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 that he did have, had numbed most of his movements up until moments ago! He didn’t want to return to that. Thankfully, the system answered. [These points aren’t temporary, no. You replenished your health bar, and unless acted upon, your health bar will be 69/100 from now on.] “That’s good, you know? Finally, something to be happy about.” He thought. However, from the looks of it, these shrimp also had a negative effect. He ate seven of them, and each shrimp took a point away from his sleep and stamina bar. He felt pooped, and therefore looked for a tidy place on the sand, where he could sleep on. This place was pretty safe, or at least, huge creatures wouldn’t be able to get in here. He shouldn’t find himself facing any enemies here, none which he knew of, so this time around he could sleep peacefully. While he dug himself into the sand, the system came along with another chunk of information. [The kills you just made, also reaped you 7 whole system points. In total, you now have 13 points at your disposal.] That didn’t sound bad at all, but TIm didn’t care about points right now. The lack of stamina knocked him out cold, just moments after he dug into the sand. He felt safe, stronger, and he even dreamt about killing that mako shark who chased him. This wasn’t as bad of a day as he made it out to be. ... About five hours later, Tim woke up and he felt fully rested. He was alive, there weren’t any enemies in sight as surely, sharks wouldn’t be able to squeeze in here. He was safe, and felt strong for once as well! He had dreamt about being the strongest stingray in existence, which was far from the truth right now, but it was something good to aim for. Before he went asleep, he remembered the system talking about points, and now, he figured that it was time to use them. “Gotta get stronger somehow,” He mumbled, and then asked. “System, what can I buy right now?” The system was quick to answer that, she said. [There are currently two available upgrade options, and you can’t afford either of them.] [Option number one = Learn your current location. This option is priced at 14 points] This option seemed bizarre, and for a single reason only. Location, or knowing one’s own location, shouldn’t matter much for a little stingray. He could travel to another sea or anything like that, he was really small and slow. He hoped that there was more to this purchase, otherwise it would be a waste of points. Anyway, the system continued. [Option number two = Upgrade your Hunting, jaws, and natural camouflage capabilities to level three. This upgrade is priced at 28 points.] Tim wanted to buy this option instead, it seemed really useful. However, it was also expensive, too expensive for him. It would probably take a while to get another fifteen points to use, and under the current circumstances, he didn’t really want to put the work in. He didn’t want to eat those spidery shrimp anymore, especially not fifteen of them all together! For that matter, he had to decide. “Oh well, can’t buy the cool stuff, but might as well buy something. I want to learn my location, system, maybe it’ll show me the good stuff, like where to find better food?” [As I mentioned before, you lack the required points to purchase this option. Go kill another one of those ‘spiders’ as there are plenty of them in your den. If you don’t want to eat any of them, just bite its head off, as it will still give you a point, though, it won’t affect your health or stamina at all.] The system said. Tim was irritated right now, he didn’t want to move, but he had to comply. He found a marble shrimp, and killed it without remorse! [Purchase confirmed,] The system immediately said. [Finding host…] Suddenly, a map appeared in front of Tim's vision! It stretched from one end of his vision to the other, and it looked a lot like a computer screen! Interesting for sure. "Wow!" He exclaimed. Plenty of moving images flashed in front of him afterwards. An earth-like planet appeared on that screen, except the planet’s atmosphere, unlike earth, had a stroke of red mixed between its overwhelming blue gas. It was beautiful! The globe spun quickly within the screen, and once it stopped spinning, it zoomed in on a specific part of the ocean, which had a stretch of land nearby. Tim wasn’t on earth right now, that aside, he was a stingray, so he didn’t really recognize landmasses by their name. All of that looked like miscellaneous information to him. The computer-like screen ignored the landmass as much as Tim did. Instead, the screen zoomed into the sea water, submerged within it, and started taking numerous quick turns below the water. TIm felt as if he was being chased by a camera crew right now, one which had superpowers, because eventually, the screen showed him the very coral reef he was hiding in. It found that stretch of red coral, and he only assumed that the ‘cameras’ were above his head now. He was too scared to swim upwards and look at them, but the system still impressed him nonetheless. The system then explained, [[You are in the Strait of Teutana, near the city of Trekanas. The area is mostly safe, but I advise you to exercise caution. You’re too small, so a small injury can snowball into a deadly infection. This coral reef can be your friend for a while, explore carefully.] As the system spoke, Tim looked at the screen in front of him, and tried to make sense of the area. The screen wouldn’t zoom in any further, but from the short glimpses he had gotten earlier on, it was obvious that this reef was absolutely massive! There were infinite hiding spots here, and he guessed that plenty of other small animals used this place to hide in. With that in mind, if he tried enough, then he’d plenty of spots to farm points on. It was inevitable! Anyway, the system sealed this whole topic off, as she explained. [This purchase consumed all of your points, so I’d say that you should take your explorative aspirations seriously. If you’re to progress, you will need many points.] Tim was aware of that, so he didn’t get demotivated when the system pointed it out. He was a poor little stingray right now, but since he didn’t want to die anytime soon, it was best to just work and aim for progress! The system added one more thing, [That aside, about ten minutes from now, you won’t be able to look at this map anymore, so pay attention and try to not forget your surroundings.] “Okay, guess I can’t swim fast unless I need to, huh?” Tim came to those terms, “Hate to waste these flaming cunts, but oh well…”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
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
"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
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.
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
What Timothy was about to do, took a lot of guts. He was about to encounter that big mako-shark, and this encounter could end up badly, but he was simply mesmerized by the idea of ‘special crabs’! He wanted them.He found the shark lurking about fifty meters away from the reef, and then approached him. Tim felt uncomfortable about this plan, but he had to get close in order to catch the shark’s attention."Hey, flame-ass! Harold the eel needs your help, he sent me to find you!" He shouted.However, a stingray’s vocal cords were very limited, so he couldn't make any loud noises. For that matter, he had to approach even closer, and then yell out once more. He called out, “Hey, fish face! Harold needs your help! Can you hear me?”Tim was about ten meters away from the shark now, and this was as close as he could get. If he swam any closer, then Drake the shark may attack, and he surely didn’t want to get bitten today. Thankfully though, the shark seemed to have heard him. It turned aro
Tim's sense of vengeance went down, as soon as he found a place where he could rest at. The hard outlay of coral was his best friend around here, and he used it well, as he hid beneath about four layers of this hardy coral. Nothing could get to him at that point, nothing dangerous at least, he was deep within these natural barricades! He thought, "Harold can't get me here… and fuck that guy! Who tricks a kid by promising spooky crabs? That was borderline pedophilia there, or at least, in the real world he would've gotten in trouble for tricking a child! I'm only like twenty-nine days old, god damn it." Such accusations were way out of line, but this little outburst had a simpler outlay. He cared less and less about either Harold or Drake, the more he talked about them, and as long as he avoided them from now on, he'd be perfectly fine with forgiving them. Forgiving was an exaggerated word, even, as he simply did not care to get involved with them at all
Tim 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!