After breakfast, Tamu spoke up. "Do we have to kill the Empress?"

"Eh? What else can we do?" Sardu said.

Aono put a finger on her chin in consideration. "Honestly, that was troubling me, too. Except for the conditioning program, the Azure Empire's pretty much a force for good."

"Hm," Sardu said, "Do you have an alternative proposal, then? I'm willing to listen if you do."

Tamu nodded. "We kick the Empress's butt, yeah, but we make her lend her voice to stopping the conditioning program. We can make her swear an oath or something. And we use our power to help encourage the Empire to stop it."

Sardu crossed her arms. "The Empire would have to make a lot of changes if that program ended. They'd need some way to handle criminals, for one. I'm all for it, mind. If that idea fails, we can still give the evidence to the Empire's rivals."

"Yeah, but I do like this new plan better. By all accounts those rivals're either run by nobles, ran by the rich, or they're the Iron Empire." Aono shuddered as she mentioned the Iron Empire.

Sardu tapped her own arm. "Yup, the Iron Empire sucks. I should know, I'm from there."

"You are?" Tamu asked.

Sardu heaved a sigh. "Born and grew up there. The Iron Empire says it's a bastion of order, but that's pretty much a lie. They try to control everything with an iron fist, but lots of folks end up between the cracks in their facade. I grew up starving in the undercity of Steel Home. Did what I could do to survive, which was joining a street gang.

"It was really messy down there, few cared what we did as long as we didn't do it up top. I ate better as a gang member. Stole, fought, kidnapped, and even killed a couple of times for them. Got decent at all of it. Got the attention of some people up top, they recruited me for espionage and I ate even better. Was able to get swole, even. That's when I got my current class.

"But with more money and less worry about just surviving, I got to thinking. Started reading books, including ones forbidden in the Iron Empire. Plenty of access to that in espionage. Started thinking maybe I didn't want to live like this. I decided to escape the Iron Empire. Was pretty close thing. Got me my third level. And I ended up in Agony because it was a real quiet place. Out of the way, you know?

"So, yeah, I did some shitty things. Now trying to do better. Hey, cuties, if I start getting questionable in my morality, you two stop me okay? Just point it out so I know to stop."

There was silence for a moment before Tamu broke it. "Holy shit."

"That's a quite intense life story," Aono said after a pause, "But I suppose I can relate to having a shitty early life."

Sardu nodded to Aono. "Yeah, our stories're different, but not totally different."

"The most I've had to deal with is way too many relatives in the house. It's only lately that things've gotten intense." Tamu rubbed his head. "But I'll support you all the way, Sardu."

Aono smiles. "I'll support you, too. We can all support each other."

Sardu relaxed, uncrossing her arms, and drew her loves into a hug. "Thanks. Just thanks."

..oOo..

With her friends chattering while they were waiting at the dock below the city for the next chasm skipper, Aono looked around and down, admiring the Great Cleave. If you looked down into the chasm's depths, you could faintly see the scintillating colors cast off from the intense concentrations of mana deeper in the chasm, remnants of the strike from SWORD that had formed the chasm. No one went down to the glowing mana; such intense mana was largely fatal. There were mana extractors extending down a decent way from the city to soak in the ambient mana, turning them into mana gems. The yield wasn't quite high enough to rival that of Aono's enlarged slime farm, but it supplemented the city's needs nicely.

Samu was talking about the city's network of communication wires and how to connect them to other towns. "Hey, what about invisible communication wires? We could expand wires to other cities and towns without monsters attacking them on sight. Oh, wait, wait, invisible wires would be nearly impossible to maintain! Okay, that won't work. Some kind of communication without wires, then? There're already people working on that, though."

Sardu was making grunts to indicate she was listening to Samu's chattering. Every now and then she did a thumbs up or down to show her opinion of a particular idea.

The conversation stopped as a dock worker exited a telephone box and yelled, "Outlook reports incoming ship for Landend! Make ready to board!"

Immediately, the trio picked up their packs and started waiting. Soon enough, a ship slid into the port, drifting to a stop near the trio and several other passengers were waiting. It had no sails, relying on its mana batteries and the high mana concentrations in the chasm. What it did have was an assortment wide flippers extending from the sides, designed to catch as much mana as possible to help propel the ship.

Aono and her friends ascended the lowered stairs, taking three of the seats up top. All the other passengers went down below; they lacked combat potential, so it was safer there for them. Combatant passengers, on the other hand, could get a discount but were required to help fight off monsters in exchange. Since this wasn't an Azure Empire ship, it had boarding fees. The three had exchanged Azure points for coinage valid in the Hundred lands.

Once everyone had boarded and the crew had finished their preparations, the skipper lowered itself from the dock, descending until the ambient mana became enough to power the engine without relying on batteries. Then it sped down the chasm in a southerly direction, sticking to the left as to not collide with ships heading northerly.

To pass the time, Aono struck up a conversation with the captain once she had ascertained the hawk woman didn't mind. "So can you tell us about this ship?"

Aono could see Samu leaning in to listen with some interest as the captain spoke, "They're a good ship." She tapped the metallic floor with her foot. "This here's skysteel. Strong and light stuff, takes to flight really well. Made by a metalworker duplicating a quality lump of the stuff taken from a cloud."

Aono made an interested sound and the captain continued on, "The wings take in mana for use by the mana engine. Then the engine goes and powers the hull's flight enchantment. Only here in this chasm and other mana-dense spots will you find flying ships like this. Just not enough mana to power them elsewhere. The necessary mana gems and batteries would weigh them down too much." A gesture toward the ship controls she was operating, which consisted of a joystick and some buttons and knobs. "That inputs purpose into the flight enchantments which controls where we go, how fast, and such."

At this Samu nodded knowingly. "Yeah, enchantments need purpose to control them. Tell them how much, just how, and so on. You can either make a predefined one, let people control it with their mana for greater precision, or add controls like that for ease of use."

"Right, you're a crafter," the captain said.

It was then that a lookout called, "Monster group spotted!"

The captain carried on in an unconcerned voice while gesturing at some swivel-mounted wands the crew were readying, "And then there's the ship's wands. Zaps down monsters. Pretty quickly too. Ah, pick off any that get too close will you? Shouldn't be much of an issue with that."

The approaching monsters flew in a group of four three-eyed crows with sharp teeth lining their beaks and three winged monkeys with huge claws. That group quickly dwindled as the crew-operated wands began firing rapidly, projectiles of fire striking the enemies.

The captain kept talking. "They can shoot other bolts other than fire, too. See those levers on the wands? They switch between projectile types. Got fire, ice, void. Void kills most stuff but eats up more mana, so we only use it if the other settings don't work. Ah, that one's a bit close, take care of it will you?"

A lazily flung shuriken from Sardu took out a crow monster that had managed to evade the wand shots and the captain kept on, "Yeah, see? Monsters around here aren't a huge problem. I let combatant passengers like you help out, makes the trip a little more fun for you sorts. But the crew can handle them mostly. We'll only need you if we run into something tough or a much larger group than that."

Aono nodded. Made sense.

..oOo..

As novel as speeding through a massive chasm on a flying ship had been, it eventually became a routine trip with only a couple of minor monster attacks to break up the routine. As such, Aono had taken to reading a particularly interesting book she had grabbed in Gods' Mistake, Transcending the Gender Trinity. It discussed people like Aono, Samu, and others who didn't identify with the gender assumed of them, crossed from one gender to another regularly, had more than one gender, or otherwise didn't fit nearly into the categories of male, female, and genderless.

"Hey, when you're finished, can I read that?" Samu asked as they peeked over Aono's shoulder.

"Sure thing," Aono said.

Just then, the lookout at the front of the ship called out, "Damaged ship ahead!"

The lookout's senses were clearly much better than Aono's, as it was a while before she could make out first the flagging ship that drifted much lower in the chasm. Then she was able to make out the people onboard, some of them bloodied, waving desperately to the approaching ship, along with large claw gashes in the deck and a spluttering dented engine. Shit, she had to do something. Her friends were already in a similar frame of mind judging by the way they tensed. Then the captain ordered in a not particularly hopeful voice, "Pull over. We'll rescue who we can. But don't risk yourselves too much, that ship could fall anytime."

The very moment their ship pulled up over the damaged ship, hovering just above it, Aono immediately stretched out her arms all the way to pull up whoever she could, using Extend Slime. Her friends weren't idle either, Sardu using a grappling hook to help pull up people while Samu used some kind of mechanical telescoping arm with a handle and a hook-gripper to pick them up. The crew worked as well, lowering a rope ladder and throwing ropes down (and in one case a licorice whip strong enough to hold a hulking bison's weight.

Then the damaged ship's engine gave out and the ship began plummeting with three people still left unrescued. "Chaos!" Aono yelled out and did the first thing that came to mind: she leapt, using Propel Slime to propel herself faster than the falling ship. For an heart-stopping moment she plunged, until she was able to grab two of the falling crewpeople. She turned to grab the third only to see Samu sticking out of some kind of hole in the air and pulling in the crystal person.

Channeling a surge of mana through herself, Aono propelled herself upwards as hard as she could. It was a strain especially with an ant under one arm and a rabbit under the other. Her mana body began to burn and... her mana began to give out before she could quite reach the ship waiting above. Before dismay could fill her heart, she stretched her arms and whipped them upwards, flinging her two rescued sailors. As she began falling, she watched them being caught and pulled in to safety.

The thought entered Aono's head that at least she had saved those two. But then her eyes suddenly widened. Sardu had leapt after her with a powerful kick that caused the boat to sway slightly. "Sardu why-" was all Aono could say before muscular arms wrapped around her. Still holding Aono, Sardu kicked empty air itself, sending them hurdling through the air at a dizzying rate. As the two of them sailed in an arc over the ship, Sardu pulled a huge shuriken out of nowhere and hurled it hard, slowing them just enough to crash onto the deck.

"Divine shit," Aono said as she puddled on the deck, "that was way too close. How did you do that midair jump?"

"My-" Sardu begun but was cut off by Samu's sobbing hug. As Aono pushed herself up back into her humanoid form, she was also seized into the hug.

"Are you two that reckless?!" Samu yelled as they sobbed.

Sardu shook her head as best as she could be while being clutched by a crying squirrel. "I had it in hand. My acrobatics skill lets me do an air jump once every time I jump and I can jump pretty damn hard. Aono is the reckless one here."

"...I can't argue with that," Aono said with a face full of shame. She was even brushing a deeper purple.

One stern talk later, Aono was checking her level-up notification.

Huh. Aono had heard of ability and option evolutions, but an ability evolving into one with the same name? Their descriptions hadn't really changed either, only replacing "Propels slime" with "Moves slime" and "Extends slime" with "Shapes slime". But with a bit of minor experimentation, she figured out that the range of what she could do with them had improved. Move Slime and Shape Slime's increased versatility was obvious, but she could now summon slimy substances, not just slime creatures. Slime regrowth was more vague but felt both more powerful and slightly more versatile in a way she couldn't quite define.

After doing her usual stat distribution, Aono took a look over the abilities now available to her. What caught her eyes was Adapt Slime. Slimes as a species tended to take on aspects of their environments, being as malleable as they were. For example, a slime in a fiery environment might become a fiery slime. By taking this ability, Aono would be able to play around with those adaptations. Not only that, she had an unaccountable intuition that Adapt Slime would let her grant her summoned slimes classes, though they still would be minion level entities and she could only give them either an environmental adaptation or a class, not both. But where did she get that intuition from?

Huh.