Chương 232: Chapter 229 - Arrival to Earth

The VIP elevator of Raidco's Mastery was an extravagant, external affair. You could watch the entire city fall beneath you and the people below could look up and see you rise to the top. From inside, the entirety of San Kingsgrove was displayed in an orange tint. The evening sun began to reflect on the enchanted skyscrapers and even took Ryan's breath away. Though he tried not to show it. Being summoned by a dragonslayer was always a dangerous encounter even if he was expecting it.

You couldn't just provide noticeable results with class resonance and skill acquisition without catching the attention of prying eyes. Still, this was far too soon. He'd really only had worked with three adventurers and provided one class resonance, but unlike the rest of the world Ineza wasn't content to wait until Ryan provided more results before pouncing on the opportunity. She's the damned CEO, she probably has access to security feeds.

Possibly the Secretary and maybe even the private recordings that's supposed to be available only for Grevich and me. Grevich and the receptionist were looking even more tense as they waited in the elevator. Ryan tried to make conversation.

"So, what's the CEO like?" Both Grevich and the receptionist looked at each other then shrugged awkwardly.

"We don't know, Raidco's Mastery is only a subsidiary branch of Raidco."

"Right." There were multiple layers of separation between even the top performing skill assistants and the literal owner of the entire conglomerate. It was more likely that their boss's boss's boss answered to dragonslayer Ineza. It raised his suspicions once again. Still, this wasn't the worst case scenario. The elevator opened up to a regal hallway, a plush red carpet with gold trimming at the edges.

There were paintings of various high ranking members of Raidco in their adventurer gear or suit in the case of civilians. Ryan watched the paintings with more than a little desire to start drawing on them. He couldn't help himself. Before he did something stupid he distracted himself with some of the pedestals that littered their path. Artifacts, armor, weapons and even a few rare monster skulls were on display to anyone that walked these halls.

As if they were afraid the people that came here would not know how rich and successful they were. So wasteful. It was the same with the Dubois' family mansion. It might have been the case that all old dragonslayers were like this. Believing that a display of wealth and power was simply just good business. They arrived at the end of the hallway at which the receptionist knocked nervously.

"Please enter, Head Assistant Grevich and Adventurer Ryan." The doors opened seamlessly without effort into another grand room. A similar layout of what you might think old wealth looked like. Only, behind the fancy wooden desk was Ineza, a fairly rugged human woman in enchanted metal armor, reading over a contract. She looked up and smiled at them.

"Ah, thank you for coming at such short notice. Please take a seat and make yourself comfortable. Assistant Grevich, you should sit down as well." Now that was an interesting move. Ryan didn't doubt that everything was planned. Ineza wore suits in public. She was almost definitely wearing armor to appeal to his adventurer self. She'd done her research. Minimally anyway. So, if all of this was planned, the question was why keep Grevich around? Both Ryan and Grevich took a seat.

Ryan slouched down on the comfortable chair while Grevich sat up straight, sitting very uncomfortably. Ineza put her papers down and met Ryan's eyes for a full second. Plenty of time in their realms to be considered a long glance where they evaluated each other. She pursed her lips at the blatant disregard he had for her but did not mention it.

"Adventurer Ryan Robinson, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. My name is Ineza, CEO of Raidco."

"I used to see you on the news. What can I help you with?" Ryan's tone was still casual. Confident, as if he had all the cards to play. Ineza tried to knock him down a little.

"Your Unified Theory paper really is making waves in academic circles. It's… very bold."

"To be honest, that wasn't my best work. But, it's early days yet, they'll all come around when more people try it out, you'll see."

"Do you believe that?" Ryan grinned while leaning in, boldly stumbling through whatever routine she was attempting on him.

"You wouldn't be here if you thought it was all dragonshit, now would you?" Grevich cleary did not like the tone or words Ryan was using with the dragonslayer in front of them. He had gone from sitting up straight to being completely frozen in place. The dragonslayer nodded.

"I can see the data for myself. One day of working with them and all three adventurers transferred significant amounts of money to your public account. Two days later, both fourth realms reported publicly that they've broken through bottlenecks. You could have made a lot more, keeping your findings hidden while setting up a bidding system for adventurers." She was fishing, trying to figure out what exactly it was that he wanted. Ineza clearly knew rule one of negotiations.

"Maybe, or maybe I haven't released everything, or maybe it's that I have my own secret that lets me stay ahead." The dragonslayer wasn't impressed.

"Do you really believe you will be able to stay ahead of every single person in the world when they start pushing boundaries with your theories?"

"They don't have my Trial skill." Her eyes were laser focused on him, looking for any sort of lie. Ryan had nothing to hide here. She clearly had some level of suspicion of him having something special and it was better to give some partial truth here than anything else.

"And you have learned this Trial skill?"

"Only a precursor, if I finished learning the Epic? Who knows, I might even be able to help dragonslayers resonate with their classes." Ryan shot a pointed look at the [Dragonslayer Warrior]. Ineza had boosted herself up with a strong team and only had a specialized Epic class waiting for her. Something that nobody could really resonate with except for when they fought with Pinkie. For some reason, Ineza didn't seem impressed.

She took out her pen and crossed out the bottom figure on the contract and put in a different number and signed her name on the edits. Then she passed it to him.

"Eight hundred million dollars, or realmcoin equivalent to stay as a retainer to Raidco for a year. Seventy percent from whatever revenue we gain from offering your skills to other adventurers. Bonuses again if you can get dragonslayer tier adventurers to resonate with their class." It was enough money to buy anything you could ever dream of. It was enough money to buy a sponsorship slot to the Trial System. The problem was… it was only the first offer. Ryan flicked the contract back without even looking at it.

"Really, money? Here I thought adventurers at higher realms traded with artifacts than money." If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. Ineza sighed, then flipped the contract to a different page and slid it back to him.

"They might, but you should reconsider the contract." Then the aura of a dragonslayer pressed down on the entire room. Grevich turned completely pale as Ryan raised an eyebrow in annoyance. As much as Ryan wanted to push back against the aura, the last thing he wanted to display was his masterful control over it. It was too rare of a field of power and Artigan had been too brazen with it. It meant that there was nothing he could do but let Grevich slowly suffocate under the aura. Was this why she let Grevich in?

To prove a point? Ineza tapped on the contract once more. The contract pointing out a specific paragraph regarding Raidco's full support and protection against unwanted external influences.

"You do not understand the higher realms if you think dragonslayers will be happy to wait in line while other competing dragonslayers get serviced by you first."

"You're saying they'll threaten me? Like what you're doing now?"

"This isn't a threat, this is an example of how unprepared you are." Her aura disappeared as Grevich gasped for air. She nodded at Grevich.

"I apologize for the demonstration, but I believe I needed to impress on young adventurer Robinson of how some of the older generations of dragonslayers see the world." Grevich didn't even respond, just accepting the apology with a stiff nod with the head. No anger at having been assaulted by aura, simple subservience to a greater being that could kill him with a blink. Ineza did not flinch at Ryan's glare, she simply got off her chair and turned around, stepping forward to the great window behind her.

The dragonslayer stared coldly at the great city that was laid below them.

"Do you know how Raidco first started, adventurer Robinson?"

"I think it was an adventurer collective to hire decent [Smiths]?" She nodded.

"Back then, dragonslayers kept every single evolved [Smith] on retainer. While most didn't need to be coerced, there were more than a couple threats to keep them in line so they would work for them. Raidco started to keep that in check."

"I thought the Dwarven Tyrant did that." Ineza shook her head.

"Wrong, his 'Crafter's Faction' only took those he likes. If he decided you weren't good enough? Well, you were left to the wolves. It was Raidco Collective that spearheaded good practices for all in the end." It was an interesting tale she was trying to spin. While Ryan wasn't an expert at this, he knew it was significantly more complicated than that. Raidco was not the savior Ineza was trying to paint it out to be. At the very least she seemed to realize Ryan wasn't buying into it. Ineza nodded.

"Raidco started off as a collective group of disgruntled adventurers that was being oppressed by dragonslayers. If it wasn't for us, many of the standards set in modern society would not be in place."

"And now you're one of them, a [Dragonslayer Warrior] controlling one of the largest conglomerates in the world. Using exclusivity contracts to keep everyone working for them." Sponsoring more than a few talented adventurer-[Smiths] from the very start and keeping them for those in Raidco Collective. Ryan didn't say, not that he needed to.

"We create a powerful bloc for adventurers and push for their interests. We exist to keep everything at a balance. If higher realm adventurers take too much, then they push crafters and adventurers towards Raidco. The same with government. The Adventurer's Guild never pushes to be active in politics but we do. We are the ones pushing and fighting for your rights." It was possible she actually believed what she said. Ryan…

couldn't tell nor did he have enough knowledge about the politics of all this to argue about it either.

"I can see that. Though I'm not sure where I fit into it." Ryan could see the reflection of her face through the window. She was still staring at the window.

"What I see is a new resource that adventurers are going to fight over. One that they don't even know they want yet. One that is walking around and thinking they're invincible. Tell me. What happens if a dragonslayer other than I were to kidnap you right now?" No aura to push at him, just a thinly veiled threat. He rolled his eyes. Ryan had faced down far more dangerous threats than this to be afraid, or unprepared.

"I'm a Destined. Neither of you know my location in The Realm, and you won't find me. The moment you kidnap me I use [Return to The Realm] and contact the Secretary." [Return to The Realm] did not have a timer, it could be used instantly for purposes just as this. Ineza's lips quirked.

"This is only a hypothetical, adventurer Robinson. I am simply telling you the circumstances we both are in. There are old dragonslayers out there that only pretend to care about society's rules. They will kidnap you if they believe they can get away with it, or if they believe it is worth being blacklisted. I am giving you a hypothetical to see if you're prepared to deal with such a situation."" Sure. Is the hypothetical over?" Ineza's lips twitched a little.

"The recordings indicate that you and the Secretary had a falling out. The Secretary isn't a threat alone. Especially to adventurers that simply don't care about her soft power."

"Sure, but hypothetically, there is a recording of me entering her car and leaving with a smile out there. Perhaps if a dragonslayer were to push me, I would be forced to take a standing offer and then you'd have one pissed off adventurer gaining influence under the safety of someone else." While staring out at the city, Ineza smiled.

"Not a bad threat at all. It also makes sense why you sent your friends out of the city before you made your move. But now you've told me your trump card, someone like me could simply negotiate with the Secretary directly." Ryan grinned.

"Sure you can, but I doubt she'll take the offer." Ineza's smile started to fade.

"That's naive. Given the situation, I believe someone like me could give her an offer where we both benefit while she keeps the benefit of doubt to her employers." Yeah I doubt that. Ryan just imagined the Secretary trying to tell the Witch Tyrant that Ryan was stuck as a class teaching slave because of a deal with a simple greedy dragonslayer. But of course he couldn't just say that to Ineza so he had to play another angle. Ryan chuckled.

"Well, there's another reason why she can't strong arm me either. I do have a backup plan, one that even you won't be able to negotiate with."

"And who is that?"

"Seffara the Sapphire."

"Sorry?"

"I'm her student. Check the background of the orc that me and my friends have been hanging around. The fact that you missed that just tells me you rushed things. He's very close friends with Seffara the Sapphire. You know, the heroine of Sapphire? America's darling? One of the strongest ninth realms that just soloed the tenth trial? Someone who is both willing and able to start a public feud with anyone that gets out of line?"

Ineza stared at him through the reflection of the window, then she turned around with a genuine smile and walked back to the table and sat down. It was funny, now that he actually had a threat, multiple threats he could make good on, Ineza returned to civility. She took her contract back and started crossing out the terms.

"So, you aren't just an arrogant nobody that was running your mouth. It was hard to tell with the amateurish way you released your video."

"Well, with a grumpy old veteran orc and Seffara as my mentor, you can't expect me to be perfect." Ineza scoffed, then passed the contract back to him.

"Indeed, one point five billion dollars as a signing bonus. We can also make this a partnership where you gain most of the revenue and we get ten percent as a finder's fee." Ryan looked at the offer for a moment too long. Then he put the contract back and pushed it towards her.

"I'm not that interested in money." Ryan was lying of course. He was keeping his heart rate elevated but not in insane excitement as it should have been. He was certain the Ryan of last year would be trying to strangle himself if he heard that he'd declined such insanely favorable terms. Unfortunately, Ryan now had higher goals. Ineza raised an eyebrow in doubt.

"Truly?"

"Sure, I mean some money to secure my future is nice, but every dollar afterwards feels a little more empty. It took me a bit of soul searching, but I realized more money doesn't do me any good, you know?" Ryan said to the CEO of one of the biggest conglomerates across both worlds.

"Ah, so you wish for fame and influence?"

"Maybe, amongst other things. It was more like I found out that I just really enjoy teaching adventurers I like. You can offer me all the money in the world and I won't accept it. What I want is for you to connect me with the adventurers I pick out." He was mixing truth and lies, a much better way to convince the dragonslayer in front of him. Naturally he didn't want to talk about how he predicted some horrible things happening and wanted to prepare Earth for it.

Good natured adventurers would get exploited by people like Ineza.

"And if I edit those terms in, are you willing to sign the contract?" Ryan shook his head.

"No contracts. We operate on good faith. You do right by me, I'll do right by you." Ryan reached out with a hand. Just a good old fashioned handshake between adventurers on different paths, coming together for a shared goal… Only Ineza wasn't what she pretended to be with her armor and false self-righteousness. She stared at the hand for a moment, then shook her head.

"Unfortunately, I operate an entity that relies on more than just verbal promises. What you believe is fair might change tomorrow and is too unreliable for me to justify." Ryan took his hand back. She was not wrong to think that way, he was just disappointed. There had been a reason why Ineza wasn't on the list of adventurers he wanted to reach out to. Ryan could tell, Ineza had stopped being an adventurer long ago, she just wore gear to make herself look the part.

This wasn't someone he wanted to give more power to.

"Well, I am willing to offer you a—" That was when both their phones went off. A piercing alarm that cut through everything. She turned it on to see a green alert. Ryan got it himself on his phone. It was sent to all dragonslayers and registered sixth realms. A standby message for the worst case scenario. Ryan scrolled through the updates. Sunstone City had its barriers destroyed by a singular powerful assailant. Unknown casualties, current status unknown.

Neither of them were being requested but they were to make their way to the closest portals and be on standby if needed. Ryan felt the hair on his neck stand up. Sunstone city is in Sector Six and is popular for ninth realms to rest at. Not only that, a dragonslayer resided over it at all times. They both were reading the details as they came in. Ineza prepared to make her way to the portal, though she was clearly confident in not being requested for the problem. She was simply only a [Dragonslayer Warrior].

Nothing special in terms of dragonslayers. There'd be others available that were stronger than her. Ryan would not be requested unless there was a mass evacuation to a leveled zone. They jumped out of the skyscraper and made their way to the System portal at a leisurely pace. Raidco's Mastery was close to the city center where the portal was. They kept getting updates and it was getting grim. Ryan had never heard of something like this before in his life.

After settling in, there had been a culture that Realmer lives were sacred. Adventurers had more reign to harass humans on Earth than Realmers in The Realm. There were always protections, emergency procedures, Thousands of Realmers were dead. A monster at the system portal, ninth realms slaughtered easily. A monster with… The Witch Tyrant's face. Ryan stopped. Ineza looked back and stared at what he was reading.

"There are monsters that take form of what others perceive as the most powerful, it is not anything—" And at that moment, every single person's [Dangersense] went off. Everyone in North America. And Ryan was at the epicenter of it.