"Why did you bite it!" Thunk! "It has Aether!" Slam! "Could we not have come up with a plan first?! This thing is huge!" Chomp! "I did come up with a plan!" Thunk! "Oh do tell! What is this genius plan of yours!" Smack! "Bite it until it stops biting back!" Clonk! Aleph lands by Lyly and Goldy, facing off against a large lizard coated in white scales. Scars coat the beast, which easily eclipses the trio in combined size. Sharp fangs drip with hostility as it glares at its attackers with blank eyes. Small trickles of red drip from its tail, possibly related to why its currently pissed the hell off.

Goldy slams his fist into his palm, glancing at his companions. "I punch?" He asks. "You are both banned from making plans! Okay, monkey, pin it with earth bending or whatever, then i can bind it and dragon can fini-" Crack! "Gah! Just go!" Goldy plunges his hands into the earth, flipping the ground like a table cloth to uproot the lizard. Grasping its tail he strains, gripping the ground with his feet as he slams it into the rocky ground. Lyly capitalises on its momentary stun to begin wrapping it in a tight cocoon of threads, completely immobilising it.

Aleph walks up to the beast, writhing and screaming from within its restraints, and calmly swipes her Aether infused tail across its neck, severing the spine. Man... Natural organisms really have no redundancy. The fact I can be killed just as easily concerns me. I should work on removing my own weak points as soon as I have the Aether. "Hoh! Ffictory!" "Lunch!" "Don't eat it raw! We have time to cook so we should!" "Cooking loses Aether though... It was your idea to hunt more so I could use Aether to fit in your tunnels." "Well... At least let me cook some of it." "Take any part except the head. I'll have the rest." "Why not the head?" "Aether gathers where there's a lot of will. Most creatures tend to think with their heads." "Huh... Tail it is then."

Lyly cuts through the tip of the tail with her fangs, slicing off a portion while Goldy clears some land to start a fire. Meanwhile Aleph begins crunching away at the remainder... without stop. By the time Lyly and Goldy finish spit-roasting their tail cutting, Aleph has finished, easily downing three times her body weight in a matter of minutes. Both companions stare dumbfounded as she lays down with a content sigh.

"Okay, so I know dragons are weird and have their own 'it's a dragon' logic to them at times... But what the fuck?! Where did all the extra mass go?!" Aleph lifts her head, tilting quizzically at the spider. "The stomach I was born with is basically just a high-powered furnace which decomposes matter into unbound energy and separates the existing pure energies from them. Anything I don't need as nutrients just gets vaporised into energy, then probably turns into Mana or something." "Isn't that inefficient? Why not turn it into oosoo." "I had to rewire it just to make it work with Aether in the first place. I simply don't have the parts needed to do anything but extract what's already clinging to it." "I see..."

Goldy stares at the pair with utter confusion. "What language?" He utters, chewing on his portion of the tail. "Uh, Englin. Mostly..." The spider responds, nibbling on her own. "Goldy's language lessons are coming along nicely. It's only been-" "No! We're not doing this again! I swear if you call the last five days five minutes or something..." "Is this about the twenty minutes thing?" "We fell for fifteen hours! How can you mistake that for twenty minutes! I even told you when two hours had passed!" "Huhuhu, ffery wrong." "I forgot okay! And I'm pretty sure I was asleep for most of it anyway..." "You were asleep for an hour tops. I'm starting to think your memory issues are just you forgetting things instead of amnesia." "You guys are mean..." "Huhuhu." "Fuehehe." "... Wehehe"

As the trio finish their snickering they stand, dusting themselves off, and huddling together to plan. "So, do you think you can go mini yet?" "Three more like that lizard and I can." "I don't think there'll be many more apex predators in this place... Dammit, we'll have to just find another way down that you can fit through and hope we don't get lost." "Cool! Sleep first though." Fwomp! "You know... For someone with zero sense of time you have a remarkably accurate circadian rhythm." "Completely different matters." "In what universe..."

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"Monkey, do you have any butter?" "Mhutter?" "I don't think butter will help here." "Well what ideas do you have then?" "Uh... Brute force my way through?" "I punch?" "I'm sorry for asking..." "Well, imma try it." "No wait-" Crunch! Crack! Shatter! Flop! "It worked!" Aleph stands, shaking off the pebbles and dust gathered atop her from forcing her way through a tight nook in the downward tunnel they are traversing. "Right... Not like that could cause a cave in or something." Lyly chitters in frustration as they resume their descent.

"I held onto it with Aether just in case. And Goldy could dig us out if it did." "Now you see, that is a plan. If you'd told me that from the beginning I would've had no issues with it." "I thought it was obvious..." "You thought wrong! Okay, I'll give it to you that I should've thought of Goldy there, but I don't know how your entherr stuff works!" "It's really good at pulling and reinforcing. Anything close to me can be affected easily enough." "Wait... Then how does that equate to changing your size? Are you pulling space or something?" "No. I just need enough Aether to see individual cells. Then I can manipulate those directly." "You're insane. Clinically insane." "I'm perfect. Clinically perfect?"

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

The trio step out into an open cavern on the next layer. Half-frozen slush covered streams and ponds give way to a bustling network of rivers and small waterfalls. A flock of red-feathered birds chase a swarm of tiny insects, soaring and gliding around creaks and through crevasses while the rivers teem with fish being hunted by an assortment of white lizards and... carnivorous sheep? Those things look tasty... "Hey, can we try cooking one of those sheep?" "Sheep? What's that? Aren't they the things you count to go to sleep?" "White fluffy things that get their heads stuck in fences." One of the nearby sheep pauses its fishing to look up at the trio, baring its gnarled, black fangs and hissing. "Wouldn't they just eat the fence?" "Huh, good point. I wonder..."

Aleph plods over to the sheep, swiftly separating it from its head. """Wreeee!""" The other sheep screech before elegantly galloping away like the majestic, fluffy beings they are. I feel like something is different, but I can't put my claw on it... "Wanna cook it? I think they're tasty." "You should really adopt an ask first, kill later policy..." Lyly chitters as she and Aleph begin preparing the sheep, draining, gutting, and slicing it while Goldy starts the fire. The scent of cooking meat fills the cavern, attracting scavengers and small predators who Aleph simply shoos away. No use eating something with so little Aether. Unless it's tasty!

With Goldy in charge of the cooking, the sheep is diced into chunks and steaks by liberally using Aleph's tail as a kitchen knife, and cooked with mushrooms and plants found nearby and brought from above. There may even be a bit of moss sprinkled in there. A full course meal is served. Mutton steaks with mutton stew and a side of mutton chops. Of course, served with a random assortment of cooked, probably poisonous plant-life which could kill a human ten times over. Though this of course does not apply to freaky dragons, invincible spiders, and monkeys who were literally born here.

Through the eyes of a master mutton chef

"Huhuhu." Gol Dhee chuckles, a tinge of pride in his eyes as the emissary savours the stew melting upon her tongue. For the glutton to savour a meal is the greatest compliment I could receive. I must practice my cooking, learn more methods to elicit culinary euphoria. Perhaps in doing so I can even glean new insights into strength. He takes a sip of his portion, drinking in the flavour and letting it linger. Perhaps more seasoning is required? I shall experiment when I have the chance.

The trio finish their meal, satisfied faces all around. Gol Dhee stands, taking a look at their surroundings. To think such a beautiful domain could exist, so far below. This place teems with life, flowing water coating the world as far as the eye can see. It is as if I am within the stories of old, exploring where the ancestors have been. This place... It must be the very source of all water, what they once called the ocean! To follow in the footsteps of the revered ancestors... Truly, what an honour! With a prideful huff he sets off, his companions shooting a confused glance at his confidence.

"Where to Ho'mah?" "You're still calling me that? What does that even mean?" "I think it's just a nickname." "Odd nickname... Well anyway, I think we can just follow the rivers from here. Should lead down somewhere." "What happened to following your route?" "I remembered what's on the next floor..." "Hoh? I am cur-"

""Wreeee!""

An unholy screech billows through the cavern, shattering the water surface of the surrounding rivers. Thud! Thud! Thud! Heavy footfalls sound in the distance, accented by a growing rumbling as the source of the sound approaches. "A mmeast affroaches!" "You really need to work on your 'b's and 'p's!" "Do you think this one is tasty?" "We just ate!" "Such gluttony..." The thuds grow louder, the surrounding wildlife fleeing from the oncoming stampede. "It sounds like a lot of them... Should we run?" "No way! It has a ton of Aether!" "I dzesire a mmattle!" "Of all the companions... Why these two?"

Crack! A wave of air slams against them as the beast arrives, a small crater left where it landed. Covered in a thick layer of light-grey fur and adorned with two flat-shaped horns the beast stands tall, towering over the trio as its black fangs drip with malice. "I knew we should've thought first..." Crack! Another lands. Crack! And another. "Aleph... I blame you for this." "Understandable."

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Entry 5

I have forgotten how long it has been since I came down here. Even the reason I'm here begins to elude me, though I at least remember it was by request of my master. Should've written it down really. Regardless, I have come a long way since my entrance into these caverns. My growth in body and character alone have made this journey worthwhile. After all, I never before would have imagined I would ever encounter something bigger than Avilar himself and live to tell the tale.

Right now, I have managed to ascend back to the spider graveyard. I believe it is here where the corrupting energy begins to truly bare its fangs, as I have witnessed several seemingly healthy critters, not just spiders, perish from the ambience alone. Though this place has few beasts for me to train against, it may prove a suitable location to meditate given the quiet atmosphere, though the smell could prove problematic. Perhaps here I can finally gain one of the key insights my master spoke of, though whether that would even help me, given my inability to use Mana, is uncertain.

Regardless, even just bathing in a lighter form of the energy should hopefully help me build a resistance to it. Failing this I will simply continue to ascend further in hopes of discovering a different method of conquering the greater depths.

- Unlabelled Journal