Chương 36: Boom

"Keep running, keep running!" Vin repeated, doing his best to put as much distance between them and the shaking colosseum as possible. As he ran, he tried to ignore the ache in his back he'd received from slamming into the wall of the building at what felt like Mach three speeds. He was thankful that the Gods included the resulting impact from the crazed guardian's backhand to be part of his initial attack, but they could have at least prevented the resulting aches and pains.

"Surely this is far enough?!" Scule called out, looking worriedly at a panting Reginald as the rat tried its best to keep up with Vin's top speed. It had been awhile since Vin had broken into an all out sprint, and he hadn't realized how much his slowly increasing endurance was affecting him.

"Trust me, we want to get as far away as possible!" He yelled, quickly checking to make sure Shia hadn't fallen too far behind. To his shock, the Druid's staff had transformed into some sort of wooden cat-like creature, and she was riding it right beside them, easily keeping pace.

"It's just one artifact!" Scule continued, shaking his head. Vin noticed he was clutching some sort of black bag in his hands, but he didn't have the breath to waste asking him what it was.

"Even if it explodes, that colosseum looked sturdy enough to contain-" Scule's words were lost as an incredible shock wave slammed into them from behind. The three of them were sent flying like leaves in a storm, hurtling down the thankfully empty road a good few dozen feet before rolling painfully to a stop. To his horror, Vin realized he couldn't move, and he panicked for a moment, wondering if he'd come down wrong and been paralyzed.

It wasn't until he watched his body groan and pick itself up that he realized Alka must have taken control of his body at the very last second to double the attribute benefits he shared from her.

'Huh. Didn't know you could do that on your own.'

"Me neither!" She shouted, pressing a palm against his ear.

"I can't hear anything!" Vin got to experience the strange sensation of not being able to hear himself speak through his own bleeding ears, but still able to hear Alka thanks to the vibrations in his chest.

'Give me control again, I think I can heal our ears.' Shrugging, Alka let her minute end early, and Vin suddenly found himself piloting his body once more. Thanks to Alka's quick thinking, causing his strength to skyrocket and improving his vigor a good bit, the explosion hadn't damaged him too badly. After a quick glance to confirm his companions were also all still alive and moving, Vin looked back at the colosseum.

Whatever architect had designed the holy district must have been high level indeed, as despite the raw power of the explosion that had sent them tumbling like ragdolls, the colosseum itself remained standing strong, the only difference being the giant plume of colorful smoke pouring out of the building's center.

Though while the colosseum and surrounding buildings seemed unfazed from the blast, the shockwave had been powerful enough to knock down the rows of lights lining the street leading to the center of the district, scattering their still glowing gemstones all over the place. Shoving one of the glowing gems into his pack for later, Vin held his one hand up to his ear and cast Renewal.

He was worried for a moment that the spell wouldn't be strong enough to fix his ears after it had failed to grow back his arm, but as his hearing gradually returned, he relaxed. A quick second cast fixed his other ear, and he then moved to take care of Scule while Shia fixed up Reginald.

"Alright, quick question," Scule said as his hearing slowly came back.

"What the hells was that?"

"The Grand Artifact of Qiathia," Vin said, loud enough for Shia to hear as she took care of the rat.

"An artifact designed by this fragment's greatest Enchanter. It detects where monsters are going to spawn within a certain radius and redirects them to the space around itself. It's an extremely delicate artifact and was already heavily damaged, so when I concentrated my Sense Magic spell into a beam and pumped my mana into it, it caused it to overload and detonate."

"Oh! That explains the giant bear!" Scule said, punching a fist into his palm.

"I'd instructed Reginald to hide while I distracted the sword maniac, but some huge monster bear appeared out of nowhere and started going after him. Thanks for leaving me all alone with that guy by the way!"

"Why didn't you come pray to the Gods with us?" Shia asked, finishing up with Reginald and getting to her feet.

"You probably would have been safe if you'd prayed also."

"And miss out on the chance of grabbing one of those artifacts?" Scule snorted.

"No thank you! Speaking of which…" With a triumphant grin, the Rogue held up a small pouch nearly as large as he was. Vin could detect a heavy layer of some unknown magic woven through the bag, but it wasn't one he'd encountered before. Investigating with his magic sense, he ventured a guess.

"Something to do with size magic? Or space magic? The best word I can think of to describe what I'm feeling is vastness."

"Beats me!" Scule chuckled.

"You think there were instructions on those pedestals or something? I just know that maniac went bonkers when I grabbed it, so it has to be something good."

"I think I know what it is," Shia said, squinting at the bag and flickering out her tongue.

"My master had a satchel that tasted very similar. Can I see it for a moment?" Scule hesitated for a second before handing the pouch over to the elf; his eagerness to learn what his new artifact did clearly outweighing his concern that she might run off with it. Looking at it curiously, Shia reached out and put her hand into the bag. Vin watched in shock as her hand went deeper and deeper, until she somehow had her entire arm up to the shoulder shoved into the pouch that was barely as large as Scule.

"It's space magic," she confirmed, pulling her arm out of the small pouch.

"I don't know how much can fit inside, but it's definitely space magic. Here, for your experience." Shia tossed him the pouch, and Vin was suddenly reminded of his missing hand as he fumbled to catch it. Trying not to think about it, he passed the pouch back over to Scule's waiting hands and took a look at his notifications. To his shock, he had quite a few major ones waiting for him. New Divine Sanctum Discovered! 10, 000 exp gained. Level up! Explorer lvl 16. Reading on this site?

This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. +3 Attribute points to spend. +1 Skill point to spend. New Grand Artifact Discovered! 25, 000 exp gained. Level up! Explorer lvl 17. +3 Attribute points to spend. And then from catching Scule's new fancy bag… New Lesser Artifact Discovered! 5, 000 exp gained.

"Holy crap, I just received an insane amount of experience," Vin said breathlessly, barely able to believe his eyes. He hadn't even spent his attribute points or passive point from hitting level 15 yet, and already he'd been shoved all the way to the very edge of level 17. He couldn't believe the System had awarded him for discovering the Grand Artifact when he hadn't actually made physical contact with it, but he guessed destroying it must have counted.

"That's nothing! Guess who finally broke through that stupid level 20 barrier!" Scule cheered, waiving the magic pouch over his head like a flag.

"Suck on that System! You guys are looking at a brand-new Determined Rogue class. And you won't believe the new passive I got."

"Oh?" Shia asked, raising an eyebrow. She was slowly sweeping a Renewal spell over her body to heal dozens of assorted cuts and bruises.

"Something good?"

"It's called, 'Eyes on the Prize,'" Scule chuckled.

"I've heard of this one before from other Rogues. Now I can select a single object as my designated target, and I'll get a boost to my attributes that slowly ramps up over time so long as I'm actively trying to steal it. Nice that the System rewarded me for spending the last hour dodging that maniac's flying slashes while trying to grab this bag."

"Good job staying alive," Shia nodded, finishing up her self-healing.

"Vin, didn't you say something about needing to get back to your camp? You sounded pretty urgent earlier."

"Oh God, yes!" He cried, dismissing his notifications. The explosion had literally knocked him senseless for a minute there, and then he'd gotten distracted by the unexpected level ups.

"Monsters! Magic! It's all connected!"

"Easy there," Shia said, laying a comforting hand on his shoulder while he tried not to hyperventilate.

"Just tell us what's wrong."

"Okay…" He took a deep breath, deciding to keep it simple for the moment.

"Monsters are a direct result of magic. The God I spoke with explained how they are a necessary byproduct of the System. Theoretically, the more magic that is used, the more monsters end up being created. It's just that you would need to use magic on a truly tremendous scale in order to actually noticeably impact their spawn rates."

"Okay, I'm following so far," Shia said, and Scule nodded, listening curiously.

"Well," Vin continued.

"In order to bring people from my world over to this one, that's exactly what the Gods have to do. They use a tremendous amount of magic, causing a gigantic spike in monsters being spawned. It's not divine magic mind you, but it's still magic."

"I don't understand. Your people were brought to the fragment neighboring the Sacred Forest," Shia pointed out.

"That's only a couple of miles away. We should have noticed an uptick in monsters invading the forest if that were the case." Suddenly, her eyes widened, and she turned back to look at the remains of the smoking colosseum behind her.

"The grand artifact…"

"Exactly! Despite its failing condition, the grand artifact of whomever was still actively working. It must have pulled most of the monsters that summoning the first wave of people from my world caused!"

"You know, Slashy McSlash Face did mention something about that," Scule said, his brow furrowed in thought.

"I was kinda focused on the whole 'not getting cut in half' thing, but I think he said something about the grand artifact giving him a particularly large wave of monsters to deal with about a week ago."

"And that was just for a hundred people from my world," Vin continued.

"The wave arriving tomorrow morning is for a thousand people, meaning the gods are going to need to burn something like ten times the amount of magic as last time. And now that the artifact is destroyed…"

"There's nothing to stop all those monsters from spawning," Shia finished, her face going pale.

"We need to warn your people and make sure they are prepared for the fight of their lives. One sec." Reaching into her pouch of magic seeds, Shia pulled one out that radiated nature magic so powerfully Vin found it difficult to even look at. Planting the seed into a nearby patch of dirt, Shia cast Rapid Growth on it, and Vin watched in awe as the seed immediately sprouted into a tiny version of Erik, only with roots attached to the ground where his feet would have been.

"Shia? Vin? Good to see you both again so soon! Is everything alright?" Mini Erik asked, his voice still carrying that strange, melodic tone despite being the same size as Scule. For his part, the petian just stared in shock at Erik's sudden appearance.

"We're fine, but there's something you need to know," Shia said, quickly relaying everything Vin had just warned her. Recalling the calendar he'd viewed back in the underground training area for Project Ark, Vin jumped in at the end to add the scheduled future waves as well, including his fear of what the final wave of ten thousand people would end up looking like. Erik listened to the two of them calmly, thanking them for notifying him as quickly as they did.

"I'll start making preparations for the Sacred Forest," he said, and Vin noticed how Shia began breathing easier, as though a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

"No need to worry about us just yet. You should keep working on your mission. If we want any chance of surviving that final wave coming in a year's time, we are going to need the other Dryads back and running at full power."

"My thoughts exactly," Shia nodded. After a quick goodbye, mini Erik rapidly shriveled back into a single seed, which Shia carefully picked up and placed back in her pouch.

"Well, no wonder you guys tried so hard to get that pouch back," Scule said sheepishly, earning a glare from Shia.

"Sorry again about all that. It's not often I feel bad about stealing, but you guys clearly have a lot going on."

"Don't worry about it," Vin said, waving the petian's concerns away. Or he tried to, before realizing he was just gesturing with his stump. Taking a deep breath, he shoved his inner turmoil and horror deep down for the moment. He had more important things to worry about right now.

"Scule, we're done in this fragment," he explained, already trying to calculate how long it would take them to make it back to his camp.

"The two of us are heading back to my people as fast as possible to warn them about the impending monster attack. What I said earlier stands; you're welcome to join us if you want. Even if it was for your own selfish reasons, if you hadn't spent all that time distracting the Guardian, who knows if he wouldn't have just grown bored of us praying and decided to cut us down instead of waiting. Shia?"

"I don't care if he joins us," the elf shrugged.

"Gives me more chances to get back at the pipsqueak for stealing my pouch after all. And Reginald is pretty cute." Hearing his name, the rat's head perked up, and he gave Shia some wide puppy dog eyes, earning a few more pets from the cooing elf. Again, Vin wondered just how intelligent that rat actually was. Scule watched Reginald practically melt into Shia's hands, snorting at his sell out of a partner.

"Well it's not like I had any big plans after this," the petian shrugged.

"It sounds like you're something of a traveler right? Always heading to new places with fresh targets, never staying in any one location long enough for the guards to get a bead on you?"

"Well, I wouldn't exactly-""Say no more, I'm in!" Scule grinned, shooing Shia's hands away and jumping up into Reginald's saddle. The rat gave him an annoyed look, but quickly forgave him when he reached down and scratched under the rat's chin.

"Just let me know if there's anyone we meet I shouldn't try and steal from, and we'll probably get along just fine."

"This might be a bad idea," Vin muttered as Shia transformed her staff into the strange wooden cat made of branches once more, earning a quiet round of applause from Scule and an impressed squeak from Reginald.

'Eh, a good Rogue can be worth their weight in gold,' Alka argued.

'Better just hope petians weigh more than they look!' Sighing, Vin shook his head, grinning against his better judgment at the ghost laughing inside his head. He'd put together quite the strange team during his limited time on this world so far. Time to see what they could do.