2024-11-06 21:35:13Tim woke up after about five hours, and he was fully rested. However, the recent upgrades have tampered with his body quite a bit, so he felt really weird right now. He felt lighter, quicker, and had this urge to explore the seas and hunt anything that moved! This was how he usually behaved, yes, but today this behavior was amped up tenfold for some odd reason!
Tim felt powerful and capable, but thankfully, the coral that surrounded him managed to cage his deadly enthusiasm. He couldn’t move much down here, and while he tried to slip out of the coral layers he had hid in, he found the infinite wisdom to calm himself down. Well, his wisdom was very finite actually, but that was not the point. The point was that he could reason with himself a lot more now, it was fascinating! In due time, Tim figured out what was happening with himself; This jolting temperament had something to do with the brain upgrade he had, just a few hours ago, he was sure of it! “I feel moodier than that human girlfriend I had, god damn! She was always hungry for some reason.” Tim thought. Just then, he noticed that he was also recalling some of his human memories all of a sudden, which was quite a surprise. He did not want to think about his past, human life right now, as he felt sure that he’d mourn those good old days. Recalling those old days would beat on his conscience viciously, without a doubt! He thought, “Even my divorce was easier than this, new thing… I’m a fish now, god damn it!" Tim was a bit depressed right now, however, as he dances within the lines of depression, he came to a realization. It was still amazing that he could remember fractions of his old life to begin with, regardless of how much it hurt to remember them! He was impressed. The system promised power, and a fraction of the power she promised, was evident at this very moment. His soul had migrated here, all the way from earth, yet he still had the option to remember stuff from his past life, and this fact alone was fascinating! There was a lot to think about, he was stumped for words! However, the system interrupted his train of thought, before these thoughts of his could run rampant, for hours and hours on end. This world certainly didn’t need a stingray who had anxiety right now. She said, [Timothy, hello. I’d like to tell you that each upgrade was a success yesterday, and as for now, you’re experiencing hormonal changes, which come with impulsive urges, and some occasional mood swings. Nothing about this is permanent, it’s just that the rest of your body is still adjusting to your recently restructured brain. It's no easy task.] “That makes sense,” He nodded, and accepted the fact that he just had to be patient, at least for a little while. Moments later, he squeezed himself out of the four layers of red coral, and then had this urge to rush across the sea. This urge of his was equal to that of a feral dolphin, but then he noticed that the sea seemed darker than usual. This scared him, so he didn’t feel so explorative anymore! “I’m afraid of the dark? Glad to see that I still have some human traits… or maybe I'm scared because in this body, I’m just a baby? Baby stingrays are probably scared of a lot of stuff, they gotta be.” Tim asked himself. Right then, the system followed along. [The entirety of what you just said is… debatable. However, do not be sad because of your lost humanity, as you will get back most of it, eventually. Your ‘explorative soul’ ability is the first step to worldly exploration, and eventual shape-shifting; I can help you turn back into a human one day, but you have to be patient.] “Really? Well that’s a fantastic thing to say!” Tim celebrated, “I don’t want to get any of my human friends back, fuck them! I want new friends, and maybe a wife that won’t divorce me, just to run off with her stupid assistant! God, I just remembered how much humans make me sick… maybe being a fish is a blessing, but I just haven't realized it yet?” [Your stances are debatable, but as far as I'm concerned, you can have it all, as long as you try to survive long enough. The magic in this world is extremely developed, so anything is possible, I promise you that!] She said. “Survive, huh? Okay, I probably shouldn’t be out here at night, then.” He said, and then squeezed back into the coral reef. Tim had wanted to hunt just a moment ago, but he couldn’t see anything out here, nothing at all, it was too dark. Predators were dangerous enough during the day, so he didn’t want to run into them at night, not in the slightest! He had to kill a few hours of time, and he may get a bit hungry throughout this period of both waiting and napping, however, this wasn’t a major task. He was safe within this coral, and that was all that mattered. Besides, the system was keeping him company. After all, she had a bunch of other upgrade options which she had to introduce! After Tim settled in some coral, the system got into business right away! She said, [Okay, Timothy. Since you bought every upgrade available yesterday, you unlocked a few new ones, five of them, to be exact. Now, some of them are pretty expensive, but they're really worth your while.] "Let them be expensive, I'm not intimidated by your prices anymore. It's not that hard to get system points, or at least, it's easier than what I had imagined at first." He added. Tim wasn’t cocky, no, but he was very direct instead. Exploration came hand to hand with system-based rewards, and he sure as hell liked to explore, so for that matter, he didn’t care about the prices anymore. The system didn't really expand on this side-topic either, but instead, she started talking about the new upgrades. She introduced, [Your first purchase option is pretty useful, essential even. For 60 system points, you can upgrade your bodily strength and speed, to level two! This is pretty much the cheapest upgrade right now.] "Hmm… yeah, speed is very important. Anything that keeps me away from the mouths of sharks is something worth buying." He muttered. [Well, you can't afford to buy anything right now, but it wouldn't be a bad idea if you prioritized buying that one. Strength and speed are truly essential if you're to improve your chances of survival.] She said. They could talk about stuff like these in detail, for hours if they could, and considering that he had several hours to waste, they just might do exactly that. However, there were four more upgrades to introduce, so the system was prioritizing that at the moment. She said, [Your second purchase option, is what'll link you to your stingray ancestry thoroughly, and for good! For 200 system points, you can unlock the 'extingus breath' magical ability, which would help you deflect most kinds of offensive magic, as long as the opposing caster isn't too strong! This ability is very common amongst your species, and you don't need spells or mana to use it.]
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I'm a Stingray? Chapter 13 - The great introduction!
Tim was astounded by the concept of magic. The fact that it was available in this world, was the only thing that kept him from being suicidal. This world simply promised a lot! The talk about magic brought back some memories, even, he said. “A protective spell, huh? I think you mean a deflective spell, system. When I was a human, I remember playing a video game of some sort, one about dragons, and it had a bunch of these deflective spells, they were pretty cool.” Tim was feeling nostalgic, it was difficult not to be. However, the system snapped him out of it right away, as she made another promise. [Video games? Oh, they’re available in this world too, in the mildly advanced civilizations at least. This world is very vast, and it’s difficult to get into a good civilization, however, if you do get into one, then you can play plenty of video games there. The highly advanced civilizations have even better games, hyper-realistic ones.] The s
I'm a Stingray? Chapter 14 - Panzer Crabs
Tim was intrigued by the new purchase options. He and the system discussed them for a long time, just so he could pick the best option there was. They came to the conclusion that the cheapest upgrades were the best option, as though they weren't as effective as the rest of the upgrades, they still were the most accessible! Accessibility, on its own, was really useful in terms of ensuring survival. Tim was convinced about what he was supposed to buy, and now, there was only the matter of getting system points, a bunch of them. For safety's sake, he waited until dawn, just so he could see and analyze his surroundings better, as it was really stupid to hunt in the dark, and he simply wanted to avoid getting killed. Tim took a couple of naps, just to kill some time, and when it was finally the break of dawn, he emerged from within the protective layers of the coral reef. Tim swam for a few meters, and then mumbled. "God damn… I am really hung
I'm a Stingray? Chapter 15 - "I hate you, Harold"
Tim searched the reef for any other kind of creature for him to kill. His belly was full, so he wasn't really desperate for food, but he did need to gather up a bunch of points! The panzer crabs he had killed gave him plenty of points, yes, but they weren't enough. Some of the upgrades were really expensive, and if he was to afford them, then there was no benefit in slowing down right now. Tim wanted to hunt for a few more hours at least, and then get back to those panzer crabs afterwards, once he got really tired. The idea was to get points, and then to find a safe spot where he could rest afterwards. He could eat a few mouthfuls of crab meat as well, to encourage his growth sprout. If the area near the crabs was safe enough, then he planned to buy an upgrade or two as well. There were a lot of things on his plate today, but he didn’t mind it. Tim enjoyed working under pressure, it gave him this overwhelming, and constant adrenaline rush
I'm a Stingray? Chapter 16 - Sardines; Deadly, or not?
"Wow…" Tim gasped in amazement.He was astounded by the idea of magical, mana-oozing roots. He guessed that they'd only make him more powerful, but overall, he also got this explorative, adrenaline rush after hearing about them! This world had so much to offer, so he couldn’t wait to escape his current physical limitations, in order to explore things that were beyond, and greater than magical roots! He was desperately eager.Anyway, the system broke his train of thought shortly after. She announced a little warning. [Timothy, pay attention! Before you go near any roots, you need to unlock your mana pool at first, specifically, the most expensive upgrade available right now. Mana roots excrete mana, and in order for you to harvest it or accumulate it, you need to unlock your mana pool. You don't need to rush on about this task, however, you probably noticed that each of these tasks encourage you to explore the world more, so one way or the other, this hunt will be g
I'm a Stingray? Chapter 17 - The Murder Spree
Over the course of a couple of minutes, Tim gathered all the courage he needed to approach this odd and massive cloud. Sure this approach made him a bit nervous, however, he gathered a bit more courage, as he kept insisting that this was a golden opportunity, one where he could reap a lot of system points! If these sardines were easy to kill, then he could just slip between this school of fish, and stab them left and right with his tail. This could turn out to be his greatest, point-farming opportunity yet, and he was aware of it! Tim also noticed a hint of suspicious, green dots within the cloud as well, but decided to ignore that for now, as he didn’t want to back down.He wasn't given much time to think about that either, as now the cloud was approaching him by itself, rather than the other way around. This sudden approach intimidated him a lot, but he wasn't even given any time to think about swimming away from the approachers, no.A few seconds later
I'm a Stingray? Chapter 18 - Drunk Stingray
Tim was quite speedy. He swam three hundred meters deep, under the sea, and completed the task as a result. He didn’t get hurt either, as at some point he swam really slowly, just so he wouldn’t cross any physical bounds. His disk-like body was upgraded to endure three-hundred meters of ocean depth, specifically three-hundred, and he wasn’t willing to try his luck on the matter.The system confirmed his success, the moment he hit the mark, she said. [Okay, that’s enough. You’re 300 meters deep, so we can mark the task associated with it as complete. Congratulations!] Furthermore, she added. [As promised, you just got 30 system points as a reward. In total, you’ve accumulated 500 points, which isn’t bad at all for a guy your size! Good job, Timothy, very good.]“Thank you,” He said, “You deserve most of the credit, though, for getting me out here. I got a hell lot of points, without working much for them… and I guess that’s why I need you as a guide in thi
I'm a Stingray? Chapter 19 - Vengeance, exacted
Tim was severely drunk, however, he did eventually find his way to the reef, and even closed in to the den, where Harold the eel was living in. He had spiraled like a WW2 warplane for a while, but at least he swam near the spot that he had aimed for. He was as confident as a drunkard could be, so at some point, he shouted. “Harold, get outta there and face me, you retard!”Tim’s intent was clear, and some may even think that what he was doing was suicidal. However, regardless of how dangerous his idea was, he didn’t plan on backing down! Anyway, since his vocal cords were very limited volume-wise, Harold didn't hear him whatsoever, he wasn't in trouble. This gave him a bit more freedom to attack, and he did exactly so! Just moments later, in that drunken state, he came up with an idea that was both crazy, and perhaps effective. He simply rushed into the snug den, and aimed to bite anything in immediate sight!Harold was still in there, in the de
I'm a Stingray? Chapter 20 - 5x Upgrades!
Tim found the panzer crabs he had stashed. It took him a moment to find them, since he was both hungry and disoriented, but he did succeed nonetheless. Without wasting a second, he started munching on them.He got a belly full of crab meat in less than ten minutes, and from the looks of it, he wasn’t going to run out of food anytime soon. Tim was still pretty small, so his belly could only fit so much food. Survival felt a lot easier this way, and Tim guessed that if he killed anything as big as a shark, then he'd have food forever around here!Of course, he wasn't so great at math, so he didn’t consider that meat would rot quickly. There was no such thing as an infinite food glitch, even in this odd world, but it was fun to fantasize about it nonetheless. Anyway, as for the panzer crabs that he had stashed between a crack of coral, he was eating and protecting this stash for a greater reason, as he remembered what the system told him about them. These crabs were p
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Chapter 100 - "Eighteen-hundred log bolts a day!"
The second check-point that Arvena so treasured, wasn’t as easy to get to. It had these perplexing issues behind it, and the main issue was that they had to reach a portal of some sort, in order to get to this said second check-point (or location).It wasn’t easy to get to the portal, as they had to pay for their transport, in literal gold coins. This was perplexing for them, it was the main issue, because the team had to get actual jobs in order to afford the means of their transportation! In other words, they couldn’t fight like cavemen any longer in order to progress, as it wouldn’t work as often in a civilized society. It was true that they usually got what they wanted through such fighting and slaughtering, but they couldn’t behave like that this time around, no. They had to pay twenty-five gold coins each!Now in any universe, that amount of gold was pretty sizable, it was expensive. The average goblin family had to work four months straight in order to accumulate around twenty-
Chapter 99 - Flash-fix
Arvena had gone through a portal, no doubt about it. Timothy wanted to go after her to make sure that she was okay, but then he realized how a terrible idea that was, he realized that it would be too dangerous to follow her, and that was what made him reconsider things! Arvena had read those scrolls for hours before she opened that portal, she was prepared in other words, and Tim feared that if he charged into that portal ‘heroically’, then he might get vaporized one way or the other because he was severely unprepared. It was simply stupid for him to go in there. Tim even looked at the scrolls close by, to figure out what was going on, but it was hopeless. He couldn’t make out a single word out of them, and with that said he simply backed off, he couldn’t get involved.“That crazy bitch wasn’t up to anything good anyway,” He tried to console himself.It was great that Tim backed away, because moments later, that portal started generating a suction of some sort. It tried to suck the t
Chapter 98 - "100 points of mana an hour"
The quality of Timothy’s mana was flash upgraded to level three, he bore decent mana now, that was its literal name. He was still shocked about how it happened, it had been painless and quick, hence it being a flash upgrade, but despite being shocked, he was also really happy! This was the easiest mana quality upgrade that he had ever gotten, his friends were congratulating him quite a bit too, they were excited! Well, everyone congratulated him, apart from Arvena, who was fixated on her scrolls.Anyway, then things got even better! The system came with a great announcement.She cited, [Congratulations, Timothy. Apart from all the benefits you got from that flash upgrade, your mana pool has also expanded. As of now, you can accumulate up to 3,000 points of mana in your pool, in this goblin form! As a stingray, however, you’d be able to accumulate a maximum of 8,000 points, that is, if you chose to swim in your full, gigantic size! You have great options overall.]“Eight thousand point
Chapter 97 - Flash upgrade!
The team had made it to the ancient library of Rempegana, which was amazing, especially since they made it here in one piece! Now the dilemma was that the elevation drop in front of them was too intimidating, it was concerning. They could quite literally fall to their death because it was a twenty meter drop, and in a world full of magic, this may be one of the most embarrassing ways to die. It would be tragic!For that matter, Tim asked. “How do we get down there, Araduli? I think your friends stole all the ladders from here.”“The ladders withered away, they were made out of wood I presume. I believe that’s what you call it, wood? Besides, you don’t need any ladders today, because I’ll just cast a light-wing spell on the lot of you. It’s very effective, you’ll be flying.” He answered.“That sounds useful, cuz you don’t hear much about flying goblins out there! You must be a pretty powerful guy then, Araduli?” Tim asked, he was a bit curious.“Yes, I would say so. Calidum mana lets u
Chapter 96 - The Molten Dwarves!
It wasn’t easy to get to the ancient library of Rempegana. The tunnel that they found was pretty, yes, but it also featured a lot of danger! Danger in this case, was no different from a textbook barricade, as no one would willingly engulf themselves in the utter darkness that the tunnel featured.Apart from this path being poorly illuminated, there were other issues to it as well. Some kind of creatures lived here, and this part was pretty predictable, however, these creatures were especially dangerous because they had a genetic advantage, they were mammals!After the team swam about ten-meters forward, something swam past them, right within the tunnel! Aside from the initial scare of being spooked in the dark, Timothy also picked up on a very important detail.“Was that a fucking foot I saw?” He asked, and their guide just nodded.That’s how they discovered that they were entering mammalian territory. With that said, what was to follow was bound to be a challenge, because even though
Chapter 95 - "The obsidian towers"
Timothy wasn’t going to buy a mana quality upgrade anytime soon. He couldn’t afford it, first of all, but that wasn’t the main reason behind his decision. He didn’t feel like spending them due to various reasons, so he’d rather accumulate any and all system points for now, and spend them later on, perhaps on more sensible purchases. Since the quality of Tim’s mana was at level two now, he felt like his normal self again, he felt confident! He was powerful enough to do plenty of damage, independently, and that was the second, more important reason behind his prior decision. He didn’t feel the need to upgrade the quality of his mana again so quickly, he wasn’t in a rush.Despite the main reason why they’ve entered this micro-universe to begin with, which was to improve the quality of the individual mana they bore, he wasn’t in a rush. Level two was plenty for a crafty rascal such as himself.“I went through thick and thin with this rustic ass mana, and most important of all, I survived
Chapter 94 - Stingray ink
Timothy and Arvena hunted the whistling mana-muncher eels. It was evident that the team reigned victorious in this battle already, the enemies were fleeing, but if they were to assure their personal safety even further, then it was best to kill these sneaky, potentially invisible eels, they couldn’t spare them. It would be stupid to let these few vengeful munchers roam free, as they could come back for revenge in any given time later on! It was safer to kill them!Arvena ended up doing most of the work. The fireballs she shot out from the front of her forehead were massive, hot and dangerous! She managed to scorch an eel whole with a single shot, and this spoke volumes of the amount of power that she bore! It was understandable how she was the main contributor here. In the meantime, Timothy managed to kill a single eel, purely by accident. He had spammed lightning-bolts and fireballs against the enemies, and it so happened that he hit one of them at the same time when Arvena had stru
Chapter 93 - Whistling mana munchers!
“A demon? Hell no, I don’t want to meet a demon! The gods hate me enough already.” Timothy refused, he joked partially, then again he was really curious about the matter. Arvena helped maintain his curiosity, as she added. “It’s a caged demon, so don’t worry. Your gods have punished this demon a long time ago, so I’m sure they wouldn’t mind you talking to it.”“Oh shit! You’re serious, aren’t you?” He followed along, “I thought you were talking about a statue or something? I didn’t expect a living, er, unliving demon!”After that part, they swam towards the bottom of the pool without much of a debate. Considering that this demon somehow illuminated a big area, the team expected to see a huge beast, the thing of nightmares, even! They expected a lava-encrusted monster, and rightfully so, but that wasn’t nearly the case!When they got there, the team got really disappointed, Timothy especially! He noticed that the ‘demon’ didn't even have any horns, so it was inappropriate to call it a
Chapter 92 - 0.12 ton Stingray!
Arvena and the team started shifting. It came to them as a bit of a surprise when she asked them to shift, because they were very deep underground right now, so it simply was the worst place to turn into a fish! Their utter confusion was mostly Arvena’s fault, because she hadn’t been too specific so far, regarding why this pool of water would be helpful to them. She didn’t explain it to them yet, but just told them that their visit here would be a great check-point in their journey to mana quality ascension! It might be a great check-point, however, they were yet to discover the pool’s contents.The team was cooperative, but then the most annoying part about her idea was that they had to disrobe first, in order to shapeshift afterwards! This was really uncomfortable for them, socially speaking at least. As goblins, neither of them wanted to walk around naked in front of their friends, even if it was for just a minute, so they dimmed their torches while they took their armor off, for t
