The golden light of the Ten Realms covered him as he lowered his hand.
“Welcome to Alva. I am sure you have a lot of questions and want to see more of the dungeon. Evernight can show you around,” Erik said.
“Thank you.” Aditya bowed to them both.
“Lords,” Evernight said in closing and pulled Aditya with her out of the headquarters.
“Okay, we’ll check out the barracks and the academy, then we have to get back for that auction. Don’t worry—now you have that medallion, you can come down here and train through the teleportation formation. You could even buy a house or apartment down here. Oh, Council Leader Delilah will want to meet with you at some time. Also, Jia Feng might want to talk to you about the sect, and Elise will go over trade. Might be best to add you to the monthly council leader meetings.” Evernight was mostly talking to herself as Aditya recovered from everything that had happened.
He rubbed his storage ring. Inside were the treasures Erik and Rugrat had given him.
“Come on, Aditya. Lots to do now!” Evernight said, close to his face.
It made him jump, waking him from his daze. “Hey!”
“Looks like your brain is turning over again.” Evernight laughed and led Aditya on a whirlwind tour.
On the other side of Alva, Elan watched as a group of about fifty people joined Alva. From kids to adults, everyone completed their oaths. Among them was a man in rough pants. His hair was shaggy, and it looked as though he had been walking for weeks. There was an easygoing, disarming smile on his face.
Elan was proud of the roguish-looking man. He’s changed in the last few years. Got to know the world more, made friends.
He glanced back at Yui and Qin. The two of them smiled, and Qin was the first to open the door.
Wren’s eyes glided across the room effortlessly—until they reached the rest of his family. His movements became stilted, and he pushed his hair back out of his face, staring at them all in surprise. “What? You said you went to the higher realms!”
“Well, we have. Qin works in the Fourth Realm, didn’t you know?” Yui laughed.
“What is with all this hair? Are you trying to lure more girls home?” Qin pouted.
Elan chuckled as Yui pulled his brother into a headlock.
“Welcome to Alva, little brother. You shaped up well. Need a haircut!”
“Get off me, you brute! How did you get even stronger?” Wren complained, but his eyes were shining.
“Welcome to Alva. There is a lot for you to learn, but if you want to keep running the trading group, I suggest you head over to the meeting in the Trader’s Guild’s bar. Lord Aditya is going over there too,” Elan said as Yui released him.
“Lord Aditya—you know people call him the King of the Beast Mountain Range?” Wren said.
“Yes, I heard. I was the one who created your information network.”
“Ah, yes, Dad.” Wren laughed.
“Come on, you can bug him all you want later.”
“I just got off work!” Qin complained.
“I can’t slack off for too long. What would the troops say?”
“Just say that the director of the intelligence department stole you for a night. I don’t think they would mind.”
“I have a lot to do!” Qin said.
“I’ll pay for dinner.” Elan sighed.
“Great!” Qin jumped up and clapped her hands. It was easy to forget she was still a teenager.
“Yeah, the troops would be scared that you’d start telling me everything they did last weekend.” Yui smiled.
“Now, come on. We own the Beast Mountain Range. With your contacts and the trading house, it would be perfect to work with Aditya. Even take the trading house up a few realms.” Elan put his arm on Wren’s shoulder and dragged him away.
“Nice hair, Wren!” Qin yelled as he disappeared out the front door.
“Good work on the trading company!” Yui said.
“Hey!” Wren said as he was whisked off, and his siblings quickly departed.
20
Raising King’s Hill
Aditya finished greeting the highly influential representatives from various trading houses, kingdoms, and empires.
He walked into his own booth at the highest point in the auction house, looking over the hundreds of people who had come to participate.
His eyes glanced over the Alvans he had just met a few days ago. There were so many of them in every facet of the Beast Mountain Range.
He couldn’t help but feel awkward.
Compared to Alva, King’s Hill was a little lackluster. The farmers and cooks were stronger than their envoys and even their highest-ranked guards. It was no wonder the Zatan Confederation were played to death by Alva’s forces. If these men and women knew just how powerful their backer was, they wouldn’t dare to put on airs around the staff of King’s Hill. They would be meek sheep, and even the kings, queens, emperors, and empresses would send their children to the Beast Mountain Consortium.
The items for sale were rarities in the First Realm. There were sets of mid-Apprentice-level armor, even pieces of peak-Apprentice gear. There were alchemical concoctions to heal and to aid in one’s cultivation. Blueprints to create weapons, armor, and gear—even if they were only partial blueprints—created a storm of interest. They were the scraps from Alva to help develop their position in the First Realm.
On the surface, Aditya was the lord of the Beast Mountain Range, but underneath, he was a recruiter who would pass on the most promising applicants to Alva. No wonder they wanted people who would be fiercely loyal and hard-working. They didn’t need people who were a high level; they could train them. Having loyalty—that was a currency that couldn’t be bought.
Lord Erik and Rugrat had talked to him as if he were almost a peer. They had treated him with kindness. Aditya rolled his shoulders back and sat straighter. There was a new hardness in his eyes; underneath, there was a fiery passion.
Just how far could he build the Beast Mountain Range under their orders? What tasks might they have for him in the future if he proved himself? Could they train him in fighting, give him an education in crafting? He had never had a formal education. If he had a teacher, what would that be like?
The auction house was an inferno; people silently cursed one another and turned bloodshot stares on fresh enemies when someone won a victory in the fierce duel for money.
The winners wore excited smiles, breathing heavily as their eyes dared others to compete with them before their attention fell on their new property.
Silver and gold were their weapons; their tongues, their tactics. Money poured into the coffers of the alliance. The outpost leaders, many whom were part of the King’s Hill administration, couldn’t help but smile as their eyes filled with shining lights.
He had to bring the whole of the Beast Mountain Range under his control. Then they could push to increase their power. With greater deeds, he could show his loyalty. Evernight had said that he could even own a home in Alva. Think of that!
Aditya’s worldview and goals had shifted over the past couple of years, going from a ruthless outpost leader to a man filled with plots, ideas, and complete loyalty to those who trusted and had backed him.
He touched his storage ring and smiled.
They might be two odd men, but they are good men.
Lord Salyn postponed his departure from King’s Hill to get information for Queen Ikku. He sent a report about the growing power of the Beast Mountain Range. It was far from the Shikoshi kingdom, but the auction had gathered many elites and their power was sure to grow with time.
If they remained neutral, it would be for the best. And then the empire could join the other groups in competing for the different goods and items that the Range sold.
His gaze moved unconsciously to where the Alva Healing House was located.
They had to be related to Alva Village. Perhaps he could try and influence the qinto attacking? She was prone to her outbursts.
Salyn bore a dark expression as he and his group headed out of the city. The hunt was back on. They were well supplied, rested, and had new mounts. He would track down the traitors and drag them back to the queen.
21
Insight into Body Cultivation
It had been three weeks since the auction and a month and a half since Erik had returned from the Sixth Realm.
It might have been a realm to educate people, to grow their power, but that was only on the surface. In the massive dungeons underground, academies waged war against one another—for resources, for places of higher concentrations of mana. At the same time, the dungeon was fighting back, the beasts and creatures in its depths tried to claim the lives of students and citizens under the academies that were as large as cities and nations.
Erik walked into the Body Cultivation ward of the hospital. The rooms were separated out; medics checked the formations outside the different rooms and monitored the men and women inside.
Erik checked the information on the different readouts. He turned quickly and collided into a medic.
“My notes!” the lady yelled as papers flew up in the air.
“Sorry about that.” Erik bent over to help clean up.
“Don’t worry about it. I was rushing and not looking where I was going. I just came from class, and I’m late for my shift. Too many questions.” She didn’t look up as she gathered her notes and tried to get them in order.
Erik passed her the ones he had retrieved.
“Thank you!” she said with a cheery smile. Her eyes creased in half-recognition, but she dismissed it with a shake of her head before hurrying off.
Erik smiled to himself and kept looking through the ward.
He found a library that was filled with texts on the human body, theories and information on Body Cultivation, and everything in between. Several medics in the room sat in chairs or at tables.
Many of them had finished their primary education and were now intern medics. They were following a qualified medic, turning theory into practical skills.
There were medics from the army as well as civilians. They communicated with one another freely, talking about different scenarios.
Erik found some new papers, books, scrolls, and a chair, and he started reading.
Theories of Body Cultivation’s Effect Upon Human Musculature: Unraveling the Cleansing of One’s Muscle Stage.
Bit of a wordy title. Makes me think of papers academics would write.
Erik opened the papers and started to read. Either someone from Earth had written it, or their medics were more advanced than Rugrat and Erik in the medical sciences. Erik leaned forward, excited to read more.
“Excuse me,” a woman said.
“Sorry, just one moment.” Erik held up a hand, enthralled by the paper.
It was as if explosions went off in his mind. The papers took his ideas and thoughts and condensed and clarified them.
“Huh.” He sat back in the chair.
“Was it useful?” the woman asked.
Erik looked over. It was the woman who had dropped her notes.
“Yes, it was. Sorry about that. I just wanted to finish reading it all. Sorry, what is your name?”
“Melissa Bouchard, from Paris, France,” she said.
“Ah, you must be with the new group. Sorry, I didn’t know everyone. I’m Erik, Erik West. Are you working here now?”
“Good to meet you. I’ve heard good things. There were a lot of people in the group. Yeah, I took up the position of medic. I wanted to learn the practices in the Ten Realms and came across information on Body Cultivation. Using the facilities and talking to the medics, and those who had undergone body modification, I’ve been applying my knowledge from Earth to Body Cultivation. I wrote that paper.”
“‘Body Cultivation is an active process through which one changes their overall cells. With the power of mana, one can change their genetic code, creating mutations known as ‘constitutions,’’” Erik recited, turning to face Melissa.
“Maybe we should talk somewhere that isn’t the reading room?” Melissa glanced at the people looking over at them, and they bowed their heads over their books again, not wanting to show disapproval around Lord Erik.
“Right.” Erik followed her lead out of the room.
“You were interested in the state of research into Body Cultivation—I’m your guide. So, please.” Melissa waved for him to keep talking as she guided him through the hospital. It had grown outward and upward, turning into more of a campus than a hospital. The real healing went on in the Beast Mountain Range, Vuzgal, and within the Adventurer’s Guild.
“So, how is research on Body Cultivation going?” Erik asked.
“It is one of the tri-alterations. Some call it the tri-force. Think of a triangle, with Body Cultivation at one corner, Mana Cultivation at the other corner. In the middle of the triangle, you have mana. At the peak, you have techniques. Your body plus mana equals fighting techniques; your Mana Cultivation plus mana creates spells. The two types of cultivation combined with mana create much stronger techniques. Now, around this triangle are the five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. This is the system of the Ten Realms, the basis of true power. Everything else relies on ability or proving you have a higher level or better technique.” She opened a door, and they entered a clean office with papers and notes on the desk.
“Okay, that is a good way to organize it,” Erik said.
“That is the start of all research: create the genus, categories, and subcategories. There are multiple techniques one can learn that are broken up by the school of crafting or ability they fall under. That is not what we are talking about, though. Mana gathering is broken down into the different stages of cultivation. My fellow researchers created their own training ground to increase the speed of Mana Gathering Cultivation. Alvans were blindly increasing their Body Cultivation—tempering their body with the elements and growing stronger. They were looking at the result and the gains they get from the Ten Realms, not studying and understanding the process. We are still studying just what happens in someone’s body when they temper it. So far, we have made some major discoveries.”
Erik listened to her every word, enthralled.
“First, when one is going through the stage of ‘cleansing of body,’ they open their cells for modification. It is like they open new gates in their cells, like how insulin tells cells to absorb glucose. It creates and opens those new gates. It changes your very cells.” Melissa shook her head.
“It makes sense,” Erik said, thinking of the changes in his body.
“Tempering your body is about withstanding the elements, by the texts from the Ten Realms. We put some ‘activated’ cells from the cleansing body stage under a microscope and introduced them to environments with a high concentration of different elements. Do you know what it looked like?”
“What?”
“Like one of those videos where cells multiply hundreds of times in a second. A powerful evolution; a war between the cells was waged. The cells, under these terrible conditions, grew and evolved!” Melissa shook her head. “What craziness is that! Cells evolving within a single person, not once or twice, but hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of times. There are reports of those who collapsed when they were tempering their bodies. They suffered grave injuries. Some were deformed, and others died! Now, with modern cultivation, most people use mild alchemical solutions or perform the tempering with the assistance of a healer to make sure that there are no issues. How is it so simple?”
“It is rather dangerous and painful,” Erik argued.
“Painful? Yes, of course. Your body is changing on a genetic level, with you in it! You are not merely feeding your cells; you change them on a basic level. You unleash your cells’ ability to be altered with poison. You tempered yourself with the elements of Fire and Earth, reaching the height of Body Like Sky Iron! If someone hit you with a baseball bat as hard as they could, it is hard to
say how badly that bat would be bent!”
“When you say it like that—”
“It sounds crazy? Well, it is! What is happening in the Ten Realms is incredible. Things that are simply impossible to do on Earth happen here all the time. Anyway, we are getting off topic.” Melissa leaned forward and pointed at Erik. “Those cells you tempered with the elements, they are like bacteria that you could find in the Arctic or in the permafrost of the poles. The most virulent of viruses. They reach a point where they can not only survive in extreme environments, they can use the power of those environments themselves.”
Erik’s forehead wrinkled as he thought on what she was saying. “So, tempering the body is tempering one’s cells. Somehow, we don’t turn into puddles of goo if we suffer through it, and we can control the elements around us and go into areas with high concentrations of them.”
“Right. We surpass the limits of any normal human being. Though that is not the end. The second thing I discovered is potential!”
“Potential? What do you mean?”
“The potential of the cells is much greater than they were in the past. Individually, they are much stronger than before; their smaller inner systems are greatly refined. The cell walls are tougher, but they accept a greater amount of the elements inside. The nucleus changes. Instead of it just being reactive, we can control it!”
“What does that mean?”
“Usually they just do their own thing. We have no real control over them. On Earth, if you had a cut, you had to wait and let it heal itself, right?” Melissa held out her hand to Erik.
“Right.”
Melissa chuckled. “Well, now, in a way, you have control over your cells. In the cleansing process, the nucleus links to your mind. When you want to cultivate your body, you can consciously open the gates of the cell to accept the powerful elements into your body. We have only just discovered this, and we have no idea what it would even mean!”
Sixth Realm Part 2: A litRPG Fantasy series (The Ten Realms Book 7) Page 22
