Chương 463: (456) 6.70. Rest and Recovery

Despite the amount of pain he was still experiencing, Vin was in and out of the hospital in less than ten seconds. Frank took one look at him, grunted, and told him to 'think less' and to go home and sleep it off before he went back to healing a pale warrior who was very carefully holding onto a large tooth embedded in the side of their neck.

Vin could only assume based on Frank's instructions that he would be fine after a little bed rest, though he really did wish that the man had a slightly better bedside manner when it came to his patients. He was slightly tempted to try and get a second opinion from one of the lower-level Healers working under Frank at this point, but he feared for what Frank might do to him if the man ever found out. Instead, Vin did exactly as the doctor ordered.

Rather than mess around with dream magic or worry about all that was to come with the battle for wave seven right around the corner, he carefully assembled his stronghold of slumber one piece at a time, slipped into bed, and, with the power of Dormancy, fell into a blissful sleep the moment his head touched the pillow. An extra-long night of rest did wonders for his recovery, but Vin could tell the moment he opened his eyes that he wasn't out of the woods just yet.

His eternal migraine had been lessened to merely a pounding headache, which just went to show how powerful and dangerous the Rebel Queen had truly been. Even with his insanely high focus, his Total Resistance skill, and his Survivor title, Vin had barely managed to walk away from the encounter. The realization that anyone else probably would have just had their mind turned into mush the moment they stepped into the Rebel Queen's chambers was a chilling one, and Vin decided he'd earned his much-needed rest.

After sleeping in late and spending a lazy afternoon in bed with Lumel, catching up on everything that the other missed and getting to spend some quality time with one another, the two of them had an oddly calm day. Vin had been ordered to think less, and that was precisely what he was intending to do.

He and Lumel headed to one of the smaller, less-crowded restaurants for a late lunch where he got to experience eating a meal with a prestiged Singer quietly practicing their craft off to the side to the enjoyment of all the happy restaurant-goers. After that, they wandered between the 'shops', picking out a few new pieces of furniture and objects for the apartment that Lumel easily stored within her Dimensional Pocket for them to set up later.

Vin still found the experience of walking into a shop, spotting something he wanted, and simply taking it without even talking to anyone as incredibly weird, but that was the town they lived in now. Currency didn't exist yet if ever, and what was most important was that crafters were encouraged to continue creating new things and honing their skills.

After another lazy dinner, followed by an evening spent rearranging furniture within the apartment for no reason other than they could, the two of them ran away laughing from an irate Scule who shouted at them for picking up a slightly taller table when he tried to leap onto it and smacked his stomach into the side. Turning in early for the night, Vin allowed himself to lay in comfort and bliss for a few minutes as he enjoyed the feeling of Lumel already snoozing against his side, curled up within his arms.

All day, he'd been battling against the urge to help with the preparations for the upcoming wave, or get to work on his magic and ensure he was as prepared as possible. But the constant ache in the back of his head from his still-healing brain had been an excellent reminder that sometimes, it was important to slow down just a tad and remember exactly why they pushed themselves so hard in the first place.

With a satisfied smile on his face, Vin kissed Lumel's cool forehead before letting himself slip into a dreamless sleep as well. Even with the headache, it had been a wonderful day of relaxation and healing with Lumel at his side. But he was ready to get right back into what needed to be done.

"Thank God," Vin muttered when he woke up the next morning. Stretching, he tried shaking his head gingerly from side to side, smiling to himself at the confirmation that his headache was finally gone for good.

"Looks like I'm good to go again!"

"Glad to hear," Lumel smiled, giving him a gentle kiss before getting up and summoning her robes with a flash of purple.

"As much fun as yesterday was, it felt strange not spending any time working on magic. We don't have a ton of time, either, so let's get to it!" Vin wouldn't exactly say they were pressed for time, but he knew what Lumel meant. At this point, it had been thirty-six days since the battle for wave six.

With Golrim and John's prediction that the next wave of earthers would be arriving roughly fourteen to sixteen days earlier than the sixty days they were supposed to have between waves six and seven, that meant they had anywhere from eight to ten days of prep before they were overrun by monsters. Plenty of time for a normal person, but not a whole lot of time for dedicated spellwork if Vin wanted to put together some of the ideas he had rattling around within his head the past few weeks.

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"What are you going to spend your time working on?" Vin asked as the two of them got dressed. He noticed how Lumel was still wearing her simple, dark robes despite having visited with Becca and gotten some new outfits for herself, but he didn't say anything. Presumably, she was still getting comfortable with the idea of showing even just her face to people around town, and he didn't want to rush her by any means. It didn't hurt that he thought she looked beautiful in just about anything she wore.

"The same thing I've spent the last couple of weeks working on," she admitted, smiling as she gave him a sly look.

"Trust me, while it's definitely not a combat spell, you're going to be blown away when I put the finishing touches on it and show you what it can do. I think I'll keep it a surprise for now."" Weeks? As in plural?" Vin asked, thinking back to the runic formation he'd noticed within Lumel's mana pool shortly after the battle for wave six. It was true she'd had something larger than any spell he'd ever seen before at the time, and he'd almost forgotten about it in all the craziness that had happened recently.

"Hold on, are you working on a tier 5 spell?!"

"That would sort of defeat the purpose of it being a surprise if I answered that, now wouldn't it?" Lumel giggled.

"What about you though? Are you going to need any help the next few days? My potential runic backlashes are dangerous enough that it would be smart for me to work on my new spell away from anyone else, just to be safe."

"Not this time. I've got a good number of ideas for spells I want to try putting together, and none of them are spatial," Vin admitted, frowning slightly as he looked at her.

"And my safety is important and all, but don't forget your own safety. I wouldn't want you to experience a backlash so strong that it shoves your legs into another dimension and leaves you bleeding out on the floor of the Underside, far from anyone who could possibly help you."

"Don't worry, I'll be fine," Lumel promised.

"Meet up back here each night so we can keep practicing in our dreams?"

"Sounds like a plan," Vin nodded, chuckling to himself as he realized how crazy that sounded.

"Man, when did I become such a workaholic?" With that, Lumel vanished in a flash of purple, and Vin headed out to start his day. He did have a number of spells he was itching to throw himself into the creation of, but he had other responsibilities he needed to see to first before he vanished from the face of Edregon for the next week. Shuvo and his other apprentices were most likely still working their way through the handful of spells he'd given them just a few days ago, so Vin headed over to town hall instead.

He wasn't planning to sit in on an entire council meeting, but he figured a quick check-in with Spur probably couldn't hurt. After exchanging pleasantries with Linda, Vin wandered upstairs and into Spur's office, where he found the Commander elbow deep in paperwork as per usual.

"You look like you're having a time," Vin said, laughing as Spur glanced up at him and frowned.

"And you're looking like someone with some free time who showed up to ask me to help with the boring side of running Terra," Spur said, shaking a loose form at him threateningly.

"Is that it? You want to weigh in on whether or not we should allow any of our combat classes to duck out ahead of all the fighting?"

"Wait, what?" Vin asked, his smile faltering as he realized Spur was serious.

"Who wants to leave? And to where?"

"A few dozen of our mages and combat classes want to go 'support' Sakis and ensure they remain unharmed during the upcoming battle," Spur drawled, tossing the paper to the side and grimacing as he rubbed at his temples.

"It's obvious that they're just terrified of the fighting to come, but that doesn't matter. The real question is do we want to force a handful of people who will most likely crack under the pressure of battle to be a part of our defensive line, or do we let them sit this one out?"

"That's a tough one," Vin admitted, once again thankful that these common, everyday decisions usually weren't up to him.

"Did the council weigh in on it?"

"They decided it was up to Phil and myself, and Phil told me to deal with it," Spur sighed, shaking his head.

"Honestly, I'm leaning toward letting them go to Sakis for the battle, but that opens up a slippery slope this late in the game. If we let a few people leave when the going gets tough, then more will want to do the same next time. And at this point, we're getting dangerously close to the battle for wave nine. When that hits…"

"We're going to need every able-bodied person in all of Terra fighting for their lives in order to survive," Vin nodded, shivering at the thought of what was to come. Monsters were created in response to grand-workings of magic. Each of the deadly waves they battled were due to the massive, universe-spanning rituals the Gods used to bring a thousand people over from Earth. But the ninth wave wasn't going to consist of a thousand people.

It was going to hold ten thousand people, which meant the monster wave would presumably be ten times as deadly. Even with every single person helping out, Vin wasn't certain if they'd be able to survive as they were now. Letting even a few dozen or a hundred leave was out of the question.

"Maybe I can work with Mai to find somewhere in the backlines they can fight from," Spur muttered. Shaking his head, he made a shooing motion toward Vin before grabbing a different stack of papers from his desk.

"Anyway, that's not for you to worry about. I appreciate the check in, but the rest of us have things covered for now. You want to know how you can help with the final preparations? Go make a new spell that will help us beat back the army of monsters that's to come. Think you can manage?"

"I was thinking it was about time I put together a new combat spell anyway," Vin admitted.

"Took you long enough," Spur scoffed, plopping himself down and lazily throwing a pen at him without even looking up that came nowhere close.

"What are you still doing here then? Go play with your stupid runes, there's no time to waste! I'm expecting some sort of big explosion when you're done!"