[NR] Space Water - Chapter 469 (Patreon)

Rosha walks over, "So, what's the stats on that thing? It isn't an accessory or anything, but stand alone magic items like that tend to be quite rare as drops."

Jason shared the description and caused Courtney to freeze in shock.

{Everfull Ice Skin of the Deep Sky

Description: This water skin is made from the hide of a tardigroid that was a single piece of hollow ice. The skin retains the monster's ability to fully restore the water within it three times a day.

Effects:

• Everfull: Water - Up to three times a day this water skin can be commanded to refill itself with clean water, pushing out any other substance inside of it in a gentle manner
• Deep Sky Essence - A single spark in the night sky. Breaking this water skin while full and with all three charges intact will release Deep Sky Comet Tail Mist. Doing this will strip the skin of all magics.}

Courtney, "Comet mist? You got a water skin that can be used to make even just the smallest quantity of a Deep Sky resource?”

Jason shrugged, “We’re in what the System calls a lunar cave. Nevermind the fact it doesn’t have anything to do with the actual moon, it is from space. What’s so out of place about such a thing?”

Courtney sighs, “Well, not resources in general I guess. I’m sure people come out of here with space rocks and what not all the time. The big thing with what you got is that it is Deep Sky based water. Though since it mentions being from a comet, it really should be from space proper.

“Anyway, Deep Sky water is really critical for some complicated bits of alchemy as a supplement. Even low level water like what you would get from that water skin. The stuff is rare enough that you can probably fetch a few hundred gold for the skin.”

Rosha frowns, “What does being from Deep Sky do to water?”

Courtney, “The water isn’t actually aligned with water. Believe it or not, space is a wee bit hostile and what the System considers ‘Deep Sky water’ is the stuff that has basically been irradiated of all water based power. This doesn’t make it fire aligned either. Rather, it picks up some of the void power.

“That in turn makes it so that once down here, it does not survive all that long. Other Deep Sky items can hold onto whatever unique power they might have. Water? That touch of void means the stuff just sucks up everything around it. Which in alchemy translates to a much more thorough extraction of the ingredients.”

Jason, "Why just void? You would think there would be all kinds of interesting powers up there."

Courtney shrugs, "Just the naming convention. There are other waters, but they get called things like stellar water."

Jason nods, "Fair enough, I've seen my fair share of odd naming conventions. Now if I remember correctly, we should be coming up to the flora and then traps. Anything specific to look out for?"

Courtney, "The plants will be a thing. They're called plants more because that is the closest to what we understand as plants. Though it won't be able to show itself in its full glory as gravity is still a thing."

Jason, "So we're up for a ton of monsters in a field of flattened near-veg space flora?"

Rosha rolls her eyes, "Not just flattened veg! I'm sure there will be a lot of it hanging off the walls and ceiling."

Courtney sighed, "To a degree. Not all of the stuff will be soft like you're expecting."

Rosha, "Then let's go take a look!"

Of course it wasn't that easy. They still needed to complete the sixth floor. A task that while not too hard, took longer than they expected. Even if the attrition aspect of the dungeon was somewhat wasted on them, the fights still took a lot more time than not with only three people.

Not to mention the never ending variety of the chaotic variants. While the ice shell tardigroid might have been the most out there in form. More than a couple annoying powers showed up to slow them down.

Though even just a form of regeneration or the ability to endure fatal damage for a moment more was enough to turn any fight into a grind. Most annoying of the variants, however, weren't so straightforward. It was the team players that caused the most stress.

Minor regeneration was annoying. A minor regeneration area of effect buff? Pure nightmare fuel. Even with Energy and Mana, the party still mostly relied on physical harm to bring down enemies so that one fight dragged on until Jason took a chance and tossed Lily at the buffer like a furry missile of death.

Good thing that plan worked or else they might have had to retreat and wait for a reset. Also a good thing the Regen buff didn't work on itself and there weren't any other healers in that monster group. Not that the buffs generally did work on the monster casting it which seemed to be more of a nerf by the System than any actual restriction on the magic. Sort of like how the System prevents true swarms from gaining sapience.

Then with the seventh floor just ahead of them, they stop. Jason can feel the power start to change like it had on previous floors, but the group is tired. Maybe not physically as they’ve all got the Stamina stat by now, but no amount of stats is going to help with the mental drain and need for constant vigilance in case one of so many monsters happens to be a variant out to wreck their day.

They are so close and yet so far. Not that any of them begrudge this stop. The party is fine with pushing themselves to grow, but you need to keep things within reason. To try and conquer anymore would be hubris.