Explorer of Edregon

“Why do you look like you just sat on a cactus?” Scule asked, chuckling as he and Reginald walked through their apartment door. Whoever had constructed their apartment had been kind enough to build a tiny, petian-sized door directly into the main door to allow Scule and Reginald to enter and leave far more easily. While the Rogue was more than capable of sneaking into normal-sized houses, there was no sense in making daily life any trickier than it had to be.

Realizing he’d been staring at the floor with a rather intense look of concentration on his face, Vin sighed, leaning back and rubbing his temples as he nodded toward his companions. Benevolence had merely winked at him and kicked him out of the void after he’d come to the revelation she’d been all but dragging him toward, and he’d been thinking about it ever since.

“Sorry, just deep in thought. What would either of you do if you had an incredibly important answer to the only question that really mattered at the moment, but you were forbidden from sharing it with anyone?”

“What kind of a question is that? I’d give whoever forbade me from sharing it an incredibly kind hand gesture and then do it anyway,” Scule snorted, hopping up onto the table and pulling a drink out of the dimensional bag he wore on his back as a cape. “You gotta learn to live a little, Vin. Rules were made to be broken.”

“Even the God of Contracts’ rules?” Vin asked, raising an eyebrow as Scule choked on his drink and began coughing. Reginald scurried up over to him and smacked him on the back with his tail, and Scule held up a finger as he took a few shaky breaths.

“Ah… allow me to rectify my answer. What I meant to say was that rules are incredibly important to society, and that you should follow them lest we descend into anarchy and start running around eating one another,” Scule said, offering him a weak smile. “Slip of the tongue earlier.”

“Impressive slip indeed,” Vin drawled, shaking his head. Having lived in the citadel his entire life, which was the holiest city in his entire world, Scule was the one who best knew about all the Gods out of their entire party. According to him, the God of Contracts was one of the most powerful Gods in all existence, right up there with the Goddess of Death and the God of Life. Scule had made his stance quite clear when Vin asked about Contracts earlier, stating that in no uncertain terms should Vin risk doing anything to get on that God’s bad side.

“I’m a man of many talents,” Scule said, clearing his throat before putting his drink away and sitting on the edge of the table. From the conflicting expression on his face, the Rogue looked like he was warring with his desire to be a good friend, and his innate fear of doing anything to anger the God of Contracts. After a few moments, Reginald walked over and poked him with the tip of his tail, and Scule sighed as he leaned back.

“Is this the same information you mentioned before you can’t share with us? Or did you learn something new? I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess it’s got something to do with the missing seventh wave, seeing as that’s all anyone is talking about.”

“Yeah, it’s about them. I know what happened to the seventh wave,” Vin admitted, thankful not to feel the tightening of golden chains around his torso.

“Huh. Alright, I get why you’re struggling in that case,” Scule said. “Why don’t we make this easy? Tell me, if you were to share that information, what would happen to you?”

“The God of Contracts alluded to me dying… but he didn’t come out and say it. In reality, I think that was a bluff. What I’m pretty certain would actually happen is I’d lose the divine boon the Goddess of Benevolence gave me.”

“The boon that’s saved your life, what, over a dozen times now?” Scule asked, looking at him like he was an idiot. “Is this information really so important as to give that up?”

“Honestly? I think it might be.”

That seemed to give Scule pause, and he scratched his chin as he thought. After a moment, he perked up.

“Okay, different angle! Even if this information is as important as you say it is, what would actually happen if you shared it? Basically, would anyone be able to really do anything about it? Because if the answer is ‘no’, then there’s no point in worrying about this anyway.”

“Lumel might be able to do something down the line…” Vin said, taking Scule’s question to heart and really thinking about it. In fact, the revelation that there was another fragment of Earthers out there who had advanced to the point that they had magic capable of temporarily altering a working of the Gods, even if only for a split second, had been so mind-blowing that he hadn’t really thought about that.

Wherever these other Earthers were, it was almost guaranteed they were incredibly far away. If Earthers were being used as some sort of stabilizing force for all of Edregon, Vin figured it made the most sense that the Gods had tried to place them as equidistant from one another as physically possible. That meant even if he somehow managed to tell the council and all his friends about what had happened, it wasn’t as though they could rush over there and get the missing seventh wavers back. Temporarily bending the Gods’ ritual had honestly been a stroke of genius. Those other Earthers obviously needed more people for whatever reason, and rather than spend all the time and resources trying to hunt them down, they were able to let the Gods do all the heavy lifting.

At Terra’s expense.

“‘Lumel might be able to do something, down the line,’” Scule repeated, emphasizing each of the uncertain words. “You know what that sounds like to me? A big fat ‘no’ in answer to my question. You want my advice? If figuring out a way to share this information wouldn’t even do anything, just keep it to yourself. I think pissing off one of the strongest Gods in all of existence is not something you should think about doing lightly.”

Vin grimaced as he realized Scule was completely right. It pained him to no end, but knowing what happened and being able to do anything about it were two very different things. They had no way of recovering the missing seventh wave, which meant at best, the only real benefit to explaining what had happened would be to gather more ideas as to how to stop the mysterious Earthers from trying to do the same thing again.

Because Vin wasn’t about to let that happen.

“Thanks, Scule. You too, Reginald. I appreciate the help,” he said, getting to his feet and glancing outside to see how much light he had left. Shia would probably be sleeping over in the Sacred Forest as she was helping move a few metric tons of monster flesh, and Lumel hadn’t come home yet, which meant he had a little time. “I’ve got something I need to take care of, but I’ll be back before long.”

Unlawfully taken from NovelPhoenix, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Don’t expect us to wait up for you,” Scule snorted, turning to head into his own room. “I’ve got a dream date with Fria lined up, and she’s no doubt eager to hear all about my daring exploits and how I did all the heavy lifting when it came to taking down a gigantic dragon!”

Reginald could only shake his head, squeaking good luck to Vin as he waved a paw before following after Scule.

Heading outside, Vin realized he was in an interesting predicament. Usually, Theodore, Terra’s resident Spy and the sub-leader of the Foreign Branch, was the one to find him. Theodore had a bit of a theatrical streak to him and loved using his Public Persona ability to try and surprise Vin every time he returned to Terra from one of his adventures. In the wake of the battle for wave seven, Vin had no idea where to find him. Though there was one thing he could try.

“Alright then,” he murmured, weaving together the runic formation for Whispering Wind and letting the runes flood with his mana. “We need to talk. I have a mission for you.”

Rather than focus on a specific location as he cast his spell, Vin focused on his Friend of Mana Capstone he’d received upon hitting level 50. The Capstone seemed to do quite a number of interesting things, one of which involved him essentially leaning on mana itself to do certain things that wouldn’t normally be possible. These could be massive, fragment-spanning works which resulted in his own death as the very mana helping him inadvertently unleashed its chaotic nature upon his mortal coil, or smaller, much more sensible favors. In this instance, Vin’s desire was simple.

Find Theodore, he asked of the mana as he whispered his message.

Vin knew Theodore had some method of finding him based on how the Spy was always ready whenever he came home, so he didn’t bother specifying a location. Instead, he leaned against the front of his apartment, patiently waiting for Theodore to receive his message and come to him. As he waited, he pulled up his interface, taking a look at the results of all the new monsters he’d discovered during the battle for wave seven.

Vinnie Stone

Adventurer of the Arcane: Lvl 53

Titles: Human Vessel (Lesser), Common Ally (Minor), Survivor, Epic Monster Slayer, Spell Weaver

Exp. 1,427,260/1,431,000

Strength: 20

Dexterity: 30

Endurance: 79

Vigor: 25

Focus: 88

Magic: 87

Attribute Points: 0

Skill Points: 1

Passive Points: 0

Class Ability: Beyond the Veil

Vows/Boons: Vow of Benevolence/Grace of Gods (Boon)

Capstone: Runic Recalibration, Flexible Formations, Friend of Mana

Passives: Mental Map, Polyglot, Distance Runner, Threat Detection, Iron Mind, Mana Well, Artifact Extraordinaire, Magical Adept, Spell Builder

Skills: Tracking lvl 13, Manacraft, Introspection lvl 21, Dungeoneering lvl 16, Total Resistance lvl 21, Running lvl 20, Cartography lvl 12, Drawing lvl 12, Swimming lvl 17, Dormancy lvl 5

Tier 0 Spells: Sense Stone (earth), Sense Life (life), Sense Magic (neutral), Sense Curse (curse), Sense Air (air), Sense Dimensions (spatial), Sense Vibrations (vibration), Sense Death (death), Sense Fire (fire), Sense Water (water), Sense Soul (soul), Sense Gravity (gravity), Sense Dream (dream)

Tier 1 Spells: Renewal (life), Entangle (nature), Replenish (nature), Light (light), Summon Stone (earth), Concealment (neutral), Familiar Pheromones (nature), Whispering Wind (air), Create Water (water), Isolate Dimension (spatial), Tremorsense (vibration), Decay (death), Neutralize Poison (life), Detect Truth (soul), Create Flame (fire), Enhance Gravity (gravity), Create Air (air), Slow Fall (air), Protection from Fire (fire), Extinguish (fire), Still Wind (air), Firm Water (water), Vibrate (vibration), Create Dream (dream), Dream Mark (dream), Soul Mark (soul), Whispering Water (water)

Tier 2 Spells: Stone Shot (earth), Stone Wall (earth), Stone Shape (earth), Stone Furniture (earth), False Life (death), Dimensional Sheath (spatial), Aqua Sphere (water), Redirect Gravity (gravity), Fireball (fire), Create Cloud (air), Magic Lock (spatial), Self Destruct (fire), Replenishing Breath (air), Warmth (fire), Mage Hand (gravity), Tremorsight (vibration), Dream Walk (dream), Comprehend Languages (neutral), Wind Wall (air), Mass Vibrations (vibration)

Tier 3 Spells: Binding (spatial), Meteor (fire), Neutral Skin (neutral)

The sight of all the spells he’d managed to learn during his time on Edregon made him feel a little better, and Vin couldn’t help but smile at the massive list of spells he’d discovered or created for himself before dismissing his information.

It seemed Theodore had picked up on the serious nature of Vin’s request, as rather than spot an olympic runner sprinting down the road or a drunken man stumbling toward him, Theodore turned the bend, running at a light jog. Even serious, he was still Theodore, however, and the Spy couldn’t help himself from giving a deep, eloquent bow as he stopped before him.

“You called?”

“I’ve got a tricky mission I need the Foreign Branch’s help with,” Vin said, wondering how to word this. He knew he was making a big, almost impossible ask, but there were only one people his mind went to when it came to coming up with a way to fight back against someone capable of messing with the Gods’ ritual. “Do you remember the neilans I told you about?”

“The people you tried to keep secret at first but ended up spilling the beans about anyway?” Theodore asked, smirking at him. “Yes, I do recall.”

“Yeah, those guys,” Vin said, shaking his head. In his opinion, wanting to keep the people with ritual magic powerful enough to inadvertently wipe out one of their neighboring fragments was perfectly reasonable, but that wasn’t an argument he felt like getting into at the moment. “I need you to get them to help us. The giant, universe-spanning ritual that the Gods use to bring people from Earth over to Edregon? Someone else on Edregon hijacked it for a split second and stole the Earthers. Odds are they’re going to try and do it again for the eighth wave, and we need to figure out a way to stop them.”

“Wow… That’s some news,” Theodore said, his eyes going wide. “And you think the neilans are powerful enough to mess with something the Gods’ created?”

“They just need to be good enough to best whoever is already messing with it,” Vin explained. “We don’t need them to fix or alter the Gods’ work, we just need them to slap back at the hands of whoever is trying to bend it toward them. They’re capable of creating an almost impenetrable dome around their entire fragment and redirecting monster spawns, so we know they’ve got skills. The tricky thing is going to be convincing them to help us when they clearly want nothing more than to be left alone.”

“Luckily for you, that’s where we come in,” Theodore grinned, looking excited at the challenge. “Tom and Vanessa have both leveled up quite a lot these past few months, you just leave it to us. You’ll be impressed what twice-prestiged Ambassadors and Diplomats are capable of pulling off.”

“Thanks, Theodore, that’s a load off my mind. Heads up, you guys are going to have to go in through the Underside, unless you ended up learning teleportation magic last we spoke, or found a magic blade capable of cutting through their dome.”

“We’ll stick with the Underside,” Theodore said. “Though we’ll have to borrow Lumel briefly to get us through the dimensional barrier.”

“I’ll let her know,” Vin promised. After that, he bade Theodore goodnight, before heading back into his apartment. Part of him debated if he wanted to cast Dream Walk and work on some magic as he slept, but after the intensity of the battle for wave seven, followed by everything with the missing seventh wavers, he was beyond exhausted. Summoning his shimmerwing mattress, he grabbed his merider-silk blanket and conjured up his pillow with Create Cloud. A quick cast of Warmth later to fill his body with a pleasant, comfortable heat was the last piece his stronghold of slumber was missing beyond Lumel, and he sighed, placing his head on the pillow and closing his eyes.

All it took was a mental flex of his Dormancy skill, and Vin welcomed his much-needed rest with open arms.