Sneaking into the territory of the goop men was somewhat nerve-wrecking, but at the same time, it was necessary. I needed to know what exactly the terrain these creatures spread did, whether there were any additional effects we would suffer under just from walking across it, if there were some sort of early-warning system included that may allow them to pierce my concealment and if it prevented me from slipping into the shadows to escape. Hel, it might even act autonomously and suddenly start sprouting goop-tentacles, which was why the others remained nearby, just in case things went wrong and I needed help. We didn’t have enough information, which was why I was doing this in the first place, making sure I was as far away from the nearest goop man as possible.

Above said goop man, remaining firmly beyond the boundary of the burned soil and, hopefully, out of range of their flung goop, I had positioned one of my scrying constructs, allowing me to keep an eye out. Similarly, there was another construct in the other direction along the edge of their territory, adding an additional perspective while allowing me to see a lot further than I usually could, even with the ash and smoke clogging up the air. Luckily, there was a lot less of that at ground level, or I might have started to choke just from that mess. Once again, I was happy that my constructs didn’t need to breathe while considering how difficult it would be to use Wind Magic to filter the air I breathed in for contaminants, magical or otherwise.

Hopefully, the different precautions would help, though even with all the steps I had taken, I wasn’t calm. Instead, I started to worry that I might miss something or, worse, that the entity in control of this area was cunning and might feign me out to lure my entire group into a trap. Maybe I was overestimating our opponent; so far, the thing hadn’t demonstrated much intelligence. However, I vastly preferred to overestimate the opposition and be pleasantly surprised by an easy encounter than to underestimate our enemy and get one or more of my companions killed. I already needed to resurrect Sigmir; I had no desire to add one of my daughters to the list of people I needed to violate the natural order for. I had a feeling the natural order might complain if I did that too much, and who knew what sort of enforcers the natural order might be able to call upon?

The first step onto the distinctly different soil felt incredibly strange. I could feel the tension mounting in my body, making me pull the various ways to conceal my presence tightly around me, both magically and physically, my presence once again all but disappearing from the world. Then, when I took that step, I froze, my mind hyper-focusing on my surroundings, trying to discern if there was any reaction, if the minute disturbance my presence caused on the soil was enough to trigger anything, only for nothing to happen. At the same time, the longer nothing happened, the higher my tension rose, my paranoia whispering that my enemies were only biding their time, waiting for me to let my guard down and relax, only to then leap out of hiding and strike me down.

Easing up on the Earth and Wind Magic I used to negate most of my weight, I let my physical presence land on the burned ground, curious if that would change anything and, when nothing happened again, I crouched, placing one of my bare hands on the soil, feeling its texture and gently probing it with my magic. The texture might have been the more surprising aspect, as the soil felt incredibly strange, almost like a mixture of chalk, ash and sand, bound together with some sort of oily substance, giving it that weird, goop-like consistency I had seen before. It also was a lot warmer than it had any right to be, a condition not purely caused by the magical fire running through it, at least I didn’t think it was just because of it. But, regardless of the cause, the goopy soil was almost scalding to the touch, making me worry what might happen if somebody fell or, worse, was buried in the ground here. Nothing good, of that I was certain.

It didn’t really feel like Earth, neither physically nor magically, making me wonder just what this was. Magically, I could feel a strange mixture of Fire and something similar to Earth, but not quite like it. The two elements were mixed together, but not in a way that resulted in a new, harmonious element. The mixture felt discordant, as if the way these elements were mixed didn’t work, but somehow, they were mashed together anyway. I had seen other strange, magical combinations, but this one felt both natural and unnatural at the same time. It was as if this was natural under certain conditions, but these conditions weren’t met here.

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Rising, I let what little soil I had picked up run through my fingers, allowing it to drop back down while I started to undo a little of my concealment until I reached a level I could spread across the rest of my group. This way, I would know if I could sneak in Luna and the others without running into trouble. At the same time, I scanned for trouble with my magical senses, trying to detect any reactions from the ground or if there was some sort of early-warning system in the air, possibly linked to heat or cold; either was possible.

Again, I remained unable to detect anything, not that this realisation relaxed me any. My paranoia was still going strong, and the fact that I could feel the strange, unnatural fire in the soil, especially now that I had touched and felt it directly, wasn’t doing me any good. The fire felt wrong, though I wouldn’t be able to explain why. Amusingly, the unnatural fire was even more unpleasant than normal, magical fire, reaching the same level of irritation I usually reserved for direct sunlight.

Letting out a sigh, I started walking, my vigilance remaining strong. There wasn’t anything obvious preventing me from stepping into the shadows, so I took a single, cautious step, freezing when I emerged back in the physical world, worried that I might have triggered any precautions in the area.

When nothing happened, I again kept going, making my way along the edge of the burned area, not venturing too far into it, just in case I needed support. Now, my goal was to observe the nearest goop man up close, and even to use the Observe ability on it. I wanted to know what level these creatures had and if I could detect that core I thought I had seen. If I could, I wanted to capture one if possible, destroy one if I could not. And, if I couldn’t accomplish the destruction, I might just decide to give up this mess, as it might simply be too dangerous to continue.

Luckily, while the goop men were a lot of things, neither stealthy nor inconspicuous was on the list of their traits. Finding the goop man was trivial; the thing stood out like a torch in the night, especially as it was launching some goop across the boundary of their territory, expanding it in the process.

Once I was close enough, I pulled my concealment tightly around me again, while pushing as much of that subtly into the Observe ability I used, hiding its use as much as possible. As so often, the thing didn’t even twitch; it just continued to launch wave after wave of burning goop while I glanced at the information I received, identifying it as a Bituman, with a lofty level of ninety-nine. Meaning, the creature was exceedingly dangerous for normal wildlife and the average person, but when compared to my own group, it shouldn’t be too hard to handle, at least if it didn’t get any support from the terrain it was on.

Nodding to myself, I sneaked a little closer, pushing my senses to the maximum and soon, I could sense the faint magical traces radiating outwards from a singular spot in the Bituman’s chest, some of them reaching back into their terrain, some simply latching onto the soil beneath them, some even stretching outwards, into the area the Bitumen had thrown the burning goop into.

It was quite obvious that the spot where these connections converged was the core of the creature, which I wanted to acquire if possible. So, with eyes blazing from Overflowing power, I launched a blunt icicle, putting enough strength into the attack to punch through the thing's chest and rip out the core, but hopefully, not enough to smash the core outright.

Then, with a quick step through the shadows, I appeared right next to my flying Icicle, the core still carried with it, allowing me to snatch it out of the air as I retreated back into the shadows and fled the area, appearing some distance from the burning area, only to throw the core away from me the moment I realised it was melting into a black, tar-like substance. So much for my study of the thing, but at least I now knew that I could destroy these creatures and get EXP for it, as a blue window told me.