Aaron left the cave behind him, paused for a moment listening into the darkness. The bubbling vents of lava, steam and gasses escaping the volcanic rock filled his mind before he focused on other sounds. The sound of small fish moving through the water, scuttling on the ocean floor in the sand turning the surrounding water dusty. When he did not hear any big creatures that could be a danger to him, he turned upwards. With one push of his toes Wind Steps sent him upwards through the water. He could feel it on his skin, but it was a strange sensation without the pressure associated with speed. It was like he was inside of a moving vehicle as he dove, but he could still sense the outside world through the vehicle that was his movement technique.

Aaron enjoyed moving through the water, feeling it all around him. Now free of pain and safe again he felt the feeling of freedom and liberty come back to him. But he did not feel invincible anymore. Like there was nothing out there that could harm him. The siren had made sure of that. He wasn't afraid though, after killing the giant krakens he had lost any fear he might have felt in his heart for this place. But he had regained his healthy respect for the unknown. He was fairly sure that he was the apex predator in these waters and that would probably remain the case for a long time. Only other Climbers or monsters with abilities that targeted his weaknesses could contest him and he doubted there were many out there like the Siren. There were Vessels like Stab, but they would be further up the tower and none of them would be interested in fighting him. His movement technique gave him the freedom to choose his fights as well, even if someone would come after him.

Stab's abilities had been incredibly powerful. Which was not that surprising, but the sparring had made it clear that and how he as a cultivator would fall behind Vessels eventually. He doubted just anyone would get the skill to fight with their chosen weapon to a level like the old Rogue had, but they would be as fast, if not faster. They would be stronger or capable of flinging spells at him he could not just dodge. Area effects that would engulf him from all sides. It was clear People would outclass him sooner rather than later.

Aaron was sure he would meet more people of Stab's caliber in Ambition. So he would take it slow. As he was now he could not just show up in Ambition and expect to be safe. They would hate him for what he was and unlike on the first floor they would have people who could deal with him easily. The district could not shelter him up in Ambition either, since they did not have any ties to the mega city that could help him. It sounded more like it would be a detriment.

Aaron paused his rapid ascent when he reached the quick flowing underwater current that was part of the gigantic maelstrom. He kept looking for something sizable to eat, he was still ravenous and he did not want to go for some small fish. They did not have enough meat on them. He would need to capture 50 of those to be sure and that sounded like a tedious process. Instead of doing that he looked for much larger prey. Nothing leviathan sized of course. But a nice big tuna would hit the spot.

Unfortunately none of those fish frequented these waters and it was clear why not. It was too dark here and although the area underneath the current was filled with fish, none he spotted were actually big enough to be worth the trouble. He studied the fish and noticed that they were clustered all around the stream itself, but did not go too close. The stream must transport rich nutrient filled water down here. Because nothing grew here that was for sure. This was the realm of fish that had developed a different answer to the low lighting conditions. They either were quick and darted around eating whatever the stream deposited or they specialized in hunting the quick fish. None of the creatures he noticed with his senses were large enough for him to consider them. It was strange, something bigger should have taken the opportunity to get a meal here.

But maybe the kraken did that and was territorial enough that anything but quick fast swimming fish could survive here. Either way he needed to go further up if he wanted to hunt something bigger, which meant crossing the stream.

Aaron made sure he knew where the rock was, located it with his mana sense and its direction compared to the stream. Still it was a gamble to go further up. He might not easily find a way down again. In the end he decided to go anyways. He should be able to cross the stream quickly and would not be off course by much. Or at least that was his hope. Only once he was as sure as he could get that he could find the rock again, did Aaron dive upwards right into the stream. Entering the underwater current felt like hopping into a water slide. But instead of dragging him downwards it dragged him sideways with a force he had not expected. The current ripped at him, dragged him with it despite Wind Steps keeping up his momentum upwards. Aaron accelerated again and after it felt like he was standing still in the water for a long moment he burst out of the stream like a missile. Aaron slowed his speed and looked around, before he paused.

The water here was not entirely dark. Much more murky and filled with shadows. Little light came down here, but it was a lot more in comparison to below the stream. Which meant a lot more life. Fish of all sorts swam around him in schools or alone. Their sizes differed wildly as did their forms. But they all seemed to feed of plankton or something like it deposited here by the underwater current. There was no other explanation Aaron could come up with. Because he guessed it was still too dark for normal ocean life.

Aaron listened for the life around him, took several minutes to parse through what he was hearing and seeing and he was glad his ears had healed as quickly as they had. He would have been helpless to spot anything of value otherwise. Once more the fiend-god art had saved him. In many ways it was him now and he was the fiend-god art. His endless hunger only one of its downsides. But at the moment the most pressing.

Aaron heard a few big fish in the distance, but they sounded too big for his meal and he vowed not to take them on for now. But there were smaller fish here that would make a good meal. One of those was a giant shark, more than 3 meters long. He looked like a tiger shark or a great white, Aaron could not really distinguish between the two. But it was a big shark, so big in fact that Aaron would have prayed for his life if he had encountered one of these in his old life. But the shark was not a threat to him right now. It had a white underbelly and dark upside with stripes that did make the thing kind of look like a tiger.

The shark was stalking a group of fish and slowly and carefully getting into position while barely moving. Staying close to the current and staying in the darkest part of the ocean. Aaron studied the shark for a moment, before he shrugged and accelerated towards it. The shark would do as dinner. The shark must have sensed the disturbance in the water as it too suddenly accelerated away. But Aaron was too fast and he crashed into its head with terrible force. His fist crunched into the sharks head turning the surrounding water into red mist. A second punch ended the thing and once the blood cleared and Aaron could study his bounty, he found himself pleasantly surprised. The shark was actually bigger than he had expected and weighed a fair bit. Luckily transporting anything under water was a lot easier. You just latched onto it and made sure not to bump into anything.

The blood already attracted some smaller predators and Aaron did not want to fight the big noises in the distance. So he dragged the shark downwards into the current. His grip was tight around the base of the sharks rear fin, so it was a bit awkward to drag the thing backwards with him deeper and deeper into the pitch black depths. It took a bit to get the big fish through the current. It acted like a sail, dragging him along as Aaron struggled to push through the ocean current. But ultimately he managed to get through without losing his bounty.

Once he was on the other side of the stream back in the darkness below, he searched for the volcanic rock and the cave within. It took him a good 20 minutes or so to find it. He had drifted further away than he had expected. The ocean was confusing, even with general directions from the ocean currents direction and the magic flowing through it. But he did manage to get back to the cave and cursed quietly when he realized that the shark would be too big to drag through the narrow tunnel.

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With a sigh Aaron swam away from the cave entrance and began to butcher the shark with his enchanted dagger. It was an experience just by the light of the volcanic vents. Aaron really was not a sushi master and after cutting the things already damaged head off, he cut it in half, then quartered it and cut the fins off. In the end he had a bunch of still massive, but much more manageable pieces. He did not have a net to store them in and so he sighed again over his thoughtlessness and entered the cave, dragging only a quarter of the shark with him.

"Hey guys, could you lend me a net? I still have more shark outside." Aaron said once he turned the corner towards the underwater cave and saw himself face to face with Rogers speargun. Roger took a breath and nodded.

"Sure, that is...a shark?"

"Pieces of it. I would appreciate if you could dry them for me." Aaron said and put the still bloody pieces of fish into the man's hands. He caught the net sailing towards him and went back out to get the rest of the fish.

Plenty of fish had come to get a taste of the meat, but they had stuck to the offal and organs, as well as the head that was all bloody. So he was able to gather the rest of the shark more or less unscathed, put the net around the pieces and return to the cave. The net got stuck twice maneuvering in the narrow tunnel, but he got through in the end.

"By the Lord, how big was that shark?" Mortimer murmured once Aaron dragged the net ashore.

"If any of you know hot to make sashimi go ahead, but I think I will cook it on a stick or something. Hmm we have nothing to use as skewers." Aaron said and studied the cooking equipment they had brought down with them. A basic underwater proof grill that was basically waterproof and had an exhaust as well as a sort of oxygen tank to fuel the fire within. It was compact and it had a land option, which was to leave the lid open. It was a good thing so Aaron would not use up the whole oxygen tank. Sadly the grill was kind of on the small side and Aaron started to cut the big pieces into steaks that would fit the grill.

"Do we have any seasonings?" he asked and Robin handed him a small satchel he carried around with him. Aaron did not even have to put it to his nose to identify the spices within. One capsule contained black pepper, or at least as close as he had smelled before in the tower, one smelled spicy and peppery and the last one was an herb mix. All promising ingredients.

"You are gonna cook?" Robin asked slightly surprised and Aaron shrugged.

"Sure, why not?"

"All of this?" Robin gestured at the small mountain of meat drying in a small puddle on the cave floor.

"What Sashimi is supposed to be?" Shia asked confused. "I thought you had no skewers."

"It is very thinly sliced raw fish. But I am not sure if you can do it with shark." Aaron shrugged and fired up the grill. It used a black rock as fuel that Aaron had first expected to be coal, but it was not. It did burn slowly and fairly hot though, but it did not glow in the heat, but stayed black and solid the entire time. So it was probably some magical or alchemistic fuel.

"Raw? Really? Is that...even healthy?" Shia asked and made a face.

"Not sure, probably safer to cook the meat through. Sharks are predators after all and they usually have parasites and stuff like that."

"You are really not selling me on this."

"No worries, I will eat most of this shark myself."

That comment earned him some fairly dubious glances from the others. It was over a hundred pounds of meat after all.

Aaron started to grill the steaks and concentrated on the meat. His sense of smell was a bit hindered in the underwater cave because he could not really breathe the air in to scent things. He had to hold his breath basically the entire time he was cooking, which made it quite a bit harder. Aaron had to stick his head into the water every few minutes, but he managed. His senses were still more than enough. The satchel with spices was filled with capsules with the different spices and he found some salt too. The first steak he made without anything. It took a bit until his nose told him it was good. He felt for its temperature and flipped the steak around. The grill was not hot enough yet and it was not perfect, but it was not bad.

The first bite tasted pretty bland and besides some slightly fishy taste there was not much too it. But Aaron knew the next one would be better. He started to experiment. First one with only salt and pepper, then one with the spicy smelling pepper mix and finally one with the herb mixture. With the grill being hot enough he gave each steak a perfect sear and the smell of roasting meat filled the cavern. Robin who had studied Aaron's cooking curiously asked him:

"How is it?"

Aaron tried the salt and pepper one and nodded in approval. Now that was perfectly done.

"Not bad. Gonna try out your spices."

"Sure, it actually looks really good." Robin said and hesitated before he asked.

"Can I try it?"

"Sure, there is enough for everyone."

Aaron grilled another piece of shark for the man with salt and pepper and wrapped it in some kelp so he would not burn his fingers. They had a massive stockpile of the magical kelp and the slightly bitter flavor of the kelp went really well with the grilled meat. Robin stood next to him waiting when Aaron handed over one of the steaks and then returned to his experiments. He had applied the peppery spicy red powder liberally, but he had not coated it or anything. It turned out to burn relatively fast though. Only on the fatty side it was not burned.

"Oh wow, this is good." Robin said clearly surprised as he ate the huge piece of fish.

The spicy one was a bit of a failure, because the spices had burned, but it still had a nice peppery and spicy flavor. He would need to find ways to make sure that did not happen again. The herb mixture was also on the charred side and Aaron really wanted to have something to marinate with. But he had nothing. Cooking had never been a passion for him, but with his appetite now and the sheer amount of food he was consuming every day it was almost a necessity to learn how to cook properly. It was much easier with his senses, but Aaron did not really know how to do it properly.

His next attempt was to salt and pepper the stake and then apply the spicy powder, which turned out to be much better. In the end it turned out cooking the meat around 80% on both sides before applying the spicy powder before cooking it through entirely was the ideal solution. The meat tasted fantastic. It reminded him more of a spicy tuna roll in the kelp. The meat was tender and juicy and the spice cut through the grease. The herb mixture was best applied during the grilling by spreading it with some fat over the meat. It was difficult to judge because it was necessary to cook the meat first and then sort of slather it with the herb laced fat mixture. A few bowls or a pot would have been useful, but Aaron made due.

The better his results the more interested the rest of the group became. Shia was the next to ask him for a taste and she got one of his perfect spicy ones.

"Oh my god. This is so good!" She exclaimed and devoured the steak almost as fast as Aaron was. That brought the rest of the group to the grill and Aaron found himself surrounded by them, cooking them a meal before he knew it.

"That is it, Robin, I love your cooking, but this is too good. Aaron is our dedicated chef now!" Shia exclaimed in between bites. Even Roger and Stab showed their appreciation and Mortimer ate twice as much as the others, just making noises of bliss.

Aaron had to smile to himself as they started to banter and talk, only interrupted by them dunking their head into the water, while they ate. It ended up in a game looking who could last the longest outside of the water. Stab was the undisputed winner, besides Aaron who had less need to breathe in the first place. They laughed and they told stories. Roger even brought out some booze he had brought with him and Aaron was surprised how much he enjoyed the groups company.

He had never really had friends. It was a foreign concept to him. He knew that it was not normal, but he was fairly sure these people were not really his friends either. Mars had sent them to keep an eye on his investment. Aaron knew all of that and yet he felt good, listening to Mortimer tell them about the Army training and how he had pulled a prank on a particular sergeant who ended up falling into the latrine. It was a strange feeling. A feeling of contentment and yes, peace.

Aaron ate most of the shark and finally sated the hunger that was with him at all times. The relief of the hunger was always like a sharp spike of sensation. The absence of something he had grown used to turned out to be more intense than the hunger itself. Aaron felt good. Sated and in good company. It was a novel sensation and even though he did not let his guard down, he laughed with them and when they went to sleep after an hour or two of being merry, Aaron could not help but feel like he wanted to do this again. Happiness was a very fleeting sensation he knew, but for now he was happy. Such simple things could bring happiness. Good food, good company and safety was sometimes all it took to be happy.

As foreign as the sensation was Aaron felt that it was good, as long as he remembered that one day he might have to kill them. But in the end that was how life had always been for him. And for now he enjoyed it.

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