Chương 316: (309) 5.5. One Down. A Lot to Go

Vin knew asking for a few hundred suits of armor or the metal required to make them was a tall ask, and he hadn't expected to get them without doing anything in exchange by any means. But he was still surprised by what Nohral asked to get in return.

"Our mines seem to slowly replenish all on their own now that we are on Edregon, and even if they didn't, we still had plenty of metal to work with on our old world. Not to mention our Smiths are always looking for any excuse to swing their hammers," Nohral explained.

"Because of that, we see no need to ask for anything too extravagant in return for providing you with armor. In return, all we ask is that your elven friend give us a comparable amount of seeds capable of growing down here in the Crater, and helping to get the plant population started. We will take it from there."

"Plants?" Vin asked, raising an eyebrow at the strange ask.

"You want plants in exchange for all the armor? Like what, fruit trees, or something?"

"The plants need not provide us with any physical goods, we'd simply enjoy having some additional splashes of color to look at," Nohral smiled.

"You may have seen the thin plants we have growing out in front of our central building. That is wirebush, basically the only thing capable of growing down here under such extreme conditions. Our diets consist almost entirely of meat and metal, so we have no need for any of these strange 'fruits' or 'vegetables' that we've heard tales of, but we are curious about 'flowers' and similar plants."

"Alright… Yeah, I can make that work," Vin said slowly, deciding they were getting one hell of a deal.

"I'll talk to Shia and see what she can come up with. She's a pretty powerful Druid, so I don't think it will be a problem."

"Fantastic!" Nohral said, looking excited at the very thought.

"In that case, I'll have some of our smiths get started on some standard armor pieces for your people. Seeing as making full suits would take too long and we don't have proper measurements, I'll have them start on individual pieces that can be worn independently of one another."

"Whatever you think is best," Vin said, agreeing that running around in a full suit of armor sounded like a bad idea.

"I'll be back in a few days with the first batch of seeds then. Can you show me where you're holding the human?" Nohral actually wrote up a simple contract of all things, and after they'd both signed, the dwarf happily led them over to where they were keeping the missing Earther. Vin couldn't shake the sense that both he and Nohral felt as though they'd gotten the better end of the deal, but he shrugged and decided not to worry about it.

He had no doubt Shia would be up for the challenge, and what was the point in having a twice-prestiged Druid on one's team if he didn't ask her to grow plants every now and again? Nohral explained to the Healer what was going on, who nodded and thanked Vin for coming to retrieve his fellow human before warning him that she'd recently woken up and was not doing so great. She was in perfect health, but understandably freaking out. Vin couldn't blame her.

From her perspective, she had gone from the Project Ark bunker back on Earth, to an endless black void where she selected her class, to the inside of a literal volcano filled with a bunch of dwarves who didn't even speak English. She'd had a bit of a rough day, to say the least. Lumel offered to wait outside without him even having to ask, so Vin knocked on the door before poking his head in and offering the woman a smile.

She was standing in the corner of the room, holding a chair in front of her as if to use as a shield as she stared at the door.

"Hello!" he said, clearing his throat as he stepped into the room.

"I'm Vin, also from Project Ark. I'm here to bring you back to the others."

"Oh, thank God!" she said, letting the chair hit the floor and practically sagging against it.

"I have no idea what's going on or where I am, and everyone I was standing with when Sender X transported us is gone! All these small people speak some other language!"

"Yes, there were a few magical-difficulties that we've since discovered, you'll be okay now," he said, eyeing her many tattoos. The woman looked like a stereotypical biker, minus the heavy leathers and motorcycle. She even had the 'heart-mom' tattoo on her exposed bicep, which he'd originally thought was something that only existed in movies.

"Out of curiosity, what did you pick for your class?"

"I'm Veronica, though my friends call me Vern, and I'm a Rider, from the support classes," she said, her fear completely gone now that she'd been found.

"I was a street racer on Earth. Raced bikes mainly. Took one look at the class and knew it was for me." Rider? What the hell is she supposed to ride? Vin didn't say anything of course, merely nodding at her answer.

"I'm an Explorer. Now, if you're ready, my girlfriend and I can bring you back to the others from Project Ark."

"Girlfriend?" Vern asked, looking taken aback.

"Wait, which wave are you a part of? How long have you been here?" Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"I'm from the first wave," Vin explained, praying she didn't keep asking questions. He'd given the 'welcome to Edregon' speech more times than he could count by now, though if he was going to be running around rescuing missing Earthers, he supposed he should probably get used to giving it again.

"Now, how about we head back to the others? They can answer whatever questions you-""You've been here since day one?!" Vern gasped, talking over him as she stared at him with wide eyes.

"What's the world like?"

"Extremely dangerous, which is why I'd like to get you back to town, and get back to trying to find the others like yourself who got dropped in the wrong place," he said, deciding that was enough of an explanation.

"Lumel, would you mind?" Lumel stepped into the room behind him, careful to keep her features and skin hidden within her heavy robes. She already had her gloves on, which meant to anyone who didn't know any better, she just looked like an incredibly shady, regular old human.

"Lumel here is going to help us get home," Vin explained.

"As you've seen, magic is real, and she's going to teleport us. Just try to stay calm, alright?" Vern looked a tad concerned, but she nodded, and Lumel laid a hand on both their shoulders. A purple bubble sprung up around them, keeping them safe as the world shifted. When it popped, they were standing at the entrance to the dungeon once more.

"What in the…" Vern asked, staring at the lava-lit cave around them.

"That was wicked!"

"Glad you think so, we're going to do that a few more times," Vin chuckled, catching a hint of Lumel's smile from under her hood. The three of them warped through the dungeon straight to the entrance to the Underside, where Vin received a pleasant surprise for his efforts. Dungeoneering increased to lvl 13! 1, 300 exp gained. That's right, bringing new people through dungeons is good for the skill. Totally forgot about that.

If Vern had been blown away by the teleportation, that was nothing compared to her reaction when they got to the Underside. Thankfully, she seemed to be the type to grow silent and stare around in awe rather than one to ask endless questions, as she didn't say much while they walked. Tearing open three separate barriers in a row to allow Vern to traverse through Underside fragments she wasn't supposed to tired Lumel out, and Vin rubbed her back as they walked the last bit toward Terra's dungeon.

The Underside didn't let people walk into any of the connecting fragments unless they'd accessed them first on Edregon proper, which meant without Lumel and her dimensional magic, they would have had to take the long way home. One final cast of Mass Dimensional Shift later to bypass the forest dungeon, and they suddenly found themselves on the outskirts of Terra.

"What is that?!" Vern gasped, staring at the remains of the mile-long epic monster still surrounding the town. It had only been a single day since the battle ended, and the vast majority of it was still waiting to be taken care of.

"That would be an epic monster. Something I hope you never have to see in action for yourself," Vin shuddered, recalling how unpleasant it had been to have burning, acidic flesh pressing in against him from all sides as he and Alka cut their way through its insides.

"Come on, I'll drop you off with Myers. She'll know what to do." Vin didn't miss how Vern seemed a bit more hesitant about walking toward the remains of the enormous monster than she had been walking through the Underside, but that was to be expected. His frame of reference had been skewed a bit after all his time on Edregon, and doubly so after witnessing the World Eaters, but even he wasn't so far gone as to not realize how impossible such a creature as this should have been.

And yet here one was, taken down mere minutes before it could crush everyone to death. Only after killing nearly two hundred of their own in the process. Vern's head was on a swivel as they walked through town, and Vin didn't miss how she blinked as the guards at the gate jerked to attention and hastily saluted him as they walked past. He brought her straight to town hall, flashing Linda a tired smile as he walked in. The Scribe was always pleasant to talk to.

"Hey, Linda, I managed to find the first of the missing Earthers," Vin explained, seeing her eyes widen a hair in response. Only then did he realize while he'd told the council he had an idea he could try, he never bothered to stop by and tell them that his experimental spell had been a success.

"Well that's certainly good news," Linda said, recovering in an instant and giving Vern a wide smile.

"I'm Linda, one of the Bands, and Scribe to the Council. If you follow me, I'll bring you to Myers, and we'll get you sorted out and find you a place to live. Sound good?"

"Bands?" he heard Vern ask as she was walked off.

"Is that because of the black manacle things you have on?" Letting out a weary sigh, Vin turned to find Lumel giggling behind him.

"Think you have thirteen more of those in you?" she asked.

"We checked all the other fragments we've been to. Wherever the rest of the missing Earthers ended up, they're not in any fragment we know of," he said, running hand through his hair.

"I'm not about to risk our own safety sprinting into an unknown fragment. Not when there are places like the death fragment out there. We're going to have to take the rest of the search a bit slower, and hope that the missing Earthers can hang on until we can find them."

"I think that's a good call," she nodded.

"And not just because I don't want to see you get hurt."

"If we're venturing into unknown territory again, I'd prefer having the full team with us," Vin said, wondering where they should even start their search.

"Shia will probably be pretty busy helping get that epic monster over to the Sacred Forest and possibly working on those plants for the dwarves if she's willing to help, but Alka, Scule, and Reginald might be willing to join us. That's assuming you want to come too, of course."

"Heading off into a completely unknown fragment filled with mysterious people and new cultures?" Lumel asked, pulling back her hood enough that he could see her roll her eyes as she smiled.

"Yeah, I think I can spare the time."