ALL NOVEL 1.15: The Flatfish
Henry had never had the chance to hear those words. Not since his childhood. And his memories from then were foggy at best.
He stared coldly down at the figure that kept repeating the same two or three sentences over and over again. His tentacles shook and his thoughts were frantic. But he knew this wasn’t real.
There are telepathic whales. This is clearly a trap. Something’s picking stuff out of my brain to lure me down there.
His mom looked exactly like the picture he’d had of her.
Whatever this was, it was showing him something he wanted to see. He had a couple of guesses. Even though he knew this was nature, and this was probably a predator doing its thing–just like he’d been doing since he came to consciousness–it still unnerved and ticked him off all at once.
Anglerfish. Or something like that.
Henry wanted to feed it to the sharks.
[?]
He tried identifying it, but it seemed like the Skill failed when he targeted his fake-mother.
Henry swam away, then came back two minutes later with a large goatfish. His fake-mother showed up from behind the rock again, and he chucked the goatfish onto the sand.
The dead fish hit the sand, and nothing happened.
Henry left for ten minutes and came back with a Riptide Shark.
This time, before the shark even hit the seabed, something surged out from under the sand.
[Lurelight Flatfish (E) - ? ]
“There you are.”
It was an oddly translucent–and large– flat angler-fish looking thing. It opened a large mouth and began working the shark down its gullet.
He couldn’t see the lure itself anymore. Probably the product of a Skill.
Henry glared down at the fish.
He wanted its levels. He wasn’t sure he wanted the Skill it was using. And he didn’t like that the impulse to cut the anglerfish in half was being pushed forth by emotions.
So far he’d mostly been hunting and preying on the local population out of necessity. He needed to get stronger to survive in this ocean and to have a chance of getting out.
His wanton killings were spurred by the need for survival. Not glee at hunting living beings, and not out of spite or anger.
This felt different.
The flatfish was almost done swallowing the shark, and Henry floated around its hunting grounds.
“I’m not going to find an easier E-rank predator to kill. And it’s not as if it was innocently living its life.”
He tried to push down his reservations. This was clearly a predator that tried to lure him personally.
Henry activated Razor Tentacle and the gray bladed-magic shone under his now larger limb. The eye of the fish flicked to him.
Henry whipped his tentacle, hitting the flatfish over its upward-facing gills.
His tentacle barely cut through the skin.
“Henry, stop.”
The image of his mother reappeared. She was crying. “Please, stop. Don’t hurt me.”
Henry activated another Razor Blade and shoved both bladed tentacles under the flatfish’s protective membrane, into its gills.
With the Core (E) secured, Henry swam back to his home.
He traveled slowly, stopping a couple of times to examine some particularly vibrant colors or a fish he hadn’t seen before. He paused for a moment along the way to watch the light of day above and try to forget what the flatfish had shown him.
Henry hadn’t gotten its Skill. He was happy it hadn’t been transferrable.
He didn’t feel he could turn his nose up to Skills at this point so he had bitten into the flatfish. But he hadn’t gotten a notification. The ability was probably a Trait, and Henry couldn’t steal those yet.
It was for the better. He didn’t want to have a Skill like that.
Rationally, it was an extremely impressive specimen. It used a fascinating and effective strategy. Getting your target’s brain to do your work for them and lure them into your trap? Genius.
Emotionally? Henry fucking hated that fish.
His skin was still crawling from the experience. He wanted to forget the encounter, and for a moment he considered visiting the whales. But he wouldn't have to explain his sour mood to them. Because of course they’d pick up on it.
He turned his attention back to the new Core. And how many Tokens it was worth.
“Probably because it’s E-Rank.”
He didn’t expect other E-Rank monsters to be as easy to bring down. He got lucky by exploiting a weakness, and even then it had been a tight fit. The flatfish’s scales had been insanely tough; if Henry hadn’t known about the gill trick, he wouldn’t have been able to kill it.
Henry entered his turtleshell home, spat the core back out and Identified it.
1x Lurelight Flatfish Core (E)
Consume | Exchange for Consumption Tokens [2340]
“How many levels is that going to be? How much longer until I can leave?”
He needed to be able to reliably hunt E-ranks soon. With them he’d get levels faster. Buy stat points. Even the upgrades for Razor Tentacle or Telekinesis shouldn’t be too tough to get.
“Consume.”
The Core dissolved into a sandy cloud of smoke and rushed into him, filling him with so much strength and vigor he felt he could wrestle a serpent. Moments later, a deluge of notifications filled his mind.
Undecided Marine Biologist - Level 51 achieved!
...
Undecided Marine Biologist - Level 77 achieved!
5x Stat point awarded.
Lurelight Flatfish Core (E) contained significant Constitution Stats. 1x Constitution Stat points awarded.
Razor Tentacle (E) - Level 2 -> Level 3
Telekinesis (E) - Level 3 -> level 4
Tentacle Whip (F) - Level 1 -> 3
Henry looked at the notifications and nodded. It might be worth trying to track down more of these flatfish. He assigned two points to Strength and brought it to 10, then brought Perception to 10 as well. His eyes burned and pulsed with pain for a few seconds, as did his flesh.
He felt stronger than ever. And he could taste. With his mouth. The salty taste of the ocean brought up some nostalgia from where he’d grown up and from his last few days on the ship.
Stats:
Strength: 10 [1 Base][4 Class][5 Purchased] (6 Purchasable)
Constitution: 12 [1 Base][5 Class][1 Consumption][5 Purchased] (6 Purchasable)
Spirit: 10 [4 Base][2 Class] [2 Consumption][2 Purchased] (6 Purchasable)
Perception: 10 [2 Base][4 Class][4 Purchased] (6 Purchasable)
Dexterity: 6 [2 Base][4 Purchased](0 Purchasable)
With that done, Henry decided there was still daylight to burn, and he went back out hunting.
The bad news was that Henry found no other Lurelight flatfish.
The better-but-not-fully-good news was that he was able to lure a better target away from the rest of its school.
[Whipcrack Shark (E) - Lvl ?]
The shark tore off a piece of Riptide, causing the sand around the carcass to surge, clouding everything behind a screen of yellow and white dust, but Henry’s improved vision wasn’t bothered.
He watched the shark have its meal from only a couple of feet away.
Without ceremony or much pep-talk, Henry dropped his disguise and swam closer. He immobilized the shark with Telekinesis. The shark immediately pushed against it, and Henry’s head began to pulse. So he opted for the safest and quickest method to bring it down.
Tentacles to the gills.
Henry tore into them for a few seconds. When felt he’d done enough, he backed away.
He looked the shark in the eye, finally letting go of Telekinesis before a vein burst in his brain.
He didn’t run. He wasn’t running. Not today.
The shark jerked around with its mouth open, probably trying to inhale but not getting enough oxygen because of its destroyed gills. Then it half-turned and whipped Henry with a crack that made his whole world lurch.
Henry’s saw double for a few seconds, but kept his eyes on the shark. It hurt. But not as much as he’d expected. And his healing charges were ready and untouched.
“84%. That’s fair.”
The shark was growing lethargic as it tried to swim away. In the distance, Henry saw a few more sharks begin swimming their way.
As he stopped it with Telekinesis, he wondered if the other sharks came because of the blood or the noise of the Skill. He took a bite of the shark, then swam away.
1x Whipcrack Shark Core (E)
Consume | Exchange for Consumption Tokens [3360]
Henry dove down into a crevice to watch the remains of the Whipcrack shark be devoured, then hit Consume.
Undecided Marine Biologist - Level 78 achieved!
...
Undecided Marine Biologist - Level 92 achieved!
3x Stat point awarded
Whipcrack Shark Core (E) contained significant Dexterity Stats. 1x Dexterity Stat points awarded
Bite: Bite of the Whipcrack Shark acquired
“More Tokens than the flatfish, but less levels earned.”
Henry quietly watched the sharks cannibalize their own. Some smaller fish approached the frenzied sharks and nibbled at the bits flying outside of this small area.
The ocean didn’t care.
Henry bet there were hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of creatures being devoured right this moment. His eyes landed on the shark he’d just harvested for levels, then he looked away and assigned all three stat points to Constitution.
He wasn’t going to be one of the victims.
