–

  When Ryan stormed off after enough abuse, Linda turned on Seffara, a little bit more comfortable with the heroine than before.

  “So, how bad has he been?”

  The heroine of Sapphire was not good at masking her expressions. Pleasant and polite she may have been, but she was no master poker player. Of course, Seffara knew this too, she just chuckled.

  “An absolute pain in the ass. He keeps arguing with me, thinking he knows better, and then brings up statistics from the internet to prove his point, as if general statistics apply to an individual. This damn generation.”

  That eased Linda’s mind a little. She knew was off. Her boy still had a long way to go if he thought he could pull one over her. Not that he tried that hard. Subtlety was never his strong point.

  Her husband chuckled. “That’s our Ryan, alright. Always diving headfirst into things. He’ll throw himself into it.”

  “So he’s always been this way, huh?”

  “Oh he was an absolute menace. You should’ve seen him trying to optimize his training plans. Experimenting with ice baths and getting us all on his diet. , when he started doing ‘reconaissance’. Ryan had the police called on him when one of the competitor’s parents thought their son had a stalker!”

  Linda laughed. “They never did find out who it was.”

  Seffara coughed uneasily, as if remembering something disconcerting. Linda caught that and wanted to push the heroine, but found it difficult to get back to her earlier point. Her husband, on the other hand, had no trouble speaking his thoughts, especially when he had stopped being awestruck at Seffara’s presence.

  He always was better at understanding their son.

  “So, Seffara. Exactly what has Ryan been doing in The Realm?”

  Seffara sighed, expecting the question. “I’m not going to lie to you, what he’s been doing in The Realm isn’t safe or maybe even sensible, but it is also his story to tell.”

  Linda scrunched her dress in her hands. “You cannot just tell us these things and expect us not to demand answers.”

  “Then ask them from your son. I’m not here to tell his story, just to meet you all and say that you’ve raised a good son. Silly and stupid at times, but has the right heart.”

  Both parents held each others’ hands and looked at each other.

  “We’re proud of him, Destined adventurer or not. We knew he’d find his way.”

  Seffara nodded while the parents took in the moment of silence. While they didn’t need it, both parents took that validation from a living legend and couldn’t help but fall in love with each other again. Linda coughed in embarrassment when she remembered Seffara was still staring at them.

  “Speaking of where’s your friend?”

  Robert blinked, then looked around. “I can’t believe he completely slipped our minds, I remember he excused himself a little ago, then completely forgot about him.”

  Seffara chuckled.

  “Yeah he does that.”

  –

  Ryan’s parents had been serious about not taking his money. They had already been going through a few open houses and had really been saving for this moment. When they brought up the argument that if he paid for their house, feel bad if they stayed in it, it put him in checkmate.

  He lay on the roof, completely defeated, very embarrassed by the conversation that was going on in the house. His fourth realm hearing could listen in on it all. His superhuman senses were also very aware of the orc that was staring up at him.

  “If you try to climb up, you’re going to collapse the roof Barry.”

  “I know, get down here so we can talk.”

  “No, the whole point of me coming up here was so I could brood don’t have to talk to anyone.”

  “Fine. I’ll just sit here and you can talk.”

  “You think I’m going to talk first? Ha! As if.”

  Barry simply sat cross legged and started meditating.

  “Hey Barry?”

  “Hm?”

  “Why aren’t you rich? And don’t give me that bullshit about not taking charity from others too.”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  The orc looked out into the street, keenly aware of what people thought of him when they first saw him.

  “I’m a mean looking orc that can’t fit in a kitchen.”

  “Ugly too.”

  Ryan wasn’t being serious. While Barry’s size was intimidating. Ugly was something that adventurers were not. They got to pick their looks and orcs could look like a chiseled war hero that had just finished a movie shot. While orcs didn’t age the most gracefully, Barry still retained much of his good looks.

  The ex-chiseled war hero sighed. “I wanted to make it on my own. I promised myself I’d have no help. I’m still working on it.”

  That wasn’t the answer Ryan expected nor wanted. It wasn’t surprising to find out that Barry wanted to make it on his own. The real surprise was that Barry still hadn’t managed to make it on his own yet.

  It reminded him of a similar story. Of a girl that had run from home and tried to make it on her own.

  “Damn, you really are a Clara.”

  The orc scoffed, but didn’t deny it. “How do you feel now that one of your biggest goals has been met?”

  “Kinda empty. I expected to be much happier, and I was for a bit. But even before my parents said no to the money, I just stopped feeling anything from it. Which is completely crazy. If you offered me a million while I was still working at Manaburger I’d have given you my soul. Hell, I immediately joined a high risk team for a million bucks.”

  “It’s what happens when you have something more important to you than money.”

  “That just doesn’t sound right.”

  Barry laughed. “I was worried that the money might go to your head. I’ve seen it happen more than a few times. Even Seffara went through that phase.”

  “You know she can hear you right?”

  “Yup. I’m still giving her shit for it. Should get her to tell it to you sometimes.”

  Ryan, totally empty of emotions, just sighed. There was one thing he was looking forward to, that got him excited to be out and about. Because it was what mattered. Because he had a plan and an idea. A mad idea that had come to him as he finished everything he wanted to do on Earth.

  Ryan jumped off the roof.

  “Alright Barry, I’m going. Tell my parents I’m really mad and I stormed off, alright?”

  The orc didn’t try to convince him or change his mind. Barry knew he couldn’t anymore.

  “Good luck Ryan.”

  –

  Ryan immediately rented a nice expensive apartment for a week. The house wouldn’t be ready for at least another month but Ryan had no time left. He finished off his research and had come to a few realizations. He took in a breath and lay on the couch.

  Milock tilted his head from over his laptop.

  “You off?”

  “Yeah, I might be back in a day, but I’ll probably be in The Realm for the next couple days. Wish me luck.”

  “You really should do this at Seff’s place.”

  “Nah. I think it’s time for us to go on our own for a bit.”

  “What, really? Why?”

  “She’s retired, let her rest.”

  It probably wasn’t the takeaway Barry was aiming for, but it was the realization Ryan had come to. So far he’d been mucking about while at a low realm, it was fun, it was silly.

  It would be a different story if he succeeded in his plan. Especially understanding the level it would put him at.

  Barry and Seffara believed in him now. No more calling him a rookie, no more hovering over him while they critiqued every decision. They believed in him. The gloves had come off.

  And he wasn’t going to disappoint his fans.

  [Return to The Realm]

  He appeared in the Safe Zone room, this time without the harassment of silly adventurers. The furniture had been destroyed, with the amount of time he was allowed in the Safe Zone reduced to twelve minutes.

  The time on Earth had cleared his mind. Ryan regretted taking the additional Trial skill slot option, now that he was planning on doing something else. Logically it had been the right choice, but he’d taken it without realizing he was going to get a skill that would change everything.

  The last bit of research had been to cover his bases with the option he was picking. As well as brushing up on Epics.

  Now that he really understood how much power Epics had, not picking up a new Epic seemed a little foolish… yet there was another aspect to it too. Ryan was already strong enough that he didn’t need [All Against Me!] to win the tournament.

  [Savage Mockery] without a team wasn’t that useful. While it was potentially another source of aura generation, it’d likely interfere with his aura of fear. Plus, he’d be too tempted to use it against the Witch Tyrant and who knew how that interaction would work.

  [Fearless Cutdown] wasn’t needed because of [Aura Slash]. It might be useful when he didn’t have access to aura generation but his target was the tournament.

  Funnily enough, Lu Baizhen’s [Requiem of Shattered Fists] was unironically the best skill to take here. Defeating a bunch of adventurers barehanded would make him look even more badass which would cause the feedback loop of attention to grow even further.

  Yet his ambition didn’t stop at beating a bunch of adventurers solo. Ryan knew he could beat every single adventurer in the fourth realm without it. Even in a one versus many. All the fourthers had shown their Epics and even if there were a hidden Epic or two Ryan would bet anything that they hadn’t developed it enough to matter.

  No… he wanted more.

  There was a title that nobody else but the Tyrants had received. The title only the Passive and Chieftain Tyrants held. Apparently the Passive Tyrant held the title for most of the realms from one to ten. The Chieftain Tyrant held the titles for realms eleven and twelve. The version Ryan was going for was the fourth realm version of it.

  [The Undisputed Apex of the Fourth Realm]

  This was nothing like the title that the tournament winners would receive. This title was one that was granted when the world itself acknowledged that you had been stronger than anyone else at that realm with no contest. It was a Legendary title at higher realms and would be a perfect fit for when he opened up a new title slot in the fifth realm.

  Even beating Larix hadn’t been enough for him to get it. Gamielle admitting that he was the strongest third realm she’d ever seen hadn’t been enough. Beating Valee, Zedart and the demon king solo hadn’t been enough.

  The world still questioned whether Ryan was stronger than the crazies of the Settler generation.

  The realmnet still questioned whether Artigan was truly stronger than those who challenged the unknown in war and hellfire and .

  The Trial System still questioned whether Ryan was truly stronger than the craziest adventurer of them all.

  The Passive Tyrant.

  There was way Ryan could see himself getting there. The audience from the tournament would just be the fuel.

  The world shifted.

  67 days to level [Resource Overdrive].

  Show off in front of the largest crowd that would gather. A scene that would be spread across all of The Realm and Earth. Then use all of that fuel to make every single entity understand that he was indeed:

  [The Undisputed Apex of the Fourth Realm]

  It’s time to buckle up again. The end of book 2 is coming...

  reon is

  23 chapters ahead