Sixth Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  Evernight continued as they looked back.

  “We have the army that is reserve, and within that we are creating a reactive force that will go out and hunt down the enemy before they ever reach the Beast Mountain Range. We can use them as scouts, spies and assassins as needed in different nations.”

  “Well, instead of using a new force, you could use some people from the Special teams, we need to rotate them around and teach them about the different realms. Have them operate in different realms become experts on them,” Erik said.

  Evernight looked to Elan.

  “They are the best of the best,” Elan said.

  “Yeah and you need it for these dangerous operations. Though I have one rule,” Erik held up a finger. “No secretive bullshit with them, if they’re going on a mission, you can tell them, and consult them on the mission parameters, they must all agree to the mission and they have the right to change it if they so desire. No offense but you gather the information and they need to act on it. I trust your information and their judgment if they can act on it or not.”

  “Too many times spooks come in and tell us a mission and they have a skewed vision of how it will come out too many damn action movies,” Rugrat muttered darkly.

  Movies? Evernight kept her judgments to herself as Elan nodded.

  “Understood Lords,” Elan bowed his head.

  Rugrat and Erik’s body language turned weird at the mention of ‘lords’ but they didn’t say anything.

  “Have we got information on people from Earth?” Erik asked.

  “There have been some instances, Evernight?” Elan and everyone turned to her.

  “People from Earth are new to the Ten Realms so they must appear in the First Realm as they are all level Zero. With their knowledge, their actions are sure to gain people’s attention. There have been incidents that have gained our attention but while our net around the Beast Mountain Range is dense, it is much thinner in the lands beyond. We have found a total of seventeen people that might have come from Earth, twelve of them have died, the remaining five, three advanced into the higher realms and we are searching for them through other sources. Two remained in the First Realm. One operates as a commander of an army. The other is a slave of a nation, advances in materials have occurred again and again from the nation. Based on our information they appeared in the same areas, so we have expanded our search area over where people appeared. We have also found out information on a group of possible earthers. We found them by mistake. An King Ikku is moving her forces towards the Beast Mountain Range. I thought that they wanted to attack us, but they seemed to be searching for something. I looked into it deeper and a group of people, some that were fighters using crossbows and were terrible with blades, escaped with a group of weaker people, protecting them. It was said that they had been gathered by King Ikku.”

  “The man who is a slave and this group, what have we done?” Erik asked.

  “We were waiting for your orders,” Elan said.

  “Brief a Special team, they are to secure that man at all costs. I want another Special team ready to meet with this group of people from Earth. You said that King Ikku is moving her people toward the Beast Mountain Range?”

  “Yes,” Evernight said.

  Erik looked to Rugrat.

  “She has to be following them, if I was looking to disappear I would want to go somewhere where it is hard to track down people. We have people moving all over the place, outposts are being shifted around, more people live and trade above us than ever before,” Rugrat said.

  “Perfect way to get lost in the crowd,” Erik agreed. “Alright, have your people figure out who these people are and locate them, once you find them, tell us, they’re running scared, if you make contact then it could be an issue. If you can’t get Rugrat or I, get Matt or Tanya to meet with them.”

  “It will be done,” Evernight nodded.

  “Anything else?” Erik asked.

  Evernight pressed her lips together, thinking of Aditya, she finally raised a hand at the last second.

  “Miss Evernight.”

  “Lord Aditya, he has served faithfully and worked for Alva for the last few years without complaint. His subordinates already know about Alva and have even trained here but he has been kept in the dark.”

  Evernight looked at the table in front of her, not knowing if she had spoken out of turn, feeling the heat in her face as her stomach turned over.

  “Well, we have met him before and he’s done a lot of good for us,” Rugrat said.

  “Elan?” Erik asked.

  “He has done everything that we have asked of him and gone beyond. I think it’s past time,” Elan said calmly.

  “Alright. Miss Evernight, in four days bring Aditya to Alva, make sure everything is prepared,” Erik looked at her.

  Evernight shivered a bit, she wasn’t sure if it was in fear or excitement as she bowed her head.

  “Yes Dungeon Lord,” She said.

  ***

  After all of the other heads had left, there was only Elan, Erik and Rugrat left.

  “I’m guessing you want all of the details about the sixth realm now?” Rugrat asked.

  “It wouldn’t hurt,” Elan said, pen and paper ready.

  “Alright, well we should start from the beginning,” Erik stretched in his chair.

  It took a few hours for them to get through everything, telling Elan about the academy cities. The dungeons underneath that were like a whole second world. The orcs and the testing carried out by Lina. They dumped all of her notes and information they had gathered.

  “We also ran into a guy called Lee Perrin, he said that he was from Australia, a place on Earth. He had some people with him that called him a teacher. They were all plenty powerful. If you could have some people keep an eye on him we might find an opportunity to bring him to our side,” Erik said.

  “To make it to the sixth realm he must be one hell of a fighter. DO you think that he was power leveling?” Elan asked.

  “Honestly have no idea, there are a number of ways to grow one’s strength, seems he found a really good one.” Rugrat said.

  “I will also see if I can get some information on this lord Vinters. Sounds like the dungeons are a wildlands down there.”

  “Perfect for explotation. Could have a whole bunch of mines in there, or people collecting resources,” Rugrat said.

  “We might have needed that in the past, now not so much. We haven’t even used up twenty percent of the overall space in the different floors. The Water floor is largely unexplotated as well. Going to take us some time to develop that all,” Erik said.

  “Makes sense, sorry, I’m just used to us having to make secret bases all over the place.”

  “Yeah it was my first thought too,” Erik said. “Also, Elan, talking about secrets, what about your son Wren?”

  “What about him?” Elan asked, looking up.

  “You haven’t asked once for him to become an Alvan, you didn’t want to cloud our judgement. I looked into the reports from Evernight about his interactions in the first realm, work in Vermire, Chonglu and now in King’s Hill. He’s not the little shit that attacked us back then,” Erik said.

  Elan didn’t say anything looking at them both.

  “We would be willing to give him a shot at being an Alvan and for the Silaz Trading house under him to become a member of the trader’s Guild,” Rugrat said, cutting to the point.

  “Thank you, I know in the past...,” He trailed off.

  “The past is the past, he was a little shit in the past but he has grown up having to rely on himself and develop out the trading house. We can only give him a shot, if he makes it through recruitment or not, that is up to someone else.”

  “I understand, whatever the decision I won’t fight it.”

  “Good,” Erik tapped on the table and stood. “Now the next thing we need from you is information on the seventh realm. We need to deal with this Willful Institute crap first, but I want us to
be ready. The Sha have their eyes on us already.”

  “Yes sir, I am leveling up some of my agents already so they can enter the seventh realm.”

  Chapter: Calm before the storm

  Delilah and Erik walked together, they were wearing relaxed clothes and while a few people stared, with just a different set of clothes few people recognized the duo.

  “How is the family?” Erik asked.

  “They’re good, my mother is at the school. She is working as a healer, two of my brother’s John and Jamie joined the army, Joanna followed them too. My father is a confirmed farmer, he works on the farms and the alchemy gardens,” Delilah smiled as she looked up at the ceiling and the roof of mana stones. “Nolan followed him, while Kyle is a cook and Greg is a tailor. Suzy and Rachel are still figuring out what they want to do. Zhiwei was in the military but she is now expecting with John’s child. She is resting at home but she spends most of her days in the library and has become a student of pure magic.”

  Erik laughed, a wide smile on his face.

  “Looks like the Ryans are truly going all out!”

  Delilah smiled, proud of her family as they reached the low tables and chairs that filled the first market square, there were restaurants, bars, and stores around the square. In the middle were the chairs and tables waited with staff ready to take their orders, bringing them meals from the different vendors, all of them sold different kinds of meals and items allowing one to have a truly different style of food.

  The square was packed with people that were having meetings over lunch, catching up with friends, fellow students, workers, and compatriots.

  An attendant came over with menus, the man opened his mouth to speak, he stuttered as he saw Delilah’s face.

  He put his hands to his side and made to bow.

  “Please don’t, I’m just looking to have a private meal,” Delilah said to the waiter.

  The waiter didn’t seem to know what to do before he nodded and cleared his throat.

  “Thank you,” Erik said as he held out his hand, helping out the waiter who put the menu in his waiting hand.

  “Your brother is working in the kitchen I know he would like to say hello if you want?” The waiter asked.

  “Kyle is working today? Only if he isn’t in the middle of something,” Delilah said guiltily.

  “I’ll let him know, discreetly,” the waiter smiled and cast a side-eye at Erik, wondering his identity before he turned and left.

  Delilah quietly pulled out a formation that would throw up an illusion over their mouths so someone couldn’t read their lips and would stop their conversation from reaching others.

  She saw another similar formation in Erik’s hand as he activated it and placed it in a pocket.

  “I wonder if he knows who you are teacher,” A playful smile rose on Delilah’s face.

  “Hmm,” Erik made a noise in his throat, raising an eyebrow as he was looking at the menu, not caring to join Delilah’s sharp tongue.

  “Teacher, how was the Sixth Realm,” Delilah watched Erik closely his eyes stilled, seeing memories instead of the menu in front of him. His eyes flicked up to her before he took a deep breath and lowered the menu.

  “The Sixth Realm is a realm filled with academies based upon super dungeons. The planet is broken into two parts, the academies, and the academy training grounds. The academies compete on the surface for fame and fortune and wage secret hidden wars within the dungeons for resources. The people there are powerful. The members of the academies are no weaker than the elites of the Alva Army and their genius students could have the strength of our Special team members may be higher. They have all condensed their mana cores, with some reaching the Liquid state. Body Cultivation falls behind but there are many with Body’s like Stone with experts having Body’s like Iron.”

  “So we beat them in body cultivation,” Delilah said.

  “Having a higher cultivation in one area is far from ‘beating’ them.”

  Delilah winced, the academies had to have tens or hundreds of thousands of students, sometimes millions their techniques and combat ability had to be much higher.

  “We don’t focus on our power in a one-on-one basis but our many fighting as one,” Erik’s words calmed and reassured her. His eyes were like clear water, soothing her soul as she nodded.

  “Those with the greatest aptitude might pass higher into the Seventh Realm. One in ten thousand makes the marks to get higher training and lessons. Their power is hard to understand. Many of them fight in competitions and their abilities in their given craft or fighting ability is the highest. Those that reach level Sixty can enter the Seventh Realm but they will not be held as geniuses getting the resources and support of forces in the Seventh Realm.”

  “Why are so few people allowed in the higher realms?” Delilah asked.

  Erik’s brows pinched together as he looked to the side.

  “As the Fourth Realm is a barrier, the Seventh Realm is as well. The Fourth Realm is a competition grounds, the Fifth where the winners are sorted, the Sixth they’re groomed and the Seventh, well, rarely do people come down from the Seventh Realm. People ascend to the Seventh Realm never to return,” Erik’s eyes flicked to hers, capturing her eyes as she felt a chill come over her. “It is said that the people in the Seventh Realm can’t return to the lower realms because of Mana deprivation.”

  “Mana Deprivation?”

  “The Seventh Realm is the start of the Sky Realm. Have you studied the books we have on mana gathering?”

  “I have. There are the three primary stages: Mist vapor and liquid, then the core stage, filling the core and creating the mana heart,” Delilah said.

  “What is the greatest issue of increasing one’s mana cultivation?”

  “Mana. One needs an incredible amount of mana to increase your overall cultivation.”

  Erik nodded.

  “That is part of it, not only does one need mana, they need a high mana density,” he pulled out a bag of saline solution and held it up. “Think of the saline solution as mana and the bag like your body.

  He pulled out a bucket of water and put the bag in the water.

  “What happens cultivating our mana as we go up realms?”

  “The higher the realm the easier it is to condense mana in our bodies as the mana is more concentrated and of higher purity,” Delilah said.

  “Like how this water is around the bag of saline here, everything is in balance. Now what if we absorb more mana than what can be found around us?” Erik poked holes in the saline bag underwater.

  “It is harder to increase our cultivation,” Delilah said.

  “Right,” Erik started lifting the saline bag out of the bucket. As the first holes were revealed saline began to spill out. As more holes were revealed more saline spilled out faster.

  “If we have reached a point where the density or pressure of mana inside our bodies is higher than the mana pressure outside of our bodies then we would start leaking pressure, like how this bag is leaking saline all over the place. If we go to a higher realm though,” He put the bag back in the water and squeezed it as it drew water in through the holes. “Then our bodies are like a vacuum dragging in more mana from around us.”

  Delilah looked at the bucket her mind turning into a buzz.

  “On one side mana cultivation is a chore, on the other, it accelerates rapidly so that one’s cultivation will soar,” she said in a low voice.

  “The density and purity was nearly ten times stronger from the Third Realm to the Fourth Realm, what must it be from the Sixth to the Seventh? If someone with a high mana density inside their body was to go to a lower realm and not able to contain all of their mana?” He raised his Saline bag that was draining faster than before as there was more water and saline in it than before.

  “Then it starts to drain out fast.”

  It all disappeared into his storage ring and a smile appeared on his face.

  “Unless the bag, or person can be reinfo
rced,” Erik smiled.

  Delilah was quiet for some time. “Body Cultivation?” She asked in a bare whisper.

  “I think so. Body Cultivation is about altering our very bodies with the mana and power of the Ten Realms, increasing the strength of the container and our control over attribute mana. The two are clearly linked.” Erik smiled his eyes shining.

  Delilah snorted upon seeing that look.

  “It seems you found a new challenge for yourself, teacher.”

  His grin widened as Delilah noticed someone coming over.

  “Mister West,” Kyle bowed deeply to Erik.

  “No need for that.”

  “You saved me and my family sir, its not something we’ll forget easily.” Kyle said solemnly.

  “Right time right place,” Erik said.

  “It’s good to see you sis,” Kyle turned to Delilah before it got awkward with a tired smile.

  “You too! You’re always working,” She complained, standing up and hugging him.

  “Hey, just doing my tests so I can get into the sky reaching resturants. Trying to make manager!”

  “Then I’ll have to go to some other realm to get your soup dumplings?”

  “Well worth the trip,” Kyle laughed.

  “You have a good lunch, see you later!”

  “Bye Kyle,” Delilah said and Erik waved.

  “So, what should we eat?” Delilah asked.

  “Anything but soup, gets all up in my beard, turns into a mess.”

  “Yeah your hair got a little long since you were gone,” Delilah said.

  “Yeah I need to get it trimmed up a bit, look like I was on a remote island for a few years,” Erik grinned.

  Delilah shook her head, smiling.

  “So dating anyone? Aren’t you interested in that?” Erik asked. “I’m not really one to give advice, but bad with relationships, should ask my ex-wives. One plus is I never have to hear about them again in the Ten Realms. Though you’re young, should go for it, work isn’t everything.”

  “Teacher!” Delilah sputtered.

  “What? Shouldn’t I want what is best for my student?” Erik asked innocently.