It took us a few more inconclusive tests before we gave up. The stupid plant in the lake, or whatever it was, didn’t react in a predictable manner, making the entire process pretty much a waste of time. Or maybe there was a pattern but I hadn’t been able to isolate it, or there were specific conditions we had failed to take into account. Whatever the case, our tests had given us such a wide and conflicting array of results that there simply wasn’t anything we could draw from them, no useable predictions that might allow us to approach the water safely.

To make matters worse, for the last thirty minutes, the plant hadn’t reacted at all and now, the will-o-wisps we had noticed the night before were out and floating above the water as if there was nothing wrong at all.

“Look over there,” Luna quietly prodded me, pointing to the far side of the lake. Looking in the direction she indicated, I could see some sort of animal near the water, happily drinking from the lake we were so incredibly wary of.

“Maybe it was time for the plant to go to sleep, or something like that,” I grumbled, not quite happy with the situation. While I was almost certain that the plant wouldn’t attack, I wasn’t happy with the qualifier but maybe this was a case where I had to take a bit of a risk.

“Luna, stay back with Silva. Lia and I will carefully approach. Lia, cover me but keep a bit of distance anyway, worst case, I simply shadow-step away, you can’t do that yet,” I told my companions, getting some nods in response.

Moving forward, I felt a little foolish, as I kept all precautions, my mind tense and ready to drop into Bullet Time at a moment’s notice, only for nothing to happen. From close-up, I could smell something in the water, a fairly powerful vitality that made me wonder if the lake was enriched enough to serve as a drink for Lia, simply by virtue of the amount of Astral Power within. It was an interesting idea, but one that brought up so many questions, for example, the question of where the power came from. This much Astral Power had to have some anchor to reality unless there was a Nexus about to form here and the area was inundated with Astral Power directly from the Astral River but nothing seemed to indicate such. Though, given that I had only been close to two Nexuses before, one tamed and one wild, I couldn’t confidently say how a forming Nexus would feel.

But whatever was going on here, I wanted to figure it out, even if the only thing I learned was that there was some sort of super-powerful algae in the water, one similar to the Withering Fungus or something along those lines.

Slowly breathing out, I let go of my concealment magic, ready to leap aside at any moment, just in case the creature within the water wasn’t as inactive as I hoped. When nothing happened for a minute, I decided that I was safe enough, at least for now, and could perform a few tests on the water. Though I wasn’t about to touch it directly, not until I knew what was going on here.

Using a conjured vial of Ice, I extracted some water, studying it as closely as the limited lighting allowed me to. While I could see almost as well in the dark as in daylight, there were some things that were made easier to see in the light, thanks to contrasts and shadows. And that seemed to be the case here, I could feel some things in the water, something tiny and living, but I wasn’t able to see whatever it was, only faintly feel its presence. Similarly, as I held the vial, I could feel that the Ice I had conjured to make it was already under attack from within, the sensation similar to tiny insects nibbling at some larger object, slowly but surely taking it apart. The vial would last for a while, an hour or so, but compared to the twelve or more hours it would normally retain its shape, that was nothing.

To make matters worse, the creatures were too small to be Observe’d, leaving me with few options to identify them. Out of curiosity, I tried using Water Magic to move the water in the lake, but I could feel that the creatures within were rapidly absorbing my power, making it incredibly inefficient to the point that I’d need ten, maybe a hundred times the Astral Power I would normally need, depending on the volume of water I wanted to affect.

Thinking that the creatures within were actually alive, I decided to channel a bit of my Death Magic into the water, just enough to hurt myself and sterilise the water from all normal bacteria. I could feel the change instantly, the walls of my vial stopped decaying, making me think that the creatures were either stunned or dead. Carefully sniffing the air above the vial, even tasting a little to check the scent, I tried to determine whether the Water Astral Power in the water was gone or remained, but the only thing I could detect was Death. Well, and the Ice Magic I had used to create the vial but that didn’t really matter.

Now, I only had to figure out whether I couldn’t detect the Water Astral Power because it had faded when the tiny creatures died or if the Death Magic simply overshadowed it to my senses. The only way I could think of to do so was taking the stuff into my mouth, directly using my tongue to taste the water but I wasn’t really happy with that idea.

Instead, I used my Water Magic on it, trying to get a feel for the resistance before deciding to simply wait for a while, allowing the Death Magic I had used to dissipate, that way I’d find out if Water Astral Power remained or not.

“Watch out,” Lia’s warning caught me by surprise, making me drop into Bullet Time as my senses flared and immediately detected the approaching creature. It was a fairly large cat, in motion to pounce on me from one of the trees, and I could already see that it would be struck in the air by Lia’s chain-hook long before reaching me.

Letting Bullet Time fade, I started to move back, striking out with my Frozen Shuttle while idly using Observe to learn that I was being attacked by a level thirty marsh-cat, not that it really mattered. The creature didn’t make it far, Lia’s attack was as brutal as it was swift. The hook dug into the cat, piercing a sizable hole into its flank before Lia ripped it back out, sending the bleeding creature into a spin. My own attack struck just a little later, hitting the head straight on, and while it didn’t penetrate too deeply, I shredded an ear and tore a sizable gouge into the cat’s flesh, sending it down into the water.

Given what we had seen from the water, Lia and I moved further back, almost as far back as we had been earlier, just in case the bleeding body dropping into the lake caused something to happen.

For a moment, nothing happened but a notification popping up that we had killed the cat but received no EXP because it was too low in level but then, something fascinating happened. I could feel a surge of power within the water, though it wasn’t quite what I had expected, there was no water magic involved but something else. It smelled like decay, or maybe rot, and the cat’s body decomposed almost immediately, to the point that nothing remained. At least nothing that we could see, there might have been a bit that sunk, bones or something like that. I wasn’t sure and I wasn’t about to go into the water to find out, this lake was incredibly fascinating but equally dangerous.

“So…” I began, exchanging a glance with Lia, “what do you think?”

“It might be useful, you know?” she gave me a grin, “Think about it, if the water only destroys flesh and blood, it might be useful to make leather, allowing us to get rid of all the fat and tissue after skinning,” she explained and I could see the use of that.

“Yeah, that might work, but I’m not sure I want to take that much of a risk. If my guess is correct, the large creature is active during the day and for some time after sunset, but the tiny creatures are active all the time. This might look like water but it’s more like a lake filled with incredibly deadly acid or something,” I shook my head, thinking of the creature we had seen drink earlier.

As we were watching the lake, the water started frothing around the area where the cat had disappeared and moments later, another of those ghostly flames emerged from the water. With us cautiously watching, just in case the flame was some sort of monster, it just floated there before wafting away, as if carried by an unfelt breeze, leaving us with a few more questions and no more answers.