Volume 1: Path – [Mist Forest Arc]
Chapter 43: Mist Water
"Go straight ten steps and then take a left 100 steps..."
Caelus moved his legs, which were feeling strain from pain; his mind was getting chaotic and calming down back again when Caelus was removing other thoughts or any other thoughts that were useless for him right now.
Caelus's legs are feeling a lot of strain from carrying Aiv on his back and also walking for over an hour in this Abyss.
Caelus is just following the direction he pointed, and Caelus is just moving in that direction since only Aiv can see where they are going.
Aiv's mind is not cracked, unlike Caelus, who got cracks in his mind. Caelus used a technique that requires fighting against others using mental strength, and he fought elementals of the Mist element, which is more dangerous than fighting against a human over mental strength.
As they were moving towards some unknown direction, Caelus and Aiv simultaneously heard a sound—yes, a sound—and the sound was that of flowing water. Caelus felt happy because he was feeling thirsty; his throat was dry like a desert.
He will die in an hour if he doesn't drink any water because he was carrying a person and walking around with strain on his leg, making his stamina go deep down, and having thirst on top of that—who wouldn't die? Even surviving this much time is an achievement to be proud of.
When both heard the sound of the flowing water, both felt happy, and Aiv quickly told the directions to Caelus, and Caelus followed them as he walked with pain as fast as he could to drink water.
Soon, Caelus arrived at the place where water was flowing; he saw a small light shining as he approached the water.
Maybe because he was in the dark this whole time, even a small light hit his eyes hard and made him close his eyes for a few seconds before he opened them slowly and with difficulty.
Caelus immediately ran towards the light, and when he got there, both Aiv and Caelus saw a corpse with a glass box and, inside, a crystal.
"Isn't this Crystal Leaves?"
"Yes, they are; with this we can move ahead more easily."
The hard-earned three crystal leaves were gone when they flew down into this abyss; the bag broke and flew away somewhere, and even Caelus Academy's jacket is gone. Only his shirt and pants remained since they are made of some kind of material that can resist high falls.
Caelus bent down and took the crystal leaf box; the moment he took it, the corpse degenerated into powder.
'Damn, I want to follow my grandfather's words and run away, but I can't since I am in debt to Aiv, and I want to drink some water.'
After he took the crystal leaf box, he put it forward to see anything around him. When he looked, he felt terrified because he saw piles of corpses lying around. The ground is filled with corpses everywhere.
Just then he felt some water drops falling from front, and he could hear the sound of water from above too; he just didn't mind for a second to take the crystal leaf box.
Then he pointed the crystal leaf box towards his front, where the water sound came from; he saw water flowing towards a certain direction, and water was attached to the surface of the ground. The water is not falling down; instead, water is falling down, and who knows where mist is rising from the ground and mixing into the waters? This mist is flowing from the corpses and skeletons on the ground. The skeletons and corpses are degenerating, but that is not noticeable to Caelus since he is not a high ranker. Even Aiv, from the way he has an expression on his face, one can tell he cannot see it; rather, his eyes are focused on the waters.
"What the hell is this?"
"So, this is the Reverse Flow Waters. To think these waters are formed like this. Now I know why the water is flowing in the reverse direction."
"Wait, what is this Reverse Flow Waters?" Caelus asked the question because he didn't have time to review the information material on the inner layer; he just knows there is an inner layer. He thought the mission would go smoothly. But who would have thought things would turn out like this?
"Caelus, you know the Abyss in the inner layer, right?"
"Yes, that is the only thing I know about this inner layer. What about it?"
"If there was a picture, you would have seen it and understood it, but there is not, unfortunately, and you didn't even get the drawing of the inner layer to know about it. Reverse Flow Waters is the place where the whole mist forest gets water from. The reverse flow waters go in the reverse direction, the abyss we are in, the waters just like this attached to the walls of the abyss, and they go up to the ground surface and flow through the Mist Forest."
"Damn, this is my first time hearing something like this; it's amazing." Caelus is feeling intense curiosity and wants to explore more of this place, but quickly calms down since he is nowhere strong, and also he is not even in good condition right now.
"Yeah, but don't worry; there are many things in this world that would make your jaw drop if you saw them."
"Hmm." Caelus just nodded, but his nod held excitement that he completely forgot about his sadness over misfortune and the pain in his leg.
"These Reverse Flow Waters can go in the reverse direction, defying gravity and also attaching to the walls of this cave and also the abyss as it goes up to the surface, because these waters are made of mist.
A mist is essentially a collection of tiny water droplets suspended in the air. What happens when a huge mist that is suspended in the air makes water? But the thing that amazes me is if it is heavy, it is bound to fall down, but this mist water is staying as a light mist but in full water condensation.
When researchers first did research on this one, they found that one is just like water, but in actuality, these waters are actually just mist, but all attached together, causing it to appear as water. These corpses are actually researchers who tried to do research here, but they all died due to something. From the way their corpses are, there is no beast or monster or even demon here; it means they died of starvation or in some mysterious way."
Caelus understood what he said and nodded; this is a basic science known to all, after all.
Then even the researchers died in here after they came here prepared with all these things on their bodies.
Caelus saw backpacks near the corpses, but the bags were all torn. But still, Caelus decided to check it, despite his grandfather saying, 'Don't ever try to look at the unknown,' but he had to do it for survival. He put Aiv down on the ground as he walked towards one of the many bags around him.
With the crystal leaf box, he could see the way more clearly than ever in this dark place.
He stood to the back a bit away from the bag as he opened it. The bag is a huge one, not a school-type bag, but rather a single zip with a huge rectangle-shaped bag.
The bag was so wet; there is no air, but there is a lot of blood spilled on this bag the moment he is about to open the zip.
"Boo."
Hearing the "Boo," Caelus immediately jumped back in horror as fast as possible. Then he heard the laugh of Aiv as he realized he was pranked by this guy.
"Since you have pranked me, remember this: I am going to prank you sometime," he said as he pointed his finger towards Aiv, with his left hand holding onto the crystal leaf box.
"You can try," Aiv said with a smug face.
"Hmph." Caelus didn't care about that reply anymore and went bravely this time towards the bag and opened the zip; there he saw bottles of water.
These bottles all look plastic and not related to any water company in the real world because there is no label on them; the water looks fresh to drink.
He picked it up and said to Aiv, "Aiv, look what I have found: water to wet our throats."
"Caelus, don't ever say that. It is a double-meaning sentence."
"What do you mean, what sentence?"
"Just leave it; pass me that bottle. I want to check something."
"Here you go." Caelus passed it with his right hand onto Aiv's right hand. Aiv can't move his legs but can move his hands; with that, he took it and checked the water.
"So, this is why they died; these researchers always try to do dumb shit."
"What happened?" Caelus asked his question to Aiv.
"These guys filled all the bottles with this mist water. I don't know why, but I think the mist water here is so potent that it can kill anyone if they tried to drink it, unlike outside on the surface, where water is not that potent and people can drink water without harm."
"Damn, they must have run out of water and had no choice but to use these waters to fill their thirst, and they may have thought nothing happened to them, so they filled every bottle with these waters, and after some time they might have died, and the mist that is coming from them right now is their body turning into mist from human flesh. Is this correct, Aiv?"
"Yes, that's true."
"You are so intelligent, Aiv," Caelus praised Aiv genuinely for being able to analyze something like that in a few seconds of time.
"Of course I am," Aiv said with a smug face.
"Then what about drinking water right now? We are going to die at this rate." Caelus said.
"We will just have to try our luck to find some water that is edible."
At the mention of luck, Caelus's mood dropped again, but then he said, "Okay," with an encouraging feeling in his voice.
"Let's go in the opposite direction from where the reverse flow waters is flowing from."
"Okay." As he said, he came forward and picked Aiv up as they moved towards a cave where waters were coming out from.
[End Of Chapter 44]
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