Chương 246: (241) 4.20. Assemble the Troops

It didn't take Vin very long to get word spread around to the other infernals that Xaril had agreed to speak with everyone. Luckily for him, it seemed Agne knew just about every person in the entire village, as all he had to do was let her know and she snapped into action. Vin could only stand back and watch in awe as she delegated people to rush out to different portions of the camp and get everyone gathered together.

Within minutes, every single infernal had already gathered in the center of camp, and Vin spotted Vanessa walking with one of the larger groups.

"Vin!" she shouted, smiling and making a beeline for him.

"Good to see you again!"

"You too," he said, returning her warm smile.

"Glad to see things appear to be going well between you and the infernals."

"This type of situation is exactly what the Ambassador class was designed for," she said, nodding as she looked out over the gathering crowd.

"There have been a few minor hiccups here and there while the infernals first got settled, but they've been taken care of." Leaning closer to him, she lowered her voice.

"…I've been power leveling like crazy. It seems just about every conversation I have with these guys gives me more experience than the last. If this keeps up, I'll be one of the first members of the third wave to hit my prestige!"

"That just means you're doing an excellent job," he said, earning a beaming smile from his underling.

"Listen, do you have things handled here for now? As curious as I am to watch Xaril try public speaking for the first time, I have another matter I want to attend to before the end of the day. And seeing as you're an actual Ambassador with abilities to help smooth things over, once Xaril finishes chatting with everyone, could you bring him over to Kym's place and try your hand at convincing him to let Xaril read the books he's got stored over there? I think you'll have better luck than I would."

"Sure, shouldn't be a problem!" Thanking Vanessa one last time for all her hard work, Vin headed back into town and checked the fancy new clock tower Witherson and her Crafters had finally completed in the center of town. It was already getting pretty late in the day, and he had two things he wanted to get done before he called it a night. Grabbing a quick bite to eat, Vin headed back out of town and wandered around for a bit, looking for the perfect spot.

It took him a little while, but eventually, he found a nice secluded area in the center of a wide-open meadow about a mile away from town with a large tree growing in the center. Confident that he would be able to see any monsters coming from a good distance away, he turned and walked directly up the tree using his enchanted boots.

Settling down on one of the thick limbs high enough that he wouldn't have to worry about any monsters stumbling upon him while he worked, he dipped into Introspection and got back to work on his latest project. Creating his own spell. Combining Stone Shot and Create Flame to make some form of Fireball had proven to be just as tricky as he'd expected, and he wanted to ensure he could take advantage of his divine boon that reset at the end of each day.

He was in a unique situation where he could combine his experience and knowledge of runes with brute force, trying things out by what felt right and then making adjustments when those same attempts resulted in him blowing himself up. Alright, the issue was something to do with keeping the flame stable and compact. What if I try doing this instead… Throwing together the same runic formation that he'd tried the last time, he made a few slight tweaks to the runes that controlled how the fire was supposed to operate.

If his hunch was correct, that should stop him from blowing himself up at the very least. Here we go… Clearing his throat, Vin raised his hand and targeted a rock in the distance as he made his second attempt." Fireb-!" And promptly blew himself up again. Vin landed hard on the ground in an explosion of golden light, groaning as all he received for his efforts was a singed head of hair and a face full of dirt. He laid there for a few embarrassing seconds, happy that nobody had witnessed his repeated failure.

Rolling over onto his back, he looked up at the smoking remains of the tree he'd been sitting in moments ago. Well… that wasn't it either.

This time, he didn't even get a level up in Runecraft to soften the blow, and he simply laid there for a few minutes staring up at the sky. Until now, most things magical had come to him rather easily. The fact that he'd blown himself up twice now when both times he'd felt pretty confident in his handiwork was more than a little humbling. Shia had been quite clear just how difficult and deadly crafting new spells was, but naturally, he'd thought just because he, 'had a knack for magic,' that it would be a breeze.

Oh, how wrong he was. Finally, after what remained of the tree had stopped smoking, he pushed himself back to his feet and stretched.

"Good thing I'm far too stubborn to let something as minor as repeatedly killing myself stop me," he muttered, deciding it was time to focus on his final task of the day. While he walked, he cast Dimensional Sheath to retrieve the papers he'd stored, and he read through the information Linda had given him on the three potential mages Spur wanted him to try teaching. All three of them were rather unique cases, in his opinion, but he decided he didn't want to make any snap judgments before he'd met them himself.

Which meant it was finally time to do just that. First, he headed toward the Support Guild. He'd never actually been in the large building before, and he watched curiously as people walked in and out of the main entrance, or utilized one of Alice's altered pitfall traps to drop directly into the basement. Most of the people were going about their business with a sense of purpose, but more than a few were clearly unsure of what they were doing, which made picking out the fresh members of the fourth wave rather easy.

Already beginning to hear whispers about himself from those around him, he decided not to waste any more time and went through the front door. The layout of the guild building was very similar to the town hall, minus the receptionist desk. There were doors all over the place leading to large workshops that anyone could sign up to use, and material stockpiles that people were able to take from, within reason.

There were also massive bulletin boards covering the different walls of the main lobby with what looked like requests for people with specific skill sets. Out of curiosity, he scanned through a few. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

Needed: Farmer with a passive that alters growth rate of crops Help Wanted: Herbalist, Gardener, or similar class capable of locating specific plants Request: Healer-style class with an ability to slow the rate of blood loss How interesting, he thought, noting how there were what had to be hundreds of these requests up at this point. It seemed the main purpose of the guilds, giving people a place where they belonged and allowing them to connect with others like them, was working out beautifully.

Double checking the first of his three sheets, Vin wandered down one of the hallways before stopping at one of the smaller, individual workshops. There weren't many designed for just one person, but Witherson had included a few in the design at Golrim's insistence. Sometimes, Support classes had experiments that turned a bit deadly. After a quick knock on the door, he heard a muffled voice call out from within the workshop.

"Come in!" Doing just that, Vin had to pause in the doorway and stare at the strange scene before him. The 'deadly' experiment that this person had requested the use of one of the reinforced individual workshops for… Was baking bread. A stocky man with a round belly was busy inspecting a steaming loaf of bread that looked like it had just been pulled from the portable oven he had shoved in one corner.

The man looked to be in his mid-thirties, and had a head of loose, balding hair that would probably look a lot better shaved. He wore a heavy-duty leather apron that looked like it would be more appropriate on a welder than someone baking, and he all but jumped when he realized who it was he had just invited into the room.

"The Roamer!" He gasped, quickly brushing the flour off his hands before grabbing Vin's own and shaking vigorously.

"My, it's good to meet you! Spur told me you'd be swinging by sooner or later! I'm Ronald, a Crafter with a food specialization!"

"Yes, I saw that on your record," Vin said, glancing once more at the loaf of bread.

"…You do know this is the Support Guild, right?" Technically, anyone was allowed in any of the guilds, but he'd still been rather confused when he'd read that Ronald spent most of his time within the Support Guild despite his class choice.

"Yes, I noticed." Ronald chuckled, not looking at all annoyed by the question.

"The other Chefs didn't quite understand my vision and were a bit too loud and rowdy for my tastes anyway. You see, I want to create magical food. Food that does more than just fill a person's stomach! Most people laugh at me when I tell them, or they think the idea is stupid, but Spur must have caught wind of what I was attempting because he took me aside one day and asked if I wanted to take part in their experiment. Naturally, when he said it would help me learn magic, I jumped at the chance!"

Vin would never admit it out loud, but Ronald reminded him a bit of the dough boy mascot he'd seen on the side of those old cans of dough that popped open and used to scare the hell out of him as a child. He was round and jolly, and Vin was already getting the vibe that the man's default state was 'pleasantly surprised.'

"I'm planning on giving you guys a lesson tomorrow," he said, noting the sparkle of excitement in Ronald's eyes. Handing him a small map he'd sketched out ahead of time, he continued.

"Can you meet me here after breakfast? Say, around ten?"

"I'll be there!" Ronald promised him, tucking the map safely into a pocket on his apron. The first of his three stops done, Vin left the Support Guild and headed back out of town. He was starting to get some strange looks from the gate guards for heading in and out of town so much, but he'd decided to go with the order that Spur had recommended. He jogged over to the nearby lake, quickly locating his next target.

"Wanda? Wanda Mour?" he asked, walking up to one of the handful of people fishing around the edge of the lake. Hearing her name, a woman with big, frizzy hair and dirty Project Ark fatigues turned and shot him a raised eyebrow. She looked as though she was going to snap at him for disturbing her, before her eyes landed on his golem arm. Vin could practically see the thoughts running through her head as her expression morphed from annoyance to curiosity in an instant, and she nodded.

"That's me," she said.

"You must be Vin?"

"Yep. Spur told me you were interested in learning magic. Is that still the case?"

"Oh yeah, I'm interested," she said with a slight smirk.

"We starting now?"

"No, but if you can meet me at this location at ten tomorrow morning, we'll start then." Vin handed over the map, and she took it without a word, scanning over it before crumpling it and shoving it in one of her pockets.

"Looking forward to it," was all she said before turning back to the lake and clearly dismissing him. Vin stared at the Fisherman, wondering why on Earth she'd been putting points into magic all this time. He supposed he'd learn tomorrow, and he shrugged, before returning to town one final time for the evening. According to Spur's notes, their last member was the most likely to give him a hard time. This one had a simple address listed, and Vin headed over to the apartment.

Someone answered the door seconds after he knocked, and the stranger was clearly shocked to find him standing there.

"Y-yes?" he asked, blinking as if expecting Vin to vanish any moment.

"Does Landon live here?" he asked, glancing back down at his informational sheet once more.

"Landon Smith?"

"Yeah, Landon's here. Though he might not want to speak with you," the man said, nodding slowly. After a second, he jumped and moved back.

"Come in!" Doing just that, Vin stepped into the apartment and finally got a sense for what his own apartment might look like one day. There was scattered furniture clearly taken from one of the Crafters' shops, and a few odds and ends thrown about. The place was clean, but definitely cluttered.

"Sorry for the mess!" the man said, rushing around and trying to pick up random books or discarded objects, as if Vin would scold him for letting his apartment get messy.

"Landon's room is that one there." Following his finger, Vin tried knocking on the door.

"Landon? Are you in there?"

"Leave me alone!" A voice shouted back, causing him to wince. Spur's note had included a warning that the man had a bit of a unique situation, but he'd been too perfect a candidate to not offer Sakis' training aid to.

"Landon, Spur asked me to help-""I don't need your help! I'll figure this out and become a powerful mage all on my own, all from in here! Vin turned to look at the man who had let him in, only to find him wincing as well.

"Landon… doesn't go out much," he explained, looking apologetic.

"From what I understand, Spur didn't tell him the plan was for him to learn from you until after he'd already learned his first spell, and Landon was not okay with that idea."

"He's not going to be able to do much without help," Vin said, glancing at the door that remained shut in his face.

"Though to be honest, I don't even think Sense Stone is powerful enough for him to hurt himself even if he tried messing with the runic formation. Can you try and explain to him that without my help, he'll probably never learn any more magic? If he changes his mind, have him meet me at this location tomorrow morning at ten."

"I'll do what I can," the man said, taking the offered map and peering at it.

"…Is this outside of town?"

"Yeah, I picked a safe spot we can practice in," Vin explained.

"Ah… If there's one thing Landon hates more than the thought of leaving the apartment, it's the thought of leaving town." The man sighed, looking more and more resigned to his fate as a go-between as the conversation dragged on.

"I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you," Vin said, leaving his troublesome third student behind him as he made his way back to his own apartment to turn in for the night. He'd been confused why Spur had even picked Landon in the first place, right up until he read over the man's notes. According to Spur, Landon had selected the Poet class of all things, which allowed him the flexibility to level up from within the confines of the town walls. Though more importantly…

Landon had placed every single bonus attribute point he'd gained since level 1 in magic.