I'm a Stingray?

Chapter 9 - Special Crabs?

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, which made the reef all the more expansive! So just like that, he got occupied for a solid two hours, within a puny, thirty-meter radius across the reef!

He barely reaped any fruits from this labor. There were plenty of fish across the reef as well as other species, ones which may or may not give him points, but he couldn't catch either of them, as they were too fast and very good at hiding!

"Bloody hell! Why don't they just give up? They can’t be having fun here!" Tim referred to those fish, he was very irritated.

Throughout this time span, Tim only managed to find about seven marble shrimp, and four ignatius crabs. Such a haul wasn't too bad, but these creatures only gave him a point per kill, and that was what made things difficult. He didn’t manage to accumulate as many points as he hoped for, and that aside, he could barely even eat half of these critters either!

Tim wasn’t so hungry, and the shrimp would put him to sleep if he ate them, so he only bit their heads off, and left their carcasses to float around. It was cruel, but a bit efficient.

Considering the overall results, however, he wanted to call it quits here, and check out what upgrades he could buy from the system. Small-time hunting wasn't getting him anywhere.

The system said that he had gathered 225 system points in total, and in hindsight, that amount did seem like a lot. He was eager to use them all, for progression's sake!

Tim slipped through a bit of coral, and sought out a comfortable spot to rest on. He wanted to lay down on some sand, and have a layer of protection surrounding him as well. Safety was important, after all.

However, it would appear that he slipped in the wrong hole. He swam into a wide place which was quite dark, but yet, it wasn't empty!

Tim spotted a pair of light-blue eyes in the midst of darkness, and could only assume that these eyes belonged to some monstrous fish! He was getting stared at directly, and it was nerve wracking!

"Hello, I'm Harold. Please, don't leave..." The inhabitant suddenly spoke out.

"You can talk to stingrays… so, are you one? Let me see your tail." Tim followed along.

Tim didn't trust this one, it was difficult to. That aside, he would only feel comfortable around other stingrays, so if this was another creature instead, then he planned to beam out of here!

"I'm not a stingray, I'm an eel, kid. A shivering var-blood eel, to be exact." It said, and then added. "But please don't be scared, I'm not gonna hurt you… I need your help."

Tim had tried to position his thunder-charged tail, the moment this thing said that it wasn’t a stingray. He wanted to burn the eel's eyes off, if not kill it, just to protect himself! Then again, a creature who pleaded for help wasn't so easy to kill or attack.

He ended up asking, "Help with what? Also, how do you understand me? You're not a stingray… not even close."

Harold got a bit irritated there, though he did answer. "I'm an eel, kid, and your language isn't that hard to understand. But please, listen and focus… I'm stuck here, have been stuck for months because this place really managed to fatten me up. I'm not as small as I used to be, and that's what's killing me now."

With that being said, Tim was intimidated even more. He barely saw the eel's body, apart from small portions of its head, and yet he was still intimidated. If this thing was as big as it described itself to be, it could kill him in a blink!

For that matter, he didn’t really feel comfortable about another eel being loose across the reef. It would be hazardous!

Tim's better judgment convinced him to back away, and meanwhile he said. "I can't help you, Harold, sorry. Eat less and exercise… maybe that'll get you out of here?"

"Oh, you'll help me." Harold insisted, and his voice sounded quite sleazy now. "You're looking for food, right boy? The sharks went on a feeding spree a few months ago, and they devastated most of the reef… damn, it's why I hid here to begin with, but, I do know where to find good food, special crabs, if you know what I mean…? Help me get out of this shithole, and I'll show you where the blue-clawed crabs are, I promise!"

"Oh…" Tim sighed, and he was enthralled by this offer. "Well, how can I help you then?"

With a hint of joy in his tone, Harold answered. "Look, sharks are assholes, but I did manage to make friends with a few of them. There should be a shark with flaming fins here, around the reef. Find him, and tell him to come and get me… his name is Drake, mention his name, and he won't eat you."

"Shit… I saw that guy. This idea can kill me, Harold, so those crabs better be worth it." He sighed, and then left, by squeezing through a couple of short tunnels within the coral.

On his way out, he even asked the system about these special crabs, but she didn't respond kindly. He would have to bite on those crabs himself, in order for the system to talk about said crabs. There could be many species of blue-colored crabs, and they couldn’t make any speculations without seeing, and tasting one of them, first hand. He couldn't cheat his way towards the good stuff.

Anyway, Tim was very nervous about approaching a shark, as things could go horribly wrong along the way. He was excited though nonetheless, and couldn't wait to taste these special crabs as soon as possible!