Chương 234: (229) 4.8. The Valley Hidden in the Mist

If Vin had a nickel for every time he found himself plummeting to his death with all his friends screaming beside him, he'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice. Their group quickly broke out of the dense mists covering the surface of the fragment, and all of a sudden, they could see clear as day. They were falling into some sort of pristine valley, hidden what felt like nearly a mile below the dense field of mist up above.

From their high vantage point, Vin could easily make out the handful of small cottages clustered together into a settlement in the center of the valley, and the tiny dots representing people fishing in a nearby stream or working the fields.

"Hey, I see people!" he exclaimed, trying to be heard over the wind whipping through their hair.

"That's great! Maybe they have industrial spatulas they can use to pry our flattened bodies off the ground!" Scule shouted, his body flapping in the wind as he held onto Vin's hair.

"I'd rather not find out," Vin chuckled, raising a hand and casting the same spell he'd used against the floating monsters." Redirect Gravity!" As the ground shot up to meet them, the five of them suddenly lurched as gravity flipped around and started trying to tug them upwards into the sky rather than down toward the ground. Granted, while his spell redirected gravity, it did absolutely nothing for previously built up momentum.

Despite his best efforts at timing, the five of them were still moving pretty fast when they finally hit the ground. But rather than shatter every bone in their bodies, they simply hit the ground rather hard.

Hard enough to sprain or twist something for a regular person, but barely enough to even elicit a grunt for them with their improved attributes. Before his spell could start making them fall up into the sky now that they were no longer falling, Vin canceled it.

"Gravity magic is pretty useful," Alka said, turning to gaze at the sheer cliff face they'd fallen down.

"We might need that to get out of here at some point."

"Let's hope there's an alternative, it's probably my most mana-intensive spell. Even with how large my mana pool's gotten at this point, casting it wide enough to affect all of us eats through my mana like nobody's business."

"Well, in the event we ever find ourselves falling to our deaths a third time, you only actually need to worry about you and me," Shia pointed out, fixing her braid and looking shockingly composed for someone who'd just been seconds away from death.

"Alka can probably survive a fall just as well as she can anything else, and I'm pretty certain petians are light enough that they don't fall nearly as fast as we do."

"Um, excuse me, did you not see me falling right with you all?" Scule snapped.

"Stop telling Vin not to save me the next time we inevitably do this!"

"In the library, you were practically attached to the golem, and here, you were holding onto Vin's hair the entire time," Shia said, rolling her eyes.

"I saw how your body was trying to drift upward. You should be fine without anything else weighing you down. Probably."" Probably! Listen here, you pointy eared-""Guys, please," Vin begged, turning so the shoulder Scule was on was facing away from Shia as he put himself in between them.

"Let's just take a breath, alright? I saw people on our way down, which means they almost certainly saw us as well."

"You guys were certainly screaming loud enough," Alka nodded sagely.

"Point being, I wouldn't be surprised if a few of them aren't already heading toward us to investigate the idiots that just dropped into their valley. Let's do our best to make a good impression, alright?" He got a sniff from Shia and some grumbling from Scule, but at least Reginald gave him a crisp salute with his tail from within his pocket. The conflict resolved for the moment, Vin turned to fully take in the surprise valley they now found themselves in.

Unlike the land above, the valley was entirely free of mist. There were soft, rolling hills of green, dotted with those same thick berry bushes and small trees here and there. Without the mist, it was much easier to make out tiny flocks of those nimble birds soaring around within the valley, as well as a few other natural denizens of the fragment.

Small cats prowled around in the valley, trying their paws at catching those birds whenever they came down for berries, and Vin spotted a couple different species of lizard slipping in and out of the cracks on the cliff face right behind them, never coming out onto the surface for long. All in all, it was a surprisingly peaceful valley, without so much as a monster in sight.

"I suppose if their monsters only live up in the mist, that means things are rather calm down here," he ventured, plucking a berry off a nearby bush and more closely examining it. It was shaped almost like a strawberry, but had the bubbly surface of a blackberry. With a shrug, he popped it into his mouth, enjoying the sweet, sugary flavor.

"Dear god, this thing tastes like a dessert!" Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"You ever thought eating unknown things without testing them might kill you one day?" Scule asked, raising an eyebrow.

"We've got Neutralize Poison," Vin shrugged, popping another one into his mouth before offering one to Reginald as well, who eagerly took it in his paws and began nibbling on it with a happy squeak.

"Fair enough… In that case, give me one of those." While the three of them snacked and Shia examined the bush, gently laying a hand on it and whispering to it in the way only Druids could, Alka stood guard, clearly not convinced they wouldn't be attacked by any more hidden monsters like the rest of them were. Because of that, she was the first person to actually spot the approaching valley-goers.

"Heads up, company incoming." Wiping his face clean of berry juices, Vin stood up and turned to see a small group of five people cautiously approaching them. The four in the back looked rather nervous, and had farming implements like hoes and rakes gripped tightly in hand, but the man leading them appeared more curious than anything. His eyes kept bouncing back and forth between Shia, Alka, and Scule, as if he didn't know where to look.

The first thing Vin noticed about the group was that they appeared human, and his Common Ally title confirmed such. Each of them wore simple clothes made from some sort of rough, spun fiber, and their tools didn't exactly look to be the best quality either. In fact, upon closer examination, he was surprised to realize they seemed to be made out of stone rather than any sort of metal.

"Welcome, Sky-dwellers," the leader of the group said, throwing up his hands and wiggling his fingers as he brought them down, as if symbolizing them falling through the mists.

"We are glad to see that you survived the fall! Most Sky-dwellers are not quite so fortunate. What brings you to our humble valley in the mist?"

"Nothing in particular," Vin said, stepping forward and offering the leader his best smile.

"We're just going around, mapping out the different fragments on Edregon. While running from the monsters up above, we accidentally stumbled upon your valley."

"You wouldn't be the first Sky-dwellers to find our valley in your haste to escape the mist," the man nodded, tilting his head a bit.

"Though I have to ask, what is this 'Edregon,' you speak of?"

"Ohhh buddy," Scule said, quietly enough that the man probably didn't hear.

"What rock have these people been living under?" Pausing, he looked around at the valley walls and ceiling of mist up above, before nodding to himself.

"Right, right..."

"It's not the first time I've had to explain this," Vin muttered, steeling himself for the usual barrage of questions as he cleared his throat. He supposed he should have expected this, seeing as their small settlement appeared entirely trapped within the valley.

"You guys aren't actually on your own world anymore. The Gods grabbed pieces of hundreds, maybe thousands of different worlds and wove them together into a new world called Edregon. If you leave the valley and go about six miles in any direction, you'll find an entirely different world. It was about five months ago, back when you lost your levels and skills."

"Oh, we don't have anything like that here," the older man chuckled, waving a hand dismissively.

"We don't believe in that System nonsense down here in the valley."

"... What?" It was Vin's turn to be confused, and he heard Shia step up beside him.

"What do you mean, 'that System nonsense?'" she asked, tapping her chin in her own confusion.

"Do you all just never choose a prestige class, or something?"

"I don't know what a 'prestige class,' is," the man said simply.

"We ignore the mental words that appear in our heads upon reaching maturity. After a while, it becomes as easy as breathing."

"You lot just… never take a class?" Alka asked, her eyes flaring in shock as she gestured with her arm and warpick.

"... Why?!"

"Life is peaceful in the valley," the old man shrugged, smiling at them.

"We see no reason to upset our quiet way of life. Those who wish to succumb to the mental words are welcome to do so, but if they choose to live like that, they are required to leave and never return. We get the occasional adventurous soul, but the vast majority of people choose to stay down here." Vin could only stare at the man in shock right alongside his friends.

Of course, his own world had been free of classes and magic that came with the System, but that had only been because they didn't have the option in the first place. To have the choice between using the System and not, and deciding to remain abstinent of its power…

"Wait, we're not intruding then, are we?" he suddenly realized.

"Obviously we've 'succumbed' to the mental words. You're not going to attack us or anything, right?" He really hoped the answer was a firm no, because if these people didn't have any sort of levels or magic, it was going to be like a small army of toddlers trying to whack them with pool noodles if they did decide to attack.

"We're not unreasonable people, it is obvious you had no idea our valley in the mists even existed," the man reassured him.

"The drifters up above are less active during the night, so if you'd like, I would recommend waiting here with us for a few hours. Once darkness fills the valley, we can take you to the passage that leads back up to the surface, and you'll have an easier time escaping the mists alive. I only ask that in exchange, you withhold from channeling the mental words while you are down here." Vin glanced around at his friends, who all still seemed to be in various stages of shock.

They'd been surprised enough to learn that his own world had been free of the System entirely, but this was an entirely different matter. It was clear they were also struggling with wrapping their heads around the concept of having the option to utilize the System and then deciding not to.

"That would be wonderful, thank you," he said after a few seconds, deciding to just roll with things like they usually did.

"Fantastic! In that case, my name is Okeran, and I'm one of the village elders," he said, clapping his hands together high above his head in what Vin could only assume was some form of official greeting. The four people behind him all made the same gesture in turn, like a group of backup dancers, before turning and heading back the way they came. Vin could just barely make out the sounds of their hushed whispers, but couldn't quite hear what they were saying.

Giving them all a wide, toothy grin, Okeran motioned for them to follow him.

"Please, allow me to show you around our humble valley."