I'm a Stingray?

Chapter 274: Massive changes

He toggled with these visual options for a few minutes, and managed to observe most of their contents in the process. It was worth mentioning that he managed to memorize a few of them too.

But such a grade of understanding had nothing to do with his overall intelligence. The information in those dashboards, were simply easy to understand; and he had already known some of them from before.

What seemed helpful through this overall upgrade, was also how a clock had appeared in the top right corner of his vision now.

This clock was bright red, and seemed rather digitized because it just showed a handful of numbers ~ which pointed out that it was just after midday right now. Such a feature would surely help him keep track of time a little bit better, so it was a win.

It was convenient, but he couldn't help notice that the purchase seemed just a bit limited so far; it could use more features but it was still surely interesting. The hero didn't regret buying it whatsoever.

However, since they were still travelling, Timmy thought it was the best idea to buy those couple other available upgrades. They were going to fight large sharks anytime soon, so it wasn't a bad move to be a bit more prepared.

He didn't want to waste any time either, so impatience coated the little boy's noggin, and that was exactly why he made a bold decision.

But there was a specific detail that should be paid attention towards, which unsurprisingly came along with this impatience; since his memory was still a bit fuzzy, the little boy couldn't even remember what the two upgrades were about.

This of course meant he didn't even know that one of the upgrades, would prove useless in the face of danger. Not to forget, the other one was quite painful although it's use glowed far more radiant!

However, it was too late now as the system had already put the request into motion.

[Confirmed]

Before he knew it, a sharp bit of pain struck him right against the skull! It was tremendously strong and he almost felt like the entire ocean's weight had gathered up, right at that point.

Thankfully such a pain went away in a matter of seconds, but then it unapologetically spread across other body parts.

His fins ended up undergoing the most pain possible through this process, simply because there were far many more bones located there. If that wasn't enough of a reason already, it felt like the upgrade was pushing each and every one of those bones, deeper towards pain!

Such a horrible experience continued to assert its dominance, right against the line of the little sea-pancake's backbones! And such tremendous pain only began slowing down, once the upgrade began working its way towards the outer skin.

At this point the hero felt like the upgrade, was breaking and healing his bones under the same process - and due to that volume of work that was being inflicted against his body, the other team members had noticed that something was going on!

It was difficult to miss such a sight, because he had stopped swimming and slowly crashed towards the sand as well.

Dana was the first to notice that, simply because she was the best at picking up vibrations through the waters. That and she had managed to decipher what the system had said; therefore she was the first to try and make an excuse.

Timmy was barely moving because of the tremendous pain, so he too depended on the skeleton lady to prove of aid, just once more.

"That long nap you took has tired you out, you're having trouble moving again?" Dana expressed with the best amount of causality she could muster up.

At this point, the group had surrounded the hero to see what was going on, so it was a good idea to loosen up the pressure a little bit, by weighing in a thought towards the dilemma.

What didn't help the good lady whatsoever, were the bodily changes that began striking next.

They could all easily see, that Timothy's back was slowly shifting its form and colour!

At first, his back had bulked upwards just a little bit. It seemed as if he was becoming fatter, but it was easy to see that the situation was different.

His back was forcing a bunch of muscles to develop, and such a procedure began spreading across the fins as well; they were becoming a tad bigger in size as well!

Yet the change did not stop there! The sea-pancake's skin was embracing an upgrade as well.

Before, his skin had been mostly yellow with a few small blue-dots spread here and there ~ but now, that noticeable yellow colour was shifting towards a darker tone!

It kept up such a pace, until these external bodily features turned pitch black! Such a result had made most of them think that the process had ended there... but no, there was more to witness!

A few lines of which were solely dark-grey in colour, were spreading across his back now as well. These lines seemed more like burn and stretch marks, their form simply embraced such an idea.

But right now it didn't seem like the hero was in pain, so that shouldn't be the case; these were not wounds.

Tim's pitch dark skin, continued to change just a little bit more, until it embraced a very dark shade of grey - but thankfully, that was when these changes had finally met an end!

His small blue dots had completely disappeared by now, thanks to this tremendously impactful upgrade.

Such a result felt quite weird, because his species' name was partially named after those same dots; but the overall results were quite pleasing to the eye.

[Upgrades complete]

[You have forty-points of bodily durability now,]

It always felt a bit confusing to understand these points, but it was noticeable that this type upgrade became more dependable, the further away it steered from zero.

So even though it was confusing, the idea of that number rising, felt comfortable and radiated like a good achievement too!

[730-system-points consumed]

[658-system-points remaining]

Such an upgrade was sure a hell of a painful rollercoaster, but the overall results didn't seem so shabby.

Because right now he looked like a bulky, plate-shaped volcanic rock, who could swim. Any fish would be intimidated by such a form, and a lot of them would likely crave the idea of looking like him.

But that was not the main thing to focus upon right now. His friends were carrying many perplexing looks on their faces, and were desperate to grasp what was going on here; even if their level of understanding revolved around the low levels.

Gerlach was the first to break the uncomfortable silence, as he questioned. "I dare you to tell us everything about yourself. Because I don't think that any marine god, would help you transform into a whole other species..."

After a moment, it was proven that the old man had made a splendid point. Because after the little stingray began stretching his fins, it was noticeable that he wasn't as tiny anymore!

The system came along and chattered about that same topic. She gave exact detail regarding every aspect.

[You've met with another growth-sprout. It doesn't have to do anything with the upgrade though, it was just lucky timing]

[However, the upgrade has made you heavier though. You currently weigh nearly four kilos]

[Apart from that, your bodily length is about forty-centimeters now. That is, if we don't include the tail or barb in this measurement]

[And not to forget, your body width has increased a little bit as well. It stretches exactly thirty-centimeters long now]

[You are a bit bigger in comparison to other stingrays of your species, who are still juveniles]

[But it isn't exactly an extreme size. Besides, I don't think that anyone will be focusing on how big you are]

"We're waiting for the truth," Gerlach helped bring the boy back to reality, as he had been focused on the system a bit too much.