69. Dumpling Soup

Arriving by airboat at a delta village, Jason and Clive note signs of violence. Jason clarifies that while some high-rank magic can revive the recently dead, they cannot. Meeting the mayor, they learn a villager is gravely injured and infected. Jason uses his cleansing ability to purge infection and sepsis, then applies a potion to close deep claw wounds, promising ointment for recovery and refusing payment.

They move on, finding the next villages similarly barricaded. While resting, Jason and Clive joke about an abandoned bait plan, but focus on inconsistencies in the reports. Given daily attacks across distant settlements and the snatchers’ limited overland speed, they conclude multiple monsters are involved. Jason confirms their contract quest should complete only when the overall threat is ended, giving them a clear finish condition.

Clive, taking notes, pivots to outworlder theory. Using a “dumpling soup” analogy, he explains the astral as magic-filled soup and worlds as dumplings that absorb it. A destabilized summoning created a fleeting astral link from a highly magical world to Jason’s low-magic one, pulling Jason through the deep astral where physical matter cannot exist.

Clive reveals Jason’s original body ceased to exist in transit; only Jason’s soul—being magical—arrived and constructed a physical form, akin to how a familiar is given a stable body. Jason reels at effectively having died and being a soul-shaped construct, questioning the knowledge goddess’s phrasing while Clive suggests she tailored the truth.

As Jason struggles with the revelation, Clive senses the mangrove snatcher’s aura, cutting short the conversation and signaling imminent confrontation.