It took three entire days for Vin and his party to fully recover from the after effects of the purification ritual. When asked, Madam Trebella had explained that the more the ritual was forced to purify, the longer the recovery period would be. And according to her, Vin’s party had pretty much set a record for sheer amount of gunk the ritual had pulled from them.

  Seeing as their entire bodies had been dying on a cellular level, Vin couldn’t say he’d been all that surprised.

  Thankfully, a bit of a breather was exactly what he needed after so many near death experiences in a row. And now that they had Madam Trebella’s gift, they didn’t have to worry so much about being unable to track down the wandering divine warrior.

  So it was that his party agreed to take it easy and rest up in the infernal village for a few days.

  Shia was clearly eager to find a way to talk to her master again, but now that she knew that was reliant on finding another dungeon, she was doing an excellent job of restraining herself from running off into the wilderness. Once she was able to walk again, she first took care of sending the golem cores from the previous fragment over to Erik via two of her seeds that seemed to sprout into a pair of birds made from leaves of all things. That done, she quickly made friends within the village, her jagged teeth seeming to win over the horn and claw filled species surprisingly quickly.

  Scule was actually on his best behavior for once, too nervous to risk stealing anything from any of the demon-like infernals and instead spending his time investigating some of the more toxic materials the Witches and Warlocks used in a few of their curses. Malzar was more than happy to entertain the tiny man’s requests to show him different materials, and Vin occasionally spotted the two of them running off into the woods together doing who knows what.

  He'd briefly wondered just how the two of them were communicating in the first place, but seeing as Malzar was a Warlock himself, he figured the boy must have some sort of translation charm or something.

  For her part, Alka was rather quiet. The fact that trying to help her had nearly gotten them all killed seemed to have hit the ghost particularly hard, and she spent most of the three days alone. The few times Vin tried to check up on her, she’d reassured him that she was okay, and that she just wanted some time to herself to think.

  Reginald…

  Well, Vin was pretty certain Reginald had made a few lady friends with a couple other rats he occasionally saw scampering around the village. The rats in this fragment had green tinted fur and stubbier tails, but based on how often he saw Reginald running around with a new companion, he didn’t seem to mind.

  With everyone else doing their own thing, Vin was thankfully able to spend his own recovery doing what he did best.

  Magic.

  Runecraft increased to lvl 5! 1,000 exp gained.

  New spell learned! Tier 2 Earth Spell (Stone Wall). 10,000 exp gained.

  Level up! Magical Explorer lvl 24!

  +3 Attribute points to spend.

  +1 Skill point to spend

  Finally given a moment to breathe, he’d been able to actually sit down and focus on the runic formation still locked away within his Iron Mind passive. True to Eithan’s warning, Vin did end up needing to enlist the help of a few friendly infernals and their chisels more than once when his runic backlashes encased his feet in a thick stone.

  Due to the fact that his runic backlashes were starting to get actually concerning and mildly dangerous, and seeing as he actually had time to kill for once, Vin hadn’t rushed this one. He’d spent a long, relaxing day in Meditation mastering the nuances of the spell, and the System had finally rewarded him for his hard efforts with a level up he’d been eagerly awaiting.

  Meditation increased to lvl 20! 2,000 exp gained.

  Level 20 Meditation is capable of skill evolution. Spend a skill point to evolve skill?

  Vin had happily spent his freshly acquired skill point before it could get comfortable, earning himself his second evolved skill.

  Meditation lvl 20 has evolved into Introspection lvl 1! 200 exp gained.

  Naturally, the first thing he’d done had been to experiment with the skill.

  Unlike Meditation, which allowed him to shut out outside distractions to better focus on his internal mana pool, Introspection was a bit more... intense. The first time he’d activated the skill, he’d broken right back out of it screaming at the sensation of falling face first inside himself.

  Introspection allowed him to actually go within his own mana pool. After toughing out the sensation of falling, Vin had found himself standing in a dark void not unlike the one he’d first ended up in during his class selection when he first came to Edregon.

  This one, however, also had his mana drifting by like a transparent cloud all around him.

  Through some trial and error, Vin discovered the skill allowed him to far more easily shape his mana into the runes and formations he wanted. It was like he’d been forced to wear gloves all this time while working with clay, and he’d finally been given permission to take those gloves off.

  Vin had been ecstatic at the discovery of how his newest skill worked, happily experimenting and getting used to his more nimble mental fingers.

  Right up until he finally cancelled the skill with the intention of grabbing some lunch, only to find the sun had already set and he’d spent his entire second day of recovery within it.

  He did end up leveling the skill twice, but losing an entire day had been a jarring discovery, and Vin decided he wouldn’t experiment with the skill anymore until he had someone by his side ready to pull him out in case of emergencies. Thankfully, his evolved skill did still seem to allow him to access basic Meditation. And while that still messed with his sense of time a bit, it wasn’t nearly to such a strong degree.

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  Vin’s final day of recovery had been spent doing exactly what he’d been specifically instructed not to do.

  After locking himself in the room they’d been given, Vin had closed the curtains and pulled out Madam Trebella’s gift. The Witch had provided him with a charm of her own making; one that supposedly would allow them to track down the divine warrior regardless of how far he’d travelled.

  While he was fleeing her village, Madam Trebella had apparently struck the divine warrior with one or two curses to try and dissuade him from ever coming back. At first she’d been afraid he had some method of purifying himself, but a quick ritual was all she’d needed to confirm that at least one of her curses was still going strong, prompting her to this idea.

  After asking Vin and his friends to take care of the divine warrior, she’d offered Vin what was essentially a magical metal detector, but for curses rather than metal. It was a small triangular stone with what he could only hope was red paint sprinkled over one of the tips. When held, the stone would spin around for a moment before the reddish tip would unerringly point off in a specific direction, toward the nearest curse.

  According to Madam Trebella, the charm was nothing more than a simple cantrip magnified to allow it to function with a much greater range. Due to the fact that nobody else in the nearby fragments should be suffering from any sort of curse, it should lead them directly to the divine warrior.

  Before handing it to him, she’d informed him in no uncertain terms that if she found out he’d reverse engineered her spell from the charm, there would be serious consequences.

  Hence closing the curtains.

  At first, Vin had assumed that ‘charms’ were just this fragment’s terminology for artifacts, similar to how the elves in the Sacred Forest called them objects of power. But after feeling around within the charm, he’d been surprised to realize they were in fact a little bit different. For one, there was the fact that they seemed to give less experience.

  New minor charm discovered! 500 exp gained.

  Besides that, they did function pretty much the exact same as artifacts on nearly all accounts, except for one major one. Charms, or at least the one they’d been given, weren’t constructed to last forever. Even as he’d sifted his way through the runic formation, Vin had been able to feel the formation ever so slowly eroding away with every passing minute. It felt like it would probably last at least a few weeks, but unlike an artifact, it would one day turn back into a simple, painted stone.

  Which only helped fuel Vin’s decision to ignore Madam Trebella’s threats and learn what he could from the charm while it still functioned.

  The first half of that third day had been spent in Meditation, carefully studying the charm in secret. While he couldn't make heads or tails of how Madam Trebella had enhanced the effect of the base spell to such a powerful degree, Vin thankfully realized almost immediately the base spell contained within truly was a simple one. The fact that the spell was deteriorating also made it easier to understand somehow, and only a few hours later, he’d added his first new tier 0 spell to his arsenal since his time back in the Sacred Forest.

  New spell learned! Tier 0 Curse Spell (Sense Curse). 2,500 exp gained.

  New magical affinity discovered! Curse affinity. 6,000 exp gained.

  Afraid the Witch would grow suspicious if he spent all day in his room away from people, Vin had spent the rest of the third day helping out Agne in her garden and enjoying her home cooking. Despite being a Seamstress, he'd learned that Agne had one of the highest levels of Farming in the village solely because of her garden, and she made damn sure Vin understood just how important well cared for vegetables were when it came to making the perfect veggie pot pie.

  One mouthful of her crisp, flaky crust was all Vin needed to decide right then and there he needed to pick up some form of preservation magic one of these days.

  Pleasantly stuffed to the point that he needed to lie down, Vin finally returned to their shared room, finding Shia sitting cross legged on one of the beds, pruning her staff of all things.

  “You know it feels like I walked in on you doing something I shouldn’t have seen,” Vin said, watching her curiously.

  Snorting, Shia ignored him, staring intently at a particularly crooked leaf before clipping it off and tucking into a pouch at her side. “How was hanging out with Agne? Word on the grapevine is she’s hoping you’ll stick around so she can hire you full time.”

  “Seriously? With her Farming skill and my missing hand, I’m pretty certain she did about ten times the work I did.” Vin flopped down on his own bed, groaning as he landed on his full stomach. “...I think I ate too much…”

  “That’s a much better problem to have leaving the village than the ones we had coming in,” Shia chuckled. “I’m assuming you’re ready to head out tomorrow? I was in the worst shape, so I figured if I’m feeling back to normal, you guys must be raring to go.”

  “Yep, ready to leave when you are. Though I am going to miss the food.”

  “I had no idea you were such a glutton,” Shia laughed.

  Just then, a gentle squeak signaled the arrival of their remaining party members, as Scule and Reginald came wandering in side by side.

  “...your heart’s in the right place, and we can always come visit,” Scule said, patting a depressed looking Reginald as they entered the room.

  “Is Reginald okay?” Shia asked, looking worriedly at the quiet rat.

  “The furball’s fine,” Scule snorted. “Mr. Heartbreaker here is sad that he’s not going to be able to see a few girls he’s been hanging out with the last few days for a while. I swear, I don’t know how he does it. The kid’s left behind more broken hearts than I’ve stolen coins.”

  “Maybe it’s just because he’s fluffy and adorable!” Shia frowned, scooping up a sulking Reginald and carefully petting him. It seemed having that one spot scratched behind his ear was all Reginald needed to turn his frown upside down, as the rat quickly relaxed into Shia’s hand.

  “He also doesn’t spend all day playing with poisons,” Vin pointed out, earning a huff from the petian.

  “I wasn’t about to give up on the opportunity to learn from a bunch of experts!” Scule argued. “Unfortunately, it seems Witches and Warlocks dabble in curses more than poisons. But I was still able to learn a thing or two! That Malzar kid sure does love to talk. Provided you can get him away from the manor. Kid is terrified of Madam Trebella.”

  “To be fair, I can see why.” Vin shuddered, remembering the sensation of all that gunk being torn from his body. According to the System, Madam Trebella had cast a tier 5 ritual. Assuming rituals and spells functioned at least similar to one another, that was leaps and bounds more advanced than anything he’d witnessed so far. “Speaking of, has anyone actually seen her these past few days? I’ve been focusing on magic primarily, so I wasn’t really looking out for her.”

  “I didn’t see her down with the villagers,” Shia shrugged. “I’d figured she was just hanging out in the manor.”

  “No, Malzar mentioned she’d gone out a couple of times,” Scule said. “I didn’t even ask, kid just seemed to be allergic to silence once you got him alone.”

  “Strange…” Obviously as the leader of the village Madam Trebella probably had all sorts of things to take care of, but Vin had expected her to swing by and speak with them one last time before they left.

  The three of them chatted some more about what they’d been up to, and Vin got some congratulations on his new spells. Eventually, while they were in the middle of a heated discussion over whether Sense Magic or Sense Curse was the more useless spell, Alka finally drifted into the room.

  “Finally, someone with some actual brains on their shoulder!” Scule shouted, jumping up and turning toward the ghost. “Alka, please tell these idiots the importance of checking magical treasure for curses before you pick it up. Nobody wants their hands rotting off, or their skin covered in boils!”

  “But you won’t even get to the treasure if you trip all the magical traps!” Vin argued yet again, not understanding how the petian didn’t see his point.

  “I think you’re both idiots,” Shia grinned, laughing at their offended expressions.

  As the argument went to start anew, Alka merely floated there, watching the three of them without saying anything. Before Vin and Scule could start tearing into one another again, she cleared her throat, putting their argument on pause and getting everyone’s attention.

  Alka drifted there, a strange look of pain and uncertainty on her face as she seemed to struggle with what to say. Finally, after a few seconds of confused silence, she took a deep breath, which was more for show than anything seeing as she didn’t need to breathe. Looking between the three of them, she slowly let it out, nodding to herself.

  “I’ve made a decision.”

  that serious.