Getting Luna’s issues sorted out took quite some time, time that Argul was willing to spend. Nonetheless, she was relieved when the woman got back up again, because such things were quite draining, emotionally, and she had already been mentally exhausted before this little therapy session. 

All in all, Argul was happy when the day was over and she got back to being a mana creating core again. Watching the things going on inside of her domain and just generally being herself was, as always, relaying and helped her scrape off the mental fatigue she had accumulated over the day. 

How or why all these things had to happen at once, she didn’t know, but somehow it always ended up like that. For the first time in a few years of her memory, she didn’t want to think about it extensively though. Doing so was a waste of time and there were things she wanted to do.

Having dawdled around a few minutes, Argul got going again and started off with the first thing on her to-do list, namely checking in with Jack, who was currently attempting to create the perfect fireball spell. He didn’t have much success though, mainly because he was going at it all wrong.

[Hello Jack.]

The lizard-teenager looked up and moved his arms to shield his head. [Good day Miss spirit!]

He looked around warily. [Are you not going to throw dirt at me?]

She conjured a few small clumps just underneath his arms in response and huffed indignantly. [Why would I do that? Who do you take me for, huh?]

Argul watched Jack comb the dirt out of his hair with his hands. It was honestly a bit weird that the boy was full lizard scaly, he even had that slightly elongated jaw, but his head hair still remained.

[I don’t know? Maybe a being of incomprehensible power that owns these lands and takes awfully much joy in dropping dirt at me?]

Someone was feeling cheeky today, Argul could tell.

Jack wasn’t wrong about what he had said, it was fun to throw dirt at him after all. She wouldn’t say she only owned the lands inside of her domain however, that one he didn’t get quite right. 

Her domain was sort of like her skin, not that she liked the comparison, which would make the little planetoids inside the fleshy bits that protected her core, so the land Jack was walking on was a part of her and he was one of the many bacteria that flitted around to keep the thing going.

That begged the question though, why did she start to compare her body to that of a human again?

Shaking the idle thoughts off her mind, Argul got back to the matter at hand. 

[Right, I was just checking in to remind you that you still have to get and polish the gems.]

[Oof, I nearly forgot! Thanks for the reminder.] 

He continued to fiddle on his pathetic spell formation, not showing a reaction on the outside and Argul had the urge to give him the final product so as to not have to suffer the sight of this, but sadly that wouldn’t do.

[You know, it would be a lot easier for you to concentrate on one aspect of your spell first and use that as foundation. Once you have the, let’s take flames for example, established it will be much easier to build on that and add concussive force and what not to your little fireball.]

[Thanks for the tip!]

Jack was actually trying to do something that Argul had as of yet more or less avoided, he was trying to do real magic. She herself had mostly used mana to influence the physical realm as humans knew it as of yet, creating heat by energizing atoms for example or cleaning by removing said atoms, but what Jack wanted to do was different. He wanted the flames to burn mana directly, thus avoiding having to deal with the physics. It made the spell more expensive, sure, but it also made it easier to cast. 

Then there was also the possibility that doing so could end up damaging a being magically, burning their mana instead of their body in a way. How that would work out, she didn’t know, but it opened up a lot more for her to research in the future and that alone made her happy already. Maybe she should give Jack something as a reward?

Hmm, she would have to think about this since in a way she was already giving plenty to him.

Jack looked up again, like he always did when he was talking to her. [About the gems, is there something dangerous I should be aware of?]

Good question! It wouldn’t do if something happened to him and the experiment couldn’t proceed properly.

[Hmmm…] She thought about it for a bit.

The boy would have to go to the volcano, that much was clear and he was aware of the coconuts already so she wouldn’t have to tell him about that.

What else could there be though?

Well, once he gets near to the volcano the flora will change a bit and there won’t be any trees to hide under anymore. That means the sea gulls were definitely going to be trouble. Speaking of them, maybe she should call them saw gulls since their beaks had these weird teeth.

Anyway, what else was there?

The spiders could be trouble as could be the cackle fangs, but shadow manipulating predators shouldn’t be that much of a problem, hopefully.

Oh! She had nearly forgotten about the exploding flowers. She should totally tell Jack about these!

[Spirit? It can’t be that bad, can it?] 

The voice totally surprised her. [AH! Uhum, sorry about that.]

Jack shook his head in confusion.

[Anyway, don’t worry about it too much. There are a few things that could be dangerous so you should definitely take someone with you. Rash for example.]

[Not Rash!] He groaned out loud.

She wondered what the problem was. The guy was one of the most capable fighters of the village, knew how to act fast and he wanted to go on an adventure, which was exactly what Jack would be going on. Rash was the perfect candidate in her opinion!

[Why not?]

[He is annoying, extremely energetic and he only starts thinking after he acts!] Jack points out.

His name is Rash, what did Jack expect?!

Argul argued back with a sigh. [He would get you through the whole ordeal alive and well though, and there is literally no way that he is going to say no if you ask, now that the cultist problem is dealt with for the moment.]

Jack tried to argue back for a while, but in the end he had to relend to Argul.

[Alright, I will ask Rash. You win.]

In all honesty, she just wanted to see how the species she created fared against creations of nature that had gone through millions of years of evolution and with Rash the chance for that to happen was quite high. 

Until now, nature had mostly lost against her creations, but that was mostly because they were more in tune with mana and had more stats in general. Watching someone sapient fight against the animals of her Luna floors might give her more insight.

[So, what exactly do we have to look out for out there?]

Argul thought about what to tell him and what not for a moment. She didn’t have a problem with warning them about things from this floor, but she didn’t really want to give away things that came from other floors and with them the information that there were indeed more floors.

[Hmmm, there are a few smaller predators that will definitely check you out if you go too deep in the volcano, but if you present yourself strong and without fear they will likely leave you alone. Besides that, you should keep an eye out for the saw gulls. I believe you guys haven’t seen them up close yet.]

Jack was making notes on a wooden plank as she spoke. [Don’t you mean sea gulls?]

She smiled to herself. [Nope, saw gulls. They are a lot larger than your ordinary sea gull and their beak is a bit like a saw. They use that to cut through prey that is too large to swallow in one bite.]

The boy shuddered. [Right, I will make sure to keep an eye on the sky and will somehow have to warn the others without speaking of you.]

[Is there anything else?] He sighed.

Argul nodded. [Yes. In and near the volcano grows a large, bulbous and by human standards weird flower, that will explode if you so much as touch it. There won’t be anything to recover from your body if you are hit by that, except for the ash in and on the earth that is. My tip is, just don’t go near them.]

Jack looked up doubtfully. [Are you serious?!]

She rolled her nonexistent eyes. [No, I’m making jokes about your untimely death! Thanks for your vote of confidence, really…]

She sighed. [Anyway, I wish you luck, I have things to do!]

And with that Argul left Jack alone, cutting the mind connection so he couldn’t respond. She had spent enough time with him tonight and it was time for the next floor!