So I’m a Fish, So What?

Ahhh, it’s a another wonderful day in this underwater paradise.

What a perfect morning to be chased around by a swarm of blade-fish—NOT.

What the hell is up with you guys?! We were having an honorable duel where I use Stealth to toy around with Mr half dead blade-fish over there and you guys just popped and chased me out of nowhere!

Didn’t anyone tell you that interrupting a duel is bad etiquette?! Unbelievable!

Seriously though, this went from zero to a hundred real quick...

 

Leaving my home after a good rest following my battle with the blade-fish, I wander around trying to find another opponent to fight.

Not only was the fight satisfying, but blade-fish sashimi also tasted heavenly, I’m looking forward to devouring more of those guys.

A few minutes later, I find my target, another lonely blade-fish.

I’ve already learned my lessons from the previous fight, those guys are better at evasion and sharp turns so my first target has naturally become their tails.

If I bit off the previous one’s tail first instead of the dorsal fin, I wouldn't have gotten injured.

The tradeoff is that the chance of prey successfully fleeing increases a lot, but I can just stalk them until in Stealth until they're out of SP.

Rushing at the blade-fish, I bite off a good chunk of its tail with my now increased attack power, attack power increasing with levels really is a magical concept.

Before, the tail’s defenses wouldn’t be easily breached, but now they’ve can't hold for a second against my sharp teeth.

I only go for a large chunk instead of the whole tail in order to inflict as much pain as possible, effectively limiting its movement.

And since I’m behind the blade-fish, Stealth wasn’t even broken, allowing me to effortlessly swim upwards and assault the dorsal fin before the fish could escape.

Then I end it by biting off the blade-fish’s head.

See? I personally believe my strongest point isn’t actually my strength, but my quick wits and information utilization.

It’s nearly impossible for me to suffer from the same mistake more than once, I’m always changing my strategies to adapt to the situation.

Just like Shishou described me before, I behave like an artificial intelligence program that is always updating itself with the latest algorithms and codes.

But this is actually a high-risk method of gambling with my life, you see.

Every time I fight a new opponent, it's like opening a Pandora’s box with the results being great, or leading to my death.

That only changed when Manager-san integrated my recently obtained Appraisal skill, which is why I was extremely cautious in picking my fights before I evolved.

I can now glean some information about the contents of that Pandora’s box, allowing me to judge whether it’s safe to confront whatever horrors dwell inside beforehand.

One try isn’t always enough though...

Environmental factors could affect the opponent’s abilities, like a water magic user being placed in a lava zone for example.

Previous injuries could affect its actions and stats as well.

Another exception is when an opponent is a part of a community but gets separated.

An ant will be easily stomped to death by an elephant, but if it’s a huge swarm consisting of millions of ants, the elephant is in danger of being swallowed alive.

The problem here though, is that I’m no elephant and the blade-fish clearly isn’t an ant, I’m the weaker monster in this matchup.

Unfortunately, I still fell into the deadly mistake of underestimating it due to incomplete information.

In my state of battle lust, my mind never came up with the assumption that the blade-fish could be a gregarious species after I killed 3 of them unimpeded.

This resulted in me getting surprised by a huge danger flare sent by my intuition as I was fighting my fourth one.

Looking behind, I’m greeted by the sight of hundreds of blade-fish charging in my direction.

I’m momentarily stunned by this locust-tide like scene, but then promptly give up the fight and swim away with all my might.

Stealth is useless as it’s impossible to find a vision blind spot when hundreds of eyes are locked onto my lone escaping form.

I seem to have strayed too far from home and into the territory of these guys.

Any hiding method would be useless as I’ll just be a living target waiting for them to come at me like bullets from a rifle.

Only one way out... desperate times call for desperate measures!

Manager-san comes in clutch as a map of where I’ve been pops up on the top right corner of my vision.

Taking a quick peek at the important marked locations, I gradually adjust my route towards the biggest red pin on the map.

Squeezing out all my mental powers, a terrible headache assaults my brain as my vision sphere temporarily expands by half its current size.

Ahhh, this is fucking awful...! But I must keep tabs on the blade-fish swarm’s movements and look out for any evolved individuals with higher speed mixed in with the others.

Thank god I got Overeating early, otherwise I wouldn’t have nearly as much stamina as required to get out of this situation.

Oiii! Why are you using Instant Movement, that’s cheating!!

Now I need to learn fish barrel rolls maneuvers on the spot to avoid being sliced into living sushi.

 

{Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Swimming LV 6] has become [Swimming LV 7].}

{Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Concentration LV 4] has become [Concentration LV 5].}

{Proficiency has reached the required level. Acquired skill [Evasion LV 1].}

{Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Evasion LV 1] has become [Evasion LV 2].}

 

Hey, dodging those guys is getting easier! So long, suckers, wahaha!

Swish.

Wha-what was that?! A long gash appeared on the left side of my body without any prior warning.

Considering that every living creature in this route that isn’t me or a blade-fish was dead the moment we passed by, only this guy could be the one who did it.

 

 

Ah...? This is a run and chase for first stage monsters here, why’s a second stage champion joining in?!

I’m lucky all of my fins are still intact, otherwise should my speed would drop,  my life will be over in no time.

The distance between us and the destination is rapidly shortening as well.

I can also kill a few weak fish to get the last bit of experience required to level up and repair my injuries after losing my pursuers.

Swish.

Gah. Another gash appears on my right side this time... C’mon me, go faster!

It’s there, I can see it...!

I gradually adjust my swimming direction into a downwards slope while slowing down to give them the illusion of me being tired.

As soon as I’m about to crash into it, I immediately adjust my movement into an upwards slope and push my speed back to peak, but my pursuers fail to do so with their higher speeds resulting in them crashing head-on into my target.

OOOOOM!

ROOOOAAAAAAR!

And so, he awakens. Chaos broke lose in this normally quiet cavern as its overlord awakens.

The Demi-Leviathan, awoken from its slumber, quickly locks on to the swarm of paralyzed blade-fish responsible for disturbing its rest.

Yes, I led them all the way to the big snake’s sleeping area.

I mean, the big guy can easily deal with them, right? I’ll just owe him a favor, yup, nothing wrong with that, I'm outta here.

Swiftly fleeing from the crime scene, I quickly reach my home with my resources fully recovered after some hapless bastards blocked my way here.

 

{Experience has reached the required level. Individual serratum saven has increased from LV 4 to LV 5}

{All basic attributes have increased.}

{Skill proficiency level-up bonus acquired.}

{Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Evasion LV 2] has become [Evasion LV 3].}

{Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [HP Auto-Recovery LV 1] has become [HP Auto-Recovery LV 2].}

{Skill points acquired.}

 

The ocean is still as scary as ever today!

 

 

In a modernly furnished girl’s room, the owner of the room can be seen sitting in front of a computer screen intently watching what’s playing with clenched fists.

The owner seems to be only a 16-year old female teenager with deep black eyes, shiny black hair, and incredible beauty.

Her clenched fists indicate extreme anxiousness yet her expressionless face makes it seem as if nothing in existence would ever catch her interest.

She is D, the evil goddess responsible for the class’s reincarnation, or Hiiro Wakaba as Tomoko knows her.

“She survives... That’s fine for now although only this much isn’t nearly enough to test her.”

Even though her expressionless face and emotionless tone of speaking scream that she’s a monster in human skin, that mortals are nothing but tools for her plans and amusement, but the slow relaxation of her fists shows how much such a monster cares about the person she's watching.

Although it’s nothing but a slight unconscious action, it’s no doubt that this underworld goddess is having her first ever experience of worrying about someone else.

Surprisingly, what can be seen on the screen is the scene of Tomoko’s Serratum Saven form resting in her home after successfully escaping from the Inci Vole swarm and fully recovering from a level up.

“The second one has hatched as well; I wonder how much entertainment my substitute can bring me before she dies.”

Different from before, D truly doesn’t care about the one being shown on the second monitor.

Who’d care about a smoke bomb only meant to distract their seekers anyways.

 “But... Tomoko is advancing too fast. It seems as if she had information on the system before that dimensional spell hit the class, she even said see you later right before she died. Interesting! I hope you survive long enough to tell me about it...”

Deciding to hold on to her rare curiosity, she exits both screens, letting the friend list interface of a formerly popular MMORPG in Japan show up in their place.

“You truly are the only one I ever enjoyed playing with.”

Briefly staring at the only offline name in her list, she exits this game as well, starting the search for a new one.

That lonely name read ActuallyAnAssassin even though the job class said mage.