Explorer of Edregon

Despite Eithan's unique take on magic and having lived on an entirely different world than Shia, it turned out that teaching someone how to cast a new spell was pretty much the same regardless of where you came from.

Sure, Eithan made him spend a few hours closely examining hundreds of different rocks and making lists of all their many features, but once he was satisfied with Vin's understanding, he gave him the runic formation of Summon Stone and tasked him with memorizing it while he took care of some things.

Confident that he was relatively safe so close to the village, Vin's surroundings slipped away as he utilized his Meditation skill, turning his focus inward and getting to work reconstructing the runic structure of Summon Stone within his own mana. Immediately, he detected a couple of changes from the last time he'd done this.

First off was his newly evolved skill Runecraft. It seemed to still function the same way Spellcraft did, allowing him to analyze the many runes and slowly determine what they represented and how they were supposed to be aligned, but it was like turning in an old Volkswagen Beetle for a shiny new Mustang. He could literally feel the increase in brainpower as he worked his way through the runic structure, and he was even fast enough now to occasionally catch himself right before igniting a runic backlash within his mana.

Even more impressive than his evolved skill however was the passive he'd gained for hitting level 20 and prestiging. He'd hoped Iron Mind would give him a boost to his concentration, but the passive went leaps and bounds beyond his expectations.

Not only did the passive improve his concentration to a degree, but he found after staring at a runic formation for long enough, he could actually recreate it in the back of his mind as though he'd taken a 3D picture of it.

This didn't help him learn the spell any faster of course, as he still had to come to his own personal understanding of the spell and flawlessly recreate the runes within his personal mana, but it meant he would no longer be trapped next to a floating runic structure until he'd finally mastered the spell. As long as he was given the formation once, he could now snag a mental snapshot of it and take it on the road with him.

He had some innate understanding that he could only hold two or three of these images as he was right now, but he had the feeling that number might increase the more he practiced or leveled.

So it was with a huge grin that after only half a day of intense study, and two minor runic backlashes that had covered parts of his body in a paper thin layer of stone, Vin slipped out of Meditation for the final time and held out his hand.

"Summon Stone."

As though it has always been there, a simple, basic rock without any fancy colors or features popped into existence, falling an inch directly into his waiting hand. Gripping the fruits of his labor, Vin couldn't help but let out a whooping cry, jumping off his stone stool and pumping his hand.

And nearly collapsing to the ground as he realized his legs were completely asleep.

Falling back onto the stool, Vin winced as he tried to work the blood back into his legs, cursing himself for not having stood up a single time since that morning. While certainly impressive, a stone stool wasn't exactly the most comfortable piece of furniture, and Vin prayed he'd one day meet an Archmage capable of teaching him some form of Summon Comfy Armchair.

The annoying pins and needles did little to overcome his excitement however, and Vin looked in wonder at the rock in his hand. Without a single remarkable feature, it looked like any random rock you could pick up just about anywhere. It wasn't anything all that impressive really.

Except for the fact that it hadn't existed just a minute ago.

This is wild, he thought, holding the rock up and squinting at it, as if trying to see some sort of imperfection that would differentiate this rock from all the normal ones around him. Somehow he'd taken the invisible, intangible mana inside his own body and turned it into something. Sure, that something was a boring old rock, but it was still a physical object. Not that he'd had any doubts, but this proved that there really was no limit to what magic could do.

Shaking his head in wonder, Vin felt the tell-tale buzzing of unread notifications on the edge of his consciousness. Squeezing his rock, he pulled up his System interface and grinned at all the messages he'd ignored for the past couple of hours.

Meditation lvl 18! 1,800 exp gained.

Meditation lvl 19! 1,900 exp gained.

Runecraft lvl 2! 400 exp gained.

New tier 1 spell learned! Summon Stone (earth). 5,000 exp gained.

Glad I still get experience for learning new spells, he thought, only a little put out by the lack of skill increases. He'd been working on learning that spell for the better part of a day, and he'd only gotten two levels in Meditation and one in Runecraft for all his efforts. It made sense for skills to slow down the higher they got in level, and Runecraft was already an evolved skill on top of that, but it was still a bit disappointing.

Still riding the high of learning a brand new spell, Vin wanted nothing more than to go find Eithan and demand they start working on his next one. But a deep rumbling in his stomach convinced him he should probably take a break.

For however long it took him to scarf down a sandwich at least. Or whatever the villagers of Sakis ate for lunch.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Once he'd gotten feeling back in his legs, Vin carefully tucked his totally normal non-magical magic rock in his pack and headed off to find something to eat. The elder had given them directions of where to go for meals while they were here, but Vin had been so excited to learn magic this morning that he'd forwent breakfast entirely.

Trying to remember the elder's instructions, Vin wandered through the small village, looking for the right building. If he recalled correctly, he was looking for a building with a carving of two children playing with their pet mondra, one of those six legged salamanders he'd nearly stepped on that could naturally camouflage themselves to such a degree that he swore magic had to be involved somehow.

Apparently, mondras made for surprisingly good pets, although Vin still didn't know if they were mainly indoor or outdoor pets. He hadn't really seen many out and about within the village, but that didn't exactly mean anything.

What with the whole camouflage thing and all.

Stopping to let a group of children run past and briefly watching their game that seemed to consist of rolling a spherical rock around by expertly pelting it with other rocks, he finally managed to find the building he was looking for.

Sure enough, one of the large stone walls had a beautiful carving of two laughing children tossing up their pet mondra, their arms outstretched as they prepared to catch the falling salamander. Vin couldn't help but admire the Carver's skill, as whoever had made this piece of art had even managed to capture the look of sheer terror on the face of the poor lizard that had never been meant for flight.

"Good old Martin… Not every day you find a mondra quite like him. Few of those lizards are willing to put up with little ones to the same extent he did."

Realizing he wasn't the only one admiring the carving, Vin turned to find a man in what looked like leather overalls giving him a big smile. The stranger had long hair tucked back in a ponytail, and a few small streaks of something dark across his face.

"I'm Peter," he said, lightly putting his knuckles together in front of his chest. "I take it you must be the stranger everyone's talking about?"

"I suppose I am," Vin chuckled, going to return the strange greeting only to realize he physically couldn't with his left hand missing. Feeling his face heating up, he quickly dropped his arms to his sides, clearing his throat as he did his best to ignore the pang of loss welling up from deep within him. "I'm Vin."

"Well it's good to meet you Vin," Peter grinned, seemingly unperturbed by Vin's failed greeting. Somehow the man managed to not even glance at Vin's missing limb, which he greatly appreciated. "The elder told me you'd be swinging by for something to eat. Though when you didn't show up for breakfast, I thought maybe you'd run off again already!"

Vin couldn't help but smile at Peter's boisterous laugh that sounded like it should belong to someone nearly twice his size.

"Sorry about that… Eithan agreed to teach me some magic, and I got so excited I decided to head straight there after I woke up."

"Ah, say no more," Peter nodded. "Never had the knack for it myself, but my son there..." he paused, gesturing to one of the children in the carving with a warm smile. "...Wyatt, decided to go that route. I'd always envisioned him taking over the harvest when he got older, but I'm glad he found something he was passionate about."

"Oh, is he one of the Stone Mages? I don't think I've run into him yet."

"You won't," Peter said, his smile turning melancholy as he gingerly stroked the carving. Only then did Vin realize the man's fingertips were also stained in that same, dark color as the streaks on his face. "He was off visiting the Great Rock when it all happened. I have no idea where he is now, but he didn't make the trip with us."

"Ah…"

Vin stood there, awkwardly watching the man have an intimate moment with the carving of his lost son. What was he supposed to say? Sorry your boy got left behind when the Gods kidnapped the rest of you?

Thankfully, the somber moment only lasted a few seconds, and the man quickly turned his attention back to him, his sadness nowhere to be seen.

"Anyway, I know wherever he is he's doing just fine," Peter said, his words sounding confident. "I raised him to take care of himself after all!"

Peter motioned for Vin to follow him, and Vin was surprised when he was led around to the back of the building rather than inside. After mentioning a harvest, Vin had expected some sort of garden.

What he hadn't expected was a small vineyard descending down into the earth.

Vin looked around in shock at the rows of trellises lining the earthen walls as Peter led them down some carved steps. The entire man-made cavern had to stretch underneath a good quarter of the village, the roof of which was held up by numerous supporting pillars, each one also being used to grow some sort of crop that looked like an apple but was only about the size of a grape. Every possible inch of the walls seemed to be in use, either being utilized to grow crops, or to hold one of the many enchanted gemstones illuminating the monstrous cavern and somehow providing life for the farm. As they walked, Vin spotted a few dozen villagers moving around, checking on the different plants and harvesting some here and there.

"Welcome to the farm," Peter grinned, chuckling at Vin's expression as he led them between the rows of crops. "The soil up above isn't very well suited for growing crops, so we grow most of our food down here. We don't have the biggest variety, but it keeps our bellies full."

"This is insane," Vin said breathlessly, trying to judge just how much dirt and rock had to have been excavated for this cavern to exist. He'd gone caving a few times back on Earth, but never before had he seen such a large underground structure.

"There are hundreds of solid stone houses up there," he said, looking hesitantly at the ceiling up above them, wishing desperately that they'd built more pillars. "How do you keep the roof from collapsing under all that weight?"

"Come on, you just said you came from a lesson with Eithan, right? Magic!" Peter laughed, plucking one of the weird, tiny looking purple apples from a nearby trellis and tossing it at him. "Here, try a vatos. And don't worry, these ones are seedless."

Catching the offered fruit, Vin hesitantly plopped the whole thing in his mouth. Biting down on the soft fruit, his eyes widened at the fleshy pulp that exploded within his mouth, the sweet juices a welcome surprise. It was like getting a small mouthful of a delicious peach, without the fuzzy skin or giant seed to worry about.

"That's fantastic!" He said, looking at the towering trellises with a new appreciation. "Is there any way you could show my people how to grow these things?"

"They'd need to set up the proper environment for them, but I don't see why not," Peter shrugged, popping a vatos into his own mouth. "The initial vines take a good while to grow, but if you maintain them and prune them correctly, they'll keep producing for pretty much forever."

Note to self, tell Spur we need to set up an underground garden. I have no idea what his plans are for farming, but he must have some sort of long term goals. Hell, did we even bring any seeds with us from Earth? I didn't see any, but they must be somewhere…

Vin hadn't realized he'd gotten lost in thought until Peter tapped a knuckle against the trellis, the knocking snapping him out of his musings.

"I'm sure you're eager to get back to your magic, so why don't we load you up with some fruit and get you on your way? As much fun as I do have showing off the farm, I can't slack off too much or the elder will give me an earful!"

Grinning, Vin followed after the loud man, listening to his descriptions of the different fruits and happily accepting a basket to toss some into as they went. As excited as he was to get back to his magic lessons, he had to admit seeing the way Sakis sustained itself was pretty interesting.

After only visiting the village a few times, he'd begun to fear that the people here just ate rocks.