“Ooh! Good stuff!” With spork and knife in both hands, Tuilë began eating the nasty thing that she called “food.”

I watched in horror as she cut open the bug with her knife and revealed the stomach filled with greasy yellow meat. In addition to the normal tableware, there was a bamboo straw, which she used to slurp the yellow grease.

“What in tarnation is this?!”

“Oh, here. Let me get that for you.” She cut mine open with her fork, revealing the same thing inside and its nose-winching smell.

“Eww… Yuck…” By this time, my appetite had been flushed down the drain.

“Don’t be such a picky eater, you little child.” Tuilë scooped the yellow thing on my plate with her spork and forced it inside my mouth with her extreme speed before I was able to react. “Eat.”

“Blergh… Urgh! You’re gonna kill me!!” In order to resist the push or maybe to get away from the thrust of that disgusting food, I was pushed back until I almost fell from my chair.

How many times do I have to be forced to eat foreign food?! Yes, I’m a picky eater. But not like this…

I forced the greasy thing down my throat with tears almost falling from the edge of my eyes… “Wait… it wasn’t so bad…”

“I know, right?! Three years eating the food here has made me accustomed to its bizarre appearance yet tasty flavor.”

“No wonder.”

I shouldn’t have judged the book by its cover; however, I still didn’t want to finish my food. As good as it might be, its appearance was too disturbing for me to continue. Furthermore, the texture wasn’t exactly to my liking either; it was squishy and tasteless like a badly cooked swallow’s nest but way, way worse.

The two of us continued making small talk as I pretended to enjoy my meal. Whenever she wasn’t looking, I would scoop the bug’s greasy innards and toss it into an empty bucket placed under the nearby unoccupied table — it would be a surprise to whoever was sitting there. Although, I was forced to eat a few bites just to look convincing.

It was until the bug’s content was completely gone that I stopped doing this.

Seeing the clean plate with the bug’s shell only, she commented, “You do enjoy your food, huh.”

“Uh, yeah…” Can’t say that I truly don’t like it despite the similar taste to shrimp…

“Since you enjoyed it so much, why don’t you get a second serving? I’ll be paying for you this time for the previous source crystal.”

“Please, anything but that…” I was starting to think that she was holding a grudge against me for using the source crystal, but her look spoke differently. “No, I mean, I’m not that hungry, so don’t mind me.”

“You sure?”

“Yes, of course!”

“Ha-ha! Well, not the case for me. I’ll take seconds.”

“…”

***

After having lunch, we returned to the workshop under the never-changing dim sky.

While making our way back, I was hoping that the little amount I’d eaten wouldn’t cause me a stomachache later down the line.

“What mischief you have caused there,” said Lunaria from inside my backpack in the language that only the two of us knew — English.

“Shut it, you.”

Soon, we reached our destination amidst our idle chatter.

“There’s still some time before night.” I asked, “Do you perchance know a place to rent lodging around here?”

“Oh, no need to find one. See, the building next to this workshop is also mine… Well, more like I rent it for a long time. There’s an extra empty room inside; you can use it.”

“You’re fine with that?”

I felt bad at constantly relying on her, but if this could cut down the lodging expenses that would otherwise be needed to rent a place, then I wouldn’t mind accepting. I was so broke to the point that I couldn’t live another day doing nothing.

As she agreed so adamantly, I’d nothing to go against it. In the end, we used the rest of our time to plan how to procure all the needed materials. Especially the hunting ground where First-Order mutated monsters were abundant.

“I do have one perfect target in mind, and I’m gonna bring you there tomorrow.”

“You’re not going to bring me to another interval zone, are you?” I stared at her suspiciously.

“’Course not.” She shook her head. “It’ll be a long journey there from here cuz we no longer have a steam kite, so that’s not the place I’m talking about.”

Indeed. Not only was such a place far, but it was also incredibly dangerous as well. Unless it was necessary like it was before, I should avoid such a place as much as possible.

On top of that, there was a need for her to make gas masks for our future endeavors involving similar needs. Simply relying on the fact that we were source users would be stupid.

Since, to the best of my knowledge so far, Tier-1 source users would be able to resist the red fog for a week at most; Tier 2 being three times longer than Tier 1; Tier 3 three times longer than the previous stage, and so on and so forth. The duration would be added if you were both an enhancer and an evoker; becoming both sure brought a lot of benefits. But I couldn’t be more extra careful whenever dealing with the red fog.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

***

Early the following day.

I immediately headed for her workshop the minute I got myself ready. Surprisingly, there was running water inside her house, making it possible for me to take a long belated bath. Aah, so refreshing.

Chewing on one energy bar, I opened the door to the workshop and found Tuilë already busy grinding and hammering something — from the looks of it, it looked like she was making another gun to replace the one that exploded.

Truly, she was an early bird… Or was she didn’t sleep at all? Yesterday, I was the one who rested first after she showed me my room, after all. It was quite convenient that the next building to Tuilë’s workshop was her house.

“Mm! Give me a sec.” She put down her tools and walked toward me. “Are you ready?”

“I’m ready perfectly; the faster I procure the materials, the better.” With the time limit ticking on my back, getting lax wasn’t an option.

“Oh yeah, before I forget, let’s check your elemental affinity,” Tuilë suddenly mentioned.

“You said previously that there’s specialized equipment. Is it some kind of magic tool?”

“Mm-hmm.” Tuilë took a crystal ball from one of the shelves nearby and put it on the table. “Place your hands on the crystal ball and be sure to circulate your source energy into it.”

I followed her instructions and placed both of my hands on the smooth crystal ball. It was reflective that my reflection was almost visible.

Smooth chill… Vibration…

A strange tactile feeling was transmitted from the tip of my fingers as soon as I circulated my source energy. In a moment, my head hurt as if there was a glass rod stirring inside. Along with the start of my headache, the crystal ball emitted a faint glow.

“That’s it. Don’t let go!” Tuilë stared attentively at the crystal ball.

“Ngh… How much longer?” Isn’t a simple test like this supposed to be painless and quick?

If it wasn’t for the fact that I had a stronger and more durable constitution than before, I would have let go of the crystal ball a long time ago.

She chortled, “Five seconds is enough, but I just wanted to see how long you can last.”

“You…” I was lost for words; my baseless suspicion of her holding a grudge just grew larger and larger.

“Relax! The longer you last, the more potential you have. The result would be more accurate, too.”

This made me wonder, was I able to use [Identification] instead to check my elemental affinity? Considering that it could determine my source elements, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch. I should check on that later.

“You can lift your hands now if you want to. Now for the result… EHH?!”

“What’s wrong?” I lifted my hands and saw that the crystal ball was filled with seven brilliant colors: red, brownish yellow, ocean blue, cyan, light green, lime, and purple.

“Maxxy, are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Pretty much.” Well, this wasn’t as much of a surprise to me as to her.

“You have at least 80 percent affinity for all basic elements! Anemo, Geo, Hydro, Pyro, Cryo, Dendro, Electro. This is the first time I’m ever seeing this…”

“Is it that big of a deal?” I scratched my nape.

“It is! With this, you don’t have to worry about the compatibility of almost every type of catalyst weapon since the minimum compatibility required is on average 20 percent… Ten, if it’s a simple weapon.” Her hands tightened into fists. “Ooh, I’m so jelly about you…! As a comparison, my affinity for Electro is only 72 percent and 40 odd something for Pyro. The other elements are not worth mentioning.”

“I see… Other than compatibility to catalyst weapons, what else does affinity rate influence?”

“Well, for one thing, you have to possess at least 40 percent affinity to at least one element to be able to become an evoker. This is another reason why becoming an evoker is many times harder,” she concluded.

I rubbed my chin. Having [All Elements] as my Vocation sure was a cheat ability with limitless potential, albeit it required me to work for it. Or in other words, it wasn’t something that gave me instant power but something to be gained depending on how much effort and time I put in.

“However, there’s just one problem that comes with this power,” Tuilë added.

“And what is it?”

“Bad people will be jealous and seek trouble. Of course, I’m not saying that Aquarine is full of baddies, but… You get my point.”

It made sense. When all other people could only use one or two elements at the most, being able to use all of them would incur unnecessary trouble. As they said, “The nail that sticks out always gets hammered down.”

“Alright. That’s enough for now; I don’t even have any source crystals to become an evoker. By the way, where’s Luna-1… Lunaria.”

Since Luna-1 couldn’t recharge its battery inside the airship, the drone had to go into hibernation mode whenever it wasn’t needed to minimize energy consumption. Lunaria had been informing me of this all the time.

“Um, well…”

“You called?” Lunaria’s voice appeared as Luna-1 floated toward me. There were some changes to Luna-1’s appearance with more patterns on its surface — something that piqued my interest.

“Whoa, there. I’ll need you to help me as usual. Erm, did you just receive an upgrade?”

Lunaria sighed. “That’s why I’m always trying to tell you not to leave Luna-1 with that freak with her strange kink.”

“That, you may not be entirely wrong.”

“That’s unfair! You two are in cahoots!” Tuilë burst out in annoyance. “I added some new functionality to the drone, y’know. It now has the capability to put up resistance by electrocuting anything it touches.”

“You what? That’s neat.”

However, its new functionality was the last thing that surprised me. Tuilë being able to tinker with an advanced machine like a drone, which I hardly could make heads and tails, was what amazed me even more.

After having chit-chat, we headed for the back of the town, away from the place where I encountered the cultist. The place was actually a murky open ground with tombstones abounded and a sparse number of glowing mushrooms here and there — an open cemetery.

I also spotted an underground lake on the right side of the pathway. The lake was deep, and the water clarity was superb. It was certainly the main source of water for the more than three thousand people living in Aquarine.

Other than us, some people were also traversing the place. But instead of going to the cemetery to mourn the lost ones, they brought with them large buckets and pickaxes, looking like miners. To support this idea, there were several cave entrances that were used as mines with people going in and out, including a shaft going down. Essentially, this was a cave within a cave.

“Is that the place that you’re talking about yesterday? I thought it was far outside the town… Wait, are there even mutated monsters inside?” I observed.

“Have you heard about the rumor that the giant mushroom absorbs the red fog?”

“I have.” I gave her a nod.

“It’s not a rumor. Almost all the red fog is stored deep underground; I don’t know if the mushroom uses it as a storage or not, but it turns the inside into the like of the Crimson Fogland.”

“Seriously? Isn’t that dangerous, having a ticking time bomb just beneath your feet? And what about the miners who go mining?” I couldn’t help but barrage her with tons of questions.

“Slow down…! You don’t have to worry about that; the surface layer of the mine is void of any monster. Only deeper down do some appear, and most aren’t even at First Order. Besides, they are restricted from rising to the surface and are regularly culled down.”

She went silent for a moment to catch her breath, then added, “This place also contains ruins of past civilization without the need to go outside of Aquarine. Quite a lot of source users of Aquarine like to delve into the cave to try their luck — most near the surface has been explored clean, however.”

“Whoa. That makes this place interesting to explore.”

Just imagining what I could discover inside redoubled my motivation and made my hands sweat.

As we neared the cave enough, Tuilë stopped in her tracks. “Okay. I’ll be dropping you off here.”

“Eh? Oh right, you have to focus on building the airship.”

“Haha, damn straight! Though I have to go to the market to check the ways to procure all the things we need first. Besides, with Lunaria following you, you can burst through any sort of problem.”

Correct. Although it’d be slightly dangerous without a guide, I couldn’t rely on her to help me with everything. I had to clean up my own problem rather than having someone else do it in my stead.