–
“Are you guys good? I’m good, don't worry about me. No, everything wasn’t scripted, yes that curse was real, and yes I actually destroyed it. I don’t know when I’ll be back, wish me luck and deal with my parents for me, byeeeee.”
“Wait Ryan, you can’t just say that and–”
[Return to The Realm]
“Ryan! Ryan! We’re not dealing with your mom!”
–
What happened when the very air of a world could no longer be breathed? When weapons of mass destruction had lain waste to your planet and the skies would bleed magical acid that would corrode away anything that was built?
You dug down. Deep into the ground, created what could barely resemble a civilization. Though, occasionally some of these communities would rise. Through trial and error they became functional over time. Some of these underground civilizations would climb from deep underground. On long lost stories of vast greenery and beautiful skies they would break into the surface–
And found nothing but gray ruin.
People exist in the world of Sector Four prior to their integration with The Realm. Albino humans and dwarves that had learned to use forgotten magitech. Battling dark monsters and creations from their ancestors.
These people had difficulty adapting to bright open skies and had instead worked with the Tyrants to create the great city of Defiance. Most, if not all of the scattered underground populace of Sector Four had been brought up, elevated to live there. Another group that the Tyrants had saved through their benevolence.
Saviors of the downtrodden, that’s who the Tyrants were. They had painstakingly dug through the Earth to find these people and showed them the sky.
Though there were always rumours.
Rumours that not everyone in Sector Four had been found, that not everything had been discovered in those deep underground tunnels. That miles deep, there still lay forgotten civilizations. That somewhere down below were weapons of mass destruction that could even endanger the entirety of The Realm.
One of such places, where new objects were still being found, was the Cataclysm Abyss. A gaping fissure in the ground that went miles and miles deep. It went so far and there lay such a complex array of interconnecting tunnels that it seemed impossible to search through them all.
Not with just Fourthers, anyway.
That was the biggest problem with the Cataclysm Abyss. It lay a leveled zone. Dragonslayers could not come with their skills. Enchantments and artifacts crafted by high realm adventurers would be weakened. While the defenses, monsters and golems would stand strong.
Forgotten turrets that fired beams of mana. Bullipede nests that would explode and collapse tunnels, golems that could not be scratched, horrifying creatures that could only charitably be called humanoid. Whether they were malformed adaptations to the corrosive mana in the air or they were experiments by older civilizations, nobody truly knew.
For aspiring adventurers? These were the perfect trial grounds.
Along with forgotten technology they could find, a game had been made. Put on a sturdy bodycam and delve as far as you can. Rappel, drop, fly, it didn’t matter. The further you went, the greater your achievements.
The further you went, the more people would watch your video on realmnet.
Two miles and you would get some cursory clicks.
Three miles you would hit the ‘floor’ of the great ravine , where there lay multiple more fissures. Some were explored, others were pits that few ever came back from. If you explored this area and met some unique monsters? Then sponsors would line up to be advertised in your video.
Four miles?
This was where the unexplored territory began. Where everyone came to watch the videos. Eager to see the horrors that lay dormant from ancient times. It would mark you as a true explorer, and everyone would start to theorize if you would be on the path to become a dragonslayer.
A real attention grabber.
Five miles?
Now this was less, ‘become famous territory’, and more, ‘psychotic people that everyone would agree that they would have a death wish’. The Tyrants themselves had admitted to not going much further down than four miles. Only a couple adventurers had gone further than five miles and returned. The footage indicated that some of the things down there would only be solvable by someone in the eighth realm or above.
Six miles and below?
At these places, only a handful of adventurers had ever managed to return from. All through luck more than skill.
Over eight miles?
Only Destined had ever reported back from these depths. Not because they were powerful, but because they had managed to find a safe place to use [Return To Earth].
Tar’el watched the deep fissure from the ledge. Feeling the call of the void call out to him. He shivered. Sector Four was really no place for elves like him.
Though rumors had it that the monstrosities found down there were elves gone mad. More magical than the other races, they adapted to the mana and it twisted them faster than the other–
A voice broke him out of his dark thoughts.
“Hey kid, eyes back up here.”
Tar’el straightened, staring up at the dwarven Artificer. “Yes ma’am.”
Everyone in the settlement was quiet. There wasn’t an adventurer amongst them, despite them camping outside of the only known Fifth Trial entrance of Sector Four. That was because the Leafstalkers had claimed the territory. Driving adventurers out of their own settlement.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Oh, there had been a fight, one that was quickly put to rest when the leafstalkers brought out their heavy hitters.
This was a leveled zone in Sector Four. Unless the adventurers were willing to fight with the tournament favorites, the Realmers had the advantage in power in leveled zones.
Though it didn’t feel like it.
Not when Artigan had formed a sword that seemed like it could cut a city in half.
“Ma’am?”
“Aye?”
“Do you think… we can stop him? He even managed to escape from the Witch Tyrant.”
All the other leafstalkers in earshot looked up to glare at him. Asking a question like that was dangerous. They knew that doubt and fear empowered Artigan, yet Tar’el couldn’t help himself. He clutched at his heirloom dagger with a white knuckled grip.
The dwarven artificer who had joined them just chuckled.
“Of course we can. At least we now know what his new Epic can do. He doesn’t have a city to draw upon. Trust in the plan and trust in your leaders.”
Tar’el went silent at that. How many people had gone up to stop Artigan now? It seemed like the mad Trialist’s rise was unstoppable. Perhaps Tar’el wasn’t cut out for this mission after all. Yet he could not forgive himself if his brothers and sisters died here while he had hid.
The artificer sighed.
“Yes, what is worse is doing nothing. Allowing a monster to grow out of control until they start to control your fate. When they can wave a hand and all of us would die.”
The dwarf’s steely eyes went back, remembering her past, as if she had experienced the very scenario she had talked about. And she had. The artificer did not consider herself as part of the leafstalkers but had come to their aid with information and weapons of war. Now she brought something else.
She raised her voice for all to hear.
“We all understand that this is what matters! I have seen plenty of death. Glorious ones and cowardly ones. I can tell you that what I fear most is a pointless death, and I tell you now, that this will not be a pointless death!”
The dwarven Artificer was not a Leaftsalker but she was as respected as any one of the Leafstalkers’ leaders. They all stood here, half a mile into the Cataclysm Abyss, camping the Trial entrance. Waiting for Artigan to arrive.
For he surely would.
Tar’el, emboldened by the speech, put his helmet on. It came with noise cancelling headphones with visors that would outline hostiles in red while keeping friendlies in green.
Visual clarity and sound were sacrificed. At speeds Artigan could move, if you heard him, it was too late anyway.
All of it designed to minimize the impact from Artigan’s fear, to make sure he couldn’t feed off their fear.
Not only that, but only the best of the best had been called. Realm threes at minimum. All of them had passed the test to be here. Those that could control their aura or their fears.
Or those that had embraced death long ago.
Tar’el clutched the dagger at his belt. An heirloom with a poison so deadly that one stab would be enough to incapacitate even a fifth realm adventurer.
They waited
And waited.
Then the alert came. The speaker blared as their scouts relayed information.
“Artigan spotted on the surface. Three clicks towards the direction of Central.”
A screen in the middle turned on, showing a white haired elf at blistering speeds towards the sloped ground that led to the Abyss. It didn’t look like he was running towards them
The fifth Trial entrance only occupied a small section of the Abyss. No cost had been spared in setting up defenses all around it. Confidence in knowing that this was the only known fifth Trial entrance in Sector Four.
Crescent, the first Leaf, started asking questions.
“Turrets?”
“Incendiary ready. He’s within range, though barely.”
“Hold until he’s closer. Of course he’s too smart to come here directly. Likely siege, start prepping for plan C.”
Artigan kept sprinting, his face betraying more than a little bit of excitement. Tar’el’s heart clenched with more than a little hatred. Apparently the demonstration in front of the city of Defiance and escaping the Witch Tyrant wasn’t enough. He was already ready to jump into another firefight.
Fearless and unstoppable. Relentless. Always doing what seemed like the impossible…
Tar’el had a thought.
“Crescent, I don’t think he’s going for the Trial entrance. What if he thinks he’s strong enough to dive down and challenge the Abyss?”
The First Leaf took a few seconds to observe Artigan’s face. Then he swore. “. It could be a plot too. Alright stick to plan A until he’s below us, then we’re going to phase three of plan D. We’ll keep the Third and Fourth Leaf here just in case he tries to double back. All manned turrets are to stay where you are. Everyone ready?”
“Yes sir!”
Tar’el watched as Artigan indeed didn’t approach them at all. He took a huge leap and jumped into the Abyss. No rappelling ropes, no grappling hooks or any magical artifact that might be able to bring him back up.
A mad grin on his face.
–
Ryan jumped a quarter of a mile in one go. Landed, then jumped another quarter of a mile down. Mass produced magical and electronic lights were scattered around. Trying to maintain some semblance of light on the path downwards.
Shadows curled across every bit of decently sized rock. Some of them looked like they were alive. Flickering along despite the light being constant.
“This place shouldn’t be dangerous but…”
He looked up, and there Ryan saw them. Figures fluttering about, rapidly rappelling themselves towards him. It was almost unbelievable.
“Really!? You’re coming after me, despite what I did in Defiance?”
There was no response or banter. Just the quiet eerie hiss of rope sliding through gear. All the leafstalkers in dark padded armor and high tech visors.
Multiple of them stopped their descent, took aim and fired. Ryan just leapt down to another ledge. Explosions littered the ledge that he had just leapt from.
That wasn’t normal. Bullets were plenty deadly enough against low realm adventurers. Leafstalkers would have specially modified automatics with piercing rounds that would hurt even fifth realm [Warriors].
Two figures jumped down without rope, landing near the ledge he had just jumped from. Ryan had an instinctive feeling from them that these were Leafstalkers that were at least in the fifth realm.
He jumped down, not interested in fighting Realmers. Though he did keep an eye on them. They were all trying to aim what looked like enchanted bazookas at him. One of the Leafstalkers fired.
Ryan didn’t feel his [Dangersense] trigger from any of the bazookas.
More curious than afraid, he threw a knife upwards, hitting the projectile halfway. It exploded in midair, launching a cluster of smaller spherical orbs that were impossible to dodge. Still his [Dangersense] didn’t go off–still, it was better to be safe than sorry.
[Aura Condensation]
The aura stored in his arm expanded outwards, covering his entire body.
The cluster of orbs hit his aura and exploded. The explosions didn’t seem that bad but something was off. It drained a lot more aura than he expected.
He barely heard the words spoken by the leafstalker that had fired.
“Maintain cluster incendiaries. Attempting poison next.”
Another rocket powered canister was fired at him. This time he dodged in midair instead. The canister exploded right as it passed him, a detonator held by one of the fifth realms that had dropped down with him.
The purple gas cloud instantly enveloped his body and he [Instant Dodged] out from it.
Once again Ryan felt a bigger drain on his aura than when it had slowed a sniper bullet. Then he understood. They had analyzed his aura. [Aura Condensation] might have had interesting properties that most magical barriers did not, but it wasn’t as robust as as a standard [Mana Barrier].
[Dangersense]
Ryan twisted to see seven arrows come flying at him from all sides. His sword slashed out, finding no difficulty in cutting all the arrows in the air.
A third figure landed lightly on the ground, completing the three-way encirclement. This elf one wore no helmet or armor. Just the traditional leaf patterned garb of the leafstalkers, a simple elegant bow in hand. He pulled the bow back slightly, as the rest of the leafstalkers continued to rappel down, as more of their higher realms started taking their positions high above them
“My name is Crescent of the First Leaf. We have come for your head, Trialist.”
Ryan scoffed. “You know, even if you didn't show up, I was planning on diving further than anyone has ever gone before. You could just let me go and hope I die down there.”
Ryan was getting next to nothing from the hundred people that were watching him from above. There was no hesitation in the First Leaf’s eyes.
“Then we are here to make sure you never come back up.”
A dwarven artificer landed heavily above them. Her helmeted head pointing down at him. She had an ammunition belt full of various cartridges. A revolving bazooka in her hand.
Ryan had thought about incapacitating the fast ones coming after him, but he quickly changed his mind. There was no way to take on multiple fifth realms and above without going for the kill.
He sighed. “I was always good at playing chicken. Let’s see how far you guys are willing to dive.”
And Ryan jumped off the ledge, projectiles following his descent. Explosions echoing out into the chamber, slowly waking up the Abyss.
And one [Undisputed Apex of the Fourth Realm].
As always is
24 chapters ahead!
