Randel and Syl arrive in front of the closest black cube, the most common entrance point from the Ellipsia Citadel Fast Travel Orbs.
Usually, a visiting party would be guided through a number of checkpoints and surveillance levels before accessing the long-term storage areas of the fortress.
While this takes quite a while, the more ti-consuming part is getting on the waitlist to be guided in. For an average Lord, this may take months, or even up to a year. That would be if you have a storage box already and are just trying to access it. Beginning the process to rent a space could take years or even decades to be accepted and reviewed to make it on the list.
Just a few years is not long to wait when most of the storage cubes here have lasted longer than most of the workers that man the security checkpoints—hundreds of thousands of years.
Though, the schedule for picking up this package is much more urgent.
Randel scans the entrance platform that the two of them step onto, and once their ether transport orb dissipates, the slow walk toward hundreds of doors with guards in front of them begins.
His heart rate increases as more standard default welcoming ssages and instructions on how to enter the Citadel ring through his mind.
A majority of the guards lined up in front of the one-kiloter-tall black door are very familiar Demonic Servant Avatars, yet he steers clear from trying to enter one of those doors.
While so may lead him near the location he's heading, a majority are mostly demon-owned entrances and only lead to private facilities and demon-only storage rooms he wants no part of.
The other doors have varying races guarding them, mostly lower-class Orcs, Goblin Kings, and Kobolds. It's possible to apply for positions to work here, but the lowest contract length is 1,000 years. The sky is the limit to the amount of ti you can commit—as long as you're alive, the Fortress System will accept a bid.
It is mostly automated, as a large amount of the older long-term storage cells were left here even before the Demons took dominance over this zone of the realm.
It would be both impossible and unprofitable for the Demons to stop allowing other races to apply.
If they took hold of the Citadel and seized all items inside, the public would lose trust in its security and long-term reliability.
Not to ntion, their new additions to the Fortress would lose their value too.
Even though many cubic, planet-sized plots are categorized for demons only, there is a large percentage of newer demon-run storage systems, as well as avatar modifications and upgrades, that are done here. Keeping the fortress a semi-all-inclusive base is in their best interest.
So, this is how Randel is able to exploit the system.
He recognizes an old 2nd Class High Orc guard that Torvak showed him holograms of before they left. The Blue Ogre told them this is one of many work contacts that he and Asic share, as sotis, over the years, they need workers on the inside to keep their business thriving.
This guard in particular has committed his life to this role, partnered with the Warlords since their second War. He sends back all profits to a cluster of High Orc worlds he takes care of in the Lower Realm.
Randel and Syl walk up to the old guard, and he stares forward, speaking up in a raspy voice.
"State your Avatar ID and visitation reference number."
The old guard doesn't budge, but Randel nods and moves his hand up toward the guard.
"I believe my card should have all of my waitlist information docunted. We're here to pick up so crafting items left in long-term storage."
Beneath the black access card he hands the guard, there is a fragnt of dium-quality ether crystal.
While the majority of Lords in this zone of the Upper Realm cannot successfully absorb a highly refined piece of Ether like this, it is still worth a large amount when sold to the right buyer—especially here in the Fortress.
The 1.0 dium Quality Ether Crystal Ember brought into this Realm is roughly worth 1,000,000 Low Quality Ether. Of course, that would be highly dependent on the buyer and circumstances of the sale. A lower-grade avatar without the proper commands in place would never be able to contain even a fraction of a crystal like this that is being traded in physical form for that very reason.
Even so, it can be traded for bulk orders of worlds. For Orcs, a common use case is buying pure crystallized mana to send down to the lower realm to attempt forcefully raising the Class Rating on current worlds over the course of a few tens of thousands of years.
At the very least, it can be traded directly for low-quality ether to the demonic guards that co and go from the Fortress to the Grand Citadel.
Everyone knows questionable business is done here, but the automated surveillance system rarely punishes those that break the rules. As long as one keeps their transactions under the radar and not breaking any major regulations, it will all be ignored.
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The old guard allows the crystal to fall into his ether storage upon grabbing the access card and pretending to scan it, then nods.
"Looks like you're right on ti."
The guard presses an action in his system interface, gives the card back, and then steps aside to allow the massive door to open up slowly.
Along the hundreds of doors on the side of this single cube floating in the sky, this is the only door opening; though no one cares to turn a head. Business as usual is going on in the Fortress.
Randel then refreshes his mory of the map Torvak showed him as well, with the half-dozen security checkpoints along the way, with specific other guards that will guide him where to go once he shows them this card and gives them their share of ether.
The two Red Ogres smile, but the High Orc's expression doesn't change at all.
As the two disappear into the darkness of the Fortress to complete their task, the doors shut, and the guard stands in front as its guardian, staring off into the endless green clouds, just as it has for the last 64,000 years.
–
3 Full Days Pass.
–
Although the two Red Ogres have been nervous and sweating through their entire stay in the Fortress—walking deeper and deeper into the dark hallways, waiting rooms, and strange zones of the massive structure in the sky—they make it down to the long-term storage room in 3 days with a single dium-quality ether fragnt left to spare. It is roughly 1/12th the size of the original crystal Torvak received, still a small fortune.
The last guard opens the black stone door of their storage unit where this access card brings them, and then they are left alone in silence.
The walls of this small cramped room are lined with tightly sealed storage containers. They're stacked up to the ceiling, so there's at least a few hundred of them, but the room is just a few ters taller than the Red Ogres. It'd be impossible for Torvak to even stand up in a room like this.
There isn't a single item out of its containnt case, but it's clear that whatever raw materials are in these containers are extrely high-value and most likely tens of thousands of years old. Their ambient ether is leaking out of the outdated containnt case technology. Yet, it is extrely potent.
Their orders were not to be nosy; they were to empty out this room and leave a single black box behind.
Randel and Syl both open up their ether storages and empty the room in seconds.
Then, Syl opens her storage and drops the single box down before they turn to leave.
With a single thud of the ancient black door, their mission is complete, and both of them press the fast travel options on their systems to get out of here.
Unknown to them, the box they've left behind begins to ripple with a white light. While it was just carrying low quality ether refinent elixir before, there's been a slight change to its contents now that it has co back to the Fortress. A microscopic, yet complex device with small silver threads shimring around it begins to activate, set to reach its full potential in 19 days.
While the Fortress is the most secure citadel in the green zone, even with all the resources of Ellipsia worth of bribes, it would be physically impossible to get into a storage unit without an access card. The only trickery that can be bypassed is the ti it takes to get one there. It is impossible to infiltrate, though the automatic security allows anyone to leave without hassle.
The mont a white light surrounds them, and a teleportation array brings the two Red Ogres 100,000 kiloters away, to the outer surveillance ring where they first heard welco notifications, two long sighs of relief escape them.
A large ether orb sends them whizzing back toward Ellipsia, and it's not until the Fortress is out of sight that Randel curses under his breath and turns to Syl.
"That took a thousand years off my life easily... I can't na a single more stressful thing I've done..."
Syl breaks out in nervous laughter, and she can't believe it's finally over.
"I'm never taking a bodyguard job for an illegal human again... no wonder Torvak was overpaying..."
Both of them are still reflexively shivering as the cold vibrations that had been slowing down their ntal processes and system speed while inside the Fortress finally fade away.
Then, Randel pulls out the last fragnt from his storage and tosses it up and down in the air.
"I don't think we'll ever have to. This will be enough to keep us living in luxury for the rest of our lives."
Both of them smile and stare off toward Ellipsia.
Though, it seems the two can't catch a break...
Syl looks upward and whispers.
"I haven't seen one of those in a few years."
Just as their nerves were beginning to calm down, a massive ripple of dark green divine energy covers the sky.
It's incredibly thick, easily thousands of kiloters wide, and its edges look like lted mirrors, as the intensity of a wave like this bends the fabric of the Upper Realm itself.
Its length is impossible to estimate, as it most likely doesn't even have a definitive size and goes on indefinitely to the edges of this curved realm in space.
In fact, it is a wave that doesn't even co from within this zone of the Upper Realm to begin with. Like the wind of a hurricane, waves like these are naturally occurring disasters that randomly strike.
There is nothing to do but watch it co. Randel yells to reinforce this point.
"Brace yourself. I've never faced a Realm Wave like this while off of Ellipsia..."
The two go from holding hands, enjoying the view of peaceful endless clouds, to shielding each other and turning their backs to the wave while getting to their knees in the fast travel orb that moves forward to take it head-on.
–
An eerie creaking sound bends reality around the orb, but their forward montum doesn't slow.
Unsurprisingly, the intensity and chaotic gravity waves ripple through the fast travel orb.
The two Red Ogres watch their bodies bend in strange directions they didn't know were possible, and their perception of ti becos slightly broken as well.
However, less than 4 full seconds pass until the wave washes through them and continues its way to the Fortress and throughout the rest of the Upper Realm.
The two riders do not get up from their braced positions just yet... as they know it is guaranteed that all waves co in twos.
Most commonly, the second will strike within a few minutes. However, there are tis when it takes far longer—days, weeks, months, even years.
Just 16 minutes pass, and on the horizon, another enormous gravity-bending wave ripples through the Upper Realm.
More confident in the fact that they survived the first one, Randel and Syl aren't shaking in fear. Though, they still hold their breath as it passes.
–
Once the second wave rattles their minds, the Red Ogres lie on their backs in the center of the fast travel orb as it continues to make its way back to Ellipsia, and Randel responds while holding the dium-quality ether fragnt in the air within both of their sights.
"You know what... you're right. If that wasn't a sign, I don't know what is... Let's never take another bodyguard job for an illegal human again."
He grasps the small containnt case, and they chuckle to themselves as their danger has passed.
However, the danger of a Realm Wave like this isn't exactly that it has physically destructive properties...
It's that it will distort the relative rate of passing ti.
While just 16 minutes passed between waves here in the green zone, ti has certainly moved differently in the zones above, as well as below in the Lower Realm...
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