As I finished squeezing myself out of the hole I saw the light had been fading, slowly giving way to the darkness. I looked up to the surface and like an autumn leaf, I saw it ocean painted in a dim reddish brownish light. I swam up to the surface and for the first time, I made contact with the open air.

I looked around me only to see a never-ending sight of the ocean to all my direction. The sun was slowly setting and that’s when I noticed that there seemed to be another smaller white dot near the sun that I did not see while I was under the water. What the?

I continued looking at the white dot as the sun started to set against the horizon. Is that another sun? It’s too large and bright to be a planet… shouldn’t there only be one sun… I keep looking at the supposed sun as it follows its larger companion before finally setting. As the light finally fades away I sink back into the ocean. How long was I asleep? It was noon when I escaped from the swarm of blade sardines, did I sleep for nearly 6 hours. I’m not sure when the sun sets or whether I’m using the right time but guessing is better than nothing.

Speaking of blade sardines, I should check if they are still around…

After confirming that the sardines have left I try to find something to eat. My night vision can’t let me see in the darkness but I can notice sudden moments. I continue to search for something when I noticed something move at the corner of my eye.

I quickly turn around but it seemed that nothing was there. Did I imagine that? I’m not going mad, am I? My eyes continue sweeping the area for some form of life but I still don’t see anything.

[Night Vision lvl 2 has leveled up]

Immediately a silhouette of some kind of fish can be seen. Perfect timing I think to myself. Let’s see who our shy friend is.

[Inspect]

Race: Rock Grouper

LvL: 2/12

HP: 10/10

MP: 0

Rank: F+

Status: Normal

It seems the hunter has become the hunted I thought to myself, where did I even hear that? Agh, no time for these questions, what should I do now? It shouldn’t know that I can see it so I have the advantage right now. Its rank is slightly higher than me but its max health is lower. Hmmm. How should I deal with it? Poison beak to the face? Doesn’t seem like a very safe idea. Acid shot seems like the best choice of offense as always. Okay then. I’m going to wait for it to try to bite me and then I’m going to shot acid into its mouth. Huehuehuehue, I’m so smart!

I face away from the grouper and as expected it slowly starts to advance on me. Wait for it…

The grouper moves closer and closer as it gets ready to strike. My heart feels as if it was a drum being beaten on with a sledgehammer. Wait for it…

The grouper then lunges at me with its mouth wide open as I quickly turn and shoot two acid shoots before I quickly use my ink cloud skill to confuse it. The grouper not realizing its mistakes keeps its mouth wide open as it swallows the acid shoots like gumdrops. I use the cloud of ink to swim to the side as the grouper continues moving in a straight line. After I get out of the small cloud of ink I see the grouper thrashing about. I use inspect on the grouper again to see its status.

Race: Rock Grouper

LvL: 2/12

HP: 3/10

MP: 0

Rank: F+

Status: Weakened(small), Blinded(tiny)

[Acid Shot lvl 2 has leveled up]

[Ink Cloud lvl 1 has leveled up]

Woah the acid shots did more damage than I thought they would. Nice not only did I weakened it but I also blinded it. I also received some level-ups from that attack. Before the grouper can come back to its sense I lung at the massive fish and bite it in the side with my newly modified beak and I swore I could hear a crack as I bite into the grouper's side.

[You have dealt 1 damage]

I reel back in pain. My beak, oh my god, my beak. I move two of the tentacles to check my beak and I can feel some sort of tiny crack. What the hell is this guy hide made out of?! Rocks?

The grouper no longer blinded stares at me angrily. I check it’s status and not it seems the weakened and blinded status has been replaced by an Enraged(Big). This does not look good for me. Let’s forget this ever happened I say to the grouper, we could be best friends…

The Grouper lungs forwards and I’m barely able to react to it as it charges towards me. I take that as a no. The grouper goes for another lung at me and I dodge as quickly as I can. To a spectator, this looked like a game of bullfighting with the Rock Grouper as the bull and me as the matador. Coincidentally my skin is a slight shade of red as well….

Okay, so it’s skin is literally like rock and it fast as hell but it doesn’t seem to be very bright since it hasn’t done anything else other than lung at me. The grouper goes for another lung. How much longer can this thing keep charging for? I thought to myself as the grouper went for another charge. As I dodge I yelled in my head olé. I wonder what that means but it’s pretty fun to yell that out for some reason. The grouper goes for yet another dodge and I gracefully dodge the charge. Olé! I shout once again. The grouper doesn’t seem like it’s going to change its tactics. Hmmm, what should I do? Acid shots to the face again, I don’t think acid is going to do anything at all against that tough ass hide unless I get a shot into the mouth again but the grouper is moving to fast for me to do anything except dodge. I could bite it again with my beak but I’m worried my beak could shatter midway as I’m fighting and I rather not have that happening.

While I think about my form of attack while dodging I notice a very tall coral with a large bulb-like structure at the top. That coral doesn’t seem to be very structural stable since the base is pretty thin and the top parts being very large. I start swimming near to the coral and I position myself right above it, the Grouper unaware of my plan charges headfirst into me. I swiftly move to the left as the grouper slams the coral.

CRACK!

The coral starts forming cracks from the bottom that work their way up until finally right near the bulb the coral snaps. The grouper starts to shake its head around and glares at me angrily as it prepares another charge but right above it a large chunk of coral falls right on top of it.

[You have killed a Rock Grouper]

[You have received 14 exp]

[Congragulation you have achieved the [Trickster] title]

Trickster: Employing various tricks and using the environment to your advantage to win the battles at all costs.

Intelligence 3+

Agility 4+

[Congragulation you have achieved the [Quick Thinking] title]

Quick Thinking: You have shown that even under stressful conditions that your wits can surpass all

Intelligence 5+

Nice, I got two titles from that fight. I look back to the coral and I use inspect on it.

[Bulb Coral]

[Has a thin stem with a bulb-like protrusion from the top]

Ah yes, the sand here is clearly made out of sand. I look at the newly added description along with the name. Bulb Coral. I quickly dismiss the notification as I remember what I really came for. I push the large chunk of coral of the fish and underneath it, I see a squished Rock Grouper. The grouper may have tried to kill me but I still pray for it to have a better next life. After I finish praying I start to peel the scales off the grouper. I’m able to scrape out only a small amount of the scales. I guess I’ll have to eat it from the inside out. I look at the massive fish before me and sink my beak into the exposed flesh. I rip off a small piece of meat and eat it. It’s pretty tough and it tastes like… rocks. Not that bad compared to that stupid Sea cucumber. Not that bad, a solid 5/10 for me. After I finish eating I look at the large fish once again. It’s gonna be a long night….