Despite this crazy idea being his own plan, Vin found himself screaming right alongside his friends as the wind whipped through their hair and they plummeted to the ground. He’d picked the stained-glass dome at the top of the tower specifically because he wanted to make sure they’d arc far enough to fall off the floating island the library was built upon entirely, but he hadn’t really understood just how far they had to fall until now.
The strange gravity might cushion their fall slightly, but not nearly enough to survive a fall from several hundred feet up.
Even as he screamed, Vin moved to carry out the final part of his plan. Spinning around in midair, he made sure all his companions were piled on top of him and that he’d be the one to hit the ground first. He wrestled with Drintus for a moment as the large warrior appeared to be trying to do the same, before Vin shouted at him over the rushing wind.
“I have a skill!”
That seemed to be all the explanation the minotaur needed, and he allowed himself to be positioned by Vin as they fell.
Please recharge, please recharge, please recharge. Vin prayed as the ground quickly rose up to meet them. His entire plan hinged on the clock striking midnight before their bodies struck the ground.
In the final few seconds before impact, Vin felt the familiar warmth flicker through his core, and he let out a relieved breath.
Right before slamming into the ground.
A brilliant golden light erupted from around Vin, stopping his momentum and preventing his body from exploding as it hit the ground. Just as he’d hoped, the same strange effect seemed to wash over his comrades, and they all were sent flying off him by the golden aura, tumbling across the ground and even rolling into one of the many craters in Scule’s case.
Lying with his back against the rough ground, Vin stared up at the floating library overhead, just taking a moment to savor still being alive.
His divine boon almost hadn’t refreshed in time, and they’d been literal seconds away from a drastically different ending.
Laughing at the fact that they’d actually done it, he pushed himself up, looking around at his companions. The light from the stars and glowing library overhead was just barely enough to let him make everyone out. “Everyone still in one piece?”
“If anyone is ever crazy enough to marry you, I’m going to steal your wedding ring, melt it down, and pour it down the drain,” Scule called out from one of the nearby craters. “…in other news, can I get some help over here? Apparently my theft was successful because my passive finally wore off, and I can’t exactly move right now.”
Getting to his feet, Vin carefully walked over to the crater edge and looked down, expecting to see Scule pinned under the golem. To his surprise, the Rogue was actually lying face down in the dirt a few feet away from his prize. He must have heard Vin approach, because he called out.
“If you wouldn’t mind flipping me over and then using my hand to slap yourself, I’d appreciate it.”
“I guess supercharging your attributes wears the body out something fierce,” Shia said, slowly walking up next to them. The elf’s own limbs were shaking rather badly either from exhaustion or mana loss, but that didn’t do anything to wipe away the victorious grin on her face. “We actually did it! We got Alka her body!”
“What a fight!” Drintus laughed, emerging from one of the other craters and walking over to them, clapping Vin on the back hard enough to make his knees buckle. “I must admit, I did not think we were going to get out of that alive!”
“You’re a very interesting person, Drintus,” Vin grinned, jumping up and clapping him on the back in turn. “Thanks for all your help. We quite literally couldn’t have done it without you.”
“And I had no way of getting off that island without Lumel’s help, so I thank you for bringing me down with you,” he laughed.
Vin frowned at the mention of Lumel, but he shook his head, putting the pulmon aside for the moment. The poor mage had clearly been terrified, and Vin didn’t exactly blame her for panicking and leaving them to their fates in her haste to save her own life. Seeing as the golems had some innate resistance to dimensional magic, her presence really wouldn't have made much of a difference in the fight.
If anything, he just hoped to run into her again someday to let her know they got out safely, and that they hadn’t died because of her.
Moving to step into the crater and help Scule, Vin suddenly felt like he’d been hit by a bag of bricks, and he staggered, leaning heavily on his staff in order to stay upright. Seeing Shia do the same, and even Drintus hunch his shoulders a bit, Vin was confused until the warrior spoke.
“Ah, that would be the effects of Second Wind wearing off. My apologies, I know it is considered rude to use an aura skill without asking, but I felt we did not have the time.”
“No worries, you definitely made the right call,” Vin nodded, gritting his teeth as his legs shook. Despite the miraculous fact that they hadn’t taken on any injuries from the golems, their bodies were utterly exhausted after fighting for so long.
“As much as I hate to say it after getting Alka’s body for her, I think we need to rest for a few hours,” Vin said, shaking his head. “In the state we’re in, it’s too risky to move between fragments until we’ve recovered a bit. We can’t exactly move all that fast in the dark anyway.”
“You’re probably right,” Shia frowned, clearly not a fan of delaying Alka’s revival any more than he was. “Scule?”
The two of them waited, but the Rogue said nothing. Reginald walked over to his companion, poking him with his tail before turning and giving them a tired squeak.
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“Oh, duh. His body was already weak from the after effects of his passive. He probably lost consciousness when Second Wind wore off,” Vin realized.
“Well that settles it. But as soon as we can get some mana back, we’re making a direct line for Madam Trebella,” Shia decided.
“Of course,” Vin said, smiling weakly. “I want to see Alka again just as much as you.”
Their plan in place, Vin and Shia bid goodbye to Drintus, who ran off to see if he could catch up with Lumel. Apparently, he too felt the need to alleviate any worries the Dimensional Mage might have, and was hoping she hadn’t gotten too far just yet.
Vin waved goodbye as their newest friend took off, before picking a small crater to collapse into. Giving his weary body a chance to recover, he finally acknowledged the incessant buzzing of the System, pulling up a whole host of messages he’d been unable to view while within the Divine Sanctum.
It was a lot.
New Divine Sanctum discovered! 12,500 exp gained.
New magical beast discovered! 1,500 exp gained.
New artifact discovered! 10,000 exp gained.
Level up! Magical Explorer Lvl 27!
+3 attribute points.
Runecraft increased to lvl 6! 1,200 exp gained.
Runecraft increased to lvl 7! 1,400 exp gained.
New spell witnessed! Tier 3 Spatial Spell (Dimensional Shift). 3,000 exp gained.
New magical affinity discovered! Spatial affinity. 8,000 exp gained.
New spell witnessed! Tier 3 Spatial Spell (Dimensional Pocket). 3,000 exp gained.
New spell witnessed! Tier 1 Wind spell (Still Wind) 1,000 exp gained.
Vin practically recoiled as the sudden wave of experience hit him like a truck, knocking him not only up to level 27, but less than ten thousand experience away from level 28 as well. Skimming through his notifications, he picked out a few strange ones.
New artifact discovered? And not a minor or lesser one? He racked his brain for a moment before it came to him. That strange square that read our status! I wonder what kind of spell work was even built into something like that.
Based on the fact that the magical beast notification had popped up before even entering the library proper, he could only assume the librarian counted as a magic beast for some reason.
The only other thing of note was actually something that wasn’t listed in his notifications, which was Lumel’s failed Mass Dimensional Shift spell. Seeing as he hadn’t gained any experience for it, it looked like he had to witness the full spell from start to finish in order for the System to count it.
Dimensional magic, huh? Vin thought, imagining the convenience of being able to keep his belongings with him at all times. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t jealous of Scule’s magic bag-cape. Shia had warned him off of poking his nose into artifacts to learn new spells all the way back in the Sacred Forest, but he’d come a long way since then.
Maybe it was time to give that another shot…
Regardless, that wasn’t something he was going to risk doing until they’d successfully brought Alka’s new body over to Madam Trebella and saved their friend. Pushing the thought to the side, Vin looked over his new status, taking note of all that had changed over the past week.
Vinnie Stone
Magical Explorer: Lvl 27
Titles: Human Vessel (Lesser)
Exp. 369,560/378,000
Strength: 13
Dexterity: 20
Endurance: 46
Vigor: 23
Focus: 34
Magic: 40
Attribute Points: 6
Skill Points: 1
Passive Points: 0
Vows/Boons: Vow of Benevolence/Grace of Gods (Boon)
Capstone: Runic Recalibration
Passives: Mental Map, Polyglot, Distance Runner, Threat Detection, Iron Mind, Mana Well
Skills: Tracking lvl 7, Runecraft lvl 7, Introspection lvl 3, Dungeoneering lvl 4, Resistance lvl 17, Running lvl 13, Cartography lvl 6, Drawing lvl 2
Tier 0 Spells: Sense Stone (earth), Sense Life (life), Sense Magic (neutral), Sense Curse (curse), Sense Air (wind)
Tier 1 Spells: Renewal (life), Entangle (nature), Replenish (nature), Light (light), Summon Stone (earth), Concealment (neutral), Familiar Pheromones (nature), Whispering Wind (wind)
Tier 2 Spells: Stone Shot (earth), Stone Wall (earth)
Well that’s an easy one, he grinned, placing all six of his available points into focus and bringing it right back up to equal his magic once more. With both his magic and focus sitting pretty at 40 apiece, he was feeling more and more confident in his decision to finally start learning from artifacts again.
Already up to 40 for magic? Guess I need to swing back to Sakis and pay Eithan another visit.
Noting his newest skill point from hitting level 26, Vin took a look at his current skills. Thanks to both the incredible amount of radiation he’d bombarded himself with and the Rebel Queen’s unintentional attempts to turn his brain into a smoothie, he’d basically power leveled Resistance all the way up to level 17. He had no idea what it might evolve into at level 20, but seeing as the skill had saved his butt more times than he could count, he was absolutely going to keep a skill point in reserve and evolve the skill the moment he was able.
Just as he was about to dismiss his sheet, one last thing caught his eye.
For the first time in over twenty levels, his attributes didn’t have the bonus stats from Alka sitting next to them. Obviously, he’d briefly lost the stats many times before when both Alka and the sword left his person at the same time, but it was the first time actually seeing it written out on his interface.
Frowning, he dismissed his information, leaning back in his crater and looking up at the glowing library as it slowly drifted away. The floating library looked just as pristine and incredible as it had a few hours ago, as though they hadn’t just fought a nail-biting battle for their lives and barely made it out in one piece.
What was it Spur said? Most battles come to an abrupt end before you even know it?
Mulling over the colonel’s words, Vin glanced over at his companions. Scule was lying unconscious in his crater with Reginald curled up protectively around him. The golem was sprawled out on the ground and thankfully still inactive due to the dimensional bag around its head cutting off the flow of mana from the mana stone to the rest of its body. Shia was tending to Blossom, pruning the staff and helping mend bits and pieces here and there that had taken a bit of damage during the crazy battle.
And Alka was clinging to his form, desperately holding on until they could bring her new body back to Madam Trebella.
Shaking his head, Vin tried to put the recent battle behind him and focus on what was really important. Right now, he had one goal and one goal only, and that was recovering mana.
Slipping deep into Introspection in order to increase his mana regeneration, he had one final thought before the outside world faded to black and he found himself within his own core.
Hang in there Alka.
Just a little bit longer.
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