Explorer of Edregon

As it turned out, while Scule and Reginald were more than happy joining back up with them after spending the last few days cooped up within the lab, Alka had yet to return from her field trip with her Slayers. With the sheer number of deadly fragments they had ended up exploring since first coming to Edregon, Vin didn’t have the faintest idea where she might have run off to, and she was the lone member of the team he wasn’t able to reach out to with Dream Walk. Resigning himself to having to wait even longer before revealing the exciting news that Ovord might be able to connect her back into the System once more, Vin did his best to turn his attention toward the task at hand.

There were five fragments left of the third ring, and he intended to hit each and every one of them before returning to Terra this time around.

“No unkillable golem to take all the hits, and no emergency escape option,” Scule hummed, holding onto a strand of Vin’s hair to keep himself steady as they ran. “You know, I’m starting to have second thoughts about joining back up with you guys.”

“The last time it was just the four of us we ended up getting kidnapped by the Red Dawn,” Shia reminded him, laughing as the petian cursed at her.

“See, that’s exactly what I mean! We don’t have the best track record when it’s just the four of us!”

“I’m sure we’ll be fine,” Vin said, rolling his eyes when he realized he was going to have to deal with a lot of bickering between the two of them. “We’re a lot stronger than we were back then. Let’s just wait and see what Edregon has in store for us, and then panic if needed, alright?”

Scule grumbled but nodded, and Shia thankfully left the teasing at that as well. Reginald of course was the lone saint who never sparked trouble with anyone, and Vin gently patted the rat through his pocket as Reginald slept, getting a sleepy squeak of thanks for his troubles.

Because he and Lumel had returned to Terra via her new Mass Recall spell, Vin had yet to discover the dungeon on the moss fragment. While they could technically run through the Underside and leave out of the dungeon that way, doing so would invalidate the experience he got from discovering new dungeons on Edregon’s surface. Rather than waste five thousand experience, he directed them all to the crystalline desert just like before, and they ran through the crystal sands a second time on their way back to the land of moss. Vin only even needed to use Meteor to destroy one small band of crystal bulls, which was a small mercy, as their only other option was for Shia to use Living Giant.

“So Lumel managed to whip up a tier-5 spell, did she?” Scule asked as they reached the moss fragment and began heading toward the dungeon. “And we all know Vin is on a mission to collect every spell that’s tier-3 or lower, so he gets an out. What’s your excuse, pointy ears? Been a while since you showed off any new, high-tier magic.”

“I’m sorry, are Living Giant and Regeneration not enough for you?” Shia asked. Raising an eyebrow, she gave Scule a threatening look. “By all means, thanks for telling me now before you ended up losing any fingers.”

“I’m just saying, where’s your big tier-5 spell?” Scule said, ignoring the not-so-veiled threat. “We’re all in the 50s for level, which means you should have one!”

“Scule, I know I’m asking a lot of you, but maybe try not antagonizing Shia every chance you get this trip?” Vin begged, keeping his eyes peeled for any more of those Luters that might be roaming around. None of them had the turtouns’ impressive and seemingly indestructible shells, which meant if those elite monsters got close, they’d be in for a bad time. “Everyone does magic differently.”

“While I appreciate the help, Vin, I can deal with Scule myself,” Shia said, narrowing her eyes at the Rogue. “For your information, I’ve been hard at work on my first tier-5 spell for some time now. My Split Focus passive allows me to work on my magic and flick you off Vin’s shoulder at the same time.”

“Fair enough,” Scule conceded. “In that case, what’s it do?”

“Nothing that would benefit you,” Shia said, letting out a sigh as she glanced at Vin. “Unfortunately, nothing that would benefit any of you. I’m trying to come up with a spell that will better allow me to contact my master. It’s why I’ve been doing so much research into astral projection and mana mirroring as of late in the floating library. I think I can create some form of beacon that he can latch onto to hopefully remain on Edregon a bit longer with.”

“You don’t need to apologize, Shia, we all know how you feel about your master,” Vin reassured her. “And getting to speak with a true magical genius for longer than a minute or two at a time would be a giant boon to all of us. Though do you need any help? That sounds like spatial magic, and while I know you’re plenty talented, I thought your affinities were in life and nature?”

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“It’s a bit of a blend between nature and spatial magic,” Shia admitted, gesturing down at Blossom running beneath her. “The staff my master made for me is already how he’s been able to reach Edregon at all up until now. The spell I’m working on is basically going to enhance that to an absurd degree. I was waiting for Lumel to finish up her own project to ask for her help with the spatial side of things. I was tempted to duck out and ask for her help now, but I figured she’s got her hands full worrying about speaking with her people again after all this time.”

“I appreciate you thinking about her,” Vin said, smiling at Shia as she shrugged and gave him a toothy grin.

“I’ll admit it’s not purely altruistic. This is delicate work, and the last thing I need is her to make a mistake because she’s distracted and create a runic backlash that rips the two of us into another dimension. Or just in half.”

It wasn’t long after that before the team reached the dungeon in the moss fragment, which ended up being the most common cave type. Vin poked his head in for the experience, and grumbled when he sensed with Beyond the Veil that the smart thing to do would be to actually explore it for a bit rather than keep moving. With that in mind, the four of them fought their way through the dungeon, cutting through moss-covered lizards the size of large dogs which tried to rip into them with jagged claws, along with swarms of small crabs that seemed to move perfectly in sync with one another. By the time they made it to the entrance to the Underside and Vin decided it was safe to leave the dungeon once more, evening was already upon them.

“What do you guys think?” he asked. “Jog back to Terra and sleep there? Or carry on into the next fragment? Even if it’s getting dark, it’s not too late just yet.”

“Since when have we let a little thing like darkness stop us?” Scule asked, standing tall upon Vin’s shoulder as he pointed toward the next fragment. “We continue!”

“It’s definitely easier to make off with someone’s valuables when it gets dark,” Shia snorted. “But I’m in agreement. Time is ticking before the festival. We should keep moving.”

Reginald poked his head out of Vin’s pocket and nodded, squeaking his agreement as well.

“Works for me,” Vin said, leading the way back out of the dungeon. “Let’s see what Edregon has in store for us!”

By the time the four of them reached the edge of the fragment, night was truly upon them. Even so, that just made the next fragment all the more beautiful.

“Wow,” Shia muttered, staring with wide eyes at the glistening scene before them. “I never really saw the appeal of bodies of water before now… But I think I get it.”

The next fragment was another aquatic one, but far calmer than Lumel’s lake. A perfect, still sheen of water stretched out before their feet, broken up here and there by a few small islands. The stars in this fragment were particularly bright for whatever reason, each of the jewels reflecting upon the water and transforming the sky and ground alike into a wondrous field of shimmering gems.

“I almost don’t want to touch the water and disturb it,” Scule admitted, leaning over the water and peering at his reflection. “It seems unnatural for this much water to be so still.”

“Are we sure it’s water in the first place? I ran into a sea of slime at one point that I briefly thought was water at first,” Vin said. Crouching down, he went to poke at the liquid before hesitating and casting Sense Water instead. Like Scule, he was hesitant to distort the beautiful image. Scenes like this were one of the things he loved most about being an Explorer, both back on Earth and on Edregon alike. “Well, my spell confirms it. It’s water.”

“So is there just nothing swimming around in there?” Shia asked, holding out a hand and casting Sense Life before frowning. “There isn’t anything living down there… At least not nearby. What does that mean?”

“Nothing at all?” Scule asked, blinking as he took a step back from the still water. “How does that even work?”

“I’m not sure… but I have a feeling we really shouldn’t touch it,” Vin said, before remembering the obvious. “Wait, Scule, you’re immune to poison. And thus Reginald is too through your Magical Bond. Can you run an experiment on it or something? Figure out what’s up with the water?”

“If you guys don’t mind waiting a bit, sure,” Scule shrugged, already pulling some of his alchemy equipment out of his cape. “Though I make no promises. If this is a magical thing, my findings will be a bit more limited.”

“There’s definitely some magic involved,” Vin muttered, casting Sense Magic and noting the faint readings he was getting back. “Though not a ton. Hold on. It’s almost night anyway, so I might as well…”

Throwing together Sense Soul, Vin cast his spell out in a pulse, directing it to cover the entire fragment. The mana returned to him in seconds, and he frowned at the complete lack of readings. On a hunch, he then did the same thing with Sense Life, his frown deepening as his hunch was confirmed.

“This is a dead fragment,” Vin said, getting surprised looks from his companions. “I have no idea how or why, but there’s not a single living thing in there. That or they have methods of hiding from magic, which I suppose is possible. I mean, we did just learn that the turtouns can do that without even trying.”

“At the very least that confirms we should let Scule run his tests before we set foot in there,” Shia decided. No longer messing around, she got to work growing some basic defenses for them so they wouldn’t have to worry about any Luters stumbling upon their camp and killing them in their sleep. “The last thing we need is a repeat of the death fragment.”

“Don’t you guys worry, I’ll put that water through every test I can possibly think of,” Scule promised, surprising Vin by pulling out some sort of primitive gas mask despite his immunity to poison. “You guys might be the magic experts, but poison is my battlefield. Give me a couple of hours, I’ll figure out what’s wrong with this beautiful world.”