At this point Ryan fully expected to get ambushed whenever he used [Return to Earth]. This time didn’t disappoint either. Though he wasn’t expecting to get kidnapped from half a state away. Somehow his body had been transported from Milock’s room in Los Angeles all the way to Seffara’s dining room, in her estate near San Jose.

  Milock and Clara were by his side, staring hard at the table while a furious Seffara loomed over them all.

  Surely Seffara hadn’t snuck them all through the airport? Had she run through half a state with a truck over her head again?

  “Something funny?”

  “No ma’am.”

  “Funny, cause it seems like you’re laughing after destroying an entire damned town.”

  Ryan desperately bit back a joke. He didn’t need [Dangersense] to know that Seffara was seriously pissed this time.

  He still rubbed at his face, just to make sure. Nothing rubbed off on his fingers, apparently they hadn’t drawn dicks on his face this time. It was a bad move.

  “Do you really think now is the time to be checking for pranks? After what you did?”

  ‘Yes’ was definitely not the right answer here.

  “And you,” Seffara pointed an armored finger at Milock, “you were supposed to tell us the moment this dumbass tried to go back into The Realm.”

  Milock crossed his arms in brave defiance.

  “I’m not snitching on my friend, I think Ryan’s doing the right thing.”

  Seffara’s eye twitched. A blood vessel was rapidly becoming more visible on the side of her forehead.

  Ryan lightly kicked his friend in the shin. Now was not the time to be a ride or die friend. Now was the time to trip your friend in front of an emerald ragebear and save yourself.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Milock gave the least convincing apology Ryan had ever heard someone give, and he’d apologized to Gamielle before.

  Barry turned to Clara. Possibly trying to save Milo from getting a beating from a ninth realm adventurer. Or to stop Seffara from bursting a blood vessel.

  The orc looked disappointed at the girl.

  “I thought you’d know better than this. You should have told us the moment you found out.”

  Clara threw her hands up.

  “What? I don’t know what I’m doing. Ryan’s very convincing when he wants to be.”

  Clara was quite adept at throwing him under the bus when it came to taking responsibility. Barry stared harder at the girl, not impressed with her blaming someone else. Seffara latched onto that comment.

  “Ryan managed to convince both of you that destroying an entire town and putting hundreds of civilians at risk was a good idea?”

  “I–ask Ryan! Let him explain.”

  “Smooth.”

  Clara turned on him.

  “Shut up, this is all your fault. You should have just told them what you were doing before you did it.”

  Ryan tried not to roll his eyes, Clara had the look of a perfectly exasperated girl that didn’t know what was going on. Ryan stared right back at the orc, distinctly avoiding Seffara’s death glare. The old orc was pissed.

  The [Rogue] put his hands out in supplication.

  “After you guys kicked me out, I went back and did some research on the adventurers in the third realm. During that time I realized something. You were right Barry.”

  Barry blinked. Whatever the orc had expected, it sure as hell wasn’t that.

  “I looking for another fight the moment I left the third Trial. If I went and fought the adventurers directly. I would’ve ended up killing them and it probably would have sent me on a bad path.”

  Ryan shuddered as he remembered the feeling of forcing his realm evolution on his aura alone. What a terrible idea that had been.

  “I grew up loving adventurers, actually, I still love them now. They can kill everyone around them but they also go out of their way to be stupid and silly. Maybe it’s an act to pretend to be more sociable and get more followers, but I think for a lot of them, it’s who they are. They grew up around it,grew up around it and it’s become part of who we are.”

  Barry’s eyes were intense as they evaluated him. Seffara was less convinced.

  “You got seven adventurers killed, an entire town was almost wiped out.”

  Seffara sounded like she was trying to convince herself whether or not to turn Ryan in.

  He nodded, completely aware of what he’d done.

  “Doing nothing doesn’t solve the problem of what happens when the Trial System disappears. More importantly, it doesn’t solve what the Witch Tyrant wanted for the world. She wants to burn down both worlds just to find the few exceptional people that can complete the Trials. Everything, down to the blacklisting of dragonslayers, maybe even the assault on the Tyrants was planned by her.”

  Ryan took a breath as he let his words sink in.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “I attacked Lazhen to help adventurers increase their achievements. Yes, more adventurers died than I wanted. But the risk and decisions have to be real. You should have seen it. They fought until the last moment. They prioritized Realmer lives over anything else. Zedart and Valee could probably go toe to toe with the strongest third realms in history. I’d bet anything that [Savant Mage] earns himself a nice Rare, maybe even an Epic for his contributions.”

  Ryan’s eyes shone as he talked about the potential growth of the adventurers in Lazhen. He wasn’t trying to justify the dead adventurers. That would be hypocritical considering how much he hated what the Witch Tyrant had done to him.

  But he’d found his path, and it felt glorious.

  Seffara gave a side glance to Barry. The orc just shrugged lightly.

  “We’ve seen what you did. Your video was already posted.”

  “Wait what? I didn’t post anything.”

  He had spent half a day looking for a cave to get away from that stupid blue bird. There hadn’t been time to post his recording nor had he figured out how exactly he was going to do it either. Posting through Felsley’s phone was a silly idea because they might start using it to track him when he was near the radio towers.

  Milock left the silence bubble and reentered with a brand new laptop. It was likely Seffara’s replacement for the Secretary’s laptop.

  The video was titled the ‘Siege of Lazhen’ and posted by a certain ‘Gamgam123’.

  It was already trending across both worlds.

  The video started with Ryan’s perspective that he recorded on Felsley’s phone. His grandstanding and great taunt to every adventurer watching. Then it followed the spear of light as it shattered and exploded the adventurer’s Guild.

  A declaration of war with drumbeats as the music.

  There was no slow buildup like in the video of ‘Dawn of Artigan’. This time Artigan took the center stage with a bang.

  It showed the assault and the explosion.

  Then it was a chaotic mess of adventurers trying to manage the amperdon herd while the alpha rampaged throughout the town. It really had been close. The leader was a monster that had far exceeded Sector Three’s standards.

  Despite knowing the outcome, Ryan was at the edge of his seat. The alpha amperdon started rubbing against the portal building’s walls, snapping the enchantments.

  Then it slipped.

  The familiar twang of ‘Rise of the Adventurers’ began to play as a voice cut through the mad clash in the background. An adventurer coming in just at the nick of time.

  “Well that’s the meanest ugliest amperdon I’ve ever seen.”

  Valee entered the scene as Ryan almost cheered. He laughed at Zedart’s awkward encounter while attempting to behead the leader.

  The next scenes didn’t have music. It was completely serious as the adventurers made plans. Ryan smiled as they prioritized Realmer lives first.

  It captured the angle from Mahjit’s visor as Zedart just tilted his head, not knowing who the most talented [Mage] of the third realm was. Everyone was completely serious while the [Assassin] stood there in boxers.

  Ryan started laughing, he couldn’t help himself. Now these were true adventurers.

  The video switched to show the adventurers’ heroic last stand against the real beast tide. The third wave was Ryan really had gone too far. It looked like a hopeless tide of endless monsters, all in a mad dash for the system portal.

  Yet the adventurers stood. Slaughtering the tide under Mahjit’s and Valee’s commands. It didn’t start off perfect, yet they all became more fluid over time.

  Low realm adventurers facing a proper siege and leveling from it.

  It was still too much. The patient apex monsters started closing in.

  The adventurers slowly retreated, one by one until there were only four left. The recording switched to a fallen security camera that was pointed at the hills.

  Drumbeats began again, heralding the mastermind that had organized it all.

  Artigan entered the scene. Even through the camera his aura was visible. It was like he was warping the world around him to make himself larger. An out of control monster that needed to be put down.

  The video cut out until it switched to the surveillance camera in the portal building. A shaking Mahjit was dragged by Kenheart and thrown into the portal.

  The final scene was heavily edited. Zedart and Valee hit the [Assassin] and forced him back. Ryan had expected that bit to be edited out but it wasn’t. Then Valee nodded at Zedart and Artigan began to duel Zedart.

  Artigan seemed unstoppable now, drumbeats on full blast as he mocked and taunted the lone [Swordsman].

  A timer began to tick down, indicating Artigan’s portal takeover quest completion.

  The duel was artfully done. It portrayed a [Swordsman] desperately trying to put down Artigan. Take down the monster that had betrayed his team and had gone completely out of control.

  A [Swordsman]’s responsibility.

  It wasn’t what had actually happened. Yet Ryan couldn’t help but approve of the edits. The work of a Legendary illusion no doubt.

  They clashed. Zedart vs Artigan. The combat was quite similar to how both of them sparred.

  Zedart fought and learned with every clash. Artigan comparatively looked like a brute that was just posturing his physical superiority.

  Despite how much Zedart adapted it seemed hopeless. Until all of a sudden the [Swordsman] had an epiphany. Somehow the video showed the change as Zedart started pushing back Artigan with pure skill.

  For a moment it seemed like there was hope.

  Then Artigan stopped holding back. The monster laughed as he took in Zedart’s despair.

  In the end, sheer physical prowess overcame talent and hard work. It was unfair, he hoped that anyone watching this would feel the same way. Zedart was about to take a mortal blow–

  And that was when Valee stepped in, she had her eyes closed the entire time waiting for the outcome of their duel. Her targeted Epic made Artigan slip, giving Zedart precious time to step back.

  The orc [Rogue] stepped forward tapping Zedart on the shoulder. The [Swordsman] sighed and nodded at her.

  Now the music of ‘Dawn of Adventurers’ started rising. It clashed full on with Artigan’s drumbeats.

  Two adventurers to take down the monster. And Zedart? He stopped fighting like a [Swordsman] and started fighting like a hybrid [Warrior] and [Swordsman]. Working seamlessly with the orc [Rogue].

  A completely different fight from the one he knew. Yet the essence was the same.

  Both Valee and Zedart fought better than any third realm adventurer had any right to be. All three of them fought in a stalemate.

  The timer ticked down as the minutes went by. Sometimes the video would pan to the rest of the Emerald hills as it displayed monsters rising above the hills and running at the sight of three adventurers dueling it out. Sometimes it was up close and personal as the intense duel happened in the middle of the destroyed town.

  Zedart and Valee started .

  Just by the barest of inches they pushed Artigan back. The elf blacklister fought with all the ferocity and anger of a monster realizing he wasn’t able to cleanly beat down the two adventurers that had stepped up to stop him.

  Artigan’s aura started to coalesce as it wrapped around his sword–

  Suddenly a giant blue bird descended and took the portal. The bird emerged, in all its glory and did a victory lap. It preened over the hill then flew off.

  An anticlimactic end.

  Artigan laughed.

  “Hah! Well, guess I was wrong, not all of you are worthless after all,” he bowed, “until next time, .”

  He then left the two behind as he went to chase after the fleeing blue bird.

  Ryan smiled fondly at the video that was posted by a certain Gamgam123.

  “Thanks Gamielle.”

  –

  - posted by GamGam123

  - A beast tide like this is horrible. What a nightmare. Someone needs to stop this Artigan before he becomes even stronger. @ntaid422 (Unverified)

  My cousin was working in Lazhen when it happened and he almost didn’t make it out alive. It was such a beautiful place! What a shame it’s been destroyed forever. @Junapete (Realmer)

  Don’t you guys think Artigan might be stronger than the Tyrants at this Realm? Who can stop him if he sticks to leveled zones? @Milococo (Unverified)

  You shut your mouth right now. It’s one dude vs the entire world ofc he’s going to slip up. He almost lost right here against two adventurers! @Polocoo (Verified)

  It is concerning. Some records show that even the Tyrants weren’t crazy exceptional before their second class evolution. This might be the strongest third realm we’ve ever seen. @Lectarn (Verified)

  Lmao someone wants to get FallenAngeled @Zektar23432 (Unverified)

  Can this year get even worse? One disaster after another, give us a break! At least this guy is only a third realm adventurer. @Rogssss (Realmer)

  The editing on this video was done so well, it’s kind of suspicious. @MegatonR69V420 (Unverified)

  Thanks! It was a lot of work. Please like and subscribe and donate realmcoins! Address here in this link. @Gamgam123 (Unverified)

  Wait, isn’t that the address for Artigan’s bounty? @Tulocko (Realmer)

  Whoever this is, we have marked you as having stolen guild property and are pursuing legal action. Please respond to your email and take down all instances of the video. You are jeopardizing realmers’ safety. @AdventurersGuildOfficial

  Soz, been busy posting it to every streaming site I could find :P @Gamgam123 (Unverified)

  22 more chapters on patreon!