From the looks of it, TIm really ran into a sect, whose members were primarily fish. Odds were that this sect was more of a cult, but he didn’t want to point fingers like that just yet. He was offered to join the sect, and therefore, he hoped that there were some benefits from joining said sect.
If there were benefits to it, then he wouldn’t mind putting himself at risk for them, in whatever means those risks would occur. If however, this sect was both dangerous and useless, then he had all of the power necessary to make an escape for himself. Tim aimed to be efficient.
“They can’t kill me… not unless they’re really sneaky, so, I’ll be fine.” He thought.
Anyway, Marlo, the headmaster of this sect, invited Timothy to visit their secret, hidden lair, and he accepted this invite. The concept of a hidden lair sounded even more cult-like, but then again, Tim had a lair of its own, kind of. Lairs can't all be inherently evil.
Fish needed places to hide in, for survival’s sake, so it was unlikely that the hidden lair that Marlo promised, had some sort of doomsday devices in it, no, that was unlikely. Tim felt safer, the more he thought about the odds and ends of this invite. He’d just look at the place, and if the sect had nothing to offer to him, then he’d just leave! It was simple.
He was a bit excited, and they had to swim for about two-hundred meters to reach this place, which wasn't much of a challenge, so his excitement remained radiant. Distance-wise, it wasn’t so far away from Tim’s den, so it was a surprise that he hadn’t met these guys before.
Anyway, once they got there, the group of four had to go through some maze-like tunnels for a dozen few meters, in order to enter the lair. A couple of twisty rights and lefts later, they swam into this vast, pit-like area that seemed very dark at first. Tim’s eyes needed a moment to adapt to the darkness here, but once he did adapt, he could see tens of creatures swimming around in here!
“Fucking hell,” He sighed, and then thought. “These jokers weren’t kidding! This feels like finding Atlantis, except this shithole has nothing but fish.”
It was an interesting place. Some of these creatures even kept this place lit, occasionally. Their magic shone radiantly, which gave this place a bit of light to work with. With that considered, Tim noticed that this place was truly shaped more like a deep pit, rather than anything else; It was fifty meters deep, it was also equally wide, and it had a stretch of blue coral at the top, which acted as its protective and very dependable roof!
Tim liked this place, he had to admit that. There was an evident smile on his face, and for a moment, he fantasized about leading these fish some day, preferably towards a bloody battle! This seemed like a fun thing to do, but in actuality, he swam in here for very greedy reasons to begin with, he wasn’t looking to build an army, but he yearned for more power instead.
With that considered, he looked at Marlo the reef shark, and wanted to ask him a couple of questions. He wanted to steer the conversation towards a way that would benefit him the most.
Subtly, he asked. “Quite the number of fish you got here… but, what do you need them for anyway? More importantly, how can you afford to feed them all? I’m asking you this, because I can't even feed myself sometimes, so I can’t imagine feeding a bunch of other fish. It sounds impossible!”
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“Oh, everyone just feeds themselves, so we almost never worry about food. Sometimes, we travel for days to hunt, but the hunt never really bothered us. The feeding spree devastated the reef, yes, but there are plenty of other reefs out there… reefs, and other stuff, more stuff." Marlo followed along.
“More stuff?” He emphasized, “What do you mean by that? What are you hunting, Marlo?”
“We hunt everything, and by doing so we expand our understanding of the world. We are not just fish, Tim the stingray, we are mages, mancers, wizards, witches even, you name it! Much like most sea creatures out there, we aspire to be more than just fish, we aspire to be much respected, and loved humanoids. Full on!” Marlo added.
“So, I’m not the only one chasing that dream, huh?” He aksed.
“No, not at all.” Marlo said, and then added. “I started off as a shrimp, a marble shrimp, to be exact. But I collected enough mana, and then transformed. I’ve been a shark only for a year, it’s been fun… but I want to be more than a shark. if not human, I want to be a blistering eagle, at least!”
Tim was astounded by the idea that anyone could shape-shift in this world. For a moment he was disappointed, even, because he realized that the grand goal for transformation he had, wasn’t his exclusive experience to keep, as apparently everyone here chased the same goal. He felt irritated by that!
However, this also meant that this world was even bigger and perplexing than he had presumed, and at the very least, he could steal so much more magical abilities than he had imagined! The opportunities were limitless, and mana was supposedly everywhere, waiting to be discovered.
Anyway, he chatted with Marlo for about ten more minutes, just so he could get a better understanding of how other fish behaved. Apparently, most of fishkind had ambitions which were huge, as big as Tim’s ambitions, even! Some of them wanted empires, and this part was really interesting, he did not expect it whatsoever!
However, as ambitious as these fish were, it would appear that they didn’t have the one advantage that Tim had, which set him above everyone else; They didn’t have an all-powerful system to guide them!
The latter may be what defined Tim from the rest, he believed so! He poked around throughout multiple conversations, to figure out if these fish got any major external help from someone, that being, help from a system. He didn’t mention the system directly, of course, but from what he understood so far, these fish were mostly on their own!
They hunted alone, meditated alone, and progressed with their powers, mostly alone. This sect in particular, used this den to relax once in a while, without having to worry about getting attacked by other creatures, but cooperation-wise, that was about it. That and, they shared a lot of information here!
Tim loved the idea of having yet another expansive source of information. He had the system to help him, of course, but if he joined this sect, then he may be able to find the good stuff he lurked for, even faster.
With that said, he started asking what this sect did, when they wanted to progress with their magic. Headmaster Marlo gave him an appealing answer.
Marlo said, “We look for mana roots, mostly, I bet you heard of them? Also, we try to figure out the best combinations… or, recipes when it comes to power-merging. We merge our less than necessary magical powers, to attain stronger powers as a result, understand? We treasure our magic, hence, we’re called the blistering mana sect, we love mana too!”
Afterwards, Marlo also asked. “So… are you convinced by now, Timothy? Will you join us? If you do join us, I can hook you up with a dozen of other stingrays. You can work together with them for as long as you'd like!”