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 hungry! My stingray belly can't fit much food, huh? That kinda makes sense, I shat four times in a day, so, no wonder I'm hungry."

In the following couple of hours, he carefully, and thoroughly explored the odds and ends of the coral reef. Tim was hungry, and needed a lot of points as well, for that matter, he was focused, lazer-sharp, beyond what he was used to, even!

For exploration's sake, he even swam beyond the invisible borders he was used to. Tim hunted across an estimated radius of 60-70 meters this time, and quite frankly, he had to! This whole area was as depleted out of life, as Harold the eel had explained. The feeding spree which happened a few months ago, before Tim was born, really messed this place up.

Anyway, within the two hours of hunting, he found two, separate groups of crustacean species, specifically, crabs and shrimps. He firstly found the shrimp, a few marble shrimp to be exact, and he recognized them instantly, because he was accustomed to their weird bodily forms. Tim wasn’t intimidated by their weird legs anymore, so he chewed through all five of these shrimp, mercilessly!

Once he had done so, the system announced. [Hunger bar = 7/15]

Furthermore, she added. [Health bar = 89/100]

With that said, Tim felt better than he ever did. He ate enough shrimp to replenish his health, which in return, got rid of any kind of pain he had; The few points he got out of them were really important too!

However, regardless of how rewarding these little shrimp seemed at the moment, this was not the most fun or rewarding part of his morning, no. The crabs he found, moments later after he found the shrimp, were all the more amusing! He found them within a layer of yellow coral, and they were priceless!

The crabs were blistering red, had big claws, and were two-foot wide! They were plate shaped, had three pairs of short legs, and had a horrible attitude which vouched for their survival.

They could pinch almost anything without suffering any consequences, because they could hide within the numerous coral cracks really well, due to the weird ways they were shaped. Tim had approached them carefully, because simply, he didn’t want to get killed by them! He was fairly intimidated.

These crabs were three times his size, at least, and he feared that any pinch from their big claws could snap him in half. He did not want that to happen, it would be embarrassing, so he came up with a little idea.

Tim harassed them quite a bit, just to lure them out. He pooped near the entrance of their den, smacked his tail around to make some noise, and made just about any sound that a little stingray could make. That way, he lured a couple of them out, and then primarily used his speed to finish the job!

His fins were still flaming with magic, he could fly really fast. For that matter, Tim used this speed to sneak up on them multiple times! He found their blind spots, pounced on them, and used his sharp little jaws to bite their whole claws off! To do so, he targeted the thin arms these crabs had, which was very efficient!

Tim even stabbed them a couple of times, with his tail, so they'd die off faster. The venom in his tail wasn't the strongest, but the internal organs of a crab weren't so strong either, so they died off in minutes!

He repeated this whole process a few times, until he killed six of these crabs! They weren’t so smart, and for that matter, each of them fell victim to his repetitive tactics!

Once he killed all of them, the system announced. [Good job! You yielded 22 system points, out of each of these crabs! In total, you now have accumulated 160 points!]

"Oh, hell yeah!" He celebrated, "My hunting tactics worked… I was wondering when that old hunting upgrade would come in handy."

Anyway, the true celebration began, once he started munching on one of the dead crabs, it was when he figured out that they were truly priceless. Tim got a few mouthfuls of raw meat, and moments later, the system blurted out a very important notification!

[Congratulations, Timothy. It looks like you're eating a really dense, and magical, panzer crab. Their kind of nature is relentlessly aggressive, but eating them gives great rewards for newborns like yourself. Eat as much of it as you can, camp near it if you must, because these crabs will encourage your very first growth sprout!] She said.

"Growth sprout? So you mean… I could grow bigger?" He asked.

[Precisely!] She agreed, [The sprout could change your body size, anywhere from 14% to 291% ~ So, please take this situation seriously.]

Tim was very intrigued by the idea of growing up to be a bigger stingray, especially if he could do that in a day or so. However, he really hated the idea of camping near these crabs, because he didn’t want to wait for hours on end, until he was hungry again! That would be inefficient.

His stingray belly was really small, so it could take ages before he ate one of these crabs entirely, not to mention all of them! He didn't want to spend several whole days in hiding, so he came up with another idea.

"They're special, it's almost like I found a few special crabs of my own, but I gotta ditch them for now. I'll just push them back in their hole, right there." He muttered.

Tim had filled his belly entirely by now, and he didn’t really want to eat the same meal for days, so this plan was perfect. Sharks couldn't barge in thin coral cracks either, which made this plan of his seem all the more efficient!

"I'll get back to them as soon as I can," He planned, "But for now, I gotta keep hunting!"