I'm a Stingray?

Once he expanded the map for the sake of it to cover most of his vision, Timothy made it zoom-in just a little bit more, so he could have a proper peek at the wounds.

And it was fair to say that he was both happy and sad. The wounds didn't seem drastic, thankfully his fin had not been utterly obliterated or pulled out of its socket either; but quite a bit of damage was still there.

This dilemma especially began feeling uncomfortable, once he noticed that the wound was shaped quite like a cracked rock.

Reincarnating into an animal's body was difficult to comprehend on its own. But now he was practically turning into a swimming rock? Just what was this darned fate leading him towards?

This whole life felt just like a bizarre dream that never had an end. He didn't know what his purpose in these seas was, and he most definitely didn't know what tomorrow would represent.

All Tim knew, was that he died once and doesn't want to die again. For such a goal to be fulfilled, he had to embrace survival and every aspect that encouraged it.

The whole idea of what this life carried, seemed like a loophole of never ending sorrow ~ but right now, embracing survival seemed like the best option. There was no other way to change these circumstances, without suicidal ideas.

However. Since this map managed to give him a bit of depression, he decided to stop looking at it. And after removing the big map, he realised just how long he had been thinking about this life.

What helped Tim get back on track was the fact that his friend, had returned with yet another little mountain of marble shrimp.

It was quite amazing regarding how quick she was at finding food. Such efforts required skills, even though this species of sea-critters often tended to crawl in groups, and were easy pickings.

But right now, the hero didn't want to waste any time, he could simply thank and praise this good friend later.

So the sea-disk peeked at the food for a second, before he inched close to them and began crunching through one of the carcasses.

It took him a few minutes to eat all of these shrimps, but thankfully he gradually became faster at feeding. Especially while eating the last few of these shrimps.

And it was noticeable that a little luck was by his side as well, simply because he didn't lose any health points this time.

This might have something to do with the recent health raises. But regardless of what its root was, the blood-loss slowing down was nothing but an advantage.

Due to these noticeable little wins, he began conversing with the system for further details. But Osira had already headed to find and kill a barracuda, she didn't want to waste even a single second!

She felt confident to carry on such a task. Because even if the good lady didn't find such a fish right away, the quantity of shrimps she had brought, should be quite enough to help the hero survive.

As for what the stingray was conversing with the system about, he had asked about health. And the system was happy to oblige the request.

[You've eaten twenty-two marble shrimps, so you've gotten eleven points of health out of those]

[Total health = 44/121]

These results seemed fine. And it was fair to say that he began feeling just a little bit more comfortable too.

The sharp pains that often struck him, were reduced by at least a quarter right now. Such a result was good enough on its own.

But he also gained a bit of guts to open up the third-person-view-map again. After putting in some efforts, to push away some deep emotions that carried grand perplexity, he gave a peek at the wound.

The most noticeable detail that he paid attention to, was the fact that a few tiny branches of the wound have disappeared.

These branches had been located near the bite-marks. They've been quite small, and their length was isolated near every individual wound.

Regardless, they contributed into the blood-loss before, one way or the other; but now those same little branches were as good as gone!

The bleeding itself might not have been stopped completely, especially since the actual bite-marks were still there and flourished - but this progress could still be recognized as decent.

So as a bit of confidence began to take root in his soul, the hero put in an attempt again, to move a little bit.

He wanted to test out just how mobile that damaged fin was right now, as simple curiosity here could point out just how much the bones had healed.

And as he tried to move the damaged fin, a sharp pain struck him right through that same second!

It forced him to leap up a little bit, which was ironic after considering how immobile he was right now. But it still gave a good example of how much pain he was under!

After curiosity managed to beat him to submission just a moment ago; Timmy became quite convinced, that it wasn't the best time to move around right now. At least not until a great-barracuda had been brought to his disposition.

Such a blessing of health might take a while to arrive, but at least there were other ways to kill some time at the moment.

For example, Gerlach the mantis shrimp was approaching at the moment, and it seemed like he had quite a bit of information to tell.

And the first thing that this old man asked, was. "How are you holding on, boy? Are these meals treating you well?"

"They saved my life... that's for sure, but I have many broken bones." The sea-disk followed along, answering with quite enough honesty.

The latter became a bit stunned after that point, which was why he pointed out. "I thought your bones could not be broken! You look as tough as a rock."

Such a sentence stung a little bit, and the hero didn't shy away to point it out. "I'm no fan of looking like a rock either, but enough about that. Tell me what that shark said. Where is he?"

"Oh, I killed him." The geezer answered quite honestly.

Timmy squinted his eyes as he felt rather confused right now. Such a decision coming from the old man seemed quite drastic, especially since that shark proved cooperative. Death for that fish seemed unfair at this point.

This was why he questioned, "Why did you do that for? That shark was innocent enough."

The latter's face turned quite sour thanks to that question. It almost seemed like his grand intelligence had been challenged, but he was quite prepared to answer.

That was why the geezer managed to answer instantly, "Was he really innocent though? That moron didn't kill a stingray, but he was going to do so eventually. I think everyone should get their fair share in life, based on the decisions they have made."

To seal off such an in depth view, the old man also added. "No one forced him to join this little cult of stingray hunters. He wanted to be a part of it."

Before such a perplexing topic could have been pondered, Gerlach decided to stick to the main topic.

That was why he swiftly shifted words, "That aside, our work is not done yet. There is a mantis shrimp we need to kill, she has formed this entire group of sharks that we just fought."

The sea-pancake's brain felt overwhelmed by all of this recent information, and he didn't quite know which aspect to comprehend at first.

That was why he expressed after a sigh, "Let's slow down a little bit. I need to heal and we need to dig a grave for Dana. We can't just let her bones get picked on by any random jackass."

But then, that was when a familiar tone unleashed a tease. "Oh that's so sweet of you..."