"Why do we need to pick herbs?" Amanda asked. Half of her tone was a complaint in itself.
"It is all for a good cause, but if I say it now, it will ruin the surprise. Don't worry, we don't need to gather hundreds of them like we did with the slime cores. Let's just go into the cavern, keep an eye for water monstrosities from above, gather our herbs, and go on our way."
They walked down the slope and officially entered the cavern. The sound of gentle crashing waves competed with the swaying of leaves in the wind. The gurgling rivers, moving fast as they left the lake showered the rock and vegetation below with water.
"What keeps these droplets from turning into slimes?" Robert asked.
"Ether density," Noah replied. "The amount of Ether in the water is rather uniform. To become a slime, the amount of water needs to surpass a certain volume."
"So, the water above us is just water, and the slimes are born when the water flows down?"
"Exactly. Now, on the subject of the rivers, how much water do you think they carry per minute. That one, over there, for example." Noah pointed at a random river out of dozens.
"I have no idea. Probably a lot. it's churning like crazy."
Noah shook his head. "You couldn't be further from the truth. The water in the rivers is mostly still. That's why the monsters can swim up and down the rivers. What you are seeing and mistaking for water movement is the Ether being carried in the rivers. The water is mostly still but the Ether is moving that fast. It disturbs the water and causes that rippling effect and the droplets."
"What? No way."
"We confirmed that when some crazy three stars decided to take a swim in the river. The water barely pushed him around. Now, the wind running down the tunnels also helps give this impression. Because the water is still and floating in the middle of the tunnels, the wind and Ether movements create this impression of a current. But when the Ether-charged water is separated from the river, a reaction occurs that gives birth to slimes. You have been basically slaughtering baby monsters," Noah joked. "Also, the Ether-infused water that spills down with the droplets is why we have such lush vegetation even in the middle of a cavern."
Robert's notion of lush vegetation was skewed because the first passage he ever delved into was the one leading to the Mollusk jungle. Compared to that, this cavern was barren. But if you factored that this was a cavern, without any sunlight, things changed. Most caverns were bare rock with the occasional speleothem. And now that he thought of that, he saw no stalactites or stalagmites. He asked Noah why there was none in there.
"The water carries very little minerals. It flows in the middle of the cavern without a chance to corrode and dissolve calcium deposits. And there's nowhere for it to drip from ceiling to floor, as the concept of ceiling or floor is entirely relative here. If the Ether in the water was Earth-aspected, then maybe we'd have speleothem formation but it's not the case."
They finally reached a relatively flat section of the cavern. The ominous lake-ocean floated above them, glowing and casting the underwater reflections down upon them. Here, it was almost entirely flat and calm. That allowed them to see further into the water. It wasn't as dirty as they initially thought. But still, all they could see was the strong glow and the occasional creature shadow in the backdrop as it passed over the glowing lake core.
"How big is this lake?"
"About ten or twelve cubic kilometers of water. Eight to ten million acre-feet of volume. It's huge."
They saw a big shadow cast on the ground ahead.
"Time to hide," Noah said. "Move slowly. Get under a tree, crouch, and wait for the shadow to pass."
They did as instructed. Except for Freddy who just used his talent. The shadow passed and Noah counted the seconds. Forty-seven. Whatever blocked the light from the lake above, it took forty-seven seconds to pass above them. It frightened Robert. Even if it swam only as fast as a human walked, it was still over sixty meters in length. He used to sense life out of curiosity and was immediately stunned by the result. The whole cave was alive. Even the ground underneath them. The lake had billions of life forces as strong as a new one-star Arch. Where the hell did they get? What was this place? Just a cavern system with weird gravity and slime-spawning water wasn't enough explanation.
"Slimes!" Noah said out loud. "The danger is over but our big friend above there knocked a lot of water out of the lake. Time to fight."
*
*
After what they did and trained, fighting a handful of slimes was a good warmup. It felt like they were in the caverns for a week but it was still the afternoon of the day they delved. They collected the broken cores and kept searching for the herbs Noah needed. Freddy found the first one, a bushy weed with purple serrated leaves and yellow striation. It looked sick but in this alien world, sick might be the new healthy. He dug around the herb and stored it in his ring after it was free from the ground.
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But then, another shadow came in their direction, faster than the one before. It was also long and narrow, roughly shaped as a fish. It emitted an oppressive aura, inducing fear in them. Robert cast a mind shield on Amanda and Freddy, keeping them close so he could renew the shield's reserves. They waited until the aura was entirely gone.
Noah approached. "The monsters are more restless than usual. I wonder what stirred them like that."
"Next thing, you are telling us to kill one of them," Robert's joke was full of sarcasm.
Amanda tapped his shoulder with a fist. When he looked at her, she shook her head. "Come, let's go find these herbs. In fact, Freddy, can you hand over the one you got?"
The herb popped mid-air. Robert scooped it and presented the plant to Amanda. "Can you use this to find more?"
"Sure," she giggled. "I'm not that useless, you know!?!"
Robert was about to reply with "I never said that" but he stopped at the last moment. He changed his tune and crossed his arms. "Nah. You're pretty useless, princess. Show me what you got."
That seemed to light a fire in the girl. She waved a hand around the plant, causing it to glow green. The green glow seeped out of the plant and coalesced into floating orbs that gently pulsated and shifted between a dark mossy green and light aquamarine.
"Touch one of the lights and it will pull your finger toward the nearest herb. We should move in separate directions so we don't all go to the same herb, though," Amanda instructed.
"Is it safe to split?" Robert wondered. "The big monsters might come back this way." He looked at Noah for instructions.
"Risk and reward," Noah mused. "You need to make these decisions by yourselves."
Robert drew on the dirt. "We split the area around us into four quadrants. Freddy, you can evade enemies, so you can range further. Take these two quadrants. Amanda, don't go further than a hundred yards from this spot."
"I'll stay here so you know where you should come back to," Noah offered. "Good hunting."
*
*
Freddy prowled the alien landscape, still a bit fearful but confident his talent could keep him hidden. They had tested his talent and found only one weakness. Robert could see him in that colorless dimension he often went to. Other than that, he vanished so thoroughly it was as if he didn't exist. Not even the masked man could find Freddy if he didn't want to be found.
The glowing orb stuck to his paw blinked faster. He was getting near the herb and could smell it. Following his nose, Freddy found and dug up the herb.
Then he saw the shadow approaching. A massive tentacled creature swam in the water above, approaching them. Freddy stared at the monster, his heart racing, and his mind telling him to run away. He would if he was the frightened puppy of a month ago. But now he had power. A talent that Amanda praised profusely, and two spells that everybody liked. His wind bursts couldn't hurt monsters but they kept his family safe. And his true mirage spell came from master Biscuit himself. The spell could fool all five senses, even touch.
Yes, the monsters were scary, but they couldn't find him. Freddy forced himself to sit on a tall rock, fully exposed. He stared at the monster and waited. It was a dangerous game of chicken but he needed to prove to himself he was not afraid.
The old covenant was broken. Shattered. He was no longer beholden to it. In its place, a new one came into being. One where he was not a servant but as equals. Litter-mates.
Trusting his talent, Freddy howled at the monster. It was a howl only he could hear but it made him feel good. It made him feel in control. He was not afraid.
No, he was. His legs were shaking as the monster approached and its shadow blocked the water-light coming from above. But his fear no longer dominated him. Freddy leak— no, he marked that rock as his territory. It was a mark of defiance. His caramel eyes kept glued on the monster as it passed.
Go, run away, monster. This rock belonged to Freddy! He ruffled his heckles and growled at the creature.
Then something that shouldn't happen happened. Freddy decided to mark the whole rock with all his might as he opened the floodgates. That will show them.
*
*
Amanda was close to a herb. She could sense it. Then she heard the water churn above her like a raging cliff by the ocean during a storm. She glanced up and saw a massive octopus with gigantic lobster claws and antlers swimming her way. The young woman crouched and looked around to find Robert. She felt safe near him. He could teleport to her and take her to the liminal void where they could stay together and away from prying eyes. Why would she want that? No idea. But she knew she would be safe with him and her heart craved that feeling. She thought about his smell, his voice...
Alas, no Robert in sight. And that made her feel small, exposed. The approaching monster caused waves that splashed water down on the cave floor. A few slimes were birthed and they started to seek food. Amanda had noticed the slimes never went for the plants. They seemed to be carnivorous, attacking only animals. And the only animals in the cavern were the three humans and one Taulusian.
The slimes soon sensed her and squirmed their tentacles or pseudopods or whatever those disgusting appendages were called. She didn't care. Seeing and hearing them move made her sick.
Amanda took seeds from the Mollusk thorny bush out of her pocket and infused them with her essence and talent. She tossed a small amount of seeds in the direction of each slime that was coming to eat her.
She knew she couldn't hide under Robert's shadow like a scared hare. He would eventually grow tired of her. No, she needed to stand tall and fight by his side. So he could tell her she did a good job and then keep her warm at ni—
—nice job, brain. Why did those weird fantasies pop up at the worst moments? Amanda shook her head and banished those impure thoughts.
Furious at herself and embarrassed, Amanda waited until the slimes were on top of the seeds to cast her plant growth spell. The thorny bushes sprout violently, entangling the slimes and spearing through their gel. Their instinct was to attack back and that forced the slimes to tighten their ooze. She looked at them and found the biggest blogs that weren't separated by the thorns. The core was in one of them. Amanda took her sword out and stabbed at these blobs, quick jabs that wasted little time. She found resistance in one of them and fully committed to a lunge. The satisfying sensation of a cracking core made her squeal with joy. The slime's ooze lost viscosity and splashed down the bush, leaving the cracked core cradled between two branches.
She moved on to the next. And the next one. She was giggling after she dealt with all the slimes.
Then the light coming from above vanished as a dark shadow covered the area where she was. Amanda looked up and saw a big gelatinous eye staring at her from above.
The rubbery skin and the ginormous antlers coming out of the water were her only warnings before the monster jumped out of the lake and onto the cavern floor.