Brightfire says "I guess so. That means we are staying, right?"

"Yeah, we will stay a little bit longer. Just until I figure out the secrets this island is hiding. However, right now it is time to get some sleep!"

Brightfire says "Agreed."

Once I return to my normal form I curl up with Nala and quickly go to sleep. When I wake up I immediately take a look at myself, as I hoped I have grown again. So my new instincts are really leading me to things that will help me develop.

From now on I will definitely follow the new instincts, who knows what I might gain from them. When I look around I realize I am alone and there is some cold food waiting for me. As I eat the food I can't help but wonder where Brightfire and Nala are.

Knowing Brightfire, she is probably out hunting to try and increase her level. Nala probably went with her, either that or she is standing guard outside. So I head outside to take a look, but Nala is nowhere to be seen, so she must be with Brightfire.

Now the question is, do I go looking for them, or do I continue with my exploration of the pit? After thinking about it for a while I decide that Brightfire would be annoyed if I came looking for her. So I head for the entrance of the lava tube that I came out of last time.

Not only will going down the lava tube be faster than climbing down the pit, but it is easier as well. So when I reach the lava tube I head straight in and run down it at full speed. When I reach the end of the lava tube I start climbing down the wall of the pit.

However, before long something catches my eye, part of the pit wall is a different color. Of course, it is on the opposite side of the pit from me, so I have to circle around to it. When I reach it I am happy to see that it is a vein of ore, mana infused iron ore at that.

However, when I go to reach for my pickaxe I realize that I don't have my pouch. Meaning I don't have my tools and I don't have any place to put the ore even if I mine it out. Then again, I am not that far from the lava tube and this iron would be perfect for making some flasks.

Since I can't mine normally, instead I manipulate the surrounding rock to free the ore. As chunks of ore are freed I throw them up into the lava tube to collect on my way out. In the end I am able to gather more than a hundred pounds of ore, way more than I need.

Once that is done I start climbing down again, I am going to find out where this leads this time. As I move down I spot several more lava tubes and even a few more ores. However, I ignore them since my instincts don't react to any of them, I can always come back later.

Right now I am far more curious as to where the pit is going to lead me. I am expecting an underground world or maybe an ocean of lava, something along those lines. By now the water from the rivers is mostly just mist, and the rocks I am climbing on are wet.

As I continue moving down the mist gets thicker and thicker until I can't even see the other side of the pit. It makes climbing harder and slows me down, but I don't let that stop me. When the wall of the pit suddenly ends I almost fall, but I manage to dig my claws in and stop myself.

The wall doesn't actually end, it just makes a ninety degree turn and turns into a ceiling. Unfortunately, due to the mist I am not able to see much, I can only see a dozen feet or so. Now I can either crawl along the ceiling, or shift and fly into the mist, which means flying blind.

I guess the mist now would technically be called clouds, but that doesn't really help my situation. Better to play it safe, so I start crawling along the ceiling humming the spider-man theme. A few minutes later the mist, or cloud, ahead of me starts getting brighter.

After a few more minutes of crawling I break out of the cloud and am blinded by light. Once my eyes adjust I can see that the ceiling ahead of me is covered by glowing crystals. These are the same crystals I have seen in the other underground worlds so I don't pay much attention to them.

What I am more interested in is what is below me, which is a huge body of water. It is big enough that I would call it a sea rather than a lake, stretching beyond sight in every direction. From here I can see a few small islands, each and every one has steam rising from it.

The temperature is several degrees higher now that I have moved out of the cloud. The cloud is hanging directly under the opening and goes almost all the way down to the water. It is hard to be sure at this angle, but it looks like it is raining under the clouds.

It would make sense considering how much moisture must come down from the rivers. It also explains why there is a sea down here, especially if there is no other way out. However, this place is far too big to explore by crawling around on the ceiling.

So, I let go and drop away from the ceiling, then as I am falling I shift to the eagle form. Then I start flying around to see if there is anything interesting down here. Surprisingly, there is no hint of salt in the air, the sea seems to be fresh water.

That makes sense if the only source of water is from the rivers, but I wasn't expecting it. I thought for sure there would be a connection to the ocean considering how big the sea is. As I am flying over one of the small islands I almost get cooked as a geyser suddenly erupts.

Only after I have dodged around it do I stop to wonder if it would actually hurt me. I am immune to fire, so I shouldn't take any damage from the heat, only the force of the water. However, I am not quite curious enough to intentionally fly into a geyser.

From then on I am a lot more cautious when I am scouting the small islands. From the opening of the pit where I entered I fly over a dozen miles before I finally see the wall at the end of the sea. I only find small islands during this time and all of them seem to be geothermal in nature.

There is nothing of interest that I can see so I switch to following the wall around. When thirty minutes have passed I start getting a headache so I land on one of the small islands. I drop shapeshift and relax until the headache goes away, then it is back to flying.

Having to stop every thirty minutes to rest for five isn't too bad, it is still faster than crawling. I could maybe try swimming around, but that would still be slower than flying. There haven't been any signs of anything living within the sea, but I don't know if the meg form would work in freshwater.

In the end, it takes me over four hours to completely circle around the sea. Throughout my search I only find more small islands with nothing interesting to be seen. The only places left for me to search are beneath the clouds and in the water.

Either way I am going to get wet, but at least beneath the clouds I should still be able to fly. So I fly back to the middle of the sea and head down to take a look under the clouds. Due to the rain I can't see very far, but I don't need to see far to find the island under the clouds.