Chương 397: (390) 6.4. Death Beckons

To Vin's surprise, Grant took the unexpected cast of Redirect Gravity rather well, and even seemed downright warm toward his team of nonhumans when Vin introduced his teammates. After a quick bowl of stew from the eternal stew pot, and Vin assuring Telin he hadn't forgotten about his promise to pass along the older avisul's message to Quill should they ever run into the avisul that had fled the sky fragment, Lumel leapfrogged them across the clouds back to the dungeon.

One quick trip through the Underside later, and Grant was deposited into the waiting hands of Linda at the town hall. The rest of the day was spent poking his head into all the different fragments Vin had discovered during his time on Edregon thus far. While he had plenty of things on his to-do list that he was eager to get to, searching for the missing Earthers who should have been a part of wave six was priority number one.

Edregon was an incredibly dangerous place for the unprepared, and it was beyond deadly for anyone to be wandering around on their own. Let alone someone who was still level 1. After Grant, Vin ended up finding and bringing back five other missing Earthers who had managed to survive their first day on Edregon all on their own.

One had been hiding up in a tree in the fragment containing the Necromancer's compound, saved solely due to the fact that the Necromancers frequently patrolled the land with their undead warriors and kept it relatively clear of monsters. Two others had been discovered in the crater-filled terrain of the fragment with the floating library, the duo getting lucky in that the librarian had done something ages ago that prevented monsters from spawning in her fragment entirely.

One was found having the time of their life swimming through the air from bubble to bubble in the zero-gravity bubble fragment, miraculously not having been attacked by any of the monsters hiding in the darker bubbles. And the final Earther they'd discovered in Epli's home fragment of all places, cowering flat against the ground as repeated, infinite lightning strikes cracked down from overhead against the raised stone spires.

"And that marks the last of them," Vin said, letting out a weary sigh as Linda took the poor woman off his hands who was still flinching at every single loud noise. He had a feeling loud noises and bright lights were going to be a problem for her for some time now, and he could only hope that the fabled therapist he kept hearing so much about was up to the challenge.

"If any other Earthers survived, they either already made it to level 2 and put a point into magic, or they're in fragments I haven't visited yet."

"Good work as always," Myers said, giving him a warm smile.

"Out of curiosity, couldn't you just poke your head into fragments you haven't explored yet and try casting your 'Sense Earther' spell?"

"Not unless I wanted to tick off the Gods and potentially cripple myself," Vin explained.

"While we were scoping out the deadly fragments surrounding the rankers, I did just that, sticking my head into one fragment after another just for the experience boost. Then I got a warning that venturing momentarily into a fragment for any reason other than fully heading into it with the intention of exploration was a big no-go when it came to my class.

Technically, I can cast the spell so that it stretches from one fragment to another, but that's a whole different problem on its own related to mana that I really don't want to get into right now."

"I see. In that case, while it pains me to say it, any other missing Earthers are on their own for the moment," Myers said, frowning as she looked down at the clipboard she'd been checking names off of. A quick glance showed Vin it was a list of all the missing Earthers who should have shown up with the sixth wave, and his heart went out to them.

While the majority had probably slipped out of the God's ritual halfway between universes and had presumably died instantly in the cold vacuum of space, the odds were good that at least a small handful had been scattered across Edregon and left to fend for themselves.

"You're more important than any level 1 Earther. We can't risk losing one of our best assets."

"I hate the whole, higher-level people are worth more standpoint… but I get it," Vin said, deciding to change the subject.

"Any chance you could ask Witherson about potentially constructing some sort of temple to the Gods here in Terra next time you see her? We're getting to the point that I think being able to potentially reach out and talk to them more easily would be a good idea. Not that they're guaranteed to answer, but still."

"It would certainly make many of the Bands happy," Myers nodded.

"Witherson may even be skilled enough at this point to remove their statue of rebirth from their fragment and bring it back here to Terra. At least we know that one has a genuine connection to the Gods. Why not ask her yourself, though?"

"I've got my own hands full with some tasks that require me to leave Terra for a bit," Vin admitted, wincing as he realized how that sounded.

"Not that you're not insanely busy, of course, just seeing as your stuff is still here in Terra, I was hoping…"

"I'll let her know you asked," Myers grinned, causing Vin to shake his head and thank her once again before heading out of the town hall. While she wasn't technically a member of the council, Myers was arguably more important to many of the day-to-day functions of Terra than any one of them were.

Somehow she managed to balance her insane creations as a crafter specializing in monster parts with her logistical duties, which had earned her, Linda, and Golrim the half-joking title of the dark council, said to be the ones truly ruling over Terra from behind the shadows. While that wasn't actually the case, she certainly wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty now and again.

Vin felt like the two of them had really bonded a few months back when they'd secretly gone out under the cover of darkness to dig up the dead body of the most hated woman in Terra and interrogate it with his False Life spell. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. His hunt for the missing Earthers had gone late into the night, so Vin decided to snag a few hours of sleep before carrying on with everything he had to do.

The call of his stronghold of slumber grew stronger with every addition he made, and now that he had the actual Sleeping skill, he had one more excuse to utilize all his hard work whenever he could. On his way out of town after grabbing a quick breakfast the next morning, Vin paused at the familiar sight of something that didn't make a lick of sense.

A businessman complete with a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist, shined shoes, and pristine sunglasses hiding his eyes was striding toward him, holding a finger against his earpiece as he spoke.

"Approaching the target now. Preparing to make the swap in three… two… one…"

"Isn't this one a little on the nose?" Vin asked, raising an eyebrow as the well-dressed stranger stopped before him and held out the briefcase, as if waiting for him to accept it.

"I mean, a Spy pretending to be a different kind of spy? It sort of feels like you're slacking on your thing."" Slacking?!" the businessman gasped in a voice that did not at all go with his persona. Doing a quick twirl, the pressed slacks and sunglasses were replaced with gray Project Ark fatigues and an astonished Theodore as Terra's resident Spy gave Vin a hurtful look.

"I put a lot of effort into these fun encounters! Do you have any idea how hard it was to find someone who had an actual pair of handcuffs? It took me hours!" For whatever reason, Theodore had spent the last few months trying to surprise Vin with weirder and wilder encounters anytime Vin made his way back to Terra. Due to his Adaptive Attire passive and Public Persona Capstone, the Spy was able to shift his appearance largely at will, actually becoming whoever he was pretending to be.

There were limitations of course, and Vin could usually pick him out just from a quick cast of Sense Magic, but Theodore seemed to get a kick out of these little run ins, and thus they continued.

"Glad to see you're keeping yourself busy," Vin snorted.

"Does the vice-head of my Foreign Branch have any updates for me, or are you just stopping by to say hi?"

"There is one update, actually," Theodore admitted, popping open the briefcase and pulling out a tiny skull.

"You got a message a few days ago, back when you were asleep during your two-week-long dream journey. With the whole 'impending destruction of Terra' about to happen before the battle for wave six, and then the importance of hunting for the missing Earthers, I didn't want to bother you about it."

"I honestly forgot I'd even given that to you," Vin admitted, taking the skull back from him and frowning at it. In all the weeks he'd been holding onto the skull, not once had it so much as twitched, let alone open its mouth and speak to him. Groth, the Resourceful Necromancer who had taken Landon off his hands and agreed to teach the Poet the basics of Necromancy, had given it to him with the explanation that should he be needed for any reason, he'd be informed of such via the skull.

Despite the continued radio silence, knowing he was going to be unconscious for a while, Vin had handed the skull off to Theodore on the off chance there actually was an emergency and Landon needed them.

"What did Groth say?" Vin asked, hoping it wasn't anything important.

"He just informed us that Landon had progressed as far as they were willing to take him for now, and asked that we come provide safe passage for him sometime back to Terra," Theodore explained.

"Something about him not being able to utilize their own undead due to being an outsider."

"Ah, that makes sense. Groth made it sound as though the undead warriors they reanimate and improve upon with their magic were their own people. It was all one big, tight-knit cycle from what I gathered. Even if they're teaching him, Landon's not an actual part of their community, so they probably aren't letting him work with their own dead. He's been gone for a good two or three months now, that was probably more than enough time to learn all the lower-tier spells they could teach him."

"So… does that mean the moment he gets back he's going to start digging up our bodies?" Theodore asked, shivering at the thought.

"Can't say I'm a big fan of the idea."

"Doubtful. Frank diagnosed him with having 'the bastard child of heliophobia and agoraphobia.' Basically, he's afraid of the sun, and afraid of going outside in general. He won't be robbing any graveyards, not even under the cover of darkness. I'll bring him up to the council, we'll have to come up with some way of allowing him to continue progressing as a Necromancer without making a horde of enemies and getting burned at the stake."

"And here I was already getting excited for a luau!" Theodore grinned.

"Anyway, that's the only update I had for you. Well, it sounds like Kelly's and her elf boyfriend's relationship is getting pretty serious from what I've picked up, but that's not really news. Though I get the vibe she's trying to hide something from us for whatever reason, which is definitely strange. She normally won't stop yapping about how amazing the elves are all the time, so seeing her try to be coy is a new look."

"She is an Elven Diplomat," Vin pointed out, wondering what in the world the elf-obsessed woman was up to. After Theodore, Kelly was the next highest member of his small Foreign Branch, though she certainly didn't act like it. The woman had taken one look at the Sacred Forest and had all but cast off her humanity, deciding elves were far superior and attempting to integrate herself into their society.

According to Shia, while a lot of the elves were fine or at least indifferent to her, a handful had already grown tired of all the questions she asked whenever she was over there.

"Maybe I'll swing by and check in with Erik at some point. Not like I don't have a million other things I need to do, but it is always nice to connect with old friends."

"Don't wear yourself too thin!" Theodore warned.

"If the Roamer ends up collapsing from exhaustion in the middle of the street, that's going to do a real number on Terra's morale. Especially for the new members of wave six! You didn't help out with the truth-gem screening this time around, so they're all getting to know you through your shining reputation and the rumor mill!"

"Gods help me," Vin muttered, ignoring Theodore's snickering as he continued on toward the edge of town. The last thing he needed right now was for his overinflated image to get any larger.