Come on, Ava said cheerfully. The little shark girl was brimming with energy as she dragged her older sister behind her, well not her actual sister but Ava simply didn’t care. We’ll get into trouble again Ava, Selena said exasperated. Ava smiled and stopped, she got on top of a small boulder. She going to give another speech again, isn’t she….

Huh, why should we listen to those old gas sacs Ava shouted to her friends. She always had a way with her words, but it was to be expected from the village chief’s daughter. She always got them into all sorts of troubles, once they accidentally brought back stink fishes from the edge of the sulfurous pits and they had all been scolded. Ava never seemed to care and actually wore the scolding like a badge of honor. Selena would have to stop her before she got any new ideas of what to do for that day. Haven’t you ever wondered whats near the coral reef? I mean, there has to be something cool or even treasure.

The children became transfixed as Ava started to fill wild stories into their heads. I have to stop this before they get themselves hurt. Selena raised her voice, she was around 4 years their senior and was much taller than them. Ava, you said that it would be a good idea if we feed the algae Manatees water apples, we ended up giving them food poisoning because of that. Pshh, who knew that they couldn’t eat the water apple.

The adults…. Selena replied. Well, this time it’s not going to be like that, plus Selena you don’t have to come if you don’t want to get in trouble. Come on let’s go, Ava motioned to the other kids. She was the youngest out of all them but they followed her around everywhere. You’d think that her being the Village Chiefs' daughter would make her the ideal role model, but she was always goofing around and constantly found every excuse under the sun to escape her studies. She once claimed that she saw a very strange rock and it was bad luck to study when you see strange rocks. Though she got into trouble all the time she was her first and only friend, the other kids only knew her because they’re were Ava’s friends, not hers. Her father left her when she was only a child and no one knew who her mother was, the only thing she knew was that she wasn’t wanted…

Wait up, Selena shouted. Ava immediately stopped and on her face was a large grin, I knew you’d eventually change your mind she said happily. The only reason I came is I know you going to get into trouble, Selena grumbled. Ava just laughed as their merry band got ready to depart towards the coral reef. How are we gonna get out without the adults noticing us, Silas said. Hah, it seems we won’t be going out, after all, Selena thought to herself. Ava continued grinning, the guards won’t be checking the southwest barricade since no one ever goes that way anymore. We’ll just go through there and backtrack our way to the coral reef. There really isn’t any way to stop her once she’s decided on something is there, Selena thought to herself bitterly.

I rubbed my eyes three times. I’m not hallucinating that am I? No matter how many times he looked at them, they were most definitely people. Okay, okay, calm down. You’ve made contact with civilization, all you have to do is talk to them and show that you are a civilized person. It’s as simple as that, I just have to talk to them, talk to them, talk to them… Ah I forgot, I’m an octopus…..

Maybe I should give them some food, I mean who wouldn’t trust somebody who offers you free food, I would. What if they try to make me into food. I must be tiny in comparison to them. I imagined an angry mob with stakes and torches on a manhunt for an octopus. How would torches burn underwater anyway? While I was busy in thought I heard the cry of what sounded like a child. Snapping out of my thoughts I turn towards the direction of the sound. The school of fish appears to be attacking the people. Wait, that’s it! If I should then I can help them maybe they’ll trust me and ignore my exterior. [Inspect]

Race: Guppy

LvL: ⅚

HP: ⅞

Rank: O+

Status: Enraged(small)

Guppies I see, well this shouldn’t be a problem for me. As I swim closer towards the ensuing fight I spot around 9 guppies. One of them breaks from their formation and lungs for the person in the front of the group. The guy raises a staff from their hand and points it at the Guppy, a flash of white light strikes the Guppy and it swims back into the group. Something here smells fishy and I don’t mean the guppies, why do the people look so small, am I really that far away? Wait why are they so small, I’m not that close but the guppies seem pretty big in comparison to the people, they’re literally as big as them. Hold up. I’m really close to them and they seem way too small. I’m around twice their size. Are those gills I see? [Inspect]

Name: Ava

Race: Homo Carchareium

LvL: 7

HP: 10/10

Class: None

Status: Normal

Name: Silas

Race: Homo Odono

LvL: 3

HP: 6/6

Class: None

Status: Feared(large)

Name: Cecilia

Race: Homo Odono

LvL: 5

HP: 6/6

Class: None

Status: Feared(tiny)

I’ve inspected 3 out of 7 of what I guess are children. Also, they don’t have a rank? What’s the class? Also, their race name is weird, homo odono? They don’t seem to be human either. Some have gills and others have tails. I feel stupid for forgetting humans have to breathe air, not water. The smaller girl, Ava, I think jumps out and points a small stick at me. She yells something to the guy, I mean girl who was holding of the guppy. What is she saying? I try listening but it doesn’t seem to be English. Okay, so I can’t understand them but I think she saying she will take me on… The little girl edges closer with her stick, the bigger girl who was defending their group turns around and shouts at the little girl. Big mistake, the guppies notice this and charges into their group. Well shit, I swim closer towards the guppies and immediately release a cloud of ink. The guppies quickly avoid the ink cloud and get back into a formation at the right.

The children panic at their inability to see. I have 24 mana and one whirlpool takes up half my mana so I have only two shoots better make it count. The guppies get into formation and I activate whirlpool right dead in the center of the group. The fish in the edges notice the pull of the water and quickly escape the whirlpool, unfortunately, everyone one of them except two have escaped the pull. Well, that didn’t go as I like it to.

[You have dealt 9 damage]

The whirlpool ends and the two fishes that were stuck spinning and colliding into one another are now free but they seem to be left concussed. That leaves me with 7 guppies to deal with. In a normal scenario, I would not be doing this but it could win the trust of those kids maybe I’ll be allowed to live with them in their community. Goodbye to loneliness and hello civilization. Leo let’s go of my tentacle at last and bares his teeth at the guppies. At least he knows who his opponents are. I swear if he started to attack me…. one of the guppies attacks me while I was in my mind. Leo quickly bites into its flank away from its jaw and pins it on the sea bed. The higher rank than me and around half their size bigger.

The guppies are unable to stand ideal watching their ally being pinned get ready to swarm Leo. Like hell I'm going to allow that to happen, I activated whirlpool again away from Leo. The swarm gets pulled and they have to disperse or get stuck getting swung around. I shoot off two shots of acid into the heart of the Whirlpool.

[You have dealt 17 damage]

[You have killed a guppy]

[You received 10 exp]

[You leveled up]

[1 intelligence has been awarded]

I guess damage dealt is collective cause there is no way one guppy could possibly tank that much damage. One guppy closes in on Leo but I quickly close the gap and swing at it with my tentacle. Leo seems unaware of the danger he was in and seems to be… Is this guy actually eating! I give him a light hit on the head. He stops eating and faces to look at me innocently. Stupid shark I thought you were still fighting. The two guppies I incapacitated, in the beginning, have rejoined the fight. Okay, Leo and I have gotten rid of two of them and I’ve left one of them badly hurt, six more to go. The guppies get back in their group formation and slowly start to circle us. I get one of my tentacles to hold Leo in case that numbskull decides to charge into the entire group. I don’t think I can take all of them on at once….

I fire another acid shoot and the group quickly disperses. There, I let go of Leo as he singles out one guppy and I move right behind him to deal with the surroundings guppies. Before Leo is able to sink his teeth into his target another guppy bites him across the fin. Well shit, I quickly move to Leo’s side and knock guppy another with my tentacle who was about to bite Leo’s tail.

[You have dealt 1 damage]

I wrap my tentacles around the guppy and bite it with my beak.

[You have dealt 4 damage]

The guppy immediately let’s go and I strike it into the ground with my tentacle.

[You have dealt 2 damage]

I’m tempted to go finish it off now but right now it’s a numbers game and I doubt he’s going to get up after losing that much health. Leo seems disgruntled but nothing has changed, he seems more eager to fight? I think? I’m not really sure. A guppy lunges for me and I shoot acid right into its face.

[You have dealt 4 damage]

[Acid shot lvl 2 has leveled up]

That’s a decent amount of damage from a skill that used to deal 2 damage at best. Busy admiring my own handiwork I failed to notice two guppies that bite dangerously close to my eye.

[You have lost 5 hp]

The two guppy attempt to tear away at my flesh. Ah, fucking hell that hurts. I get three of my tentacles and start beating them, I’m afraid that if I pull them I’m gonna end up tearing some flesh of my face.

[You have dealt 8 damage]

[You have killed a guppy]

[You gained 7 exp]

[You leveled up]

[1 Intelligence, Strength and Endurance point has been awarded]

Leo immediately charges on the other guppy that I failed to kill and finish’s him off.

[You have received 6 exp]

Four more guppies were left fighting us. I quickly used Inspect on them.

Race: Guppy

LvL: ⅚

HP: ⅞

Rank: O+

Status: Enraged(Large)

Race: Guppy

LvL: 2/6

HP: 4/8

Rank: O+

Status: Enraged(Large), Weakened(tiny)

Race: Guppy

LvL: 3/6

HP: 5/8

Rank: O+

Status: Enraged(Large)

Race: Guppy

LvL: 1/6

HP: 2/8

Rank: O+

Status: Enraged(large), Weakened(Large)

Okay, so they’ve lost around half their health except for one. That one hasn’t taken any damage from me at all, should I deal with him? No, I should probably go for the weaker ones. I point Leo in the direction of the weakest one and I target the one with 4 health. Leo darts off and I shot two more rounds of acid before depleting my acid supply. The guppy evades them easily but that wasn’t what I was trying to achieve. The strength of the acid seemed to dissipate with further increase in damage, I noticed that when I was fighting with the Blade Sardine swarm. I one hited the ones really close to me but I only take out half the health of one of them which was really far away. Though it didn’t matter at that time since the Blade sardines ate their injured and I was running away for my life, I doubt I could hit the guppies since they aren’t mindlessly going to charge at me, and even if I did I doubt that would take them out of action. I move toward the guppy and I grab it it’s my tentacles and bite it.

[You have dealt 4 damage]

[You have received 9 exp]

[You leveled up]

[1 Intelligence point, 1 Agility point has been awarded]

Okay, that’s another one done, where are the other two. I spot the fish with 5 health remaining but where is the one with nearly full health? I quickly check on Leo to make sure he isn’t being ganged on, I see only him and the other guppy fighting it out. Wait, did it just run away? That doesn’t make sense, I’ve fought with guppies with even low health and worst odds and this dude runs away? If he was the last one fighting I’d understand but from all my encounters they’re all really tenacious bastards. Is it behind me? I quickly turn myself to check but I don’t see anything. I hear a cry from the children. Wait, the guy didn’t run? What the fuck. Are they stupid? Ahhhh, no time for complaining I have to help them. I again spotted the little girl and she seems to have a bite mark at her shoulder. The tall girl is currently right beside her and there seems to be a mermai- wait, I think that’s a dude. So, merman? I’m not really sure. He seems to be holding a spear of some sort and is pointing it at the guppy. Suffice to say that neither I nor the guppy was anywhere near intimidated by a trembling child who doesn’t seem to know who to wield a spear. The guppy goes for the charge and ignores the kid with the spear and goes after the tall girl. Call me paranoid, but I feel as if this dude knew that this was going to happen. I’m about to reach the kids so they should be fine. At the corner of my eye the guppy with five health and the guppy that I left for dead slam into me.

[You have lost 3 health]

What the? They didn’t bite me? Before I can even finish my train of thought the guppy that was previously going for the tall girl is about to bite my head. Oh shit. The guppy raises its mouth at my head and gets ready to bite. Leo jumps into the guppy flank and knocks him off course. The guppy narrowly misses my head. I take back everything I said about you, Leo. I quickly smack the guppy with everything I’ve got on its head.

[You have dealt 4 damage]

[Strike lvl 1 has been acquired]

Woah, I got a skill from this. I look at my side to find Leo and he has severely new small bite marks on his body. [Inspect]

Name: Leo

Race: Shark pup

LvL: 5/16

HP: 2/6

MP: 0

Rank: F+

Status: Weakened

Yeah, I think you should sit this one out buddy. I motion for Leo to stay out of this fight and he surprisingly got it through his head. Okay, this is now between you guys and me. I gotta give you credit though, you actually managed to trick me but it doesn’t matter now, cause I’m here to finish off you thugs. I can hear my battle music play out in my head while I said that cheesy speech of finishing them off. It’s a good thing they can’t hear me. Anyways, time to test out my new ability. I swim towards and catch the near-death guppy. Time to test this skill out. [Strike]

I swing my tentacle at the guppy and nothing much changes except the tentacle moves faster than before? I’m not really sure since I wasn’t looking at my tentacle at that time.

[You have dealt 1 damage]

[You have killed a guppy]

[You have received 7 exp]

At the same moment, another guppy jumps at me but I easily dodge it. Wait, if I can use strike with one tentacle could I use it with all eight? I dodge another attack from the guppy. [Strike] I raise all eight of my tentacles and strike the guppy from all the sides.

[You have dealt 5 damage]

[Strike lvl 1 has leveled up]

[You received 6 exp]

[You leveled up]

[1 Intelligence, Endurance and Defense point has been awarded]

The poor guppy had its body caved in. That looks painful. I turn towards the last guppy, dude seemed to have decided that I’m not worth all the trouble for. Should I let it go… Before I can finish deciding on whether I should let the guy go is a spear stuck in the dude.

[You have received 7 exp]

Woah that kid can actually throw a spear!? I look back and I see the kid still wielding his spear. Wut. I see another spear but this time launched in my direction. Okay who the fuck is throwing Spears at me. I see some of the children near some adults who are armed with Spears. I know I may look like a wild animal but if you get to know more about me you’d be surprised how civilized I can be. One guy who I guess is the leader in the front drops his hands that were raised and says something. He said fire didn’t he… Yes he did, I’m met with 4 Spears that are shot in my general direction. Well shit, I quickly move to the side and dodge the Spears. The shark girl, Ava I believe swims up to the leader and says something to him. The taller girl follows suite and he raises his hand. The spearmen stop raising their Spears at me but continue glaring at me. This was a horrible first impression.