I'm a Stingray?

Chapter 154: North side (2)

Snoopy was the first to consider that idea as utter garbage, and teased about it too. "You really are scared of those sharks."

Wanting to use a point of reference and break down a possible argument, Tim questioned. "Have any of you ever fought a shark?"

Neither of them gave an answer towards that question which was an indirect answer itself. So the hero simply smiled and said, "You didn't. They are extremely dangerous and can kill us with a single bite. I only killed one by luck."

"You actually killed a shark?!" Patty shouted. Excited that they might not be so doomed with a shark-slayer in their arsenal.

"By luck." The hero assured. He didn't want to sound mysterious but knew that the system in his head can't be mentioned in any topic. "It was Drake the mako-shark, he was one of my biggest enemies."

The whole crew had a lot of complaints regarding this topic, be it favorable or against the hero's word. But even as stingrays who typically weren't too intelligent at this age, they could understand that whatever the hero said was correct. So they kept the arguments to their selves and felt comfortable with their beloved brother taking the lead.

They began travelling once more but were dazzled by a group of 7 fish that seemed flat bodied, but yet didn't swim like a stingray. Instead, it swam as if vertically across the waters.

Curious, the hero asked. "What the hell are those?"

"Butterflyfish. A lot of them are coming back home now. This reef used to be their home before the army of sharks had attacked." Snoopy assured, he had spoken to fish like these before and could easily understand why they had made such life decisions.

This fish was required to complete another task, but guilt emerged bit by bit. He wanted to kill one of these fish but knew how important it was for more animals to live in this very reef.

So a question had to be asked, "Are there a lot of these fish?"

"A few hundred right now, lots more will probably migrate. The fish I talked to said that a few thousands are thinking about coming back, they've swam far to the west before apparently. To avoid the massacre." Snoopy felt smarter the more he explained and his intelligence was often visible but this kind of information could be figured out by anyone.

Thinking it over for a few moments, it would be weird if he went ahead and killed just one of these fish. So a command had to be let out by the contemplating hero, "We need to eat a bit more before eating the sharks. Let's kill them!"

Although it felt weird to kill fish that were practically considered allies, the rest of the team didn't really hold back and charged into battle. It wasn't much of a fight to kill species like this, the most difficult part was chasing them. This could be used as a bit of more experience as well, they will be a hunch more prepared for a possible battle against the sharks.

Timothy was the second to reach one of the enemies as Haze was still the fastest of this crew. And once he reached these flat-fish, the first thought was. "Yup, they don't have wings. Thank god!"

Although these fish seemed beautiful, coated with yellow and white vertical stripes, it was inevitable to use them in the worst way possible.

It only took a single bite to send this pray towards the next world, but the hero was excited to hear the system announce. [Butterflyfish killed. 2 system points have been given to you as a reward]

[Since this was a system given task, you also get an additional 2 points]

[Total system points = 152]

Eating a full-grown butterflyfish grants the following effects...]

[Effect on health, +5 bars]

[Effect on hunger, +3 bars]

[Effect on sleep, non existent]

[Effect on stamina, -1 bar]

It felt odd how a fish equally long to the hero in size, could only grant so little hunger bars. But just thinking about how flat these butterflyfish are, it made sense. And such effects were tremendously useful considering that with an empty stomach he could eat nearly 6 of these fish and reap 30 points of health.

Although he felt well-fed, health was never a waste of time so he ate through the carcass and allowed his siblings to eat the rest of the carcasses that were slaughtered here. Although they don't really have health bars to replenish.

It felt refreshing to eat a fish that raised health. And the system was quick to notify about the only statistic the hero cared about, [Health bar = 92/110]

This felt like an achievement but considering the overall environment here, it might not last too long. But what felt like a bigger achievement was the system moving on with the next step.

[Task 14 = locate and kill a moorish idol fish]

This felt like one of the most bizarre names out there, definitely not anything he had heard before. But considering it only gave 2 system points, it shouldn't be that difficult to find.

But of course the hero couldn't help thinking, "Where the hell am I going to find one of those? I can't even remember that name."

Regardless of such complaints, the system didn't really bother to reply. So after Tim's siblings were done feasting on these fish, they've continued their travel.

...

After an hour, they have reached the area where the sharks are supposed to be. Timmy's siblings have seen them before and knew exactly where to find them. After all they have acknowledged this problem through the migration process, but just couldn't do anything about it.

The sharks were nowhere to be seen for a few short moments, so the hero got great hopes up that they might have moved somewhere else. Hope grew thanks to that thought, because a plausible fight could have been entirely avoided.

But hope won't keep one alive in this environment, life didn't work like that.