Erik reviewed the books in his hands: Scan, Abnormal Beast Mount fighting techniques, Illusionary Fist spell, Unhallowed Strike, and Shade’s Covering.
Erik took the Scan book.
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Scan
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Journeyman
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Gain a deeper understanding of your opponent’s weaknesses.
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Cast: 50 Mana
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Erik thought about his Simple Inorganic Scan and his information on the human body and other animals he had come to know.
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Combat Scan
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Journeyman
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Gain a deeper understanding of your opponent’s physical and technical weaknesses. More advanced information available on species you have studied.
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Cast: 50 Mana
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For teaching yourself a Journeyman-ranked spell, you gain: 500,000 EXP
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He continued, pulling out the Illusionary Fist spell.
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Illusionary Fist
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Apprentice
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Create an illusionary fist.
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Cast: 50 Mana
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He cast the spell, interested. A fist appeared from his shoulder as he imagined it.
Can I increase the realistic look of the fist? Erik altered the appearance of the fist and the arm so that they looked to be closer to the real version.
Erik fell into building it out; he started to trace out the muscles and the veins as well as the bones.
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Semi-Illusionary Fist
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Journeyman
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Create a fist formed from mana. Hits for 25% of normal attack power.
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Cast: 150 Mana
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If I could combine the Illusionary, the Semi-Illusionary, and my own fists, then wouldn’t it be hard or nearly impossible for someone to figure out where the attack is coming from?
Erik excitedly opened up the Unhallowed Strike.
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Unhallowed Strike
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Journeyman
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Imbue your fist with necrotic damage. Can harm over time. Three second duration.
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Cast: 100 Mana
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Erik’s head spun from all of the information that had been stuffed into it in the last few minutes.
“My damn head,” Erik complained. “Feels like when I was consuming all of those books on Alchemy.”
Rugrat had laid down at some point in time. “Ow, ow, ow.” He was using his hand in the air as he reviewed information in his spell and skill books.
Erik sat down on the edge of the stage and pulled out the books for him and Gilga.
Her books turned into a ray of light and entered her brow. She frowned and found a comfortable plot of stage and laid down, closing her eyes and concentrating.
Erik read the book.
“There are just a few things that people need to take into account when fighting alongside their beast: their size, how they move and act with and without a rider, and how they attack with and without a rider. The rider and the mount must fight together and understand how the other moves and anticipate their attacks to overlap theirs, fluidly defending and attacking, sometimes doing both at the same time.” Erik moved past the foreword. There were chapters listed out for different attacks that a beast might use and how the master should react, good positioning, and how to know when their beast was going to attack.
“Looks more like dancing than it looks like fighting, like learning the tango all over again. First I need to know what these new attacks do, so then I can try to figure out how to work Gilly’s and my fighting style together.”
Erik stood up, having recovered some. He headed to the closest mannequin and checked his mana. It had recovered completely.
“Still, my Mana Regeneration is much higher than my mana pool.”
He threw out a semi-illusionary fist. He jabbed forward and it hooked. Both attacks registered.
Erik fired out a hook, and three illusionary fists jabbed in different directions, with one semi-permanent fist within and one semi-illusionary and an illusionary uppercut.
Five hundred mana drained out of him as the hits registered on the mannequin, causing it to rock back and forward.
Erik felt drained again but he was recovering quickly, an ecstatic look on his face.
He used Unhallowed Strike. His fist appeared darker as he struck out. The spell hit the mannequin, leaving a mark and passing over its body before disappearing.
Erik pulled out the last spell book.
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Shade’s Covering
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Apprentice
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Cover an area fifteen meters wide in darkness.
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Cast: 125 Mana
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Erik cast the spell and the area above the stage turned dark. He used his Night Vision to see through it.
“If I was to combine the spells for the different fists spells together, could I also add Night Vision and Shade’s Covering—=”
His head went off like an explosion.
Chapter: Vuzgal’s Land of Experts
Bai Ping walked back to the apartments that he lived in with the members of his family who had decided to stay. They had little after leaving their homes. With the military, the Vuzgal Academy, and the Vuzgal administration needing people, they had applied.
They had been accepted, even with their low levels. It was as if the people of Vuzgal didn’t care about levels. Bai Ping’s uncle, Bai Xuegang, had warned them to do their best. Some who had started to slack off were directly kicked out. Vuzgal did not suffer fools easily.
They hired and fired people constantly. Only those who worked hard and well with others remained. The Vuzgal administration was still small, but they were potent. Plans and action were quick to be drawn out and discussed and then applied instead of being held up.
Bai Ping had finished training as a regular recruit, only to be thrown into the next training group for the sharpshooters. He had thought he knew how to shoot before but the course was much more in-depth. He learned about sensing spells, how to defeat them, how to call in supporting fire from mages, from mortars. Scouting ahead of a path they were traveling, or scouting enemy positions and reporting on its conditions.
With it, he had killed beasts across the Fourth Realm, increasing his levels so he was no longer weaker than other people from the Fourth Realm.
He had given most of his money over to his uncle in order to grow a business. They had been a family of guards, banned from trading. Now that there were a number of them who were not guards anymore and they were not restricted from trading, many were working under Bai Xuegang to build up the Bai trading house.
Bai entered the apartment he lived in.
Bai Xuegang was there, working at a table. He looked up with an angry look, which relaxed as he saw Bai Ping.
“Sorry, I’ve been using your place to get away from the others when I need to do work, or else they start asking me how to solve all of their issues.” Bai Xuegang was a thin man with a goatee and short hair. He was forty years old but he had a youthful streak within him.
“It’s no worries, Uncle.” Bai Ping smiled. “How is the business going?”
“Well, we finally got approved for those loans from the Vuzgal bank. With it, I have sent out three different groups to three different locations.” Bai Xuegang pulled out a map that had green, red, and blue lines on it.
“The groups will head to the east. They will purchase mounts
along the way and follow these trade routes. From the information we have been able to get on these locations, the blue trade route has a number of metal ore veins and mining operations along it, the green line has a number of rare ingredients that are harvested there, and the red line is supposed to have a large number of beasts in the area, so we should be able to purchase the animal products for resale here. We will build up a trade caravan that goes to these locations and farther. As our family members graduate from the academy, then we might be able to get higher quality goods that we can sell directly to these places, or here in Vuzgal,” Bai Xuegang said with an excited look.
“So what are the others doing in the meantime? Have you paid for the tuition of those in the academy?”
“I have paid for the deposit and as much as I can, but we are using these loans all over the place. I found out that I can consolidate them so they are much more manageable. The family is working at any job they can find. All of them pay well compared to what we had before, but the cost of items is greater here.”
“They’re of a much higher quality,” Bai Ping said.
“That is true.” Xuegang sighed and then looked at Bai Ping. “Why are you back? Shouldn’t you be training?”
“I have been given new orders. I will be heading off to do more in-depth training. I will be gone for three months at least.”
“Have they told you what you will be doing?”
“Training to get qualified for artillery, magic, and mortars and then hopefully some more in-depth engineering and medic courses,” Bai Ping said.
“Medic? Will that allow you to help us with our constitution?”
“It should. I have talked to the medics I know and have gone to the hospital. They say that through body tempering, it will take more to complete, but then we will all increase greatly in strength.” Bai Ping was still falling behind the others in physical standards. He had pushed himself past his previous limits with his levels.
Bai Ping couldn’t tell anyone else that they not only talked about Body Cultivation, but that if one had to pay for it, or reached a certain standard, then they would get an increase to their cultivation from the hospital.
If I can make it into the CPD, then they will advance my Body Cultivation all the way to Body Like Stone and they will help me in opening all of my mana gates. The special teams apparently have unlimited resources and the city lords personally assist them from time to time.
“Seems like Vuzgal has become our new home,” Bai Xuegang said.
“Make sure that the family does their job first and assists their family second,” Bai Ping said in warning.
“I know—the leaders of Vuzgal care about what people can do, not their backing. I have told the others this already. When do you leave?”
“I leave in four days.”
***
Hiao Xen looked at the flourishing capital. There was a haze around the castle from the high purity of contained mana.
His eyes looked to the Vuzgal Academy. Students came from across the Fourth, Fifth, and Third Realms to enroll. Those who were willing to sign contracts to join Vuzgal afterward were given priority, but others who were associated with people working for Vuzgal came second and then those who were independent and able to pay for their way came afterward, with the sects’ students following behind.
There was at least one Expert-level teacher for each subject now. With Rugrat’s return, the library underwent an extensive renovation. It didn’t take long with the power of magic, high strength manual labor, and the blueprint office. Now it had become a central building, resting between the inner castle and the outer wall in the middle of the campus that took over a third of the outer area.
Even the Expert-level teachers who hadn’t had high expectations of the reading materials and only cared about the workshops and materials were shocked by the content of the library shelves.
His eyes moved across the landscape to the totem that worked all hours of the day, allowing people in and out of Vuzgal. Just from fees alone, they were able to make a heavy profit.
A bartering area had been set up and regulated by Vuzgal. This was great for adventuring teams and fighters. They could leave their items up for sale for a price and a stocking fee, and then others could bid and barter with them. Vuzgal contacted the teams with information; if they agreed, the item was sold and the money was held by Vuzgal for when the seller collected it.
One had to pay one Mortal mana stone to have their item listed and then one hundred gold a day every day it was listed and didn’t sell. It was expensive, so that the bartering area wasn’t flooded. Still, there were adventure teams that were happy to put up their items that were worth several Earth mana stones. Not only could they get money from the buyers, they could accept gear and items as well. These did not have a stocking fee and could be held for a month without charge, making it highly convenient.
It certainly worked in interesting adventure teams to come over and put their goods up for sale. As they were here, they checked the dungeons, the area around Vuzgal, the crafters for supplies, and then the Battle Arena.
Hiao Xen smiled. “The houses and plots of land should go for a high price.”
Hiao Xen turned from the window and headed out through the offices. Things were still quick paced, but it wasn’t the scene of chaos that it had been when he originally arrived.
He headed out of the castle, being met by a group of his personal guards mixed in with the guards from the Vuzgal military.
Their strength has increased again. These must be the people from Dragon Combat Company. Strong enough for the fourth realm. The more I hear about the higher realms and their combat standards, the more I understand why they do competitions instead of waging battles. The losses from a battle could cripple an organization. Fighters capable of using fighting techniques are a power onto themselves, but take a massive amount of resources to train.
Hiao Xen boarded his carriage and they headed out into the capital. People made way for the Vuzgal guards on their panther mounts.
The people got more packed in together the farther they went but people still moved to the side as they reached the day’s most popular location.
Hiao Xen stepped out of the carriage and looked at the Vuzgal auction house. It was simply laid out. On the first floor, people could sell goods to the auction house or put them up to be bid on. Then they were sent to the different auction houses.
The building was wide and squat, with three auction houses on top of one another: the main auction house, the advanced, and the superior. The main was the largest, with the advanced and superior being smaller each time. They could all be opened up to one another, stacked upon one another, or left cut off.
The main auction house was used for the general auction that happened once every two days. The advanced auction hall required someone to have an auction house membership and pay a fixed rate of an Earth mana stone every two weeks to be able to access. This Earth mana stone could be counted with their bids if they appeared or was retained by the auction house if they didn’t. An auction was carried out here once a week but it had items of much greater value, many being of the high Journeyman level and with a few reaching the Expert level.
The superior auction house was the Elite auction hall. It required one to have a superior auction house membership, which was one Earth mana cornerstone each month. Here, Expert-level items and the rare Master-level item would be sold off.
We might talk about Experts a lot but still, only Tan Xue is an Expert who is truly a person of the Vuzgal Academy. The other Experts are here on contracts and are not part of our reliable strength. Vuzgal trades in these items a lot but we are a capital. For the smaller crafters, these items are incredibly rare.
Hiao Xen smiled as people talked about him as he walked up to the auction house. He was escorted to a VIP booth, allowing him to look over the proceedings. The auction houses had been opened up, with the superior having the greatest view over the main stage.
&
nbsp; With all of the building, our funds are starting to get low. Hopefully the auction brings good results.
People settled into their seats. The entire auction was packed, even with the lowest in the main auction hall having to have at least twenty Earth mana stones on them to attend.
Those on the main hall floor looked up at those in the higher booths with jealousy.
Even the superior booths were filled, a few powers buying out the different memberships to get a location.
Hiao Xen’s smile grew wider as he saw the person on stage. The famed Elise. Oh, this should be interesting.
“Welcome, welcome!” Elise looked to the people in the auction house and, directing her eyes higher, she bowed to those in the highest seats.
“Today is the opening of Vuzgal’s house and land auction. Don’t worry—Vuzgal has plenty of locations open for sale! A reminder that for this auction we will only be using Mana stones as a form of currency. All other trades are off the table.” Elise’s blinding smile blunted the statement and people sat taller, looking at others who lowered their heads or started to grumble.
“With that, let us start!” She activated a formation and a drawing appeared above her. Those in the superior and advanced booths had formations within their booths that allowed them to scroll through the information.
“These apartments?” someone said.
“It must be like those large buildings that the people who work for Vuzgal live in.”
“The first building here is an apartment building. Each residence has a kitchen and open space to entertain guests, with a mixed number of bathrooms and bedrooms. All locations will have illumination formations, heating and cooling formations for the rooms and for the water, with the power being supplied by the tenant. The space can be upgraded and the spare rooms turned into crafting or storage rooms. It is also possible to add in your own formations to your self-contained unit—mana gathering, mana purifying. Sound cancellation formations are included so you and your neighbors won’t even know the others are there. Though the best part is the location!” She waved up and the image changed. A map appeared of Vuzgal.
“It lies in the inner city and is on a direct road between the growing marketplace, the auction hall on one side and the workspaces that are inside the inner city on the other. With a direct route to Associations’ Circle!”
The Fifth Realm Page 61
