The Shark Titan stood on the edge of the giant pool which currently housed the Hydra. The cavernous room extended far beyond in all directions, and the pillars which supported the ceiling stood broader and taller than even the largest of redwoods in the Great Forest. He was joined by his first mate, Meredith, and his quartermaster, Luo, and behind the trio stood one of the giant sentries assigned to guard the pool.

The water had initially been clear and clean, but the addition of the lake water stored within the Gaping Maw combined with the waste produced by the Hydra had turned it a sickly greenish-brown. The large glow stones suspended from the ceiling high above bathed the chamber in perpetual light akin to an overcast afternoon, and the dark shadow of the hydra could still be seen lurking in the pool.

"How many?" the captain asked.

"Three, we think," Luo answered, "we don't know who they were yet. No one important, though. They snuck in late last night, the giants tried to intervene but were afraid of squishing them."

"I've informed the crew that the prize offer for capturing the fish has been rescinded," Meredith said, "to discourage any more idiots getting themselves eaten. Then again, I'm pretty certain they were doing it for glory rather than extra portions, so that may not stop anyone."

The captain was only half listening as he stared out at the water longingly, "Meredith, are you sure I shouldn't--"

"You and I both know damn well you'll get baited into a fight with the hydra if you go in," Meredith said, "at its current strength you're likely to kill it before you can subdue it. Which do you value more, a fish or your ascension quest?"

The captain let out a slow, unhappy breath, "then how do we get him out?"

It was quiet for a moment before Luo offered a suggestion, "we could try fishing?"

The captain and first mate both turned judgmental glances onto the quartermaster.

"Maybe if we toss some nets--"

"Shut up Luo," Meredith ordered, despite not necessarily outranking the quartermaster.

"No, Luo may be onto something," the captain said, "he must be getting hungry by now. He's smart enough to not bite a hook or swim into a net, but maybe he's desperate enough to go after bait."

"You're thinking we lure him to the shallow end, furthest from the hydra?" Meredith asked.

"Aye," the captain said, "and then I grab him."

"What about those killed by the hydra last night," Luo asked, "he could have eaten the scraps."

"Even Gerald wouldn't resort to cannibalism," the captain said, "probably."

"Then we'll need bait that he's willing to eat, and that the hydra won't be interested in," Meredith said.

"Aye," the captain nodded, "consult the chef, find out what she can whip up."

______

With an ever growing list of things to distract herself from, and a new mandate that she wasn't allowed to go off alone in the dark, Iris chose to instead wander the well-lit chambers of the mountain. Her first stop was the workshop where the ship was being repaired.

As she stepped out of the narrow gap between two giant marble tables, she saw giants delicately removing planks from the hull of the ship and placing them on tables. Through the gaps in the hull were the innards of the mechanical deck, and though they were too small and too distant to make out what they were doing, she could see gargoyles scurrying around inside.

After blipping a few times across the expansive floor to get a viewing angle that wasn't mostly blocked by the platform pushed up against the ship, she pulled the spyglass from her bottomless bag, fully extended it, and looked through it. The gargoyles now came into view rather clearly, and she could see that they were crawling through the gaps in the machinery and rather crudely ripping out ropes, chains, sails and gears. Many were tossed aside, most of them landing on the platform while the occasional piece took a long fall into the marble floor.

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Much to her disappointment, she still couldn't figure out what the mechanism was for. Her best guess so far was that the sails were intended to fold outwards somehow in order to provide more propulsion for the ship, but that didn't make sense with how close the mechanical deck was to the waterline of the hull. With a sigh, she collapsed the spyglass and returned it to her bag.

Meanwhile at the front of the ship, a pair of giants was holding up the folded-down bow piece while a third held a large chain in place on one side. With her spyglass, she could see gargoyles climbing down the length of the chain until they reached the bow piece, where they got to work affixing the chain to the bow. Iris watched a while as they worked, until a tentacle tapped on her shoulder.

She withdrew her eye from the spyglass to look curiously at the tentacle, which motioned for her to hand over the spyglass. With an uncertain expression, she did as Abby requested. The tentacle wrapped around the spyglass and brought it down to the bag, sticking the eyepiece into the void while angling the lens towards the ship. Positive sounds emanated from the bag.

"You know," Iris began cautiously, "you could probably see way better if you came out of there."

A series of overlapping and very clearly negative roars came from the void, and the tentacle withdrew back inside with the spyglass.

"Oh, come on!" Iris complained, "you're such a baby. What's the worst that could happen?"

Abby reached out with four tentacles, three of which were holding knives and short swords. The unarmed tentacle flailed in mock peril as the other three mimed stabs and slashes towards it.

Iris rolled her eyes, "you're not going to get killed by an angry mob."

Abby made affirmative sounds, and then the unarmed tentacle quickly disarmed the other three and turned one of the knives back on them. The now disarmed tentacles mimicked dramatic deaths, swaying back and forth before falling limp beside the bag.

"You're not gonna have to kill an angry mob, either."

The tentacles returned to the bag, and uncertain noises came from the void.

"Fine, whatever," Iris sighed.

______

"You're telling me you can make this explode?" Cameron said, holding up a small chunk of glow stone.

He was standing on the side of the main path that led through the gargoyle market, speaking to Cronur, the gargoyle tinkerer.

"Yes, yes," Cronur nodded his head eagerly, "shake and spin it really fast, just the right way, and it becomes a boomrock."

"That's," Cameron hesitated as he stared at the glow stone and thought about it, "definitely not how that should work."

"It's true!" Cronur insisted, "then you take one boomrock and touch a glow stone, and get two boomrocks!"

Cameron looked him skeptically, "show me."

"Come!" Cronur dashed off on all fours, looking back only to wave Cameron along.

Cameron was soon crawling out of a crack in the marble and into the tinkerer's alcove, where Cronur was sprinting up to two other gargoyles and shouting in excitement, "we got a buyer!"

"I'm not buying anything yet," Cameron called out, "I'm just here to look."

He watched skeptically as the gargoyles prepped the spinning machine and placed a glow stone inside of the six-way vice. They wasted no time in spinning up the machine, and soon the glow stone began to emit an intense yellow-orange light.

"There! See!" Cronur pointed at the stone in the contraption.

Cameron stepped up and delicately removed the stone, holding it with two fingers while he inspected it. His Elemental Understanding ability allowed him to perceive the infinitely small and otherwise imperceptible differences from regular glow stone. The fundamental components of the crystalline structure had been rearranged in such a way as to create a volatile instability, which he imagined could -- if sufficiently disturbed -- rapidly release the total energy of the glow stone in a single instant.

"How do I activate it?" he asked.

"Smash it, burn it," Juvu said, "maybe yell at it, we're still testing that though."

Cameron looked away and picked a spot on the wall, where he threw the stone. The instant the stone connected with the marble it exploded with a rather impressive blast that blew off small chunks of marble and left a small crate in the wall.

"Not bad," though his words were nonchalant, his expression betrayed his bewilderment at the reaction. "Let me see a regular glow stone," he held out a hand while still inspecting the damage of the blast.

Ferum handed him a small chunk of glow stone, which he held away from his palms with the tips of his fingers and held out at arm's length. Activating his ability named Fundamental Restructure, he began to slowly rearrange the fundamental components into the arrangement of the boomrock. After a few seconds, the glow stone began to emit the same intense light as the boomrock had.

"Whoa," the trio of gargoyles said in unison.

Cameron let out a tired breath. The work had taken an immense amount of mana and concentration, it certainly wasn't something he would be able to do frequently or on the fly at his current level.

"What's the idea, guy?" Cronur demanded, "you taking our invention instead of buying?"

"Not at all," Cameron shook his head, "I just wanted to see if I could do it."

He handed the newly created boomrock to Juvu, who promptly but delicately placed it on a nearby table.

"I can imagine quite a few applications for this," Cameron said, "but not in its current state. Have you had any luck stabilizing it into a less volatile form? Ideally something that requires another, smaller explosion to activate?"

Cronur shook his head, "early days, lots to discover."

Cameron thought for a moment, "as the lead of innovation, I have a certain budget at my discretion. Would you be interested in selling your research documentation and machinery schematics?"

"Yes!" Cronur shouted.

"If we all agree to it," Ferum reminded Cronur.

"Right," Cronur corrected himself, "if we all agree, yes. Do we agree?"

"We must discuss," Ferum said, "come back tomorrow. Bring gold."

"Will do," Cameron smiled.