A little nudge here… and a little poke there.

He’s a little bit shy, wasn't he? Shriveling up like that. If I got a little closer, maybe it would cause a reaction? Yes, yes it’s quite hard now indeed.

I have the strange feeling that I was poking a bear with a stick, but that was my mind playing tricks on me. These giants seemed gentle enough; it was a real shame I was trying to kill them.

I knew it sounded bad, but it was all for the sake of science! It's as ethical as unethical experiments can get, okay? Not as bad compared to a certain seven three one.

Lately, I’ve not only been hungering for a little food, but more orbs as well. While I doubt my rate of ranking up was considered “slow” especially around these parts, the part of me that played a couple games on our old Gameboy Advanced begged to differ. I totally didn't use cheats for progress at every opportunity.

I already had an idea of what got rewarded by the system thingy. A theory, if you would like to define it as that.

Beyond the simple act of survival, which may get rewarded every now and then, it seemed to reward the so-called “hosts” for going out of their way to do things. The extent of which I did not know yet, but combat was a good start.

It was the only thing I could do here aside from making nearly baseless speculations, after all.

Anyways, that’s my current hypothesis. Reason being, from all my encounters so far: I only gained orbs from two: the Giant Siphoner and the Sea Spider.

Now, I don’t know how the usual members of my species act, but I was nearly certain an individual wouldn’t throw himself at something with legs more than twice his size. Let alone go anywhere near a creature an order of magnitude bigger.

So, rather than going for prey or for more usual competitors, it might do me better to go for more exotic creatures. As much as it pained me, this fellow seems to be a good source of that "exotic" material.

Worry not, distant cousin of the venerable pillbug, I was about to slaughter you in cold blood with the utmost respect.

As with trying to kill anything out of your league, there would be a challenge factor. Even if he was one of the most docile creatures under the sea, his shell was sure made of something really tough!

My strength was by far my highest stat if I didn’t count my intelligence. It was by a large margin too, considering it’s a tier above the rest. Yet, even with that I couldn’t even feel the shell giving in one bit; it felt like biting at a concrete wall.

Yes, I tried that latter one before I was a fish, don’t ask why.

So, how about aiming for a weak spot? Well, I’ve been looking for one for a while, but it seemed impossible. If the isopod was still in his normal state, I would have aimed for its unprotected ‘belly’. As soon as I nudged him, the clever guy curled up into a ball to prevent exposing any weak spots.

Now, I am essentially stuck nudging an all but literal rock in hopes it would change its mind and decide to get eaten instead. The only thing that came to mind was a battle of attrition where I’d attack it when it eventually needs to eat, but that would most likely take months or even years!

I wasn’t determined enough to sit this out for that long, so no thanks.

What to do… what to do. Ugh, if only I had some tools available, that could expand my options by a lot. Unfortunately, there were really no materials to make anything out of when you’re a fish kilometers deep into the ocean.

With a heavy heart, I have to accept another crushing defeat yet again.

Hmm? Something was crawling this way? Interesting, I never really saw the giant isopods together, it was a given considering how big and slow they are. Though to be fair, they had to find some way to get near each other if they wanted to mate. Wait... do isopods mate? Maybe I'll soon find out,

Wait no, that speed was too fast for one of them... then who or what could it possibly be?

Dammit, the movement of those legs, it’s the sea spider! Could have sworn I swam far enough from its general direction.

Hmm, it may not even be the very same sea spider, since it didn’t seem to be missing any legs. Ah, based on that it should just be a relative of THE sea spider.

So, there are multiple of them now, neat. Hayst.

Actually, if they all produced those accursed chemicals when in danger, I could use this encounter to my benefit. There was no guarantee they would all possess such a trait, however, since the system thingy allowed one to choose from many improvements.

Ah whatever, it was worth a shot. Now I just hope my confidence in my strength isn’t misplaced.

I swam towards the sea spider with perhaps a little tinge of fury blinding me. Not that it mattered if I am blind; I was not relying on sight anyways.

It noticed me, that nasty enormous spider always had such keen senses. Unlike last time, now it did not have the element of surprise. It noticed me far later, this time, I have caught it in surprise.

I hastily swam near it, trying to coax an attack out of it but making sure its legs could not reach anything but the tip of my tail. Thankfully, it wasn’t clever enough to try and wait for me to go closer, as it tries to get me with one of its long legs.

Ironically, despite not being the one with a proboscis here, I was zipping around it like a mosquito. It tried to impale me with its unusually powerful legs to no avail. Its twelve legs were slow enough thanks to the water; it would take a while to get into a position to defend.

Now is the time to strike. Just got to make sure it’s lined up with the isopod.

I bit into one of its legs, but this time I dod not snap it into two pieces. Instead, I tried to push the entire body of the spider where I want it to. Thankfully, its on the lighter end for its size. Still, it was huge compared to me.

Woah, this was actually way more strength than I anticipated. And the system thingy called this underdeveloped?! 

My endurance would not last long however, but thankfully I didn’t have to push it far.

Its legs flailed around, was it shocked? I did taste a little bit of blood and guts, but why only this leg and not the other ones I bit off last time?

That was strange, but it didn’t matter now. It was time to exact a little bit of revenge.

Oops, I forgot for a second that this wasn’t the same sea spider. Sorry buddy, but you'd have to be the scapegoat for your sibling back there.

As its head got near the tough outer shell of the undersea wood bug, my breathing quickened not only in exhaustion but also anticipation. Sure enough, when the upper joints of its legs almost made contact, it released its dastardly chemicals from its head.

I had already poised myself to retreat and immediately did so at the first signs of something being released into the nearby water. I turned on my light to observe the results.

Nice.

The sea spider almost immediately ran away as soon as it released its payload, but not before I noticed something odd about it. Three of its legs seem incomplete? As if something nibbled on them at the very edge. It was visible enough to notice, but a small enough deformity to not impede its movements too much.

Wait a minute…

Those same three legs, I could’ve sworn they were the ones I got a week ago!

It was the same damnable spider I got nearly killed by, and now I find out it has some sort of enhanced regeneration too. Great, that was exactly what I needed to know.

Right, let’s focus on the giant isopod first, though I can’t stay near it until whatever solution the spider dropped into the water dissolves. Sadly, it won’t have a good time , since its already flailing around with mild burns.

I hope nothing happens to his gills; I wouldn’t want him to suffocate and award the sea spider with a feat.

Drat, it might have gotten one already for escaping.

Hold up, I was letting someone sit in dangerous chemicals to observe the effects. Uhh, thankfully there’s no one to hold me accountable for crimes against humanity here. Even if someone did, I would pin it all on the spider, totally its fault.

Surprisingly, the chemical didn’t take too long to dissolve until it was safe to swim in. Perhaps it didn’t actually release a lot of it, or whatever is in it is weak like that tear gas the police use?

I knew that since while the giant isopod is still twitching around a bit, he didn’t seem all too much in pain. I also checked a few times with my tail, it didn’t seem like it hurts anymore. Still was best not to stay in for too long.

I’m sorry about this happening, but I was here end your suffering soon, ok?

I approached it, but I found that it may have been a very dangerous maneuver to do so. Its stubby legs started shaking more violently, not in a seizure-like way, it was more like in a “I’m about to do something drastic” kind of way. The sudden change of water pressure didn’t seem very inviting either.

Maybe I was being paranoid, and this was basically its death throes. Regardless, its pretty scary too look at so I'd better get away for a while.

I felt some intense vibrations that rung through my internal ears. Shit, was that a shockwave? I made a really good call back there, whew.

Okay, it was time to run the fuck away from the giant isopod, I was foolish to think that he possessed no bite with the existence of improvements. But straight up causing shockwaves underwater to fend me off was a bit too much don’t you think?

I stared in awe at the new notification that materialized before me. 

4 orbs… for surviving… that's nearly half of what I got after I escaped from tentacle hell.

Turns out, I was messing with quite the big shot, no wonder that bold sea spider scurried away so quickly.

Sorry, Boss Pillbug, it was a grave mistake to have wronged you. Please spare this little fish’s life. I was only born a week ago, so I'm still young and stupid.

Even though I knew it won't catch up to me, I'm still too afraid to look back. This time, I did entertain the idea of doing it again for the orbs.

Unfortunately, to even get to that point of provoking the pillbug, I need the aid of the sea spider. Not exactly something I can safely call upon at a moments notice.

Ha, it seemed like I have to satisfy myself with these stickshrimps after all. At least its better than the sediments floating around.

Anon_Y_Mousse

I kid you not, I pushed this chapter back 2 hours just to think of the chapter title. Ended up with something simple and lame, fml. On a side note, do you think I should advertise this as a gamelit rather than a litRPG? The screens are there, but I feel as if they're not as prevalent as they are in the usual litRPGs.