Chapter 7 “A few too many Leaves”
After half of the motherly Sunfish was consumed by the fish, who mysteriously vanished into a certain snake’s stomach after taking a bite, a window popped up before its eyes.
Level up!
14→15
Skill “Weak Water Manipulation” unlocked!
Weak Water Manipulation:
Can weakly manipulation the waters shape!
Do you want to combine “Weak Water Creation”, “Weak Water Control” and “Weak Water Manipulation” into a new skill “Weak Reign Over Water”?
Yes/No
Yes!
Skill “Weak Reign Over Water” acquired!
Weak Reign Over Water:
Make the water obey your every command! (Weak)
(Fulfill the condition to evolve the skill to “Reign Over Water”!)
Max level reached!
Do you want to evolve into Water Snake (Adult version of “Tiny Water Snake”)?
Yes/No
Yes!
It chose without hesitation; the tiny water snake was ready for its next evolution!
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The future adult snake quickly slithered back into the safety of the glowing lake as slowly an overwhelming tiredness set in. As soon as it arrived in its cozy home, it fell into a deep slumber.
Name: None
Species: Water Snake
Level: 1/20
Skills:
Weak Reign Over Water
Devour (Unlocked at lvl 5)
Tough Scales (Unlocked at lvl 10)
Water Resistance (Unlocked at lvl 15)
Doppelganger (Unlocked at lvl 20)
The now-not-so tiny snake skimmed through its future skills, motivated to grow even stronger it made its way out of the cave, but not before taking a look at its new majestic appearance. Its body, covered with lustrous white scales, grew significantly bigger. Before, it was around 30 cm short, but now it had grown to over 1 m tall! What a significant achievement! Proudly, it admired itself in the reflection of the lake. What a self-loving snake!
***
The leafy sea dragon was a calm creature; gently, it let its body swayed back and forth by the ocean currents, in perfect union with the seaweed surrounding it. The leafy appendages growing from its body and the fact that it could change color to camouflage itself in the seaweed made it impossible for predators to spot.
And so it spends its peaceful days not just admiring its splendor, as it was hopelessly in love with its mythical flamboyant appearance, but also observing the other creatures that made the colorful reef their home.
Day in day out, it observed in silence and slowly grew bored and frustrated.
The daily routine of the overgrown coin-shaped Sunfish, who, after its child got eaten, began to tend to the little in brain matter lacking fish so they wouldn’t be eaten,
The cowardly bigger fish, who hid in the cave thinking no one would notice,
From its safe seaweed bed, it knew everything that was happening, but...
That’s not what it truly wanted from life…
“What is the meaning of live if no one can see my gorgeousness?!”
It had the perfect camouflage skill; none of the foolish fish could find its beautiful yet fragile body, but the price for survival was giving up to truly life!
The thought that its beauty was hidden from the world, forever to go unnoticed in the chunks of seaweed, O the pain it felt! Unimaginable pain! One that these ugly, ignorant neighbors would never ever understand in their beauty-deprived lives!
But was its desire to show itself to the world, bless the uneducated masses with its outstanding godly appearance, stronger than its desire for survival?
The answer was: No.
Contrary or rather complimenting to its narcissistic self-love, it was a shallow being. Like a beautiful candy wrapper with nothing but mud inside.
“Why can these brainless fish not see me?! Why should I come out and risk my precious life? They should come to me, bagging to see my splendor! They should feel honored to worship the irreplaceable me!” It raged in its mind while keeping up the facade of the calm, gentle, leafy sea dragon, swaying with the currents, unnoticed by everyone.
Then one day, the leafy sea dragon, whose personality was clearly not cut out for the method of its species survival strategy, observed a tiny snake, its lustrous white scales complementing its blue eyes that looked like containing the ocean surface itself.
An, to it, unknown emotion bubbled up inside its tiny black heart as its eyes fixated on the tiny slithering creature.