This Ascent to Divinity is Lewder Than Expected

6.09 – Chasm

In the sprawling underground magma cavern labyrinth, there were plenty of splits, loops, and dead-ends. Zoey and Maddy worked by no particular methodology picking which way to go—though they marked where they had already explored. A variety of stone and fire-type monsters assaulted them, but having found a rhythm, they worked efficiently to clear a path.

Soon enough, they wandered into the next notable event. Taking a step through a small arched cavern entrance—the tunnel having narrowed and narrowed as they walked down it—Zoey blinked as she took in their new environment. With a ceiling so high up she couldn't see where it ended, and walls at least fifty feet to either side of her, she and Maddy had emerged into a massive space. A doorway was on the opposite side, with glowing orange bricks drawing her eyes there.

The problem? The hundred-foot chasm that sank into the darkness, its bottom, like the ceiling, nowhere in sight.

"Huh," Zoey said.

"That's … a big hole," Maddy commented, stepping up to peek over the edge—apparently not afraid of heights. Zoey nearly reached out and pulled her away just from instinct. Even for a wayfarer of her advancement, that had to be a long drop. A fatal one.

"How are we supposed to get across?" Zoey asked.

Maddy frowned. She leaned back from peering perilously over, setting Zoey's nerves at ease. Her eyes flicked around the room as if trying to scour out an answer to Zoey's question. Some incriminating piece of terrain that indicated a puzzle to solve. A way to manifest a hidden bridge or something like that. But she saw nothing. Neither did Zoey. Despite the huge chasm and the faraway exit, the room was rather nondescript.

"Huh," Maddy said. "Not really."

"And I can't use my ice, somehow?"

Maddy tilted her head. "You don't have nearly the control needed to make structures. Just summoning one shape is difficult, much less a free-form manifestation technique."

"Right," Zoey said. "Just wondering." Though she probably should know better by now that just conjuring up new spells was far from a simple process. It had been the first thing to pop in mind, though.

"Not that you aren't good," Maddy hastily said, worried Zoey had taken the dismissal the wrong way. "That's just high-tier stuff. The mental control needed for free-form manifestation is crazy. Otherwise, everyone would use it."

"Gotcha." She wasn't offended. If anything, she found Maddy's quick assurances cute. She pursed her lips as she looked out across the stretching black chasm. "What about a potion?"

"A potion?"

"I have a skill that makes alchemy in shards easier. Potions are even stronger when made using ingredients gathered from inside the same shard. Might be useful here."

"But what would you make?"

"Dunno. Are there potions of flying?"

Maddy's eyebrows rose. She politely didn't deride the idea as ridiculous, though Zoey knew the girl well enough to recognize that was what she was thinking. "Not that I know of."

"Doesn't seem that strange," Zoey defended herself. "It's gotta exist. At least as a high-advancement potion."

"Maybe," Maddy replied noncommittally. "There's no saying what does and doesn't when it comes to magic. But I doubt it's an option available to us."

"Fair." Zoey could have guessed that herself. Flying potions did seem high on the list when it came to advancement. If they existed at all.

"There's potions of slow falling, though," Maddy suggested. "We'd have to climb up real high and throw ourselves forward. Might not even reach if we did that, though. Risky." She frowned at the smooth walls. "Not sure how we'd even climb up, anyways."

"Embed ice spears into the wall?"

Maddy hummed. "That could work. Assuming you can even catalyze feather fall somehow," she said. "For that matter, if you can get your spears into the wall, we could just bridge ourselves across. Try?"

A short experiment later showed that Zoey could not. Not even if she empowered the ability. Her ice javelins shattered against the stone—definitely not embedding deep enough to act as hand- or footholds to climb across the chasm.

"Hm," Zoey said.

"Might have to consider this a dead end."

Zoey didn't like the idea of that. "That's definitely a special doorway." Whether a useful reward or possibly even the path leading to Rosalie and Delta, Zoey doubted they should just ignore the chasm.

Maddy nodded in agreement. "Yeah, but nothing's coming to mind."

Zoey frowned in silence, puzzling over their options.

"Think you can give me a moment to try some stuff out?" Zoey asked. "There's gotta be something I can catalyze that'll help." That was the whole point of having an alchemy rune specialized in shard exploration—being able to solve unexpected situations like this one. And making impromptu buff and healing potions too, so Zoey ought to cook up a few of those as well, if she could. It depended on the different reagents she'd collected.

 "Go for it," Maddy said. "We're not in any rush. Might not even have to make progress ourselves. Maybe Rosalie and Delta find us, rather than the other way around. I'll watch for threats."

Given permission, Zoey settled down cross-legged and pulled out her alchemy tools. Once she had the various instruments required for a simple batch of potions, she cataloged the regents she'd collected from the shard. As she went about tidying her space and prepping for potion-making, her mind was preoccupied with potential solutions. A way to float, jump, or throw themself across an enormous gap. And preferably something reliable, because Zoey got the feeling that if something went wrong and they fell into that pit, it wasn't something they could walk off.

Not all shard puzzles, traps, or encounters were solvable with just what wayfarers brought in. That was why they were encouraged to be prepared, to be ready to tackle as many situations as they could—and reap the rewards from it.

However, seeing how Zoey's shards often robbed her and her team's inventory, it was likely that there was a way past this obstacle with resources found inside the shard. Probably several ways. It wasn't all that difficult of a problem, having to cross an enormous chasm. Hence why Zoey figured her alchemy could crack the problem open with a little experimentation.

Sorting through her reagents, Zoey paused, eyes latching to one in particular. She frowned at a small jar of orange moss—it was pretty common inside these caverns, clinging to the shores near the magma lakes. Sticking a finger into the container and pulling a clump out, sticky vibrant-orange gel attached itself to her finger.

Not hot, but sticky.

Her eyes flicked to the wall.

Pinching her fingers back with a bit of effort needed, she noted: really sticky.

Maybe not jump or float. Why not just walk?

With Maddy standing guard, Zoey lost herself in the process of putting her idea to the test. As Sabina had suggested, intuition was invaluable, and hunches could often—though not always—be trusted when it came to one's class.

Squeezing the sticky orange gel out from the clumps of moss, Zoey went about catalyzing an experimental potion. The first batch failed to manifest into anything, but she didn't lose heart because of that. Even with skills to help, her current set-up was far from the pristine industrial equipment Sabina had trained her with. And she was an amateur besides.

On the third batch, she finally succeeded. Shaking the thin glass vial, she watched the murky liquid settle into a vibrant orange color. Focusing her attention on it, she requested a description—and finally got one.

[Potion of Stickiness]: Modifies the composition of one's self to become stickier. Can be as troublesome as it is useful.

"Huh," Zoey said. She studied the potion a moment longer, then faced Maddy, her eyebrows raised. "Check this out."

Maddy, having been watching guard at the cave entrance, looked over. Her eyebrows scrunched as she read the description.

"As troublesome as it is useful? What does that mean?"

"Guess we'll find out." Because the first half of the potion seemed to be exactly the effect Zoey had been seeking—her easier catalyzation skill had worked flawlessly.

Though, would the potion be strong enough for her to actually somehow stick to the wall as she traversed the chasm? And that it 'modified her body's composition' was also pretty weird—she'd been hoping just for her hands or feet, or something of that nature. Some potions could be applied rather than drunk. This hadn't turned out to be one, though.

Regardless, Zoey wanted to see what the potion did.

She uncorked the vial, then tipped it back.