2024-10-17 22:44:05"The hell!? Why am I underwater?"
[System reboot] [Loading...] [I'm your ocean survival system, you are my servant] [Feed me points, and I'll show you the secrets of survival with the aid of body upgrades] "Oh for the love of..." ... [Your first task = Locate and eat any small species of the crustacea ignatius family, juveniles are preferable… less steamy.] This message in his head was very confusing. That aside, he, Timothy Lake, a human, didn't have the slightest clue, regarding how he suddenly appeared underwater! It was nothing less than absurd. He completely ignored what the system said. In fact he wasn't even sure what the 'system' was, and thought that craze was creeping in. He could hear the system but not see it, which was a rather radiant hint of auditory hallucination, if not other things! "Who the hell are you? How did I get here?" Tim exclaimed, as his panic blossomed. [I'm your inbuilt, ocean survival system. You, Timothy, are the new owner of this newborn, stingray body.] It answered. But, it didn’t stop there either. [As for me, I have knowledge equal to one world and beyond it, I can help any oceanic creature survive this cruel, magical environment.] "Damn this thing has a lot to say." Tim thought briefly and privately, as the system's disruptive voice annoyed him shitless. [I heard that,] It said. "Oh so you can read my thoughts too, perfect." Tim added, he felt embarrassed, especially since the system sounded like a lady, though her tone was computerized. [Yes,] It followed along. Silence stretched after that point, for a whole minute, as Tim was given a lot to think about. The system eventually broke the silence, in a way that was a bit annoying; Basically, she started spamming some information. [Available system points = 10] [Purchase options = 1] Tim would rather not interact with the system, but she was persuasive. Since he was almost convinced that what he was experiencing was a dream, he saw no harm in playing along for a while. Dreams must end eventually, even nightmares, and this felt like a nightmare! He said, "Let's hear that option out, I guess." There was no harm to that, as everything about this truly felt like a dream. He even tried to swim fast, as fast as he could, but that effort was dimmed by slow and pale results. Just like in other nightmares, he moved really slowly! [Option number one, and the only option right now = A brochure, explaining the details of your new body, and species in depth.] [Price = 3 system points] "Kind of expensive for information that is solely about 'my' new body." The little stingray continued complaining, though he knew that he was becoming a bit annoying. He knew that he wouldn't be here for long, so he gave in completely. There was no point in being all grumpy, he started playing nice-er. He sighed and said, "Whatever, okay. I'm purchasing the first, and only option." [Purchase confirmed,] The system said. [Loading…] [Species = Bluespotted Ribbon-tail Ray] [Family = Dasyatidae extingius] [Gender = Male] [Age = 29 days] [Length = 15 centimeters] [Width = 7 centimeters] [Weight = 0.3 kilograms] As a closing sentence, she [Your purchase is complete, and as a result, 3 system points have been consumed. Due to this subtraction, only 7 points remain in your total sum.] Tim ignored all that talk about points, and said. "Sounds like I'm very small." He expected an answer, but the system wasn't very responsive. Instead, it continued spamming information that may only be interesting to her and her alone. She said, [Because of your most recent purchase, three more purchase options have been unlocked.] [Option number one = Learn your current location] [Price = 14 system points] "A geo-tagger?" Tim recalled this modern, human phrase. Afterwards, he joked. "Yeah, fish definitely need that. Nothing like a good old GPS to get you across the Pacific Ocean." He started being more and more sarcastic, because he was getting nervous. Everything that was happening didn't feel like a dream anymore, so he had to cope somehow. The system, however, didn't respond to such sarcasm whatsoever. She continued going on with her business, by spamming more of her information. She said, [Option number two = View the chart of your current capabilities. This one is essential to have and memorize, therefore it's priced cheaply, 3 system points.] "That sounds interesting." Tim thought, he felt intrigued. "I want to buy that one." [Purchase confirmed,] The system said. It was nice to hear her respond instantly for once. Considering the circumstances, he'd love to be distracted right now rather than face the problem at hand. Somehow he was a fish, and he wasn't quite ready to accept that. [Loading…] Afterwards, the system described. [Your capabilities will be listed shortly. Levels state just how strong a specific capability of yours is, with level zero being the lowest.] [Hunting, jaws, and natural camouflage = Level two] [Barb, and barb venom = Level zero] [Bodily strength, and speed = Level one] [Sight, scent and overall senses = Level one] [Intelligence of either, four forms = Low] [Mana = Pathetically low] [Magical powers = None] [Sex appeal = Level zero] "Wow, pretty low. Looks like anything can kill me, though." Tim pointed out, and tried to ignore the devastating fact that his 'sex appeal' was down to level zero. [Everything can kill you, yes.] She confirmed. Afterwards she said, [Your purchase is complete, and 3 system points have been consumed in exchange. Now, only 4 system points remain in your total sum.] Tim was given a lot to think about. This world started feeling more and more real, and the salt water hinted at it so, but that wave of realization wasn't the worst part. If everything was real, and as it appeared, it was, then he was given the worst cards to play with. He was just a tiny, weak, stingray! He didn't know how his soul ended up in this body, but it would be embarrassing to die in this same body, as much as it was embarrassing to own it and live in it. In the meantime, the system didn't care about his feelings whatsoever, and continued making her sales pitch. She said, [Option number three = Upgrade Hunting, jaws, and natural camouflage to level three. This option is priced at 28 points.] "Kind of expensive for a pair of jaws, don't you think?" Tim asked. Now he didn’t have any idea of how these points were attained, but they seemed like a lot. Part of him considered suicide, rather than to go through with everything a fish had to do on a daily, but the rest of him was curious. Sure he was also terrified, but if this world truly had magic within it, then it was worth exploring! The system decided to respond to his question for once. In fact, she even wanted to help him become a bit more practical. She said, [Let me show you some statistics, free of charge. The following consists of your current state of overall health and well-being.] [Health bar = 87/100 points] [Hunger bar = 3/15] [Sleep, and stamina bar = 11/35] [Mana = 0/0] At last, she sealed the deal off by adding. [You need to be a good hunter in order to survive. Now you can't afford 'purchase option number three' for the time being, but you can still hunt. As I said before, find a crab that you can kill, you need it and you definitely need the points that it can give you in exchange, once you kill it. Good luck, Timothy Lake.]
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I'm a Stingray? Chapter 2 - Enemy
"System, I've been waiting for an hour now! Where the hell are those iguana crabs you talked about?" Tim complained, and the attitude he had was fueled by anger alone. The system didn't make things any easier for him, as she said. [You mean crustacean ignatius, not iguana? Also, you've been waiting for 37 minutes, and guests aren't supposed to lie. Please behave!]Before he could say anything, the system answered the prior question as well, though she was a bit vague about it.She said, [You should just continue waiting for a little while longer. Crabs will eventually crawl over here, so stop talking and rustling around, you're gonna scare them away. Don't let 'natural selection' be your worst enemy, please the oceans are already dangerous themselves. Don't do stupid stuff.]Ironically, right now, the system spoke more than Tim ever did. She distracted him, even, so he was set quite for a surprise, after he felt a couple of doting, hot steps on his soft, fishy stingray back!"Youch!"
I'm a Stingray? Chapter 3 - The momentum
The shark reacted immediately. Once it got stung by Tim, it jerked its head left and right, then it quickly swam away. A two-inch deep stab was quite effective from the looks of it, very painful. "Feels like I stabbed that fucker with my ass," He joked, while in utter stress. However, he couldn’t have killed that shark with one stab alone, it was impossible. So necessarily, Tim was still in danger! The shark circled back, within half a minute. It was either looking for trouble, or a meal, but either way this was really problematic! The shark had to be at least two meters long, and it seemingly had powers too. Its fins left a line of fire across the water, regardless of how fire wasn't supposed to lit up down here. It was scary, and overall, Tim didn't stand a chance! He stabbed the thing, by pure luck to begin with, it had nothing to do with skill. Seconds later, it charged towards him! The shark exploded with speed within a couple of seconds, and it would be a terrible idea to s
I'm a Stingray? Chapter 4 - Pinpoint
Spiders always looked creepy, the ones of the sea even more so. However, Tim tried to put his discomfort aside for survival’s sake. He did so, and ended up eating seven whole ‘sea spiders’! He ate so many of them, because they weren’t so filling, they didn’t have any fat on them. Their long legs were inedible, so he only chomped through their small, red main bodies. He didn’t have to fight them in order to eat them, as these ‘spiders’ were as stupid as one would assume! This was an easy, but surely creepy meal. The system spammed him with some information afterwards. [You successfully killed and consumed seven marble shrimps, so in total, you get 14 points of health out of them. Of course, your hunger needs have been fulfilled as well.] “Health, huh? So that’s why I was feeling better… This isn’t temporary, right? I don’t want to feel like crap after an hour or, whatever.” He asked. His concern was valid. A tiny stingray didn’t have a complex system of pain receptors, but the few
I'm a Stingray? Chapter 5 - Just in time
Tim squeezed within the reef and its many contents, in search for easy points. He swam around for three hours, quite carefully, but hadn't managed to find as many creatures as he hoped to find. He just found a few more marble shrimps, and half of them had been in his den. They seemingly were the most abundant creatures in a fifty-meter radius, but their numbers weren’t infinite. He only killed twelve of them, but avoided eating most of them, because he didn’t want to exhaust himself too quickly with their negative side-effects.Tim avoided utter exhaustion as long as he could, but yet again, swimming around slowly and carefully for three hours straight, wasn't easy at all. He got tired, and used his last bit of energy to swim back to his den. Then, he fell asleep.It was a good idea to relax for a while. Tim wasn’t hungry, and his health went up by six points too, because of the few shrimp he ate. For that matter he could sleep peacefully.He went to sleep while hearing a brief notif
I'm a Stingray? Chapter 6 - Health, -10
Tim searched the flat sea-floor for about five minutes, and within this time bracket, he found three urchins. Each of them had different colors, one of them was even purple, so without risking his own health in the process, he had to figure out which urchin was the bubonic one.He wanted to charge towards one of the urchins like a barbarian, but he had to resist those fishy urges. The urchins couldn’t crawl away, after all, so he didn’t have a reason to rush things. He approached one of the urchins, and almost took a bite out of it. Common sense advised him otherwise, however, at the very last second. The urchin’s spines were spiky, so undoubtedly, it would be dangerous to put his mouth on its spines! It was beyond dangerous, actually, it was stupid.“Hmm… can’t trick me!” He exclaimed. Tim debated on how he should approach this urchin, and after half a minute, he remembered that his tail was practically charged with thunder! It may be useful against an urchin, but only if this shoc
I'm a Stingray? Chapter 7 - Essence Points?
"Explorative soul, huh? What's that for?" Tim asked.He was stumped. In fact, for a good few hours he even believed that stingrays didn't have souls to begin with, he had been convinced about that. For that matter, he didn’t have the slightest clue now, regarding what a little stingray could do with a soul of their own! He was confused.Thankfully, the system shed a bit of light on the matter, she said. [The explorative soul ability, allows you to go into a hibernation-like state, and after that you can detach your soul from your body. Overall, it's a very good method to accumulate system points quickly, and explore this expansive, magical world as well, without hurting yourself in the process.]"The world… you mean, I can float out of the sea, and hunt birds or some shit?" He asked.[Yes, although that would be unproductive.] The system followed along, [There are whole, invisible kingdoms made out of souls and soul-based energy, so it's best if you go visit one of those spots, rather
I'm a Stingray? Chapter 8 - Semi-automatic Stingray!
Tim was astounded by what this world had to offer. The air, apparently, wasn't as bland as he imagined. It looked clear, yes, but further away the sky had more to offer!"Fucking hell, everything looks like a rainbow…" He thought.Tim could see multiple colors across the sky, and these colors were spread randomly. They looked like clouds, even, and each of these huge clouds were divided by color. Some clouds appeared softer, while a smaller percentage seemed very concentrated, and dense. They were interesting.Tim eventually flew into one of the latter! He flew into a pink, five-meter wide cloud which was dense in color, as it was fairly concentrated into that limited, five-meter wide space. He was really curious about it, and at that pace, he figured out what it was for!One would assume that it was stupid to fly towards a funny-looking cloud, but it wasn't so bad after all. Tim experienced the cloud's effects first hand, and thankfully, it didn’t kill him, neither did it try to.
I'm a Stingray? Chapter 9 - Special Crabs?
Tim returned to his stingray body, and now, he had a lot of time to kill before he could explore again. The wonders which were sandwiched between the sky enthralled him, so he couldn’t wait to get up there again, a week from now! Exploring the skies may get boring at some point, but the rewards were plenty! Tim gathered up a bunch of system points while he was up there, for example, and that was the best reward of all. He intended to use those points fully, but he wasn't in a rush right now. Upgrades were expensive, so he hoped to find a couple more critters to kill first, before going on a shopping spree later on! It was a responsible idea. "Ah, this'll be more than boring, it'll be exhausting…" He sighed. It wasn't easy to swim for extended periods of time, but right now, he didn’t really have anything better to do. Tim stretched his fins a bit, and then started exploring the reef! This place was massive, especially since it had complimenting cracks and tunnels within it, whic
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Chapter 160 - The portal closer
“You’re alive!” Ortana rushed over, and hugged him. She was relieved. “Of course I am?” Timothy hugged back, and looked at the rest of the team. He was wondering what was going on. “You’re alive too. I guess?”The group chuckled in response, they were enjoying his confusion. He might as well be confused, because he only saw this woman yesterday, and yet she acted as if he had been missing for ten years!“I’ve been looking for you for five days…” She then said, “The guards said that you got killed, and eaten, so I gutted a lot of bugs in order to find your body. Those guards are liars, they lied to me with a straight face!”Before Gustav could chime in on that last statement, Timothy cut his words short because no one wanted to be lectured right now, and then he emphasized a question. “Five days? We've only been here for an hour. Maybe an hour and a half, give or take.”With that said, both sides caught up with all the drama almost instantly. Time worked differently in this universe,
Chapter 159 - The Button
Tim and Gustav explored the castle that they were in. This place was even roomier than they had imagined, as they ended up exploring several rooms, most of which looked like personal bedrooms, it was a big place. The prior inhabitants have been living here for a while, so it was a bit sad that they died so unnecessarily, as simply, they could've kept their homes if their master wasn't so rash. These dead mages were one of the unluckiest humans in any universe!Apart from the bedrooms, they also saw a few workshops. Though they understood that one of them was a forge, and one of them was an alchemy lab, they couldn't nearly understand what two of the other workshops were about, on the count that the tools there were very foreign to them.Anyway, even though they explored most of the castle, they couldn't find any lever of sorts to open the door. The mechanics of the main door seemed very complex as well, they were connected to a bunch of old, large mechanical bolts, springs, and other
Chapter 158 - The Centipedes
Skendus, Arvena, and Ortana crossed the portal that they’ve discovered. They were immediately overwhelmed by the exclusive shades of red here at first, and then they made sure to be cautious of every step they took, because they didn't know what to expect here. For all they knew, they could be overwhelmed by a bunch of Demon Beetles at any second, and they would've been none the wiser, because they couldn't even tell the trees apart from the bushes around here. Caution was beyond necessary!“Aah, do you smell that?” Arvena asked, after a deep sigh. “Do you smell the mana? This has to be a needle universe, they're so secretive, and very hard to get to!”“A needle universe, huh? That's interesting, but I can't really smell mana like you can.” Skendus admitted, and Ortana was just as helpless. “There’s a lot of mana in the air, more than in Valporovus, actually.” She insisted, and then she pitched. “Maybe we can stay here for a while? Assuming that we don't get attacked by bugs. My mana
Chapter 157 - I gots me a universe"
Timothy and Gustav knew how to close that portal now, so they virtually had no other reason to stay in this castle any longer. With that said, they made their way to the door, but after they ran down the staircase that led to the main hall, they were quickly reminded that there was a gigantic door in front of them. It was a door that they couldn't open, at least not without destroying it!“We should burn it down,” Gustav pitched.“No… that door is half a meter thick, it'll take forever. We'll be dead by the time it burns down.” He pointed out.With that considered, they had to figure out a smarter way to get out of here. Jumping through a window might do the trick, but of course, they had to walk back upstairs to find one of the few windows that were in the castle, and furthermore, they had to cut through the cell bars just to jump out. It was a lengthy process which could lead to their demise, just as quickly as their first idea.The two of them were stumped, and ten seconds later, t
Chapter 156 - The Devil's Kiss
Timothy was very close to a heart attack, but his willpower was unbreakable, he wasn't afraid of death! However, he didn’t want to die so randomly either, so he put something in motion to try and save his life.Gustav seemed to be oblivious through all of this, it took him a while to realize that something was wrong with his friend. When he saw Timothy holding his chest, he thought that he was choking on a cricket leg or something, so he patted him on the back!The old master hadn't attacked Gustav yet, and this was for the best, because he helped create a great diversion. Timothy leaned forward after he was patted on the back, as if to comfort himself a bit, but in reality, he was just trying to hide his hands under the table.A second later, a single bolt flew out of Timothy's open, leather bag of bony bolts, and it darted towards the master! He had been summoning the Bone Multiplier ability while his hands were under the table, and was strong enough to launch a single bolt.It was
Chapter 155 - "You must help"
Tonirus led his guests across another portion of the castle. They crossed a small library, and this library didn't look too significant, so they didn't even stop to look at it, or ask questions about its contents either.They were led to a dining hall. It was big, with a sizable table along the middle, and plenty of chairs too. This hall was meant to house the entire sect from the looks of it!“Sit, please, I'll go and get our Sect Master.” Tonirus said, and then walked out of the room.While he walked out, he snapped his fingers, and a bunch of silverware started floating in response. The silverware gently landed in front of Timothy, and Gustav, and the two of them were fairly amused by this light display of power.“You'd never guess that someone would use telekinesis for house chores,” He said, as it was very fun for him to see something other than bones float around for once. “Seems like a waste, though, right? They could be lifting houses and shit, but they lift spoons.”“I think
Chapter 154 - "Where's Tim?"
“What do you mean he disappeared five days ago?” Skendus asked, and he was beyond worried. “Timothy disappeared first, and Gustav, one of our guards is said to disappear within the same timeframe as him, someone saw the two of them together up on a hill. We're quite certain that it was Gustav who signaled us, but when we got there, they were gone, and our best guess is that they got severely wounded in battle.” A guard explained, and his tone was rather formal, he almost sounded unapologetic.It wasn't too hard to believe that Timothy might have died, because he was generally reckless, and got himself into trouble quite often. Paired with the fact that a literal god may beam down here at any time, and kill them all together, his death became all the more believable. Arvena was here in the camp too, and she wasn't so appreciative of the other's tone, so she asked. “Well, did you find their bodies? Also, where’s Ortana?” “Ortana is out looking for Timothy’s body. Our scouts report th
Chapter 153 - The Light Feet sect
Timothy and Gustav eventually made it to the castle. They hadn't been attacked by anything else ever since they killed that mantis, which was weird, but they were happy about it nonetheless, because neither of them wanted to pour their mana points on every corner along the way.They discovered that the castle had a big, wooden door, which surely kept the outside world away. The main entrance was ten-meters tall, while the castle itself was about fifty meters tall. It was the largest building Timothy had seen ever since he stepped into Valporovus, he was impressed!Anyway, such large doors were quite difficult to push, especially for tiny goblins such as the two of them. If the door was barred from the other side, then it was virtually impossible to enter this castle, and this was concerning, because neither of them wanted to walk around in this red hell right now. They wanted to rest, even though they didn't feel good about entering a mysterious castle.“Any bright ideas this time?” T
Chapter 152 - "A Castle?"
Timothy and Gustav continued to explore the forest of sorts that they were surrounded with. The both of them were quiet as they walked, because since they couldn’t see the creatures around them, who were typically camouflaged, they wanted to try and hear them instead. This was their best course of action, and they were willing to burn the whole forest down if it came up to that point, because this place held wildlife that were very hostile to the goblin kind, after all. If beetles went through the portal, so can every other insect in here, and they took that into consideration. The two of them were quiet, and the further they walked, the more accepting they became of something that they noticed. This forest had a single, straight path between it, and this path led back to the portal that they’ve left behind. There were sections where the red grass was trimmed, as if someone tried to make this path more walkable, and this was very difficult to miss! They couldn’t miss it, because as e
