Aby could be considered happy currently, though there was a trace of concern. The wyvern had done something similar to the wyrm, losing the lesser prefix, and now being an “oceanic wyvern”. While the power increase was minor at best, that was already plenty. It seemed that consuming one of these elementals would act as a minor evolutionary boost for these two, something it was unsure of as to why, but wouldn’t complain about.

The wyvern went about his change in a much more violent manner, swimming about as it typically does before suddenly stopping, apparently in pain if his thrashing and roaring was any indication. Sela, who had been awake for about a day and had finished scolding Carmine and then forcing her to carry around an undine to “get over it”, was on this floor, and rushed out to the wyvern, trying to find some way to go about comforting the grossly oversized reptile. Carmine used this chance to toss the undine into the distance, the petite frame putting in a surprising amount of power into the throw, using the chance to escape.

His skin by that point had become searing hot, though, and Sela found herself unable to approach him. The waters around him started to boil lightly, bubbles of steam escaping the gills on either side of his neck. As the green of his scales started to lose their sheen, the purple trim on those scales turned a violently vibrant red-orange, and the horns on his head elongated slightly, curling inwards. They started to take on their previous rose-hue, then a nearly orange reddish-gold. By this point, strangely, his body started shrinking, something that looked decidedly uncomfortable even to Aby.

The young creature finally stopped condensing at about three and a half meters in length, and seemed too spent to even show off like he normally did. His skin had cooled off to the point where Sela could go and comfort him, though all he did was weakly coo for a while. Sela stuck around the wyvern, trying her best to comfort the pained lizard, but eventually, he fell asleep, leaving Sela there. Aby had healed him a few times, but while the pain faded, he still seemed rather sore, and definitely spent.

As the wyvern’s tense body started to slowly unwind, the cramping, knotted muscles that were visible beneath his scaled skin releasing their tension as he slowly drifted to an exhaustion fueled nap, Aby found itself once more reviewing the information about the new beast. Like the wyrm, it was a rank A threat, and had almost all of its properties marginally increased, be it speed, strength, or overall danger; all packaged within a smaller body. However, the core was very interested in what had been displayed during his change, how his entire body had literally burned, hot enough to boil the waters surrounding him, without causing any apparent damage to the wyvern.

The wyvern had fallen deep asleep by this point, coiling his long tail loosely around its body and head, tucking its snout under the thick, dangerous appendage. Aby hadn’t noticed due to his thrashing, but the tail itself had only become more terrifyingly sharp, the bladed end now curled down slightly like the reaping edge of a scythe. The claws on his pseudo-wings had gone through the same change, and even with just the rhythmic breathing of his gills opening and closing as his chest rises and falls, they were scoring deep wounds into the hard corals that he rested upon. Aby decided to look more into what, exactly, these elementals could and could not do whilst Sela swam off in a huff after the truant Siren, learning that she had skipped out on what Sela felt was already a lenient punishment.

~~~~~

The wyvern had been unconscious for nearly an hour and a half before he began to stir, something truly impressive for a creature that hadn’t slept in months before this. As his regal purple eyes cracked open, he tensed the muscles of his back and body, stretching out and feeling the changes in himself as he gave a mighty yawn. He seemed displeased by the loss in size for a moment, though as he felt his new vessel, he came to enjoy the changes. He hadn’t become that much smaller, after all, and he seemed to benefit greatly from it too.

He also found that he was small enough to comfortably fit, and even fight, within the halls once again, and he was pleased with that. He shook off the last bit of lethargy, not wanting to give in to that frustrating instinct telling him to sleep more, and found himself very curious to go see what had changed on the floors below in the time he’d been staying on the eighth.

So he set off, swimming at a leisurely pace. His forelimbs were folded to his sides, and he was simply using his tail to propel him forward. He watched the little woman return back to her home from doing whatever it was she did, and gave her a wave, she was nice to him and deserved his respect. He found that the descent into the ninth floor was longer than what he was used to, the other floors were not nearly this separated from one-another, though he found out why upon entering the floor. It was massive, absolutely huge. He felt a tinge of regret staying on the eighth floor now, before he realized this floor didn’t have any of the corals that he loved.

Instead, it was almost entirely barren, and while a part of him told him this is where he should be, he ignored it, the reef was his home. There were different creatures on this floor, too, and while he could recognize the sailfish, those weird fish that tried to compete in speed with him, and the dolphins, those pitiful creatures the others were new to him.

As he swam along, he saw a shoal of baitfish being perpetually eaten in small amounts by all the inhabitants of the floor, and decided to try them out for himself. He spread his fins out as wide as he could, showing off his easily seven meter wingspan. Using the ground to push himself off of with his highly muscular tail, he shot upwards at a steep angle, passing by the fish and dolphins who looked on in shock as the creature they had noticed seemingly disappear, along with some of the shoal. Mouth wide open, he practically inhaled a large amount of fish, continuing upwards and breaking the surface of the water. He startled a pack of strange creatures that were there, they were small, but had wings much the same as he did, and when he intruded, they let out a grating screeching noise then flew away.

He snorted in contempt at these antics, before turning around for another pass at the baitfish. They were surprisingly tasty, he found. After eating one more mouthful, he returned to the bottom, spreading out his limbs once more as he gave a provocative look towards the creatures above, then folded them to his sides once more. He continued onwards to the entrance of the tenth floor, avoiding a group of strange, tentacled creatures that seemed to be more effort than benefit to accost.

The descent to the tenth floor was much the same as it was to the ninth, and the wyvern was looking forward to what he’d find there. Despite not being able to digest the fish once they perished, they really did taste good, and he’d hoped there’d be something similar on this floor. When the water started getting abruptly colder, however, he’d found the hope for something pleasant tasting dashed.

He emerged on the tenth floor, looking around at the scene before him. It was truly something gorgeous to behold. The reef that lined the edge of the floor was a sparkly white and soft blue, the muted hues and bleached colors of the floor were markedly different than the reef he was used to, and its overbearing, flamboyant color palette.

The waters were as frigid as the colors, and though he felt the chill, he was unaffected by it, his scales turning a faint bit more red without his notice. Everything on the floor seemed to be slower than above. The fish meandered along through the corals, strange creatures seemingly made of ice residing in and around them. Looking at one closer, he realized they were seahorse, somehow becoming even more passive on this floor than they normally were. There were barracuda too that shared this peculiar color, and they swam curiously around the wyvern, trying and failing to peel off any of his resplendent scales.

The wyvern ignored this, however. Not only were their attempts useless, there was something much more interesting. In the center of the floor, staring him in the eyes was a tall, bipedal creature, something about it felt very personal to the wyvern. He started to swim over to the dragonkin, eyeing it up and down. Coiled around it was a serpentine creature, even longer than the wyvern after his change, though not that frustrating wyrm. As they were both underwater, the wyvern was floating roughly eye level with the man, before tilting his head as acknowledgement, something that the dragonkin reciprocated.

The eel seemed to loosen its coil around him after they showed no hostility towards one another, though it was still wary. The wyvern swam off in short order, the curiosity and wonder it held towards the floor being diminished some after seeing the dragonkin, though it was unsure as to why this is. It hadn’t felt threatened by it, simply interested in it. It was different than the kobolds, it felt closer to it somehow.

He shook the thoughts out of his head in short order, there was still more to be seen, and the eleventh floor seemed not to be nearly as large as the other two, based on the length of the entrance. He was correct in this deduction, and he found himself entering yet another new environment. It seemed that the creator had been busy coming up with ideas. At least he felt it so, he certainly found the new sights interesting.

This floor was different to him, it was covered in sand, with some deeper areas of water containing the occasional coral or two, and some of it was even above the water. The first time he had to go over a sand dune he found the whole experience frustrating, needing to prop up his entire weight on his front limbs, and then perform a mixture of crawling and slithering into the water on the other side. After he unceremoniously deposited himself on the other side, he found himself jumping in surprise at a strange animal that had been buried under the sand. The thing was unnaturally flat, and had a long, thin tail trailing out from behind it with a barb attached to it. When he plopped down onto it, the creature had lashed out at him, striking him in the side with that barb, though it had little effect on his scales.

The creature was promptly cut down by the wyvern in annoyance, and he’d found himself in a now empty pool of water, watching as something outside of the water on the other side began pushing sand down into the small haven of water. He continued along, trying to avoid leaving the water if he was able. While he could breathe reasonably well, and was at no risk of being beached, he’d found moving across the land to be a frustrating and tiresome experience. At one point he passed the tribe of kobolds, finding them to be feel like they were even more beneath him than before, besides a single one of them that appeared to be changing somehow. It was much larger than the rest, and more animalistic than its brethren.

He continued along past the tribe, and continued enjoying the sights of the floor. There were crabs nearly half his size, and shrimp that hid in holes, spearing any fish that passed overhead. He saw fish digging holes and depositing the sand elsewhere, and even an octopus that pretended to be nothing more than some coral when it had seen him. It was all very interesting to the wyvern, and he’d found the entrance to the twelfth floor after meandering along for a while. That floor was much the same as the first, though rather than halls and caves, it was one large, wide open area. That seemed to be all that had changed, and it appeared to be the current last floor, though all of a sudden, he’d witnessed the creator’s gem seem to plummet downwards, leaving a large hole where the room had once been. Curiosity once more gripped his heart, and he continued to the new floor entrance to see just what would be down there.