Chương 42: An Old… Friend?

"Who, me?" Scule asked, looking surprised.

"Oh, you know… Just checking out all these old tunnels I found. Making sure they're secure. Wouldn't want any tiny monsters scrambling through them up into the middle of camp during the fight, am I right? Kinda defeats the purpose of all those walls your people are building." Vin didn't even bother saying anything, choosing instead to stand there with his arms crossed, staring down at the petian. After a few tense seconds, Scule sighed, kicking at a stray clod of dirt and throwing up his arms.

"Alright, fine! You win! I was preparing of course," Scule finally admitted, as if what he'd been doing was obvious. Even Reginald seemed to roll his eyes at Vin's question before getting to work clearing a bit more dirt from the tunnel entrance.

"You think a good Rogue does anything without preparation? There's a reason I've lived long enough to hit level twenty all over again, and it's because I don't jump headlong into fights I'm not prepared for."

"Makes sense I guess… Especially when you're only a few inches tall," Vin said, watching Reginald speedily take the loose dirt and somehow use it to shore up the tunnel itself by compacting it against the tunnel walls.

"I'll admit I'm kinda surprised that Reginald can dig so well to be honest."

"Ah, you would be. People with animal companions can spend skill points to give their companion skills," Scule explained.

"I gave Reginald a few, including the Digging skill. And from how often it comes in handy, he's practically part mole by now." Reginald suddenly turned to work on the other half of the tunnel entrance, his tail whipping around to 'accidentally' smack into the back of Scule's head, sending the petian stumbling forward. Scule turned to glare at his companion, but Reginald was already hard at work reinforcing the tunnel walls with his back to them.

"Shoulda bound myself to a cat, or a bird, but nooo, just had to pick a rat," the Rogue mumbled, rubbing his head.

"Anyway, do you need anything, or just checking in? We're just about done out here, so we'll snag a ride back into camp if you're heading there next."

"Just making sure you weren't trying to make off with the camp's valuables, as limited as they may be," Vin admitted to Scule's shocked face.

"When I felt you tunneling your way out of camp, I gotta admit I was a bit worried you were trying to make a run for it."

"Hey now, I'll have you know I am a Rogue with taste, thank you very much! I only bother stealing things with value. I wouldn't be caught dead taking any of the crap your people have." Scule looked absolutely appalled that Vin would even suggest such a thing, and Vin could do nothing but roll his eyes and pretend like his new-found friend didn't just admit he would have happily stolen from his people, if they weren't already dirt poor.

"So sorry," Vin snorted.

"It's easy to forget you're a thief with standards. And why not just tell me all that from the beginning? You looked more than a little suspicious walking out of that tunnel the way you did."

"Apology accepted," Scule nodded, hopping onto Reginald's saddle in one smooth motion before the rat scampered up Vin's clothes, coming to rest on his shoulder once more.

"And if you must know…" Scule paused, clearing his throat.

"... it ruins my image."

"... your what?"

"My image!" He repeated, lightly smacking the side of Vin's head.

"When I pop up out of nowhere, everyone is all surprised, and I look so cool! But if people know I'm just coming out of a tunnel I painstakingly dug ahead of time…" Rolling his eyes, Vin decided this was one argument he didn't have the energy for right now. Instead, he headed back to camp in search of Lieutenant Myers. He didn't know what to do with himself at this point and figured the lieutenant would have a better use for him than anything he could come up with.

They found the lieutenant speaking with someone who clearly had a combat class based on the two nasty looking curved blades strapped across his back. Something about the unnatural shade of the man's messy hair and the annoyed look he was giving Vin stood out to him, but he pushed the thought aside, nodding toward the lieutenant.

"Lieutenant," he greeted her.

"I imagine everyone I directed back has checked in by now. Anything else you need from me?"

"Thanks for doing that Vin, that should be all for now," she said, giving him a small smile.

"In fact, I'm about to order everyone to fall in and get some rest. We have no idea when the monsters are going to start spawning, and the last thing we need is for everyone to still be working when they arrive. You should get some rest as well while you can."

"Probably a good idea," Vin nodded. In fact, after the crazy day he'd been through, he was shocked to realize he still didn't really feel all that tired. Chalking it up to his rather high endurance, he found himself looking once again at the scowling man standing beside the lieutenant. After a second, something finally clicked, and Vin's jaw dropped in shock when he realized who was standing before him.

"What the hell… Brian?"

"It's Shredder now, bastard," the man growled, glaring at Vin like he'd kicked his dog. Vin stared at the once defiant man in shock, barely able to believe the guy he'd seen get tazed rushing the military that first day they'd appeared underground was now standing crisply at attention, clearly receiving orders without complaint. Even his mohawk appeared to have been cut off, if a bit crudely. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

"Shredder? Are you serious?" Vin couldn't help but chuckle, earning himself a deeper frown from the guy who'd taken so much enjoyment knocking him around during their brief combat training. Vin wouldn't go so far as to say he was a bully, but Brian was clearly a bit rough around the edges.

"Shredder, enough," Lieutenant Myers said, somehow with a completely straight face to Vin's surprise. What was even more surprising however, was the fact that Brian obeyed, immediately taking a step back and doing his best to look impassive. Myers turned to look at Vin, her expression bordering on something close to disappointment.

"Vin, I'd think you of all people would be willing to call someone by their preferred nickname. I've read your file you know."

"Ah, sorry," Vin winced, silently thanking the lieutenant for not using his real name in retaliation. As far as he knew she and Spur were the only two people in this entire world who knew his name was actually Vinnie, and he planned on keeping it that way. Unless he ever needed to start up an underground mob of course. Turning toward Brian, Vin nodded an apology.

"Shredder it is then." Brian, or Shredder, merely grunted, but that seemed to be good enough for the lieutenant at least. Nodding, she pointed him toward one of the empty buildings, instructing him to get some rest. Vin happily took her up on the offer, only making a small detour to grab Shia before claiming one of the rough beds for himself and doing his best to get some sleep. After all, there was no telling how long they'd have before all hell broke loose.

Vin felt another bead of sweat trickle down his back as his eyes flicked across the empty field before him, the rising sun slowly lighting up what was soon to become a bloody battlefield. He'd been waiting for so long that at this point he was beginning to flinch at every bird call and sudden cough from the nervous defenders spread out around him. Every flicker of movement caused him to twist around and search for the snarling maw of a monster he expected to see lunging toward him.

Once the last bit of daylight had fled the night prior, Myers had called everyone in to try and get at least a few hours of sleep. Nobody knew when the monsters would show, but everyone had clearly assumed it would be sometime during the night. But as the hours passed one after another, and there was still no sign of any impending danger, tension began building across camp until you could practically taste it in the air.

"Maybe they won't show up?" Scule said for the third time, casually leaning back in his saddle and doing his best to look relaxed and unworried despite his constant scanning of the horizon and Reginald's twitching ears.

"Maybe the artifact didn't end up getting destroyed after all."

"You felt the explosion," Shia said, her knuckles white as she gripped her staff with both hands.

"That artifact is no more, and we can only hope it took that deranged man out with it. I know he can't leave the domain the gods placed him in, but I'd sleep easier knowing he was gone for good."

"No kidding," Vin muttered, trying his best to ignore the dull ache where his forearm used to be. He'd been doing a decent job of keeping busy enough to not have time to think about his missing hand, but now that they were just waiting around with nothing to do, the gut-wrenching nausea he felt every time he tried to grab something or scratch his face and realized he couldn't was coming back full force.

Still, now was not the time for him to break down, and he leaned on his impressive focus attribute to help keep his mind on the current threat.

"Stay focused," he repeated to his group for what felt like the tenth time.

"I still don't think there's any way the Gods would let the monsters spawn too close to the fresh level 1 people, which means they should be arriving any minute now." As if the Gods themselves had been waiting for their cue, Vin suddenly stiffened, his high focus and magic attributes allowing him to sense what felt like the very fabric of the world starting to flutter and shake around them.

The trace amounts of ambient mana in the air began to swirl around in tiny pockets as far as his eyes could see, gradually condensing in on themselves and giving off an unpleasant sensation that he could only describe as chaotic. Sensing Shia stiffen beside him as she no doubt felt the same sudden twist of mana, Vin pointed out at the empty fields surrounding their camp, screaming as loud as his lungs would let him.

"They're coming! Get ready!" Ignoring the clamor of people rushing to their feet and the rustling of barrels being emptied of javelins, Vin continued staring at the impossible sight before him. Despite knowing what was causing the mana in the air to react in such a way, his attributes evidently weren't high enough for him to fully witness what was going on.

More and more mana seemed to just appear out of nowhere before being sucked into those miniaturized storms and bending in on itself, growing denser by the second.

"Alka, Scule, can you guys see what's happening?"

"No," Scule said, now fully alert and positioned on Reginald's saddle, one of his daggers already in hand and coated in some sort of pink liquid.

"Just looks like a regular empty field to me. Though something is freaking Reginald out." Sure enough, the poor little rat was twitching like it had been electrocuted, his bulging eyes flicking from one end of the field to the next as if trying to locate the source of the swirling magic.

"I feel like I almost can," Alka frowned, scratching her head.

"It's similar to the sensation of knowing you're being watched. I don't know what it is, but I can sense something is off."

"Maybe because you're a ghost?" Vin muttered to himself, squinting at the growing number of strange phenomena before them. If every one of those transformed into a monster… Before the dread even had time to set in, the countless individual storms of mana began erupting. Each of the swirling balls of packed magic transformed one after another, suddenly given physical form and erupting into masses of hungry flesh and angry bodies.

Vin stared across the rapidly forming field of enemies, his heart sinking even as the notifications began erupting across his vision. New Monster Discovered! 200 exp gained. New Monster Discovered! 200 exp gained. New Monster Discovered! 200 exp gained. New Mon- Vin willed away the steady stream of notifications that seemed to pop up one after another without pause, sucking in a shaky breath as he took in the monsters closest to them. The Gods themselves had told him that magic was chaos… …

and he was beginning to see what they meant.