Chapter 173: Unexpected Showers

Chapter 173: Unexpected Showers

Getting my domain to work the way I wanted was a bit harder than I had expected. When I had fixed particular parts of the castle before, I just told it to focus on repairing certain areas. Now though, I was trying to get it to do something precise.

Having it simply create a hole clearly wasn't working. So I went back to my original idea of better altering the composition of the rock so that it was more dense, thus giving space for the liquid to escape. Clearly much easier.

My plan worked almost as well as I had expected. The shaft that it created wasn't perfectly straight, but it gracefully followed the natural curves of the rock formation. I suppose that was good enough. More orderly in a kind of way, too. Just because things weren't straight didn't mean they weren't clean. The natural density of the rock was more important than a straight shaft.

As soon as the endpoint of the shaft connected to the reservoir, it created an escape path for the pressurized liquid. The searing hot substance exploded out of it. With less interference blocking my sensors, I could determine that the underground reservoir's contents were simple water. Very, very hot water. In fact, the only reason it wasn't boiling was because it was under so much pressure. The pressure that I had just released.

I was starting to regret my previous assessment of the quality of this idea.

All that bottled-up liquid needed somewhere to go and go it did. Moving at 71.4 miles per hour, the water shot straight up out of the ground, rising high into the sky and fanning out over the entire camp.

It seemed that I had created a fountain. Except, this fountain didn't have a basin or anything at its it's base, so it was making quite a mess. I quickly looked for some way to contain the water but didn't find anything.

The humans around me, for once, acted rationally and yelled about the mess that was being made. Many of them got out of the way of the falling water before it hit, but some didn't and further became upset about getting soaked.

I thrust my mop into the jet of water, and temporarily, the flow ceased. It wasn't long before it soon overwhelmed the ability of my mop to soak it up, shooting past with as much force as before. Retracting the appendage, I quickly wrung it out and extended it again. After a few repetitions, my mop managed to block most of the water, and the flow eventually slowed down to a steady burble.

Even though the flow slowed down, that wasn't to say that it stopped entirely. The hot liquid kept flowing like a small fountain from the earth below; it just didn't blast into my mop at full force. That was more acceptable. There didn't seem to be an end to the flowing water, unfortunately. As much as I mopped, it just kept spilling across the ground and seeping into the dirt around my wheels. But the immediate danger of the mess was dealt with, at least.

After a few minutes of this, I began to think that the flow would never end. I started considering ways to seal the hole back up, but did I even have a way to do that? I didn't think so.

I inspected the liquid more closely. The water appeared to contain a surprisingly high concentration of minerals. However, it certainly wasn't the missing oil I was looking for. What a waste.

Eventually, I managed to reduce the flow to a bare trickle. It would have to do for now. Frustrated at the nearly catastrophic mess I had unleashed, I rolled away from where I made my hole. I spun in a quick circle to get most of the water off me, and my various other functions took care of the rest. After I was dry, I joined the humans crowding around the tiny puddle in the center of their camp. This chapter is updated by nov(e)(l)biin.com

I had done what I could. There were still soldiers around with soaked clothing and a few spots of dampness around the camp that I needed to take care of. That wouldn't be too hard to deal with. Still, I was concerned about the camp's new fountain.

"Did anyone see what happened?" Arthur asked. He wasn't so sure that really anything happened, but a spring just appearing out of nowhere seemed rather unlikely.

The soldiers exchanged looks with each other briefly before one tentatively raised his hands. "Uh. Sir I don't know if anything happened. A huge geyser of water spurted from the ground, then it sort of stuttered, and... Now there's a puddle. Lord Void was here when it started. It seemed like he stopped it from shooting into the sky the whole time. I'm not sure what else he did though."

Of course, it was Lord Void, Arthur thought. So it didn't make any sense why. Had it really been that there was a geyser or natural spring under the camp the whole time, and it just happened to erupt right when Void was nearby? The odds of that seemed fairly unlikely. But he also didn't understand why the deity would do this if it had been done intentionally.

Looking around, he saw a little black disc sitting among the soldiers. No one else seemed to notice it. At the moment, it was actually sitting between someone's legs.

"Lord Void?" Arthur called over to the black disc with a hint of a bow.

The soldiers all around him jumped. They obviously hadn't realized that the god was still amongst them. Within half a second, a free space had cleared up around the area where it said. Void turned to look at Arthur before giving a small beep, followed by another series of sharp noises that he didn't quite understand.

How was he going to get the story out of Void? Would Void be willing to write it down for him? Well, might as well ask. But at the same time, maybe out in the open wasn't the place for this. "Would you mind accompanying me?"

Arthur was well aware that he couldn't give Void orders. But this was as close as he could get to telling the god what he wanted while still having it remain a request. Luckily the little godling didn't have any problems following him back to his tent.

Once they were better situated, Arthur sent his aide to speak to his lieutenant. He would have to continue the interrogations alone. Arthur had full confidence in the man's ability to get the truth out with or without his help. When he got a chance, he would read a report and join if needed. But for now, whatever was going on here was more important.

"So... what happened?" Arthur asked the black disc that alighted on his desk.

Void let out a few familiar beeps before eventually just picking up the quill and finding some scrap paper. In large blocky letters, it wrote out a message. "No oil. Hot water underground came up."

Arthur leaned back in his chair and rubbed his chin. So it was a geyser. He wasn't sure why Void used such simple words and wrote in such short sentences, but he was sure there was likely a reason. It didn't seem lazy or anything, but perhaps it was just expedient. The blocky letters kind of reminded him what a child would write they were first learning. He pushed the likely blasphemous thought out of his mind for the moment.

"So, you just happened to be around when a new geyser formed?"

Void moved side to side, shaking his claw horizontally. Was that no?

"I'm sorry you're going to have to explain a little bit more. I'm not sure I understood that."

The little black disk seemed to slump slightly as it picked up the quill once more.