The Third Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  With the Adventurer’s Guild, it would be like mercenaries: they would have a greater freedom to do as they want, they got the same rush of fighting, but without the crap that came with the military side. At the same time, you were fighting for gold and riches instead of for the people behind you.

  “Do you think?” Elise asked.

  “I don’t know what the future holds, Elise. I can only make guesses. But at tomorrow’s meeting, we can go over your plan and look to put it into action. It has been hard on you. Rugrat and I can lead troops and battles but we don’t know how to run a town and deal with the people inside so we’ve put a lot onto you,” Erik admitted.

  “Well, the pay was good and I’ve been able to do some trading on the side,” Elise said.

  “A friend of mine, Matt, came from the same place as Rugrat and me. He’s over at the blueprint office. But he has traded in the First, Second, and Third Realm. It might be an idea to talk to him once you’re out of office,” Erik suggested.

  “Thanks, Erik,” Elise said. It wasn’t hard to see that she had been anxious about this entire meeting, saying that she wanted to leave her position and suggesting a new breakdown of duties to run Alva Dungeon. The fact that they could remain friends after it all put Elise at ease.

  ***

  Tan Xue and Taran seemed to have almost forgotten about Rugrat as they looked over the Earth-grade iron ingot.

  “It has to be,” Tan Xue said after some time. “To change the form of this and turn it into a weapon, not only would someone need a powerful flame, it would need to be a completely magical flame. If not, then impurities could enter the iron and weaken it. Thankfully, we have such flames but the power output would be immense.”

  “Worried about the Mana bill, huh?” Taran laughed, his eyes never leaving the ingot.

  Rugrat, on the other hand, was looking through the smithy and appeared with a handful of blueprints. He dumped them down and looked them over.

  These were plans that had been bought from the different places in the First Realm, but the majority were from the battlefield dungeon.

  “Genius! Genius! It would remove the shearing force when using it and increase the strength of the weapon!”

  Taran and Tan Xue didn’t look up from what they were looking on. After all, their reactions to the blueprints hadn’t been different from Rugrat’s own.

  He grabbed a blueprint and rushed off to an empty furnace, tossing in some iron ingots. He put the blueprint down, studying it as the metal was heated up. Seeing so many new designs had inspired him yet again.

  After being bottled up for so long, he could once again use Mana in his smithing.

  Rugrat studied the blueprint and pinched his glabella, thinking before he noted down some things with chalk on the table. He waved his hand, looking at tens of different enhancing powders. “No, no—need an Earth-attribute enhancer.” He went through more colored vials and boxes before he pulled out a red and blue vial. “Gotcha!”

  Tan Xue picked up the Earth-grade iron ingot and poured some Mana into it. “It just sucks up your Mana. If it wasn’t in a Mana-rich environment for long in its ingot form, then it would start to lose its innate abilities and drop down in grade and ability.”

  “What about once it’s forged?” Taran asked. “Shouldn’t it be able to hold the power better? It could even store Mana inside of it instead of just having to rely on monster cores, gems, and Mana stones to power it.”

  “Right, and in a high Mana concentration area, it could regenerate power and become stronger—not too much stronger, but it might be possible to make a power amplification weapon.”

  Behind them, Rugrat laughed as he controlled the flames with ease, making them dance as a pleased smile filled with memories appeared on his face. “I have missed you.”

  “Power amplification weapon?” Taran asked in confusion.

  “I didn’t tell you about it, because I thought that it was honestly a smithing myth. There are a lot of things that smiths say to throw others off. Now I think that it was only a partial myth. A power amplification weapon can be used over a series of levels. They’re weapons that take the user’s attack and multiply the effect. Think of it like a mage’s staff and a sword stuck together. A mage staff increases one’s speed at casting a spell, or the destructive forces. Now have those same amplifications but to a sword; add in the fact that the more Mana you pour into the weapon, the greater the effect. So say the blade enhances your speed: put in 5% of your Mana, you get an increase in 10% of your speed; 10%, you get 13% increase and so on. The more Mana you put in, the stronger the enchantment or innate abilities’ effects are. These weapons are power amplified as it relies on the power that the user can give to the weapon to increase its power and increase the user’s power.”

  “The effect that it would have on the battlefield…” Taran said in shock.

  He could just imagine people who had looked weak pouring out their power into their weapon and going from just a small boost into a massive boost.

  “Pair that with the healing house’s ability to open one’s Mana gates and people’s Body Cultivation increases,” Tan Xue said.

  Rugrat guided the flames to the ingots. He placed them into a crucible and cranked up the heat. It wasn’t long until he pulled out the crucible with his tongs. He took the blue and red powder and he tapped the vial, pouring it into the molten metal. The powder turned gold as it touched the metal. A gold flame appeared above it as the powder was ignited.

  Taran and Tan Xue had complicated feelings in their hearts but when they looked at each other, a sense of challenge rose up. After all, they had now reached the same stage in smithing and competed with each other regularly to increase their ability and Strength. It was why the smithing school had such an increase in ability: Tan Xue had a wealth of knowledge and Taran was driven and plain assed stubborn. The two of them talking and competing with each other had increased their ability and they had then passed the information on to their students.

  The other parts of the academy also challenged one another, but take the blueprint office: they had only books and papers to learn from as well as their own observations and models that they could create. The formation workshop had to pull from Egbert’s information and what they could get from the battlefield and the book from the Metal floor.

  They were having to forge their own path, with little foundation. Taran and Tan Xue knew the smithing basics, allowing them to start from a firmer position and everything was just an increase to their knowledge instead of them having times when they had to look back at their previous knowledge and wonder whether their assumptions were wrong and have to go backward.

  Off to the side, Rugrat’s face turned into one of concentration. Using the flames, he kept the metal in its liquid form, stirring the metal. Using the powder and his Simple Inorganic Scan, he was transforming and enhancing the metal within as faint gold blobs could be seen in the metal.

  Rugrat put the vial away. His mind recalled information from his Smithing Book as he poured the metal out into an ingot tray.

  It was on a formation that removed heat. It wasn’t cooling the metal like dunking it in ice water or putting it in a freezer; the metal retained all of its strength and the ingots were finished in a matter of minutes instead of hours.

  Rugrat smacked the tray and pulled out the ingots. His tongs grabbed them expertly and put them into the furnace once again.

  Rugrat felt the waves of heat on his face, burning his face and threatening to make his eyebrows combust. His eyes watered and dried against the heat, but he felt alive.

  Taran and Tan Xue looked over to him, about to ask him about the Earth-grade iron ingot more when they saw him pulling out a red-hot ingot.

  The Mana in the entire smithy seemed to fall under his control. One could see the slightly white vortexes around his Mana gates as he drew in Mana from the surrounding area. The power made his Mana channels expand, his body covered in a slight Mana mist as his hammer came down. Pow
er was injected into it. A hammer made of Mana appeared around it as he slammed it against the ingot.

  Sparks and Mana shot out from the point of impact. Mana rushed out of Rugrat’s body with his exhale. As he lifted his hammer, Mana rushed back in to fill the void.

  Each blow was timed with his breaths, with the circulation of Mana through his body.

  Taran could even feel the Mana in his body being stirred up by Rugrat’s actions. It had to be known that Taran had opened eight of his Mana gates with Mana gate treatments.

  The questions that had appeared in his mind disappeared as he looked at Rugrat’s concentration, knowing that he would only interrupt the other. Seeing the way he was working, Taran could see the joy in Rugrat’s eyes even as his face was stern. His hammer blows expertly drew out the metal as he put it back into the furnace in a cooler area. His control over the new furnace, even using them the first time, was as if the flames were just an assistant happily abiding the instruction of a master.

  Rugrat pulled out another ingot and started to form it as well.

  Tan Xue laughed. “No wonder he wrote out the formula. Seems he didn’t want to be interrupted while he was working.” Tan Xue grinned.

  Taran nodded. “Well, let’s have a look at it. If we can make these Earth-grade ingots then we might be able to finally push through that peak Journeyman level and reach Expert.”

  Tan Xue nodded as they turned back, leaving Rugrat to work.

  ***

  Rugrat looked at the weapon in front of him. The handle was made from rough metal. It looked as if it were a pole formed from rock, rising up to meet the axe head that completed the halberd. Where the metal met the pole, it was too rough and looked to be wood while the spikes along the back and top as well as the blade of the axe had been smoothed out and brought to a razor-edge finish.

  Rugrat put down the sharpening tools as he looked over the weapon. If one looked at it closely, they would see that the gold blobs that had been in the metal from being combined with the enhancing powder had turned into gold veins that traced through the weapon. It looked like gold ore veins hidden among the rocks.

  Rugrat checked the stats.

  ==========

  -Unnamed-

  ==========

  Attack: 83

  Weight: 45.8 kg

  Health: 100/100

  Innate Effect: Weapon is incredibly sturdy, 9% increased durability

  Enchantment: Not enchanted

  Requirements:

  Agility 47

  Strength 51

  ==========

  Rugrat whistled at the requirements. One not only needed to have the Strength to wield the heavy halberd, they needed the Agility to guide the weapon or else it would be completely unwieldy. This weapon reached the point where normal people from the First and Second Realm couldn’t possibly use it.

  “Okay, time to see if there is anything I can do about adding in a formation enchantment.” Rugrat stored the weapon away and headed for the formation workshop.

  ***

  Qin was working in her workshop as normal when she heard a ring from the door. “I’m busy!” she yelled as she continued to work on the formation plate in her hands.

  She checked the plans she was working on and continued carving. Her movements were sure and true as she worked. She had the confidence of the leading formation master of Alva Dungeon. With the information from the battlefield dungeon and the other rare items that had been brought back, many of her previous assumptions had been proved wrong. Instead of being depressed, she was excited as a new path was opened in front of her, one that she knew was right and that would allow her to become stronger. It had led to her revising all of the formations she had looked at before and finding that she was confident in building a number of them. Egbert had plans for a great number of formations, but they were at a level still untouchable to the formation masters.

  So they could only learn from the basic books and from the simpler designs, building up their knowledge. Already their studies were being used to help out in the different areas of weapon and armor designs, with upgrades to the defensive posts of Alva, assisting in the battle at Vermire, and in the battlefield dungeon, they’d allowed people to pass beasts that they wouldn’t have been able to do so by relying on their own strength.

  The formation making workshop was blooming and more people were joining in to follow Qin in this time- and resource-consuming practice. They were starting to see results instead of tossing guesses off into the darkness and hoping to come up with some piece of information.

  Qin’er and Julilah were the twin stars of the formation workshop. Julilah looked to build up information on enchantments, while Qin studied sole formation plates that would operate by themselves instead of enhancing weapons, armors, or creating magical machines.

  The door opened as Qin looked up from her work, about to yell out. She saw Julilah there and realized that although she could hear the bell, no one could hear her yelling through the thick walls that were made to contain any formation explosion.

  “You got any formations that can control weight?” Julilah asked, not standing on ceremony between the two best friends.

  “I don’t think so. Check that pile over there.” Qin pointed to a pile of papers.

  “Organized as ever! You been sleeping in here again?” Julilah looked over at the simple cot in the corner.

  “Nooo,” Qin said, wincing at Julilah’s sigh.

  Julilah merely shrugged and looked back at her companion.

  Rugrat entered the room coming in behind her, looking around with a grin on his face.

  Qin let out a squeak as she nearly tore a hole through the formation plate she was working on.

  She looked back to the formation plate with a crestfallen expression. Three hours of engraving, all gone. She was close to tears as Rugrat looked around the room.

  Her cheeks turned red in embarrassment as she looked around the workshop that was filled with piles of papers, copied books, failed formation plates, and more.

  “You tried working with a Mana blade?” Rugrat asked as Julilah moved to the pile of papers in the room that Qin had pointed to.

  “Ugh, there’s tea stains all over these!” Julilah complained as she kept on searching.

  Qin’er let out an embarrassed laugh before she remembered Rugrat’s words.

  “Mana blade?” she asked, curiosity on her face.

  Rugrat pulled out a piece of metal as he walked over. Summoning a Mana blade, he cut into the metal. The blade changed and curved, allowing him to cut a groove into the metal ingot and etching a design into it with ease.

  He took out another piece of metal that was covered in all kinds of cuts and passed it to Qin to check over. “It can be altered as you use it for greater control and its edge doesn’t dull. Perfect when working with metal, carving or cutting it,” Rugrat said.

  “Mana blade.” Qin looked at the piece of metal. “I will have to get one!” she said adamantly.

  “You’re broke—you need to do another lesson,” Julilah said from the side.

  Qin’s righteous declaration fell short as she pouted and hunched over.

  Rugrat laughed and shrugged.

  “There looks to be a few formation designs here but they’re not complete. Earth-based.” Julilah pulled out several sheet and cleared an area by pushing things to the side and laid out the information.

  “What do you want to enchant?” Qin asked.

  Rugrat pulled out a halberd and put it on the table. The wood let out a solid noise as Rugrat looked at the assorted pieces of paper. “Hmm, this looks good. Control over weight distribution. Do you know where you got this information from?”

  “Not too sure,” Qin said.

  “We can go and ask Egbert. He remembers everything that he reads.” Julilah walked out of the workshop, treating it no different from her own.

  “Oh, and your brother is back,” Rugrat said.

  “Yui? I didn’t think he was going to
the battlefield dungeon for another two days.” Qin frowned.

  “Domonos. Found him in the Third Realm and brought him back. He’s in Chonglu. Gave him instructions on how to find us here,” Rugrat said.

  “Domonos?” Qin asked. The other thoughts she’d had flew out of her mind as she heard this one name.

  “Yeah, don’t worry. It won’t be long until he gets here, I think.” Rugrat gave her a confident look before he took back his halberd and followed Julilah out of the workshop.

  Qin sat back in her chair, a happy but tired smile on her face. Without Domonos around, she had worried for him every day. She cared deeply for her family, knowing that they pushed themselves to try to look after her and cared for one another deeply. They weren’t a perfect family but she wouldn’t have wished for another.

  “I should go home and tell Yui.” She left her workshop and the ruined formation plate without even sparing it a glance.

  ***

  Egbert met them in the library and sent them in the direction of Earth-related formation books.

  Julilah found a few books and passed them to Rugrat. He started reading them but he had only copied formations from blueprints before; he didn’t understand the intricacies behind them.

  Julilah went off, grabbing another group of books on the basics of formations, put those in front of Rugrat, and took away the books she had given him before.

  “I’ll see if I can work up a formation. You can read these. They’re the shortest ones on formations,” Julilah said.

  Rugrat looked at the beginner formation books as Julilah started to read her books. Rugrat made it through a few of the books as Julilah started to write out a few formations.