The Fifth Realm

by Michael Chatfield

“Good.” Erik nodded.

  We’ve got the mana to burn. On the outside, we have them train in our weakest rooms and use their impure mana. The wasted mana turns into power for the formations and the dungeon core to consume, with the purest mana being channeled into the Vuzgal forces, from the academy to the military and the Alva residents. We can’t give visitors all the benefits and not claim our own.

  “I collected all of the available mana stones. I have the stones that I was going to use to pay back the bank for the startup funds.”

  “Best to return those to the bank and allow them back into circulation so that the Battle Arena can stand on its own two feet and turn into a new revenue source for the city,” Erik said. “How many mana stones were you able to collect?”

  “I was able to get one Sky mana stone and four hundred and seventy-three Earth mana stones and forty-nine Mortal mana stones.”

  Erik had a hard time containing his surprise. He had left Vuzgal and the different parts of Alva and their businesses to operate on their own. Most of the funds were liquid, moving from the businesses into the bank to be turned into loans and investments, keeping the money moving and growing the economic power of Alva.

  I knew that we were making some money, but damn!

  “Impressive,” Erik managed to choke out.

  Chonglu seemed a little daunted by the amount of money represented. “I have them secured away.” He moved to his desk.

  Erik stood and followed him.

  Chonglu deactivated a number of formations, having to use his own blood and then Erik needed to use his talisman as well. The safe was made so that funds could only go in and not be brought out unless Chonglu, Hiao Xen, and the Vuzgal treasury director were there to do so. Otherwise it would require Erik or Rugrat to withdraw the funds.

  There was a box inside. Erik looked inside. He could feel the powerful mana coming off a tower of mana stones piled on top of one another. There was no single Sky-level mana stone, but it was just the value of all the Earth and Mortal mana stones equaled one Sky-level mana stone.

  Erik had a bracelet storage item and put the mana stones in there, adding them to the piles of other mana stones. The bracelet let him know just how many stones he had, creating organized stacks of them.

  “Okay, keep up the good work. I’ll see you later,” Erik said.

  Chonglu saw him out to the elevator and Erik descended.

  He felt as though everyone was already conspiring to take his wealth from him.

  He reached the bottom floor and called Gilly out again. They left the Battle Arena; he jumped on her back and took off toward the Associations’ Circle.

  He wore a doupeng to hide his identity.

  Soon, his next destination appeared.

  He dismounted in front of the Blue Lotus location. He felt mixed emotions looking at the building as he stored Gilly away. He had heard about the stunts that their Expert had tried pulling, how their leader had disrespected Hiao Xen.

  They really put Hiao Xen in a bad position. Rugrat did the right thing, being ruthless with those who are ruthless.

  Erik didn’t hide how he was displeased as he walked into the Blue Lotus. The guards bowed to him but Erik didn’t look at them, feeling cold to it all.

  The air around him seemed to become cooler and the mana moved like a snake moving through grass—slow and condensed, as if ready to strike out at any moment.

  People distanced themselves from him as he walked up to the VIP counter.

  He put down his token. “Hurry up,” Erik said.

  The man at the desk gave a weak smile as he quickly took the token and checked it. “The branch head—”

  “Too busy, hurry up,” Erik said, not willing to see the replacement Blue Lotus head. He just saw the Blue Lotus as a cash cow, a professional relationship, with his only close ties being Hiao Xen.

  “I don’t think—” the man started.

  Erik tilted his head and the mana twisted around him. He tapped his finger on the counter.

  The man swallowed as his face paled. “I can take you to a private room and bring the items there?”

  “Good,” Erik said.

  The man came around the counter and took Erik to a luxurious room.

  Someone entered with tea but Erik waved them off.

  The man quickly returned with an official-looking man.

  Erik took the storage item the man was holding, dumping it out and then storing the contents in his bracelet.

  “City Lord—”

  “Good day.” Erik turned and left the official and the man from the counter with sour expressions.

  He left the Blue Lotus and walked across the road to the Alchemist Association. He felt the darkness from the Blue Lotus fade away as he saw the guards there.

  He nodded to them in greeting as he walked in.

  The Alchemist Association was filled with people wearing Alchemy badges. Erik’s face relaxed and he smiled at the younger alchemist students walking around, talking to one another.

  “I heard from my teacher that the ingredients grown in the Vuzgal gardens are up to twenty percent stronger than those grown elsewhere in the Fourth Realm!” an Apprentice alchemist said.

  “We really lucked out. One can only find these growing conditions in the Sixth Realm!” a low Journeyman alchemist said.

  “With the higher potency, my concoctions have become stronger,” another low Journeyman alchemist bragged.

  “Well, that’s because you suck at concocting. Stop wasting such precious ingredients and give them to me!” the Apprentice alchemist complained.

  “Become a Journeyman alchemist and you can get the same treatment as me!”

  “Bah! So unfair!”

  “Look, didn’t we become Journeyman alchemists after coming here? It’s not too hard!”

  The Apprentice alchemist friend muttered dark words under her breath as the other two laughed.

  Erik went to the counter and presented a token.

  “The Alchemist Association head would like to invite you for tea if you have the time,” the man at the counter said with a smile.

  Erik thought about it for a moment before he nodded.

  “Please follow me.” The man came around and led Erik away.

  The people in the Alchemist Association are arrogant, but they are all alchemists. Even with their infighting, they band together. The people from the Blue Lotus are no different, but they are all traders or people from different crafts, which creates more rifts and issues. Alva is made from a large mixture of people as well. We try to foster working together, which makes everyone stronger. Though there have been rifts and drama in different departments and among different people in Alva.

  Erik let out a tired sigh. He wanted Alva to succeed so badly. Although he and Rugrat could guide it, it was too big for them to change individual parts.

  Like what happened with the bandits. As times go on, we’ll need to change our plans to make Alva the best it can be.

  They reached the office of the branch head. He was waiting for them with tea.

  The man from the counter departed.

  “City Lord West, it is good to finally meet you. I am Isaac Paiva, the head of this Alchemist Association.” The man smiled.

  Erik took off his doupeng and gave a quick smile.

  “Here are the mana stones that we have accumulated because of our deal. I have also included our payment for the next six months for renting out the valley gardens.”

  Erik took the storage box and started to transfer the contents.

  “For your contributions and your ability with Alchemy, I also have an invitation for you to attend the Alchemist Association competitions within the Fifth Realm.” He took out a letter and passed it to Erik.

  Erik opened it and read the contents. He scanned the information. Part of this is because of me being the lord of Vuzgal and giving the Alchemist Association concessions, but they still wouldn’t let me into their academies if my skills weren’t good enough. Old Hei
has increased my skill to the point where I can head to the higher realms to learn, but then he is still in the Third Realm, working to increase his ability so that he can become a teacher in one of these academies.

  Erik gripped his fist in agitation, interested in heading to the academy to increase his ability. I will make sure that Old Hei comes with me. Once I get the manuals from the Fifth Realm, then I can share them with him and hopefully he can break through his bottleneck and become accepted as a teacher in the Fifth or Sixth Realm!

  “Is there a time limit on this?” Erik asked.

  “There is not, but this is only an invitation to a selection. You will need to pass that before you can be admitted into the academies in the Sixth Realm,” Isaac said with a smile.

  “What if I went directly to the Sixth Realm?”

  “There are attendance examinations there. This letter would allow you to test there, but the people competing will be stronger.”

  “Makes sense—they need to check out my skill for real and then make sure that only the strongest are accepted. What happens within the academies?” Erik asked.

  “You have a set amount of credits per semester. You can use those for classes. Then, as you contribute to the academy, you can get more of these credits to use on classes and even use them on manuals and ingredients, or other Alchemy related items.”

  Okay, so just as Elan reported.

  “I have business to attend to today, but I will think on it. Is there a time I need to apply?”

  “There is a selection every three months and the invitation is good for one year.” Isaac smiled.

  “Thank you for passing this along.” Erik stood and the two of them said their good-byes.

  ***

  Rugrat looked at the mana stones in his ring. It was only a portion of the money that was going through Vuzgal every day. He had gone to the treasury and asked them to keep back what they could instead of issuing them to new loans, even for a couple of hours. He’d been able to get a few hundred Earth-grade mana stones.

  He sat in Elan’s office. The man was using his sound transmissions, calling in and sending out messengers, reading through pieces of information across his desk.

  Instead of looking tired, he looked energized.

  “You enjoy this, don’t you?” Rugrat asked.

  “Enjoy what?” Elan said as he continued to read. He knew that Rugrat wouldn’t mind.

  “The information, being in the know, in the middle of the web,” Rugrat said.

  “It is rather fun.” Elan smiled slightly and kept on reading. “Information is power. With money, there is power as well, but with this, just a few changes, words in the right ears then it could mean a lifetime of wealth without having to deal with the issues that come with being a trader.” Elan smiled. “It has been a long time since I have felt any real challenge. It has gotten my blood flowing again, being able to get to this stage. I feel like I am in my youth again and that anything is possible and I do not need to sit back and just hope for the world to stay the same, watching my children surpass me. Now we are all working together in different areas, competing with one another!”

  Rugrat nodded, understanding his sentiment.

  Erik opened the door to the office and came in. “George and Gilly are playing in the yard again,” Erik said.

  “Those two really are good friends for each other. Have you been able to find any pills to increase their strength?”

  “One thing at a time. Once we have these arts, then we still have plenty to do. Elan, would you be able to look up academies that would be willing to take in paying students? I am thinking we support some people, like we did with Julilah and Qin, send them to the academies, increase their knowledge and then have them use their insights to teach our people,” Erik said.

  “There are a few places, but the cost is high and a paying student is only an outer disciple, so they get the least amount of access to the academy’s resources.”

  “Failing that, we hire teachers and people from the higher realms.”

  “I can add it to the list.” Elan sighed.

  “Were you able to collect a lot of mana stones?” Rugrat asked.

  “Take a look.” Erik held out his wrist.

  Rugrat looked inside, his eyes widening as he pulled back. “Damn.”

  “Right,” Erik said.

  Rugrat held up his necklace and storage item. He had trimmed the mana stones down in the pillar back pretty far. Instead of cutting them into stone by stone, he’d just carved out massive blocks the size of a person.

  “I think that it should be enough,” Erik said.

  Rugrat nodded as he did some mental calculations. Three Sky stones and 467 Earth, with 891 Mortal in total?

  “I hope so,” Rugrat said.

  “Your guide is a woman called Oilella. She should be able to take you to Arman. I have organized her through a trading contact, telling her that you’re traders looking to go and see the sights. One-way trip. She’ll cost eight Earth mana stones. When you meet her, say it’s a nice day for a stroll in the rain. She will reply, I hear Arman is nice this time of year.”

  “Damn codewords,” Rugrat complained.

  Elan pushed a picture forward of the woman and the two of them memorized her features.

  “They work,” Erik said.

  “What’s the situation in Arman?”

  “Arman is a competition ground. The city is tiny most of the time, but when the different sects in the area want to compete, they go to Arman to do so. The population of the city is about four hundred to five hundred thousand. With the competitions, the number of people in the city doubles to a million or more. This is a map of the city.”

  He pulled out a map; they took it and added it to their own maps.

  “I have highlighted the different trading areas. Each sect takes over an area, with the traders who are allied with them setting up in there and neutral traders having a few other locations. These can be people who found a rare item but don’t have anywhere to sell it, or they’re not big enough to interest the sects, and so on.

  “Then there are the auction houses. The Blue Lotus has locations within the academies and sect’s headquarters as well as their own cities for trading. At Arman, it will be all local grown auctions. The sects may host their own, or the people of Arman will. The biggest auctions are held by the Black Willow auction house. It is an anonymous trading house. Everyone’s identities are hidden unless they choose to reveal them. All kinds of objects are on sale there. The main competitions will involve formations, woodworking, tailoring, and fighting, but the main attractions will be healing, smithing, and beast husbandry.”

  “Beast husbandry?” Erik asked.

  “Rearing animals, strengthening them, making them your own mounts—it is the beast tamer skill,” Elan said.

  “All of that is under beast tamer?” Erik asked.

  “Don’t you have the skill with Gilly and George?”

  Erik and Rugrat looked at each other and shook their heads.

  “I guess that makes sense. You didn’t tame them; they willingly became your contracted beasts. If you were able to get a beast to submit to you, then you would get the skill. Having a beast bound to you and you bound to them with a soul contract means that you can raise other beasts but you won’t be able to make a soul contract with any other beast unless yours dies.”

  “Where did you get all of this information from?” Erik asked.

  “When I was younger, we raised animals and I learned about it. Just a passing interest—learned more of it as I got older.”

  “So there should be more manuals on animal husbandry and smithing and healing?” Rugrat asked.

  “Yes, but it means that the competition for these items will be fiercer. I would suggest getting items not related to these three disciplines. They’ll be cheaper. Then head to another competition with different main skill competitions and then get the books there,” Elan said.

  “Who are the groups there?”


  “There is the Divine Sunset sect, who specialize in destroying everything. They’re largely assassins, but they use formations in their attacks and beasts to increase their fighting strength. Golden Path sect is one of the sects that focus on crafting, or following the golden path, as they say. They have links to the associations. They’re arrogant as hell, but they have the strength behind them to be so. The Agate Sword sect—formations, smithing, and swords are their main crafts. They’re a sect of sword users. They also have a lot of healers and a few alchemists to help temper their fighters and make sure they don’t die in training.

  “The Soul Hammer sect: they cultivate the mind and heart. They’re weapon making demons, woodworking and smiths. They’re usually the winners of these competitions. Rarely talk to others or even one another. And the women of the Silver Garnet sect, the smallest of all the sects at this fight—they take women in and teach them the arts of crafting. They focus on beast tamer and tailoring skills to augment their illusion spells. Their strength comes from working together. It’s said that they all have a similar constitution and look similar. Some say that they’re all just twins of the original sect leader, created through some forbidden art. They’ve got formidable fighting formations, their clothes serving to enhance their magical power and the beasts to give them close range support. Pissing off one is pissing them all off.

  “Well, that can go for them all. If you get into a fight or altercation, end it in a way so that they would look like they’re sullying their reputation to deal with you. These are proud people. Reputation is more important to them than anything. Thankfully, you two are shameless, so you should be fine. Also, although they are arrogant, they put a lot more thought into attacking someone. These are all-powerful figures—they plan out their actions, gather information and plot before they act.”

  “So a smile now and a knife in the back later,” Erik said.

  “Saying we’re shameless?” Rugrat asked.

  “Exactly,” Elan said, apparently answering both of their questions at once.

  “Relationships?”

  “They all hate one another in degrees. The Soul Hammer and Silver Garnet are close. Same for Divine Sunset and Golden Path. These two groups also hate one another: Soul Hammer against Golden Path, and Silver Garnet against Divine Sunset. The Agate sect is the strongest sect but they mostly keep to themselves, focus on developing their strength. On the surface, at least. They’re playing a political game underneath: keep the other sects fighting, allowing them to use the competition to increase the strength of their people without getting caught up in costly rivalries, decreasing the strength of the other groups.”