There was sothing oddly calming about working the land. After you got past the initial flush of sweat you could sort of fall into a deep rhythm. He used his aura to form a sizeable scoop and was flinging away literal tonnes of dirt at a blazing pace. He had taken off most of his gear and had the Obsidian Sect Leader’s robes hanging by his waist as sweat beaded down his well-defined body.
Ryan himself was oblivious, finding his rhythm in hard manual labor. It was the first ti he’d managed to find his flow without going through his sword forms and he was fascinated at the feeling.
He focused on it, watching the way the faint web of Noxweed mana all coalesced to this single spot. He used his precursor skill [Arcane Seeking] and sent out a pulse of [Volatile Mana], it traced the root back down and he watched and observed.
[Spellweave Perception] leveled up!
[Spellweave Perception] level 3-> 4
The root network revealed itself to him. The Noxweed plant had been learning, digging further underground and even dispersing its mana. Unfortunately for the plant.
Ryan could learn faster than a vegetable.
[Manabane Strike]
His sword pierced into the cluster of major roots and shattered all the intricate connections between the plant that held it together. Overall this thod was significantly more mana efficient than using [Arcane Volatility] and blowing everything up.
“You know, I think I’d make a good farr.”
Ryan nodded at himself in satisfaction after a good day’s work, then he surveyed the land. It was a blasted hellscape of similar massive holes in the ground. As if a dragonslayer tier [Mage] had done a carpet bombing run with thousands of max leveled [Fireballs]. A broken spire lay in the center, a monunt to the destruction that had been necessary in taking down a threat to the land.
Gamielle floated over to him while giving him the side-eye. She pretended like she was appreciating the view of his sweaty, dirt-stained body.
“I’m pretty sure farming doesn’t involve destroying the earth with so many explosions.”
“You’re a Tyrant’s daughter, what would you know about farming?”
“Well excuse you, my mom grew up on a farm and so did I.”
“Really? I an I know your mother used to belong to a rich farming family, but you?”
Pretty much everyone knew about most of the Tyrants’ pasts. The Witch Tyrant was from a fairly wealthy farming family that had lost most of their wealth due to governnt changes. While all of that had been well docunted, what Ryan hadn’t expected was for Gamielle to have been raised on a farm.
“Hey! I may look pretty but I know how to get my hands dirty.”
Ryan looked at her spotless hands flatly. “Right.”
She gave him the finger.
Gamielle was soone that preferred to lazily float around on the ground and always wore spotless robes. Though at the mont she was wearing a light colored sundress that matched the color of the shining bits of faith that was floating around her.
She looked wistful, staring at the red sky and the great farming job he had done.
“My mom thought that growing up on a farm would keep grounded while being the Witch Tyrant’s daughter.”
“Huh. Did it work?”
“I don’t know, what do you think?”
She gave him a mischievous grin. Her flowing robe-dress shining brightly, lting away into her own silhouette. Ryan almost looked away but realized the light was covering her modesty. The light then turned into a mix of black robes with leather padding hugging most of her curves. There was a light indent of a leaf frad against her body and it wrapped around to the left side of her torso.
Ryan blinked, he’d seen her wear this style of gear before. When he had doubted she had ever been an adventurer at all. At least he had never found any records of her on the realmnet that he could identify.
She had a bit of dirt on her face as she smiled proudly at him.
Ryan gave her the up down, evaluating and appreciating the way the armor combined form with function. [Mages] liked to keep things light with monster leather, no enchantnts not of their own because it could interfere with spellcasting. Though the gear was clearly, very fancy.
He was going to make a joke about her being rich until he saw the redness on her cheeks—was she blushing?
Ryan’s mind blanked before his [Lesser Dangersense] skill went off.
Every single instinct told him it was a trap.
He rembered how she’d entrapped him like this. The first ti he had been honeypotted with an overexaggerated bust at Sector One. The second ti she had flown ahead of him and dared him to peek.
“You aren’t getting a third ti!”
Ryan scooped up a literal ton of dirt and flung it at her.
“Wha–”
To his surprise Gamielle yelped and a small barrier barely blocked the dirt in ti. It covered her vision entirely sticking to the barrier for a brief mont—before exploding outwards—leaving a furious Gamielle behind.
“What are you doing?!”
By that point Ryan was already in the distance, running off. That day, a literal dragonslayer tier [Mage] casted fireballs across the land, causing even more untold devastation on the already destroyed land.
——
After Ryan had left for Earth, Gamielle was left behind in The Realm. She was currently slamming her forehead into a [Forcewall] of her own making.
“Of course he’s an idiot, what am I even thinking?!”
Not once did she ever think the situation was perhaps a little her fault.
“Normally with idiots like them the right move is to cut through the chaff and be direct.”
“I DON’T NEED RELATIONSHIP ADVICE FROM YOU, MOTHER!”
The Witch Tyrant sipped at her tea. Only a true [Witch] would enjoy the suffering of her own daughter like this.
This book was originally published on . Check it out there for the real experience.
“I do approve of the relationship. It would be good to have him emotionally invested in your wellbeing.”
“AHHHHHHHHHH!”
Gamielle decided that she’d rather stuff her feelings down her chest than continue hitting on an idiot.
——
Earth…
Grevich was one of the head skill assistants of Raidco’s Mastery. A prestigious, well paying position that others could only dream of having. By being a skill assistant at Raidco he was considered one of the world’s top experts at skill mastery for adventurers.
Now his schedule was packed to prove it.
While Ryan Robinson had booked a private session, it was no secret that the recently vogue adventurer had visited their training grounds and approved of it.
The lack of a tip was, of course, forgotten when Ryan had given them five stars on his personal adventurer’s account. The first comnt he had made on the account, before he had beco famous.
Now that Ryan Robinson was this supposed ‘competent adventurer’? Endorsed by Valee the Spider herself?
The single review he had on his account ant everything.
‘Amazing work, can recomnd Raidco and Grevich as a skill assistant. Learned a Trial skill I’ve been stuck on for weeks in one day. 10/10 will visit again.’
While the comnt itself hadn’t made headlines, it did make waves in adventurer circles. Plenty of adventurers were stuck with all four filled Trial skill slots and were looking for any edge to break that bottleneck. If you took a Trial without freeing up a slot?
You could only swap out a new skill with one of the old ones. Nobody ever did that, you would lose all the levels of a skill you trained to get. It got worse when you rembered that a lot of these adventurers had teams as well.
Sotis your team would leave you behind if you couldn’t learn your Trial skill in ti. If you had a loyal team that was waiting for you? Well, sotis that was even worse. Trying to desperately learn a skill while your team had already learned theirs often broke people.
Therefore, when comnts like that popped up, it was only natural that adventurers took note.
Now, despite the fact that the vast majority of adventurers were busy working in The Realm, Raidco’s Mastery in San Kingsgrove had a constant stream of desperate adventurers.
The most important part?
Grevich was likely the most requested skill assistant in the world. All of his ti slots were completely booked. He had tripled his prices and he was booked out, weeks in advance.
If this was only two days ago, Grevich would have been overjoyed. He would have kissed Ryan on the cheek if he didn’t believe it would land him in trouble with the current [Strongest in the Fourth Realm].
At this rate, it would only be a year until he could pay for his own sponsorship slot.
Though that was two days ago.
Now? Two days later?
You had to rember, reputation did not equate to effectiveness.
“How does this work for anyone?! I knew this was a scam. How much did you pay this Ryan Robinson to promote you huh?”
Grevich was starting to sweat as he watched a very angry, very large elven [Warrior] throw his helt onto the ground, denting both the reinforced ground and his helt. Yes they were separated by a realm eight enchanted mirror but this was still a very testy [Warrior] in the fourth realm.
He cleared his throat and talked into the mic.
“Not everyone reacts in the sa way, adventurer Mudriff. I did ntion that guided ditation was an experintal test done over—”
“It looks like nobody’s ever had it working at all. Not a single adventurer that’s visited you has learned their skill since you started.”
“Well, we’ve only had two sessions. Expecting results from—”
“Nonsense! This! All of my skills are maxed, they’ve been that way for six months. I have precursors. I should be done by now!”
Grevich was starting to realize that perhaps Mudriff’s frustration wasn’t on him but rather his own lacking talent. Mudriff was a [Warrior] whose team had already gone ahead into the fifth realm without him and was desperate to catch up. It was unfortunate, but sotis you had adventurers like this.
Martial Talent? No complaints, he had been raised from birth to be a fine tuned [Swordsman].
Skill build? Again, no complaints. In fact he had learned his first Common skill but had been stuck with three Rares and one Uncommon. A perfectly fine distribution of Physical and one positional skill.
Bravery? Mudriff had desperately risked his life in the Cataclysm Abyss. He had even gone solo, hoping that the extra risk might be able to give him a mont of epiphany that so adventurers said they get.
Sotis… all of it wouldn’t be enough. Sotis, actually being able to learn a Trial skill was the luck of the draw. Sotis… you just didn’t have the affinity for it.
Grevich was sweating, not because he was worried the [Warrior] might cave his skull in—adventurers didn’t do that—but rather because he had the feeling that every single person that had booked with him were desperate adventurers that stalked the realmnet for any possible edge to tip them over that bottleneck.
If they were all this desperate…
His reputation was going to be destroyed as quickly as it had bumped up.
And that would damage his chances as an adventurer when he bought a sponsorship slot in the future.
As Grevich pondered this, his phone rang. He almost sighed in relief for a distraction from his worries.
“Yes? this is Grevich speaking.”
“We’ve got adventurer Robinson here. You told to give you a heads up if he cos back.”
The distraction had turned into a chi of a savior ringing in his ears—only he was fully booked for weeks.
There was a clanging on the training room floor as adventurer Mudriff started slashing away at expensive golems. Grevich made his decision there as he leaned into the mic.
“Adventurer Mudriff, why don’t we take a break for the rest of the day. It is said that there is far less progress to be made while emotionally frustrated. I promise there will be no charge for the entire day and you are free to use this room for the next two hours. The golems destroyed will go to your account. I do apologize that Raidco’s Mastery wasn’t up to your standards.”
Mudriff looked up from shattering another golem.
“What?!”
But Grevich was already gone. As the skill assistant walked through the hallways of the extensive underground structure. He was going over Ryan’s videos in his head. He must have watched it a hundred tis.
Ryan’s eyes had been in a trance of his own when the skill activation had happened. It was a state of both hyperfocus and non focus. The zone or the flow as so athletes and creatives called it. Plenty of adventurers could enter such things at will and it was considered one of the best states to learn a Trial skill from.
But there was a difference there with Ryan’s activation from other’s. It was like he was both thinking about sothing while keeping his body occupied. A slightly more complicated version of flow that Grevich’s guided ditation had helped him enter.
It wasn’t a crazy new technique that nobody had tried before.
Guided ditation, hypnosis, life and death matches even potent drugs.
Everything had been tried, everything had mixed results.
Even Grevich hadn’t been that invested in guided ditation. He had mostly been doing it to get the stubborn adventurer to acclimatize first then work on learning his skills.
But then it worked, right in front of him.
There was sothing there, Grevich had been sure of it.
Unfortunately it just hadn’t been working for anyone else.
He was starting to co to an unfortunate conclusion. It was likely that he hadn’t co across so secret sauce and was about to revolutionize skill acquisition. It was just likely that this Ryan Robinson was simply talented and it worked for him specifically.
It made sense. There had to be a reason why Valee the [Strongest of the Fourth Realm] and the Secretary herself had both taken note of him.
Either way, Grevich had to make sure. Even if this wasn’t a universal thing, there was nothing wrong with working with a monstrously talented adventurer.
Ryan Robinson was chatting with the receptionist again. The difference was that it was clear the receptionist was more guarded. After all, both of them had seen the way he had treated the Secretary. Neither of them ntioned it again but this wasn’t just a ‘nice’ adventurer they could relax around.
He was wearing a hoodie with the hood down and sunglasses hanging off the front. Likely having worn it to walk in here without getting harassed. The two other adventurers in the lobby were clearly watching and listening. They knew who he was and were getting ready to introduce themselves.
Except Ryan was still trying to be friendly with the receptionist.
“I don’t believe it. You guys are actually booked out?”
Ryan scratched his head, then turned when he noticed Grevich approach. Grevich nodded.
“Adventurer Robinson, it’s good to see you again.”
“Oh, hey Grevich, just call Ryan. I was told you were booked out. It’s crazy how things change so quickly huh?”
The casualness threw Grevich off. The last ti he’d seen Adventurer Robinson was when he was glaring at the Secretary. Then… well everyone had seen the video where he was coming up with a plan on the fly with Valee the Spider. Both were a stark contrast to this ‘casual’ Ryan.
But adventurers were often like that. They started to treat ordinary humans casually because they had nothing to prove to them, plus they weren’t a threat.
It was still good to be professional.
“I’ve just freed my schedule for the next two hours. I would love to take so ti and discuss—”
Grevich trailed off as he realized Ryan had stopped listening and was watching over his shoulder.
Heavy footfalls echoed out from behind him.
Midriff an angry elven [Warrior].
“Hey! We weren’t done! I don’t care about the money. Just do your best and show what you showed to that prick.”
Grevich froze with his eyes wide open.
Ryan blinked in confusion. “Were you in mid-session or sothing? Hey I didn’t an to interrupt. I can co back when you’re less busy.”
The fourth realm adventurer only now noticed said prick in their midst. Mudriff’s jaw dropped at the very famous evolved adventurer he’d just insulted.
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