Chapter 186

Fortunately, Zoey wasn’t stuck with her sticky mishap crammed inside her bodysuit for the rest of the shard. She already knew from earlier that the material was selectively permeable, as noticed when she’d gotten a good taste of Maddy’s juices through the suit. Further experimentation showed that Zoey could make that work with cum, too. It just took her focusing her intent, willing the fluid to soak through—like how most items and her class worked. So bit by bit, Zoey emptied the balloon from her suit, clearing the sticky liquid out.

Which was weird, having that sort of mental control over her clothing, but compared to everything else she’d been through, she barely blinked twice at it. She was just happy that she wouldn’t be walking around with a huge cum balloon wobbling between her legs all day.

Out of curiosity, she also experimented with other fluids. Specifically, her spit, to see if it was possible. It was. And from the other direction, too. She could allow the sticky material to soak into her palm with a simple mental command.

So she had a surprising amount of control over the bodysuit. Zoey wasn’t sure if that meant anything useful, or whether the feature was just for her convenience. Because, again, walking around all day with an increasingly growing cum bubble would have been a little much, even by Zoey’s rapidly adjusting sensibilities.

From there, she and Maddy set back off. In the previous shards, Zoey had frankly been an inconsequential member of the team—contributing, but also unnecessary in the grand scheme of things, with Rosalie and Delta making short work of their opponents.

That wasn’t the case for Zoey’s current predicament. Responsible for the majority of their damage, Zoey’s performance absolutely did matter. In the instances where she struggled to chain enough damaging spells or even missed crucial ones, the fights became suddenly much harder. Not to any lethal degree—they took things slow and were well-prepared for a third-shard environment—but riskier than any of Zoey’s other experiences.

Which she found ... exciting? Strangely? Certainly, it was exhilarating, fighting for her life, if maybe ‘fighting for her life’ was putting it dramatically. At a minimum, getting to put her hard work to use felt deeply rewarding. Seeing the fruits of her dedication these past few weeks. While there’d been plenty of diversions while at Treyhull, Zoey had spent a good portion of that time working on bettering herself as a wayfarer. She had hardly closed the gap between her and her trained-from-birth prodigious teammates, but she wasn’t embarrassed by her abilities anymore, either.

As they progressed through the shard, the two of them made another odd discovery related to their bodysuits. Specifically, that they were slowly changing color.

“I could’ve sworn I noticed something earlier,” Maddy said, frowning down at her outstretched hand—at the shiny material. “But now I’m positive. They’re definitely grayer. Weren’t they shiny black when we started?”

“Definitely.” Zoey didn’t have a doubt in her mind about that, because she’d been more than a little absorbed in how great the suit’s glossy black midnight had looked on Maddy. Now, the material was several shades lighter. “They’re turning gray.”

“Every time we kill something, I think,” Maddy said. “And ... I’m pretty sure during our recharge sessions, too? That’s when I first noticed. It changed a lot then.”

“What do you think it means?”

“I could only guess.”

“It’d be better than mine.”

Maddy hesitated, then shrugged. “Maybe we’re upgrading them?”

“Upgrading them? How?”

“No clue. But I assume it’ll become relevant later on.”

“Huh.” Zoey thought that over. “Think it could be a bad thing?” Maybe not an upgrade, but something they needed to worry about, instead.

Maddy shrugged. She didn’t seem overly concerned with the possibility. “It’s not like we can avoid killing monsters. Or recharging you. So if it is bad, we’re just gonna have to deal with the side effects. You haven’t noticed anything?”

“No,” Zoey said. “Not really.” She frowned. “Besides that they’re comfortable. This thing is heat-resistant for you, too, right?” Zoey made to tug at the latex-like material, but, of course, it didn’t budge. Glued to her skin like always.

“Oh, yeah. It is,” Maddy agreed. “And it’s becoming more noticeable the deeper we go—because it’s getting hotter. My body feels fine, but my face is getting pretty hot.” She wiped her forehead of sweat, flicking it away, to emphasize the point. Then she frowned, realizing what Zoey was getting at. “You think that has something to do with it. Heat resistance?”

It was Zoey’s turn to shrug. “No clue. Just commenting.”

With their situation unilluminated—but at least noticed, now—they continued through the magma caverns. Paying closer attention, they confirmed that killing monsters was slowly morphing their once-black bodysuits into lighter shades of gray. Very slowly, but definitely doing it.

What happened when it did reach white? What would happen then? Anything? Was it cosmetic only? She doubted that.

As they progressed deeper, Zoey took samples from any material that seemed like it could be useful as an alchemical reagent. Rocks, moss, parts of monsters, some of the glowing red ore in the walls and ceiling, and so on. Much of it would be useless, as mundane as any other old plant or stone, but Zoey had the inventory space, and means to collect, so why wouldn’t she? Sabina would help her figure out what was worth keeping once she returned to Mantle.