Explorer of Edregon

Come morning, Vin was pleased to find himself once more walking out of his apartment with his full team at his side. Scule and Reginald had been more than happy to join them on their latest adventure, but he'd been a bit surprised Alka had jumped at the opportunity as well. Both because he knew Tiffany, one of her newest Slayers, was currently being prepped to be brought over to the meriders' fragment for a potential merger, and because he figured she'd have her hands full beginning training with those of the fourth wave who wanted to try their luck at becoming Slayers as well.

Apparently, it wasn't that simple.

"Tiffany put on a brave face, but I could tell she didn't want me to see her like that," Alka explained as they headed toward the dungeon entrance, the voice emanating from around her head kept to a low whisper, as if she didn't want to embarrass the girl. "I offered to bring her to the meriders myself, but she told me no. As for the new Earthers, you better believe I'll be trying my hand at training up a few more Slayers, but it's actually good for them to get a little bit of experience under their belt before I take them on. Starting training from levels three to five is a lot better than levels one or two, for example."

"Why's that?" Scule asked, already situated upon her shoulder. The petian largely preferred the smooth gait of Alka's golem form over any of their 'clunky stumbling,' in his own words. "I kinda figured it saved you the whole issue of 'breaking them down' just to build them back up if there was nothing to break down in the first place."

"I don't know what gave you that idea, Slayers aren't some sort of military branch," Alka snorted. "I make sure to instill the core beliefs of the Slayers into their heads, but I don't strip them of what makes them individuals. Flexibility and unique talents are what makes Slayers so deadly in the first place."

"I'm a little worried you'll have your hands full this time around," Vin admitted, nodding at the gate guards as they finally left Terra behind them. He spotted Greg, and even gave the first-waver a warm smile, only to get a shaky salute in return. "You had something like thirty applicants last time, right? And that was without people actually knowing if your training would even work or not. Now that you've shown results, what if you end up with fifty applicants? Or a hundred? Are you even going to be able to handle that many, or are you just planning on making your entrance test that much harder?"

"That's the beauty of having other Slayers now, I can make them do the annoying work I don't want to," Alka said, laughing boisterously at her newfound luck. "I'll still help of course, but I shouldn't be quite as busy as I was the last time around. Which is good, because that surprise Epic monster in the recent battle reminded me that I'm still a Slayer as well. I need to keep improving myself, in case we end up getting more terrifying monsters that my students aren't ready to handle just yet."

"Can you even improve yourself?" Scule asked, squinting at her head. "I mean, you're a golem. It's not like you have a class or levels anymore."

"Scule!" Shia admonished, frowning at him. Even Reginald poked his head out of Vin's pocket, the rat squeaking his objection to Scule's comment as well, as Shia continued. "Obviously she knows that!"

"What? I'm just asking," Scule said with a shrug. "I thought it was a valid question." Thankfully, Alka didn't seem too annoyed by the question, though Vin had to admit it was next to impossible to actually read the golem. She didn't exactly have any facial expression or much body language to go off of.

"Even if I can't level, that doesn't mean I can't learn," she said simply. "Not to mention, who knows what kinds of upgrades we might be able to find for my new body scattered across Edregon. I know that might be wishful thinking, but we managed to find an entire golem in the first place. And now that Vin has Artifact Extraordinaire as one of his passives, I figure it's only a matter of time before he can tune up my body like a blacksmith with a rusty sword."

"I think you might be giving me just a little too much credit here," Vin said sheepishly. "I haven't even made my own artifact yet, Alka, and your body is apparently some sort of masterpiece according to Deorer. If we do end up finding any sort of potential upgrade, we'll probably want to head back to the Crater and let him work on you rather than let me try and potentially mess something up. He's literally a Smith of Relics."

"Eh, I don't really care who does the work, so long as someone does," she shrugged.

By that point, the group hit the edge of the forest dungeon and were quickly beset upon by a small handful of monster wolves, hungry for blood. Without even breaking stride, Shia snapped her fingers and cast her go-to spell whenever they were in a forest. "Root Spikes!"

The Druid's mana spread out and seeped into the ground around them, and four massive spikes formed from twisting roots before shooting out of the ground, slamming straight into each of the wolves' chests and killing them near instantly.

"Man, I remember when stuff like this was actually a threat," Scule whistled, shaking his head at the dead monsters. "Ahh the good old days."

"That's sort of what happens when you have a party of people all nearing their second prestige," Shia pointed out, glancing over at Alka. "Not to mention what's effectively the world's deadliest battle golem."

An indignant squeak sounded from the front pocket on Vin's shirt, and Shia grinned. "Or a rat skilled in the art of applying poisons. I was getting to you Reginald!"

They didn't encounter any other wolves on their way to the corridor leading down to the Underside, but a big bad bear did rear its ugly head. Though as it lumbered at them with the weight of a small car, slobbering and roaring angrily, the team simply paused and allowed Alka to walk forward. As she'd done countless times before, she waited for the perfect moment before raising the dwarven warpick she had for a left arm high into the air and slamming the pointed end down into the monster's skull as it lunged for her, piercing its brain and causing it to drop dead to the forest floor. Once that was done, Vin led them into the corridor, and they stepped out into the Underside.

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

"Huh… Where's Lumel?" Shia asked, glancing around at the pulmon's scattered belongings. Despite the fact that she'd officially moved into their apartment back in Terra, Lumel still spent most of her time down in the Underside, so she hadn't bothered to move most of her things.

"She's busy researching the strange change that occurred in the Underside when the infernals' fragment was ejected," Vin explained, pointing off toward the east. "According to her, it's only a temporary change, and seeing as there's no telling when or if it will ever happen again, she doesn't want to miss a second of it. She told me she thinks this might be the key she needs to finally breakthrough into her second prestige."

"It is exciting to think that we're all so close to that milestone," Scule grinned, rubbing his hands together. "Do you guys have your hearts set on anything? I'm hoping for something like 'Thief of Legends,' or the like."

"That might be a tad presumptuous for level forty," Shia said, rolling her eyes. "While hitting the second prestige is huge of course, don't forget that there are technically five prestiges. Though not even my master ever heard of anyone actually making it to level 100. Even the fourth prestige at level 80 is already the stuff of legends."

"Bah, let a man dream," Scule frowned. "Unless you're going for 'Druid of Disappointment,' in which case, I'd say you're doing an excellent job of working toward it."

While Shia and Scule began bickering, their arguing broken by the occasional squeak or unhelpful comment courtesy of Alka, Vin tuned them out as he led them across the empty Underside room toward the Sacred Forest dungeon. As they walked, he contemplated his own future.

Currently, he was a level 38 Magical Explorer, only a few thousand experience shy of hitting level 39. According to the current working theory, in order to crack into his second prestige and reach level 40, he needed to not just do something worthy of his class like he had for the first prestige, but to embody his class. He was pretty sure he'd already managed that, having been exploring a brand new, magical world since the first day he set foot on Edregon, but of course, he had no way of knowing for sure until actually reaching the required amount of experience and seeing if the Gods agreed with him or not.

What is my next class even going to be? He couldn't help but wonder. Magical Explorer had been pretty much the perfect class for him, combining the burning desire in his blood to venture out into new lands and see what was out there, with his newfound love of magic and all the amazing things it was capable of. Part of him just wanted to remain a Magical Explorer forever, but he knew that whatever class the System offered him for his next prestige would be a huge improvement that he couldn't pass up on. Not only would he be gaining more attribute points per level, but he'd get a new passive as well. The only downside of course would be that the actions that brought him experience and kept him progressing would narrow in scope yet again. Similar to how he no longer gained experience just from running around or spotting new animals, there was no telling what would be next on the chopping block.

Maybe I'll be lucky and the System will offer me a similar class. Like 'Explorer of Magic,' or something. Though even as he had the thought, he was surprised to realize he wasn't actually a huge fan of the idea. As much as he loved his current class and how perfectly suited for him it felt, he had that familiar, burning desire in his very soul for something new.

It seemed no matter how comfortable Vin got with his life, some part of him would always push him to keep moving forward into that great unknown.

In the end, he decided to simply put the matter aside for now. While he was pretty close to hitting level 39, it would still take quite a hefty chunk of experience to go from level 39 to 40, which meant he probably had a couple of days at the very least before he had to worry about prestiging again. He didn't even have any spells he was currently working on, which meant no free experience in the chamber just waiting for him to pull the trigger. Yes, he'd borrowed the runic formation of Dimensional Shift from Lumel, but he hadn't had the chance to actually start on that one just yet, and the tier three spell was going to take him a long time to learn once he finally did.

Realizing his team was still bickering amongst themselves by the time they reached the corridor leading to the dungeon in the Sacred Forest, Vin could only roll his eyes and smile as he led them back up to Edregon proper.

It was reassuring to know that even if his class changed, he always knew what to expect from his closest friends.

Vinnie Stone

Magical Explorer: Lvl 38

Titles: Human Vessel (Lesser), Common Ally (Minor), Generalist Mage, Epic Monster Slayer

Exp. 738,360/741,000

Strength: 20

Dexterity: 26

Endurance: 58

Vigor: 25

Focus: 53

Magic: 58

Attribute Points: 0

Skill Points: 4

Passive Points: 0

Vows/Boons: Vow of Benevolence/Grace of Gods (Boon)

Capstone: Runic Recalibration, Flexible Formations

Passives: Mental Map, Polyglot, Distance Runner, Threat Detection, Iron Mind, Mana Well, Artifact Extraordinaire

Skills: Tracking lvl 8, Runecraft lvl 17, Introspection lvl 15, Dungeoneering lvl 11, Total Resistance lvl 8, Running lvl 17, Cartography lvl 7, Drawing lvl 8, Swimming lvl 8

Tier 0 Spells: Sense Stone (earth), Sense Life (life), Sense Magic (neutral), Sense Curse (curse), Sense Air (wind), Sense Dimensions (spatial), Sense Vibrations (vibration), Sense Death (death), Sense Fire (fire), Sense Water (water), Sense Soul (soul), Sense Gravity (gravity)

Tier 1 Spells: Renewal (life), Entangle (nature), Replenish (nature), Light (light), Summon Stone (earth), Concealment (neutral), Familiar Pheromones (nature), Whispering Wind (wind), Create Water (water), Isolate Dimension (spatial), Tremorsense (vibration), Decay (Death), Neutralize Poison (life), Detect Truth (soul), Create Flame (fire), Enhance Gravity (gravity)

Tier 2 Spells: Stone Shot (earth), Stone Wall (earth), Stone Shape (earth), Stone Furniture (earth), False Life (Death), Dimensional Sheath (spatial), Aqua Sphere (water), Redirect Gravity (gravity)