Explorer of Edregon

Vin stood there, staring at the old, leathery face looking right back at him. After meeting Telin, the ancient avisul in charge of the sky fragment who looked like he had two feet in the grave, Vin hadn’t thought he’d ever meet another flesh and blood being he immediately thought of as older.

He now realized that was a bit premature.

The person standing before him was some form of humanoid turtle, which Common Ally informed him was known as a turtoun. The majority of their body was hidden within a large boulder that was rather flat on one side, where the being’s chest would be. Their stubby arms, legs, and head each emerged from different spots within their rocky shell, and their skin was a dark, dirty gray that was dry and cracked. Without even doing anything the being gave off the impression that it had been around just as long as the stone shell on its back, and Vin realized he’d been staring at it for almost a solid five seconds without saying a word. Curiously, the being didn’t appear bothered in the slightest, continuing to give him a slight smile as it waited patiently.

“I’m good!” Vin said, remembering to actually answer the being’s question as he cleared his throat. “How… are you? Did the monster hurt you or anything? We have healing magic if so.”

“I am fine,” the turtoun said, imitating Alka as its head slowly turned a full one hundred and eighty degrees to peer behind its own back at the fallen monster. “Though I am a tad depressed to see such a beautiful beast taken before its time.”

“...What?” Scule asked, looking between the turtoun and the fallen monster as he thrust his blowgun toward it. “This thing was trying to crack you open and presumably slurp up your insides! What do you mean you’re depressed?”

“All life has meaning. Even that of the dangerous Luter.”

“I’m not one to be dragged into philosophical debates, but monsters most definitely do not,” Alka said, having finally caught up to them and taken in the current situation. “Monsters exist solely to kill, and as such need to be dealt with before that can occur.”

“Even monsters, as you call them, have a balance within the ecosystem,” the turtoun said, smiling at the annoyed golem. Their new friend spoke just as slow and methodically as they moved, and Vin leaned a bit more into Common Ally, curious what the newly evolved title might give him.

According to it, turtoun were a remarkably durable and peaceful race of people. They were incredibly long-lived, and had an innate distaste for violence of any sort. It seemed their lives consisted of almost nothing more than consuming moss, drinking water, and conversing with one another whenever their slow paths crossed.

“That thing would have kept smashing you into the ground until it broke through your shell and killed you,” Alka pointed out. “Then it would have done the same to your friends and family until nobody was left, all in an attempt to fill its insatiable hunger toward mana. What kind of balance is that?”

“When we seal ourselves within our shells, what little mana we emit is perfectly contained,” the turtoun explained. “Any aggressive Luter will quickly lose interest and find something else to entertain itself. Once it has left, we are free to emerge and continue about our lives.”

“Tucking your head between your legs isn’t a solution, that’s just pushing the problem onto somebody else!” Alka argued, her voice getting a tad heated. “Who knows how many elite monsters you lot have ignored have run off to kill innocent people elsewhere?!”

“Let’s just take a step back, alright?” Vin said, walking over to Alka and laying a hand on her shoulder. “I know you don’t like what you’re hearing, but I don’t think this guy is going to fight you or change his ways no matter how loudly you yell.”

“...I need to go stab something,” Alka grunted, turning and walking away. As the golem ignored a geyser of hot water that erupted right beside her, Vin glanced back at the group, catching Scule’s eyes.

“What, me?” Scule asked. Letting out a sigh, he hopped down from Shia’s shoulder and ran off to follow the irate Slayer. “Come on, Reginald, I’m not playing therapist by myself!”

Reginald squeaked his confirmation, quickly scurrying down from Vin’s pocket to join Scule as the two of them followed Alka. With that taken care of, Vin turned back to their new acquaintance.

“Sorry for her, she gets a bit heated when monsters are involved. I’m Vin, an Explorer from a few fragments away. This is Lumel and Shia, a Dimensional Mage and a Druid.”

“I am Leoture,” the turtoun said, pressing his hands together and lowering his head in what might very well have been the world’s slowest bow. Everything the man did was slow, but he seemed to draw this action out for some reason. “While I was in no danger, I understand you thought you were saving me, and I thank you for your intended kindness.”

“Any time…” Shia said, giving Vin a look before shaking her head and smiling. She must have assumed if the turtoun wasn’t afraid of an elite monster that he wouldn’t be afraid of a few jagged teeth either. “So, Leoture… any chance we can ask what your fragment is like? We’re doing what we can to roam around and collect information. Any other threats we need to worry about beyond the Luters?”

“There are some creatures which live within the geysers you should be wary of, but no, our land is a fairly peaceful one. We have always treated the universe with respect, and have received much the same in kind.”

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“Even before coming to Edregon?” Vin asked, looking curiously at the calm man. “You didn’t get an uptick in monsters trying to kill everyone?”

The one common theme they’d encountered in pretty much every fragment they’d explored was the confirmation that the number of monsters spawning in the old universe leading up to Edregon’s creation sky rocketing. It was the main sign of the old System’s collapse, and the primary cause of death and hardship among everywhere they went. Yet the way Leoture told it, it sounded as if their situation had been a bit different.

“There were a few more Luters than normal popping up, but nothing out of the ordinary,” the man confirmed. “As I said, the land treats us well.”

“Does your society have many mages?” Lumel offered. “Perhaps that’s what happened. If they come from a world with limited magical usage, it would make sense the monster rates would be lower.”

“We have no magic at all,” Leoture answered, causing all three of them to recoil in shock. “We believe magic is too harsh a method of changing the universe. As such, we do not study it. We have encountered traveling mages in the past, however, so we are familiar with the concept.”

“No magic at all…” Vin said, shaking his head. “It’s almost like the valley in the mist all over again. Actually, do you guys even have any sort of town or village? I sort of get the vibe you’re not really into that type of thing either.”

“We do not,” Leoture confirmed, slowly scooping up a handful of moss from a nearby rock and bringing it up to his mouth to take small bites from. This made his already slow responses even slower, and Vin felt his eye twitch as he waited for the man to finish his thought. “We will exchange thoughts and words when we encounter another of our kind, but it is not unusual to go weeks or months in between conversations.”

“Months?!” Shia repeated, her eyes widening before she turned to look at Vin. Lowering her voice, she swapped over to the elven language as well. “Vin… maybe you should try using Sense Soul. If these guys are that spaced out… There’s a decent chance Leoture is the only one of his species that made it here to Edregon.”

“I didn’t even think of that,” Vin admitted, still watching the turtoun eat the slowest meal in all of existence. You know, I think I may have ended up becoming a tad impatient with all the running around I’m always doing.

Deciding risking his divine boon was worth it, Vin sent out a fragment-wide pulse of Sense Soul, quickly discovering that Shia’s concerns were correct. Other than their own team and Leoture here…

There wasn’t a single other soul in the entire fragment.

“It’s just him,” he confirmed, getting a gasp out of Lumel as she held her hands up to her mouth. “Maybe there were others who died over the last six months, but currently, it’s just Leoture.”

“That’s awful!” Lumel said, her eyes watering as she looked at the content man still chomping away at his moss. “And if he’s used to going months in between conversations with his people, he probably doesn’t even know!”

“So… do we tell him he’s the last of his kind?” Shia asked, tapping her chin as she glanced the way Alka, Scule, and Reginald had gone. “I hate to say it, but I’m a bit glad Alka and Scule aren’t here for this. They’d probably just blurt it out to be done with it.”

“We don’t know for certain he’s the last of his kind,” Vin admitted, having a sudden idea. Switching back to a general language everyone would understand, he addressed the turtoun. “Leoture, would you mind going back into your shell for a moment? I want to try something.”

“Sure,” the man shrugged, slowly lowering himself to the ground and pulling his limbs and head in once more. Just like when they’d first seen him, to the naked eye, Leoture looked like nothing more than a large rock. The locations his limbs normally reached out from were sealed flawlessly, and Vin held his breath as he tried casting Sense Soul again. Just as he’d expected, the spell washed over the shell completely, not picking up Leoture in the slightest.

“It’s just like the Neutral Skin spell I created before the battle for wave seven,” Vin muttered, crouching down and peering more closely at the shell. “If anything, it’s even more impressive. Mana seems to just wash straight over him all together when he’s like this. It’s uncanny.”

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Common Ally confirmed that Leoture was all but immune to most magics while within his shell, which just made their decision all the harder. Was it worth telling their new acquaintance he might be the last of his kind?

“I think we should just leave him be,” Shia suggested, still speaking in the elven tongue. Not that it mattered. Vin was pretty certain Leoture couldn’t hear anything going on outside of his shell while tucked away as he was. “He doesn’t have any magic to teach us, and no civilization for us to meet. Bit of a strange one to start the top half of our third ring-journey on, but I think we should just keep going.”

“Actually…” Lumel said, looking sheepish as she raised a hand. “Assuming Leoture would be okay with it, I would like to spend some time studying the unique interaction between mana and his shell. I think this is the key I need to finish up the tier-5 spell I’ve been working on all this time. Though I’ll need Vin’s help to act as something of an interpreter. With his level 50 Capstone and his Beyond the Veil class ability, he can see and feel how mana works a lot better than I can.”

“Well I’m not just going to sit around and chat with moss all day,” Shia scoffed. “But yeah, that’s fine. We’re pretty close by, and I was already planning to swing by the merider forest one of these days and do some chatting with their trees. They’ve got some truly ancient ones that the meriders have done an excellent job taking care of. When you two are ready to keep going, just use Dream Walk to let me know. I can let Scule and Alka know we’re taking a quick break. Despite the fact we only just started.”

“Sorry, Shia, I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t think it would make a difference!” Lumel said, looking nervous.

“Don’t be sorry, finishing up a tier-5 spell should obviously take precedence over anything else,” Shia smiled. “And giving Alka some time to cool off before meeting with any potential new civilizations would be a good idea. The last thing we need is for her to kick down the next mayor’s door and demand to know their thoughts on killing monsters!”