The Fifth Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  “Instead of listing out instructions, we just give it a command.” Her eyes shifted to another note.

  “High power spells need a lot of instructions to pull the mana and the impurities in order to create the spells. In some areas, it will be easier to complete as the exact ratio of attribute mana is there. Others will take longer and be harder for the change in balance, though many people just cast spells with the mana that is inside their body. It’s as if they’re leaving behind all of the power that is around them. If you cast spells that were suited to the energy in the area, then your spells would be stronger, they would be faster and, damn...” Tanya couldn’t help smiling as her eyes glowed with interest.

  She let out a sigh as her excited expression dimmed and she looked back at Tetsu, who looked at her.

  “Now, the problem is, we need to somehow find just what those commands and those instructions are. Also, I need to increase my Mana Gathering Cultivation faster. I have scheduled visits to the hospital to increase my Mana Gathering Cultivation, to open all of my mana gates. The more mana I can pull in, the closer I can come to being a person created from mana, then the greater control I will have over it naturally. Can’t Rugrat already create a domain? But his spells are still very simple. He has only touched on the stage where his spells can draw in mana from the area to increase its strength, instead of relying on just that mana he can tap into.

  “Guess that one’s personal mana pool is like a water gun—pressurized and it can be used right away, but it is highly accurate as it is under control. Though mana is like being in the rain—there is much more volume but it is impossible to control. At least, it looks that way. The Russians fired artillery shells filled with stuff into clouds and caused it to rain before, manipulating the forces of the world around them. Much stronger than any fire trucks that would have taken months or years to pour out that kind of water in a short period of time. I just need to look for those artillery shells.” She turned from her wall and back to her desks that were covered in books and notes.

  She started to get in on the work, reading through her notes and questions that had come from yesterday’s work. Then, drinking her tea, she started to look through the library records to see whether there might be books that could answer her questions or lead her in the right direction. After noting down a few names, she headed out of her office. Tetsu, seeing that she was leaving, hopped up and followed her into the library. She went to the help desk on the floor but there was no one there. Instead, she could hear people yelling in the back room, which were the offices for the library staff. They were usually quietly working.

  There was a noise of something being tossed to the side before she heard a forced laugh from inside the office.

  She frowned. It wasn’t professional and they were making enough noise that the people studying on the floor looked over in annoyance.

  There isn’t anyone at the desk either! Tanya had the position of a researcher and was being paid by the library, so she felt responsible for it. And when the people who were working there weren’t looking professional, then she felt that it reflected badly on her as well. She went around the desk and headed for the main doors that led into the offices.

  She opened the door to see that the desks that were usually organized had been all moved to the side. There were books all over the place.

  Someone ran in behind her and went to a pile of books and other scrolls and information. They weren’t lined out at all, as there were two people going through them, sorting them out.

  “Fighting art!” one yelled, holding up his hand and tossing it at a librarian, who had to react quickly. Their face paled as they juggled the scroll and then put it into a storage crate.

  “Cooking! Woodworking, cat types, plants!” the other said. They picked up books, checking them and then tossing them back to different librarians, making them jump around as if they were part of a baseball team!

  “What is going on here?” Tanya yelled, seeing the books being tossed around as if they were nothing but cabbages!

  The two men looked up at her. They wore items that made it hard to see anything but their eyes.

  They were wearing dirty body armor! Wait until I report this to Egbert!

  “Ah, Tanya, I heard that Egbert personally hired you to look into mana,” the one man said. His voice was muffled but she felt that he was familiar.

  “Who are you?” she asked, confused.

  “Don’t you—”

  “You’re wearing a mask.” The other man pulled off his helmet and his mask, revealing his blue eyes and brown hair.

  She had never seen him before, but something she had heard about blue eyes made her frown in thought, trying to recall.

  “Oh.” The other man pulled off his helmet.

  Egbert burst into the office and he waved his finger at the two men. “What do you think that you’re doing, tossing around my books!”

  The man with brown hair seemed to realize the state of the room as he looked around and let out an awkward laugh.

  “They’re our books and well, umm...” The other man had removed his helmet and mask, showing it was Rugrat.

  Tanya had heard more about Rugrat and the special teams since she had arrived in Alva. She had heard of their abilities and their power. She had also heard about Erik, but she hadn’t ever seen him. She wanted to jump into a hole.

  I wanted to tell off Erik and Rugrat—they own the entire dungeon and everything in it!

  “I’m waiting!” Egbert had his arms crossed and tapped his foot on the ground.

  “So, when we were in the Fifth Realm, we were getting all of these.” Rugrat pulled out a box of scrolls. Erik did the same.

  “These are Expert-level techniques for the different skills and fighting arts. Then we were thinking about all of the books that we have from Vuzgal. They haven’t all been sorted yet, but they had plenty of money and power. The other groups and sects in the Fourth Realm have to have fighting arts and technique manuals—else why would they have Elites and Masters who were willing to fight for them? Yes, their sect rules make it hard for them to leave, but they would find a way if it was to improve their strength. So the Edar Empire was able to take over a portion of the Fourth Realm, nearly a fifth of a continent—small one, mind you. So they must have some Expert-level stuff. So we rushed back here to look for those books and scrolls,” Rugrat said.

  It was now Egbert’s turn to look awkward. Then the fire in his eyes seemed to burn brighter than ever. There seemed to be some madness contained within.

  “What are you waiting for! Keep searching! Call in all of the librarians and the apprentices!” Egbert snapped out as he used a spell.

  “I will assist! Time to show you my speed reading—fourteen romance novels at one time skills! Get ready!” Egbert yelled as the storage items that contained books and were piled up in crates flew over to him. Books started to fly out of them, appearing in front of him. As they flipped through pages, Egbert read them at hyper speed.

  Books shot out from in front of him, sent toward the librarian “catchers”—who grabbed the books and put them into storage items. As the book shot out, a new one would replace it as he turned into a reading machine.

  Erik and Rugrat went back to the piles in front of them, not looking back as they tossed books back, calling out what kind they were.

  “Tanya, you’re a person of the library! Help out the mana gathering catcher. They’re a bit slower!” Egbert yelled out.

  Tanya wanted to walk out, but seeing the pleading look on the person who was catching the books, she knew that she couldn’t run away.

  She jogged over to them.

  “You take the right side. I’ve got the left!” they said.

  “What kind of library sorts their books like this?” she complained.

  “Ours!” the other person said with panic and fear in their eyes.

  More librarians came in from across the dungeon as people learned that the librarians were fighting it out o
n the fourth floor. Medics were called as people emerged with bruises and cuts, being healed up and rushing back in as if soldiers facing their greatest battle.

  “How can there be so much noise! This is a library!” one yelled out, complaining.

  “Then use a sound isolation formation, Charles! ’Bout time you did something with that studying!” Egbert’s voice cut through the library.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be looking up what kind of subset of the Klosa moss is supposed to be good for pain relief, Jasmine?”

  “Yuan Jie! You still owe me two books. I want them by the end of the day or you can forget about coming back into my library!”

  “Miss Jones, you better study hard for your upcoming cooking exam! You have been focusing on the same kind of food for too long. If you only bake food, then your path will be limited!”

  The spectators quickly turned pale as they started to leave.

  “I was looking for a book on the nature of birds in the mountain range?” a student worked up the courage to ask.

  “Go and check the beast taming section. There is a compendium called First Realms Beasts. It was written by an Alvan beast tamer, has a great deal of information on the animals in the area!” Egbert yelled, still reading and sorting through tens of books as others asked for books and information, answering them easily.

  “I had a question about Alchemy. I have been trying to make the water breathing concoction, Liquid Breath, but it keeps on turning into a flammable mass!”

  “There are three sets of ingredients. Are you mixing the second set of ingredients in the preparation stage or combining them and adding them to the cauldron after the first set of ingredients are combined?” Erik asked.

  “I am adding them ingredient by ingredient, like I did with the first set,” the alchemist said.

  “Read the damn instructions instead of glancing over them! What is your Alchemy rank? Spell scrolls!” Erik sent another book flying.

  The librarian snatched it out of the air, lowering themselves to the ground as their eyes darted around for incoming literature.

  “Low Journeyman?”

  “Are you sure about that or are you asking me?” Erik yelled out. “Smithing, stone working tools!”

  “I am?”

  “Get some confidence there! Even if you are a Journeyman trying to make an Apprentice-level concoction, RTFM—read the freaking manual! If you did, then, while the first set of ingredients are combined inside the cauldron, the second set need to be combined separately and left for twenty minutes at least before they can be added to the concoction. Go and remake it!”

  “Y-yes!” The alchemist ran off to deal with the issue. As others learned that Egbert, Erik, and Rugrat were in the library offering advice, more people appeared in front of the office and started asking their questions.

  “I have been working on making a curved halberd but I am finding that the weapon’s strength isn’t that great.”

  Tanya felt as though the person was trying to hide their voice.

  “Taran, are you still trying to make the blade as thin as possible?” Rugrat yelled out.

  “Well, umm, wait, how did you know it was me?”

  “Well, I know it is now!”

  “Crap!”

  “Make the blade thicker. A halberd mixes sword and pole arm together. The issue is that when stabbing and slicing, with greater momentum it needs higher strength. Use metals enhanced to increase the strength of the blade to deal with the forces that are at play. Also, is it a curved halberd? Are you making the blade a separate piece?”

  “Yes and yes,” Taran said.

  “Does it look like a sword with a blade on the end?” Rugrat sighed.

  “Yes.”

  “Dude! Take that blade and mount it right into the wood. Go and check out the book Polearm Weapons by Bradush Jokai. All kinds of designs in there that are stronger and easier to make,” Rugrat said.

  “Smarter not harder,” Taran said.

  “And it’s learning! I always knew he would grow up to be a big strong smith,” Rugrat said to Erik.

  “Tell me that when I beat you to Expert!” Taran yelled.

  “I look forward to it, short stuff!”

  “Nudist!” Taran yelled back but Rugrat was grinning.

  The day came to an end as the amount of books that they were going through slowed down to a crawl.

  “Let’s take a breather and take stock of the books that we have,” Erik said.

  Rugrat slowed down and Egbert nodded. His eyes looked dull from reading so many books so fast.

  Some of the librarians dropped to the ground, looking dazed as they started eating and drinking from their storage rings.

  “Okay, so we were able to get some books from the higher realms but then we figured that there must be some of them in those that we sent back here to be sorted,” Erik said.

  “And we found the formula to fried chicken!” Rugrat said.

  “And that.” Erik laughed.

  “What is fried chicken? Is it a spell?” Egbert asked.

  “It’s magical, all right,” Rugrat said.

  ***

  Alva was turned on its head with Erik and Rugrat returning and the declaration that there were technique books and combat arts at the library that one could study. People who had been venturing to the other realms to deepen their understanding of their craft or skill now returned to Alva once again.

  Erik and Rugrat, seeing the amount of people coming from all over to read the different manuals and gain a greater understanding, said that they would spend a month in the dungeon before they headed to Vuzgal once again with a selection of the books.

  They sent a few of them up to the crafting academy. With them, Tan Xue and Hiao Xen could draw in more people to join the academy who were at the Expert level or waiting for that final impetus to enter the Expert level.

  The library was busy with people heading to other buildings for quiet study. There were people lined up to read the books while more were uncovered from among the storage rings that Egbert and his librarians sorted through.

  As they went through the books, they found other books that they added to the Alva library shelves. The copies were gathered to be sent up to the smaller Vuzgal Academy library.

  Two more days passed. There was movement from the barracks as Han Wu and his helpers headed through the teleportation array.

  Han Wu was greeted by the sounds of the Earth floor camp. There were those on watch; others were training in a small area that had been cleared for that purpose. Others gathered in the cafeteria, hanging out with one another.

  “So, what have you got for us?” Niemm asked as Han Wu walked out of the teleportation array.

  “I got fire and lots of it, Sarge.” Han Wu grinned.

  “Well, that scares the hell out of me, so the rest of the floor should be trembling in fear.”

  “Thanks, Sarge,” Han Wu said, feeling a little touched.

  “Come on, the higher-ups are waiting at the command post,” Niemm said.

  They walked across the camp to one of the bunkers that was buried half into the ground. Inside, there was Domonos and Glosil.

  “Han Wu, what have you got for us?” Glosil asked.

  “The last of the flammable materials was sent over from the Third Realm. Now the issue is with the delivery method. We want to get this all over the Earth floor and ignite it, burning everything to the ground. The ceiling is too short, so we can’t use the mortars effectively. So...” Han Wu pulled out several spell scrolls.

  “These are Wind Devil spell scrolls. Basically, we activate these, toss in the flammable material, and then the spell will spread it all over the floor, or at least as best as we can while being inside the camp. Then it only needs a spark.” Han Wu pulled out a formation plate. “This is a timed formation plate. So we activate all of this together and it turns the whole floor into a big old flaming mess.”

  “You sure about this?” Glosil asked.

  “Ran
a smaller test in the dungeon and it went well, about a one-ten-thousandth as strong, though,” Han Wu said.

  “Okay. Pack up everyone and get them out of the camp. Special Team One will remain to protect the camp and keep an eye out as Han Wu and his people set up their devices. How long will you need?” Glosil asked.

  “Should take, I’d say, twenty minutes. We’ve got most of it already organized and set up,” Han Wu said.

  “Good. Domonos, how long will it take for us to pack up and move?”

  “Can start moving in forty and then be gone in twenty minutes?” Domonos said, looking at Yui, who nodded.

  “Let’s get to it. We might even control the Earth floor by the end of the day.” Glosil tapped the table and stood.

  Han Wu and his people moved around the camp, positioning different equipment as the rest of the camp gathered their personal items, the extra weapon systems, and valuable items that they didn’t want destroyed.

  Sections moved through the teleportation array, returning to the main floor.

  Once they were all gone, the camp felt desolate as people could run across without running into people.

  They made sure that there were no flames in the area, with Han Wu inspecting the entire camp.

  Special Team One was on the teleportation array, their weapons out and ready.

  “Place the barrels,” Han Wu yelled. It carried across the empty camp.

  Han Wu pulled out barrels that had holes all over them. The thick flammable liquid started to flow out of the sides and across the ground.

  The barrels were on the walls and the concoction flowed out everywhere.

  Han Wu and everyone else headed for the teleportation array.

  Han Wu placed three of the timed formations and put them close to the teleportation array. He made sure that they were ready before he took out his dozens of spell scrolls.

  Clouds appeared from above, turning into tornadoes that stirred up the Earth floor. They covered the entire floor, sucking up the concoction and throwing it out in every direction. The other tornadoes drew in the concoction, spreading it farther.