My soul adjustment is cut short by Manager-san’s blaring warnings.

Immediately recovering from my meditative state, I detect something huge breaking into my sphere.

I’d normally leave everything behind and run, but I get the feeling doing this would be even more dangerous than staying.

Whatever this thing is, it probably reacts to movement. My intuition confirms this.

Letting it get closer, I finally make out the identity of the attacker.

A crab, a huge one. That guy’s taking up a large section of my sphere.

Soo, is it the crabs’ mother or father? I don’t know much about otherworld species, but I can clearly see he’s aiming for the eggs.

I mean, a bunch of eggs lying there defenselessly is just free food, y’know? I’m pretty sure my fish mother wasn’t the smartest child in the family.

That guy’s food intake shouldn’t be large enough to eat all the eggs, but still, I’ve gotta increase my leveling speed. At least until I’m large enough to eat one of these eggs.

The Kin Eater title grants Heretic Magic, and I’d be damned if I miss out on a skill that’s pretty much my specialty.

I hadn’t analyzed any soul magic skills except for Soul Barrier before, doing that is a waste of time in a modern world.

And this world not only has runes for magic, but it also has a system assist function for it!  

Manager-san would be able to get that information in no time, then use it as a foundation for learning higher-tier spells.

Focusing my attention back on the big guy, I wait for the right moment.

And luckily, it comes soon as he turns his back to me while picking up some eggs, so I immediately flee above a rock protruding from the vertical cave wall.

It’s large enough to hide my entire body from his vision, so I can let go of my tense nerves and keep my eyes on him.

 

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

 

 

Hoh? Neat.

A few minutes later, the crab seems to have had its appetite sated, falling asleep in its place amidst the remaining eggs.

Around 10% of the eggs are gone... So, he can gobble up the rest of them in 9 meals.

All right! Let’s get on to leveling, then!

Although I really wanna get Overeating, it’s stupid to believe that I’ll be safe from creatures like this one.

I mean, surviving this time is nothing but pure luck, if that guy could sense the changes in the water flow around it, I would’ve been dead the moment I moved.

Its pincers are even larger than my body, it can literally pinch me to death, it’s insane! Even more ridiculous, it may not be the biggest of its kind.

I can imagine them having some crab queen like the taratects, anything's fair game in another world...

Giving the sleeping crab one last look, I start swimming towards the higher area of the cave.

Water pressure is a thing, so I gotta be careful about that.

Along the way, I kill all the worms I could safely get close to.

There was nothing as strong as the big crab, but there certainly were other dangerous marine creatures.

I’ve seen a sea snake digging a hole and camouflaging itself in the walls, lunging at and catching any unsuspecting prey by surprise.

There were also poisonous fish hiding between the coral clusters where the worms gather, approaching prey are attracted by the colorful coral and food, then they get stung by the poisonous fish resulting in being paralyzed and getting swallowed whole.

Every creature in this cave has some sort of tricky hunting method. More than that, they can come from literally anywhere...!

No direction is safe underwater, it’s as if everyone has flying hacks, ugh!

Ahhh, I really wanna go back to the time when I chose to unlock Space Awareness and give myself a hearty pat on the back, I’d be dead meat without it.

 

{Experience has reached the required level. Individual spina argentea has increased from LV 3 to LV 4}

{All basic attributes have increased.}

{Skill proficiency level-up bonus acquired.}

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

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

{Skill points acquired.}

 

{Experience has reached the required level. Individual spina argentea 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 [Concentration LV 1] has become [Concentration LV 2].}

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

{Skill points acquired.}

 

 

A few minutes later, I reach the end of the cave leading to wider waters, the surface can be seen a distance away.

I killed over 20 worms on my way up netting me 2 levels, but their experience gain is decreasing.

My body growth is also an issue as it raises the danger level of swimming in open waters.

Realizing this, I stop ascending and decided to slowly venture back down.

The narrow cave gives me a natural advantage against large predators, and it invalidates the shortcomings of my small field of view.

...There’s another reason though, the main one.

A fucking water dragon is laying right next to the opening.

Imagine my reaction when I poked my head out of the hole only to see a sleeping dragon’s head with eyes bigger than my entire body, my heart nearly stopped!

Is the ocean this fucking dangerous?!! The danger level jumped way over the I may get hurt tier and passed the I’m nothing but fish feed tier real quick.

And Manager-san had to be snarky about it!

 

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

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

 

If that guy was awake, this skill might’ve reached full level instead.

I’ll be going back to my lovely safe cave, thankyouverymuch!

 

Phew, I shouldn’t have gotten over myself there, I’m only on the first step of this ecosystem’s pyramid.

And I haven’t even reached adulthood yet. Why am I waltzing everywhere like I’m at home?

My habits on earth are coming back to bite me, being pretty much the strongest on the planet did make me careless in that regard.

All right! I'll start targeting the crabs now, the worms’ experience has become negligible, and I must analyze the crabs and learn their weaknesses if I want to fight the big one by the eggs.

Locking onto a lone crab, I quickly move to its blind spot and charge at it.

When I get close, I open my mouth and bite at its pincer joints trying to incapacitate it.

Surprisingly, I bite off the entire arm instead. Are their shells not that strong, maybe...?

I’ve been avoiding them in case my bite strength is too weak to get through the shells, but it seems the information about crustaceans being part of my main diet holds true even here.

Swimming away, I circle around it and aim for its other pincer, leaving it completely defenseless.

Their inability to swim makes it a lot easier, it’s like when a bird snags an insect from a tree.

I move closer to enjoy my prey, but my lapse of concentration results in abrupt sharp pain assaulting my tail.

A crab in a higher position apparently let go of its grip in an attempt to help its kin, pinching my tail and latching onto it in the process of falling, with two more following after.

Dammit, their descent is faster than expected, it was too fast to detect through my shrunken sphere.

Lucky for me, they still aren't able to swim, so I hastily tail-slam the one clamping my tail into a wall, then crunch the pincer-less one finishing it off.

The other two attempt to catch me, but I swim away leaving them to flail about aimlessly.

Okay, new plan, no more targeting the pincer, I’ll bite through their torso shells from behind instead.

The one I slammed earlier was spasming during its fall, impact damage should be their weakness.

 I swiftly eliminate it, then proceed to do the same with the other two.

 

{Experience has reached the required level. Individual spina argentea has increased from LV 5 to LV 6}

{All basic attributes have increased.}

{Skill proficiency level-up bonus acquired.}

{Skill points acquired.}

 

I had leftover experience after so only 4 crabs did the job.

My tail recovers after the level-up, so that’s another concern addressed as well.

More crabs targeting me was unexpected though, if I had been near one of their little swarms, it might've been bad.

Otherworld crabs are gregarious, roger that!

Imagine them having the Revenge skill though, that’d be funny.

It’s raining crabs, RUN!

Jokes aside, I really want Appraisal right now.

I’m not used to doing anything without having information about it. My life on earth was all about information gathering, y’know?

Manager-san, analyze the corpses, please.

 

{Unknow crustacean species: A species of crab living at the edge of the sunlight zone of the ocean, they live in groups and swarm any predator that dares to approach them. They only react to movement in their field of view. Has soft shells that gradually harden from the juvenile to adulthood stages. Their backs are considered a vulnerable part of the shell. Weak to blunt type damage.}

 

So, their shells really are strong as I thought, but it’s at adulthood, huh?

The big guy’s weakness should be its back too, but it’s probably impossible for me to hurt it even after my evolution.

Although it is considered fragile, that fragility is a relative thing. Leveling strengthens your whole body including the vulnerable parts.

Snatching an egg from there is a must, though.

If he eats them all, it means forgetting about getting the Kin Eater title forever.

I’m large enough to swallow one of them, so I’m venturing down with that purpose in mind.

Ugh, there’s a freaking water dragon on top and a big ol’ crab down in the middle.

What’s gonna be at the bottom? A fucking Kraken or something?

I just jinxed it, didn't I. Oh goddess D, please have mercy on my poor soul.

Sigh, I can’t believe I was thrown somewhere more dangerous than the Elroe Labyrinth...