All potions tasted weird at best—not necessarily vile, but certainly … potent—and going down this one was even more of an experience than usual. Hot and sticky, the viscous liquid clung to the sides of Zoey's throat as she swallowed several times, only barely stopping herself from choking. She felt the hot liquid creep all the way down into her stomach before settling. Then, finally, the effect started to tingle through her.

A wave of vertigo washed across Zoey, making her vision swim. Something weird happened. Not unexpected, seeing how the potion's description explicitly stated what it would do, but nonetheless disorienting. No warnings could have prepared her for the sensations that came with the transformation.

Her body … softened. A layer of sticky liquid secreted across her body, covering her in a thick sheen of goo-like substance. Zoey held up her hand and looked at it in fascination. And a degree of horror. Because bit by bit, she melted, losing her normal consistency, turning into—something like Mel, maybe.

Except not so pronounced. Not as thorough. She poked her palm, and her pointer finger sank a tenth of an inch into her squishy palm, but stopped there. When she tried to pull back, dark-gray gel—matching the bodysuit's color—clung to her finger, only yielding with a loud squelch after she all but ripped it away to separate.

Looking down at her feet, she tried to raise one, only to discover she was likewise glued to the floor. As in, glued. The effect was absurdly strong. Only after an intense struggle could she yank her foot up—and it came with an even louder, more pronounced squelch.

'Equally as troublesome as it was helpful,' the description had said. Yeah, Zoey could see why. The effect was so strong as to be difficult to work with.

"Oh, wow," Maddy said, her gray eyes widening as she watched the event unfold. "Zoey, you're … turning into …"

"Goo?" Zoey asked. "Yeah. I guess that was my goal."

"It was?"

"Kind of."

The general plan had been to make her hands or feet sticky enough that she could cling to walls. It had been a rather inspired goal—probably not where most people's minds would have gone—but it seemed to have worked. At least, the getting-sticky part. The actual usefulness of the effect was yet to be seen.

"What do I even look like?" Zoey asked. She could look down at herself to get a general idea, but she doubted she was getting the full picture. She wished she had a mirror.

"Um. Gooey?" Maddy was practically marveling at her, so Zoey assumed it was a bit of a spectacle. "I've never seen a potion like that. I can't believe you made it so easily." Maddy hesitated. "But is it actually gonna help us cross?"

Good question. "Let's find out."

Zoey spent one more moment taking in her strange new form. The color of goo secreting from every pore depended on whether her skin was exposed to the air or her bodysuit: it seemed to have taken 'her' to have included her clothing, making her entire figure, clothes and everything, melt. Even poking at her hair resulted in her finger coming back covered in black goo.

She wondered if that was going to cause any problems when she changed back to her normal form. The fact she was leaving behind residue of—what, herself? Dragging her foot up from the ground left a glistening patch of goo as well. Was she shedding her actual body with every step? She doubted it, but it was an unnerving thought to have.

Her thoughts went again to Mel. Zoey definitely hadn't transformed into something truly like the goo-girl, even if Mel had been an inspiration for the idea. Only the outermost layer of Zoey's skin and clothing had softened into the sticky, clinging material. Still, there was a definite resemblance.

Realizing that, the transformation inspired some … other ideas … for the future. Maybe with some additional effort, she could create something that changed her into something that truly was like Mel. A full goo-girl. Now that she thought about it, using some of mini-Mel's body as a reagent might help create that effect. Or at least something interesting.

And what would that be like, having a squishy, easy-to-penetrate body like Mel's?

Or better—if Rosalie and Delta did?

Zoey shook away the distracting idea and focused on the obstacle in front of her. The chasm. Would this sticky form help her cross it?

With great effort, Zoey squelched her way over to the nearest wall. Each step required yanking her foot up with gusto. The stickiness effect was way too strong to be convenient in any urgent situation. She was nearly exhausted in just the short trip to the wall.

"Here goes nothing," Zoey muttered.

She pushed her other foot firmly onto the vertical surface, leaving the other planted on the ground. Another grunt freed her completely from the floor, and she quickly stomped that foot next to the first. She swayed unsteadily for a moment as she stabilized herself in midair. Then settled.

It had worked. She was standing on a wall.

"Neat," Zoey said with amusement. "And … it's kind of trippy."

Maybe a few weeks ago, having the core strength needed to balance herself while horizontal would have been difficult, but for her new body and stats, it wasn't a problem. Stats didn't come with a supernatural resistance to disorientation, though. Staring up at the ceiling while standing on a wall, feeling gravity pull the wrong way, was still strange to experience.

"Can you walk?" Maddy asked.

"Probably," Zoey said. "It's just a pain in the ass."

Demonstrating the point, she yanked her foot up—or, maybe more accurately, sideways?—and a comically loud squelch echoed through the air. She took several steps upward. While the absurd levels of stickiness did make movement annoying, she at least took solace in the fact she wasn't going to slip and fall.

"This'll work," Zoey said after a minute of testing. "We just need to find out how long the effect lasts. Wouldn't want it to disappear halfway through." Because it was a fair distance to the other side of the cavern; it would take a while to traverse the gap. Even if the potion didn't last long, though, they could simply book it across. But she'd rather get an idea for the potion's duration to be safe.

Sure enough, after a minute or two longer, the potion faded. It wasn't all that long-lasting.

Reverting to her normal state didn't happen all at once. Bit by bit, she lost the viscosity of her body, growing firmer and less sticky by the moment. She dismounted from the wall with maybe not grace, but coordination enough for her unusual circumstances. She wobbled a few times as she got her bearings again, having landed on both feet after jumping from ten or so feet up the wall. Her body slowly finished regaining its rigidity.

And thankfully, without missing pieces. The residue left behind—which persisted even now, clinging to the wall and floor—was created from nothingness, not her body. Hardly weird by magical standards.

"I feel like there's probably an easier way across," Zoey laughed, "but this is definitely the stylish one."

"Bonus points for creativity," Maddy agreed, also amused at the show Zoey had put on, stickily clomping her way up and down a vertical wall. "We'll need to go fast since it doesn't last long. Should I get a feel for it? Practice? How many can you make?"

"The moss is pretty common," Zoey said. "So yeah, no problem." Her first batch had created several vials worth of liquid; she handed one to Maddy. "You really have to pull to separate yourself, so get ready for that."

Maddy downed the potion, shivering as the liquid entered her. Like Zoey, she cleared her throat several times, the potion unpleasant even by potion standards. Within seconds, her body started melting—which was a rather surreal sight for Zoey, seeing her friend turn suddenly gooey.

Maddy had already watched Zoey and understood the effect, so she wasn't nearly as disoriented. She got straight to testing her new body out, clumsily swaying side to side as she had to forcefully rip her foot from the ground.

She took a different approach to moving across the wall than Zoey, using both her hands and feet rather than just her feet. It turned out to be an ineffective experiment, since separating her hands from the stone was much harder than her legs. The latter were able to produce much more force to yank with.

"Never mind," Maddy groaned, awkwardly stuck to the wall on all four limbs. "This was a terrible idea. Just using your feet is way better."

When the potion expired, they reconvened, assessing the significant gap between them and the exit door.

"We can make it in time, right?" Zoey asked.

"Totally."

"What if a monster crawls out from the pit? While we're trying to cross?" That seemed like the kind of annoying obstacle the shard would throw at them.

Maddy blinked. It was probably the first time Zoey had acknowledged a threat the experienced wayfarer hadn't considered herself.

"Then that would suck?" Maddy suggested tentatively. "I guess it's possible. Maybe make a few spare potions for each of us, in case we get somehow tied up." She peered over the ledge into the inky darkness, again setting Zoey's nerves itching—she really was way too casual about heights. "Honestly, I kind of want to walk down and see what's in there. Maybe there's special loot."

"It's a really deep pit." While Zoey had been putting together a few test brews, Maddy had chucked a few rocks over the ledge. They hadn't even heard them hit the bottom.

"True," Maddy said. "I guess it's not important, I'm just curious."

To be safe, Zoey made another batch of the potions so that she and Maddy had spares. Without further ceremony, they downed the potions and started the trip over. Their fears turned out to be unfounded: no monsters crawled out to eat them. The difficulty of the trek came entirely from having to traverse the gap.

Though Zoey had improved strength thanks to her stats, it still took a lot of effort to run across a wall with superpowered glue sealing her feet to the stone. Maddy had even more of a struggle. Though she benefited from Zoey's bonded shared stats as well, she wasn't strong, naturally speaking. Less so even than Zoey.

By the time Zoey made it to the other ledge, she was gasping for breath. Maddy was a bit behind her. In a way, the potion's short duration helped, since the stickiness effect lessened as it started to fade, and so Maddy's speed picked up considerably as the effect wavered, no longer having to yank her feet up with as much effort. Zoey's heart jumped a few times, seeing the mage not quaff another potion to be safe, but she made it across before the effect expired: she landed next to Zoey without worry. Again, for all her bubbly demeanor, she was made of firmer stuff than probably Zoey herself. Maddy had grown up studying combative magic and learning how to explore deadly dungeons. Playing it a bit close with a potion's duration was nothing to her.

"Woah," Maddy said, doubled over, hands on her knees and panting for breath. "That was exhausting. And weird. I feel dizzy."

Zoey agreed. Walking on vertical surfaces would take more than a few times to get used to. Though she doubted they'd need to do a whole lot more of that.

After catching their breath, Zoey straightened out and looked at the arched exit leading into a hallway.

"Time to see if it was worth it," Maddy said, also peeking that way. "What'd'you think is through there?"