I'm a Stingray?

Chapter 28: Damaged

After a while, Tim woke up to the system notifying. [Sleep bar = 30/35]

Most definitely unusual for him ever since arriving in this new body but we can't ignore that he didn't have better luck before it as well, Tim had a lot of sleeping disorders before.

Moving around his fins a little bit, stretching them out, he thought. "So this is how it feels like to get a good night's sleep?"

Well it wasn't exactly a full night's sleep since the bar wasn't [35/35] but Tim felt content about it.

Afterwards the sunlight captured his vision, it's rays slipped through the crack of the coral, illuminating a line of light.

Upon that scene, he came into a realization. "I've completely lost track of time in this new body, never know when it is daytime and when it's night."

Perhaps something that one wouldn't be so happy about but as a stingray, apart from not sleeping regularly, there was no other problem.

It's not like he has a 9-5 job here and the tasks given don't have a set time limit so this is a wonderland.

The only disadvantage here in this new life was not having hands and being killable by everything remotely bigger.

Ready to continue the task, he slipped out of that crack of which represented an exit and his field of view was stolen by something that looks odd for a sea creature.

Well at least odd for Timothy compared to what else he has seen up until this point.

There was a small fish in front of him, half the times smaller and it carried an orange colour that seemed just a bit faded.

"This fish looks weird... is it a clown fish?" Tim asked himself and the system of course heard those thoughts and came bashing with an answer.

[Such information can't be given to guest unless you bit a clown fish before.]

Tad more motivated, Tim asked. "So I should bite this fish?"

[You're still in the reef, that's not recommended considering what the faction has as a motive and the roots it has spread through this reef.]

Feeling tad scolded right now, he expressed. "Gees okay."

...

As he ventured deeper through to coral, his prime goal remaining the far north, tiredness began to become as a problem.

No health problem thankfully but his speed has gone down to level 2 again and it's hard travelling under such condition.

It requires strength as well as stamina, both of which are limited and require time to regenerate after certain periods of time.

A bit of good news however, he had travelled enough to be half way through the reef already.

There was no specific statistic informing about that fact but Tim was sure that he has travelled at least 3 or so kilometres.

The reef might not be bigger than that so this quest was very close to further progressing.

After he took time to relax, continuing the swim towards the destination became the inevitable. Although often tired, he doesn't plan to give up and had admirable motivation.

He also contemplated about eating an urchin for speed, even saw a few of which he could have bitten through.

But after consulting it with the system, that might not be the best idea considering that there was no rush, not to mention his health not being at the most favourable number. [76/100]

Travelling just a bit further, he met with a scene that doesn't exactly portray anything peachy.

No fish is getting killed thankfully but we can't say that the scene was still good.

Coral, well in this portion it seemed all messed up, bits of it broken down even as the entire scene began to carry a lifeless blue colour.

Blue covered most of the corals here but Timothy could see a ray of yellow on his far left who was also stripped out of colour.

"What happened here?" The young man softly murmured while swimming a bit higher above coral to avoid any cuts.

Everything seemed ruptured here and slipping through coral might not be the best idea compared to where he had slept so far.

"The sharks, they did this." A tone shone, not loud enough to spook the stingray out but enough to be hearable.

Basing the thought of what Drake the shark did to corals to free his friend, Tim asked. "So the sharks came here and bashed the coral down?"

Although he had not seen who's speaking out just yet, having a conversation didn't seem like a big problem considering the comforting tone.

But yet curious to figure it out, the small stingray took a moment to look around but his vision failed to be captivated by anything important.

And then suddenly, he saw something slithery making its way out of the coral, her feminine tone answering the question. "No they didn't bash it down but ate it's inhabitants."

Although Tim isn't yet used of seeing long and slim beings, snakes especially, he kept the cringing emotion aside and asked. "So that's uh...?"

Circling over a bit of coral and keeping her distance to not spook away the young boy, she continued. "The reef needs fish to stay alive, everything was perfectly balanced and fish themselves kept their homes alive... now the reef is dying."

She was carrying a dark colour over her back and her belly was yellow, a fairly long snake as well, nearly 2 meters.

"Ohhh, well you sound old, was the coral like this before?" Unwillingly offensive but at least Tim was trying to get somewhere with this.

Offense aside since she felt too weak to argue, the snake answered. "I am 11 years old, living my final days. So yes I can tell you, the coral wasn't ever like this before, the sharks have come here over and over... there are no more animals to support this reef."

"Uhhh you sound tired, can I get you some food miss sea snake?" Of course the young man understood what hunger felt like and didn't want an old lady to feel it.

Rarely hearing such an offer before from a stranger, the old lady couldn't help smiling as she answered. "I'm Lili. But yes, can you get me some food? I haven't eaten in a week."

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