The water was cold. It was cold enough for Ciel to conclude that he and Xia had hit the rock bottom.

He couldn’t piece what came next. He only recalled shielding Xia with his own body when they smacked into the water with the force to splatter their flesh into a bloody smear (three cheers for elemental resistance). As he sank beneath the wave, he begged any cosmic entity, up to and including the Void itself, that Slomrath lazily believed the non-threat of Ciel perished or washed away in the fall, ignored the weird happening today, and went on his merry business.

Ciel mocked himself for being that deluded, but delusion was all he had.

Both Ciel and Xia, hugging each other for dear life, finally found a solace in a scarlet light above the darkness of the depth. Out of breath and at their limit, the two reached for the light above, pulling themselves from the water in an exhausted mess.

Ciel flopped on the rough stone floor beneath. His body laid prone, facing upward to see the dark cavern, specked by the glowing pink crystal painted among the black ceiling. After those running and hitting the water at the terminal speed, his body felt like a block of lead, except it was also soaked like a wet sponge.

An equally doused and dispirited Xia crawled toward the pool of water they emerged from and emptied her lunch in an inglorious concert of retching.

Ciel had to guess they managed, by the power of raw luck, to find an underwater cave somewhere in their trip down the rapid. An underwater cave filled with natural Mana crystal to boot. 

Ciel sat up and turned his attention toward his cohabitant, “How are you doing?”

Xia glanced back at him, cleaning the aftermath of her puking spree with the torn tattered pieces of her shirt. Bad was an understatement of how she looked. The mayor of Springsong, the crown princess of Curtis in name only, was crushed. Her clothing barely have any modesty left. The entire right side of her button-up shirt was blown off during her tragic battle with the Lord of Slime, leaving the pale length of her arm and back showing. Meanwhile, the left side was still intact despite the trip. Xia’s bra was on the verge of falling apart. Below her waist was a skin-tight jean full of melted holes from her skirmish with the acidic tentacles. Her platinum blonde hairs, washed by the river, plopped down on her head like a seaweed hat for losers.

Ciel took a deep glanced and looked away, Xia soaked state did nothing for her modesty.

Xia realized Ciel caught an eyeful of her, but she had dropped too far to care. She turned away from him and faced the wall, reflecting upon the massive trashing she received.

Silence and tension hung in the air like a jello.

Finally, Xia cut the ice.

“What is your agenda?” Xia spoke. “What do you want me for?”

Ciel groaned, “Is that the question you want to ask?”

“You owe me an answer,” Xia demanded.

But Ciel wasn’t the one who just rolled over. Unlike the time when Amy caught him by surprise and walked away with the initiative, Ciel had time to learn about Xia’s weakness. Amy, despite her size, was nigh unbeatable when she had the upper hand. Meanwhile, Xia was much easier to humble.

“Oh, I don’t need you,” Ciel replied with complete honesty. “You aren’t even on the shortlist. The person I really need is Betty.”

The simple comparison with her sister bought Xia down like a missile to a Zeppelin.

“W-What?” Xia was broke. The composure she had evaporated.

“I am not lying. Just think about it,” Ciel said. “By the time we met, you are already half-foot in the grave, give up on life and are pretty much hanging by a whim of your cousin. Compare yourself  to Betty, then name the horse you want to bet on.”

That cruel defeat by the sister who tossed her, added to the prior crushing by the slime, and the suicide mission she received on top of the tattered mental state of falling from grace to manage the soul-sucking town on the edge of Curtis for years finally annihilated the last of Xia’s spirit.

Xia curled into a ball and cried. She didn’t even respond. She just descent into a water work. Her tears were endless. Her heart simply couldn’t take it anymore. The pain she suffered in these last two years, the grief of losing her father and the worst day of her life, broke the tolerance threshold and Xia's tear duct just gave up.

It wasn’t your usual cried in the corner and getting better. This was the apocalyptic wailing of the six years old who was left alone in a department store, fully convinced the world would end tomorrow.

Ciel tried to shut out the Xia’s bawling and instead focused on the cave.

[Construction]

Ciel slowly molded the cave. He created an alcove inside the wall to be the sleeping area. He extracted all the magic crystal to easily reshaped the cave into a recognizable room. It was an effort which consumed several hours, but with each minute absorbed into the detail, Ciel visibly felt his understanding of [Construction] increased. Aside from performing physical alteration, his growing ability allowed him to understand the very fabric of the rock composition. With a thought, he shaved rocks from the wall and sculpted it into furnitures from chair to table. Each carved surface was immaculate smooth, with [Calculative] fueling its precision.

Still, the miraculous reshaping of the cave did nothing to distract Xia from misery. The girl had shut down from the outside world to focus on her tears.

“Are you fine dressing like that?” Ciel took out a steaming hot dish of steak Amy’s just made from the Residence. “It is about to get cold.”

“Shut up!” Xia trembled from both the lowering temperature and outrage. “I don’t need your help,” her eyes teared up, “leave me alone.”

Ciel shrugged. A better man would be dragging Xia back to reality, but Ciel was far from perfect. Still, he had to ask, “Are you sure you don’t want any food? Your body was already—”

Xia interrupted with a tearful scream. “Shut up! I don’t need your help!”

That was the last word Ciel heard before he went behind a newly created stone curtain, changed into pajamas , produced the sleeping bag and took a rest.

It was a good thing, because the climate in the Forest of Separation was as cold at night as it was humid in the day,

…

Ciel must admit it was a hard night sleeping. Xia was sobbing well into the night, but he successfully dozed off. Ciel woke-up sleepily, and realized the sobbing were gone.

Did Xia finally recover? Ciel took a peek at the corner of woe Xia resided. No, she had collapsed on the floor.

Ciel quickly got up and checked her. He put a hand on her forehead and flinch. Xia was freezing. The reason was obvious. The trashing from yesterday combined with her poor health, soaked clothing, and chilling night achieved the mathematical inevitable. This required the immediate medical attention.

“Amy, cook me some porridge,” Ciel lifted Xia up. “If you knew any recipe to deal with her health problem,” he propped Xia to the sleeping alcove and summoned a towel he stored in the [Treasury], “now it is the time to make one.”

Inside the Residence, the two other members also woke up to the problem.

Amy: Oh lord, I will quickly try to make something!

Caislean also had her opinion.

Caislean: Master, congratulation, this is the perfect moment to imprint you on her mind. Let adopt the little kitten! Oh, one thing, the cloth must be dead cold. You should better remove it.

“Shut up, Caislean,” Ciel said, annoyed. “I am improvising,” he made a basin using the surrounding stone and [Construction], “and I need to concentrate.” Ciel quickly produce a water bottle from the inventory and rushed to the pool of water at the cave entrance.

Meanwhile, Xia weakly protested, “D-Don’t—”

“You are impossible,” Ciel came with the water and emptied it into the basin. “Sit back and try not to resist being helped!”

Ciel wasn’t proud of what he did next. He listened to Caislean’s advice and doubled check with Amy. Treatment of hypothermia included removing any wet clothing on the person and warmed her up. It appeared skin-to-skin contact was also advisable. Ciel processed the information and gaped.

Caislean: You are one lucky bastard. I am so proud.

Ciel went to work, tearing apart Xia’s damp, cold rags of cloths, revealing the pale skin beneath. He decided whether to leave her underwear and promptly picked the courteous option. He took an eyeful of Xia’s nearly naked body, admired how her shirt always hid that waist and her ample chest. Then he apologized to his future self and wrapped her in another set of dry towel.

Throughout Ciel’s entire first aid, Xia vainly tried to protest. If not for the cold, her cheek would be hot enough to boil water, but she was too weak to lift her finger, much less strangle the guy.

Finally, Amy’s ginger porridge with pork arrived with a bonus of recovery and vitality.

Ciel produced the porridge from the alternate dimension and spoon-fed it to Xia.

Xia stared at the spoon, intending to destroy it with her indignation, but alas, her growling stomach and the aroma of the herb were too much. The woman, being immensely vulnerable to good food, opened her mouth and surrendered to the flavor as Ciel fed her.

…

On the other side of the Forest of Separation, Slomrath planned his assault.

The plan was simple. He knew the company being sent after him won’t attack directly. They would set up a base and began scouting. It was insulting. Every Lord was a tactician in their own right. Slomrath balefully recalled those days. Yes, they were all smart, but some, like Ciel were smarter than another. The slimes always resent that weakling for his smart. But in fairness, Ciel lacked the power to use his smart to compensate for his lack of faith power.

Slomrath plan was simple. He would attack before the scouting even begun. The investigation troops thought they were dealing with a dangerous monster taking territory in the forest, and would approach this problem in that direction. First, he would stealthily encircle their camp with minion and set it on fire, exploiting the element of surprise. This would rouse the troop on alert.

And alert was what he wanted them. A dozen explosive and acidic slime would turn the troop in to a panic battle. If he struck the commander, they would undoubtedly flee toward his encirclement and ready to be captured for his faith farm.

Yes, it was a perfect attack plan. He only needed to prepare for the enemy to arrive. They would likely send around a hundred or three-hundred given Ciel, and that human, didn’t report back.

The gigantic slime moved. He needed to get ready.