Chương 220: (215) 3.80. Baby Steps

After finishing breakfast, the rest of Vin's day was spent hanging out with Lumel in the Underside and working on magic. Even if the two of them were busy with their own things and didn't really do much talking, it was still nice just having someone he felt comfortable with hanging around him.

Vin's time was spent understanding and meticulously recreating the runic formation contained within the water-creating artifact, and Lumel was still stuck on trying to figure out what she'd come to call the 'last great secret' of the Underside. While she hadn't really made much headway on her own project, Vin managed to achieve his breakthrough by the time evening rolled around. New spell learned! Tier 2 Water Spell (Aqua Sphere). 10, 000 exp gained. Level up! Magical Explorer lvl 36.

+3 attribute points +1 skill point Runecraft increased to lvl 14! 2, 800 exp gained. Introspection increased to lvl 11! 2, 200 exp gained.

"Damn, talk about feast or famine," Vin laughed, glancing at his surprise level up. He'd already managed to shore up his greatest weakness and bring his strength up to 20 from the last two level ups, so he happily dropped the three new points back into magic.

"I guess I'm at the point where the only experience I really gain nowadays is in giant chunks. I almost miss those old days of getting ten experience at a time just for wandering the world."

"I know what you mean. As a Mage, I used to get trickles of experience just for practicing shifting my mana around," Lumel grinned, shaking her head as she finally gave up on trying to crack the Underside's final secret for the night.

"Now it almost feels like I have to dimensionally shift Edregon itself to make any progress."

"I think taking a step back from the Underside might honestly do you some good. Let you come back and tackle it with a fresh perspective, you know?"

"Yeah, you're not wrong," Lumel sighed.

"I've just been putting the thought off because I'm a bit nervous about actually being around strangers again. Did you check in with Alka?"

"Managed to find her before coming down here this morning," Vin nodded, chuckling at the memory.

"Her exact words were, 'I have a room? Why would I want that?' So yeah, you're good to move into town if you still want to. Though we're still going to try and get her to come by the apartment at least once a day or so, just so she knows she has a place with us and to help her feel more human. There's just one other thing…" He paused, choosing his next words carefully.

"Spur is demanding we put you through the same truth-gem screening we put all newcomers through who want to stay in our fragment. I got him to accept me being the one to actually give you the screening, but I couldn't get him to waive it entirely. Sorry."

"Vin, that's fine," Lumel giggled, smiling at his worried expression.

"You should know by now that I understand better than most all the pains of running a kingdom. Even if I had no interest in any of that myself, I still had a front row seat to watch how my dad handled everything. I don't mind doing the screening, but thank you for fighting to be the one to handle it. I'll definitely be more comfortable doing it with you than some stranger."

"That's a relief," Vin admitted, letting out a pent up breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

"Well with that out of the way, I need to give this new spell a shot." Raising a hand, Vin cast Aqua Sphere, grinning as water poured out of his hand and formed a giant, floating bubble within seconds. While casting the tier 2 spell itself definitely drained a small piece of his now massive mana pool, the cost of keeping the bubble active was almost negligible. Lumel walked around the bubble, examining it from different angles before opening her hands wide and shaking them side to side.

It was a strange gesture out of the water, but Lumel had explained when he'd asked that it was essentially the pulmon version of giving someone a thumbs up.

"Way to go! I can't believe you managed to learn the spell from the artifact in only two days," she smiled, sticking a hand into the water and gasping.

"Did you make it warmer?"

"Now that I'm the one casting the spell, I can make minor adjustments to the runic formation," Vin grinned.

"Not that the water was exactly cold before, but I thought it could be just a little bit hotter. Honestly, I'm curious what else I can do." With a little bit of focus, Vin managed to get the water within the sphere to start swirling around, forming what looked like a tiny whirlpool in the center of the bubble.

"Well at the very least, it looks like I just invented a magical, portable washing machine," he laughed.

"I guess now I need to finally learn Create Air and make a drier as well."

"Maybe you could use your newest passive to try and learn that fire spell from your new knife," Lumel suggested.

"Might dry your clothes even faster."

"Huh, good point. Damn, my list of spells to work on is really growing lately. I guess it's good timing though, seeing as I'll be stuck in town for the foreseeable future." A new fire spell from his knife. The cool gravity magic in his boots. Not to mention the tier 3 Dimensional Shift spell Lumel had finally given him that would probably take a week all on its own, or the truth-detecting magic he still intended to pull from the truth gem.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Suffice to say, Vin had more than enough to keep himself occupied until wave four arrived.

"Now is probably as good a time as any," Lumel said, looking nervous as she clutched the sleeves of her robe.

"Seeing as it's evening, do you want to go get the truth-gem and get this over with? Honestly, I'd prefer making the trip in the dark."

"Of course, I'll be right back," Vin promised, giving her a hug for encouragement before he ran off to retrieve the gem. It was almost comical how irrelevant the beast monsters of the forest dungeon were at this point. Vin literally backhanded one of the big bad bears with his golem arm as an afterthought when it tried to jump him, popping its head like a grape and sending its corpse flying into a nearby tree with a flash of blue light.

While he was still limited by the mana gem within his arm, his new passive had upgraded the limb to the next level. Grabbing the truth-gem from Myers along with the list of questions, Vin returned to the Underside and got started. Most of the questions were fairly straightforward, such as asking the person being screened for their name, race, class, and level, followed by a barrage of questions that really boiled down to 'do you have bad things planned for our settlement and/or the people within?'

There were also questions that went into detail about combat potential and dangerous skills, making it clear that Spur wasn't taking any chances of things slipping past their attention. While Vin already knew quite a bit about Lumel from all the time they'd spent together, such as the fact that she was now a level 38 Dimensional Mage in no small part from her continued study of the Underside, there were plenty of things that surprised him.

For example, when he asked her if she had any experience plotting to overthrow a figure of authority, Lumel paused and gave him a sheepish grin.

"When I was younger, I may or may not have spent a few nights working on a plan to get the queen dethroned so my mother could take her place. But when I learned how strong the royal guards were, and that my mother didn't actually want to become queen, I abandoned those plans. So… technically … yes." Seeing the truth-gem turn green, Vin chuckled, marking her answer down on the form he was filling out.

"Abandoned because of the royal guards, huh? Not because of any other reason? Such as realizing destabilizing an entire kingdom to try and get your parents officially together might not be the best plan?"

"That doesn't sound like one of the questions Myers gave you," Lumel teased.

"Come on, next question. This is actually kind of fun!" Despite the shockingly extensive list of questions, they managed to get through them all relatively quickly. Even so, Lumel was only one person. Vin had no idea where Spur's interrogators found the time to run hundreds of former prisoners through the screening process, especially when they only had the one truth gem.

Presumably, they had a quicker screening they did first just to hit the big things and then went back afterwards to do a more thorough job later on, but that still sounded like an insane amount of work. Once I learn the truth-detecting spell, I'll have to decide if I actually want Spur to know or not. If he finds out, he'll no doubt try to rope me into the screenings to make things go faster.

"That's the last of them," Vin said, marking down that Lumel in fact had never participated in any sort of coup, official or otherwise.

"I'll need to turn these in to Myers later, but seeing as you passed with flying colors, you're officially welcome to join Terra whenever you'd like! Want me to show you your new place?"

"I suppose that would be for the best," Lumel nodded, looking decidedly nervous.

"Since I was exiled from the palace, I've been treating the Underside as more of a temporary research trip than anything related to a home. Hearing you actually say it…" Tucking her answers away, Vin walked over and gave her a reassuring hug, making sure not to squeeze her too tightly. He'd already figured out that pulmons were naturally a rather delicate race, and Lumel clearly hadn't invested many points into vigor.

"It's far from a palace, but anywhere has to be better than staying alone down here," he said, looking around at the massive, half-mile-wide empty room.

"The Underside is amazing, but it's just so… empty. It's unnerving."

"I know," Lumel sighed, returning his hug.

"It's just scary. It's like finally admitting to myself that I know I won't be going back to the palace. Like the exile is finally real, you know?"

"I'm still planning on having some words with that queen of yours at some point," Vin said, making up his mind then and there that he'd find some way of striking a deal with the queen that was responsible for exiling her.

"Remember, I just snagged the Swimming skill. I'll be down there in no time!"

"Thanks, Vin," Lumel smiled, giving him a quick kiss.

"Alright… Let's do this!" It didn't take long for her to pack her scattered belongings back into her Dimensional Pocket, and before they knew it, the two of them were back on Edregon proper. As they approached the town, Lumel nervously pulled her hood tighter, careful to hide any sign of her face. It was obvious at a glance that the two warriors standing guard wanted to stop them and ask about the dark, cloaked figure making their way into town, but one look at Vin, and they each thought better of it.

Giving him respectful nods, they went back to carefully watching the surrounding meadows for any signs of approaching monsters or other unknown threats.

"I guess there are some perks to being famous," Vin laughed, catching the small smile from underneath Lumel's hood as he led her to their apartment. Despite the late hour and the fact that there were barely a dozen people in Terra brave enough to actually approach and strike up a conversation with him, part of him kept expecting someone to walk up and start trying to talk to Lumel before she was ready.

From this distance and with his high focus, he could actually see her visibly shaking as they made their way across town. Frowning, he took her hand, squeezing it as he tried to reassure her.

"You're doing great, we're almost there." Lumel nodded, and he heard her take a deep breath from under her hood. The pulmon's grip tightened around his hand, and he felt her shaking subside a tiny bit. Barely a minute later, they made it to their apartment at the end of the row.

"Here we are," Vin grinned, gesturing to the stone building.

"Your new place! It's nothing crazy right now because we still need to check out what the crafters have been working on and snag some furniture, but it's cozy."

"It looks great," Lumel said, pulling her hood back a bit and looking up at the building.

"And you're sure Alka said it was okay?"

"Yep! Hell, even Scule offered to give you his room."

"Your friends are nice people," Lumel said, taking another deep breath.

"Alright. Let's do it." Needing no further encouragement, Vin opened the door, and the two of them stepped into the apartment. Setting off the trap someone had rigged to the front entrance, which exploded right in their faces.