Chapter 116: Weird Oasis
Turning his gaze, he realized Olivia's face was red, "Are you alright, sis? Why are you like that?"
"I am fine, don't worry. Should we go now?" Olivia answered quickly as she stood up and put her shoes back on.
Alex nodded. He felt something weird about Olivia's reaction, but since no one else had said anything, he decided to ignore it. Looking back at the lake, Alex took out an empty Awecube.
He pointed it at the oasis. A big suction came from it, taking in all the water.
The rest watched the spectacle as the water volume started dipping bit by bit. When it reached halfway, Alex decided to stop.
He had gathered enough for his personal use and to sell.
Even though the water bottles fetched a good price, they weren't entirely profitable; he still needed to filter through them and then put them in a good package.
Something Alex didn't want to do since the item was just a one-time thing, except he had a way to get a steady supply.
His other choice was to sell it to the Association or other businesses for a cheaper price.
This drastically cut the profit, not to mention he couldn't just sell it in bulk to the market; it would destroy the price and, at the same time, raise people's suspicions.
How could they get that much in one dungeon dive?
After finishing, Alex and the others just wanted to leave the area when a bubbling sound could be heard, prompting them to turn their attention back.
To their surprise, the water's surface started rising again at a speed that could be seen with the naked eye.
This made them look at each other, silently asking if any of them had any idea. But none of them had ever read something like this.
'Vesa, is there nothing strange?' Alex asked inside his mind.
[King, based on analysis, the water is the same as the one you used to consume, with only some differences in purity. But I can confirm now there are unique microorganisms that gather mana from the surroundings and change the water molecule, giving you the magical sensation.]
[I am amazed, King, even though you just feel refreshed, in reality, the waterworks are almost like life force energy, but at a very minuscule rate.]
'That means this water should be able to raise someone's life force?'
[No, King, it cannot raise someone's life force. It's only recovering it. If your sister drinks a massive amount of this water, she will be able to recover her life energy completely.]
'How much is massive?'
Alex felt interested in the idea because this meant he could recover Emily's life force to normal.
Not only that, the water is like life force in a bottle, meaning he could always bring it with him anywhere, in case he needed life force.
[Your sister will need to drink a few billion liters to recover her energy fully.]
'A few billion liters? Are you kidding, Vesa?'
[I am not kidding, King. The quality is very bad, and that won't even have any use for you, King. But this is already a big achievement, replicating how life force energy works.]
Alex's mind churned; since the cause of this was the unique microorganisms, he wondered if he could just gather and farm them to create water with a higher concentration rate. He then asked Vesa about this.
[It won't have any use, King. Every bottle of water already contains many of them, and based on the result, it cannot rise more in concentration.
Otherwise, you could just put a bottle around and let it age to raise the concentration since this effect is a byproduct of the microorganisms.]
Seeing his brother deep in thought, Emily let out a small chuckle, "Why are you wasting time daydreaming like that, brother? Try to absorb more water so we can see whether it will recover or not?"
Hearing Emily's remark, Alex then realized the important part is not how the water gives its effect but how the oasis can suddenly recover its reservoir.
Alex then started absorbing the water again into his Awecube.
As the water was absorbed again, this time Alex tried to absorb more. After it reached 75% of the reservoir, Alex stopped again.
Olivia and the others then looked at the lake with interest, and they were also curious about whether it would recover again or not.
One second, two seconds, one minute, five minutes, nothing happened.
"Is it just a coincidence?" Alex mumbled.
"Maybe there's an aquifer directly underneath this oasis, Alex, and the first time you take out many waters at once, it triggered something that allowed more water to pour into the oasis reservoir," Olivia suggested while she put her finger on her chin.
Alex thought what Olivia said made sense. Just when he wanted to reply, Emily asked, "What is an aquifer?"
"An aquifer is an underground water reservoir, Emily. It can be naturally made when there are underground caverns or some empty space made from material where water cannot pass through."
"I see, so it's the one people try to access when we build water wells," Emily mumbled.
"Who cares about that? Since the water is not recovering anymore, we should go now," Quartz suggested, reminding everyone that they have limited time.
"I agree with Aunt Quartz," Zold added.
Alex looked at the oasis one more time with a frown; he felt like he was missing something, but since there were no other clues, he then agreed with the others.
The group then turned their backs again toward the oasis. After they took a few steps, blup blup blup… the water level in the oasis started rising again.
Hearing the sound, all of them turned back again. After the water in the reservoir recovered, Alex tried taking it again into his Awecube; this time, he took 90% of the water.
They then waited five minutes to see whether the oasis water would recover or not, but as they expected, the water didn't rise at all.
But when they started walking away again, the water started bubbling up, filling the reservoir again back to full.
"Every time we walk 20 steps away from the reservoir, the water returns back up.
Why not try walking backward as we watch the water? I wonder if it will recover or not?" Emily asked.