It was highly accurate, but one needed to know the weaknesses of their opponent to use it effectively.
If he just used it on a beast, he might hit something vital, or just piss it off. His Growling Tiger Elbow technique was good at amplifying the power of his attacks, the energy chaotic and if overused could hurt his own Mana channels.
The two techniques had their uses.
Although the bandits had been harder to fight because of their changing techniques and their ability to work together, keeping him on his toes and making him have to watch out for attacks in every direction, their Strength and Agility were much weaker than beasts.
With an increase to one’s Strength, their stat only increased by ten, while the Agility attribute only increased the stat by five. Beasts, when they increased their level, naturally evolved but it was as if every point placed into Strength increased by fifteen and their Agility by fifteen. This depended on the kind of creature. Humans could increase their Mana by ten with each attribute point; beasts would be lucky to increase their Mana stat by five. Mana, if you had the ability to create spells or imbue it into your fighting style, could greatly augment your Strength and lethality.
Techniques, human’s cunning ability—if he hadn’t had Body Like Stone, healing spells, and high-level armor, he would have been cut down as sure as a Red Shirt on Star Trek.
He had charged into the fight. Although it had worked to some extent, he should have attacked them at range, whittling down their numbers and then as they got close he could attack them, going up against less of them and having allies to help him. He’d been close to dying when surrounded by the elites.
Fighting monsters, he needed to hold them back so the rest of his squad could attack them. Same when fighting humans, but he had the people of the caravan around; instead of using their strength, he had wasted it.
Erik shook his head, deeply angry with himself as he looked at his hands.
“Humans might be physically weaker than beasts, which was how I got an edge over them, but in higher realms that’s not necessarily true. I’ve reached Body Like Stone, and opened my eleventh Mana gate. In higher realms, others will have done the same as well.”
Only Erik knew that, after he healed everyone he could, he had “stood guard” because he had to deal with his own severe injuries, not wanting to show his weakness.
“Against humans of the same level, I can defeat them easily, but in groups it will be harder and I need to watch out for their fighting techniques. And if they cultivate their Mana system or Body system, it will make things harder.”
It was a hard lesson to learn, but he was only in the Third Realm. It was still the Mortal realm; in the Earth and higher realms, he simply didn’t know what to expect.
With those sobering thoughts, Erik laid down on his bed, playing with the new Ring of Giant’s Strength.
As his eyes closed, he was met with a familiar screen.
==========
You have 10 attribute points to use.
==========
Three to Strength, two to Agility. Erik’s thoughts paused as he looked over his character sheet.
I also have to look at if I want to open my fourteenth Mana gate I should start preparing beforehand. I have another two mana gates to open, but the fourteenth take a lot more mana and control. If I start steadily increasing my Mana pool, then I can condense my last Mana drop with less effort. He had learned from Rugrat; advancing one’s Strength was good, but he couldn’t rush it or the backlash could be immense.
Four points into Mana, one into Mana Regen. With the increases from Mana cultivation, it’s really damn high. I can’t just rely on potions all the time and my accessories will run out of charge if I use them for prolonged periods of time.
==========
Name: Erik West
==========
Level: 30
==========
Race: Human
==========
Titles:
From the Grave II
Mana Duke
Dungeon Master II
Reverse Alchemist
Poison Body
==========
Strength: (Base 26) +37
==========
630
==========
Agility: (Base 19) +38
==========
313
==========
Stamina: (Base 29) +9
==========
570
==========
Mana: (Base 6) +30
==========
360
==========
Mana Regeneration (Base 11) +40
21.40/s
==========
Stamina Regeneration: (Base 27) +31
12.60/s
==========
Pleased with his choices, he accepted the new changes to his character sheet.
***
Xiu Xuan looked haggard as he entered the bandit’s camp. Out of his four hundred bandits, just over one hundred remained.
He stifled a cough as he was close to collapsing. He had taken a potion to increase his Agility to escape the people from the White Orchid Trading Company. It had tripled his speed but it was an inferior concoction, creating a backlash and hurting him internally.
He rushed into the main hall, where his brothers and the other leaders of the bandits were talking.
“Brother!” Xiu Xuan yelled out as he moved to Xiu Di, his brother, nearly collapsing from exhaustion.
“Little Xuan, what happened to you!” He leapt up from his seat and moved to his brother, giving him a rare healing pill without care for the cost.
“We set out to attack a caravan, but who would know that our informant gave us the wrong information? There were three combat masters among the caravan and when they moved, they killed nearly half of my force by themselves!”
Even now Xiu Xuan could see the sights before him and his anger boiled.
“I thought you gathered all of the bandits under your command?” Xiu Di asked, confused.
“I did, all four hundred, but now I have less than one hundred left!”
The room went silent with these words.
Xiu Di’s eyebrows pinched together. “What caravan did you attack?” he asked with a cold voice.
“The White Orchid Trading Company, with that bitch Lucy,” Xiu Xuan yelled out, his eyes turning red.
He didn’t even hear the slap as he found himself ten meters back, spitting out his teeth.
“The White Orchid Trading Company?” Xiu Di raged, his voice filling the hall. “The same caravan that is under the protection of the Golden Arrow sect!”
The pressure in the room made it hard for Xiu Xuan to move. He coughed out more blood, his anger chilling. All he wanted to do was destroy the White Orchid Trading Company.
“I used an Enclosed Space scroll!” Xiu Xuan tried to defend himself.
“An Enclosed Space scroll! Very well—now that they’ve left that enclosed space, they can freely send sound transmissions to the Golden Arrow sect!”
The Enclosed Space scroll blocked any messages from leaving or entering the area. One could communicate inside, or if they left the enclosed space they could send and receive sound transmissions easily.
“Xiu Di, this is not a light matter,” one of the bandit’s leaders said in a grave voice.
Xiu Di’s body was tense, his veins protruding from his neck.
“He is your brother. What do you suggest?” another asked.
“My brother? My brother? I don’t have one! Take him and his people to the Golden Arrow sect to do with as they want. We’ll make it clear our willingness to negotiate!”
“If we do so…” another said, his voice trailing off.
“What else can we do? It is either we bow our heads and hope to survive or wait for the Golden Arrow sect to make an example out of us!” Xiu Di yelled, flinging his sleeves and turning back to the rest of the bandit leaders.
“Brother!” Xiu X
uan cried out weakly.
“I have no brother anymore, didn’t you hear me?! Take him out of my sight and round up his people!” Xiu Di yelled.
Guards moved forward and grabbed Xiu Xuan. He tried to fight back, but with the hits he had taken and the potion, the healing pill that had been struck out of his mouth, he wasn’t able to do anything but struggle pitifully as he was dragged out of the hall.
***
Rugrat coughed out blood. His face was pale and he looked as if he had aged ten years. Even in the humidity and heat of the Third Realm, he was shaking, pulling a blanket around him.
He grabbed a jar, took a swig and rinsed his mouth, spitting it out. He took another big drag off the bottle.
“Fucking weak.” Rugrat coughed as he wiped the beer off his chin.
He used Simple Organic Scan to check his body.
He’d refrained from using his rifle after the reaction from Matt’s old group, so he’d had to rely on his crossbows, sitting on George and watching as people attacked Erik.
He killed a few here and there with his bow, but every spell he cast caused havoc on his Mana system, tearing him up on the inside.
That feeling of weakness, the feeling that he was unable to do a thing about his enemy, was a hard blow to his mind.
He took another big drink from the jug, angry at himself, angry at his body and there was simply nothing he could do about it.
Rugrat continued drinking, to numb the pain, to try to block out his anger and his self-hating thoughts until he finally passed out in a drunken stupor.
Chapter: Khusai Comes into Sight
Lucy nodded to the girl who showed her the rooms that Erik, Rugrat, and Matt were staying in.
They were plain unadorned rooms; just looking at them, one wouldn’t think that three people standing at the peak of the Third Realm would think to make these their residences.
Their quality was even less than what Lucy and the other members of the White Orchid Trading Company were staying in.
She knocked on the door. She heard movement on the other side before the door opened to reveal Rugrat.
“Miss.” Rugrat nodded to her, looking around to see whether anyone else was with her.
“Might I come in? I want to discuss our route moving forward,” Lucy said.
Rugrat nodded and moved to the side. The crossbow he had been hiding behind the door went into his storage ring as she moved past him and he closed the door behind him.
“First, I would like to thank you and your companions for everything that you did for us. If not for you, I think we would be suffering a much worse fate,” Lucy said.
“We were hired as guards—that’s what we did,” Rugrat said.
Lucy nodded. Most would brag but Rugrat and the other two just went about their own activities. She didn’t know whether that was better or worse.
“I have sent a message to the Golden Arrow sect, who are the backers of my trading caravan. They will look for the people who attacked us and destroy them. Still, I don’t know when they will do so. It seems that we have an informant in our midst, so it is my plan to move things ahead a bit. Anything that we can buy and sell here, we can do in Khusai. I wish to leave early tomorrow morning, directly for Khusai at our best speed.”
“Okay, that’s fine with us. We’ll be there.” Rugrat smiled.
Lucy, seeing there was nothing else to say, quickly bowed and left.
***
“Matt!” Rugrat yelled.
Matt looked around his room, seeing Erik at the door and Rugrat looking at him.
“What’s up?” Matt asked.
“Come on. Time to get a move on. We’re going to Khusai,” Rugrat said.
After getting dressed, the three of them walked toward the rest of the trading company. The sun still hadn’t come up as the people in the trading company watched the three get on their wagons, clearly waiting for them.
“Let’s go,” Lucy said.
The caravan moved out, the gates quickly opened for them as they headed out on the last leg of their journey.
***
Luke Jonsain sipped from a wine glass and picked at the food in front of him with chopsticks as he reclined on a large sofa, looking over the expensive restaurant. His eyes fell on the dinner crowd as they too, looked at him.
Most of them were also competitors in the second trial for the Alchemist Association.
His sister Jing was eating as well, not caring about the looks sent her way as she took a drink from her tea, all of her movements measured and exact.
“Look at them all, just frogs wishing for swan’s meat.” Luke let out a contemptuous breath as he shook his head.
“One cannot just rely on their opponents’ outer appearance to judge their ability,” Jing’er said.
Luke made to argue but then simply drank from his wine cup, a sour expression on his face. He might be the son of the lord as well, but Jing’er was doted on by his father, a true gem and alchemical master.
Luke had some skill, but he knew he wasn’t on his sister’s level.
A dark cloud seemed to hover over the room as Luke’s butler coughed, breaking the tense silence as Jing’er continued to eat.
“What is it?” Luke asked, ready to lash out at someone.
His butler moved close and knelt so he was level with Luke’s ear. “I have talked to all of the information agencies and checked with our people. That Erik West has still not appeared in the area around Khusai.”
“Pfft, that ant. He might have made quite the display in Girus, but it seems it was all for show, getting me to waste my time thinking of him as a problem. I doubt he will even show his face—too scared,” Luke said with a disdainful breath. An arrogant smile spread across his face, assured in his power once again. “If he did make it here, I would turn him and his friends into eunuchs, fit only to serve me!” Luke gloated.
Jing put down her bowl, a distasteful look on her face. “For some reason, my appetite is gone. I will head back to the villa. See to yourself.” Jing’er rose up from her seat and looked to her guards. They moved around her as she walked out of the restaurant.
“Bitch.” Luke sneered as he watched the others in the restaurant watching her as she left.
***
Domonos was moving through the market to carry out one of Mistress Mercy’s innumerable tasks.
“Hey!” a woman yelled.
Domonos didn’t have time to look around and continued to carry out his task.
“You there—don’t ignore me!” the woman cried out again.
Some people just don’t know how to go about their day peacefully, Domonos thought, as he continued on with his task. There was a rush of wind from behind him. His instincts took over as he rolled to the side. A dagger appeared in his hand as he came up in a lowered crouch, ready for a fight.
He found himself looking at the woman who had defeated his mistress. Julia, the same person from the Iron Spear sect he had seen in Chonglu a year ago.
“Miss Julia.” He put the blade away and bowed to her, making sure not to look her in the eyes, something that had been beaten into him by Mistress Mercy.
“You—I feel like I’ve seen you before. You’re Mistress Mercy’s attendant, right?” she asked, her eyes narrowed.
“That is right.” He nodded.
“That’s not what I know you from. No, it was something else. There was a man, a trader who brought his son to see my granduncle to ask if we would be willing to accept his son.”
“What was his name?” Domonos was surprised. His father had gone to three different sects two years ago to talk about him and have him prove himself.
The Iron Spear sect was one of them.
“Silaz?” Domonos said.
“Yes, that was it!” Julia snapped her fingers. Then she frowned as she looked at Domonos. “Though that was a year ago that I saw you, but you’ve made it into the Third Realm.” She looked at his robe and the Willful Institute sect emblem there before looking him ove
r. Her eyes turned cool. “Seems that my granduncle missed out on a good applicant.”
Domonos didn’t say anything as Julia looked him over.
“I have heard that this year the Beast Mountain trial changed,” she said carefully.
Domonos looked up in confusion.
“It seems that you don’t know anything about it,” Julia said more to herself than to Domonos.
A long silence stretched between them as she examined him like some piece of meat, trying to pull the secrets out from his bones.
“Well, then I will leave you to your tasks.” With that, she turned and left.
Domonos let out a sigh. Changes to the Beast Mountain trial? There haven’t been any changes to the trial as long as my father has lived.
Domonos turned and went back to his tasks.
***
In an alleyway, a boy sporting scars over his face looked at Domonos. His face spread in a sadistic smile. He held a recording crystal. It was a crystal that allowed one to record and replay scenes that it had seen.
“Once my mistress learns of this, she will reward me and look upon me instead of this useless creature from the lower realms. She will notice and adore me!” The man let out a high-pitched, squeaky laugh, tenderly rubbing the scars on his face, the marks of honor he had gained from serving Mistress Mercy.
“He must’ve been telling that cow from the Iron Spear sect all of mistress’s secrets. It is the only way that she could fail!”
The boy turned and ran off toward Mistress Mercy, his eyes wide in excitement, as his scarred face turned into something horrifying.
***
Matt was on edge as they rushed toward Khusai. It was only when he saw the massive walls of the city that he started to calm down. Khusai was a cosmopolitans city: it was a tier-two city, a trade hub and a place that had multiple alchemist groups trying to catch the eye of the Alchemist Association or improve their ability in Alchemy to be recognized by others.
The Third Realm Page 26
