Chương 199: Chapter 196 - Who the hell is Ryan Robinson?

Everyone loved a heroic story. Saving a queen from a monster was a classic. Saving a queen that was fleeing from a giant abomination created by a mad king? Now that would have turned heads if that had been your Trial Quest for your Fifth Trial. Except the story hadn't been a Fifth Trial, it had happened in the real world. Multiple bodycams were edited together to show the tale. First of Valee's heroic blaze into the battlefield.

Gliding across the blighted ground in a blur of green, causing sonic booms where she went. Everyone else was failing to hold back the flesh titan. The worst scenario about to happen. A queen's life about to be cut short. Cue back to Valee who had arrived in the nick of time to save the day. Now that was a tale for the ages. Something like that would have made headlines even during normal times. Now this was being pushed by the Adventurer's Guild.

Meanwhile most major operations were still under heavy information blackout. So it was no wonder why Valee had dominated the news for the past two days. Even two days was truly not enough to get all the footage out there and digested by the public. But something else had completely taken over as the top spot. Because you know what else was just as spicy? Finding out that the newly minted [Strongest in the Fourth Realm] had a secret, mysterious lover.

Not only that, she and this mysterious lover had gone through a very public, very romantic tear jerking scene. The orc grabbed the mysterious and very worried human by the chest.

'Shut up. You're not the only competent adventurer around. Every second I spend listening to you is a second lost heading to the battlefield.' The heroine kissed her worried lover before dashing off to save the day. Ryan himself could not have plotted a better way to become famous. Madness. That was what was happening in the realmnet. This hot scene had pushed Valee's heroics out of the way and had claimed the top spot in trending.

It was the perfect scene to catch the hearts of both the hard-boiled adventuring fans and the hopeless romantics alike. And now everyone was digging up everything they could about Ryan Robinson.

"Oh my god." Ryan said in horror.

"Oh my god!" Clara said, though in a completely different tune. She was giggling like mad, watching the scene. Clara hadn't paid attention to the realmnet since Pinkie had arrived, and this had only shot up like a bullet in the past day. Someone had to have been fucking with him. It had to be the Witch Tyrant, no wait she was probably too busy. The Secretary? Surely not, she didn't seem much like a prankster. For a moment Ryan thought that maybe this was simply coincidence.

After all, Portal rooms had security and maybe the adventurers in there probably needed permission before posting it online. Then he threw that idea away. The video that had gotten viral had been edited. It had the kiss and Valee leaving heroically. It didn't have her asking him if he was single. The full scene was out there but a lot of people would see this video and see them as passionate lovers. Someone had edited this for maximum effect. But who?

Milock paused the video at the close-up kissing scene as Clara squealed in congratulations and Ryan put his face in his hands. Mirelda was trying hard not to peer over from the plate of food she had stolen from the Dubois Mansion's family pantry. They were all ignoring her and she seemed mostly content to be free, eating, drinking and watching the entertainment.' You're not the only competent adventurer around.'

"Stop replaying it!" Both Milock and Clara laughed as Ryan grabbed the laptop and scrolled through the comments. A post had been pinned to the top, directing them into another page where all of the realmnet were collating information about him. And they had found everything they could.

"Oh fuck." Half a day and all the realmnet sleuths had scraped up every single detail of his life. An interesting tale of a talented swordsman that had missed the cut against better-prepared foes. Even his match history was recorded and analysed. His job at the Manaburger to the shooting and then his abrupt dropping out of college. The focus though was mainly on the recent snippets. They'd found that he was the one in the slightly viral clip of when Chester had been eating away at Clara's hair.

Then someone found a video where he had been seen walking with the Secretary and into her car. Now the realmnet sleuths were going crazier.

'Competent hidden mysterious adventurer that had caught the eye of the Secretary' was being pushed everywhere. He did see a few comments linking the timing with Artigan but nobody was truly floating the idea that Ryan and Artigan were the same person. Perhaps because the idea that someone had been wearing a mask that could change both your face and voice from the very start was ridiculous. It was also impossible to believe that the heroic Valee would kiss the dastardly villain Artigan.

Someone who had ruined her Trials and made her previous team break up. The real problem was that there were zero records of any of his accomplishments or recorded attempts at the Trials. He still felt like it was only a matter of time before someone truly connected the dots. The main hall door opened, Grettfield reentering the mansion with an amused smile dancing across her face. Ryan slammed the laptop shut and tried to greet her with a smile. She knows I'm Artigan.

At the very least, she had heard the tail end of the conversation in the interrogation with Mirelda. While his friends had done the responsible thing in calling her, it did still suck that another powerful person knew such a huge secret about him. She gave him a little wink.

"There's no need to worry. I am quite good at being discreet, unlike our little [Witch] over there, stuffing her face with no manners." Mirelda flushed as she stopped chewing and just swallowed the massive amount of food in her cheeks. She coughed once and tried to act prim and proper.

"Matron Grettfield, I apologize for my conduct and inability to keep decorum." Grettfield waved her hand.

"There is no need to apologize to me. It is no longer my coven who's secrets you have so freely spilled to outsiders." Mirelda looked crestfallen at that, as if she had still been holding hope that Grettfield would return to the coven. Ryan wanted to move onto other things, namely getting out of here in secret so he and his friends could talk in peace.

"Is there still a crowd out there?" Grettfield nodded.

"A few curious adventurers and some bolder paparazzi are still at the gates. None are quite willing to trespass into a dragonslayer's home. Ryan groaned.

"How do they even know we're here?"

"Neither you nor Valee were quiet while moving with a priority one alarm. Many have simply connected the dots. I recommend you get used to traveling on the adventuring platforms." There were little platforms placed on the first or second storey of every building, designed for adventurers to travel through quickly when needed. It did require a level of alertness and skill to use and all [Warriors] that had recently risen in realms were banned from using them.

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"That's not going to work with my friends around."

"Indeed." Grettfield hummed.

"Chester?" The book familiar flew down from the ceiling, eliciting a glare from Clara and providing a reminder to Ryan. He needed to be sweeping his surroundings with [Spellweave Perception], even on Earth.

"Be a dear and help the civilians get home, will you?" Chester took one look at Clara, rippled its pages together, then turned to the other two, it clapped its pages together, casting a spell and capturing all three of his friends in one swoop. [Levitation] Clara started flailing in the air as gravity lost hold on her.

"Whoaa." Both Milock and Clara were initially disoriented at the sudden lack of gravity, trying to maneuver around with the spell cast on them. Barry just had his arms crossed and was unimpressed with the whole affair. Chester flipped to another page and all three of them turned invisible.

"This is so cool, I'm flying and invisible. Wheee." Ryan activated [Spellweave Perception] tracking his friends in the air. Though he had a distinct feeling that the skill wasn't working half as well as when he had been in The Realm. He could only see vague outlines of his friends and had to focus if they moved too quickly. He checked his system screen. [Spellweave Perception] level 3 Now that was interesting.

He was certain that the spell was less effective but the Trial System didn't consider the skill a lower level at all. It wasn't an insane surprise for him. Same leveled skills could still vary effectiveness depending on classes. He had just been hoping that a Quasi-Legendary class like the [Conceptual Metamorph] outweighed the specialization from the Epic class [Veilpiercer Assassin]. Still, the changes in his eyes were still there and the skill activation felt the same.

Perhaps he could work on the concepts on his own. Grettfield raised an eyebrow.

"Chester, you need to work on your invisibility if a fifth realm is capable of seeing through it." Chester stopped in midair and turned to the adventurer who was looking right at it. It opened its pages and cast another spell. [Dualfold Mana] And the vague shapes that were floating disappeared from his sight. Ryan focused once more, trying to remember the feeling of piercing through veils, trying to call upon the concepts he knew were there and could be resonated with… And nothing.

"Damn." It wasn't as easy without [Conceptual Meditation] to back him up. He really needed to experiment with the skill more. The opening of the door and the laughter from Clara indicated that his friends were being flown out of the mansion, leaving only the adventurers behind. He had a feeling that Grettfield had planned this out. A slightly bashful look from her indicated that he was right.

"Well, now that we're alone, could I ask for that small request once again? A story between tea and snacks?" Ryan sighed lightly but smiled in the end.

"Guess I owe you that much, huh?" So he sat down, Ryan telling his story once more with another captivated audience. Mirelda seemed to know most of it, but Grettfield did not, her eyes sparkling in delight at every word of his fantastic misadventure. For great tales were part of her class too. —— A few hours later… Mirelda was invisible and high in the air. She was peering into the hotel room that Ryan and his friends were staying at.

He had seen through her first layer of invisibility earlier and thought he had lost her. Little did he realize that it had all been a ruse. Of course she was better at spellcasting than Chester. She was technically a Matron Witch after all. And she had her pride. A simple spell allowed her vision to pierce through the curtains and watch the group sit down. They did a quick sweep through the room with a ring, surprisingly finding a snooping invisible Chester and chasing it out.

Ryan threatened Grettfield's familiar with that insane left arm of his as Chester riffled away in a panic. Opening the window through telekinesis and flying—almost directly into Mirelda. She had to swerve out of the way to dodge the book. It turned around, seeing through her invisibility as she signalled it to be quiet. She whispered to Chester when the hotel window closed.

"Chester I will give you one quart of Olseer viridian ink if you can help me get that laptop." Chester shook its pages, pointing towards the artifact that they had left activated and closer to the windows. Apparently Chester had no confidence breaking through that ring's dispelling effects. Mirelda focused on it and realized she couldn't read the enchantments on that thing at all either. What kind of fifth realm has an obscured dispelling artifact? Mirelda, a little more wary, did the only thing she could do.

Wait for an opportunity. It was probably safer to find out where exactly in the cloud they had saved her embarrassing moment anyway. So hovering high in the air, she watched. She couldn't hear them through the silence bubble but she could still see them and sense their emotions. There was a hanging sense of melancholy amongst all of them. She had noticed this earlier and had been confused, though after hearing Ryan's story she understood. Theory were waiting for a friend whose fate was still in the air.

Despite it, the three of them laughed to keep up each other's spirits. There was so much genuine warmth there. Even the orc who was so devastated and angry still radiated so much warmth and pride. Like how Mentor Dremma looked at Mirelda when she accomplished a great feat of spellcraft. Unguarded and unguided emotions. The [Witch] couldn't help but be drawn to them like a moth to the flame. Grettfield and Chester were watching all of this from even higher up above Mirelda.

The [Witch] and her familiar looked at each other then shook their heads.. —— The Realm, Ulverra. Enzo was polishing his shield, relaxing in the guild area for a damned well-earned break. While Fighting Fancy hadn't been as impactful as Valee the Spider, their own heroics had earned them enough accolades to bolster their fan count. His own speech hadn't been too bad. It had been well-practiced too.

'Fighting Fancy, it was an honor, see you with your next life. Drinks will be on me.' They wouldn't have to pay for their drinks for at least another month. He enjoyed the older adventurers coming up and slapping him in the back and telling him good job. The younger ones were looking up to him and wanting to buy him a drink so he could share his story. Lars wasn't quite as interested as making connections and was more interested in rotting his brain, watching the top of the trending charts.

"Hey, doesn't this guy look a little familiar?" Enzo took a swig of the magically brewed beer then did a double take at Lars' screen.

"Wait, is that John with Valee? John Furself?" Enzo remembered the name because he couldn't find it on the realmnet. Lars had insisted that it was a prank name due to how Furself was spelt, with a capital 'F' and 'urself'. Enzo tried to think better of it. Lars disagreed.

"Says here that both his adventurer's name and real name is Ryan Robinson. I told you John Furself was a prank name." Enzo gritted his teeth. Looking through the speculations and scoffing at the track record. He remembered meeting the guy in Sector Three. He was a fourther grinding skills in a lower Sector. The realmnet had it all wrong, as always. A guy that had failed to become sponsored while young and had given up, only to get lucky by being chosen as a Destined.

Valee might have considered him competent but Enzo refused to believe it.

"So this Ryan Robinson is currently in San Kingsgrove huh?" They were going to have words. —— Gamielle sat with her legs crossed, meditating. Focusing on a ball of faith that she had finally condensed into the size of a fist. That was when Ryan returned to The Realm looking annoyed. He looked a little relieved that she was still meditating and wasn't teasing him about the recent event. Ryan took out his soulsword. Gamielle's eyes focused on the blade, realizing that much of it had regenerated.

Had the Trial System finally gotten enough of Ryan destroying his weapon that it had granted it regeneration instead? Now that was rare. Cerul was still working away at bombarding the entire Noxweed plant down. It cawwed at Ryan excitedly, likely tired and sick of trying to kill the entire field by himself. Ryan ignored Cerul and activated [Conceptual Meditation], focusing on his sword forms to better focus— Gamielle summoned a giant projection in the middle of his swing.

Displaying the video on top of trending for all to see. She smirked.

"So this is what you were doing while on Earth. Or should I say who you were doing on Earth. No wonder you've been away so much recently." Ryan seemed prepared for this, of course he was. He scratched his chin in contemplation.

"I'll have you note that she was the one that kissed me and then asked me out. Go find the full video." The video kept playing, the scene now showing the kiss in slow motion.

"Well at least you enjoyed yourself."

"How does that look like I'm enjoying it?" Ryan's eyes were wide open in the video, surprised at Valee pulling him close.

"Well you sure aren't fighting back. That was a good three seconds there."

"I mean I was surprised and confused, wait, why am I defending myself from you?"" I don't know? Why are you defending your actions to me?!" The screen went closer to Ryan's face before he threw a volatile charged rock at it to break it. It shattered into multiple smaller screens, each showing a different perspective illusioned up by Gamielle. Ryan was surprised, finding out that his mana hadn't actually destroyed the magical construct. Gamielle cackled with laughter.

"Did you think I would just be sitting here watching you develop your volatile mana without coming up with countermeasures? Did you think magic was that shallow that it couldn't adapt to you?" Tens of independent shards of Ryan's kissing projections hovered around him. When he destroyed another one with his volatile mana it shattered into another cluster of images.

"Fuck off Gamielle! I need to focus and practice." Once Ryan realized he actually couldn't shatter these magical projections with his current abilities, he ran off. It didn't help of course, Gamielle had specifically designed the projections to chase after Ryan's volatile mana specifically. Naturally, she was doing all of this to give him a heads up on what her mother could do. As stupid as Ryan was, he'd still figure out her intentions without her telling him. That was one thing he was good at, at least.

Gamielle sat back down, trying to refocus on the stupid ball of faith that was so much more of a pain to manage. She delicately pulled at a strand of faith, trying to take out the aberrant line of faith to make it more like how she wanted—until it cracked. Her eyes twitched, she took in a deep breath to put it back together, pull the nicer bits of faith to make—the crack widened.

"AHHH!" A vein popped in her head as she smashed the golden orb into the ground. Exploding the whole thing into a vapor that massed around her.

"Shit." That wasn't like her at all. Gamielle wasn't sure why she was so annoyed. If anything she should feel better. She had set up an elaborate trap and had finally got one up on Ryan. But for some reason, her mood was even worse than before. Gamielle glared at the shining motes of faith gathering chaotically and shook her head. She needed to figure out what was wrong with her mental state first. So, the prodigious [Mage] sat down and meditated.

Unlike stupid Ryan she wasn't someone that needed to shake a stick around to quieten her mind. She tried to figure out where the source of frustration came from. There were a couple things it could be. It could be that she was being pushed to ascend to godhood by her mother. Though that wasn't it, she had been working fine before. No, this issue was far more recent… But what could it be? A few seconds later, Gamielle opened her eyes in horror.

"Oh. Oh no. There's no way. Not him, anyone but him. How? HOW!?"