Pinkie laughed her head off.

  “Oh Manager’s abode! Look at your face! Hahaha! When was the last time someone got the better of you?”

  Ella Maizel sniffed at the other dragonslayer. Pinkie was in the sky, travelling at literal breakneck speeds towards the closest System portal. Though for both this was just like a stroll in the evening air.

  Ella sniffed.

  “Shut up. You and Gamielle both gave me bad information. That [Rogue] is a brute, not a plotter.”

  Pinkie was carrying Ella because a [Secretary] didn’t have much in the way of stealth and movement skills. Or at least Ella liked to pretend she couldn’t travel back on her own. Pinkie didn’t comment on it.

  After all, carrying the pouting [Secretary] after she’d been dealt a loss was just too much fun.

  Technically Ella didn’t even need to sneak around, the Tyrants’ Secretary had agreements with most nations on Earth to travel as needed. In reality, she’d have to file a bunch of documents and would then be tracked like a hawk.

  It was much simpler to have a [Rogue] sneak her around. Pinkie peered down at the pouting elf.

  “So, what’s your assessment of him?”

  “A brute, like I said.”

  Pinkie frowned.

  “Really? I was hoping he’d be able to keep her busy for a little bit longer.”

  She raised her head and their eyes met. Ella gave a piercing stare as she shook her head. Pinkie clicked her tongue in disappointment.

  Ah well.

  They’d have their moment. For now, it was time to get stronger before it all went to shit.

  –

  Ryan had his arms crossed while Seffara stood over him. This was getting familiar. She pointed at the dining table that was now put back in place.

  “You know this table is an Aviela import right?”

  “It didn’t break! Look, there’s not even a scratch!”

  “Look, there’s a crack here.”

  Seffara pointed out a finger-sized crack on the enormous dining table.

  “Okay, well I have money now! I can transfer it whenever you want.”

  Ryan had memorized Artigan’s account details, he could technically try to log in somewhere and send the money at any time. Seffara clearly didn’t think much of his idea.

  “You think I’m taking money from a blacklisted account? You think I’m as much of a dumbass like you?”

  Barry just shook his head.

  “I still can’t believe she was using a social skill on us and we didn’t notice.”

  Ryan found that bit interesting and he was keen to steer the conversation away from paying for a table that was probably worth more than his entire salary.

  “I thought it was obvious after a little bit. That was a skill and not an aura right?”

  It was difficult to tell exactly what it was, just that until he’d realized something weird was going on, he felt nudged to act in a reasonably civil manner. It had made sense at the time too, why would he try to argue with someone that represented the Tyrants? He shuddered.

  Seffara scratched at her neck, she’d been furious about the skill too, but there was nothing they could really do as the [Secretary] stood up and bid them good day.

  “Argh, I don’t know the difference! It could be an aura or a social skill. They can basically do the same thing. Slimy bitch probably used it the first time I signed a contract with her.”

  Social skills were a weird one. It was probably the rarest category of skills an adventurer would come across. They were normally something like [Thieves’ Honor] or a [Witch’s Bargain] where it was distinct and bound you in a very purposeful manner. Subtle social skills that nudged the mind were practically unheard of.

  It made sense, who the hell would pick [Secretary] as a class?

  “How has nobody even noticed something like that before? She even dresses up like the Manager!”

  Seffara and Barry looked at each other. Then turned back to him. Seffara answered his first question.

  “Nobody distrusts the Manager other than you.”

  Ryan threw his hands up in disbelief. Barry answered the second question.

  “I’ll admit, I didn’t realize she was a schemer either. Obvious in hindsight. Hm, never really thought about dragonslayers with social skills, that’s concerning.”

  Seffara was getting more and more worked up.

  “Stupid bitch probably knew about how the Dwarven Tyrant would take forever for my order when I signed with her. I was supposed to bring it up but always felt like an idiot when I met her.”

  “Doesn’t it ping her if you talk about it?”

  “The way I see it, all contracts I’ve signed with her are null and void.”

  Now that was a threatening tone from Seffara. It was almost nostalgic. Ryan didn’t even know he could feel nostalgic for something that he’d experienced only a month ago. Then he noticed someone was missing.

  “Where’s Milock?”

  Seffara and Barry just looked at each other.

  –

  Ryan barged into Milock’s room, he slammed it open to find his friend scrambling over his laptop and hiding it behind his back. Ryan didn’t have time to think about what site his friend was on as he marched towards his friend.

  “You signed a contract with the [Secretary]?”

  “Look, I don’t - can’t talk about it.”

  Ryan grabbed his stupid friend and shook him.

  “The hell you can’t, violate that contract right now. Why didn’t you call Seffara the moment she appeared?”

  Apparently the [Secretary] had gone after Milock first, then had met with Seffara. Milock put his hands up to try to stop the shaking.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  “Look, it was the [Secretary] alright? She got here before Seffara did. She said she knew what you were doing and she wanted to help you out. She put it in the contract that she was only willing to help. I know how her contract skill works, I’m not an idiot okay!”

  Ryan let go of his friend so he could slap his own forehead. Barry of all people came rushing to Milo’s defence.

  “We checked the contract afterwards, it’s pretty fair, it just doesn’t let him talk about or post specific things to others. Things he shouldn’t be posting anyway.”

  Ryan eyed Milock. His friend shifted slightly to block his view.

  “What are you hiding? Move over.”

  “Hey! It’s fine!”

  Ryan looked at his friend that was attempting to cover a brand new laptop with the back of his body. It looked custom made, and wasn’t something that he had recognized as Seffara’s nor was it the shoddy one his friend owned. He tried to grab at it as Milock wrapped his arms around it and put it close to his chest.

  “You idiot! You sold yourself out for a new computer?”

  “That wasn’t what happened! Hey!”

  Ryan lifted his friend with one hand and tried to pry open his arms to get at the laptop. He started pulling hard when Seffara blurred forward and grabbed Ryan’s hand instead.

  “Okay! Enough! We looked over the contract. It’s fine, leave it alone. We have more important business to take care of. Like what exactly you did in The Realm.”

  Ah yes the action report.

  Milock looked relieved. That was when Seffara snatched the laptop from him and started scrunching it into a ball in front of Milock’s eyes. When she felt the telltale sign of the battery about to puncture she turned around and continued her crushing. The explosion of the battery doing nothing in her hands.

  Once she was satisfied Seffara tossed the ball into her dimensional pouch at her waist.

  Milock looked like he wanted to cry. That was a custom laptop given by the [Secretary] herself. Seffara had zero empathy.

  “I’ll give you a new laptop to replace that one.”

  –

  They were back at the dining table with Seffara’s own privacy artifact set up. She slapped her table.

  “Alright, do you want to go first or should I?”

  “I’ll go first.”

  It wasn’t because he wanted to brag about what he’d done or anything. He’d spent a month alone in the forest with literally everything being terrified of him. Ryan was glad his stupid Epic didn’t work on Earth.

  He told his story, from how he had defeated the Bullipede to taking out the outpost and the video he made. They all had a laugh as Seffara shook her head.

  “I’ve seen that video, Latarro didn’t deserve that.”

  “Is it weird that I don’t care? I don’t know what it is about him but I don’t like him… maybe it’s because he’s an eighth realm picking a fight with a second realm.”

  “Latarro is a good kid. Well, not a kid anymore. I know what people say about him but he’s not faking it for the camera.”

  Ryan made a face but didn’t know how to explain it further. Latarro was a true blue hero, he could respect it, but he still didn’t need to like the guy. Ryan sniffed and moved on.

  Next was the Trial.

  “And I routed the armies together to make them all fight each other. I realized what was going on with the Strategist’s plan and used it against them. Had to get Valee’s team to cooperate but it was pretty easy. Then the rest was just picking off fleeing and scattered soldiers in the fore-”

  Barry put up a hand to interrupt him. “You killed the fleeing soldiers?”

  Ryan paused at the tone.

  “Yeah, I mean they were trying to kill me before… They're Trial people, you know, they’re reset. C’mon Barry, I have to maximize my…”

  He trailed off, it sounded bad when he said it out loud. Ryan didn’t like the look Barry was giving him. He sighed.

  “I let the adventurers go Barry, I helped them out and we even worked together. I saved who I wanted to save.”

  “I didn’t say anything.”

  Ryan crossed his arms, glaring at Barry for being judgmental.

  “I got an S+ rating. Came with an extra trial skill slot and two Epic offerings.”

  Milock’s jaw dropped, Seffara raised her eyebrows. She didn’t seem to have the same reactions to him slaughtering Trial soldiers as Barry did.

  Barry was unmoved, or at least he pretended to be. It was hard to tell.

  “That’s to be expected, I doubt you needed to slaughter both armies for an S+.”

  “Admit it, Barry! You’re impressed, even Seffara’s impressed!”

  The orc crossed his arms and huffed.

  “Fine.”

  “I win!”

  Ryan jumped up and threw up his arms, he started clapping. The three people listening just looked at him like he was a madman. He instantly stopped and coughed.

  “Ahem. Sorry, I spent like thirty days alone in the woods. I think I went a little crazy in there.”

  “We can tell.”

  “Screw you too, Barry.”

  The discussion continued, Ryan distinctly left out his duel with Valee, there was no need to tell them about his embarrassing loss. He’d told them about the Epics and they both agreed his selection was the correct choice. Milock naturally whined about it all until both veterans glared at him.

  Milock stopped shaking his head in disbelief. He looked at Ryan up and down, apparently something had changed with how Ryan was holding himself up.

  “Man, it’s really been a month for you huh? That’s gotta be weird. For me and Barry it’s only been like three days.”

  The time in The Realm had sped up, desyncing itself from Earth’s. For Milock and Barry it meant that they only experienced three days passing on Earth. A nearly ten to one ratio to be precise. It was an odd thing and the Tyrants had never explained exactly why it happened. All they knew was that each of the highest Trials would have different time differentials.

  “So what happened to The Realm? Seems like I missed a lot.”

  Seffara took out a thermos as she started sipping on it. Milock finally burst out to comment.

  “You won’t believe it, like eighty dragonslayers attempted an assault on the Tyrants. Thirty on the Witch Tyrant and fifty went for the Dwarven Tyrant. It’s crazy, it’s just like Seffara said, the dragonslayers really had been up to some crazy shit.”

  Ryan suddenly sat up.

  “What? What happened?”

  Barry started watching Ryan’s expressions carefully. He was starting to get a feeling for the orc’s different gazes.

  “They got slaughtered.”

  “Huh, figures.”

  For a minute there he was worried about the Dwarven Tyrant. The Witch Tyrant? Ryan didn’t think she could die even if every single dragonslayer tried to hunt her down.

  “Apparently the fight with the Witch was closer than expected.”

  Ryan shrugged, “Doubt it, probably all illusions to make it seem like she was injured. She seems like the type to pretend to be injured to bait people in, or to make it dramatic.”

  Seffara just tilted her head at the casual way Ryan spoke about the Witch and then sighed.

  “I want to say dragonslayers can’t be fooled that easily but it seems like logic doesn’t work here. I didn’t think anyone could handle so many dragonslayers at once.”

  “Legendary skills, that’s the difference.”

  Barry’s eyes had never stopped boring a hole through Ryan’s skull.

  “Is there something you haven’t shared, Ryan? Your guesses were too confident, too knowledgeable.”

  Barry was talking about their discussions from before he’d left for The Realm.

  Ryan had kept quite a few things secret from the others. Namely, how the Tyrants weren’t confident in completing the Trials and the apocalyptic scenarios that would follow a failure. He thought about coming clean with the information but decided not to.

  He shook his head.

  “I said it before, Gamielle and the Witch Tyrant didn’t care about any dragonslayer other than Mezhar. It wasn’t because they had their guards down, it was because they were so above the others that they just didn’t matter.”

  Seffara looked uncomfortable. Ryan sighed and tried to change the topic.

  “Hey, could I get a glass of that juice as well? I basically only ate rations and unseasoned monster meat most of the time.”

  “Sure,” Seffara said, she started rummaging around her bag, “might as well get everyone a drink as well.”

  Ryan narrowed his eyes at the large thermos that she had been drinking out of.

  “Could I get some from that bottle you drank out of?’

  “No, it’s mine.”

  Seffara hugged the flask and took a glance at Barry. Ryan leaned towards the orc.

  “Uh-huh. Hey Barry, what’s the bet there’s some strong alcohol in there?”

  The orc just looked disapprovingly at his teammate. Seffara ignored it as she glared at Ryan the instigator.

  “Someone’s getting real cocky these days. I guess a month is long enough to forget about how I can beat you black and blue.”

  “Anyways,” Ryan moved on, “how’d the Dwarven Tyrant fight off fifty dragonslayers? No wait, don’t tell me. The Tyrants did a reverse ambush.”

  “Completely wrong,” Seffara said, “the Dwarven Tyrant fought them all off by himself.”

  “What? No way.”

  Milock put his hand up.

  “There’s a video, you’re going to love this.”

  “Cool, we can play it on your old laptop.”