I'm a Stingray?

Chapter 128: The brown deal

From such a sentence he had uttered, it was only expected that the enemy would start raging around and cussing with every foul word that was included in their critique. But somehow they were standing surprisingly quiet. All that he could consider as chatter, were the mumbling and whispering amongst the hundreds of lobsters in front of him.

This felt like a great opportunity to step in prepared for the next move. But that's when the system interrupted, [You have an inactive upgrade, would you like to activate it now?]

It felt tremendously weird to hear that question, he had never encountered an upgrade to be inactive before and the first thought that occured was the system glitching or something.

But he needed every help that there was there. So without even asking more about this upgrade, he immediately answered. "Sure, activate it!"

[Confirmed]

[You've completed 10 system given tasks so your: health, hunger, sleep and stamina bar will be upgraded by a tenth of their original standards.]

Before he could ask just what the hell that meant, the system continued to rage with an unrequired information spam.

[Upgrades activated and implanted]

[Loading your current state of being...]

[Health = 65/110]

[Hunger = 2/17]

[Sleep = 13/39]

[Stamina = 2/17]

[Barb venom = 1/5]

These stats felt tremendously different, so this helped to patch everything together on what exactly the system meant. It felt like an additional reward regarding how this upgrade felt painless. The trouble he had gone in to complete these tasks, also felt a bit more worthwhile.

One thing that struck like a truck was the minor shift of energy. It felt as if his eyes opened up a bit better once this upgrade had activated. Minor body wounds and pain disappeared by a hunch which was very satisfactory although he did not eat anything that increased health.

But this celebration met an end when the largest lobster he had ever seen, began crawling away from the group and had an intent in its eyes that was evidently murderous.

It only took a small moment before the enemy arrived just 5 meters away from Timothy, that's when it shouted. "You wish to fight me?"

"Yes!" He answered with a shout equally strong although cracking by tone, "If I win, all of you will fuck off towards where you came from."

"Deal." The big lobster answered, apparently feminine by tone. "But if I win, the white-legged shrimp community will admit defeat and become our slaves!"

It was clear that both shrimp and lobsters were fucked in the head, so far it was easy to point out, but Tim doesn't want to allow for these bastards to get their way. This lady was most likely not a ruler but had enough confidence to win this thing and probably win the favour of the true ruler of theirs.

Feeling a hunch more confident than the opponent, he assured. "Deal."

That's when the other lobsters rushed forwards, but thankfully neither of them aimed to lay a hand on the little stingray just yet. Instead they were just forming a circle around the two warriors who were going to submerge into battle, leaving just 20 feet of space to battle.

Willing to step in a bit more prepared, he questioned. "System, what other options can I buy?"

[Loading...]

[Option number 1 = Endure water pressure for 30 meters more.

Price = 120 system points]

This one seemed especially useful. Last time he had only gotten an upgrade that only allowed to sink 10 meters more, but 30 feels like a steal although the mist is possibly a few kilometres deep - it wouldn't prove so useful there.

[Option 2 = permanent live map]

[Price = 100 system points]

This one was a bit confusing but considering the price, his only guess was that this map was far better compared to the first one he had bought. The name 'permanent' was the first hint and its price was the other one.

He had questions but now was not the best time to ask them, so he requested. "I'm buying both of them and fast please!"

[Purchases confirmed]

[Loading...]

The battle was close to starting. The opponent was somehow stretching all of her legs, which stretched outwards in a rather creepy manner, each of her legs about a foot long. While her body was a hint over 80 centimeters long! This was definitely the biggest lobster he had ever faced in this new life.

In a second, a sharp pain struck right across the young man's noggin. It felt as if a war plane had been shot down in the air above them and unlucky landed right on the little stingray's head.

Such a pain was strong but it ended before he even realised that it started. And afterwards spread down to where the neck was supposed to be, but there the pain was far more durable.

It continued down the spine and finally reached the tail, each bit of pain was far less tortuous than the previous step. This type of pain felt tremendously familiar.

[Depth durability has been upgraded by 30 more meters.]

[Current depth durability = 240 meters]

Right before he was about to celebrate, a huge map flashed right in front of the eyes and then minimized, traveled to the corner of his vision. This still felt bizarre at best but proved that his points were being put into good use.

With a little focus on it, he could see blurry representations of marine animals in the area. Be it from the front or back, it covered a 20 meter radius as far as his eyes could see, which was rather limiting.

That's when the system interrupted, [This map's effectiveness will be solely based on your vision and smelling senses. The higher they are, the better you can accurately predict just what is around you.]

[Purchases compete]

[220 system points have been consumed]

[460 system points remaining]

It felt rough to see the point numbers drastically drop like that but where else could these babies be used? They are system points after all! At least from this pace, it feels a bit obvious that 3 more upgrades can be easily bought with the remaining quantities.

While he was focusing on the map and how wonderful it was although blurry in all directions, the big lady on the other end, alarmed. "Let's battle, you worthless seaweed!"

Such a phrase felt tad offensive, especially since he doesn't remember how a seaweed looks like although a few of them had been encountered in the reef.

Unwilling to keep calm either, he shouted back. "Prepare to die you fat fuck!"