Don’t sleep. Don’t go to sleep.

  Henry lay slumped against one of the inner walls of his home. Panting and dizzy, he glanced at the remaining seventeen charges of Hoard Vitals, which had been a bit above forty only a couple of hours ago, and cursed.

  The healing magic coursed through him, alleviating the pain and pushing back on the venom. He mana refilled, but it hadn’t been that low to begin with, and his vision cleared.

  Then the mind-numbing pain came back with a vengeance. And it kept going.

  I should have used the temporary resilience of the whales… but I had no idea they could explode like that.

  Henry pulled himself together and gingerly sat up. He eyed the remaining charges, but a bit of healing would not fix the issue of the venom coursing through him, and of the quill stabbed through his guts. For that, he had to get tougher. And fast.

  Henry checked his notifications and as he eyed the token value of it, he realized it wasn’t enough to buy a Constitution stat point. So instead of exchanging it for tokens, he consumed it and tried to get his breath under control while the magic rushed into him. He felt better for a moment, then the searing back came back.

  Stalking Threat - Level 2 achieved!

  …

  Stalking Threat - Level 6 achieved!

  1x stat point awarded.

  He added the stat point to Constitution, and he hoped it’d help with the cold shivers stabbing through his body.

  Calm down. Breathe in. Breathe out.

  Henry’s limbs were shaking. He looked down at the three spikes. Two were in a frontal arm–one of which had cracked under his skin–while the third had fully pierced through another limb. The fourth was behind him, through his stomach.

  He realized they all might be difficult to remove. Compared to the one he’d been hit with earlier, these had all punctured deep. He was almost sure he’d lose less health from cutting off his two affected limbs rather than trying to take the darts out, potentially increasing the amount of venom in his system.

  Henry activated the Razor on one of his arms and pushed it against the limb with two spikes. He groaned with pain, eyes closed. He struggled to cut through it. Probably because of his high Constitution.

  Ironic, really.

  After a few seconds that felt like hours, he severed the punctured limb. Henry panted for a few seconds, then moved on to the next arm. He looked down at the spike. It had gone fully through, so maybe it wasn’t worth cutting the whole limb. He pushed it all the way through and out. By the time he was done, the pain and shivers were become unmanageable.

  His vision was dimming.

  Henry struggled to get up, but he couldn’t leave his bleeding limb near him. So he pushed it down and out of the mostly blocked exit, then gave it an extra shove with Telekinesis before collapsing again.

  Disguise.

  Henry’s breath was shallow as he camouflaged himself. He activated five more charges of Hoard Vitals, which cleared his vision and pushed the pain away for a brief moment. Enough for him to realize he had to switch gears.

  He had try something else.

  By now, the backlash of Telekinesis had mostly faded, and now it was mostly the dizziness, nausea, and the pain from the lionfish venom he had to deal with. And the last spike in his stomach.

  Should I remove it? What if it makes things worse?

  Henry closed his eyes and tried to ignore the pain and fear. He needed Accelerated Recovery to work faster. He thought he had plenty of Hoard Vitals charges, and he’d been creating them at every opportunity. Whenever he had any downtime, he was adding to the charges, but the damn venom burned through them way fast than Henry thought was possible.

  Calm.

  Henry exhaled slowly. At least the venom’s effect was slowing down. He will be okay.

  I will survive this, he told himself, ignoring the fear gnawing at his stomach.

  Henry kept his disguise up and tried to relax. He was unable to suppress spasms caused by the pain, and he knew he vomited once or twice, but he tuned it out.

  He only focused on the organized inner scutes lining the interior of the shell, and on his breathing.

  ***

  Somewhere along the first hour the venom stopped burning at the edges of the puncture sites. Within the second hour the pain mellowed, and Henry found himself breathing deeper. The stabbing ache and tremors were much milder. His severed arm was tingling, and a quick peek told him it’d started to regenerate.

  Around the fourth hour he felt good. Still pretty banged up, but he doubted he’d full much better until he removed the spine still embedded in his stomach.

  Henry examined it for a bit, checking to see if it had fully pierced through. It hadn’t, so he slowly began to pull on it. It was a nauseating, painfully queasy sort of pain that would have had him in a cold sweat if he hadn’t been underwater. When he was done, he felt light-headed, and so he decided to use a couple of charges of Hoard Vitals to stabilise himself.

  He discarded the spine in a corner, then went back to meditating.

  When he reopened his eyes, he still felt tired, but he could confidently say that he was okay. His severed arm was three-quarters reformed, and the pain was mostly gone, so he finally breathed out and leaned against the turtle shell wall.

  That was too close. And all that damage was done through the second threshold of Constitution. Another probable death escaped just because I prioritized it.

  The Hoard Vitals charges had come through as well, but now he was looking forward to upgrading the skill again. He needed to raise its efficiency, and with that in mind, he bumped that expense higher on the priority list.

  Henry took a moment to exhale and glance out into the ocean, then retreated and checked his notifications. He was glad to see his close call came along with some good news.

  Hoard Vitals (E): Level 2 -> Level 4

  Telekinesis (E): Level 6 -> Level 7

  Mimicking Arms (E): Level 5 -> Level 6

  New Trait Unlocked: Toxin Resistance (F)

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Toxin Resistance (F): Enhances resistances to toxins.

  I wonder if that session with the spiked starfish helped in getting this.

  Henry examined his healed limbs and rolled a arm in front of him and summoned the thing gray-line against its length.

  The resistance should make the next fights easier.

  He shook his head and dismissed Razor Arm. He was still struggling to understand how lionfish were able to punch through his skin. Even the Whipcrack Sharks’ attack barely made him dizzy, and that was before he got to 20 in Constitution.

  Henry glanced outside. Riptide sharks were peacefully roaming, and other fish were swimming around, as usual.

  Further exposure to venoms might strengthen the new trait. But not right now.

  After a few minutes of rest, Henry stealthily swam up to the area in which he fought the lionfish and tried to find its remains, but there was nothing.

  Other fish probably nibbled on it.

  Henry settled down on a rock, as a rock, and checked his stats. Both health and mana were high, but his charges of Hoard Vitals were low. Too low to be out and about. And he still felt off from the whole experience.

  Alright then. I guess it’s time to build up some charges.

  Henry settled near his shell, lured a simple fish for dinner, then went home.

  As he was about to enter, he felt something ping his telepathic new senses. Henry looked back, alarmed. He scanned his surroundings, but couldn’t see anything. And the source of whatever Telepathic Sense had picked up was gone.

  He slowly swam inside and kept his eyes peeled. The emotion had felt unclear at first. But then something came through. Something familiar. And worrying.

  It felt like curiosity.

  ***

  Henry couldn’t relax with his eyes closed. And he might not be able to sleep any time soon.

  He picked up one of the spikes of the lionfish he’d removed earlier, then bit into it. It was crunchy, but it also caused a stabbing pain in his mouth. Mild, compared to the initial stabs, but still painful. He had retrieved his severed limb, took out the spines, then threw the limb out. If he was sitting around, he might as well work on his resistances.

  It didn’t take long for a few notifications to show up.

  Inkjet: Poisoned Ink (Lionfish) acquired

  Mimicking Arms: Venomous Spikes (Lionfish) acquired

  Magic Mimic: Venomous Spine Shot is incompatible. Adaptation failed.

  Magic Mimic: Accelerated Spine Regrowth is incompatible. Adaptation failed.

  Magic Mimic: Piercing Projectile (F) added to Ephemerals.

  Magic Mimic: Spiteful Detonation (F) added to Ephemerals.

  New Trait Unlocked: Venom Production (F)

  Venom Production (F): The salivary glands can now produce venoms after sufficient exposure. Available venoms: None.

  More skills and traits. Henry read through the notifications, and was intrigued at what unlocked the new trait. Was it his consumption of venoms? Or did that push him over the edge? Not all octopuses were venomous, but could he be a species that would have soon acquired such an ability sooner or later?

  Also, what projectiles am I going to need the Piercing Projectile trait for? And Spiteful Detonation is just wasted space. In what scenario am I going to blow myself up? At least Venom Production’s useful. Especially if I get my hands on some good venoms. Like the serpent’s.

  Eying the rest of the notifications, he guessed the incompatibility for certain skills made sense, and he wondered if there was a way to work around such an issue. An octopus’ skin was somewhat soft; spines would be really out of place for him. But what if he could change his skin to actually have keratin? Would that make the skill compatible?

  It’d be interesting to figure out.

  Henry dismissed the miscellaneous menus and glanced at the entrance. Whatever had been outside hadn’t shown back up on his wonky telepathic radar, so, once again, Henry triggered Hoard Vitals and kept his eyes vacantly staring at the entrance.

  He exhaled, and sunk back into a half-wary, half-meditative state.

  Half a minute later, his trait activated. Either his nerves were fried enough, or he was getting better at finding the right meditative groove for Accelerated Recovery to kick in. Maybe trying to stay calm when venom was running through his system helped. Being poisoned and stabbed was generally a bit more stressful than a potential stalker in his area. But it wasn’t far off.

  His health and mana slowly recovered through the minutes, and when he felt he was close to fully healed, he activated Hoard Vitals again.

  This one’s the ninth.

  The world outside was growing dark, and he could see some luminescent shapes swimming in the distance. Identify wasn’t telling him anything, so he kept studiously building his safety net.

  He needed to work more on his defenses. Find skills and traits that would synergize with his own core abilities. There would always be a surprise ability he couldn’t prepare for, and he couldn’t risk getting caught off guard. Thankfully, in the lionfish’s scenario, he had plenty of healing charges and he’d already started the process of acclimating to toxins. His Constitution had been pretty damn high as well, and if any of those three defensive measures hadn’t been taken, he might have been in trouble.

  Now, he had to keep going. Preparing. He had to be ready for any crazy ability this world might throw at him.

  And today’s levels confirmed that Alter Physique was somehow tied to Mimicking Arms. So levelling Bite should increase the capacity of Maw as well.

  His eyelids felt heavy. Henry kept his breathing even, which unfortunately was making him sleepier. His health and mana ticked back up, and they were almost back to full when something flared in the foggy range of Telepathic Sense.

  Curiosity. Again.

  A shiver went down his back. It felt closer, and even though he kept his eyes on the unblocked exit, he could see nothing. Was something about to try and come in?

  Henry pulled his arms closer. Whip and razor? Wait for a visual for Telekinesis?

  He tried to decipher whatever Telepathic Sense was sending him. It was often a mess of impressions and mostly nothing, unless an emotion was powerful enough. And if he detected anything recognizable, it was really hard to pinpoint a direction.

  Which made it even more surprising when he felt the burst of curiosity again. Above him.

  Was it the turtle shell that was attracting the stranger’s attention? It was camouflaged and on its back, so the colors shouldn’t be visible.

  Henry approached the entrance, primed to strike if anything showed up, and slowly peeked his head out to see if something was above him.

  Nothing.

  Henry was slowly backing inside when an oddly familiar call reached his ears.

  A sharp feeling of alarm reached Telepathic Sense, which made Henry flinch and furtively look around.

  I hate this. I want to disable this trait, but I most certainly shouldn’t.

  The call was echoed a few more times, coming from different directions. Henry peeked outside, camouflaged and keeping still.

  He waited for any other telepathic signals, but there were none. Only repeating calls, some of which were drawing near.

  The Riptides were getting agitated. Henry watched a lionfish swim down to the rocks and disappear between some thick kelp stalks.

  That’s not ominous…

  The call grew louder. Henry braced, eyes peeled.

  Then a snout emerged from behind a barely visible boulder far ahead. A dark and fluid figure followed, effortlessly gliding through the water and around the stalks of kelp. It opened a large, fanged maw and called again, and more gray and brown shapes appeared out of the deep green waters.

  One passed nearby, a black-spotted specimen of at least 12 feet.

  [Echo Seal (E) - Lvl ??]

  That looks like a leopard seal. A large one. And seals usually live on land… is there land nearby?

  As Henry backed away from the entrance the head of the nearest seal snapped to him. It smoothly zoomed toward him, like a murderous dog who just heard the squeaking of a chew toy.

  Henry would have pursed his lips if he had any.

  Dammit.

  Lots of sweet and nice comments since the last chapter. Thank you all for the support and encouraging words. Big thanks to Bardoksjf4, TheTheoryBear, Lemonlover, Boop_01,and CommodoreCaptain for the glowing reviews. I'm looking forward to continue sharing this story with you all.

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