The Third Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  “That’s what I’m thinking. Go to the nearest town that has long-range aerial caravans, take one going toward or to Khusai and try to get there in time for the trial,” Erik said.

  “So, we going to destroy this place?” Rugrat waved at the dungeon around them.

  “That is what I’m thinking—you?” Erik asked.

  “Yeah. Not in a strategic location—going to be fighting with the damn creatures around here just to get out. Worth more if we take the resources and upgrade Alva.” Rugrat bit into a fruit.

  “At the stops we make, we can try to sell some of the stuff and buy more items for Alva.” Erik looked to Matt.

  “I do have a question. What is Alva?”

  “Well, this might be a long story.” Rugrat shifted around as Erik took a swig of water.

  Erik and Rugrat explained them becoming dungeon masters, taking over the dungeon. They didn’t go into the school or the Alva Village defenses, just the basics.

  Afterward, Matt took an oath to not reveal the information to anyone who was not part of Alva Dungeon.

  Matt was a bit shocked, but having come to the Ten Realms from Earth, the weird and bizarre just became an everyday occurrence.

  With that cleared up, he shared his map with them, allowing them to pinpoint three cities close by. Two had possible aerial caravans. Whether there was anything going toward Khusai wasn’t something they could figure out before getting there.

  The other option was portal guides. If they could find someone who had been to Khusai before, they could pay a fee for someone who had it in their addresses to take them there. It was a costly experience but they could reach the city in seconds.

  With a plan in mind, everyone checked their gear and Erik went to the dungeon core that was floating between the silver-peak tree’s branches.

  He held his hand out to the dungeon core.

  ==========

  Dungeon Core

  Grade: Lesser Mortal Grade

  Linked: Temple of Earth’s Divinity

  ==========

  ==========

  You have come into contact with a dungeon core. With your title: Dungeon Master, new options are revealed.

  ==========

  Do you wish to:

  Take command of the Dungeon

  Remodel Dungeon

  Destroy the Dungeon

  ==========

  Erik put his finger on Destroy Dungeon and a new screen appeared.

  ==========

  Destroy Dungeon: Temple of Earth’s Divinity

  ==========

  You will receive:

  1x Lesser Mortal-Grade Dungeon Core

  27x Earth Essence

  49x Earth Variant Mortal-grade monster cores

  Earth purifier monster blueprint

  Earth ogre monster blueprint

  Earth ghoul monster blueprint

  Greenflies monster blueprint

  Silver-peak sapling

  6x low-grade Earth-attribute Emeralds

  Answering Statue

  ==========

  Do you wish to destroy this Dungeon?

  YES/NO

  ==========

  “Yes.” Erik spoke aloud. The dungeon core disappeared and the silver-peak tree withered as the walls began to shake. The tree seemed to suck inward before becoming a single sapling about waist-high before it disappeared.

  The walls and everything started to fall apart as the light that ran along the walls flickered out and everything started to collapse.

  There was a flash of light and they appeared in front of the dungeon entrance that Erik had checked.

  The dungeon collapsed; the swamp waters rushed in to reclaim it.

  Trees that had been near death received the vitality of the Earth dungeon and were revived as the swamp quickly grew.

  Erik checked his storage rings, seeing all of the items there. He had learned from the desert dungeon that more storage rings was always better, especially when one was destroying a dungeon.

  Matt led the way as they left the dungeon ruins behind.

  “I got monster blueprints as well,” Erik said to Rugrat as they were walking.

  “Like to make monsters?” Rugrat asked.

  “Yeah. The gnomes brought in a huge assortment of animals and spread them out to each floor, but they bred and tamed them. Maybe we could do something similar but with monster blueprints from other dungeons?” Erik asked.

  “How do we get them?” Rugrat asked.

  Erik pulled out a blueprint and looked at it. It showed the purifier monster.

  =========

  You have opened the purifier monster blueprint.

  To create a purifier monster, you will require:

  1 Mortal Mana stone

  Weak Earth Essence

  or

  15,000 gold

  or

  12 Earth Variant Monster cores

  The more resources used to create the purifier monster, the greater base stats.

  *This blueprint will not be consumed on use.

  **This blueprint can be used with dungeon respawn mechanisms.

  =========

  “Respawn mechanisms in a dungeon?” Erik asked aloud.

  “I dunno.” Rugrat shrugged as Erik looked at him.

  “Well, monsters and things can respawn in certain dungeons, right?” Matt said, overhearing them.

  “They can?” Rugrat asked.

  “Yeah. There are a number of exotic dungeons—some you go in and you clear out the monsters. They get harder and harder until you reach the boss. This is the most common dungeon. Monsters respawn to make it harder and so that every group coming through has to fight them, or at least some of them. These dungeons can get filled up with creatures, then they can escape and create a monster horde, crushing everything in their path and threatening settlements,” Matt said.

  “Paints a rosy picture.” Erik nodded, sinking into thought. The dungeons seemed to be a method that the Ten Realms used to balance things out. Even being dungeon masters, they were learning as they went along.

  “Though I hope that we can find some more of them soon! I had heard that they were a place where riches and levels could be found! I didn’t really believe it. It has taken me nearly two years to get to level twenty-four, then in one shot I jumped up to level twenty-seven!” Matt laughed, but Erik and Rugrat could tell it was his way of thanking them.

  “Don’t worry—we’ve only got another eighty levels to go!” Rugrat said.

  “Level one hundred?” Matt laughed. “Sounds like it would be interesting. Though it’s not the first five levels of a realm that are hard to get through—it’s the last five, which increase in difficulty. It is harder to rely on kills to get Experience but rather have to be made up in skills, or by consuming concoctions to increase one’s Experience. I think it’ll only get harder in the later levels!”

  Chapter: Demon Breeder

  Roska was breathing heavily as she looked at the demon breeder.

  It was a massive creature that rose forty meters into the sky. It looked as if it were made from a black body that was covered in black flames, with purple rune tattoos that crisscrossed its body.

  White chains held onto the beast, allowing it to move and attack anything in the room with its large upper body. But its lower body couldn’t be seen; a white circle in the floor wrapped around its midriff, capturing it.

  Guttural words started to come from its lips as midnight-black and blood-red circles appeared and shot out to surround the beast.

  “It’s creating summoning gates!” one of the leaders for the raid called out.

  “Summoning gates team, prepare to move!” the leader for the summoning gate team one called out.

  As the gates were being created, there was a period of time that they would grow stronger when taking damage. It was hard to hold yourself back, seeing them come down, knowing what would happen next.

  The summoning gates’ spheres expanded into circular gates.

  The
re was a massive intake of Mana from the portals. The black and red color in the center became darker before smaller summoned demons of all kinds appeared.

  The demon breeder raised his head to the sky as power from the summoned demons entered his body. His health started to regenerate as the summoning gate teams started to move.

  “Keep the demons off the clerics and mages!” the team leader reminded everyone as Roska and her party moved with them.

  The melee rushed to meet the demon spawn. The mages buffed, healed, and supported them while raining down debuffs and attacks on the demons. Ranged helped out in stalling and controlling the demons as the melee slammed into them, pinning them in place with their bodies and creating a path forward.

  The summoning gates would grow stronger and create more monsters if they were attacked with the wrong spell. Melee attacks were effective, but their attack power was minimal.

  The fastest way to defeat the gates was to purify them: remove the impurities of the Mana and the spell became weak, collapsing.

  Clerics and priests started chanting, calling down blessings, calling upon their gods, and creating spells of purification.

  Just like cleaning the shower water. Roska dodged through the fighting with the rest of Special Team Two.

  A demon imp stepped out of the summoning portal, letting out a high-pitched scream as it charged forward. Its small, pale body was covered in moving black and red tattoos; its only item was a black spear with a red aura.

  Gong Jin stepped forward, smashing his shield arms together as he cast Shield Bash. He rushed forward, slamming into the imp and sending it back. It fell on the ground as Wu Han tossed out a grenade. It hit the imp as it started to get up, dropping it back to the ground.

  Imani used her Shadow Step spell; her blades plunged down at the imp, aiming for its neck.

  The imp used its small body to dodge. The blades cut its chest and left bloody lines as it got back on its feet and charged.

  It was a level seventeen creature. It was bleeding heavily, but there was a craziness in its eyes that swam in red and black.

  It charged forward, met by Tully.

  Tully’s bored expression was gone as she met the imp, spear for spear. Tully had the techniques and strength on her side.

  Yang Zan buffed her speed and sent a heal over at Imani.

  Roska had reached the summoning gate and jammed her spellcasting staff forward. “Clean!”

  It was if the world took a breath in, becoming quieter for a second as she had claimed all of the Mana in the surrounding area.

  A spell formation appeared at the end of her staff for a second and then shot forward, encapsulating the entire summoning gate.

  The Mana being drawn-in in thick red and black clumps was torn apart and dispersed as the summoning gate twisted and turned. A demon that was about to step out of the gate was torn apart. It screamed as the chaotic energies that made it were purified.

  Cleansing spells and blessings all fell on the Mana gate.

  Greens and blues started to appear, shooting out of the summoning gate, creating a Mana-storm.

  The demon lord cried out in pain and the demons in the area around the summoning gate had their strength reduced.

  “Summoning gate team two, three, and four—go! Team one, clear out the demons in your area!” the overall raid commander said, sending out the other teams.

  As the first summoning gate fell, the strength of the demons would fall, allowing the other teams an opening to crush the other gates. If they could break them all in a short period of time, it could create a backlash on the demon breeder, losing more health than when he created the summoning gates.

  “Demon breeder team one, slow your attacks. Demon breeder two, increase your attacks!”

  The demon breeder was muttering words. His massive body was being attacked again and again but the power from the new demons was actually recovering his health instead of taking more severe wounds.

  Still, if they stopped all attacks, it might recover completely and recover more of its previous strength. After all, it was sealed; if it had the power to break the seal, then its fighting capabilities would be intense and it might even escape the raid dungeon and attack the surrounding cities.

  They had two teams working to try to slow the rate that the demon recovered at, alternating so that they could recover their Stamina and Mana while resetting their skill cooldowns to bring forward their best attacks.

  Roska poured a vial of Mana recovery powder and water into her mouth as she continued to channel power through her spell. The summoning gate had shrunk and was decreasing in size rapidly with all the combined attacks.

  The imp slammed into Gong Jin and flew off, with Imani appearing behind it and taking its head with her.

  It fell apart into Experience—low summoned creatures only gave Experience—as Tully charged forward, spearing a demonized minotaur that was attacking another group. Han Wu threw out grenades toward the second summoning gate, injuring and tearing apart the demons there. They were trying to protect the area around the summoning gate and couldn’t leave a certain area, which made them harder to deal with when trying to dispel the gate, but easier when dealing with them at range.

  The fourth summoning gate team got to the last target and were starting to attack the gate when the summoning gate in front of Roska compressed into a ball of blue and shot toward the demon breeder.

  He let out a cry as his health dropped and his recovery decreased as well.

  “Summoning gate team one, move to help team four!”

  “Damn, the job never ends!” Han Wu fired a crossbow. The arrow exploded as it hit a demon, putting a hole through them; they dropped to the ground.

  “Experience!” Gong Jin grunted as he blocked a demon flesh reaver’s dive, hitting the large bird-like creature to the ground as Tully stabbed it with her spear.

  Gong Jin’s sword cut its screeching head off, making it go limp as it turned into Experience. Everyone was madly gaining Experience and levels as they were all partied together and the kills were divided up. If they could kill the demon breeder as well, it would be like adding rockets to a speedboat.

  “Come on, we need to move to the fourth summoning gate.” Roska threw out darts in her hand. They turned into blurs as she cast telekinesis on them. Blue lines from the spell wrapped around the darts, turning them into blurs was they accelerated rapidly.

  “Roska!” Han Wu yelled, gesturing with a grenade.

  “Toss it!” she said.

  He tossed a bunch of them up as Roska cast the spell Catapult. It was a new one she had learned; with Han Wu and her combined, it allowed them to create a kind of magical mortar.

  The grenades arced into the sky, coming down in a group of five demons before exploding.

  “And then there wasn’t a demon problem.” Han Wu reloaded his crossbow bolt on the move as summoning gate party one rushed to the fourth summoning gate.

  ***

  “We got it in the time limit!” the raid leader said, his voice grim instead of excited.

  There had been just too many people wounded and killed to be excited about it.

  The demon breeder was crying out now.

  “Everyone, damage! Summoning team two and three, hold back. If it tries any big skills or spells, you’ll need to disrupt!” The demon breeder was suffering from the summoning backlash, and its health was no longer regenerating but it was now able to move freely.

  Its hand reached out, tearing several fighters apart with a swipe. A black flame appeared around the demon breeder, poisoning those who were close.

  “Poison cleanse! Dodge the arms! Everyone, focus your attacks!” the raid leader called out.

  Everyone was unleashing their most powerful attacks on the demon breeder. It was hard to focus on their attacks and dodge the massive creature at the same time.

  “Summoning team three, disrupt it!” the raid leader called out as the demon breeder started to chant. Magical formations started t
o burn in the air; runes and shapes stained the sky within the dungeon.

  Summoning team three had been holding back their attacks, keeping their strength in reserve.

  They unleashed everything that they had, using all kinds of restrictive spells and attacks. Even with the team of nearly forty attacking, they only paused it for ten seconds. It was enough to cause the spell to fail and the spell’s formations to stop.

  The demon breeder let out an enraged yell and turned on the summoning team. It was covered in massive wounds, with its bones and organs showing. One of its eyes was ruined. Its face was distorted from fighting and blood covered the area. The white restraining runes glowed, even under the covering of blood.

  It unleashed a poison cloud and attacked the crowd. Its claws ripped through armor and left scratches on the floor as it swiped the attackers toward itself.

  People yelled out in panic, as they were tossed into the bloody poisoned land around the demon breeder’s body.

  They got up and tried running out. The healers tried to keep them healed as they fought the poison entering their body.

  A few were able to make it out of the poison fog. Others were clawing at their throats and eyes as they slipped and fell in the demon’s blood, the poison entering the body easily.

  The demon breeder slashed out wildly, its body turning red as it entered an enraged state.

  Tully was throwing a spear when the demon breeder suddenly turned. His claws cut her legs off and caught on her chest plate, tossing her.

  “Yang Zan, go get her!” Roska yelled. Her heart twisted, seeing Tully’s broken body and hearing her screams.

  Imani coughed as she fell backward.

  Han Wu grabbed her before Gong Jin took her and started to feed her healing powders. The poison had got into her cuts, infecting her body.

  Han Wu was throwing out his grenades as Roska launched them into the demon breeder.

  Its actions were becoming slower as the raid party was running out of energy, squeezing out everything they had and consuming anything that might increase their Stamina or Mana to carry out some more attacks.

  The demon breeder dropped forward and slammed into the ground. A large chest appeared on an altar to the side as the beast started to fade away.