While I waited for dusk to resume hunting the fog turtles, Dendra pestered me until I paid attention to her so she could tell me about that colossal snake monster at the bottom of the lake.

“It was an elder lake dragon. Sure, there’s no way you could possibly kill it. It wouldn’t even notice an army of a hundred of you. But that doesn’t mean you can’t gain something from it. Didn’t you see how shiny its hide was? It’s shed its skin within the last few weeks, I’m sure of it. They only do that every few years, so you really are quite lucky. That is something you could definitely eat.”

“Few weeks? Too old, no magic left. No point in eating.”

Dendra giggled. “No, you silly, adorable little thing. The magic in its shed skin will take months to fade, even if it's just lying around out in the open. A creature like that holds massive amounts of magic in even its most inconsequential parts. By the time a dragon gets that old, they usually find some nice remote ley line to feed off of and make into their lair while they navel gaze and pontificate on their innate superiority. About the only thing they’ll react to when they’re like that is the presence of humanoids, who they fear might steal from their treasure hoards. Just don’t go turning into a humanoid form all of a sudden, and don’t touch anything shiny and it probably won’t even notice you.”

I considered the tiny dryad’s words, then agreed. She’d been pretty reliable so far. At least when she wasn’t pointlessly nattering.

However, before I went hunting for dragon skin, I wanted a few more of those fog turtles, just in case I needed to make a hasty exit.

Now that I knew their scent, they were much easier to track, although still a pain in the ass to kill if I didn’t kill them right away. I ate five more of the creatures by mid-afternoon. After properly digesting them, I headed back into the lake and dove down, following along as the steep slope grew even steeper.

I began to navigate the lake floor that was quickly becoming more like a wall, tracing it around as I descended into the abyssal depths, the late afternoon sunlight barely filtering down to this level. However, I could pick out quite a bit of life down here with my magic and electrical perception. There were all sorts of fish and eels, and they darted in and out of tiny caves in the walls, which were covered with a strangely fuzzy moss.

As I got deeper, I gradually became aware of two things: I was starting to get very physically uncomfortable as it felt like my body was being compressed, and the water itself was beginning to register as having magic aura. However, I was distracted from these minor nuisances, as my eyes started to pick up a faint silvery glow coming from below.

As the light grew, I realized that the walls below opened up into a much larger space. I ignored the growing discomfort and proceeded.

As I reached the entrance to the large cavern, the walls around me had continued to narrow gradually until it was an oblong shape, about 20 yards long and 15 in width. I had to force myself to ignore my magic perception, as the water around me glowed with quiet intensity, and the cavern ahead blazed like an inferno. It was simply too overwhelming, even as I tuned it out, and I felt light-headed and anxious to leave.

As I entered the cavern in full, the most eye-catching thing was a literal tower of treasures, glinting and glittering in light that seemed to come from everywhere at once. I eyed it critically before continuing to inspect the place. Sure, it was shiny and eye-catching, but what use is it?

Coiled around the tower of sparkling gems, coins and works of art was the very same gigantic snake thing, the elder lake dragon. It remained in place, although I had the acute sense of being watched.

That feeling of being compressed was getting worse as I descended, and I could feel my body healing the stress and damage from the pressure as it accrued. I could not remain down here long.

It was not hard to spot what I had come to find. There were large patches of the thick, translucent stuff caught up on the cavern walls, while some rested on the floor. Small schools of fish nibbled at them.

I swam to the nearest one, scattering the fish eating my prize, and tugged it free of where it was hung up on some jagged rocks. This one was about five feet wide and ten feet in length. I balled it up as best as I could and clutched it to my chest.

I’d have to eat it somewhere else. I needed to get out of here as soon as possible.

I turned back, and was dumbfounded for a moment. The ceiling of the cavern was riddled with holes similar to the one I had come through. There were dozens of them. I picked one that seemed about the right size and might have been the right distance away, and swam as quickly as I could with my new burden.

I exited the cavern, and began my ascent with all due haste. I needed to be away from the oppressive, crushing place. As I continued to rise, the sense of pressure lessened and faded, although I still had the distinct sense of being watched. That did not fade until I reached the surface, and promptly swam for and unfamiliar shore.

“Uh, this isn’t the same lake you went down through,” Dendra muttered once we were clear of the water.

“No, it isn’t. Lucky this came up to the surface. Didn’t know which one was right one.”

“Hmm, by the feel of it, I think this one is a few miles to the northwest.”

I let her continue chattering away while I regarded my loot. The silvery material was about an inch thick, and it was smooth and soft. Under my magic perception, it gave off the same healthy aura as a living creature. I tentatively took a bite of it. It didn’t taste like much, and it was very difficult to chew, but I persisted and it only took about forty minutes to eat. I would not allow anything to go to waste.

I tried to meditate, but I couldn’t focus. My body felt like it was in a sorry state. All my joints and limbs ached, and my mind was sluggish and tired.

I found a good spot to curl up by a tree, and rested as my body gradually healed the damage from the dive and my rapid ascent.

Once I felt a bit better, I was able to slip into my meditative state and examine my meal. Or, at least, I tried to examine it. I saw it as a patch of glowing, shimmering silver scales. However, consuming even tiny parts of the image overwhelmed me with information I couldn’t process or comprehend. I was beginning to get the vague feeling that if I tried to consume and integrate this aura with my current level of strength, it would have dire consequences. I pondered it for a bit, wondering what to do. Even if I didn’t consciously integrate it, it probably would anyways over time, which also didn’t seem a good idea. I couldn’t exactly puke it up either, as it had effectively become a part of my own aura.

I meditated on it for a long time, before I came up with a solution that left me feeling rather disgruntled. I couldn’t get rid of it, and I couldn’t handle digesting it. My only real option is to find some way to save it for later. Maybe nibble away at it gradually over a long period of time. Until I could handle it, I’d just need to contain it and keep it separate. To do that, I’d need a container.

I firmed up the image in my mind of what I wanted to happen, what I needed to happen, and I felt my insides slowly shifting. A hollow sphere of turtle shell grew and nestled itself next to my heart, and I forced the unprocessed aura within. Once all the foreign energy was contained inside that sphere, I imagined coils of my own aura coursing through and around that little ball of shell, strengthening it. I wrapped it up in intertwining layers of those coils, leaving only a tiny little hole that I could feel just the tiniest bit of the dragon skin’s essence leaking through.

I checked and rechecked my work, before coming out of my trance. Once more I noticed Dendra withdrawing those tiny little hairlike roots back into the necklace.

“Okay, wow. Just when I think you couldn’t possibly be more adorable, you up and invent some high tier sealing magic with an integrated biological component to seal off a chunk of your own soul. And it only took you like three days. That’s like, wow. I watched it all and I am still stunned.”

“Three days?” I looked around to find my surrounding had significantly changed. A thicket of bushes that had not originally been there now surrounded the spot where I sat. I could not see the sun through the canopy of the tree above me, but I had no reason to doubt that.

“Yep. I probably should have warned you to ration that thing, but I forgot you’re still just a chimera. Of course you’d eat it all at once. For a while I thought I was going to just have to accept this as my new location.”

As she continued chattering, I was struck by a sudden realization. I’d left my weapons in that village. Ugh. I didn’t want to go all the way there just for that. Oh well, I can always kill more trolls.