Explorer of Edregon

Despite their arguing that lasted through setting up camp for the night, Alka, Shia, and Scule never ended up coming to an agreement on which of them would be able to win in a true battle with one another. Vin’s suggestion that each of them were better at different things and that it would functionally be like rock-paper-scissors was shut down almost immediately, which he thought was a tad uncalled for.

In his opinion, Scule would beat Shia but be completely ineffective against Alka, Shia would tangle up and subdue Alka but lose to Scule and his poisons, and Alka would functionally punt Scule into next week, but get captured by Shia.

None of his friends very much liked his suggestion.

Thankfully, a good night’s rest seemed to be enough to get everyone to drop the topic, and there was no more arguing as they all headed over toward the next fragment on their list. Vin knew he had a nice, juicy experience bonus coming his way for completing the third ring of fragments, and he couldn’t wipe the smile off his face as they ran.

But the moment he spotted what lay on the other side of the fragment border, his smile vanished in an instant.

Dried blood and fallen possessions lay scattered in mass all over the ground on both sides of the fragment, indicating that a sizable group of people had tried to flee from the trogum tide before falling victim to it. With the Rebel Queen’s constant need for organic matter to continue pumping out more trogums, there wasn’t so much as a single corpse to be seen, but that didn’t matter. The tracks told the story just as well for him, and there were plenty for him to look over as he wandered amidst the fallen goods.

Tracking increased to lvl 14! 1,400 exp gained.

“This is awful,” Shia muttered, reaching down and picking up a fallen family portrait. The glass in the front had cracked and fallen away, but the painting within was undamaged. “Looks like humans were the unlucky winners of this fragment.”

“Not just humans,” Lumel said. She wiped off a fallen locket that had laid open on the ground, one side stained with blood. “There’s a portrait of a beastkin in this one. Do you think any of them got away?”

“It doesn’t look like it,” Vin muttered, still going over the tracks as he walked up to the edge of the fragment. “As far as I can tell, it seems as though the people fleeing paused when they hit the fragment border. Whether to wait for more refugees or because they were scared, I don’t know. When they finally decided to keep going, it was too late.”

“Seeing as the fragment they were running into was littered with elite tentacle monsters hidden underground, they were right to be scared,” Alka said, staring hard at a fallen stuffed animal of some sort. “I know it was the Rebel Queen responsible for all this and not the trogums as a whole, but damn does this make me want to run back there and slaughter the lot of them for what they’ve done.”

“They didn’t have any more say in what she forced them to do than you did in becoming a ghost,” Vin said, laying a comforting hand on her shoulder. “All we can do is keep moving forward.”

Doing just that, Vin stepped into the new fragment, glancing down at his notifications.

Third ring fragment discovered! 1,500 exp gained.

“One step closer to that next passive point,” Vin muttered, dismissing the notification as he looked around at the world these people had been fleeing for their lives from.

The fragment the humans and beastkin had called home was an oddly pleasant one, in stark contrast to the scene of carnage they were walking through. From the pleasant temperature, groves of trees, and rolling hills of green, it reminded him a lot of the Earther’s starting fragment.

“Nice place,” Shia said, taking a deep breath before letting it out. A smile slowly returned to her face as she gazed at the distant trees. “It’s horrible what happened to the people living here, but at least the fragment itself is largely untouched. Not that it wouldn’t have all grown back anyway given enough time.”

“So, if the people are all dead, what exactly is the plan?” Scule asked, his arm elbow-deep in the lock of what looked like a small jewelry box that had fallen right alongside everything else. “Go check out their town? See what monsters live here? I’m just curious.”

“I think a general sweep for survivors wouldn’t be a bad idea,” Vin agreed. “Of course, we’ll be doing things the fast way. Fair warning, I might trip my boon, so be ready for that.”

“You don’t want to wait until we find wherever these people lived?” Shia asked, raising an eyebrow at him. “Might save you a death.”

“I think we’ve made these people wait long enough,” Vin decided, throwing together an empowered Sense Soul within his core and casting the spell across the entire fragment. It took a few seconds for it to bounce back, but when he did, he sucked in a surprise breath. “There are survivors!”

“Really?!” Lumel asked, covering her mouth with her hands. “How many?”

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“Three people, all roughly in the center of the fragment,” Vin said, his heart pounding as he realized there might be people they could help after all. “I have no idea how they survived the trogum tide, but they’re definitely there. Maybe they had some sort of underground bunker that they hid within!”

“I feel like trogums of all people would know to check underground,” Shia muttered, before shaking her head. “Still, this is exciting! Shall we get going then?”

“You guys go on ahead without us,” Scule said, waving at them before grinning as a loud click came from the jewelry box he was messing with. “We’ll catch up soon enough!”

A small part of Vin felt like looting the dead was a little disrespectful, especially after such a tragedy, but he supposed that was probably better than looting those who were still living.

“Alright, stay safe you two. We don’t know what kinds of monsters are on this fragment.”

“Please. I’d like to see the monster that can catch Reginald in a foot race,” Scule scoffed, tossing piece after piece of expensive-looking jewelry into his cape.

With that, Vin and the others continued forward, picking up the pace a tad as they made a beeline straight for the souls Vin had detected.

“Not a lot of monsters,” Alka mentioned as they ran, her head on a swivel as she searched around for any notable threats. “Though I suppose the trogums probably took care of most of those as well.”

“Still, more should have respawned by now,” Shia pointed out, tapping her chin before her eyes widened. “Oh look, there’s the town! It looks like most of it managed—”

The ground exploded underneath them without warning, launching all of them up and backwards as fire and dirt went in every which direction. A blast of golden light erupted from Vin as he arced through the air, and he shook his head as he reflexively cast Slow Fall and drifted back to the ground, his jaw dropping in horror at the scene beneath him.

Whatever had detonated had been powerful enough to not only send him nearly thirty feet into the air, but also scatter them in different directions. While it looked as though he’d taken the brunt of the attack, Alka and Shia on either side of him still got sent flying. Alka shouted expletives as she flew and crashed into the ground, creating a small furrow in the dirt that she was actively dragging herself out of. Shia had hit hard and tumbled a good dozen feet or so, Blossom having shattered into countless wooden splinters in order to take the damage onto herself and save her rider. Even so, Shia appeared to have been knocked unconscious, but at least she was breathing.

“Lumel, are you okay?!” Vin asked, trying to look over his shoulder at the pulmon who had been riding on his back.

“I think so…” she answered weakly, gripping him all the tighter as they drifted down. She was already drinking a potion, and gasped as she finished downing the whole thing. “Your divine boon blocked most of the fire, but not all the force. A health potion or two should be enough to patch me up though, don’t worry.”

“Are you sure? No need to put on a brave face, I know pulmons are more fragile than we are.”

“I’m fine,” Lumel said, the hint of a smile practically audible in her words as she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. “Go check on Shia, make sure she’s okay.”

The moment Vin landed, he carefully set Lumel down and gave her a once over, confirming she didn’t look too worse for wear beyond a handful of nasty burns covering her face and hands. But seeing as the healing potion was already getting to work on them, he nodded, turning to check on Shia.

“Renewal,” he muttered, letting the life mana do its thing while he swept it over her. Thankfully, her class ability had absorbed most of the damage at the cost of Blossom’s temporary destruction, but Shia hadn’t gotten away scott free. Vin vaguely recalled Shia mentioning how her master had instructed her to put more of her bonus attribute points in vigor this time around as she leveled, and he made a mental note to thank her master for the idea next they saw him.

“Vin?” Shia muttered weekly, groaning as she pushed herself into a sitting position. “What happened? We were running, and then…”

“We triggered some sort of trap,” he said, peering back over at where they’d been mere moments ago. A giant, fiery crater was all that remained of their old path, and Vin sent a silent prayer of thanks to Benevolence for what felt like the twentieth time for gracing him with her boon. “Blossom is down, but it looks like that’s what saved you. Anything broken?”

“A lot of burns… a lot of pain… but I’ll live,” Shia said, already sounding a bit stronger thanks to his healing magic. Waving him off, she began casting Regeneration on herself, and Vin headed back to Lumel. By now, Alka had freed herself from the earth, and the Slayer was walking around the edge of the crater, her glowing eyes morphed into pinpricks as she bent down to examine it.

“Definitely a skill of some sort. My guess would be a skill-enhanced explosive. Trapper class or something similar.”

“I always knew getting on Alice’s good side was a smart idea,” Vin said, casting Renewal on Lumel to help her burns heal faster. “I guess the next question is why was it here? Did the people on this fragment try to set up defenses against the trogum tide and they just didn’t get hit?”

“Doubtful. You saw how thick the swarm of trogums was, there’s no way they accidentally missed this,” Alka said, straightening back up and unsheathing her sword. “Someone set this up after. Presumably someone trying to ensure that the trogums didn’t come back for round two.”

“That’s a point in favor of survivors then, right?” Lumel asked. “It would make sense.”

“I don’t think so. If they had these kinds of defenses, they would have utilized them against the trogums before the town was overrun,” Alka explained. “I don’t think we’re dealing with survivors at all.”

“So what are we up against?” Shia asked, wobbling slightly as she wandered around and picked up the largest pieces of Blossom that she could find. She’d be able to regrow the staff from scratch like she had after their battle against the ranker king, but the more she had to work with, the faster she’d be able to do so.

“Most likely?” Alka said, her eyes burning as she turned to face the nearby town. “Scavengers.”