A layer of blood in the water above her, slowly dissipating into the surrounding water.

With the monster nowhere to be seen.

It was gone without a trace after killing enough fish to feed her for a month, it was just like a reaper… Not a bad name for it either.

Double-checking her surroundings Sera noticed the small red fish joined her.

“Hello, how are you holding up?”

Now that Sera was close enough to the fish she noticed it looked different, it’s eyes… they looked human.

Its pupil was a soft blue with the surrounding white of the eye, and its red body made Sera freeze before it began examining her body. Sera stared transfixed at the creature, it was the first fish she saw that acted like it wanted more than just fish flakes.

Its flipper began moving slowly hovering next to her before it stopped just before her, its small head craned up to look at her face before waiting expectantly.

Sera slowly brought out her arm.

It nuzzled her hand which made her gills retract as it looked deeply into her eyes, before a flash of blue made her mouth hang.

PID Interface

Recipe module synced.

Skill set & User information synced.

Newly Acquired Recipes:

Builder tool. All in one builder tool [Recipe’s included when built.] Seaglide. Will accelerate the user in one direction at triple the speed. Light armour. Will defend the user from a reasonable amount of damage while increasing the user’s speed. Device Charger. Will recharge devices that run on power. Laser Cutter. Will cut through materials as strong as black iron. Stab-resistant Pack. Able to carry materials, gear and display contents freely.

User information:

Age:

19

Aspect:

(Recipes adaptable with aspect, more modules needed for access.)

Skill Sets:

Building skill added! Social skill added!

“Wow that’s a lot of new recipes… Wait social skill added?” Sera puffed before remembering her experiences with talking at other patients and at the nurses.

I have great social skills, they just didn’t want someone to talk to. Sera thought as she continued to pet the squishy feeling seal.

As she looked through the recipes again she couldn’t help but want all of them, they were all so useful!

“But I need to focus on what I need. Don’t I? Aww!” Flipping over onto it’s belly which was whiter than the clouds, Sera focused on the Builder Tool.

Clicking the button for the materials her lips curved upwards.

PID Interface

Scanner Materials Required:

Quartz(400g) Gold (20g) Copper(30g) Lead/Black Iron (1000g)

Feeling her pack for the familiar poking edges, Sera knew the crystal or the quartz she had grabbed was still in there.

Maybe there was more in the cave she had been attacked by the monster-octopus?

Pushing the thought to the side she saw gold again but saw it was doubled, likely requiring two of the 5 remaining coins.

“The lead should be easy to find, maybe I could even use a black iron chunk that had broken off. Copper though, where the hell do you find copper?” Speaking to the fish in a soft voice Sera could feel it begin to rest on her hand as she surveyed her surroundings, before preparing to leave.

The sun-bleached coral tube and the towering eroded cliff she was at the bottom of was next to her and in the distance she saw similar cliffs and sand hills, then finally her eyes returned to the seagrass area, and she knew it was time to move on.

“Well it’s been fun little guy,” Sera slowly retracted her hand and the little red seal began floating down before realising it’s soft bed had been moved and swam to look at her “Goodbye.”

Waving her hand at the small seal Sera began swimming towards one of the raised cliffs, perhaps it had some lead or something other than sandsto-

A red blur swam besides Sera causing her to have a mini heart attack, “Woah wha-oh. Hey you can’t follow me ok you have to get back to your squad of fi-” Sera stopped as she processed the consequence of her actions for her new friend.

“-Seagrass, you have to get back to the seagrass ok?” Pointing towards the long strips of green and brown grass the small red seal looked at her pointed index finger.

Then it looked at the pointed area in question, before turning back to Sera.

“Look, I just-” Loretta’s words rolled through her mind along with Amet’s pushing her inner voice to one conclusion.

“I don’t have the time to care for something else-I wanted to help, but I can’t do anything else, please just-”

Her father stood over her grasping her head and trying to force it into the worksheet.

“WHY can’t you just understand IT. It’s simple fucking maths for FUCK’s SAKE,” Letting go of Sera’s head it stayed staring at the letters as he stomped off.

The letters were the only black colours in the room, the rest was white and blue, it was different to what she was used to, her room used to be colourful and easy to lose herself in.

But here she was just-

The stomping stopped as the metal door was almost ripped open by its hinges, “If you can’t even help yourself do you think you’re going to get better? Think Sera-”

“THINK.” With the slam of the door the small white room disappeared.

Her surroundings were light blue and open as far as she could see before eventually even the clear water became murky.

Then her eyes landed on the small red seal in front of her.

Her arms were poised as if they were leaning on a nonexistent table before they slowly drifted to her sides.

“No.”

Her gills which were threatening to stay closed till Sera calmed began to widen as her shoulders released their tension.

“You can come with me for the day, but then it’s back to the seagrass, alright?” Bringing her arm out to the red fish it hesitated before rubbing against the back of her palm and swimming to her side.

Giving a genuine smile at her small companion Sera began swimming towards one of the cliffs in the distance, close enough to the caves in case extra quartz was needed for the Builder Tool.

Her newfound companion easily kept up with her and Sera couldn’t help but stare at the cute fish as it looked curiously at the surroundings as they swam by.

Not used to being out? She’s too cute not to have a name.

Maybe Eve? No, it sounded cute but felt generic… Her red friend was unique as it was smart.

“Your new name will be… Iva,” Sera pointed at the fish as they swam, causing it to look behind it before looking back at Sera curiously.

Pushing further towards the surface Sera made sure to give a 20-meter gap whenever she swam above the seafloor, it was too risky to be close to the surface and the other fish knew it instinctively.

Nearing the cliff Sera looked to see if it was rock or sand based, if it was made of sand finding anything relatively useful from it was unlikely from the last times she checked.

Thankfully the cliff she had her sights on was rock, it was also covered in moss and some flowing coral that was green and diamond shaped.

Finally, getting close enough to check the rocks on the cliff Sera began eyeballing the rocks like she had for the first few hours outside The Temple before remembering she had just built a tool for scanning!

Bringing out her tool from her pouch Iva was curious at the blue glowing rock, but Sera was reluctant to use it on Iva in case she scared her away, the jutting rocks stuck to the cliff on the other hand…

Scanner Results

Sandstone found!

Lead found!

Dirt found!

Lead found!

Lead found!

Sandstone found!

Sand clump found!

Coral clump found!

The screen popped up after Sera put the scanner away, with the corresponding rock lighting up with its own material tag, making picking out the lead from the crap easy compared to her earlier endeavours.

Sera was about to get the knife out of her pack again before she realised that there was probably an easier way to do this… that would either be incredibly smart or incredibly stupid.

Bringing out her PID Sera grasped it in her right hand as she got above the lead rock, before bashing it down violently onto it.

Hearing a loud clash that made Iva jump back from Sera’s side, the piece of lead sticking to the cliff began to fall downwards before Sera snatched it up and laid it on top of the cliff.

Looking at her PID she didn’t see a scratch, just to be safe however she brought out the menu and saw nothing damaged or out of the ordinary, making her wonder how it got damaged in the first place.

If bashing it onto metal didn’t leave so much as a mark, then what could?

“Two more to go.”

Picking up the three pieces of lead she laid on top of the cliff Sera checked her PID recipe before trying to feel how heavy the lead combined was.

“It doesn’t feel like 1000g or a kilo yet, maybe two more clumps will do it? But after I find lead I wonder where copper is, maybe it's in one of the caves.”

Putting the materials away Sera began looking for the cave entrance she had cleared before.

Coral.

Holey Coral.

Fish.

Tentacle fish.

“There! Come on Iva!” Spotting the familiar entrance along with a half-eaten monster-octopus corpse she had thrown outside it, Sera had a feeling it was the cave she knew and lov-well, just that she knew.

Iva keeping up with it’s neriead partner would seem impressive but with Sera’s lack of experience when it came to swimming, the task was easier than it seemed.

Passing over a small coral tube they made it to the entrance, Sera taking no chances instantly took out her ‘torch’ (scanner) and her ‘blade’ (half-broken knife).

Slowly peering into the cave with her scanner at the entrance rather than in the middle of it seemed like a much smarter idea and already she had looked through half of the small cave.

Then she reached the end.

Sera paused for a second before scanning again, making sure to double-check, but her eyes didn’t lie to her.

The cave was just the entrance, just the small room where the quartz once stood as bait to any traveller for the monster within.

“Huh… that was disappointing,” Putting her knife and scanner away into her pouch for now Sera didn’t notice, but Iva was watching from behind her, poised and ready to attack anything that tried to hurt her new pack leader.

Knowing the room was clear Sera gave the place one more look over before swimming back out, “This is probably the last time I’ll ever see this place.”

Back at the surface the last rays of sun had left even The Temple in the distance, it looked like they had an hour before the scanner wasn’t going to be enough to act as a torch.

Now that she was out of the cave Sera sorted the knife out of her pouch to ensure she didn’t cut herself before grabbing a piece of lead as she put away her knife in the pack.

“Alright Iva we maybe have time for one quick look around, do you know where to find any rocks like this one?”

Pointing to the piece of lead Sera gave Iva a small smile as it looked slowly at the rock before looking back at Sera as if she was crazy.

“Pfff, no? Well that’s fi-” As Sera was about to put away the rock Iva quickly swam up to the grasped hand holding the rock before swimming away and pointing it's body towards the tall seagrass.

“-ne? Do you actually understand me or just want to go home?” Iva just stared as Sera gave a small sigh as she put the metal away.

Well I hope it’s worth a shot, even if there’s nothing there it would be a good time to part ways. I can take care of Iva for a day, but it needs a squad to live with when I leave for the Aquo kingdom someday.

Prepared to rush towards the seagrass for the last time in the day Sera shoved off the seafloor.

A trail of sand flowed with her as Iva lead the way towards hopefully more ore… and not just a bunch of sandstone.