Chương 373: (366) 5.62. Good News and Bad News

As much as Vin desperately wanted to throw himself straight into the confusing world of dream magic, they were sort of in the middle of something. After getting confirmation from the pixies that the orcs and beastkin would be welcome to share their fragment with them, Vin and his team decided the smart thing to do was set up camp in the pleasant, meadow-style fragment of the pixies rather than head back and sleep next to the minecart in the goblin fragment.

Garni had said she'd return in the morning if needed, so at least they didn't have to worry about her freaking out about them going missing. After Fred and Fria wished them a goodnight and flew back to join their people, Vin and the team sans Alka sat around the fire, watching the flames crackle as they thought about what the future held.

"We need to figure out a way to evacuate a few thousand people from two different fragments, rush them all the way down to the goblins' wall, and then defend them while the rankers most likely try to stop us," Vin said, laying out the problem.

"Our enemy is a force of over ten thousand highly skilled warriors, desperately attempting to find a way out of the territory of the 'alliance.' This one's going to be tricky."

"I don't know if we should even bother trying to plan anything before meeting back up with Alka and our guides," Shia admitted, growing a branch from her staff only to snap it off and toss it in the fire.

"There's probably a lot going on we don't even know about."

"Not to mention the three missing Earthers trapped within the rankers' keep," Lumel pointed out, the reflection of the fire dancing in her eyes as she stared into the heart of it.

"Maybe I should work with Theodore to try and find them and warp them out. He might have already discovered where they're being held."

"It's pretty risky," Vin said, not liking the idea of Lumel attempting to infiltrate the ranker king's stronghold one bit. He knew she was more than capable, but the ranker king was probably the deadliest opponent they'd ever faced outside of a divine sanctum other than the divine warrior, and Vin had the feeling this opponent wouldn't be taken down quite so easily by a trap this time.

"Oh, now you wanna talk about risk," Scule snorted, getting a squeak of agreement from Reginald.

"Just because I ran off to greet the pixies doesn't mean I wasn't also worried about you knocking yourself out again. I don't know what it is about someone's own class being too dangerous for them, but it makes the whole situation all the scarier."

"I already promised Lumel, I won't be using Beyond the Veil in more than the occasional quick burst until level 50," he said reassuringly.

"Don't worry, I'm not planning to knock myself out into a third coma."

"Just because this most recent one only lasted a few minutes, doesn't mean it didn't count as your third coma," Shia pointed out helpfully.

"Speaking of, it's been a long day for all of us. I think we should turn in and get some rest. In the morning, we can use the dungeon to make a quick trip back to Terra and see if Theodore's come through for us yet or not. Then we have quite the busy day ahead of us."

"Shia's right, you should rest," Lumel said, taking his hand and squeezing it.

"Alka's not here, so I'll take first watch."

"I'll swap out in a few hours," Shia said, quickly growing enough wood for her to keep the fire going. Deciding his friends were probably right, Vin picked out a nice spot for himself and quickly assembled his little stone hut with Stone Wall. Throwing together his stronghold of slumber, he closed his eyes and was whisked away into the land of dreams almost instantly. When he woke up the next morning, he had to admit he was more than a little surprised by the lack of any strange dreams.

After learning about the pixies and their dream magic, he'd half expected to get sucked into some strange conversation with them while he slept, or to be asked to go on a zany dream adventure. Though seeing as Fria and Fred partially blamed themselves for him knocking himself out, the two of them probably spread the word to the other pixies to let him rest.

Once he'd dismantled his hut and the others were up as well, Vin used an empowered Sense Dimension tweaked to the dimensional frequency of dungeons to locate the pixies' dungeon before leading the team over toward it. This dungeon ended up being located in one of the sparse forests, just like their own, but Vin received a rather welcome surprise as they officially stepped within the bounds of the dimensionally enlarged woods. New dungeon discovered! 5, 000 exp gained. Dungeoneering increased to lvl 15!

1, 500 exp gained.

"Oh, I finally got my Dungeoneering up to level 15!" he exclaimed, excited to see how the skill changed. So far every multiple of five seemed to add some new effect to the skill, and he'd been eagerly awaiting this benchmark for some time now.

"So level 5 gave you information about the monsters within, and level 10 let you sense where the corridor to the Underside was located, right?" Scule asked, keeping his eyes peeled for any approaching monsters.

"What's level 15 do?"

"Let's find out," Vin grinned, focusing on his skill and trying to tell what was different. First was the information, same as usual. Dungeon Type: Forest Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Primary Monster Type: Reptiles Strengths: Poison Movement: Medium Grouping: Solitary Then came the general sense of where to find the corridor to the Underside, which thankfully wasn't located too deep within the forest from them.

Fighting a bunch of reptile-monsters didn't sound all that fun, but they had Lumel with them anyway, so it was a moot point. Finally, focusing on his latest and greatest aspect of his Dungeoneering skill, Vin took a deep breath… … And deflated as he realized what the new milestone did.

"Oh. I'm pretty sure I can now directly sense the precise location of a dungeon within a fragment," he said, now sensing some sort of beacon directly around him.

"Seriously?" Scule scoffed.

"You could already do that!"

"Yes, but not everyone is capable of casting wide-range spatial magic like Vin can," Shia pointed out.

"Not to mention he only got to this point recently. It's a pretty significant increase in ability for anyone else with the skill, as otherwise they have to run around the entire fragment until they get lucky and stumble upon it."

"I wouldn't feel too bad," Lumel smiled, rubbing his back as he bemoaned the pointless upgrade.

"I have a hunch that the level 20 improvement to the skill will let you bring the corridor entrance directly to you once you enter a dungeon, removing the need to fight past monsters in the first place. That or some other ability that will save you time running through the Underside."

"Yeah, you're right. No sense being annoyed just because I'm already so awesome," he grinned, ignoring Scule's snort.

"Anyway, let's head to the Underside!" Taking her cue, Lumel grabbed their hands and warped them straight to the Underside entrance, allowing them to bypass all those annoying monsters without breaking a sweat. Curiously, Scule elected to stay behind for whatever reason, and Reginald decided to do the same, almost certainly to keep an eye on the petian and keep him out of trouble.

One quick trip through the Underside later, along with a second cast of Mass Dimensional Shift to get them through the Earthers' forest dungeon, and the rest of the team was suddenly back at Terra.

"Alright, seeing as it's been three days, we're just doing a super quick check in to see if Theodore came back yet," he reminded them as they headed through the gate, nodding to the familiar guards who snapped crisp salutes.

"Let's try not to get distracted."

"I'm pretty sure you're the one who needs that advice the most," Shia laughed. They made a beeline straight for the townhall, and Vin was excited to see Linda's eyes light up the moment she spotted them. That was a face that looked like it had good news to share.

"He's already back," she said, pointing toward the council room.

"He got in about an hour ago. Most of the council already left, but Spur and Phil are still debriefing him."

"Thanks, Linda, you're the best," Vin smiled, heading past her into the conference room and coming face to face with the three men in question. Theodore sat in one of the chairs, looking a bit more tired than usual with a tray of half-eaten food in front of him. Spur and Phil were each sitting across from him, taking notes as he talked. The moment they walked in, Theodore paused in his retelling of events and a wide smile broke over his face.

"Vin! We didn't expect you back so soon! Don't tell me you came all this way just to check on little-old me?"

"We really didn't expect you back so soon," Spur admitted, putting his notes down for a moment and nodding at Shia and Lumel in greeting.

"Did you already finish scoping out all the fragments surrounding the alliance? Based on your usual speed, I thought it would take a lot longer than three days."

"We do still have two fragments left, but things definitely moved a bit faster than usual, seeing as just about all the fragments are verifiable death sentences," Vin explained.

"They were actually that bad?" Phil asked.

"Bad enough ten thousand skilled warriors couldn't fight their way through?"

"Fragment of eternal magical darkness with hidden monsters lying in wait, fragment filled with enormous bug swarms that devour bodies in moments, fragment that's a giant whirlpool strong enough to tear someone limb from limb almost instantly, fragment that is basically nothing but lava and fire, and a fragment that is sealed off by a massive metal wall protecting goblins capable of repairing it if needed," Shia said, ticking one fragment after another off her fingers.

"Alka is currently checking out the last two, but yeah, it seems that the rankers are pretty well contained for now."

"That wall doesn't seem so 'impassible' as the others," Phil pointed out.

"Couldn't they just build a few ladders?"

"The goblins have quite a number of them watching and maintaining the wall at all times, along with a rather significant number of golems capable of defending if it really comes to that. Not to mention that the rankers are… Well, I don't want to call them dumb, but they are very straightforward," Vin tried to explain.

"From what I've seen, if they see something as a challenge, they are the kind to smash their heads into it again and again rather than try to think outside the box. A trait that seems to be either reinforced or at least encouraged by their soul brands. That might work against a normal wall, but not one that is constantly being repaired from the other side."

"I suppose we'll just have to take your word on that for now. What Theodore has to say is far more important," Spur said, turning and motioning for him to keep going.

"Things are a bit trickier than we originally thought."

"How much trickier could they be?" Vin asked.

"A lot," Theodore said, his smile wavering a tad.

"I take it you must have mentioned that you were looking for the three missing Earthers to at least some of the rankers while you were in their fragment?"

"Yeah, I definitely asked Tarnis. I think I brought it up to the ranker king as well before I knew they were all evil and whatnot," Vin admitted, thinking back.

"I was hoping they'd help me find them."

"I figured as much," Theodore sighed.

"My mission was largely a success. I managed to locate the missing Earthers without drawing any attention to myself by pretending to be a support class working within the keep. The problem is where they're keeping them."

"In the dungeon?" Vin asked.

"The weird metal would be a problem for anyone else, but Lumel already volunteered to warp them out."

"No, not in the dungeon," Theodore said, shaking his head.

"The ranker king is holding them in his throne room and watching over them personally. He's waiting for you to come back for them."