Drip-Fed Pt. 04

Gizmo cleared his throat probingly again and nodded when the problems seemed to have been fixed for now. He took a sip of tea before continuing nonetheless. "Monsters are then the animals inhabiting the leaf. While leaves containing only animals that can be qualified as cattle aren't entirely unheard of, their percentual share," that was a concept Apexus barely knew what to do with, but it just accepted the point, "is so small they might as well not exist for the sake of statistic.

"Monsters are a quick way to identify which god created a leaf, or was at least involved in it. For experienced Branchers, seeing a certain monster they have encountered many times before tells them a lot of things about the leaf as a whole. Just by seeing a dragon soar, one can deduce that there must be enough meat to feed such a creature, the colour of its scales and size usually give away the rough details of a leaf's biome. There are people who specialize in this, but we will talk about how adventurers organize themselves, at least in my heyday, another time."

Apexus had a hard time imagining the decrepit old skeleton as a young man capable of adventuring. Sure, the man was clearly a mage of some power, otherwise how would he have built that fence, illusionary barrier and have access to all that Blessed Parchment, not to mention the translation spell he could use. However, just trying to see him as anything younger than what he currently was, was difficult.

"Believe me or not, I was once a scarlet-haired legend," Gizmo berated the doubtfully looking slime. Then he sighed, "Let's move on though, the last things gods like to throw into their worlds are dungeons, a term I always found terribly unfitting. Adventurers love it, dungeons make it sound like they are heroically conquering dark prisons and dangerous places. In reality, dungeons aren't even necessary structures. Landmarks would be more accurate, places that are unusual even in the leaf they are placed in, holy forests or castles guarded by animated armour. Simply put, places of great danger and great reward."

"You are forgetting one aspect of the divine's creations," Aclysia chimed in, putting a clean bag filled with herbs and made from rough cloth on the table where she landed. "They don't just add dungeons to the world, but also mysteries. Simple things that pose riddles or challenges to the people discovering them, often unsolved for centuries," she gestured at herself, "I, myself, would be an example for such a mystery. Although they usually aren't accompanied by divine quests..."

Aclysia's voice trailed off and she blinked rapidly. Then she turned towards her awakener ever so slowly. "I never disclosed the details of mine quest to you!" she exclaimed, only now realizing this. Between not being able to tell Apexus due to its inability to understand, her physical form failing and then the simple flow of living in this house she had completely forgot about it. It wasn't urgent, but now that she finally got the reminder, she decided to disclose it.

Gizmo leaned back, the metal fairy drew breath, the slime stared.

"My creator wishes for you to gather the rest of my body," Aclysia stated after a moment of thinking. "Now that I have been awoken, the fountains of divine metals all over Ctania have opened. Though I know not their location in detail, I can roughly locate them."

"A gathering quest, pretty tame for a divine one," Gizmo commented. In the meanwhile, Apexus grabbed some paper and wrote a single word on it in the usual scraggly fashion.

'Reward?' It was a simple question from a basic understanding that fulfilling quests was supposed to net one something in return. In all due honesty, albeit it was hard to express that without a face or tone, the slime felt greedy towards the idea of getting something. While it would have done it regardless just to please the cute little fairy, there had to be something bigger in it.

Aclysia nodded, "A minor wish shall be granted to you, awakener. A strong weapon, a blessing of might, a protective amulet, what you desire as a help on your journey into the leaves you shall receive. Just be aware that this will not be the grandest of rewards, compared to other divine quests that is, due to its nature of being located in this safe leaf. Lower risk bestows lower rewards."

That was a concept Apexus was nicely familiar with already. "And with your purpose fulfilled, what will happen to you?" Gizmo asked. The slime perked up, that it hadn't thought about.

"With the divine quest resolved I shall return to my creator, awaiting further orders in his realm," the metal fairy spoke. A hint of sadness reverberated in her voice, after all this was her first physical existence and she rather liked the people she knew right now. As few as there were. Or not even people.

Apexus stretched upwards in its seat and possessively spilled over the metal fairy like a crashing wave. The black and white lady was only as big as Gizmo's hand, and as such easily encapsulated. Like the ebb, the slime then pulled off the table with the metal fairy inside. She let out a relaxed giggle as the full-body massage began.

The slime put forth a conviction in that moment to simply wish for Aclysia to stay when the time came. It needed no fancy sword or blessing. More time with this adorable little fairy was all it wished for. That and maybe try some unsavoury things with her, but those urges were currently being unfulfilled.

Much to Apexus' dismay, the metal fairy had no genitals. This bothered it because it really, really liked the white-haired woman and wanted to try this whole mating thing its instincts whispered to it. A thing that was currently impossible.

But maybe if it found some more parts of Aclysia's metal, she would grow and something like that would become possible? It would remain to be seen. At the prospect alone, however, Apexus began eagerly quivering like an excited child on its birthday. It should drop all of this education nonsense and go do something interesting again.

Gizmo hit the blue blob over the figurative head with the empty tea kettle. "Young thing, don't get overly worked up about things within your own mind," the old man hackled, the fact that he had succeeded in the motion being a testament to Apexus' lack of attention. "Remember what I taught you. If you want to do something, write down a plan that is understandable for everyone involved."

Immediately, the slime scribbled the words, 'Metal searching' on the paper. "That wouldn't be wise," Gizmo shook his head.

"No, it wouldn't be," Aclysia agreed, shaking her head, the only part still sticking out of the slime. Apexus underlined the word. It really wanted to get out of the little sanctuary. To eat meat. To have a little adventure. "It seems my awakener insists," the metal fairy sounded conflicted. While she wanted to further the divine quest her maker had given her to fulfil, it would be better for everyone involved if Apexus learned a bit more about the world before it headed out there.

"Yes, indeed..." Gizmo mumbled, then fell into silent pondering. "Apexus, would you get water for fresh tea? I may have an idea how we can solve this." The condition of its mentor's throat in mind, the slime agreed immediately. Grabbing the kettle, after releasing Aclysia from the cuddling, it made its way outside.

It wasn't a long or hard trip by any stretch of the imagination. A bit of a balancing act, for certain, as Apexus had to put the kettle on its top, but nothing hard. Once it reached the pond of clear water that had coerced the slime to land in this place in the first place, it simply jumped inside. That way, the submerged kettle was filled up with water while the slime could do some drinking itself.

On its way back in, Apexus spilled some of the superfluous water to spare the dead wood inside the wetness. The fact that the kettle itself was covered in the basic fluid wasn't going to be important. It would all evaporate while the tea was heating anyway.

Gizmo cleared his throat as Apexus carefully, incredibly wary of the fire, curved its body and hooked the kettle at its rightful place. Barely having returned to its tree-stump of a seat, Apexus was confronted with a piece of paper that held the old man's plan.

It was a simple three step program. Lectures, then a search for a part of Aclysia, then repeat. "This way we both should get what we want," Gizmo said.

Aclysia fluttered her moth-like wings as she looked at the simple array of words in hovering flight. "That seems a viable middle ground, indeed," she agreed, an upbeat tone in her soothing voice. 'I look forward to growing,' she thought. It wasn't like a divine being to feel competitive over such trivial things as size, but her awakener continuously getting bigger and her being stuck in a frankly weak shape was frustrating. Being of use was her major source of satisfaction, and right now she wasn't even certain she could cast a satisfying heal on Apexus.

"What do you think?" Gizmo turned towards the primary hinge of this decision. Nodding with its whole body, the slime agreed. As dull as it found grammar and advanced mathematics, it would need to get better at these things to not get laughed at by Aclysia again. "Great, one piece of advice, keep to the areas where you are unlikely to run into people. If she gets bigger by the divine metal being collected, you can eventually pose as adventurer and familiar."

Apexus just took his word for it. The concept of a city was still alien to it. A hive for people rather than ants sounded odd, especially with their total lack of cohesion. All the slime hoped for was that the scary armoured man it met back on the mountain wasn't going to find it. To that end, going to untravelled ends of the leaf seemed like the best idea.

"Alright then, I am not going to keep you here much longer then," Gizmo stated. "You can leave tomorrow, for today I will need to put some more information into your core." Leaning back in his chair, the old man recalled where they had left off before this tangent. "I think you know the basics about the branches, leaves and life upon them now... ah, yes, the fruits, that topic we danced around.

To put it basically a fruit exists at the very tip of a branch once enough the leaves that hang on it have had their mysteries uncovered. It is a self-generating creation of omni-verse tree, an edible manifestation of its power. Only those who helped in great part to explore the branch may claim the fruit, but as there is only one per branch at any given time, conflicts over who deserves the fruit the most are often bloody. The fruits are, after all, what allows the adventurer to become a god, should enough of them be consumed a single individual."

The slime wrote down a question. 'Just once?'

"A branch may be fruitful again after many years have passed," Aclysia answered. "No fruit shall ever be as potent as the coveted first one, however. This is why Branchers are infinitely more likely to ascend. The fruits themselves are not direct creations of the gods, rather they are manifestations of the energy released during the creation of mysteries and dungeons and the likes. As such, the more dangerous a leaf is, the more potent the phantasmal energy of the fruit will be. Because they prolong life and restore youth, they are greatly wanted."

Now Apexus was just hungry. These things must have an incredible taste, with all the trouble it was to get them. It wondered if it would ever get to eat one. Its first goal was still becoming stronger, simply because that was what its survival instinct told it to do. Chances were that, if it continued on down that path, it may one day find itself able to spread its goo around one of these tasty sounding treats.

"And now that we are done with that topic," Gizmo clapped his hands. "What is the root of nine?"

Apexus needed a minute to remember that that was a math question.

Apexus was sitting in the grass in front of the house. Its wings had been grown back to a size where their green feathers could carry the slime's whole weight into the sky. Its proverbial belly was filled to a satisfying degree, not that it would have a problem scavenging for food. Being able to eat and digest just about everything was a great trait to have, the slime realized after having observed Gizmo's limited diet.

"I wish you a safe journey," the old man said, waving with one hand. The other was gripping onto the head of his cane, quivering as more of his weight travelled through the arm than nature ever intended.

Apexus felt a bit unsure all of a sudden. Leaving his teacher in such a state was a risk. What if he came back to find a house inhabited only by a corpse? With no idea how else to put it, the slime ate a couple of words into the grass. "Be here," Gizmo read out loud, for some reason these two words alone caused the old man's eyes to turn wet. "I will, I promise," he stated with a smile. "Now go, the sooner you come back, the sooner we can return to teaching you."

Gizmo backed away and gave Apexus all the space it needed to flap its wings. On the broad space between them, on the slime's back, Aclysia was doing her best to hold onto the smooth surface. To make things easier, Apexus pulled her lower body inside itself. Then it took off.

Gaining altitude took a couple of moments, as gravity desperately tried to keep its gluing claws in the mass of Apexus. With the strength of its pale green wings, the slime managed to escape, rising from the ground, over the house and finally over the trees surrounding them.

In search of a helpful breeze, Apexus flew a little circle, taking one last glance at the house. It felt a strange attachment to this place, from the wooden box to the pond and the metal fence. Perhaps, that attachment only existed because of the friendly old man inside that box, though.

A flicker, like lightning crackling in the space around it, flashed around Apexus as it broke out of the illusionary barrier that separated Gizmo's house from the rest of the forest. Now the space behind them was simple tree-tops. It was a place impossible to find unless one was seeking to find it. Apexus had been in the lucky position of searching for something that Gizmo had, thus allowing it to find that place without realizing it.

Aclysia tried to get her awakener's attention by patting the part of its back in front of her. Words failed now, as the earless Apexus had not the concentration to spare to allow it to hear with its tremor sense alone. Acquisition of ears was something, the slime decided, that should get done as soon as possible.

Not stupid whatsoever, the metal fairy had already realized that and was pointing Apexus at the right direction via drawing lines with her finger upon its back. Despite what its math skills may make one believe, the slime wasn't dumb either, and so it adjusted its course until Aclysia stopped and they simply sailed onwards.

Apexus had a look around, moving a frontal blob of its shape as a make-shift head. Moving its eyes alone would have worked as well, but changing their position in the slime too much or too quickly usually lead to some nucleus-ache. Its body really didn't like it when Growths were used in too abrupt a fashion.

The landscape was pretty boring, just green, green and more green, an assembly of trees one could barely see for all the forest. Only a few cliffs and the trenches of Forester Dragons on their feeding path broke up this total monotony.

Under the protection of the leaves tumbled, undoubtedly, hundreds of lifeforms that Apexus could have devoured for a set of ears. As it was, even as Apexus spied the occasional squirrel, there was no chance for a successful dive in the broad daylight. Not even worth the try.

They went on in silence. Apexus wasn't all that bothered by that, the feeling of Aclysia inside him was kind of nice. More specifically, the pulsating of the magic inside her which he faintly sensed gave him a feeling of companionship. That was in addition to the simple glee that was being close to one's crush, although the slime still failed to realize what exactly that meant.

To give the metal fairy something she could enjoy in the meantime, Apexus put his pheromone glands on the height of production. The last time it had used them in such active a fashion had been before the run-in with the two adventurers. In such a remote corner of the world, the slime felt like there was no real danger of running into someone with such a fine nose.

Their journey took them four days. The first two days they needed to escape the greenery, then they spent a day flying over an ocean and finally arrived on the continent in the north. Ctania may not have been the biggest of worlds, but traversing it still took more time than taking a casual stroll down into the nearest pub. Especially as they were heading for a remote corner in the north-east of the leaf.

Granted, they lost a lot of time because Apexus had insisted on doing a couple of things during their travel. First, the slime did not want to fly over the ocean. It knew it had to and trusted Aclysia enough to eventually do it, but flying over a massive body of water of which it couldn't see the end, only to turn around and see the land shrink in the distance, was an incredibly scary experience the first time around.

Apexus flew in circles to get used to that foreign experience and eventually they did make it. Aclysia's internal knowledge of where to find the next piece of her formed their compass. Once they had reached the other side, the slime made the mistake of drinking saltwater.

It could swim inside the ocean perfectly fine, its membrane was strong enough to prevent the two liquids from mixing. Unless it actually invited that saltwater in. Which it did and regretted. It tasted awful, cold and gave it the slime equivalent of cramps. It was way thirstier after the fact than it had been before, meaning they had to divert some time on finding water.

Luckily, that was an easy task. The northern continent had no official name, people just couldn't agree to one, but it was commonly referred to by two names: the watery continent or the coral continent. The two names came from the two defining characteristics, one inland and one for the shores.

The northern continent was incredibly shallow around the rim. Much of it disappeared under the water during high tide. When the ebb came, however, a rather unique ecosystem stayed behind in the form of corals. Pink and blue, these stone-like trees survived the temporary waterlessness by shutting all holes and staying moist on the inside for the few hours they had to. Then the tide turned and the cycle in their favour. There was doubtlessly more about it that Apexus could learn, and he was interested to find who was the boss in that particular environment (and if it could eat it) but he didn't have the time.

Watery, then, the continent was called for its incredible amount of inland seas. It wouldn't be inaccurate to say that there was more water than not, the stone paths between them often narrow or partially submerged. Apexus had no problem in finding a freshwater source in that environment and so it was that, at the end of the fourth day, plunged into one of those lakes.

As if somebody had dropped a rather large rock suddenly into it, water flew everywhere. Apexus vanished under the surface just as a metal fairy gracefully fluttered over to a nearby rock, having had no desire to submerge herself like her creator. "What an energetic being I watch over," she giggled to herself as she sat down.

Slinging her arms around her legs, just below the kneecaps, she waited for Apexus to rise up again. She could see it's wings even under the wavering surface, understandably disturbed by the sudden invader and its movements.