The Fifth Realm Read online

  “We’re going to need to pull in more people through Vuzgal if we want to reach company strength anytime soon. Though, if it takes a year for us to clear them for more advanced training, it’s going to be tougher,” Roska said.

  “We could hire more people through Vermire. Look for just people willing to fight and with a family. I don’t want to sound like an ass, but things are really good in Alva, and if they know they’re fighting for their families, it will be better,” Domonos said.

  “Where do the skeletons fit in all of this?” Niemm asked.

  “The skeletons will form special platoons, bolster the defensive company’s strength,” Glosil said.

  “Are we doing anything to assist new recruits with cultivation?” Yui asked.

  “Yes and no. We will get them up to a certain level in basic training to be a soldier. To increase their power past that point, that will be on them. We will increase their cultivation further for everyone who reaches CPD level, but we will take the cost from their wages,” Glosil said.

  “Do we have a timeline?” Niemm asked.

  “I want to have a company set up sooner rather than later. Though I can accept that we will have rifle companies instead of combat companies for the first year. The sooner we start, the better. In a few months, I want to be able to pull our Alva forces away from training and focus on clearing the lower floors of Alva Dungeon. That will give our people more room to use and should make Body Cultivation easier. The sooner we clear it out, the sooner we can start getting benefits from it.”

  ***

  Glosil looked up as Yui and Domonos filed into the room, followed by Roska.

  “Niemm is making sure that Erik and Rugrat don’t get into trouble.” Roska smiled.

  Glosil snorted lightly and waved for them to grab a seat. All of them looked tired. “How are things going?”

  “Training up the regular troops isn’t that bad. We have about a fifty percent fallout rate. There are a lot of people who think because they have high levels that they’re going to be given the position. A lot of the nobles and the richer merchant family members who are using this to get position within Vuzgal have left. For the recruits from Alva, there is only ten percent that are falling out,” Domonos said.

  “How is the training, itself, going?”

  “We’re halfway through the three-month basic course and they’re starting to shape up. The people from the other realms haven’t fought much, so they’re pretty green. People from the Fourth Realm have an advantage. Those who stay in are more attentive and absorb everything that might increase their chances of surviving and killing the enemy.”

  “From your messages, you think that we will be able to have a rifle company in another six weeks?”

  “I think so.” Domonos sighed. “We’re training a lot of people at the same time. I think—I think that we should look again at pulling in the people of Vermire to our military.”

  “Oh?” Glosil held his chin.

  Yui seemed to know what Domonos was going to say and Roska raised an eyebrow.

  “We’ve got a lot of new people. We have just over one hundred people in the military right now. A combat company will hold three, nearly four hundred. We will have a third of the spots—okay, so that is ninety-eight leadership positions by my math: corporals, sergeants, officers, and so on. That is our entire strength as the leadership. Not everyone is suited for leadership positions. We won’t have eyes and ears in the lower ranks. Sure, we’ll have some new Alvans, but not many. From what I have picked up, it is kind of an open secret with the forces in Vermire that Lord Aditya answers to someone else. We can use Vermire as a place to train people up, then draw them into the military, like we have with the Adventurer’s Guild. They have fighting experience, they are loyal, and they have been tested before they even enter the military.”

  “Hmm.” He has a fair point. Vermire is practically ours. Though they have their own operations they’re carrying out. We can support and train them before they fight, and it can increase their chances of carrying out their operations.

  “Have you heard of the developments in Vermire?”

  The others shook their heads in the negative except for Roska.

  “Vermire is working with the other trading outposts around the Beast Mountain Range to set up a location in the middle of it. This would serve to consolidate their strength and create routes throughout the area. It would then become a hub of people trying to increase their strength, buying and selling supplies that are hard to find in the First Realm. It would also serve to make Vermire the overlord in the area. The alliance with the others will pave the way to dissolve the other outposts and take command of them. It will be a slow progression, but with our backing it won’t be impossible,” Roska said.

  “With control over the outposts, it will be easier for us to know all of the activities of the different nations around the Beast Mountain Range. This will help to keep Alva secure and give access to more people who are willing to join Alva. We might have made it into the Fourth Realm and established our strength here, but we can’t forget our roots. If Vuzgal falls, Alva must not ever.”

  Glosil looked into their eyes and saw unwavering loyalty. These were people who would die for their duty. Death was cheap in the Ten Realms, but they would use theirs to fight for the honor of Alva till the bitter end.

  Chapter: Mobilizing Alva

  Elise took off her scarf. Fine dust fell from it as she shook her hair. Even with the scarf, it hadn’t been able to block out all of the sand.

  Ismail waited until she was done, then bowed.

  “How are we looking, Ismail?” She waved for him to return to standing.

  “The mine’s output has increased by thirty percent with the new technologies you’ve implemented. The workers are also much happier with the health and safety. It has cost a little more but the miners are working harder than ever. Though there has been a problem with the jewelers and smiths.” Ismail indicated for her to take a seat in front of a pot of sweet tea he had prepared.

  “Other trading houses have been poaching them?” She moved to the couch.

  “Yes, Master.” Ismail bowed. “This one has been inept in his job. I accept any punishment you give me!”

  “Did you collect the repatriation money?” Elise waved away his words as she sat down.

  Ismail quickly served her sweet tea as he talked. “I did.”

  “Good. We can use that to entice more Novice jewelers and smiths,” Elise said as he finished pouring the tea.

  “Are you not angry?” Ismail asked, shocked as he poured his own glass.

  “Annoyed, yes. Angry, no. If anything, those other traders have done us a favor, clearing out the muck that weren’t loyal and interested in only benefits. If people wish to poach from us and our people want to leave, let them. I only want people loyal to our company.” Elise took the teacup from the table and held it up.

  Ismail quickly grabbed his own cup and raised it. “But if we only have Novices, how will we be able to refine the ores, separate out the jewels, and make jewelry?”

  Elise smiled mysteriously over her tea. “Well, I have a solution to that.” She touched her tea to his before taking a sip. He mirrored her actions as she turned her head to the side.

  “Come in!”

  The door opened and two women walked in. One was covered in muscle, her entire body toned. She wore rough clothes that were stained black from working in hot or smoky conditions while the other wore a fine dress that had intricate designs sewn into it with rare metal threads and jewels.

  “Ismail, this is Reina and Brenda. Brenda is a low Journeyman smith and Reina is a high level Apprentice formation master, but she enjoys working with jewelry instead of runes and formations,” Elise said.

  Ismail’s hands quivered as he looked at these two women who were studying him. What is Master Elise’s background to be able to invite such powerful people to this backward mine?

  “They will be paid directly by you
, and they will be able to buy materials at a ten percent discount for their own projects. They will teach our jewelers and smiths. I hope that in the future we are not just making a few trinkets, but are able to make weapons and armor as well as jewelry pieces that can attract the people of the Second Realm over,” Elise said.

  Her words were simple, as if it were only natural that what she said would come to fruition.

  Indeed, with these Experts, raising our own people is easy. We can use the funds from those who are poached to increase our ability to hire more miners, more people who want to be jewelers and smiths. Those who remain and bind themselves to our Red Permission Trading Company will be able to become much more than just apprentices. They might even become Journeyman-level crafters!

  Ismail bowed deeper than before. Now he understood why she had not gone into a rage. Indeed, it was better to have people who were loyal to the trading house instead of tying those who didn’t want to be there to their business.

  “This one was blind.” Ismail bowed to her deeply.

  “Don’t worry. There will be many more things that you can see in the future if you stay with the trading company,” Elise said with that same smile filled with hidden meanings.

  She finished off her tea and stood. “Look after them. And you two, don’t raise too much trouble,” she said, warning the duo.

  They nodded with smiles.

  A light appeared on Elise’s wrist. She looked down at her communication device and listened for a few seconds. Her expression turned serious.

  “I have another meeting I have to attend.” She nodded to them all in the room and pulled her scarf back on.

  ***

  Blaze looked at the men and women sitting in the room. They lounged over the desks or the chairs; the whole room looked more like a bar than a classroom.

  All of them wore different armors and weapons that suited their fighting styles. There were ranged, melee, and stealth types mixed in with the mages and beast tamers.

  They all had different fighting styles but each was a powerful fighter in their own right.

  Blaze took a deep breath and opened the door into the classroom. The talking and discussion went silent as people saw Blaze.

  “Guild leader!” a few yelled, getting to their feet. They were all members of the Adventurer’s Guild and everyone knew Blaze’s appearance. He had trained many of them and he could be seen all around the headquarters. Even if they came from the branch guilds and hadn’t encountered him directly, they now eyed him in interest, remembering the stories they had heard about the guildmaster.

  “Please sit.” Blaze stepped in front of the room.

  People moved to their seats quickly.

  They come from all kinds of backgrounds across the realms, but they were all recommended to join Alva. The guilds and different groups created by Alva were all built to not only increase our influence but bring more people back to Alva and bring in fresh blood.

  Everyone settled down as he cleared his throat.

  “You have all been picked for special training. I cannot tell you the specifics of this training but it could very well change your lives and open up paths for your future that you might have thought closed. But you will need to swear an oath binding you from telling anyone else about your experiences. In fact, you will need to give an oath after this even if you choose not to join this special training. It will not be life-threatening but it pertains to some of the deepest secrets of the guild,” Blaze said.

  His words shocked everyone in the room. Some looked apprehensive but the majority leaned forward, looks of excitement on their faces at the new challenge that lay in front of them.

  “You were picked for your perseverance, your determination, and your loyalty. That is all that I can ask of you. Loyalty to your oaths, determination to push forward no matter the obstacles, and the perseverance to continue on the path that you take.” Blaze watched them all swell with pride as he let everything sink in. “Now, I ask, which of you would like to be part of this secret training?”

  A mage stood up at the front, quickly followed by others. Soon, no one was sitting. All of them had accepted. They had different expressions on their faces but they chose to take a leap of faith with their future.

  Sixty-three new Alva Dungeon members. Blaze couldn’t help but smile as he raised his hand.

  “Now, please repeat this oath after me.”

  Chapter: Across the Realms

  The atmosphere inside the briefing room was relaxed as Erik, Glosil, Rugrat, Egbert, Niemm, Roska, and Domonos studied the map that was in the middle of the table. It was a map of the second floor, the Metal floor.

  “From the information that I was able to gather with the activated formations, the creatures in the second floor have been whittled down greatly with our use of the battlefield dungeon, though with their lower numbers, it seems that the boss of the level has been able to remove his challengers and control the floor completely,” Egbert said.

  “The boss is the Metal-attribute beaver that lives on top of the mountain, right?” Niemm asked.

  “That is correct. There is a lake of lightning that has been created at the top of the mountain, in a sort of basin. It lives there, using the power of the floor and the lightning to increase its strength. Not even the battlefield dungeon would be able to pull it in for us to fight it,” Egbert said.

  Everyone’s expression was solemn.

  “How many of the levels have we cleared out by challenging the battlefield dungeon?” Rugrat asked and then turned to Erik and Glosil. “And do we know what will happen if we take over a level?”

  “We can still only control a small percentage of the formations on the Metal floor, so we can only make educated guesses at this point. I would say about forty percent of the floor beasts have been killed so far,” Glosil said.

  “Only forty?” Niemm said.

  “When in the battlefield dungeon, there are also beasts from the other floors included. Forty percent is much higher than I thought we would achieve at this point,” Egbert said honestly as the others fell silent.

  There are still four more floors after the Metal floor. Glosil cleared his throat.

  “Look, I’ll be perfectly blunt with you all. Taking the Metal floor is not just about taking the floor. It is about completing a promise that we made to the Alvan people. Many of them aren’t able to go to Vuzgal to see what we did there. We promised to protect them and to make their home safe. If we can take the Metal floor, we show them directly the strength we’ve gained; they can see why we increased the military’s strength,” Erik said.

  “I suggest that we continue to have Yui’s platoon working in Vuzgal to deal with training there. When not training to clear the lower floors, Domonos, your platoon will be training those wishing to join the military from Alva and assisting in creating the training program for the medic, engineer, and mage squads. Niemm and Roska will assist and work on creating the training regime for the close protection details.

  “Niemm, your special team will be split into two to protect Erik and Rugrat.”

  Erik and Rugrat started to make noise but waited for Glosil to explain himself.

  “You are the heads of Alva and Vuzgal. You are personally strong, yes, but are you strong enough to take on people who are level sixty? We have had to fight those people before. Now that you are bigger targets than ever, you need protection. When moving between cities, one of the special teams will be with you at all times.”

  Erik and Rugrat stopped what they were going to say and agreed reluctantly.

  “Good. Now, for the Metal floor, what we need to do is first we need to go and establish a beachhead. There needs to be a position that allows us to bring in supplies and reinforcements. It will also provide an escape route, if necessary. We need to train going through that teleport pad. Then we create a camp on the other side. With that camp, we can organize combat operations that will advance into the floor. We will go from objective to objective, capturing
command formations. Unless there is a change in situation and we can find a way to speed up the process without taking unnecessary casualties. Once we have the command formations repaired, we will use them to exert control over the floor, and move to the main formation that controls the entire floor.

  “Once we secure that, we have the floor. We have ideas of the strength on the floor as we have heard from Egbert but otherwise, we are going in there blind, so we’re going to drill again and again until everyone can do this in their sleep.” Glosil looked around the room.

  “Won’t be fun trying to sell that to the troops,” Domonos said.

  “Well, blame it on me then, but get them to do it,” Glosil said. “Now, before I go over the plan, does anyone have any questions?” Glosil scanned the room.

  “Okay, well then, let’s figure out how we’re going to take this floor back and show the people of Alva just how strong their military is,” Glosil said.

  ***

  Elan Silaz was covered in sweat as he jumped to the side, just avoiding a tentacle that had shot past him. A boxing octopus? Of all the creatures, an octopus that uses melee attacks?

  The danger his mind alerted him to was stronger than the ridiculousness of the situation he found himself in as an octopus bobbed its large head out of the way. Yuli’s ice spears missed as it lashed out with a hidden tentacle and struck at Tian Cui, who had to use a spell combined with a special technique to avoid the attack.

  Setsuko fired her heavy repeater while running. A tentacle covered in mana was thrown backward, unable to escape the arrows that seemed to predict its actions.

  Storbon dodged under one attack. He let out a yell and his body glowed with a golden energy. As Storbon threw his spear, a golden spear superimposed itself upon Storbon’s spear, the two becoming one as a golden energy danced around it. A tentacle rose to block it but the spear’s speed had increased too fast for the boxing octopus to stop it.

  The spear hit the octopus. It staggered and Yuli took the opportunity, casting a control spell to restrain the injured octopus. Setsuko and Yawen, who had been looking for a weakness, pounced; their repeaters glowed as they buffed the weapons and their projectiles.