Explorer of Edregon

Vin spent the rest of the evening working on his magic. For some reason, when he went back to talk to Lumel tomorrow, he wanted to be able to say he'd made at least a tiny bit of headway on learning Dimensional Sheath, even if it was only the first step.

Thankfully, his Flexible Formation passive finally proved its use.

As far as he could tell, Dimensional Sheath was a spell so complicated it was actually carried out in multiple steps, which meant the runic formation for it was functionally three times as difficult as he'd expected. First, the spell would coat a specific object with a super fine layer of his personal mana, completely enveloping it and preparing it to be stored away within another dimension. Then, it would not only find that other dimension, but isolate it as well, utilizing both of his two prior spatial spells he'd already mastered, all while maintaining the mana coating on the object he wanted to store. Once the dimensional pocket was isolated, it would essentially tie a tether between himself and the other dimension, almost towing it along behind him like an invisible balloon. This allowed him to retrieve the item at any time with another cast of the spell, theoretically causing it to pop into his hands as if it had never left.

What was actually happening was far more complicated than that of course, but that was how he understood it.

The good news was that Vin already had experience coating something in a super fine layer of his mana. Concealment called for him to do exactly that in order to hide an object or person's mana signature, so he was able to use his understanding of Concealment's runic formation to give himself a head start on Dimensional Sheath. The layering of mana wasn't exactly the same, but it was definitely easier to work on than if he'd been starting completely from scratch.

By the time his stomach told him he needed a break, Vin had managed to successfully recreate the first portion of Dimensional Sheath's runic formation, which was a hell of a lot more than he'd expected to pull off in only a few hours.

Granted, from what he could tell, the first portion was by far the easiest part of the three.

Even so, he was proud of what he'd accomplished all on his own, and he still had a smile on his face as he hit the mess hall and picked up some dinner. Though while he was grabbing his food, a soup that smelled absolutely delicious and served with some fresh baked bread, he overheard a bit of a commotion from the kitchen.

"Thirty minutes? You think thirty minutes is long enough for the bread to rise? Are you out of your goddamn mind?!"

"Oh, that's real cute coming from the woman who claimed sourdough paired better with the soup than French bread! Where did you graduate culinary school, chef boy-r-decademy?"

If there was any more to the argument, Vin didn't hear it, as a rather tired looking man simply closed the door leading to the kitchen, looking like he wished he was anywhere else but in there. Vin was curious what was going on, but he didn't want to overstep his bounds.

Vin paused, realizing he didn't really have any bounds he could overstep. After all, he was one of the five councilors in charge of the entire camp.

Shrugging to himself, Vin carried his tray over to the tired man, giving him a respectful nod. "Hey there! What's going on with the Chefs in there?"

"Nothing to worry about, business as usual," he said almost reflexively, giving Vin a weary grin before his gaze landed on his prosthetic arm. The poor man's eyes shot open, and he jerked back, standing up straighter and snapping almost to attention. "Sorry, sir, I didn't recognize you for a moment. The Chefs are just having a bit of a disagreement."

"Please, no need for the 'sir,'" Vin said, realizing in that moment just why Spur encouraged everyone to be less formal with him. "I was just curious, is all. Do they fight often?"

"It would be more accurate to say there are occasionally times when they aren't fighting," the man sighed, slouching down again as he came to the conclusion Vin wasn't going to ream him out or anything. "The Big Three have rather heated personalities, and they are often fighting with one another over the best way to make certain dishes."

"I'm sorry, what was that? The Big Three?"

"That's the name the three Chefs from the second wave have taken. To differentiate themselves from the five new Chefs from the third wave," the man explained. "They wanted to ensure the newcomers understood who was in charge. Few things are quite as important in the kitchen as seniority, after all."

Wow, I know just about nothing when it comes to all this, Vin realized.

"What about you, are you one of the Chefs? What's your name anyway?"

"No, thank God," the man chuckled. "And I'm Casper. I'm actually an Herbalist, from the second wave. I spend most of my time either helping gather spices for the Chefs, or hunting for medicinal herbs for Frank. I was supposed to be receiving another request from The Big Three before… Well, before the most recent fight broke out."

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At that moment, Vin heard what sounded like a steel pan clanging off the wall of the kitchen, and Casper winced at the sudden sound as the arguing grew louder. Vin could now hear three distinct voices, which he could only assume meant all of The Big Three were currently fighting.

"I uh… I might just come back later in fact," Casper admitted with a pained look.

"Have you eaten yet?" Vin asked, nodding toward the soup he was still carrying. "Even if they can't get along, you have to admit they can certainly cook. I'd love to ask you about some of the new plants you've found throughout the fragment."

"Really?" Casper blinked, clearly caught off guard by the offer. "I mean yeah, sure, that sounds great. Just give me a second to grab some food. I'd love to hear about some of the fragments you've explored if you don't mind."

"Not at all! I've got a few I bet are filled with all sorts of herbs you'd love to get your hands on," Vin said, laughing at the eager look on Casper's face. "Here, you go get your food, and then we can talk. Did you know there's an entire fragment filled with Witches and Warlocks that I bet would love to poach you away from us? They kinda have a thing for herbs."

After an enjoyable dinner with Casper the very friendly Herbalist, Vin decided to bite the bullet and get this whole ordeal with Kyle over with. Heading into the command center, he spotted Myers going through what looked like a literal mountain of paperwork.

"Oh hello, Vin," she smiled, spotting him as he walked in. "Need help with anything?"

"I was hoping to chat with Spur about something," he admitted, eyeing the stack of papers that looked like it would fall with the slightest touch. "What's all that?"

"These are the records I've been putting together over the past few days," she explained, picking up one of the sheets and showing it to him. It was a rather simple list of questions and answers with a name at the top. "Because of your truth gem, we're far ahead of where we expected to be, so thank you again for finding that for us. In fact, I've already finished checking all the former prisoners you helped bring over."

"Really? Did you have to turn any away?"

"It's hard to believe, but no," she said, placing the paper back in its proper spot. "We had three hundred and sixty-five people from that fragment join us, and the vast majority passed our questions with flying colors. Out of the entire group, there were only twenty-one that had potentially concerning responses to a few of our questions. We're watching those members more carefully, but even they stated under truth gem that they had no intention of harming our new town or anyone in it."

"Well that's good," Vin grinned, happy to hear his efforts weren't all for naught. "Though I'd still be careful. Scule and Golrim have both made it clear there are ways of cheating truth-detecting magic."

"Don't worry, we're not abandoning all our old methods from Earth just because we have a magic rock," Myers said, returning his smile. "We have a few people that are skilled in interrogation who know how to read body language pretty well. In fact, we actually have an up and comer in wave three that I'm particularly hopeful for. She's a civilian that worked as a private investigator before accepting the one-way trip to Edregon. Picked up the Investigator support class on her way in."

"Oh, now there's a useful sounding class! Is she taking it all in okay?"

"As well as anyone," Myers shrugged. "It's tough to monitor all the members of the third wave with them staying in the temporary camp you helped put together. Once we have enough housing built within town, things will be easier for everyone."

"Speaking of problems out there in the temporary camp…" Vin started, realizing that was as good a segue as any.

"Is this about Kyle?" Myers asked with a knowing look.

"Yeah… Wait, how did you know that?"

"Our temporary prison isn't exactly sound proof," she sighed, leaning back in her chair slightly. "Especially when the front door is open. His threats to kill us all and take over the camp have been making their way around. By now, I'd be shocked if half the camp didn't know how crazy he was."

"Oh," was all Vin managed as he realized he didn't even need to bother telling Spur what Kyle had threatened. Myers seemed to pick up on his confused expression, because her gaze softened.

"You can't save everyone, Vin. Some people dig a hole for themselves so deep you have no chance to reach down and haul them out of it. If it helps, there's a lot more Kyle's done that you're not even aware of. He wasn't exactly sitting still while you were gone you know. He's already had his second and third chances. Now it's time for the consequences."

"Trust me, I get it… It's just so strange to talk about… executing someone like that."

"Thankfully, that's not something you need to think about," Myers said, standing up and gently walking Vin over to the door. "I know it's easier said than done, but if I were you, I'd stop worrying about it. Things like this are why Spur is still one of the leaders of the camp. You should get some rest and focus on your magic or your own department. Let him handle the hard stuff like camp morale and policing."

"Yeah, that's probably for the best," Vin nodded, realizing he should at least mention what he'd witnessed earlier that evening. "Oh, before I forget. Are you aware that there's some sort of crazy fight going on between the Chefs? I had no idea until I overheard them going at it."

"Yes, I am well aware of The Big Three," Myers drawled, as though she thought the name was ridiculous. "Just another thing you don't need to worry about. Witherson has actually come up with a solution that I think is rather ingenious. Once we have more of a functioning town, she's going to construct a couple different restaurants, if you can call them that. They won't cost anything of course, and it will all be buffet style, but the Chefs will each get their own place, and we'll divide up food supplies between them all. I doubt it will stop all the arguments, but hopefully it should calm them down a bit and boost camp morale at the same time."

"It would be nice having different places to choose between rather than just hitting the one mess hall," Vin agreed, realizing he was all for this idea. "Man, I should really try to miss fewer of these council meetings."

"Don't worry, ninety percent of what you miss is a lot more boring than that," Myers chuckled.

"Would you believe we once spent the better part of an hour deciding exactly how tall to make the town's outer wall?"