I am just starting to panic when I remember a trick I used with Bones and create a bubble of air. I stop surfacing and take a couple of breaths from the bubble, which calms me down. The dragonfish are still alive, but they are trapped in the bubble of water that I am dragging behind me.

  There are more than there were in the first group, but I haven’t stopped to count them. They are frantically trying to escape the bubble, but so far my mana is holding up. It is draining fairly quickly, but I should have enough to last until I can drag them to the surface.

  Now that I don’t have to worry about breathing, I start to slowly head towards the surface. Hopefully, by taking it slow it will give my body time to decompress before I surface. Then I run into another problem, my scanning detects something big heading my way.

  It comes from deeper and when it reaches my level it starts circling around me and the bubble. I am not sure if it is after me or the dragonfish trapped in the bubble, but I don’t plan to let it eat either. I pull the bubble close to me, blast it with lightning, and start putting the corpses into my pouch.

  41 Dragonfish defeated! 1,025,000 Exp gained!

  As I am putting the corpses away the thing circles closer and there is enough light for me to see it. From the circling I was expecting a shark, but it looks more like a snake or eel. It is at least twenty feet long and has eight sets of flippers along the length of its body.

  It keeps circling as I put the last of the dragonfish bodies into my pouch. For some reason it is not getting any closer, maybe it is trying to figure out what I am. I finish putting the corpses into my pouch, luckily they all fit, but now my pouch is completely full.

  I am going to need to head back and unload all of this fish somewhere, probably the tavern. It would be interesting to see what kind of dishes Aaron can come up with using it. I especially want to see what he can come up with using the meat from the leviathan.

  The snake-like thing circles me a few more times and then dives back down into the depths. It either decided I wasn’t worth the effort or that it couldn’t take me in a fight. Either way, I continue my slow ascent to the surface and then fly back to the island. When I leave the water, my joints hurt a bit, but it only lasts for a minute or so before the pain is gone.

  I’m guessing that what I did damaged me, but my regen took care of it for me. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time and it probably won’t be the last time I do something like that. At least now I know that I can survive that depth without taking any permanent damage.

  Although, if possible I would prefer to avoid doing so, but if that’s where the dragonfish are I will have to. As I am thinking about things, I take the new corpses out of my pouch and remove the cores. Once the cores are removed I put the corpses back into my pouch and then absorb the cores.

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  Absorb Activated: 41 Evolution Points gained!

  With that, I only need eighty-seven more points and I will reach the next evolution. For now, I take out another crystal and use mana from it to open a gate back to the trade city. It is only once I am through that I realize that I don’t remember if I brought Aaron back.

  Lin must have, otherwise I am sure that Sarah would have said something by now. If not, I am bound to hear all about it when I arrive at the inn looking for him, if she is there. When I walk in, I am surprised to see that the place is packed, it looks like business has improved.

  I shapeshifted to beastman form before I entered and it looks like it is a good thing that I did. I don’t see Sarah anywhere, so I duck into the kitchen to look for Aaron, who I find cooking food. I wait for a few minutes until I can be sure he isn’t in the middle of something and then ask if he wants some fish.

  Aaron says “What kind of fish? Where did you get them?”

  “They are called dragonfish and I caught them off the southern coast of the land bridge. I removed and absorbed the cores, but I didn’t do anything else to them.”

  Aaron says “I have never heard of them. I will need to experiment with them to see what the best recipes for them are. How much do you have?”

  “Over forty of them and they are pretty big. I also have the meat from a leviathan, but that I want you to cook just for me.”

  Sarah walks in and says “Oh, you are back so soon? I thought your trip was supposed to take longer?”

  “I am still on my hunting trip, I just needed to unload some fish.”

  Sarah says “Well you can’t do it here, we are in the middle of the lunch rush. Come with me, I will show you the storage room. You can leave the fish there.”

  Aaron goes back to cooking without saying a word, it is obvious who is in charge. I also don’t try to argue and just follow Sarah down into the basement where there is a cold storage room. Luckily, it is a big room with lots of storage space for me to use to empty my pouch.

  While I am at it, I clear out all of the various meats from my pouch to make room. I also offload the hides I have collected, Sarah will get them to the crafters for me. That will give me a lot more room for whatever I end up killing before my hunting trip is over.

  If worst comes to worst I will just have to make another trip back here to unload. As I look at the piles of stuff I also realize that I need to stop putting stuff in my pouch and forgetting about it. I quickly say my goodbyes to Sarah and Aaron and then gate back to the island.

  Once there, I drop shapeshift, take to the air, and fly south for a while before returning to the water. Flying is much faster than swimming and if I know that the fish are more likely to be in the deep water there is no reason to waste time. Again I swim around while scanning, but before I can find anything my medallion activates.

  I surface so that I can breathe and then answer the call which ends up being from Emperor Amn. He informs me that things on their side are finally ready and that I can come set up the gate. I really don’t want to have to interrupt my hunting, but the gate is fairly important.

  So, despite not finding any dragonfish, I end my hunt and gate to the capital of the southern empire. When I get there, I get told the emperor isn’t there and get directions to his location. He is in the port city where he wants the gate to be placed, so I fly there to meet him.