Explorer of Edregon

Seeing as the inhabitants of this fragment showed no sign of leaving their dwellings anytime soon, the three of them picked a spot far from all the strange plants but only a few hundred feet away from the hamlet and settled in. Vin was confident they were still close enough that most of the people should be able to see them from their windows. He could only hope that once the people realized they didn't mean them any harm, someone would come out and speak with them.

Otherwise, Alka was going to end up doing her best Scule impression and breaking in anyway.

Shaking his head, Vin laid out his merider-silk blanket and took a seat, wondering what he should do to pass the time. Only a few days ago his Iron Mind passive had been packed full of the three death spells from the friendly Necromancer and Lumel's Dimensional Sheath. Yet now, it was completely empty.

Vin was eager to try diving into another one of their artifacts and learning a new spell that way, but this probably wasn't the time or place for something quite so intense. There was no telling when someone would finally come out and speak with them, which meant he probably shouldn't do anything too dangerous in the meantime.

Remembering a spell he'd been putting off for the longest time, Vin glanced at his companion. Shia looked like she was still rather annoyed with her surroundings, but at least she wasn't calling for blood any longer.

"Hey Shia, this seems like as good a time as any. Would you mind showing me the runic formation for Neutralize Poison?"

"Hm? Oh yeah, that's probably a good idea."

Shia quickly sketched out the formation for the tier one spell in the air, and Vin almost laughed at how simple it looked compared to Dimensional Sheath. But seeing as that was a tier two spatial spell, he didn't know why he was so surprised.

"You know, I bet there's a poison affinity somewhere out there," he muttered, remembering how he'd discovered certain spells could be crafted from different affinities, such as how Decay could have either a death or a nature affinity. Granted, if there was a poison affinity somewhere out there, he didn't think he was in any rush to meet the mage who knew such spells.

Dismissing the thought for now, Vin made sure Alka knew to wake him if someone came to talk to them before slipping into Introspection. The Slayer had agreed a bit too quickly to smack him with the hammer end of her warpick if needed, in his opinion, but he figured she'd hold back enough to save triggering his divine boon at the very least.

Even after all this time, Vin was still surprised to find how unique so many spells were from one another. Neutralize Poison started off similarly to spells such as Entangle or Stone Shape in that he was imbuing something potentially outside of his body with his own mana, but that was where the similarities ended. Once he'd imbued the poison with his mana, he then had to destroy it. None of his spells up to this point did anything remotely similar, which meant he had nothing to pull from to help him with the unfamiliar portion of the runic formation.

Buckling down, Vin got to work.

The spell was only tier one, which meant he didn't have too much to fear from runic backlashes. Sure, the destroying portion of the spell might end up causing his body a little damage here and there, but it was nothing he couldn't fix with Renewal if it came to it. Not to mention since his focus had entered into the fifties, he was able to crack down with his pool of mana and stop any of the more minor backlashes the moment he realized they were coming.

Vin kept expecting to be rudely yanked from his Introspection with a blow to the head at any moment, which meant he was quite surprised when he finally put the finishing touches on the spell.

Nodding at the glowing formation floating within his mana pool, Vin cancelled his skill and opened his eyes, taking in his surroundings.

New spell learned! Tier 1 Life Spell (Neutralize Poison). 5,000 exp gained.

Other than his notification, the first thing he realized was that it had grown much darker. He couldn't actually make out the position of the sun with the massive barrier blocking out the sky, but based on the level of light filtering through the grey barrier, he guessed it was rather late in the evening.

Which meant he'd spent the better half of a day working on that spell, and not a single person from the hamlet had come out during all that time.

"Seriously? None of them came out to see why we were here?" he asked, glancing at his companions. Shia was still deep within her own meditation, but Alka was lounging on the grass, somehow managing to look bored out of her mind despite the complete lack of facial expressions.

"Nope. Not so much as a peep," she confirmed. "Glad you finally woke up. I've already decided once the last bit of sun goes down I'm breaking down one of their doors."

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"Alka, we can't just break into someone's house," Vin sighed, wondering what the solution here was. "They have to come out sooner or later."

"Do they? Because we just spent all day sitting outside their settlement and not a single person left their home," Alka argued, thrusting her warpick toward the ring of houses. "Something's off about this fragment, something different than the plant thing that is bothering Shia. I don't know what it is, but I don't like it."

"It could be as simple as these people never having experienced outsiders before," Vin tried to reassure her. "Whatever the case, breaking down their doors isn't going to do us any favors for building friendly relations."

Alka let the argument drop, turning around to face the hamlet once more. Vin merely shook his head, praying someone would come out so that he didn't have to decide if Alka was right or not. As much as he hated the thought of intruding into someone's home like that, he had to do whatever it took to learn more about the fragment-wide barrier ritual. Learning how to keep people safe from monsters was more important than propriety at the moment.

Vin summoned a rock for himself to toss up and down and busied himself with his grip-control exercises as he waited for Shia to finish up what she was working on. He'd finally gotten to the point where he only shattered the rock if something distracted him, which was leaps and bounds better than when he'd started. Anytime he grew bored of the exercise, he just thought back to the sickening crunch of Kyle's hand crumbling under his grip, and that gave him all the motivation he needed to keep practicing.

Finally, just as the last of the daylight was beginning to fade, Shia looked up, blinking at the sudden change in light.

"Still no visitors?"

"Not a one," Vin confirmed, finally choosing to crush his rock in a flash of blue mana before tossing the pieces away. "Alka wants to break into one of their houses."

"I don't like the idea any more than you do, but this barrier ritual is too powerful to just let be," Shia frowned, looking up at the giant barrier over their heads. "Not just the barrier itself, but whatever method they have of powering it. Rituals don't just run endlessly, Vin, and I highly doubt something this size is being fueled by a mana-battery of any sort. They have to have developed some way to keep the ritual going, and whatever method that is might be more important than the actual barrier. Imagine if Madam Trebella could keep up her weird ritual that made people veer away from their village all the time. They'd never have to worry about anything like another divine warrior or the Red Dawn ever again."

"I hadn't actually thought about that," Vin admitted, looking up at the mile-wide barrier in a new light. "Okay… I understand we need to talk to them. But come on, surely we can come up with a better way to draw one of them out. I doubt breaking into their homes is going to entice them to help us, and I'm not about to torture information out of someone, regardless of how useful it is."

"I mean, there's the obvious," Alka finally said, her head spinning around to look at them. "I bet if we act like we're about to damage part of their fancy ritual, someone will rush out to stop us."

"I guess it's better than breaking someone's door down," Vin sighed. He wasn't a huge fan of this idea either, but at least it was a step in the right direction. "Let me go over there on my own first and try to talk to them. Maybe I can offer a trade of some sort."

"Go nuts," Alka shrugged, a motion that was particularly strange while her head was still facing backwards.

Getting to his feet and shoving his blanket back into his pack, Vin walked back over to the hamlet. He picked a different house than the last time, before walking up to the front door and trying to knock as politely as possible.

"Hello!" he called out, clearing his throat. "I'm Vin, a Magical Explorer from a nearby fragment. I'm just here to say hi and maybe ask you guys a few questions about this ritual you have going on. Any chance you'd be willing to talk?"

Vin waited a minute to give the inhabitants a chance to speak. Just to be sure, he cast Sense Life, confirming that there were three people currently hiding upstairs. A quick cast of Sense Magic surprised him, as he discovered there were also a few magical sources coming from within the house.

"I can offer you guys information on the other fragments," he called out, wracking his brain for other things he could offer in trade. "I could bring some food you've probably never tried before! Runic Formations? Delivering messages for you?"

None of his suggestions received a reply, and he sighed, rubbing his temple as he tried to think of another angle. Out of curiosity, he tried casting Tremorsense, and blinked at the mental image the spell granted him.

The spell translated vibrations into a form of grainy picture in his head, which meant he was only really able to see things that were actively moving. So while the house was largely invisible to him, he was easily able to make out what looked like three humanoid figures huddled up together on the second floor.

Why are they shaking so hard?

Vin frowned as he analyzed the feedback of the spell. Like Alka had said, these people were a race they hadn't come across before. They felt fairly close to humans, except for their remarkably long fingers that seemed to stretch nearly a foot long. Currently, they were using those fingers to better tightly embrace one another as they trembled, and Vin blinked as he finally realized what was going on.

They're not shaking because they're nervous… They're shaking because they're terrified!

Shocked, Vin took a step back from the door, staring up at the second floor as if he could look right through the wall and take in the huddled trio.

"I'm going to go for now," he called out, ensuring his voice was loud enough that they could hear him. He could feel their sighs of relief through Tremorsense as he took a few more steps back. Shaking his head, Vin headed back to his companions, letting his spell drop as he walked out of range of the strangers.

"I can't help but notice your plan didn't work," Alka said helpfully, tilting her head toward him as he approached.

"No it did not," he sighed, pursing his lips as he tried to figure out how to explain what he felt. "I will say, I finally understand why they refuse to leave their homes."

"Well that's good!" Shia said, looking hopeful. "Why's that? I can't imagine why these people would be so scared when their fragment doesn't even have any monsters."

"That's an easy one," Vin nodded. "As far as I can tell… We're the monsters in their eyes."