The Fifth Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  It was about practicing them over and over again until it got to the point that all of the different moving parts flowed together and Erik was able to move in any direction without issue.

  Now he was able to get a few meters in any direction before he had to change directions.

  “Okay, that should be good,” Khasar said.

  Instead of flopping down, Erik focused on his breathing and drank from his canteen.

  “You’ve got plenty of Stamina and mana, which allows you to fight longer and go further than most people and you improve quickly. It shouldn’t be long until you’re executing even basic fighting techniques and then you can get into the named techniques,” Khasar said.

  “Thank you,” Erik said.

  “Aren’t we both people from the Alchemist Association?” Khasar smiled. “Just don’t get arrogant.”

  “Like the others?” Erik smiled.

  “Looks like you are learning something.” Khasar left Erik in the training square.

  After Khasar’s lessons, a lot more of the information that he thought was just fluff in the different technique manuals he had seemed to make sense.

  He closed his eyes, remembering the One Finger Beats Fist technique. It was still the most advanced technique he had. All the other techniques he hadn’t paid attention to, just thinking that they were fancy names for something that had no actual way to increase his fighting strength.

  He focused on the images he had been shown with the One Finger Beats Fist technique.

  With his eyes closed, he started to practice the One Finger Beats Fist. He started to circulate his mana in accordance with the mana circulation technique. There was a rumbling noise from within his body as power gushed out of his mana channels and his finger, making him let out a wet cough. His arm and finger felt incredibly tired and sore.

  They started to recover but Erik took time to recover.

  “Too much power too fast. I need to slow it down and decrease the amount of power that I put into each attack or else I could really hurt myself.”

  Erik focused on the control. With his healing and Alchemy skills, his normal control over mana was much higher than others.

  After ten minutes, he struck out with his finger. The light around him seemed to become darker and his finger became brighter as all of his strength was directed through his finger. The air was disturbed; reality wasn’t bent, but a small hole as big as a finger appeared in the stone where he had struck out. A crack appeared through it.

  Someone could easily underestimate the power of a single finger, just like those opponents I saw in the visions. I used it before when attacking people, attacking their weaknesses. As long as I was able to dodge the main attack and met them head on with this finger technique, then I could catch them off guard and hurt them.

  His entire body seemed weaker. “It draws power from my entire body. If I was to go all-out, then I would need time to recover as my Stamina would drop a lot and I would feel weak for some time afterward. I should take this time to increase my knowledge of fighting techniques. As Khasar said, I have a lot of Stamina and mana. If I can leverage those to fight for longer, or use them suddenly in an attack—” I’ve only cultivated and refined pure mana into my body, making it stronger and denser than others.

  Erik felt as if he had tapped into a new unmined strength that he had been standing in front of, but he had been looking at it from the wrong angle.

  Erik shook his head. His biggest barrier had been his perception of just how people should fight with their bodies. For his entire life, he had been taught to punch and kick. Using mana to increase his strength was one thing, but to change the environment around him in order to increase the attack power of his strikes...it just wasn’t something that was possible on Earth. People were all just fighting against one another, against the world. In the Ten Realms, it would work with them in order to defeat their enemies; it was just figuring out the right way to use that power in order to aid their own attacks.

  ***

  There was a knock at the door.

  Glosil looked up from his papers. “Enter.”

  The door opened and Sergeants Acosta and Song-Min walked into the room, coming to attention in front of his desk and saluting.

  He returned the salute. “At ease. Take a seat.”

  They sat down and looked at him.

  Glosil observed them. Since he had last seen them, his training program had gone into full effect, with Dragon Company’s members taking over the majority of training while Tiger Platoon worked to maintain combat effectiveness, improving their defenses and working within Vuzgal.

  Hopefully we should soon have more of the police force that originated in Alva in Vuzgal to take over. They have better training to deal with these conflicts.

  “All right, so you’ve probably got the broad strokes. Now, here are your orders.” Glosil took out two folders and passed them over. They included maps, key information staging areas, and such.

  “Song-Min, your group will focus on providing security, making sure that no one learns of the training and make sure that no one gets information out about the camp. Acosta, it will be your job to train these people up. There is a breakdown of the groups. We won’t be looking to make rifle squads or platoons. Instead, we want to turn them into parties. We don’t want to give them repeaters or rifles; it will point right to us. If they are just using their original abilities together, it will be harder to trace. They’ll be more organized, better at working together and higher skill levels. That should be enough.”

  “We heard that they might be joining the army?” Acosta asked, looking up from her open folder.

  “This is a possibility. Use this opportunity to evaluate them.”

  Acosta and Song-Min nodded.

  “Now you are probably wondering why are we training them up in the first place and what this second secret group is about. Well, our current plan is—”

  ***

  Lord Aditya walked into his office and saw Miss Evernight standing to the side; a man and woman looked out of the large windows looking at Vermire, their bodies turned so they could see the door as well.

  They glanced over to him, studying him as the door closed behind him. One of them activated a formation to stop noise from escaping.

  “I am Sergeant Blue. This is Sergeant Red. We’re here to train up your people. Our higher-ups have reviewed your plan and made some adjustments.” The woman stepped forward.

  “Okay.” Aditya’s heart sped up. Does this mean that they’ve accepted my plan?

  “We are still gathering more information on the other outpost leaders but in the meantime, this will allow you to increase your guard force in numbers and strength. Also, your guards will have the opportunity in the future to join our ranks.”

  Aditya felt pain inside. He had spent a lot of time and effort on his guards. I am just the manager of Vermire now. He calmed his heart and the pain lessened as he nodded. “What can I do to help?”

  “You’ll need to cover how we’re moving troops around and training them,” Sergeant Blue said.

  “Okay. I’ll need some time to work on that. I can send them out to train in the Beast Mountain Range. If I have two forces, then I can move them around so there are the same amount of people on the walls and patrolling even if there are half of them out and training. What will their training involve?”

  “Okay. We need to come up with a concrete plan, as well as look over the people you wish to hire who aren’t from the guard force. We will be training the guard force, though they will need to train the new recruits. We will take care of security, but we don’t want to be revealed. Our higher-ups do not want us to be seen in this conflict. Others might question it after what happened in the last conflict Vermire was involved in.” Sergeant Blue looked to Miss Evernight, who nodded seriously before looking at Lord Aditya.

  “We have a lot of work to do.”

  Chapter: Bandit Clearing

  Tanya woke up suddenly. She st
ill had a hood on her face and she looked around in alarm.

  “Will you take the hood off her?” a man asked.

  His accent was familiar. She had heard it in movies and on the news from time to time. Redneck?

  The hood came off her. She saw that there were only three people in the small room: Tian Cui, herself, and a new, larger man who wore body armor.

  He looked like one of those people she had seen in war zones as he held the straps of his vest, looking at her.

  “Well, we’re a long way from Earth.” The man stepped forward and grabbed a chair, sitting down opposite her. “Cui, hands?”

  Tian Cui sighed and then cut the bindings, releasing Tanya.

  She rubbed her wrists, looking at the man in front of her. “Are you from the South?”

  “Southern United States, yes, ma’am. And your accent—European?”

  “I’m from Sweden,” Tanya said.

  “When did you arrive in the Ten Realms?”

  “A while ago. Are there other people from Earth here?”

  “You’re the first we’ve tracked down so far,” Rugrat said.

  “Others came through too?”

  “Yes. My friend and I arrived here some time ago, we met up with another person from Earth too, he joined us as well. Don’t you know about the Two Week Curse?” Rugrat asked.

  “What?”

  “Get infected by magic and then two weeks later, have magical fireworks and poof! You disappear from Earth and arrive here,” Rugrat said.

  “Oh. I didn’t hear anything about it,” she said.

  “You must have been one of the first people to make it into the Ten Realms then. It had been going on for months when we arrived, which must’ve been like two—three years?”

  “We?”

  “Came in with my battle buddy Erik. He’s in the Third Realm right now with the Alchemist Association. Enough about us. This is about you and your future,” Rugrat said.

  “You sound like some kind of recruiter.”

  “Had to do a couple of years of it...not my proudest moments,” Rugrat muttered before clearing his throat.

  “Now, my existence, the existence of these fine people and the information that I am about to tell you, you will never repeat to anybody unless I give you face-to-face permission, understood?” Rugrat asked.

  “I understand.” Tanya nodded.

  “Good! Well then, you do an oath on that, and I’ll do an oath on not hurting you and telling you the truth, nothing but the truth. Oaths make the realms go round, you know,” Rugrat said.

  ***

  Rugrat looked at Tanya as the light of the oath disappeared from the room. She was petting Tetsu. George, in the corner, sniffed him, the two of them getting to know each other.

  “No fighting now,” Rugrat warned them both as he saw them out of the corner of his eye.

  Rugrat saw George’s expression and only opened his eyes to enforce the point. George seemed to get it and went back to what he was doing.

  “So tell me about you. Who are you? What did you do before this? How have you been surviving until now?”

  “Tanya Kvist. I was a factory worker. I did it mostly to pass the time. I was planning a game night when I was teleported here, I guess? I have a game master book, so I looked up stuff in that book, tried to connect some stuff to what is going on here. I was able to make some spells and then I’ve just been increasing Tetsu’s strength. He gets a lot of attention.

  “I made my way through the First Realm, killing and eating, providing for us both. The Second Realm, I tried my hand at a few different things. I am a Novice in a lot of different crafts.”

  “Any you’re particularly interested in?”

  “Not really. I like learning about them, but doing them? It’s way too many steps ahead of me.”

  “Okay, so these spells?”

  “A few healing spells—one to get rid of disease. Tetsu was sick. Night Vision because it’s an asset. I wanted to build myself up as a ranger. I got good at making traps and hiding them to weaken my prey before finishing them off, or the traps dealt with them. Then I came to the Third Realm. Someone wanted to buy Tetsu, was an alchemist-to-be—got all pissed off and I’ve been running ever since. Then I went into a city again to get supplies and the lord of the town, Lord Adda, found out that I was here. Wanting to get on the alchemist-to-be’s good books and the sect that backs him, he sent out his bandits to come and capture me. He didn’t want to do it officially, or else his monarch might know and then his monarch would use Tetsu to get into their good graces instead of him.”

  “So, not an easy few years,” Rugrat said, his voice turning softer.

  “Easy? No.” Tanya snorted and shook her head.

  “Well, I guess it is time for me to say my part. Okay, so Erik and I control a dungeon in the First Realm that has an academy that has a lot of books on any crafts you could possibly want. We’re building a network of adventurers and fighters through the lower realms, feeding them into the dungeon to make them soldiers, or our agents as they get to higher levels. Got hospitals and healthcare. Food and all the good stuff. Also, we’ve got a ton of traders. They’re everywhere as well; have branches through the Trader’s Guild and the Adventurer’s Guild as well as through a restaurant—great food, by the way.

  “Oh, and we own a city in the Fourth Realm. Got an in with a few of the associations, but they’re all two-faced and although the people we’re talking to might like us, the organization is big so we don’t know if there is someone higher in their chain of command who won’t like us one day and then we’ve got a big old problem. Now, I have to head to the Second Realm to deal with something, though we will be meeting up with some of our people there.

  “Now, this is an option, but we want you to come back to Alva. Give it a look around. If you don’t like it, then you are free to go on with your life as you want, or you can join us. We’ve got a lot of people from the Ten Realms, but you’re the second person we have met who is from Earth, though we do suspect that there is someone else who controls a powerful sect or group who might also be from Earth.”

  Tanya stared at Rugrat for some time. “Well, you guys have been busy.”

  “Erik would say that it is a good way to keep us out of trouble.” Rugrat shrugged.

  Tanya let out a soft snort, before she looked at Rugrat, studying him. She would be placing a lot of trust in him, but so far he and his people had all been good to her. She thought back to the camp, to the destruction that she had seen.

  “What do you want from me?”

  “Want? No idea. But we think that it would be better if we brought some Earth thinking, melded it with some Ten Realms know-how and maybe we’ll be able to do a few things that neither would be able to,” Rugrat said.

  “Like what?”

  “Well, you were a factory worker, right? We have a few factories that are up and in operation but they’re not all that efficient. You have seen how a factory works and you could go in there and alter things so that the factory would work. You said that you altered spells and created them. We have people who are able to make magic scrolls and formations, but that’s a lot easier than doing it with spells. Weaving spells together is hard as well as dangerous, but the benefits would be great. As long as you’re safe while doing it, then we could open up a whole new area of study,” Rugrat said.

  “So there’s nothing really set, just try my hand at different things and if I am good at something, then I can do it if I want?”

  “Although Erik and I control Alva and Vuzgal, we allow the people of Alva to work freely. If we force them into jobs, then they’re not going to do very well and it will come to bite us in the ass. We want people to work together, for there not to be any barriers between crafters. Who knows? A few crafters might get together and then they can create something that they would never be able to create by themselves.”

  “What about Tetsu?”

  “Well, he is your pet. You can probably pay the pet stab
les to look after him if you need, but otherwise you can look after him. Just make sure that you clean up after his mess.” Rugrat sighed.

  “That I can do.” Tanya smiled.

  “Good.” Rugrat stood and he shifted his body armor around. “So, are you in or are you out? You can take your time. There isn’t really a rush, but I need to go and deal with something.”

  “I’m in,” Tanya said, taking another jump.

  “Well then.” Rugrat reached out his hand.

  Tanya stood and took it.

  “If you go and you don’t like it, you can take an oath of silence and leave. If you go and you do like it, as long as you pass the tests by the new resident staff, then you will take the Alva citizenship oath and you’re one of us,” Rugrat said.

  “Okay,” Tanya said.

  “Well, let’s get a move on.” Rugrat turned and Tian Cui opened the door. As they left the room, George and Tetsu followed behind. They saw the rest of the team checking their gear, reading, and playing a card game.

  “Okay, let’s head off to the Second Realm,” Rugrat said.

  They left the warehouse some ten minutes later and headed to the totem.

  “I don’t have any mana stones,” Tanya said as they got close.

  “No worries. It’s not that much,” Rugrat said.

  “Not that much?”

  “Well, it used to be. Things change a lot around here. You start to get used to it,” Rugrat said.

  They used the totem and appeared in a new city, where they passed through security and went to a tavern. Rugrat and Gong Jin headed off to a meeting as she went with Tian Cui to a shady corner.

  A merchant appeared, wearing fine robes.

  “Tian Cui!” The merchant smiled.

  Tian Cui broke into smile as well, laughing, and the two of them hugged.

  “So this is where you’ve been. Did I scare you off after you confessed?” Tian Cui winked.

  The merchant gave a cough, looking embarrassed. “There were good opportunities and I needed to make some coin.” The man looked away and blushed.

  “Oh, well, maybe if you asked again instead of running off, you might get a different response,” Tian Cui said.