Chương 360: (353) 5.49. Unfriendly Neighbors

With Tremorsight active, Vin was able to lead everyone across the fragment far quicker than they had been traveling before. It was awkward, but they managed a lopsided, loping run while holding hands with one another as they made their way through the darkness. Thankfully, Tremorsight worked even better than he could have hoped for, easily allowing him to pick out the occasional patch of ground that had been altered into a pitfall.

He had absolutely no idea what kind of monster went around digging twenty-foot-wide holes in the ground for blind wanderers to stumble into, and he wasn't in any rush to find out. As they ran, he 'saw' a small handful of natural wildlife that seemed to have adapted to the magical darkness as best it could. They passed the occasional mole poking its head out of the ground and sniffing in their direction, as well as a number of tiny crab-looking creatures that scurried away as they got close.

There wasn't a ton of vegetation that he could see in the fragment, but his spell did highlight each and every one of the minute insects that existed within his sphere of vision, which was rather unnerving. On their way to the next fragment, they entertained themselves by coming up with more and more outlandish reasons as to what happened to the people who had been living in this fragment.

There was no telling if they'd left the area before or after the fragment had been snatched up by the Gods, so there were plenty of theories being thrown around.

"It makes the most sense that the people living on the fragment had all been killed by the monsters after having their levels and abilities reset back to level 1," Shia explained, as though the answer were obvious.

"Think about it. If they'd relied on the older members of their group having specific abilities to see in the darkness, it wouldn't be a stretch to assume they'd all been helpless after the reset and easy pickings."

"That does make sense," Alka agreed.

"However, I stand by my theory. While wandering around on a routine scouting mission, they accidentally stumbled out of the darkness and decided to find a new home in one of the adjacent fragments where they could actually see what the hell they were doing."

"You're both wrong," Scule scoffed.

"Vin only checked for them with Sense Soul, right? Obviously, the people living here are soul-less abominations who merged with the monsters eons ago and now spend their days trapping helpless travelers who are unfortunate enough to enter their domain. That's why he didn't sense them."

"I don't think that's possible," Lumel muttered, joining the conversation.

"My theory is that the people here were nomads and left the bounds of the fragment before it was taken by the Gods."

"Booo, that's boring!" Scule said.

"Come on, Vin, show her how it's done! What do you think happened?"

"Honestly, Lumel's answer is probably the correct one," he said, squeezing her hand and getting a smile out of her before he gave it some more thought.

"But for a fun answer… I keep seeing the occasional mole as we run. I think in order to survive the darkness, they somehow underwent a horrifying magical transformation, losing their humanities in the process and turning themselves into common animals that live underground."

"Hells yeah, now that's a prediction!" Scule cheered.

"Reginald, thoughts?" Reginald squeaked out a quick answer, causing Scule to burst out laughing and Vin to shake his head.

"What did he say?" Shia asked.

"I'm pretty certain it was something about getting eaten by rats," Vin said, deciding that was enough of that.

"Anyway, if you guys are curious, I've been tracking us with Mental Map. We should be just about to hit the next fragment."

"On the one hand, I'm more than ready to be able to see again," Shia said.

"Though on the other hand, this is going to be another incredibly dangerous fragment, right?"

"That or one of the fragments that the alliance live in," Vin admitted.

"I never learned precisely where the orcs or beastkin fragments were located, just that they were adjacent to the rankers."

"I suppose we'll find out soon enough," Alka said, suddenly letting go of his hand and racing forward.

"Catch you guys on the other side!"

"Alka!" Shia shouted, frowning as Alka ran off.

"Did she seriously just sprint ahead?"

"I think the darkness is bothering her more than she's letting on," Vin admitted.

"Hey, Lumel, can you teleport us past her? It would be hilarious if we beat her."

"I can do that," Lumel giggled, tightening her grip on his hand.

"Hold on." The world warped around them, and suddenly, they were blind.

"Gah!" Scule cried out, echoing the rest of them as they all desperately tried to shield their eyes from the blinding sunlight.

"I was staring right at it!"

"I completely forgot about the sun!" Vin laughed, deciding to keep his Tremorsight spell active for a bit longer as he waited for his eyes to adjust. The spell's base range wasn't anything massive, capping out at about thirty feet away unless he dumped mana into it to extend it, so he wasn't picking up much.

"Serves you guys right for cheating," Alka said, running out of the darkness a bit to the right of them and laughing as she pointed.

"You meatsacks and your fleshy-eyes! Suffer before me!"

"While we're suffering, could you keep an eye out for anything that wants to stab us?" Shia offered with tears streaming down her eyes as she tried to force them to stay open.

"In hindsight, while it was certainly funny, that was a pretty stupid thing to do seeing as we know these fragments are dangerous."

"Eh, what's the point in even having a gem of resurrection if we don't plan on using it one of these days?" Scule asked, pulling some potion out of his cape and dripping it into his eyes to help them adjust. Vin got to witness the weird connection Scule and Reginald shared through their Magical Bond passive in real time when Reginald immediately blinked and looked around perfectly fine in the bright light after Scule finished applying his own eyedrops.

"Vin, you still have that, right? You didn't lose it when the rankers took you captive?" Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"It's safe within my Dimensional Sheath," Vin confirmed, all but sensing the powerful artifact drifting along behind him in another dimension.

"Don't worry."

"More importantly, there's nothing dangerous as far as I can see," Alka stated.

"Either this fragment has some sort of horrifying danger hidden within it, or we found one of the alliance fragments."

"Well, that's a nice change of pace at the very least," Vin said, quickly getting to the point where he could crack his eyes open. Letting Tremorsight end, he squinted as he peered around the brightly lit landscape. Fourth ring fragment discovered! 2, 000 exp gained. Just as Alka had said, at first glance, the fragment appeared pretty normal.

Large, rolling hills covered in lush grass, the occasional tree growing here and there, and small critters that reminded him of hamsters scurrying about, darting in and out of tiny burrows. He watched as a small bird shot down out of the sky like an arrow, snatching one of the hamsters as it dove for a burrow before swooping away with its prize secured within its talons.

"No immediate threats as far as I can tell," Vin declared, getting a grunt from Shia who was adjusting to the light a bit slower than he was. Glancing over at Lumel, he laughed when he realized she was calmly waiting with her eyes shut, her face free of any sort of pain. She'd reverted back to her usual translucent state, which meant he could actually see her eyes through her eyelids.

"Lumel, you can't just turn off your optical nerves! Your eyes won't adjust if you do that!"

"Actually, they will," she said, turning and smiling in his direction, her eyes still completely shut.

"One of the nice things about pulmon biology."

"Consider me a bit jealous," Shia said, squinting at her with watery eyes.

"Hey guys, we've got incoming," Alka warned, snapping them out of their banter as they turned to follow her gaze. Following the wall of darkness from the direction of the ranker fragment came three human warriors, the sight of which made Vin's heart sink. From the pointed ears on one of them and the light layer of scales on another, it was safe to assume they were clearly rankers.

And based on the frowns on their faces and weapons held at the ready, they did not look as if they were preparing to roll out the welcome mat.

"You five!" the one in the lead shouted, a woman holding a thin sword at her side that looked like it belonged in a fencing tournament rather than on an actual warrior.

"Did you just emerge from the zone of darkness?"

"No, we're crying because we love the sun that much!" Scule called back, reaching into his cape and pulling out his blowgun.

"The five of you will need to come with me," she demanded, ignoring Scule entirely as her eyes landed on Alka. Based on how the ranker's stance shifted, she seemed to decide as if Alka was the one in charge. Seeing as their entire society was built around martial might, Vin wasn't the slightest bit surprised that she'd assume that, as Alka did look like a knight clad from head-to-toe in black armor.

"Can you at least tell us if this is the orc or the beastkin fragment before we fight?" Shia asked, tossing her staff to her side and commanding it to morph into Blossom without so much as a word. One of the two warriors lagging behind the lead woman blinked at the sudden transformation, but he didn't lower his weapon.

"This is your final warning," she threatened, not taking her eyes off of Alka.

"If you continue to refuse, things are going to get violent. We only need one of you alive to answer our questions."

"Alright, I see why you don't like these guys," Scule said, looking up at Vin and shaking his head.

"Buncha pricks, honestly." That was evidently just a hair too much for the woman, as she snarled and activated a skill." Piercing Lunge!" Scule yelped as the ranker covered the distance between them in an instant, the tip of her sword aimed directly for his chest. Luckily, Vin's Threat Detection had warned him just in time, and he caught the sword by the blade with his golem hand a split second before Scule was skewered.

"Yeah, that's not happening," he said, his hand flashing blue as he shattered the thin blade effortlessly. The woman's eyes went wide and she tried to leap back and grab a dagger from her belt, only to find her feet had been rooted to the ground by a silently cast Entangle on Shia's part. Falling hard onto her back, she didn't even get a chance to try and recover as Scule fired a dart almost straight down into her neck.

Vin's stomach churned when the woman's veins turned a sickly green as they spread whatever poison Scule had used in his attack through her body. She spasmed for the briefest of moments, before going limp, her body having succumbed to the poison.

"Dear God, Scule, what the hell was that?!" Vin asked, glancing at the petian. He knew Scule was a twice-prestiged Rogue of Poisons, but he'd never seen him actually kill someone so effortlessly before.

"She tried to stab me!" Scule argued, spitting down at the woman's body.

"I'd say she got what she deserved."

"Focus!" Alka shouted, leaping in front of them and readying her sword as the two other warriors sprinted toward them.

"I got the idiot with the scales, you guys take the other!"

"No need to get so worked up," Shia said, raising a hand and casting at the human on the left as he ran." Grass Spikes." The long grasses of the fragment turned rigid and stabbed at the man's lower body, intending to pierce through his legs and hamstring him. But to their surprise, the warrior slashed out with his sword in a rapid flurry, cutting through every single one of the magical attacks without even slowing down.

"Alright, maybe they're a bit more skilled than I thought," Shia admitted, taking a healthy step back and behind Blossom.

"Vin?" Feeling Scule leap from his shoulder over to Lumel's, Vin moved in front of his team to intercept the attacking swordsman. It was only as he went to fight in his usual defensive manner that he remembered he was still missing his quarterstaff that Shia had carved him months back. Most likely, it was sitting in the rankers' dungeon somewhere.

Clicking his tongue, he did his best to fight without it, blocking slashes with his golem arm and summoning stone pillars to block attacks he wasn't fast enough to fully dodge. While Vin waited for an opening to fire off a mana-empowered Stone Shot at point-blank range, the man surprised him with his own skill." Mirror Slash!" he shouted as he went for a slash at Vin's left side. A reflection of his blade suddenly appeared on Vin's right as well, the two aiming to fully bisect him without warning."

Dimensional Sheath!" Vin countered, summoning the petrified elderwood door to block the mirrored slash as he used his golem arm to deflect the regular one. Just as he was preparing for a follow up attack, another dart shot straight past his ear, sinking deep into the man's eye. Letting out a howl of pain, the man began violently twitching before dropping his sword and collapsing to the ground, his bleeding eye already turning a horrid black that began spreading across the rest of his face.

"Finally!" Scule said, laughing maniacally as Alka finished off her own combatant.

"It's so nice getting to fight things that poison actually works against!"