Chương 269: (264) 4.43. Where’s the Vibe?

The good news was that when they exited the forest dungeon and spotted the town, Terra was still standing. The better news was that there were no noticeable fires or giant monsters currently trying to punch or melt their way through the walls. In fact, Vin couldn't make out a single thing wrong with the town at first glance. It was as if they'd actually managed to survive an entire week without his intervention. It was uncanny.

Curiously, they did notice one new addition as they approached the edge of the forest dungeon. It seemed Witherson had ordered some of the crafters to construct a small stone wall around the entire exterior of the dungeon, marking precisely where regular forest transformed into the expanded dimension of the dungeon. Vin didn't know if something had happened to call for such a wall to be built, but he figured he'd learn soon enough.

"Man, I've missed the last six council meetings," he muttered as they hopped the small wall, wondering how they had all gone down.

"I know Spur told me to miss as many as I wanted, but that sounds like a lot."

"It's definitely the longest we've been gone since our escapades with the divine warrior and getting Alka her new body, but it couldn't really be helped," Shia shrugged.

"You were in no shape to travel, and Lumel certainly wasn't going to leave you behind."

"Seriously, I tried to bribe her for the record, and she still said no," Scule sighed, tutting loudly.

"Even offered her one full hour of petting Reginald to her heart's content, and she still wouldn't leave you!"

"He didn't!" Lumel argued quietly, blushing as Scule and Shia laughed at her embarrassed face.

"But of course I wouldn't have left you there! You were unconscious!"

"It's alright, Lumel, we're only teasing," Shia smiled.

"We wouldn't have left him behind either."

"Yeah. Guy's got some serious issues, but he's a relatively comfy mount," Scule said, kicking him in the shoulder as they walked.

"I mean, he's no Alka, but still good. Better than walking at the very least. Kind of like an old, lame horse compared to a pegasus."

"Hah hah," Vin said, before realizing what Scule had said.

"Wait, did your world seriously have flying horses?"

"Huh? Yeah, but only the rich could afford them. Like, the uber, uber rich. I'm pretty certain there were less than a dozen in the entire citadel. Come to think of it, I wonder what happened to them." While they shot ideas back and forth as to what might have befallen the missing pegasi, they approached the main gate. It was around dinner time, which meant most people were either tucked away in one of the restaurants or probably eating in their apartment after a long day's work.

Vin kept his head on a swivel, which naturally, drew the attention of his friends.

"Are you looking for someone in particular?" Shia asked.

"Kinda… I swear, it feels like almost every time I come back to town, Theodore surprises me disguised as someone else. I'm beginning to suspect he has some sort of skill or passive that alerts him whenever I show up."

"For a Spy, some form of marking passive would make sense," Lumel said, looking thoughtful.

"I'm pretty sure I remember reading about at least one or two. They let people mark locations or other people of interest."

"That's totally something Theodore would do," Scule snickered, joining Vin's attempts at hunting for the Spy.

"What about that girl, she looks pretty weird." Following Scule's finger, Vin blinked as he actually recognized the person he was talking about. Becca, the Tailor and one-half of the entertaining duo he occasionally ran into while grabbing lunch from the mess hall, was sitting against one of the buildings, lazily sewing some fabric together. She had a slight frown on her face and didn't even seem to notice Vin and his team despite all the attention they were getting from passerbys.

"No, I actually know her," he said, wondering what was wrong. He hadn't exactly interacted with her on too many occasions, but Becca had always had a friendly smirk on her face while messing with Weston. In fact, he'd never actually seen either one without the other.

"I think I'm going to talk to her real quick," he said, motioning for the others to go on without him.

"I'll meet you guys at the apartment in a bit."

"We'll grab some food for you," Shia said, giving him an encouraging pat on the shoulder and waiting for Scule and Reginald to hop over to her before walking off. Vin was about to make his way over to check on the frowning girl, when he realized Lumel was still with him. The pulmon looked incredibly uncomfortable and unsure of what she was doing, but she hadn't left.

"Want me to introduce you to her?" he asked, giving her a small smile.

"Becca was actually one of the first Earthers I told that I was seeing someone. Fair warning, she's… a bit much. Makes Scule look positively timid in comparison."

"You did?!" Lumel gasped, her eyes going wide.

"N-no, in that case, I think I'll let you handle this one yourself. If that's okay."

"You don't have to push yourself to talk to everyone I do," he said, chuckling at her embarrassed look.

"You already chatted with Telin for a few hours, that's a huge win. Why not take a break and rest a bit back at the apartment? You have to be tired after not sleeping last night." Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. It was true that Introspection gave the body a little rest, but it was far from an actual substitute for real sleep. Lumel seemed to think that was a good idea, as she returned his smile and nodded.

"That's probably for the best… but I'll at least eat dinner with you guys before I pass out, so don't be too long!" Having said her part, she hesitated for just a moment before surprising him by leaning forward and giving him a quick kiss. There were quite a number of people milling about and watching them, and Vin heard more than a few gasps as Lumel stepped back and vanished with a flash of purple. Whelp, that's gonna add to the rumor mill.

Shaking his head, Vin ignored the hushed whispers that seemed to follow him everywhere he went as he made his way over to Becca. The fact that the Tailor still hadn't looked up from her sewing reinforced his suspicions that something was very wrong. Now that he was closer, he realized she didn't even have any thread in her needle, and she was just aimlessly pushing it back and forth through the same few scraps of fabric.

"Hey, Becca," he said, crouching down beside her.

"Everything alright?"

"Hmm?" she hummed, blinking as if only just realizing she wasn't alone.

"Oh. Hey, Vin. How's it going?"

"It goes… How about you?"

"Can't complain," she sighed, pushing her needle through the fabric again as if lost in thought.

"Not too much going on around here these days."

"Really? It seems like there's always something going on if you ask me."

"Eh, I wouldn't know," she said, sighing yet again. Unsure what else to say, Vin went with the only other thing he knew about the Tailor.

"Where's Weston?"

"Sakis," she frowned, suddenly shoving the needle through the fabric hard enough to tear it slightly.

"He and a few other Farmers are learning how Sakis run their underground farm. The council wants to try setting up something similar. Said it would save space and give us another 'valuable source of food.'" Ahhh… So that's it.

"How long has Weston been gone?"

"Couple of days now," she grumbled.

"I've been trying to keep myself busy, but it's just so boring without him around." She must have picked up on the look on his face, because she finally broke out of her melancholy, snorting and waving a hand in front of his face.

"Oh God, no, it's not like that. Trust me, Weston and I are not a good fit in that sense. But he is pretty much my only friend around here. I've been trying to find stuff to do to kill time without him, but it's hella boring. No television, no phones, there's nothing to do!"

"Don't we have a library now?" he asked.

"I don't want to read! I hate reading!" she scoffed, as if the mere suggestion was an affront to her personal beliefs.

"I'm not the only one bored out of my skull, you know. There are plenty of people like me that are trying to figure out what to do with our downtime." Sure enough, Vin looked up and took in the thin crowd scattered around them. While plenty of people were whispering and not-so-subtly watching the two of them, there were plenty more who seemed to be just wandering around aimlessly, as if unsure what to do with themselves. Frowning, he turned his focus back to Becca.

"I mean… can't you work on leveling?"

"Figures you'd be one of those people," she sighed, rolling her eyes and slumping back against the building again.

"Not everyone wants to devote every second of their lives to their class, you know. I put in a good few hours every day, and that's more than enough for me. I didn't accept Sender X's message about a new life just to work myself to the bone." Vin stood there, unsure what else to suggest. Seeing as he spent pretty much all his free time either exploring Edregon at large or working on his magic, he'd never really stopped to consider exactly what the members of Terra did in their free time.

He was aware that there were plenty of people who didn't throw themselves headfirst into leveling like he had, but Becca raised a good point. What was there to actually do around here? Other than the park, which is mainly used by combat classes to train within the walls, and the library, which isn't everyone's cup of tea… There really isn't much to do in Terra, huh? No wonder rumors spread around so fast, what is there to do besides talk to people?

"Alright… you've told me about all the things you don't want to do. Out of curiosity, could you give me a few examples of things you'd like to have around town?"

"I mean, most of what I can think of isn't exactly possible here," she huffed, putting down her fabric and ticking ideas off her fingers.

"Going to the movie theater, walking through the mall, clothes shopping with girlfriends, watching live bands while drinking overpriced crap… I used to live in a small city, so there was always something to do."

"Tell you what, I'll check in with the council and see if they might have an idea or two of things we can add around town to try and give people some variety in their day-to-day lives," he said, his own mind racing as he tried and failed to come up with other ideas. As a vagabond back on Earth, he hadn't exactly had all that much money he could waste on going out and doing stuff.

"I make no promises, but Spur will probably like the idea. He's always going on about 'morale' and stuff like that."

"You'd do that? For me?" Becca asked, beaming up at him.

"Are you still taken?"

"Yes," he drawled, deciding he'd done enough at this point. It was his turn to roll his eyes as he stepped back and nodded toward her.

"In fact, you would have seen her if you'd been paying more attention. I'm sure Weston will be back before you know it. Try to hang in there for a few more days."

"What?! I missed her?!" Becca shouted, scrambling to her feet and looking all around.

"Where did she go?!"

"Goodnight, Becca," he said, turning and ignoring the woman's frantic attempts to locate Lumel. He briefly considered telling her Lumel could teleport, before deciding this was far more entertaining. It would certainly give the melancholy Tailor something to do for a few minutes at the very least.