I'm a Stingray?

Chapter 33 - Sneaky Stingray!

The risks that Tim took, came hand-to-hand with advantages. The quality of his mana was greater now, so he managed to pave an escape route for himself as a result. He beamed through the waters at an astounding speed!

Tim swam low, pretty close to the sea-floor even, so he managed to escape the danger zone successfully. The sharks didn’t notice the commotion he caused across the waters, and since his mana pool was scarce of points too, they couldn’t smell the mana on him either. The scent on him wasn’t noticeable, not at all.

“Peww… I made it. Fuck those sharks, I ain’t fighting them, and odds are that they’ll never find me either.” He mumbled.

Tim had reached the coral reef in seconds, and he was relieved. He had swum towards safety, with the aid of his flaming fins ability, which had allowed him to swim at a speed of up to 24 km/h! This part of the experience was intense, due to numerous reasons.

The said speed was the reason why he had caused a tiny commotion across the waters a moment ago, as he had a tiny complication because of it! He swam really fast, which got him flipping around the waters as a result. He didn’t make his escape as smoothly as one would imagine, which was why he was so relieved that he had escaped unnoticed to begin with!

“Shits got me flipping around like a pancake,” He thought, “I gotta be smarter next time, for my own fucking sake. I’m the definition of light weight, so it’s kinda stupid of me to swim at full speed. The sharks were grannies in comparison too, so I was rushing for nothing!”

The system was listening to him, as she always did. As she listened to the other’s rants, she couldn’t help but add her two into the conversation, because she knew a thing or two about physics.

She said, [It’s almost always a dumb idea, for a guy of your size to swim that fast. You have a flat body, so if you keep this up, you’re going to fly like a plane at some point, except the results will end up being far less favorable for you than you’d imagine. Stingrays aren’t built for speed, so you need more weight to counter your natural, plate-like aerodynamics. You’d be more efficient that way too, specifically, you won’t be wasting most of your mana points as easily, for a 14 second trip.]

“No kidding, system! My brain isn’t fit for math yet, but I’m not retarded either, I get ya… There’s no way around it, I need that growth-sprout to happen as soon as possible. It’ll help balance my aerodynamics or whatever.” He added.

Tim acknowledged what the system wanted to say, he was aware of his predicaments, so he was willing to work on them as soon as he got the chance. He was eager, but he was out of mana for the moment, however, so he couldn’t really move around much without risking his life across the open waters as a result, so he came up with a solution that promised safety and eventual progress!

He hid between a couple layers of yellow coral. This was his plan, and it worked well too, because he was really small, and could hide for hours in plain sight if he wanted to, it was a no brainer when it came to safety. The layers of thick coral were protective, he depended on them.

He was sick of resting all the time, but he acknowledged the reasons behind it too. This boring disadvantage came hand-to-hand with the daily troubles of magehood, it was inevitable for every species.

Tim had to replenish a bunch of his mana, and he had to wait for it to replenish, which was the boring part about this plan, but it was all for safety’s sake. It was mandatory, because if he needed a boost of speed throughout his travels, for example, that would only be possible through mana. He needed reserves, so he planned to rest for about three hours to get them!

At some point, Tim got hungry as well, which was very frustrating, but he also understood why he was hungry all the time. His belly couldn’t fit much food, and he moved around far more than the average tiny stingray did, which in turn was very energy consuming. Since those two aspects went parallel with one another, his metabolism was oftentimes at a strain, as his body couldn’t keep up with his explorative and jittery characteristics! He was aware of that.

The hunger beat down on his body for about two hours, but he didn’t bother looking for food in the perimeter he was hiding in. He wanted to empty his stomach thoroughly instead, in order to eat as many chunks of panzer crab meat as possible, which in turn would encourage his growth-sprout even more.

Tim had that little plan and he followed it thoroughly, and part of his plan, didn’t allow him to rest in one spot for an extended period of time. He moved across the reef from time to time, from one spot to the other, as he wanted to get closer to his food stash, without taking any huge risks along the way.

These several tiny sprints he made, throughout the span of three hours, cured a portion of his boredom too. The risks he took by moving around were minimal, but the sprints still were a good distraction for him. That aside, Tim was tens of meters closer to his food stash as a result!

Anyway, after about three hours of such fragmented sprints, he managed to sneak a comfortable distance away from the sharks as well. He was safer now, and since he managed to accumulate almost three-hundred mana points in total, he started putting them into use; Tim sped up across the open waters, he wasn’t hiding anymore.

He aimed to swim towards his stash of panzer crabs, and furthermore, he thought. “It’s better to tend to my stash now, and uh, I shouldn’t visit the sect today, it’s too risky. Marlo probably won’t accept me there anyway… cuz for all I know, Ortana probably told him that I was the one who killed all those stingray friends of ours, I wouldn’t be surprised. I should avoid those blistering bastards for a while, erg, blistering mana sect, or whatever they’re called.”

Tim had to be calculative, even if he didn’t like it. He hadn’t seen Ortana along the way, he hadn’t seen her at all for hours, so it was reasonable that he was suspicious. Tim wasn’t as positive about the whole friendship thing anymore, which gave him a lot of room to embrace common sense, he didn’t want to make any mistakes.

He found the food stash, and started munching on it. There were still plenty of panzer crab meat laying around for him to eat, as apparently other critters hadn’t been able to sneak into the coral crack where he had stashed them in. Furthermore, the salt within the seas was helping preserve the meat as well, so the meat hadn’t quite rotten either, it was edible.

Tim had this little backup plan, which included eating as much crab meat as he possibly could. He felt that this effort would finally seal the deal, and give him the growth-sprout that he wanted. That way, even if the sect turned against him, he’d be better off, and could likely protect himself more. Besides, others would think twice about killing a big stingray!

The system, out of a sudden, gave him another idea, which promised safety. Tim had a couple of other upgrades that he hadn’t touched, and it was about time that he looked them over.

She said, [Hello, Timothy. I noticed that you’re ignoring your four upgrade options, for whatever reason? It’s not smart, and considering the plausible tension across your immediate area, I suggest that you consider upgrading your already purchased, extingus breath magical ability. This upgrade promises your extingus breath, a stronger resistance against any offensive, elemental magic that an opponent may cast upon you, so don’t be negligent, buy it.]