Path of the Slayer B1 C12. Realm Master

Back in the Steel Blitz Adventurer Guild, adventurers of all sorts filled the chow hall during its busiest hours. Kel, a Rank 1 bronze adventurer, was occupying a table by himself while waiting for his party mates. One of them arrived without a tray.

“The cripple hasn’t come back from that bronze quest in the sewers.”

Kel paused before taking another bite of the chow hall’s meatloaf. It wasn’t the tastiest thing on the menu, and he could afford better, but he’d always eaten the meatloaf on days before it was time to go questing.

Putting down his fork, he looked up at one of his party mates, Christi, who had a reliable water manipulating power.

“Is it a quest that’s supposed to take a few days?” Kel asked.

“Routine monster elimination. Goblins in the sewer. Reports came in that the goblins have gotten even more troublesome. No sign of the cripple.”

Kel pushed away his tray. “So, that stubborn bastard finally met his end.”

For some reason, Kel felt sad about that.

Everybody knew well enough about the cripple of the Steel Blitz Adventurer Guild. Though, they knew him better as the bronze non-ranker or the old stubborn cripple when he wasn’t within earshot.

Some people looked at him with shame or disgust, but Kel held some admiration for the guy, even if in secret.

After all, it was because of Arden’s instructions from when Kel was a Rank 0 tin that he made his way to Rank 1 bronze. The same went for Christi even if she was the type to not admit it.

It was a shame that Arden was treated like a pariah when a lot of Rank 1 bronzes and even a few Rank 2 silvers owe their careers to him.

Yet, his memory would fade like last week’s meatloaf.

“Alright, I suppose we’ll clear the goblins, check for a Portal, and hopefully retrieve his corpse,” Kel said.

“That would’ve drifted off as gobbo logs by this point,” Christi said gruffly.

Kel and Christi left the chow hall and linked up with their other party mates, Nick and Dan. They also had one more surprise addition, a Rank 2 silver adventurer who went by Jacob.

“The receptionist manager’s forcing me to go babysit you bronzes,” the silver adventurer grouched. “The elf’s making it seem like it’s a big deal that the bronze loser’s gone when it’s par for the course. About damn time, if you ask me.”

Kel stopped the frown that wanted to appear on his face.

Christi said what was on his mind. “We’re not Rank 0s.”

“Then prove it,” Jacob spat back.

They geared up and went to the sewer facility, making quick conversation with the workers before getting in position at the door between them and a monster infestation. The silver adventurer waited in the back while Kel led the way, his tower shield and mace ready.

Kel had the special power of hardening his gear. Christi’s water manipulation would work out well for this quest. Nick was great with making bright lights and handling a spear. Dan had a power for releasing force pulses and wielded a two-handed maul.

A scared Rank 1 sewer worker unlocked the heavy door leading into a large access chamber that Arden had taken a few days ago.

As soon as the door cleared, a Rank 1 goblin flew at them, its Suppression colliding with theirs. The ugly green thing came with sharp teeth gnashing, its clawed fingers reaching for flesh.

Kel stood his ground, tower shield up, his special power activated: Raise Hardiness.

The goblin ran into the shield face first, breaking its face, its legs going wobbly. A hardened mace to head finished it.

Kel charged forward past the door and onto a catwalk overlooking a lower level filled with shin-high water. Six goblins looked up at him as his party trailed in quickly behind him, getting to work.

Tendrils of water rose, grabbing and tripping the goblins. The water tendrils responded to the motions of Christi’s free hand while she held a cutlass in the other. She was going to stay on the catwalk and provide overwatch.

Nick used his Bright Burst Light. Dan used his Pulsing Force Bolts. Together, they blinded the goblins and pummeled two of them with no real consequence to the party. They followed behind Kel as they jumped down and got on level with the remaining goblins, where their combination of powers and tactics made quick work of another three goblins.

One, however, broke free of Christi’s water snares and made a run for it. The goblin was just fast enough to slip past Nick’s spear thrust and avoid an overhead maul strike from Dan.

Right when the goblin reached the wide pipe, the silver adventurer suddenly appeared. The goblin lost its head and dropped dead.

With a flourish of his saber, Jacob flicked the goblin blood off the blade before turning to look at them with disdain.

“Seriously, are you bronzes that slow?” Jacob shook his head at them.

Kel, along with his party mates, even Christi, held back the urge to complain or react much.

The gulf between a Rank 2 and Rank 1 was larger than the difference between a Rank 1 and a Rank 0. Rank 2s could move with blurring speed with their Vitality alone, and some of them had two or three special powers to go along with everything else.

Few people could make it to Rank 2, so despite his sour attitude, Jacob was owed his respect. Even if begrudgingly. Still, he obviously wasn’t going to complete the bronze quest for them.

Kel looked over the goblin corpses for any clues.

When he found nothing of worth, he and his party moved forward into the storm drain while the silver adventurer followed in the back. Nick’s lights lit the way, and it wasn’t long before they found more goblins.

Plenty more.

Enough to force Jacob to get more involved.

Kel said the obvious during a break in the action. “This isn’t a bronze quest, this is a silver quest.”

Christi spat to the side. “Like I said. He’s all goblin logs floating out there somewhere.”

“What a screwed up way to go,” Nick said.

“The cripple should’ve known better,” Dan said.

“Exactly. Now shut up and keep moving. I could be doing something more important than wiping out goblins,” Jacob grouched.

With the heavy-handed help of the silver adventurer, they cleared out the goblins with only a few light injuries. They found the obvious portal where the goblins had come from.

“Um, guys … is that what I think it is?” Dan called out, pointing down another human-sized pipe.

They went down the other pipe and found a shimmering red portal.

“Well, this wasn’t a waste of time after all,” Jacob said. “Feels like a Rank 2 Hell Realm. And no demonic crap is coming out, so it must be dormant. We have plenty of time.”

Jacob turned to look at the bronze adventurers with his eyes narrowing. “None of you will speak of this or I’ll kick your asses. This is officially for me and my party of silver adventurers.”

Kel spoke up anyway. “You’re probably going to need one gold for the Hell Realm, even if it’s Rank 2.”

A sudden strike to the back of his head dazed Kel a little. The others tensed, nearly turning on the silver adventurer, until a widespread Rank 2 Suppression landed on all of their shoulders and made them think twice.

“Talk like that is going to keep you Rank 1 and bronze for the rest of your adventurer life,” Jacob spat. “Might as well be a Rank 0 cripple.”

“We aren’t cripples,” Christi hissed, highly offended.

Jacob shook his head at them. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Point is, my party can handle a Hell Realm. Besides, one of my party mates is a powerful noble and Rank 3. I’m almost there myself. The same for the others. So we don’t need no gold, you hear me?”

Despite the anger Kel felt from getting smacked like a child, he kept his mouth shut. So did the others. The silver adventurers were going to take over the Hell Realm, and whatever waited on the other side of the Portal was going to suffer their wrath.

But if they want us bronze adventurers to keep it a secret, why can’t they bring us along so we can benefit, too? Kel schemed to himself. He would let his party know later.

“Hey, does that mean you’re taking the gobbo Realm, too?” asked Dan.

Everybody turned to look at him like an idiot.

What silver adventurer was going to waste time on a measly Rank 1 Realm?

Kel led his party into the Goblin Forest Realm. Maybe they could find a treasure chest with some Rank 1 Uncommon gear, if they were lucky enough. Nobody had found any treasure in a while, and the guild leader was unhappy about that.

***

“Huh, it fits,” I said, strapped in the armor of the former Slayer. “Can I … call for a mirror?”

It felt silly to ask until something beyond my body and Path Energy tugged on my senses. “What … the …” I turned toward the tugging.

My eyes shot wide open as the world crumpled strangely like it was being pulled apart and deformed by powers greater than I’d ever imagined.

The field of sharp flowers in front of me squished forward. The walls of the pit zoomed up and scrunched out of the way. Everything in front of me became distorted, warped, and pulled aside.

Then a strange tiled room was revealed at the end of the distortion.

Ceiling lights flickered from overhead. Water leaked from exposed pipes in the wall. The room had multiple mirrors, some blurry, some covered in cracks like spiderwebs. One remained decent, with only a single crack splitting diagonally across the mirror.

I glanced back at the flickering ceiling lights. They were rectangular and odd. Just as alien as the rest of this place.

Where was the power coming from to make the lights work? Or was that specific energy from the Realm?

Did the Realm provide the water running through the pipes as well?

I hesitated about what to do next with the strange warp in front of me.

My Path Energy buzzed without worries all over me. Looking beyond the warped portal, I saw the reformed monsters going about their day nonchalantly. A few ghouls stopped to examine the warp with me.

I pulled up the notification about being a Realm Master.

[As a Realm Master, you can teleport to any location within the Realm outside of combat. You can get the Realm Monsters to assist you with most projects. You can call for food, shelter, water, and resources from the Realm, though it is limited based on Level and what’s available. And you can sense the Portals connected to your Passage Realm.]

I imagined with this warp, I could see where I was going to teleport to. The Realm was probably responding to my request to see a mirror this way. It all lined up.

I moved forward. After two steps, a strange snap and whoosh, like air getting displaced, howled around me. My new boots landed on the tiled floor of an alien room for toiletry and washing.

The warp view was gone. Multiple walls and one gaping doorway surrounded me.

A few chills went down my spine. Goosebumps covered my flesh.

That sort of power was outrageous.

Shaking my head, dreadlocks swishing, I looked into the mirror and took in my new appearance. The black helmet had round edges to it. The visor, while open, cast a magically impenetrable shadow that covered my facial features. The ends of my dreadlocks, which had grown long from my transformation into a Pathwalker, extended from behind my helmet and down my back.

The breastplate and pauldrons matched the helmet. Black, round, and heavy-looking. While also feeling light and flexible on me, enabling me to move with a full range of motion. The bottoms were also black, but the boots and belts were a bronze or dull gold color, offsetting the black. It was simple stuff.

I wasn’t going to win any contests with this.

That was a thing among adventurers.

Armor fashion.

The last ensemble piece was the black greatsword that clung magically to my back. It was sharpened on both sides, with a wide and rectangular hand guard and long handle wrapped in well-worn leather. It was smaller than the version that the Fallen Slayer had used, which made it a better fit for my dimensions.

I wasn’t sure what exact powers went into the Fallen Slayer Set, but I did feel something magical entwine with me and my Path Energy. I was stronger, weightier, and tougher without sacrificing speed and agility.

I was deadly as hell.

And clean.

I didn’t notice it until I checked the mirror. Nothing from the fighting lingered on me. No smudges. No grime. No bloody stains.

Path Energy must’ve cleansed my body all on its own.

“A self-cleaning energy resource. That alone makes being a Pathwalker worth it.”

And my Path Energy seemed to buzz positively with my Fallen Slayer Set.

Still, I needed to find a workshop somewhere. Get some proper tools. Then I could check for enchantments, see the deeper magic running inside the gear.

“At the very least, I’m not half naked, running around in modded shorts that were barely holding on,” I said.

Turning away from the mirror, I reminded myself that there were two treasure chests waiting for me.

I left them all alone in the pit with hellish flowers.

And with the bumbling ghouls.

I wasn’t worried about the ghouls exactly.

But anyone could come in and out as they pleased in a Passage Realm, couldn’t they?

This time, I used willpower alone to summon the viewing window to my next location. All the walls and constructions warped out of the way to reveal the field of flowers and the two Realm Treasure Chests waiting for me.

With a few steps forward, I teleported back to the field, bladed flowers crunching under my boots.

Nothing was amiss.

The nearest ghouls were still shambling about at random or standing and watching me. A few looked at the treasure chest curiously.

I waved at three of them with my half ripper hand.

The ghouls looked back in confusion.

I kept waving.

The ghouls raised their hands and tried mirroring the motion, but in a weird and jerky fashion.

When I stopped waving, they kept on waving. It looked like they were enjoying themselves.

Looking up, I saw a Rank 2 demon sitting on the edge of the pit, hooves kicking idly in the air. Imps circled about in the sky, sometimes letting out strident cries as they seemed to play aerial games with each other.

In the distance, a bumbling storm cloud burst with flashes of violet lightning and rain that looked like the colorful edges of oil on a sunny day. The rotten smell in the air was light, mostly replaced by smoky scents that weren’t too toxic.

I’d never thought a Hell Realm could be this idealistic and visually compelling, like a backdrop to a strange painting.

The ghouls I’d taught to wave were going out to wave at other ghouls. More and more ghouls got on board, waving about, looking like the happiest band of idiots.

I chuckled a little.

This was fun.

I turned to the leftmost treasure chest and touched the top.

Just like before, a golden pulse traveled through its polished brown wood and bright steel bands. The chest creaked open slowly before flipping back with a shuddering impact I felt through my new boots.

Golden light ebbed from the belly of the chest, and one blue notification box appeared in the air instead of three. The notification box held an image of a booklet.

My heart skipped a beat.

I checked my logs.

[Congrats! You’ve opened a Raining Ruin Realm Treasure Chest: Rank 2!]

[Calibrating your prize. Calibration complete. Behold!]

[Basic Pathwalker Codex: Level 1 (Uncommon): So, it ain’t anything special, unless you count knowledge as power, which isn’t true. Knowledge applied correctly is power. In this codex are the basics of being a Pathwalker and where you can take your growth next. Hint: You aren’t beholden to your former World Realm anymore. You are beyond that now. So you better study up before you end up looking like a fool in front of other Pathwalkers you probably will meet sooner than later. If there’s one thing that’s guaranteed about being a Pathwalker, your Path will meet with other Paths.]

If the System was a woman, I would probably marry her.

This was exactly what I needed.

Mentally selecting the codex, I watched the display jump up.

[Congrats! You’ve chosen the Basic Pathwalker Codex!]

“There really wasn’t much of a choice,” I pointed out.

The System didn’t seem to care as it continued with its theatrics. The treasure chest emitted a golden flash, bright sparkles, and a merry tune. Then the treasure chest winked away, and the Basic Pathwalker Codex fell into place in front of me.

It had a thick and rough leather cover. The pages were yellowed and stained, some of them sticking out loosely. There were a few spots that were brown like old blood that dried a long time ago.

Picking it up, I noticed there was some magic inside of it. It didn’t feel like Aether. The new magic was inherent to the codex and unknown.

Whatever magic was inside, the item was an Uncommon, so I held it with respect.

Then I half-forgot it as I touched the second treasure chest.

Going through the theatrics again, the second chest illuminated with gold light and flipped open with a ground-shaking thunk, the nearest hell flowers wavering. More gold light beamed out from its belly as three blue boxes appeared, displaying multiple choices.

By the time I finished reading my logs, I came away both frustrated and excited.

[Icy Storage Ring: Rank 3 (Rare): It’s a little chilly in here. A little below freezing point, perhaps. But you have a large garage’s worth of space. Ain’t that nifty?]

[Hell Artificer Toolkit: Rank 3 (Rare): It’s almost as if these were made perfectly for you. Imagine all the fun crafting you could do. Ignore the curses, though. Those won’t be too much of a bother. Hopefully.]

[Weaponized Identifying Tablet: Rank 3 (Rare): Got a weapon you want to know about right away? Look here at this tablet that’ll magically give you the best details for awesome weapons Rank 3 and below. And just about anything can be a weapon if you’re creative enough.]

I wanted the toolkit.

I wanted it badly.

Rank 3 was probably the equivalent of Level 31 for me. Rare Quality at Level 31/Rank 3 was powerful and sophisticated.

My last toolkit, along with everything else in my ragged backpack, was gone because of the fight with the Fallen Slayer. Or were they?

I stepped back and focused on the desired items. The area in front of my gaze warped, forming a viewing window.

There, I saw my ragged, roughly sewn backpack. It was waiting patiently on a dusty table in an abandoned room with some light debris on the floor.

I beckoned it toward me with willpower.

It wouldn’t budge.

I stepped to it, teleporting to collect the pack. Then I returned to the treasure chest, its selection still in wait.

What was more important for my early Pathwalker journey?

I wanted the Hell Artificer Toolkit.

But it wasn’t the most pressing need.

I could remake the tools if I had to. And I had enough Rank 1 tools I could base some improvements on.

I could figure out the capabilities of a weapon through testing and artificing. And my Path Energy could probably help me as well, so a tablet for identifying wasn’t necessary.

I had no idea how to make storage rings.

I’d heard about them. But only the guild leader and a few lucky adventurers had them, and it was taboo to speak about them. Adventurers were touchy about how they stored precious items.

I might end up being the same.

[Congrats! You’ve chosen the Icy Storage Ring: Rank 3 (Rare)!]

The treasure chest performed its shiny and musical theatrics before it disappeared, leaving a dark blue ring in a crushed patch of flowers.

Frosty mist wafted off the ring. The metal was frigid when I picked it up and slipped it on the index finger of my left hand. Once my Path Energy connected, I saw the storage space inside, though it was limited because I wasn’t of the appropriate Level/Rank.

It was more of a shed instead of a large garage.

I was also aware of the temperature inside. Definitely below freezing. I would have to keep that in mind for whatever items I stored.

Perishable stuff would serve well inside of the Icy Storage Ring. Anything meant to be hot, not so.

That limited my options, but not by much.

“Alright,” I said, holding up both the codex and my backpack, “let’s get some rest, and then get to work.”

It didn’t take long to realize I didn’t need to sleep much.

Path Energy kept me functioning, very unlike a Ranker and their Vitality, which would get ragged after prolonged periods of intense activity. With that being the case, I teleported to the top of the tallest structure in the Realm.

All around me, my Realm stretched out as endless dark towers and fields of sharp vegetation. Ghouls and demons ambled about in the streets below. Oil-rainbow rainstorms fell in dark spots from bumbling yellow clouds. Orange balls of light glowed against the crimson skies.

It was hellish.

It was beautiful.

And it was currently mine until I moved on.

I sat on the edge near some perching imps and cracked open the codex.

The messy pages lit up with a burst of diamond-colored magic, blinding me.

Then the light winked away, and I found myself elsewhere.