Explorer of Edregon

The following day was spent running around town dealing with some of Vin’s many responsibilities related to Terra that often got delayed while he was out on his adventures. As urgent as finding the missing Earthers was, it had been days at this point since they’d first come to Edregon, and Vin felt rather confident in his earlier assumption.

By now they’d either managed to find safety and would be hanging in there until he found them, or they’d already perished.

To start, he met with Theodore and Kelly for the first time in what felt like ages. Since appointing Theodore as the official vice-leader of the Foreign Branch, Vin hadn’t really bothered attending these check-in meetings, instead choosing to leave it to the Spy to keep things running smoothly. However, he was admittedly curious to hear how things with their neighbors had been running as of late.

“Not a lot to report other than things are running smoothly,” Theodore said, getting a nod from Kelly who was actually in town for a change. The elf-obsessed Diplomat tended to spend all her time over in the Sacred Forest, either with her self-professed soulmate or with the other elves.

“Relations between Terra and the Sacred Forest are stronger than ever,” Kelly said excitedly, her heavy braid she’d done in the same style as the elves bouncing as she nodded. “The Druids were overjoyed to receive the thousands of pounds of epic monster flesh, and one of the Ancient Ones themselves came to personally thank me as I was coordinating the effort to get it all moved.”

“Glad to hear it!” Vin said, wondering just how much time the body of that massive epic monster had bought the dying dryads. A small part of him had hoped that so much magic-dense monster flesh would solve the problem entirely, but seeing as Erik hadn’t relayed a message to Shia, he could only assume that wasn’t the case.

“As you’ve probably heard, Sakis and Terra now have a number of deals running between them, tying the two communities to one another,” Theodore said. “Not only have they assisted our Farmers with our underground farm, the elder has lent the training artifact to help some of our people begin learning magic.”

“Yes, I’ve been helping them recently. In fact, that’s my next stop after this,” Vin admitted.

“I heard Spur had you acting as our first magic instructor,” Theodore grinned. “In exchange, we’ve traded Sakis the knowledge of how to create our new concrete mixture, and Frank has been running over every so often to assist with those in need of healing. Apparently, they don’t actually have any dedicated Healers. We also each have a standing agreement to come to the other’s aid should the need ever arise.”

“Sounds like things are going great with them,” Vin said, happy to hear it. The people of Sakis were warm and kind, a strange contrast to the hard, rigid stone armor many of them donned. “How are the infernals settling in to Alka’s old fragment?”

“Surprisingly well, according to Vanessa. Our close proximity has allowed our Herbalists to intermingle with their Gatherers, and as you’d imagine, there is quite the overlap between the two classes. With Kelly’s aid, we’ve actually introduced them to the elves of the Sacred Forest, and they’ve become fast friends. They have to come through our fragment to trade, of course, as the alternative would be swimming through Lumel’s people’s lake.”

“The infernals have been eager to get their hands on many of the plants found within the Sacred Forest,” Kelly added. “And the elves are simply excited to have newfound friends that aren’t humans.”

“I can’t say I find that surprising,” Vin admitted. “Even if Erik declared that humans were friendly now, the elves have a few millennia of history around hating humans. It’s no wonder they like the infernals more.”

“I doubt I even have to say this, but no news on the citadel front,” Theodore sighed, leaning back in his chair. “Tom has been doing his best effort, and he’s even befriended a number of the guards up on the wall at this point. But until those people receive word from their divine classes that no longer exist, that gate is remaining shut.”

“That’s about the best we can hope for. Just have Tom continue connecting with them and offering them aid when he can. I was just in the citadel recently, and they’re not yet hurting for food or anything like that, so we probably have quite some time before anything changes.”

“In other news, the connection between the Bands and Earthers has been fantastic,” Theodore said, smiling at his own news. “At this point, most of the Bands around town have a fairly decent grasp of the English language, and they’ve pretty much assimilated themselves into Terra. We actually have a handful of crafters searching for a method of getting the manacles removed from their wrists, but no real progress has been made at this point.”

“If all else fails, I might be able to try convincing a certain dwarf I know to come visit town and cut them off people,” Vin said, thinking back to Deorer and his adamantine scalpel he’d used to cut through Alka’s seemingly indestructible new body. “That should probably be a last resort though, I highly doubt he’s going to be willing to make the trip unless we have some serious bargaining chip to give him.”

“Don’t worry about it for now, the problem of the black manacles has become something of a rite of passage among many of the crafters in the guild,” Theodore laughed. “The Bands themselves don’t really seem to mind them either, they’ve long since accepted that they’ll most likely have the bracelets on for the rest of their lives. Though they do find it entertaining whenever a new crafter takes on the challenge.”

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Wrapping up his meeting with his two sub-councilors, Vin ran off to snag two of the three Earthers who were piloting Terra’s new magic program. Landon was still off learning death magic in the necromancers’ compound, which left Wanda and Ronald to check in on.

His plan had been to see if they were ready for their newest spell, but the two wannabe-mages had quite the surprise for him.

“We’ve both hit our first prestige!” Ronald exclaimed, the jolly Baker clapping his hands together and laughing at the shock on his face. “You are looking at Terra’s first Magical Baker!”

“And I’m a Magical Fisherman,” Wanda said, her face sour as if she hated how the class sounded. “Not a word.”

“Wow… I guess I hadn’t expected you guys to prestige into the magical classes so quickly!” Vin said, looking back and forth between the two. He’d nearly forgotten that both Ronald and Wanda were from the second wave, and had largely been selected by Spur for this test because they’d been putting points into magic and were near level 20 already. “Anything fun to report class wise?”

“We each have the option to receive ‘spell points’ instead of ‘skill points,’ so that is nice,” Ronald said. “I’ve already redeemed my first one for Warmth, a fire spell that not only fills one’s tummy with a warm, pleasant sensation, but actively fights against cold as well! My level 20 passive allows me to imbue spells into my baking, and I’ve been putting it into just about every treat I’ve made since prestiging!”

Ronald eagerly handed Vin a small, simple cookie. Beyond curious, Vin took a bite, his eyes widening at the warmth that spread through his core as he chewed and swallowed. Just as the Magical Baker had claimed, he could feel the spell taking effect within him.

“Wow… Alright, that’s a pretty amazing passive you picked up. Honestly, it might be the key to letting us actually try establishing some sort of relations with the capillans up north in their frozen tundra. Wanda, have you grabbed a new spell yet?”

“Firm Water,” she said. “It thickens the water around my target, quite a lot so long as I’m in some sort of physical contact with them or am relatively close. Perfect for tiring out the fish on the end of my line so I can catch them more easily.”

“I can see the appeal,” he nodded. Part of him was surprised that both of his magical students had decided to simply purchase spells from the System rather than try to get them on their own, before he realized that was stupid. Neither of them were Explorers. They weren’t running around Edregon hunting down new sources of magic like he was. Rather than be tied to him and forced to take whatever spells he offered, they finally had an avenue to progress their magic and accomplish their goals entirely on their own.

He was admittedly perhaps a tad salty that the Magical Explorer class hadn’t given him the option to simply purchase spells from the System like the Magical Baker and Magical Fisherman classes did, but he supposed it made sense.

What kind of Explorer class would just hand one something rather than making them hunt for it?

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but the two of you should have some sort of innate understanding of the runic formations after having purchased the spells, right?” he asked, getting two nods in return. “This is a bit odd to ask as your mentor, but would the two of you mind showing me the formations of your new spells? I can think of a handful of uses for both of them.”

“You taught us a number of your own spells to ensure we would get the classes we wanted, I’d be happy to share my new magic with you,” Ronald smiled, his finger glowing a warm red as he sketched out his newest spell in the air for him.

“What baker-boy said,” Wanda muttered, her own finger glowing blue as she drew out her runic formation.

“Thanks guys, I appreciate it,” Vin said, using Iron Mind to memorize the two new spells once they were done. “I’ll have to run over to the necromancer compound and check in on Landon one of these days. I’m kinda hoping the whole ‘no news is good news’ thing rings true, because I still haven’t heard from them.”

Groth, the Resourceful Necromancer who had taken Landen off his hands for him, had given Vin a small skull of some foreign animal to take with him. He’d been instructed that the skull would talk to him if any problems came up or the Necromancers needed anything, but so far, it had been completely silent. At this point, Vin would have begun suspecting this was some sort of Necromancer prank being pulled on him if it weren’t for the thin tendril of invisible mana stretching off of the skull back toward the compound, visible only thanks to his Beyond the Veil ability.

Landon had a rather strange blend of agoraphobia and heliophobia, to the point where he was terrified of going outside during the day and preferred to avoid large spaces in general. Scule had helped Vin knock out the wanna-be necromancer for the trip through the Underside so that he didn’t freak out, which meant the last time Vin had spoken to him had been in Landon’s own apartment here in Terra.

“I’m sure the lad is doing fine!” Ronald reassured him. “You said he was a Poet, yes? They are a strange bunch. Used to finding happiness in suffering and dealing with anything life can throw at them.”

“I always thought Poets were historically the type to throw in the towel and give up when the going got tough,” Wanda said, raising an eyebrow. “Maybe he’s already an animated skeleton dancing to the Necromancers’ tunes.”

“Either way, it’s nothing the two of you need to worry about,” Vin said. “Would either of you like a new spell while we’re together?”

“Hard pass,” Wanda snorted. “Figuring out the last one you gave me was the most frustrating thing I’ve ever done. I’ll stick with getting what I need from the System.”

“I have to agree with Wanda, I would rather devote my time to my baking than building another spell from scratch like the others,” Ronald said, giving him an apologetic smile. “Though thank you for the offer!”

“Oh…” Vin said, deflating slightly as he came to the sudden realization that his fellow ‘magical’ prestigers didn’t quite share the same drive he did. “Well, let me know if you ever change your minds!”

“And let me know if you ever want to dangle from the end of my fishing rod as live bait,” Wanda said, rolling her eyes. “I think the two things are just as likely to happen.”