"-if you are going below and the problem is bigger than we realize, what will you do?"
"Contact those in the other village, they have much more warriors than we do, especially trained in- ah! Cari, welcome back."
Looking down, Arron's previous calculative look dissolved, replaced with a smile as he gazed at 'her', the others also turning.
Before Cari could imply his inquiry, he remembered just now, how he waved away that goblin without hands, by using the orbs as a medium.
'Can I...'
Pushing his ability further, the glow that sat around him began to intensify.
As his face grew green streaks as Cari pushed his limits, the life energy made its appearance, and slowly, they shaped into awkward and uneven forms of the written dialect, resembling lettering but with more bulbous and sharp ends.
{What's wrong?}
Astonished, and before Arron or Lula could think on it, the kids beat them to it.
"I didn't know you could do that!?"
Stepping closer to the letters, fidgeting in place struggling to keep their form, Qier studied them, while the other two only looked in wonder.
"You can communicate! I'm so glad we can actually talk better now!", Olivia smiled earnestly.
Ag slowly reached to try and touch them, however, before he could, they collapsed, Cari's glow weakened considerably to a lesser vibrance as the orbs faded away from the common eye.
'When he made those images before...was he really feeling that much?'
Remembering all the conjured pictures 'she' made for him before, with much more clarity and stability than how it was now, added with the apology after, he realized just how much his words impacted Cari.
'Maybe she's younger than I thought.'
Allowing that thought to pass, he answered.
"A problem has arised with our water supply, I need to go below to find out what's the issue, I was just telling them to see if any wanted to join me along with some planning."
Lula continued, "And I was about to mention that sweet, Cari noticed the pipes earlier and was curious about them, I think he would be interested to join you with the others."
Looking to her, then back at Cari, he asked, "Well, do you wish to Cari? Although I must warn that your size may leave you in a more precarious position than us- but don't let that stop you if you want to, you just need to be extra carefu-."
"Sweet, let him talk.", Lula reminded him as he was getting carried away with his own words.
Caught, he smiled awkwardly at her, before returning to Cari.
"Well?"
Feeling a bit tired from the strain, Cari simply nodded.
"Follow me everyone! Dear! I'll be back, I trust the village is well in your hands till then.", as he spoke, he looked off to the west side of the village, and started walking out with Ag, Qier, Olivia and a mushroom struggling to follow in tow.
Which would've been normal if not for the fluctuating glow.
"Are you okay Cari?", Arron asked, as he noticed the kids watching him, hesitating to follow.
For Cari, who was lagging a bit behind, didn't know how to respond.
His glow was jumping all over the place, dampening then shooting up, quickly, slowly, slower, just shifting chaotically,
What he did didn't really put too much strain on him, and yet, his body is acting out, he couldn't understand it.
Before he could shrug, he was scooped.
"For now, I could carry you till you feel better, k?", Olivia said with a smile.
Hesitating for a second, he nodded again, little enthusiasm as he felt he was taking advantage of his size again.
However, on noticing she had nowhere to place him, she didn't know what to do.
"Give her here.", offering a hand, Ag motioned to his back, which was a kind of basic red leather backpack, thin, rectangular, with a cupped handle on the top.
"That works."
Placing 'her' there, 'she' leaned back on the handle, finding it secure, before nodding her head with a ~Piiq~.
"Alright, lets continue, it's only a few minutes from here.", Arron spoke aloud as he continued walking ahead, getting them back on track.
The glow's fluctuations kept their focus, however, for one, it was a strange experience.
Ag felt its varying intensity of comfort, creating a strange feeling within, however, he didn't dwell on it, soldering through it.
After a few silent minutes, they arrived at a stone construct, with two wooden doors with steel hoops for doorknobs.
"We're here, I know you three have been here before, but I'm going to give the laydown once more for Cari."
As he opened it, revealing a wide stairwell going down in a circular fashion, only lit by white crystals, giving the path a strange sterile atmosphere.
As they went down, Arron continued.
"There really isn't any way to where you can be a danger to it physically, but that still means you shouldn't try to interfere with it; Cari, with your abilities, I'm not sure you can or can't, but just in case, don't try to mess with it in any way you think you can."
~Yhiii~
"As for you Ag, please be careful, I already told all of you this so many times to where you all understand, but this time Ag, your holding Cari, so I ask you to be a bit more cautious, keep his size and placement on your body in mind."
"Alright Father."
Walking in silence a moment or two, until Qier spotted something.
"Are you getting better Cari?"
He turned around as Ag continued stepping down. motioning his head to the side in confusion.
"Your glow, it isn't changing anymore, it looks like its recovering in fact."
He only now realized that not only had he left it out instead of recalling the shine, but it indeed was, it was steadly increasing, no longer changing on its own.
'How did I not notice; I can't see without it in sight, maybe I'm more tired than I thought.'
Finding it a bit silly how someone else could tell he was feeling better before he did, he laughed, or at least, what sounded like one.
~Eahaiti-ti-ti~
Noticing the weird sound, they looked at him.
"Was that you, laughing?", Olivia guessed.
It sounded weirdly pitched, only because the pauses between could she understand it as a laugh.
Cari nodded.
"Stange laugh.", Qier off-handedly said.
"Well I think it was...normal? Ugh, you get my point, it was a nice laugh Cari."
Ignoring the weird subject on the sounds he makes, forgetting again to recall it as Cari saw the stairs ending, along with the slight sound of a stream of water ahead.
Remembering the grand scheme of the system he sees every time he goes down here, Arron smiled.
"I hope you enjoy the sight as much as I do Cari.", with mystery on his face, he walked ahead, the three following.
It took only a dozen or so steps to reach the main room, the sounds of water rushing and splashing only increased.
Cari was only allowed to wonder for a bit before it disappeared with shock and awe.
'Wow!'
As Ag brought him near a row of dark bronze railings, inside the wide space close to the size of a cavern, he saw ahead a river's worth of water falling from above, in what looked like a hand-made hill.
Before it could hit the ground, what he could only describe as a giant globe of water caught it, glowing in an intense light blue at the center, nearly taking up half of its size, taking more than a third of the cave's space, the surfacing rippling as it spun endlessly around in a current.
Looking closer, within the water surrounding the sphere of bright light, he spotted brown markings making a pattern surrounding it, similar to the material making the patterns on the windows in the village, and they extended in what looked like a tube from the top of the structure, which stretched into the roof, they made rims circling the building along with lines stretching along the tube in three equal sides.
He also noticed in the space between those three, 3 lines of black wood encasing also existed, one escaping into the celling as well while the other two went his direction, going right and left, into the walls, where he found a pathway leading deeper to the side of the one they entered in.
Looking back towards the magnificent contraption, he discovered something glowing carved into all the motifs surrounding the see-through material, interconnected, he could only barely discern it.
'The magic markings in the lamp?'
"As I thought, the problem doesn't lie here, but must be from the natural pressurizers up the stream, we'll go there in a minute; so, what do you think Cari?"
~ALLAH!~
His glow sharply grew in brightness and size in a moment, expressing how amazing it looked as he turned to Arron, and if he could, he would be showing a wide smile.
The others also smiled in Cari's cheerful expression.
"Haha, I'm glad you like it, would you like to hear about it?"
~Yahsi~
'That almost sounded like a yes', both Cari and Arron were surprised at how close that sounded to him actually speaking the words.
"Well~, my friend designed the 'Power-Environment-Water system-"
"P.E.W. for short.", Olivia quickly interjected with a smile.
"-with two purposes: to fulfill the village's need for water and power through the natural water-attuned mana coursing through the natural river before we constructed the village-"
As he spoke, he approached the rail, and pointed down, with Cari moving over to Ag's shoulder to look down, although only by a small amount to avoid falling, with Ag watching carefully, staying still.
Seeing another slope with the fallen water rushing behind them.
"And to redirect the water that was overflowing above, reducing the previous land from a marsh to the proper forest that it is now."
'I do have some memories about that, how long ago was it...hmmm-'
Pointing to the globe, he continued further.
"That cyan light is pure mana accustomed to the water element, condensed to such a degree it is visible without a physical material containing it, not in the way of a crystal anyway.
The engravings in the orb section allow the water to float and collect, and to only drop once a certain amount of mana is collected, and the ones above in that tube do a variety of things from purifying into unchanged mana, to making clean, drinkable water, to pushing that water partially the way above, the rest of the work comes from the pressurizers.
As for the wood, they protect a delicate material that's capable of carrying the pure mana to use as the energy for various engravings we can and cannot see, that focus on changing the water temperature, to even creating environments for new crystals to grow when the old ones are consumed, along with two other functions.
Do you have any questions, Cari? Don't push yourself as hard as you did before."
Thinking, there were only a few.
'But with how straining it is, I can probably only ask one.'
Taking a moment to ruminate and realize more, he went over everything Arron said, and surveying everything again.
Finding his question, he focused, not forcing it as much, resulting in a much poorer representation of the lettering.
Having to take a second to interpret, Arron understood, "What are the final functions? Well, I'm not too sure on the details, but basically, one handles the waste we generate, I don't know the exact details, as Allen, my friend, mentioned that whenever waste is involved, a certain organization has to be involved, as they handle any and every kind of thing partaking it, he himself didn't understand much either as, well...not many ask them on what they do."
Finding only a partial answer, he was a little confused but left it alone as he continued.
"The second, you can't see it from here, but further down the tunnel is a unique crystalline filter that allows mana back into the river; at first, we took without care, but on realizing others, animals and people, rely on the mana from this river, my friend and I came up with it: a filter taking a portion of the mana reserve we took previously and re-inserts it back into the river utilizing a unique engraving he made himself, that I mentioned before, makes an environment that encourages crystal formation, and in this case, recovery.
Took a good few months to calibrate it to where it returns enough mana, not too little or much, man, you should've seen the Outlers then, it's like they drank coffee and wouldn't leave anything alone..."
Losing himself in conversation, he came back to his senses as he saw Qier and the other's reactions, they've heard that story a particular few too many times.
"Have any others?"
Cari shook his head in refusal.
"We should head up then, the problem should lie there."
Walking over to the left, the path curved towards the hill, and a metal ladder was found.
As each of them climbed up, Qier suddenly paused mid climb and looked back at the orb.
'Is the glow dimmer?'
Another short set of stairs accompanied the incline of the redirected river, to which he noticed a metal structure in the shape of a wide upside down 'V', redirecting debris to the sides of the fall, avoiding the globe by a rather large margin.
As they climbed, they made out something odd with the water.
"Is it me or is there less water than there is normally?", Ag mentioned.
"No, you are right, and it's not like its been displaced, it's so noticeable that it seems to be just plain gone, but where did it go?"
Cari also caught onto something.
'I'm barely acute of it, but the mana...is there less of it?'
He had only seen it thrice so far, the first being in that crystal, which at first he didn't recognize, but upon seeing that giant ball of it, he learned he can sense it somewhat along the lines like how he can with life energy, but the only reason why is because it seems to hold some relation to his energy... and that he can sense the smallest traces of life energy being made amidst the mana, although the fickle amounts only existed for moments before it changed into mana.
To which he only had the faintest of clues as to why, best guess being the transformation process isn't perfect, making the smallest portion of it change into life energy, another section of knowledge he hasn't really delved into despite having it in his head.
'I should really get to that.'
They continued walking ahead, only till a minute did they find something.
"What the?", Olivia was the first to spot it.
Giant roots were sprawled across the handcrafted river, the water splashing around it, the roots looked extremely porous, to such a fine level that if one were to rub their hand across it, they would feel nothing but a sort of squishy sandpaper.
And right in front of it, around a dozen small metal constructs shot from the slope at curved incline, picking up the water that flowed into them up to a pipe, before softly falling down; the water wasn't going through the pipes.
With the little water going up those constructs, one could see a weird effect where the water met the pipe's opening, a sort of invisible 'barrier' rippled as the water pushed against it.
The roots came from a collapsed hole to the side of the tunnel.
Holding his hand to his head, Arron started, "Annoying, that's going to be hard to fix, but more importantly..."
Walking ahead, he attempted to climb over, but the rough, but soft surface not only was abrasive to the touch, but partially collapsed just by putting his hand's weight on it, only springing back up once he took his hand off
Finding his answer however, he saw behind it: the water was the normal amount.
"This is siphoning a lot of water, and indirectly, lessening and outright stopping most of the motion, the constructs can't make up for the pressure lost so that's why it is failing."
Approaching the broken-down wall, his eyes widened in surprise.
"That's ironic."
The kids walked up behind him, Qier's mouth gapped, the others also stuttered in surprise, especially Cari even though he can barely express it.
'There's some mushrooms...'
Three humongous mushrooms were pressed against each other in the small crevice of earth and stone, bulgy and smooth, light blue stems with a deep blue cap, thick stripes in a concentric pattern, white in coloration.
Every second that passed they slowly grew bigger like a water balloon as the texture also fits one; the roots retreated underneath the earth towards them.
"Olivia, dagger."
As they entered, she grabbed one from her belt and passed it, as he closed in on it.
'Ginerero mushroom, able to carry double its weight and typically half over its own size in water, uncommon enough to be considered rare by few...', running through his memories of it as Cari thought with running its overall form in his head.
This mushroom in its couple dozens of existences throughout the span of decades upon decades of information, were always popped, because they never ceased to collect water till it collected all its can before popping on its own, one managed to get to the size of a hill before, they tended to cause-
'Floods!'
Thankfully, Arron spoke as he walked to it.
"This is going to release a massive amount of water, you three head up behind the roots, make sure you are far away, I'll catch up."
The three nodded as they circled around the roots to the other side, and made fast tract away, there was only a good bit of time that passed till they found a large hole, grates allowing all the water in, yet, it still seemed to be so much more beyond it, showing how much water there was above.
"Every time I see this, I can only imagine how much water was above before they constructed this place."
Qier spoke as he gazed above at it, Olivia joining him as Ag remained looking back.
~KSHHHHOWSHHHH~
Turning around in an instant, they saw a massive wave of water exploding from the wall far off, shooting in all directions, across the river, downward, and in their direction.
Ahead of it, only by a few meters, was Arron, running up, skipping across steps.
Cracks began to spread across the hole's edges, more water finding its way out forcibly.
The wave rose to consume the entire tunnel as the mass influx beat the fall of the slope, the water only slightly lit with it consuming the crystal torches, few going dark after a brief moment.
However, just as quickly, it's approach upward slowed significantly, till it halted and began to sink at a gradual pace.
Breathing heavily, Arron slowed his climb, just barely getting out- "Hope- aahh-ha, nothing else is- broken, ahugh."
Seeing it slowly descend, they approached close to the 'shore', it is taking its sweet time to go down so they made light conversation as they walked.
"How'd you pop them all without it exploding on you instantly?"
"I only popped one, the one at the back, by throwing the dagger from the entrance, immediately darted afterward, betted on its pressure to pop the other ones."
As those two continued their conversation, the other three carried on.
"-the pipes are riddled with unique engraved nuts that make a field that carries the force applied to them by the water to above, where more unique engravings wait and collect the force and is used, and that unique material that is protected by that wood runs throughout them to power it all."
Cari nodded as he was just getting more and more amazed with every feat these 'engravings' can do.
'Maybe I can learn to make them someday.'
~Pip!~
He moved up and down energetically, showing his appreciation for Qier solving his query as he saw that unusual effect and asked him about it.
"No problem Cari, I'm just glad you find this stuff interesting; Olivia is curious but has little to think about it."
"Hey!"
"Ag is more of a 'See it and Believe it' kind of person, sees it, and accepts it, just like that, no additional thought."
Glaring at Qier, Olivia pouted and ignored him before focusing on.
"That was my first time seeing a normal mushroom, well, as close as that can be to being normal, no offense Cari; for some reason, they seem to be exceptionally rare here, we have books about plants, and mushrooms aren't specifically stated to be rare, yet they are in this forest, do you know anything about it, considering you are one?"
He shook his head.
"Hey kids! The hole is open."
The water has lowered enough to where they could see part of the hole, it was a decent size bigger than before now, debris now scattered about, the roots saggy and flat, no more water collecting inside.
The pool was beginning to accelerate its pace down, but what caught the groups attention was in the encroaching dark, was a strange low pink-ish glow coming from the hole, which wasn't there before.