Explorer of Edregon

To Vin’s surprise, Shia decided she would in fact be tagging along on their quest to find the rest of the missing Earthers. While monsters would decompose far faster than regular creatures would, and getting as much of the magic-dense epic monster over to Erik before that happened was critical, according to her, there really wasn’t much more she could do at the moment to help. She could only maintain Living Giant for a short while, which meant she really wasn’t all that well suited for carrying heavy loads from one fragment to another. Kelly, Terra’s Elven Diplomat, was more than happy to coordinate and lead the cleaning effort, and Erik himself had recommended Shia go with her team and try to help Terra find its missing Earthers. And while she could stay behind to work on the dwarves' plant problem, Shia admitted she actually had someone even better suited to tackle the problem than she was.

Mary, her Herbalist friend from the second wave, was an expert when it came to propagating plants. The two had met when Shia had stumbled upon her secret garden filled with plants recovered from different fragments, and they’d quickly gotten to know one another. All it took was Shia explaining what they needed for Mary to jump at the challenge, eager to use her abilities to try and create plants capable of surviving the harsh conditions found within the Crater.

Along with Shia, Alka, Scule, and Reginald were also all in on the plan. Alka needed to give the newest wave of Earthers a couple of days to adjust and grab a level or three before she could start training her latest set of Slayers, and Scule and Reginald just wanted to see what else was out there.

Particularly what else was out there that was shiny and not bolted down.

“So where are we off to first?” Scule asked from Alka’s shoulder, yawning as they ran along the fragment border between the citadel and the red desert. Rather than risk venturing into a new fragment late at night, Vin had made the call to start out the next morning.

“It depends on if my spell gives us a hit,” Vin explained, going over his plan with his friends. “I’m going to go to the border of the new fragment, cast ‘Sense Earther,’ and if we get a hit, then we head on in. If we don't, we leave the fragment and try another one.”

“You’re just going to leave an unexplored fragment like that?” Alka snorted, one of her glowing eyes flaring in question. “You? Who are you and what have you done with Vin?”

“Finding the missing Earthers takes priority over what I want. And it’s not like we can’t just come back to the fragments to explore them later,” Vin said, turning to look at Lumel. “You doing alright?”

“Never better,” Lumel blushed, keeping her head down in a futile attempt to hide her embarrassment. “I’m sorry I’m not as fast as you guys.”

“Trust me, I don’t think Vin is going to complain!” Shia said from atop Blossom, winking at her and causing even more blood to pool around the pulmon's face.

Vin had been lucky that his entire team had methods of moving fast across Edregon. He had his Distance Runner passive and Running skill, which worked hand in hand with his high endurance, allowing him to run functionally forever. Shia could transform her staff into Blossom, a wooden cat construct capable of running just as fast as he was. Alka was a tireless golem powered by a mana gem that replenished mana faster than she could burn, and Scule and Reginald were small enough that they simply hitched a ride wherever they went, often with Scule on Alka’s shoulder, and Reginald tucked away within Vin’s front shirt pocket. Lumel…

Couldn’t do any of that.

The former Dimensional Mage now turned Mage of Discovery could simply continue casting Dimensional Shift and follow them via leapfrogging teleports, but that would needlessly deplete her mana pool, and it would prevent her from taking place in their conversations as they moved. In the end, Vin realized the simplest solution was to simply carry Lumel on his back as he ran, much to the pulmon’s chagrin. His strength was now at the peak level of a human back on Earth, so picking her up was simple enough, and his endurance was probably the highest of any Earther on Edregon, meaning he could quite literally carry her on his back all day if he had to.

“Seriously, let me know if you need to put me down,” Lumel whispered for the fourth time that morning, making Vin grin as he shook his head.

“I already carry Reginald around everywhere, doing the same with you is no big deal,” he reassured her, catching a thankful squeak from within his pocket. Lumel stopped protesting, and he felt her arms wrapped around him squeeze just a little tighter as they ran.

By following the border between fragments, they managed to avoid most of the exploding foxes from Scule’s fragment, and the petian took down the few that did spot them with well-placed shots from his blowgun. Barely an hour after leaving Terra, they came across the border of one of the only two fragments left to discover within the second ring. Vin’s heart sank as he saw what they had to work with, but he tried casting his spell anyway.

The good news was that Vin’s spell wasn’t picking up just one, but two missing Earthers contained somewhere within the unexplored fragment.

The bad news was that it was pure water.

Vin and the team stared out at the flat surface of water glistening under the warm morning sun as they took stock of the new fragment. Unlike Lumel’s fragment, this water was still and free of waves, and even contained what looked like massive lily pads here and there. Beyond those, there wasn’t so much as a single inch of dry land to be seen.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“There are two missing Earthers within that fragment,” Vin said, carefully putting Lumel down as he tried to figure out a plan. “They’re a few miles in, as far as I can tell.”

“So what, they’ve been swimming for the last day and a half?” Scule asked, shielding his eyes from the glare as he tried to spot anything useful. “Can people survive in open water for that long?”

“I think so… especially if they had something to grab onto.” Vin paused, eyeing up one of the giant lily pads that was a good fifteen or so feet in diameter. There were a few birds that looked like a cross between a pigeon and a pelican sleeping on the closest one, which he was pretty sure was more weight than a lily pad should have been able to support. “…Is it just me, or does that lily pad look surprisingly stable to you guys?”

“It’s always birds,” Scule hissed, already loading up a fresh dart into his blowgun. “Stupid, feather-wearing, beak-squawking-”

Before he could continue, Lumel vanished in a flash of purple, suddenly appearing on the lily pad. The birds immediately woke up and began cawing as they flapped their wings about in a panic, before taking off not into the sky, but into the water, vanishing from view.

“Huh… I don’t know if that’s better or worse,” Scule admitted, slowly lowering his blowgun now that the birds were gone.

“Seems stable to me!” Lumel called out, hopping up and down on the lily pad to prove her point. Warping back to them, she shrugged. “Do we treat this like the sky fragment? Warp from lily pad to lily pad?”

“We can’t, we’ve got Alka,” Vin reminded her, causing her to blush.

“Sorry, Alka, I keep forgetting you can’t warp.”

“It’s alright, no big deal,” Alka shrugged. “Anyone got a backup plan?”

“The lily pads are just drifting around, right?” Scule asked, still cautiously staring down into the water, as if waiting for one of those birds to fly back out at them. “Can we turn one into a boat or something?”

“That… might actually work,” Vin realized, scratching his chin as he tried to figure out how to pull that off. “I have Create Wind, so if we could just build some sort of sail, I can propel us.”

“We can use one of the merider silk blankets!” Lumel said, looking excited at the thought. “Those things are practically untearable!”

“I could grow us some wood we could use in order to hold the sail up,” Shia offered. “Though I don’t know how we’re going to secure it to a lily pad of all things.”

“Actually, if you or Alka hold it in place and keep it from tipping over, I can secure it to the lily pad with Binding,” Vin grinned, realizing their plan was actually going to work. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but let’s build a boat!”

To everyone’s amazement, their quickly thrown together idea ended up working perfectly. Lumel had some basic rope in her Dimensional Pocket that they used to secure the merider silk blanket to the mast Shia created. Vin used Binding to secure the mast to the lily pad. And with a few casts of Create Wind, they were off. Scule sat atop the tree in a poorly built crows nest, keeping his eyes peeled for any threats on the horizon, or signs of a settlement.

Or birds. Most likely, he was mainly looking for birds.

Second ring fragment discovered! 1,000 exp gained.

“Can’t say I ever expected to find myself piloting a homemade boat via magic,” Vin laughed, pushing a bit more mana into his spell and causing them to lurch forward slightly. He heard Scule cursing at him as the mast almost tipped before Alka caught it, and Vin waved an apology. Even with the wood secured via Binding, the lily pad itself was rather flexible. “What do you think, Lumel, would your people have any interest in buying our professionally built boat once we’re done with it? I’d be willing to sell it at a fairly reasonable price, despite the sentimental value it holds.”

“Not in a million years,” Lumel giggled, busy leaning over the boat and taking in all the wildlife beneath them as they cruised across the water. Reginald sat on her shoulder, peering down into the water as well and enjoying the wind in his fur. “My people never come up to the surface anyway, it would just collect algae in some collector’s storage room somewhere.”

“Oh wait, we never named it!” Vin gasped, realizing they’d made a grave mistake. “Guys, we need a name for the boat, quick!”

“The Crappy Pad?” Scule offered from up high.

“The Lily Paddle!” Shia smiled, clearly pleased with her idea.

“The Monster Hunter,” Alka said confidently, as if a better choice didn’t exist.

“The Ship of Discovery,” Lumel said quietly, but still choosing to chime in.

“Squeak squeaaak,” Reginald offered, earning a snort from Scule.

“He said ‘Reginald’s Ride,’ for what it’s worth.”

“Honestly, I kinda like Reginald’s Ride,” Vin admitted. “I like how it rolls off the tongue.”

“It’s adorable!” Shia said, reaching over and petting the pleased rat on the head.

“I could get behind it,” Alka nodded. “Sounds fearsome. Like we’re riding into battle to slay our foes.”

“I think it’s cute,” Lumel agreed. “And he’s not wrong.”

“You guys humor him way too much,” Scule sighed, seeming to decide it wasn’t worth arguing as he went back to watching for birds. “Fine, I’m cool with it. So long as we get to name our next poorly built vehicle after me.”

“‘Poorly built,’” Vin scoffed, shaking his head as he kept pouring wind into the sail. “You hear that Reginald? Some people just have terrible taste!”

Reginald nodded, before his ear twitched and he turned around to glance back down at the water once more.

“Why don’t you come up here and I’ll show you just how terrible my taste really is,” Scule threatened, waving his blowgun around. “I’ve been working on a new irritant that I’d love to get the chance to test out. Just need a few willing participants to-”

Reginald interrupted him with a high-pitched squeak, which was all the warning they received before something smashed into their lily pad from below. The aquatic monster tore straight through the flexible pad, shredding their makeshift ship and sending them all tumbling into the water.