They were currently scouting along the base of a mountain. The nature itself was beautiful. Small creeks ran up and down the mountain with colorful flowers decorating the edge of them. Unfortunately, this beauty held hidden threats, and it didn’t take long for them to enter a dangerous area.

They were surrounded by monsters almost immediately. Julius waited patiently as a group of Tier 4 monsters encircled them. They weren’t attacking yet, but were looking at this large group of people warily. He examined the creatures and noted their long, slender bodies. Spikes ran up and down their entire back. Their tails had even more spikes gathered at the tips, making them look like a spiky mace.

One of them sent out a probing attack. It was some kind of fear debuff skill, and Julius felt his aura activate instinctually, tearing it apart before it reached him. Many of the other disciples had something similar. Those who didn’t either had their friends help them or withstood it to the best of their abilities.

Finally, one of the disciples made a move. He dashed forward, removing a sword from his storage ring. Red flames shrouded the blade, and the other disciples followed suit, activating their own skills.

The one who drew his sword slashed out, and the monster's hide must have been quite tough because he was unable to penetrate it. Several other disciples went on the offensive, launching attacks at the monsters. The results were varied.

Even more of the fear-debuffing skill was released by these creatures, but they must have noticed that the group was relatively unharmed by it. Either from concern or intelligence, these creatures defended themselves with some kind of body enhancement skill before they backed out slowly.

Some of the disciples tried to hunt them down before they ran away. But the mountains made it hard to chase after them in the awkward terrain, plus most of them didn’t see a reason to hunt down a group of monsters who were willingly going away.

Their mission didn’t require them to hunt down these monsters, and the inner disciples didn’t seem very inclined to hunt them down. Julius didn’t mind either. He had a feeling this was simply a normal encounter out in the wilderness; they were likely monsters looking for an easy meal and had realized their group wasn't worth the risk or effort.

Julius put his axe back into his soul space for the time being. It wasn’t too different from his storage ring, but he liked knowing that he wouldn’t lose anything just because someone stole it and broke the connection it had to him. He was no stranger to breaking into someone’s storage ring. He had done it himself in the past and had no doubt that someone would have eventually been able to break into his own, no matter how many protections were layered on top of it.

He still kept hold of it, though; it was good to hold less important stuff that took up a lot of space. For example, he kept his portable kitchen and shower inside it. His more important things, like the special foods he gathered over the years, were all safely inside his soul space.

Eventually, they made it to their intended area, and Julius found himself mesmerized by what he saw. It was hidden deep inside a canyon, and they were forced to squeeze themselves between the narrow walls for a little while, but when it finally opened up, they were greeted by a massive waterfall.

This waterfall wasn’t just any waterfall, either. There were some kind of iridescent particles shimmering throughout the water. All of this water pooled into a large lake, surrounded by lush greenery.

The mana in this little canyon was just as fascinating. There was so much variety and odd combinations that his senses were overwhelmed. For some reason, there were high concentrations of fire mana on the shore of the lake, which was odd because he didn’t sense any large sources of heat.

Albertus didn’t wait for the inner disciples to scout out the area. He took off in a rush and started examining each and every plant. A large tablet was in his hands as he took notes and removed some kind of rod from his storage ring, waving it over each new plant.

Mavis sighed and followed behind him. She also had a similar rod, but she seemed more focused on the lake itself. She bent down by the water and took samples.

“Sir Albertus, please be careful. We haven’t investigated the area yet. There is a chance a strong creature lives around this area,” one of the inner disciples said. It was the same inner disciple who was leading this mission.

Julius believed his name was Ruilo, but Julius hadn’t interacted with the guy or the inner disciples all that much in general, so he wasn’t exactly sure.

Albertus didn’t seem to hear or even care to listen to their words; he was already too busy. His fancy rings were already covered in dirt as the alchemist dug into the ground with happy abandon.

Ruilo sighed and realized that his words were falling on deaf ears. Instead, he began giving instructions to the rest of the inner disciples. They all quickly followed his commands and spread out to investigate the area. Several of them also went over to Albertus and made sure he wasn’t wandering off on his own.

Julius, on the other hand, was left to his own devices and decided to explore on his own. First, he went over to the shoreline and bent down, scooping up some of the water in his hand.

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The sparkling water was an oddity, and he couldn’t help but wonder what caused such a phenomenon. He saw that Mavis was still collecting water samples, doing her own testing.

He walked over and squatted down next to her. “Have you found anything so far?” he asked.

Her eyes had this look of focus and excitement that he had never seen before. She didn’t look up at him as her senses examined the water.

“No, I am still testing out what it might do and why it is like this. We got reports of this place from a wandering disciple who came across it after he was chased by a group of monsters, but I didn’t expect something like this,” she explained, practically shaking with elation.

“Do you think it's safe to drink?”

She shrugged. “I’m not sure yet. I’m doing a few tests right now to find that out, but it’s challenging to differentiate what is safe and what isn’t. There are just too many sources of mana and other energies in this water.”

Julius nodded along and analysed the water once again. He spotted several small fish swimming in the water. He even saw that Albertus was in the middle of trying to lure one of these fish to inspect it. He was dangling a piece of food from a makeshift fishing rod rather than using any mana or skills to snatch it up.

Seeing that this water couldn’t be that poisonous if there were creatures living in it, Julius shrugged and bent down to scoop some up. He gave it a quick sniff, and once it passed the test, he brought it to his lips, ignoring Mavis’s shouting at him.

The first thing he noticed was the weird tingly sensation as the water rolled around his mouth. It wasn’t painful, but felt like carbonated water. It was slightly pleasant, and he could himself get energized with each second that passed.

He swallowed the water and examined how it reacted patiently, but suddenly he felt Mavis slap his back fiercely.

“What are you doing? We don’t know if it's safe yet!” she said in a panic.

He shrugged. “If the water were poisonous, I doubt there would be as much thriving wildlife around.”

“They probably had a long time to adapt to the water. You haven’t,” she scolded him and turned around. “Hey, Aaron! Come over here, Julius drank some of the water!”

She glared at him as Aaron came running over. “He did what?”

“He drank the water,” she repeated with a disappointed frown on her face.

Aaron immediately went over to Julius and, without asking for permission, placed his hands on Julius’s chest. Several skills were activated in quick succession. He even spotted a powerful analysis skill. One that thrummed with power and bypassed Julius's passive defenses. He could have stopped him there, but Aaron seemed genuinely worried.

Still, one could only imagine how much mana it took to charge the skill.

Albertus must have heard the commotion and came running over, stick in hand, but without any fish. “Oh! Did he actually drink it?” He sounded excited that someone decided to try the water.

“Yes, for some stupid reason, he decided to drink it before I finished my tests.”

“Fortune favors the bold! You can’t fear the unknown if you wish to make progress,” Albertus said with an approving nod at him.

Mavis slapped her senior brother and glared at him.

Albertus ignored her like one would ignore a fly and kneeled next to Julius with a manic grin. “So what do you feel? Anything unusual? Anything painful?”

He shook his head. “I don’t think so. There is a weird energy sitting in my stomach, but it doesn’t seem to be hurting me,” he replied after a few moments of close examination.

As if contradicting him, his body shook slightly. The others looked a bit concerned by this reaction.

“Hmm. Interesting,” he muttered, unbothered by this.

“I told you that it was dangerous," Mavis said with a dark look.

Aaron must have finished his analysis and suddenly looked up at him, his expression indiscernible.

“What? Should we be worried?” Mavis asked in a slight panic.

“He’ll be fine,” Aaron finally said, but everyone noticed the guy’s weird behavior.

“What do you mean? From your reaction, I don’t think it’s ‘fine’.”

“He will be okay, his body is already breaking down the harmful compounds inside the water. But I recommend that none of you drink it. I suspect you will experience a very different reaction.”

Julius suspected that Aaron might have gotten a glimpse of his Ruinous Phoenix Body. Fortunately, the guy didn’t seem like he was going to share that information with the others. There were certain things a healer didn’t share with anyone else. Patient’s privacy and all that.

“Are you sure? Do you think you can heal me if I want to drink some?” Albertus asked curiously.

“I can heal you, but I’m not sure what kind of effects it will have or if I can get rid of it all. There are dangerous properties, but my analysis skill is registering it more as a healing potion than a toxin. Hence, my healing skill might not be as effective.”

“Wait, so how is Julius dealing with it? Why would—” Mavis began to ask, but surprisingly it was Albertus who held her back and glared at her.

“It’s his business. You should know better than to press too much about other people’s skills,” he said sternly and looked over at Julius with a grin slowly forming.

“With that being said, if you notice something that might help us, please feel free to let us know. I will pay for any information you have, regardless if you think it's important.”

Julius nodded. Truth be told, he was interested in the water too. Much more than he originally thought he would be. At first, he was simply curious about what it tasted like, but now that he was examining it, he realized there was a hint of death-or-destruction-aspected mana in the water, too.

But somehow it mixed very seamlessly. If he could find inspiration from this, he might make some progress with his new technique.

Before anyone could stop him, he removed his clothes. They started to ask him what he was doing, but he ignored them.

Once he was wearing only his underwear, he waddled into the water with an eager smile. What better way to investigate this weird water than to soak his entire body with it? Plus, he had been traveling all day, and a bath sounded like a wonderful idea.

He heard Mavis shouting at him and Aaron sighing loudly, but they were quickly drowned out when his head went underneath the surface.