This time, Ryan paid more attention with [Conceptual Meditation] as he replaced his [Rebellious] title with the [Strongest of the Fifth Realm] one.
The bonuses added on top of each other and were weird to say the least. He could feel the concepts surrounding him shift from being defiant to… Power? Might? It was difficult to tell because unlike classes, it wasn’t really… anchored to anything. It was more like it was just floating there, around him instead of within him.
Why does it make me stronger?
Classes making you stronger made sense. The concepts surrounded your aura—or rather your soul, and directly interacted with the rest of the body. Whenever you used a skill, it filtered through the class, enhancing the skill. Meanwhile it would influence the rest of your body as well, changing it over time to naturally suit the concepts of your class.
But the title?
That was external and far, far outside of his body. It constantly surrounded him, but it wasn’t something he could necessarily interact with.
Something halfway between a passive skill and a class.
I wonder if there’s something I can do with that.
It was said that the Passive Tyrant had managed to internalize a title, but Ryan really didn’t understand how it was possible. No matter what he did, he couldn’t influence the concepts of the titles that surrounded him. While he didn’t doubt the Passive Tyrant’s claims, he was getting the feeling that anyone else that had claimed to have done so was a complete liar.
Ryan deactivated [Conceptual Meditation] and shook his head. This wasn’t the first time he had tried to figure it out and he doubted he was going to get there anytime soon.
Ryan turned to Gamielle.
“I still can’t believe that wasn’t enough for the undisputed version.”
She rolled her eyes. “I still can’t believe you got that one at realm four. I’d argue to the Trial System that I was stronger than you back then.”
“You? What about the Passive Tyrant—”
Ryan trailed off as he realized what she meant.
“You’re trying to say you got the undisputed title?”
As far as Ryan knew, only three people had that title. The Passive Tyrant, the Chieftain Tyrant and him. Maybe One-Eyed Rick had one but Ryan had only witnessed the [Apex of The Realm] title for him.
Gamielle stared at her nails, trying to be casual about the fact that she was in that exclusive club.
“I got them from realms one to three. Mom said I was probably stronger than Auntie Ayla at realm four, but it’d be a draining battle.”
Ryan side-eyed her, doubting her words.
It was obvious to anyone that Gamielle had to have been a genius. But everyone still believed that only the Passive Tyrant and Chieftain Tyrant held those titles. To find out that she held them as a [Mage] in the lower realms was… a little suspicious to say the very least.
Gamielle scoffed at the non-believer.
“I had a mana core before I entered the Trials. I walked into my first couple trials with spells fourthers couldn’t cast.”
“You had a mana core before you were born? How does that work?”
“Beats me. I don’t understand how people function without a mana core. I used to grow up thinking everyone around me was disabled.”
Ryan couldn’t help but laugh.
“I can imagine it now, a young Gamielle floating over everyone, looking down on them, wondering why they can’t use mana.”
Gamielle looked like she wanted to deny it, until she realized she’d been doing just that for the entire time she’d been hanging around him. She flushed.
“It’s not my fault you idiots can’t see and interact with mana unless you pick the [Mage] class. Honestly, I don’t know how people live without it. Don’t you feel like something is missing when you’re back on Earth without mana surrounding you?”
“There’s the Tyrant’s daughter with a silver spoon in her mouth. Actually, I think silver spoon doesn’t even cover how ridiculous that is.” Ryan shook his head, then he thought about it. “Actually… eighteen years with a mana core and the Witch Tyrant for a parent and you couldn’t even get the undisputed title for the fourth realm? I guess what they say is true, hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”
Gamielle looked annoyed with him for a moment, then she scoffed.
“I dare you to say that around my mom. I worked so hard she was running around losing her hair trying to keep me contained. The only reason why I don’t have more of the undisputed titles was because there was a monster that came before me that broke all common sense. Auntie Ayla is just stupidly overpowered. Good luck catching up to her.”
Ryan stood there, in the aftermath of his attack. Luneia might have demolished all the buildings around, but Ryan had basically blown away a good eighty percent of the rubble with his one swing. The land was effectively cleared in one blow.
“Could the Passive Tyrant really have blocked my attack?”
He remembered how One-Eyed Rick had looked when the Passive Tyrant had smashed her forehead against his magic.
Gamielle just shrugged.
“Who knows? She might have dodged and then beat you up when your skill finished. That’s the problem. The world has to acknowledge that you could—without a doubt, clearly be able to beat her when she was in the fifth realm. It’s unfortunately a higher bar than just being likely to beat her in a fight.”
Ryan still had the image of the Passive Tyrant standing in front of Pinkie burned into his mind. Zero care about politics, the rest of the world or even the Witch Tyrant. Now he was starting to doubt himself.
And that said it all really.
“That’s a ridiculously high bar to clear.”
“You don’t even know the half of it. The Trial System descended on Earth because she was the one it had detected. If you’re looking for someone that was born with a silver spoon in terms of talent…”
Gamielle shook her head as that nugget of information was revealed to Ryan for the first time.
“She grows exponentially at each realm grade. Even continuously getting S and S+ achievements at each realm grade wasn’t enough for me. You’re doing well but I don’t think even you will be able to get the undisputed version ever again.”
“Seems like a bad person to make your enemy. What’s your mom thinking anyway? Picking a fight with the Passive Tyrant and getting quarantined.”
Gamielle had been in no mood to answer any of his questions right after it had happened. Though now that some time had passed…
She stared out in the distance. An armored Luneia was limping back towards them, her chestplate was cracked, revealing the tougher undamaged monster material underneath.
“If I had to guess? My mom’s doing what she’s always done. Use Auntie Ayla to boost her own achievements and understanding. She probably expects that a decade or two will be enough to calm her friend down for the fifteenth Trial.”
Damn. That was a good way to train things.
“Wouldn’t two Passive Tyrants have been better for the fifteenth Trial?”
For a moment, he had believed that maybe the Witch Tyrant with two Legends might have been stronger than the Passive Tryant and that was why she had transformed Pinkie. After he saw the video with a clear beat-down he knew that was wrong and it became a problem.
“But it wouldn’t be better to break open the Trial System and take my soul away from it.”
“Ah.”
Plan A. To damage the Trial System and get the original Gamielle’s soul back. Ryan wasn’t sure exactly how she was planning on doing that, but the Witch Tyrant must have assessed that two of her would be better at it than two Passive Tyrants.
Now it makes sense.
By the time Luneia reached them, she was no longer limping. It seemed that [Remembrance of the Fallen] could actually return someone from a pasted state.
She readied her lance, the outer layer had broken to reveal a bone that was giving off the presence equivalent to a weaker dragonslayer. That was probably the trick. All of her gear was made with material from monsters in high sectors with a metallic layer of highly functional enchantments on top. If Ryan had done as he did the last time and chipped away at her enchantments thinking he could break her lance…
Then he would have been in for a nasty surprise.
Not that it mattered when Ryan had chosen not to engage with someone so thoroughly prepared.
Luneia, despite her tricks being shown, did not seem undeterred in the very least.
“Come at me, fiend! We’re not done yet.”
Ryan waved her off.
“I already got the title Luneia. Turns out I don’t need to figure out how to kill you permanently for the [Strongest] title..”
You could see [The Knight] visibly sag at that… then came the denial.
“You lie! Don’t think I’ll be tricked.”
Ryan turned to the floating Gamielle that was looking down on both of the non-magic users. She wouldn’t have been visible and hanging near them if it wasn’t actually over. Gamielle raised an arch eyebrow at [The Knight] and Luneia got to one knee.
“I’m sorry Lady Gamielle. I have failed you.”
Ryan turned to Gamielle with a raised eyebrow. Had they worked together to try to beat him or something? Gamielle raised an eyebrow as well, confused.
“I didn’t want or expect you to win, remember?”
But [The Knight] was too distraught in her failings to listen.
“Lady, Gamielle, you must understand, you saw him flirting with me. He is no good.”
“Wait? I was flirting?”
“He is a dastardly devil that will—”
“Okay, that’s enough out of you.”
Gamielle clapped her hands and Luneia collapsed—or rather her armor did. Ryan stared at the pile of gear that was on the ground.
“Did you just… kill her?”
“No, I just banished her. I can bring her back whenever, see?”
When Gamielle separated her hands a golden leaf appeared and started to float gently to the ground. When it landed, it turned into a naked woman’s form. Luneia—denuded of her gear and clothes.
Both Ryan and Gamielle’s eyes went wide.
“Whoops. Shit, I need to get a better handle on that now my mom’s quarantined. Hey, look away you pervert!”
For some reason it was his fault he was looking at an incredibly fit naked adventurer that someone else had accidentally summoned. Ryan coughed and turned around. He tried to think of a more suitable topic.
“Wait, that quarantine thing the Tyrants released is real?”
He had believed that the whole thing was a farce. That the Witch Tyrant was just playing tricks with the public.
“You can turn around now. And yes, the quarantine’s actually real. Both Uncle Paul and Auntie Ayla will be rotating their watch on her. At the very least, Auntie Ayla will be able to detect her when she does something… though it’s not as good as you might be thinking.”
“We still have to deal with anything she’s already put in motion. Yeah, got it. Still, that’s pretty insane. This must be backup plan number one hundred or something.”
“Definitely. There was no way that Lich King was supposed to be taken care of so quickly.”
“That’s a relief.”
At this point Luneia was dressed in loose fitting casual clothes that did not show off a single bit of her body. Which was weird because she didn’t look embarrassed he had seen her naked, just still very angry that she had lost.
She stormed back towards her fallen gear when Ryan stepped in front of her. She glared up at him.
“You would fight me when I’m unarmed? How fitting of someone with classes like yours.”
“Hey, it’s already game set and match, I’ve already won.”
“I could have kept going. I did not have the opportunity to use my backup gear.”
“That’s tough. You don’t get your safety life back just because you failed to use an emergency escape. You lost.”
Luneia sniffed, annoyed by the whole thing.
“Why did you not use that from the very start?”
“What’s there to learn from using overwhelming force? I have to admit, I learned a lot from you. About classes, skills and unity.” Ryan emphasized the word to annoy her further. “Stop being a sore loser and admit you lost.”
Luneia grinded her teeth.
“Fine. You win.”
Luneia tried to walk around him to grab her gear. Ryan once again blocked her way. She glared at him again.
“Move.”
“You lost. That was pretty much a deathmatch, that means I keep all your loot.”
“That’s preposterous. Neither of us are dead.”
“You’re trying to tell me that you didn’t loot the gear of any adventurer you killed?”
“I honor the dead, unlike you apparently.”
“Oh yeah? What about those that you didn’t approve of?”
Luneia opened her mouth, then closed it again. There was no doubt in Ryan’s mind that Luneia would have taken all of his stuff and sold it if she killed him. Luneia started blinking, perhaps realizing there was something worse than just getting pasted in her armor and losing to him.
It was losing decades worth of accumulated custom-made equipment.
[The Knight] turned desperately to her lady.
“Is this really how this miscreant operates? He uses excessive gear for his realm? Surely this is the wrong attitude for someone who’s trying to get stronger?.”
Luneia was trying to appeal to Gamielle’s good graces. Unfortunately for her, Luneia didn’t realize that Gamielle couldn’t actually beat him in a leveled zone.
Ryan spoke before Gamielle could think of an answer.
“He is right here. And this was a fight between us. I’m not sure why you’re asking Gamielle about this.”
“I—I was requested to fight you. The Witch Tyrant told me I should come here and test you.”
[The Knight] was trying to justify her actions in a desperate bid to save her gear. Ryan just shook his head.
“You’re really not helping your case here. Does following orders mean you’re free from consequences?”
Now Luneia was really sweating. Even Gamielle had some pity for the adventurer that was about to lose decades of work.
“I mean she does have a point, Ryan. You taking all her stuff and using it is going to damage your achievements. Unless you’re going to sell it all… in which case you’re going to have to find a buyer and explain how you ended up with all this custom-made stuff in the first place.”
Ryan grinned at both of them.
“Nice of you both to worry about my achievements bu other than the bag of holding, I’m not going to be selling it or using any of this.”
Ryan was actually really excited for the dimensional bag, he could finally stop lugging around a massive backpack everywhere and dropping it somewhere safe before he went and fought.
Gamielle seemed to believe she understood what he was thinking.
“Ah the Unwanted? I don’t know if they can use any of that. I’m pretty sure most of Luneia’s gear is initialed as well so it’ll leave questions if they can sell it.”
The more they tried to argue with him, the wider his grin got.
“Nah. The Unwanted should be fine after accessing their own treasure vault. No, this is for the Kingdom of Valmere.”
“Are you out of your mind?”
——
And that was how Ryan stepped up to the sixth Trial. A huge sack with all of Luneia’s worn gear, a simplistic pouch of holding that could store ten cubic feet of stuff. Which was very nice because enchanted gear actually took more dimensional space than regular gear.
No emergency escapes though. Apparently, Luneia didn’t stock anything for emergencies because… well she couldn’t die.
One thing Luneia hadn’t mentioned was that Luneia had a metric ton of enchanted gear inside the pouch. It was basically an armory from an obsessed, rich [Knight] that cared only about equipment.
In other words, it was perfect for his plan.
All he had to do was tell Gamielle that he would only tell her of his plan after he succeeded, and that had been enough to sway her.
It was quite unorthodox.
Most adventurers took things out of the Trials. Equipment, gear, knowledge.
Ryan was bringing stuff in.
Before he entered he checked his updated skill notifications. He hadn’t had time or the mental capacity to check it since the first fight had started.
Epic:
[Resource Overdrive: Aura]: Level 11 → 13
[Conceptual Meditation]: Level 2 → 6
[Unrelenting Aura of Intimidation]: Level 8 → 12
[Arcane Volatility]: Level 12 → 15
[Aura Command]: Level 10 → 13
[Manabane Strike]: Level 2 → 4
Rare Skills:
[Hastened]: Level 14 → 17
[Spellweave Perception]: Level 6 → 10
[Aura Detection: Fear]: level 11 → 14
[Dangersense]: level 24 → max
They were more levels than he’d expected from a fight like this. Yes, it had been for the strongest title but it was still more than it should have been. For the Epics especially.
Was that because of Unity?
[Conceptual Meditation] told him yes. He was gaining more optimized benefits from the way the Trial System was managing achievements because his concepts were more efficient.
More things to share with the rest of the world.
With that… Ryan stepped forward.
…
Instantiating Sixth Trial for Trialist…
>>> Initializing Input Sequence
Retrieving data: Historical achievements, real time achievements, skills…
Cross-referencing designated realm grade standards…
Matching class attributes.
Indexing…
>>> Repopulating Soul Projections
Accelerating timeframe to realm five standards…
…Unsuitable challenges found within the timeframe.
Target capacity for class/realm achievements remains available.
>>> Conflict induction
Nudging conflict…
…Failed to cause conflict in a natural manner in fifty attempts.
>>> Rebalancing
Calculating cost-benefit analysis of unnatural conflict injection.
Trialist achievement integrity degradation: 22.21-38.5%
Acceptable given quality of class.
Enforcing unnatural conflicts...
…
…
Unable to enforce conflict…?
Rehecking all parameters….
Anomaly found.
Designation: King Theskar Deu Jallinmar.
Unable to remove without excess achievement integrity degradation.
Warning sent.
Warning ignored.
Administrator and Moderators not in local designations... pinging the Overseer.
...
The Manager stared at the newest mess Ryan had caused. Then it turned to the scene where Ryan was grinning with a huge sack of loot on his back.
The entity came to a decision.
/////
And we're diving into the sixth Trial.
Tough chapter. Sorry it took so long.
Also, I think I'll be reducing chapters to 3-4 a week on RR for a couple weeks and aim for 4-5 chapters for patreon. I've fallen behind and definitely need to treat you all better, but I just can't seem to write more than 5 chapters a week.
Also no breaks despite book 4 ending because I don't think they actually helped me all that much. If anything, getting back into the swing of things is sorta messy and takes another day off.
Weekends are enough I think.