Henry had not heard those words since his childhood. And his memories from then were foggy at best as he stared at the figure beckoning him.

  That was his mother.

  For a second, an intense ache gripped his heart and he couldn’t even breath. But as the seconds ticked by, the world around him came back into his mind and even if for a fraction of instant he’d forgotten he was deep underwater, in a body that wasn’t his own, Henry knew, rationally, that this wasn’t his mother.

  That didn’t mean he could look away.

  Henry stared painfully at the figure of his mother, and the ache and pain slowly turned cold. As if ice was coursing through his veins. His thoughts were still frantic, but his arms began to shake at the creature that dared take his mother’s appearance to lure him like so.

  She looks exactly like the picture I have of her.

  Henry paused, and looked down at his arm.

  The picture that I had…

  Whatever this was, it was showing him something he wanted to see.

  Henry curled his limbs under him and took a quick glance around before he focused back on the figure. Even though he knew this was nature of the wilderness, and this was probably a predator doing its thing–just like he’d been doing since he came to consciousness–it still unnerved and ticked him off all at once.

  Anglerfish. Or something like that.

  Henry wanted to rip it apart and feed to the sharks. Just so it could not do this to him again.

  [?]

  He tried Identifying the creature, but it seemed like the skill failed when he targeted his fake-mother.

  Henry stared at his mother’s figure as she repeated the same couple of phrases for a few more moments, struggling to look away, and when he managed to wrench his gaze from the illusion, he swam away, then came back two minutes later with a large goatfish. His fake-mother showed up from behind the rock again, and he chucked the goatfish onto the sand.

  The dead fish hit the sand, and nothing happened.

  Henry left for ten minutes and came back with a Riptide shark.

  This time, before the shark even hit the seabed, something surged out from under the sand.

  [Lurelight Flatfish (E) - Lvl ? ]

  It was an oddly translucent–and large– flat angler-fish looking thing. It opened a large mouth and began working the shark down its gullet.

  The image of his mother was gone, and as he looked at the spot where the apparition had been, it felt the same as standing in the doorway of her empty room, after they’d come back from the funeral.

  Henry glared down at the fish. He wanted its levels, but he wasn’t sure he wanted the skill it was using. So far he’d mostly been hunting and preying on the local population out of necessity. He needed to get stronger to survive in this ocean and to have a chance of getting out. His wanton killings were spurred by the need for survival. Not glee at hunting living beings, and not out of spite or anger.

  This felt different. And aside from the dark rage he felt at the creature for using the image of a loved lost one to lure him, he didn’t want this to happen again.

  This fish has to die.

  The flatfish was almost done swallowing the shark, and Henry floated around its hunting grounds, limbs still twitching and trembling with barely restrained anger.

  I’m not going to find an easier E-rank predator to kill.

  This was clearly a predator that tried to lure him personally.

  Henry activated Razor Arm and the gray bladed-magic shone under his now larger limb. The eye of the fish flicked to him.

  Henry whipped his arm, hitting the flatfish over its upward-facing gills, and barely cut through the skin.

  “Henry, stop.”

  The image of his mother reappeared. She was crying. “Please, stop. Don’t hurt me.”

  Henry froze up in horror for a moment. The anguish and pain in the voice tore at his heart as soon as he heard it but as quickly as it affected him, he remembered that this was just a fat fish playing with the memory of his late mother, and he exploded in a maelstrom of bladed limbs and bites, whipping at the creature’s face and gills while simultaneously shoving more bladed limbs deep in its eye and gills.

  ***

  Henry stood over the bleeding carcass, panting, with the flatfish core in arm, while a few curious sharks came around to scavenge it. He glanced once last time at where his mom’s apparition had been, then turned and swam away.

  It was time to head back home.

  Henry traveled slowly, stopping a couple of times to examine some particularly vibrant corals or a fish he hadn’t seen before. He paused for a moment along the way to watch the light of day above and try to forget what the flatfish had shown him.

  Henry hadn’t gotten its skill. The thought of copying it had felt repulsive, and within moments of the creature’s death, sharks began showing up so he just left it. Maybe he’d encounter such fish in the future and he wouldn’t feel the same, but right now, he was fine on passing on its abilities.

  Rationally, it was an extremely impressive specimen. It used a fascinating and effective strategy. Getting your target’s brain to do your work for them and lure them into your trap? Genius. Emotionally? Henry fucking hated that fish and what it had done.

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  His skin was still crawling from the experience. He wanted to forget the encounter, and for a moment he considered visiting the whales. But he would have to explain his sour mood to them. Because of course they’d pick up on it.

  At least I’ll be getting a bunch of levels for this.

  The core was in his Maw, and it felt heavy, spiritually. He couldn’t stomach the thought of storing much else in there, but that was alright. He’d gotten his first E-rank core.

  Future E-ranks might take a bit more work to bring down, but he just took a good first step toward such a goal. He got lucky by exploiting a weakness, and even then it had been a slog. The flatfish’s scales had been insanely tough; if Henry hadn’t known about the gill trick, he wouldn’t have been able to kill it.

  Henry entered his turtleshell home, spat the core back out and Identified it.

  1x Lurelight Flatfish Core (E)

  Consume or Exchange for 2.3 E-tokens

  How many levels is that going to be? How much longer until I can leave?

  He needed to be able to reliably hunt E-ranks soon. With them he’d get levels faster. Buy stat points. Even the upgrades for Razor Arm or Telekinesis shouldn’t be too tough to get.

  Henry selected ‘Consume’, and the Core dissolved into a sandy cloud of smoke. The magic rushed into him, filling him with so much strength and vigor he felt he could wrestle a serpent. Moments later, a deluge of notifications filled his mind.

  Undecided Marine Biologist - Level 51 achieved!

  ...

  Undecided Marine Biologist - Level 77 achieved!

  5x Stat point awarded.

  Lurelight Flatfish Core (E) contained significant Constitution Stats.

  1x Constitution Stat points awarded.

  Razor Arm (E) - Level 2 -> Level 3

  Telekinesis (E) - Level 3 -> level 4

  Arm Whip (F) - Level 1 -> 3

  Henry looked at the notifications and nodded. It might be worth trying to track down more of these flatfish. He assigned two points to Strength and brought it to 10, then brought Perception to 10 as well before confirming his choices. His muscles burned and pulsed with pain, while his eyes began itching as if every mosquito in existence had come and bite into them, until finally, after thirty seconds or so of maddening sensations, the transformative magic ceased.

  He felt stronger than ever. And he could taste. The salty tang of the ocean brought up some nostalgia from where he’d grown up and from his last few days on the ship and this time, he wasn’t just getting the muted taste through his arms. He could fully, completely, taste with his mouth.

  Strength: 10

  Constitution: 12

  Spirit: 10

  Perception: 10

  Dexterity: 6

  Henry eyed his stats for a few moments, then glanced back out. He still felt jittery, and he was not in a great mood to rest and stay in the turtle shell so instead, he decided there was still daylight to burn, and he went back out hunting.

  ***

  The bad news was that Henry found no other Lurelight flatfish to score an easy E-rank core.

  The better-but-not-fully-good news was that he was able to lure a better target away from the rest of its school.

  [Whipcrack Shark (E) - Lvl 4]

  The shark tore off a piece of a Riptide, causing the sand around the carcass to surge, clouding everything behind a screen of yellow and white dust, but Henry’s improved vision wasn’t bothered.

  He watched the shark have its meal from only a couple of feet away.

  Without ceremony or much pep-talk, Henry dropped his disguise and swam closer. He immobilized the shark with Telekinesis. The shark immediately pushed against it, and Henry’s head began to pulse. So he opted for the safest and quickest method to bring it down.

  Arms to the gills.

  Henry tore into them for a few seconds. When he felt he’d done enough, he backed away.

  He looked the shark blank, black eye, finally letting go of Telekinesis before a vein burst in his brain.

  He didn’t run. He wasn’t running. Not today.

  The shark jerked around with its mouth open, probably trying to inhale but not getting enough oxygen because of its destroyed gills. Then it half-turned and whipped Henry with a crack that made his whole world lurch.

  Henry’s saw double for a few seconds, but kept his eyes on the shark. It hurt. But not as much as he’d expected. And his healing charges were ready and untouched.

  The shark was growing lethargic as it tried to swim away. In the distance, Henry saw a few more sharks begin swimming their way.

  As he stopped it with Telekinesis, he wondered if the other sharks came because of the blood or the noise of the shark’s skill. Henry took a bite of the dead fish, then swam away with a new E-rank core in Maw and moments later, he dove down into a crevice to watch the remains of the Whipcrack shark be devoured, then popped the metallic gray core out and consumed it.

  Undecided Marine Biologist - Level 78 achieved!

  ...

  Undecided Marine Biologist - Level 92 achieved!

  3x Stat point awarded

  Whipcrack Shark Core (E) contained significant Dexterity Stats. 1x Dexterity Stat points awarded

  Bite: Bite of the Whipcrack Shark charge acquired

  Henry quietly watched the sharks cannibalize their own. Some smaller fish approached the frenzied sharks and nibbled at the bits flying outside of this small area.

  The ocean didn’t care.

  Henry bet there were hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of creatures being devoured right this moment. His eyes landed on the shark he’d just harvested for levels, then he looked away and assigned all three stat points to Constitution.

  He wasn’t going to be one of the victims.

  if you got a few minutes, consider leaving a review. Following/rating/reviewing helps me move up the Rising Stars list, and that in turns motivates me and gets me closer to eventually take away time off from my job to write more.

  What do you guys think of the stats and their breakdown? I find it easier to track like that. But maybe I should keep it to my spreadsheets.