Chương 175: (170) 3.35. The Confident Confidant

It turned out he'd been chatting with Lumel for even longer than he'd thought. As Vin exited the Underside and set foot into the forest dungeon of his people's fragment, he was surprised to find that the sun had already gone down. Glancing around, he spotted a handful of brutally slaughtered monsters, as well as a note tied to a nearby tree branch. Where Alka even got the paper and ink from, he had no idea.

-Vin, Got tired of waiting for you to finish up with your girlfriend, decided to head back to camp and make a few wannabe-Slayers cry. Try not to die. -Alka"Thanks Alka," Vin snorted, shaking his head at the note she'd left him. And seriously?

'Girlfriend?' Rolling his eyes, Vin followed the trail of dead monsters as he made his way back to camp. He knew Alka was just teasing him of course, but if even Alka was picking up on the vibe Lumel was giving, maybe it was time to have a chat with the Dimensional Mage. While Vin got distracted easily and could fixate on certain things every now and again, such as when it came to new magic, he wasn't oblivious.

He had a hunch from the slight frown on Lumel's face whenever he mentioned bringing his friends around with him to see her or from her frequent giggling and blushing during their conversations that she was interested in him. And while she was certainly fun to talk to and he loved having another friend besides Shia that he could discuss magic with… There was just the one glaring issue of them being from literally different worlds.

Rubbing the back of his neck, Vin sighed as he finally stepped out of the forest dungeon, pausing to lean against one of the trees as he tried to get his thoughts in order. While he'd had a few minor relationships here and there back on Earth after running away from home, he was far from what he would call experienced in the art of romance. The last thing he ever wanted was to judge whether or not he'd be willing to get into a relationship with somebody because of their looks. Except…

Functionally, Lumel didn't have skin. At this point, he'd spent enough time chatting with the pulmon that he was slowly growing used to witnessing her muscles endlessly flexing and shifting around under her transparent skin. Not even the sight of the blood constantly moving around in her face from her frequent blushes made him all that queasy anymore. But just because his reactions to her horrifying biology were dulling, that didn't necessarily mean he wanted to experience them on a regular basis.

Well now I just feel like a jerk. Vin frowned, staring up at the starry sky. He hated to admit it, but if Lumel had been a regular human, or even a similar race that didn't have the whole see-through-skin problem, he almost certainly would have been willing to try being in a relationship. He didn't know how something like that would even work, what with how much running around he did, but he was rather flexible when it came to that sort of thing. One had to be when they lived the life of the vagabond.

Regardless, no sense in worrying about this at the moment. All you have to go off of is a hunch and Alka's teasing. She might not even feel that way in the first place. Shaking his head at this pointless internal debate, Vin decided to put the issue on hold for now as he finally made his way back to camp. He'd had one hell of a day dealing with the remains of the blue fur clan and telling Neurol what had happened, and while chatting with Lumel had made him feel a lot better, he was still exhausted.

"She is fun to talk to…" Vin muttered, cursing as he realized he was already thinking about Lumel again. Searching for something to distract himself, he blinked as the camp came into view, and he realized it wouldn't be long before he had to stop thinking of it as 'the camp' and start thinking of it as 'the town.' They'd only been gone for two days, but it was clear from just a glance that Witherson and her team of crafters had been busy.

The outer wall that had once been little more than a wooden palisade covered in spikes was rapidly being replaced with a far sturdier looking wall of stone. Past the wall, all the evidence that the battle for wave three had taken place had finally been taken care of. Rather than corpses and shattered remains of buildings, there were paved streets and countless new buildings in various stages of construction.

The stone buildings that had survived the battle were still standing at the moment, but based on how large the newer ones were going to be, Vin could only assume they'd be knocked down and replaced as soon as possible. Despite the late hour, there were still plenty of crafters hard at work all around the town, and Vin wandered the streets taking in all the changes.

From what he could tell, it looked as though Witherson was putting in a town square, and had the foundations laid for a couple of massive buildings that he could only guess the purpose of. He'd have to wait until the council check in meeting tomorrow to figure out just what plans she had in store for the town. While Vin was distracted watching a few of the crafters pour some sort of concrete mix down into the foundation of a building, a voice called out from behind him.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Turning around, Vin was surprised to find himself face to face with what was clearly one of the elves from the Sacred Forest. The elf had the similar interlocking chainmail leaves Shia liked to wear, and his braid hung down just past his shoulders, indicating that he was rather low on the totem pole when it came to elven society. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"Our forest doesn't have anything quite so ingenious as 'concrete,'" he continued, flashing his pointed teeth as he grinned at the busy crafters.

"Seeing new technologies such as this one… It's quite exciting, don't you think?"

"Yeah… Definitely a fun part of traveling…" Vin said, nodding slowly as he squinted at the elf.

"What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean?" the elf asked, giving him a confused look.

"Kelly proposed an exchange of knowledge and offered to show my people just what her fragment could offer the Sacred Forest. Erik thought it was a fantastic idea and asked me to go in his stead."

"Leaving the Sacred Forest is taboo to the elves, and none of them call the Ancient One Erik except for Shia," Vin stated, fully turning toward the strange elf and preparing for a fight.

"I don't know who you…" Vin paused as he continued to stare at the grinning elf. Something about the elf's face seemed so familiar to him, but he couldn't quite-"Theodore?!" Vin blinked, finally realizing who the elf's face reminded him of. The features were much more sharp and angled, but sure enough, now that he had the thought he couldn't unsee it.

"Damn, you're good!" Theodore laughed, waving a hand in front of his face and causing his entire body to waver and change. One second, he was an elf from the Sacred Forest, complete with their common attire and everything. The next, he was regular old human Theodore, still wearing his standard grey Project Ark fatigues.

"I suppose that's what I get for tuning out all of Kelly's ramblings about the elves!"

"That's incredible!" Vin said, far too impressed with his sub-councilors' new ability to be annoyed with him for playing a prank.

"If you can change more than just your clothes now, I'm assuming you hit level 10 then?"

"Indeed I have!" Theodore said, giving an extravagant bow.

"No longer am I limited just by Adaptive Attire, you are looking at the proud new owner of the Public Persona Capstone!"

"What did you even do to get something like that?" Vin asked, envisioning Theodore poorly playing dress up with the elves. While Capstones were awarded based on a person's internal desires, the actions they'd done to push their class to the required level played just as large a role.

"I spent the past couple of days over in the Sacred Forest with Kelly, immersing myself in elven culture and doing my best to live like one of them," Theodore grinned, clearly pleased with himself.

"I'm pretty certain I'll be able to mimic any race I want, however, I'll have to observe them for a while beforehand and live like one of them first."

"That's insane," Vin said, already fearing all the shenanigans Theodore was going to get up to with his new Capstone. Not to mention eerily relevant to my current situation… Here he was complaining about a girl he may or may not be interested in being from a race of people that were horrifying to look at, and who else would he run into but Theodore practicing his new Capstone that could change his entire appearance. Vin didn't believe in fate or anything like that, but it certainly was a weird coincidence.

Naturally, Vin would never ask or even hope that someone would go out of their way to change themselves so drastically just for his sake, but Theodore's impressive performance had brought Lumel right back to the forefront of his thoughts.

"Something on your mind?" Theodore asked, dropping his theatrical act and taking on a rarely seen serious expression.

"I figured the moment you saw my new Capstone you'd be giddy to try playing a prank on Spur with it."

"Oh trust me, I already have a few ideas on that front," Vin admitted.

"And don't worry about me, it's nothing really. Just something silly I'm a bit hung up on that doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things."

"Come now, the grand scheme of things is built off of piles of seemingly tiny, irrelevant things," Theodore said, giving him an encouraging smile.

"If it helps, seeing as you are in charge of my department, that functionally makes you this kingdom's new spymaster until Myers inevitably takes it over. But until then, rest assured whatever you say shall be held in the strictest of confidence!" Vin stared at his sub-councilor for a moment, weighing the pro's and con's of telling him anything before shrugging. What the hell, Theodore's a Spy, right? Maybe getting this information out of me will help him level or something.

Leading him off the beaten path and away from the late-night crafters, Vin summoned two stone chairs and filled Theodore in on his current predicament. To his credit, the usually animated man actually managed to rein himself in, listening calmly throughout Vin's quick explanation. Once he'd finished, Theodore nodded.

"That's quite the situation indeed," he said, rubbing his carefully maintained goatee in thought.

"While I haven't seen this race of people for myself, I feel as if that doesn't matter. After all, my advice is quite simple." Leaning forward, Theodore flicked Vin in the forehead, causing him to flinch back in surprise. The flick hadn't hurt by any means, but Vin certainly hadn't expected it.

"The fact that you're still thinking about her and even contemplating having something with her shows that her appearance isn't enough to drive you away, regardless of what you may think. My advice? We live on a deadly world filled with monsters and unknown terrors. For all we know something we've never seen before could attack any minute now and kill us all. Stop dragging your feet and talk to her, and if she feels the same, give it a shot. You're an Explorer aren't you?

Isn't braving the unknown your whole thing?" This last sentence was delivered with Theodore's far more standard toothy grin.

"Anyway, that's just my two cents," Theodore said, getting to his feet and brushing off his pants.

"I will say, you look a bit tired at the moment. If I were you, I'd sleep on it, and if you're still thinking about the situation in the morning, stop worrying so much and listen to your heart. I know I'm a romantic, but so what, it's far more fun than letting logic rule your life!"

"Thanks, Theodore, I think that actually helped some," Vin said, happy he'd decided to confide in the man.

"I think at the very least I'll talk to her about it. Like I said, this is all based on nothing more than a hunch anyways."

"That's how love starts!" Theodore said, batting his eyelashes and shooting him a big grin.

"Now if you'll excuse me, night is finally upon us, and I have some errands to run!" With a wave of his hand, Theodore's entire appearance shifted. Vin suddenly found himself staring at a short, portly man in an apron and dirty construction clothes with a heavy scowl on his face. There were still some distinct features of Theodore he could make out on the man's face, but it was like he was staring at Theodore's overweight cousin.

"See you later," the man winked, before turning and wandering off. Even his voice was deep and gruff. Dear God, I hope there are some heavy restrictions to that Capstone, Vin thought, watching the Spy vanish behind one of the newly constructed buildings. Otherwise I'm going to need to learn some sort of magic locking spell in order to sleep at night.