Chapter 22: Safe Leaf 3

“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.

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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.

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