While Tim and Skendus were airborne, the system managed to spam him with a couple of notifications. Tim has achieved a lot recently, no matter in what means he completed those achievements, so it was time to talk about them.
She spammed, [Congratulations, Timothy. You successfully found a soul tampering cave back there, and altered your soul too, so you gained 120 system points as a reward. The reward itself isn’t great, but at least you attained some very important, and new powers from that cave, that’s what matters the most! You’ve also accumulated a total of 2,933, which is a decent sum. From what I can see, you’re ready to face the tides of the sea, again, Timothy!]
“Well, I am ready, and I can’t really complain about anything, system. It feels like I’ve been through hell and back, yeah, but it was fun. I made a new friend too, so all-and-all, the trip wasn’t that bad.” He thought.
Skendus was out here with him as well, he floated across the air, and he moved as freely as a bird would. He was also listening to the conversation that Tim and the system had, even if unwillingly, because he had this inbuilt ability to read through minds! He listened, and he was really intrigued.
Afterwards, he expressed himself directly. “Quite the magic trick you got there, you have an internal helper in you or something. I suppose she’s handy?”
“She’s chatty, first and foremost, but yeah, she has been helping me a lot.” Tim admitted, but he refused to speak of this any further.
This day had been difficult already, so he'd rather not bicker about anything right now, he didn’t want to explain what a system was either. It wasn’t a good idea at all, and Skendus wasn’t being too nosy about the matter either, so he’d rather keep this part about himself as much of a secret as he could. The system, for now, shall only be called a ‘helper’ by anyone else!
If Skendus could accept those terms, then it may not matter at all how much he knew. It didn’t matter how deeply he could read Tim’s mind, as long as he didn’t do anything with such information.
Anyway, it was fair to say that Tim felt really burnt out right now. He explored a mere fraction of dry land, and that was advantageous, in an explorative-sense, but he also understood that he wasn’t ready for the raw, dry lands right now. It was really tiring to survive out there, so unless he had a bigger body to walk the land with, he'd rather not explore the dry land at all, not for a long while! It was best to be cautious.
…
Tim and Skendus finally split the sea. Well, unlike Moses, they didn’t have a good relationship with god(s), so they didn’t really split the sea, they more like splashed into it. This was an interesting thing nonetheless, because rats such as Skendus, wouldn’t be seen paddling across any bodies of salt water, no, not typically! He wasn’t built to handle all of this nasty salt.
Skendus had to adapt accordingly here. He possessed shapeshifting powers as well, so he turned into a lovely fish. He didn’t have to settle for less either, as he sacrificed a whole level of his mana quality, in order to turn into a big, powerful fish!
Due to this sacrifice, the quality of his mana was demoted to level four, differently known as bronze mana, but this demotion really was worthwhile. He turned into a muscly, three-meter long, largetooth sawfish! This was a rare, and fantastic species of fish.
Now this species, in many instances, could grow up to double in size, but he was satisfied with being only three meters long. He didn’t want to stand out too much, even out here in the open sea as it wouldn’t be safe! So, this size was good, he felt comfortable!
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Anyway, even if he looked a bit slender, Skendus’ resulting form was great nonetheless. His skin was blue, smooth, and a bit reflective! He looked pretty sharp, just like the fifty teeth on his chainsaw-like nose would encourage. No one would believe that he was a tiny rat up until a moment ago, no, but shapeshifting had that kind of charm! The sacrifice he made was worthwhile, for sure!
Tim was quite a fan of the result too, he said. “See, I told you that you’d look badass, sawfish are the shit!”
Skendus could only nod along to that, he agreed. Initially, he wasn’t aware that such bizarre fish even existed, but Tim had a very specific image in his head when he pitched the idea, and Skendus could read right through that idea. He extracted the image out of Tim’s head, and then had shapeshifted accordingly.
All-and-all though, he was quite ready to face the tides of the sea, he started adapting accordingly already!
Anyway, as for Timothy himself, he shifted back into a stingray, into his original blue-dotted kind of species, to be exact. He felt the most comfortable in this form, and the size that he shifted into was especially comfortable, when it was paired with his overall arsenal. He was 1.75 meters long now (tail excluded), and 1.30 meters wide. This was the exact size that he bore earlier on, before he got beached on those shores, so he was big enough, and he was certainly ready to battle the tides of the sea!
Tim and Skendus had splashed into the sea, strategically. They shapeshifted together earlier, all while they were a couple of meters below the waters. The latter may seem odd, but they did so purposely!
They materialized their bodies before they splashed in the waters, and then they sank. However, they hadn’t suffocated, because breathing was quite optional when one was in a shapeshifting state! They did well, and only had to wait for about ten minutes until their bodies shifted accordingly. The process was fun at the very least, but also really painful.
After they shapeshifted, they swam close to one another. Nothing romantic was going on here, no, it was just that Skendus wasn’t used to being a fish, this was all new to him! He flopped around a lot like a beached fish, except he was in the waters and had a chainsaw-like nose, which made things very difficult. Tim almost got stabbed by that nose, several times, but he chose to stay close to his friend nonetheless, and such diligence marked the start of a beautiful friendship.
“Use your fucking tail, man!” He tried to encourage the other. “You were a rat before, how are tails new to you, ye flappy bastard?! I genuinely don’t understand.”
“Rats don’t use their tails like fish do, you cancerous tit.” Skendus expressed himself directly, and unapologetically.
Later on, throughout a lot of back-and-forth banter, Skendus got the hang of his new body. He started swimming normally, and didn’t seem as disabled anymore. If he had rattled across the shallow waters any longer, then he would have attracted a bunch of hungry reef sharks, it wouldn’t be surprising if he did so. Animals, especially predatory fish, loved to prey on disabled and or hurt fish. Skendus wasn’t either of those things, but he sure has looked the part for a few minutes!
Anyway, they continued swimming, and ended up doing so for a couple of hours. This area had an uncomfortably lengthy area of shallow water, so they had to swim slowly, because the waves hadn’t been treating them well. Tim hated this part of the journey, but there was no going around it.
They could transform their bodies into that ghostly-state, in order to cross this body of shallow water quicker, yes, but they avoided that. Skendus could use the practice, and what better way to learn swimming, than to pierce through challenging waters? He adapted quicker out here, far quicker than what it would take him to adapt on calm waters, that was for sure!
They swam forward with a little goal in mind, and they hoped to achieve it. Skendus was curious about anti-mana, and its concept as a whole, and since this weird substance was ever so present in the sea, then they were to explore the seas for as long as it was reasonable. This was their goal, it was purely adventurous, so the ending result was bound to be intense, though it was less than likely for this intensity to convert into anything positive, no!
They may die, but then again, there wasn’t anything else for them to do. Tim achieved his little aspiration to upgrade, and or tamper his soul, he did so quite successfully. Now, he was really bored and up for anything, even if dangerous!