Chapter 1362 1362 Raceway Rewards

Chapter 1362 Chapter 1362 Raceway Rewards

?--- Lily ---

Once it was clear to Thyme that Lily had calmed down they said, "Congratulations, you've taken the second place prize, which is of course, two treasures," Thyme tapped the stone behind him and the case around Lily's bracelet shattered. A moment after that another much larger opening appeared with two treasure chests inside. "Feel free to grab your prize at your leisure,"

Thyme didn't make any further moves after that. Lily just... took a few more moments to relax. The currents here were a lot stronger then they seemed, or perhaps it was just that they got stronger? Lily wasn't sure which way around it was, but the experience had been a bit harrowing and slightly humbling. Apparently being able to move at great speed under your own power is nice and all... but when you're still Rank 2 there's still plenty of people and things that can go faster.

Thyme didn't react further to Lily's stunned silence. Probably a matter of limited interference in the test. The Thyme in front of her likely had a very limited number of 'lines' that it was allowed to use. Lily didn't let herself spend too long thinking about it. She WAS on a time limit after all, so she swam over to the chests and transformed to throw them both open properly.

Then she realised she'd forgotten her bracelet, so she quickly shut the chests before she'd taken a good look, swam back out to grab her bracelet treasure and slipped it on before going back and opening the chests a second time. Inside the first was obviously a pair of boots. Which felt somewhat thematic for a race... but it was an underwater race. So perhaps they weren't appropriate at all?

Looking at Thyme for a few moments, Lily decided it was best to just ask, "Am I allowed to test treasures on you?" Thyme didn't respond. Lily took that as a sign of acceptance, because Thyme would, probably, have answered if it was against the rules in some way. So Lily put a bit of mana in the bracelet and then lightly threw it at Thyme. The bracelet just bounced off Thyme's chest where it made contact. No expanding into a magic lasso. No magical ball of chains. It MAY have lit up a little bit during the flight but that could just as easily be the reflection of the sun on the metal.

Lily clicked her teeth and picked up the bracelet, throwing it around her wrist. *Right. Well that was a failure. Do I want to test the lightning rod? On the one hand... it could be a powerful trump card. On the OTHER hand I'm underwater and it could damage me enough to force me out of the game for thirty minutes. Which, might not be too bad if I find a good spot to hide to reduce the chance of my stuff being stolen... but is it worth testing? Thyme would totally give out a few useless weapons. That's not even in question. No the question is, IS this weapon in particular one of those that doesn't work.

I... I don't have a lot of experience with magical lightning. I don't know how reasonable it is for it to just 'work' underwater. For a certain definition of work I suppose. It's not electricity. That's not what it is. It's LIGHTNING MAGIC. Of course the counterpoint is that paper magic IS paper. Especially when it wants to be, but it's not always paper. Sometimes it's almost paper.

I imagine having a proper lightning bolt would take up too much energy... but that might be a poor guess on my part. I wish I knew the answer, but I don't so... I guess I can only conclude it's not worth testing. So what do I do now? Keep looking for the paper? No I guess I test the boots out first.*

The test of the boots was easy. Lily just aimed herself towards the middle of the 'race track' and pushed in some mana. She moved forward in a burst of movement. It wasn't amazingly fast, and it was possibly building up speed... but you only went forward as long as you were putting mana in. So the quick burst didn't get Lily far. Despite all that, she was quite happy with things. A few more little tests with more of her precious mana reserves just confirmed things. Lily transformed back into her Memphis form for a moment and got the expected result. Can't use the jet boots in Memphis form because you can't put mana into them.

*Right so these are definitely jet boots. Not sure how much use I'll get out of them because they seem like little mana hogs if you want to use them for more than just quick burst. That's on top of my desire to remain in Memphis form for the most part. At least they're comfortable to wear despite being underwater and without socks. Not sure I'd even bother to keep them on if they weren't.

Which I suppose just leaves the question of what to do now? I still don't know what the bracelet does but I've wasted more than a little time here. I think I want to check out the race track carefully for signs of treasure chests, so it's not like I've got a long travel time... but I still don't know if looking for the paper is a trap or not.*