I'm a Stingray?

Chapter 50: Thicker skin

An idea came into his mind at the very moment and he decided to immediately get behind it, citing. "I want to upgrade my shit. I remember something about being badassier... tougher. What was it?"

[You must be referring to the endurance upgrade.]

"Yes that! Give me that!" Tim thundered, his eyes carrying joy thanks to the prime thought of being a tougher disk to bite after this upgrade.

[Purchase confirmed.]

[Loading purchase...]

After such an announcement, he could feel a few hundred tiny sharp pains all over his body. From the head and all the way to the end of his tail, not rejecting even a needle sized spot.

Such pain lasted only for a few seconds, it got the young water slapper confused in a couple of ways. And he even expected a sharper pain that might knock him out cold.

[Purchase complete.]

[Your durability has been increased by 5 points.]

[Total durability = 10]

[45 system points consumed.]

[73 system points remaining.]

"Neato patito." Tim answered, absolutely gibberish at this point but he was smiling like an idiot, full of joy.

...

Stretching a bit to shun away the soreness that came along with the pain, he could feel the spine crackle a tad bit and his skin felt a bit tougher to manoeuvre. But thankfully that got fixed just after a few more attempted stretches.

After a bit of snooping around, he managed to filter out a couple of options regarding how to go through this hell of a collapse.

The first would of course be the patriotic option, which was to gain as much speed as he could and bash the absolute shit against these hundreds, possibly thousands kilos of rock.

In all aspects that was ridiculous, but how would the boy acknowledge that? He was higher than the birds on the sky.

Yet the system was there to correct such utterly moronic thought, just by pointing out the obvious. [You're too small for that, don't be crazy.]

"Right right right." He repeated and heavily relied on the second option, well at least he wasn't high and stubborn at the same time.

He swam a few more feet down and decided to find the half tunnel that he had discovered just about 5 minutes ago through the snooping.

It seemed more logical to follow this option but the young boy wanted to avoid it. The reason behind it were obvious, it seemed too dark through there.

But with options extremely limited, the spooky grey coated tunnel had to be taken.

Typically he wouldn't be scared of the dark but the situation the stingray was in, well, the world typical has been temporarily banished.

He swam towards the tunnel, encouraging himself. "You can do it. You can! You're the greatest stingray alive."

[Now I didn't say that you are the greatest alive. Just a prodigy, that doesn't mean what you're claiming.]

"I'll ignore that." Timmy answered and blessed the very beginning of the tunnel.

This not so natural structure being here, was in no way luck for the young boy. But instead, it would be considered luck for the pufferfish.

However the collapse was caused, they were given the opportunity to pass through it and still have freedom of movement, although just a hunch more restrictive.

Through the swimming, he heard the system scold. [You aren't following instructions, the bronze pufferfish requested for you to stay hidden.]

"And?" Tim asked, genuinely unable to understand where the problem was.

[And you're doing the opposite. 8 pufferfish were killed back there, that would be difficult not to notice.]

[That and you're proving horrible at using your small size and natural camouflage to stay hidden.]

"I don't understand what the problem is? They were supposed to die anyway." At this point he even struck the system staggered. How could a stingray whom was high as shit, recall such an important piece of information faster than an all powerful piece of knowledge collecting system?

But proving that there was nothing to worry about, he added. "And if anyone snitches about it, I'll kill them too so no biggie biggie with this piglet."

So the system just remained quiet and witnessed how the young boy continued to swim through the snug tunnel, almost kissing stone as if it would unleash seduction and move it away thanks to that.

Thankfully the tunnel wasn't so long, 30 meters or so but still this entire cave proved massive. For him this seemed like a little village, there were many aspects to call this place so.

But that aside, as his head dipped out of the tunnel to meet the other side, the first thing that greeted him was a meter long sea snake, screaming with a high pitch. "Imposter!"

And then lunged towards Timmy, with a full intent to swallow the boy whole, it seemed big enough to do so and the light blue colour didn't fail to dictate size as well through this harsh darkness.

With all of his regenerated power, he tortured the water molecules that surrounded his body and took a direct sharp turn upwards.

Which forced the snake to go through the tunnel instead of dealing damage of any sort, nonetheless anything serious.

But as everyone can recall, Tim has a tail. That of which took just a quarter second longer to follow the rest of the body.

So as the enemy snake made through the tunnel, the very tip of the stingray's stinger ran through right in the middle of the forehead.

It wasn't any damage worth praising, just enough to break the first half inch of the skin, as if a pencil drew on it.

To a snake this large, that would seem nothing more than a minor war mark, it would eventually look like war paint really.

"No need to panic, I know why he's here." A thick female tone shone in the midst of darkness that this place provided.

And this wasn't the system's tone no, he already knew what that sounded like so this voice was quite new.