Chương 405: (398) 6.12. Is Water Always Wet?

"So, where are we headed?" Shia asked, munching on a few strips of jerky from atop Blossom as the wooden cat ran beside him.

"Obviously we're going south, I can tell that much. But do you have a fragment in mind?"

"At this point, I've mapped out the first and second rings of fragments directly surrounding Terra," Vin explained, making sure not to choke on his own food as he tried to run, chew, and talk all at the same time.

"On top of which, we've also gone pretty far to both the east and the west, thanks to the need to repair Alka's body in the east and all that craziness with the rankers in the west. In order to keep things balanced, I thought starting with the south was a good idea. There are six totally unknown fragments in the south that make up the third ring, so we've got plenty to keep us busy. I thought we'd just start on one side and gradually make our way across."

"Makes sense," Shia said, narrowing her eyes as they ran past a rather suspicious-looking oasis. Vin half expected her to demand they stop and tear the hidden elite monster apart to make it pay for its brethren's old crimes, but she seemed to change her mind at the last minute. The three of them made it through the red desert without too much fuss, transitioning to the Bands' old fragment and enjoying a far more peaceful visage as they ran.

Someone had taken the time to remove the spikes with severed heads on top that the Red Dawn had placed around the fragment border, the absence of which understandably made the fragment a lot more welcoming. The only reason they were running this distance in the first place rather than taking a quick trip through the dungeons was that Shia wanted to stress test Blossom and make sure the staff was functioning at full capacity.

Vin did take one minor detour as they traveled through the Bands' fragment, leading them straight to the prison-turned-dungeon that all the Bands had once been trapped within. Pulling up to the entrance, he was pleased to find that the shrine of rebirth was just as they had left it. The stone torso of a weeping God stretched out from above the ominous entrance into the dark prison, the craftsmanship so impressive Vin still wasn't fully convinced the statue wasn't a genuine person turned to stone.

"What's up? Want to ask the Gods something?" Shia asked, looking curiously up at the statue.

"Pretty much always," Vin admitted, walking up to the front of the prison before walking up the front of the prison. His enchanted boots allowed him to do so without even breaking stride, and he stepped around the impressive statue, taking a few quick measurements with a tape-measure Witherson had lent him.

"But that's not why we're here. I brought up the idea of building an actual temple to the Gods in Terra the other day, and Myers suggested we go ahead and bring this statue over there rather than try to build our own. We already know this one has a strong connection to the Gods, so Witherson was down with the idea. She asked if I could take a few measurements for her so she could start on the temple's design."

"Being an Architect must be pretty cool," Shia said, tapping her chin as she watched him jot down numbers in his journal. It didn't take Vin long to get the data he needed, and after hopping down from the statue, they took off. He had been tempted to try reaching out to the Gods about some of the stuff he'd learned recently, but he was a bit more wary when it came to Godly communication than he used to be.

Understandably so, seeing as the last time he'd reached out the Goddess of Benevolence had told him some things she wasn't supposed to, resulting in the God of Contracts to show up and slap some divine chains on him. Despite knowing that nothing bad would come from them so long as Vin kept the unexplained importance of Earthers when it came to Edregon to himself, he still wasn't the biggest fan of the contract he'd been forced to accept.

With the speeds he and Blossom were capable of running, even with their pit stop, the three of them reached the edge of the Bands' fragment soon enough. Pulling up just shy of the fragment border, Vin whistled as he took a peek at what laid before them, and even Reginald gave a surprised squeak.

"What even is this?" Shia asked, frowning as she hopped off Blossom and crouched on the edge of the fragment. Reaching through the barrier, she poked at the vast sea of something before them, laughing as her touch sent ripples across the surface.

"At the very least, it's definitely not water! It feels thick, like some sort of gel."

"It almost looks like the surface of a calm lake," Vin muttered, staring hard at the wobbling material. The soft, reddish gel stretched out as far as the eye could see, without any sort of landmarks or anything else to make note of.

"You know, if it didn't look like the world's largest slime."

"It does look rather slime-like, yeah," Shia agreed. Pressing harder and noting how her hand didn't sink into the material, she shrugged, before standing up and stepping through. Figuring she knew what she was doing, Vin made no effort to stop her, and Shia laughed as she bounced in place.

"Alright, this is beyond weird. Who in the world could live on something like this? There's no vegetation, no earth, nothing but this bouncy slime for miles and miles." Seeing as Shia wasn't falling through the material, Vin hopped across the border as well, laughing as the very ground wobbled about beneath him. Third ring fragment discovered! 1, 500 exp gained.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Vin admitted, pulling out a simple knife and using it to scoop up a piece of the ground while Reginald hopped out of his pocket and began wobbling around as well. The ripples of the ground were far more noticeable for him, and Vin chuckled as Reginald struggled to stay upright, even with his impressive dexterity.

"Figures we don't have Scule with us the one time we need him to actually analyze something. Maybe he and Bill can figure it out later." Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

"So what's the plan? Want to skip this fragment and just head over to the next one?"

"No, that's not a good idea," Vin said as he shoved the slime sample into his pack, wishing he had some sort of container to put it in.

"I need to make an honest effort at checking out every new fragment I go into these days. Otherwise I might be hamstringing my next prestige."

"Right. Sorry, I forgot," Shia admitted.

"Druid of Bonds has its own restrictions, but nothing quite so cut and dry. In that case, shall we?" Vin waited for Reginald to scurry back into his pocket and Shia to hop back onto Blossom before they took off deeper into the strange fragment. Running along the bouncy, slime-like material was a rather unique experience, and definitely not one Vin had encountered anywhere else on Edregon. It was tricky to get the hang of at first, almost like trying to run across a trampoline.

But he and Shia were nothing if not adaptable, and it wasn't long before they were leaping along, each step propelling them a dozen feet across the ground.

"Either the people who lived here were nomads who just happened to be wandering through when the Gods locked this chunk of their world down to be snatched up, or they're living inside the slime somewhere," Vin hypothesized, bouncing along ever-farther into the fragment.

"Maybe this actually is some sort of lake after all."

"I'm actually picking up a few minor hits a few dozen feet down from Sense Life," Shia admitted.

"So your theory is probably correct! Though that would mean the stuff living here is pretty strong to be able to somehow swim through this thick slime, or it's less dense below the surface. Want to try using Replenishing Breath and swimming down?"

"Without Lumel to warp us out of there? I don't know," Vin admitted, slowing to a stop and bouncing in place for a few seconds before the ground stopped rippling.

"If it were water, I'd be confident in using Redirect Gravity to get out of there, but thick slime… Seems like a risk."

"There's always the more mundane option," Shia said, reaching into her pack and pulling out a coil of rope.

"We tie some rope around your waist, and Blossom and I drag you back out if you get stuck."

"Are you even strong enough to do that?"

"I might not be, but Living Giant certainly is," Shia snorted, tossing him the rope.

"Come on, we came all this way out here. Might as well see what we're dealing with down there. Reginald, want to stay out here with me?" There was a quick squeak of agreement from Vin's pocket, before the rat hopped out and leapt over to Shia's shoulder. Saluting Vin with his tail, Reginald squeaked again.

"Thanks, Reginald, I'll feel far more secure knowing you'll help pull me up," Vin drawled, shaking his head as he looped the rope around his waist and tied it off. On the one hand, this seemed a little bit reckless, attempting to swim down into the mysteriously thick slime that filled this entire fragment. But on the other hand, Vin really wanted to see what was down there. The slime was a semi-opaque red, which meant they couldn't see any of the supposed life forms Shia had detected from the surface.

He'd been able to sort of see through the handful he scooped up, but with so much of it packed together, it looked like a solid material.

"I guess we go with the standard. Two tugs means drag me up," Vin said tugging twice on the rope to get his point across.

"And you know, one really long tug means something is actively eating me and to drag me up faster."

"We got you, don't worry!" Shia promised, her toothy grin sending a shiver down Vin's spine. Placing a hand on his chest, Vin cast Replenishing Breath, feeling secure in the layer of magic forming within his lungs that would remove his need to breathe. That done, he tried digging his way through the slime for a bit, before realizing that was going to take far too long. After a minute, he had a bright idea, and he muttered to himself." Enhance Gravity."

Just as he'd hoped, the slime-like material seemed to struggle for a moment, bending and quivering as gravity kicked up a notch and tried to drag him down. After one long, tense second where he thought the slime would hold out, the tension snapped, and he was sucked under. Vin couldn't help but laugh as he plummeted down into the sea of slime, the rope connecting him to the surface trailing behind him.

Almost immediately, he realized their theory that the surface was tougher than the rest was proven true as he found himself sinking through something that felt far more soft and liquid-like than the slime up above. He couldn't see a damn thing, so he cast Tremorsight, sending out rapid pulses of vibration and gasping as the fragment came to life around him.

Creatures that looked like a combination of fish and lizard swam around in the thin slime, darting about here and there as they chased after similar prey smaller than themselves. Chunks of rock with coral and plants growing off of them floated about, allowing the smallest of the critters safe havens to hide from the larger ones looking for an easy lunch.

Thick streaks of harder slime drifted about here and there, which some crabs were harvesting with their small claws, creating what looked like floating nests out in the open sea. Tremorsight allowed Vin to take this all in in an instant as his extra gravity dragged him farther and farther down, and he looked around in shock at the secret biosphere of life that had been hidden right beneath their feet without them even knowing. It was incredible. It was breathtaking.

It was also monster infested, according to the giant eel-like creature he sensed slithering its way straight toward him through the slime.