Explorer of Edregon

By the time he emerged from his Introspection once more, one spell richer and giddy with excitement, Vin was more than ready to test out his latest creation and banish the darkness all around him. It was unnerving to leave the black void of Introspection after spending who knew how many hours toiling away in there, only to open his eyes and still be completely surrounded by utter darkness.

New spell learned! Tier 2 Vibration Spell (Tremorsight). 10,000 exp gained.

“Is that you snickering to yourself over there, Vin?” Alka called out, sounding as though she hadn’t moved from her position in all the time he’d been working on magic. “Finally figured out your spell?”

“Yeah, I was just about to test it,” he confirmed. “How long was I meditating?”

“Hard to say without any sun to follow, but I think the better part of the day at least,” Alka admitted. “I tried counting for a bit, but grew bored after hitting ten thousand. That was a while ago.”

“Seriously? You guys could have woken me up at any point!”

“Lumel said you were working on a new spell that would stop us from running into any more pitfall traps. I figured that it was worth the wait. Otherwise, who knows how long it might take us to blindly stumble our way through this fragment.”

“Well, I appreciate it,” he said. “Let me actually give it a whirl and see how it works.” Focusing on his mana, he threw together his newest runic formation and cast Tremorsight. Just like with Tremorsense, his mana began rapidly bouncing back and forth between him and everything around him. However this time, rather than just informing him of any vibrations, he was actively causing lightvibrations with every wave of mana he released, allowing him to paint a clear picture of his surroundings in his mind. It was as if the grainy black and white picture he’d been getting from Tremorsense had been focused, and he was finally able to see everything around him, including the unmoving parts of his surroundings like the ground or giant tree growing in the center of their hole.

“Woah, that’s a weird sensation,” Alka said, holding up her hands and staring at them. “It might just be because of my strange body, but I can actually feel the vibrations your spell is giving off. It’s super faint though.”

“Guess that means this spell isn’t one to use if we’re trying to sneak around,” he said, tilting his head as he realized he could actually detect Epli hiding within the cracks of Alka’s helmet. His spell only showed him surface level vibrations, meaning if something was in a sealed container he wouldn’t be able to detect it. But so long as there was an opening for his vibrations to slip through, it was included in his mental image. “Still, definitely a useful spell to have. I managed to keep the vibrations small enough and on the surface layer of everything in order to reserve mana, though I still can’t keep this one up for hours at a time like I could Tremorsense.”

“Honestly, you should see about turning that into some form of offensive spell when you get the chance,” Alka suggested. “If you could vibrate something hard enough, I bet it would do a ton of damage.”

“Not everyone wants to turn every spell into a weapon, Alka,” he drawled, checking on the rest of his team. Lumel and Shia were both still within their own meditations, and Scule and Reginald were still sleeping in his front pocket. Feeling his stomach growl, he laughed. “Damn, I should have created one of my mana-infused clouds in order to keep track of time. I can’t tell if we’ve been down here for two hours or two days.”

“I vote we give up on the whole ‘waiting for something to check their trap’ and get a move on,” Alka said, getting to her feet. “If they don’t have a passive like Personal Trap Sense they wouldn’t even know the trap was triggered in the first place. For all we know they only check their pitfalls once a week.”

“Yeah… If nobody has shown up yet, I think it’s safe to assume they probably won't for some time,” he agreed. “I’ll wake Shia and Lumel up.”

Careful not to jar them in the event they were working on their own volatile spells, Vin roused each of them from their own spellwork and explained the situation. Moving around ended up being enough to wake Scule and Reginald as well, who yawned and began distributing food for everyone.

“So that’s it? Nice power nap, now we go back to the surface?” Scule asked, nibbling on one end of a strip of jerky twice as large as he was while Reginald worked on the other end.

“Yes, but the wait was worth it. I managed to learn the Vibrate spell, and then combined Vibrate and Tremorsense into Tremorsight,” Vin explained. “I can actually see everything around me now, which means hopefully no more stumbling into traps.”

“Well hurray for that,” Shia said, stretching as she finished off her meal and got to her feet. “Lumel, ready to warp us out of here?”

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“Yes, whenever you are,” Lumel answered, standing up and blindly holding out her hands. “Can everyone come here?”

Vin helped Scule and Reginald get back into his pocket before taking her hand along with Shia. Once Lumel felt them both, she nodded. Without sight, feeling the world twist around them was a tad more jarring than usual, and suddenly Vin found himself standing up on the surface once more, a few feet away from the hole they’d been sitting within.

“I put us a few feet away, so don’t step forward, Shia,” Lumel warned, letting go of their hands.

“Alright, Alka, I’m tossing down the rope!” Vin called down. Deciding he’d rather be safe than sorry, he quickly created a stone pillar and tied the rope around it to act as an anchor. Alka’s body wasn’t that heavy, but he didn’t want to hear her complaining the rest of the day in the event he slipped up and let her fall back into the hole.

Epli must have directed her to where the bottom of the rope had landed, as Alka quickly found it and climbed her way out of the pit. As he helped her blindly climb over the edge, she laughed. “Man, this fragment is such a trip. In both my ghost form and with this new body, I couldn’t really even close my eyes if I wanted to. Actually experiencing darkness again after so many months of light is beyond strange.”

“Weren’t you trapped in a void or something until we managed to get your body repaired?” Scule asked as Vin coiled his rope back up.

“Not quite the same. That was more so an absence of everything rather than total darkness.”

“I’m glad at least you’re enjoying this fragment,” Shia snorted. “I’m ready to get out of here. Vin, I know it’s risky, but thoughts on sending out an empowered Sense Soul to check what we’re dealing with in this fragment? If there’s a settlement somewhere within the darkness, you’ll be able to find it.”

“I could… but it will probably kill me,” he said slowly, tucking away his rope coil into his pack. He’d snagged a new pack and the bare essentials for exploring after having lost his old one when the rankers took his possessions away. “Do we really think it’s worth tripping my divine boon for the day?”

“You don’t see the rest of us relying on an extra life,” Scule shrugged. “I say go for it. If we sense people, we know where to go, and if we don’t, we know we can leave. Saves us a ton of time wandering the darkness looking for them. Not to mention we don’t even know what time it is. For all we know midnight is nearly upon us and your boon will regenerate in a few minutes anyway.”

“Fair enough,” he said, throwing together the runic formation within his core and steeling himself. “Here we go!”

Firing off the fragment-spanning pulse of Sense Soul, Vin waited for the mana to bounce back and slam into him. To his surprise, while he did pick up on a few scattered souls, they almost certainly weren’t from people living within this fragment.

“Okay… I think I have an idea about what’s going on in this fragment,” he said slowly, going over what his spell had returned to him. “I picked up on a small number of souls, less than a dozen all told, but they are all within a quarter of a mile of the border with the rankers’ fragment. My guess is they belong to the rankers.”

“Probably some of their warriors still trying to find a path through the darkness,” Shia surmised. “Though surely it would take more than a few pitfall traps to stop them, right?”

“Whatever monster dug this pitfall most likely relocated to be nearer to the border of the ranker fragment,” Alka said. “Traps are a sign of intelligence, which means the monsters within this fragment are either elite monsters, or just hidden monsters that specialize in ambushes. It’s not surprising that we haven’t run into any of them yet, they must have moved away from the border their fragment shares with the neilens after nothing ventured into their territory from that direction for a few months.”

“So some sort of monsters capable of digging and seeing in this magical darkness are using the rankers as an all you can eat buffet?” Scule asked, shivering at the thought. “I would now like to suggest that we get the hell out of here as fast as we can.”

“We’ve figured out what’s stopping the rankers, so I think we’re good to do so,” Vin agreed. “Alka, in your professional opinion, do you think you’d be able to fight your way blind through miles of magical darkness?”

“Against ambush-style monsters? If I still had my flesh and blood body, not a chance,” she admitted. “Slayers train to fight in darkness, but there’s a big difference between fighting one’s way through a dark cave and trying to travel across miles of darkness while being actively hunted and avoiding traps. I think we can safely assume the rankers aren’t getting through this fragment any time soon.”

“If Alka doesn’t think she could make it out, I’m in agreement that we’ve checked this fragment off our list,” Shia said. “I would also prefer not running into any of the monsters while most of us are completely blind, so let’s give that half of the fragment a wide berth as we make our way to the next one.”

“Okay. Lumel, could you be ready to teleport Shia and yourself if I say the word? If my spell picks up on a monster lying in wait for us, I’ll let you know immediately so you two can get out of there. I’ll stick behind with Alka and try to fight it off.”

“What the hells, I don’t want to be sitting in your pocket, waiting for you to get eaten!” Scule snapped, climbing out and blindly making his way over toward Lumel. “I’ll stick with the other blind folk, thank you very much!”

“Whatever makes you feel safer,” Vin chuckled. “Reginald, want to stick with me or follow Scule?”

The rat poked his head out of the pocket, contemplating his choices for a moment before squeaking and following after his companion. Nodding, Vin helped them find Shia’s shoulder before clapping his hands together and giving everyone a wide grin. He knew they couldn’t see it, but he couldn’t help himself. The thought of putting this magical darkness behind them and venturing into yet another entirely known fragment filled him with excitement, and he simply couldn’t wait to see what Edregon had in store for them.

“Okay everyone, follow my lead,” he instructed, forming their chain link of hands once more. “Off to the next terrifying fragment!”