“It’s not that I enjoy barging into peoples’ sex lives like this but you’ve just really left me with no choice, Theskar.”

Queen Perinete seemed incredibly annoyed at having her fun times interrupted. “Is this how you are raised in your kingdom? Barge into the royal chambers to demand answers with no decorum?”

“We don’t have Kingdoms. We do, however, have [Bards] sleeping with dragons and a Witch Tyrant that I bet watches everyone have sex.”

For some strange reason, that seemed to pique the Queen’s interest. Though, not enough for her to lose her ‘decorum’ and demand him to clarify. King Theskar nodded at his wife and she rolled her eyes and dragged one of the many bedsheets as she stormed out of her room. Ryan kept his eyes firmly on Theskar, not checking out the undressed and distractingly beautiful Queen.

King Theskar simply sighed. “Is there anything more you need? I have the mages and warriors ready for your training.”

“You know exactly what I want. Tell me your thoughts on what I’m doing, give me some feedback. An after-action report.”

“You are doing fine. I know examples of benevolent rulers that have led their kingdoms through fear.”

Both King and [Aura Tyrant] glared at each other for a long while. Both refusing to back down from their stubborn positions.

At first, King Theskar only seemed delighted to help in any way that he could. Then it quickly became apparent that Theskar would never give him more than factual information. Beyond that, the King would only say things like ‘that could work.’ or ‘that is a novel idea indeed.’

Now that Ryan had finished terrorizing the kingdom and still felt like something was wrong, King Theskar’s words sounded more condescending than encouraging.

“You’re like a goddamn npc. I know you’re smarter than that, give me something.”

“These are your Trials, consider me an unbiased assistant.”

“Bullshit. You’re still making judgment calls and choosing what happens in the end.”

“Only what happens naturally.”

“Then why don’t you tell me what’s going to happen naturally, in your unbiased opinion.”

“If you followed my opinion then it would no longer be your Trial.”

After that, King Theskar stayed silent. Like a stone cold rock that refused to budge. Unlike a certain Baron Uterpe, Ryan was pretty sure Theskar would never bend to intimidation. Not that Ryan needed it, he pointed at King Theskar’s chest.

“You’ve unfortunately played your card Theskar, I’ll have you singing before the end of the Trial.”

===============================================

Fifth Trial, 11 days in…

Most of his time, of course, wasn’t going to be spent harassing the King and Queen. He’d finished his job and it was now time to practice and consolidate.

With a time desync of ten to one, and the highest Trial only having four earth days left, it meant that Ryan would have a max of forty days to train. Realistically, he doubted the Tyrants would take the full fifty days to complete the Highest Trial.

The Highest Trials varied wildly in their completion times. It was said that the seventh Trial was completed in half a day. The Passive Tyrant had apparently smashed through a fortress herself after an argument with the others.

Ryan made the guess that they wouldn’t have pushed back the date by two days if they weren’t at least confident in completing the Fifth Trial in half the time.

So, Ryan chose the conservative twenty five day limit for practicing the Trial, or fourteen days left, and there was a lot to practice.

It was a good thing he had all the resources of a kingdom to help him do it.

Two evolved Mages were watching him, eyeing his left arm like it was the plague. Three royal knights were staring at his right arm in hostility, annoyed by the red aura that seemed to dominate over even their King’s.

Ryan leaned over to King Theskar. He whispered loudly enough so they could all hear.

“Is this really the best you got? I think King Arctus would have mopped the floor with the lot of them.”

The four of them were weak fifth realms while the top royal knight was maybe passable as a fifth realm.

“They are my most trusted confidants. The ones that can both help and are able to keep a secret.”

The five of them puffed up at the words. Ryan resigned himself to make do with what he got.

“Alright all of you at once, let’s see what you can do.”

The five greatest confidants of the King stood up, eager to at least get a hit on the arrogant elf. Unfortunately for them, Ryan… just pushed some mana into Rax’s controlling glove that he had put on his right hand.

A metallic golem leapt up from behind them. Rax’s modified golem slammed down in front of them, causing an echoing smash throughout the training room. It hefted a spear lazily on its shoulder.

Ryan just leaned back, sticking next to the King, staring down at the five confidants.

“What? You all didn’t think you would be fighting me, right? Beat this golem and I’ll let each of you hit me once. As hard as you can.”

Now that was a good motivator for the fight.

===================================================

The golem charged without a care in the world, moving to bash past the knights so it could stab the squishy mages with its spear. Two royal knights moved to block, their shields held in unison. Meanwhile one knight circled around so they could at least hit the golem in the side.

It wasn’t a bad, if basic, strategy. What they hadn’t really accounted for was that the golem was far, far stronger than they were.

Both the blocking knights were knocked over like bowling pins and the golem rocketed towards the mages.

By the time the circling knight managed to catch up, the female mage’s barrier had been shattered and the spear tip was pointed right at one of the mage’s eye.

“Fail.” Ryan said simply, he spun his finger over his head. “Take ten minutes to restrategize and we’ll go again.”

The strongest royal knight, the one that had greeted him at the gates, took off his helmet and glared at Ryan.

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“Is there a purpose to this, other than to humiliate us?”

“Yes. All of you need to get better at facing higher realm foes if you want to keep your kingdom safe. This will be the bare minimum.”

“If this was a real combat situation we would go for the controller.”

“This golem can be commanded from miles away, through dirt. If I was a squishy mage, I’d make sure to hide well enough so you could never find me.”

The strongest knight, who definitely knew too much, really didn’t look like he wanted to keep fighting a golem while being looked down upon. “Is it not more pertinent for you to practice and get stronger?”

Ryan waved his gloved hand. “Who’s to say I’m not? I’m channeling mana through what’s an aura focused arm. There’s a massive delay in reactions and I still can’t control this golem half as well as the original user. Trust me, this is important training for me too.”

It was the truth. Ryan couldn’t put on Rax’s controller glove on his left hand for the fear of damaging the runes with his volatile mana, and his right arm messed with any other energy source other than aura. Sending a continuous trickle of mana through his right arm required far, far more focus than he was making it look.

He was hoping this practice would give him some sort of [Mana Control] skill. One that he could naturally develop with [Ambient Resource Utilization] so that it could start using mana.

If he could utilize ambient mana and make it all volatile?

It could be the counter he was looking for against the Witch Tyrant’s illusions.

So, Ryan sat back and focused, trying to make the golem do complex maneuvers. Spinning around, kicking, stabbing, doing the splits while stabbing…

By the end of the ten minutes, Ryan had gotten bored and started doing some incredibly suggestive yoga poses with the golem. Of course it was to taunt the King’s confidants, not because he found a metallic skeleton attractive in any way.

The golem was halfway into a split and was staring upside down at the strategizing knights and mages through the arch of its legs.

Then it took a downward dog pose, butt facing towards the knights, still staring through its own legs.

“Alright, that’s enough!”

In a very disappointing fashion, one of the knights turned around and charged the golem, sword in hand. The golem boosted backwards, butt first at the charging knight. The knight managed to raise his shield just in time for the butt of Rax’s golem to collide with it. The first ever hip check from Rax’s golem made the knight fly backwards, falling flat on his own ass.

Ryan shook his head and clicked his tongue.

One of the mages eyed the pristine and still undamaged golem, she timidly raised her hand, wanting to ask a question.

“I understand that this is helping you practice but this seems like an impossible challenge for us. Uhm…”

She wilted under Ryan’s intense gaze. “What’s your name?”

“Fetters, I–I mean Fetterue.”

“Well Fetters, you’re right! None of you are strong enough to scratch this golem crafted by the equivalent of an eighth realm monster.”

All five of them shifted uncomfortably at that. The idea of an eighth realm monster alone was a terrifying thought, an eighth realm crafting golem?

“Well, now that you understand, what’s the plan?”

“Uhm, run away?”

Ryan clapped, startling everyone out of their thoughts. “Exactly! You run!”

Of course, the knight that had been hip checked had something to say about that. “We are knights, we cannot run in our duty.”

“Bullshit, if this golem is hellbent on killing your king here what are you going to do? Guide it into the castle and bring it to the throne room?”

Ryan stared at the royal knight that had done just that. He naturally got a glare back.

He smirked. “Okay, we’ll do something like that then. This golem is going to try to kill your King. In twenty seconds, it will charge and stab King Theskar.”

All five were immediately outraged at his words, even King Theskar turned to Ryan in confusion.

The greatest of the knight looked to King Theskar for directions.

The King just shook his head at his ‘old friend’. “The elf is bluffing.”

Ryan leaned in, staring all five of them down. “I’ve played chicken with a twelfth realm Witch Tyrant. I am fully willing to make others bleed if I think it’s important enough. Tell me, how much do you value a limb of your King’s?”

Ryan then turned to King Theskar, grinning.

The King raised an eyebrow. “Oh, he isn’t bluffing.”

Ryan began the countdown. “Twenty…”

The first fireball hit his condensed aura. A sword came down at his head, Ryan knocked it away with a small blade of aura and kicked the knight backwards.

“Nineteen…”

Fetters finally stepped up and started shouting at the knights. “Grab his majesty and run! Don’t go after Artigan! Block the golem instead!”

“Sixteen…”

The royal knight that had circled around earlier approached the king hesitantly.

“Your majesty?”

“Fourteen…”

King Theskar might not have decided whether to order the knights to stand down but his ‘old friend’ yelled at the hesitating knight.

“Grab his majesty and run!”

The order from the higher ranked knight seemed to be enough for the knight to very carefully lift the King and start sprinting away. Theskar didn’t stop glaring at Ryan while being carried out, probably trying to figure out whether losing a limb here would be a better lesson for Ryan or not. He gave the King a wink while he continued his countdown.

“Ten…”

The two remaining knights crowded around the golem, they were trying to bash it down while it danced around them. Too quick for them to land their blows.

“Nine…”

Interestingly enough, pushing Fetters into a panic seemed to embolden her to order the others to make the right decisions.

“Knights! Block the entrance! Rhinestone! Barrier spells layered in front of them.”

“Eight…”

They all fell into place, the Mage other than Fetters running out to stand behind the knights and putting the shield in place.

“Seven…”

Fetters looked around, stared at his glove and bit her lip.

“Six…”

Surprisingly Fetters rushed towards Ryan. She reached out, her hand pushing through his aura to grab at his hand. She didn’t have the strength to remove the glove forcefully from him.

“Six… this is uhh, weirdly intimate.”

“Shut up!”

“Five… Four… Three… Two… One!”

Ryan realized what Fetters was trying to do, she was attempting to push her own mana into the glove to break the connection between it and the golem. Ryan grinned at her, making her flinch. It was enough for him to push her gently over.

Then he stood up.

The knights were tense, they waited, staring at the golem, ready to throw away their lives to give as much time as possible for their other knight to get to a safe area with the king.

Then Ryan started clapping.

“There we go! That’s more like it!”

His shout of approval startled the knights out of their deathly focus, they all turned to stare at him as he took his glove off.

Even Fetters looked like she wanted to strangle him. “You! You were bluffing?”

“Nope, if you didn’t pass then I really would have taken an arm from King Theskar.”

There was a mix of both relief and confused anger thrown at him. The greatest royal knight being the loudest to vent his emotions.

“You have no respect for the crown and what it represents! King Theskar has poured over countless hours, sacrificed thousands for your progress and what? You spit on every single good grace you’ve been given..”

“Right and wrong.” Ryan countered. “I agree that King Theskar might be one of the most wise and worthy kings I’ve ever heard of.” Ryan’s eyes burned with his sincerity, a sudden intense switch from the disrespectful adventurer. “What I don’t respect is all of you. None of you are capable of protecting him from what is to come.”

Now that was a harsh blow that hit right where it hurt. All of them had great respect for their King, to the point where they had agreed to train a monster without question.

As respectable as it was, it was too blind, too simple and predictable with no will of their own. All of these confidants to the King were the top of their field, but they didn’t know how to work together.

That wasn’t their fault, they were too good to be assigned to a single team, each of them were leaders of their own division.

Yet that wasn’t what the Kingdom would need.

Ryan stood up, staring at the ‘old friend’ of the King. “There’s a very high chance your kingdom comes under fire from greater monsters in the near future. Your King might even decide to make an unwise decision for what he believes is the greater good. I’m not saying you should defy him, but if you want to keep him safe, you’ll need to do it together. ‘Old friend’ guy, you’re the leader. You keep everyone in line and choose when to mobilize. Fetters, you’re the shotcaller in direct combat, everyone must listen to you. The other Mage guy, you’re in charge of defense, your offense sucks.”

Now that he seemed serious, they all looked at each other, unsure about this whole thing. Fetters was just completely confused at the sudden thrust of a leadership position.

“Uhm me?”

“Yes Fetters. The vast majority of future problems will come as more of a singular problem than just a widespread kingdom, what will often work best is a highly mobile, adaptable team at the highest realm. You guys will set the tone for generations to come.”

This was his first true step. Organize all of them in the right way so that they were as prepared as they could be for whatever the Trial System would throw at them.

Instead of preparing for the Trials himself, he was going to prepare the kingdom for the Trials themselves.

Ryan spread his arms. “I’m going to make you a team of real adventurers.”

To his dismay, that line did the opposite of boosting morale.

He had forgotten that most knights in these Trials looked down on adventurers.

================================================

Later at night…

Ryan slammed open the door, breaking the recently repaired lock and barging into the King’s bedchambers. This time the King and Queen were not in the middle of doing the deed and were simply sitting on their beds, glaring at him. Theskar’s eyes flickered to the knocked out guard that had been posted outside.

“So… about that discussion, Theskar.”

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