Explorer of Edregon

Vin knew the snarky, easy-going Rogue got serious when it really mattered, but it was always surprising to see Scule turn serious and get to work. Vin spent a bit of time watching the petian while he carefully took samples of the water and air alike from beyond the fragment border, keeping each one sealed as he began running a myriad of tests one after another. Eventually, Vin decided to leave him to it, turning to his own studies. It had been some time since he’d put together his last spell, Deconstructive Touch, and he could practically feel the mana buzzing in the background, eagerly waiting for him to transform it into something else.

“You’ve got that look on your face,” Shia said, taking a seat beside him on some tiny, dense bushes she’d grown around the fire to act as chairs. “Do I need to build a bomb shelter?”

“No, I’m not planning anything too crazy,” Vin said, laughing as Shia raised an eyebrow in clear disbelief. “What, you don’t trust me to come up with a new spell that isn’t incredibly lethal?”

“Your last few spells have included Meteor and Deconstructive Touch,” she pointed out. “All I’m saying is you seem to be leaning toward the destructive lately.”

“I still prefer more utility-based spells, for the record. I just happened to have a need for both of those at the time,” he argued, scratching his neck sheepishly before he continued. “However… I am actually about to try coming up with another combat spell. But only because of Lumel’s current situation!”

“You want something you can use in her fragment,” Shia surmised, nodding slowly as she stared at him. “Stone Shot, Fireball, and Meteor are all useless underwater. Deconstructive Touch would work, but it’s limited to touch. You want to be prepared in the event Lumel goes back home.”

“I don’t know if it’s going to come to that… but I want to be ready in the event that it does,” Vin admitted. “I know Lumel likes to act like she’ll never be able to go home ever again, but there’s no telling what could happen here on Edregon. Maybe the queen will see reason and revoke the banishment one of these days. Maybe it’s already happened months ago and the Airwalker will happily inform Lumel she’s allowed to return home and they’ve been waiting for her all this time. I just don’t want to be caught by surprise and then be useless.”

“Forget my teasing. You need to come up with a combat spell that will let you slap the sneer off that queen in the event Lumel does head home,” Shia said, clenching her fists as she frowned. “Lumel is the sweetest, smartest, most thoughtful companion we could have ever asked for. The fact that the queen put all the blame from her husband onto her when she had no say in her own birth is ridiculous, and frankly, unbecoming of a leader. Whenever you end up going down there, you better not bring me with you, because I won’t be able to keep my mouth shut.”

“Don’t worry, I’m planning on having words with the queen myself,” Vin said, thankful his friends had his back even now. “In that case, I’m going to get started. There’s no telling how much time we have before that day comes, so no time like the present.”

With that, Shia left him to his magic, and Vin slipped into Introspection. Where he was greeted once again by a well-dressed Ovord.

“Offensive magic capable of functionality both underwater and on land is tricky,” Ovord said, clearly having been listening in on his conversation. Unlike his time spent with Alka in his head, the Arch Mage interjected so rarely Vin often forgot he was tagging along at all. “Did you have any ideas?”

“I’m still working on that,” Vin admitted. Conjuring up the runic formations for his small handful of combat spells, he walked around them and looked for a source of inspiration. “Any sort of physical attack is probably a bad idea. I know things can shoot through water with enough force, but I imagine there are better ideas for combat. And while I dislike the idea of putting together a spell with the sole intention of being used against people, I have to factor in the incredible underwater speed and agility of the pulmons. I know I’ve had you take refuge and isolate yourself during most of my time with Lumel, but you should see her when we swim together within Aqua Sphere. Her ability to move in the water is unreal.”

“Perhaps you are going about this the wrong way,” Ovord said, the man’s too-round eyes watching him curiously. Even knowing that this version of Ovord was one carefully crafted by the expert soul mage to mimic the ‘major’ races of his world, it was hard for Vin to remember that this wasn’t what the man actually looked like. “You are not a fan of killing people, so why create a spell with that as your intention? You can just as easily design one meant to stop and detain. Your lifemate would most likely prefer that, would she not?”

“Yeah. I highly doubt Lumel wants to see any of her people die. Especially by my own hand,” Vin admitted, staring down at his clenched fist with a frown. “It’s not like I want to hurt anyone. I just want to be able to protect her.”

“Let us start there and see what we can come up with,” Ovord said, shaking his head as he looked at the four runic formations Vin had conjured up. “You should begin by getting rid of these barbaric spells. Instead, show me the runic formation for this Aqua Sphere you speak of. I may have an idea that has merit.”

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“So, I have good news and I have bad news,” Scule said the next morning, rubbing at his bleary eyes as he looked at his audience. Vin, Shia, and Reginald were all sitting in a line before him, with the new fragment at Scule’s back. It was quite a lot less enthralling during the day without the blanket of shimmering stars reflecting off its still waters, but the eerie stillness was still hypnotic in a way. “Which do you guys want first?”

“Good news?” Vin asked. He was thankful not for the first time that his Dream Walk allowed him to continue practicing magic even while getting a full night of rest, and he’d even managed to get Dormancy up to level 13 from his efforts. He and Ovord had worked through the evening as well, and he’d made quite a lot of progress on his latest tier-2 spell. It would be the perfect deterrent for any pulmons who threatened Lumel’s life, and Vin was quite thankful for Ovord’s help coming up with the idea.

“The good news is that the fragment isn’t technically poisonous in the slightest,” Scule admitted, getting confused blinks from Vin and Shia. “Or even deadly, for that matter. We can head in there without any issue.”

“Okay…” Shia said, gesturing for him to continue. “So what’s the bad news?”

“The bad news is that I’m pretty certain we won’t be meeting any friendly faces in there after all. I know Vin was holding out a little hope that they were just a race of people able to hide from his magic, but I have a hunch I know what happened,” Scule said, turning and peering into the water of the next fragment. “I believe this fragment is from a dead world. One that had already fallen to monsters while all the others were still fighting the good fight.”

“Seriously? What makes you think that?” Vin asked.

“For starters, despite the lack of monsters, both the water and the air, and I imagine the dirt or sand from those scattered islands as well, is all tainted with the similar magical residue that monsters give off,” Scule explained. “You know how eating monster meat in small quantities can gradually increase your attributes over time? This fragment will do that as well, but simply by breathing.”

“But if you eat too much monster meat, you go insane,” Shia pointed out.

“Yeah. Why do you think I included this in the ‘bad news’ portion of my results,” Scule snorted. “The residue is weaker than the concentrated stuff contained within monster meat. Even without Vin’s Replenishing Breath spell we should be fine to spend a few hours making our way through the fragment. The water is a bit more dense, however, so try not to drink any of it. And uh… don’t eat the dirt. That probably goes without saying, but seeing as you’re a Druid, I figured I should make that clear.”

“But a lack of people shouldn’t equal a total lack of monsters,” Vin pointed out. “There should still be some here and there, shouldn’t there?”

“As far as I can tell, the land itself is somehow absorbing the magical residue before it can manifest as a monster,” Scule shrugged. “Maybe someone from this world tried casting some grand-scale ritual before Edregon snatched this fragment up and it went horribly wrong. Or maybe this is just what happens after enough years of nobody being around. Either way, it’s a dead fragment, free of even monsters.”

“Huh… Well, at the very least, thank you for figuring that all out,” Vin said, getting to his feet and finally poking his head through the fragment barrier. The air on the other side was stale and dry, with an ever so slight hint of something unpleasant. Trusting in Scule’s analysis, he took a steady breath as he received his latest notification.

Third ring fragment discovered! 1,500 exp gained.

“Yeah, the air is definitely tainted,” he confirmed, pulling his head back through the barrier to enjoy the wet, refreshing air of the moss fragment. “Shame that people can’t really live here. This would be a good emergency fragment to flee to with the lack of monsters.”

“If only staying within it for too long didn’t turn one into a monster themselves,” Scule chuckled, scurrying up onto his shoulder. “So what’s the plan? Are we going to swim for it?”

“I think either Redirect Gravity or cloud stepping to get from one island to the next,” Vin said, turning to look at Shia. “Thoughts?”

“I don’t think I could follow behind on your clouds even if I wanted to,” she said, looking curiously at the closest island. “You’re going to have to go with gravity magic. I do want to take some soil samples from those islands though. And talk to the plant life.”

“Fine by me. Everyone ready?” Vin asked, getting a few nods in return. Once Scule had hopped into his pocket to bunker down alongside Reginald, Vin cast Redirect Gravity, orienting them all sideways and causing them to plummet from one fragment into the other. It seemed he’d done this enough times by now that his friends didn’t even scream as they fell with no end in sight, and Vin switched over to Slow Fall after they’d passed a few islands, gently setting them down a solid mile into the fragment.

“I’m a little hesitant to try borrowing from the mana in the air to replenish my mana pool,” he admitted, frowning as he sensed the tainted magic all around them. “That means we’re going to have to give me time to recover naturally.”

“No rush on my end,” Shia said, already digging around in the ground and filling a small container with dirt. “We’ve all got decent enough endurance and vigor stats that a little tainted air won’t kill us.”

“I’m actually a little curious what Bill might be able to come up with using this,” Scule admitted, also busy filling up a few vials with tainted water from the edge of the island before shoving them all into his cape. “If he can figure out a way to harness this safely, we might be able to help people increase their attributes faster than from eating the occasional bite of monster meat.”

“For once, I feel like I should be the voice of reason, but I’m not really all that good at the role,” Vin admitted, watching as his companions kept collecting tainted samples. “Reginald, you have any thoughts?”

Also watching from his pocket, Reginald shrugged, lifting up his paws as if to say ‘eh’, and Vin laughed.

“My thoughts exactly. Let’s hope this doesn’t come back to bite us!”