Chương 363: (356) 5.52. New Plan!

"Alright, this undercover stuff isn't working out all that well," Vin admitted while Shia healed his nose and Alka dragged the three new corpses a ways into the horrifying insect swarm fragment. She'd been excited to see if the bugs would ignore her, and sure enough, she'd proved rather quickly that was indeed the case.

"We still have five more fragments we need to check out, and if we keep this up, there's no telling how many ranker patrols we're going to have to fight our way through."

"On the one hand, whittling down some of their stronger members isn't exactly a bad thing," Shia said, finishing up with his face and holding up the seals they'd found on the longsword-wielder who had been in charge of that group. Apparently, he'd been ranked at seventy-nine, which may have been why he was confident about stopping them despite the seals they'd taken from the woman who had been ranked eighty-six.

"But on the other hand, we're bound to attract attention to ourselves if we haven't already. I mean, for all we know their weird, giant ranking system updates automatically when one of them dies. If the rankers they have patrolling the outer edge of the alliance keep falling one after the other, that's got to warrant a response sooner or later."

"That's a good point," Vin nodded, not having even thought of that.

"That said, I don't have any better ideas than what we're currently doing. Anyone have any suggestions?"

"It's got its own risks, but we could try moving within the alliance fragments rather than hug the border," Lumel pointed out.

"We might run into more rankers if we try that, however."

"Reginald and I could scout ahead of us and bring word whenever we're about to hit another patrol," Scule offered.

"Maybe we just head into the interior of the fragment temporarily until the patrol passes before returning to the border?"

"That's a pretty good idea," Shia said, tapping her chin in thought.

"Ideally that means we don't have to fight any more roving squads, while also lowering our odds of running into anyone else closer to the middle of the fragment."

"I say we go for it," Alka said, finally rejoining them on this side of the border.

"Those two have spent the better part of the last day or two sleeping in your pocket. Might as well put them to work."

"I'll have you know I personally took out three of the rankers with my poisons so far!" Scule scoffed.

"Last I checked, you've only taken out two of them, so maybe take it easy with the accusations."

"You want to make this a contest?" Alka asked, narrowing her eyes at the petian.

"Guys, I know you both have quite the competitive spirits, but can we please not make a contest out of killing people?" Vin asked, catching Lumel's nod out of the corner of his eye.

"I know the rankers aren't good by any means, but it just feels messed up turning our self defense into a game like that."

"I'm with Vin on this one," Shia said, stepping between them both.

"Let's just keep doing what we've been doing, no need to take pleasure in it. If the two of you end up corrupting my sweet and adorable Reginald, I'll make trees grow around each of you and trap you within them for all eternity." Letting out a thankful squeak, Reginald batted his eyes and waved toward Shia.

"You lot are no fun," Alka snorted, waving away the issue.

"In that case, let's keep moving." As he'd proposed, Scule scampered out of Vin's pocket with Reginald at his side. Hopping into his saddle, Scule waved before taking off across the ground, rushing ahead of them. They all gave the duo a minute to get plenty ahead before following behind. The plan ended up working even better than they'd hoped.

Two separate times Scule and Reginald rushed back to them, warning them that another squad was approaching along the border and giving the team plenty of time to rush a bit inland and drop flat to the ground. Once the squads had passed by, they returned to the border and continued along their way. Following this strategy, they managed to make it to the next fragment without any further fighting, where they once again could do little more than simply stand there and stare at the world within.

After Lumel's fragment and the warana, Vin had finally discovered his third aquatic fragment. In the form of one massive, fragment-wide whirlpool. Vin stared with wide eyes at the monstrous whirlpool that seemed to go on without end. The current just a few feet in front of them ripped violently along the border of the fragments, and he had no doubt in his mind if anyone so much as set as single foot in that water they'd be whisked away into a watery grave.

"Look!" Lumel gasped, pointing off into the distance. It was difficult to make out, but after a moment, Vin spotted what she was pointing at, and he gasped at the impossible sight. Due to the nature of the whirlpool being angled down toward the center, they were able to see rather far down into the fragment. Far enough to make out the small island being carried around the monstrous current, slowly making rotations near the center of the fragment.

"Are you kidding me?" Scule asked, staring slack-jawed at the same sight they were.

"Are those buildings? Is that an entire village of people living in the center of a whirlpool larger than the entire citadel?!" Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

"It certainly looks like it," Shia laughed.

"That's got to be one of the craziest things we've ever seen."

"It's hard to judge, but I think the village will be about four miles away at its closest point," Vin said, using Mental Map for some quick estimates.

"Which means it's about two miles away from the dead center of the whirlpool."

"How in the world can those people hear anything?" Scule asked, still staring in awe at the distant village as it slowly moved along the current. His question was a fair one, as even standing on this side of the fragment border, the noise from the monstrous whirlpool had been absolutely deafening. Shia had been forced to cast Still Wind to even allow them to talk to one another.

"They might not have developed a need for sound at all," Lumel pointed out, her eyes shining with excitement as she took in the distant village.

"I really want to meet whoever lives out there someday."

"I can breathe underwater thanks to Replenishing Breath, but I don't know if either of us can survive the force of that current," Vin admitted, watching how violently the water smashed against the edge of the fragment.

"And the jump is too far for you to warp us over, right?"

"Sadly," she nodded.

"Though if we chain together your Create Cloud and my Mass Dimensional Shift, I think we could make it!"

"Maybe we practice that joint technique over a surface that won't instantly tear us apart if we mess up," he ventured, very carefully sticking his head into the fragment to receive his experience. Fifth ring fragment discovered! 2, 500 exp gained. I think that officially ties the floating library for the furthest fragment I've stuck my head into at this point. Kinda funny we've gone so far east and west, while leaving the north and south still so unexplored.

"The important thing is there's even less of a chance for the rankers to make their way through this fragment than there was with the last two," Alka stated confidently.

"No chance in hell anyone is swimming through a current that powerful, and I'm pretty sure it would tear a boat to pieces in an instant."

"Agreed," Vin said, glancing up at the sky. The sun had begun setting a bit ago, and they had at most another hour left before total darkness.

"I hadn't actually thought about this, but what should we do for camp? We're kind of in the heart of enemy territory right now."

"Can you dig a hole or something with your earth magic?" Scule asked.

"It's not the most elegant solution, but we could all sleep underground."

"I only know Stone Shape, I can't do anything with regular old dirt," Vin admitted.

"Though that probably wouldn't be a bad spell to pick up one of these days. Seeing as Sakis' Stone Mages managed to dig out that giant underground cavern for their farm, they must have a spell for moving dirt around."

"If we remain cautious until dark, we could just pick a random spot slightly inland and camp under the stars," Shia shrugged.

"So long as Alka keeps watch against anyone stumbling upon us, it should be fine."

"I think that's the best we're going to be able to do," Vin said.

"Unless you have any other ideas, Lumel?" Despite having grown far more comfortable around his team in all the weeks they'd spent together, Lumel was still rather reserved any time she was around anyone other than him. It was just a part of her nature, having grown up entirely on her own with little more than her individual parents or cousin to talk to. His companions all had such loud, powerful personalities, he tried to remember to help include her in the conversations whenever he could.

"No, that sounds good," she said, thanking him with a small smile.

"I've got the camping gear in my Dimensional Pocket we can use."

"This should go without saying, but if we're trying to lay low, no fires," Alka pointed out as they began heading a bit into the fragment, chuckling to herself.

"You lot are going to have to eat another cold meal."

"I need to learn some sort of microwave spell," Vin muttered as he resigned himself to another meal of room temperature bread and meat.

"Actually… I picked up a number of meals from the mess hall before we left," Lumel admitted, summoning a tray of hearty, steaming sandwiches with a flash of purple.

"It's not a perfect stasis effect, but I have a passive that helps slow down degradation of objects stored within my Dimensional Pocket. I figured we would need a few meals worth of food."

"Bless you, Lumel!" Scule said, grabbing the smallest of the sandwiches and going to town with Reginald right at his side.

"Gods, it's still warm!" he groaned, before practically diving headfirst into his meal.

"Thanks for thinking ahead," Shia grinned, grabbing the one with the most meat in it and tearing into it.

"Vin, have I ever told you just how much I approve of the two of you being together?" she asked around a mouthful of food.

"Surprisingly, you have," he admitted, chuckling as he took one of the last two sandwiches from the blushing pulmon.

"Thanks, Lumel. Hot food certainly makes camping out far more bearable."

"Just happy to pull my own weight," she said, smiling to herself as she began eating the final sandwich.

"I wouldn't worry about that," Alka admitted, her head slowly spinning around her shoulders in a full circle as she began her watch for enemies.

"Even though I was busy with my own fight, I didn't miss how you saved Vin from getting gutted and triggering his divine boon during the last fight. That was some quick thinking."

"Thank you," Lumel said, her face heating up even further from all the praise.

"I was afraid something like that might happen, so I was mentally prepared to step in."

"You hear that, Vin? Your girlfriend doesn't think you're capable of handling yourself," Scule teased.

"Seeing as I got my face bashed in, I think she was absolutely correct," Vin laughed, looking at Lumel and giving her a teasing smile and a wink.

"Though maybe next time you could warp me to safety before I get punched in the face."