I'm a Stingray?

Chapter 186: Transparent assassin

"How many levels will it give me?!" The young one asked instantly. He felt certain that this was one of the most unheard of, temporary upgrade.

But regardless of the just asked question, the system did not answer. Considering those circumstances, he understood that the system won't talk because of greed. She did mention before that additional upgrades were required to know such information; so her silence made a bit more sense now.

Although fearing that health loss might come with consumption of a contaminated fish, the young one was curious. This situation can be tamed without the aid of the upgrade, but this should be fun.

So with a bit of hesitation, he munched just a chunk of flesh and chucked it down. Thankfully, no alarm came with it so that made the boy feel certain, his curiosity was paying off.

[Your natural camouflage has been upgraded to level 12, for a time span of an hour]

No pain came with this upgrade, thankfully. But it was also difficult to feel just how well this upgrade was working. And therefore, he began using the map that was on the corner of his vision. Upon a bit of focusing, trying to see himself from above ~ it was noticeable that the young hero was almost transparent!

Odd at least. And it shook the boy's heart, because although something like this was expected, he did not think it would be effective at a level like this.

As for the enemies: they had just begun barging forward, but now they did not have a target, so they just aimlessly swam above the hero. They were a tad fearful, it wasn't an everyday scene to see a fish disappear in thick water!

The fish who didn't attack but floated behind, were a bit more confused than scared. They were around in this tribe a bit longer, and have seen weirder scenes. But for a fish to disappear like that? It was a first time experience for them.

Feeling that he carried a tremendously superior position, the little hero began putting a little battle strategy into motion. His first move was a stab against an enemy, who had just reached the carcass of which the intruder had bitten.

This fish was small and seemed fragile too, so Tim didn't really think about hanging around to finish off the enemy. And instead, continued to charge against another one who was equal in size.

Considering the low-vision capabilities that these fish had, they could only hear that the intruder was swimming around. As for seeing him, it wasn't possible even after it was too late!

The sea-pancake landed a blow against this thin enemy's small cheek, and then dragged the tip of the barb across its side. Momentum was something he did not lack, thanks to his top speed being 5 mph now.

So this unlucky enemy could only acknowledge the pain for a short half-a-second, before true death reached it. The next goal became to slaughter down the fish who were close to a foot long, as they behaved like true threats although it wouldn't take much effort to kill them.

Tension was building up as the atmosphere became deadly quiet for a few seconds. There wasn't much to hear, apart from a deaf whoosh that ran across the water - which brought along bubbles too.

Before they knew it, one of the biggest remaining fish, felt a sharp pain against its belly. Dying was difficult alone, but dying without even seeing the enemy coming, was even more distressing.

If it was possible to see the intruding menace, these fish would witness a stingray clinging against the victim's belly ~ with his barb pushed through the target.

They could not see the blue-dotted boy, but they could see how their comrade was twitching thanks to the unbearable pain! But one thing that played out well for the victim, was the fact that death reached in just a few seconds.

Such a slaughter continued against the other enemies, but there was only one victor in this battle. If this tribe had the ability to see the intruder, the chances of landing at least some damage, would have been quite plausible.

But fate wasn't by their side. Today was an event they did not expect. Losing the entire hidden-den was hard enough on the subconscious. But when they sneaked back down here, they were tremendously convinced that there were no more threats. Better yet, they even expected to be considered heroes for recovering the holy-balls.

Those ideas and daydreams were tossed to the ground and stabbed afterwards, because the intruder killed them one by one ~ remorse was something that he did not carry against these worshippers.

In just a few minutes, all of the tribe members were put down for good. And that's when the system notified, [You've killed 10 fish of various species. As a reward, you have obtained 52 system points]

[Total system points = 250]

This reward seemed good, but compared to the workload, it almost felt like a waste of time. A grand example was that a tad less points, could have been obtained if he just hunted down and slaughtered a single barracuda. It wouldn't require much work either since he knew their weak spot.

But that fact regardless, he felt happy because now an upgrade could finally be bought. Memory still failed to be his trump card, so the system had to be asked about further details.

After laying over a bit of dirt, high above the holy-tar pool, he asked. "Can you tell me what upgrades there are to buy?"

[There are a couple of options, but you can only afford one of them]

Feeling a tad enthusiastic about it, he instantly requested. "Let's hear it."

[You can upgrade your IQ for 10 points]

[Price = 250 system points]

Hearing that price had instantly made his heart sting. The first and prime reason was that he only had 250 points, and seemingly all of them need to be spent on a single upgrade. Racking up points has seemed slower recently, so that hurt a bit too.

Deciding to just get on with it, especially since this situation required better thinking capabilities, he stated. "Okay. Upgrade my IQ, I'm buying it."