The group resumed hunting and training the next morning. Aaron had told them about the big fish he had spotted above the underwater current and decided to hunt those next. Aaron felt like he had gotten the hang of fighting under water and if none of the creatures they found gave any challenge he would get on with it and move up to the fourth floor. When he asked Roger about how they had crossed the floor before he shrugged.

"It was pretty simple. We never went this deep. We stayed a few dozen meters underwater, close to the surface and kept going in the direction of the giant maelstrom. When we were not sure where to go, one of us would pop their head out of the water and take a look. We fought nothing like the kraken or this creature we found in the cave."

"What did you fight?"

"Mostly sharks, but few were even as big as the one you hunted. It was still tough. The enemy could come from any direction and we had to fend them off with unfamiliar weapons. Took us a few weeks to get coordinated enough to deal with most of the things coming for us."

Aaron had none of those problems, he just zipped through the water and killed anything that came in his way before it could harm anyone. But that was a luxury of fighting alone. No need to protect a group. But also no protection from a group. He could totally understand why training here was good for people. It was a challenge to stay in formation under water and while staying together react to threats coming from below or above instead just coming from the sides. It taught to think in all three dimensions when fighting and it acclimated people to fighting submerged if necessary.

The group was in high spirits after their good meal and rest, but they did not joke around or lost focus even for a second after leaving the cave. They were well trained and when Aaron observed them moving through the ocean he was honestly impressed. They kept to their formation, covered different sectors depending on how good their senses were. Roger swam in the center with Shia taking up the back. The two warriors were on 2 and 10 o'clock from Roger and Stab covered everything above, being in a position to help anyone if the need arose. Roger's range allowed him to intervene in any fight any of the members of the group got into and it was clear this was routine. They even matched speed while swimming. The warriors were the slowest and gave the tempo of the group as they moved forward to where the group wanted to go. It was a good setup, but Aaron did not need it. Not here in the ocean.

They soon reached the underwater current and stopped, when Aaron told them where it was. It was very difficult to make out for the rest of the group, although they guessed where it was by the fish avoiding it.

"Lets go up, the current is really really strong, so you probably want to stick together, so you won't lose each other. I can try to get people who get lost, but its still dangerous."

"Lets use some rope to bundle together then, so we won't lose each other at all." Roger suggested and Aaron nodded. Sounded like a good idea to him. They quickly got a sturdy looking rope around their midriffs, with the ends stuck to the warriors as anchors as they were the heaviest. There was plenty of give in between the people, but they also planned to stick together by holding onto each other. They formed up in a sort of huddle and started swimming very slowly upwards.

"It will be easier when I do the heavy lifting, literally. Here let me show you." Aaron grabbed Mortimer, the heaviest of them all because of his armor, under the arms and started propelling himself upwards.

It was a very strange thing to do. The technique accelerated like he had expected it to, but it did not encapsulate the warrior in his arms. Quite the opposite. Holding on became difficult when his speed increased. The drag on Aaron by the weight of the warrior and the rest of the group hanging onto him was enough to bring Aaron off course, but not really enough to slow down. Physics freaked out in unpredictable ways as they almost spun forwards and down, before Aaron adjusted. He plunged with the group into the quick stream and they were dragged along instantly. The rest if the group was pulled under with a ferocious yank that threatened to snap the rope. They lost grip on each other almost instantly though. The rope held and so they drifted like a fishing line in the stream as Aaron accelerated to bring them out of the current. When Aaron burst out of the current with Mortimer only Roger was hanging onto him, the rest were dragged by the rope and started to drag them along with the power of the stream.

Aaron accelerated, dove in the direction of the current and upwards, slowly dragging one person after the other out of the current until a very bedraggled Robin popped out of the stream.

"I am gonna be sick." the warrior said and Aaron and the rest of the group stayed away from the cloud of puke the warrior spat out.

"It wasn't that bad." Shia said with a smirk as she dragged Robin out of his own puke by the rope.

"Every time someone left the current it sent me spinning. It was horrible." Robin complained and Mortimer shook his head.

"It was fine for me, except for losing my pride and dignity being carried like a child."

"Lets take 5 minutes to calm down and then continue." Roger ordered and the group got back into formation. Robin still looked sick and the rest of the group was a little shaken up as well.

Aaron used the opportunity to check the surrounding ocean for any threats. There was a lot of life here, many different fish of different sizes that made it difficult to get a clear picture, but Aaron soon found one of the bigger sounding disturbances in the water and shot off into the darkness, interposing himself between the monster and the group. The krakens had sounded like slow deep pulses as they propelled themselves forward. This one sounded different. It was like a low deep rumble. Probably form something moving from side to side to propel themselves, just much larger. It was coming towards them. The disturbance they had caused by exiting the stream was probably what had alerted the giant thing.

"Incoming." Aaron called out towards the group and they quieted down. The glowstones they had on their belts to see were tucked into their clothes hastily and they huddled closer together. Aaron moved a bit deeper into the dark water and could actually sense the fish dispersing before the apex predator coming their way.

Aaron got into combat stance and started to accelerate moderately. He let his senses guide him towards the sound of the rapidly approaching threat and took it at an angle. He had learned from his mistake. No more underestimating his enemies because he was faster than anything in this ocean. He was still very much vulnerable to many things.

A huge shadow moved through the dim ocean, long, sleek and broad, its fins moving quietly, but its weight and its sheer mass made it noisy to Aaron's senses. Aaron was moving, shooting forward like a bullet as he altered his course. He shot above the creature and now could see it in its entirety. It was a giant shark as long as a football field. Its snout was pointed, its eyes big and forward looking. Its jaw was massive and it moved quickly and quietly with its massive fins. Its dark blue skin was marred with scars, suction cups and bite marks mostly. In many ways it looked like a version of the shark he had hunted yesterday. Just three times its size. Did shark even grow that large naturally? And what was natural in an artificial ocean to begin with?

Aaron did not know, but he did not care much either. This shark would most likely be a challenge. He dove towards it from an angle above it and accelerated continuously. The shark noticed his approach surprisingly fast and started to accelerate itself, rolling to the side as it brought its jaws to bear. But Aaron was not accelerating to a speed he could not control, he catapulted himself in a flip to match the roll of the shark and then crashed into its head with terrible force.

When Aaron had played baseball as a kid he had once missed spectacularly and hit a metal pole instead of the ball. His hands, wrists and arms had felt the vibrations of that impact. This felt almost the same, just on a full body level. Aaron felt the impact through his fists. Felt the tough material and the inertia of the massive weight of the creature. His whole body hurt and his fist especially, even though he had reinforced it with Qi. But the shark did not get away unscathed either. It suffered a flesh wound down to its skull and blood puffed out in a cloud around Aaron. Who decided to dive backwards, while he was still stunned from the sudden shock. Just in time to see the massive jaws of the shark snap closed where he had just been.

The shark did not look hurt, more angry as it turned towards Aaron with its baleful dead eyes and attacked. That it could locate him that quickly was surprising and Aaron dove out of the way, let the jaws of the creature snap closed again, before slamming back into the wound he had just created. His fist hit bone as hard as steel and it hurt like hell. The shark rolled and twitched in pain, its fins slapping after him while it got some distance. Aaron frowned as he looked at the shark. Its skull was very durable. Too durable to be a viable option to kill it. So what could he do?

The shark swam at him again, wickedly fast, its jaws open exposing dozens of rows of long sharp teeth the size of greatswords. It looked like an abyss of knives and Aaron evaded it quickly, diving below it this time and looking for its belly. The bottom of the whale was brighter colored and when Aaron slammed into it he made a big gouge of flesh turn into bloody mush. The body of the shark was tough, its hide absorbing a lot of the shock and when Aaron repeated the attack he hit bone again. It's ribs formed a sort of armored core around it and Aaron had to evade it again and again as the shark kept coming. Its maw opened, trying to get Aaron to be to late or dodge to early. Aaron frowned as he studied the beast and thought about how he could kill the thing. In the end he spotted his answer.

Behind its jaws were its gills and they looked like the only exposed thing this shark had. Aaron dodged around the shark, accelerating and changing directions quickly before he crashed into the gills this time. The impact was much softer and the explosion of gore surrounding him was massive. The delicate folds that allowed the shark to breathe were turn apart. Ripped to shreds as Aaron got to work with furious intensity. His fists were like sledgehammers breaking down walls of flesh and tissue until the shark rolled and finally threw him off. The shark bled now and it turned away to flee. Aaron hesitated only for a moment before he was after it again, smashing into the other side of the creatures head and obliterating the other set of gills. The shark had already slowed down and over the next few minutes Aaron watched as the shark suffocated to death.

It was a brutal, horrible death and the creature had been much smarter than most monster he had faced. That it had tried to flee was surprising. Most of the wolves and bears he had fought on the first floor were not really animals. They did not behave like animals at all. Their relentless aggression was clearly engineered. This shark was not like them though. But Aaron was not feeling merciful and knew his wound would probably kill it either way. This was accelerating this and giving the group a chance for some samples. The fight had taken a while and when Aaron took a breath and studied the shark he concluded that its only natural predator must have been the krakens, who were fast enough to wrap around it and choke it to death. No other creature he had seen so far could contest it. It had been built like a tank and Aaron honestly did not really want to fight another one of these. He could still feel the vestiges of pain.

Aaron was not a fan of pain, but he thought he had a decent tolerance for it. But Sensory Harmony made him a liar. Pain, like any sensation was amplified and the crash against with the sharks skull had shaken him it had hurt so much. Aaron did not think of himself as a particularly tough guy. He knew from experience how pain could debilitate him. But he at least had enough self control to fight with his bare hands even though it hurt. His body was a lot tougher than even Aaron himself expected, which helped with fighting bare handed. The reason he could fight at all with his fists was probably the fiend-god art turning his physique into something like its namesake, a monster of regeneration, toughness, strength and hunger.

He returned to the group, who was waiting anxiously this time. This fight had taken quite some time and when Aaron appeared out of the dark they collectively breathed out in relief.

"I fought a giant shark. Tough bastard, only way I could see to kill it was by destroying its gills. So it took a while. Come see."

Aaron led the group to the corpse of the shark and a stone faced Roger ordered the warriors to take samples. Shia shivered a bit when she peered into the maw of the dead shark.

"Still amazes me you can kill something like that in half an hour." she said

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"What amazes me is that things like this exist in this ocean, this floor." Robin said while he cut off part of a fin.

"I am not sure, but I feel like these giant versions are a result of people skipping this floor so much. You all said you fought sharks when you moved through this floor right?"

"Yeah, so what?"

"Lets say Emnu calculates how many sharks he needs to keep his climbers occupied, to make it a challenge, but they never come. Its possible some of the sharks grew this big because nothing killed it for so long. Might also be cannibalism like on the second floor with the Scorpions."

"Well but they did not grow gigantic." Robin said looking thoughtful as he walked past Aaron to get a shark tooth for their samples.

"Yeah, but the scorpions do not really have anything else to eat, but each other. This ocean is full of life."

"You are right that it is a possibility. Once we bring these samples back to the first floor I would not be surprised if Mars asks the army to act. The army will send regular patrols out here and put a stop to monsters like this showing up. They could be a real hazard. I don't think our group would have been able to kill this thing without taking serious casualties." Roger said with a frown as he studied the gigantic corpse.

"You said its gills were the weak spot?"

"Yes, it has ribs that make even its underbelly difficult to pierce through. Or maybe I got unlucky, not sure. Either way it is probably easier to hurt the gills, especially with magic."

"Well, we can find that out right now." Mortimer said and started to slice open the sharks belly with his greatsword. Which was a really tough job, considering the toughness of the sharks hide. He too hit bone more often than not and concluded with Aaron's findings.

"Its build like a barrel of bones." he said with disgust.

They ended up carving a good chunk of meat out of the shark and then continued. But the rest of the day was relatively peaceful. There were smaller sharks attacking them, but Aaron killed them easily without using too much force. He got more and more efficient and dealing with them. He found out that he could kill them easier when hitting their heads from below the jaw instead of on top of their head. The shark was stunned, its jaw shut and a second punch usually ended the shark without much problems. The group traveled further up towards the surface and the ocean got brighter and brighter with what felt like every passing minute. Up here in the bright blue waters more fish of different sizes and variety lived from plankton which gave the ocean a slight tinge of green it was that thick.

Aaron spotted eels and jellyfish, different kinds of fish in swarms or alone, hunting for the next thing below them in the food chain. In short the whole ocean was filled with much more life than even at the current. Here Aaron could actually use his eyes properly to see where they were going.

Which was a welcome change from swimming in almost absolute darkness. It also allowed him to spot any predators coming for them way earlier than before. But no new and terrifying threats showed up until they reached the surface.

"I will have a look around." he said to the rest of the group who had formed up in their standard formation, before he jumped out of the ocean and landed on a sunny, but relatively choppy sea.

Aaron slowly walked over the waves looking up towards the maelstrom that looked so much bigger from up close than he had expected. It played tricks with his perspective because he had flashbacks to seeing pictures of Sci-fi stations with oceans that curved with the space station. This looked similar. The curvature, the sheer incredible mass of the ocean that rose towards the sky. It was mind boggling. In fact Aaron had popped out of the water at a spot that was already elevated because of the maelstrom. Aaron could see the curvature of the ocean towards the distant wall. It looked like he was standing on a ramp of water and it was a very difficult to accept that fact. It was all so unnatural in the most overdrawn way he had ever even imagined. When he raised his head he could see clouds form above him from the spray of water that burst in the sky. In the distance towards the wall he could see that water come down in torrential downpours and lightning storms. It was an apocalyptic view and awe inspiring.

For a few minutes Aaron just admired the view. If magic could create this, this tower, this maelstrom, then what could Qi be used for? Aaron had no idea, but when he concentrated on his mana sense he sensed the dense spellforms infused into the very water, the whole floor. The magic here was much thicker than on the second floor, that much was for sure.

After Aaron had sated his curiosity for a few minutes and felt the need to breathe, he dove back into the water, where the group was fending off some sharks with relative ease. He watched them fight and could see they had done this before. Stab was the only one who stuck out a bit. His strength gave him the leverage to fight and make mistakes, but the others did not make mistakes in the first place. They usually pinned the shark with one of the warriors and then dispatched them with a speargun propelled harpoon to the face. Shia in the back dodged and blinded the sharks going after them with her throwing knives that were perfectly usable under water somehow. Aaron suspected some skill shenanigans going on with that, because a throwing knife would not usually ignore that it was under water. Stab finished off hurt enemies the others had no time to deal with most of the time Aaron observed him. If he was not busy helping out, he slaughtered any beast coming towards him with his rapier. But he did not have the same coordination the other members of the group had. Probably because he was not originally part of their group.

Roger looked up to Aaron after they dispatched the last of the sharks coming after them.

"So? Whats the plan now?"

"Not sure, I was planning on going back down to the cave to use it as a base, but it feels impractical now, especially with the current as a barrier."

"There are other safe spots around we could use."

"Like what?"

"There are some floating islands that drift up and down the maelstrom and there is the eye of the storm."

"The eye of the storm?"

"The center of the maelstrom is absolutely still water. There is a column of very strong currents around it which means no fish enter it. Its actually quite beautiful and the most common resting spot for climbers on this floor."

"Huh, sounds neat, what about the islands?"

"No idea how they work, they just float on the surface. But they are random and its pure chance if you find one."

"They have usually some birds nesting on them though, so if you stay on the surface you can find them eventually if you follow them birds." Shia explained.

"Huh, interesting, what do you suggest, Roger?" Aaron asked and Roger seemed taken aback by the question. But he recovered after a moment and shrugged, looking at the dead shark drifting around them in the water.

"Maybe its my stomach speaking, but if we find one of those islands we can have another barbecue and that sounds pretty incredible right now."

"Oh hell yeah!" Shia shouted. Mortimer nodded his agreement, only Robin looked a bit queasy still.

"I can't think about food. I am glad I can't smell much with the spell over my mouth."

"Oh common, you will get appetite once you smell that delicious meat!"

"Ugh. I hope so, or I will stay in the water."

"Well alright then, who is guiding us then. I will keep the sharks at bay." Aaron said and Roger did the job himself.

Roger popped his head out of the water every few minutes and led them away a bit from the center of the maelstrom in a circular route around the giant pillar of water shooting into the sky. Aaron grew almost bored fighting the sharks. Most only needed one good hit from him before they fled as fast as they could. But he had no objection to that, they had enough food in their nets for now that was dragged by the two warriors with a rope around their waist. With Roger up top, Stab took over the entire bottom of the group, although they did not really have to do much. Aaron caught every shark approaching them way before them. But since they came from all sides it did keep Aaron on his toes to zip through the water to intercept.

It took a good hour of traveling until Roger popped back into the water and shouted:

"Found one."

They reached the island in question quickly, but calling it an island would give it to much credit. It was basically a big floating rock. well it was a big coral rock actually, because when Aaron got closer he realized the entire island was made out of a coral reef that had gotten loose and was not floating on the surface. Around the island were a whole score of different fish that had acclimatized to the environment. It was a cavernous and porous rock that had sand and sediment on top. When Aaron got on land he realized that the island was tilting to the side. If Aaron stood straight the island was tilting to one side. The plants had gotten used to it though and there were a bunch of fairly flexible looking palm trees, without coconuts sadly.

Setting up camp was difficult because of the angle, but once Mortimer had gotten the clever idea to shift the sand to create a flat surface in the right angle they got the grill set up. They would not sleep here, because they still could not breathe the air. So they had also claimed a little cave that was easily accessible and had housed a bunch of moray eels they evicted without much trouble. Roger helped with butchering the shark and he turned out to be much more skilled at it than Aaron. So he let him do it and focused on cooking. They ate shark steaks and Roger fished a few smaller fish he said would taste good and they spent the whole evening grilling and relaxing.

Aaron enjoyed it. He even introduced them to Sushi, or rather Sashimi which they had heard about but never eaten themselves. Raw fish was not really commonly available in much of the tower. In the end they sat watching the sun set over the horizon, even though they all knew it wasn't a real sun and not a real sunset, but it was surprisingly peaceful.

Over the next few days they used the island as a staging base and explored the entirety of the Maelstrom. Aaron only had to fight one of the giant sharks twice, which was more by accident than by design. The predators did lurk around the maelstrom more frequently, but not the really large ones. Those seemed to be part of the depths more so than the maelstrom itself. Aaron ate every kind of fish imaginable and learned a lot about the group. They sparred with each other on the island every night, usually Aaron against each of them in turn or in pairs. Roger approved, it was good training and the fights, although one sided in Aaron's favor were still educational.

Aaron had little chance to fight against many weapons and dealing with the great effective range of a greatsword, a spear or the defensive style of Robin with axe and shield, turned out to be very good for mastering his techniques. Aaron realized more things he could do with his katas, which part of it was useful for what situation and he improved his reaction time noticeably through the Unceasing palm kata. Of course the group also learned a lot and got used to fighting Aaron, who rarely used speed to overcome them, but technique. Which meant most fights lasted a while and gave them all chances to show what they could do. When the warriors used their skills, Aaron had to react with Wind Steps usually or risk getting injured. They were a strong group, that was for sure.

Roger did not really fight him, he was not the type to spar with anyone. But he did teach Aaron how to properly shoot. The man was an almost unlimited encyclopedia of local wildlife knowledge, tactics and shooting techniques for almost all weapons.

After four days they filled with exploration, fighting and training and four nights they had good food, they decided to go to the fourth floor the next day. Them running out of spices might have something to do with it. Robin was inconsolable.

"We ate enough for 3 teams this size every day. The spices should have lasted damnit."

"We will order some once we are at the top of the maelstrom."

Aaron raised his eyebrows.

"You can order stuff from up there?" he pointed upwards.

"There are some strong magical lights to signal people in Oceanview to pick you up or send supplies. Each platform has one."

Roger had explained Aaron that the Maelstrom moved in between 8 different platforms that had stairs up to the fourth floor and that they could reach the platform either from riding on the outside of the maelstrom, or going through the eye. They decided to do the latter, since they did not have a boat.

Aaron lead the group towards the magical nexus he could feel that fueled the Maelstrom and dispatched dozens of sharks on the way. During their days of exploration he had stopped killing them or fending them off and had started to parry them with the Unceasing Palm kata to train. But now he reverted back to dispatching them quickly. To any group this stretch of the journey to the center of the maelstrom would have been the most dangerous. They were fighting through what was basically the sharks home base and there were hundreds, if not thousands of the bastards. But Aaron moved quickly from one shark to the other and even though the beasts where swarming around them, Roger and his group had to barely do anything. To Aaron it was good training and he had challenged this nest of sharks for the last two days, just to do something productive with his time.

Aaron reached the current that fueled the maelstrom. Which was here an actually visible stream of white churning water that sent turbulences through the water around it like wisps of smoke. Aaron let the group go first and they zipped away upwards before they were able to fight through the stream into the center of the maelstrom. Aaron was the last one to go and gave the closest shark a palmstrike on its snout before he dove into the current.

It felt like being suddenly accelerated like a rocket and Aaron activated Wind Steps and dove through the water. The magic here was so thick Aaron could swear he saw fragments of the spellforms resonate in the water before he burst out of the rapid current.

Silence welcomed him. Absolute, complete silence and stillness. The ocean was a deep brilliant blue and Aaron could see the current flow around him like a cylinder of churning white spray. It felt surreal to lose the outside noise, but the only thing Aaron could hear were the group above him, who had trouble to get out of the current quickly enough. Aaron looked down and could see clearly down into the darkness. It looked like he floated above an abyss or outer space, just with a blue filter. It gave him irrational vertigo like looking down from something very high. When Aaron looked up it looked like a narrowing tube that ended in a small square far, far above them. Which must be one of the platforms Roger had told him about. Aaron swam in the eye of the maelstrom, which looked like a perfect way from the bottom of the ocean to the top of the maelstrom. A still pillar of water that did not seem to move or be moved by anything.

Aaron swam up towards the group who assembled, looking a bit ruffled by the quick current, but not much worse for wear.

"You were right Roger, its beautiful." Aaron said and the Ranger nodded and then peered down.

"Yeah, if you don't look down that is. That dark black abyss down there scares the shit out of me, especially now that we know what lurks down there. I do not want to fight one of those giant fuckers on my own or even with my group if I have to."

Aaron chuckled.

"Meanwhile I do that for sport."

"Which is why you are the crazy one of us. We are perfectly sane criminals." Shia said with her typical snark.

"So, shall we head up?" Aaron asked.

"We better, we will have to wait for supplies either way and I do not fancy being up that high without guardrails in the middle of a god damn cloud." Robin said grumpily.

"Oh common, its not that bad." Shia chuckled.

"Its cold up there. This ocean is warm as a bath, but up there it feels like being in the middle of a blizzard while being wet from head to toes."

"I don't like heights that much either." Mortimer said as he tried not to look up or down too much.

"Alright, quit your nagging, we know the drill. Besides even you like the view that we will see soon."

"I hate it." Mortimer said gravely.

"What view?" Aaron asked.

"Oh you will see." Shia said with a chuckle and the group swam upwards, clearing dozens of meters quickly as they dove into the sky. The circumference of the maelstrom was shrinking rapidly as they swam towards the platform and the thinner it got, the clearer the water became. Until finally the water seemed entirely clear and see through when the group stopped.

Before them stretched the whole third floor, a vast ocean with distant walls clouded in rainstorms. They could see the whole curvature of the maelstrom into the sky and it felt like they were floating in the sky. But Aaron could still feel the water around him and he marveled at the sight and the beauty of it. Above them the maelstrom started to burst and became sprays of water that rained down on them forming hundreds if not thousands of rainbows. The colors giving it all a surreal look as the spray landed on the water and made the clear water ripple from time to time.

"Wow." Aaron said into the silence and he was tempted to reach out his hand the rainbows looked so close. The whole maelstrom was only as wide as a football field here, if that much and the outside current only a meter or two. It was narrow and probably really dangerous at night.

"Yeah, its always incredible to see this. Makes the whole arduous trip worth it usually. But this time we did not even do much fighting. This was the easiest climb of my life." Shia said surprisingly serious.

Roger and Robin nodded, but Mortimer was looking a bit pale.

"Lets send for the supplies and wait under the platform, alright?" he said and swam ahead. The rest of the group followed chuckling.

"I suppose if you touch the current here it does not end well for you?" Aaron asked and Roger snorted.

"You get catapulted into the air and unlike you most vessels and mages can't fly so they die a pretty horrible death."

"I guess that is the tower for you. Beautiful, but dangerous."

"I could not have said it better." Roger said with a smile. "But if you are not stupid, you can make it far."

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