Two days later, The Realm, Sector One

Sector Thirteen was incredibly dangerous. While the notifications indicated that the Tyrants could indeed deal with the major threats. The reports that reached civilization was not promising.

There were two main forms of communication in long distances. Either through use of long distance skills or the use of Destined via [Return to Earth]. Both of which could easily attract monsters. Though many adventurers risked it anyway. After all, providing updates to your adoring fans was a crucial part of modern adventuring. It often meant that having one Destined in your team was crucial if you wanted to be popular.

Though in this case, the Destined adventurers that reported back were coming back to horrific news that instantly made them return to The Realm to order a full retreat.

The up to date danger reports showed that Sector Thirteen had no rhythm or rhyme as to where or how things could get dangerous. Teams were falling off the map. Dragonslayers, strong dragonslayers were disappearing. Even a dragonslayer with a safety life had missed a check-in with other teams and no trace of them could be found.

Not even by the [Tracker of a Thousand Steps].

Then there were reports of a massive shining city, covered in a blue barrier. Words dictating to all that these were Realmers and should be treated as such. The dragonslayers that managed to see through the recently erected barrier found the world moving with a form of energy that hadn’t existed in The Realm before.

People had pieced together that this city was where the Witch Tyrant had slain one of the guardian deities. They were still piecing together the rest of the story.

But for now, very few dragonslayers dared to test the Witch Tyrant’s patience.

But that wasn’t what concerned the couple in Sector One. No, it was the fact that the notifications were reminding her that dark deeds were happening, and a stupid, arrogant boy was trying to shoulder everything by himself.

Seffara’s husband, Finn, noticing her rising anger, tried to placate her.

“Honey, it’s okay.”

Seffara kept her arms crossed, not looking at Finn. If she looked at her spouse her anger would go down and she wanted to be angry right now.

So, she glared at her jailer instead.

“You’d really rather be babysitting me than being out there, exploring the new world?”

Cinnabon, [The Magelance Extraordinaire], in her too stylish maid-knight hybrid outfit, stared out at the window and shook her head. Her curly auburn hair shimmering perfectly with the motion.

“The dead should only serve as reminders to the living. The living should be the ones to forge the future.”

Somehow when Cinnabon said it, in her wistful, slightly gloomy voice, it didn’t sound cheesy at all. Seffara was certain Ryan would have a clever snarky comeback. Instead all she could come up with was this:

“Fuck you, let me go. I promise not to cause a fuss.”

Cinnabon didn’t even deign to look her way, she once again shook her pretty little head.

“You’ve never been a good liar Seffara.”

Seffara’s hands started squeezing down on her armor. Finn carefully touched her side and she instantly removed all of the tension from her body. She had to be careful around her husband, a fact that Cinnabon was relying on to avoid conflict.

Though, Seffara had a sneaking feeling that Finn secretly approved of Cinnabon’s actions.

Which really did piss her off.

So, she stared at Cinnabon, trying to look past her eyes and into the skill that she was. Cinnabon was a Fallen. Someone brought back from the dead by the Witch Tyrant’s Legend. Seffara tried to see the skill as it was.

[Aura sight], [Mana Observation], [Qi Detection]

Nothing. Seffara couldn’t see through any of it. Cinnabon looked as alive as she ever had. Strong even for a twelfth realm.

How far have I fallen behind?

You had to remember, Seffara had been one of the strongest Trialists around. Before the Tyrants had ascended, she and her team could’ve given anyone a run for their money.

Now look. She was useless, being overlooked by someone she had trained. She still remembered when Cinnabon was Zeilia Thorne, a melodramatic fourth realm brat.

Seffara took a deep breath.

“Honey, please.” Finn pleaded.

Her husband could tell she was going to do something.

“Witch Tyrant, I’d like to make a deal.”

Cinnabon’s head snapped towards Seffara, eyes widening. She closed the gap in an instant. Too fast for Seffara to react. Cinnabon’s hands were on her mouth, stopping her from speaking.

It just made her more furious, she pushed away her husband and summoned her axe, trying to cut through Cinnabon’s perfect little face. A dainty gloved hand stopped the swing before it even started. Cinnabon, not even struggling to make Seffara useless.

“Stop it Seffara, are you mad?!”

Seffara’s teeth chomped down on Cinnabon’s fingers, drawing blood and eliciting a grimace from the dainty maid-knight. Gloved fingers, not gauntlets, maid-knight

. Seffara started shouting,

“YOU OWE MEPHHH”

Cinnabon shoved her metallic bracers between Seffara’s teeth, stopping the words and cracking her teeth.

Seffara couldn’t do anything. Too weak. Too far behind, she had retired twice. Once when she realized that she hated how her country was, then again when she hated how both worlds looked at her.

Now she hated being so powerless.

Then the presence descended. Like the [Witch] she was, she had been watching the entire time. The Witch Tyrant nodded at Finn, who paled at the sight of an evil tyrant but refused to flee.

He stepped up and stood in the way. Her brave, stupid husband, having heard of everything, because Seffara couldn’t lie for shit, stood in the way, arms outstretched. Trembling but refusing to back down.

The Witch Tyrant simply looked past him, staring at the immobile heroine on the ground.

“I owe you for what, exactly?”

Seffara still couldn’t speak with the bracers in her mouth. Cinnabon just stared at the looming [Witch] warily but refused to remove her bracers from Seffara’s mouth.

The Witch Tyrant raised an eyebrow at Cinnabon and the [Magelancer] gritted her teeth and got off of Seffara. Seffara clicked her jaw and felt at her teeth. A couple of her front incisors were cracked but her ninth realm body would heal that in no time.

The Witch Tyrant was impatient. “I am busy and you are testing my patience. Pray tell, for what do I owe you?”

“You made a deal with Barry. A deal about me without my permission.”

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The Witch Tyrant scoffed, exasperated by the argument. “That is not how deals work. Is that really your reasoning?”

Seffara honestly hadn’t really thought things through. Her anger had gotten the better of her and she blurted out whatever would make the Witch appear. Though now that the Witch had shown up, she could vent.

“You paraded me around the world, like some sort of saint. I didn’t want any of that. You. Owe. Me.”

Seffara had figured it out after Barry had told her about the deal to keep her alive, about how the Witch Tyrant had always planned on keeping her alive. It was a bit of a relief in a way. The world looking up to her had just been a fake manipulation this entire time.

“You seemed to have benefited plenty. Both worlds adore you, and you have wealth beyond compare. If what you were saying were to be true, I believe it is you that owes me.”

Words and trickery, she wasn’t good at any of that. Even against a hundredth of the Witch Tyrant’s mind she knew she couldn’t win.

“Then let’s make a deal, Xie Lihua. Get Cinnabon off of me and I’ll take the tenth Trial. Solo.”

Finn paled, he turned around to stare at her in horror. “No, Seffara. Don’t. Please”

She turned to her husband, and gave him a smile. Refusing to say any words of reassurance. She was a bad liar after all.

The Witch Tyrant tilted her head. “I don’t see how that would benefit me.”

“Aren’t you tired of bullying children around? How many have you killed? All for what? A chance to revive your own?”

“Careful. There are things I won’t forgive, even for you.”

Seffara bared her cracked teeth. Refusing to submit to the Witch Tyrant’s cold anger.

“Instead of a kid that’s still wet behind the ears, why don’t you let me take his place? That’s what you’re looking for, right? People strong enough to hit the Fifteenth Trial?”

The Witch Tyrant scoffed at her.

“By the time he’s in the seventh realm, he will already be your equal. Do you truly believe you’ll be of use?”

“If I recall, most of you weren’t that impressive either. I remember Jai and Henrick having to run away from me and my squad. Give me the opportunity, Xie Lihua and I’ll promise to keep my mouth shut. I’ll even join you till the end.”

The Witch Tyrant paused for a few seconds, as if thinking. Finally she shook her head.

“Unacceptable, he will blame me if you die.”

Seffara’s barely contained anger exploded once again. “Listen to yourself! You’re choosing your actions based on a kid who’s barely been a Trialist for two months! Is this really how the terrifying Witch Pioneer operates?”

For a second the Witch Tyrant’s projected image froze. Then it started once again. She nodded her head towards Seffara, almost respectfully.

“You are right. I’ll give you five seconds to flee from Cinnabon.”

She waved a hand and Cinnabon disappeared. It was so abrupt that it startled Seffara for half a second. She shook her head and pulled out a sphere from her spatial bag, then crushed it. The emergency teleportation artifact whirring up, promising to take her far, far away from here.

Seffara turned to her husband. “I’m… sorry, I’ll be back, I promise.”

Finn looked proud of her, both proud and sad for his wife that would walk the path of the Trials once more.

“It’s okay, I knew when I married you that this day would come. You’ve always been that heroine, no matter what you thought of yourself.”

Seffara wished that had been the last thing she heard. Instead, while she was being transported across The Realm the last voice was the Witch Tyrant’s.

“The deal is this: if you die, I will bring you back as a Fallen, and you will retire with your husband. When Ryan visits, I will take over and pretend in your stead.”

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

Nine days since the thirteenth realm expansion started…

The notifications had been sporadic since the chaos that was the first day. As far as Ryan recalled, Sector Twelve had a whopping thirteen notifications where powerful enough monsters declared The Realm for themselves. Though, Sector Eight held the record at thirty-seven.

Sector Thirteen’s Realm Quests hadn’t passed twenty yet but they were still trickling in. Monsters taking System Portals and becoming powerful enough for the Trial System to give them an offer.

But there was still far too many questions for Ryan that he was desperate to learn.

What the fuck are guardian deities and roaming spirits? Why is the Witch Tyrant only slaughtering guardian deities? Or are they the strongest and give the most achievements?

Not all the quest monsters had been slain by the Tyrants either. There were a few notifications that had other adventurers or even adventuring teams’ names as the completionists. There was even one slaying of a roaming spirit that was slain by the mysterious ‘Unknown’.

He did note how most of the guardian deities had been slain by the Witch Tyrant. One guardian deity that had taken over a system portal had been subjugated by the Passive Tyrant, and another had been killed by the Skillful Tyrant.

“Is uh, something wrong?”

Fetters’ voice knocked him out of his thoughts… again. Ryan shook his head.

“Nothing’s wrong, let’s try again.”

Fetters didn’t ask, probably used to his mind wandering from all the notifications. They went back to training. “Now close your eyes, follow the path of your mana, feel how it rushes down from your core. Take a deep breath, in…”

He sucked in, holding the breath only observing the flow of his mana and nothing else.

“…and out.”

He breathed out, taking three seconds to do so.

“Focus on the smallest amount of mana you can possibly detect, follow it, in…”

He took a breath, feeling a branch of mana in his circulatory system, then focusing on a section of it, watching the torrent, a little at a time.

“And out…”

He breathed out once more, taking three seconds again.

Ryan smiled, feeling the accomplishment after nine days of practice. While an Uncommon skill didn’t seem like much compared to some of the other insane skills he’d learned, this one had come hard earned.

It was a different, more peaceful type of satisfaction. An admission that he’d been too greedy and now he was on the right path.

Hoping to learn [Mana Manipulation] just because he had an Epic tier arm had been arrogant. While the [Aura Tyrant] was all about dominating using the force of aura, the [Arcane Saboteur] was about seeking and destroying the arcane, wherever it found it.

So, they went back to the basics. He followed the basics that every single mage in the Kingdom of Valmere learned when they were mere apprentices. A guided meditation detecting both his and the mana of another party.

Nine days and had learned a skill that [Rogues] normally took a month to learn.

Likely because he was an [Arcane Saboteur] as well as [The Rogue Adventurer].

Nine days for the Trial System to acknowledge that his ability to detect mana was finally at an acceptable level.

He took pride and joy in it. At least before another notification hit.

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

Ryan stood in the throne room before a royal audience. This time Queen Perinete was sitting by King Theskar’s side, to his right. His most trusted royal knight to his left. Ryan stood alone, Agrinth watching from the sideline.

It was reminiscent of when they’d first met.

Though this time being looked down upon by King Theskar didn’t feel quite as unpleasant.

Adventurers did have to answer to kings after all.

“So, you are off.”

“Yes.”

There probably didn’t need to be more words that were said between them. Though Ryan couldn’t really help himself.

He bowed like a stage performer. It wasn’t the showy style he did to mock people, this one had some real respect to it. Or at least he hoped it looked that way. When Ryan looked back up, Queen Perinete and the royal knight both seemed surprised at the gesture. As if they couldn’t believe he would ever bow to anyone.

“I thank you, my King, all for the lessons you and your kingdom have given me. I will take them wherever I go next. Hopefully I’ll be able to display even a modicum of your wisdom.”

King Theskar nodded once, unable to hide his smile, pleased by both the words and the respect given to his own mission.

“Go forth adventurer. Shake the cosmos with your own belief.”

Ryan waited a second, taking it in. Then he raised an index finger.

“Though I do believe there’s one matter left.”

The Queen and King both frowned at that. The royal knight tensed, expecting some final trick.

Ryan slowly brought his hands to his face, he reached at his jaw and took off the mask of Artigan.

To the King he respected so much and to the demon teen he owed much to, he showed his true face. Agrinth’s eyes widened and stepped back, making Ryan look down a little sadly.

He turned back to the royal couple.

“Treat Agrinth well, okay? I know my plans for the demons aren’t going to work so if you can…”

King Theskar nodded. “It will be done. Do not worry.”

“Thank you.”

Ryan took a breath, then remembered.

“Oh yeah, one last thing.”

Ryan pulled his adventurer’s soul out. The blue flame flickering with a slightly darker and more regal blue than it should’ve been.

[Aura Command: Remove]

He pulled a string of deep gold aura from his flame, it turned a lighter shade of blue, closer to the sky than the ocean.

“You can take this back.”

Then Ryan threw the golden strand at the King. King Theskar’s aura swallowed it back up. The King looked amused that he had been caught.

“Honestly, what’s with old people and trying to put their concepts on me? That’s just disgusting.”

Then he left.

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

As the world started to be wrapped up, the memories being ‘saved’ by the Trial System, Fetters burst into the audience room.

“King Theskar, your majesty!”

“We have become a little familiar these past few days, haven’t we?”

“My apologies! But uhm, Artigan, he left something behind. He must have forgotten! Can we send it to him?”

She was hefting around a massive, intricate device that looked like nothing the world had ever seen. A mana cannon, something that the adventurer had used to blast through Rudalia’s army.

The King sighed. “No, and I truly doubt that he had just ‘forgotten’ it.”

King Theskar saw through Artigan’s plan instantly. He thought about it for a moment then sighed.

“Though I am a gracious King. I guess I shall play along with his ruse. After all, I do not wish to fail an adventurer who acknowledges me as their King.”

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

The Manager’s abode…

Ryan sat in a room of the void, opposite of the entity that called itself the Manager. Neither had said a word, they only stared at each other. For a moment or for hours, who could say?

After all, time had no meaning here.

Ryan put both of his dirty boots on the Manager’s desk and rocked back on the chair, his hands behind the back of his head.

He grinned.

“Alright, I hope you’re ready for round three.”

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