Chương 35: Chapter 34 - Consequences, yelling and d***s

- Look secrecy's all good and all but unless you actually show you're a standout, you're ruining it for the rest of us that want trial sponsorships. Look at how many of those chess bastards are running around becoming [Mages]. @Xpelte (Unverified) ↪What are you even talking about? It's obvious Kiron doesn't have anything good. Video games are good for nothing but rotting your brain. @Leaflegend384 (Realmer) ↪Shut your mouth elf before I fallenangel you.

Kiron's a legend there's no way he didn't get something like a [Prodigy] title. @Rinestone32 (Unverified) ↪You're going to fallenangel me? How are you going to do that without a Trial sponsorship? @Leaflegend384 (Realmer) *The thread devolved into pages and pages of insults over several months before it was forcibly shut down. Later to be known as the hatedoc. Ryan narrowed his eyes at Milock. His friend was hovering over his face with a marker in hand. Milock's eyes went wide.

"Uh, hi Ryan."

"Seriously Milo? I swear if-" Ryan quickly shut up as he realized that both war veterans were in his room, sitting and watching him. Seffara especially, was looking at him like he was an insect she was contemplating crushing under her boot. He put his hands up.

"Okay, I can explain." There was probably a better way to say that. Ryan got out of his bed, throwing the traitorous Milock aside." Sit down." Barry said. Seffara didn't wait for him to sit back down.

"You said you were going to explain what you were doing?"

"Would you believe that I'm just a very heavy sleeper?" Seffara took out her phone, on it was a video from Realmnet. A reporter was asking"We come to live with the mayor of Ulverra. Mayor Frelorn what do you say about the fact that you have given money to the terrorist blacklister, Artigan, and let him abscond with a Realmer, sources say that you involved yourself in a professional hostage situation and made the situation worse." Oh shit.

"Those sources are clearly the opposition trying to muddy the waters. I have always prioritized the life of Realmers above all else. Money? My life? I ask you this, did a single person get injured?"

"I-no but reports indicate-""Artigan has an Epic! We were not prepared to handle such a threat in a realm two leveled zone. I hope you understand that this is an ongoing situation. We have Jecharim back in safe hands and to apologize for my necessary, yet looked down upon behavior, I will add a thousand realmcoin bounty on Artigan's head. Let it be known that I, Mayor Frelorn, always put lives first." The video cut off there. Ryan opened his mouth and closed it multiple times. Seffara moved onto the next video.

This one seemed less like an official video and was a badly angled recording from the corner of the street. It had been leaked on Realmnet, by the Mayor himself, no doubt.

"I am Mayor Frelorn. I am a Realmer with no powers. I am worth more as a hostage. I will take Jecharim's place." Ryan blinked.

"Wait, that was actually the mayor?! I should have asked for ten thousand coins!" What a major fumble, the mayor would've been a much better hosta– Ryan remembered the room he was in. He looked up from the video. Seffara had turned cold. Her eyes turning to sapphires.

"Let me explain."

"Explain what?" Seffara asked quietly. Somehow her quiet voice was more threatening. Ryan just shut up.

"I had a plan, it was logical and well thought out, it didn't work…" He realized he wasn't helping his own position.

"A plan? Really? Because it seems to me like YOU WENT INTO THE REALM AND TOOK A REALMER HOSTAGE JUST TO GET YOURSELF OUT OF A BAD SITUATION!" The windows rattled as both Barry and Milock put their hands over their ears.

"It was planned! Everything went as planned, the hostage, planned, Ulverra planned. Alright? Nobody died! I had a damned good reason to do what I did." He blurted it out before Seffara actually crushed him like an ant. Ryan looked to Barry for support and just found an angry orc glaring at him instead. He looked like he wanted to kill Ryan himself. Fuck. The door crashed open behind them all, a frazzled Clara wearing pajamas too large for her stomped into Ryan's room.

The pants were held up by a rope and she looked like she wanted to murder Seffara.

"Well if I can't sleep, I might as well come here!" The reckless girl sat on a dresser and glared at the furious heroine. Seffara just ignored Clara and continued.

"Your explanation better be good, rookie, or I'm dragging you to the Adventurer's Guild and making everything public. Tyrants or not." Ryan opened his mouth, closed it. Decided to think about what he was going to say, then opened his mouth again.

"You might want to set up that silence bubble first." – Once the silence bubble was set up, Ryan started talking about his plan and what had happened. Seffara didn't interrupt, and it was clear, even to Milock, that this was not the time to interrupt. He outlined his strategy word for word until the escape with old Jecharim. Seffara didn't seem impressed.

"I don't give a shit how smart you think you are, or what skills you have. You could have the [Savant] title and I'd still call that reckless. One mistake and it turns from a joke into a bloodbath."

"They were well trained. I knew how they operated."

"Did you know all of their skills? Did you know how your Epic would work on them exactly? What if there was a rookie looking to make a name for herself!?" Seffara was still shouting every word, Milo, Clara and Barry all had their ears covered while she spoke. Ryan had a feeling that if he covered his own ears Seffara would just shout louder.

"It might have been reckless, but I needed to force the Witch Tyrant's hand. And one of the plans was that if the Witch Tyrant could punch through leveled zones then so could the Archmage Tyrant. I was half hoping to get caught! I would have gotten caught if the Witch Tyrant didn't intervene." Suddenly the heroine was no longer shouting.

"What? What happened?"

"Apparently the Witch Tyrant interfered, at minimum the Archmage Tyrant knows something is going on, at worst? The Archmage is letting the Witch do what she wants, or I guess they're working together." Seffara put her hand on her forehead. Starting to understand his angle.

"Manager's damned–the Archmage Tyrant isn't someone you fuck with like this, just because he acts like a kind old professor these days doesn't mean shit. He killed more people in that war than anyone else."

"It was all a negotiating tactic, okay? I had to ask the Witch Tyrant for a promise." Ryan paused for dramatic effect. Barry was pissed. He hadn't blinked once the entire time.

"Out with it runt." Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. In hindsight trying to be dramatic to angry old adventurers wasn't the right move. They weren't the Witch Tyrant. Ryan took in a breath.

"The main thing I went to negotiate for was to find out if the Witch Tyrant would come after my friends and family." Ryan glanced at Milock and Clara, then returned Barry's glare.

"You're the one that involved them in this. I got her to promise that she wouldn't touch anyone I know on Earth. I did that by trading in my guns, showing her I had an Epic and after managing to escape from Ulverra." That snuffed out the anger from both veteran adventurers. Barry even looked slightly guilty as he scratched a tusk.

"Ah, you didn't have to do that." Ryan leaned in.

"It was literally the only thing that was running through my head when they-" he pointed at his friends "kept learning more and more secrets. I told you bringing them in was a bad idea."

"That's not fair!" Milock protested. The orc shook his head and sighed.

"The Witch Tyrant wouldn't do something like that. I should have been clearer. I didn't bring your friends in recklessly." This argument again?

"That's what Gamielle said. You know what I also asked the Witch Tyrant? If she would have stopped me if I started torturing Jecharim. Guess what? She didn't give me a straight answer." Barry for some godforsaken reason kept defending the Witch Tyrant.

"That was probably a tactic from her. It would have been fine, just trust me on that." Seffara turned on her friend, frowning.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Barry waved his hand.

"Just consider it a very strong instinctual understanding. We've met them a few times, Seff, she's not that kind of person." Ryan could tell Barry was hiding something, but Seffara didn't seem to see it. She just nodded her head as if Barry's dragonshit assessment made sense. He threw his hands up.

"Well, whatever you're hiding it's good to know I risked everything for nothing then, thanks Barry." The orc turned on him and crossed his arms. Ryan crossed his arms back. When Seffara crossed her arms Ryan uncrossed his and went back to the story. He omitted the end of the world scenarios, it wasn't something he needed to burden his friends with, in fact, he wasn't sure he wanted to tell Seffara this either. It didn't quite seem to matter, they all knew the Manager and the Witch Tyrant were colluding.

It could only be a world shaking secret. He still didn't want to tell his friends about it all. Ryan explained his position and negotiating tactic, his threats and concessions. Despite it all he felt proud of what he'd achieved in the end. He'd forced the Witch Tyrant to the negotiating table and debated on even terms. Honestly, he was surprised he hadn't received a title for it. Seffara sighed. She no longer looked like she wanted to make him into Ryan paste. She even looked sympathetic.

"So that's your line in the sand? Don't touch your family and friends?"

"I mean… yea? Shouldn't it be everyone's?" Barry and Seffara shared a look, she uncrossed her arms.

"Fine, you got my sympathy, rookie." Barry said, the orc still seemed a little angry at him.

"Nah, still a runt."

"I'm going to call him a rookie, he's too dangerous to be a runt."

"Uh, thanks?" Seffara shook her head and stepped closer, her eyes bore into Ryan's. They were tinted with power, her irises were like the facets of a sapphire. Beautiful, a deep blue that reflected the light, but also cold. Unyielding.

"This doesn't mean I approve of what you did. The fact that nothing went wrong with the hostage situation just means I won't drag your ass into the Adventurer's Guild. The Tyrants? The Manager? I don't care." The air started heating up, somewhere in Seffara's multifaceted gemlike irises there was a flicker of red.

"I am Seffara the Sapphire. I will not stay silent if you cross the line. Do. You. Understand?" He looked towards Barry, wondering what exactly was the right thing to say here. The orc had been the one that brought her here. Didn't Barry know that he was going to have to do some seriously risky shit as a blacklister with a bounty?

"I SAID DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"

"Yes ma'am." He continued the conversation to where he asked the Witch about Jecharim, he told them word for word her answer. The orc pursed his lips and shook his head.

"She's changed."

"Want to elaborate?" Ryan asked.

"Hmph, no." … A little later.

"A Quasi artifact?" Seffara asked, incredulous, "Just like that? Two days? Bullshit. Even the Dwarven Tyrant can't do that."

"I made sure the System screen wasn't fake, and I don't think she was lying about having it being a rush order." Seffara pinched the bridge of her nose with her gauntlets.

"I'm not liking that I keep hearing world shattering news from a rookie like you." Seffara shook her head.

"If he can make an artifact like that in two days then it means the Dwarven Tyrant isn't half as busy as he says he is! Damn him! I had to wait years for my axe to get fixed."

"Well if you want more huge secrets I have more. I have confirmation about Legendary skills and how they're obtained." Ryan grinned at the effect it had in the room. Everyone sat up, everyone other than Clara, who refused to meet his eyes. He deflated a little. Barry was impatient. Even the old veteran wanted to know about Legends.

"Stop pausing and explain runt."

"Fine. Legends have to be obtained through doing something outside of the Trials, it can't just be obtained by doing crazy stuff in the Trials." The room was silent as they processed that information. Seffara closed her eyes.

"Fuck." Her voice went quieter.

"Okay, nobody is to say anything about this outside of my silence bubble. Understand?" Clara frowned.

"Wait what? I might need some coffee, but is that really a big reveal?" Seffara pinched the bridge of her nose again.

"Yes, nobody knows this. Nobody says what their Legend descriptions are. Everyone still believes the main way to get better skill offerings is through doing better in the Trials." Seffara started upturning all the furniture in the silence bubble, checking for what Ryan presumed were listening devices. They had thrown their phones out already when the silence bubble was first set up. It didn't stop her from checking every bit of furniture. When she was satisfied the heroine continued.

"Most adventurers are combat focused, what do you think would happen if dragonslayers find out they need to be racking up achievements outside of the Trials?

"Oh." Unfortunately, Milock wasn't as fast on the uptake as Clara.

"I mean, wouldn't they just kill monsters?"

"The greatest examples of confirmed Legends are the Tyrants and Mezhar, who do you think they'll take as an example?" Most dragonslayers weren't from the modern generation. Many of them were 'reformed' Trialists from the Settler generation or were from the golden generation which might still have some comparatively outdated moral values. Ryan just watched Seffara's face. She was disturbed, more than he expected of her.

"They might already have started." Seffara said quietly.

"I've been hearing some things. I'm worried that what you're going through might be part of it." She took out a bottle from her pouch and started drinking.

"These are just rumors, but a lot of dragonslayers have been moving. Enough of them are preparing that I caught wind of it. Something big is going down." That sounded more like they were preparing for the multiversal invasion that the Witch Tyrant was talking about. Unfortunately, Ryan hadn't told them about that and Seffara seemed to think it was going another direction. Barry shifted uncomfortably.

"You think they might have found out about the Legend requirement? But what would they even fight?" Ryan remembered the colossal beast the size of California stomping around in the projection of The Realm map. Then he wondered if they might do something else instead, he thought of the path of slaughter. Throwing a [Meteor] at a city would be easier than slaying giant monsters. But then again, would something like that really earn a Legend?

Seffara seemed to know the answer, she definitely had information they didn't.

"I thought that would have been obvious, there's only a few strong enough targets that are worthy of multiple teams of dragonslayers working together. Real targets with history and well documented abilities that they can prepare thoroughly for." Ryan frowned then his eyes widened in realization. Seffara nodded.

"They're going to hunt down a Tyrant."

"That's crazy!" Milo finally interrupted, unable to hold himself back.

"They're the Tyrants! They've fought off all sorts of teams, what team would be crazy to take them on?"

"And it's estimated that there are over three hundred dragonslayers," Seffara said flatly, "and that number keeps going up, not down. Even if only a quarter of them decided to break away, that's what? 75 dragonslayers? That's still more than ten for each Tyrant." Barry seemed to disagree on the matchup.

"I'd still bet on the Tyrants. Even before their Legends they were capable of fighting most teams by themselves." Seffara had clearly been thinking about this for awhile. She already had an answer for that.

"And if they decided to ambush them one at a time? Fifty to one? The Witch Tyrant has been hiding from the public for the last fifteen years Barry. She's never needed to hide like this before." The veteran orc still wasn't convinced"It's also stupid, if you know this then the Tyrants will know it's coming."

"Three hundred dragonslayers Barry! It's not as peaceful as people think it is in the highest sectors. Even the Tyrants can't do whatever they want anymore. If they started preemptively culling dragonslayers it won't be a quarter. All three hundred will rise against them."

"Holy fuck." Milock was no longer in denial. Clara looked wide awake and scared, she was holding her arm. Ryan gritted his teeth, this wasn't what he wanted his friends to hear. The whole point of keeping the apocalyptic scenario a secret from them was to let them not stress out about things they couldn't impact with. Besides… What Seffara had said sounded realistic in theory… but in reality?

The Tyrants were preparing for worse than a couple hundred dragonslayers, but Ryan had kept that fact a secret and he couldn't just tell them that now. He remembered Barry's lesson three and half wished he had been honest from the get go. He needed to convince them so they wouldn't need to worry as much.

"I think you're wrong Seffara. I don't think the Witch Tyrant cares about dragonslayers at all. She cares more about raising Legends than anything else. I don't think she values most dragonslayers at all." Barry was, once again, the worst person in the room.

"That makes it worse, rookie, not better. It's easy for giants to trip when they're not watching their feet." He hated the fact that the orc was able to be so convincing. Barry's words made sense but they didn't have context behind them. Ryan had. He'd talked with Gamielle, he'd sat down with the Witch Tyrant.

"I think even if the dragonslayers ambush the Tyrants they're going to get slaughtered." And if they didn't? The Realm and Earth were both fucked. … Ryan tried to continue his story, but it was dampened by the fact that Clara refused to look him in the eyes. He felt like shit, was what he did really that bad? The old shopkeeper had been fine, after a healing potion. She looked away as he turned to her. He was starting to feel like shit as he continued his encounter with Zhenyu's team. She suddenly interrupted.

"Okay, I can't take it anymore, can Ryan please clean his face before he continues?" What? Oh.

"Fuck's sake Milock. Have I been talking with a dick on my face this entire time?" His friend burst out laughing. He fell out of the chair and started clutching at his sides while pointing at Ryan's face.

"I can't believe neither Seffara or Barry even blinked. I even had to look away when she started lecturing you with that on your face! Hahaahaha!"

"I'm going to kill you." Ryan stood up so he could strangle his friend. Milock put his hands up"No! It was Barry! you woke up before I even managed to draw one. He even told you to sit down so you couldn't see yourself in the mirror." Barry stopped laughing to glare at Milock.

"You little rat." Ryan started rubbing at his face then glared at Seffara.

"Did you really give me that speech about the line in the sand when I had a dick on my face?!" Seffara finally laughed, she took out a marker from her pouch and flipped it in the air. A bright blue scentless marker.

"A Destined classic. C'mon rookie, I thought you were supposed to be smart." Ryan had his head in his hands.

"I hate all of you."