Also he didn’t have his Epic on Earth.
Ryan was starting to understand just how much of a bonus it really gave him in The Realm. Comparatively speaking, the size of his current aura wasn’t even a fifth of the size he had when he just walked around in The Realm, and that was just considering the size alone.
[Aura Condensa-
A fist crashed into his chest as he went into the air and fell back on the ground.
“Aughagh,” Ryan ‘said’.
Seffara just shook her head, “that setup just takes too much time, not to mention that it seems dangerous as hell if it permanently messed up the circulatory structure in your arm.”
They had poured a high grade healing potion on his right arm and found that it had done nothing to actually fix whatever was wrong with it. Outwardly his arm looked fine, in reality, it felt like it was constantly underwater.
That had all been that singular condensed [Aura Slash]. The cool lightning effect backlash from the [Volatile Antimagic Throw] had been fixed in The Realm with a minor potion.
Damage did track from The Realm and vice versa. It didn’t matter if technically the body on Earth was a husk, all damage would follow you whenever you used dimensional hopping skills.
His arm was something to pester Gamielle about… later. His current exhaustion was bone deep. Hell, tricking that stupid bird long enough to use [Return To Earth] took nearly half a day on its own.
Ryan laid face down in the grass as Seffara walked to his side and picked up his soulsword from his grip. His arm wasn’t the only thing that had broken under the pressure of his aura. Most of it had fully condensed around the blade and it had shattered the blade part in half.
Seffara put a finger across the side of the broken blade and whistled.
“I can’t believe a rookie like you was able to shatter a scaling soulbound weapon.”
“Dnks.”
Ryan still had his face to the ground. The earth was comfortable, it didn’t like to hit him except for the times he fell on it. Then at least it was a mutual hit.
“This’ll fix itself when you reach the next realm. I wouldn’t worry about it.”
“I know.”
He put his head to the side. Still annoyed over his arm. Healing potions didn’t actually heal everything, things like skill overuse and pushing your resources to the limit were on the list of things that couldn’t easily be fixed.
Seffara clicked her tongue, annoyed at his response.
“What you should be worried about is the infusion of aura in this. It’s probably going to mutate when it repairs.”
Ryan suddenly completely forgot about his fatigue as he sat up straight and and stared at the sword in Seffara’s hands, he recalled it without warning and inspected it.
Now that he looked at it more closely, the blade itself had the slightest tinge of red surrounding it. The simple pommel was darker than it used to be. He hadn’t noticed it because his own aura had partly covered it. He held it up to the sky, a stupid grin on his face.
Seffara rolled her eyes.
“Don’t be so happy, item mutations are like forced realm evolutions. They always come with drawbacks.”
Her comment wasn’t enough to wipe away his smile, “still pretty good, right? I don’t think I’ve heard of someone breaking a scaling soul weapon with just their aura before. It’s too bad that there isn’t a title for it.”
“Unsatisfied with two Rare titles and an Epic title already?”
“Not like I’ll equip either of them.”
Titles were an odd part of the Trial System. Every time a title was obtained, it would become that much harder to obtain. Every time a new early title was found, all the nations of Earth would start sponsoring people that were likely to get it.
There’d been a mad rush for the [Olympian] title once. Now it was practically impossible for anyone to get. Hell, there was supposed to be an Epic tier title for S+ Trial clears. But apparently enough people had received the title that just getting one S+ clear wouldn’t be enough.
These issues meant that most of the titles that one could get early were just that much harder to obtain. Ryan had done some crazy stuff, yet he only had two titles. An Epic [Rebellious] title for rejecting the Manager, which was fair enough. He doubted many people had ever told the Manager to fuck off before.
And now…
It was a useless title. Lazhen had been far too close to disaster that he wasn’t willing to try that again. Not to mention that he couldn’t equip more than one title until he hit the fifth realm.
Ryan lay down on his back and raised his broken sword to the sky. Seffara cleared her throat.
“What are you going to do now? Go straight for the next Trial?”
There was no longer any doubt in Seffara’s eyes on whether he could take on an armed Trial outpost by himself. Ryan’s soulsword reflected the light into his eyes.
“I have a few ideas but there’s little point in attacking another outpost. I need to recover first.”
Then he closed his eyes and sighed.
“And I need to tell you all something.”
Seffara raised a questioning eyebrow. Ryan just flopped back to looking at the sky.
“Maybe over dinner, I’d really like one of your burgers.”
–
Clara was humming while she helped Ryan set the table. Milock, as usual, let his coworkers do most of the work when he could. Barry was also sitting by the table, eyes closed in ‘meditation’. She was pretty sure that was bullshit too but she wouldn’t call it out. Clara was in a good mood, it looked like Ryan was right about Lazhen having been worth it. The Witch Tyrant looked like she’d broken her own solitude over it too.
Seffara came into the newly furnished dining room with a tray of piping hot burgers. Clara was quite happy to try them again now that she had stopped working at a Manaburger.
Ryan grabbed them the moment they landed on the table. He showed such startling speed and started eating at speeds she’d be concerned about but she ignored it, it was still disconcerting to see him show his superhuman side so casually. Clara shrugged then went to grab her own burger.
Then Seffara turned on the silence bubble and she froze. Seffara looked at Ryan questioningly but he ignored the looks and continued eating.
It was never a good sign when the silence bubble came up.
Ryan groaned as he finished one of the burgers, “still one of the best burgers I’ve ever had.”
“Damn right, I’ve had decades to work on it.”
The [Rogue] raised an eyebrow, looked at the patty, and raised an eyebrow at Seffara.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“What kind of mince is the patty?”
The heroine didn’t miss a beat, “beef with a little blend of pork.”
Ryan gave a doubtful look at Seffara. He got a glare in return.
Seffara stood up, “If you don’t like it then I can take it back.”
“No, I’m sorry.”
He quickly snatched another burger and shoveled the entire thing into his mouth. Seffara glared as he chewed the burger down at superhuman speeds. The whole table was staring at him.
At this point she’d guess even Milo had picked up on Ryan trying too hard to be casual. Clara looked over and realized she was wrong, Milock was happily shoving down his own burger, not caring about the conversation at all.
Clara couldn’t handle it. At this point Ryan had his cheeks stuffed with a burger chewing like a hypersonic hamster.
“Okay Ryan, what did you want to tell us about?”
Ryan put up a finger as he swallowed, beat his chest, then took a drink of lemonade. He gulped.
“Well, uh, I’ve been trying to find an opportunity to tell you all this but… I only have one life left. I lost my safety life a while ago.”
“WHAT?!”
She didn’t realize she had stood up.
Milock just froze mid-bite and blinked at Ryan. Barry raised an eyebrow, looking for any hint of a lie, then he nodded like it made sense. Seffara tensed and untensed without anyone noticing. Ryan was sweeping his eyes at their reactions, then he nervously took a drink.
Clara refused to believe it.
“What do you mean when you have one-”
“Explain.”
Seffara cut through Clara’s denial.
Ryan looked at the glass of light yellow liquid, it sparkled a little. Clara wondered how she had thought the drink was ever a regular lemonade. He sighed.
“The Manager fucked me over, he brought me in when I got shot and waited until my body was dead. The Trial System apparently considered myself to be a floating soul. I didn’t even know that was a thing.”
Clara couldn’t handle it. She started shouting.
“You’ve been doing all this insane stuff with just one life? Are you crazy?”
He almost looked surprised that she was yelling at him. Clara wanted to rip her hair out and strangle him. Was he out of his mind?
“I’m sorry I should have told you all sooner.”
That was what he had a problem with? Clara opened her mouth to start shouting again when Barry cut in.
“I’ve never heard of someone dying in the Manager’s abode.”
“Not normally no, but he apparently has control over how much of a time desync there is in his abode. He hadn’t desynced time until after my body was confirmed dead.”
Barry nodded along like it made sense. “Then he set you up against government agents and put you in line to meet the Witch without being able to pull out. You weren’t just being a reckless idiot, it was your only choice.”
“Yeah.”
Clara was frantic, suddenly Ryan’s stories and his brushes with death no longer felt like distant insane stories. Her friend was literally rolling the dice with his life.
“This is stupid, what the hell Ryan? I thought you were doing all this crazy stuff because you had a backup life. You can’t keep going like this.”
Clara looked to Seffara and Barry for support, her eyes went wide as she realized they weren’t in the same line of thinking she was. There was more respect in their eyes than they’d ever given Ryan before. They were from a time when dying then returning to fight for your country was normal.
She tore her eyes away from them to look at Milock. He was just frozen, unblinking and staring at Ryan.
He was more shocked than she was. Clara turned desperately at Barry.
“Say something Barry, tell him he needs to stop.”
The orc just looked at her, they had both clicked since they talked in Ryan’s hospital. She thought he understood her and she thought she understood him. Golden eyes met her green ones.
Then he tilted his head back at Ryan. Understanding but not agreeing.
“Look at him, Clara. He knows what he’s doing is dangerous. More importantly, he thinks what he’s doing is worth it. You can’t drag adventurers like him away from doing what they believe is right.”
Deep inside, the silly girl that had run away from her home already knew that. She didn’t dare look at Ryan as she deflated onto her own chair.
Seffara sighed.
“I can respect -”
BANG!
Milock slammed his glass into the table. Seffara’s drinking glass didn’t break, nor was there a dent on the new table. Milock stared at the pristine glass and the undented table in impotent anger for a long moment. Then he stood up.
“‘Scuse me.”
Ryan shuffled nervously. “Sorry Milock, I should have told you sooner.”
Milock didn’t respond or even look back as he walked away.
Ryan sank into his chair as he stared up at the ceiling.
“Well I guess there really is no easy way to tell someone you’ve been lying to them the entire time.”
–
Milock wasn’t sure what he was angry about. He understood it, kinda. Ryan didn’t want to worry his friends, he was an idiot like that. But he always meant well. That was what was so infuriating about him. It was hard to hate Ryan while he was being an idiot because he knew Ryan always meant well.
Memories flickered as he stomped down the too-nice hallway.
It wasn’t until later Milock found out that Ryan had been stealing food to drop it in front of homeless people. He’d wear a different hoodie or cap and just drop it off while they were sleeping or not paying attention.
Milock remembered asking him why this newbie weirdo was doing what he was doing. It was the dumbest fucking answer he’d ever heard of.
Milock wasn’t even sure why he was remembering this now. He wanted to hit Ryan for keeping such a big secret but what would even be the point? Even if Milock could hurt his friend he’d just feel bad about it later. Underneath all the brilliant petty plotting Ryan was…
In the end Ryan had stopped bothering stealing food for the poor. Apathy and soul crushing work got everyone in the end.
That was normal, that made sense to Milock.
He slammed open the door to the room Seffara had given him. The damned heroine of Sapphire had told him that he could stay here anytime he wanted. Milock wasn’t like Ryan, he never believed in a free lunch. Milock knew that the invitation to stay at Seffara’s farm only lasted for as long as Ryan stayed here.
Milock stomped over to the too-fancy table, Seffara’s brand new laptop staring at him. Then he felt for a small thumbdrive he kept in his back pocket.
He plugged it in.
This was the real gift the [Secretary] had given him, a secret hidden from the others. It had been opened once before Milock promptly turned it off. He had talked to Clara about how he could go to university at any time when Ryan lost his first life.
If Milock committed to this then there’d be no going back.
The thumbdrive demanded a password. He typed it in.
The files that were on it were titled:
The files went on and on, some files put a chill down his spine. What the fuck was the difference between Adventurer deathlog and the true deathlog? How much chaos would be created if he posted these online?
Now that was one quick way to get fallenangeled.
None of these folders could actually be opened. It was a screen shown only to entice, like a pandora’s box that gave a sneak peek into the horrifying secrets within.
A second security screen popped up.
A contract. Despite what his friends thought of him, Milock wasn’t stupid. He knew the [Secretary] had other plans when she came to him with the first fake contract.
They just didn’t know that she’d been upfront about it to him.
This was the real contract, freely given. It was a single paged document that specified what he could and couldn’t do with the information in the USB drive. It promised him more support if he proved himself. It even told Milock that he could tell his friends that he was learning from the Secretary, though not show them the contents within.
It had two other stipulations:
- Milock would owe ten percent of whatever he had earned from now on. Claimable at any time and done in good faith.
- Milock would owe one favor given at any time. This must be reasonable and will not be seriously detrimental to the signee and their friends and family.
Milock hesitated, then turned around. Nobody had come to check up on him nor did they suspect he had something like this. The contract was a single button, he just needed to click accept and there’d be no going back.
For some reason Milock remembered the glass he couldn’t break, and Ryan’s stupid fucking guilty face.
He clicked accept.
–
Ella Maizel, the Tyrants’ Secretary was relaxing in her own abode. A penthouse in Ulverra. She was celebrating, it looked like the Witch Tyrant hadn’t chosen the path of chaos and strife. Ella had been building rapport with the other Tyrants while shuffling assets around, preparing for when all hell would break loose. The [Secretary] had even started checking her own emergency measures when the Witch finally responded in the interview.
Whatever the little brute had done, it had been enough to delay the Witch’s madness.
An alert went off on her contract skill. She frowned when the vague broken connection came from her computer.
Skills underneath the Legendary tier weren’t able to cross dimensions. As Ella understood it, even Legends weren’t quite capable of piercing dimensions. It had taken time and constant practice, but she was perhaps the only person in either world to be able to utilize a skill to do so.
[Verified Contract]
The realmnet backbone, fibre optic pipes that went through the system portals carried packets of data that simply transmitted information that a contract, , was indeed accepted.
Ella sighed in content, “Ah, finally.”
Pinkie raised her head that had been draped over Ella’s chest.
“What was that?”
“Nothing.”
The pink maned dragonslayer gave her an adorable pout. Though, to most people, Pinkie’s true form was anything but adorable. A hulking scaled monstrosity pouted, spines flashing an electric pink.
Ella waved a finger at Pinkie the half-dragon dragonslayer.
“Uh-uh, business is business and pleasure is pleasure.”
Pinkie’s pout turned into a scowl. Her sharp pointy teeth sparking in a flash of annoyance.
“I’ll take that finger, shove it up your ass then drag you out buck naked and run around Sector Two.”
Ella rolled her eyes at the petty threat, “You have been hanging out with Gamielle far too much and…” the [Secretary] leaned closer and whispered into Pinkie’s earhole, “”
The pink maned dragonslayer hesitated for a second. Ella’s eyes didn’t hesitate, letting a bit of hedonism bleed through. You couldn’t back down from Pinkie, a single moment of hesitation and she might actually do as threatened.
The much more innocent Pinkie backed out first.
“You fuckin perv.”
The very oddly hulking scaled Pinkie spat sparks in disgust and jumped out of bed. Ella admired the view for a moment then pulled something out of thin air. She chucked a brass object at the nude dragonslayer.
Pinkie grabbed it and blinked.
“My end of the bargain, for ignoring Ryan’s calls. You may do what you wish now.”
Pinkie, still a bit peeved, waggled her very neon pink eyebrows at the [Secretary], “Anything?”
Ella didn’t even pause.
“I guess he does deserve a reward for not sending The Realm into a [Meteor Swarm]. Feel free to be that reward.”
“Hmph.”
Pinkie ghosted into the floor below her penthouse. Glaring at the [Secretary] while doing it, Ella hoped Pinkie would be discreet or she was going to have to write up new contracts to keep her employees in the levels below silent.
Ella sighed. She knew the pink dragonslayer wanted more in their relationship. Personally, Ella wanted to keep it casual.
She learned from the Witch Tyrant first hand that personal relationships were a weakness.
Just like how Ella now had an undeniable exploit into what was one of the most powerful third realm adventurers in history. One that had the personal attention of the most dangerous Tyrant in The Realm.
She had expected little Milock to accept her contract earlier. The miscalculation didn’t bother her too much, caution was good for someone like him… someone like her.
The [Secretary] saw in the young man what she saw in a younger version of herself. An ordinary person scrambling in the dark, trying to figure out what they could contribute while being in the presence of giants.
Unlike her however, little Milock had someone to guide him.
And guide him she would.
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