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Chapter 16 - Ryan vs the first outpost
🕑 Added 2025-09-01 19:05:43 +0000 UTC- Somehow we have guides on guides on how someone can gain different classes in the first Trial. How is there not a real guide on how to get an S-grade achievement? @Ultear (Verified, R1)
-> That’s kinda the point, isn't it? If you get told step by step instructions on how to get an S-grade achievement, then it wouldn't really be an achievement anymore. Honestly, it's so easy these days that people are doing it left-handed. @Zahil (Unverified)
-> If it's so easy then what about those people that follow a guide and still die? @T'eara (Realmer)
-> Well you just call them losers. @Zahil (Unverified)
*A snippet from realmnet in 2019.
An elven [Mage] sighed and laid her cards down.
“Damn, I swear when I figure out how you’re cheating, you’re giving me my money back.”
“It’s just the luck of the draw, crycry.” her team [Rogue] said.
Cryvale was her adventuring name. She was a rare Destined, not that it had stopped the Skeleton Lord from literally tearing her apart. The next time she hadn’t just brought a pistol, but brought an assault rifle as well. The shock on the Skeleton Lord’s face was cathartic as she gunned it down. She shook her head
She still had nightmares. Cryvale had no desire to enter the next Trial, despite her proximity to it.
Her team had been employed to guard one of the Second Trial entrances. It was one of the most bum jobs you could get, really. It was less guarding the entrance, and more keeping it orderly for the teams that were attempting the Trial. The other adventurers here were either waiting for their schedule or trying to scout other teams. Her [Rogue] shifted and locked eyes with a figure walking down the road.
“Heads up, Cry.”
A [Rogue] in custom black leathers walked towards them. She tensed.
“Get in position.”
Rumors traveled far through realmnet. She had heard of the description of the supposed Trial one S-grade slaughtering his teammates. Cryvale had thought it bullshit at first. What sort of madman would become blacklisted right as they entered The Realm?
The madman walked calmly and confidently towards them. Like he hadn’t committed a crime. He waved at the other adventurers as her fingers twitched towards the firearm strapped to her thigh. The blacklister turned to her as he got within shouting range.
“Hello! Me and my team have gotten into trouble, and I need to report back to the Guild.”
He kept walking towards them while he spoke. His bearing wasn’t that of a guilty man, yet his bloody gear and shadowed hood shouted louder. Cryvale thought about it and signalled to her [Rogue] and [Warrior] companions. She let the blacklister get closer, her companions flanking her sides.
She put her hand up to tell the blacklister to stop. Her [Rogue] circling around to stop him from fleeing.
“Sure what’s the problem?”
“Well, a dragonslayer decided to fuck with our team, I just wanted to report it to the Guild.”
–
Somewhere far away, Gamielle started choking on her popcorn. The Witch Tyrant by her side stopped sipping her tea and raised an eyebrow. Her pinky twitched outwards, a hex ready to smite them all.
–
“That’s an absurd accusation. Why don’t you identify yourself first? I’ll hear your story and send it back.”
“Yeah, my adventurer's name is Artigan. I was on course for try-outs with Gamielle and Zedart. The dragonslayer—well I think they were a dragonslayer, had some form of puppetry magic…”
They were still tense and looking at Ryan with caution. The guardsman [Rogue] slowly walked a semicircle around him until he stood fifteen feed behind him. He tried to show that he wasn’t bothered, he put his hands up in a gesture of surrender.
“Look, I’ll disarm if it makes you feel better.”
The guardsman [Warrior] moved in front of the [Mage] as Ryan slowly started dropping all his weapons. First, loosening the strap of Zedart’s longsword and letting it drop to the ground. Then came the two swords at his waist. Finally, the pack of gear that clanged loudly as he dropped it on the ground.
The few nearby adventurers who had heard what he’d said, walked away and pretended that their ears didn’t work. Nobody wanted to get involved with meddling dragonslayers. Unfortunately for the guard team, they had no choice but to do their jobs.
“That’s a serious allegation, one well above my paygrade.” The elf [Mage] gulped. “Why didn’t you go to the fort or the city first?”
“Honestly? I was completely lost after using [Return to The Realm], I barely escaped an ambush with fourthers after the place blew up.”
The [Mage] tilted her head and frowned. Ryan’s words were the truth mixed with lies. No doubt she’d already received all the recent info from the nearby radio tower. He just had to muddy the waters and pretend to comply. The outpost team finally seemed to relax.
“Can you remove the hood?”
Ryan shifted a bit. He let some of the shadowed enchantment rise so that the guard could see more of his face. Then the rising enchantment stopped, and he shifted like he was uncomfortable. His upper face mostly shadowed as he met her eyes and shook his head. “Sorry, I think I’d like to keep my identity a secret until the mess is cleared.”
“That sounds… fair. Sorry to say, but you’ve been blacklisted. We’re going to have to take you in with cuffs.”
Ryan shrugged and put his hands out. “Sure, I trust the Guild.”
The [Mage] finally stopped twitching for her sidearm. The [Warrior] next to her took out thick titanium handcuffs and started approaching.
Fifteen feet, ten feet, eight feet—
Ryan in one smooth motion, swept up the longsword from the ground, and bolted forward. He swung.
The [Warrior] reactively tried to block the swing with the only thing he was holding. Ryan spun around him to change his trajectory and took a step to the [Warrior]’s side then [Instant Dodged] forward. Right towards the [Mage] elf.
She had let her guard down. Bad guards who had never needed to respond to an emergency in their entire careers.
The [Mage] was still an adventurer; she cast a localized barrier around her hand as his longsword swung wildly. Ryan just grinned as he recalled his soulweapon into his other hand. He summoned it pommel first and slammed it into her solar plexus.
She crumpled instantly. Elf plus [Mage], terribly fragile.
“Cryvale!” Two voices yelled from behind him.
He ignored them and ran forward to the Trial entrance. He’d lost his trial sword from that stunt, but it had been worth it. They hadn’t even told him to drop his belt pouch, where he’d stored his knives.
The remaining adventurers, who had mostly thought everything was fine, were too slow to react or were hesitating to act.
It didn’t matter, he felt like he could dodge them all.
That was when a [Warrior] by the side started fiddling with the safety of a pistol.
Ryan threw his soulbound sword first. He’d been aiming for the gun, but the sword wasn’t like his throwing knives. It wasn’t balanced, and he wasn’t practiced with throwing it.
The blade with the sharpened enchantment thrown with all his strength pierced the plate mail of the [Warrior] and jutted out of their chest.
The [Warrior] just looked dumbly at the sword in his chest. Ryan grit his teeth.
“Anybody who attacks me gets the same treatment!” He yelled.
The people here weren’t the best adventurers. They couldn’t compete with the teams back at the Guild, so they waited here, hoping to join a team that wanted extra people for a Trial that was scaled too highly.
They all looked at the supposed First Trial S-Grade [Rogue] and the path he tore through the Guild guards and stepped back in fear.
“You idiots! He’s just another first realm. Block him!” the outpost team’s [Rogue] had finally reached his downed [Mage]. He’d been mis-positioned by trying to stop Ryan from retreating.
Never had they thought he’d run forward instead.
It was too late, Ryan had already reached the portal, a circular gateway about fifteen feet wide. He looked at the glowing words on top and winced. Then dove in.
Realm Trial Capacity 0/6
–
Ten minutes later, two heavy-duty jeeps approached the Realm exit. They came at highway speeds on dirt roads. None of the occupants seemed particularly phased by how the vehicle was bouncing up and down, their heads simply bobbed in unison.
The trucks came to a pause in front of the outpost and a bear of a man stepped out. The vehicle wobbled to readjust to the sudden change in weight.
“Garbolt.” Cryvale nodded at him.
“Cryvale! Heard the S achiever messed you up. You should join our team. I’d protect you better than your friends here.”
Both of Cryvale’s team members glared at him. The elven [Mage] put up a hand to stop an argument.
“Are you sure you can deal with him? I heard he turned you down for a better team.”
Those words hurt. Still, he was glad he’d rejected the blacklister.
“Hah! A team killer that stabs people in the back is only a threat when they’re on your team.” He said, “or on people that let their guard down.” He looked down at Cryvale.
The elven [Mage] shook her head. “No excuses here. You’ve got the details?”
He laughed, “Sure, sure, don’t worry. This is perfect. We get to raise the Trial difficulty and make a name for ourselves.”
His team was the best team around. Not even Cryvale would deny that. If the [Rogue] had firearms he’d be more wary, but he hadn’t used one.
Garbolt smiled as he nodded at his team to turn on their bodycams. Recordings wouldn’t work when bosses were activated, but everywhere else? That was normally fair game. They’d make a show of this and post it all on realmnet. He almost couldn’t believe his luck.
“Ready, Storm Bears?”
“Aye!” His team chorused.
Garbolt led the heroic figure as his team members recorded his steps toward the portal. He turned around to look at the cameras. He pointed at the bodycams.
“Today we’re going to hunt the most evil first realm blacklister in the Guild’s history. He is a true villain. A dangerous S achiever and a team killer. He has taken the life of a talented adventurer, a child of dragonslayers! Zedart!” He boomed. “We hunt this monster for you!”
Oh yes. He was going to make his team famous and finally recruit a competent [Mage].
Garbolt Kingstrike turned around as he slowly marched into the Trial portal.
–
You could say a lot about the current generation of adventurers. People like Barry would tell you that the modern generation of adventurers were incompetent and incomparable to the Settler generation. The people more in tune with the generational changes like Gamielle would tell a different story. They would say that the average team of the current generation far outstripped the older generation’s competence.
Of course, what both would agree on was that the current generation had… issues.
Like a very decent realm two adventurer, marching into a trial, head-first, worrying more about his pose for a realmnet video than about the potential danger lurking behind the Trial.
–
Garbolt felt something shear through his plate mail and stab deep into his gut. He came face to face with the hooded villain. The blacklister bared his teeth in a bloodthirsty grin. Garbolt froze in shock and just kept blinking at the sinister smile.
He felt the blade slice out of his stomach as he watched dumbly. It felt like the monster was moving in slow motion as they booted Garbolt back out of the portal.
2/6
Garbolt Kingstrike went flying out of the trial portal. The bear of a man sprawling back and crashing into his teammates who were just about to enter.
“P-potion.”
He fumbled around his bag for a potion. He grabbed a bottle that had an “M label and poured it over his wound. It took over two-thirds of the potion before the wound fully closed.
He hid his face in embarrassment. Cryvale had immediately moved in, concern on her face but then scoffed once she saw he was alright.
“Indeed not much of a threat. Unless you have your guard down.”
Garbolt coughed but stood up quickly. He felt at his stomach and shook himself of the sudden mortal fear. It was fine. He would edit the footage later, and possibly bribe Cryvale into keeping quiet. She was a Destined working menial jobs after all.
“A cowardly surprise attack!” He boomed. “Formation Storm Rush, treat it as if we have no mid potion left.”
They moved like a well-oiled unit. Surprise or not, they had drilled the basics until it had become natural.
Garbolt and his [Warrior] ally raised their shields and leaped back in.
Capacity 6/6
Two large [Warriors] with relatively small shields, dove forwards into the portal. They kept the shields far in front, keeping the range advantage of their larger bodies. If the [Rogue] was waiting in front, they’d get their bones crushed.
They stormed the Trial and faced diagonally away from each other, their backs to each other as they shuffled forward. Clearing the path for their two [Rogues] to enter.
One [Rogue] came in, dashing low to the ground. The other barrel rolled into the space between the [Warriors] as they pointed their crossbow forwards, their head moving around at speed, scanning the room.
All of them scanned the room, their impeccable coordination and formation should have struck awe to any witnesses.
It was unfortunate there weren’t any.
They stood in awkward silence for a few more seconds.
The Blacklister had already gone deeper into the Trial.
