My mind started to clear up and I slowly began to regain consciousness. My field of vision gradually restored.
It was then that I immediately noticed that I was already underwater.
"Am I underwater?" I asked myself.
From down below, in the large body of open water, I could steadily see numerous ripples of light refracting off the surface of the water, amidst the calm ocean waves.
Instinctively, I could feel the wetness of water, cold to the touch, touching my dry skin. Which told me that I was already submerged underwater.
However, a thought then crossed my mind, 'How am I breathing underwater? I should be drowning at this moment.'
After finding no difficulty with breathing underwater. I then contemplated.
I asked myself an important question. "Where the hell am I?"
And almost instantly, an unknown voice then enters my ear. Rather than heard, it is more correct to say that the source of the sound definitely originated from withinside my head.
[You have been reincarnated into the world of Deep Sea Earth.]
The voice was feminine, but it sounded artificial, as it was unnatural and contains no ounce of emotions. Sort of like a machine.
Deep-Sea Earth. An alternative Earth that has been affected by an otherworldly phenomenon, designated as calamity class, which completely submerged the entire planet underwater.
Portals that are gateways to another world and other galaxies, began to appear all over the planet. Frequent in numbers, like a fast-growing population of cockroaches.
When one portal appeared, more would soon follow. As they began pour aquatic life, sea monsters, and water from the other side onto ours, which sort of adds to our Earth"s volume of ocean water.
The sea level began to rapidly rise, thereby submerging all landmass and continents underwater.
It created a new early Cretaceous period on Earth. A suitable and thriving environment for oceanic creatures and aquatic wildlife.
The system spoke to me in a clear and audible voice.
I briefly began to recall something. I remember being in a densely populated where people were rapidly gathering, and there was a lot of noise. People were indeed panicking, shouting, and running for their dear lives when a large tsunami struck.
It was then that my head started hurting, I was suddenly struck with an intensely strong headache.
It prevented me from diving deeper into my memory. So I then decided to stop.
"The large tsunami? Portals in the sky..." Before I could even finish my sentence, I was suddenly halted by the headache.
It completely forced me to stop right in my tracks and ceased any further thoughts over the matter.
I was clearly confused. I asked myself a question, expecting an answer in response. "What happened to me?"
But nobody responded as it was a dead silence that soon follows.
[I am your personal Aquatic Levelling System A.I that is in charge of guiding you. Aiding you on your journey and helping improve your chances of survival within the Deep Sea Ocean.]
The System A. I readily introduce herself to me, which was a pleasant surprise.
'Who knew that technology has advanced this far for there to be artificial intelligence. Or was this not man-made, but rather created by a higher form of intelligence.' I thought to myself.
"Reincarnation, huh?" I said, certainly amused.
I couldn"t contain my excitement, that I unconsciously let out small bubbles of air escaping from my little fish mouth.
It steadily floated upwards above my face, before it pops, and it immediately disappears soon after.
'Reincarnation, huh? Kind of like all of those Isekai novels that I've read.' I thought to myself, associating my current predicament to my past life favourite hobby, and just being a bit of a Weeb.
My name is Arthur, and there is not that much stuff or anything exciting to say about myself.
I was just your average everyday college kid, on board of graduating with passing marks, and possibly getting a degree. Though university life was certainly not for me. I don"t really know how to move on with life from there.
I was not that much of a social person when I was alive and still back on Earth. I had friends, but things weren"t at all that great in my opinion.
[In order to survive in the wild and the deep sea. You must first grow up and developed a set of unique skill to aid in your survival.]
[I"ve created a set of task that aid you in the introduction of Deep Sea wildlife. Appropriate rewards will be given out after you have completed each task. So good luck.]
[You have been given your first task!]
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Quest Objective: Escape the egg!
Detail: You are currently trapped withinside an egg. Escape from the confined space of your egg, and then you will be rewarded.
Reward: 1 Mutational Point.
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My body is currently trapped withinside the comforts of a soft gelatinous dome. The walls were translucent. It was made from a soft material, that didn"t take much effort for me to break out of.
As I push forth, the soft gelatinous egg wall then immediately gave way, and my small little fish head then pops right out from withinside the egg.
I slowly wiggled around, flapping my back tail fin, thereby creating a small propelling force that forcefully pushes my body right out from the confined space of the egg.
[You have successfully completed your first task! The reward is being distributed!]
[You have received 1 mutational point!]
And then a thought suddenly occurred to me, I don"t know what a mutation point is and what they do.
So I then asked the System A.I, "What is a mutation point?"
The System A.I then responded, it immediately gave a short explanation of the whole evolutionary mutation system.
[Mutation points are what the user would use to upgrade and modify one"s own body.]
She then follows up with a more detailed explanation of the mutation system.
[Mutation points are gained through each level up as a bonus acquisition, and you can get more by accomplishing quest and missions given by the system as a quest reward.]
[Upgrading a mutation skill can have a drastic effect on the user"s body, thereby increasing or forced the immediate development of a specified body part. Which can result in the possible growth of additional limp or variations of already existing ones...]
I then thought, "Well, that is pretty neat. It"s kind of like the game."
is an old game that was sort of developed by Maxis where you start as a single cell organism, where you slowly evolved and eventually developed into a full flesh space colony.
It felt strangely odd swimming in a fish"s body when compared to the bipedal human one in which I"m so used to and was born with, but nevertheless, I then immediately accepted the fact that in this life I was reincarnated as a deep-sea fish.
The experience was quite fun at first since it was my first time diving within the vast open waters of the ocean.
Even though it is the deep sea, it nevertheless still contains the very same mysteries as if you would explore biodiversity and wildlife living in the coral reefs regions.
"Simply exciting!" I thought.
[You have received your second task!]
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Quest Objective: Open up your status window!
Detail: To display your own personal status screen. You must either recite the keyword "Status" inside of your head or say the keyword "Status Open" out loud.
Reward: 1 mutational point.
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The task was not at all that difficult, after having read the quest details out loud in of my head. I then decided to finish it within seconds, and at the same time, check out my status.
"Status!" I recited the keyword in of my head, and a status window then immediately pops up.
The status window completely displayed all of my personal information, down to every inch of my current body.
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{Status Window}
Name: Arthur
Age: 1 day old
Gender: Male
Race: Black Sea Devil Angler Fish (Infant)
Class: Sea Creature
Family: Melanocetidae
Body Width: 1.32 cm
Body Length: 2.67 cm
Level: 1/5 {0/100 exp}
Titles: Reincarnator
Rank: F-
Combat Power: 1 cp
-Stats/Attributes-
Health Point: 5/5
Stamina Point: 13/13
Hunger Point: 3/13
Magical Power: 10/10
Body Condition: Healthy {Stable}
Strength: 2
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Agility: 1
Endurance: 3
Defense: 2
Dexterity: 2
Vitality: 3
Intelligence: 3
Wisdom: 3
Willpower: 3
Charisma: 1
Spirituality: 1
Luck: 1
1 unallocated mutation points!
0 unallocated stats points!
0 bio growth points!
---------------------------------------------
Traits:
Small Jaw Lv.1/10, Small Teeths Lv.1/10 Small Side Fin Lv.1/10, Small Top Fin Lv.1/10, Small Tail Fin Lv.1/10, Underdeveloped Stomach Lv.1/10, Enhanced Nose Lv.1/10, Narrow Vision Lv.1/10, Acid Saliva Lv.1/10
Active Skills:
Bite Lv.1 (0%)
Passive Skills:
Night Vision Lv.1 (11%)
---------------------------------------------
[You have successfully completed your second task! Rewards are now being distributed!]
[You have received 1 mutational point!]
Upon reading the contents of my status screen, I then quickly found out what I have been reincarnated into.
"A Deep Sea Angler Fish." I shouted out loud, and small bubbles rapidly escaping from my mouth, one after another.
I was certainly shocked beyond disbelief. Words could not truly explain what just happened. The feelings of uncertainty that I"m currently experiencing right now. It was quite unpleasant and nauseating.
"What the fuck!" I screamed out, venting my fustrations at my unfortunate luck of misfortune.
"Why was I reborn as a deep sea Angler Fish! Any thing could literally be better than this!" I said, with a somewhat reluctance tone of voice, as anguished could be seen on my face.
And then a thought suddenly crossed my mind, "It could be alot worst, I could be reincarnated as a useless deep sea Blobfish Real ugly..."
Continuing on the line of thought, "Even an ugly ass deep sea Goblin Shark would still be at lot better than a Angler Fish, as I would still have a better chance of survival in the wild."
After finishing the second task, the System A.I. then issued me a new tasks to complete.
[You have received your third task!]
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Quest Objective: Hunt for prey!
Detail: Your task is to hunt for any small deep sea fish or crustacean in order to satisfy your hunger. Preferably younger juvenile deep sea fishes, infant sea creature, soft molded crustacean, or unhatched eggs.
Reward: 1 mutational point!
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It was then that an undesirable wave of hunger then began to wash over me. Having realised that I have yet to eaten anything upon reincarnation. I started to formulate a plan.
"What should I do now?" I asked myself.
The System A.I immediately responded, it gave me alternative choices on how to complete the task.
[You could patiently scour through the depths of the deep sea den looking for much smaller deep sea fish or soft shell small crustaceans to hunt.]
[Another option is that you could simply eat your own kind, especially those who have yet to hatch out from their eggs. They are defenseless, but provides alot of easy obtainable experience points.]
The System A.I gave me some inadequately good advice, and two choices to follow.
"Eating my own kind." I thought deeply to myself, but I was definitely not against the idea of cannibalism.
As all the other animals in the wild have done it. Especially in dire situation when food shortages has become a serious problem, where the lines between what is morally good or evil has become indistinct.
Despite having just recently been reincarnated as a deep sea Black Sea Devil Angler Fish. My mindset has yet to fully adapt to this new changes, and I still partially considered myself to be a human.
So I have yet to fully accept myself as being a fish monster yet. So eating a fish that is part of your kind is not considered wrong, can it.
The deep sea is almost completely dark, like the abyss. With barely any source of light ever reaching towards the bottom of the ocean, but that doesn"t mean that there is no source of light.
As there are quite a few lumps of bio luminesce bacteria and light emitting sea critter living within the area.
Being simple small creatures, with little needs and sustenance. They can managed to barely survive simply upon absorbing the abundance of mana from their surroundings.
It kinds of like how the plants on Earth would absorb sun light through the process of photosynthesis. They in turn caused a chemical reaction withinside them, like a reactor, turning added water and carbon dioxide into food and energy, to fuel their growth and sustain them.
Without much further thought, I then slowly swam downwards, towards the many piles of unhatched Black Sea Devil Angler Fish eggs.
I then opened my mouth wide, like a gaping shark, revealing a small aligned rows of tiny prickling teeths.
Afterwards, I then immediately took out a big bite of a nearby unhatched Black Sea Devil Angler Fish egg. The taste was slightly unpleasant, cold, but a bit salty, because of the salt water contents.
My small rows of prickly aligned teeths then quickly sank into a nearby Black Sea Devil Angler Fish egg.
Softly passing by through the thin layer of gelatinous structure, which was the Black Sea Devil Angler Fish egg. It then penetrated and pierced the main body of the still unhatched semi developed Black Sea Devil Angler Fish.
And within seconds, the unhatched Black Sea Devil Angler Fish then died, quickly being bled to death, and its slightly developed body was thereby cut in half.
[You have successfully killed a Lv.1 {Unhatched} Black Sea Devil Angler Fish Egg! 15 experience points acquired!]
I then swallowed the contents of the unhatched Black Sea Devil Angler Fish, that I just recently killed, down into my stomach.
Afterwards, I then continued ti finish off the rest of the unhatched Black Sea Devil Angler Fish egg in just two bites.
[You have acquired 5 bio growth points!]
Bio growth points are essentially bio mass that the user acquired after consuming a living creature or remnants of a thing.
It can be used to upgrade the user's stats attribute, at the exchange rate of 10 bio growth points for 1 extra unallocated stats points. It can also be used to buy mutations off of the system.
To unlocked a mutation or trait that is particularly not available to your normal evolutionary line. You must either kill and consume the flesh, or somehow luckily scavenge a piece of meat of that particular creature lying around in order to unlock their particular mutational skill.
In order to activate the mutation of the unlocked gene in general. A certain number of bio growth points is thereby consumed. However, the grade and compatability of the mutation can affect the cost of bio growth points that is used to unlock the mutation.
For instance, if a fish wanted to obtained a mutational trait that allows them to grow and evolve towards the evolutionary line of shark. It would cost a certain amount of bio growth points, because the compatibly is not that farfetched.
A shark is just basically a much bigger and more carnivorous version of a piranhas. So the price of bio growth points are not that outstretched.
However, if the fish has managed to unlocked the mutation of the possibility of growing a exoskeleton by consuming the flesh of crab.
The price for activating the mutation for an exoskeleton mutation would certainly cost two to three times the price of bio growth points than a normal upgrade. As this is because the fish and crab are of two entire different species, thereby making it harder for the individual to the obtained the mutation of that particular race.
[Conditions have been met! The title {Kin Killer} has been acquired!]
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Title: Kin Killer
Condition: You have killed a member of your family or kin. You"re a murderer.
Effect: +2 Strength, +1 Agility, +1 Defence
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Ding!
The sounds of the notification screen.
[Conditions have been met! The title {Cannibal} has been acquired!]
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Title: Cannibal
Condition: You have consumed the flesh or meat of a member of your own race. You're a monster!
Effect: +3 Vitality, +2 Endurance, +5 Max Hunger Point
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After checking the both of the new titles that I've recently just acquired, I then immediately noticed that the effects of those two titles were quite good.
It gave me a pernament stats boost despite how bad the titles sounded.
'Cool!' I so thought towards myself, whilst expressing a sense of delight for my small accomplishment.