Tim was an explorative guy, by nature, his soul craved it. However, today those explorative senses of his were beaten down and abused. In the search for land, he had been slapped shitless by the ocean waves, who refused to cooperate with him. He was near the ocean shores, which meant that the waves could be more violent once in a while. He was flipped around like a pancake, tens of times, as his body seemingly wasn't designed to browse the ocean surface, out here near the shores, not at all!

Things were tough, but at least the trip he took wasn’t entirely bad. The coral reef below him, for example, had softened up the intensity of the waves, at least for a little while, and this gave him some peace. The reef was complex enough to protect the ocean shores from tougher waves, which was beneficial to him, but this itself hadn’t been enough to tame Tim’s scrambled nerves. In fact, other than helping him, the reef also irritated him.

The reef was huge, so it had taken a while to cross it. The waters were calmer while he crossed the reef, yes, but he still had to travel a great distance just to cross it, and this itself was a very annoying, and bland experience! The ocean shores were right after the reef's outskirts, but the damage was already done, he was really annoyed!

“Rainbow ass reef,” He had cussed, often, and complained. “I feel like I'm swimming through unicorn piss.”

Aside from those obstacles, Tim had also been out hunting on the open seas, just a couple of hours ago, and this was another obstacle on its own. He had been far away from his new home, as a start, which stretched his trip towards the shores even further! It wasn't fun.

He had to swim a lot, for about five kilometers, to be precise, and things started getting more complicated as he approached the shores as well. In bleak comparison, the shallow waters were even more treacherous!

The shallow waters were treacherous, because the area they covered was massive. For example, he had to swim half a kilometer through two-meter deep waters, exclusively, just to inch closer to the shoreline! This was annoying, because the waves were both pushing him forwards and pulling him backwards! He spun around like a WW2 warplane. It wasn’t either fun or easy for him to manage this part of the journey, so he cursed about seventy-two times along the way, as a result!

Then, he had to swim another two-hundred meters, through extremely shallow waters as well, waters which were less than a foot deep. He had to swim slowly through this area, just to be more safe, and this was nerve-wracking!

“Stupid water,” He cussed.

Tim then got beached, finally, and as mentioned, he had put a lot of effort in to do so. That aside, he had also maxed out his hunger bar as well, two hours prior, so this trip had been anything but comfortable. The waves have quite literally forced the shit out of him along the way, and also, he had felt like a bloated cow throughout at least half of the trip! It was no picnic.

He was extremely irritated, so come to think of it, it was a good thing that he couldn’t shapeshift into anything venomous. If he bore venom, then he’d be in trouble, because he was angry enough to fight anything in sight! That itself may kill him.

Anyway, after he beached himself on the ocean’s sandy shoreline, he thought. “I can’t believe that the sand here is more comfortable than the fucking water, I feel all toasty! Hmm… I need to remind myself not to eat another shifter, ever. That was the most empty, shallow meat I ever ate, I feel like I ate a bunch of fucking milk cartons! One-star meal, nothing more, she doesn’t deserve a better rating! Eh, I’m sure she won’t be mad about this lone, single star I gave her, hehe.”

[Focus, Timothy.] The system interrupted him, and then pressured. [You’re beached, so you have just another minute to shift, or else you’ll suffocate. Don’t idle around.]

“Oh, so that’s why I’m feeling all snug?” He thought.

Anyway, he then summoned the shapeshifting powers that he had recently acquired. It took little effort to summon these powers, because since they belonged to him now, he could summon them through a couple of thoughts alone, nothing more.

Once he summoned them, Tim’s bones started crackling. He hadn’t shapeshifted yet, but it felt as if this new power was waiting for a command from his side. About ten seconds later, Tim felt as if he was a puddle; He was in a sub-liquid state now, and therefore, he couldn’t move, not at all!

“Okay… I want to turn into a spider, with all the legs and shit. Erg, I can’t be palm-sized, so, make me as small as the palm of a baby human’s. That’s a reasonable wish, right?” He thought, and then his train of thoughts, turned into a whole command.

The shapeshifting magical ability he had acquired, had seemingly listened to him, it was attentive. With that considered, Tim’s request was granted almost immediately!

Thankfully, this shapeshifting process wasn’t painful. The benefit of being in a sub-liquid state, was that he couldn’t feel any pain, regardless of what happened, because his nervous system was quite numb as well throughout that time-bracket, it had to be numb. He stopped breathing as well, which sounded alarming, but it was actually a blessing, because the lack of breath wasn’t bothering him all of a sudden. This shapeshifting power he stole was effective!

Anyway, within a period of five minutes, Tim’s bodily size reduced significantly. He assumed the size of a three-inch wide spider, which may appear huge to some, and it was huge in the right context, however, in this context, he had assumed the size of a mostly harmless spider.

Tim had felt really weird when the form that he assumed started getting more detailed, because at that point he had shifted into a more solid form. He felt weird just there, because he heard a lot of crackling sounds, as if spiders had bones to crackle or something. He heard a lot of noises that he didn’t want to hear throughout the process, but the results of the detailing session were worth boasting about, even if it took him almost ten minutes to shapeshift. He had been slow, but indefinitely successful!

He really looked like a spider now, he had eight legs and all. Sure he wasn’t venomous, but as far as facts were concerned, he now was free and ready to browse the dry lands! He beached himself over here, to find a soul tampering cave for himself to progress in, and that’s exactly what he planned to do, even if he had to eat bugs and shoot webs out of his bum for weeks at a time. He was determined to progress!

Tim was determined, because this was perhaps the easiest thing he had to do in this new life. His first impression was that life should be a lot easier, as a spider, which was what super-fueled his motivation. He felt unstoppable, because in theory, mere spiders should have a lot less challenges thrown against them, in comparison to what he had experienced so far, as a stingray.

He felt ready, and thought. “I’ll find that cave, no matter what. Let someone try and stop me, I’ll put my leg here up and through a thousand flies’ asses if I have to!”