Ocean Master

Seconds turned to minutes, but Sebastian stood, fighting a tug of war with his spinal cord to prevent his body from moving against his will.

His whole body was tensed up, he felt like he was before the executioner's ax and any move from him will bring the ax falling down to cut his body to pieces.

His eyes remained trained at the small opening in between the rocks that he used to block the entrance of this hole. His body was already heating up, he even started feeling pain due to the extreme heat but he did not dare flinch.

When he was already at the point of losing his breath, a group of predators finally came to check who caused the commotion.

Sebastian shuddered and melted in his position, wishing he could just vanish immediately on seeing the predators.

A family of Wolfish.

Yes, these fishes were normally not adapted to live in such extreme conditions but in this magic world, here they were. And they were not like the normal wolfish that Sebastian already encountered in any way.

Their skin was red, providing them with natural camouflage and enabling them to blend with the surrounding redness.

Their tails were adapted to look like countless barbed wires that were compressed together, making them look super menacing.

Their heads heaved up and down, glowing a red ominous color like they had fire stored inside their brains.

The most menacing part about them was their dagger-sharp teeth. Their mouths were too small to cover the long sharp teeth, so they hung from the side of their mouths dangerously.

4 of these dangerous predators were now hovering above the hole that Sebastian took refuge in, he practically felt his heart melting away.

The wolfish which seemed to be the leader of the group led in the front as it sniffed the surrounding water like a real wolf.

Its nose suddenly twitched like it detected something, making Sebastian's heart skip a beat as he was directly sent to the nine heavens.

A few seconds later, they suddenly raised their heads and looked into the distance. Clearly frightened by something, they did not dare stay as they rapidly swam away from that location.

Sebastian did not feel relief on seeing this, he rather felt more like crying as he guessed that only a stronger predator could scare those 4 away.

He was right; the water suddenly stirred and the new predator arrived.

It was one of those snakes that he saw from afar. It was dozens of meters long. It had 2 extremely long sharp teeth poking out of its mouth, its skin was also red, and it had something like a red crown on its head.

Its most eye-catching adaptation was the 2 pairs of arms attached to its sides. A snake with hands, this was Sebastian's first time seeing such an abomination.

Despite feeling like he was at the point of suffocating already, he still forced himself to remain still.

Unlike the family of wolfish, the snake didn't sniff around. It sharply scrutinized the surrounding with its cold red eyes. Seeing nothing, it flicked its enormous tail and swam away.

Sebastian let out the pent-up breath in his lungs, but he immediately held his breath again as he was still apprehensive of his surroundings.

For the next 15 minutes, 3 different types of predators came to check on the source of the sound. He was already numb to his fear as they came, but he still held his breath and remained still.

The system sent him other notifications, but he didn't dare pay attention to them lest he got distracted.

For the next minutes, no other predator came but he still stayed in one place for at least an hour. By this time, his mana points and stamina already fully recovered, this was when he finally heaved a sigh of relief.

"Oceania is really dangerous". He emphasized in his heart.

After confirming that no other predator came, he finally diverted attention to check on the bunch of notifications from the system.

[You have killed a mutated Fire Shrimp- Level 12: You have gained Experience.]

[You have gained 4 Skill points and 5 Adaptation points.]

[Your Tail fin skill has leveled up to level 5, automatically switching to the advanced version of the skill.]

[Switch to Empowered Tail fin completed.]

[Your Dorsal fin skill has leveled up to level 4.]

[Your Shredding bite skill has leveled up to level 2.]

[Due to the extreme heat of this region, automatic skin mutation to adapt to your surroundings has started.]

[Current progress rate of mutation: 4%.]

[Until the mutation is complete, you will suffer -1 Damage every 10 seconds.]

Seeing these series of notifications, Sebastian first heaved a sigh of relief that they were not anything dangerous.

Though losing -1 HP every 10 seconds was not pleasant, he could live with it as he would be entitled to a free mutation in the end.

For his skills to level up so suddenly, he was not too surprised as he already used them a lot of times without any of them leveling up. His accumulated efforts were now yielding results.

Then he reflected on the name of the Shrimp. "Fire Shrimp; does it mean that they can breathe fire or it is because they adapted to the extreme heat here?"

This was just one of the many questions that he had about his current location, but he didn't have the luxury to think and get an answer to them now.

Among his laws to be a great white shark was to always have a contingency plan, and to have that he needed to explore and know his environment first.

Though he really wanted to rest and start his evolution right away, he knew that such an impulsive action will result in even more danger. He didn't know for how many hours he took for each evolution; anything may happen at that time.

Blasting the surroundings with his electroreceptor skill to confirm that no other predator was nearby, he cautiously pushed the rocks out of the way and made his way out into this new environment again.

It was exploration time.

*****

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