Chapter 190

All potions tasted weird at best—not necessarily vile, but certainly ... potent—and going down this one was even more of an experience than usual. Hot and sticky, the viscous liquid clung to the sides of Zoey’s throat as she swallowed several times, only barely stopping herself from choking. She felt the hot liquid creep all the way down into her stomach before settling. Then, finally, the effect started to tingle through her.

A wave of vertigo washed across Zoey, making her vision swim. Something weird happened. Not unexpected, seeing how the potion’s description explicitly stated what it would do, but nonetheless disorienting. No warnings could have prepared her for the sensations that came with the transformation.

Her body ... softened. A layer of sticky liquid secreted across her body, covering her in a thick sheen of goo-like substance. Zoey held up her hand and looked at it in fascination. And a degree of horror. Because bit by bit, she melted, losing her normal consistency, turning into—something like Mel, maybe.

Except not so pronounced. Not as thorough. She poked her palm, and her pointer finger sank a tenth of an inch into her squishy palm, but stopped there. When she tried to pull back, dark-gray gel—matching the bodysuit’s color—clung to her finger, only yielding with a loud squelch after she all but ripped it away to separate.

Looking down at her feet, she tried to raise one, only to discover she was likewise glued to the floor. As in, glued. The effect was absurdly strong. Only after an intense struggle could she yank her foot up—and it came with an even louder, more pronounced squelch.

‘Equally as troublesome as it was helpful,’ the description had said. Yeah, Zoey could see why. The effect was so strong as to be difficult to work with.

“Oh, wow,” Maddy said, her gray eyes widening as she watched the event unfold. “Zoey, you’re ... turning into...”

“Goo?” Zoey asked. “Yeah. I guess that was my goal.”

“It was?”

“Kind of.”

The general plan had been to make her hands or feet sticky enough that she could cling to walls. It had been a rather inspired goal—probably not where most people’s minds would have gone—but it seemed to have worked. At least, the getting-sticky part. The actual usefulness of the effect was yet to be seen.

“What do I even look like?” Zoey asked. She could look down at herself to get a general idea, but she doubted she was getting the full picture. She wished she had a mirror.

“Um. Gooey?” Maddy was practically marveling at her, so Zoey assumed it was a bit of a spectacle. “I’ve never seen a potion like that. I can’t believe you made it so easily.” Maddy hesitated. “But is it actually gonna help us cross?”

Good question. “Let’s find out.”

Zoey spent one more moment taking in her strange new form. The color of goo secreting from every pore depended on whether her skin was exposed to the air or her bodysuit: it seemed to have taken ‘her’ to have included her clothing, making her entire figure, clothes and everything, melt. Even poking at her hair resulted in her finger coming back covered in black goo.

She wondered if that was going to cause any problems when she changed back to her normal form. The fact she was leaving behind residue of—what, herself? Dragging her foot up from the ground left a glistening patch of goo as well. Was she shedding her actual body with every step? She doubted it, but it was an unnerving thought to have.

Her thoughts went again to Mel. Zoey definitely hadn’t transformed into something truly like the goo-girl, even if Mel had been an inspiration for the idea. Only the outermost layer of Zoey’s skin and clothing had softened into the sticky, clinging material. Still, there was a definite resemblance.

Realizing that, the transformation inspired some ... other ideas ... for the future. Maybe with some additional effort, she could create something that changed her into something that truly was like Mel. A full goo-girl. Now that she thought about it, using some of mini-Mel’s body as a reagent might help create that effect. Or at least something interesting.

And what would that be like, having a squishy, easy-to-penetrate body like Mel’s?

Or better—if Rosalie and Delta did?

Zoey shook away the distracting idea and focused on the obstacle in front of her. The chasm. Would this sticky form help her cross it?

With great effort, Zoey squelched her way over to the nearest wall. Each step required yanking her foot up with gusto. The stickiness effect was way too strong to be convenient in any urgent situation. She was nearly exhausted in just the short trip to the wall.

“Here goes nothing,” Zoey muttered.

She pushed her other foot firmly onto the vertical surface, leaving the other planted on the ground. Another grunt freed her completely from the floor, and she quickly stomped that foot next to the first. She swayed unsteadily for a moment as she stabilized herself in midair. Then settled.

It had worked. She was standing on a wall.

“Neat,” Zoey said with amusement. “And ... it’s kind of trippy.”

Maybe a few weeks ago, having the core strength needed to balance herself while horizontal would have been difficult, but for her new body and stats, it wasn’t a problem. Stats didn’t come with a supernatural resistance to disorientation, though. Staring up at the ceiling while standing on a wall, feeling gravity pull the wrong way, was still strange to experience.

“Can you walk?” Maddy asked.

“Probably,” Zoey said. “It’s just a pain in the ass.”

Demonstrating the point, she yanked her foot up—or, maybe more accurately, sideways?—and a comically loud squelch echoed through the air. She took several steps upward. While the absurd levels of stickiness did make movement annoying, she at least took solace in the fact she wasn’t going to slip and fall.