At the dead center of the Jade Forest was a surprisingly large lake called, uncreatively, the Jade Lake. It probably didn't help that the water actually looked like deep blue jade from a distance.
This lake was at least several miles in diameter, providing plenty of space for would-be drinkers to slake their thirst in peace without encroaching the general area of any others. Additionally, many different types of low-grade aether herbs, perfect to any aspiring apothecaries for concocting medicines or general improvement via consumption, could be found growing along the shoreline
Granted, very few normal animals and mortals would be willing to risk drinking or taking plants from this lake. The reason for this could be due to the lake's location being in the middle of nowhere, or perhaps it had to do with the unusually dense Earth aether making people feel sluggish, but the most likely reason was all of the dangerous aether beasts milling about it.
Aether beasts are creatures that occur when normal animals and plants suddenly develop the ability to cultivate and use aether, like mortals. This sudden development can occur due to them ingesting aether herbs, living in danger zones where the aether is denser than usual, when cultivators decide to infuse their pets or livestock with aether or it just happens out of nowhere.
When Thomas was readjusting to Zhen Liu's memories, he ended up digging up a time when he saw one of the clan elders infuse a cat with Darkness aether. That cat evolved into a 3rd-tier Assassin Shadow Cat that the elder named "Sparkles". Zhen Liu never saw Sparkles in action, but he did see the aftermath a few times.
Additionally, aether beasts were able to mingle with mundane animals and produce offspring that have a higher tendency to become aether beasts themselves, or with other aether beasts and produce hybrids that can inherit the traits and abilities of both parents. This has lead to the creation of some rather unusual species of aether beasts that terrorize certain parts of Valresta to this day. Convergent evolution be damned.
Granted the idea of getting eaten by hungry aether beasts was the last thing on Zhen Liu's mind as he made his way to the lake's edge.
As he walked closer and closer, the water began to bubble and ripple as something below its surface started to rise upward.
Suddenly, a massive hippo-like monster with three eyes, purple scales and horns the size of battering rams arose from the depths and let out a mighty roar directed at Zhen Liu, the raw might from the display scaring away, if not knocking out, a variety of smaller aether beasts in the area.
Zhen Liu was surprisingly unaffected by the show of might. In fact, he looked rather bemused.
"Hey Tiny," Zhen Liu rose a hand in greeting, "How's Mini?"
"Kuu!"
The hippo-beast named Tiny suddenly stopped mid-roar as a significantly smaller, cuter version of them suddenly popped into Zhen Liu's view from atop Tiny's head.
The small hippo-beast proceeded to curl into a ball, roll off their parent's head and dive into the waiting arms of Zhen Liu. The house cat sized hippo then began to nuzzle Zhen Liu affectionately.
"Yeah yeah," Zhen Liu said as he returned the hippo cub's affection, "You're still adorable." Zhen Liu had a wide smile on his face as he also gave the baby hippo a small aether fruit he picked up on the way here.
"Mind helping me get back to that building?"
"Kuu!"
"Thanks."
Tiny just rolled their eyes and let out a small snort as their child agreed to assist the tiny human once more.
Following Mini's lead, Zhen Liu made his way onto Tiny's back and prepared for their trip under the lake's surface.
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After Thomas Lee had become Zhen Liu, or Zhen Liu gained the memories of Thomas Lee, he wasn't entirely sure of which of the two was the case, he had spent most of that time exploring the outer area of the Jade Forest and getting a feel for how this world operated, sorting through the memories and accumulated knowledge of his new body. Eventually, Zhen Liu/Thomas decided to just stick with the name of Zhen Liu, as it was a lot easier to piggy-back on the existence of someone native to the world he was in.
It was about a day into his new life when he came across a cat-sized hippo-like creature getting attacked by a horde of mandrills with weird purple tumorous growths on their backs.
Zhen Liu didn't know what the hippo creature was, but he identified the mandrills as Rotting Mandrills.
Rotting Mandrills were a type of first tier aether beast known for their habit of eating corpses as a means to gather death aether, which they then stored in the tumorous sacs on their backs. They would then make use of this stored death aether to hunt small animals and weaker aether beasts by compressing the death aether into projectiles that decay their targets.
In essence, death bolts. This sounded cool, but the requirement of eating corpses for ammo was rather gross.
From what Zhen Liu could recall, this was not a pleasant fate.
The Rotting Mandrills had cornered the baby hippo and were ready to decompose the little guy into edible chunks of rotting flesh.
That was until some moron decided to rush, grab the hippo and run like hell, pissing off the horde of evil death monkeys. What kind of idiot would something this reckless? Zhen Liu
The troop of insidious demonic monkeys began to make chase on Zhen Liu and his new hippo friend, spitting corrosive balls of concentrated death aether at the two. Thankfully, the mandrills had terrible aim.
Zhen Liu and the hippo baby were chased all the way to the deepest parts of the Jade Forest, right up to the edge of the Jade Lake.
Stuck between a lake and a horde of approaching angry mandrills, Zhen Liu made the decision of sending the baby hippo away and into the water while he would stay behind and buy time before they peppered his body full of decaying injuries...or at least figure out an opportunity to run again.
Luckily, neither his death nor more running had occurred.
Just as a Rotting Mandrill was about to pounce and tear off Zhen Liu's face, a concussion inducing roar occured behind him, accompanied by the sight of the baby hippo beast, and their massive mother.
When Zheng Liu saw the giant hippo mother, he realized that the baby he saved was actually the cub of a Raijin Hippopotamus, a four star aether beast.
Needless to say, Zheng Liu was saved and he made some dangerous new friends: Tiny and Mini, the Raijin Hippos.
As well as, one other bonus.
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Zheng Liu held his breath for what felt like hours as he, Tiny and Mini made their way to a strange bubble the size of a three story building found at the bottom of the Jade Lake. Nestled within the bubble, a strange looking stone building was quietly sitting inside.
The trio made their way into the bubble and was greeted by a walkable interior and fresh, breathable air.
Zheng Liu dismounted the giant hippo beast and bowed in thanks. Before he could leave for the building however, Mini demanded more cuddles. Zhen Liu happily obliged.