– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 217, Season of the Rising Moon, Day 77 –
Terry calmly remained where he was while paying attention to the approaching mana signatures.
He felt weird.
Not because he had killed the mana martialists that had transparently tried to rob him, but because he was aware that he was in the process of taking a page out of Apex’s playbook.
Terry was not sure how to feel about that.
If I want to leave this secret realm the normal way, I’ll have to get an entrance ticket. I might not be willing to kill an innocent person for a ticket, but if they come to attack me, then why should I avoid them? If I’m lucky, I might get a ticket in the process.
He stared at the martialists dispassionately, as if examining a mana puzzle in the dungeon.
Not to mention, I’ll have to stay here for three more seasons. The less walking lunatics there are, the better my chances. Coincidentally, the more threatening my reputation, the better my chances.
Terry recognized a few of the mana signatures.
There was Shen with his white-golden robe further in the back.
There were two of the people from the Icy Dew Mountain – the tall-grown woman and the boulder of a man. They also remained at a cautious distance.
“Wait.” Shen raised a hand to prevent his group from approaching any further. “Something is fishy.”
“Perhaps, the sign was clear though,” whispered his companion. “A treasure appeared here not too long ago.”
“What do you mean ‘perhaps’?” asked another. “Look at that pool of blood and flesh. I’m getting a bad feeling too. Shen?”
“That person.” Shen narrowed his eyes at Terry.
“The alleged Arcanian? What about him?”
“Something has changed, something is different.” Shen muttered in thought.
“Looks the same to me. I don’t see a difference.”
“No, there is something…” Shen retrieved a small wooden statue from his storage.
“What did you pull that for? I thought you already checked his bone age.”
“I don’t get the point of checking in this trial tomb to begin with. Isn’t everyone here bound to be younger than thirty? That’s how the secret realm works, no?”
“I knew it…” Shen furrowed his brow. “We are not getting involved in this fight. Too uncertain.”
“What? Why?”
“Because, you rot for brains, the point of me collecting information is to act on it,” hissed Shen. “That man had a bone age of less than twenty-one when I first saw him. Not even a season later, he has a bone age closing in on twenty-three. You tell me if that warrants caution.”
“Huh? Didn’t you say that there were regular dao chambers as rewards? How did he get older?”
“Wait, do you suspect he might have faked his bone age to get here?”
“Would explain how he so casually stops attacks left and right.”
“I don’t know what it means but that’s the point.” Shen pulled out a chair and settled down comfortably. “I don’t know. We should watch. Take out some wine. Enjoy the show.”
Before long, Terry was surrounded by mana martialists in all kinds of uniforms. He let his mana touch wash over them to add the information to what he already knew from his regular mana sense.
While moving his mana over some of their items, Terry got another idea for something to try…
“What happened here?” a stern-faced woman in dark green robes stepped forth.
“What a stupid question.” A felan woman with the appearance of a golden tiger in black robes sneered from the side. She looked at Terry. “What treasure appeared here?”
“I got a few disgusting peaches if that’s what you mean,” replied Terry calmly.
“Ha! He even answered.” The felan woman grinned. “I like him.”
“These are…” Some people in yellow-black combat robes pointed at the corpses.
“They attacked me when I didn’t hand over the disgusting peaches.” Terry said preemptively.
“Lies! Our Thunderous Palm Sect is an honorable and righteous sect!”
“Sure, yes, we all know that, of course.” The felan woman spoke mockingly. “We are all righteous and upright, aren't we?”
Snickering washed over the assembled martialists.
“What’s your name?” The human woman in dark green asked Terry.
“He’s called Terry.” Another martialist shouted.
“Rude bastard! Who is butting in?” The felan woman shouted back.
“Hom, calm down,” said the human woman in dark green robes. “I don’t care who answers.”
“Who cares what you care about, Chalita?” Hom barked back. Her yellow-orange fur was moving with the wind. “It’s the principle that matters.” More snickering in the background.
“Whatever,” hissed Chalita and turned her gaze back to Terry.
“Oy, who said our conversation is over?” Hom barked at Chalita.
“Seriously? Now?” Chalita rolled her eyes. “If you want to continue our battle, I’m sure this can wait, can’t it?”
“What and let me stand idly by while you are trying to pull a fast one over us?” Hom spread her arms and shook her head. “How would I be able to live with myself when ignoring injustice right in front of my paws.”
“I’m sure it has nothing to do with the rumors you heard about the Cleansing Firestalk Bamboo,” scoffed Chalita.
Oh? Terry heard a familiar term. Did someone talk about me handing that bamboo to Apex? Or is it about me having something like that in the first place?
Hom spoke up: “Why don’t we let our—”
“Enough of this bullshit.” A large man pushed himself through the crowd. “If you all won’t make a move, I will. This bastard stole our altar in the first round!”
“Yeah and to make it worse something was broken with the second one.” More people joined the man.
Broken? Terry nearly laughed out loud when he thought it might have something to do with his looting of the Halls.
Rafael must have been very disappointed then…
Speaking of Rafael… Terry spotted a familiar leopard spot pattern in the crowd. To Terry's surprise, he could not sense any mana.
The felan was wearing a colorful mask.
An artifact to hide his mana signature? Is he worried about me tracking him?
Terry took note of the fact that Rafael was near the people who pressed to attack Terry.
“Who says you can just touch him?” An elven man in green-golden robes stepped in front of Terry.
“The Outcast from the Ironbark Fist Sect?”
“Is that Terry friends with all the freaks and scum in here?”
“Uh…” Terry wasn’t sure how to react to this unexpected defender. He eyed the elf with suspicion. “Are you trying to stand up for justice or something?”
The elf snorted. “We’re not doing these things for justice. We’re doing it for our own amusement. At least the felan is.” He nodded towards Hom. “Besides…” He shot Terry a glance. “I’m expecting to be compensated.”
Why am I not surprised?
Jumping in for help without being asked to. Isn’t that just another angle at robbery? I guess it’s more kind. Unless he would change his act if there was no attacker. For all I know, he would turn into the attacker if there wasn’t one.
“Guillermo, you little spoilsport.” Another pair of elven martialists stood forth to confront the Outcast. “Don’t you think you have enough on your plate without sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong?”
“How about you worry about yourselves, you twig-armed smoothskins.” Hom sneered from the side. “Why don’t you—?”
Terry had enough. Even the entrance ticket wasn’t worth listening to these incessant ramblings. He turned to leave.
“Where do you think you’re going?” hissed the group that had pressed to attack Terry.
“Away from all this nonsense,” replied Terry without turning around. “As far away as possible in this mana-forsaken place.” He didn’t get very far before he was blocked by the mass of people. He asked calmly. “Could you please step aside? You’re blocking my way.”
“No shit, pipsqueak,” sneered one of the people in his way.
“Alrighty then.” Terry looked over the assembled martialists. “How about everyone that wants to kill me for treasure or revenge or whatever steps over here, while everyone else just backs the Wastes off.”
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Hom was still grinning at the second half but then frowned at how Terry had ended his statement.
“Are you refusing our help?” Guillermo asked in a low voice.
“I don’t know yet,” replied Terry, which caused plenty of people to furrow their foreheads in confusion.
“I’ll tell you when I think I need it,” continued Terry without missing a beat. “Not yet as far as I can tell.”
“Arrogant little prick.” The man closest to Terry brought down his elbow on Terry’s head.
Unfortunately for the man, Terry had quickly transfixed his helmet and while the man was destroying his own elbow, Terry was already letting his inscribed keen daggers dance through the air.
“Woah…” Terry stumbled involuntarily from his own wielding of the blades. Damn my explosive speed with bursts is a lot faster than I expected. I need to get used to this…
In a matter of seconds, a chaotic scuffle had broken out.
Since the strongest mana signatures had not joined the battle yet, Terry stuck to using his regular equipment and fighting in his own style.
Terry switched his burst techniques to match whatever situation he found himself in. He successfully relied on his mana resonance precognition for his most lethal setups. Many of the martialists utilized mana resonance techniques that ended in a strict charge along a predetermined path, which tended to end badly if an immovable object was waiting for them.
After a while, the mana martialists got spooked by the fact that their all out most powerful techniques tended to get themselves injured the worst.
“What kind of strength is required to block like that?!” One of the martialists stared incredulously at the hammer that had most recently been blocked by Terry.
“Idiot! The Arcanian is a spell slinger. That’s a mage spell, not strength!” Another voice informed him. “It’s called Immovable Object or something.”
Terry’s eyes subconsciously wandered to the leopard-spotted felan in the back. Rafael wasn’t the one that had spoken, but Terry suspected he was the source of the information for the one who had.
The martialists adjusted to Terry’s battle style by switching to long-range attacks and avoiding straight charges.
Terry considered unleashing his mana disruption field in order to obstruct them, when he sensed it…
“Heavenly Wolf Slash!” The giant white wolf was rushing furiously towards Terry.
Simultaneously, two other of the stronger mana signatures from the most hostile group positioned themselves to unleash their charged mana resonance techniques and catch Terry in the crossfire.
Terry’s expression darkened. He could try and block with his Immovable Object spell. He knew that it would hold against the Heavenly Wolf Slash, but he didn’t know if the other techniques had a catch he was unaware of.
Knock yourselves out, hissed Terry in his thoughts. With a burst of mana, he dashed high up into the air. The fact that he could properly jump onto even a single layer of divine mana brought a smile onto his lips.
A grim smile due to the fact that he was painfully aware of the origin of the Heavenly Wolf Slash that had attacked him.
A smile nonetheless.
The heavenly wolf collided with one of the other attacks.
The third attack, however, whipped upwards to follow Terry. It had the shape of a black python with a wide open maw.
I can use that.
Terry cycled his mana with another burst technique. At the same time, he pulled one of the more aggressive martialists into the air with his bidirectional attraction glove.
Another martialist was using a movement technique to save his friend, but unfortunately for the both of them, they had entered Terry’s casting range and the would-be-savior suddenly discovered that his own storage ring had become transfixed in the air and was preventing him from moving.
A second later, Terry was darting over them. The black python that was following Terry crashed into the two martialists, ripped them apart, and vanished afterwards.
“Die!” A man lashed out with his sword.
Terry moved some of his circulating mana into a talisman he found on a nearby martialist.
“What…? No—!” A giant blast of lava flew outwards from the woman with the talisman. It caught the swordsman in the process.
Terry noted that some of the stronger mana martialists were preparing to join and he shouted: “Piss off! Last chance to leave me alone.”
“He’s a bit full of himself from what I can see.” One of Shen’s friends remarked. “Sure, he’s holding his own, but if he was trying to intimidate the stronger ones into backing off, he’s far from qualified.”
“Hmm…” Shen rubbed his chin. “Did you gather the information on that spell they talked about?”
“Yeah,” replied his friend. “Guess who sold it to us?”
“I don’t have to guess,” muttered Shen. “Look, what’s…”
Terry made sure to memorize all the people that had refused to step away from the fight. Then he picked another of his magic talismans at random and channeled mana into it.
A purple translucent skull was summoned and charged forth at the nearest group of martialists. Before they knew what had hit them, only a few of black scarred skeletons remained.
Damn these are all overkill, aren’t they?
Terry shook his head. He looked towards another direction with the next strongest opponents and channeled mana into the next talisman.
“Hey, what the f—?” A golden burning lion incinerated half a dozen mana martialists.
“Bastard.” One woman in the middle had barely managed to activate a protective talisman in time. She glared at Terry with hate-filled eyes and then addressed the others. “Come on, I don’t believe he can continue wasting precious treasures like this, I—”
The woman was blasted apart by a panther made of lightning, courtesy of Terry’s next talisman.
You were saying? Terry suppressed the urge to snicker with spite and instead focused on the other martialists. Most of them had frozen from shock at the sudden intensity of carnage.
“What should we do?” Someone asked Rafael.
“Fight, obviously.” Rafael hissed back. He did not move any closer despite his words. He grumbled quietly: “The bloody hypocrite told me not to loot the estate but he himself is completely loaded.”
“No way he has more of these,” scoffed a felan man from another corner.
“Right, even if he has blazed through all the challenges since coming here, he couldn’t have more than a handful of such powerful items,” added another.
False assumptions can be dangerous, you know? Terry retorted in his mind.
Are they trying to reassure each other? Or egging each other on in the hopes that someone else will make the first move and take the risk?
“If we spread out, he can’t take us all out at once,” suggested one of the martialists.
Fair point. Terry burst his mana and kicked the martialist that had spoken right into a group of others. Another talisman later, the group had been obliterated.
“Screw this wastrel! I’m out.”
“Flee!”
As soon as some of the martialists began to flee, many others followed. Rafael was among the first to bolt away.
A few of them were trying to loot some of the corpses on the way, but found themselves pulled, transfixed, and confronted by Terry. They did not have much time to regret their last burst of greed.
“Phew.” One of Shen’s friends whistled sharply. “How much spirit crystals do you think that man just wasted in a single fight? So much money down the sewer.”
“Preserving your life comes first. These talismans are meant to be used. A dead man can’t spend money.”
“I know a few vampires that would prove you wrong. I’m not questioning the use of talismans but using that level of talisman on that kind of people. Some of them had barely reached the spirit condensation realm. These talismans could have killed even a nascent soul realm expert. Fuck me, if that’s not a waste.”
“Where did he even get these from?”
“That’s the million spirit crystal question,” muttered Shen. “Last time I saw him, we were stepping into the dao chambers. Even if he came out first and then spent every day challenging the trials and joining the treasure hunt in this location, he would not have gotten that much.”
“Maybe he just brought them in?”
“That would imply a powerful background.”
“I thought he was supposed to be from Arcana. Do they even produce our talismans?”
“Who knows…”
“Perhaps I have to speak with Rafael on more neutral terms than last time…” Shen muttered pensively.
Meanwhile, Terry was collecting the storage items from the deceased martialists.
“I think my help would have been much cheaper.” Guillermo spoke to Terry in an amused tone. “Even the felan would not have asked for that much. You have burned a fortune. Why? To show that you can afford it? That will only paint a bigger target on you.”
“Maybe,” muttered Terry. He got an idea. “Wait, Guillermo and the other one, Hom, was it?”
“Hm?” Hom’s furry ear twitched at hearing her name spoken. She had already been walking away from the battle ground, but now she turned around.
“I have some questions about this pocket realm,” said Terry. “If there is something you are looking for, we might come to an arrangement.” He glanced at another location. “Oh and if you could ask the two from the Icy Dew Mountain to come over afterwards, that would be great too. The bean sprout and the chunky chubster.” He pointed. “I don’t remember their names.”
“Chun and Barnes?” asked Hom, who had walked over. “Are they your enemies?”
“They attacked me before if that’s what you mean,” replied Terry calmly. “I just want to ask them a few questions.”
“Not trusting our answers alone?” Guillermo remarked with amusement.
“As far as I’m concerned, everyone in this pocket realm is off their rocker,” said Terry wearily.
“That’s hurtful, you know.” Hom grinned with sharp teeth.
“If you are looking for information, you should talk to the one in gold and white over there.” Guillermo pointed. “Shen. That’s kind of his thing.”
“You could have told him that after we made our deal,” hissed Hom with playful outrage.
“So, what are you looking for?” Terry asked to go straight to business. He would like to have as little contact as possible with mana martialists.
“You first, smooth cheeks.” Hom waved for Guillermo.
“I’m looking for a nature-aspected acorn with— Wait…” Guillermo changed his mind half-way. “You don’t happen to offer cultivation techniques, too? If so, I would be interested in any movement technique that accompanies metal-aspected fist techniques.”
“Uhh…” Terry moved his consciousness over the endless jade tokens he had taken from the Hall of Knowledge. “Do you have something more specific in mind?” Or do I just have to guess? He found something with the name ironbark that looked like a close-combat sequence including movement, so he held it out. “How about this?”
“You…” Guillermo hesitatingly took the jade token. “Holy mana, where did you get this?!”
“Is it no good?” Terry asked flatly.
“It’s…” Guillermo calmed himself. “Perfect.” He smirked. “More than perfect.” He nodded with a wide grin. “I’ll try to answer whatever questions you have.”
Terry looked at Hom next. “How about you? Would you also prefer a technique?”
“Honey, I got all the techniques I can stomach at the moment,” replied Hom while waving her hand to decline. “I’m looking for the materials to advance my cultivation. It’s unlikely that you have something fitting but even if you have only heard of anything of use, I’m happy to exchange some information.”
Terry noted Hom’s mana signature. “So something rich in life-aspected mana, fire, and if possible spirit?”
“How do you know about the spirit?!” Hom seemed taken aback.
Terry raised an eyebrow. “Spirit aspect.” Is she talking about a real spirit? Anyway… He searched his storage and then presented a weird looking potato with orange hairs.
“This…” Hom blinked for a few times and then rubbed her eyes. “You actually have it!” She snatched the potato from Terry and stored it in her own storage item in a rush. “Don’t you know that it loses its efficacy when exposed to the air?” Afterwards, she realized what she had just done and quickly apologized. “Sorry about that, I got excited.” She stuck out her tongue..
“Eh, sure.” Terry had intentionally not dodged or pulled the potato back. “And no, I didn’t know that, which is kind of my problem. There are a lot of basic things I don’t know, on top of important things about this secret realm.”
“Shoot your questions, you have my attention.” Hom grinned.
“First of all, how does anyone know anything about this secret realm?” asked Terry. “Like how? I get that someone might learn of its opening from the entrance tickets, but I got the impression that some people know about what’s going on inside.”
The elven man and the felan woman glanced at each other, before Guillermo spoke first: “This tomb has opened before. In fact, it supposedly opens every twenty or so years.”
“Some claim it used to open less frequently though,” added Hom without concern.
“Why would multiple people come here with a single entrance ticket?” asked Terry.
Hom snorted and laughed. “Are you serious? Oh wow, you are.” She shook her head with amusement. “The more people you bring, the more allies you have. You might have noticed that winning something in the trials is only part of the problem. Defending what you won can be the bigger problem.”
“It’s true that you cannot leave without an entrance ticket,” said Guillermo. “No one has ever come back without a ticket. However, that’s only a problem if you are not confident in your strength.”
“Right, you don’t need to have a ticket when you come, you just need one before you leave,” agreed Hom. “Those with a ticket but without the strength to keep it, they are the ones in real trouble.”
Terry rubbed his forehead and was about to grumble when he noticed something in one of the storage items he had taken from the corpses.
An entrance ticket.
“I see…” muttered Terry absentmindedly.
***