Playing with Tentacles

After a few days of ambushing small fishes, I managed to finally get some good luck as I caught an entire school of fish. Bringing myself up to 440kg of biomatter. Unfortunately, after that lucky catch, almost nothing swam by here. Even after two days, I was at most able to catch a single fish. Needless to say, I am bored out of my mind right now. I was hoping to camp out here for a while until I could get Enhanced Size and reach level 5. Of course, if something lucky happens to me it will always immediately be followed by even worse bad luck. Guess I'll have to venture out from the safety of the kelp forest again...

This time instead of swimming out to the more dangerous deep waters, I head to the centre of the coral reef. I noticed my appearance caused many of the monsters here to flee at my approach but I found one that didn't flee and looks quite delectable.

Race: Adult Talonian Reef Squid

Tier: 3

Level: 4

State: Healthy

HP: 43/43 MP: 21/21 SP: 347/347

STR: 41

VIT: 31

DEX: 43

INT: 47

MND: 22

Details: A squid unique to the talonian coral reefs. Attacks it's prey by constricting its tentacles and biting them. Its tentacles have thousands of small spikes on them, making it deadly to be caught by them.

I took a look around to make sure it's alone. Squids aren't the best diggers so there shouldn't be anything hiding in the ground and as far as I can see, not another one in sight. At first glance, this seems like a tough fight considering its higher stats, but this matchup should be simple for me if I cover myself in acid again.

I once again spew acid all around and swim through it before starting the battle with the squid and just as I finish I hear the voice of the System.

"You have met the requirements to unlock the Natural Mutation: Toxic Scales. Your body now permanently secretes your venom, making you poisonous. Natural Mutations do not take Elite Monster Mutation slots."

Now that's a pleasant surprise. I no longer need to waste any of my MP to cover myself nor to refresh the duration. But onto more important matters, the squid. Nearing the squid it begins to acknowledge my intent and tries to wrap its tentacles around me. As it attempts to constrict me I begin to lose a bit of my health due to the spiked tentacles, but the squid quickly lets go and begins to flee as it notices the damage it took from touching me. Of course, I have no intention to let it go as I bring my tail around to return the favour, wrapping myself around it while biting into its head. The squid's health rapidly drops between my toxic scales and the venom I injected. Eventually, the squid breaks free from my grasp but is left with 23 HP with it still dropping. I chase after the fleeing squid for a few minutes until it drops dead before a small rock formation.

"You have slain a Level 4 Adult Talonian Reef Squid. You have gained 50 EXP. Because you have slain a monster of a higher tier, you have gained and an additional 50 EXP. Because it was on a higher evolutionary path you have gained double total Exp. You have gained a total of 200 EXP."

Alas, I am never allowed to be that lucky. Not even a second after the squid's death, three more squids come out from the nearby crevices. Taking a quick look at them, there's one adult and two juveniles. The adult is at the same level as the recently departed squid and two juveniles are both at level 2. And all three are in an enraged state. Surrounded with no chance at escape right now, I make the juveniles my first targets. Dashing at them I coil my body around the juvenile closest to me and bring a strong bit down into its head. The other juvenile doesn't remain idle as it starts to wrap its tentacles around me, completely ignoring to the damage it's taking due to its enraged state. Soon enough the first one dies and I bring my attention over to the remaining juvenile, meanwhile, the adult arrives and grabs whatever part of my body it can grab on to. It doesn't take much time for the last juvenile to fall, finally giving me some breathing room as I escaped from the adult squid's grasp with only 5 HP remaining. I pick up and eat one of the juveniles as I put some distance between me and the squid to get some health back, bringing me up to 8 HP. Seeing it's child eaten right in front of it, the squid makes a mad charge at me. I use my Acid Spray to create a corrosive wall between the two of us, but the squid doesn't seem to care as it continues on through and grabs me, holding me tight and bringing me to its mouth. I once again Use Acid Spray and follow up with a Venomous Bite while my head is in the squid's mouth. At long last, the adult squid finally dies and the System rings once again.

"You have slain a Level 4 Adult Talonian Reef Squid and two Level 2 Juvenile Talonian Reef Squids. You have gained a total of 200 EXP."

"Congratulations you have reached level 5."

Not taking a moment to rest, lest another monster arrives after noticing the dead squids, I begin to eat up all four of the squids not leaving any trace of them behind. Finishing up my seafood dinner I look to find that I have just over enough biomatter to unlock Enhanced Size. Scanning my surrounding once more to find any potential threats, I find that the coast is clear for now and proceed with my mutation.

"This action will consume 500kg of biomatter. Enhanced Size will grant a bonus to your base stats, +50 HP, +50SP, +10 STR, +15 VIT, -5 DEX. Are you sure you want to continue?"

Seeing the demerit to my DEX pains me a little but the stat increase for the others are really nice, not to mention this is a required mutation for the Sea Drake so of course I want to continue. As soon as the thought passes I feel every cell in my body begin to heat up, here it comes...

After the intense burning in my body cools and regain my bearings, I inspect my body and find I'm so large that a good portion of my body is sticking out above the surface. I didn't notice it before but the colouration of my scales seemed to have changed, most likely due to the Toxic Scales. They are now a pale blue colour. After seeing all my physical changes, I take a look at my status page to see how my stats have been affected.

Name: Cordelia Auspin

Race: Elite Juvenile Sea Snake (Talonian Regional Variant)

Tier: 2

Titles: Provoking Giants (-5 INT)

Level: 5

EXP: 280/571

HP: 103/103 MP: 12/16 SP: 187/245

STR: 41

VIT: 47

DEX: 24

INT: 46 (-5)

WIS: 23

MND: 13

CHA: 11

LUCK: 5

Acquired Skills: Investigate (3)

Innate Skills: Acid Spray (5), Tail Swipe (4), Venomous Bite (5)

Natural Mutations: Toxic Scales

Mutations: Superior Eyes, Enhanced Size (See Potential Mutations)

Current Biomatter: 40kg

Lifetime Biomatter: 580kg

Available Evolutions: N/A (See Potential Evolutions)

Details: A reincarnated Talonian Sea Snake. Some stats have been altered to accommodate for the previous life's attributes. As an Elite monster, you gain a bonus to all stats, current bonus +5. An unusual Juvenile Sea Snake that's only slightly smaller than an Adult Sea Serpent. It's nice to have large dreams and aspirations but let's be honest, they won't come true.

Ignoring that last line once again, I find I have had a substantial increase to all strength and durability. I feel confident at surviving in the deeper waters past the kelp forest now. Not like I have much of a choice anymore since my body can't even be contained within the entire kelp forest now. At the very least, I know I can contend with the Luxipira, and if I use that as a baseline for the monsters in that area, I should be fine.

I begin to move towards the deeper waters until I noticed something strange that's moving along the surface of the water. I poke my head out of the water to see a ship sailing out from behind a cliff in the distance. The ship doesn't seem to be very large, even when accounting for how far it is. Most likely some sort of fishing boat. But a ship means people, intelligent life. Perhaps I can stalk it for a bit and try to get some more information about the civilisations of this world. With this idea in mind, I begin to creep up on the unsuspecting boat.