Collecting himself from his strained thoughts, Aegaeon left the water and made his way back to the camp. He walked slowly back to their base thinking of ways he could better train himself. It seemed that more finite control of water gave him more ability. It was an interesting thought that Aegaeon was determined to test.

Making his way into the camp, Clarissa came out of the tree branch shelter he had created. It’s branches started to sag and the pine needles looked to be drying out. They’d have to make a new shelter soon or look for a different spot. Aegaeon didn’t want to think about it so he tabled the notion in his mind.

“How are you Aegaeon?”

“I’m good, some more fish attacked me, but it wasn’t too much trouble.”

He added seeing worry spread across her face. She breathed deeply.

“Good...... so I was wanting to talk to you about something.”

Aegaeon didn’t like the sound of this as it seemed she was going to ask something awkward.

“Okay... so what’s going on? What are you thinking about?”

“Well, I noticed that our shelter is starting to wither away, and I’d rather not just keep making new ones, so I was trying to think of how we could make something more permanent, but I couldn’t think of anything.”

“Okay..... so what are you thinking? I haven’t been able to think of a solution yet. I need to play around a bit with some ideas.”

“You could do that.... or...”

Aegaeon didn’t want to drag this conversation on longer than it needed, and he’d much rather talk to her about something pleasant instead.

“Or what?”

“We could move again.”

“I’m not so sure that would be the best plan. This place works for both of us to level our skills.”

“Yeah but, I feel like we aren’t going to be able to make a permanent place here. We should find somewhere that has more water, and somewhere that has more fertile soil and plants. I can only grow so much with mushrooms and berries. There is nothing else around here. I’ve checked.”

Aegaeon paused to absorb what she was saying. Sure it didn’t seem like he was leveling much anymore, but the water was home. It felt right to be there. And was he so self absorbed that he didn’t consider Clarissa’s need for growth too? The thought brought him a chill. He didn’t want to be strong at another’s expense.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. I can only grow so much fighting the same fish over and over again. Let me have a few more days and then we’ll travel in search of a better place. Does that work for you?”

“Totally! That sounds perfect to me. What do you plan on doing? Leveling up some water skills a bit more before we leave?”

“Something like that. I felt that something bigger than the fish or that shark are in the lake and I want to discover what it is before we leave.”

“Won’t you get hurt? Maybe die? You barely beat the shark! I can’t do this alone. I don’t have any fighting skills and besides that I don’t want to lose you...”

The sudden realization of what she said left both Clarissa and Aegaeon blushing. Her ears turned red with embarrassment and her cheeks were flushed. Aegaeon also blushed turning a reddish pink.

“I... I think I’ll be fine. I’ve gotten a lot stronger and if it’s something that’s too big for me I’ll run away. Deal?”

“I can live with that....”

Aegaeon turned away from Clarissa and walked towards the lake. He had little time to investigate if there even was something going on here or if it was just his imagining. Aegaeon felt comfortable as he walked towards the lake; this place was beginning to feel like a home to him. Why couldn’t they have more of what they needed nearby? Aegaeon dismissed this from his head. It would do no good to complain about it.

Walking into the lake, Aegaeon felt energy rush through him from the water. Aquatic Agent really was a handy skill. He hoped to include more ability with it over time and was excited at the prospect of how much he could hypothetically accomplish given that he had unlimited potential. It was going to be fun learning more about the possibilities that come from this world.

Aegaeon walked about waist deep before flinging himself forward in a dive that left him feeling relaxed. The water felt peaceful as it draped over him. Submerged in the water, Aegaeon swam forward. He was headed toward the center of the lake where it was logically the deepest. Hoping that this would pay off, Aegaeon leaned his chest forward and lifted his feet up in order to swim downwards quickly.

Aegaeon descended through the water until the light disappeared and he was left with darkness. Pushing forward more he felt blind in the water, worry crept over him as he delved deeper. Straining to look through the darkness, Aegaeon felt his eyes dilated to receive more light. This make little difference to his visual acuity.

The darkness was too much and Aegaeon felt compelled by instincts to swim back up. Resisting this urge, Aegaeon peered further into the darkness. Was there anything here? Anything at all? How deep did the lake go? Aegaeon was determined to find out but couldn’t see any deeper into the water, his Perceptive Gaze skill was still too low.

Hoping to draw something out into the depths he could see through, Aegaeon swam back and forth, figuring he could increase his speed in the water and hopefully solve this feeling he had. There was something else here, there had to be. This nagging feeling couldn’t be false. There had to be something here.

Aegaeon was working on his speed and endurance at swimming when he realized he successfully lured something towards him. Trailing behind him as he swam, and much lower than he was, was another shark that was slightly larger than its predecessor. It looked more menacing than the last attributed to the jagged white scars that darted across its rough blue/gray skin.

The feeling coming from the shark was amusement. Aegaeon could sense that the shark was just toying with its food before putting its meal out of misery. Aegaeon hoped the shark was underestimating him but his instincts screamed danger. Peering more closely at his accompaniment, Aegaeon saw black lettering floating over the sharks head.

Not able to discern the words above the shark, Aegaeon realized he was in trouble. All the other beasts he’d fought in the lake weren’t named or leveled by the system. Was this shark in a class all it’s own in comparison to the first? With trepidation and disregard to his promise to Clarissa, Aegaeon turned to face the shark.