Explorer of Edregon

For the first time ever, Vin found himself crammed into the usual room they held their council meetings in, surrounded by not only his teammates, but just about every other member of Terra who held sway over its leadership. Not only were the other four council members gathered together for the emergency meeting, even Golrim and Myers were sitting in, crammed against the side of the room in a few small chairs they’d dragged in.

“Maybe once all this blows over, we should put forth a motion for Witherson to build a larger conference room,” Vin joked, wincing as he received nearly a dozen glares in return.

“Now is really not the time for jokes, Vin,” Spur started, frowning as he glanced back down at the notes he’d been taking. “Are you sure about this? There’s no doubt in your mind that you’re mistaken somehow?”

“John is brand-new to level 10 and said himself he’s had some struggles with his Capstone,” Shia chimed in. “There’s a solid chance this is just a misunderstanding.”

“Everyone has an innate understanding of how their passives and Capstones work,” Golrim argued, looking more upset than just about anyone else in the room. “Just because you dislike what we’ve discovered doesn’t mean you should discredit the man.”

“She’s not discrediting him, she’s pointing out that he might just suck at what he does!” Scule snapped, turning to glare at Golrim from his spot atop the round table with Reginald at his side. “The guy’s afraid of everything! He’s probably afraid of own ability and using it incorrectly!”

“We have to assume his readings are accurate,” Myers stated simply, still scribbling on her clipboard as the conversation went on. “If we start questioning people’s abilities, that will lead us down a dark rabbit hole none of us wish to venture down.”

“I don’t know what rabbits have to do with Vin getting himself killed,” Alka said dryly, her glowing eyes narrowing at Myers as her head spun around to face her. “Because that’s what this is going to accomplish, we all get that, right? You all have to realize by now the sole reason Vin would gather us all together is to inform us he’s planning to tackle whatever this threat is all on his own, because he’s an idiot. Isn’t that right, Vin?”

The bickering around the room stopped as everyone’s eyes swung toward him, and Vin swallowed hard, wishing not for the first time that Alka didn’t know him as well as she did.

He supposed that was just the downside of letting her echo his physical form for his first few weeks on Edregon.

“Whatever John feels coming… Whatever is coming after me specifically for some reason… It’s strong enough to destroy all of Terra,” Vin tried to explain, looking around at all their faces. “That said, I’m not so brave as to admit I’d be willing to tell everyone to get away and leave me to my fate. If this were happening any other time, I’d happily take all the help I can get in facing this down. But it’s not happening any other time. Either by calculated planning, or just sheer coincidence, whatever is coming is going to hit us at the exact same time as the battle for wave six. Each wave is growing stronger than the last, and Terra needs everyone inside this room to help defend it and the thousands of lives living within its walls. That’s why none of you can come with me.”

“Smite me, you’re really trying to pull that card,” Scule snorted, shaking his head. “Vin, Terra is great and all, but in case you’ve forgotten, you are the reason any of us are here in the first place. I mean, yeah, I’d miss Bill and Casper if the town got destroyed, but not nearly as much as I’d miss riding around on your shoulder as we scope out new fragments for things to steal.”

Reginald began squeaking out his agreement, but Phil started talking over him.

“With how—”

Multiple people shouted out at the same time, and Phil blinked as Shia, Vin, Scule, Alka, and even Lumel all turned on him as one; five sets of eyes glaring at him.

“You do not talk over Reginald,” Shia stated, staring absolute daggers at Phil, who slowly nodded in understanding. Clearing her throat, she turned and offered the rat a warm smile. “Sorry about that, Reginald, what were you trying to say?”

Nodding his thanks, Reginald turned back to Vin and finished his thought with a few more squeaks. Thanks to his weird experience while evolving Manacraft, Vin was able to understand that Reginald was in full agreement with Scule, and Vin got the vibe that the rat would happily see the town destroyed if it meant keeping the team safe.

“Thank you, Reginald. That’s, uh, quite sweet of you,” he said, nodding toward Phil. “You were saying?”

“As I was saying…” Phil began, looking around as if to ensure he wasn’t going to get jumped again. “With how close the battle for wave five was at times, we really can’t afford to give up any of our heavy hitters. Shia’s Living Giant, Alka’s skill on the battlefield, Lumel’s ability to rescue downed Earthers and relay messages… Terra’s survival would likely be in question without the assistance of all of you.”

“I’m going wherever Vin is going,” Lumel stated, staring around the room as if daring anyone to challenge her wishes. “I know Terra took me in when I had no place to go, and I am forever grateful for that. But put simply, Vin is more important to me than Terra is. And that goes for all of us.”

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“Absolutely,” Shia agreed. “Not about Terra taking me in, I’m quite welcome in the Sacred Forest and have been given the deed to my master’s old house, but about Vin being more important than Terra. Even if Vin wasn’t one of my closest friends, his existence is still critical for the dryads to recover their full power and return to my people. I know without even asking Erik would instruct me to put Vin above all else.”

“I can’t help but notice a certain Challenger didn’t mention our names when talking about how important we are to Terra’s defense, so there shouldn’t be any issue with us sticking with Vin instead of hanging around for the battle,” Scule drawled. “Not like I’ve been working my butt off helping Bill develop new potions or anything, of course not!”

“I’ve trained my Slayers to be strong enough to fight for Terra in my stead, they can hold the line all on their own by now,” Alka said, her eyes flaring. “Besides, whatever giant threat is heading Vin’s way sounds like way more fun than the standard chaff these monster waves tend to bring. Though I will miss out on the latest epic monster this time around. And getting to test-run Myers’ newest weapon.”

“Guys, I really appreciate it, but Terra—”

“You can either let us walk beside you on our way to face this threat together, or you can listen to us pointing and laughing at your back for thinking we’d ever let you walk into certain death alone as we follow you anyway,” Scule chuckled. “Seriously, we’re coming with you.”

“On behalf of the council, I for one would like to say I’m ashamed of how a few of my fellow members look like they’re currently trying to come up with ways to convince your team to stay behind,” Witherson said, frowning as she looked at Spur and Phil specifically. “We’ve prepared for this upcoming wave more than any of the waves prior. We have defensive rituals engraved on the walls. A moat surrounding the town itself. Alice’s latest line of traps and Alka’s third set of Slayers, not to mention all the prestiged combat classes we have at this point. If Terra can’t hold its own after all this preparation without the help of a few non-Earthers, we don’t deserve to stand as a town at all.”

“I’m with Witherson,” Alice chimed in, closing the notebook she’d been doodling in all this time as she waited for things to calm down. “Keeping Vin alive is almost as important as keeping Terra alive. We’ll handle the monster wave, you guys need to handle keeping Vin in one piece.”

“Alice is correct,” Golrim said. “Not to mention, Mei has been working with Phil and the other combat classes to run drills nearly nonstop since the last wave. Having a prestiged Strategist on our side on top of everything else should be more than enough.”

“I really appreciate what you guys are trying to do,” Vin said, smiling fondly at all his friends. “But don’t I get a say in—”

“No.”

“Nope.”

“Hells no.”

“Squeak!”

“You do not,” Lumel said, rounding out the entire team as Vin stood there with his mouth open. “Whatever is coming for you, we’ll all face it down together. I already told you, Vin, all of us felt terrible when we let you go off on your own and you didn’t come back for the better part of a week when the rankers imprisoned you. None of us had any idea what happened to you, and we’re not about to go through that again.”

“Preach it, sister!” Scule said, pumping his fist in the air. “Team Opportunists for life!”

“We are not calling ourselves that,” Shia frowned, tapping her chin in thought. “The Roamers, with an ‘s’? That could work.”

“I’m a bit preferential to the Stab Squad, but that’s just me,” Alka shrugged.

Reginald squeaked something out from the table, and Scule gasped, turning a bit red in the face.

“By the Gods, keep it child-friendly, Reginald!”

“You guys are ridiculous, you all know that, right?” Vin asked, unable to keep himself from laughing at the sheer absurdity of the situation. Here he was desperately trying to come up with a way to convince his friends to stay behind and ensure Terra managed to survive the latest monster wave, and they weren’t having any part of it. He might as well have been talking to a brick wall for all the good his efforts were doing him. “Fine, I’ll stop trying to get you guys to let me tackle this one alone. In exchange, I’d like to propose my own name for the team.”

“Oh this should be good,” Alice snickered, giving him a wide grin and waving for him to continue. “Come on then, let’s hear it.”

“It’s not actually my original idea, I got it from Lumel awhile back,” Vin admitted, causing the pulmon to blink in surprise. “At the time, she was using the term to refer to me, but seeing as we’re a team and do all this together, I feel like it’s more fitting to wrap all of us up within the title.”

“Vin…” Lumel blushed, finally realizing what he was getting at. “That was just the two of us talking! I didn’t know you were going to bring it up to everyone!”

“Alright, well now we have to know what it is,” Alka laughed. “Come on then, out with it!”

“I told Vin ages ago that he was like one of my people’s fabled Airwalkers, only to an entirely different degree, because of Edregon and all the unique fragments exploring required,” Lumel explained, growing more confident by the word. “Airwalker doesn’t come even close to describing the dangers that we go through venturing from one fragment to the next. So I came up with my own term. He didn’t like it at the time, but I suppose that’s changed if he’s bringing it up.”

“I didn’t like it as a term for myself,” Vin admitted, taking her hand and squeezing it to try and convey that it wasn’t the term itself he wasn’t a fan of. “But as a name for our whole team? I think I can get behind it in that case.”

“Well don’t leave us hanging,” Golrim said, smiling wide as he held a pen and paper in hand. “I’ve got the record ready.”

“If we absolutely have to have a name for our rag-tag team that’s potentially about to all go down together, then I think there’s really only one thing that fits,” Vin admitted, his gaze sweeping all around the room at his friends who refused to let him run off on his own like an idiot. He felt his chest tighten, and he couldn’t keep the beaming smile off his face as he finally came out with it.

“Worldwalkers.”