Chương 15: Cleaning up the trash

"Look the Trial System gave me a [Soldier] class and now I'm a [Gunner]. We don't need fancy magic or high achievements. This is my boomstick, and here are my boomskills. I'm deadlier than anyone else in my realm." -Razalaa realm 6 [Gunner] *Lost both lives attempting the Seventh Trial. The second time, Razalaa brought enchanted guns with enchanted ammo, and a bazooka. Ryan rematerialized in the dirt cave. He summoned his soulsword and immediately attempted a [Double Stab] at the smiling face of Gamielle.

His blade went through her face, her eyes widening as her image tried to dodge it anyway. [Double Stab] level up! [Double Stab] level 3->4 Neat. Gamielle didn't think the same, she rubbed at her face, annoyed.

"Manager's blasted–well played, I was distracted."

"[Parallel Thoughts] with some form of scrying skill both at Epic." He deduced. Every time that Gamielle had surprised him had been an illusion. She probably had multiple of her other selves running around in The Realm doing as she pleased. Gamielle did not look impressed.

"Hmph, no points for that. Actually, that's not fair. 90 points for the surprise, no points for your guesses."

"Feels stingy." He felt more confident exchanging banter with the dragonslayer. As much as he didn't want to admit it, Barry was right. With the letter he had brought, the first in eight years, he was definitely being signalled as the last piece. There was definitely leverage there. Gamielle tilted her head at him, she looked suspicious at his newfound confidence.

"You didn't tell anyone, did you?" Ryan rolled his eyes.

"Even if I was stupid to tell people, I'd be stupid to tell you that."" Y ou're getting better at lying." Damn, no wait, play it off. He shrugged.

"Change in perspective, Manager chose me, and you guys aren't going to kill me as long as I perform. All I have to do is solo some Trials, that's easy. I'm surprised you were so distracted to dodge a strike by me." Gamielle considered his words and then shrugged.

"Fair enough. And yes, I am distracted. I'm currently obtaining a gift for you. Though it probably won't be ready until you complete your next Trial." That didn't make sense, any useful gift would hurt his achievements, right?

"What kind of gift?"

"Consider it motivation. If you die, you'll never find out." Ryan sighed then made his way to the center of the room. Zedart's body lay lifeless there, all the gear of their team still there and waiting. Ryan took the longsword, the pack with the first aid kit and unlatched Zedart's chainmail from his body. He didn't look at the young elf's corpse while he looted it. Then he shoved everything he could into the pack. He started walking towards the cave exit as a voice whispered in his ear.

He shuddered, it was like Gamielle was right in his ear, warm breath and all.

"Oh, and when you get outside, don't panic. I'll be quite unhappy if you show such spunk to me and then get scared of the trash outside."

"What? How are people after me already? I came here before Zedart revived." Gamielle was gone. No voice in his ear. Why couldn't something go as planned for once? A singular tunnel led the way to an exit at the base of a hill. He tried to take a peek outside. They saw him first. –"We know you're in there. Come out, little team killer!" The Realm one adventurer walked out calmly. The [Rogue] struck an imposing figure in full black leather, tailor fit to his frame.

Sparkling silvery buttons glittering in the dark cave. The team killer was covered in his own team's blood.

"Well, well, well, did you really think you could just murder your team and get off scot free? We have rules and laws for adventurers like you. Little Gamielle told us all about what you did." Patrick called out to the team killer. His team of four stood on top of an incline, staring down at the entrance at the base of a hill. There was quite a distance between them, but they were fourthers, at a hundred feet away, the blacklister might as well have been surrounded.

The little team killer crossed his arms and looked unimpressed, the bottom of his face showing a confident smirk. Patrick chuckled, kids these days.

"Gamielle is an idiot!" The [Rogue] yelled.

"And so are you. No, wait, she called you trash after you broke adventuring etiquette by warning us of a danger we didn't ask for." Patrick's good humor faltered. He had been expecting a lot of things—begging, running, excuses for what happened, a cocky idiot wasn't one of them. He'd have to have words with Gamielle later.

"Ah, seems like Gamielle didn't tell you. We are-""Fourthers," the [Rogue] interrupted him.

"Fourthers grinding in the First Sector. Yeah trash. Both Zedart and Gamielle said the same thing." Their team [Rogue] had enough.

"Screw this. Let's teach this little shit a lesson. We'll talk to the other two later." Patrick agreed with his [Rogue]. He was furious as he leapt forwards, away from his team members. He took out his sword and shield as– The ground started exploding around them. The fourther captain [Warrior] reacted slower than the realm one [Rogue] in front of him. The team killer dove to the side with a movement skill as Patrick tried to get his footing with the ground flying up around him.

When had the team killer managed to obtain explosives? Still, this was far from enough to deal with a fourther like him. [Steady Footing] If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. He started scanning around for the brat through the dust and dirt. He saw a glint and smiled, he stepped forward– The last thing Patrick thought as the sniper bullet pierced his eye was that he had found the [Rogue].

If you were close enough, like a certain [Rogue] you could hear the bullet ricocheting inside Patrick's helmet. — On top of a small hill, a thousand feet away, there was a half-elf in robes looking down the lens of a sniper rifle. She looked up and spit.

"Trash doesn't belong in The Realm." –"Sniper!" the [Rogue] on Patrick's team yelled.

"Shit, get close!" Their [Mage] shouted. Ryan saw the flash of an omnidirectional barrier. To the team's credit, they had moved incredibly quickly the moment they heard the gunshot. To their discredit, they used a standard spherical barrier while the ground was collapsing around them. The three remaining members of the team started to roll and bounce around in the sphere, knocking into each other as it tumbled around. Ryan couldn't help but laugh. Patrick's team didn't quite find it as funny.

"Activate the teleport scroll, Patrick's dead!"

"But the cost-""That was a perfect snipe through all the dust. Use the scroll now!" Patrick's team members were enveloped in light as the [Rogue] kept a wary gaze at where the sniper bullet had flown from. They didn't even have eyes for him. They were more occupied with the sniper. Ryan felt a little… disappointed? A team with an omnidirectional barrier was more than good enough to deal with one sniper. Instead of trying to get some form of intel on their opponent, they had just scrolled out.

That wasn't how real adventurers were supposed to act. He stood up and dusted himself off. The moment he had seen the fourthers, he knew there'd be no point in running. So he did the only sensible thing and doubled down on the name-calling. Gamielle seemed to agree with the decision as she materialized next to him.

"Honestly, I'm impressed, the way you taunted 'em. Throwing me and Zedart under the bus, now that was inspired." Ryan didn't even glance at the [Mage].

"Don't know what you mean, I just told the truth." He started jogging. Hopefully, he'd enter a leveled zone before anything else happened. Gamielle floated next to him, lying back in the air and looking at her nails.

"Yes, and by making Patrick so furious, you gave me a better opening than I could ask for. He has family on Earth. He won't reenter The Realm and become Realmbound with his last life." Ryan slowed, she wasn't trying to pin the blame on him, was she?

"You would've killed him anyway, you could've just sniped him with a [Magebolt] or something."

"Nope, I was just planning on humiliating him a little. The explosives were mundane as well, everything that can be explained with you having a co-conspirator."

"What's the plan, Gamielle? All of that to humiliate trash?" She scrunched her nose in disgust.

"Didn't I say? Nobody gets the better of Gamielle." She floated in front of him, keeping ahead of him.

"I only wanted to humiliate Patrick a little, but now that you've pissed them off so much. Their team might put a bounty on your head for me, I won't even need to pay! Isn't it great how that works out?" Ryan was starting to realize that Gamielle might be significantly more petty than most dragonslayers. In hindsight, it made sense, coming from the Witch's daughter and all. Then he remembered how he had entered The Realm. He cleared his throat.

"I'd like to apologize for trying to stab you when I appeared. It was a reflex and not on purpose." Gamielle cackled.

"Too late!" – Ryan jogged mostly in silence. He had been following the main road for twenty minutes and had finally branched off it. Having practiced some orienteering back in the day, he was somewhat confident in his navigational abilities. But double checking never hurt anyone.

"Hey Gamielle, can you tell me if I'm going the right way?"

"Nope, that would be considered helping."

"And killing a fourther isn't?"

"Not if I sent them in the first place. The Trial System is smarter than that."

"And me being lost because you tricked me into a deathmatch isn't?"

"Now you get it." Ryan tried not to glare at the petty [Mage]. He had more important things to think about. Like finalizing his plans. Gamielle stared into the distance.

"Zedart's revived now, and Patrick's team is pissed. We'll be getting you blacklisted right now." He sped up – Entering a leveled zone: R1 Only realm one trialists or below may enter this zone. Magic, enchantments and skills cast by higher realm trialists will have their effects significantly reduced when entering this area. Leveled zones were an odd quirk in the otherwise cold Trial System. There'd always be at least one Trial exit and one Trial entrance in every leveled zone.

Technically, you could always stick to a leveled zone as you progressed the realms. In fact, it was encouraged to do so. A lot of people believed that it was to give adventurers their own place to grind and level without the interference of higher realm adventurers. Leveled zones had been some of the most difficult areas to fight over in the war. Now he wondered if it wasn't by design. To prevent higher realm adventurers from stopping the lower ones from advancing.

He let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. Gamielle was hovering over him still, not caring about the restrictions of a leveled zone. Not even specific Epic boosted skills could maintain freeform magic in leveled zones.

"A Legendary skill-based illusion magic?" He asked her. Gamielle didn't bother with a reply. She had that faraway look on her face that indicated that she was busy with something else. He was pretty sure his guess was correct. There had been major concerns on Earth regarding the use of illusion magic and illusory skills, in fact, the outcry had been so severe that extensive countermeasures had been developed and a few key facts were revealed. Even Epic boosted illusions weren't perfect.

You could overload them with cheap multicolored lasers, sound waves, and that wasn't even mentioning the skills adventurers had. Illusion magic that was significantly reduced in a Realm one zone and yet seemed to function perfectly? The only thing that made sense was that she had something only the Tyrants had. Something that let them go beyond the rules that others had to follow. A Legendary skill. She kept ignoring him Ryan wondered if throwing a knife at her would be going too far.

– He took stock, he put his two throwing knives into a small pouch by his belt, had Zedart's longsword on his back, one Trial issues sword attached to his hip with his soulsword on the other side. Probably a few too many weapons. Or not enough. He'd trade all of it for a single gun. Zedart's chainmail was clanking in his bag, it had been too small to wear. Stupid elven physiology. Well, it was his now.

"Fuck you Zedart, fuck you Gamielle." Ryan muttered under his breath, he conveniently left the Manager and the Witch Tyrant out of his cursing. The closer he got to his destination the more nervous he got.

"You're still within sniping range you know?" It was miles into the leveled zone.

"There's no way I'm still in sniping range."

"Wanna find out?"

"No." He finally saw it. A wooden tower in the distance, a small fortress further away. As the most populated and most thoroughly explored sector in The Realm, civilization could be found in any location of interest. A fixed entrance to the Trial was no different. There was an outpost here, a mismatch of medieval, modern and magical construction. The walls were made of reinforced concrete and covered with modern floodlights. A massive tower was situated in the middle of the fortress.

A radio tower with shimmering magical lights. Enchanted despite the zone restriction and close enough to send messages to Pailos and the city near it. The odd vehicle or two would leave the fort carrying people and goods to and from the city nearby. He didn't dare approach the actual fortress. Even if he had been in the fifth realm, he wouldn't be able to assault that fort. It was designed with one purpose in mind. To be the first line of defense against Trial breaks.

Ryan wondered what would happen if he ran into the fortress and explained what had actually happened. At minimum he'd get cuffed and questioned. Then everyone would get silenced by the Witch Tyrant. The real question was whether she'd kill him for doing it. Gamielle sniffed loudly.

"Scary right? Don't worry, I'm always watching." The encouragement and threat made Ryan snap out of his idle fantasy. He started making his way towards the trial entrance.

"Wait." Gamielle said, confused.

"You're going now? It's still daylight."

"Yup, no time like the present." He ran towards the smaller wooden outpost. The entrance to the next Trial was a mile away from the fortress. The reasoning was to give the people in the fort enough time to prepare for the Trial breaks. Now, he couldn't help but wonder if it hadn't been set up for this exact scenario.