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Quest: Mana Cultivation 2
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The path cultivating one’s mana is not easy. To stand at the top, one must forge their own path forward.
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Requirements:
Reach Vapor Mana Core
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Rewards:
+20 to Mana
+20 to Mana Regeneration
+50,000,000 EXP
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Quest: Body Cultivation 4
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The path cultivating one’s body is not easy. To stand at the top, one must forge their own path forward.
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Requirements:
Unlock Body like Diamond
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Rewards:
+24 to Strength
+24 to Agility
+24 to Stamina
+40 to Stamina Regeneration
+100,000,000 EXP
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Quest: Body Cultivation 5
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The path cultivating one’s body is not easy. To stand at the top, one must forge their own path forward.
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Requirements:
Unlock your Bloodline
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Rewards:
+48 to Strength
+48 to Agility
+48 to Stamina
+80 to Stamina Regeneration
+100,000,000 EXP
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Name: Erik West
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Level: 59
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Race: Human
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Titles:
From the Grave II
Blessed By Mana
Dungeon Master III
Reverse Alchemist
Poison Body
Fire Body
City Lord
Earth Soul
Mana Reborn
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Strength: (Base 54) +41
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950
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Agility: (Base 47) +72
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654
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Stamina: (Base 57) +25
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1230
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Mana: (Base 27) +79
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1166
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Mana Regeneration (Base 30) +61
73.80/s
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Stamina Regeneration: (Base 67) +59
26.20/s
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39,048,136/70,000,000 EXP till you reach Level 59
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Erik stood back up and walked over to the coffee maker again as it started to fill up the pot.
“Why not use a sabot sheathe?” Erik pulled out a cup and started to pour himself a cup.
He heard Rugrat moving around and writing something down.
Erik took a sip of coffee and turned around to Rugrat who looked like the devil possessed.
He took a gulp of his coffee and walked back to Rugrat, looking at the plans. Rugrat was throwing together quickly before pulling out a sound transmission device.
Erik smiled into his coffee and moved to his desk, the desks created an angle so they could look out of their office located at the peak of the Dungeon Core Headquarters.
They had been in the barracks, but the new dungeon headquarters building was the heart of Alva. It was packed with offices and departments, and now Erik and Rugrat’s living quarters.
He picked up information books and started to use them. They collapsed into dust as he was updated on everything happening under Alva’s control.
Rugrat got up from his chair sometime later, and snatched his cold coffee and drank it down.
“Where you going?”
“I need to head to Vuzgal, I want to talk to Tan Xue and the formation girls! Don’t wait up hon!”
“I’ll get dinner ready for you, dear!” Erik shot back as Rugrat was hurrying out of the office.
“Check in on Hiao Xen while you’re up there!”
“Alright!”
Rugrat jumped out of the door.
Erik snorted and went back to drinking his coffee and reading his reports.
“Who would have thought that a bunch of people from the First Realm would have been able to do all of this? At the beginning most things relied on Rugrat and I, now our actions are just a drop in a sea. Traders across the realms, Adventurer Guild that is more powerful than some sects. A region under our command that can contend with Kingdoms. A city that has become a paradise for fighters and crafters in the Fourth Realm.
“An advanced military, information network that is reaching into the Seventh Realm. A technology sector coming up with new inventions almost every other day. A nation doesn’t succeed based off of one or two people, it succeeds with the efforts of people working together.” A proud smile stretched across Erik’s face as he sipped his coffee again.
***
“Hey there!” Rugrat said as he saw Han Wu and his group waiting outside his and Erik’s office.
“Where now?” Han Wu asked, following after the jogging Rugrat. The rest of the Special team check their gear, some throwing on their vests and Alvan rip-tape-ing them together.
“Fourth Realm!”
Rugrat ran out of the Dungeon core headquarters, a red streak glided down from above. Rugrat jumped up onto George’s back as he landed on the ground.
The Special team all jumped on their own mounts, following him to the Ten Realms totem.
Rugrat pulled on a cloak and used a stealth formation that would make people unconsciously look away from George and the group.
“Vuzgal I am assuming?”Han Wu asked, in the totem menu.
“You got it,” Rugrat said.
Light consumed them and faded away as soon as it had arrived.
Han Wu lead the group from Special Team Two as Gong Jin’s second-in-command. Gong Jin was in charge of protecting Erik with his half of the Special team.
Han Wu flashed a symbol to the guards, they opened the gates for the group as they rushed out.
Rugrat headed right for the Vuzgal Academy.
“Damn Julilah is not picking up her sound transmission device,” he tried Tan Xue.
“What is it?” she asked after the second call.
“Where is Julilah?”
“She is teaching a class, I’m working on a project.”
“Thank you!”
Tan Xue hung up with a grunt.
Rugrat called the school and got Julilah’s schedule.
Vuzgal had expanded again and the mana density had increased. Planters throughout the city were filled with plants that would focus one’s mind and could passively increase the mana density of the surrounding area.
There were massive residences and manors, different mercenary groups and guilds had their own streets, workshops of different crafts were fully employed.
It was ragtag before, the city was just finding its feet, but now after another year it has developed and matured. Fighter’s congregate around the Battle Arena, there are different stores with weapon or fighting-based supplies there. The different workshops are surrounded by different materials and tool merchants. Auctions houses do the city. Healing and alchemy houses are close to the gates to the dungeons and around the Battle Arena.
Construction was still ongoing but it had moved further out, giving the city less of an ‘unfinished’ feeling.
Rugrat reached the massive castle district and went to the Academy.
“I didn’t think that things were as tall when I left,” Rugrat said, slowing his speed.
“They expanded, there were people coming from the Fifth Realm that wanted to learn at the academy. Give them a a higher chance to get accepted by an academy. N
ot many places are willing to accept coin for teaching. Most places want their students to swear fealty or join their sect,” Han Wu offered.
“So things got a bit bigger?”
“Yeah, with an explosion of Experts coming out, there were plenty of experts walking around. They offered their insights, but it was realized that they weren’t necessarily the best teachers. A teacher’s school was created so that high level experts weren’t just lecturing at people, but helping them to learn. The graduates in just a few months were impressive, nearly everyone was able to advance a half step in their skill while there were a few that were able to pass barriers they had been unable to cross previously.
“Had people that were crippled, with the healers and the alchemists we made a lot of friends.”
“I swear, I think that I blink and everything has changed. Where the hell is this classroom anyway?” Rugrat showed Han Wu a slip of paper where he had written down the name of the classroom.
“Uhh I don’t know,” Gong Jin shrugged. “Davos, do you have any idea?”
“Nah, haven’t seen that one before. Simms, what about you? You go to more classes.”
“Let me take a look,” Simms nudged his mount forward and looked at the paper.
“Yeah, I know where that is. Follow me.”
Simms led them across the academy campus.
Rugrat took his time to look around.
“I’ve been working on the new advanced weapon systems. I haven’t made it up here,” Rugrat said to himself. “Seems that there is too much to do nowadays!”
“You do a lot already, more than the Elders, Kings and Empresses out there,” Han Wu said.
“I’m barely around and when I am, then I’m working on one project or another or cultivating.”
“In the Ten Realms, it is not the power of the weakest person in your group that matters but the power of your strongest. Most of the cities and captials that we have infiltrated there is a ruling group or party with one or two powerful members, they are the pillars of the rulers. Their families gather around, devoting everything to increase their strength and extend their lifespan while trying to raise new powerful members. The gap between the rulers and their subjects is the difference between the Mortal realms and the Earth Realms. It maintains stability, the leaders can demand anything because they have the power over their people to do so. Everyone is scared that someone stronger will come from below and take them out. So they hide their techniques, hoard their resources and maintain a distance from their subjects,” Han Wu said.
“The strong rule in the Ten Realms,” Rugrat sighed.
“You don’t seem to get it, you and Erik, you’re strong as fuck dude. I’ve read the reports and led the inteliigence teams into the Fifth Realm. If someone reaches the Mist core stage or the Body like stone stage they’re geniuses. People that have both? As rare as a Phoenix feather. Any higher than that, hell you might only find a few thousand people in the Sixth Realm that meet those standards. The Sixth Realm has a population of several billion.”
Han Wu stopped talking as they passed a group of teachers that stared at them and their rough appearances, before they whispered to one another as they passed.
“Seems that even fighters are starting to come to our academy.”
“The atmosphere here is among the best to be found. Even the rough fighters of the Fourth Realm can learn a thing or two if they have the mana stones!”
They faded away as Han Wu kept talking.
“Alvans come from across the realms, most of us were down on our luck. Alva not only gave us refuge but opened up a path to the peak. While there are competitions, they are only to grow stronger. Instead of creating a gap between everyone you spend your time increasing your strength to protect the people of Alva, you develop weapons so that we might be able to defend ourselves.”
“And because they’re awesome,” Rugrat interjected.
“And because they’re awesome,” Han Wu chuckled with the others. “But dude, you’re a hero to the people in Alva, the members of the military you have showed that we serve the people, not our own interests. What gains might we get in a battle? Fuck the loot, is that worth more than our brothers and sisters that stand beside us? So when you’re worried about not being around, fuck it. You are there when we most needed it and didn’t you create the council to look after everything so that you two could run off to the higher realms. Battle fanatics.”
“Hey, you do the same thing all your covert missions, retrieval and information missions,” Rugrat said.
“Dude, I’m just saying take us along next time!”
Rugrat laughed, the stress from the last couple of weeks and months relaxed a bit. He felt that there had been a beast on his shoulder, driving him forward to complete the next weapon, make the next thing to increase the power of the military.
“This is the place,” Simms said, looking at the door.
Rugrat moved to the door’s window and looked inside, the classroom was filled with people listening attentively, young old, shabby-looking or wearing the finest clothes from across the realm and even higher realms. Everyone was looking at the front of the room where Julilah waved her hand and she created a formation script on the chalkboard with a clever manipulation of her mana.
Everyone was captured by the young girls words as she added more complexities to the formation.
A bell sounded as the classes ended. People started to move, some heading to the front of the room to talk more with Julilah.
Rugrat stepped back as several doors opened and people left the lecture hall, talking to their peers or hurrying to their next classes.
The flow died down a bit and Rugrat entered the hall.
Julilah was the center of several people as she cleared up her tools.
A few of them bobbed their heads in thanks and headed off, quickly talking to one another, their eyes filled with excitement as they looked like they were barely holding themselves back from jogging to their workshops.
“Miss Julilah, you are a rare talent, to be wasted in such a place, you could enjoy a life deserving of your beauty and your knowledge as my wife,” A handsome young looking man said, giving her an impish smile.
Julilah was just finishing off cleaning up.
“I don’t think that being your wife would be the peak of my talents, Lord Venezzio,” Julilah said dryly.
“As my adored wife then I would be your firm support to hold you up and push you forward. The Fifth, the Sixth Realm even you could rise to the peak!”
“City Lord,” she bowed to Rugrat, showing no signs of being influenced. “Did we have a meeting I am sorry my class ran longer than I thought it would. Shall we get tea together?”
She ignored Lord Venezzio completely as she smiled at Rugrat.
He frowned at her, questioning but Julilah simply shook her head.
“Yes, I would enjoy that,” Rugrat said, graciously raising his arm. Julilah showed an amused expression, holding back her laughter by pressing her lips together as she put her hand in the crook of his arm.
She pressed on his arm, making him walk away.
The rest of the Special team moved around them like specters as they left the room, scanning everyone.
“Which City Lord are you?” Lord Venezzio asked.
“This one,” Rugrat said simply as he left the hall.
They walked out of the building and Rugrat used a sound canceling formation.
“He’s some silly lord’s son from the Fifth Realm. He came here to ‘broaden his horizons’. Don’t worry I get a new propsal every other week. People think because I am young and smart in formations I must be dumb in the way of the world.”
“Well, any of these boys catch your eye or should I hit them off with a broom?”
“They’d be a fool to try anything and I think that they’re largely innocent in it all.”
“Looks like not everything is so simple on the surface,” Rugrat said.
“Don’t worry, with my cult
ivation he is no problem for me. So why are you here?”
Rugrat put his words to the side and pulled out a shabby blueprint and passed it to Julilah.
She released him and looked at the plans.
“Do you really want to go and get tea?” Rugrat asked.
“Of course not! To the workshop! There is plenty more to be done, we can drink tea and work at the same time, no?”
“That’s what I thought,” Rugrat laughed in relief.
“Though this plan, sabot, a covering? How is it supposed to operate?”
“So we have the round in the middle, we have this sabot around it that stabilizes it in the air barrel then upon exiting the barrel the sabot is discarded and the round is freed, heading for its target.”
“So a kind of casing. The air barrel formations and the sabot work together to create a barrel within the barrel leaving the round free floating. As the metal formations accelerate it all out of the barrel, the casing is blown off and the deadly round, or payload in the middle is revealed and bang it smashes the target. This sabot covering will be useless after one use though,” Julilah said.
“Yup,” Rugrat nodded.
“Isn’t that kind of a waste?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well formations if they are maintained and powered they can last forever, this will only be used once.”
Rugrat frowned, trying to think of a way to explain it.
“Think of it like a spell scroll then.”
“It creates a massive effect but is burnt out in the process?”
“Yes, but the difference is that the round is wasted, but the weapon, that remains and we can load in another round and fire it immediately. Actually, you know that heat issue we were looking at, if we needed to, could we create formations that store the heat into metal blocks, we refine metals with an innate ability to contain heat, in rapid firing they can be changed out in emergency?”
“That, its wasteful,” Julilah half closed her eyes calculating and thinking. She had a look like she had tasted something unpleasant. “We could do it, I have looked at it as well. I was thinking about conditional formations. We line the barrel with high-heat capacity metal blocks. Along the hot spots we created formations that bleed the heat off into the blocks. As they reach high temperature, they push out from the heat transferrance formations, to secondary formations plates that dissapate the heat. Once cooled, they drop back into place and start absorbing more heat. Also you could change modes, fire multiple low sped rounds and the heat is slowly accumulated, or fire more powerful shots and the heat is ramped up. Quickly.”
Sixth Realm Page 79
