Six hours later…
Ryan yawned. Despite the portal immunity, there was still a more than a far amount of monsters surrounding him, watching him carefully. While they wouldn’t make a move until he left, they also knew that it was unlikely he was going to stick around and guard the portal forever.
It wasn’t like it had been completely peaceful for the full six hours. At first so of the bored monsters had pushed the weaker ones into the surroundings, expecting Ryan to kill them.
It backfired on them when he dove into the horde without a care and slaughtered the ones responsible. It wasn’t like it mattered that he dove in anyway, they couldn’t claim the portal while it was under immunity.
Now there was so form of order in the surroundings. They understood that he wasn’t to be disturbed.
Funnily enough, that had actually boosted the concepts of the Tyrant more than making them all quake in fear. Bringing order through tyranny? That did make sense.
Now the monsters were waiting, hoping that maybe they could fight the Cerulean Crow for dominance. After all, Ryan didn’t look like he was that friendly with the crow. The blue bird kept raising its tail feathers at him and spitting on the ground while Ryan had to keep yelling at the crow to be patient.
A sword whistling through the air snapped Ryan out of his boredom as he turned to the direction the noise had co from.
Soone or sothing was fighting near the back of the horde of monsters.
“Did the previous group of adventurers rally a raid team already?”
Gamielle didn’t answer him despite the fact that he was looking directly through her [Invisibility]. Ryan got the impression that every ti he showed that he could see through it she would get annoyed.
So of course he kept doing it.
The question was honest though. The closest town was ages away—unles he had misread the map on the realmnet, he didn’t think a group of adventurers could realistically make it back in ti and organize a reasonable party to take him out.
Though who knew, maybe there were other teams around and they believed they could take him on together.
He’d seen the comnts on the realmnet by the higher realm adventurers. He could totally see a group of idiot adventurers thinking all he had was aura and believe they could outmaneuver him and whittle him down.
He’d gladly teach them a lesson if so.
He glanced over at Cerul, it had its beak pointed towards where the sounds were coming from, its eyes focused–then the bird scoffed and spat on the ground.
Ryan blinked in surprise.
The swinging of a sword at subsonic speeds disappeared as soone leapt high above the horde, he had given up trying to threaten the monsters with a blade and tried to leap over them. It was a familiar elven [Swordsman] that Ryan knew quite well.
He waved cheerily.
“Oh hey Zedart! You’re late!”
That was apparently the wrong move.
The mont Ryan gave a friendly greeting to another creature, the horde of monsters all focused on the [Swordsman].
Before, many of them had been simply giving warnings to this new adventurer, telling him to keep his distance, not believing that the creature in the middle was associated with him.
But now it was different. They had seen it before. Adventurers coming in, claiming portals with groups and making unassailable fortresses over what should have been theirs.
They could not let the monster in the middle gather more allies.
The attacks flew at the [Swordsman]. Poison vines, ranged dust attacks, a six legged apex boar thing charged and shook the ground.
Surrounded by fifth realm apexes trying to kill him, Zedart was forced to instantly use his best combination.
[Desperation Stance: Honed Will] [Brutal Cleave] [Uncanny Parry]
Zedart used the extended blade’s flat side to parry the vine in midair, he used that push to propel himself forward—dodging the pile of red glittering dust.
The six-legged boar turned around in an artful use of its limbs, it skidded only the barest amount and imdiately started charging full force at Zedart from behind.
Ryan, standing on Cerul’s back, called out to the ss he’d created.
“Oops! Do you need help?”
“I’m–I’m fine!”
Zedart was a blur of blades as usual, the only problem being that he was still a fourther in what was a sea of dangerous apex fifth realm monsters.
Plenty of which had far more than just brute strength.
A human sized black spider turned its gaze from nearly a mile away to stare right into Zedart’s sword. Ryan could see that whatever it was doing was warping the enchantnts on Zedart’s new sword. The blade started to burn red hot as the [Swordsman’s] grip on his blade smoked from burnt flesh.
More desperate than ever, Zedart launched himself forward once again, his hands literally turning red. An invisible racoon-like creature took a chunk from his thigh, just barely calculated enough to dodge the sword swing that ca afterwards.
A sharp tailed cat-like monster found that mont of weakness to leap up from the ground, its tail going for a swipe to cut off Zedart’s head.
Zedart pulled his head back in ti as he threw his burning sword into the cat’s spine. It sizzled and burned as the sharp-tailed cat yowled in pain and started scrambling on the ground.
The invisible racoon thing pounced on the cat, tearing it apart as it started to feast on flesh, taking its opportunity when it could.
Zedart was left weaponless with hands of burnt flesh. He turned around at the hostile horde that were all staring at him, ready to make their move against the weakened adventurer.
Now they were less concerned with him making it to the clearing alive and more occupied with not leaving themselves exposed to the other monsters.
A rumble tossed aside a monster from behind as Zedart decided to take a risk.
He jumped—and let himself get tackled by the six-legged boar. He used his burnt hands to make sure he wouldn’t get gored by the tusks and let his body get hit.
All of the creatures were surprised as the [Swordsman] used the montum to clear his way through the rest of the horde.
He landed just barely into the clearing.
Hands badly burnt, a chunk of his thigh missing, possibly his spine broken.
But alive.
The creeping spider thing turned its eyes to Zedart’s other gear—and got a knife through its head.
The apex boar that tried to continue the rush was cut open in a flash of red as Ryan stood in front of the [Swordsman].
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And all the monsters stepped back.
He raised his right arm and clenched his sword high in the air. He called upon the concept of domination, the [Veilpiercer Assassin] and the [Arcane Saboteur]. He pushed all of his classes into one presence.
[Unrelenting Aura of Intimidation]
The overwhelming presence of a [Tyrant] descended on them, promising them death and destruction.
“He made it through and all of you lost. Now scram or I’ll kill you all.”
Ryan released the aura that had been building up the entire ti. He had been practicing holding his Epic back and all of the apex monsters were realizing the simple truth.
They felt it, the sa thing the smarter monsters did, the ones that had already left.
He could change his mind and kill the entire horde. Even if one of them managed to sneakily claim the portal they would die straight afterwards.
This ti, every single monster fled the field without hesitation. A stampede which caused plenty of deaths on its own.
Zedart just looked up. Then looked down at his burnt hands and bleeding side.
“Everyti I feel like I’ve made progress, you pull further and further ahead.”
“Eh, if you were in realm five you would have torn through them all.”
Zedart shook his head, as if not believing in that himself. Ryan shook his head at the silly [Swordsman] and dragged him up, ignoring how much pain Zedart was in.
“Potion?”
“I’m good I have my own.”
And like that, the two walked back to the center of the clearing. Zedart glared at the cerulean crow as the bird spat on the ground.
Zedart would have tightened his grip on his sword… if he had one left. He still rembered how Cerul had doused him in feces.
“You’re still working with it?”
“Hey, he provides transport and I provide system portals for Cerule to evolve… wait why does that sound like I got the raw end of the deal?”
Cerul looked proudly at the sky as the [Swordsman] turned to the [Rogue] who was still making bad deals and shook his head.
Ryan laughed then looked around.
“Hey Gamielle, why are you hiding? Co over here!”
Gamielle appeared in the air, a little shier than Ryan had expected from her. Zedart was pouring a healing potion on his thigh as he nodded at her.
Gamielle crossed her arms.
“I’m not hiding. You just didn’t think about how awkward it is that the three of us are together like this again.”
Zedart and Ryan looked at each other. Ryan shrugged.
“Nah, it’s fine. We’re all friends here.”
Gamielle threw up her hands.
“It’s insane how clueless you are sotis.”
Ryan smiled warmly. “We’ve all forgiven you, c’mon.”
So, for the first ti since the first realm, the three of them sat down together. It hadn’t even been a year but so much had happened that all of them were changed.
While Zedart had always been stiff as a sword from the beginning, it now looked like there had been grace added on top. He was both sharper and more flexible. Lessons learned from both his failure and success.
Gamielle was less certain of herself, feeling awkward that she had to et the adventurers she had tricked into a deathmatch as friends. A bit of guilt tempering the girl.
And Ryan… Well, he knew he had changed more than anyone else. He turned to Zedart.
“Tell how it’s going with the Unwanted.”
“They’re still following your plan and building a settlent at the Trial outpost. Though after the Flesh Titan, a lot of adventurers are trying to pressure them to at least move into the city of Defiance.”
“That can’t happen.”
Zedart nodded in understanding.
If an Unwanted touched a System portal they’d end up absorbing it into themselves. It would leave the city of Defiance stranded and the rest of the world finding out that the Unwanted were considered monsters by the Trial System.
Gamielle perked up.
“What is the rest of your plan with the Unwanted anyway?”
“This.”
Ryan grabbed a white leather glove out of his pocket and threw it at Zedart. The [Swordsman] caught it in his hand and nodded.
He had exchanged ssages with Valee and this was the reason why Zedart was here. To retrieve Rax’s control glove and bring it back to the Unwanted. Only Zedart and Valee were both strong enough and trustworthy to go travel into Sector Five and co back and do the right thing.
“When you go deep make sure you only travel with trustworthy adventurers, also bring at least one Unwanted per adventurer. You’re going to need them if the tunnels start collapsing. Do you think it’s possible to take Valee or Shara with you?”
Zedart shook his head.
“Shara is too important and Valee needs to be there in case Goreblatt cos back.”
Goreblatt had been blacklisted after killing a bunch of adventurers and Unwanted. He had even managed to kill Juniper too. Ryan had sworn to put an end to the little shit if he ever ca across him.
“Is that piece of shit still down there?”
“We think he’s gone deeper into the Cataclysm Abyss.”
“If he didn’t enter the Trial while the Flesh Titan was causing chaos then he probably knows about the other Trial entrance. Damn.”
Sideark was not good at keeping secrets. He had hinted to his stream that there might have been a trial entrance down there and Artigan might have taken it. Ryan wouldn’t be surprised if Goreblatt had managed to find so more things from the other eternal delvers either.
Goreblatt being down there was exactly why Valee wasn’t here despite being the fastest fourther around. She was effectively guarding the entirety of the Unwanted and overseeing the Trial entrance herself.
The odd thing was that Zedart being here ant that he was admitting he was weaker than Valee.
“Is Valee actually that much stronger than you are?”
The [Swordsman] nodded.
“With her bindings it’s no contest. Even without them, I would not win unless it was in a tournant setting. In most situations she’s the better choice.”
“Damn, I really did underestimate her, huh.”
Gamielle waved her hands in annoyance.
“Hello? I still don’t know what that glove is for.”
“Oh right. It turns out Rax, the previous leader of the Unwanted, had a massive vault of artifacts underneath his workshop. Even if they’re not top tier, they’re usable in leveled zones and would probably go for billions of dollars if you took your ti and sell to collectors. Shara’s going to use those funds and build a proper settlent around the Fifth Trial. That way even when soone does find out that the Trial System considers them monsters, they’ll have so sort of leverage to negotiate with.”
There were intelligent monsters around with their own communities in The Realm. So had ford their own nations and occasionally bartered with the rest of The Realm.
However, it was just as common for groups of intelligent monsters to get wiped out when they got in conflict with Realrs and adventurers.
Ryan had done his research and refined his plans further, he concluded that the correct choice was at minimum, be civilized… and hold sothing that Realrs and adventurers cared about while being able to threaten it.
In other words, Barry’s lesson two in negotiations.
The Unwanted had sympathy and montum, now they needed to build a city around the fifth trial entrance and maintain an implied threat over it to be treated fairly.
Gamielle blinked.
“You, you’re giving up millions in realmcoin? You?”
Ryan lifted his nose in the air.
“Well, what’s worth more? A couple billion dollars worth of artifacts that I can’t carry around and sell, or the favor of a civilization that’s going to hold one of the most important chokepoints in The Realm?”
The [Swordsman] wasn’t fooled in the slightest. Neither was Gamielle.
“I don’t know. You didn’t even take a single artifact? That sounds awfully selflessly heroic of you.”
“Wrong, I took the biggest handheld mana cannon I’ve ever seen as paynt… Though it did kinda blow up when I combined it with my volatile mana.”
Gamielle rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Of course you did.”
“What can I say? I’m [The Rogue Adventurer].”
Ryan had to block a weak [Manabolt] thrown by Gamielle.
They continued to chat, but most of all, the three of them relaxed around each other..
It should have been more difficult. The Fallen [Mage] who had been too talented to be part of any adventuring team for long, the blacklisted [Rogue] adventurer who was seen as a villain by the rest of the world, the [Swordsman] who now chased after an impossible shadow.
Sohow, despite it all, they were here, talking like old friends.
…
The conversation moved to sothing Ryan was curious about.
“So, how do I get the Unwanted to be considered a people by the Trial System? I’ve checked what happened with the drakes when they first integrated and it looks like they weren’t imdiately considered a people either.”
Gamielle bit her lip.
“I don’t know if I should tell you.”
“Oh co on! Zedart, poke her with your sword.”
The [Swordsman] gave her a stern piercing look instead. For so reason it was super effective on the guilty [Mage].
“Fine! first, they need to be humanoid, then they need to be acknowledged by the other species in The Realm. The thing is, I think you’ve already fulfilled option two. If they aren’t considered a species yet then it might just be that the Unwanted aren’t considered humanoid enough for the Trial System..”
“That’s dragonshit. So the Trial System is speciest?”
Cerul crowed in agreent at how unfair it was, the crow absolutely believed it was smarter than any adventurer. Gamielle nodded a little.
“The Great Civilization that created the Trial System was mostly a humanoid civilization. They didn’t make it out of charity, I can tell you that much.”
Ryan scowled. Gamielle eyed him like he was an idiot.
“Whatever you’re thinking, stop it. You know nothing about how strong they are, or how they operate.”
“But I do know that they care about the Trial System. Besides, if I can kill the Manager then I’ll have done sothing none of the Great Civilizations have managed to do. That’s leverage right?”
Gamielle shook her head in exasperation.
“Sotis, I really can’t tell if you’re cunning or an idiot that gets lucky.”
Ryan grinned. “Keep em guessing and a certain entity won’t be able to figure it out either.”
Ryan looked around wildly, keeping the wild grin on his face.
“I KNOW YOU’RE WATCHING YOU CREEPY OLD ENTITY.”
Zedart leaned back, he turned to Gamielle in confusion. Gamielle shook her head.
“Don’t ask.”
Ryan then clicked his fingers in realization. He dashed next to the [Swordsman] and held Zedart’s shoulder while taking out sothing out of his pockets. A thick coin that had King Theskar’s face on one side. A souvenir from his Fifth Trial.
Ryan squeezed Zedart’s shoulder.
“Zedart, Zedart, my friend. Let tell you about the greatest evil that plagues our worlds, and let tell you about this one simple trick you can do to help combat it.”
And Ryan flipped the coin, the red light catching on the faces of the coin as [The Rogue Adventurer] dazzled the impressionable young [Swordsman] with half truths.
This was, perhaps, the pri example of why one should always be careful of the people they associate with.
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