It was a scene that Ryan of yesteryear would have watched and adored. Adventurers flying around, [Mages] working with engineers, [Rogues] working with search and rescue teams, [Warriors]... standing around and looking big, dumb and dependable.
People were getting consoled in the streets, the city was coming out of their buildings and realizing just how much of a deathtrap each one could be.
Despite it having been only four hours since the disaster, most of the major hazards had already been cleaned up by various high realm adventurers. The lives that could be saved had already been saved.
There wasn’t really much a nondescript evolved [Rogue] could do here.
So, Ryan traveled through the city, slipping through the crowds. He didn’t want to use the adventurer’s platforms to get around when the actually useful adventurers could still use it.
He passed by a burned down skyscraper. The people gathered out there were far, far more distraught than the crowds elsewhere. Most people that were inside had died in there. The police formed a cordon around the vicinity with the dead bodies covered by black tarp. People were screaming outside, demanding to be let in so they could identify their loved ones.
Perhaps they hoped that not finding dead bodies meant that there was another reason why they were unreachable.
It was difficult. Realm five ears meant that Ryan could hear all of it. Even from far, far away.
He moved elsewhere, looking for a place where he could make a difference.
It was just that there wasn’t any.
Everywhere he looked, there were already capable adventurers going around, doing what needed to be done. Like they’d experienced it already, which they probably had.
For the most part, the streets were packed everywhere. People discussing what had happened, taking videos and calling loved ones elsewhere. Ryan listened in at a particular suburb that was mostly untouched by the destruction.
‘Yeah, [Witch] Grettfield took care of it, I can’t believe she was a dragonslayer. Don’t you have to register to be one? No really? I feel like you should though, that’s a lot of power.’
‘Have to remember to donate some of that tea she likes.’
‘Seffara the Sapphire killed that Lich King. I swear it!’
‘Did you hear about what happened at Raidco’s Mastery? Crazy brave guy that one.’
Ryan’s ears perked up at that. He immediately started darting through the crowd, making his way back to Raidco’s Mastery as quickly as he could without disturbing the people. His heart dropped as he saw the state of the skyscraper from afar.
The windows had all shattered, parts of the structure had been melted, adventurers and engineers surrounded the building, making sure it wasn’t going to collapse any further.
Ryan had to weave through a particularly dense group of people, following a voice that he vaguely recognized.
“Truly brave. I have to say, people like you make me honored to be the mayor of this fine city.”
Ryan made his way through near the front and realized Grevich was doing an press release with the mayor of San Kingsgrove. Cameras were flashing as Grevich looked as professional as ever in his suit.
“I’d like to believe anyone would have done the same in my situation.”
“Whether that is true or false, all we can do as a people is to celebrate those that have stepped up in what could have been their last moments. I think I speak for all of us when we say that you Grevich Donovan embody the kind of person we all hope would end up being an adventurer. I’ll be putting your name forward for a sponsorship slot in the Trial System. Assuming Raidco’s Mastery doesn’t realize what kind of adventurer they already have in their midst.”
Ryan started clapping and hollering first.
“Yeah Grevich!”
Everyone joined in, cheering at the apparent hero of the hour. Grevich, startled saw him in the crowd. Ryan gave him a small genuine smile and nodded.
Grevich smiled back and nodded in return.
While the crowd was going wild, Ryan slipped back into it.
He turned on his phone to check out what exactly had happened. The security feed from Raidco’s Mastery had picked it all up and the video was on top of the trending list.
Purple flames rushing towards Grevich. A lone mortal running from fire that taunted him.
Grevich informing as many people as he could about the nature of the fire, telling them to die well instead of being cowards. Then running back into the fray.
Good.
Ryan finally decided to take stock of what the rest of the world thought of the disaster.
The news was still calling it a tragedy that could have been significantly worse. People were still calling it a disaster and demanding better security and monitoring of adventurers. Some groups were speculating about how all the property prices around system portals might plummet in value and various companies that would be impacted.
A classic.
He just sent messages back to his friends to tell them he was okay but didn’t call them.
After all, the threat was still there.
Ryan made his way to the system portal, taking in the experience, trying to see if he could have predicted this and what else he could have done to stop it.
The answer was there wasn’t really anything more he could have done.
He had evacuated his friends, he had notified Grettfield and tried to get adventurers as strong as they could be as quickly as he could. Without hindsight, he had made all the right decisions.
It wasn’t reasonable to have expected Pinkie to just appear like she did and cause chaos.
This time I just needed to be stronger, that was all.
That was what he felt as he passed Ineza the dragonslayer clearly doing a photo op while lifting heavy debris that didn’t really need to be lifted right now. She spotted him first and gave him a smile and he returned it with a fake one.
He continued forward.
The epicenter of the location was a mess. The giant dome that had housed the entrance to the system portal was completely gone, replaced by a large enchanted tent. Both civilian guards with rifles and ninth realms were posted outside of the tent, barring any entry.
Though one group was clearly more professional than the other.
The soldiers were standing upright while the ninth realms were lounging about, throwing stuff at each other to keep themselves entertained.
Ryan moved past the initial perimeter with just a bit of his aura. Though he had more trouble with the center.
A ninth realm that had been flirting with another ninth realm threw a knife at him without even looking. He rolled his eyes before staring at Ryan.
“Hey, area’s off limits for now. If you need to use the portal, you gotta sign up and get approval.”
“I’m not looking to use the portal. I’m looking for [Witch] Grettfield, is she around?”
The ninth realm scoffed.
“Heh! You and the rest of the world. Look, half the adventurers from this city know dragonslayer Grettfield and want to talk to her but guess what? You’re going to have to wait. If she hasn’t replied to you then you ain’t that important.”
“Huh, good point, I’ll go call Grettfield.”
The ninth realm scoffed again. “Good luck.”
The other ninth realm that had been flirting with the knife-thrower tilted her head at Ryan.
“Hey, ain’t you the loverboy, the guy that kissed Valee the spider?”
“Wait, is it? It is! Hah! Hey you gotta tell me have you done it with her yet? What’s she like?”
Fast as a flash, the female ninth realm took out a knife from her belt and stabbed the other one in the side, twice.
Ryan blinked as Grettfield picked up on the other end.
“Hey babe wait, it was a joke! Damn that stings, what did you lace the knife with?”
Grettfield must have heard that bit from the phone because there was a little annoyance in her voice.
“Hello Ryan, if this is a joke, I’m a little busy right now.”
“I’m waiting outside the tent and the uh, ninth realm guards aren’t letting me in. If you have time, we need to talk.”
The adventurer that had just been stabbed perked his ears as he picked up the conversation from the phone. He clearly recognized Grettfield’s voice. He looked at Ryan suspiciously, ignoring the bleeding wound on his side.
“Wait, that better not be a [Rogue] on the phone with a voice changing skill.”
“It isn’t.”
The voice came from behind the tent. It wasn’t Grettfield but a tall blonde woman wearing half melted armor. Seffara marched out of the tent as the guards all saluted her. The ninth realm also scrambled up and stood up straight, blood pouring down from his side.
Seffara didn’t even ask. She looked at Ryan tilted her head towards the tent.
“Come on, we’re just wrapping things up with the authorities, we should have time for you soon.”
Ryan walked past the flabbergasted ninth realm. He couldn’t help himself but give the bleeding dude a grin.
“Looks like I’m a little important enough after all.”
Of course the ninth realm guard had nothing to say to that one, at least not until Seffara was inside the magically encased tent.
He put his hands on his hips, still ignoring the blood that was pouring out from his side. He turned to his [Rogue] companion that had sidled next to him in confusion.
“You think if we kissed all dramatic-like that we’d be let into conversations with dragonslayers?”
The [Rogue] shrugged.
“Why don’t we give it a go?”
The military guards struggled to keep up their professionalism that day.
…
Ryan entered the tent and realized the space was warped to be significantly bigger on the inside. The exterior was still fabric of the tent but the inside had walls and doors that separated the various sections inside.
“How’s it going, Seff?”
“Annoying, I almost forgot how much of a pain dealing with the government is. I was glad for the excuse to leave.”
That was probably why they were walking so slowly through the tent.
“Why, what’s going on? Didn’t the president congratulate both of you on a job well done?”
“They say that shit publicly then privately tell us off. They’re saying we should have waited for orders, that they could have come up with better solutions even though…”
Seffara trailed off as two military men walked towards them. One of them was a decorated old man judging by the medals and the other… was an adventurer Ryan didn’t recognize. Ninth realm if he had to guess.
The old man seemed to recognize Ryan before they came across. Though he did greet Seffara first.
“Captain Seffara.”
“Ex-captain, General Vatner.”
“Well, I always disagreed with the way you were dismissed, it wasn’t a wonder we lost when we were willing to throw away good men and women for saying the right thing.”
General Vatner shook his head, then his eyes went back to Ryan. The General smiled widely at him.
“And if this isn’t the hot-blooded Ryan Robinson!”
The tone from an actual General was so friendly that it was jarring. Ryan tried not to blush as he realized what exactly it was the General recognized him from.
Vatner reached out for a handshake.
“General Vatner, young Robinson. I followed your findings on your Unified Trial Theory, fascinating stuff.”
Surprised, Ryan took the hand and shook it. He chuckled.
“Haha, I wish the rest of the world thought the same way.”
“Don’t worry about the rest of them. I’ve always said that good old American ingenuity needs to rustle some feathers. You’ve got a good head on your shoulders.”
“Thanks, any chance of an endorsement from the military?”
Vatner boomed a laugh.
“Hah! What do the kids say? I don’t want to make it so easy and ruin your achievements for you. I know you’re more than resourceful enough to find your own way.”
Ryan did not quite freeze at what the General had said.
“I’m not sure I know what you mean, General.”
General Vatner leaned in towards Ryan and whispered.
“I found out about that nasty business with your first Trial. Don’t worry, it’s been quashed and nobody will be bothering you about it. Hope you won’t look at all of the American government the same way like Seffara here does.”
Ryan paused for half a second before he laughed.
“Not at all General. It actually put me on the fast track to understanding the Trial System so it wasn’t all bad.”
The General let go of the hand and laughed. He looked at Seffara then pointed at Ryan and laughed.
“Can you believe this guy? If we had more adventurers like him back then, then I think we would have won that war.”
Seffara shook her head.
“If we had more kids like him the war would have never happened in the first place.”
Vatner just chuckled and shook his head.
“No Seffara, you are thinking about yourself.”
There was a bit of a pause as both Ryan and Seffara tried to understand what the General was implying. Though it didn’t seem like he wanted to elaborate.
“Well, we must be off, it does me good knowing that there are American adventurers like you in the future generation. Best of luck to both of you.”
Ryan and Seffara waited until the General was out of the tent to start talking again.
“Who is that guy?”
“General Vatner, came out of retirement when Gamar went mad and killed two of the other three-star Generals. He might not be an adventurer, but he’s a shark. Either way, it means the government’s out of the tent and we can head in.”
Apparently Seffara was really dragging her feet because she sped up until Ryan had to jog to keep up. They were at a large doorway in moments.
Seffara opened the door, leading to a plush room with a large table in the center. Chester was grumbling away in the corner, a waterskin suspended above, pouring down what looked like sparkling ink into its pages. It fluttered its pages up to acknowledge them then flopped back down so it could lazily drink the ink.
Four other dragonslayers were standing around a table. Grettfield, Ulhen the [Barbarian], Yomar the [Guardian] and… Neil Kelly, [Dragonslayer Warrior].
Ryan froze when he recognized that last one.
Apparently Seffara hadn’t really thought that one through because she flopped onto one of the beanbags and kicked up her feet.
“Fucking finally, thought those stuffy assholes would be here forever.”
Seffara took out a flask of what smelled like lemonade and started pouring the drink down her gullet.
Neil Kelly thumbed at Ryan standing in the doorway
“Who the hell is this? He ain’t another hidden dragonslayer is he?”
“Uh no, Ryan Robinson, sixth realm.”
Neil Kelly stared at him a little closer.
“Wait I know you, you’re the one that kissed Valee ain’t ya? Heh, small world, eh? She’s in the same team as my son!”
Seffara started choking on her drink as she realized what exactly she had done. Ryan, who was getting quite good at hiding his reactions, resisted the urge to facepalm.
“It really is a small world indeed haha…”
Ryan put another sin on top of the Manager’s head.
/////