Chapter 20: Bubblefish, Encounter
Outside, the team regrouped and left the area around the world tree.
"There isn't any reason for us to stay longer in this spacial realm. We've collected a lot of valuable materials already," said Aura.
Ariel nodded. "My parents will be worried if I don't contact them for too long."
They returned the same way they arrived, returning to where the space crack was. They had already harvested everything useful when they first passed, so on the journey back they did not manage to find anything.
That night they set up camp and rested well. It would take another day to reach the space crack.
When they set off the following morning, they found a light layer of fog hovering over the vast grasslands.
"The weather changed," observed Lydian.
"There may be new types of monsters that appear because of this," said Aura.
They resumed their journey, curiously looking at the new surroundings. The landscape looked quite ethereal, the distance blurry and tinted white with wisps of mist floating up from the pools of water.
Ariel heard a splashing sound next to her and turned her head. A few meters away from her was a blue fish swimming around in a water bubble. The water bubble rolled around on the ground, and the goldfish sized fish seemed to be enjoying itself.
[Cleansing Bubblefish - Wild]
Type: Water
Level: 6
Health: 39/39 (Healthy)
Constitution: 13
Strength: 5
Agility: 5
Defense: 13
Mana: 27/27
[Skills]
Cleansing Water - Cleansing Bubblefish covers the target with water, healing light injuries and removing negative effects
Bubble Shield - Cleansing Bubblefish reinforces the bubble surrounding it, blocking a large amount of damage
"Aura, look! This monster is quite suitable for me," said Ariel.
"Let's help you contract it." Puppet and Lyn rushed at the fish. The Cleansing Bubblefish saw the two level 10 monsters attacking it and panicked, blowing out bubbles and retreating.
After chasing it and beating up the fish a few times, Puppet and Lyn returned to their monster trainers. The blue colored fish lay limp in its bubble. Aura handed a piece of the water element spirit stone to Ariel. "If you give this to the Cleansing Bubblefish, it will be less resistant to your soul contract."
Ariel took the small shard of spirit stone and approached the fish. Upon seeing the spirit stone, the Cleansing Bubblefish struggled up and looked at it with yearning.
"Glub."
"I can feed you this spirit stone if you're willing to become my contracted monster. I'll make sure to take good care of you," Ariel spoke slowly to the Bubblefish.
She stretched out her hand and attempted to contract it. As the glow of the contract approached the fish's soul, it instinctively struggled against it, but it was too tired and imagined absorbing the spirit stone. It relaxed its defenses, and Ariel slowly opened her eyes.
"Successful?" asked Aura.
Ariel nodded. Lydian jumped up in joy, "Now all three of us have contracted monsters! We're a real money trainer team now!"
Ariel fed her new monster with the spirit stone and waited for it to recover. After an hour, the fish was lively again, energetically swimming around in its bubble. The three trainers admired it for a while, then kept on moving.
About a mile away from the space crack, Aura paused.
"Look, there's signs of other people up ahead." Lydian and Ariel looked at where Aura was pointing and saw a small cloud of dust and a few metallic objects. It was unclear from the distance, but they resembled large military trucks.
"What should we do?" asked Lydian.
"We should detour around them. It would be best if they didn't know we were here. It will be troublesome if there are people around the space crack though, either on this side or on Earth." Aura looked at the trucks in the distance and thought that they should belong to the person who obtained the heart of the world tree previously. This time around, they shouldn't be able to find too much in this spacial realm.
Aura had Puppet create three masks and they each put one on. They then walked in the direction of the space crack, making sure to keep their distance from the convoy.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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stone