Before I was really able to process the notification, a big green stalk thwacked me in the face.

What the hell!

I glanced up irritably to see the Kelp Tree being pushed into my face. Shaking my head and bumping it with my snout, I managed to get it to float away… or so I thought. After swimming a short distance and turning, the Kelp Tree had disappeared completely.

Then I felt something flutter across my back.

I groaned internally. That tree is stuck to me… isn’t it?

With a cross-eyed glance up toward my forehead (yes, my eyes were mostly forward-facing), I confirmed that, yep, the Kelp Tree was just growing out of my forehead.

So that’s what it meant by “creating a structure in an area it cannot normally grow”...

The damn plant was attached to my forehead! At least right now, it was blowing over my back, instead of into my face, like a long alfalfa.

Wait… Does that mean I have kelp hair now?

I was sure Captain Ahab would be outraged that a monster of the ocean looked as ridiculous as me. But then my belly rumbled, interrupting my thoughts.

Ah, yeah. I got hungry again after growing the hair. Makes sense…

Wondering if there was a way to delete the hair, as Terry had mentioned, I pulled up my status.

Name:

Vankaiser

Name_Error:

Terynium

Title:

Heir of the Ocean

Type_Error:

Zhaltan Pearl

Rank:

S

Species:

Leviathan

Species_Error:

Dungeon

Level:

3

Tierl_Error:

4

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Skills:

Consume, Rend, Mana Sense: Divine Wind

Skills_Error:

Create, Create Miracle

Power:

1

Progress_Error:

-298%

Size:

1

Area_Error:

0m³

Speed:

1

Blueprints_Error:

Coral (Variable), Kelp Tree, Trapa

Attribute Points:

3

Creatures_Error:

Spiked Eel, Dartfish, Cleaner Shrimp

Oh, right. I forgot that my new name is Vankaiser. Hmm… but no immediate solutions to the problem here? I guess I could start by reading up on that Mana Sense, though.

Mana Sense: Divine Wind

Thanks to your bizarre new sensory organ, you are able to sense the divine wind that flows through everything, connecting the smallest fish to the largest, and tying their lives together eternally. The mana concentration changes as the wind passes through different forms of life.

What a load of crap.

Although, after thinking it over and ignoring the peace-love-and-bull it was spouting, I saw potential in the skill. Perhaps in the future, I could learn how to read the power of the divine wind for… something. For now, though, I really just wanted another snack.

It’ll be really awkward if my whole life becomes just constant eating, though. That’s no real way to live…, right?

Not that I had any real experience to say otherwise. The only other life I’d lived had basically been work to get money, spend money on food, eat food to exist, exist to work to get money, repeat.

So, maybe it did all boil down to food, water, and sleep, in the end. And considering what surrounded me, one of those three was definitely going to be a big part of my life.

Or is my life going to be just a small part of what surrounds me?

During my search for food, I’d discovered that the large empty area I now swam in was mostly barren. It made sense. Most fish probably wouldn’t want to just be swimming out in the open like this unless they were whales or something else that had no natural predator.

But a shiny coil of iridescent rainbow scales caught my attention, as it suddenly appeared before my eyes, and without hesitation, I snapped up the delicious-looking fish.

OW!

I pulled back instinctually, away from the source of my pain, but the stabbing sensation in my gum only grew worse. Suddenly it yanked, and I realized what had just happened.

I’ve been hooked! Motherflipper!

I swam with the glowing white line of mana that materialized before me, allowing the hook to move inward as I tried to wiggle my head off of it. Whatever the material was that had stabbed into my mouth, however, it was strong. I couldn’t get the hook to budge, no matter how much slack I tried to give the line, or how much I yanked. The light above me grew brighter as I approached the surface, and I started to panic.

What kinds of creatures existed in this world that would hook something as large as me? And to add to that, how strong must those creatures be that something like myself couldn’t escape their hook? I couldn’t even break the line!

Until now, I hadn’t actually thought about life above the surface. I certainly hadn’t considered that there might be intelligent life. I’d encountered that idiotic dungeon core Terry, a bunch of fish, and nothing else. Oh, and Leonard. Poor Leonard.

But if I didn’t get unhooked, and pronto, then it would be “poor Vankaiser” from here on out. I wriggled furiously, the taste of what I could only imagine to be my own fishy blood filling my mouth.

Crash!

I broke the surface of the water with a splash, sending small waves rippling out around me. I knew now that whatever had hooked me would finish me off soon, and I struggled, slamming my tail into the water.

“Wamma’s barnacle!” an astonished voice shouted. “What the hell is that?!”