While Tim and Skendus swam through a wide area of shallow water, the both of them had one thing in common, they got bored really quickly! The sea was wide, massive even, so it was very common for a fish to swim for hundreds of meters, miles even, without actually reaching an important location. It would take a while for them to escape these uncomfortable, shallow waters!
Since they were pretty bored, Tim decided to browse the rest of the upgrades that the system had to offer. He was offered a list of the available upgrades, and got really excited only moments later, because he realized that he could buy at least two of them! He did a lot of math to figure that out, the math made his head hurt, inevitably, and this resulting irritation that he felt helped him decide which upgrade to buy first.
Tim decided to buy an intelligence upgrade. It was a hardy and useful upgrade, promising thirty-five points of brain power!
The system said so, she specified. [This upgrade costs 700 system points, yes, but let’s be honest, Timothy, you need it. You've needed these 35 points for a while now, but don’t expect it to solve all of your problems. Remember, you’re a bigger stingray now, so your brain should’ve increased in capacity along with your size, yet it didn’t. Anorexia is locking away a good quarter of your intelligence, due to various reasons, so the more you eat, the better you’ll feel in the long run. At the very least, you’ll get rid of that nasty brain fog in your head!]
“Oh, looks like I need to do a lot of things. It’s so hard to become fat around here, though, but I will try my best.” He thought.
Afterwards, he just bought the upgrade. He experienced bad headaches from such upgrades before, and he even feared that he would get paralyzed this time around, but he took the risk nonetheless. The waters were shallow here, and Skendus was ‘understanding’ of the need to progress, so Tim did exactly that. He bought the IQ upgrade, for the sake of progressing!
Tim then expected to get knocked out cold, but that wasn’t the case. He felt a slight pinch from deep within his head, which wasn’t painful at all, but otherwise he was fine. What followed along after, however, was perhaps the greatest episode of euphoria that he had ever felt, it got him ‘high’, in a sense. It was a really wonderful feeling!
The fog that had taken his brain hostage, since basically forever, now cleared up, well, mostly. He could think straight for once, he developed some good coherent thoughts as a result, but mostly, he then got this intense urge to swim at high speeds! Tim suddenly felt as if he was a horse, who got freed from the barn after a long, whistling, cold winter. He just wanted to run and frolic!
Unlike a horse, however, he didn’t have any legs, so his fins had to make due. He swam like a really fast fish, for about ten whole minutes! It was fun.
Skendus was surprised earlier on once he saw Tim take off, but he then understood what was going on. Skendus, as an illusionist, had this intense ability to read through the minds and brain-waves of other creatures, so he understood that Tim’s brain was suddenly a lot faster, which in turn converted into such frantic, energized movements! His friend zoomed around for a little while, but he managed to swim close by nonetheless, until the other calmed down.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Once he calmed down, Skendus asked. “That seemed fun and all, all the swimming about. How do you feel?”
“I feel like I farted out all of my dead brain cells, well, not literally, but I do feel a lot better.” He expressed.
Of course, Tim wasn’t the best with words at the moment, since he got a bit tired from all the swimming around, but he felt good indeed. If he could find a better way to describe himself, he’d say that it was really accelerating to go through an IQ upgrade of this volume. This upgrade was valued to be a staggering 54% increase in brainpower, so yes, this was really accelerating for him!
Ironically, the numbers didn't matter that much to him at the moment. He was smarter now, and that was what mattered to him the most, that's what he cared about! The utter lack of intelligence that he suffered with for a while now, had acted as a solid barricade to him, his goals, and his overall survival. Things hadn’t been easy, so it felt amazing to break out of that cycle of uncertainty!
Anyway, the system then interrupted his train of thought. She had some important things to go over, and hoped that the other would be more attentive this time.
The system said, [I’m glad that you enjoyed the upgrade so… thoroughly, so I’d like to believe that its cost was justified. Anyway, 2,233 system points remain in your sum, so you have a bit of purchasing power remaining. I’m sure you noticed the CQ upgrade, which was next in line to the upgrade you already bought. CQ stands for creative intelligence, and it can be useful in many instances, in your case, it would be useful in any battle.]
“Oh? That sounds interesting.” He admitted, though that was the least frantic thought that he had for a while.
[I’m not rushing you to buy it, especially since your CQ already seems to be abnormally high, but it’s a good option.] She followed along, [Think it over, though ideally, you best buy a couple of the other upgrades for now, and worry about the intelligence upgrades later. You sport an IQ of 100 points now, and no one’s rushing you academically either, you’re smarter than most fish! So, no pressure.]
“Well that’s relieving…” He added, and then somewhat dozed off.
Tim was swimming across the shallow waters along with Skendus, because that was all they could do in this boring area, so he didn’t have any physical challenges in front of him specifically, no, yet his brain seemed to be the biggest challenge of all. This was alarming, considering that he had just got his brain upgraded! He did expect to get any cognitive malfunctions, so he was concerned!
Timothy continued to spiral down to that ‘dozy state’, and eventually, he fell unconscious. This was alarming, but at least it wasn’t painful for him whatsoever, because he just fell asleep! It was unlikely that his brain was responding to some kind of internal trauma, he definitely wasn’t responding to physical trauma, so in theory he should be okay.
Skendus watched him go down, and thought. “Well, that looks bad, though expected. This fucker has been zooming around in an empty stomach, I’m surprised he didn’t crash earlier. I better get him some food, maybe I can use this huge nose of mine to hunt better, too?”