Explorer of Edregon

"Forpurt?" Vin asked, startled by the capillan's sudden appearance. The man was as large and hairy as ever, and just like the first time they'd met, Vin couldn't make out a single feature of the man's face under all that hair except for his wide grin and shining brown eyes.

"In the hair," Forpurt chuckled, looking them up and down. "Based on your new companion and arm, I can only assume your trip to the library was a rather successful one?"

"Yeah, we managed to get what we needed to save our friend," Vin confirmed, gesturing toward Alka. "Forpurt, this is Alka, the one we were trying to save. Alka, this is Forpurt, the Wanderer we told you about that we met on the way to the library."

"Ah, the hairy one," Alka nodded, returning the capillan's curious stare. "Thanks for giving them the information you had on the library."

"Don't mention it," Forpurt said. "We travelers have to stick together."

"I take it you two know each other then?" The elder finally spoke up, giving Vin a small, knowing smile. "At this point, I don't know why I'm even surprised."

"Forpurt helped us out while we were trying to get Alka her new body," Vin confirmed, returning the elder's smile and respectfully placing his knuckles together in Sakis' preferred greeting. "Glad to see you're doing well! I was a little worried the recent monster wave a few days back might have given you all trouble."

"It was certainly unexpected, but it was well within our abilities to handle," she said, gesturing with her cane toward the edge of the village. "As you well know, thanks to Eithan and his Stone Mages we are able to erect powerful defenses in the blink of an eye, and our warriors are always eager to test their skills. In fact, the unexpected monster wave couldn't have come at a better time. Raulfa had some personal frustrations to work out, and I much prefer her fists destroying monster flesh than our carefully carved buildings."

Vin briefly thought back to the large, muscular woman clad in thick stone from head to toe he'd briefly encountered during their earlier fiasco with Scule getting arrested. He hadn't so much as exchanged one word with the head of Sakis' warriors, but even he could tell just from a glance that the woman and her heavy stone gauntlets were a serious threat.

"Well I'm glad you guys are okay. So, I have to ask, Forpurt... What are you doing here of all places? Last time we saw you was on the other side of the death fragment."

"Is that your name for the desecrated plane?" Forpurt asked, possibly raising an eyebrow. Seeing as his entire face was covered in hair, Vin couldn't really tell. "My Dangersense went off the moment I stepped into that fragment, so I haven't done much more than gaze in from afar. But to answer your question, Sakis' fragment actually borders my own. I would have checked it out months ago, but to be honest, the dry air makes it far less appealing than the other options I had. Terrible for the hair."

"Ah, that makes sense," Vin chuckled. While the temperature wasn't too hot, the stone villagers' fragment was particularly arid and dry. Vin didn't know much about hair maintenance, but he supposed such a thing had to be extremely important when it covered one's entire body. "So the arctic fragment the elder mentioned to the north of the village, that one's yours?"

"Yepp. My people are quite used to living in freezing temperatures, though it might be a bit rough for you with your lack of hair and all. If you don't mind the cold, you should come visit when you have the chance!"

"It feels like we're always busy with one thing or another, but I'm definitely planning on it," Vin grinned. "Oh, actually I do have a quick question for you while we have you, Forpurt. Any chance you're aware of the dungeons scattered around Edregon?"

He knew a capillan had picked up the skill thanks to Nohral's story back in the Crater, but he figured he might as well confirm it was Forpurt while he had the chance.

"Hard not to be. One of them is located just outside our town," Forpurt snorted. "I'm surprised you know of them though. I didn't think many people would pick up the Dungeoneering skill on a whim."

"Vin is kinda stupid like that," Alka nodded. "I told him to take an actually useful combat skill, but he'd much rather pick something that none of us had ever heard of."

"The fact that it was a brand-new skill is exactly why I picked it up after the reset," Forpurt explained. "As a Wanderer, it's certainly been a handy one to have. I enjoy venturing out into the other fragments and exploring, but I like being able to come home every few days."

"So the skill is totally new?" Vin asked, eager to get confirmation for his theories. "That's what I thought, but I wasn't sure."

"I was a Wanderer before the reset, and it had never been on my class list before coming to Edregon," Forpurt shrugged. "And it doesn't act like any other skill I've ever seen, so I think it has to be new."

"You both possess a brand new skill that allows you to quickly travel around Edregon?" the elder asked, her eyes flicking between the two of them. "Forpurt, I know we were just wrapping up our conversation, but if you have the time I would appreciate hearing more about this."

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"So long as you have more of that roasted goat I'll stay as long as you'd like," Forpurt chuckled. "It was good to see you again, Vin, and a pleasure to meet you, Alka. If you end up visiting my fragment and I'm not there, just give anyone you meet my name! A friend of mine is a friend of the clan's."

"And Vin," the elder said, giving him a critical stare. "Don't think you can just walk in here with your new stone arm and your friend's strange body without giving me a thorough explanation. I instructed everyone to control themselves after you swung by a few days back, but I expect you to allow me a look at that arm of yours sometime soon."

"I think I can make that happen," Vin laughed.

Bidding them goodbye, the elder and Forpurt turned back the way they came, no doubt heading straight to the elder's meeting room to continue their conversation. Watching them walk off, Vin couldn't help but smile.

"I'm glad to see the elder forming good relationships with the other fragments surrounding them," he admitted. "The Earthers have the Sacred Forest as well as Sakis, but I was afraid Sakis only had us to rely on."

"And you guys aren't exactly the most reliable," Alka snorted. "At least not yet."

"Hopefully that will change soon with the formation of an actual town. Come on, I have one more quick stop I want to make before we head back to the dungeon."

Vin realized he should have asked the elder for Eithan's whereabouts before they'd parted ways, but luckily for them, the head of the Stone Mages was easy to find.

As per usual, he spotted Eithan out in the practice field, working with a second familiar face on their magic. Verona, Eithan's niece, was sitting on a stool made from stone, currently in what looked like deep meditation. Based on the thin pieces of stone still stuck to her hands, Vin could only guess she was working on mastering the Stone Gauntlet spell that Eithan had shown him a while back.

This time around Eithan spotted him coming, and the smiling mage pointed off to the side, directing them to meet him a ways away from his meditating niece.

"Good to see you again after only a few days rather than a few weeks this time around," Eithan chuckled, before turning and pressing his knuckles together toward Alka. "And it is nice to finally meet you, Alka. I've heard a lot, but I don't think we've officially met."

"Same," the Slayer nodded. "Thanks for teaching Vin some actual combat magic for a change. Before you, the beanstalk seemed determined to only learn the dumbest spells known to man. I mean come on, you learned Replenish practically before anything else. Have you even gotten any use out of that one yet?"

"A few times!" Vin argued, his face heating up slightly under the accusation. He'd learned Replenish, a spell for quickly regrowing berries and fruits, back before he knew anything about gaining an affinity. While he had used the spell a handful of times throughout their travels to gather berries or enjoy some fresh honeysuckles here and there, admittedly, he probably wouldn't have picked up the spell if he knew then what he knew now.

"All magic is good magic if you ask me," Eithan smiled, interjecting before the two of them could start arguing for real. "Apologies Vin, but I'm a little busy helping Verona today. I'm happy to give you a new runic formation if that's what you're here for, but I can't talk for long."

"No worries, I understand," Vin said, glancing at the meditating girl off to the side. The last time he'd showed up he'd accidentally cut their practice short by showing off and making her angry, and he really didn't want to do that again. "Could I see the runic formation for Stone Furniture? I'd love to add another utility based spell to what I have available."

"Certainly," Eithan nodded, starting to sketch out the formation for the spell in the air with a glowing finger. "Congratulations on getting your magic attribute up to forty already."

"Actually, I'm only a single level shy of hitting fifty," Vin admitted, his eyes eagerly devouring the new formation as he used Iron Mind to create a perfect replica in his mind. "The next time I swing by for an earth spell, I'll probably be asking for a tier three."

"I may have one or two in mind I think could be useful for you," Eithan nodded, letting his glowing finger drop as he finished up the formation for Stone Furniture. "Just as a reminder however, mastering a tier three spell is going to be far more difficult than anything you've learned before, even with your skill. I know you had a bit of a tough time with Stone Shot, and I don't want you to get discouraged."

"Don't worry, I know," Vin said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. He vividly recalled his annoyance he'd shown when Stone Shot had taken him more than a couple of hours to learn, and his face heated up at the memory of him complaining to his friends. "I've been thoroughly humbled since then. Started learning some spatial magic recently, and that has definitely knocked me down a peg."

"Spatial magic?" Eithan asked, looking surprised. "My, one of these days you and I have to sit down for dinner and have a more thorough conversation about your travels. I still want to hear more about those dwarves and their smithing techniques."

"I'll see what I can do," Vin laughed. First his agreement to bring Agne some foreign vegetables, then his promise to meet with the elder to discuss his arm, and now an invitation for dinner with Eithan?

Vin was starting to think he needed to dedicate a portion of his journal to function as an agenda of some sort.

Thanking Eithan for the new spell, Vin started jogging back to the dungeon with Alka right on his heels. As they ran, the Slayer pulled up beside him, her eyes flaring with mirth.

"You sure you didn't forget anything? No helping a lone child find their missing pet mondra? No teaching a class on how to be a giant suck up?"

"I said I was sorry that it took so long," Vin sighed, ignoring Alka's cackling. "I promise the infernals' fragment should be a lot faster. We head in, drop off the vegetables with Agne, strike some sort of deal with Madam Trebella that we'll inevitably regret later, and we'll be back home in time for dinner."

"We better," Alka snorted, turning to focus on their run. "Alice promised to show me a new trap she's been working on that's designed to hamstring someone without accidentally killing them, and I'll be damned if I'm going to miss that."