Aaron gently opened the diary after finding a place to sit that was covered by the strange snowfall that began immediately after opening the chest. 

Aaron flipped through the book towards the most recent pages, skipping the everyday life of this young girl who wrote about her everyday life. He stopped around the pages where he saw familiar things and began to read.

…

– December 23rd, 3123 – 

“Dear Diary,

I encountered a mystical beast today with large black wings and a human face. It seemed to be friendly towards the other islanders; however, I decided to watch from afar, fearing that it would attack.

The beast searched throughout the forest in search of something; however, nobody on the island knows where it came from or what it was looking for. Continuing to observe it from a distance, I decided that it was best to help it find what it was looking for to allow it to leave the island before it decided that it was hungry for a bite.

Following the beast from behind the cover of trees, I spotted it digging a hole in the ground as if it were trying to uncover something buried. It picked up a large basket that was covered in dirt and began walking away from the hole. I decided to return another day to investigate it without the beast near the hole.”

– December 25th, 3123 –

“Dear Diary, 

After observing the beast for two days, I confirmed it had no intentions of returning to the hole it had dug. 

Sneaking out after the sun had set, I hurriedly ran through the forest, avoiding the prickly thorn bushes that sprouted from behind the dense tree cover, and found my way towards the hole that the creature had excavated. It was about two meters in diameter with a depth of about a meter; however, what was truly interesting was that a singular coin was left in the hole. It wasn’t any currency that any of the Ten Seas used, nor any that the Pirate Capital, Svall Port, used for illegal black market trades.

When I picked the coin up and exclaimed over it, I checked for any symbols; however, it was completely blank on both sides without so much as a mark or scuff on either side. Putting it into my pocket, I gently climbed out of the hole and began my walk back to my home. 

Passing the town hall on the trip, I noticed that even though it was the middle of the night, the lights were on. I peeked into the window and noticed the village chief was studying something that resembled an ancient black horn of a goat.

As I moved for a better angle, I crushed a stick on the ground, making a cracking noise, causing the chief to look over. Before he had the chance to look at me, I ducked below the window, allowing me to escape his detection.

Maneuvering back to my house, I had the thought,

Why is the chief studying the horn of a goat?”

– December 34th 3123 –

“Dear Diary,

With the new year quickly approaching, the village prepared for the yearly festival to celebrate the day of the First Sea King's return from the Abyss Sea. 

Every year, across the Ten Seas, celebrations were held to mark the date of the first successful exploration of the Abyss, leading to many discoveries and information about the Ten Seas as a whole being discovered. 

Sadly, the First King's name was lost to history, leading to him not receiving the proper recognition for what he had accomplished. This milestone in human history allowed for the implementation of the monster scaling metric, MSM for short, which identified monsters based on their strength and abilities. 

The strongest sea monster in the history of our island was scaled to be a 5.8 magnitude creature, just short of holding the record for the Sea of Chains, which was 6.2 magnitude. The monster off the coast of our island was almost three times higher than the strongest sea terror of the Sea of Dreams, which was a 1.9 magnitude sea terror.

The creature from our history was recorded as a reptile-class monster with the body of a snake. It had crimson red eyes that drilled through darkness with teeth as long as trees, which dripped with black goo that dissolved anything it touched as if it were acid. It slithered across the waves as if it were a boat passing island after island, stopping only when encountering another terror.

The only mentions of its special abilities were the ability to create strong whirlpools that could even suck up small islands, sinking them into the depths of the sea never to return. 

The islanders of the time bestowed it a name fitting for a monster of that level,

Gharr, the Great Devourer of Waves!”

– December 40th 3123 –

“Dear Diary,

Today is New Year's!

The whole village is abuzz with commotion as we prepare to make the proper sacrifices to the Devourer of Waves while also celebrating the First Sea King's return. 

Strolling through town, I saw the village chief hurriedly gathering the town elders with a worried look upon his face. It was not comparable to anything I had seen on his face before; however, from one glance, I knew it meant trouble.

Moving swiftly towards the town hall that they entered, I hid under the window I had almost been spotted at before, hoping to hear a little of their conversation to see what had scared the chief so terribly.

Through the varying celebrations going on throughout the town, I could only make out certain words that the chief said; however, I heard enough to grasp the general situation.

The chief had been studying an ancient artifact he had found near the beach, the black goat horn, which I had spotted him studying a few nights before. While studying the artifact, he discovered a curse within it that would lead to terrifying effects on the entire island!

When the horn was held by a living creature, it would slowly corrupt the creature, turning it into a sea terror!

The chief who had studied the artifact for weeks showed signs of turning into one with his arms and legs sprouting scales and his pupils changing from the normal circular shape to something resembling a cat's vertical eye slits.

The chief told the elders that they needed to move everyone from the island immediately and that there was no way to prevent the curse without the help of someone at the Sea King level. Unfortunately, being that they were as far from any Sea King being that they were in the Sea of Chains while also bordering the Sea of Polar Storms to the South, no Sea King could be reached before the curse took effect.

He sealed his fate by grabbing that artifact on the beach that day, and he made the whole island pay along with him!

Upon hearing this information, I ran back to my house and immediately wrote this diary entry. 

To whoever is reading this in the future, my name is Alicia White, and this will be my final diary entry before I take the first boat off this cursed island. I will be leaving behind my home, family, and friends in the hope of surviving this disaster. I suspect by the time you are reading this message, either the chief has carried out his final plan of taking his own life to prevent the curse from spreading, or he has become a terrifying beast that roams the seas similar to our protector Gharr, but no matter what happens; 

Do not stay on this island long, and under no circumstances must you ever touch the–”

… 

As Aaron rushed to turn the page, he realized that it was missing! 

Something had ripped out the warning, leaving Aaron in fear of what it could be referring to.