The Fifth Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  “Let us not try to make this something it’s not. You saw the potential of Vuzgal and you wanted it for yourself. You are a low-level Expert but you use it to lord over others. Your clothes are akin to bribes, using them to draw other Experts and people of power close to you. We don’t mind this in the least, but instead of making us closer to Vuzgal, you’ve only increased the distance. You want to talk about value? With the contributions of the military of Vuzgal, they saved our face of having an entire city we co-operated wiped out. They tore down a war-fighting legion with less than two hundred people. Then there is the nature of Erik West’s contribution.

  “His two contributions eclipse everything that you have done for the Blue Lotus several times over. Saying that you were doing it for the good of Blue Lotus? Do you know who allowed Hiao Xen to become the acting city lord?”

  Zhen Fu’s shock had turned to anger but she kept her mouth shut due to her position being well below Elder Lu’s. She wasn’t even able to utter a word as Elder Lu kept talking.

  “I did. He handled himself well with the issues against the Blood Demon sect. It was meant as a test of his ability to lead and command. Now you have weakened his position within the Vuzgal government, slapped our own faces, and I have to find a new head for Vuzgal’s Blue Lotus location. Don’t worry about crafters. With the recent changes, there are a number of Expert crafters coming from the higher realms who wish to see this Vuzgal city, its workspaces and its dungeon,” Elder Lu said dryly.

  “You will be transferred to the Fifth Realm. There you will become an evaluator for half a century. You will scout out talents in the Fifth Realm to send on to our academies in the Sixth Realm. It is the hope that this will allow you to control your emotions better and to put the work of the Blue Lotus ahead of your schemes,” Elder Lu said.

  Zhen Fu looked as though the strength had left her at his words. The networks she had arduously built up over the years would all be destroyed. An Evaluator went around finding people of talent and recommending them to the Blue Lotus.

  That was it, they weren’t like teachers that could take people under their wing, gaining their loyalty and growing them into powerful supporters. All of their work was dedicated to growing the Blue Lotus’ power, instead of their personal power and their job took them across the realms. Not allowing them to stay in one place too long to set up a power base.

  “You have your orders,” Elder Lu said, dismissing her.

  She choked down her words, the contracts she had signed with the Blue Lotus made her unable to refuse.

  She bowed her head and stomped out of his office. Elder Lu couldn’t see the fury on her face as she walked away, but he could feel it.

  An Expert crafter’s anger wasn’t all that remarkable to him, if she was a high level crafter or master, then he might care.

  Elder Lu looked out of the large windows behind him. He let out a laugh and shook his head. “Vuzgal? Well, they aren’t politically minded—maybe it will make a truly neutral city in the Fourth Realm?”

  Chapter: Investigations

  Delilah and Erik were in the Alchemy workshop, Erik observing Delilah as she worked.

  She drew out a handful of yellow and purple pills from her cauldron and presented them to Erik.

  He checked them over and sniffed them.

  “Good, though you have some basic issues,” he said as she secured them in a pill bottle.

  “You didn’t pre-warm the cauldron enough. Don’t you remember how I told you to warm everything evenly? You need to add heat inside the cauldron, outside and over the lid. You heated up the bottom more than the top and then the lid was only mildly warm. This led to uneven heating of the concoction. Metal also expands and contracts, so the lid fit, but because of the uneven heating, the lid and the cauldron had gaps between them, creating a higher flow of air into the cauldron. That was why when you were adding the bleeding crown with crushed frost berries, you lost control of your flames for a few seconds. It also reduced the efficacy of the pill because of the mana dilution that occurred.”

  Delilah lowered her head, angry at missing such simple things.

  “Remember, we can prepare for as long as we want. Prepare your ingredients, your cauldron, and all of your tools for as long as you want. As time goes on, you’ll get so used to them you can use them with instinct. If you’re already working, most times it is too hard to try to adjust. Instead of concocting pills, I want you to learn more about your tools. Also, use tools that work for you; don’t use them just because. This is your Alchemy workshop—make it yours.

  “Also! Poison pills are going to be the hardest to give your enemy! Powder you can spread over a large area; potions you can cover your blade,” Erik said before his voice softened. “Have you cleared away your responsibilities?”

  “I have delegated as many of them as I am happy with. Otherwise, I will have people bringing information to the Sky Reaching Restaurant so that I can remain in the loop with everything that is happening here.”

  “Okay, then we will set off tomorrow.” Erik stood.

  “There is one meeting I have to attend. It is about the expansion of Vermire,” Delilah said.

  “Do you need me to be there?”

  “Well, it is expanding Vermire. It’s a large project. We are still making plans and gathering information at this point...” Delilah trailed off.

  “Remember how I said that I wouldn’t have given you the position if I didn’t trust you? Well, I think that this is one of those situations.” Erik smiled.

  ***

  Delilah and Glosil looked at Elan, who was hosting the meeting. Behind him, there was a map of the Beast Mountain Range with the different outposts marked.

  “I have been cultivating assets in the outposts around the Beast Mountain Range. We have complete coverage of the outposts, but entering the upper echelons of each of the outposts has been difficult. With some, we have been able to get access. Still, I am confident that we will be able to know what is happening in each of the outposts and gather information on the happenings of the outpost leaders to aid in operations proposed by Lord Aditya of Vermire. In total, there are forty-seven different outposts of varying size that lay around the Beast Mountain Range.” He pointed to the map of the main mountain range in the shape of a coffee bean with a wavy line moving through it, with multiple valleys that dotted the craggy landscape.

  “The proposed site for the main trading outpost is on King’s Hill.” He pointed to a central located green area at the bottom of the mountain range on the south side. “Glosil has more information on this. With the forty-seven different outposts, we have the preliminary results listed in the reports in front of you. There are seventeen lords we have identified who would be interested in joining in on this venture without too many issues. That leaves thirty others. Nine more would join with some pushing through my contacts. Another thirteen would remain neutral; we can possibly pull them in later. The remaining eight are our issue. They will go against it. Five of them have backing from some kind of nation that will not take kindly to this. Three are independents. All of them are large powers in their own rights.”

  “So we will come into conflict with them no matter what.” Delilah frowned.

  “I believe so.”

  “Will they resort to violence? What will their move be?”

  “Some of them might. It depends on the five that are backed by different kingdoms. If they push for it, then they could fight us.”

  Glosil cleared his throat. “It is likely they will attack the outposts or the main force when they are at their weakest, reducing the outposts’ strength so they can attack the outposts directly and take them over. It’s what I would do.”

  “So we have to worry about them attacking our rear.”

  “It would be better to get them to fight the other outposts than not, in my opinion,” Elan said, getting Glosil’s frown and Delilah’s perplexed look.

  “Two things: if they attack us in broad daylight, then we can
have the outposts become closer, fighting against this new enemy. Second, we don’t have to worry about them in the future. In one move, we build the outpost and clear out the outposts that could be a large issue in the future. If they don’t fight us, then they might turn to banditry, attacking our convoys, draining our strength over time,” Elan explained.

  “In one strike, we take out their power, take their outposts.” Glosil nodded.

  “Which would also be great trading chips for us. We turn those outposts into outposts controlled by the same council as the King’s Hill Outpost. Then people see that joining us has far more profits than not,” Elan surmised.

  “We still have to win this fight. Nothing has happened yet. We don’t know if we will be able to get all of those outposts on our side or not,” Delilah said, wanting to pull Elan back.

  “I just want to make sure that we cover our bases,” Elan said.

  Delilah nodded and she turned to Glosil. “What do you think?”

  Glosil stood and moved to the map as Elan took a seat.

  “The terrain of the Beast Mountain Range is a pain to fight through. In the First Realm, storage devices aren’t that easy to find. To establish the first road to the outpost, I propose that we have the force gather in one location, made up of five parts. The main fighting force will fan out and deal with any threats as they advance. They will have a reserve force as well to support them. Another force will be there to finish clearing the path and lay down a road to move supplies and supporting forces through the terrain. Then there will need to be a support element to repair weapons, hold supplies, cook meals, and such. The last force will move up and down the road, carting supplies in from Vermire. Slow and steady, move forward, clear a path, build the road all the way to King’s Hill,” Glosil said.

  “Seems rather simple,” Delilah said.

  “It sounds simple, but they’ll need to have navigators who are checking where they’re going all the time to make sure that they don’t go off course. Need to send out scouts to check the terrain and the beasts. The beasts are going to be pissed off that people are going through their territories. The moving supply train will need to have a fighting force to keep the beasts from killing them. The reserve force will act like close-in protection for the workers and supply train with the main force. We need to know if we have mages powerful enough to make the road or make it by hand. If we don’t have enough building materials, food, water, arrows, then this all grinds to a halt. This will be hard to coordinate. Throw in different military groups—it will not be a simple and easy process.”

  Delilah let out an impressed grunt. “I didn’t think of all the moving parts behind it. Even the food and water will be hard to maintain, needing to support that many people.”

  “Yes, and there will be a lot of people—about five hundred for the main contingent moving forward, three hundred fighters, and two hundred support or builders. If they are given time to work together, then they’ll work out the kinks.”

  “Though what if they’re attacked by the other outposts?” Elan asked.

  “We are very selective in Alva who we pick to join the military because of the secrets that they will be exposed to. After talking with my officers, we are thinking about bringing a number of the Vermire fighting force into the Alva Army. We have had time to watch them and understand them. What I propose is that we begin a training camp. We train them up as we would train up basic soldiers. That should increase their strength rapidly, but not to the point where it alerts the other outposts. They then in turn train up the remaining guards and increase their numbers.”

  “Much like the Adventurer’s Guild?” Delilah asked. “Where they are trained up by the Adventurer’s Guild, then they come here for training and the opportunity to join Alva. Some join the military, others join Alva. Others go back to the Adventurer’s Guild with much higher strength than before and increase our reach.”

  “Correct.” Glosil smiled.

  “Once we’ve trained them up, what do we do about these other outposts? The guard force is only around one hundred people for each outpost. Each outpost might only send twenty to thirty people. Let’s not forget that five of the possibly aggressive outposts have the backing of a nation that has thousands of fighters at their disposal,” Elan reminded Glosil.

  “The one difference with training up these Vermire forces is that we will train them to fight in combat groups—healer, tank, ranged, damage, and corporal commanding—to increase their strength in the field. The current force of Vermire is around four hundred guards. I want to increase that number to eight hundred, with the additional four hundred being trained in secret. We will need somewhere for that training to take place, as well as Vermire’s help and our recruiters help to pull in more fighters to train.” Glosil looked to Elan.

  “To increase their fighting strength rapidly, there are a lot of people who would be interested in the First Realm. As for the training location, it shouldn’t be too hard to find one.”

  “The role of this secretly trained force will be to be ready against the potential threat from the other outposts?” Delilah asked.

  “They will act as a safety for us, a force ready to be used. I want them ready to attack the lords conspiring against us. We can sell items for home defense to allied outposts through our trading network.”

  “You have really thought this through,” Delilah said, not hiding how impressed she was.

  “We don’t always need to be the ones fighting to win,” Glosil said.

  “It will make the other outposts thankful for the items, and hopefully bring them closer to us. What if they use them against us?” Elan leaned forward.

  “They could, but for the majority, if they’re coming over to our side anyway, didn’t we just get money from them to defend the land we control?”

  Elan couldn’t help but laugh at Glosil’s words.

  Delilah smiled as well.

  “The one thing I can think of, from the council’s perspective, is that it might be a better idea if the first road to the outpost doesn’t come from Vermire,” Elan said. “Creates tensions, making it look like Vermire has all of the cards. It would be a good bargaining chip.”

  “I can work up the three outposts that it will be easiest to make a road to and from. Just need the blueprint office to work on it. Thankfully, they already create maps and are familiar with the area,” Glosil said.

  The two men stopped and looked to Delilah.

  “Okay, it looks like you have this in hand. I do not want any exposure of Alva in this. Get this camp location sorted out, train the current force, and have them train the second hidden force. I want everything in place before Aditya moves forward. Elan, manage him. Let him start feeling out the other outpost leaders, start hosting some balls or something to get them to come over. Maybe a few auctions with powerful items? Figure it out and keep me updated.” Delilah stood and the two men bowed to her. She nodded to them. “I hope to have a new outpost in no more than a month!”

  With that, she left the room.

  Elan and Glosil looked at each other with serious expressions.

  “I look forward to working with you directly,” Glosil said.

  “Thank you, Captain,” Elan said.

  Chapter: Formation Academy Competition

  Qin and Julilah had been working continuously after meeting with the formation academy’s head-Yan Zemin. They received plenty of formation plans and resources.

  Not wasting any time they got to work, wanting to see their fellow Alvans as soon as possible.

  They were progressing quickly, they could take two, sometimes even three days to build them if they didn’t finish them on the first try.

  Failure was its own kind of success as it showed them what they hadn’t mastered yet, and what they still needed to learn.

  “What is all of that noise?” Qin asked sleepily. They had fallen asleep in the larger formation workshop again.

  Julilah made a noise of not wanting to be disturbed
as she turned her head away from Qin.

  Qin went to the door and opened it, letting the sun in. She held her hand out against the sunlight streaming in. She saw a few formation masters walking around the workshop and raised her voice to them. “What is all of that noise for?”

  “The noise? You don’t know about the formation master contest?” one said, shocked.

  “Contest? That sounds familiar. Hmm, is that what Yan Zemin was talking about?” Qin yelled to Julilah.

  Julilah only answered with another annoyed noise.

  “Thanks.” Qin turned back and closed the door.

  She looked at the formation workshop. There were two designs that they were working on. Julilah’s was a domain formation while Qin was working on another area of effect formation that was meant to be hidden in a talisman. It was a mana barrier, but highly miniaturized so it could act as a hidden protection.

  Qin’s detail work wasn’t that good, so she was taking on projects that improved her deficiencies.

  She let out a sigh. The projects were challenging and fun, but she missed seeing Yui and Domonos. She hadn’t seen them in so long and only had a few days to see them before they went to the Formation Guild.

  Once we’ve finished reading from the library and we surpass Head Yan Zemin, then we can go to Vuzgal. I wonder how Father is doing.

  She laughed to herself. Now we only need to get little Wren to join Alva. It’s been so long since I last saw him.

  She woke up Julilah forcefully. “Come on, let’s clean up. Then we can head to the library. We’ve completed all of the basic classes now, so if we can understand all of the books, that should be the end of our education here. You can see Tan Xue again.”