"Is that a monkey?" Greg said with narrowed eyelids. But no, it was not a monkey. The figure was an orange baboon moving through the purple and cyan forest with unnatural speed.

  And except from its weird color, the baboon looked natural in shape and size. But Greg trusted his instincts and just stayed there hanging from the ceiling observing the moving creature.

  The orange baboon soon stopped when it reached the edge of the underground forest and only the blue bubbling water was in front of him. It was looking straight, in the direction of Greg but not exactly at him as he was too far up and more at the surface where many of those white transparent scorpions had gathered.

  And the monkey seemed annoyed by this discovery or maybe because of how close they were to his territory. For a good minute he jumped on his bright tree and made normal monkey noises as if warning the scorpions to back away, but the transparent creatures were more focused on the hanging figure of Greg.

  The orange monkey also noticed the existence of the green haired goblin and for a second nothing happened. Each party just stared at each other and it was like a stalemate was reached. But the baboon finally lost its bearings and summoned an apple like fruit from thin air.

  "Is that his ability?" Greg thought, shaking his head. What kind of useless ability was that? Summoning an apple? To do what? Eat?

  There were already mushrooms and fruits growing at the base and branches of the trees, so the baboon's ability seemed useless to him. But just before Greg could think what to do next, the monkey moved.

  It stretched its dominant hand back and threw the strange apple in the direction of Greg. He thought about whether he should catch the fruit or maybe throw it back at the baboon to check if it would leave its area and enter the bubbling water.

  But maybe because the ceiling was too high the thrown apple lost its momentum and made a curved arc and before it could reach Greg landed straight on the transparent scorpions waiting on the ground.

  The apple quickly landed on one of the white creatures and it didn't even seem to phase it and soon rolled down from its body and onto the ground. But soon the fruit started glowing from its original red color to different shades of white.

  And after just three glows, it completely turned white and exploded with a thunderous quake. The cave surface quivered and Greg almost lost his grip and almost fell into the hundreds of scorpions waiting for him below.

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  Well, they were waiting but now most of them were thrown away by the sudden force and a small scorched crater was formed where ten or so were standing.

  "What the..." Greg said, looking at the end cores scattered inside the crater.

  Yes, the apple's power was strong enough to blast these scorpions out of existence, these creatures who Greg didn't want to fight and kill because of their overwhelming number. They were just gone. They were dead.

  Greg quickly got into a better grip and started backing away because when he looked back at the orange devil, it was smiling as if proud of its work. The baboon again summoned two apples, one on each hand and then some more, and started throwing them in straight lines with mad fervor.

  But they all didn't manage to reach their intended target which was Greg and instead rained down on the awakened scorpion army. Not wanting to give those glowing apples their three seconds to explode he ran, well, crawled quickly back from the way he came.

  When he reached the corner and started coming down, the thrown apples exploded and the cavern went white from their light. The structure somehow held and many of the scorpion bodies flew away in different directions and some were immediately turned into white blood.

  By the time Greg was down on the ground and saw the scared and hiding figure of Bog behind one of those pointed rocks coming out from the ground, the explosions had ceased. But before he could say something to the scared goblin, something hit Greg in the head.

  "Ugh," he said and turned around with a grave face. He looked to the side and then on the ground ready to run because the object looked circular and if it was one of the exploding apples he might as well say his new life goodbye.

  But no, the object was small, round, and white.

  "A core!" Greg's eyes flashed with recognition and he immediately thought about the scorpions. Maybe because of the explosions one of the cores was launched in his direction and somehow landed on his head.

  "What luck..." He picked it up and consumed it and his body glowed with a new light. If he could gain something useful from this encounter he might be able to make a plan to kill that suicidal baboon.

  While he waited for the transformation to finish, Greg was reminded of his childhood. Specifically one game he used to play with his dad with a special monkey or… gorilla that would throw exploding barrels his way.

  He shook his head with a smile, remembering his old memories, and clenched his fist. The blue aura—lets call it essence—materialized into the form of a barrel.

  It all happened unconsciously and he loosened his grip and the barrel made of green energy disappeared. Greg decided to summon it again and after a few tries understood what kind of new ability he gained from consuming that white core.

  Now he could materialize his essence into various shapes and forms and make temporary things out of it. Greg also learned he didn't have much control over the energy for now and he could only make hand size things and they would quickly exhaust him.

  A bright light flashed into his eyes and he understood he needed to kill more of those scorpions to get more control over this new power. He also got an idea on how to deal with the orange monkey who ruled the other side of the water and lived on the crimson trees.