Poking my head out of my little shelter, I look in the direction of the leviathan.

Making sure that it’s back to sleep for real, I give my second little home a final farewell and leave.

My progress has lately become stagnant which is a rare thing.

As a result of having the combination of Sage, Exhaustion Nullification, and Suffering Nullification, I’ve always been on the move ever since I hatched.

The only times of rest I had were my food breaks after hard fights and close calls when training Stealth.

Most Monsters around here don't reward me with much experience anymore and targeting blade-fish has become near impossible.

All of the stragglers are already in my stomach while the remaining ones are part of the swarm.

I could wait a while for a few of them to get separated to hunt them, but that’d be a stupid waste of time.

Going into a fight with no chance of winning is suicide, however, avoiding all fights unless they’re guaranteed wins is cowardice.

Since I already have all the information-gathering and mental skills down giving me a large safety factor, looking for decent opponents is the least I could do.

My destination is a cave I saw while mapping the area behind the leviathan a few days ago.

The opening has a 10-meter radius meaning my sphere can fully cover it.

I also compared how it looks to the other caves in this area, finally concluding that it is a naturally occurring underwater cave.

This means no huge scary monsters slithering through there doing an impression of a vacuum cleaner, perfect!

And there should be some hidden places I can use for rest shelter as well, my next evolution should be very soon after all.

Serratum Saven are likely to evolve by level 10 in my predictions, the species’ power level is too weak for any higher.

I really hope that my previous skill grind would satisfy the conditions for a poison-type evolution, fighting head-on with my body just ain't my style.

Sneak attacks, swift attack & retreat, highly lethal weaponry, etc... are what my normal combat style revolve around.

Shishou would probably bust his ass off laughing at me if he ever finds out about how I fight nowadays.

Ahhh, I still feel that really deep malice directed towards me! D really loves her entertainment, huh?!

 

Reaching the cave, I reduce my speed and hug upper corner while curiously exploring around.

This way of movement is a neat trick I came up with after some close calls with the blade-fish swarm.

Most living creatures subconsciously look down and around when searching for something.

A human would search for any lost item or person by looking around, an animal would track their prey by stalking it from an upwards position, and a bird looks down or forward while flying.

Even fish face downwards when searching for food.

So, moving alongside the upper corners and adding in Stealth removes the already low chance of being detected.

I’m never gonna admit that I like the feeling of being a ninja though, teehee.

Now then, the fish around here are still the same as in the large cavern, but their numbers seem to have increased exponentially and larger evolved counterparts are gradually increasing.

The ecosystem’s finally turning back to normal, the leviathan’s presence made it so that only weak non-intelligent creatures stuck around, everything smart enough to have a sense of danger has already escaped into different cave systems.

Surprisingly though, blade-fish are almost non-existent around here.

They behave similarly to the giant bees in Elroe Labyrinth, or it may be that the narrow environment restricts their normal tactics.

You’d think that this is good for me, right?

Nope, fucking nope.

 

 

Just look at this! And it’s actually a group of them...

Without the threat of the leviathan danger and the blade-fish swarm’s huge food intake, this environment is where large bulkier guys like these thrive.

Hmm...? What?!

My danger sense suddenly flares for some reason.

Since it never failed me before, I promptly respond, increasing my speed and swimming downwards and away from the group.

Then, I saw it through Future Sight in my sphere, those guys are preparing to throw something at me...?!

To describe what these guys even are, they look like Japanese spider crabs, the ones with long spidery legs but with green shells.

The difference between the Earth ones and these though is the poison stated in the Appraisal results and their clear intelligent eyes, it's like they gained a sniper class.

What’s being shot at me are spikes with a shape infinitely close to that of a firearm's bullet, they’re being ejected from the ends of their spider-like limbs after they aimed at me.

These guys are smart...! They are specifically targeting me as well.

What the hell? There are tens of other creatures all around them, why me?!

Huh? I don’t know why but it seems as if they’re taking turns while shooting.

Are these guys... treating me as a living shooting target for entertainment...?

...How dare they?! Do you think I’m some sort of toy?!

Anger bubbles up in my chest at that last thought, I always fought with the mentality of hunter and prey, or a battle between two opponents, being shot at like I’m a carnival game is extremely insulting for me.

I, the strongest human on Earth, the one who has collected the wisdom of an entire civilization, the future goddess am being treated like a toy by something I normally consider no more than mere food.

A wave of powerlessness follows after the anger, I realize that I’m considered weak even among the weak, it’s very frustrating when I think about it...

Mentally sighing, I use Future Sight to dodge the incoming barrage and flee out of their sight.

 

{Proficiency has reached the required level. Acquired skill [Anger LV1].}

{Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Evasion LV 3] has become [Evasion LV 4].}

 

Anger, huh? No thanks.

I seem to have lost control of my emotions for a bit there, can’t allow that to happen in the future though.

Some ruler skills evolve out of others, and Anger sure seems to be the preceding skill for Wrath, one of the seven deadly sins.

Although I don’t know what it does, my intuition’s warning me, so I’ll just avoid it.

I’m at 90 skill points right now, one more level and I’ll be able to buy a skill, maybe this would solve my current embarrassing predicament.

If only I had a human body... I’d just get Telekinesis and slaughter those guys, but NOOO, my fish brain can’t handle such large mental powers.

 

A weird-looking creature entered my sight.

Its looks like circular disk with a gap in between two layers in the disk, like a CDs but with the hollow area halfway to the edge instead of the center.

The outer layer seems to be independent of the inner one, like a wheel...? This guy moves just like a car wheel with the outer layer rotating while the inner unmoving one holds its organs.

I’m pretty sure I saw the wheel bit splitting up once to reveal the inner mouth as well.

Taking a peek at its Appraisal results, I see that it has very high attack power with incredibly low defense and higher-than-average speed.

Also, its race name reads Ratoharp, these names are getting weirder by the second, I tell ya.

The best defense is offense, huh? Well, I can see it works well enough judging by the sharpness of that disk.

This guy’s easy prey for me, I can predict its trajectory with Future Sight and easily dodge, this guy has very high one-directional velocity, but its rotational movement is shitty as a tradeoff.

Again, it’s just like a car.

Sneaking up from above, I take a bite out of the outer layer before it starts spinning.

My body’s grown to a length of over half a meter with levels, making my bite even larger and stronger.

This will probably be the last evolution I can take advantage of size growth with though, as  I know it's not normal.

I can only assume it has something to do with my race like I did before.

The injury makes it impossible for the ratoharp to spin again, it’s like a fish on a chopping board now, literally (heh).

Swiftly finishing it off by crushing the inner part, I leave the corpse right there and hide behind a nearby rock.

I’ve picked up this habit after that near-death encounter with the blade-fish swarm, hiding after killing any member of a new species until I’m sure it’s not accompanied by others.

A few minutes later, I pop my head out and quickly consume my spoils, then swim away.

Hmmm, this one would be an easy source of food if it’s a lone wolf monster.

Manager-san, please mark this location for future reference.

Leaving that behind, I start searching for a nice spot to transform into my third super shelter!

I feel that having a safe house to return to after a hard day outside is essential for my mental health in the long run.

Always being on guard would make anyone go insane, especially if literally everything is an enemy, even the walls might be dug through by dangerous creatures.

So, building a shelter is of utmost importance! Food still occupies the first priority though, hehe.

I find a nice naturally carved hole behind a coral cluster, now I just need to move some plants around to block the entrance, and... There! A cozy little den for the great Tomoko-sama!

A smile makes its way onto my lips as I imagine preparing a cozy house for Aiko and the others in the future, fufufu.

I need to increase my strength faster though, the elves might get their hands on her or she might fall in love with some passing-by knight who saves her from a monster or... anything else, I just need to hurry up.

I won’t let anyone kidnap my Aiko!