To the source

It was easier said than done, though. The next few days showed me that as clear as day.

The lizard-cow wasn't the only one powerful monster in the surroundings. With each step I took up the stream, I met more and more of them. Some of the monsters were actually the same common beasts I've seen before—except now they were twice or thrice as fast and strong as before.

When a simple cave spider I tried to kill almost tore my head off, I realised I was deep in a place for which I was too weak. But with a reward like that shining ahead, I knew I couldn't just stop.

Every day in the vicinity of the rainbow stream already made me stronger. I found, though, that water didn't hold its magic properties for long. After a day in my flask, it would lose its glow and tingles. Besides that, after the first radical influx in power, my stats didn't rise even remotely as quickly as they did after the first time I drank the water.