The Fifth Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  “No, but the underground auction should have harder-to-find manuals and arts, and those aren’t directly linked to the competition as there are other people coming from all over to bid on these items, simply using the competition as a cover.”

  They left the room and headed out of the auction house. People from the auction house bowed to them as they entered the streets and went to find somewhere to eat.

  “Looks like we’ve got some people tailing us,” Rugrat said.

  “How do you know?”

  “Check that mana around your body. You will feel a magical symbol attached to your body. With a surge of mana, you could erase it, but then people would be more suspicious.”

  “Well, we are trying to make people leave us alone,” Erik said.

  “That makes sense. I’m thinking like a combatant instead of some arrogant prick with money to spend.”

  Erik sensed with his mana domain there was an ovaloid around him where he could sense the mana flow and direct it easier, allowing him much higher control over mana outside his body.

  He could feel all of the mana around him, including the linked mana that was resting on his skin.

  Erik sent a surge of mana into it, breaking the connection and clearing himself of any tracking spells.

  ***

  “What were you able to find out?” Elder Dai asked as he sipped on some tea. He wore the symbol of the Golden Path sect and was the same man who had pressured Erik and Rugrat with his mana aura.

  “They got the items and then left the auction house. We had people follow them, but then their tracking spells were destroyed after they were affixed to their bodies. We have tried to compile information on who they are and where they come from. It looks like, based on the others who are tracking them, they shouldn’t be from one of the other sects in the competition.”

  “So are they people from another sect? Are they from one of the associations? Or are they just on their own? We need to know their backer. We can’t make a move until we do,” Elder Dai warned in a grave tone.

  The spy cupped his fists. “We know that they came through the totem. They did have a guide with them, though she has already left.”

  “Do we know where she went?”

  “To the Fourth Realm, to Vuzgal.”

  “Vuzgal, the crafting city?” Elder Dai held his tea in mid-air.

  “Yes, Elder.”

  Elder Dia let out a sigh and drank from his tea, but his eyes were open, thinking and analyzing before he came to a decision.

  “Until we are able to find out what their background is, no one is to do anything. If she went to Vuzgal, she might have come from it as well. They could be two Elites sent by a sect that is fighting in the Fourth Realm, sent here to gather items to increase the strength of their sect. We might be strong in terms of crafting, but many of the Sixth Realm sects fight in the Fourth. We must be careful!”

  “I will make sure to gather the information as quickly as possible and have people watching them and warning others in the sect to not cause issues.” The spy bowed.

  “Good.” Elder Dai sent him off.

  Other meetings with similar contents were being held in other locations in the city as the mysterious duo caused a stir within the upper echelons of the sect leadership.

  ***

  “Hope you have a good lunch,” Erik said as he cheered Rugrat’s Stamina potion with his own and drank it.

  Rugrat put it down and nodded with approval. “Tastes like melted mint chocolate chip.”

  “Yeah. I thought that the old flavors weren’t really cutting it. Worked up a new formula. It takes a few more herbs and spices but it’s much tastier. I was even able to make one that is close to hot sauce.”

  “Man, you know what I miss?”

  “No, but I’m sure you’ll tell me.”

  “Chicken wings—spicy honey, with a side of burn-your-mouth-off red beans and rice. Mmmm. Damn, I could go for some of that. Bit of cornbread. Oh, bacon—bacon, man! Bacon and grits!”

  “Will you get focused? You’re making me hungry, jackass.”

  “I wonder if we can get Jia Feng to try it out?”

  Erik actually paused. “Well, if we could tell her the basics, I don’t see why not. Like, we know how it goes, but you ever made chicken wings?”

  “No, but I know how to make cornbread and red beans and rice. Would need to talk to the farmers about getting something similar and then testing that out.”

  “Hash browns, man. Oh, damn, I could go for some hash browns. You know, the—”

  “Patties, not the jumbled-up, cut-up potatoes on the side. Yeah, I know.” Rugrat nodded.

  Erik looked outside and started to stand, wiping his face. “We’ve got to go. It’s about time for the auction.”

  They settled up and moved through the city. They went through the recreational district. There were bars and spas mixed among different places selling Stamina potions and drinks. Food still took up too much precious space, but alcohol could be combined with different cultivation aids, increasing one’s cultivation passively and helping them recover.

  They went to a building that was a little away from the others. No one loitered outside its entrance; a guard simply stood there.

  They nodded to him and he allowed them past.

  Inside, there was a large bath house. People walked around the entrance wearing their bathrobes.

  They walked up to the counter and a man smiled at them.

  “A bath for two or separate baths?”

  “Auction,” Erik said in a low voice so others wouldn’t be able to hear.

  The man’s eyes flashed in interest, looking at the duo. “Please, for the special, come with me.” The man guided them back through bathing rooms that were separated by sliding doors. People were having meetings; others were having a bit more heady fun as the noises of men and women reached Erik and Rugrat.

  They entered an empty room. The man closed the door and pressed a secret button on the wall between the two large baths in the room.

  A set of illuminated stairs was revealed. The man bowed and waved them forward.

  Erik and Rugrat went down the stairs, finding that they were in a bright and well-lit underground room. People moved about, coming down from other Ikazi bath houses dotted across the city.

  Many wore masks or had cast spells on themselves, making it hard for one to see their appearance.

  Erik and Rugrat hadn’t changed their appearances since the auction earlier, so a few people looked at them, wondering whether they were the same two people who had stirred up the earlier auction, going up against the Agate Sword sect and the Divine Sunset sect.

  Erik and Rugrat reached the counters at the entrance.

  “Two entrance tickets,” Erik said.

  “Regular, or VIP seats?”

  “Regular,” Erik said. “As long as we can see the items.”

  “Two Earth-grade mana stones as deposit.”

  Erik waved his hand. Four appeared on the counter.

  The man nodded and quickly took the stones, and then passed them each an entrance medallion.

  They took them and walked past the guards into the large hall where people were gathering, reading the different information that was dotted around the room relating to the objects that were up for sale. There were also drinks on offer.

  Erik and Rugrat moved to the boxes that had arts and techniques in them.

  They scanned the boxes. They moved quickly, ignoring others and the looks that they were getting from people.

  “Do you think that is the mysterious duo?” Auctioneer Yu Li asked his boss and the leader of the Ikazi baths, Wen Rong.

  “Does it matter as long as they abide by the rules?” Wen Rong glanced over the two and then scanned the rest of the room.

  “All of the sects have brought someone,” Yu Li said.

  “If they can get their hands on the Oleha fruit, then they can possibly split it and then start to create their own fruits and grow the st
rength of their beasts. All of them have to use beasts moving from place to place and they’re invaluable guards that will have no fear, unlike human guards,” Wen Rong said, seeing through these sects.

  “I will be sure to bring us the highest price!” Yu Li promised.

  “I expect no less.”

  Wen Rong’s words seemed light but Yu Li’s expression seemed to become a bit weaker.

  “It’s about time for the auction to start.” Wen Rong turned and left Yu Li.

  ***

  Erik and Rugrat went into the main auction hall as the doors were now open.

  “Did you make a list?” Erik asked via sound transmission.

  “Of course,” Rugrat said.

  They took their seats as the people filed into the auction hall.

  As people finished seating themselves, a middle-aged man walked out on stage. He looked simple but there was a dangerous way he moved, as if assessing everyone in the room. This was an underground auction, after all, selling items that had been stolen or had dark pasts. Although they were kind on the surface, they had dark roots.

  “Hello, everyone. Thank you for attending our auction today. My name is Yu Li and I will be the auctioneer tonight! First up, we have a rare enhancing material that can be used in smithing, the Goldencaste ore!”

  The crowd’s energy built up as different items were brought out. Their quality was much higher than the items that were held in the previous auction.

  “I think that being a dark auction, they’re only willing to put up items that are sure to get them a profit. Anything that will get them small grievances to sell it but aren’t worth that much money aren’t worth it,” Rugrat said as they continued to sit there and wait.

  “The formation technique is up next,” Erik said.

  “We have a formation technique up for auction next! To use it, one will need to create a formation that gains the approval of the technique and then they can get the information within. Thoroughly studying the technique, we believe that a high Expert-level formation technique is located inside.”

  “With risks comes opportunity,” Rugrat said.

  “How sure are you that the people in the formation workshop will be able to unlock this scroll?”

  “I am not sure at all. Though I think that it will prove as a challenge for them—make them create more and more formations in order to open it, increase the power of their formations. Give them a goal to work toward and then promise resources to the person who opens it,” Rugrat said.

  “Sneaky,” Erik said with approval, nodding underneath his doupeng.

  “We will start the bidding at fifty Earth mana stones, increasing by a minimum of ten mana stones.”

  “One hundred and fifty.” Rugrat’s voice contained a challenge. He spoke as soon as Yu Li had stopped.

  People were shocked.

  “Why not increase the price slowly?”

  “There are many who are interested, but how can one be so interested to increase the price by three times?”

  “Maybe they have a key to open it?”

  “A key to open it?” Another scoffed at the person’s suggestion. “And I will just accidentally drink a potion that will allow me to ascend to the Seventh Realm in one shot!”

  The rest of the auction hall looked at the two people. Once again, the scenes from earlier that morning played through everyone’s heads.

  “It must be those two from that earlier auction!”

  “They only bid on the technique manuals and the arts there as well. Are they looking to buy them all up?”

  “What does it matter? They’re not the main attractions at the auction.”

  “Talk for yourself—the Vivid Art mid-Expert level painting art shall be mine!”

  “Are there any more bids?” Lu Yi looked out at everyone, but the momentum had been lost. There was interest and curiosity that could be stoked, but hearing the price already reach such a stage, everyone felt as if cold water had been dumped on their spirits. They didn’t want to compete for what might just be some unlockable scroll in the end!

  “Sold to the gentleman in the floor area! Next, we have a Blood Ruby healing tool. It is sure to help one recover their lost vitality! It is a rare tool that is hard to find and harder to create, using monster cores and others’ life force!”

  “Nasty piece of kit,” Rugrat said.

  “Yeah, just sucking the power out of someone to be used by someone else. Though, it is the way of the Ten Realms.”

  The auction continued. As each technique manual came up, Erik or Rugrat would bid on it. When the bids went higher than they wanted, they would stop, not influenced by the atmosphere as the people who had been bidding found themselves paying a massive amount for the goods. Fewer people started to compete with them as it seemed as though they had an endless amount of mana stones, but didn’t go above a certain amount.

  “We have a bow art, the Dancing Archer, increasing one’s speed and the strength of their attacks! Bidding will start at eighty mana stones!”

  The price raced upward.

  “One hundred and seventy,” Rugrat said.

  “Eighty!”

  “Ninety!” Another looked around in challenge.

  “Two hundred,” Rugrat said simply.

  “Two ten!” the first yelled out.

  Rugrat sat back in his chair. The bidder seemed to be waiting for more of a reaction but there wasn’t one coming.

  “I wonder what we can have for dinner?” Rugrat asked.

  “Fish or meat?”

  “Could go for some catfish, or oysters,” Rugrat said.

  “You sure you don’t want the bow art?”

  “Well, I would be interested in the increased movement speed and it might be useful for some people, but we don’t really need more strength with our weapons. We don’t need to pull back on a string, after all.”

  “We have another locked artifact. This one is a compendium of smithing blueprints. One will need to complete a trial for the scroll in order to gain access to it. We believe that there are thirteen blueprints inside and none of them are below the Expert rank.”

  This created a stir. Most of the people who had come to the competition had a smithing background or smiths in their group. Smithing was one of the easier skills to get into as it could be completed in any realm without needing too many resources that were hard to attain.

  “Bidding will start at one hundred Earth mana stones!”

  “Three hundred!” Rugrat said.

  “He did it again!”

  “Three times the base price!”

  The different people shied away from saying anything.

  “Three ten!”

  “Three hundred and fifty,” Rugrat said.

  The challenger was quiet, staring at Rugrat.

  “Truly, the rich can step on any other! How much money do they have? Do they live on a mana stone mine?”

  “Well, they aren’t wrong.” Rugrat laughed through his sound transmission as the scroll made its way over to them.

  “This item needs no introduction as I am sure you know it—the Oleha fruit. An item that can raise the bloodline purity of beasts and increase their fighting prowess dramatically. They are rare to find in the wild as the groups that have them control their distribution tightly. I can tell you that this is not only a fruit, but it is a blossoming fruit!”

  There was a stir in the crowd and Erik raised an eyebrow. So this is why the sects are interested in it so much. They must have gotten information on this beforehand.

  If cultivated carefully, then it could turn into a tactical resource for the sect, allowing them to increase their strength. As no one knew one another’s identities here, no one would be able to find out who the winner of the fruit was, so the sect or group could raise it in secret. Also, it allowed people from different sects that weren’t as big as the main competitors to fight for it as they didn’t have to worry about the larger sects finding out their identity at the auction.

 
; “I can sense you’re all eager to start the bidding! We will start at no base price and anyone can increase by any price, including mana stones and gold.”

  The room went quiet as people looked at one another, and then burned with a fiery passion.

  It was a war of wealth. One could use everything at their disposal to go against one another. If they had just one more gold coin, then they could win!

  The atmosphere only increased in intensity as people from across the room leaned forward.

  “Let us begin the auction!” Yu Li smacked his hammer and there was a flurry of noise.

  “Two hundred Mortal mana stones!”

  “Two hundred and-twenty!”

  He couldn’t keep up with the bids being called out.

  “Three hundred Earth, forty Mortal!”

  The bidding started to cool down as there were less and less people able to compete with one another. Some people sent out their people to collect more mana stones so that they could bid higher.

  “Three hundred and twenty Earth, four hundred Mortal!”

  “Three hundred thirty!”

  “Three forty-five.”

  “Three forty-seven.”

  “Three eighty-two!”

  “Shall we bid?” Rugrat asked through sound transmission.

  “No need to show off. We can find Alchemy formulas and work with our beasts on the healer side to increase their strength,” Erik said.

  “Well, how do they have so few mana stones?”

  “So few? The sects might be powerful places, but most of their money is put toward increasing the strength of their people or in different ventures. They are powerful, yes, but that is due to their people’s strength. They have to give out resources to these people. They have classes to run, people to pay. Their liquid funds are limited. We own Vuzgal, but as for our resources, we’re just using the resources that we looted from Vuzgal or what the teams have collected from the dungeons we control. Our costs are much lower and people pay us to learn at our academies. We don’t fork out resources to them unless we hire them and we can directly see their results and increase our strength. We also, literally, have mana stone mines and attract a ton of people to trade in the city with our low tax rates and high quality goods. Then throw in rent—the sects have that too, but then they’re hosting most of their own people, instead of getting money from others.”