"Vandier, wait a moment. Everyone else, dismissed."
The moment the captain said that, Vandier knew there was a mission.
As a safety officer at the Breathing Soil Mine, it was best when no one paid you any attention or called you over. If someone came looking for you specifically, there was definitely trouble.
The captain was brief. "A new classified mission. Our Work Zone has been given one slot. The requirement is someone who can calmly carry out tasks in an unknown environment. I recommended you."
"You can refuse, and I can find someone else, but once you accept, there'll be no backing out, because this is an absolutely confidential project."
"I accept!"
"Good. Then go report to Lord Philes."
Vandier left the Fifth Work Zone where he was stationed and made his way to the Refining Workshop. Apostle Philes's Light Gold laboratory was located there.
Only after meeting the renowned King of White Bones did Vandier learn that this mission was to explore a place called Flying Wheel Country.
It was similar to the Silver Plain, another space completely different from the many worlds of the void. What conditions were like over there was impossible to predict.
Vandier was the only living being in this exploration team, as well as the first Vampire and the first Dark Descendant.
He had been recommended and chosen because he had successful experience surviving alone in extreme environments.
Vandier had once piloted a Forbidden Stone rescue boat to aid someone who had fallen into the sea.
But the boat had been struck by a chain of whirlpools and surging tides in the Sea of Breathing Soil, causing it to lose contact.
Relying on sheer will, he sailed the boat along and left markers on numerous Ruined Veins, trying to seek help from the