Explorer of Edregon

The revelation that he’d spent two and a half weeks trapped within that dark void as he battled against Ovord was nearly enough to make Vin faint, but he refused to lose any more time than he already had. After Spur whipped out the truth gem and used that to hopefully confirm that Vin was still Vin as well, Scule got to work dismantling the many bindings and traps holding him in place while Shia filled him in on all that he’d missed. Everyone else filtered out at Golrim’s insistence, just to be safe. Part of Vin was annoyed that he’d still yet to be fully cleared, but he couldn’t really hold it against any of them.

And in his surprise of the heavy atmosphere and having everyone look like they were deciding whether or not to kill him, he sort of forgot to admit the ‘evil mage’ he’d talked about battling wasn’t quite as dead as they all seemed to assume.

“Surprisingly, nothing too wild has happened while you were out,” Shia said, gesturing toward her staff. “Obviously, I managed to repair Blossom, but that was a while ago. We ended up swinging back down to the fragments that the trogums had swept through, and we found the refugees. Helped some of them get settled back in their original town and worked to repair most of their crops that had been destroyed from the trogum tide. After that, we’ve been largely doing our own things for the most part. Scule visited his family in the Citadel and has been hard at work on his poisons. Alka is putting her Slayers through the wringer, determined not to lose a single one of them with the next battle. And I’ve been taking the time to do what I did with you, with everyone I have a powerful bond with.”

“It’s true, we’ve all got new toys,” Scule grinned, reaching into his cape and pulling out a new blowgun that looked like it had been handcrafted and oiled down carefully. “Check it out! My bonded artifact is capable of shooting way farther than before, and it’s got a bit of a kick I can trigger if need be. I finally got my own magic weapon, and all it took was complaining about all of you having one but not me!”

“Mine enhances my strength,” Alka said, tapping at her wrists. Only now did Vin notice the black, wooden bracelets on each arm that blended in almost perfectly with her darthsteel plating. “Something I’ve been needing an upgrade on for some time now, seeing as I can’t level. Anyway, if you're still you, then I'm going to head back out. The Slayers are in the middle of a nasty training exercise, and I should be there to make sure nobody gets killed. I know this is asking a lot, but try not to do anything else stupid before I get back, would you?”

While Alka strode out of the room, Reginald added his own squeak as he held up his paws to reveal tiny gloves on his hands, and Vin’s eyes widened.

“Seriously? Reginald can run up walls now?”

“Even better, we both can!” Scule laughed as he detached the last of the bindings keeping Vin locked down. The only one left at this point was the giant hunk of metal pinning down his golem arm. “My Magical Bond passive is seriously just the best!”

“Like I suspected, none of the other artifacts came even close to what we managed to do with your staff,” Shia admitted. “But still, I’m pretty happy with how they turned out.”

“For the record, that staff was the only thing that saved me,” Vin said, blinking as Scule undid the final binding to reveal his golem arm lying against the table.

Still clutching the now-clear orb in his hands.

“Huh,” Scule said, staring at the glass-like sphere. “…I thought that thing used to be all black and evil.”

“I would assume after Vin managed to beat the spirit trapped within that the energies died along with it,” Shia pointed out.

“Yes, well…” Vin said, clearing his throat as he gave his friends a tired smile. “The thing is, that ‘evil spirit’ I told Fred about? Turns out he’s not exactly evil. Or a spirit. Also, I didn’t kill him so much as I struck a deal with him. I’m letting him tag along for a while with my Human Vessel title. It was the only way he’d agree to let me wake back up.”

Shia, Scule, and Reginald all froze as one, staring at him with three pairs of wide eyes as though he’d just slapped them across the face.

“There’s the looks I was expecting,” Ovord said, his voice hard as if preparing himself. “When they attack—”

“Damn it, Vin, you’ve really got to lead with something like that,” Scule sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he waved a hand at him. “So what are we dealing with here? If he’s not actually evil I mean. Misunderstood genius trapped away by his own creation? Court mage banished by the new king after stealing the throne? Another Alka situation?”

“I’m not fully certain just yet, but from what little I heard, it sounds like he was an Arch Mage who was betrayed, or at least attacked, by a lot of other powerful mages,” Vin admitted. “And he’s a lot weaker than Alka was. It doesn’t seem like he can project himself out in a ghost form like she did. He’s just chatting in my head.”

“Oh, an Arch Mage? That sounds useful,” Shia said, tapping her chin as she stared at him. “We’ll have to figure out a way to get him a body, or at least a way for us to hear him so we can talk.”

“…What is wrong with you people?” Ovord asked, the mage’s voice sounding genuinely scared for the first time. “This is not how people are supposed to react to learning that their friends have been partially possessed by a once powerful mage! Doubly so if you’re supposed to be their strongest member!”

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“I told you, this kind of thing isn’t all that weird,” Vin said, shaking his head and tapping his temple to show who he was talking to as Reginald tilted his head curiously. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure something out. Once I can confirm you’re not going to hurt anyone, we’ll find some way to get you a body. You saw that golem with the glowing green eyes, right? That’s Alka, the ghost I told you about who I used to let possess me for a while. We ended up having to steal her golem body from a giant floating library back in the day, but we’re friends with the librarian now. She might just let us have another one this time around if we ask.”

“Though the tricky thing is with Madam Trebella having punched a hole through space to get back to her old universe, we don’t have access to the same binding ritual we did before,” Shia pointed out. “Let me chat with Erik. The others are still hibernating and will be for some time, but now that the Ancient One’s magic issues have been mostly resolved, maybe the dryads have some sort of alternative method they can use to get him a new body. Or I can ask my master once he finishes traveling between the realms.”

“Barring that, you could just ask your God friends,” Scule added. “The Goddess of Benevolence still sort of owes you one for leaking you that information that made the God of Contracts bind you, doesn’t she? I know they can’t really directly influence Edregon like they used to, but maybe she can drop us a hint.”

Curiously, Vin discovered it was possible for Ovord to sputter within his head, as the mage seemed to struggle to comprehend all that was happening. As his friends threw out one crazy thing after another that happened to them, Ovord went silent, before quietly speaking up once they were done.

“…Either this world is not the one I was imprisoned on, or you are far more powerful than I originally assumed. Currently, I am leaning toward both.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll get one of the pamphlets once we’re done here,” Vin chuckled, causing the now-empty orb to vanish as he cast Dimensional Sheath. The artifact was still in one piece, which meant he was sure Lumel would be able to study and learn from it. He could only hope that would make her feel a little bit better about the whole thing.

Though speaking of Lumel…

“Hey, Ovord. Is there any chance you can give me a little privacy for a while?” Vin asked, glancing down at his chest. “I need to go talk to my gir-lifemate, and I’d rather not have you watching and listening in on our conversation.”

“Don’t worry. I need some time to digest everything that has happened in this short time I’ve been ‘awake’ once more,” Ovord admitted, sounding positively shaken as his presence slowly faded from Vin’s mind. “I’m going to seek refuge within your mana pool for a bit. I’m ashamed to say, but the dark void brings me comfort after all this time. You should be able to sense when my presence comes and goes.”

“Yep, feels that way. Take all the time you need,” Vin said, noting the sensation of Ovord shifting over to his core. Despite all the trouble the former Arch Mage had put him through, part of him felt a little bad for the poor guy. Ovord had gone from being betrayed by his fellow mages, having his power and might stripped away from him, imprisoned for the rest of eternity within a ball, and then brought out into the light once more, only to be thrown straight into the deep end of Edregon and all its craziness.

Vin didn’t blame him for needing to take a breather.

As it turned out, the room they’d built to hold him was the new high-security cell built directly under the town prison. Vin thanked Abby for all her time spent checking up on him before making a beeline straight for the edge of town. His friends told him Lumel had spent most of her time the last few weeks studying down in the Underside, which meant that was where he needed to go first.

While he walked, after grabbing a quick bite to eat to fill the aching void in his stomach, Vin pulled up the notifications he’d ignored upon waking up. For some reason he expected to see more than he had, but the moment he saw what he’d earned, he couldn’t help but laugh.

Dormancy increased to lvl 7! 1,400 exp gained.

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Dormancy increased to lvl 12! 2,400 exp gained.

Introspection increased to lvl 22! 4,400 exp gained.

Introspection increased to lvl 23! 4,600 exp gained.

The six increases in Dormancy were nice, but it was the two level ups for Introspection that were the real reward for everything he’d been through. Spending so much time within that dark void had clearly done dividends for him, as the already twice-evolved skill was at the point where naturally pushing it closer to whatever mysterious second evolution was a process that would normally take years. After all the benefits he’d received from Manacraft…

Vin was quite excited to see what Introspection’s final form would end up being.

Going through his interface reminded him that he still had three attribute points from hitting level 55 waiting to be spent, along with a passive point of all things, which he was quite excited for. Tossing the attribute points into vigor to try and balance out his now incredibly lopsided attributes a little bit, he made the decision to hold off on delving into potential passives for the moment. Lumel came first, and it wasn’t as though that passive point was going anywhere.

Vin made it through the Earther dungeon and down the corridor in no time, and he took a deep breath before stepping into the Underside. Lumel was exactly where he expected to find her, sitting in one of her comfy chairs she’d stolen from her father’s palace and deep within Introspection. He couldn’t help but peer into her mana pool, shocked at the progress she’d made over the past couple of weeks.

The tier-5 spell Lumel had been working on had already looked like the most complicated thing Vin had ever seen, but now he could barely pick out one rune from another. Each tier of spell work was exponentially more complicated than the last, which was why the amount of time it took to learn the spells grew by such leaps and bounds. He couldn’t even begin to imagine spending a month or two working on such a complex combination of magics, having to move beyond carefully as even the slightest misstep might set off a runic backlash capable of killing the caster and everyone around them.

He wasn’t sure whether or not to wake her up, but thankfully, it seemed as though the decision was made for him. The moment he entered the Underside, he detected a faint pulse of magic being emitted from a small artifact attached to the stone frame. In response, Lumel’s eyes opened, and her face morphed into a look of shock. The two of them stared at one another for one long, tense moment as Vin smiled. Before he could even open his mouth to tell her he was okay, there was a flash of purple and Vin staggered back as Lumel threw her arms around him, sobbing as she buried her face into his chest.