Sixth Realm

by Michael Chatfield

  They were led to a private testing area.

  There were nine people talking to one another, six men and three women. They all seemed to know one another well, smiling and talking. There were eight hardened-looking men and women that were wearing similar uniforms and symbols on their arm that created their own group, talking to one another and glancing at the group of nine. Behind them there were two squads that were milling around, talking to one another and glancing at the other groups.

  Stephan surveyed it all, his face expressionless as he rubbed his storage ring, eager to pull out a book and start reading instead of dealing with this waste of time.

  The people stopped their talking and looked over to the new group.

  “Lords!”

  Blaze and Jasper called out, snapping their feet together, their arms to their sides and bending to a full ninety degrees, bowing to the two rough-looking men who sported beards and worn clothes.

  The two men seemed simple but Stephan felt his pupils constrict as he felt a coldness in his stomach that raced up his spine. It was as if he were facing two wolves with nothing but his fists, before them he felt powerless.

  The other branch leaders seemed to be struck by the force around the two men, stunned.

  Blaze cleared his throat, the noise like a bolt of thunder next to their ears.

  They all bowed deeply, even Derrick was pale-faced and showed signs of cold sweat in front of these two men.

  “Blaze, Jasper, seems that you’ve raised some good fighters,” one man said.

  “Their performances at the Battle Arena were impressive I heard,” the other said.

  Blaze and Jasper rose, the rest of the branch heads doing the same.

  The four men hugged one another, while the others in the nine-person group greeted Blaze and Jasper easily, it was clear they were all good friends.

  Stephan felt that he was on unsteady ground as he looked at everyone.

  He used his spells, light sparked deep in his eyes as he looked around, his body shuddering.

  This mana density, I knew that Blaze and Jasper were powerful, but it’s weaker than all of the others. Even those eight officers are as strong as the Guild leader in terms of mana or higher. I can’t see through their levels and their skin, how advanced is their body cultivation?

  Stephan quietly moved beside Kim Cheol. He had undergone the greatest body cultivation, reaching the impossible height of Body like Stone.

  “Cheol, how powerful are they?” Stephan asked quietly.

  “Their body cultivation is higher than mine,” Cheol said.

  “They have bodies at the peak of Body like Stone?”

  “Of Iron,” Cheol said.

  Stephan shuddered.

  “What did you find?” Emilia asked the branch heads grouped together looking at Stephan whose eyes were shaking.

  “Dual cultivators, of body and mana, Core formation and Bodies of Iron and I can’t tell their levels,” Stephan said.

  “Seems that you haven’t spent much time with the soldiers,” Derrick said in a low voice. “In our positions, we are relatively powerful. The best in our respective cities and ranked highly in the Battle Arenas. I was here a month back for training. I have been sparring with the soldiers every time. When I started I was stronger than them, then we were on the same level, then I was suppressed and then I wasn’t able to stand up to ten moves. That was in the last six months.”

  “You have been one of the fastest among us to increase your fighting ability,” Joan rebutted.

  “When we started training I could compete against their lieutenants in power, guess what rank my power is equal to now?” Derrick asked with a wry smile.

  “I can barely hold my own against their youngest sergeants, some corporals can even defeat me.”

  “Corporals are only one step up from the most basic privates,” Lin Lei said in a low voice.

  “You all know my combat strength, I’ll tell you this. It is not that I am too weak. It is that the soldiers are really training demons in human skin. They are treated to special meals, powerful training, unlimited access to the academy and anything that they want to learn. Their equipment is basic but there are thousands of them, not just six like us.”

  “Don’t they rely on their weapons too much?” Stephan asked.

  “Don’t I?” Derrick said patting his blade.

  “But they are complicated. We have all seen how complicated equipment is prone to failure and can break if not in the best conditions,” Stephan pressed.

  “Well looks like we’ll see how tough their gear is,” Emilia said grimly as the three different groups were pulled together and the two squads that were standing in the middle of the training area stopped talking and pulled on their helmets that hid their faces.

  ***

  Yui Silaz felt his Captain’s at his back, everyone was gathered around as Qin stepped out in front of everyone.

  “Today we will be demonstrating the power of the Conqueror armor. It is a new version of armor, it is still based off of the plate armor from before but has a greater integration of linked formations.

  Qin pulled out a front/back armor plate from her storage ring. She turned it over and showed a number of formation lines.

  “This is a linking formation that connects the formations in one’s armor to the armors and formations of the people around them. It is based off of the stacking formations that Formation Master Julilah worked on and using the formation socket technology currently employed on weapon systems.”

  “The helmet formation sockets are taken up, there is a linking formation in the front plate, a formation socket can be applied to the backplate, both shoulders, as well as the skirt. Also, secondary armor to cover the legs would add a further four more formations to the soldier. Each formation can increase the abilities of the user from one to five percent. As formation sockets improve, this number will increase,” Qin saw a raised hand.

  “Captain Choi?”

  “So with our current armor, each person will have an overall buff of four percent at the minimum?” He asked.

  “Correct,” Qin nodded.

  People moved on their feet and looked at one another. A few formations on armor could change that, but every bit helped.

  “Sergeant Bai, would you be able to take off your armor and hit the target with a bow?” Qin asked.

  “Yes ma’am,” Sergeant Bai pulled off his armor and his helmet, setting them to the side. He pulled out a simple bow and arrow, then he fired at the target, it was a special target that recorded damage.

  1293

  “Could you put on a linking medallion?” Qin asked.

  The man pulled out a necklace and put it on, it lit up and power covered his body. The buffing light quickly disappeared and he fired another arrow.

  1706

  Yui arched his eyebrow at the number it was a thirty percent increase of power. “With your armor please?”

  Bai Ping got into his armor and then fired his arrow.

  2172

  The target rang out again.

  “Sergeant Bolton, would you and your squad activate your linking formations and go for a run, please?” Qin asked.

  Sergeant Bolton and his people ran away from the target, reaching the other side of the training area five hundred meters away.

  “Sergeant Bai?”

  He fired another arrow.

  3051

  People talked to those beside them in low voices.

  “Each of these sets of armor have been enhanced with strength sockets at one percent. One squad of seventeen people will give an overall boost of sixty-eight percent to one another, two squads will have a boost of one hundred and thirty six percent of one’s original output,” Qin’s word’s left silence in her wake.

  “Okay, so do you see this operating?” Rugrat asked.

  “It uses interlinking small formations together to create a network of buffs. The more people wearing this armor, the more buffs applied. The buffing formations a
re in your socket design so that they can be upgraded and changed according to the battle. This is just the first type, the Journeyman level one formation type. We are crafting it out now but it is designed to be created by the mass production factories.”

  “A Journeyman level set of gear, are you using it as a testbed to reach Expert?” Rugrat asked.

  “Journeyman level is the best suited for this as we can produce it faster, Expert level of gear we can’t produce that quickly. Journeyman is more stable, we know more about gear in that range. With the way that the buffs stack we don’t really need to have expert armor for all the different parts. Say you have a squad of Sixteen people, including the sergeant, if they all have a buff of just one percent, agility increase. Then they would enjoy an overall buff of sixty-eight percent to each person. That is a way larger buff than you would get for just a piece of Expert level armor.

  If a whole company was linked together, Three hundred and sixty-eight people, That means your strength and agility would be nearly fifteen times what it was originally. Expert armor would only help one person, but this, working together the effect is much greater.”

  “There is a limit though, range,” Taran said, stepping forward.

  “The Journeyman level armor has a range of about one hundred square meters, but if you make an expert level armor plate, it can reach one thousand meters. Instead of making all of the plates expert level if you just create one backplate. Give them to the leadership,” Taran said.

  “It might be more effective to seed them randomly, that way if the leadership is taken out, then they won’t lose the distance,” Glosil said. “How is the production time?”

  “With the right factory refit, we can make three sets of regular armor for how long it would take to make this set of armor,” Taran said.

  “How long to refit a squad?”

  “We could refit them in two days once the new lines are operating,” Taran fired back.

  “Can the formation sockets be changed?” Rugrat asked.

  “Sergeant?” Taran waved Bai Ping forward. With a rip of Alvan rip-tape a section opened showing a formation socket in the shoulder another ripping noise and a second socket formation on Bai Ping’s hips were shown.

  “We have worked with the tailors to alter the carriers, to increase the ease of access to the formation sockets. in a few seconds the sockets can be altered,” Qin said.

  “What was the necklace?” Erik asked.

  “The necklace is a backup, if the linking formation in the armor is broken, then the necklace will still function, it can be worn around the neck, or in another piece of clothing, even added to boots. It reduces the power to fifty percent, but even if you are without your armor or your armor is broken, it will function,” Qin said. “Also Julilah has something else to add.”

  Julilah stepped up.

  “The interlinking formation works not only on the armor but for the stacking formations.”

  Julilah pulled out a table and put down a large cylinder box it was covered in runes and lines that glowed with power.

  She turned a handle at one end and the cylinder clicked. She pulled out a series of plates that were stacked together, connected to the cylinder by rails that had runes across it.

  She turned another smaller handle and pulled it out, the runes dulled as she removed the third part, the power core.

  “This is the stacking formation?” Yui asked.

  “Yes, using different formation plates together a formation that would be fifty meters long are transformed into ten formation plates.

  She pulled out a small pillar of larger formation plates and put down formations around the large pillar.

  Mana gathering formations and then those are more powerful stacked versions of the formation in the cylinder.

  “In these mana gathering formations one can dump mana stones to power a barrier as powerful as one of the secondary mana barrier towers in Vuzgal. The formation plates can be switched out, changing their function and ability,” Qin pulled out four plates and put in three new ones.

  “Now it will buff anyone in range with the right medallion with increased spell effect of fifty percent.” Everyone was captured by her words.

  “The cylinders could be changed but they would take more time as you need to pull out the power core to change the plates. They are about a fifth as powerful as these larger plates, their issue is with power consumption. Though we have created power cores that one can tear the dead one out and slot in a new power core, much like a magazine on a rifle. If staying in one place then one can hook up a mana gathering formation and dump in mana stones.”

  “How are these linked?” Domonos asked.

  “I took the linking formation from these, and modified it and then we modified the one in each of the stacking formations. They can link to every suit of armor we have,” Qin said.

  Yui’s calm mind trembled.

  “You mean that we can buff our people with the armor and buff them with the formations. Alter the formations at a whim, say create a barrier to hold the defensive and then slot in a buff to power strength across the army and hit the enemy with a spell ten times, even twenty times the strength of what it would be originally?”

  Julilah and Qin looked at one another and looked back at Yui with smiles on their faces.

  “Yes,” they said at the same time.

  “Power consumption?” Domonos asked.

  “High, really damn high,” Julilah said. “At maximum consumption, the portable formations will burn through an Earth grade mana stone every ten minutes. The larger emplaced formation will go through a hundred Earth Grade mana stones every ten minutes.”

  “The armor will not consume much power it can operate at maximum capability for thirteen hours, it is one of the reasons that we have put in formations that are the lowest energy consumers,” Qin said.

  “If you were to put in the strongest formation sockets they could hold?” Rugrat asked.

  “About two hours. It would take twenty Earth mana stones to recharge the armor,” Qin anticipated the next question.

  “Sergeant, what are your thoughts, soldier-to-soldier,” Erik said stepping out.

  Bai Ping seemed a little stunned. Yui hid his smile. Erik and Rugrat were powerful people in their own right but they didn’t act like the sect heads that seemed to know everything. They asked questions from other people and they didn’t see themselves higher than anyone else.

  It was truly weird when they acted like soldiers instead of lords.

  Not that they act like lords most of the time! Yui’s amusement was cut short as he looked at the new inventions then to Qin and her best friend Julilah.

  And people say that the men are the scariest ones in the Silaz family!

  ***

  Bai Ping was caught off guard by the question. He had to pause for a moment before finding his voice. Leading men and women, turning them from people into soldiers, learning how to fight was one thing, talking to a legendary figure in person, who was asking him a question?

  Bai Ping cleared his mind and pulled off his helmet out of respect.

  “The armor is useful. Overall, the defenses of the rear plate decreased so more materials were needed to increase its strength. With our current strength, the armor is not an issue. Where the formations are located, they can be accessed easily. It allows us to change for different circumstances. There will be a learning curve, I am not talking about just deploying the armor,” Bai Ping grimaced.

  Erik indicated for him to continue.

  His expression was solemn.

  “When we cultivate the body, our strength, Agility, Stamina, and Stamina Regeneration increase. That jump, though powerful and allows us to do a lot more, takes time to get used to. It can take up to a week to get used to all of those changes. A few days for people that are training with weights and going through acclimatization training that has been introduced into the military.”

  A spark appeared in Erik’s eyes as he nodded.


  “If your attributes increase by two or three times the origina,l then instead of being a great help, it could be a massive hinderance,” Erik said.

  Bai Ping nodded.

  “It’s the first time I have heard of a buff being too powerful,” Rugrat laughed.

  “We could balance it out,” Qin said.

  Everyone looked over.

  “Increasing a single stat can create a massive imbalance, if you have a high strength, then won’t you need agility to employ it correctly?” Qin said.

  Bai Ping cleared his throat.

  “With shooting the bow, I could pull back further and launch the arrow more, but when trying to run or do complex movements the extra strength can be more of a hindrance than an aid.”

  “If all stats were boosted then people could adjust for it easier,” Glosil said. “Instead of worrying about a single change, they just take their overall abilities and multiply it.”

  “Would there be a way for the user to adjust their formation? They could train for three stages, basic, moderate, advanced? They could adjust through all three. That way they could train for three different levels of power,” Rugrat said.

  Qin looked to Julilah.

  “That should be possible, but why would we want to limit it?”

  “Erik do you want to do a demonstration?”

  “You just want people to punch me,” Erik muttered but he stepped forward.

  “Erik will be your enemy sergeant. And you lot,” Rugrat looked at the people behind Sergeant Bai. “You will be my targets. As I ‘kill’ you, you will switch off your formations, change up the variables.”

  Everyone looked forward eagerly.

  They all want to see how strong Lord West is. How can they want me to fight him? Damn, just how powerful is he? Crap, what if I hurt him.

  “Uhh, sir,” Bai Ping cleared his throat, not sure what to say to save Erik’s face and not have to fight him.

  “Don’t worry if you beat me up I get beaten up, won’t take me long to recover, Just, try and not hit me in the face alright? Airways suck to fix,” Erik stood there in his boots and simple fatigues.