Vin could only stare at the golden elf, his mind still busy trying to process the fact that he wasn’t currently being eaten alive by a few tons of ravenous insect monsters. Apparently he wasn’t processing his survival quite fast enough for his savior, because the elf rolled his eyes, letting out a deep sigh.

  “Please, do take your time. It’s not like I’m burning through more mana than you have in your entire body every minute I’m here or anything.”

  “Are you Shia’s master?” Vin asked, ignoring the elf's taunt as he finally regained control of his mouth. “The Druid of the Divine?”

  “Last time I checked. Though I can’t help but notice how neither of your questions answered either of my questions.”

  “Sorry! It’s just… Shia’s been looking for you for so long… I never expected to run into you the first time we had to split up.” Vin paused, looking the glowing elf up and down, still trying to figure out what exactly he was looking at. “How are you even here? We thought the Gods put you somewhere else when they grabbed the Sacred Forest from your world.”

  “Kid, you really suck at answering questions, you know that?” Shia’s master said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “As to how I’m here, I hypothesized that by travelling to a portion of our world where the fabric of reality had thoroughly weakened I’d be far enough removed from the regular worldly boundaries set in place by the Gods to allow me to speak with Shia, wherever they took her. Through a clever use of astral projection and reflecting my internal mana structure to slip past the-” He paused, shaking his head when he saw Vin’s glassy-eyed stare.

  “None of that is important! The point is, I went through a lot of trouble to check in with my pupil and make sure she’s okay after I figured out what the Gods had done. Imagine my surprise when instead of finding a promising, inquisitive elf that is far too entertaining to tease, I find a random human with the staff I painstakingly created for her, preparing himself to be eaten alive by insects, all while hugging a rat.” The Druid paused, nodding toward Reginald. “Good evening, by the way.”

  Reginald returned the nod, offering a gentlerat’s squeak.

  “So I ask again, if you’d be so kind, would you please tell me who you are and what you’re doing with Shia’s staff?” He finished, gesturing for Vin to start talking.

  “Yes, of course! I’m Vin, an Explorer. I met Shia a few weeks ago when I stumbled into the Sacred Forest, and she’s been travelling with me ever since, looking for ways to help the Ancient Ones and to figure out what happened to you. Right now our party is in pretty rough shape, and she’s currently unconscious. I need to bring back some materials for a Witch in order for her to cast the ritual needed to save us, and Shia had previously told me to use her staff if she was ever out of commission.”

  Vin rambled out his explanation as quickly as possible, not sure what the Druid did and didn’t know at this point. He’d said he’d figured out what the Gods had done, so Vin was assuming he was aware of Edregon at the very least.

  The Druid nodded along, tapping his chin in a way that reminded him a lot of Shia. “Well, at the very least that would explain why you’re still alive.”

  “Huh?” Vin asked, confused. “What do you mean?”

  “Hm? Oh, I added a secret feature to the staff when I made it,” the Druid said, waving his hand dismissively. “If anyone tries to take it from Shia without permission and use it… Well, let’s just say the result will be a little bit messy.”

  Messy? Vin stared at Blossom’s frozen form, imagining the wooden cat tearing out his throat the moment she formed. He shuddered at the realization that the elf he was currently speaking with was far more deadly than Shia had ever let slip.

  “Anyways, the spell I whipped up for this conversation is burning through my mana like an elf through bacon, so I don’t have a ton of time left here,” the elf said, snapping to get Vin’s attention. “I have some theories I want to confirm, and then some instructions for you, so quick lightning round, let’s go.”

  “I know all the divine classes were left behind, did the Gods remove all the divine artifacts as well?”

  “Yeah, they were used to fuel the creation of Edregon.”

  “Okay, makes se-wait, how do you know that?” The elf paused, giving him a confused look.

  “Shia and I each chatted with one of the Gods a few days back,” Vin explained. “The Goddess gave me a few answers about Edregon, and offered me a divine boon. Something new they created now that they can’t just offer people divine classes anymore.”

  “Truly? Well, that’s interesting…” The Druid paused for a moment, seemingly lost in thought before snapping back to the present, shaking his head and continuing.

  “How different is the new System versus the old one, and did everyone maintain their level or did they have to start over?”

  “Everyone started over, and I actually come from a world that didn’t have a System at all… But from what I’ve heard, the only difference we’ve discovered so far is needing to accomplish something worthy of your class in order to prestige now.”

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  “No System at all?” The Druid asked, looking like he wanted to forget everything else and dive deeper into Vin’s old world. Hesitating for a long moment, he clicked his tongue, restraining the urge.

  “If everyone lost their levels, have the Ancient Ones died off yet, or are they still hanging in there?”

  “They’ve put themselves into some sort of hibernation-like state to buy time, but things are looking grim. Shia and I are working on finding a way to help them out.”

  “That’s my girl, always putting those old trees before herself,” the elf grinned, beaming at the thought of his pupil. “Shame the Gods snatched up all the divine artifacts. I’d hidden a particularly powerful one under my house for emergencies. It would have been strong enough to bring back the Ancient Ones and then some. Assuming nobody accidentally set it off and blew up half the Sacred Forest of course.”

  Vin stared at the elf that had just admitted he’d functionally built and hid a divine nuke in his basement for emergencies. For the first time since the Druid had saved his life, Vin began to wonder if he was actually going to make it out of the dungeon alive after all this.

  The elf went to ask his next question when his golden form suddenly flickered. Glancing down at himself, he frowned.

  “Spell destabilization..? I shouldn’t be out of mana just yet…” Snapping his fingers, he barked out a laugh, shaking his fist up at the ceiling. “Oh, you crafty bastards! You got me this time!”

  “Listen kid, I don’t have much time left here,” he said quickly, his form flickering a second time. “I’m not actually sure why my spell only worked now, but if I had to guess it’s because wherever you are on that strange new world of theirs, you seem to have found your own area where the fabric of reality is weaker. That would explain why my spell finally managed to connect after all this time. I don’t think the Gods are doing it actively, but it seems the longer you and I talk, the thicker the fabric of reality around you grows. They can’t keep me from coming in originally, but it looks like it functions like an immune system. Now that it’s tasted me once, I won’t be able to come back to this particular area in the future.”

  “Wait, I can’t get out of here without your help!” Vin said, his panic rising as the Druid’s form began flickering every few seconds. “Once those walls of yours come down, those insects are going to literally eat me alive! And if we don’t get the materials back to the Witch, we’re all going to die anyway!”

  “Yes, Shia will never let me hear the end of it if I let her die…” the elf muttered, his face scrunched in thought. Struck by inspiration, his face lit up and he gave Vin a large grin. “Okay, I have an idea. And seeing as you know Concealment, this might actually work.”

  Vin blinked, about to ask the elf how he knew he had that spell, but was cut off as the elf snapped his fingers and an entire runic formation appeared in the air before him, glowing bright gold.

  “My gift to you! A spell that is almost entirely worthless in just about every other situation besides this exact one!” The Druid grinned, his flickering growing much faster as he took a bow. “Provided you can learn this spell before the insects finish tearing through my walls or that strange ritual wears off and you die from whatever seems to be ravaging your body, you should be able to use it in conjunction with Concealment to get out of here alive.”

  Vin stared at the runic formation, trying to figure out what the spell did. It wasn’t any more complicated than any of his other tier one spells, but its purpose was a mystery to him at first glance.

  “What does this even-”

  “Sorry kid, out of time!” The elf said, his form flickering so rapidly now that Vin couldn’t even make out his face anymore. “Find another area where the fabric of reality is weaker and tell Shia to go in with her staff, that’s how I found you! I’ve got my own stuff here I’m dealing with, but I’ll be checking in every other day or so, so tell her to wait for me! And one last piece of advice!”

  “...Ancient One’s sap kid, don’t ever try to fight a swarm of insects when your only offensive spell is Stone Shot of all things.”

  As soon as the words left his mouth, the Druid winked out of existence as though he’d never been real, leaving Vin standing there with his mouth open.

  Blinking slowly, Vin looked around the makeshift room, almost expecting to see the Druid hiding behind him and playing some sort of weird practical joke on him. But sure enough, Shia’s master seemed to actually be gone for good, leaving Vin with nothing but two large wooden walls and a glowing runic formation floating in front of his face.

  Vin glanced down at Reginald, meeting the rat’s gaze and sharing the same bewildered look. After a few seconds, the rat seemed to shrug, as if to say ‘well, that was weird.’

  “My thoughts exactly…” Vin muttered, realizing he had some new notifications.

  Dungeoneering increased to lvl 3! 300 exp gained.

  Dungeoneering increased to lvl 4! 400 exp gained.

  New spell witnessed! Tier 2 Nature Spell (Wood Wall). 2,000 exp gained.

  Level up! Magical Explorer lvl 23!

  +3 Attribute points to spend.

  Grinning at the unexpected parting gift, Vin quickly dumped all three available points into focus. It sounded like his one shot at survival hinged entirely on if he could learn this unknown spell fast enough, which made the choice an easy one.

  As soon as he confirmed his selection, his blood froze as he realized his improved senses allowed him to just barely make out the sound of thousands of insects scratching their way through the thick wooden walls the Druid had left behind. He had no idea how the acid spitting butterflies hadn’t melted their way through by now, but he wasn’t about to stop and worry about it after being gifted an actual shot at survival.

  “Reginald, I’m going to do my best to get this figured out. Watch the walls and warn me if any of them start breaking through.” Seeing the rat nod, Vin turned toward Blossom, still unsure just how much the staff understood. “Blossom, I don’t know if you understand this, but try and block off any cracks or holes that might appear, alright?”

  The wooden cat remained motionless, showing no indication of having heard him.

  Not willing to waste any more time, Vin turned to the runic formation, committing the spell to memory with his Iron Mind before crossing his legs and taking a seat on the stone floor of the cavern.

  Doing his best to ignore the buzzing and scratching of their impending demise, Vin took a deep breath and let himself slip into Meditation, launching straight into the runes and doing his best to figure them out.

  He could only pray that he’d make it in time.