“You’ve heard?” A scrawny acher asked.
“About what?” A big bearded man took a chug of his ale.
“The Journeyman party who cleared Ordina.”
“You think I was living on a rock?! Who doesn’t know that?”
“You think it's true?”
“You’re taking me for an idiot aren’t ya!? Many people saw them exit. What’s the surprise? The problem about the top floors is the lack of supplies and the small amount of kobolds means little food. Without firewood it's hard to cook unless one brings some specialised tools so rations are depended on. Those kiddos have as many supplies they can bring as they have ores. What’s your point?!” The man wasn’t drunk yet but he was halfway there with his reddened face.
“I was getting there. Two pink haired Journeyman, one of them a healer and another is an unheard of quadra elemental mage. A Master fire mage wielding a spear that’s clearly a bodyguard of some kind. An elling Xeng for goodness sake!” The scrawny man dialled down on his volume. This was already the talk of the city in the Quest Hall.
“Yeah yeah, awesome rich royal with a myth clears a dungeon much wow! It's just a masked lady, I've seen ton of them.”
“Nothing shocking there, but one guy stood out like a sore thumb.” The shorter man pulled the large guy down closer without fear. Clearly good friends.
“The turtle shell blue skin man?” The bearded man understood his friend well, he was planning something. Something beneficial.
“A meditator going around with royals and a Xeng. And from what I can see, a meditator that can fight.” The scrawny man glanced around their surroundings but the other parties were busy being rowdy in the surprisingly well-furnished pub.
The bearded man had gotten the hang of how his little friend thought and sat up straight without arousing suspicion. “Heheh I see where you’re getting at. There’s a high chance he will evolve to master in the near future.”
“And we’ve got just about the right contacts. We can do it the dirty way or trickster way. Meditators are especially ‘slow’ and I heard some of the Quest Hall personnel talk about this one being particularly dense. I propose the trickster method. I know just about the right people for that but this is someone that can take a dungeon’s Guardian supposedly around level 200.”
“And I know just about the right people for that…”
“This is a pretty big job, we’ll need to make preparations.”
“Of course, cheers!” The bearded man laughed out as loud as he could. Just your average warrior in a pub.
❅❅❅
“Mr. Rumble.” The tall well-dressed man with a moustache knocked on the door before entering.
“...Speak.” The man addressed as Mr. Rumble looked exhausted at his desk.
“We’ve got word on Rimestone.”
Mr Rumble snapped his strain reliever in half and smashed his desk into pieces with that. His assistant interrupted his rage filled screams with what was the best news to his ears in years.
“The Xeng craftswoman is reported to be nowhere around him. It is concerning that there’s a presence of another masked woman by his side but she's merely a Journeyman.”
“Those cocky, arrogant Xengs! She thinks she can destroy 7 of my branches without consequences?!” Mr Rumble destroyed his own wall with a punch.
His assistant held his tongue ‘She can and she did.’ was what he thought. His employer basically bet his entire asset of Blues and even a large number of Purples in anticipation of easy winnings. He still remembered how his employer lodged complaints about the blatant ‘cheating’ where Rimestone simply froze himself stuck on the barrier walls and slowly froze their talented employee in charge of hunting and bringing back rare materials. It wasn’t far off to say that a large part of the Xeng’s winnings come from Mr Rumble’s foolish bet.
“Contact those Grandmasters, no…those three couldn’t even protect the branches they were at. Rimestone, oh dear Rimestone, a meditator are you? You’ll be paying back what you took from me a hundred fold. Contact them instead.”
The assistant gulped in understanding. ‘Can I quit?’
“Which package are you having in mind?” The assistant wasn’t in the financial position to change jobs.
“I’ll let you handle that, ores aren’t an issue. You know what I mean don’t you?”
“...I would see it completed, they work slowly but will get any job done.” He added ‘with the right payment’ in his mind.
“Get someone to clean this mess up before I’m back. I’ll go meet those useless grandmaster lightning burstbowmen myself.”
The assistant bowed deeply as his employer walked past him with a pat on his shoulder.
❅❅❅
“Young master, we have arrived.” An old man spoke in an foreign tongue.
“This is the natural ancient worldcore, Elcra?” Replying in the same language was, like the old man addressed, a young man. Garbed in a dark suit of armour of material unlike anything even a blacksmith would be familiar with.
“That is indeed the case.”
“Why is the mana density so low? Aren’t we here for training? Is this really ancient ranked?”
“It is only natural for the mana density to be low, the destination was picked to be low in mana density so that it doesn’t interrupt the spatial transfer.”
“Father had a villa ready somewhere right? Lead the way.”
“Of course. Young master, it would do you good to start learning the language here. As a natural worldcore with limited interactions outside, the people here have not gotten around using or speaking Gia.”
“Tch, we really had to come to this backwater place for training. Spare me the lesson, I know I’ll advance much faster here since there aren’t any suitably ‘weak’ dungeons for us back home. There would really be a problem with my head if I didn’t know such common sense.”
“I will look for a suitable Rare dungeon.”
“I’ll just take a break while you do so, we just arrived and all. I’m tired from the journey.”
The space mage sighed internally at the attitude of his lord’s son.
❅❅❅
“Veronica huh? What brings you back here? Even you left your granddaughter? Or is that bastard’s child dead already?”
“Kah Khihihihi!” The striped rainbowed mask turned black with little stars appearing over it. The woman who dared to speak that way to her shut up immediately. The laugh was as disgusting as ever, it wasn’t even a laugh.
“My little cousin didn’t grow much even after a few years, a pity.”
“...And you’ve grown old enough to find pleasure in that rag of wrinkled skin.”
“Hmph. I merely forgot to take this disguise off. I wanted to feel more ‘grandmotherly’, you know. Bah, you won’t understand, you don’t even have a husband much less a child or grandchild.”
“I’m not the failure of the family like you are, you’ve degraded the clan’s name with your line. The First was right after all, with you as the dreg of the clan, even your daughter was a lesser and married off. What would your grandchild amount to?” The lady quickly looked up, away from the mask before she fell in.
She was surprised that her cousin’s mask turned back to the striped rainbow instead.
“How’s grandfather?” Veronica Ning asked.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“Hmph! So you’ve heard or did you divine that? That stubborn mule doesn’t want to evolve without perfection but I don’t blame him. He should still have a couple dozen years of lifespan, and I doubt you don’t already know that.”
“I see. You want to know what I’m back for?” Veronica beckoned her cousin over with a finger.
They were still family despite her piercing remarks and Veronica used to be like her older sister so she leaned in without much thought.
“You see, I came back…to give you a slap!” Veronica slapped her little cousin across the room when she leaned in close enough to prevent her from reacting. Her cousin’s wasn’t that well off but her room was made of Epic ranked materials and wouldn’t break so easily and it wasn’t as if Veronica was trying to injure her anyway.
“Kyahhahahaha! That felt awesome.”
Her little cousin screamed and moved to pound her chest and arm with enough strength to flatten mountains. It was a squabble that she admittedly missed.
“Okay okay, I need your help.” She peeled the noisy ‘girl’ off.
“Why would I help you?”
“Oh no!”
“Wh-what?”
“Me and my loose lips sho..”
“AHH I get it I get it. Not fair…doing that all the time. What do you want me to find out?” She knew where her expertise lay.
“Ah Min, find the Blood Realm for me or should I say with me?” Veronica called her cousin’s name for the first time in their conversation.
“Blood Realm? Wait, you don’t mean?” Ah Min, or Ning Min, was only aware of one Blood Realm
“Yes, I mean the one and only Blood Saintess’s Realm.”
“What do you want to find the Blood Realm for?”
“To meet the Blood Saintess of course.”
“Are you crazy!” Ning Min raised her voice enough to deafen Veronica Ning Xing.
“You don’t have to shout in my ear.” She picked her ears as if to clean it.
“She’s one of the few existences the First even acknowledges and is said to be the strongest Saint, neither of us are fighters!” Ning Min didn’t have to remind her, Veronica obviously knew what kind of existence the Blood Saintess was.
In the past, when the First had been a Saintess, the Blood Saintess had been her only almost equal. Although she remained a Saintess while the First evolved, that had apparently been because of some kind of racial limitations that the Blood Saintess hadn't managed to overcome. In her words, it doesn’t matter to her since she had plenty of lifespan left and not many Gods can threaten her anyway.
The Xengs were considerably new to this place in comparison to the Blood Saintess who’s age was unknown. Excluding the First, they only had 3 Saints currently, the family head of the Ning, Wen and Shi clan. Certainly strong anywhere they go but they are not a peak force and the First moves and acts by herself, rarely caring about them as a whole. They might not fear anyone despite only having Saints but there were forces that didn’t fear them as a force either. No one would try to destroy them as long as the First was still alive so they didn’t really have to worry about picking fights should they desire so.
“I’m just looking to speak with her, that's all. Come on, I already got a glimpse of her astral body before it disappeared again. With your help to find it and Kong Tian assistance we can enter too.”
“Is he in on this too? Then count me out!”
“Not yet, I just need you to ask him. You know he likes you, he’ll show up in this room the instant you call for him heheh.”
“WHAT! No!”
“What don’t you like about him? He patiently chased after you for so long, doesn’t have any other suitors, a pure space mage and-”
“Stop it, haaa.”
“Don’t sigh, I can only ask you as the only other oddballs in the Ning clan.”
“I’m normal, calm and silent like every Ning.”
Veronica choked up and couldn’t stop her stomach from hurting after laughing too hard.
“Don’t worry, I know you don’t want to talk to him so I sent him a message in your stead.” Veronica cleared her throat, “Dear Kong Tian, my shy little cousin couldn’t bring herself to say this so I have contacted you instead, in her words “If only the brave, handsome and strong Kong Tian was here to help me.” Veronica played around with a sweet tone and…explicit body language.
That had obviously been too much as she was hit with a wave of dizziness and nausea from Ning Min’s mental magic. ‘Ooo, she improved a lot more than I thought.’
“YOU. DID. NOT.”
“Well…I’m sure he wouldn’t believe it since it was a message from me but he should be coming soon just to see if you really said that. Putting that aside, you actually managed to break no, slip through our mask’s mental defences?”
“So slipping into the Blood Realm will be the perfect opportunity to challenge my new abilities is it?” Ning Min smiled.
“You cheeky little girl,” Veronica pinched her soft and supple ears because her silly mask was in the way of pinching her cheeks, “You were excited to barge into the Blood Realm the moment I mentioned it weren’t you?”.
Ning Min retaliated in the same way and pulled both of Veronica’s ears, “and you knew I was going to help you even before you arrived didn’t you?”
Knock Knock Knock
“That was fast, I sent him that message just before I entered this room.”
Ning Min pulled even harder, trying to really rip each other’s ears off.
❅❅❅
First Tide
“Sire, it’s not admirable to be so indecisive.” Welser, butler and bodyguard of the ‘special need’ prince. He personally asked for this position since he was interested in the young Hector.
“Oh come on, I haven’t evolved but I kinda want to go to Tova. Being on a ship for more than a year on our fastest ships sounds boring but sea battle would be interesting. Training with a group of ten sounds good too since a Journeyman going to Tova seems stupid.”
“The scouting ship is about to leave.” Welser wanted to massage his temples.
“Alright! Tova it is. I want to punch some trolls, I bet my fists are tougher. Let’s go Wel!” Hector punched the air in front of him.
“You must have mistaken something. I would not be going with you, you are a mere scout now… Take care, Sire.” Wel bowed deeply. Before Hector could process that his butler wasn’t going to follow him, he was grabbed by his collar and thrown off the cliff.
He quickly snapped out of it when he hit the waters, swimming onto the medium sized ship that was preparing to depart.
Only the captain of the ship was aware of who he was but it wasn’t like the others who were veteran soldiers of First Tide couldn’t tell his status with his hair colour standing out.
“Greetings! Footsoldier Hector reporting for duty!” Hector saluted energetically.
He integrated into the ranks of the soldier very quickly. There were less than a hundred men on board, 11 of them were Journeymen like him and were left to do the chores of cleaning, fishing, cooking and laundry. They were sailing as a group of three ships, with the captain of his ship being a level 300 Master. Hector didn’t know what class the captains and commander of the fleet had because all of them had hidden it. He was also given a gem to add to his Myriad Bracelet to hide his quadra elemental class.
The commander of the fleet, also the captain of the ship in the centre, was a Grandmaster but he likely wasn’t much higher level than the other captains. A total of almost 300 men was not a small or a big number. It was up to some mechanism built into their ships to keep them hidden when they got nearer to Tova. It was experimental so there was no guarantee that it was going to help but it was better than nothing.
'This scouting team is too weak...is manpower so poor?' Hector couldn't believe only a single Grandmaster was sent.
After they sailed a day out into the sea, Hector sort of underestimated the sea. The waves were rough enough to make him seasick even with his Constitution. He just wasn’t used to it.
One tiny problem was that there was no healer on board because they couldn’t afford to ‘lose’ a healer so they only had a couple of medics or doctors that were backline soldiers, the archers. All soldiers were given a handheld burstbow, one with enough speed and power to pierce and injure a defensive focus level 150 monster or even catch a speed focussed one off guard. They had a 32 thin sharpened round ‘round holder’ meaning he could shoot 32 times before reloading.
Hector was aware of many other types of ammunition but these were the silent ones that weren’t too expensive to manufacture. Even the burstbow was said to make little to no sound. He was also wearing the same armour as any soldier but he wasn’t worried about wearing lousier equipment. He was already much better off with his own bag filled with rations and plenty of potions and medicine that could keep a dying man alive.
There were only about 6 to 8 mages on each ship, all of them were water mages except a single wood mage aboard the ship he was on. They were a force to be reckoned with against the more and more frequent sea monster attacks. They appeared to be more frequent the further away they got from Elva.
Most of the veterans on the ship told him their recent training consisted of taking trips out to sea and not just spar on a shaky ship deck or even under the deck, but diving into the sea and just training how they would get back up to the ship under a barrage of rock throws from the other soldiers.
Most importantly, how to sail the ship. It was a whole bag of tricks that Hector had to learn on the go without any prior training or sailing experience.
He also heard an older soldier talk about the dangers of the sea or how if he ever dives or falls too deep into the water besides the water pressure which usually isn’t much of a big deal as long as their Constitution wasn’t like that of a mage or non-warrior, the real issue was how many cases of sailors, soldiers in training reported the feeling of getting drunk or even failing unconscious. Some scholars had said it was due to the air in one’s body dissolving in blood.
Hector always wondered how scholars could come up with obscure theories or experiments to test those theories. Regardless, the tip was to try his best not to get pulled deep into the ocean by anything because resurfacing alive would prove difficult even if he could use water or air magic. To even say he can use those magics might be overdoing it but at least he can manipulate those elements to a certain degree.
“Hah! What a bright and sunny day!” Hector climbed out of his tiny cabin squeezing with 5 other Journeymen where it was much more comfortable on the floor since there was the risk of falling off those ‘beds’ or padded boards during their rest. Sleeping on the floor does bring about a different risk that was someone falling on you but it was a calculated risk.
He stretched his aching body, he didn’t think it could be so tiring to do some chores on a wobbly ship. Not being able to rest properly added to his exhaustion. ‘Hmm, that’s a big wave.” Hector thought. He was originally facing an empty sea horizon when his line of sight was going higher and higher. Only realising it was more than just a big wave when he was facing the sky.
Hector suddenly noticed how silent it was and that no one was taking watch, no one was even around on deck. He remembered the groggy feeling before he fell asleep and how every one of his cabin mates were sleeping like logs before he even returned to rest. Many things went through his mind in a split second, one of them being, most other soldiers don’t have specialised resistance training like he does or his Physique. The other being how there were no ships in his peripheral vision which meant they were already separated from the fleet.
“WAKE Uh!~” His body hit the water as the ship capsized over him.