Explorer of Edregon

“And you just… said yes?” Scule asked, raising an eyebrow from atop Shia’s shoulder as Lumel brought them all back together again outside of the town’s boundaries. The trio were currently being reamed out by Alka for leaving explosives out where potential survivors might wander over them and get blown to pieces, and Vin was surprised to find all three of them actually looking a bit ashamed as they got a tongue lashing from a sentient golem. “Vin, I want you to know I say this lightly and with much love… but are you stupid? They tried to blow you all up!”

“Those were defenses left in place to protect them in case the trogums came back while they were looting,” Vin argued, looking pointedly at him. “I seem to recall us taking a chance on a certain Rogue a while back that originally tried to steal from us and poison us when we tried to get our belongings back. That turned out well enough, didn’t it?”

“Yeah, and I thought about backstabbing you all and robbing you blind at least two or three times before coming to my senses!” Scule said. “You’re making my argument for me here!”

“Regardless of that, I think Terra will benefit from them,” Vin admitted. “And Terra is secure enough at this point I don’t think we have to worry too much. Once we drop them off, we can carry on with our exploration.”

“Actually… I think I’m going to have to tap out early,” Shia said, giving him a sheepish grin as she held up what little she’d managed to collect from Blossom. “I need to get Blossom repaired and functional again as soon as possible, and it sounds like I need to do some studying on avisul biology as well. Though there’s a chance Frank might be able to help. He still can’t regenerate missing limbs, but it doesn’t look like Quill’s wings are gone. He might not need tier-4 healing magic.”

“That’s probably for the best… Though we’ll miss you,” Vin said, glancing at Scule. “Are you and Reginald still in?”

“Are you kidding? I’m still riding the high of hitting level 50!” Scule snorted, puffing out his chest and thrusting a finger into the air. “Let it ride! We continue ever onward!”

An excited squeak joined him from Shia’s other shoulder, and Reginald thrust his tail into the air as well.

“Glad to hear,” Vin smiled, deciding Alka had probably given the trio a long enough reaming.

Alka, Scule, and Reginald decided to stay behind to finish sweeping the town and ensure there weren’t any traps left out that Yughe had forgotten about, so Vin, Shia, and Lumel took the trio over to the dungeon on their own. Finding the dungeon within this fragment was simple enough with Dungeoneering, and the monsters contained within weren’t really all that interesting. Grassy slimes that could force jagged spikes out of their body but were rather slow moving were dodged or killed easily enough, though Vin did appreciate a few nice notifications as they headed into the Underside.

New dungeon discovered! 5,000 exp gained.

Dungeoneering increased to lvl 17! 1,700 exp gained.

New monster discovered! 200 exp gained.

“What is this place?” Quill whispered, his voice echoing in the vast emptiness of the Underside.

“Some form of alternate dimensional area laying adjacent to Edregon,” Yughe muttered, peering at the stone frame they’d come out of. “How interesting…”

Noctis merely grunted, looking around curiously while they walked.

They were fairly quiet after that, and Lumel used her skills with spatial magic to open the path for the trio all the way back to Terra. Once they cleared the forest dungeon, Vin led them through the main gate as he brought them toward the town hall.

“I can’t help but notice how everyone seems to look at you like a God incarnate,” Yughe mentioned as she walked beside him, keeping her voice low as her head turned on a swivel. “I don’t think many people even noticed you’ve got a goblin, a minotaur, and an avisul along for the ride.”

“We told you, Terra is filled with other races,” Vin shrugged. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you all will get plenty of questions soon enough.”

Linda took one look at the colorful crew walking into town hall before asking the person she was currently speaking with to hold on a moment. Walking out from behind her desk, she raised an eyebrow at Vin as she walked over.

“And what exactly have you dragged in this time?”

“A few people who are interested in potentially working with Terra,” he grinned. “Any chance you could help get them through the onboarding process and situated? We need to get back out there as quickly as we can. There might be refugees in need of our help. Oh, and Frank should take a look at Quill here before anything else, he’s an avisul with some damaged wings.”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“I’ll get them settled,” Linda said, smiling at the trio as she motioned for them to follow her. “If you’d just come this way…”

“It’s incredible how simple things are these days,” Shia muttered, watching the trio as they nodded along to everything Linda was saying. “Terra’s really grown into her own. I remember when you were just a large group of people sleeping in poorly made tents.”

“I sort of wish I could have seen Terra grow from the very beginning,” Lumel admitted, smiling at the thought. “Still, getting to watch it improve from almost the ground up has still been fantastic.”

“Well, we need to get back out there,” Vin said, turning toward Shia. “Good luck with Blossom. How long do you think it’s going to take?”

“At least a week, but it’s too early to say for certain,” Shia admitted, looking lovingly at the bundle of charred and snapped sticks in her hands. “Don’t worry about me, though, you guys focus on what you have to do.”

With that, Vin and Lumel made the return trip back to their waiting friends, eventually meeting back up with them in the center of the abandoned town.

“Credit where credit’s due, Yughe didn’t leave any other traps around after dismantling her rings of explosives,” Scule said, looking like it physically pained him. “She really struck me as the ‘airheaded-inventor’ type, so consider me thoroughly surprised.”

“Far more interesting is what they were trying to get,” Alka said, knocking a fist against what looked like a metal box half as large as she was that she’d dragged out into the street. “Yughe’s Capstone must have led her to this. No idea what’s inside it. Not even Scule had managed to crack it just yet.”

“Magical locks are hard, alright?” the petian said, muttering to himself as he kicked at the side of the safe. “You can’t pick what isn’t there!”

“It can’t be a weapon, or they would have used it against the trogums,” Vin said, peering curiously at the box. There weren’t any runes on it, which meant it had to be an artifact. Only it didn’t feel like an artifact, which thoroughly confused him. With artifacts, he could brush his focus into them and take a look at the runic formation imbued within the object. With the safe, he got nothing.

“It could require multiple people to open. Or even one specific person who fell too quickly to do so,” Lumel suggested, shrugging as she peered at the box as well. “There might still be a weapon in there.”

“From what I can tell based on the residue and smoking remains of the room we found this in, when Yughe couldn’t open it, she tried to do so with explosives,” Scule explained. “You can see for yourself how well that worked.”

“We shouldn’t spend too long on this, I want to go check in with those refugees Quill mentioned,” Vin muttered. But even as he spoke, he sat down, far too interested in the magic puzzle before him. He could tell the box was magic, but that was about as far as he got. Beyond the Veil wasn’t giving him much to work with, other than a sense of security and hardness that was oddly similar to his staff. Along with… something else he was struggling to pick up. “Lumel, I don’t suppose there’s any chance you can teleport the box elsewhere without whatever is inside, can you?”

“No, spatial magic isn’t that precise. Not even mine,” she admitted, gingerly laying a hand against the side of the box as she frowned. “All I can confirm is that there is mostly empty space within, with a lone object.”

“I suppose there’s the obvious idea we could try,” Alka said, holding out a hand toward Lumel. “My pick?”

With a flash or purple, Lumel pulled Alka’s dwarven warpick out of her Dimensional Pocket, handing it over to her. After having her arm replaced, Alka had picked up a true warpick from Deorer when she went to have her darthsteel plating repaired. Gripping it in hand, she prepared to smash the warpick into the box, before Vin stopped her.

“Wait! That’s not a good idea,” he said, slowly deciphering what Beyond the Veil was trying to tell him. “Whatever magic is reinforcing the box, I’m pretty certain if it's broken into recklessly, it will destroy the contents.”

“God damn paranoid mages,” Scule muttered, kicking the box a second time. “Alright, so what now? We just leave it? Anyone who could possibly know how to open this thing is dead and gone. And not in a way you could use False Life to ask them how to open it, they were turned into food for the Rebel Queen.”

“I have an idea as to how I can open it… but I’m going to need some time,” Vin admitted. “I think I can get through the metal carefully enough without disturbing the magic, but I don’t have the spell I need to do so just yet.”

“Weren’t you just telling us we shouldn’t spend too long on this thing?” Alka asked, one green eye flaring at him.

“The refugees have lasted over two weeks wherever they are, they can make it another day or two!” Vin argued, frowning as Alka and Scule exchanged knowing glances. “Come on, it’s a magic puzzle box! Even I have my vices!”

“I think we’re fine to give Vin some time to work on a new spell and try to crack the box,” Lumel said, smiling at him as she laid a hand on his shoulder. “Whatever is inside is probably extremely valuable, incredibly dangerous, or both. I think Terra would benefit from the effort.”

“Whatever you say, Princess, we can find something to entertain ourselves,” Alka shrugged. “Scule, want to go fight some more monsters?”

“Eh, I’ve got an entire town here I want to check out,” Scule admitted, excitedly spinning around as he took in the large sprawl of houses surrounding them. “I figure most of the valuables were probably over with the guys who fell near the edge of the fragment, but there’s got to be at least a handful of interesting things left behind that they didn’t have time to bring with them. Go stab a monster or two for me though!”

“I’m glad we finally hit a fragment you can go loot-wild in,” Alka snorted, shaking her head as she turned to leave. “Come find me when you’re done playing with the magic box. I probably won’t go too far.”

“Let me know if you manage to uncover any sort of lock or tumbler system I can do anything with,” Scule said, hopping onto Reginald and taking off into one of the nearby buildings.

“I’m going to keep working on my own tier-5 project,” Lumel said, giving him an encouraging smile. “But let me know if you need any help. And try not to get frustrated.”

“Don’t worry,” Vin said, eyeing up the magic box hungrily. “I’ve got a few ideas that I can’t wait to try on this thing.”