Ah...A beach episode. A must-have for absolutely any anime story. Wu whistled happily as the trio of them walked through the woods, utterly unaware of Wu's high expectations for the Northern beach of the Eastern continent. "You seem really happy today." Lera noticed Wu's grin as he quickly rubbed his cheeks with his fingers and tried to forcibly dissipate his expressions. "I mean, I am just happy that you two are here." Wu said slyly, and Ver rolled her eyes and poked him in the shoulder. "What else are you thinking?" She asked, "I am only here because I want you to fix my eyes!" "Then, you can be on your merry way out of here." Lera said, "I did ask for your help, but that doesn't mean I trust you still." Ver and Wu shared a look, and the latter shrugged, "Fair enough." As the group of three moved through the forest on Lera's chariot, Wu couldn't help but notice the slow shift in the ecosystem around them. The trees seemed to be shorter and more spread out in between the two. The Titan's Spine is still really far out to their East as they travelled north, but its spring waters appeared to be feeding a slightly different set of flora and fauna. The journey took a good few days on the chariot until they were remotely close to the Northern parts of the Endless Woods. That was when the despairing reality dawned on Wu. Instead of babes wearing bikinis made out of leaves playing by the sandy waterfront and bathing under the sun, they were instead faced with the harsh Northern winds with the land ending abruptly at a cliff that overlooks countless sets of spiky rocks down below. Wu dropped his backpack and sat on the edge of the cliff, watching his shattered hopes and dreams being swept away by the crashing waves. Then, he tossed a rock off the edge and watched it break into countless shards upon contact with the spiky rocks half submerged underneath the rolling waves of the Northern Ocean. "You seem really sad today." Lera said playfully, and Wu pretended to be mad and turned his head away. They have now practically made their way to the Northernmost part of the Eastern continent, and even though the trees are more scarcely grown compared to the warmer Southern parts, for the purpose of setting up basic living quarters, those numbers were plenty. Picking out a flat area with a slight uphill that leads to the cliffside and with access to a naturally forming stream not too far down below, Lera then set out a perimeter cast another few hundred meters out while Ver and Wu worked on cutting down the trees and setting up individual tents for the three. By the time Lera returned, three individual tents had already been set up, and she rolled headfirst onto layers of soft dry grass and listened to it crunch underneath her weight. The seaside wind here are harsher than further down south, so the good ol' days of laying under the night sky and using the stars as their blankets are over. Laying down the blankets given to them by the Dweller's, Lera then walked out to see Wu setting up his workshop using the remainder of a down tree as one of the legs for a table. "Wu..." Lera said, her hands in front of her body and her eyes full of expectation, "Which tent are you..." "That one. Is for storage." Wu pointed to one of the three tents, "And the other one is for Ver." "Right...It's just that I don't want to get too cold!" Lera reminded, and Wu nodded in agreement before Ver tilted her head curiously at the two. "Alright, everybody, let's gather up!" He said as Ver jumped from the top of one of the remaining trees near their tents and Lera walked to her, "I would love to go on a beach holiday with you two, but it looked like it will have to be business as usual here." "Always has been." Ver said, taking off her eye patch and placing it next to the One-Shotter pistol that's been put on top of the table. Lera felt the urge to also put something there just for symbolism's sake, but didn't move in the end. "We have a few goals. First, we all need to get stronger, and that especially goes for me." Wu said, looking right at Lera and not giving her the chance to protest, "We have seen how strong our opponents have been, and I need to level up my arsenal. I know far less about this whole Wave thing compared to you two, so my job here is just to help you with whatever you need besides that.What are your goals, Lera?" "I...I will need to expand my library of Casts." Lera said, placing her Book of Casts on the table at last, "I can start training it by myself, but I will need to test it in real-time later..." "Ver, how about you?" "If I can use this power without being hindered by the aftereffects, then I will have already gotten stronger." Ver said, both hands on the table and locking her eyes onto Wu, "You promised will help me with that." "I did, and I will." Wu said, looking down, "But first...I will need to upgrade the One-Shotter pistol, test run it, and then figure out what we can do with the Fuel Rock Prime." "Ah, yes." Ver put a hand up, "The Kraken is still bitching about having to take care of it." "About that..." Wu rubbed his chin and thought for a moment, "We can probably take it out by now." "WHAT?!" Lera and Ver both looked at Wu as if he's a madman, but he looked as serious as he can be. "We will eventually have to deal with it." Wu said, turning around and pointing to the ocean, "If we make a small reservoir here and fill it with seawater, then we can drop the rock in there." "I mean, at this rate, why don't we just drop it into the ocean altogether?" Ver asked. "Because it may still be useful." Wu replied quickly, and from his poise, he had clearly thought this through. Just like any raw source of energy on his world, the Fuel Rock Prime is equally as dangerous as it is potentially useful. He still remembered the case-studies during his engineering ethics course about Chernobyl and the other nuclear generator accidents, so at least he will try his best not to repeat their mistakes again. "It may be useful to me, to us, and to the entire world." Wu said, confronting the doubtful gaze of Ver and Lera who seemed to have slightly different ideas of why they are here all the way up North, "But we must approach this matter slowly and carefully. On my world, these things have caused plenty of troubles..." Lera sighed and Ver bit her nails. However, after a little while, they both came to accept Wu's decision. If there is anyone in this world that can approach the Fuel Rock Prime without accidentally blowing it up with injections of the Wave, it's Wu. And just like that, the matters of dealing with Fuel Rock Prime rose all the way to the top of their priorities. However, Wu agreed that perhaps it's not the best idea to put the Fuel Rock Prime near where they sleep, and Lera and Ver both made Wu swear that whenever he works on the Fuel Rock Prime, either or both will be with him just so he doesn't die for no reason. Walking along the cliffside, the trio eventually spotted out a collapsed section that leads straight down to the ocean underneath. It's about twenty minutes of walking from their living quarters, and that's where they decided to set up the Fuel Rock Prime Laboratory. As Ver started clearing out the trees and bushes, Lera and Wu started digging a massive hole in the ground and making a slope that leads straight down into the ocean. Then, they also built a small barricade of sorts that acted as a flood gate between the hole and the slope. When things go horribly wrong, all Wu had to do would be to open the flood gate, and the Fuel Rock Prime should just roll down the slope and straight into the ocean, accompanied by the sea water that should keep it deactivated. When everything was set up nicely, Ver hovered her hand over the hole and filled it water before releasing the Fuel Rock Prime straight into the fluids. Lera had her Book of Casts out, ready to shield the three when the rock simply flopped into the water and sat quietly at the bottom of the hole. As a few bubbles rose from the bottom, the three watched nervously until the ripples had fully dissipated. "Phew." Wu said, wiping away lines of cold sweat over his forehead, "Believe it or not, in our world, we also put Uranium rods in water. Water is one of the most abundant materials in the universe, and is so incredibly useful in so many settings." "Right..." Lera nodded along and slowly put her Book of Casts back as Ver simply looked at him and wondered what the heck he just said, "So what now?" "Now, we figure out if we can contain it with Casts." Wu said, rubbing his hands together and warming it up, "Submerging it in water is great and all, but keeping those things inactive makes any hint of experiment impossible." Ver blinked a few times before the raging voice of the Kraken broke out in her mind. She cursed and held onto her right eye. "Is he insane?! Did he not know that any injection of Wave into that thing will blow it up?!" The Kraken shouted, "Or is he plain stupid?!" "Are you insane, or stupid?" Ver asked, straightening up, "How could you suggest something like this?" "I could because that's how my One-Shotter Pistol works," Wu said as the prospect of blowing Ver's mind figuratively filled him with joy. That was when they realized that their priorities have to change yet again. Like a group of headless chickens, the three left the Fuel Rock Prime covered in an abundance of water before returning to their main camp. Throughout their ride back on the Chariot, Ver's still trying to process what Wu has done with his weapon. "One of the eleven legendary weapons!" Ver scratched her nails along her face before she pulled on her dark blonde hair, "And you just did..." "I...gave it an accessibility upgrade." Wu explained, not knowing that Ver will be so genuinely upset, "Trust me, it's great now!" "The legendary One-Shotter Bow, the one that shot down the demonic dragon..." Ver continued, her soul escaping from her mouth as her skin turned grey, "What did you do with the limbs of the bow..." "We got rid of it. I mean, Lera helped me cut it off..." Ver turned her head and glared towards Lera, but she just looked away and whistled casually. To be fair, she did push back just a tiny bit when Wu suggested the project. "You'd better be the Savior now, Wu." Ver said, taking out her Sky-Splitting Sword and holding it in one hand, "These are weapons of legends we are talking about here..." "Don't worry." Lera said, parallel parking smoothly with the chariot and leaping off, "He IS the savior. And I am his guardian." "Which means that she's there beside me for all of my bad decisions." Wu laughed and got off, leaving Ver to linger in her existential crisis. "I didn't say that!" Lera protested. When Ver saw that Wu replaced the body of the bow with a paper straight out of Lera's Book of Casts, she lost the last piece of her mind. However, when Wu used whatever remained of the pistol's capabilities and fired off an array of different sized projectiles, the more practically-inclined part of Ver swallowed the bitter pill. It is what it is, and there is nothing that can be done now. "Well...at least the functions were retained..." Ver mumbled, dragging her feet through the camp throughout the rest of the day. She didn't have a problem with Wu killing Aya and obtaining the legendary bow per se, but typically, the weapons are handed from one generation of users to the next through inheritance or combat, and each time, the legacy of the weapon was built up further. Like many children growing up in this era, Ver grew with legendary stories of the War of the Third Millennium and the exploits of the warriors of legend. Those that wielded the legendary weapons played their major parts in the battle, and despite their inherent power levels, their skill with the weapons allowed them to walk along with the strongest beings that had ever set foot on this planet. When she got the Sky-Splitting Sword from Skylar, she treated it with the utmost respect. But when Wu got the One-Shotter Bow, he turned it into an ugly-looking bent stick with turn-dials on the side and a paper slapped onto it. Breathe, Ver. Relax. She reminded herself as Wu and Lera cracked on with the second iteration of the pistol. Somehow, Ver knew that this won't be the first act of Upgrade/Vandalism of artifacts that Wu will perform throughout his time here.