“Smart,” Erik said.
“And dangerous,” Elan reminded them and pulled out folders. “This is the basic information on the sects and a few of the important players.”
Erik and Rugrat looked over the folders as well as the drawn images of the different people. There were elders, crafters who were held in high regard, different star students who were on the rise and had plenty of people looking out for them.
The list was long, so Erik and Rugrat split them up between them.
Elan worked on his own reports and continued to pass his orders and messages to his information network and agents.
“How is your network going?” Erik asked as he was reading.
“As you said, I used some of the people who decided that the military wasn’t for them and others who were looking for a challenge, and had them build up their own networks or placed them into networks that were established but needed someone to maintain them. For other contacts, they don’t even really know who they’re working for. They think that we’re another group and eagerly supply us with information, trying to get at people they don’t like. The Fourth Realm has become our new base of power as there are people going to the Third Realm to get Alchemy products. People from the higher realms come here to fight and crafters from here move between the Earth realms with ease. A word in the right ear, the right pressure in the right places—we’ve extended our reach all the way to the Seventh Realm, where the Sha leadership is located.”
“Oh?” Erik and Rugrat looked up.
“The leader of the sect has a strange interest in buildings and aesthetics. These are images of the buildings he lives in.” Elan put forward an image.
“That looks...” Rugrat said.
“Pretty European. That’s a lot of sandstone-looking building and then there’s gold all over it. And the garden is all made to look pretty. Is there a formation in all of that?”
“There might be, but if it is, then it’s probably buried underground,” Rugrat said.
“Reminds me of that fancy French palace,” Erik said.
“Fancy French palace? When were you in France?”
“Second wife.”
“Ah! The V palace something?” Rugrat said.
“Versailles?”
“Wasn’t that a battle or something from the First World War?”
“I think they made the treaty there to end the First World War,” Erik said.
“So, then this guy might be French?” Rugrat asked.
“Old, old French. They’re still using front loaders and he built a palace instead of apartments or something like it. Maybe they wanted a bit of France?”
“Or maybe they like role-playing period pieces?” Rugrat said.
“Well, it pretty much yells that they’re from Earth,” Erik said.
“And they started to appear nearly three hundred years ago.” Rugrat sat back in his chair. “So this guy had to have come from Earth a long time ago.”
“Maybe coming over here, time gets messed with?” Erik asked.
“That’s pretty weak,” Rugrat drawled.
“Right. Let’s assume he came here a few hundred years ago.”
“Then that would make sense. For them, this is modern. They only had front loaders around then. Also, if people disappeared from Earth, there wasn’t news and internet so it might just be ignored and the information disappear,” Rugrat said.
“Well...” Erik scratched his head and held his chin as he tried to find any flaws in Rugrat’s logic. “Yeah, it makes sense. Though do we want to reach out, or wait?”
“Wait. Just because we’re from the same place doesn’t mean that we’ll agree on everything. If we don’t have the strength and he wants what we have, he could destroy everything we’ve set up in Vuzgal,” Rugrat said.
“Keep them under observation but do nothing for now.”
“Understood,” Elan said.
“You memorized your people?” Erik asked.
“Yeah,” Rugrat said.
“Fifth Realm?” Erik asked.
“Hell yeah.” Rugrat grinned.
Erik and Rugrat stood.
“You’ll find your guide in the Black Boar Wayside Inn,” Elan said, giving them both waypoints.
“Call if you need us,” Rugrat said.
The two of them walked out of the room.
Rugrat shifted his armor around, making sure it was on properly, checking his gear was all ready to go before he let his cloak cover it all again.
“Good?” Erik asked. He had done the same check.
“Yeah, let’s git ’er done,” Rugrat said.
They headed out and walked through the city. In their cloaks, no one paid them much attention—just two more people in Vuzgal.
“Vermire should be making a move soon to create that central range trading city,” Rugrat said, using his sound transmission device so no one would be able to hear them.
“They have the necessary support?” Erik asked.
“Yeah. Jasper has even passed on his recommendation that we hire some of the guards, give them opportunities to go to the higher realms or join the First Army. Their strength is much higher than others in the First Realm and they’re just restrained by the power there,” Rugrat said.
“What’s the plan with Vermire?” Erik asked.
“Make the city?”
“No, like the end plan. Do we want them to control all of the outposts there? Create a country? What?”
Rugrat drew in a breath through his teeth before letting it out slowly. “Have them take over the outposts, put them all under his control, and our control. Turn it into our territory, have them remain neutral on the surface, but underneath they’re our agents.”
“Makes sense. They can be our protection and our sword in the First Realm,” Erik said.
“You talked about the healing houses...anything happening on that front?” Rugrat asked as they wove through people who came together and then spread out as they passed different stalls with intriguing items.
“I had lands set aside for them. Many of them have been busy studying. When we come back, I want to move them into the healing locations across the city and into the Battle Arena.”
“What about the other healing houses or sects that deal in healing?”
“Most of them won’t try to offer their services to people outside of their sect, much like how alchemists won’t look to sell outside of the sect if they can help it, looking to improve their own strength before others. Never know on the Fourth Realm who might be your friend one day and your enemy the next,” Erik said.
“So with us healing them?” Rugrat drawled on.
“With us healing them, then the healing houses will get more people to come over, like how the Healer’s Association have the largest transient populations within the cities they’ve set up in and are one of the largest powers in the Fourth Realm.”
“They didn’t join the Associations’ Circle, though?” Rugrat said.
“No, they didn’t. We are a crafting city and for them, that doesn’t bring as much business. The Battle Arena increases the number of people who are hurt, but still it’s not as much as the big fights that happen all across the realm. They’ve positioned their cities in the middle of the lands that have the most conflicts.”
“If we start healing people and bringing them here, will they get pissed?”
“We’re just doing it because they’re not. Even if they do, then they can create a branch here. They can’t really affect us much. We’ve got alliances with most of the associations anyway and our supplies come from the traders. They would have to lock down the entire realm to try to cut off our supplies; then we could just get them from the higher realms. And we’re a crafting city—we produce items and we’ve got a ton of raw materials coming in from the dungeons and the valley. The alchemists wouldn’t be too happy with having their supplies cut off,” Erik said.
“I guess it pays to have allies,” Rugrat said.
“If w
e don’t have the power, we need to leverage the people who do have power.”
“That some Sun Tzu quote?”
“Maybe? No idea. Just sounded right.” Erik shrugged.
They were near the Black Boar. There were all kinds of people looking around as they entered the city, taking it all in. Others were leaving or coming in, their expressions and actions showing that they’d done so tens of times before.
Erik moved to the side of the road. Rugrat frowned as he did so as well.
Erik waved to a server. “Two teas please,” he said.
“West?” Rugrat asked.
“She’s not going anywhere.” Erik took a seat.
Rugrat took the seat opposite, looking over the people in the shop and then the people moving along the streets.
Traders were guided out of the totem defenses and sent down the larger transport roads, heading to the warehouses to unload their goods that would be shipped across the city.
There were people of all kinds, with clothes that spanned styles of the Earth realm: The cold-eyed fighters, the open-eyed youngsters. The hopefuls looking at their new future. Scions with money to spend, on top of their powerful mounts or riding in ornate carriages.
Traders called out goods while restaurants filled up with people who had just arrived or were awaiting their time slot to leave the city.
The light around the totem never stopped flashing as people entered and left in a constant stream.
There was a group of the Vuzgal Defense Force patrolling. They held repeaters and the special armor and helmets of the Vuzgal military.
The fighters looked at them with scorn or sized them up for a fight. But under it, there was a respect as they looked at their weapons and the two skeletons that walked behind them, one encased in powerful armor with a high Journeyman-level sword, the other wearing a mage’s robes, rings, and finery.
“Even though we’ve been able to train them up, we’ll need more time to increase their attribute strength,” Rugrat said.
Erik followed his eyes over. “Yes, but we’ve expanded in numbers rapidly over the last couple of months. Once we increase their strength, we need to send them out to real fights. Otherwise, if we need them in a real fight, they’ll only be guards.”
“Who would we fight? We don’t have any real big enemies,” Rugrat said.
“We don’t? What about the Willful Institute and the Stone Fist sect? The Willful Institute don’t know who we are but after what they did to Domonos and they tried to kill us as well...” Erik said.
Rugrat’s eyes chilled.
“Elan is looking into it,” Erik said.
“What do we do if we destroy them?”
“Auction off the cities. We don’t need them—resources we do,” Erik said. “The Stone Fist sect must know that we did something, or that I did something. Mira acted after I met her and then when Chonglu reappeared again, here in Vuzgal, as the Battle Arena manager, with both of his children attending the academy.”
“Will we need to deal with them or will Mira?” Rugrat said.
“If we can work with the Fighter’s Association, even better—bring us closer. They’re a group we want to have on our side. They raise the strongest fighters in the Ten Realms.”
Erik went quiet as the tea arrived.
Erik paid the server and Rugrat took a glass.
“Thanks.” Rugrat then sipped on the tea.
They fell into silence, enjoying the tea and watching the world go by in front of them.
“We were lucky enough to find the right people to manage all of this while we’re gone,” Rugrat said.
“Elise is developing the trade within the city and using the trading interface on behalf of the city to make massive profits. The Sky Reaching Restaurant is controlled by the cooking department. The academy is an arm of the Kanesh Academy in Alva. Yui and Domonos have been able to train up people to take over the training of new recruits, increasing the Vuzgal Defense Force and take in new members in to the First Army,” Erik said.
“Who are able to operate on their own, clearing out the Earth floor. But I heard that they hit a problem?”
“Yeah, the creatures weren’t the threat—the plants were. So they’ve been trying to create a napalm-like concoction with the alchemists to burn down the forests on the floor.” Erik sipped his tea.
“You seem pretty calm about it.”
“I read a report from Fehim. If they burn the floor to the ground, then it can clear it all for new plants to be grown. We’ve been losing farming land to building on the Alva floor. We can turn the entire Earth floor into one big farming area: Alchemy at the center, food on the exterior. The floor is almost twice the size of the Alva floor. Without buildings in the way, it’ll be a lot easier to manage for the farmers and alchemists. Also, it shows that Glosil is thinking outside the box. Instead of fighting his way through, he’s using the resources of Alva to make it easier on him and the First Army.”
Rugrat sipped his tea and looked at the colorful street again. “What a damn life we live.” Rugrat laughed, before his thoughts turned deeper. “What do you think we would have been doing back on Earth?”
Erik’s hand stilled as he was raising his cup to his mouth. He continued the motion, draining most of it in a shot.
“Being a one-armed bandit,” Erik said.
Rugrat grimaced internally, he’d half forgotten the state Erik had been in before they made it to the ten realms.
“My bad,” Rugrat said.
Erik waved off his apology and let out a sigh.
“If I had all my limbs still, fighting for someone else’s war, just trying to keep ourselves and our friends alive. Riding the adrenaline wave, trying to make the world a bit better with our actions, or at least safer for the people we’re protecting. Maybe wasting away in Colorado, catching up on my fishing and hunting, reading a bit here and there. Maybe get a few dogs. Take up a hobby? I doubt it though, always thought that I would die with my boots on.”
“Amen to that brother,” Rugrat said, raising his glass to the other man in salute. He drank from it and the table became silent, each of them wrapped up in their own thoughts.
“We live for this, don’t we?” Rugrat asked.
“What do you mean?”
“The fighting, the challenges, the crushing stress: the fear of failure, running that line of chaos and destruction. Somehow we made it to this point and got to this place but we’re not sitting back, getting comfortable, raking in the mana stones. Instead, we’re heading to the Fifth Realm, to see what’s there, getting art books to increase our strength, our people’s strength and go further. What’re we gonna do at the end of it all?”
“Who knows. We’ll find that out when we get there. There’s still plenty of the realms to see, and I like helping out the little people.” Erik drank his tea and put down the empty glass. “We aren’t even halfway there yet.”
Rugrat chuckled and finished his tea.
They left the tea shop and walked toward the Black Boar.
Rugrat saw Oilella first, nudging Erik as they moved across the tavern to a woman sitting back and sipping a beer. She had tanned skin from being caught out in the sun for too long. Her hair was pulled back into braids, with pieces of metal and jewelry weaved into them.
“It’s a nice day for a stroll in the rain.”
She smiled lazily as she put down her beer. “I hear Arman is nice this time of year.”
“You ready to leave?” Rugrat asked.
“Yes. And the payment?”
Erik pulled out a bag that clinked as he put it on the table.
She looked inside. A glow appeared on her face as the surrounding mana increased slightly. She put it away.
“Shall we?” She smiled, pulling on her worn cloak and then pulling on a small pack with different items hanging off it.
She tossed a few Mortal mana stones on the table and adjusted the goggles on her head.
“After you,” Rugrat said.
&nbs
p; She led the way through the inn’s bar and toward the totem.
“So first time to Arman?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Erik said.
“Well, should be some good trading there with the competition, though still not as nice as Vuzgal. This place is the trading mecca of the Earth Realm—neutral, crafters all over the place, food, real food, Battle Arena, and increased mana. Though expensive place to try to get some land. The city lords won’t even open it up, just renting it to people, but everyone is willing to pay it. Even have rent auctions. Those people who came in and got their places first could just rent out their land again—they could make a killing!
“Have you ever seen the southern wilderness? They say it’s wild but there’s just a lot of beasts. It’s warm all year round. Even in the cold months, it’s the same as the northern regions summer months!
“I heard that more of the Sky Reaching Restaurants will be opening soon—say that they had to hire enough cooks for them, but then only one in five people who applied made it through to become chefs. And most of them still aren’t high enough skill level for the restaurants. I had a meal in there once. Took me two hours to eat one meal, just so good!”
Oilella kept on like that, continuing her own conversation for their benefit as Erik and Rugrat nodded and made noises as if they were listening.
Damn, she can talk more than my cousin Samantha!
They got to the totem. Oilella accessed the menu and destination with practiced hands.
Light surrounded them and they were in a new city.
A torrential downpour soaked Erik and Rugrat in moments.
Elan is probably laughing his ass off, Rugrat thought darkly as Oilella led them over to the gates leading into the city.
“Welcome to Arman and to the Fifth Realm!” Oilella smiled, perfectly happy in the rain.
The Fifth Realm Page 41
