Chương 67: (65) 2.18. The Hunt Begins

"Are you sure you wish to head out already? Now that we know the danger has passed, I'd love getting the chance to thank you and your friends for all your help these past few days." Vin gave the elder a weak grin as he ensured the rations Peter had given them were firmly tucked away within his pack, glancing over at his party waiting for him just outside the village border.

"We appreciate it, but it's a little early to say the danger has passed," Vin said, slinging his pack over his shoulder. It was tempting to let Scule carry everything in his dimensional bag, but the additional space within the artifact wasn't actually limitless, and if something happened to Scule, they'd be out all of their belongings.

"There's no telling what this person's goal is unfortunately. Until we catch up with them and figure that out, I'd keep up with the extra guards. For all we know they worship the God of Death and are just going around killing everyone, or some crazy crap like that."

"Probably for the best," the elder nodded, a grim look on her face.

"Be careful out there Vin. I much prefer conducting foreign business with someone I know and trust, and I'd be at a loss if something were to happen to you. Eithan seems to have taken a liking to you as well, and I think Peter might very well be planning to ask Shia to marry him next time you visit. Apparently your Druid friend worked some miracles with her magic while he showed her around the farm."

"I'm sure Shia will be thrilled," Vin chuckled, cracking his first genuine smile since hearing the news about the divine serial killer last night. Promising he'd be back when he could, Vin thanked the elder one last time before jogging over to his party.

"Good to go?" Alka asked, all but tapping her foot as she waited impatiently for him. Ever since hearing Scule's report yesterday, the ghost had seemed to flip flop between anger and impatience, and there was no telling which emotion was stronger at any given moment. It didn't help that Alka couldn't sleep like the rest of them, meaning it had been hours for her since she'd first heard the news.

"Yep," Vin said, just happy Alka wasn't snapping at him again. Bending down to let Scule jump onto his shoulder and Reginald leap into his front pocket, he nodded.

"Let's head out!" Her staff already in travel form, the strange wooden cat she'd dubbed Blossom, Shia galloped along beside him as he took off, doing her best not to glance at Alka's conflicted face as they headed toward the next fragment. Scule hadn't noticed any sort of tracks in the swamp fragment indicating where the killer had come from or where they might have gone, so they'd decided as a team their best bet would just be to check out the closest adjacent fragment to the swamp and start from there.

Not wanting to risk losing the killer's trail, Vin was running at the top speed his Distance Runner passive would allow, and the miles seemed to fly by as they worked together to pick out the occasional scorpion monster and divert their course. The mood was strangely tense between them as they traveled, and nobody spoke up other than to point out nearby monsters.

It was actually Vin that broke the strange atmosphere hovering over their heads after they'd been running for a few miles, realizing something with a start.

"I'm not getting any experience!" He gasped, nearly tripping over an errant rock in his surprise and almost sending a lounging Scule flying.

"What do you mean?" Shia asked a little too quickly, clearly happy for any sort of distraction from the tense mood.

"It's the first time I left Sakis since I prestiged, and despite the fact that I'm exploring new ground, I'm not earning experience for every mile anymore," Vin explained, frowning at the lack of notifications popping up.

"I used to get a little bit with every new mile."

"That's not surprising," Scule huffed, glaring at him as he retook his seat on his shoulder.

"Starter classes usually have a pretty wide net of actions that grant the user experience, but as you prestige, those actions narrow a good bit. As a Rogue, I used to get trickles of experience for successfully sneaking around people, but that's not the case anymore."

"Same here," Shia nodded.

"I don't get experience for just practicing nature magic any more since my own prestige. But I've already discovered new, better ways of earning experience. Surely you have as well?"

"Yeah…" Vin nodded, still sad to see his old methods dwindling away. Quickly explaining how he'd gotten all that free experience from just watching Eithan's spells, Scule snorted.

"I swear, some classes have all the luck," the Rogue complained, kicking Vin's shoulder.

"It's not as powerful as it sounds," Shia said, tapping her chin thoughtfully as Blossom's powerful limbs matched pace with Vin seemingly without any input from her.

"I can't imagine all that many mages would just willingly show off their spells to you like that, and you'll have to continue finding mages with new affinities. While it's a nice perk indeed, I think most of your experience is probably still going to come from learning new spells and finding new objects of power."

"Let's hope artifacts still give me experience," Vin grumbled, shifting their trajectory slightly to avoid one of the three-stinger scorpions off in the distance.

"I'm gonna have some serious complaints next time I talk to the Gods otherwise."

"At least you still can earn experience," Alka snapped, glaring at him as she floated along beside him. She wasn't bothering to pretend to run anymore, just drifting through the air with her arms crossed.

"You've had so many lucky breaks ever since you got here, maybe just be happy with what you have for once." Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"Alka, I know you're upset," Shia said, shooting the ghost a concerned glance.

"But that doesn't-""Upset? Why would I be upset?" Alka asked, cutting her off.

"We finally found a divine magic user that can put me to rest. So what if it's some sort of mass murderer, why should I care? I'm just a tag along in this world anyways, I shouldn't even be here anymore."

"Hey for all we know, whoever killed all those creatures had a good reason for doing it," Scule offered, wincing under the heat of Alka's glare.

"I don't want to talk about it, let's just find the bastard," Alka grunted. The group ran in silence after that, nobody wanting to risk angering Alka any more than she already was. The ghost was clearly upset about being put to rest by some sort of horrific killer, and was fighting her own inner war right now. It wasn't long before they finally reached the end of the stone villagers' fragment, and the group paused in front of the border.

Just a few feet ahead of them, the world abruptly transitioned from a dusty, scattering of rocks and hills to a single, unnatural flat plane of stone. The slightly reddish stone ground stretched off into the distance, completely unmarred by any sort of plant, animal, or hill.

"So…" Vin finally said, deciding their safety was worth risking Alka's wrath.

"That definitely doesn't look natural."

"I'll say. You don't get that level of flat unless you're building a foundation or something," Scule said, squinting out across the strange landscape.

"I'm not detecting so much as a single blade of grass," Shia added, frowning.

"I won't be completely useless thanks to my new passive, The Forest Within, but I'm going to be severely handicapped in there."

"The elder mentioned their warrior with Dangersense refused to take more than a few steps past the border," Vin muttered, remembering her words.

"But I don't see anything... Maybe some sort of invisible gas or something?"

"Let me try something." Sticking her head through the invisible border, Shia's tongue flicked out, tasting the air like a snake. Immediately her face scrunched up and she yanked her head back, turning and spitting onto the ground.

"Ugh!" She spat again, wiping her mouth with a disgusted grimace.

"It absolutely reeks of death mana in there, but I have no idea why. Ancient One's sap, I thought you tasted bad."

"Wait, what?" Vin asked, blinking at the elf.

"What do you mean, I taste bad?"

"Oh yeah, you're basically always covered in death mana due to being Alka's anchor," Shia said offhandedly, her focus already turned back to the strange fragment.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it." Looking down at himself with a self conscious frown, Vin briefly wondered if this world had the magical equivalent of deodorant before the other half of Shia's statement registered.

"Hold up, death mana? Does that mean we can't go into that fragment?"

"Not necessarily. Ambient mana on its own isn't really going to do anything to you other than interfere with your own casting to a degree, unless you're casting spells that have the same alignment," Shia explained.

"It might make you feel sick though. The bigger issue is the fact that this concentration of death mana has to be coming from something. And whatever that something is, that is going to be insanely dangerous based on how much death mana there is."

"Well then, I for one would like to cast my vote toward not going into the strange, creepy fragment where something is waiting to kill us," Scule said, raising his hand and looking around.

"Anyone else?"

"We already know the divine warrior seems to want to kill things," Vin sighed.

"Can't say I want to take the risk all that much either, but there's a chance it's something they did that caused all this, right Shia?"

"Maybe? But if that were the case, it would have to be an astronomical amount of death to shift the natural affinity of this fragment's ambient mana to this degree," the elf frowned.

"Either way, we should be fine so long as we stay on our toes. Our life based spells are going to have a pretty rough time in there, yours especially, but they'll still function." Their eyes turned to Alka, who had been floating silently while they mulled over what to do. Realizing they were looking at her, Alka frowned.

"Obviously I don't want to put you guys in danger… But if there's any chance of the divine user being in there, I'd appreciate it if we could at least take a look."

"Well, that just about settles it," Vin nodded, looking down at his front pocket.

"Reginald, you cool with checking out the creepy fragment?" Hearing a loud squeak, Vin glanced at the Rogue on his shoulder.

"Reginald says he's sorry, but he'd prefer not going into the scary fragment that doesn't look like it has anything worth stealing," Scule translated. A series of angry sounding squeaks erupted from Vin's pocket, before Reginald's tiny head poked out, his eyes glaring at the petian. The tip of his tail poked out as well, thrusting violently toward his companion.

"Alright, sheesh, don't get your tail in a knot!" Scule grunted, rolling his eyes.

"My apologies, I must have made a slight error there. Reginald actually says he's down to do whatever it takes to help Alka out. Easy mistake to make."

"Thanks Reginald," Alka said, giving the rat a weak grin. Saluting the ghost with the tip of his tail, Reginald squeaked one final time before dipping back into Vin's pocket, curling right back up and letting out a tiny, content sigh.

"Traitorous rat," Scule grumbled as Vin mentally prepared himself for what was about to happen.

"Alright everyone, the plan is simple. Keep your eyes peeled for anything that looks remotely dangerous, and let Shia or myself know the moment you think you need any healing. With Renewal stunted from all the death mana, better to be safe than sorry." Seeing everyone was on board, he sucked in a deep breath, staring out over the unnervingly flat fragment. He almost felt like he'd feel more comfortable if he could make out skeletons dotting the landscape.

The fact that there was simply nothing was creepy in a way he couldn't even comprehend. If it wasn't to try and find a way to put Alka to rest, he'd never willingly set foot in such a fragment. Steeling his resolve, Vin stepped forward, crossing the invisible border and entering the strange fragment. Silently praying that all of them made it back out in one piece.