I got into a stalemate. I held the fish just barely inside the shell and had no room to shift my grip. I could not close the entrance because of the same reasons. I could only wound the fish and hope it would die soon. It was getting weaker but not fast enough in my opinion.

‘Well, I could just continue in this stalemate until I win. Or I could kill it faster. But how? I barely know anything about octopuses and squids. Let alone how to quickly kill a fish. The human method is to slam their head onto a flat surface and give it a killing concussion. Something that does not work underwater. Because fluid dynamics. I am not sure on the details¹Liquids can not be compressed like gasses. So all the liquid must leave the space between two objects in order to allow them to touch. The closer two objects get the faster said liquid must move to achieve this. And to get things to move faster it takes more energy. Energy that gets taken out of the object you try to swing into another. Therefore making it harder to actually slab something underwater. The faster the slab the more energy you lose.
Sorry, needed to let this out
~CosmicDragon. Wait, I could inhibit its swimming ability by cutting off its tail and then throwing it into the inner area of the shell and blocking the exit. After that go in for the kill on the gills and eat it.’

So thought, so done. I worked on cutting the last part of the tail. After a minute of hard work the fish was barely responding to anything I was doing. I could use my siphons to drag and swim with the fish away from the entrance I made. I let go of the fish. Moved around the head of the fish and used a rock together with some sand to close the opening I made.

The fish was now fully domed. I moved around the fish and approached the gills from behind. I would not be going close to any teeth if I could help it. I closed in on the gills and used my teethed tentacles to drag them open and make it bleed. The amount of blood that flowed out of it is a bigger amount then from the tail wounds alone. By this point the fish had stopped all movements.

I took this as an invitation and started eating without reservation.

‘While I am eating this in relative safety I should see what boons I get from this fish, and I should ask a question I meant to ask before. Do I need to get all the beneficial non clashing upgrades before I go up a size?’

    You got DNA for the following:

    Muscle tissue (improvement extracted, 2.026 BM)

    Bone tissue (Slight improvement extracted, 54 BM)

    Skin tissue (Slight improvement extracted, 572 BM, skin pattern usable, 157 BM)

    Stomach tissue (slight improvement extracted, 184 BM)

    Teeth (Better version, 48 BM)

    When you size up you get the option to also implement the Beneficial non clashing DNA upgrades.

‘Okay, is there any boon to this you are not telling me?’

    This option has a heavy discount because you are already restructuring your entire body and it does not matter what shape the biomass needs to fill. Making the cost effectively only the extra weight.

‘That is very nice so unless it is strictly needed only upgrade at size ups. Good that I so far only bought the anemone immunity. If I had bought more I might have run out of biomass by now. That seemed like a bad plan because of the daily upkeep.’

I had eaten up a big part of the fish already. One side was gone and a big part of another, I felt full while only being at a third of the fish.

‘What is my status?’

    Size: 1

    Passive daily upkeep: 605 BM

    Biomass stored: 5.358 / 6.283

    Biomass for the next size: 0 / 32.808

    All beneficial non clashing DNA upgrades: 3.015 BM

    Clashing and non beneficial DNA upgrades: 2 new, 19 total

‘how full am I percentual?’

    85,3%

‘So I am guessing that at about 80% of the numerical value I am feeling full. While I am having a prey this big here let me test out how it feels to be low on stored BM. Sysy dump 5.000 BM from stored to the size up thing.’

I felt weak, very weak. I could power through this weakness no problem, it just felt like I had not eaten in several days. It did not seem like a good idea to remain or get in this state for whatever reason. I continued eating the fish quickly. I wanted to get rid of this feeling as soon as possible.

When I felt full of my meal once more I checked my status again.

    Size: 1

    Passive daily upkeep: 605 BM

    Biomass stored: 5.089 / 6.283

    Biomass for the next size: 5.000 / 32.808

    All beneficial non clashing DNA upgrades: 3.015 BM

    Clashing and non beneficial DNA upgrades: 0 new, 19 total

‘Deposit 2.500 BM’

I continued my meal. I had even eaten some smaller bones. I would devour this fish fully. I felt full again. This time I did the mental flex of thought intention that did not require me to think to store another 2.500 BM. After that I had eaten the fish fully and felt satisfied.

‘Tell me.’

    Biomass stored: 4.222 / 6.283

    Biomass for the next size: 10.000 / 32.808

‘That was a big meal. If I ever get the chance to eat something bigger than me again I should take it. Might even be a better idea to just work based on traps to get the bigger creatures for me to eat. I do not think I can take another fish from the school again, but I might be able to get a shark for me to eat, they took my kill after all. Although, having more and better DNA would also be a very nice advantage. Maybe train myself on smaller fishes for now for the DNA and experience. That seems like a better idea, if I am much bigger the hunt for the small creatures would be way harder to do. Maybe I could even try to eat some plants. That would also be a nice test to see what it does. What else could I do? I do not think much more for now. This should be a good start. Eat plants and small creatures to get more DNA and hunt bigger prey for BM after that.’

CosmicDragon

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