Infinite Realm: Monsters & Legends

Empire’s Aid

Ryun sat across from one of the Empire’s Growth Guides. People who were tasked with helping others grow and advance their power. Apparently, they were an institution, one that was free and accessible to all. Ryun wondered though, if everyone got the same quality of advice. It wasn’t his place to judge nor did he particularly care about it. There were few things that Ryun was firmly against, but for now there was no point entertaining any thoughts regarding them.

“Dread heavens,” the human woman said, her voice shaking only a tiny bit. She had spent the last few minutes reading through his screens, following the giving of oaths. Her reaction didn’t surprise him.

When she had first come into this room, she had held herself tall. Not arrogant, but… assured. He could tell at a glance that she was on a high tier of power, though he was interested in what type of Class she had. She was obviously not a warrior. Perhaps the Guide was a Class. He wondered what type of powers a class like that would have. Something for a better memory, perhaps, something to allow them to catalog information quickly. He hadn’t encountered many people on the non combat paths.

She raised her eyes to meet his, and he felt fear. Before she had seen his screens he had been a powerful Cultivator sent to her Empire to help them. Now she saw who he was.

“So,” Ryun started. “How can you help me?”

He didn’t often ask for advice, nor did he think that he needed it. But he was not above listening, or taking resources that others offered freely—well not freely, they only wanted them to fight a world ending monster for them, but still. He would listen, and take what he believed was useful.

The woman, Kesla, if he remembered the name correctly, cleared her throat and spoke.

“You are a Ranker of the Seventh Iteration?” She asked, as if not able to believe what she had read.

“If I didn’t know that… these titles read like those from someone that is a Ranker of the Third,” Kesla said.

Ryun shrugged. “Life on Earth was… particularly hard from what I’ve gathered.”

“I can see that,” she said slowly, her eyes returning to the screens in front of her.

“There is little that we can help you with your Cultivation,” she started. “Aside perhaps giving you enough Essence to reach Peak Evolved?”

“Do you have Void Essence? Enough for me to reach Evolved at least 6 times?” Ryun asked.

She blinked, then frowned. “Uh, no, I don’t think so. Void Essence is rare, and most of it is used by our crafters. And they are working round the clock to supply our armies right now. We’ve lost a lot of our resources when the enemy pushed us to the Wall, I don’t think that we can spare any more.”

Ryun waved his hand in a resigned gesture. He hadn’t expected them to be able to do that. From Eratemus he had learned that they don’t know much about Cultivation, and he had never expected them to be able to help with that.

“We can provide you with stat boost and other types of Elixirs,” she started. “Though we will need to make sure that they are not of the same type as the ones you had already taken.”

Ryun wondered if he could use them in a bath. He didn’t know how much these people knew about those things, and if he should reveal what he knew. Still, that was for later.

“Anything else?” Ryun asked.

“Your |Sword Art| skill, it is a lot lower than your other skills,” she commented.

“I stopped using swords. And I have never really been the greatest of sword fighters.”

“So you don’t plan on trying to evolve the skill?” Kesla asked.

“It is not that I don’t plan on it. It is… useless to me now. I’ve moved away from that type of fighting style.”

“Then we could help you with that,” she said. “It is not a tier six skill, only a tier three, we can remove it. It wouldn’t be cheap but… Or we could forcibly change it in a different direction. Whatever you want.”

“How do you forcibly change a skill?” Ryun asked.

“It is… more of an overwrite. If we find a skill tome that is of a higher rarity than your current skill and use it. Though this only works if you have no more skill slots, which you don’t. You will be able to chose which skill to overwrite.”

Ryun thought about it for a few moments. “What is the difference between this and removing it all together? The result is the same?”

“Not exactly. Removing will allow you to wait and find a skill that you want, with a tome you can only choose what we have at hand. Also, removing it hurts, I’ve been told.”

The pain wasn’t an obstacle to Ryun. Still, he didn’t have a leaning one way or the other. “I’d like to see what you can offer me as far as skills are concerned.”

She nodded. “I’ll inquire,” she said. “We could also try and help you evolve more skills? Perhaps reach tier eight too. Although…”

“What?” He asked when she paused. “I don’t know if your current tier seven skills are as compatible as they could be… If we merge them and you gain a tier eight skill, it might not be something that would be as useful to you, your build already has a lot of things that cover the same thing. I would suggest you not to merge skills for now, not until you gain much more compatible tier seven skills.”

Ryun tilted his head. “You are suggesting that I hold off on gaining more power? Aren’t you supposed to guide me toward gaining more strength for the mission?”

She grimaced. “Yes, but honestly, I don’t think that it would actually grant you any significant increase in power.”

Ryun looked her in the eyes, wondering if she was being genuine. Perhaps he had misjudged the intent of these people.

“Very well, what else can you offer?”

“I would say time for training, but… I doubt that it would be of any use to you. Your powers are made for large area of damage and our special training rooms are not large enough to accommodate you. And your Void Aspect would probably destabilize the rooms. No…” she trailed off, her expression turning pensive. “Elixirs, skill change or removal, and… your Class.”

“What about it?”

“It is a pilferer Class, but you don’t plan on leveling it?” She met his eyes.

“No,” Ryun answered. “I was warned about the side effects that might cause.”

“You are correct, you shouldn’t level it. But… we could probably give you an opportunity to use your [Reave] and gather Essence, a lot of Essence.”

“And that would help me how?” Ryun asked.

“The Dealmaker’s shop might provide you with something that could be useful,” Kesla said. “We can also grant you a bit of Essence on top of it. And in the process of harvesting Essence you could train.”

“What do you have in mind?”

She told him.

Ryun thought about it. “Hm… that could work, yes. I’ll consider it.”

“Here,” she started putting out the potions on the table. “You should drink these. Those that you hadn’t encountered before at least.”

“Could I get more of the same type?” Ryun asked when he saw that there wasn’t nearly enough of them for a bath.

“Why? You can’t use more than a handful of them,” she frowned.

Ryun tilted his head. “There are other more… rewarding, ways to use them.”

She blinked, opened her mouth, but then closed it. After a few seconds she spoke again. “I guess that we could provide you with more.”

Ryun nodded, he was going to try and get as much out of them as he could. True, he wouldn’t get a title, but he would gain more from the potions themselves.

“Alright then, let me know if you agree with my suggestions and I’ll put everything in motion,” Kesla told him as she stood up and got ready to leave.

“A moment, please,” Ryun said from his seat.

She frowned, but stopped next to the table. “What more can I do for you?”

“I’ve made a request to your people,” Ryun said slowly. “I wish to speak with someone from the Ornn family. Someone important who can… give me the answers that I seek.”

In the back of his mind, he felt the link to Nayra, the tracking line that had only gotten stronger the closer he got to the Empire. She was somewhere to the west, along the Wall if he wasn’t mistaken. He had no doubt that she was here, in the Empire.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “The Empire is at War. The House Ornn is one of the Great Houses of the Empire, they are tasked with defending a stretch of the Wall, and their heads are fighting alongside the Emperor himself. Each of them is vital to the defense, they cannot afford to leave their posts when they are needed. I am sure that they will be told and that a representative of the House will meet with you as soon as they can do it safely.”

He wondered why she had told him that much now. The others hadn’t said much before. Perhaps because she saw his screens she now understood who he was. He had made the others a promise, but… he did understand. He didn’t want the Wall to fall because he wouldn’t budge. No, he had time still.

“Fine,” Ryun waved his hand. “Then, there is someone else in your Empire that I would like to speak with, if at all possible.”

“Of course, if it is possible, we will do everything in our power to facilitate a meeting. Though I was not aware that you knew many people from the Empire,” she told him.

Ryun wasn’t even sure if they could find the person. She was a Ranker, someone who lived through the war. If she still lived, she was probably powerful, someone whose name was known, or at least that was what he hoped. He didn’t know if it was worth anything, but perhaps he could deal with this Ornn situation through channels other than might and threats.

“If you could find a Karya Ó Cionaoith, and deliver a message that I wish to speak with her, I would appreciate it.”

Ryun’s eyes couldn’t quite tell the change in her expression, her face was a marble statue made out of sand to him. But he sensed how her body stiffened, how she tried to control her breathing. She recognized the name.

“You are a Ranker of the Seventh Iteration,” she said slowly. “You can’t possibly know her.”

“Let’s say that I am a friend of a friend,” Ryun told her.

“Would you tell me who that is?”

“I think that the fact that a Seventh Iteration Ranker knows her name would be interesting enough to peak her interest? I assume that she is known in the Empire?”

“She is,” Kesla said. “I don’t think that she would meet you though.”

“All I ask is for the message to be given to her,” Ryun said. He didn’t put a lot of faith in whoever Tali’s friend was, but it couldn’t hurt to try.

“I…” She hesitated for a moment. “Okay, I can do that.”

Ryun nodded his head, and then they left.

Ryun smashed another monster to the ground by crafting a pillar the size of a car above it and growing it downward. The rest were trying to get him, but he had raised bars all the way around himself, isolating the one monster and himself inside. He danced to the side and then smashed the monster again. The rhino-resembling monster was tough and strong, but it wasn’t nearly fast enough to catch him. The moment his ability came off cooldown he jumped forward. He shaped a cage around it, squeezed it in, making it so that it was immobile. Then he fired a {Void Beam} point blank, inflicting a critical injury.

As soon as he was sure that it was dying, he hit it with his hand and triggered [Reave]. The Essence flowed and he breathed it in, feeling it settle inside of him.

He had spent a month of this, almost without rest. Fighting monsters and using [Reave] on them, getting Essence. The Empire had opened up two dungeons to him, allowed him total and exclusive access. He would spend his days going from one to the other, only pausing when they needed to respawn. He was earning a lot in Essence, but also in materials, items, and a lot of other things. The dungeons were both tier 11, the monsters inside very powerful, but… they were swarm type dungeons, which were perfect for him. With his avatar he could go through them easily enough. Though it wasn’t like he hadn’t been injured. The Empire had provided him with a small fortune in healing potions that he was burning through daily.

Still, it allowed him to train and gain Essence. He had also made it a point to go to the Void Plane at least once a day to draw in the Void, but he had to go outside of the barrier for that. And the sky was filled with monsters and battles taking place at almost every moment of the day.

The Empire had provided him with enough potions for a bath, which he had taught them how to do. It was a small price to pay for what he had gained. They had also been searching for skill tomes for him. None of those that they offered so far were anything impressive enough for him to consider, and he didn’t want another useless skill. So, he spent his days training, killing monsters, reaving them. In truth, he had been trying to tinker with his techniques, looking for ways to improve them further. There was little that the Empire could offer him in that regard, as they had told him from the start.

Selia and Erdania were in the same boat, at least as far as their Cultivation was concerned. Though they had been taken to the special training rooms since they could improve their Skills and Class, and apparently they wouldn’t be able to damage these special rooms like he would. Apparently they were some kind of time rooms, though Ryun wasn’t sure. The moment he was told that he couldn’t use them, he didn’t pay attention to them anymore.

Out of their group, only Maleatus, Ryun, and Eratemus were unable to use them. Maleatus because his abilities would interfere with it, similarly how Ryun’s would, and Eratemus because the link between him and his vessel could be impacted by the room. So they each did something else, Ryun didn’t know what. They met every few days, and talked for a bit, but Ryun’s thoughts were mostly occupied on figuring out what else he could do to improve himself.

Hours later, once he cleared the dungeon, he made his way outside of it.

Kesla was there waiting for him.

Ryun tilted his head as he approached.

“I’ve… finally gotten a response to the message I sent to Lady Karya, she has agreed to meet with you.”

Ryun raised an eyebrow. “When?” He hadn’t really expected anything to come from that. And by the sound of it, the woman was someone important.

“Right now,” Kesla said. “She is waiting in the quarters assigned to your group. We should hurry, she doesn’t have a lot of time. She is needed at the Walls for the defense.”

Ryun blinked, but nodded and followed after the Kesla at a brisk pace. The dungeons were beneath the city, in the Under, so they made their way up, heading for the elevators. As they walked he wondered who he was about to meet, and if she could even help him. Regardless, he had gotten her name from Tali, he would at least try.