Roger looked up from the small table their group sat around while he downed another capsule of a drink. Shia and the Cultivator came into the inn and the Cultivator nodded towards them before he asked the staff for their rooms. Then he vanished into the back of the Inn. Roger kept his eyes on him, but he could not see through the man yet. His mission had sounded simple at first. Find out anything you can about the Cultivator and assist him in an important matter. Kidnapping people on the fourth floor was novel, but by far not the strangest job her had done for Mars.

  Back when Roger had been just a Climber he had some...attitude problems with his mage bastard of a team leader. The man had been from some noble house from another world and had experience in magic. Which was why he had been incredibly strong. But also incredibly stupid and disgusting. The man thought people who were not mages or rather, people who were not him, were bugs. Not human, expendable. The bastard had led his newbie group up the floors, had made them fight as meat shields while he bombarded any critters from behind them. Until they had reached the fifth floor. There he had met his match. The beasts had been too strong, too cunning and their group had not been prepared. The mage bastard had turned tail and fled at the first sign of real trouble, leaving them behind. Half of them had died. Roger had been furious. When what was left of his group had found the mage again he had acted like nothing had happened. He could still hear him say how weak and useless they all were. That it was their fault. Roger had argued. No tactics had been at fault and him fleeing at the first sight of trouble had not helped. The mage had not been amused. He had flicked his wrists and sent a stream of fire at him, had burned him, trying to kill him. But the mage had barely missed.

  Roger could still feel the searing pain in his side, had still a scar there to remember him. But he remembered with satisfaction how he had stabbed the man in the eye, killing him before he could loose any more spells on him. From that day on he had been an outlaw. Had a bounty on his head. Because the rest of the group had betrayed him as well. As soon as they had returned to the first floor they had snitched to the guild officials. Never mind that they had said it was self defense to him. The only reason Roger had not been hanged was that he had been sitting in one of the districts casinos, drinking away his sorrows. One of Mars lieutenants had come to recruit him there with news of the bounty on his head and Roger had never looked back. Fuck mages, fuck the Towers hierarchy. He had become a group leader himself in the district and his group was good. A true climbing group just made out of Vessels. Criminals all, but damn effective. He had done many disreputable things since then.

  He had stolen, killed, robbed, kidnapped, blackmailed. All the rap sheet you could ask of him, but he had done it in the districts name and he had gotten promoted for it. He was trusted by Mars and the rest of the red light districts leadership. Roger was proud of that and he still wanted to climb the tower, still wanted to grow stronger.

  But the Cultivator did not fit into his world view. At first he had thought of him as just another common criminal, dangerous, very dangerous, but just another criminal. But after what he had seen Aaron do on the second floor he was not so sure anymore.

  Shia came over to them and settled down after ordering a very tall, strong drink.

  “So?” Roger asked her.

  Shia gave him the stink eye and then turned serious.

  “He is a monster.”

  “Why?” Roger asked slowly and they paused their conversation after Shia’s drinks had arrived.

  “You have not really see him fight at all. I do not know what kind of powers he has, it makes no damn sense to me. But I can tell you he might be even more dangerous underwater than above.”

  Roger raised his eyebrows and let her continue.

  “He meditated a bunch, thought he just wanted to get rid of me at first, but afterwards he did something.” Shia shrugged and gestured with her hands.

  “He stood up and then shot off like a damn spell. He moved so fast in the water I could barely follow him with my eyes. Fucking freak can turn in the water instantly. He can stop and go instantly. He is like...like…” Shia was lost for words and Robin chuckled and cut in.

  “Like a mage?”

  “No, you idiot. I have never seen any mage do shit like that. He is like a fish in water, just you know...better.”

  Roger cleared his throat and Shia kept going with her report.

  “Afterwards he did some martial arts stuff. No idea what. He just punched the water and then he asked me to attack him. Like for real, with my daggers.”

  “But you could not touch him.” Roger said and Shia actually blushed hard enough for it to be visible through the water.

  “No. He is too fast. Its like he has eyes on the back of his head or he can see into the future. I could not even get close to him.”

  “Hmm, well that is not a surprise after what he did in the jungle. None of us could have done that.” Roger said and looked at Stab for a moment. He could have done that probably. The old man was not originally part of their group, more of an ad hoc addition for some of their missions. Roger knew Stab was different than them. He was here as a contingency in case the Cultivator failed. Stab would do the task Mars had given the Cultivator if necessary. Roger did not really know, but he suspected Stab was one of the Originals. One of the five original members of Mars own group, who had challenged the tower all the way up to the gap and probably beyond. They had come down with him to the Town of Beginnings and had established the red-light district. But he did not share his suspicions with the rest of the group.

  “So he really can challenge the monsters on this floor.” Roger summarized.

  “Yeah, but you did not even hear why I called him a monster. When he was done with his martial arts bullshit he stood there for a moment. Then he shot towards a freaking boulder and smashed it into pieces.”

  “A boulder?”

  “Yep, tall as Mortimer, twice as wide, pulverized it into small pebbles. Twice. When I asked him what that was about he said it was a successful experiment. If he can do that to the monsters, then we will have to buy some drag nets to get all the bounty.”

  Roger thought about it for a moment and then shrugged.

  “That’s a good idea actually. If the Cultivator really can challenge this floor with ease we might get a really big haul of fish. We could sell a bunch to the fishmongers here.”

  “Yeah...but it will be tedious. We will have a lot of stuff to carry. Bloody stuff most likely. The whole floor will descend on us in a feeding frenzy.” Robin cut in.

  “Not our problem. More opportunities to scope out the Cultivators capabilities.” Roger said with a smirk.

  Mortimer grunted and then sighed.

  “I remember when being part of the district meant we just had to do some crime. Now look at us, most Climbing teams would not take risks like that.”

  “Its not really a risk. We can handle it, or rather he can. And if we fail, we can just leave the bounty behind and let the fish feed on it.” Roger said.

  “I mean, it sounds pretty sweet. But how much would we make?”

  “A Good amount for sure. Depends on what he kills. Enough to splurge once we go back home, I am certain.”

  “Well...fine. I am in.” Shia said and the rest of the group gave their okay. Even Stab nodded. The man was clearly just as curious as Roger was about what the Cultivator could do.

  Aaron had not expected to sleep well being under water, but he had surprisingly. The underwater ‘beds’ in the inn were basically small vats of heated water that flowed from one end of the ‘bed’ to the other, keeping you afloat and warm. Once Aaron had managed to relax in the strange environment, he had eaten a kelp chip, basically a strip of kelp prepared in vinegar and salted. It was crunchy even eating it wet. There was something disgusting about having some of the salt water he and everyone else swam in stuck to the food. But he got over that. His taste buds were happy about the snack and Aaron closed the bed like vat to shut out any noise, besides the soft sound of flowing water. It was very relaxing in the end and he had a nice rest.

  When he got up in the morning he felt surprisingly good. His skin was wrinkly and clearly not used to the exposure to water at all times and the too tight skin suit had started to chafe a bit, but his natural regeneration took care of all of that without many problems. Since his nose was basically useless and all he could smell was salt water and barely anything else, he saw this as a chance to enhance his other senses. This was good training for sure, if he ever got thrown into a lake or had to fight in a river, instead of above it.

  Aaron was up hours before anyone else, because he simply did not need as much sleep anymore as normal people. So he settled down, did his cultivation session and then left the inn and did his katas after he was done cutting his hand over and over to absorb the mana in the manastones he carried. The training still had not lost its novelty and he played with the water resistance and tried to find the most efficient ways to punch and move under water. Once he was done the rest of the team was up and about, preparing for a day of fishing. Cultivator style. They bought many big nets to fit in things he would kill and had talked to locals if his ears interpreted the sounds correctly. Sometimes he was not entirely sure. Hearing under water was very different than normally after all.

  They had a big breakfast, which consisted of a very nice fish soup in a big capsule you were supposed to drink while eating fish fried under water. The crispy skin of the fish insulated it from the water and when Aaron bit into the fish he got a mouth full of flaky, juicy meat. Not being able to smell the food was a bummer, but his senses were heightened enough that it made almost no difference to Aaron’s enjoyment. He ate enough for two groups himself and then left the inn behind with the group in tow.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “Have you asked the locals for any good hunting spots?”

  “We have, but its all small stuff. Mostly big tuna who are wickedly fast and need to be caught by driving them into prepared nets. The locals do not really hunt monsters. They warned us of many spots, so I figured you might want to check those out.”

  “Sounds like a plan, where is the closest one?”

  Roger pointed down the slope like underwater mountain.

  “There is a cave system further down in the mountain with all kinds of giant eels with very sharp teeth.”

  “Hmm, not bad, lets check it out.” Aaron said and started to skip through the water instead of swimming. He gave himself a short speed boost with Wind Steps and then deactivated the technique to get slowed down by the water resistance. It looked probably quite comical, since he basically hopped dozens of meters at a time. It was still slow enough that the rest of the group could keep up while swimming. Although not all of them were swimming. Mortimer and Robin were both in their armors and walked on the ocean floor like on land. Just slower. The other three members swam above them. Roger was armed with a spear gun with what looked like a crossbow like system to propel a long sharp arrow into a target. The arrow was not really big enough to be called a spear. But it was close. Robin carried his harpoon and Mortimer his greatsword. Shia and Stab had not taken other weapons either.

  They soon left the kelp farms and buildings behind them as they moved down the mountain. There were plenty of smaller fish around. The whole mountain basically was a coral reef so the colorful corals were everywhere. Aaron even spotted some normal sized sharks and a big turtle that was at least a meter tall and broad. But they were not really interested in them. The smaller fish were all the few predators they spotted wanted and they swam away when the group came into their vicinity. In a way they could be called part of the natural ecosystem, not monsters.

  After half an hour or so they reached a gaping hole in the mountain and Aaron swam normally to peer into its depths. Corals and all kinds of bio-luminescent plants were still everywhere. But a lot of the small fish had vanished. They did not go in there it seemed. It was eerily quiet and still inside of the cave, unlike the lively underwater scene they had just left.

  “Yep, there are monsters in there.” Aaron said and strained his ears to spot them. He soon heard a bunch of almost completely silent intakes of water as the creatures breathed. They were absolutely still otherwise. He made a mental map of them and then looked back at the group that looked at him as they settled down in the entrance.

  “I’ll go in, kill whatever comes close to us and we go explore the cave for a bit, alright?”

  Roger nodded and Aaron turned to swim into the cave. It was treacherous and difficult to overlook terrain with many natural corners and corals that broke line of sight. The first monster was relatively close to the entrance and Aaron activated Wind Steps as he moved into position. Then he moved slowly past the creatures hiding spot, which turned out to be a giant crack in the rock the cave was made out of. Two murky eyes stared balefully out of the darkness of the hole before they shot forward. A snake like monster that looked like a giant moray eel came at Aaron so fast that any normal person would have been unable to react. Aaron knew exactly where the creature was though and almost casually swatted it to the side with the palm of his hand, making the attack miss. Then Aaron balled his fists. Wind Steps gave him leverage even in the water before he punched with all his physical might. His punch made a dent into the eel’s neck and burst it’s scales apart. He had broken the creatures neck from the looks of it. The eel undulated, trying to attack again feebly, unable to bring its big maw and the sharp teeth in it to bear, before Aaron’s second punch broke its skull and killed it entirely.

  Aaron inspected the giant Eel and its giant maw with rows of sharp teeth like a shark mouth. This was definitively an ambush predator. But once you knew where it was you could easily dispatch them. Aaron swam deeper into the cave, battering away one eel after the other, killing them efficiently by punching them in the head and pulverizing their brains inside of their skulls. The eels opened their maws wider than he had expected they could and so he always had to first diverge their charge like attack, before he could finish them off. He did not really want to punch into that maw, especially after he found what looked like hooks in the depths of the creatures maws that would latch onto anything the big eels bit.

  The entire Eco-system of this cave made no sense. The eels were too big and strong and fish too rare that they could feel on them to survive. Aaron suspected magic bullshit behind it just like with the scorpions as they slowly wound their way deeper into the mountain. Because Aaron noticed they were moving downwards, slowly but surely.

  They encountered other monsters on the way, big crabs with giant pincers that moved like spiders on the walls and tried to snip Aaron into pieces. But he simply parried the pincer and punched their lights out, often cracking their shells while doing so. The group that had followed him had ignored the moray eels, but they were taking the claws of the crabs with them in one of their drag nets. They carried them together, Mortimer and Robin acting as a base for the net, while the swimming members of the group closed it above them. That way they shared the weight evenly among each other. The armored melees had the most trouble as they had to awkwardly hop over gaps in the corals and they looked generally really awkward. They could swim if they had to, but it was difficult Aaron noticed as their armor weighed them down too much. Both men were strong, supernaturally so and they were using that strength. Alas they could not defy physics and so they were the most hindered of all of them. The rogues swam relatively gracefully and Robin kept his spear gun ready, but he never had to use it.

  Aaron’s ability to scout ahead for enemies with his senses was unmatched, although he had to pause sometimes to listen. With time Aaron got used to hearing in water and his reactions became faster, his movements surer and he felt more comfortable fighting under water. His sense of touch also helped as he felt currents and water being displaced when something moved. The currents in this cave were quite interesting. They all flowed from above down below, which probably meant that there was an exit at the end of the cave. It felt like this cave and the monsters had been designed and so Aaron had no problem with moving into the depths. Emnu probably had prepared a gauntlet for him to go through. As much as he disliked the mage, he was still impressed by his work. All of this had stood the test of time and although people had found ways of getting around some of his tests, he was sure that was intended as well.

  Boats on this level made sense if you had to move stuff in bulk through this floor. But maybe he gave the mage too much credit.

  The deeper they got the more the cave like tunnel evened out and the only light that found them here in the heart of the mountain was that from the luminescent flora and fauna. Small glowing fish, algae and glowing corals all made this their home. The crabs became more numerous and the net filled as the group gathered the spoils.

  But instead of getting darker as they continued the cave lit up and Aaron frowned as he stepped into the next part of this challenge. Brightly glowing jellyfish filled up a giant hall, illuminating the underwater cave with their strange glow. It was ethereal and surreal to float in the water in a cave deep under water and see a giant school of jellyfish. Or was it a group? Aaron did not know, nor did he care. He could barely see past the drifting tendrils of the jellyfish towards a distant cave entrance and he turned towards the group.

  “Stay back, let me see how these jellyfish behave.”

  Aaron activated Wind Steps and shot forward, aiming for the closest jellyfish. His fist burst through the jellyfish without much problem as the soft and squishy thing burst like a bubble. But Aaron found out soon that this had not been a good idea. The leftovers of the jellyfish where everywhere and they were basically acid. An acrid smell got into his nose and he saw his whole wet suit starting to sizzle and burn in the acid. He dove backwards out of the acidic blastzone and shook his hand to get rid of the bits of jellyfish that were burning his skin. Luckily he had not gotten anything in his face, the pain he felt from the acid on his hand was enough to make him pause and let out a breath of anguish.

  His enhanced senses multiplied the pain and he was in agony for a good 30 seconds, while he waved his hand through the water to get rid of the rest of the acid. The horde of jellyfish had barely moved, but they were more agitated than before, their tendrils stretching out, turning this entire room into a giant acidic poisonous spiderweb. Aaron could see how this could be a challenge and even if you popped the jellyfish their remains would block your way. He suspected quite a few teams would have turned around and found another way if many had come here at all after the many moray eels. But to Aaron this was a challenge.

  He shot forward again, but this time he did not plan to burst the jellyfish, instead he gave it a palm strike on its gelatinous body and made it splash against the other jellyfish until they hit the wall and burst there against the rock. The acid was not quite strong enough to melt stone and Aaron’s direct vicinity was acid free. So Aaron thought this was a great outcome.

  He dove into the mass of jellyfish and started to dance among them like a specter. His palms never rested as he dove in between tendrils and smacked the jellyfish against the nearby walls or ceiling. More than once he used too much power and the jellyfish burst into pieces. That forced him to back off and attack another bit of jellyfish. He had to moderate his strength, make room and dodge the many tendrils of the hostile jellyfish. The more he disturbed them the more agitated and the wilder they flailed their tendrils to catch, poison and burn him with acid. But Aaron proved too nimble, he kept out of their reach and used his momentum and precise strikes until he had carved a swath into the mass of them.

  The group of Vessels stood at the entrance watching jellyfish go flying while the Cultivator sped up and slowed down at will in the water, unfettered by water or gravity. He just moved at will. Soon the remains of jellyfish painted the walls in a luminescent tone of light blue that made the picture even more sinister.

  “Look at him go.” Mortimer said with a chuckle. “I am glad I don’t have to dive into that.”

  “Shame about the Xp though.” Robin commented and Mortimer nodded. They continued to watch until Shia got their attention as she frowned and stared against the wall of the tunnel leading to the jellyfish hall.

  “Check your experience bars, I am getting Xp from his kills I think.” she said and everyone opened their interface.

  “Well fuck me, you are right.” Robin said wide eyed and then he grinned. “This is gonna be a great trip.”

  “But how?” Roger asked with a deep frown.

  “Area Xp.” Stab said and they all turned to him in question.

  “What is that?” Shia asked curiously.

  “Its how people level during the Expeditions through the gap. Not everyone kills things, but everyone gets Xp. A little bit at least.” Stab said.

  “Huh, so if something dies in the area you get experience for it?” Shia asked and Stab nodded.

  “Even if you are not in the same group?”

  Stab nodded again. Roger frowned and studied his experience bar and then grunted.

  “Its not a lot though. That is less than killing a snake on the second floor.” Stab shrugged and turned away to watch Aaron again.

  “It is better than nothing, Roger. And with all of the things he kills I would not be surprised if we level during this trip.” Shia said and did a little twirl in the water.

  “Are those jellyfish on the list of things to harvest?”

  “No, I am not even sure many people know about them or how many there are here.” Roger said.

  “It still boggles my mind that you memorized that whole list.” Robin said with a chuckle

  “I don’t remember all of them, I just refresh my memory for every floor.” Roger said with a frown.

  “Want me to collect a sample?” Shia asked.

  “Yeah, please do. Although I don’t think anyone will come to harvest this any time soon. Those eels gave me the creeps.”

  “Yeah, too fast.” Shia said and swam forward and filled a small capsule with the burst acid of one of the jellyfish.

  “If you need a live one, I can send you one over without bursting.” Aaron shouted back.

  “No thanks, we are quite alright here.” Roger answered immediately.

  Aaron grinned to himself and kept fighting. It was one of the best training areas he had found for the Unceasing Palm kata. He found out that he was not immediately burned by the jellies acid, because his hands were covered in Qi from Wind Steps. Although it was a very thin cocoon of Qi. Either way it enabled him to block the tendrils, slap them away and counter them if necessary. He dove into a thick group of them and then moved to block all of the tendrils while he killed the jellyfish with precise palm strikes that catapulted them and others in the way into the walls where they burst.

  It was very effective. But in the end the whole thing was over way too quick. Before long he had cleared almost half of the jellyfish in the area and with more space the jellyfish started to move around more rapidly, evading him. Which meant he started to chase them until there were only a few left at both sides away from the central hallway.

  Aaron sighed disappointed that the training opportunity had gone, but he felt a lot more comfortable using the palm kata now. There was something right about fluid movements especially in water while defending and killing things.

  “Lets go.” he called out towards the waiting group and they walked through the cleared part through the hallway and Aaron only had to batter away a few stragglers trying to reclaim the open space. The ceiling, walls and floor were all spluttered with acid remains and so the group had to swim through the center.

  “I can feel my eyebrows sizzling.” Mortimer said almost in jest, but they all felt better once they were out of the jellyfish hall.

  Beyond it was a dark tunnel with almost no life they could see. It was dark, very dark. Aaron did not mind it though, he could still see relatively well, but he was pleasantly surprised when the group got out glowing stones they help up like torches.

  “What are those?” He asked them.

  “Glowstones. Simple enchantment on a rock activated by touch. Cheap and indispensable for the fourth floor. I did not expect we had to use them already, but we were prepared for the fourth floor after all.”

  “Huh, I suppose the fourth floor is dark?”

  Shia snorted in laughter.

  “Yep, whole floor is about light and darkness.”

  “Interesting. Well lets continue through this floor first.”

  They continued through the tunnel, only occasionally seeing something scuttle away in the dark. Mostly small fish that looked like classic bottom feeder who ate what fell towards the ocean floor. Eventually they reached an opening, but despite Aaron’s expectation there seemed to be no light at all. He looked up and his eyes pierced the water. He was not sure if there was any light. So he accelerated forwards into the darkness leaving the light of the group behind. Only when he had ascended a good distance he looked what he felt was up. There was some light here, but very little. It was not absolutely dark, but might as well have been for most people. He turned around and began to swim back to his group.

  Aaron paused mid swim. His ears had heard something strange. He peered into the darkness, the depths and sheer vastness of the ocean all around him swallowing him up. He was sure he had heard something. They were not alone down here. Something big was moving in the dark and it was moving quietly. Aaron was sure it would come for them. It looked like Emnu had more challenges ahead for him.