Chapter 11 - Aquatic Adventure

My theory got confirmed immediately after processing the strange plant. It gave me a slight increase to my Poison Resistance skill. Sadly, this was the only specimen of its species in my near vicinity, and I did not want to go on a venture just for a chance to find more. I'm not confident to be able to handle larger predators, and with my immediate vicinity already mapped for any potential dangers, I would rather stay here. At least for the time being.

There's only 1 section that I could not map out. It was the river that I visited in the morning. I already planned to explore it then, but with the Frog and the sun I had to postpone that plan. Not that I regret napping on the sun, it just caused a slight delay.

With my plans decided for tomorrow, I made my way back to my cave, and not long after, I hit the hay sack.

Early the next morning, I woke up. I was quite hungry to be honest, but I decided to not snack on the bugs anymore. My first meal today will be that fish the weird Frog creature was snacking on yesterday.

Slithering my way to the riverside, I went to the same spot as yesterday, and just stared at the body of the water. It was muddy, in fact, you couldn't see the bottom, even if it at most had a meter depth. Even with my scanning ability, I couldn't map out anything from the surface. I had to dive in.

Problem was, in my current form, I wasn't sure if I was amphibian or not. I had a feeling, you could say an instinct that I would be fine, but I was still skeptical. Even if this is not water but some toxic liquid, I should still be fine, right? At most, I would just transform back to my Birth Form, and that should save me. The current is not strong either, so I should be able to get back to dry land in case I have problems, so why am I hesitating?

To be honest, since waking up from the backlash, the most I can recall from the past is the moment I was born in the cave as a Primal Slime. Nothing before, like how did I get here, or from where. I had a feeling that Enya had something to do with this, as last night when I asked about this, she dodged the question and refused to answer, which was very uncharacteristic of her.

So, sadly I don't know why I am such a nervous train-wreck all the time. I know I have to work on it, which I am, and so far, taking a deep breath, and slowly exhaling it, seemed to work best. After calming my nerves, I slowly made my way to the edges of the water source. As slow as I could, I edged myself into the liquid, trying to feel if it's harmful or not.

Thankfully other than a refreshing coldness, nothing struck me. With that information I creeped deeper into it, while I still kept half of my body out on dry land. I also kept my head above water for the time being, and just kept myself still. I wanted to get used to the coldness, and the feeling of the water caressing my scales. My scales also seemed to instinctively react to the water, slowly opening then closing, almost like if they were breathing.

With this information in mind, I slowly sunk my whole body into the water, with the exception of my head. I kept to the edges where the river was not deep. My plan was to keep to this part, move around a bit, and slowly as I regained my confidence, sunk into it completely, then to see if I could move around using my slithering movement, or I should think up another method for traversal.

I probably spent around an hour just hanging around doing nothing while keeping my head out of water and dutifully scanning my environment. I knew this whole panic was just in my head, and I have no grounds to behave this way. I knew that. But it was just not that easy to ignore it. I had to take my time, okay?

How should I have known that I would be able to breathe underwater?! What part of my body would scream: 'You are amphibian!'. I realized that this last hour was totally wasted, as when I finally submerged underwater completely, I realized that I can breathe just as good as I did above water. Just to confirm, I took a quick peek at my Mastery progress and noticed that the bar slowly kept increasing. Not much but from the initial 1% it was now close to 10%.

Another good thing that came out of this, was that now I was able to finally send out pulses and map out the area. I could sense a small school of similar looking fish that the Frog probably ate yesterday close by. They were relatively small, well at least compared to the frog they were like half its size. They had small side fins, and one larger dorsal fin with a short but powerful tail ending in a longer anal fin. They had thin, coarse scales which were usually either light grey, red, light yellow, black or a combination of those colors.

They seemed to be herbivores, as they were all gathering around a group of seaweed. From the distance, if not counting the colorful scales, they reminded me of the Mushroom Bugs back in the cave. Gathering in groups, eating the same plant, while being totally oblivious of their surroundings. Not caring the slightest that a carnivore such as myself, was eyeing them. With my belly on the alert, sending me signals in the form of low growls I knew what today's menu will be.

Before I could hunt however, I had to test out my ability to move. Who knows if my previous technique will be adequate underwater?

Well my question got answered immediately. I pushed myself from the ground, and using the similar slithering motion, instinctively, I was slowly making my way towards the school of fish.

'Wonder what these fish are called. It's actually pretty interesting, that the system gives the names of the creatures I kill. Does it know? Is this information available somewhere? Can I access it?' While I made my way towards my unsuspecting prey, I was wondering about my system. It's pretty unique. I can't remember where and how I got it, but for some reason I knew how to use it, and I knew that the soft mature female voice is called Enya.

Unfortunately, Enya was still silent and did not answer any of these questions for me. Ever since our talk last night, she went silent. She did not answer my questions related to my amnesia, or what happened, but just went silent. I could feel her inside my soul, but I could not make her talk to me, no matter what I tried. I just had to give her time, something seemed to bother her.

Deciding that it's not worth troubling myself over the matter as she will talk to me when she is ready, I arrived close to the school of fish. I tried to be as sneaky as possible, and with the low current it wasn't that difficult to get to my usual attacking distance. This time I just wanted to grab one, then get to land with it, and laze on the sun while enjoying my spoils.

I was pleasantly surprised that the changing the medium from air to water, my speed did not falter much. I could grab one fish, while the rest scurried away quickly. I sank my teeth into the juicy body of the fish, and injected a small amount of venom, to end its suffering.

After its movements seized completely, I made my way to the shore, to the same spot I used yesterday. Exiting the water I could feel my scales close down, go back to the resting position.

The fish turned out to be even more rewarding than the frog yesterday. As I swallowed the last bits, I could already feel a huge amount of energy refilling my reserves, refreshing my body. The amount of energy it provided as I was processing it was completely ridiculous. On top of that the energy it provided coursed through my entire body, even feeling it submerging with my scales. My scales and with that my entire body was shining.

I also took a quick look on my system and noticed a few new notifications.

[Rainbow Carp (level 1) hunted! Received 5 xp!]

[Hidden Requirement Completed!

[Underwater Breathing (level 1) gained!

Swimming (level 1) gained!]

I was shocked. It provided as much experience as the frog that hunted these creatures, and I also seemed to complete a hidden requirement towards mastering my Viper form. I could already breathe underwater, and was able to swim, but maybe with the skills now visible on my character sheet I could keep them? That would be certainly incredible later on!

I also get to know the name of my meal, Rainbow Carp. It was easy, harmless, and it was available in huge numbers, unlike the frog which I haven't seen any other since yesterday. Taking a quick peek at my status screen, I could see that I gained experience towards my Hunting skill as well.

I decided that today I will hunt as many of them as I can...