When Ryan appeared in a neat forest in the sixth Trial, the first thing he did was not to check his notifications or look out towards the unnatural spotlights in the distance.
The first thing he did was to throw down the sack of gear onto the ground. He unclasped the pouch of holding until the lip expanded beyond any reasonable size and rummaged inside.
He took out the bag he had gotten from the Kingdom of Valmere and almost tore it open looking for the objects he had hidden within.
In the center, wrapped around the Valmere branded underwear, were glittering crystals in various shades of red.
Class crystals.
Ryan took one in his right hand and—
[Class Change: Adventurer’s Guide]
He shuddered.
He felt the way the class shifted, the class of the [Conceptual Metamorph] changing from the [Veilpiercer Assassin] to the [Adventurer’s Guide]. It was like putting on a colored lens except if those lenses changed the way you moved as well. It changed things.
For others it would have been subtle and nonexistent… for the [Conceptual Metamorph]?
The only way Ryan could explain it was a [Swordsman] being forced to use a mace. Sure they could do it, but it would never be as comfortable as a sword in hand.
That was what it was like.
So this is what the Conceptual Metamorph meant.
The class had given him a warning back when he first picked it. That the class would need him to master multiple different perspectives and that when he tried, he might not be able to move on.
The worst part?
Despite knowing all of that, Ryan was tempted to throw everything else away for this class right now.
You had to remember, his mind only saw solutions to problems. His mind raced ahead, trying to come up with justifications as to why he should keep the class and damn the rest.
The Witch is under quarantine, there’s talented adventurers out there, there’s dragonslayers and Seffara. I could teach them, there’s so much potential wasted. Wouldn’t ten dragonslayers at the peak being boosted be more effective in the long run?
His mind then went over to the way he taught the adventurers back in Raidco’s Mastery. He always did wonder what the [Adventurer’s Guide] thought of how he did things.
I needed to make things a challenge. That was my mistake when I shared everything with the rest of the world. I need to make it their achievements, not just mine. That would maximize long term potential.
The Adventurer’s Guide wasn’t about being in the forefront and taking credit over everything.
These were some of the conclusions he’d come to on his own already. Perhaps it was simply placebo but these conclusions felt better than they previously did.
It was only after a full five minutes of experiencing the gloriousness that was the [Adventurer’s Guide] that he bothered to check his notifications.
Trial Quest updated.
It has been fifteen years since King Theskar has abdicated his throne, unrest and change has finally started to come to the Kingdom of Valmere. You are the [Conceptual Metamorph], find ways to influence the kingdom with at least two of your Epic classes.
Trial Completion Conditions:
???
Capacity: Unique. Due to extenuating conditions, no other Trialist may enter this Trial.
It wasn’t the first time Ryan had heard of capacity being limited like this. What was surprising was that Theskar had abdicated the throne.
That didn’t sound like the old king at all.
He took stock, packed up Luneia’s gear again and jumped to the top of the trees. It was the dead of night but the stars weren’t out. They had been drowned out by whatever was lighting up the sky from afar.
When he saw what was causing the light pollution Ryan’s mind blanked out for a second.
For a moment, Ryan thought he was back in The Realm.
A grand city that could rival the likes of Ulverra was off in the distance. There were skyscrapers that reached high into the sky. Multicolored lights that shone in the night. Multiple layers of enchanted walls that pulsed with power.
Outside of the city walls was a vast farmland with varying amounts of real labor and magical machinery working within.
The only thing that he recognized was the spire of the central palace of King Theskar.
This was the capital of Valmere. Almost as grand as Ulverra, the greatest city in The Realm.
There were even adventurers flying in the sky. Ryan blinked as one such human noticed his gaze. They turned around to look right at him and paused in midair.
Shit, my fear passive.
A probing presence washed over him from miles away.
Realm nine. Probably equivalent to an eighth realm in strength if you compared it to adventurers in The Realm.
Or in other words, someone Ryan couldn’t beat, even at his strongest. He waved towards them, acting casual and friendly, jumping from tree to tree in a slow non-offending manner.
It wasn’t good enough.
The ninth realm started to signal for others and a full squad of four evolved adventurers started to fly towards him.
How long was the timeskip?
There were far, far too many evolved adventurers. In the fifth Trial most adventurers still had to be careful around capital cities.
By the sixth Trial, you were the one that was supposed to be throwing your weight around, surpassing kingdoms as a individuals. Ryan had done that in his previous Trial and had been expecting to do the same again.
Apparently the Kingdom of Valmere hadn’t gotten that message because there was zero chance Ryan could throw his weight around if these were just the adventurers casually flying in the city.
Worst of all, he hadn’t removed the Artigan mask.
The ninth realm flew at him. The human man had a hand on the pommel of his sword and had a diamond badge on his leather chest. The others were catching up and had gold badges attached to different parts of their gear.
Off in the distance, the walls of the city whirred to life as a damned turret rose from a hatch and pointed at him. They looked like the mana cannon he had left behind—except much, much larger.
It made his [Dangersense] tingle.
Holy shit, Theskar has been busy.
It was still far too much progress for what little time normally passed. The highest confirmed timeskip for the sixth Trial was forty-two years. This… could not have been only forty-two years.
The ninth realm hovered over him.
“Identify yourself, elf, and turn off that aura.”
“I—uh can’t. It’s a bit of a curse.”
The gold rankers caught up to them and Ryan was practically surrounded and outgunned. All of them had enchanted gear on, though he did note that not everything they wore was enchanted. Just two or three pieces.
One of the golden badges glanced at the elf with the golden badge. Then he snickered.
“Another elf popping out of the woods with weird abilities? I thought we were all done with those. This one doesn’t even look that old.”
The female elf with the golden badge shook her head.
“Evolved, feels like he’s a seventh realm with weird skills. This one might have gotten strong early. Don’t let your guard down Revil, you know what happened to Lukar.”
“Eh, then why’s he got silver hair? I think this one’s a poser.”
The diamond ranker seemed to have enough of the banter.
“Silence. Elf, identify yourself.”
None of them recognized him and he didn’t recognize any of them. Ryan had gone through the entire kingdom’s list of high potential candidates when he was looking for a guildmaster. The only way both parties didn’t recognize each other was if multiple generations had passed.
“My name is Ryan.”
“Is that all?”
“Uh, yeah. That’s my name.”
The elven woman rolled her eyes.
“I call dragonshit, what kind of elf names their kid Ryan?”
Well now, Ryan was offended.
“An elf parent that doesn’t want to call their child ‘he who prances in meadows’ in the modern era?”
Revil laughed.
“He’s got you there Yul. What does your full name mean again?”
“Shut up! You just don’t understand our culture.”
These guys were good. That was of course, assuming they were trying to pump him for information and not actually being stupid. They tried to give him an easy way out with the old ‘random elf popping out of seclusion’ thing but this close to the capital?
Taking that route would have been a trap.
He did confirm with them that he was a modern elf, however. Actually, it might have been the other way round. These guys sounded unnervingly modern compared to any of the Trials he’d been in.
The ninth realm seemed to pick up on the fact that he knew they were interrogating him.
“So, just Ryan, why have none of us heard of you before and why do you smell of blood?”
“It’s a, uh, big and dangerous world?”
“This close to the capital?”
They weren’t even saying the kingdom’s name in case he didn’t know it.
“I got teleported. Look, I know I sound real suspicious right now—”
Revil shrugged.
“Oh no, not at all. A silver haired elf nobody’s ever heard of, with aura that makes our skin crawl, appearing out of nowhere with a sack full of magical gear that holds as much presence as a dragon’s ballsack, that doesn’t understand anything about traditional protocol. Totally not suspicious at all.”
Apparently they decided to cut to the chase. They all took formation. Ryan raised his hands in supplication.
“Wait, Miles Knightly! Fetters wait—her real name’s Fetterue Tersa or Rhinestone Hayvas. One of them still has to be around. They can vouch for me.”
Ryan explicitly left out Vedit because he had a feeling that the old right hand man of the King would absolutely cause trouble with him if he could… actually… now that he thought about it, there was a good chance that every single one of King Theskar’s confidants would be holding a grudge.
Ryan had disrespected their King multiple times, bullied them in combat and with his wits and all of them could do nothing but grind their teeth and bear it.
Maybe his backup plan wasn’t such a good one after all.
They all looked at him suspiciously, though more uncertain than before.
Revil shook his head.
“The original Heroic Ranks? Now he’s trying to play the old elf thing again.”
“Still, a little stupid to be bringing up unless he’s sure they’ll vouch for him.”
“Or he’s just trying to make us look bad in front of them.”
“Okay, enough. We can contact Fetterue Tersa, but before we let you meet anyone we’re going to have to see what you’re carrying.”
Ryan breathed a sigh of relief. He cleared his throat as he dropped to the ground and began to unpack.
“Well, all of this is my gift to the Kingdom of Valmere. Most of it is enchanted gear that is custom made for a [Warrior]. You’ll note that unlike most of your gear, this one’s been made synergistically so you could have five enchantments at once, though currenty the chestplate is heavily damaged…”
Ryan trailed off as he realized his mistake. Luneia had gotten pasted when he hit her with all of his might. That meant more than a little blood had caked the inside of the armor.
Now, he wasn’t a complete savage, he did clean some of the worst bits of offending gore and blood out. But he had done it as more of a show to taunt Luneia while he waited for his cooldowns.
He hadn’t actually cleaned all of it.
In other words, there was still lots of blood caking the inside of the gear.
All of them took one look at the gear, the traces of immense aura and red crystals on it and had their weapons out and on the ready.
Ryan raised his hands once again.
“Wait, I can explain.”
Then he realized, no, he couldn’t explain how he hadn’t actually killed an evolved adventurer and took their stuff because it was a deathmatch against a Fallen that was functionally immortal.
——
“I’m innocent I tell ya! Innocent!”
Artigan, the new rising terror of The Realm, the destroyer of Lazhen, the defier of the Witch Tyrant, the dastardly monster with a two hundred and thirty seven million dollar bounty had finally been caught.
He was currently in a magical jail cell, completely stripped of all of his gear, the ninth realm diamond badge watching over him because they realized his volatile mana could break out.
No matter what Ryan said, they didn’t believe him. He put his right hand on the jail cell, careful not to mess with the enchantments with his left hand.
“You know what really grinds my gears?”
“What is it, Artigan?”
Ryan’s jaw dropped.
“You fucking knew who I was! All of you all did!”
The diamond ranker shook his head.
“The others didn’t know. It’s been quite some time since you were last here. People have forgotten your promises. Most think you died.”
“How… how long has it been?”
“Ninety-six years by my reckoning.”
“Well… shit. There was no way to prepare for that one.”
That was more than double the previous record for a time skip for the sixth Trial. At least Ryan was confident he wasn’t going to have to fight his way out of this one.
“Indeed. Sorry for interrupting you. What is annoying you?”
“Whose idea was it to make heroic rank above diamond anyway?”
Out of everything, that was what was really getting to him. This whole world was something out of a fairytale that Ryan could only dream of. Powerful intelligent adventurers that were both relaxed, competent and ready to take action. It was like an idealized world post tenth trial time skip.
The only real complaint Ryan had so far was that someone, somewhere had decided ‘hero’ was a good rank for the top level of adventurers.
The diamond ranker just chuckled.
“You are exactly as he has described.”
Ryan punched the metal bars.
“It was Miles wasn’t it? That rat bastard always thought he knew better.”
“Miles Knightly passed away in the battle of Weltres. Poisoned by cave horrors that rose from the depths to infect the land.”
“Oh. Shit.”
That was supposed to be an actual sixth realm mission. Ryan felt a little bad about mocking the dead. He took a three second moment of silence for Miles.
Then he moved on.
“Was it Verdit? No, he wasn’t that creative. Hmm, none of them other than Miles would do it.”
“It is none of the original confidants. They were given the heroic rank afterwards as a matter of respect to their deeds because of might. None of them other than Fetterue is likely to ascend.”
Which meant that heroic rank was reserved for ascended beings. In other words, dragonslayers… the kingdom of Valmere had dragonslayers already.
Ryan leaned back. That… changed everything.
The diamond ranker must have believed Ryan was still thinking about who could have put heroic rank into the adventurer’s ranking system because he tried to give a hint.
“I will say, you do know who they are. They specifically picked heroic rank just to spite you.”
Ryan turned instantly hostile once again. He slammed on the bars.
“What?! Who?!”
The diamond ranker was enjoying this.
“I’ll let you figure it out. Don’t worry, my ascended teacher will be quite happy to meet you.”
Ominous words aside, Ryan tried to think of the person who would be so petty enough to overhaul the entirety of the guild’s ranking system to spite him. Someone who could have ascended before the confidants.
It took less than five minutes for him to figure it out.
Who had been with him when he went on rants about how heroes were terrible for society? Who had been with him the entire time and was in a prime position to take advantage of all of the new learnings right off the bat?
“It’s that damned brat, Agrinth isn’t it?!”
“It’s guildmaster Agrinth Deu Jalinmar. The adopted child of King Theskar Deu Jalinmar. The great hero of the Kingdom of Valmere.”
It turned out that Ryan’s greatest hater was not the Manager, it was not the Witch Tyrant, it was not the thousands of Realmnet denizens that typed hateful things about him everyday.
Ryan’s greatest hater was the demon child that had never forgotten what he had done.
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This was such a fun chapter to write, hope you enjoyed it.