Sector Five. The Realm.
When Ryan appeared back in the Sector that had massive sprawling black plants. What he did not expect to see was a juvenile Cerulean Crow lying amongst the leaves, its legs in the air as if it was a turkey about to go into the oven. A leg twitched, indicating that it was still alive.
Ryan looked at Gamielle, who had a fine mist of gold around her.
“Is Cerul alright?”
“No, it just ate too much of the flora around here. It’ll wake up when it’s about to starve or when another monster cos and attacks it.”
“Ah.”
The black leafy plants in Sector Five tended to release spores that were soporific. Quite a hazard if you got drowsy or were tired after a battle. Adventurers generally tended to bring stuff like slling salts or concentrated caffeine to keep them going here.
Not that it was important, he checked his titles.
Title Slots (2/2):
Equipped Titles:
[Undisputed Apex of the Fourth Realm] (Quasi-Legendary)
[Rebellious] (Epic)
Now that he was in the fifth realm, he had two title slots instead of one. He unequipped them both.
Title Slots (0/2):
Ryan instantly felt the drain in stats and overall capability. It wasn’t the first ti he’d done this but it never felt good to drop by a significant amount of power. He summoned his shattersword in hand. Feeling the familiar weight, following the forms he’d just gone over on Earth.
Gamielle gave him a minute before looking over in curiosity. “What are you even doing?”
“I haven’t really pushed my body on Earth till now and it felt weird. Wanted to see if my titles were impacting it.”
He spun, following complex forms at high speed, moving all of his limbs in tandem. He had much better coordination as he flicked a knife with his left, stabbed backwards with his sword and kicked out at the sa ti.
Afterwards, he landed as lightly as he could, his step making no noise.
“Hey Gamielle?”
“Hm?”
“Why are titles weaker on Earth than in The Realm?”
“They’re universe specific.”
“...Yeah I’m going to need a little more than that.”
Gamielle illusioned a giant bubble in the air. Then she ford an illusory person, a portion of that bubble tore away and surrounded that person.
“In regular universes without the Trial System, they’re more ethereal in nature. If you accomplish sothing very few others have, you sort of gain a bonus, like a recognition. The Trial System just makes that ethereal thing into sothing more tangible.”
That was sothing realmnet had no idea about. Achievents being an actual universe tied thing instead of a Trial System construct?
“I never understood it, why do titles get harder to obtain the more that people have them then? Why don’t we get titles while on Earth?”
“You do get titles on Earth, the Trial System just doesn’t process it because it takes more effort than in The Realm…” Gamielle paused to let that sink in. “You can think of The Realm as basically a nascent universe with fresh achievents that are up for grabs. Think about it like this: your [Undisputed Apex] title is permanent but now for soone else to get that title, they’re going to have to show definitively that they’re stronger than you in the city of Defiance. It’s simply easier to make your mark the newer the universe is.”
Now the bubble in the air was being split up into multiple people, for every single person the bubble of achievents gave sothing to it beca smaller and smaller.
“Hold on, if titles are universe specific, why do I still get minor buffs from system titles when I return to Earth?”
“Because the Trial System has inextricably linked the two universes together. At the very least, the title buffs will stick around until it leaves.”
“Does Earth have titles?”
“Yup. Just more invisible. You still see it from ti to ti, those people that succeed massively once and then just seem to constantly fail upwards? Could be an invisible universal buff helping them out, or it could just be luck. Mom says it’s the sa thing a lot of the tis.”
Ryan thought of soone who seed to constantly fail upwards and was sohow at the right place at the right ti every ti.
“Stupid Sideark.”
Gamielle just scoffed at that. Probably having another idea of soone that fit the bill.
Ryan practiced for a little longer, getting used to the feeling of his body. It had nothing to do with titles. His body was simply more coordinated as the [Veilpiercer Assassin], it ant that his body itself was more malleable to whatever class it shifted into. Since the [Class Change] skill didn’t denote it, it was sohow his actual physical body changing to suit the class.
Which was insane the more he thought about it.
He eyed the spire in the distance. The one that Cerul had pointed out that held a portal enhanced monster within. He considered it for a mont, then took out his phone and flipped it in the air.
It landed face up.
That was his decision made up for him.
[Return to Earth]
The five minute countdown noise imdiately smacked Cerul awake. It scrambled up in confused surprise, its eyes and head darting around. Startled that it had even fallen asleep in such an exposed spot. Then the warning bell of the sound registered and it squawked in panic.
It imdiately flew up, saw Ryan and imdiately descended in front of him.
That all happened in two seconds.
It glared at him, as if accusing him of pranking it.
“Hey don’t look at . Not my fault if you overdosed on Noxweed, that shit’s dangerous, even for fifth realm adventurers.”
Cerul blinked, then turned to Gamielle.
“Hey, don’t look at .” Gamielle parrotted Ryan. “I don’t know Cerulean Crow biology that well, I didn’t know if you could actually eat that stuff or not.”
It nipped at her.
“I told you I’m not babysitting you. If you get eaten because being an idiot that’s on you.”
Cerul screeched at her then flew away from her in distress.
“That’s cold Gamielle. Cerul tolerates , but I think he really does seem to like you.”
Gamielle sniffed. “I don’t have ti to worry about every single creature in The Realm. I’m having a hard ti with my own network as it is.”
Another screech of distress cried out from overhead. Ryan eyed the flying shitcrow, hoping it wasn’t going to try to do its signature move. Thankfully, Gamielle being next to him likely ant that it wouldn’t. It just kept flying in circles, continuously crying out, trying to earn pity points.
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Ryan side-eyed Gamielle. She honestly seed like she wouldn’t really care if Cerul got eaten by a roaming monster. Even he had started to develop a soft spot for the desperate crow. But Gamielle wasn’t like that. While she could be a huge softie to those she cared about, she was stone cold to pretty much everyone else.
He wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
=========================================
Earth.
He flexed his hand, all of his titles off. If his guess was right, his class placed his baseline as a blank Fifth realm. No excessive strength or durability like upgraded [Warriors], no finesse or speed like upgraded [Rogues]. Just a body that had the lowest physical stats of both worlds.
A suitable baseline towards any class.
It ant that while he didn’t have the massive coordination issues of having sudden overwhelming strength, he also didn’t have the insane dexterity that ca with [Rogues] either.
He still wasn’t sure what to make of it but it was a good thing he wasn’t working alone.
Ryan t the assistant in the prep room.
“What do you think, Grevich?”
“Well, if my analysis is correct, you picked a [Rogue] class into a more physically balanced class, correct?”
“Sothing like that.”
Grevich was indeed an expert, he had taken that thirty minute break and probably understood exactly where Ryan was at physically.
“Then we have a few options. What I recomnd is to fully acclimatize first, get your body back to perfect coordination through our stance-ghosting training room then focus on skill acquisition.”
“What if I want to skip the acclimatization period instead?”
Ryan didn’t have to worry about acclimatization since he knew the [Assassin] class would have it covered. Grevich, who didn’t know about that, naturally disliked the more inefficient option.
“Doing that normally takes longer. A highly acclimatized adventurer is much better at learning physical skills than a non acclimatized one.”
“I’m going to have to insist. I’ll worry about acclimatization on my own.”
You had to give it to Grevich, despite Ryan being a bit bull headed about the whole thing, the assistant’s expression didn’t betray a single sign of annoyance or disappointnt.
“Then we’ll take your Destined status into account. I assu you’re in an area where you can freely swap back and forth without endangering others?”
“Yup.”
“Then we’ll sort things out in the dummy room. The optimal path will be for you to constantly swap between The Realm and Earth. Be warned though, it may take a few days, maybe even weeks to months.”
“Wait really?”
“If you were an advanced [Rogue] at realm five it might be a different story. But even they can take weeks to learn a new Uncommon rarity skill.”
They entered another room with a completely different setup. Ryan carrying the sword he had picked up from the previous room. In the middle were five dummies with blunted swords.
“Huh, no harnesses and trying to suspend in the air?”
“No. A suspension system works best on skills that don’t require you to move your physical body. This, I believe, will work the best for you.”
Ryan narrowed his eyes, rembering when Seffara had tied him up in a climbing harness and pelted rocks at his dangling body. While he did end up progressing his [Lesser Dangersense] there, it didn’t help at all with [Instant Dodge].
It wouldn’t be the first ti Seffara’s lack of adventuring knowledge surprised him.
Ryan stood in the middle of them all, waiting for the golems to start.
He tensed, then one swung—at realm two speeds, maybe slower.
It was so slow that Ryan looked up at the cara and raised an eyebrow.
“Please focus on the movent of your body, get used to dodging.”
He leaned back, letting the swings go wide. Five golems at realm two speeds, it was a joke. He had a feeling Grevich was trying to force him to acclimatize instead of prioritizing his skill developnt.
The voice on the intercom rang out.
“May I try sothing with you? It does not always work for everyone, but it is sothing I have incorporated with great effect. If you are rushing to learn a Trial skill then this might be the fastest thod for you.”
Ryan lazily leaned back. Still half insulted at the swinging speed.
“Go ahead.”
“I have noticed how you are quite practiced at letting your body fall into a flow state. Even while you were only surrounded by non lethal turrets you were capable of pushing your mind to instantly reach focus. Undoubtedly honed by countless hours of practice.”
Ryan blinked at the sudden accurate analysis. Then Grevich’s voice went deeper.
“This is to tap into your flow state and then let the guided ditation to make your mind focus on the right path for your skill.”
The authoritative soothing voice helped. It worked together with the accurate analysis Grevich had of him. Ryan kept moving.
“I will be speeding up the golems to realm three speeds. Move in a manner that is natural to you.”
He couldn’t help himself. He was curious about this guided ditation thing and tapping into his flow state. Ryan was never good at ditation, understanding that he had to move his body to stop being so restless.
Grevich seed to have understood that about him at least.
“Focus your mind on my words. Let your body flow naturally, you already know the moves. You know the steps. Give in to the flow.”
Ryan’s eyes refocused for a bit. Grevich noticed the change almost imdiately.
“Take the flow then redirect it. A parry, guide yourself back, back into the flow. Resu control.”
‘Give into the flow’ were the wrong words to use on Ryan. Though Grevich had picked up on it imdiately. Now that was impressive.
“Lose yourself in your swordcraft. Focus only on your body and the forms. Focus on my voice. Settle it in, taking a deep breath in.”
Ryan ducked down, dodging two swings with a fanciful crouching sword pose, then flowing it back to a hanging left, making a stab go to his side.
“And breathe out. Make it flow naturally, not forcing anything. I will count down from five, you do not need to stop thinking, just take a mont to notice yourself then lose it once again.”
He was still focusing on the golems, yet two of them stopped, there were only three now. Ryan was both relaxed and completely open to any move they could make.
“Five, you are going deeper into an awareness of yourself, you’re feeling your heartbeat.
“Four, you are going deeper, you can hear the sound of your breathing, it’s taking you deeper.”
“Three, you are going deeper, the sound of the golems whirring, taking you deeper.”
“Two, sink deeper, drift deeper and you understand now where everything is coming from where every strike is going.”
“One, you are going deeper, you know the golems, you know your body and how it should move.”
Ryan’s body was moving at the sa pace as the realm three golems, they repeated the sa strikes over and over. He understood it now. All of them were moving automatically, one step back, spin around, duck. He was part of the whole, moving together, swaying back and forth.
“Now that you know the feeling, you will rember the feeling of your skill. Not the activation of it but just… the feeling. There is no need to worry about anything else. Just rember the feeling of what happened when you used your skill.”
He rembered pinballing his body in the Third Trial. Setting up an obstacle ground for himself.
Instant movent.
The rush of wind on his face while blood was in the air.
“Just focus on my voice, rember the feeling of your skill, but don’t activate it for now. All you’re doing is rembering how it felt and comparing it to how you feel right now when you dodge.”
Right… whenever he practiced, he hadn’t truly attempted to combine the dodging elent and the instant movent elent in one.
Grevich’s voice ca through the intercom. Deep and soothing.
“What is the idea of dodging? It is the avoidance of sothing coming at you, like you are doing now. It is the flow of movent that avoids an attack. For now we will only focus on the idea of dodging—”
Right…
Grevich was talking about the [Instant Dodge] skill like it was broken into ideas—or rather concepts. Which it was. Just two different words and anings pieced together to describe the skill.
To instantly dodge, to dodge instantly, a sudden movent to avoid sothing.
He was so focused on the instant movent he’d completely forgotten about the dodging part.
[Instant Dodge]
Trial Skill Learned!
================================================
Assistant Grevich saw Ryan fly upward. Far too high and quick, as if he had jumped from a squatting position at full strength. Ryan spun in midair, landed on the ceiling then launched himself back into the ground.
Then he started celebrating, pumping his fists into the air and leaping high.
“Grevich, that was amazing!”
Grevich blinked, then cleared his throat before speaking into the mic. “Naturally. I believed this would work well for you.”
Grevich worked hard to keep the startled tone out of his voice. It had never worked so quickly before. Especially on soone that was so unacclimatized. He had partially suggested this idea just so he could increase the adventurer’s acclimatization first.
Without proper acclimatization even talented adventurers struggled with learning skills in such a short ti fra. Guided ditation often failed more than it succeeded. Different adventurers needed different stimuli even for the sa skills.
Though now Grevich was wondering if he needed to push the research on it more. That or…
“Just out of curiosity did you already have a precursor skill?”
“Yeah, I had [Partial Acceleration] before. Still I think you did a great job. Raidco’s Mastery deserves their reputation.”
“Ah, yes then naturally we offer the best services around..”
…That was a lot more understandable. If adventurer Ryan had spent weeks unlocking and practicing his skill, then ca here when he had hit a wall, that was much more understandable than suddenly learning a skill in one go.
For a mont Grevich thought he had been directing a prodigy.
======================================
Ryan had paid for a full day and he sure as hell was going to use it. He was excited to get Grevich to do so more of that guided ditation stuff with his [Hastened] skill.
Or at least that had been the plan.
Only twenty minutes into their planning session for the [Hastened] skill, did Grevich get a phone call.
It was from the receptionist. Ryan heard her voice on the phone, telling Grevich to bring him to the entrance.
“What?”
“Just hurry, the–” the receptionist’s voice hitched. “An important guest is here to et him.”
Suddenly, Ryan had a bad feeling about this. Grevich hung up and nodded to him.
“Apologies, adventurer Ryan. You have a guest waiting for you. I’m sure we can leave the rest of the day’s session on your account.”
“Sure.”
That was honestly an amazing deal. He’d definitely be working with Grevich again.
They returned to the elevator, walking out, chatting about possible guided ditation for the [Hastened] skill. As they exited they both looked out for the supposed important guest.
They froze.
At one of the tables in the lobby, a pretty green-haired elf wearing chic glasses and a suit was sipping her coffee. She was going over so details on her laptop, looking up as if she only noticed them now.
It was Ella Maizel, the Tyrant’s Secretary.
She looked up and put her things away. Smiling up at him as if he were a close acquaintance.
Ryan narrowed his eyes and stord towards the elf that had just ruined his day.
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