ALL NOVEL 1.07: Climbing up
Henry was sure that if his tentacles could shake from nerves and fear, they would still be shaking.
It’d been close to an hour since he got back to his temporary home. The one he’d taken from the starfish. And he didn’t dare move or make a peep.
“There’s a monster nearby.”
Could it have been a whale?
Henry’s sense of scale was off, but he didn’t think so. Also, he’d listened to every type of whale call back on Earth, and that didn’t sound like one he knew. Not even close.
“No more shark hunting. Not unless I can block them from running.”
Killing the shark had been surprisingly easy though, even if he almost got stranded somewhere he shouldn’t be.
Well, even more than he already was.
“Holy shit.”
Henry kept staring at the wall for a few more seconds, then shook his head and brought up his new acquisitions. He would have loved to use the shark’s loot as leveling resources, but there hadn’t been time to drag around a Core.
“At least the beads always show up nearby… aside from that first fish. Maybe it had to do with me not having the interface back then?”
Consumption Tokens: 39
Ephemerals (1/1):
Riptide Rush (F): Summon a powerful current to propel yourself forward at immense speed. (Time remaining: 12 hours, 7 minutes)
“That looks valuable for when I’d like to get out of here. But…”
He was running out of space. If he made that Skill permanent, he’d be 4 for 4 in his Class Skills. What would happen next? Can he replace the Skills? Or were they permanent?
“Should I even stay in this area?”
There was a sea monster a few minutes’ swim away. Should he try to find another spot?
And what if he found something else just as big in the other directions?
Henry looked down at the Skill and left it in Ephemerals. He didn’t dare use it. It might throw him further away than he intended, and that wasn’t the sort of thing he should be risking.
His mana was back to around 60%. He hadn’t been injured, so he was in good shape.
Henry couldn’t do much about sea monsters. But he could do something about squatters.
“It’s time to go say hi to the eel. After I get some mana back. And spend some Tokens.”
Henry had one Token left when he left his den again.
The sharks were gone, with only one or two left in the distance. And they weren’t just dark shapes anymore.
Henry could see their stripes. And he could identify them, even from this far out.
He’d gotten the last purchasable Perception increase. It had been between that or Spirit, but he could wait for his mana to refill while Perception would help him survive. As long as he stopped diving head-first into danger.
He’d gotten two more points in Dexterity as well, which made his limbs a lot more responsive to his command and definitely more prehensile. And he took two more points in Strength.
Seconds later, he took a last turn and saw his turtle-shell home, radiant in the daylight.
“The days are longer in this place,” he mused to himself as he closed in on his target.
He looked up, making sure there weren’t any new predators around that would interfere with his plan, and stole a glance toward the surface some 50 yards away. Give or take 40.
He couldn’t really tell how far it was. He could see it, though.
Henry knew there were nights. He’d caught it a couple of times, but without any measuring and testing, he’d say it was… Four hours of night? Maybe less?
“Very short nights. I should try to measure it with Riptide’s Timer. Ah… hello, friend.”
The purple eel poked its head out, and Henry smiled nervously. In his own mind.
“Stick to the plan.”
He swam nearby, not really rushing the eel, and waited. Then his limbs locked up.
“Step 1, complete.”
He felt himself being dragged toward the eel as he curiously peered through the purple hue surrounding him. He saw its mouth begin to open wider, and he readied an Inkjet charge.
When he was close enough he let out the ink, then swam right and around, rushing the distracted eel.
It immediately turned to face him and lunged. Henry raised two tentacles in response and the eel clamped down on them. Hard.
It didn’t hurt much. He could feel the strength the eel was using, but its teeth were barely through the skin. The eel pulled, and Henry was pulled along with it as he slowly began wrapping a tentacle around the eel’s neck.
Then the world spun.
“A death-roll? Really?”
Some blue blood seeped from the tentacles being chomped on. The eel managed to tear into his flesh a bit more than with the initial puncture… but that was it.
He finished wrapping his tentacle around its neck and activated Razor Limb, then pulled it away.
Blood surged out of the eel’s sliced throat, and Henry pried his two tentacles out of the panicked eel’s mouth.
They were shredded a bit, but nothing that wouldn’t heal in a few hours.
The eel floated in front of him, twitching as blood seeped out of its opened neck.
“That was underwhelming,” he thought as he went into his home, dragging the eel along with him as it went through its final death throes.
Its body fell to the sandy floor of the turtle-home, and the familiar sheen appeared over it for a moment before reducing into a shiny violet Core.
1x Telekinetic Eel Core (F)
Consume | Exchange for Consumption Tokens [29]
Henry pressed Consume as he took a nibble from the eel’s flank.
Undecided Marine Biologist - Level 7 achieved!
…
Undecided Marine Biologist - Level 10 achieved! 1x Stat point awarded.
Telekinetic Eel Core (F) contained significant Spirit Stats. 1x Spirit Stat point awarded.
Telekinesis (F) was copied by Magic Mimic. Ephemerals are full. Replace Riptide Rush(F)?
Henry approved the replacement, then read through the ability. He bit out another piece of the eel as he confirmed that was the only Skill it had. “I can get stats from Cores? That’s good to know.”
Telekinesis (F): Spend mana to control the movement of a perceived target. (Time remaining: 17 hours, 27 minutes)
“The duration of Skills are all over the place,” he thought, then went to his Skill Acquisition menu to double-check everything was still there. And it was. Dart, Riptide Rush and Telekinesis were available for purchase.
He’d have to test what happened if he tried to purchase something with three slots full. Once he went back out. He also assigned the point to Constitution. He felt like it was the stat that was keeping him alive at this point.
After the light show was over, Henry looked down at the eel and sighed.
“You were terrifying. But compared to what’s out there…”
Henry dragged the eel outside for other fish to eat, then went back into the shell he’d woken up in almost a week ago.
He gripped the bottom edge with his tentacle for comfort, then peered through the entrance toward the rippling surface.
Sooner or later, he’d have to get up there. He wondered if he’d be able to see anything.
“I’d be so lucky if I could see land.”
Then what? It wasn’t as if he could grow legs and go out on land.
Henry triggered Hoarded Vitality, then let himself drift into a short nap.
Henry woke up to the sound of nearby thuds.
He rose up to the entrance, then poked his head out. A few feet away, two large-ish crabs were fighting over the half-eaten eel he’d thrown out. Around them, smaller fish were darting in and out, nibbling on the dead eel.
[Bladed Blue Crab (F) - Lvl 17 ]
[Bladed Blue Crab (F) - Lvl 15 ]
Henry watched the crabs fight.
“I’ll get the winner. But I probably should throw food a bit further away from now on… Yeah. that wasn’t the smartest move.”
Henry watched the crabs dance around each other. Occasionally, they’d try to angle their pincers to snip the other crab’s arm–off but they’d immediately get parried, which explained the noise.
After a couple of minutes, it seemed one of them grew tired of the charade and its pincer moved a lot faster than before. It sheared through the second one’s arm and a leg, which forced the latter to back-off.
The victorious crab–the higher level one–turned back to his meal, and Henry slid out of his hiding spot. He circled around, approaching the crab from behind using his siphon.
Then he remembered; he had Telekinesis now.
After a quick look up to make sure nothing dangerous was roaming nearby, Henry focused the crab and triggered Telekinesis.
A purple hue shrouded the crab, immobilizing it. Henry could feel it fight back. Trying to move.
And he watched his mana trickle away faster than he expected.
Henry rushed forward, one tentacle chopping down with a Razor Edge primed, but it barely scratched the tough shell of the crustacean. So he wrapped his tentacles around its arms and used Bite.
“Damn, this thing’s tough.”
A few seconds later, he successfully cracked the shell and bit into its brain. Then he carried both the crab and the half-eaten eel to throw them further away from his home.
“Having multiple arms is sorta growing on me. I’d prefer thumbs… but this isn’t a bad alternative.”
With another tentacle he picked up the Core, and as he swam back home, he wondered what he should do about the fact that his neighbor was a huge monster.