As the girl fades away from logging out, I ping the area a few more times with my new sense. It's amazing, like a holographic representation of the area around me, only it doesn't obscure my actual vision. No vessels above, nothing even remotely human-shaped nearby. I feel... Safe.

My body curls into a ball surprisingly easily, my torso pillowed on my tail. I've never had an easy time sleeping, but exhaustion puts me in the express lane.

I waken multiple times, completely alert, ready to be killed painfully, but again my echolocation reassures me that I am safe. I had almost forgot the meaning of the word.

The final time I wake I find a swarm of creatures outside my rock. Are they fish? If so they must be huge - even at this distance I can still make out individual creatures.

I remember what the girl said, about leveling up. At least that might help me defend myself better. My previous day feels like a whole different era - a nightmare come alive. I force it back down.

It's time to hunt.

My new power makes it trivial to find my way out of the cave. In short order I'm observing my new neighbors. They are a bit intimidating if I'm honest. They aren't quite as big as me, but they have bony plates on their heads that look like battering rams, and there are a lot of them. They seem to be here for the algae growing on the rocks.

I'm reminded of my first VR combat. It was in a game called Heroes of Nevark. I'd taken on a lowly goblin, expecting to destroy it easily with my starting sword. I'd killed it all right, but only after being losing my sword and choking it in the mud, bite marks up and down my arms.

I'd learned a certain amount of respect for the lowliest of enemies that day. No way was I going to get mobbed to death by a bunch of boneheaded fish.

Flexing my hands brings out boney spears from my wrists. The natural weapons are all I have, and they haven't served me well yet. Still, they should be enough here.

I sight on one along the edge of the herd. I impact it like a torpedo - one spike center of mass, the other straight through the head.

Action Log: You spike Albonecore Tuna to death for 80 damage

50 experience gained (-50% due to Manhunter talent)

I ping out my sonar even as I look around me. A few of the fish have scattered near me, but by and large they've ignored me. I look at the fish, and feel a powerful hunger rise up in me. I don't know how long it's been since I've eaten, but before I know it my sharklike jaws are sinking in.

The flavor is far better than I had expected - the scales crunch like little salt crystals between my teeth, and the seawater seasons the sweet flesh. I feel a rush of warmth and energy flow through me, revitalizing me like no food in the real world could.

Action Log: You have gained the Well Fed effect, +5 to Stamina

You have gained the Albonecore Tuna steak effect, +10 to Armor

I have no idea how powerful the buffs were, but the unbidden thought brings up a character sheet. It looks like the armor buff is sizeable at this level - I only started with 15, so it's nearly doubled. Stamina sees a slightly smaller buff - my base is 11.

I also take a look at my "gear". All my slots are grayed out, and some are full - it doesn't seem like I can change them. My hands show as equipped with "Reaver Bone Spikes" which increase my base damage to 8 as thrusting, added to my strength of 10, multiplied by momentum. My legs slot has a "Reaver tail", which increases base move speed to 22 knots, with acceleration up to 43 kn.

Focusing on the stat shows me that my stamina value is 122, and traveling at my base speed will keep it at equilibrium. Traveling faster will decrease it, and slower will allow it to regenerate.

I remember my action log mentioning talents, which flips the display to a new sheet. I have one talent.

Manhunter: Decreases experience gains from killing nonhumans by 50%, and increases gains from humans by 1000%.

I grimace at the numbers. On the surface, it seems like a great tradeoff, but I have no idea how much experience a player normally gives. Even if it is a good bonus, other human players are always the hardest challenge in any game I've played. At the rate of 50 XP per fish, I'll have to kill just about every fish in this school just to reach level 2.

At the thought of players, I send out another burst of echolocation. My full stomach clenches as I sense two humanoid figures picking their way along the ocean floor. They're at the edge of my range, below my floating home.

Yesterday's experience tells me it's only a matter of time till they start tracking me - assuming they aren't already. I make my way down to the seafloor, keeping cover between myself and the two. I peek over a ridge to see what they're up to.

The more obvious figure is wearing a bulbous metal diving suit, with spherical swellings at the joints, and numerous circular panels all over the spherical helmet. They look like a hundred eyes all around his head. He's carrying a sheet of metal strapped to one arm like a shield, and what looks like a steampunk cattle prod in the other. His companion's suit is less bulky, and looks more like leather, with a single porthole-like visor in the front. This one carries a spear gun in both hands, a bandolier of cylinders across his chest.

I watch as the two advance on a large crab. The large one - the tank (front line defensive person) - raises his right wrist and fires a small projectile in a burst of air bubbles and cable. Whatever it is sticks to the crab's chitin easily, and the cable begins to pull it in with alarming speed. The aggressor plants his feet against the crab's scrabbling, but before it can gain purchase, he touches his weapon to the line. Lightning arcs out along it, stunning the crustacean and allowing him to pull it in easily.

It revives as it gets close, only to have a shield bash it in the face. As soon as it's engaged, the second figure darts in with surprising agility, and fires barrage of piercing rounds right between its eye-stalks. The beast ceases its struggle, and the two reload their weapons and begin matter-of-factly cracking off its limbs and storing them in a sled-like contraption they have nearby.

The display is intimidating, even if they are low-level. I'll need to take out the spear gunman first to have any chance, preferably while his weapon is unloaded. If I can do that, I hope that I can take the tank on.

The tank points at another crab, but the other shakes his head and holds up a finger. I have a bad feeling about this. I think my best chance just left.

I immediately ping the surroundings again to get an idea of my cover. There's a number of smaller rocks I can advance behind without exposing myself too much. I get to the first rock with no issues. The second. On the third I feel something slip past me.

Action Log: You take 2 damage (glancing) from Alanin's dart

Damn, that guy had good aim. Must have played a lot of shooters before this. I float behind the rock for a moment, then flick my tail up as a decoy. Two more boil past as I turn the kick into straight downward momentum, adjusting my route. The trick pays off, and I get to a new spot before being hit this time.

I'm close now, but my echolocation shows what I was dreading - the tank in front, the true threat sheltering behind. I briefly consider just running away, keeping the rock between us until I'm out of range. It's not the worst plan - I feel like I'm out of options. Then the last option is taken from me, as the rock detonates from some kind of explosion, followed almost instantly by a small sticky impact on my midsection. The pull is inexorable, and I feel panic start to set in. It's going to happen again.

Something builds up inside me. It's fear, but also rage. I'm going to be stuck, again. Just a plaything for these people - a road bump in their grind - bonus experience. I can't stand it anymore, everything bubbles over, and I just scream. I just let everything loose, all of it. I feel my new echolocation sense pull into a single point and slap the waters around me violently.

The water boils around me from an intense vibration, and everything becomes a blur of motion and energy, and I hear a piercing inhuman keening that I realize is my own.

Action Log: Your War Cry hits Alanin and Verissimus for 10 sonic damage

Alanin and Verissumus are disoriented

Both players are clawing futilely at their helmets around their ears, as if to drive the noise out. I'm still being pulled in by the tether to the tank, but a fierce hope has sprung up in me, and I surge forward, giving myself slack in the line. My tail churns the waters, and I shoot forward at near max speed.

Twin bone spears pierce the leather suited player, filling the water with blood and bubbles. My momentum whirls us around our shared axis, and I release him at the height of our spin,straight at the heavily armored foe. Both tumble to the rocky seabed.

I feel the pull again from my tether, and this time I don't fight it, instead grabbing on and pulling myself towards their tangle. I thrust into them again and again, feeling one of my spikes shatter off on the metal armor.

Action Log: You have Alanin for 182 critical damage

Alanin has died

You hit Veritissimus for 2 damage (glancing)

I push off the limp form of the spearman, then start clawing at the helmet of the other. The tank recovers fast, delivering a metal fist to my midsection, driving me back. I haul back on the line, pulling us both together. I scrabble at his helmet again, accepting a punishing hit to the side of my neck. I can't get it off, but my fingers slice off some kind of seal, and I see pale skin and a torrent of bubbles leak out. He backs off, warding in front of himself with blindly swinging fists. I'm hit again, the blow more surprising than painful.

Before I can react, he pulls some kind of ripcord on his gear, and suddenly I'm buffeted back as some kind of emergency dingy balloons out from his back. It's like some kind of reverse parachute, and he starts rising rapidly.

I don't know what his plan is for when he reaches the surface, but I won't let up now that I have the advantage. My tail kicks back and forth as fast as it ever has, the water a constant pressure on my face.

My stamina drains alarmingly as I pursue, and my muscles begin to burn in time with the stamina meter's pulsing. We're almost to the surface when I catch him, ripping through the fabric of the flotation device with my unbroken spike and pushing him down with the to cancel his momentum. I explode into the air and see his armored fingers just break the surface.

His arms flail wildly for the air, as if to pull it down to him, and then he begins a slow descent, pulled by the weight of his armor, hands clutching desperately at the useless helmet.

I take a certain sick satisfaction watching him sink into the darkness. I don't even mind the sting of my belly-flopping on the surface as I come back down.

Action Log: You have killed Veritissimus via asphyxiation

Post-combat report: You have gained 8000 experience.

You have reached level 3!

You have 2 undistributed talent points.