can put together a few pieces of the puzzle, but they don’t know the overall picture that the puzzle pieces make,” Qin said.

  “You’ll need to do as we say and you’ll have to have some more training before we take you to the Fourth Realm,” Yui said, not denying her.

  “The Fourth Realm is a land of death and destruction and you want to walk into it to learn about formations?” Elan scoffed, his voice harsh as he thought of the dangers that they would be walking into.

  “Father,” Qin eye’s narrowed as she looked at him.

  Elan grimaced and looked away, grinding his teeth. His children were much stronger than him, but that didn’t change the fact that they were still his children. He cared and feared for them. Since he had learned that Yui and Domonos were in the Fourth Realm, he hadn’t been able to sleep well and he had thought that it might have been a joke. He knew his boys were good fighters, but he never saw them as people to go to the Fourth Realm. He glanced at Yui, his sons Strength was now so high he couldn’t even get anything close to a read on his levels.

  Going to the Fourth Realm to learn about formations and I am here, thinking about growing a few Mana stones.

  A flash of light appeared in his eyes as he nodded to himself. It’s time that I got serious. I might not be skilled in crafting, but I am a trader and a fighter. The loan I can ap
ply for is sizable. If I was able to liquidate some of my assets in the First Realm and push into the higher realms… Will I just remain in the First Realm as they head higher? I will open up new trade routes and recruit people to Alva’s side.

  He was normally a calm man, but now a determined look appeared on his face as he started to see a new future. He had been thinking about retiring, about slowing down, but as his thoughts grew, a new path appeared. He felt his blood boiling and his aura started to fluctuate powerfully.

  “Father?” Yui hadn’t seen his father lose control of his emotions this much other than when he and his siblings had been bleeding.

  “All right, let’s see just how far we can go,” Elan Silaz said. “You charge ahead and I will come behind. From now on, the headquarters of the Silaz trading house will be in Alva.”

  His voice was not loud but both Yui and Qin had stunned looks as they saw their father’s gaze before they looked at each other. All of them were looking toward a new future, a future that they never thought possible before.

  Loss in the ten realms was normal, with everyone struggling to gain more power more strength. There were bound to be those that lost, those that died along the path.

  The strength of Alva’s people had increased drastically, it was a time to celebrate their new position. Instead of breaking out the food and wine to celebrate.

  The people of Alva recognized those that had fallen. With their new position their strength would grow in leaps and bounds. People would remember the sacrifices that were made today for them to grow.

  Thirteen men and women gave their lives for this opportunity. It shouldn’t be taken for granted and they would forever need to prove that they were worthy of those young men and women’s lives.

  Chapter: Dust to Dust

  Blaze looked out at Alva from the headquarters building. It had been months since he had last been in Alva. He was back for the meeting of the council with Elise.