Explorer of Edregon

"I need to get out of here before some other crazy thing pops up and I'm asked to deal with it. Got any interest in picking a random direction and running screaming towards it?"

Shia blinked at the sudden question as she stared up at him, clearly surprised to come out of her meditation to find Vin standing above her, looking exasperated. Pushing herself to her feet with her staff, she raised an eyebrow.

"That bad, huh?"

"You have no idea," Vin sighed, running a hand through his hair as he fought the urge to tear it out. "I swear, it's just one thing after another with these people. I'm starting to wonder how they managed to survive without me all this time!"

"It has been a couple of days since our ordeal with the deceased blue fur clan," Shia admitted, giving him a small smile. "To be honest, I'm a bit surprised you managed to last this long without running off somewhere."

"Lumel and I made a quick trip out to an old fragment the other day, which helped, but not nearly enough. Remember that fragment you said tasted like death magic? Necromancer compound."

"Really?" Shia asked, looking curious. "Anything dangerous?"

"No, pretty friendly people actually. I think they regularly patrol the fragment with their undead, I didn't see so much as a single monster."

"I may have a quick look myself once Lumel finishes that amulet of hers," Shia muttered, seeming to make a mental note for later. "Anyway, I could stretch my legs a bit as well. I've spent most of the last three days meditating and working on a new spell. I'm no stranger to putting my nose to the grindstone, but it does get a bit tiring after a while. Tier three spells don't come cheaply, however."

"I want to learn my first tier three spell, but I don't want to spend the better part of a week working on it," Vin sighed, joining Shia as they began their hunt for the others. "I can focus for a day or two, but a week?"

"You do realize you don't need to learn the entire spell in one go, right?" Shia laughed. "You can break it up! Work on the formation a bit here and there!"

"But that would just make it take even longer!"

The two of them argued back and forth in a friendly manner as they walked. Having seen the way Alka spent most of her free time, it didn't take them long to find the Slayer on the outskirts of the camp.

"Chris! How many times do I have to tell you you have to learn more than just the sword!" Alka snapped, stomping over to one of her few remaining recruits standing by a rack of weapons. Chris was clearly one of the younger Earthers, looking barely old enough to shave, and the poor kid froze in terror as Alka's entire focus bore down on him.

"Having a preferred weapon is fine, and even encouraged. But a Slayer needs to be able to fight competently with any weapon they can get their hands on! This is the third day in a row you've selected the longsword!"

"I'm sorry, Slayer, I get that… But I'm a lot better with the sword than any of the other weapons," Chris argued weakly as his fellow trainees continued sparring off to the side.

"All the more reason to practice with the other weapons," Alka said bluntly, grabbing a warhammer from the rack and tossing it his way. "Tiffany doesn't like fighting with daggers, but she's still doing her best. Tall Phil isn't good with the staff, but he's trying. What's the most important thing you need to become a Slayer?"

"Flexibility," Chris sighed, clearly having gone through this before.

"Flexibility," Alka nodded. "Good, now go try and bash Tall Phil's head in with the warhammer."

As Chris nodded and ran off to join in on the sparring, Alka finally turned toward them, shaking her head.

"I swear, teaching is the worst. I have to explain my orders half the time, and the other half they don't seem to hear them at all!"

"I definitely don't envy you," Vin chuckled, glad to see he wasn't the only one in need of a break. "Tall Phil?"

"Oh, that lanky dude over there," Alka said, pointing at a particularly tall man currently doing his best to clumsily fight with quarterstaff against Chris and his new warhammer. The struggling fighter had to be at least six-foot-something, and he towered over his much shorter opponent. "We already have Phil, the leader of the combat classes, so I figured I'd give him a nickname to prevent confusion. Henceforth, he is Tall Phil."

"Fair enough. So heads up, I know we've been here the past few days because I needed a break from traveling after what happened with the blue fur clan, but now I need an even bigger break from town. Wanna join?"

"For the Gods' sake, yes," Alka said quickly. "Great timing, actually. It's important these guys get practice fighting against lots of different combat styles, so I actually roped Shredder into taking over for the next couple of days. I bet putting them against the Berserker will make at least another one or two drop out of the running, but that's probably for the best. Fair warning, I'll want the two of you to put them through the paces at some point as well."

"I certainly don't mind showing them what Druids are capable of," Shia grinned, her jagged smile sending a slight shiver down Vin's back. He'd grown pretty used to her deadly teeth at this point, but seeing the eager way she looked at the trainees made him scared for them.

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"Can't say I'm quite as eager, but if you think it will help, I'm all for it," Vin nodded.

"Trust me, finding a mage to practice fighting against is a huge help. Even if you do only have one offensive spell," Alka added as an afterthought. "...Seriously though, you should probably get on learning more with everything we run into. You know, what, like two dozen spells, and only one of them can be used to kill something?"

"He could probably tie something small up with Entangle and then drown it with Create Water," Shia offered, tapping her chin. "Maybe summon a Stone Wall and crush something by pushing the wall over?"

"Thank you, Shia, for those lovely ideas," Vin drawled. "You're not wrong, Alka, but I prefer my more utility-focused spells. Though I'll start thinking about my next combat spell. I just wish I had more hours in the day for learning magic… I think I'm starting to understand why so many of the stories from my world have wizards locking themselves away in their towers so people can't bother them."

Vin and Shia waited patiently for Alka to leave her trainees with instructions to follow while she was gone. Vin wasn't sure what it said about their potential to become Slayers when each and every one of the trainees looked relieved at the break, despite their best efforts to keep their expressions neutral. If Alka noticed, she didn't say anything, and the three of them headed off in search of Scule and Reginald.

The Rogue and his companion were a lot harder to track down than Shia and Alka had been, resulting in them running all over the place when his Sense Life pulses didn't provide them with any small leads. Vin first swung by the third-wavers' temporary camp and checked in with Bill. The alchemist was as nervous as always, but managed to explain that he hadn't seen Scule in a bit.

Next was Theodore, who was an entirely different hassle to find. By the time he'd found the Spy with a few large pulses of Sense Magic, Vin stormed up to the tired, elderly crafter lounging against a lone tree. Vin crossed his arms and glared down at the old man. If it wasn't for the fact that it felt as though the man was covered in a fine layer of magic, Vin never would have suspected him.

"Tastes like illusion magic," Shia said curiously, her tongue flicking into the air as she got close.

"Can't say I've ever been found out via taste before," the old crafter laughed, jumping to his feet and suddenly looking a lot more spry. "Need help with something?"

"We're looking for Scule," Vin said, staring closely at Theodore's face. It seemed the Spy had gotten better, because this new persona didn't look quite so much like him as all the other ones.

"Ah, I'm not sure where he ran off to," Theodore admitted. "He told me he had some business to take care of and said if I tried tailing him, he'd steal my eyelashes while I slept. I'm quite a fan of my eyelashes, so I didn't try, despite my curiosity."

"Scule left town?" Vin repeated, shocked by Theodore's news. He hadn't seen the petian in a few days, but Scule hadn't made any mention of this supposed 'business' to him. A quick check with his friends confirmed that he hadn't told either of them about this either.

"Do you at least know which way he went?" Shia asked, clearly worried. Vin had a feeling that her concern was mainly directed at Reginald rather than Scule, but it was still nice to see his friends cared about each other as much as he did.

"Sorry, no clue," Theodore shrugged, sitting back down and resuming his leisurely appearance. "He's not in any sort of trouble, right?"

"I don't know, he didn't tell us anything," Vin muttered, briefly wondering how well his Tracking skill would work on a trained Rogue before shaking his head. "We probably shouldn't worry about him, right?"

"If he wanted our help, he would have told us what he was doing," Alka said bluntly. "Despite his poor decision making at times, Scule's a grown man. We can always grill him for details once he gets back. At the very least, I'm willing to bet Reginald will sing like a bird if we press him."

"You're probably right, but I do worry about Reginald," Shia sighed, wringing her staff in her hands. "He's just so small and fragile looking."

"Reginald has a higher vigor than you do," Alka snorted. "Those two will be fine. I have a feeling I know where they went, and if I'm right, there shouldn't be anything that can harm them there."

"You do?" Vin asked, giving her a curious look. "Where?"

"Not my place to say," Alka said. "I know I rag on Scule a lot, but people are entitled to their secrets. Besides, it's just a hunch. I don't know anything for sure."

"Fair… Theodore, I'm going to be gone for probably at least a couple of days," Vin said, turning back to his lounging sub-councilor. "You can keep up the meetings with Kelly if you want, but you don't have to unless something important comes up. For now, just keep practicing your skills, I guess. Though you're already becoming dangerously effective."

"That's the goal," the old crafter grinned, his voice suddenly turning harsh and gravelly. "I'm thinking I might try venturing into one of the neighboring towns soon. Try and see how I do with an actual test infiltration."

"If you think you're ready, go nuts," Vin shrugged. Something like that sounded dangerous as hell to him, but he wasn't the resident Spy. "Just be safe."

"No promises!" Theodore cackled, waving goodbye as they left him to his work.

"Well, if Scule's doing his own thing with Reginald… I guess it's just us," Shia said as they walked toward the dungeon, sounding every bit as disappointed as she looked. Vin knew she loved spending time with Reginald, but it seemed he hadn't realized just how close she had grown with the little guy.

"It will be interesting not having them with us," Alka admitted. "Despite how much trouble Scule is, he really comes through when he's needed. Not that I think they would have made much of a difference, but I can't help and think about the last time we went off without them."

Vin started as he realized what Alka was getting at. The last time they went somewhere as a team without Scule and Reginald was when the two of them had escorted The One That Paints In Red back to the infernals' fragment, leaving Vin, Shia, and Alka to take on the divine warrior.

And they all knew how that turned out.

"Well, that doesn't exactly fill me with confidence," he chuckled nervously. "But come on, what are the odds we run into anything even remotely that dangerous while they're gone a second time?"

Vin paused as he realized his two companions were staring at him like he was an idiot, and Shia shook her head as she walked past him.

"You just had to say it, didn't you?"