Chương 174: (169) 3.34. Surprise Visit

Just as Vin had predicted, the dangerous monsters of the Aernae Forest with their long, clawed hands and their mace-like tails didn't stand a chance against a ferocious Alka. Knowing that they weren't strong enough to tie her down and that their attacks couldn't actually harm her, Alka went pure offense, disregarding their feeble attempts at hurting her as she practically carved a path through the forest monsters all the way to the dungeon.

Vin had been lost in thought, going over his conversation with Neurol again and again as he followed behind Alka, barely even paying attention as they entered the dungeon proper. He almost didn't even catch the notification that he'd gained experience for discovering yet another dungeon, though the second notification did pull him from his inner musings. New dungeon discovered! 5, 000 exp gained. Dungeoneering increased to lvl 10! 1, 000 exp gained.

Curious to see if the skill had changed yet again now that he'd hit level 10, Vin focused on the strange skill and blinked at the new sensation he could feel. It was like there was a weak magnetic pull tugging him toward a particular spot deep within the forest dungeon, and he had a pretty good inclination of just what he would find if he followed it.

Directing Alka toward the location, he focused on the odd sensation as they trekked through the unnatural forest, noting how this new feeling never moved and seemed to only grow stronger as they approached. Sure enough, as soon as they got closer to where it was originating from, Vin's suspicions were confirmed. It seemed hitting level 10 in Dungeoneering now gave him the ability to sense exactly where the Underside entrance was in a dungeon.

Seeing as these entrances seemed to move around if he left a dungeon and came back, this new perk would be rather useful indeed. Holding the metaphysical door open for everyone, Vin followed behind them into the Underside, directing them through the massive empty space back to the Earthers' fragment. The five of them travelled in silence, and even Reginald seemed more taken aback than usual, choosing to silently stare up at the ceiling rather than curl up and sleep in Vin's pocket.

It wasn't until they stepped out of the tunnel leading from the Underside of Alka's fragment to the Earthers' that a sudden motion caught his attention, snapping him out of his funk. Off near the corridor that would take them back to the Earthers' own forest dungeon was Lumel. Well, technically all Vin could make out was a robed figure waving at them from across the giant room.

But seeing as the only people he was currently aware of capable of utilizing the Underside were Lumel and Forpurt, he was assuming it was probably the pulmon. After all, he was pretty sure Forpurt couldn't have contained all his hair within that small cloak even if his life depended on it.

"Is that your dimensional friend?" Scule asked, squinting at the distant waving figure.

"She seriously just lives down here?"

"For now," Vin nodded, wondering just what Lumel was doing in this particular piece of the Underside. Presumably, she was waiting for him, but he had no idea what for.

"Do you guys mind going ahead without me? I'll catch up soon enough."

"Not at all. You're quick to forgive people, Vin, and I know she played a huge role in helping us take down the divine warrior, which is the only reason I'm not throttling her right now... But after you told me what happened while I was gone, I'm still not over her abandoning all of you in the library," Alka said, staring at the distant figure.

"I know," he sighed, waving his hand weakly.

"You don't have to talk to her, just don't stab her, alright?"

"No promises," Alka grunted, dropping the issue. Knowing that was the best he was going to get from the irate Slayer, Vin let it go, returning Lumel's wave as they walked closer. Lumel came to meet them partway, withdrawing a bit into herself and ensuring her cloak covered her features as she nodded toward them all.

"Hello," she said, clearing her throat and giving them a short bow.

"It's good to see you all again."

"Hey Lumel," Scule said curtly.

"Sorry, but we've had one hell of a day. We're gonna head back and grab something to eat while you chat with Vin."

"Oh, of course," she said, stepping aside and letting Alka walk past with Scule on her shoulder. She watched their backs for a moment before sighing and lowering her voice.

"They still harbor ill will toward me for leaving you guys behind in the library."

"Yes, but they won't forever," Shia said, offering her a small smile.

"Especially after you helped us take down the divine warrior. Scule wasn't kidding, we had a rough day, and I think they're just taking their frustrations out wherever they can at the moment." Reginald squeaked his agreement, clambering out of Vin's pocket and hopping over to Lumel's shoulder to rub his face against the side of her hood. Vin caught the sight of her smile under the lip of her hood as she giggled.

"Thank you both, I appreciate it," she said, her hooded head tracking Reginald as he hopped over to Shia's shoulder in turn.

"Is now a bad time, Vin? I can come back later."

"No, it's fine. Honestly, I'd rather take my mind off today's events," he admitted, nodding toward Shia.

"See you guys back in camp."

"See you," Shia said, waving one last time at Lumel before jogging over to catch up with Alka and Scule. Turning his focus toward Lumel, Vin did his best to give her a genuine smile.

"Anyway, it's good to see you again! What have you been-""Vin!" Scule shouted, cutting him off.

"The corridor won't open without you!" Vin blinked, glancing past Lumel to the sight of his friends standing beside the empty stone frame in the center of the giant room.

"Huh… I didn't know you needed the Dungeoneering skill to get out of the Underside," he muttered, looking at Lumel.

"Wait one sec." Jogging over to the center of the room, he placed a hand against the frame and focused on his skill. Immediately, the empty stone frame transformed into the familiar corridor leading endlessly off into the distance.

"Sorry guys, there you go." Vin was hesitant to let go of the stone frame while they were walking through the corridor, so he waited a few minutes until they were completely gone from sight before dropping his hand. The last thing he needed was to discover that the corridor would collapse without his continued efforts. By now, Lumel had walked over to him, and was watching the corridor curiously. Vin noted how now that his friends were gone, she'd once again pulled back her hood, revealing her transparent face.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"The Underside continues to supply me with new mysteries to study," she said, eyeing the strange stone frame.

"But enough about me. How are you? Is this one of those rough days you'd like to talk about, or one you'd like to try and forget?"

"I don't know," Vin sighed, summoning two stone chairs with barely a thought and taking a seat. While he tried to get his thoughts organized, he glanced up and realized Lumel was staring at the stone chairs with wide eyes. Granted, she pretty much always had wide eyes seeing as her eyelids were transparent, but he could tell she was surprised.

"I picked up Stone Furniture since the last time we spoke," he said, laughing weakly.

"Silly spell I know, but it's probably one of my favorites."

"Nothing silly about always having a chair," Lumel said, taking the offered seat and looking at him.

"I keep a nice one in my Dimensional Pocket spell, so I completely understand."

"Glad to hear. Wait, if you have an actual comfy chair with you, why use the stone one?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Because… I thought it would be rude not to," she said, blushing slightly.

"Anyway, your day? You still haven't said anything."

"Ah… Yeah, we ventured into a new fragment to try and deliver a message for someone, only to discover that their entire clan had been killed by monsters months ago. We took the time to collect what remains we could and gave them at least something of a burial. Then Shia and I had to break the news to the guy that his entire family and everyone he'd known growing up was dead." Vin dropped his head into his hands, staring down between his fingers at the floor.

"Just a lot for one day."

"Vin, that's a lot for an entire lifetime," Lumel said, raising her arm for a moment and reaching out before hesitating. Changing her mind, she let her hand drop back to her lap, letting out a big sigh.

"I try to avoid conflict as much as possible, but even I've come across plenty of humanoid remains during my travels across Edregon. Though they normally only belong to small groups or individuals, and I've never had to tell anyone that those remains were somebody they knew."

"Yeah, I've come across dead people before," Vin admitted, thinking back to the many bodies he'd run into all over Edregon. Hell, he'd stumbled upon his very first corpse on day one. Over a month had passed since then, and he still occasionally found himself imagining Samtha's friend's face when he thought about what could happen to people when they weren't careful.

"Anyway, enough about all that. I think I'd rather just distract myself for now. Was there anything you needed, or were you just stopping by to say hi? I can only imagine how lonely it gets living down here."

"I've poked my head out into the occasional fragment for some fresh air, but yes, it does get rather lonely," Lumel admitted, blushing again for whatever reason.

"I didn't need anything in particular, I was just curious how your spatial magic was developing and thought I'd check in."

"Coming along well," Vin said, giving her a genuine smile as the thought of magic perked him up a bit.

"I managed to get Isolate Dimension down, and was actually planning on trying to find you in the hopes you'd have another spell for me. Though before that… What is with the weird feeling of dimensions? I guess I never stopped to think about what an actual dimension would feel like, but I never thought it would feel like holding a thin piece of fabric."

"I know, it's weird!" Lumel agreed, nodding vigorously.

"I said the same thing to my mom when I first started studying dimensional magic, but she didn't seem interested in the slightest!"

"How can you not be interested in grabbing a portion of reality?!" Vin asked, shaking his head." That's what's crazy!" Giggling, Lumel asked him a few more questions about his experiences using the spells, and the two of them got to chatting about magic. The longer he spoke to the excited Dimensional Mage, the better he felt, as if the horrible events of the day hadn't actually been quite so bad.

Before he knew it, he realized they'd been talking for probably the better part of an hour, and Vin started to worry that his friends might be getting concerned for him.

"Sorry Lumel, but I still need to get back to camp and check in with everyone," Vin said after she finished regaling him with a story of the first time she'd used Dimensional Shift to pull a prank on her mother and scare her half to death.

"As much as I'd love to just go pass out in bed, I do have my duties as one of the councilors."

"Oh, of course, sorry to take up so much of your time," Lumel said, hesitating as they got to their feet.

"Before you go, I could at least give you another spell to work on? Though this next one is tricky, so feel free to drop by and ask questions if you get stuck."

"I'd love that, thank you," Vin grinned.

"What's next on the docket?"

"I know you've been excited for your own Dimensional Pocket, but there's one more spell to master before that one," she said, holding up a hand and casting a new spell he hadn't seen before." Dimensional Sheath." Vin blinked as a beautiful staff with a soft blue gem inlaid in the top suddenly appeared in Lumel's hand. Unlike her usual dimensional magic, there hadn't been any flash of purple indicating her opening another dimension. One second her hand had been empty, and the next, it held a staff.

New spell witnessed! Tier 2 Spatial Magic (Dimensional Sheath). 2, 000 exp gained."

Dimensional Sheath is the first real application you can use spatial magic for," Lumel explained, casting the spell again and causing her staff to vanish.

"It lets you store a single, simple object within a pocket dimension, and call on it whenever you need it. Because it's only a single object, it's a lot easier than Dimensional Pocket, but it's still quite a complicated spell. Don't get frustrated if it takes you some time to figure out, and don't try to use it on any sort of container, it won't work."

"I won't!" Vin said, excited at the prospect of finally getting to use his new spatial magic. Even if it was just a more convenient way to store his staff, he couldn't help but get excited.

"Can I see the runic formation?" Lumel happily shared with him the runic formation, her purple-tipped finger carefully trailing across the space in front of them as she began drawing. And drawing… And drawing.

"Uh…" Vin finally said after nearly thirty seconds had passed, realizing she was still sketching out the runic formation.

"Lumel… Are you sure you didn't give me some higher tier spell by mistake?"

"I warned you spatial magic was complicated," she said, finally finishing up the formation with a flick of her finger.

"And you need to take your time with this one too. The last thing you want to do is accidentally shove a part of yourself into another dimension while working on the spell. I highly doubt you want to lose another arm, am I right?"

"You are," Vin sighed, carefully memorizing the formation even as he did so. Despite the monumental task he had ahead of him, he was still excited to get started on learning the spell.

"Thanks again for all your help, Lumel. Are you sure you don't want to swing by camp?"

"Maybe in a few more days… But I'm fine for the moment," Lumel said, giving him a tight-lipped smile.

"Remember, if you run into any issues, don't try to brute force your way through the spell. Just come ask for my help!"

"Will do," Vin chuckled. As he went to finally head back to his own fragment, he paused, realizing he almost forgot something.

"Oh, this is for you!" Reaching into his pack, Vin pulled out one of the incredibly soft silk blankets Kark had given them. Vin had specifically asked for a blanket for each of his flesh and blood party members, as well as one extra.

"I still need to grab you some cooking oil from the Chefs, but I at least got the blanket you asked for," he said, handing it over with a smile.

"I don't know how it compares to what you've used in the past since you're a princess and all, but it's pretty much the softest thing I've ever felt."

"Thank you, Vin," Lumel said, taking the blanket from him and giving him a small smile.

"This is perfect, I can't wait to try it out later. And no rush on the oil, I still have plenty of preserved food to go through!" Thanking her one last time for the new spell, Vin turned and headed through the corridor back to his fragment, happy to check off another thing on his to-do list, even if it was one of the smaller ones. The list of promises he was keeping in his journal was beginning to get out of hand!