I'm a Stingray?

Chapter 176: Blessing curse

[Eating a full-grown dwarf moray-eel can grant the following effects...]

[Effect on health, +20 bars]

[Effect on hunger, +8 bars]

[Effect on sleep, -10 bars]

[Effect on stamina, -15 bars]

"This is too good to be true." The little one celebrated, tremendously shocked of the healthy benefits that could be reaped from this carcass, with minimal effort.

Ignoring the other aspects of what effects this meal brought, he began chewing on the carcass and somewhat appreciated how soft this flesh was, far easier to chow down.

What the little one managed to notice, the more he chewed through the carcass. Was the reduction of energy that came along with it. Such effects made it feel like every bite was submerging the boy into slumber.

Regardless of that fact, he continued chewing through flesh and bone, considering nothing else more important than health. This opportunity felt tremendously rare so he wasn't going to stop, regardless the circumstances.

It took a good half hour to consume the eel's carcass through and through, but the young one was happy that it didn't take too long to eat through it.

And now the system had her turn to announce. [Loading your current overall state...]

[Health bar = 104/110]

[Hunger bar = 15/17]

[Sleep bar = 15/39]

[Stamina bar = 1/17]

"Oh... oh yeah this stamina is doing the trouble isn't it." He questioned, while struggling to keep balance.

Right after, he lost balance and just fell on the sand that was just a few inches underneath. The following aftermath of consuming that eel, rendered the young one immobile. But thankfully it wasn't anything permanent, the lack of stamina wouldn't let him move.

Worse yet, his chest was huffing and puffing thanks to the same lack. Which as an after effect, forced stamina to stay down rather than to regenerate anything. It even began causing a bit of pain on the boy's chest, hell this felt worse than being bitten.

That's when a complaint was set free, but it was mostly self inflicted. "I'm dumb sometimes, very dumb. Why didn't I pay more attention to the stamina? The system clearly told me that 15 points would be lost!"

One wouldn't expect for a stingray of lower intelligence to be this self aware, but thankfully that noggin of his was putting in every point of intelligence to analyse this situation. It seemed less interesting considering that he needed this much effort, to recognize one of his own mistakes - but it still was progress in some way.

Such strain and puffing on the chest, had continued for a good half hour before it finally began calming down. He had realised that stamina was taken too lightly up until this point, what happened just a moment ago was a reminder to be careful for it next time.

Now that he could focus on anything else, the boy remembered what he came here for to begin with. Slowly getting up, a mumble was let out. "I need to keep looking for that hidden shit... uh, den."

With minimalistic effort, for the sake of avoiding another crash due to stamina, he got out of the hole and began paying attention to anything around. It was difficult to spot anything eye catching, holes and tunnels was what he looked for especially.

But this place seemed stripped out of those, well at least in this specific patch of coral. What seemed like an eyesore, was a bigger patch of blue-coral. It was taller than most here, and it gave such a vibe, similar to those movies where a kingdom was hidden behind a mountain.

So that gave a bit of motivation to swim higher, and check what could be seen on the other side. It was difficult considering the lack of energy, but the hero wasn't one to give up.

Eventually he reached above it, and the scene was rather anticlimactic. There was just more coral behind it, and the sign of life was even more bleak here, if such a thing was possible. A patch of coral here seemed to be dead, such a scar stretched 30 or so meters across.

It was shaped in the form of the letter C, seemed rather random but definitely was an eyesore. That patch was ignored and the main mission was focused on. He lended an eye to whatever was underneath, and noticed that there were exactly 3 holes on the flooring.

They weren't exactly carved in the taller mountain of coral, so such a result made the climbing up feel like a waste of time. But after a few sighs, Tim began feeling happier that at least now he had more options to try out, which gave a faint feeling that the mission hasn't failed.

And so the young one slowly began swimming towards the hole that was in the middle, and repeated. "Please be the tribe, please be the tribe."

Eventually he managed to reach down and swam in the hole, but was blessed with complete darkness right after. This place here didn't seem like anything interesting. But regardless of how much he tried to look through, there didn't seem to be a dead end here.

Such a result gave a tad of motivation, so the young one began touching around with his fins to ~ because even now, he was mostly crawling through the sand flooring rather than swimming.

Since he was able to think a bit more clearly now, the positive effects of that previous meal began to shine. Well not literally, although that would be convenient in a situation like this one.

The blue-dotted menace just began noticing that his tail and fins weren't hurting like they used to. There still were minor bits of pain that felt like a pinch, but that was about it. Such a result made him sure, that the lack of stamina he was experiencing right now, was all worthwhile.

Throughout the blind crawling towards the hole, he had gone in deep enough for the distance to be considered a good 20 feet. It felt like he was on the right path. And after a bit of more effort, a faint but noticeable green light, was sparkling what seemed like an eternity away.