Vin spent the rest of the morning going over actual future plans with his sub-councilors. First, he greenlit Kelly’s suggestion to divide and conquer the three adjacent fragments sporting civilization with the two fresh Earther’s under her. Though only after she’d brought them into the Sacred Forest with her to gain a few levels first.

  For Theodore, he had an interesting suggestion. As good as the man was at acting, he was the first person to admit that his repertoire of Spy related skills needed work. Seeing as Vin just happened to be friends with someone that was not only a stealth expert, but also happened to dabble in poisons, Theodore’s next steps seemed obvious to him.

  Vin wrapped up the meeting after telling Theodore where to find Scule and instructing him to learn from the petian. When Theodore asked what he should do if Scule turned him away, Vin told him to ask Reginald for help instead.

  That would change Scule’s tune in a heartbeat, as Vin had no doubt the last thing Scule wanted was to get shown up by his own rat companion.

  The first official meeting for the Foreign Branch concluded, Vin decided it was high time to take care of two things he’d been meaning to do for some time.

  Myers happily directed him to a crafter that would be willing to help with his request, and before he knew it, the first task on his personal to-do list was checked off.

  Running his hand through his freshly cut hair, Vin couldn’t help but grin at the pleasant sensation. His prior hair cut he’d gotten from a fellow wanderer back on Earth hadn’t been all that well done if he was being honest. Combine that with a few months of unchecked growth and the insects from within the infernals’ dungeon making a mess of his hair with their acid and razor-sharp mandibles, and his head had looked like quite the mess.

  His hair no longer looking like he’d lost a battle with an acid-filled blender, Vin tackled the second mundane thing on his to-do list. Like his hair, his current grey fatigues had been through hell and back at this point, and it definitely showed. They were covered in holes, tears, cuts, and rips, and despite Shia’s daily casts of Cleanse, he still couldn’t shake the feeling that they were just beginning to feel dirty after he’d worn them for so long.

  Thankfully, each wave was sent over with spare clothing, so it was a simple task to snag a new set and hand in the old to be repaired.

  He had a feeling fixing up his disaster of an outfit would earn one lucky crafter an entire level at the very least.

  Feeling fresher than he had in weeks, Vin headed on over to the mess hall, grabbing himself a quick bite to eat and picking an empty table. Taking a seat, he admired what the Chefs had put together for them today.

  The main dish was something that looked like slices of ham, taken most likely from one of the boar-like animals he’d spotted while exploring their fragment back in the early days of being on Edregon. The ham was drizzled in some sort of honey he could only assume was brought from Earth, and it was served with a small bowl of berries to accompany it.

  Taking a bite, Vin had to hold in his groan of satisfaction as the glazed ham practically melted in his mouth. Once again, he made a solemn vow to protect the camp’s Chefs with his life. Forget Spur, those guys were clearly the most important members of camp.

  “Alka, you’ve got to try…”

  Vin’s excited words trailed off as he remembered Alka wasn’t echoing him anymore. Putting down his fork, he sighed as he wondered what the Slayer was even up to at this point. Knowing Alka, she was either currently killing monsters, or coming up with a way to better kill monsters in the future.

  Busy lamenting the fact that he no longer had his best friend trailing along with him everywhere he went, Vin was startled by the two people setting down trays right in front of him.

  “Hey there,” a man with a warm smile and kind eyes said, nodding toward the empty seats. His blond hair was trimmed close to his head, and he was heavily tanned, as if he'd spent most of his life back on Earth out in the sun. “You mind if we sit?”

  “Not at all,” Vin said, blinking in confusion as they thanked him and sat down. Frankly, he was surprised anyone was actually willing to sit with him at this point. Most of the survivors from the first wave tended to steer clear of him for whatever reason, and the members of wave two seemed to view him as some sort of mythical boogeyman at this point. He figured that meant these two were members of the third wave, fresh from Earth, right until the man’s companion spoke.

  “So, how’s Edregon treating you so far?” She asked, giving him a knowing smile as she popped a berry into her mouth. The woman had three piercings in each ear, a nose ring, and a lip ring to boot. As she spoke, she looked around furtively as if making sure nobody was listening in on their conversation. “I know seeing all those bodies around camp must have been a lot, but trust me, us second wavers had a far crazier welcome than you third wavers did!”

  “Becca,” the man warned, shooting an annoyed glance at the woman. “You just came from the same meeting I did. We were told not to scare the new Earthers before they got settled!”

  “Bah, just ‘cause you have a stick up your ass, doesn’t mean I have to be boring too,” the woman grinned, leaning forward and mock-whispering at Vin. “Don’t worry about Weston here, dude’s a goodie two shoes that’s afraid of getting into trouble.”

  While the two friends began bickering, Vin merely sat there, blinking in confusion as he tried to figure out what was going on. For some reason, the two of them seemed to think he was a member of the third wave. It would certainly explain why they were willing to eat with him, but why would…

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  I’m an idiot.

  Vin glanced down at his brand new Project Ark fatigues and absentmindedly touched his fresh haircut. He’d left his staff back in his room, and with his prosthetic arm hidden under the table, no doubt he looked exactly like one of the newest Earthers. Hell, the two of them had probably seen him looking all depressed because he missed Alka and thought he was longing for Earth.

  Just as he was about to explain the misunderstanding, Becca leaned forward, her eyes shining.

  “When we showed up, you want to know what the first thing we saw was? One of the generals we’d been sent over with getting her head lopped off!”

  “Becca!” Weston hissed, glancing at Vin as if worried how he was going to react. “Don’t worry, rumor has it the current Commander and her had bad blood with one another, and he apparently had some sort of magic that showed she was planning something bad. He didn’t just kill her because he felt like it.”

  “I’ll say, the dude’s blade turned blood red!” Becca grinned, miming raising a sword above her head and slashing down with a whooshing noise. “It was epic!”

  “It was murder,” Weston frowned. “I don’t care if the Commander has magic or not, that doesn’t justify bypassing the entire legal system. She should have stood trial.”

  “Wessy, I don’t know if you noticed, but there ain’t no legal system here,” Becca snickered, smirking at the man’s reaction to his nickname. “Besides, I heard before we arrived that there was a chick capable of brainwashing people with her voice. If that’s something people are capable of now, it’s no wonder the Commander is willing to kill someone just like that.”

  Despite Weston’s annoyance with the woman, the two of them chatted like old friends, and Vin didn’t have a chance to sneak in a word edgewise. Eventually he just closed his mouth, letting his curiosity win out and deciding to just let the two of them believe what they wanted.

  They argued for a few more minutes about whether their camp should adopt the same rules as they had back on Earth, before Weston finally called an end to the debate and turned the focus toward Vin once more.

  “Sorry about all that, once you get Becca going, it’s hard to get her to stop,” he said, offering him an apologetic smile and ignoring the tongue Becca stuck out at him.

  Vin wasn’t surprised in the slightest to find her tongue was pierced as well.

  “Anyway, enough about us. How are you doing?” Weston prodded, finally digging into his cooling lunch. “How was your first day?”

  “My first day…” Vin muttered, wondering just what he should say. In the end, he shrugged, deciding he didn’t have any reason to lie. “It was pretty crazy. Despite being ordered to stay close to camp, I decided to wander off and explore, and I ended up getting chased by a wild monster for a few miles. Chased me all the way into the next fragment over. If it wasn’t for those stone villagers, I would have been scorpion food.”

  “No way, you’ve already been to another fragment?” Becca asked, her jaw dropping in awe. “That’s crazy! Most of us from the second wave still haven’t done that!”

  “Really?” Vin blinked, curious as to why that was the case. “Why not?”

  “No real reason to I guess,” Becca shrugged, spinning her fork around lazily and flicking honey all over the table to Weston’s clear annoyance. “I mean, Weston and I are both support classes. I’m a Tailor, and he’s a Farmer. The two of us ended up bonding during our time in Project Ark’s bunker, and when we discovered we’d both snagged support classes, we became bestest friends forever. Isn’t that right Wessy?”

  Weston looked completely stone faced as Becca repeatedly prodded him with her dirty fork. After ignoring her for a few seconds, waiting for her to stop to no avail, he finally sighed, shaking his head.

  “As annoying as Becca is, she’s right. No real point in sending a Tailor and a Farmer off to another fragment. It’s dangerous out there. Not that I have to tell you that, seeing as you nearly got turned into monster food your first day.”

  “Still, aren’t you guys curious?” Vin asked, watching Weston finally snap and try to slap Becca’s fork out of her hand as she continued prodding him. “I mean, you don’t want to spend the rest of your lives here around camp, right?”

  “It’s just for a little bit,” Becca shrugged, finally putting her fork down with a grin when Weston grabbed his knife and held it up threateningly. “You probably don’t understand just yet, but levels are pretty much everything around here. Our warriors are leveling every day, and once we have enough high leveled combat classes, we won’t have to worry about monsters in our fragment anymore.”

  “It’s not just the combat classes either,” Weston said, his eyes shining. “You should see what the head of the Support Branch is capable of. Her name’s Alice, and she can practically defend all of camp on her own! She wasn’t even here for the last battle, and her traps still took out nearly a quarter of the attacking monsters!”

  “Weston and Alice, sitting in a tree,” Becca started, snickering at the glare he threw her. “But nah, Wessy’s right. Chick’s seriously hardcore. I heard she pulled a knife on a guy once even before she got all her levels. Respect.”

  “So yeah, no matter what class you ended up taking, you’ll still be useful to camp,” Weston said, giving Vin another encouraging smile. “And don’t worry about getting chased around by a monster on your first day. I heard the same thing happened to The Roamer on his first day, and apparently he’s an absolute monster himself now.”

  “I heard he tracked down that very same scorpion after he gained his magic and ate it alive to assert dominance,” Becca nodded, seemingly entirely serious for once. “If there’s one guy you don’t want to make an enemy out of, it’s him. Thankfully, he doesn’t seem to hang around camp much. I heard he came back to heal some of the recent wounded and set up temporary shelter for the third wavers, but it seems like he ran off again.”

  “That story about the scorpion is a myth,” Weston huffed. “How could he eat it alive if the stone villagers saved him from it?”

  “I don’t know, maybe he ate its offspring or something,” Becca shot back, throwing up her hands. “Anyway, that’s not even the craziest thing I’ve heard. I heard he trained his own soul to fight for him, and he can shoot it out of his body to attack people. Even has its own glowing sword and everything.”

  “It’s not his soul, it’s a ghost he overpowered with his magic and bound to serve him for all eternity,” Weston said, rolling his eyes. “Stop lying to the new guy!”

  “I’m not lying!” Becca said, punching Weston none too lightly on the arm. “Stop accusing me when you don’t know any better than I do!”

  “Uh… actually-”

  Before Vin could clarify that Alka and him had a friendly and pleasant working partnership, Weston seemed to finally snap, tackling Becca as best he could while still sitting on the bench and putting her in a chokehold. As the two of them struggled, they knocked their bench over, sending themselves sprawling out across the ground as they began what looked like an impromptu wrestling match.

  Vin slowly picked up his own plate and utensils, carefully stepping back from the table and watching the two friends go at it. They were so invested in their fight, neither of them even noticed the magical prosthetic arm he’d finally revealed. He stood there for a few moments, watching them struggle to pin one another before he shrugged.

  “Good luck!” Vin called out to neither one of them in particular. Getting two different grunts in return, he turned and headed to drop off his plate.

  He hoped all the new folks he ran into were as entertaining as those two.

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