A black flash enveloped throughout the autumnal clearing, heralding in a manbi, a giant fanged creature with long rabbit ears. It growled at the sight of humans, baring its long vampiric fangs–a grim reminder of its deadly history of killing off naive humans who thought of them as harmless and tamable. The students faltered at the sound of the screeching growl, shivering at the thought of being crushed by the jaws of the manbi. Images of crushed human skulls and hollow out trees invaded their senses.
Erik yelled at the students to focus, a battle cry to increase their concentration, and then nodded at Mitch. Taking his cue, Mitch led the charge, his iron club hurtled towards the manbi. The force of the club swayed the branches and bright orange leaves of the nearby maple trees. Startled, the manbi instinctively leaped backward and took a moment to gauge its attacker. Sensing the threat, it hopped away in retreat. Mitch's taunting ability was effective against monsters close to his spiritual level or stronger, but was futile against weaker monsters.
Under Erik's watchful guidance, the five students sprang into action, closing in on the retreating manbi with their practiced formation. Working together, they closed in around the creature and confined it within their circle. The two archers drew their string to cover the gap while the melee fighters condensed their mana into their weapons for an all-out attack. Failure was not an option; their graduation depended on teamwork.
As the party battled the manbi, Ian continued studying the ant roaming the area. It was a rare opportunity for him to research within the otherworld realm without fear of being injured or killed. Despite their formidable strength, a lone manbi was notorious for their cowardly nature, often resorting to defensive maneuvers.
Ian occasionally glanced up to assess the progress of the party, but his focus was ultimately on the mundane wildlife and plants. Like people, many creatures and plants had SP, but not enough to form a geist and manipulate mana. Ian studied many creatures in the real world, but the best way to study them was to be in the otherworld realm.
“What are you doing?” The porter asked curiously when he saw Ian looking through the microscope. He had heard of Ian’s reputation. Many people called him the worst healer, but he had another nickname, the mad doc.
“Researching,” said Ian.
The porter took out a cigarette and lit it up with a match while his eyes loomed over the battle between the high school students and manbi. It was his responsibility to carry the students out to the safe zone if anything went wrong. “Isn’t everything here already documented?”
Many scientists studied the spiritual plants and monsters within the otherworld realm. However, they could only be studied from within the otherworld realm. As soon as the monsters entered the real world, they lost their mana abilities, reduced to only physical strength. Spiritual plants lost their mana glow and monsters lost all special properties. Resources within the otherworld realm were only useful within the realm.
As one of the smaller otherworld realms, Neuman’s otherworld realm was one of the six otherworld realms extensively studied by early scholars and scientists. A comprehensive study led by Aribac Neuman was released more than thirty years ago. It detailed the change in ecology of the field affected by the otherworldly energy.
“Most everything has been documented in Neuman’s, but the information is constantly being reviewed under newer lenses,” said Ian as he placed another ant under the microscope. “For example, the Academy is still sequencing the DNA from the specimens collected in the early 80s.”
Monsters’ DNA shared similar genetic makeup to Earth’s biological life. Overtime, interests in the field declined as none of the data yielded any insights to the monsters’ true ability.
“I saw some of that online, but it seems like wasted energy to study them in the real world,” the porter said. When he was a newbie, he had captured a large 6-inch novoant with bright green wings spanning 2-feet across its back. It was his intention to tame it in the real world. To his disappointment, the wings disappeared, fading into mana dust as soon as it crossed the barrier. Within a few days, the novoant died. “But why the mundune creatures? They aren’t even useful even within the otherworld.”
“Someone has to do it.”
Scientists were more interested in the barrier between the otherworld realm and earth, ways to harness mana, and the evolution of humans after the appearance of the otherworld realm. It was more profitable than studying the mundane non-ranked biological creatures in the otherworld realm. There was still a small community of researchers studying mundane biology and Ian was one of them.
“Too bad we can’t study them in the real world,” the porter said.
“Maybe that’s a good thing,” Ian said. He couldn’t imagine the chaos in the real world if monsters and rankers could use their mana abilities.
It was concerning. The biggest fear most people had was the potential collapse of the barrier between the otherworld and real world. All sorts of theories were proposed online, but no one really knows what would happen.
Ian sketched the otherworld ant, its size was larger than the titanomyrma from pre-historical data. From what he knew, they reach maturity in four months, and die in six months. In the real world, they could live up to a week. However, a week was enough for them to be considered invasive species. Luckily, domestic cats and dogs enjoyed eating them and most otherworld insects avoided leaving the otherworld realm.
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“Do all doctors know how to draw?” The porter asked. He was impressed by the illustrations in Ian’s notebook.
“Just the ones who need to record information from the otherworld realm,” Ian responded.
Modern cameras and other human’s technology couldn’t be used in the otherworld realm. The magical field prevented real world items from working properly. Steel blades became blunt tools on monsters, guns and bombs couldn’t be triggered, and the wheels on bicycles couldn’t roll freely after a short distance. Only steel blades enhanced by mana were capable of destroying boulders and splitting trees.
Without cameras, many researchers resorted to hand illustrations. It was a skillset many researchers needed in order to accurately capture the monsters within the otherworld realm. There were some individuals with abilities that allowed them to take images within the otherworld realm. Unfortunately, most ability users focused on monsters and spiritual plants. The mundane wildlife had to be studied via illustrations or as dead carcasses.
Ian continued researching, but also monitored the situation with the students and his surroundings. The students were cautious and well trained enough to know when it was time to strike. The manbi attack patterns were well-documented and most high school students in the area studied it before entering Neuman’s. If the manbi twitched its nose, it was best to move back before it unleashed its rapid attack. The attack seemed fast, but the manbi were known for their terrible aim and stamina. Eventually, the students worked together to finish off the manbi.
Erik thanked Mitch and Ian before using the remaining time slot to give the students a tour of the Neuman’s realm. The autumn field was ranked number one by the online forum as the most beautiful place to visit in Worchest, so it was often treated as a popular tourist attraction. Many guilds wanted to lease land inside to create a resort, but the ORA prioritized using the realm to train new rankers. Academia and schools also had priority over guilds when scheduling for a time slot.
Mitch and Ian also stayed. Mitch meditated while Ian studied a nearby mint. Its brown fringed leaves fluttered with the breeze while the flowering blue clusters bent over from its weight. Ian plucked the mint leaf and tasted it. Most people wouldn’t taste strange plants, especially in the otherworld realm, unless guided by an expert. Ian considered himself to be an expert.
The flavor and smell was a combination of spearmint and lavender. In the botanical notebook, Ian scribbled down his observation. After filling the last page with illustrations and notes, he closed the notebook.
Shrrkkkk!
A black flash and shrieking alerted Ian of an incoming monster spawn. He quickly put his equipment away into a large cargo luggage. He wasn’t sure if they were lucky or unlucky. Monster spawn wasn’t as active in Neuman’s, so for it to occur twice within an hour was extremely rare. Not to mention, there were two manbis rushing toward the party.
Mitch roared out a taunt, taking the manbis’ attention onto himself. The taunt worked better than before. While he was meditating, he had studied the party’s mana vibration. Everyone had natural vibrating mana called auras. The more he knew about his party members’ aura, the better his ability to taunt. When a group of rankers were in close proximity, it formed a different type of aura. Tanks were aware of the concept behind sonar spells like taunt, but few were as attentive as Mitch. His taunt created a vibration that disrupted the manbi’s senses and made them focus their attacks onto him. With his protective aura and heightened ability, he could handle the two manbis’ attacks while the students focused on attacking. Much to Mitch’s dismay, the students lacked experience and accuracy. The archers missed several shots and the manbis dodged the spearmen and swordsman’s slow jabs and slashes.
Everyone started at a low threshold, but at the rate they were going, their time slot would run out. Erik and the porter joined the fray, knowing that they needed to finish off the monster quickly. However, even with their assistance, it would take at least another ten minutes to kill the two manbis. Ian didn’t want to incur the penalty and impatiently grabbed a grappling hook from his bag. He lacked strength to hurt the manbis, but it was enough to hold them down. He swung the hook around to give it momentum, and threw it toward the manbi furthest away from him. Seeing Ian’s hook, Mitch ducked out of the way as the grapple hooked onto the rope, completing a ring around the two manbis.
Ian tightened his grip on the nylon rope and backed his feet into position. His toned arms flexed as he yanked onto the rope, squeezing the two manbi together. With the manbis tied together, the party quickly killed the two manbis.
After securing the carcasses, the archer picked up the arrows from the ground. No one batted an eye. Archery was useful to take down creatures from a safe distance and highly coveted, but very expensive. The cost of a dozen arrows was $10000 and she needed to return them. Everyone else picked up their belongings and rushed back to the southern checkpoint.
By the time they got out, Erik thanked Mitch and Ian. “Thanks again for helping the students with the test. Is it possible for me to add you onto my contact list?”
He had heard rumors that the duo often entered ranked E realms alone, but he couldn’t figure out how with Ian’s lack of spiritual ability. Mitch had a good reputation as a tank, but it wasn’t enough to finish off monsters without an actual ranked healer. Seeing Ian’s grappling ability, it was easy to discern the situation. Regular ropes couldn’t be used to harm monsters, but it was still possible to trap them into place. It required a lot of strength training and practice.
“How long did you have to train?” Erik asked curiously. The precision of the lasso and hook needed hours of training.
“That wasn’t trained, I made it up on the spot,” Ian said.
“That’s amazing!” Erik was genuinely impressed.
“Joking…” Ian bemused at Erik’s reaction. “My grandparents were ranchers from the north.”
He learned trick-roping from his grandparents when he was five. If Ian could add a crowd control expert to his registration, he would, but most teams preferred actual rankers with crowd control skills.
At the checkpoint, the ORA guards divided the loot. Mitch and Ian bid the students farewell as they departed. Mitch even bestowed to them his wealth of experience as a graduate of a nearby military school. As high schoolers from the common-class families, they lacked the resources of children from wealthy clans. The best way to succeed was enrolling into an academy or joining the military.
For the next two weeks, Ian accompanied Mitch on several excursions into the otherworld realms. However, Ian's credentials suddenly disappeared from the ORA App.