Tim’s sight, scent and overall senses were upgraded to level four most recently, but that may not be enough to battle the utter darkness that the sea possessed. He had to be very attentive, just to have a brief understanding of what was going on around him at all times! It wasn’t fun.

However, there were a couple of things working to his favor out here. It didn’t take much effort for him to maneuver through the darkness, for example, which was a good thing, as he technically didn’t have any physical obstacles out here on the open waters. The advantage behind this was that he could focus on heightening his senses, other than sight, as vividly as possible, without having to worry about bumping into something along the way! This was great, and surely, he had to use every advantage there was, if he was to succeed.

Tim tried his best to focus, but he was also getting really hungry, yet, there wasn't any food around for him to eat. With that considered, at some point later on, he ended up developing a couple of hunger-stricken thoughts, which were very odd.

He thought, “I’m eating that shifter, no doubt about it. Let’s hope it knows how to shapeshift into a sandwich, because if I find one, it’ll end up dead anyway. It might as well do something useful, erg… other than giving me its powers.”

Such a train of thought from his side was frantic, but it wasn’t uncharacteristic either, as he had said worse things before, he was never quite normal. Furthermore, the hunger he was experiencing was what gave him unparalleled confidence, which was also tainted with utter desperation. He was more than willing to put this confidence into use!

Tim continued to browse across the dark waters. He had swam two-hundred meters deep, and down at this point, it was obvious that life was really scarce. It was either scarce, or it could be that he wasn’t quite able to put his other senses into thorough use.

He couldn’t catch a whiff of anything kicking, it wasn’t easy. Aside from that, he had a bunch of natural sensors within his mouth, which were supposed to help him notice any sparks of electricity across the water, electricity that his target animal, or any other animal had, and yet he didn’t notice anything. His mouth sensors weren't helping much!

The bubonic shifters themselves, weren’t creatures who had magical electrical powers for him to notice, no. Instead, their bodies simply used micro amounts of electricity to function properly, and so does every other living creature, come to think of it. Brains need electricity to function, and that's what he was counting on out here.

Timothy could sense these electrical currents which animals possessed, so in theory, he could use his mouth sensors to track creatures easier. This was his sixth sense, that most stingrays possessed.

However, until now, he hadn’t made any progress. Which meant that either life was very scarce at this point of ocean depth, or, it could mean that his senses weren’t as developed as the system had described. Level four wasn’t as fantastic as he presumed.

“At least my skin is pretty tough,” He thought, as he tried to maintain a positive attitude. “Toughness probably doesn’t matter when it comes to man-handling those fucking bubonic, nostril darts, though? So maybe I should have my flaming fins ready to light up as well, cuz, I can’t risk getting shot. Gotta be speedy!”

Speed, or best described as agility, was always useful. He needed speed if he was to survive, regardless of the circumstances.

Anyway, he browsed the darkish portion of the sea for about two whole hours! At this point, hunger was really getting to him, so he wasn’t thinking straight whatsoever. He was far less alert now, and the system managed to distract him even more after she made a little announcement.

She said, [Warning! Your hunger bar has dropped to an alarmingly low phase! Eat something as soon as you can, or else you may be prone to organ damage, and or severe organ failure, thanks to the anorexia, which you also suffer from!]

“God damn it! I really hoped that the anorexia would go away after I shapeshifted. Guess I’m not that lucky!” He sighed, “Okay then, system, how much do I have to eat in order to survive? I haven’t sensed a single dot of life out here, so I might as well abort the mission! I need to kill a dolphin or something, that should be enough food to keep me alive.”

[Not necessarily! You don’t need to kill something as big as a dolphin right now. Aim for smaller and immediate meals, like a bunch of sardines, for example. I know that your hunger bar has been halved ever since you shape-shifted, but still, don't be picky about your food, eat whatever you can find. Your hunger bar is at 5/200 points right now, which is a very dangerous amount to live with.] She answered, in as much detail as she could.

“You could’ve said something earlier, system.” Tim complained, he was really irritated.

Afterwards, he got ready to abandon this mission, or at least, he aimed to postpone it for a few hours. He needed some meat in him immediately, and in order to do so, he had to swim upwards, where life in general was much easier to find.

While Tim got ready to dash, he browsed through a couple of statistics, and noticed that his health bar, stamina&sleep bar, and even his mana pool, had been halved. This had happened after he shapeshifted, obviously, so this was a consequence of being smaller in body mass. Tim acknowledged that since these bars of his were halved, life will become harder for him for a while, until he decided to shapeshift again!

However, he chose not to think about this aspect too much, because he didn’t have the time to do so. His life was on the line here, and unless he reacted quickly, he quite literally might die of something that no one would expect a magical stingray to die from; Anorexia induced organ failure!

Tim was on the move, but then suddenly, as soon as he swam about ten meters upwards through the darkness of the waters, something happened. He felt an electrical turbulence in the water, one which he could not ignore!

The electrical part of his senses hadn’t been challenged for more than a couple hours, up until now. With that said, once he felt that turbulence, he felt both overwhelmed and anxious as a result!

He thought, “Shit, what a bad time to get ambushed! I damn near pissed myself! System, should I stay and fight?”