Chương 66: (64) 2.17. Some Unholy News

After another full day of rocks blowing up in his face and Eithan occasionally offering his encouragement from a safe distance away, Vin finally mastered Stone Shot. Firing a few missiles of rock at some walls Eithan summoned for him as targets, Vin didn't even care about the fact that every single one of his attacks went wide. On a world filled with dangerous monsters that couldn't be reasoned with, the fact that he actually had his first useful combat spell was comforting all on its own.

Not to mention the other benefit of finally cracking his first tier two spell. Grinning, Vin finally opened up the barrage of messages he had waiting for him, knowing full well what he'd find. Runecraft lvl 3! 600 exp gained. Runecraft lvl 4! 800 exp gained. New spell learned! Tier 2 Earth Spell (Stone Shot). 10, 000 exp gained. Level up! Magical Explorer Lvl 21. +3 Attribute points to spend.

"Hell yeah!" He cheered, pumping his fist at his first level up since prestiging. He still didn't know exactly what would and wouldn't give his new class experience, but based on the fact he was now a Magical Explorer, it made sense that he still got experience for learning spells. Seeing as his magic attribute was beginning to outpace his focus, Vin dropped his three free points into focus, bringing the two closer together once more.

As nice as the boost to his mana was from his magic attribute, it didn't mean very much if his focus wasn't high enough to learn the new spells he was interested in.

"You'll have to work on your accuracy a bit, but that's to be expected." Eithan walked back over to him now that there wasn't a chance of catching a face full of loose shrapnel, a distinctly proud look on his face.

"I have to say Vin, you may have ruined teaching for me after this. I've never had a student who managed to learn their first tier two spell in only a day and a half."

"I think I'm a bit higher level than the regular apprentices you take on," Vin chuckled, appreciating the kind words nonetheless.

"Though you're right about the accuracy. I'll have to put in some serious target practice before this spell is actually combat viable."

"Not to worry, I can personally guarantee you that every Stone Mage within our village has spent countless hours getting to where they are today." Glancing up at the setting Sun, Eithan frowned, his mind clearly elsewhere.

"You haven't heard any word from your tiny friend, have you? I would understand if he wanted to stay away from the village after how we treated him, but I just finished his requested runic object earlier today and was hoping to personally give it to him if at all possible."

"I haven't heard from him, but I'm sure he's fine," Vin reassured him, memories of Reginald's speed and acrobatic ability flicking through his head.

"Scule is one thing, but the two of them together make for a pretty tough force to pin down. I have no idea what's taking him so long, but I'm sure they'll show up sooner or later."

"Well if he does show up, just send him my way. I did my best to size the runic object correctly, but I'll most likely have to make some minor adjustments to ensure it sits comfortably and won't risk falling off. Can't say I've ever made anything for such a small creature before," Eithan mused, clearly still entertained by the idea.

"I will! More importantly however…" Vin paused, taking a deep breath. It had been a real struggle coming to this decision, but in the end, it really came down to functionality. Despite how cool it would be to be able to summon up furniture whenever he wished, his party got into enough dangerous situations that they really needed another form of defense. Ideally in the form of a giant stone wall.

"... Could you show me the runic formation for Stone Wall?" Vin asked, his dreams of always having the perfect chair to sit on dashed for the moment. He could always come back and learn the spell after he'd gotten his magic up to 40, assuming he didn't run across any other earth aligned spells that were even cooler.

"Of course," Eithan chuckled, using a glowing finger to carefully etch the formation into the air between them.

"Be careful with this one. A common runic backlash while working on this formation is accidentally encasing your feet in stone. If you're planning on working on this one without an experienced Stone Mage by your side, freeing yourself may prove to be a problem."

"Don't worry, I'll be careful," Vin said, not really listening as his eyes hungrily scanned over his next project. His Iron Mind passive worked quickly to cement the formation in his mind until he could replicate it correctly within his own mana. As soon as he had the entire thing memorized he grinned, knowing it was now only a matter of time before he had yet another tier two spell under his command.

"I understand your reasoning, but I'd be remiss not to admit I think it's a shame you're not willing to adopt an earth affinity," Eithan said, a slight frown on his face.

"You throw yourself at new magic like a starving man at a loaf of bread. You could become quite the Stone Mage if you were willing to fully devote yourself."

"Thanks Eithan, that means a lot… But there's just so many different types of magic out there," Vin said, smiling wistfully at the thought of all that there was to discover scattered across this crazy new world. He'd barely scratched the surface, and already he'd found so much. Who knew what else was hiding right around the next corner?

"Earth magic is definitely impressive, but I'm not willing to make it harder on myself to learn and use other types of magic just yet."

"As I said, I understand. It's just such a shame," Eithan sighed, shaking his head.

"While my stronger spells are still lost to me for the time being, I have so many simpler ones I would love to teach you. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Vin was about to thank the Stone Mage again when he realized he was an idiot. He'd been so focused on the spells he was actually planning to learn, that he didn't even realize the amazing opportunity standing right in front of him thanks to the way his new class worked.

"Actually… even if I'm not planning on learning any more earth spells in the near future…"

"Would you mind showing me the other spells you know?"

"Ah crap, he's got that stupid grin on his face. Quick, nobody ask him what he did, he's clearly far too proud of himself." Not even Alka's observation could wipe the grin off Vin's face as he walked into their temporary house, still riding the high of his latest discovery. Before dismissing them, he glanced at his literal page of notifications one final time. New spell witnessed! Tier 1 Earth Spell (Stone Shape). 1, 000 exp gained. New spell witnessed! Tier 1 Earth Spell (Call Stone). 1, 000 exp gained.

New spell witnessed! Tier 2 Earth Spell (Stone Spike). 2, 000 exp gained. New spell witnessed! Tier 2 Earth Spell (Stone Gauntlet). 2, 000 exp gained. New spell witnessed! Tier 2 Earth Spell (Shatter). 2, 000 exp gained. New magical affinity discovered! Life affinity. 2, 000 exp gained. New magical affinity discovered! Nature affinity. 3, 000 exp gained. New magical affinity discovered! Light affinity. 4, 000 exp gained. Level up! Magical Explorer Lvl 22. +3 Attribute points to spend. +1 Skill point to spend.

After realizing he gained experience just for witnessing new magic, Vin had sat through a quick demonstration of some of Eithan's other low tier spells, gaining a nice boost of experience for his troubles. And if that wasn't lucky enough, he'd had the bright idea to check and see if the System would award him for the magical affinities attached to spells he'd already learned, and it had! Together, those two sources pushed him up to level 22.

The only downside to all the free experience was that Eithan hadn't even shown him everything he knew. After seeing Vin's growing excitement at all the spells potentially waiting for him, the Stone Mage had told Vin he'd only show him the other spells he knew if he'd come back once he'd hit 40 in his magic attribute to learn his next spell from him. Still riding the high from what had been two rather obvious ideas in hindsight, Vin didn't even realize Scule was back at first.

It wasn't until he sat down that he finally spotted the petian standing atop the table, attempting to brush what looked like chunks of disgusting muck out of Reginald's fur with little success.

"Scule!" Vin gasped, glad to see his friend unharmed.

"How long have you been back?"

"Less than an hour," Scule grumbled, clearly annoyed at how the foul smelling muck refused to leave the rat's once pristine coat.

"And I've spent nearly that entire time trying to get this demon smited junk off of Reginald. If I'd known how much of a pain getting swamp muck out of fur was, I would never have gone into that fragment!" As though in agreement, Reginald let out an annoyed squeak, before turning to somehow glare at Vin and squeaking a second time.

"Sorry Reginald, I'm glad to see you too," Vin grinned, earning himself a lower pitched squeak of satisfaction.

"You actually went into the swamp fragment? I thought you were just doing some scouting to see if there were any more threats coming."

"Well, that was the original idea," Scule nodded, clicking his tongue at a particularly stuck piece of dried muck.

"But when I didn't find any more of those creatures in this fragment, my curiosity got the better of me. Why had one of them come through to this fragment in the first place? How many others of their kind were there? What did their swamp based society look like?"

"What sorts of valuables did they keep in their homes," Shia added, rolling her eyes.

"Exactly!" Scule grinned, earning a frown from the elf.

"Hey, that thing killed a guy over some dried food. Don't go acting like this is some society of saints or anything."

"It could have been someone in exile for all you knew at the time," Alka pointed out, raising an eyebrow.

"Or are we to believe all petians are Rogues with sticky fingers and loose morals based on the only one we've met?"

"Point taken. Anyway, that's why I thought it best to take a look at what we were dealing with. See just what kind of people these freaky looking swamp things really are." Scule paused, his tiny brush hovering unmoving over Reginald's fur. A strange look Vin had never seen before overtook the Rogue as he frowned, letting out a sigh that seemed to come from somewhere deep within him.

"Finding their village… their tribe, more like, was easy. But when we got there…" Scule paused again, and this time it was Shia who stepped in, laying a comforting finger gently on Scule's shoulder.

"They'd been massacred," Shia said solemnly.

"Apparently something, or some one, had gone through and killed every single one of those swamp creatures they could find. Scule said they weren't a very advanced people, living in little more than hollowed out trees and subsisting primarily off mushroom farming and some nasty looking swamp fish. But they definitely had some form of functioning society for themselves. Based on the bodies… Scule thinks a good number of them were trying to run away when they were killed."

"As soon as I realized what happened, Reginald and I slowed way down, focusing on stealth just in case whatever had killed everyone was still around," Scule explained, seeming to get some color back thanks to Shia's touch.

"Those swamp things didn't seem all that powerful on their own, but whatever had swept through that fragment still managed to kill nearly two or three hundred of them with little issue, and I didn't want to risk picking a fight with it."

"Numbers are nature's equalizer," Alka said, floating with her arms crossed beside the table, a serious look on her face.

"Unless you have a remarkably high vigor or some serious defenses, taking out hundreds of enemies at once without sustaining any injuries is a pretty remarkable feat. Especially against a race of people that seem to have innate poison tipped claws."

"So what, the creature that came here was actually just fleeing from whatever attacked their own fragment, and we're dealing with some sort of super-serial killer?" Vin asked, glancing around the room. All the excitement he'd felt mere moments ago at leveling up again so easily was gone, replaced with a sinking feeling in his gut as his three friends traded hesitant looks.

"It gets worse," Alka growled, nodding at Scule to continue.

"As you know, I don't have a magic bone in my body," Scule explained, patting Reginald atop the head.

"Reginald here however, due to being an animal or some other reason, seems to have the ability to recognize magic. So long as the traces are thick enough."

"So whatever, or whoever did this, is a mage?" Vin asked, not understanding why that fact would make his friends look so uncertain.

"Not exactly," Scule said, hesitating.

"You see, while Reginald can't tell what type of affinity a spell uses when it comes to magic, there is one type of magic he can pick out rather easily. Sort of because of the fact that it lacks any sort of affinity. Thanks to the fact that we've spent our entire lives around it." The Rogue paused yet again, glancing at Alka as if he wasn't sure he should say what came next. Letting out an exasperated sigh, Alka turned toward Vin, her face equal parts troubled and annoyed.

"Whoever slaughtered those people used divine magic to do it."