Explorer of Edregon

Alka had done her best to find the dungeon entrance while the two of them spoke with the neilans, but she hadn't had any luck. Each fragment was twelve miles wide at its largest point, meaning there was a lot of ground to cover. Even knowing that the dungeons tended to be within a few miles of the center didn't help all that much when the person looking didn't have any sort of method of detecting them.

Rather than burn Shia's divine boon, the group decided to camp out one more night and then try their luck at finding it with Vin's Sense Dimensions come morning. Different dimensions were so strangely light and airy that he'd discovered he could boost the range of the spell a decent bit without burning through too much of his mana or killing himself like he had when mapping out the tunnels in the trogum fragment with a max-strength Sense Stone spell.

After Shia called it a night, Vin spent another hour chatting with Alka about some of the different monsters she'd heard about on her world, before he finally had to call it time for bed as well. He knew it was only a drop in the bucket when he thought about how many hours Alka had to spend each night alone with her thoughts, but he hoped his efforts were at least helping a little.

The next morning, Vin safely returned his shimmerwing mattress to its Dimensional Sheath, deconstructed his stone shelter, and carefully tucked away his silk blanket. Once that was taken care of, they took off.

At the speed they were capable of traveling, it only took them an hour of running around the middle of the fragment before Vin finally got a hit off his Sense Dimensions. He knew exactly what dungeons felt like thanks to all his prior experimentation with the spell, so the moment he detected that odd, fluid and flimsy connection, he called it out.

"This way!" he grinned, eager to finally be rid of this strange fragment. Running around the eerily identical landscape for the last hour had been creepy as hell.

It turned out, the creepiness didn't just extend to the fragment.

The neilans' dungeon ended up being a type Vin had never seen before. It seemed despite the neilans' best efforts at making everything perfectly identical and safe, not even their advanced rituals had been capable of doing anything about the dungeon entrance.

Jutting out of one of the gently sloping hills was a rough cave entrance that looked remarkably out of place. It was obvious from a glance that the earth had been shifted around the dungeon entrance, and a quick use of his Dungeoneering skill was all Vin needed to confirm they'd finally found the dungeon they were looking for.

New dungeon discovered! 5,000 exp gained.

Dungeon Type: Cave

Primary Monster Type: Burrowers

Strengths: Earth

Movement: Slow

Grouping: Solitary

"Burrowers," Vin muttered. "What do you guys think, some sort of monsterified mole?"

"Most likely," Alka nodded, pulling out her sword and getting ready. "Your Tremorsense would probably be useful here against surprise attacks. Monsters capable of erupting out of the ground directly beneath your feet are a pain to fight."

"Good call," Vin nodded, throwing together the runic formation and casting the spell. He still found it a bit tricky to move with it active, as sensing his own vibrations interfered with everything else the spell tried to pick up, but he'd never learn without practice. "Alright, lead the way!"

Sword at the ready, Alka did just that, descending into the cave in front with her green eyes sweeping every which way for monsters. Vin didn't actually need to see in the dark cave with Tremorsense active, and Alka didn't need light to see, so Shia held a torch for herself that she'd quickly put together with a lone branch and some oil.

Vin had actually just gotten to the point where he was pretty certain he could cast and maintain the mana flow through two different simple runic formations at the same time, but he wasn't quite familiar enough with Tremorsense just yet to try pulling it off.

With Alka in the front and Shia in the back, the three of them entered the dungeon, ready for anything.

Which made it all the more unnerving when they didn't encounter a single monster all the way up to the corridor leading to the Underside.

"Their ritual must redirect the magic residue that the dungeons use to create monsters as well," Shia muttered, moving her torch around as if to examine the cave walls. "As much as I dislike the neilans, even I have to admit they're clearly at an entirely different level when it comes to understanding magic and runes."

"Shame they're so magically competent," Vin sighed, finally dropping Tremorsense as he activated the corridor and motioned for them to head through. "Makes it harder to hate them."

Despite the fact that they'd been gone for two days, Vin was slightly nervous about them traipsing through the Underside and interrupting Lumel's work. He had no doubt creating an artifact from scratch was a massive undertaking, and he didn't know if a few days had been enough time for her to finish her project.

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Thankfully, it seemed she truly was a remarkably skilled Dimensional Mage, as rather than entering the Underside parallel to the Earthers' fragment and finding her within intense meditation, they instead discovered her reclining in the fancy chair she'd stolen from her father's palace, flipping through a thick book. The moment they came into view she glanced up, startled to see them enter the giant room.

Vin's high focus allowed him to make out the smile on her face as she realized he was part of the group approaching, but when her eyes shifted to his companions, she quickly stood up and adjusted her cloak, pulling the hood down over her head and covering any exposed skin. Vin couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of sadness for her that she still didn't feel comfortable showing people what she looked like.

Granted, from what she'd told him, he had no doubt seeing the constant looks of disgust and horror on the face of everyone she talked to probably made covering herself a far easier decision to make.

"Welcome back!" she called out, nervously glancing toward Alka as she addressed them. Vin remembered how despite all Lumel had done to try and make up for her previous actions, Alka still hadn't fully forgiven the Dimensional Mage for running away and leaving them to fight the golems in the library themselves. "How was the trip?"

"It was… strange," Shia said, giving her a pained smile. "Strange and unpleasant."

"No need to mince words. The people in that fragment were trash," Alka said bluntly, stepping forward and actually nodding at Lumel. "I don't think I ever actually said it, but thanks for putting yourself in harm's way to help us take down the divine warrior. I never really stopped to think about how easy it was for people to just not fight against the monsters of this world."

"Oh, of course," Lumel stammered, clearly caught off guard by Alka's acknowledgment. "I just wanted to do whatever I could to make up for the library incident. I've been trying to do better since then so that I don't freeze up and panic like I did back then."

"Glad to hear," Alka chuckled, her eyes even flaring with mirth in her version of a smile. "I think you, Shia, and I need to get together at some point to trade stories about Vin, here. I'm not exactly one for 'girl talk,' but I've got a few embarrassing things I can share about him from the weeks I spent echoing his form that I bet you'd love to hear."

"Alka!" Vin gasped, jumping in front of the golem and doing his best to shove her away. "Lumel, don't listen to a thing she says! Her mind was scrambled when I first found her, and it's only gotten worse with each passing day!"

"I'll show you scrambled!" Alka scoffed, grabbing him from behind and somehow managing to wrestle him to the ground despite only having one functioning hand.

Figures the elite monster-killer would be a pro at grappling as well.

"Just ignore those two," Vin heard Shia say as he struggled to escape from Alka's vice-like hold. In the end, he was forced to use his own golem appendage to escape, his arm flaring a brilliant blue as he shoved himself free of Alka and forced her to roll for a good dozen feet across the strange Underside floor.

Panting, he jumped to his feet just in time to catch the giant grin and quiet giggling coming from under Lumel's hood before she managed to school her expression and clear her throat.

"Thank you, Alka, I'd love to get the chance to hang out with you guys sometime," she nodded, raising her hands before her. "…and in fact, these, should make that all the more doable."

With twin flashes of purple, two small, silver bands with inlaid amethysts popped into existence, one in each hand. The rings seemed to gleam with hidden magic, and Vin could sense the fact that they were artifacts from here.

"It took me an entire day and a half to figure out how to craft the artifact, but now that I understand what I'm doing, I can put these together in only a couple of hours," she smiled, holding out the rings toward them. "Shia. Alka. These will allow you to find and access the corridor entrances usually locked behind the Dungeoneering skill. No more relying on Vin in order to reach the Underside."

"Thank the gods for that, you would not believe how flaky this guy is," Alka laughed, happily taking the ring and staring at it for a moment. "…can I even use this?"

"That… is a good question." Lumel frowned, handing the other ring to Shia before hesitating. "Seeing as your body is essentially a conglomeration of artifacts, I don't know if you can just slap another one on like that."

"Only one way to find out," Alka shrugged, nimbly placing the ring on her finger with only one hand and walking over to the stone frame leading to the Earthers' fragment. As soon as she got close, the purple gem on the ring flared to life, and the seemingly endless tunnel sprung into existence.

"Whelp, guess that answers that question!" Alka laughed, waving her warpick in Lumel's direction. "Thanks for the artifact! I'll drop by for that chat sometime in the near future! Shia, you coming? I have to go tell Alice that we're finally replacing Vin piece by piece."

"I'm coming," Shia chuckled, giving Lumel a warm smile and a quick hug. "Thanks for the artifacts, Lumel, I know it couldn't have been easy to make them. And don't worry, we won't drop in unannounced. Wouldn't want to interrupt the two of you practicing magic alone down here."

"Get out of here," Vin sighed, ignoring Shia's wink as she walked over and left with Alka down the corridor. "Sorry about them," he said, turning to find Lumel had her hood pulled down a little further than she normally did.

"I don't mind," Lumel said, her voice quiet as she took a deep breath. "It's nice… having actual friends to talk to."

"I don't doubt it," Vin grinned. A sudden thought hit him and he smacked his forehead. "Crap, I forgot to grab one of their rings! I wanted to take a look for myself. Guess I'll just do it the next time I see them."

"Actually…" There was another flash of purple, and Vin stared wide-eyed at yet another one of the gleaming rings. "…I made one more. I can actually make them a good bit faster than I let on. Didn't want Spur to get wind of how quickly I can put these together and try to convince you to turn me into some sort of production line."

"I would never let that happen," he reassured her, accepting the ring from her. "Though I will admit, I think this might be a bit big for Scule."

New lesser artifact discovered! 5,000 exp gained.

"I actually made that one with Theodore in mind," Lumel admitted, finally pulling her hood back and revealing just how flushed her face was from Shia's taunt. It was a testament to how used to her appearance was at this point that Vin didn't feel anything but amusement at the sheer quantity of blood pooling around her transparent cheeks. "Seeing as he's a spy, I figured the less people that knew he had access to the dungeons, the better."

"Thanks Lumel, you have a pretty good point. Though I don't really keep any secrets from the gang," Vin admitted, pocketing the ring to give Theodore. "Oh, I finally got Dimensional Sheath by the way!"

"Really?" Lumel asked, sounding surprised by his admittance. "Store anything with it yet?"

"Are you kidding?" Vin laughed, realizing he might finally own something more opulent than the former princess. "You have got to tell me how this compares to the mattresses you had back in the palace!"