Chương 343: (336) 5.32. Get Down, He’s Got an Arm!

Vin could only stare at the distant castle, taking in the large towers and moving specks that had to be guards patrolling the walls. Throughout his time on Edregon, he'd witnessed plenty of grand buildings, such as those within the citadel's holy district or the majestic floating library that was almost cathedral-like, but he'd never seen an actual castle before now. Something about finally seeing one in the flesh made this entire new fragment just feel unreal.

Yeah, because a castle of all things is so weird, after you've seen floating buildings and who even knows how many different types of magic. Vin stood there for a few minutes, simply contemplating what his next move should be. The fact that this fragment had a castle surrounded by farms was an excellent indicator that it probably supported a rather large population, similar to the citadel. Though unlike the citadel, it didn't seem as though the people were all locked away within a set of massive walls.

He was a tad surprised none of them had ever headed east and stumbled upon their fragment. At least he was until he thought about precisely what fragments they would have to go through to get to Terra. Immediately east of this fragment was the impossibly large magical barrier of the neilans, and the dense mist of the valley filled with floating monsters that exploded once they got close to people.

He wasn't even aware of all the fragments in this general area, but trying to go further north or south resulted in hitting the crystalline desert filled to the brim with herds of powerful monsters, or the space that had once been riddled with the high-level marauders of the Red Dawn. No wonder these people had never managed to make it to them. While Vin was scratching his head, he was startled by a voice calling out to him.

"Oye! You there!" Blinking, he turned to find a trio of warriors jogging toward him. Each one wore sturdy metal breastplates with thick leathers secured around each limb, and they all had identical swords slung across their back. From the speed at which they approached and the ease that they carried themselves, he suspected they were somewhere around their first prestige at a minimum.

"You don't look like you're from around here," the one who had originally called out said, coming to a stop about a dozen feet away and frowning at him as the other two took up positions on either side of their leader.

"Show us your seal."

"My seal?" Vin repeated, wondering just what the hell was going on. Curiously, his Common Ally title was informing him these three were humans, but just from looking at them he could tell something was off. The one demanding to see this mysterious seal was a tall male with hair cut short to his head, which made it quite easy to spot the pointed ears he had, similar to that of the elves. The woman on his left had a greenish tint to her skin and a bit of an overbite that reminded him of the orcs he'd seen.

The man on his right looked like a regular human at least, albeit one whose hand was already resting on the hilt of his sword, as if searching for any excuse to draw it.

"Yes, your seal," the pointy-eared human said, narrowing his eyes.

"You know the rules. Show us your seal, or face the consequences."

"Look, I think there's been a misunderstanding," Vin began, offering them a disarming smile as he held up his hands. To his dismay, the man on the right took one look at his golem arm and shouted as his eyes widened.

"He's got an artifact!" Drawing his sword, the man lunged forward, crossing the distance between them in an instant. More by reflex and Threat Detection than anything, Vin's arm flashed blue as he caught the descending blade before it could cut into his shoulder, and with a twitch of his fingers, the metal shattered into a dozen pieces. The man attacking him didn't hesitate, however, whipping out a dagger from his side and moving to drive it straight into Vin's head.

A Stone Wall shot out of the ground without warning, blocking the hit and surprising the man enough that he actually leapt backwards, landing among his teammates. Snarling, he adjusted his grip on his dagger, lowering his stance as if about to attack him again.

"Hold, Ponk, he's not from the alliance," the lead man said, holding out his arm and causing his blade-happy companion to falter.

"But Tarnis, he pulled an artifact on us! You know that goes against the convention!"

"His artifact is attached to him, or are you as blind as you are stupid?" Tarnis responded, shooting a glare at his subordinate.

"It is clearly a prosthetic limb, and a damn good one seeing as he shattered your sword with ease. And judging by how easily he fought off your attack, I'd go so far as to say you're only still alive because of his mercy."

"That's ridiculous!" Ponk snarled, thrusting his dagger in Vin's direction, who was simply watching all this go down with curiosity. It wasn't exactly the first time somebody had tried to stab him, and he doubted it would be the last.

"He didn't even pull a weapon!"

"Do you really not understand what that prosthetic limb could do to human flesh if it is capable of shattering Luvanian steel?" the woman asked, snickering to herself as Ponk glared at her. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

"Do you wish to test yourself against my Luvanian steel, Hanrik? I will take you on any time, just issue the challenge!" Throughout this whole exchange, Vin simply stood there, waiting for one of them to recall that this whole exchange began because of him. The overeager attack from Ponk had certainly been unexpected, but at the very least, the other two, Tarnis and Hanrik, didn't seem quite so bloodthirsty.

"Enough," Tarnis said, his voice hard enough that the other two immediately ceased their bickering.

"You are not from the alliance at all, are you?" he asked, staring at Vin.

"No I am not," Vin admitted, gesturing a thumb over his shoulder.

"I just came through the mist fragment. I'm an Explorer, I was just curious what this fragment was like."

"You waded through the booming mists out of curiosity?" Tarnis asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Tell me, Explorer, how many different fragments to the east have you visited?" Sure is convenient that Polyglot translates whatever directions they use into mine when it converts their language, Vin thought, not for the first time.

"Closing in on thirty by now," he shrugged, watching their eyes bulge at the number.

"It's been an interesting couple of months."

"Tarnis, the alliance needs to hear of this immediately," Hanrik said, her eyes scanning over Vin from head to toe.

"If he's telling the truth…"

"I know," the leader said, his lips forming a thin line as he stared hard at him.

"My apologies for the rough welcome, Explorer. Is there any chance you would be willing to come with us to the keep in the distance?"

"The castle?" Vin asked, glancing once more at the structure that was currently housing three of the missing Earthers he needed to find.

"…Yeah, I'm more than happy to go with you back there."

"Excellent. Ponk, run ahead and inform them that we are coming with an esteemed guest. Have them prepare one of the good rooms."

"He is not of rank!" Ponk argued, finally slamming his dagger back into his sheath.

"You overstep yourself, Tarnis. I-" Vin recoiled as Tarnis whipped out his sword and slashed it across Ponk's face, sending blood everywhere and causing the younger man to leap backward. There was a gash trailing down the man's left cheek, bleeding freely, but his head was still connected to his body.

"Do you wish to challenge me, Ponk?" Tarnis asked, his face a mask of indifference as he stared down his subordinate. Vin still wasn't entirely certain what these challenges were that they kept speaking of, but it wasn't hard to guess. The two men stared at each other for a few tense seconds, before Ponk slowly shook his head.

"No… I will inform the keep of our new arrival."

"See that you do. And have your face taken care of while you are there," Tarnis said, calmly returning his blade to its sheath without even bothering to clean the blood off it. Vin watched the man's movements a tad more carefully now, well aware that Tarnis was a whole 'nother beast compared to the blade-happy Ponk. His focus attribute was plenty high enough to track the man's movements, but he moved with such speed that Vin was pretty certain he was close to his second prestige, if he hadn't already hit it.

Giving him one last scowl, Ponk took off back toward the keep, leaving Vin alone with the two strangers. To his shock, Tarnis turned and actually bowed his head slightly.

"My apologies yet again, Explorer, that you had to witness that act of education. I can only assume that our customs seem strange and potentially barbaric to you, depending on your own homeland."

"They're certainly unexpected," he admitted.

"Is attacking people without warning something that happens frequently on your world?"

"He disobeyed the orders of a higher rank," Tarnis said simply, as though that was all there was to it.

"As such, it was my duty to remind him of the natural order of things. Of course, you are a true outsider. Not only unranked, but without a seal to your name. With that in mind, it would be dangerous for you to wander these lands on your own. It would be best if you let us escort you to the keep."

"Just to confirm, you're not trying to take me prisoner or anything, right? I have a method of detecting when people are telling the truth, so I feel like I should ask now," he said, deciding to play things safe and cast Detect Truth before he went with them. His friends would never let him hear the end of it if he got himself kidnapped on his first solo adventure in months and they had to rescue him.

"No, you are no prisoner," Tarnis said, his statement thankfully coming across as truth to Vin's spell. While there technically were ways around such magic, it still made him feel a lot more comfortable trusting the man.

"The alliance has been attempting to gather as much information on Edregon as possible. Yet through all our efforts, our maps barely span a dozen fragments. You are truly an esteemed guest if you'd be willing to share your findings with our people."

"I'm more than happy to exchange information," Vin said, almost drooling at the revelation that these people and their mysterious alliance had their own maps they'd been working towards filling out.

"Excellent," Tarnis said, smiling for the first time. Reaching into a pouch at his waist, he pulled out a scrap of purple cloth that had some strange symbol on it that Vin's Polyglot instantly translated to the number 23.

"For now, you should carry this on you at all times. It is my seal, and it will offer you a decent amount of protection."

"Uh, alright," Vin said, snatching the balled-up fabric out of the air as the man tossed it at him. He could tell that there wasn't anything magical about it, it truly was little more than a ragged bandana with a number sewed on the side.

"I'm just going out on a limb here… but I'm assuming you guys have some sort of ranking system you use among your combat classes? With lower numbers being the stronger ones?"

"That is correct," Tarnis nodded.

"If you were to join the ranks, you would gain the ability to inherently know another ranker's number simply by looking at them. As you are an outsider, you will be reliant on others to inform you of a warrior's rank. By accepting my seal, it means I am now sponsoring you. An attack on you is the same as an attack on me."

"Okay, I follow so far," Vin said, tucking away the seal.

"Out of curiosity, if you're ranked number 23… how many rankers does your keep even have?"

"As of this moment…" Tarnis paused, giving him a sly smile.

"Eleven thousand, six hundred and eight."