To both Sean and Gel’s immeasurable disappointment, they didn’t gain any levels on their first few days traveling through the endless expanse of the Sohl desert. This was not due to a lack of effort of course. Sean’s natural hunting instincts had grown even more formidable since their evolution, and Gel could now literally smell potential sources of food from quite a distance away.
A feat that Sean still wasn’t entirely sure how the slime managed to pull off without a nose.
Maybe he’s absorbing particles and the little bits dogs normally pick out of the air? Wait, does that make him a kind of bloodhound? Blood-slime? Given his companion’s new crimson color, the name felt rather apt.
However, when he had asked about it, Gel had simply replied:
“My favorite kinds of nodes do one of two things: either they get me food I already have within reach, or they find me food I haven’t reached yet. I had enough of the first, so I picked up one of the second. Also, blood-slime sounds awesome. I wonder if that’s an evolution I’ll get later? It sounds very me, don’t you think?”
Sean had laughed, then been momentarily taken by the idea that ‘blood-slime’ might actually be something his friend could evolve into. After he had gone down that mental pathway for a few minutes however, Gel had shared the prompt accompanying the node the slime had chosen.
SCENT SOLVENT DESCRIPTION: ENHANCES THE DISSOLUTION MECHANISMS WITHIN ONE’S BODY WHEN HANDLING ONLY TRACE AMOUNTS OF CERTAIN MATERIALS.
Effect: Allows for the passive detection and tracking of dissolved scents, based on scent strength.
Mana Aspect: Nature, Chaos
Well, guess that solves that.
Gel’s new passive ability combined with Sean’s own swiftly growing tracking prowess ensured the pair a steady flow of mana coming in to counteract the gelaton’s ‘death-clock timer’. It had nothing at all to do with the fact that they were surrounded by miles and miles of rolling sand dunes in every direction, where anything not-sand stuck out like a fresh burger on the buffet table at vegan night. Or the fact that their ant-hauler traveling loot-packs reacted noticeably to any approaching threat on the off-chance Sean happened to not be paying attention.
Nope. Nothing at all.
Whatever the reason, the lack of inherent urgency was a welcome relief. One that gave Sean the time to really take in their surroundings as they traveled. For someone who had previously been deployed to a desert and found the experience less than amenable overall, the gelaton was both pleasantly and continuously surprised by what he saw. Much like the boundary between the forest and the Sohl desert, there was more variety here than there ever had been back on earth.
The first, and honestly most notable difference, was that the sand around them was not always the same color. It crossed from a normal sort of ‘yellow’ sand to tan, gold, and even an almost bark-like wood color as the miles rolled on. That last one hadn’t been around long, but the few dunes made of it had reminded Sean of dirt more than sand. As if the very earth itself had simply crumbled apart there at some point in the distant past.
There were a few black patches and some lighter shades of green, though no full dunes of either. Sean had actually had to hold up a hand against a trio of dunes formed of rather bright white sand that had formed a triangle of sorts. But those had thankfully been off in the distance and the gelaton had felt no desire to go near it.
The most impressive by far had been a dune they had passed during the night when several of the moons above had been shining down. Its colors had swirled across various spectrums in a way that had captivated both Sean and Gel for long moments, until the pair had eventually ‘woken up’ and decided to move on before they got distracted again.
Overall, Sean wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it. It felt like something he had experienced before, only on a grander scale. To the point that when they weren’t busy tracking down their next meal or devouring it, the gelaton actually started to feel the sands beneath his feet changing colors long before his orbs registered the change on the surface. The difference was subtle, and yet it was there.
It’s always there. He realized. Maybe it always was, and now I can finally sense it?
Eventually, Sean couldn’t help himself.
“What’s the deal with the sand out here?” He asked Gel. “It feels like those patches of changing mana we saw when we first got out here, back where the forest ended. But these feel different. Like there’s more there, but not quite there.”
The insight hit him even as Sean was speaking. “Underground. We’re seeing the mana underground change.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Nailed it right on the non-existent nose.”
“Is the mana out here unstable or something?” Sean asked, gesturing at yet another dark brown dune not fifty yards off. “We’ve seen a dozen different colors by now. You’d think if it were that easy to find concentrations of mana then Bancroft could have just come out here with a shovel.”
“Deserts aren’t exactly mana wellsprings.” Gel explained. “There’s really not a whole lot there, despite what it looks like. At least not up here on the surface. Sand is just one of those materials that’s really sensitive to ambient mana. When there’s enough of one type nearby, it changes to reflect that. If the ambient mana around it changes later, even that same day, it’ll just change again.”
“That didn’t answer my question.” Sean pointed out. “What’s stopping a necromancer from sending a hundred skeletons out here with buckets looking for black sand?”
“The fact that sand doesn’t hold mana very well, either. In fact, if those villagers’ memories are to be believed then it’s almost as bad at doing so as air is. You could scoop up a whole dune, stick it on a fleet of wagons, and send it all the way back to the forest.” Gel enthused, waving his whip around as if to demonstrate his points. “But by the time you got there, it would just be a bunch of sand. Might even have changed back to its nature variant, too.”
“‘Nature variant’?” Sean asked, honing in on what was obviously a key phrase there.
“Yeah.” Gel said, as if that was a full explanation.
“What is a ‘nature variant’? Just sand with a bunch of nature mana?”
“Pretty much. Lots of materials have variants, but it only technically counts when the material gains or loses some new property because of the mana type inside it.” Gel’s voice had taken on his measured, lecturing tone. One Sean was getting used to by now and half-considered dubbing the slime’s ‘professor’ voice. “Now if the material is infused with mana, that is an entirely different matter.”
“Infused?” Sean queried again. “Like that bar of life mana we found?”
“Err, yeah. I think.” Gel sounded suddenly confused. A moment passed, and the slime eventually shook himself. “Sorry. Memory is a… little foggy on the difference there. But you get what I mean.”
“Mhm.” Sean agreed, only refraining from further questions because his friend had sounded more than a little concerned at suddenly discovering a gap in his knowledge mid-explanation. Sean had to admit, that sounded frustrating. Thinking through the logic, he continued as if that hadn’t come up.
“So, it sounds like these ‘variants’ are materials that change on their own due to the ambient mana nearby, whereas materials that are ‘infused’ have special properties because of what they’re infused with. Seems simple enough.”
“Yeah… I suppose so.” Gel affirmed, though the slime went suddenly quiet after that.
Sean let his friend have his peace. At least until he spotted an enormous, half-desiccated white cactus half an hour later that was sticking out of the sand at the top of a nearby dune like the withered hand of some fallen god. The gelaton pointed over at it the second it came into view, noting that the sand underneath the log was a soft white almost drained of color.
“What mana type is that dune a variant of?” Sean asked as the ants following behind them started slowly clacking their mandibles together. A not-quite shiver ran through his own bones, though the gelaton ignored it. “The cactus ontop of it looks almost dead.”
“That’s because it is.” Gel said, and the slime sounded slightly unnerved. “So let’s leave that one alone and where it is. I can smell some of those juicy cactus things over in the other direction, let’s go get them instead.”
Sean’s own unease began to grow even as he stood there, but the gelaton’s curiosity held strong. Despite the slime’s crimson whip pointing towards food, he remained where he was.
“Let me guess.” Sean said, folding his arms. “That area is mana-deficient or something? I can feel there’s something off about it, but it doesn’t feel like the life bar. Even the ants don’t seem to care for it, so it can’t be that.”
‘Don’t seem to care for it’ might have been an understatement. The juvenile acidspitter ants – who had been following diligently behind them this entire time – now looked like they were contemplating dropping the loot on their backs and heading home if he took another few steps towards the misshapen cactus.
“I’m not sure what the term is, but I know how it feels.” Gel argued. “Remember when you asked if you needed a certain amount of death mana around to live?”
“Yeah.”
“Then let me put it this way: You go over there, and we’ll look like that cactus before nightfall.”
Sean turned abruptly on his heel towards the cacti monsters Gel had been pointing towards earlier.
“Alllright, point taken.” The gelaton said, marching swiftly away from that nope-hill and its nonsense. “Stay away from the anti-everything death zones. Check.”
“Should also avoid the yellow sand.” Gel chimed in, sounding much more cheery now that Sean was heading away from the withered cactus. Even the ants looked relieved. “You know, since we’re avoiding things that might kill you.”
“Okay, ‘death zone’ sand I can understand, but now even the yellow stuff will kill me?” Sean asked incredulously, even as he summoned a bone shield and grabbed the crimson axe Gel was handing him. “How does anyone survive out here?”
“Well, they mostly don’t. It is a desert. Not a whole lot of surviving going on out here.” Gel pointed out with an amused tone. “But I was only kidding. The life sand variant will probably just burn your feet or something. It shouldn’t kill you unless you try to sleep in it, which would be silly for you to try because skeletons don’t sleep.”
Resisting the urge to roll his orbs so hard they fell out of his skull, Sean merely said: “Uh-huh.” before charging over at their next meal.
“It might not have any effect, actually.” Gel mused, clearly not done with the conversation. “Should we try it? I think we should try it.”
“Tell you what, the next patch we come across, I’ll let you touch it first.” Sean offered, even as he swung the battle-axe through the first of their many-needled foes. “Deal?”
“Deal.”