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 good for you, even if you don't find the mana roots immediately. Be careful, Timothy, and happy hunting!]

Tim needed a moment to process everything that the system just said, and once he did process it, he figured out that the best idea was to leave this coral reef for a short while. The edge of the reef was really close to his den, so he could leave this place easily.

Furthermore, the waters here, around the reef were very shallow, which meant that he couldn't put his depth durability to the test over here. He had to head for the open seas instead, and hoped to finish more than one task along the way!

Later on, he was to return to the reef before nightfall, as he had stashed a bunch of panzer crabs there. He needed those crabs for his growth sprout, so it was important to swim back to them.

Overall though, today's goals were fascinating! He was to explore the seas more than ever before, and hopefully win a bunch of points along the way!

…

Tim swam two hundred meters away from the reef, and it didn't take him so long, but it was a bit boring for him along the way. There was barely any life out here, apart from seaweed and a few dozen urchins here and there, which didn't really appeal to him. The area outside (and in front) of the reef, was mostly a stretch of desolate sand.

He could've stopped by to try and poke at one of those urchins, but the risks associated with them weren't worthwhile, especially since he didn’t have any ranged attacks to use against them right now! Urchins were one of the most dangerous creatures across the sea ~ Some of them were explosive, and he could even contract the plague virus from other species of urchins, so it was best to leave them alone.

Besides, the open seas were far more interesting! Tim swam all the way to an elevation drop, and there, he could see how deep the waters could truly be! He only saw utter darkness, as this portion of the sea was at least a kilometer deep, it wasn't shallow, like the reef whatsoever!

Tim looked at these depths, and couldn't help thinking. "The deep sea…. I wonder what kind of jackasses swim down there. Back on earth, deep sea creatures were terrifying! Can't imagine how weird they are in this world, I wouldn't be surprised if there were humans down there… this place is too weird."

He was tempted to swim towards this deeper area, just to figure out how it felt like, however, something else caught his attention. Tim's hunting senses tingled, as he noticed some intense vibrations, which were above him, towards the water's surface, rather than towards these depths underneath him. His instincts made him prioritize this huge commotion over anything!

"There you are, you fishy bastards…" He grunted.

It didn't take him long to locate the source of all this commotion. There was a cloud-like thing in front of him, about fifty meters away, and this cloud stretched further than the eye could see, it was perhaps over two kilometers wide! Within this massive cloud, there were a bunch of silver dots, which flickered aggressively for some reason!

Tim was scared shitless for a good moment! The color gray didn't scare him, no, but he had this irrational fear that the large cloud of fish in front of him, were actually a crowd of sharks! It was unlikely that he was facing sharks right now, but still, he'd rather be safe rather than depend on his luck in this situation.

With that considered, he even thought. "Maybe I should hide somewhere? The sharks had a feeding spree in the reef before, maybe they're coming back for a second dinner? Can't risk it… it's not like I'm the protector of the reef or something, I don't have to be heroic here."

This latter part of his thoughts wasn't as stupid. He was being quite rational, in fact, so he slowly started swimming backwards, just to avoid any and all attention.

The system scared him to hell and back afterwards, as she suddenly said. [Timothy, those aren't sharks! You're getting spooked over nothing, it's kind of pathetic.]

"Survival is pathetic? I have to disagree with you there, system." He countered.

[The underwater cloud in front of you, is most likely a school of small sardines, very small. They should be docile as well, because sardines of this size cannot and won't hunt most species of stingrays. They don't bite.] She followed along.

With that said, Tim calmed down a little bit, and then added. "Can't be too safe, when something as stupid as an urchin can kill ya."

Tim then spent a good moment observing this cloud, which was presumed to be a school of fish. He doubted the system's expertise for once, because the cloud in front of him was far too large, so it couldn't be as harmless as she presumed. He didn't want to die there, however, it wasn't any more efficient to hide from fish that were smaller than him. He needed points, and this was a great opportunity to get said points!