Clean Water

Edward turned to the corpses of the ice slime boss, noticing something glowing. Standing up, he walked toward it, reaching and picking it up. It was a small silver alcohol flask with a small water drop imprint on the surface. Focusing on it, its status appeared;

[Flask containing water slimes Essence: One drop can immediately purify 5 gallons of water, making the water drinkable. Remaining Drops: 50]

His eyes widened in shock as he stared at the flask. Without any time to waste, Edward opened his bag on holding before opening the flask and letting a blue liquid drop into the bag. Waiting for a few seconds, Edward tilted the bag at a slight angle above his mouth, with liters of clean, clear water flowing out the bag and into his mouth.

The cool water touched his mouth, flowing down his throat. His mind became clear as the water took away his dehydration. "Oh, fuck. That's the stuff." Edward said, closing his eyes in ecstasy. Who would have thought simple water would make him so happy.

"Is that water clean, or have you gone mad from dehydration?" Andrew asked in a low voice, watching Edward with the side of his eyes. Using the function of the system, Edward shared the flask's status screen with him. Andrew read it, his expression changing. "Ha... Haha..." Andrew let out a light laugh before sighing. "This was the only good thing that came out from this dungeon clear."

As Edward handed the bag to Andrew to take a drink, Ezekiel walked up to them while stretching his shoulder. "The spear we made wasn't even useful."

"Right!?" Edward agreed, groaning. "It was fucking useless. Once we entered the door, it became useless..." Remembering that he had brought his book with him. "...where is the book? Shit! I haven't read past the first page."

He ran down the platform, scanning the room for any signs of it. At one point, he must have dropped it, so it must be somewhere in the room. It might be under a rock or frozen solid, but it is definitely here.

Walking forward, Edward noticed Leonard sitting up while leaning on the bottom half of a broken pillar, Emma sitting next to him. Walking up to them, Edward noticed that Leonardo's arm was better than last time, surprising him.

"Wow. How many points in vitality do you have?" He asked, looking closer to Leonardo's arm. "At this rate, you will be fully healed in less than a week."

"I know, right." Emma agreed, looking up at Edward. "I am even thinking of having vitality as my secondary stat. With that, I could heal from any injuries."

"Even though you... could heal..." Leonardo said in a strained voice, sitting straight. "You still feel the pain-OH GOD!" He shouted, coughing out blood.

Edward stepped back as Emma calmed him down before remembering about Michael. "Oh, no. Michael!" Going past them, Edward ran to Michael laying without his glasses, behind the last standing pillar. His left leg had been crushed, a small puddle of blood below his left leg. "Shit."

Putting his ear on Michael's chest, he could still hear the faint heartbeat, meaning he was still alive. Even though he was alive, his bleeding might cause him to die anytime soon.

"Michael! Wake up!" Edward shouted, slapping Michael across his face. "Wake up!" He shouted, slapping once more.

Michael's eyes slowly opened, blinking multiple times. "Edward. Is that you?" He mumbled, trying to sit up.

"No, no, no. Just lay on your back." Edward spoke calmly and slowly, gently pushing him back down. "Now open your mail and collect all your rewards. Any AP you get, just put them in vitality..."

"Wait, why?" Michael abruptly asked. "My main stats is Sense, and it needs 4 AP just to increase by one. So, every AP jet should go in Sense. I got 19 AP for leveling up from 1 to 9 and put 16 in Sense, bringing it from five to nine. Maybe when I reach 10 points in Sense, I won't need my glasses again."

Ignoring his protest, Edward asked, "So you have 3 AP left?" Michael nodded, causing Edward to smile. "So put them in Vitality."

Michael stared at Edward, confused at why he kept stressing him to increase vitality. Trying to sit up once more, he touched something wet. Bringing his palm to his face, he saw it was now red.

"Blood?" Michael mumbled, looking down. That's when he saw his crushed leg, remembering all that had happened. "My leg! Oh, shit my leg!!" He frantically screamed with his heartbeat accelerating. "I am going to die!! Oh, god. I have even met a young master---"

*Pa* Slapping him back to his senses, Edward stared right into his eyes. "Put all your AP in vitality IF you don't want to die."

"Ok, ok," Michael responded, putting all his AP and bringing vitality to 9.

Going to his mail, Michael quickly accepted them all without reading them, causing two apple-sized orbs to appear beside him. Ignoring them, he allocated the AP he got into vitality, only then calming down.

"So you guys killed both slimes?" Michael asked, looking around the destroyed room.

Edward nodded, sitting beside him and sighing, not caring for the blood. "But Brody died, sacrificing himself." Noticing the two glowing orbs, asking. "What is that?"

"Equipment orbs." Elizabeth's voice came as she walked up to them. She dropped the Root Book on Edward's lap, covered in dust. She cleaned the blood flowing from her nose, elaborating, "Crushing it gives equipment. A reward from clearing the dungeon."

Edward looked down at the dusty book, glad it was safe. He looked up, noticing her flowing nose and blood shot eyes, arcing one of his eyebrows. "What happened to you?"

"Oh, this?" Elizabeth asked, cleaning her bleeding nose once more with the back of her palm. "It turns out to be 22 points in intelligence, and an extra 30% boost in thinking speed can cause my body to break down."

"Like a jet engine in a car." Edward mumbled.

"Like a jet engine in a car," Elizabeth repeated with a nod. "Guess I have to start increasing my physical stats."

Ezekiel jogged up to the three of them, stopping beside Elizabeth. "Do you want some water?" He asked, handing the bag to her.

"I am good." Elizabeth shook her head, pushing the bag away. "I am not desperate enough to drink dirty water."

Edward looked down at the flask he held, bringing up the status. He then shared it with Elizabeth. "I used a drop on the water in the bag."

"So, a drop purifies 5 gallons of water." Elizabeth mumbled, facing him, "And your bag can hold 20 pounds of water, which converts to 3.59 gallons. In essence, you just wasted about 1 gallon of water."

"I wasn't thinking of that." Edward shrugged, cleaning the dust out of the book. "Just drink, or not. It's your choice."

Elizabeth snatched the bag from Ezekiel, staring into it. All she could see was a black void, nothing else. After a few seconds, she tilted it to the side, watching the clean water flow out.

"Woah, bitch! You are wasting precious water!" Ezekiel shouted, reaching to grab the bag only for her to move it away. "If you aren't going to drink, don't fucking waste it."

"Who said I wasn't?" Elizabeth mumbled, tilting her head backward and letting the water pour into her mouth.

"So, Edward. Have you claimed your rewards?" Ezekiel asked, holding out two equipment orbs. Just like Michael's, one glowed green and the other blue. "I don't want to crush mine till you guys do."

Seeing this, Edward opened his mail.