Explorer of Edregon

Vin's predictions quickly proved to be true, and he managed to recreate the runic formation for Sense Death in record time. Barely an hour after he'd gotten started, he leaned back against the wall of his tiny stone box, reading over his newest notifications.

New spell learned! Tier 0 Death Spell (Sense Death). 2,500 exp gained.

Magical Explorer lvl 33!

+3 attribute points

Vin grinned as his magic attribute tipped over to 50 all on its own, becoming his second attribute to pass the big five-zero milestone. He immediately placed one of his three free points into focus, bringing it to a nice round 50 as well. But after that, he paused.

For the first time in a long time, he wasn't sure where he should place the remainder of his points. More magic and focus were never bad of course, but they'd somewhat eclipsed the rest of his attributes rather significantly. His vigor and dexterity were both in the mid-twenties, but his strength was a whopping thirteen, which felt altogether pathetic after he'd grown used to his enhanced strength courtesy of Alka.

At this point, I can learn six spells for each affinity without worrying about my mana becoming attuned to any of them, so that's not a major concern. In fact, according to Eithan, I actually have a little wiggle room there after taking Mana Well, seeing as my total mana pool is larger with the passive than it would be otherwise. But increasing my magic attribute means increasing my mana even further, and that can only be good.

Focus is similar. More focus means learning spells faster, and I'm pretty sure the number of runic formations I can keep in my head with Iron Mind at any one time is tied to it as well.

Vin realized he was subconsciously pushing for himself to just continue dumping every last attribute point into magic and focus, and he tried to catch himself. While he would absolutely keep those two attributes far higher than his others, he'd seen firsthand just how important keeping at least a semi-balanced build was for survival.

I think I can get away with keeping strength on the lower end thanks to my new arm. I don't even want to know what strength score it would clock in at when I can do things like bend metal with it, albeit infrequently. Which means speed and sturdiness are the last two things to consider.

Vin glanced at his dexterity and vigor attributes, comparing the two against one another. Seeing as dexterity was at 26 and vigor was only 23, he shrugged, placing his remaining two points into vigor to bring it up to a nice round 25 and grinning as he suddenly felt as though he'd gotten an extra hour of sleep last night. Being harder to kill was never a bad thing, and he tried to remind himself that dropping the occasional point into vigor would no doubt benefit him in the long run.

His dexterity was already at roughly half of his total focus, and Vin figured keeping it that way was probably a good idea going forward as it was important for him to make sure he had the speed he needed to actually benefit from his incredibly high focus. It wouldn't do him much good if he saw an attack coming from a mile away only to be too slow to react to it.

Points spent, Vin dismissed his interface, finally turning instead to his newest spell.

"Sense Death," he muttered, filling his room with the sensing spell and taking note of the two small readings he got from the corner of the room. A quick glance was all he needed to spot the tiny insect bodies, and he laughed at the realization that he should probably sweep out his little stone box at some point.

For being pretty much the opposite affinity, Sense Death felt oddly identical to Sense Life. Their runic formations were even shockingly similar, far more so than many of his other sensing spells.

Curious, Vin finally let the spell drop, only for his eyes to widen in shock as he was hit with an altogether unexpected message from the System.

New Title Unlocked! Generalist Mage. Reward: Sense the affinities of your fellow mages.

"No way," he laughed, completely unprepared to be gifted a third title seemingly out of the blue. Seeing as this newest title was all about affinities, it wasn't hard for him to figure out how he'd gotten it.

"Earth, life, curse, wind, spatial, vibration, nature, light, water, and now death," he muttered, counting off all the different affinities he'd learned at least a single spell in since his time on Edregon. Just like Common Ally, that makes ten unique affinities. Guess the System likes doing things in tens for whatever reason.

Vin was eager to try out his newest title, but there weren't exactly a lot of mages roaming around the Earther fragment. He'd be eating dinner in a few hours with Lumel anyway, so Vin decided playing around with the title could wait. Instead, he launched right into his second project of the afternoon, pulling up his mental snapshot of Decay and getting to work.

Just like how Sense Death reminded him of Sense Life, Decay felt very similar to Renewal. Vin could all but feel his Flexible Formations capstone kicking in, speeding up his understanding and allowing him to save time as he worked on his second death spell within Introspection. Renewal was simply directing an extremely high concentration of life mana toward an injury, allowing the mana to do its own thing without any further instruction on his part. Decay was pretty much the same, but with death mana. Ignoring the portions of the runic formations dealing with affinities, Vin was able to basically copy the base spell for Renewal, saving himself hours of delicate work and allowing him to crack the spell in time for dinner.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

New spell learned! Tier 1 Death Spell (Decay). 5,000 exp gained.

With the realization that he'd just learned two new spells in the span of a single afternoon, Vin practically danced his way to the mess hall, earning some looks that felt even stranger than usual as he grabbed two meals to go and headed off to meet Lumel.

"You look like you're having a good day," Lumel giggled as he summoned a simple stone table and put their food down. "I take it you've made some progress on your death spells?"

"Sense Death and Decay, in only a couple of hours," he explained, earning an impressed look from the more experienced mage. "And not only that…"

Vin had felt his newest title at play the moment he'd gotten close to Lumel, but he finally focused on the strange new sensation he was picking up off of her. With his magic attribute he was already able to sense magical affinities of things like artifacts or spells being cast, but it seemed like that sense now extended to people as well. Despite the fact that she was simply sitting there, looking curiously at him, Vin could pick up an extremely subtle aura of what was clearly dimensional magic emanating from the mage.

He quickly explained his newest title to her, and Lumel simply shook her head, looking like nothing surprised her at this point.

"The fact that you've earned two titles in only a few weeks is ridiculous," she said, opening her dinner container and giving the spaghetti within a confused look. "Most people go their entire lives without earning a single one. Also, how do I eat this..?"

"Uh, I've got a third title actually," Vin admitted sheepishly, chuckling at her exasperated look. "Earned it ages ago with Alka's help back when she was a ghost. And you use your fork to twirl the noodles up, like this."

After a quick lesson on how to properly eat the thin noodles, and an explanation of his original passive and how it didn't really do much of anything these days, Lumel surprised him by informing him she actually had a title of her own.

"Survivor. I actually only picked it up recently, after getting banished from my home. It would seem the System thinks spending long enough in an environment that would normally kill me within minutes is worthy of a reward, even if it is with magical assistance. It's currently 'minor,' meaning it will improve the longer I stay out of the water."

"What does it do?" Vin asked, more than curious as he speared a meatball with his fork. Lumel was the first person he'd met besides himself that had earned a title from the System. Or at least, the first person to admit to owning one.

"Currently, it gives me a small boost to my vigor and makes it so I'll survive even longer outside of the water in the event my artifact fails," she shrugged, reaching into her shirt and pulling out a thin amulet that looked to be made from some sort of coral of all things. "This is how I survive outside of the water. I, uh… borrowed it from my mother's personal collection before I started exploring the other fragments. It used to belong to a famous Airwalker."

"Do you mind if I hold it for a moment?" Vin asked, his eyes hungrily taking in the strange new artifact. "I've seen wood turned into an artifact, but coral is certainly a new one."

"I'd rather not take it off, for obvious reasons… But sure," she shrugged, leaning over the table. Vin eagerly leaned over as well, taking the offered artifact in hand and feeling the smooth edges of the coral as he examined it.

New lesser artifact discovered! 5,000 exp gained.

"Some sort of water magic," he muttered, turning the amulet this way and that as he picked up on the familiar mana radiating out of it. Only after a few seconds did he realize his face was dangerously close to Lumel's own, and the Dimensional Mage was blushing as she watched him closely.

"Sorry," he chuckled, slightly surprised at the realization that being in such close proximity to the pulmon barely even phased him anymore. He still got the occasional twist in his gut when she moved unexpectedly and he got to witness her facial muscles flex or contract in a way he hadn't seen before, but he was more than capable of making sure his unease didn't show on his face.

"Don't mention it," she muttered, looking away as she sat back, her face still flushed as she tucked her amulet back into her shirt. "Anyway, you're correct, it is water magic. It's a spell unique to my people called Second Skin. It basically creates a thin field around us that prevents our bodies from drying out so rapidly. I still need to soak for a bit each day to keep my body properly hydrated, though it's not that big of a deal."

"I actually have an enchanted waterskin capable of conjuring water if you ever need to borrow it," Vin smiled, holding it up and showing her. "I got it from a thousand year old dryad in exchange for agreeing to help him and his people. I actually managed to use it to learn Create Water while staying with a handful of dwarves in their volcanic town a few days back, so feel free to let me know if you ever need help with the whole 'staying hydrated' thing."

Only after he finished talking did Vin realize Lumel was staring at him with wide eyes, her mouth hanging slightly open. Chuckling weakly, Vin gave her a nervous grin. "Sorry, I wasn't trying to brag or anything… It's just fun to talk with you about some of the crazy stuff I've done. It seems Edregon is just filled with one surprise after another."

"Please, no need to apologize," Lumel quickly said, her expression turning from shock to one of almost hunger. "Trust me. In fact, I would love it if you told me all about the fragments you've visited and the people you've met. I told you, Vin, you're like an Airwalker on steroids. Hearing about your adventures blows the old Airwalker retellings out of the water."

"Well, I'm more than happy to share," he said, wondering where to even start. A small part of him was curious that her people seemed to have their own version of steroids on their world, but he figured he could ask about that later. After a moment, he decided to just start from the beginning.

"Alright," he said, rubbing his hands together and pushing the remains of his dinner off to the side. "I know I've told you about the scorpion monster that chased me my first day here, but that wasn't the only crazy thing that happened to me that day.

"So there was this creepy goat, right…"