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Timothy didn't expect to communicate with this green, dragon-shaped entity whatsoever. In fact, he hadn't communicated with any entity at all so far, so he was surprised when this green one answered his call. Of course, he was the one who provoked the green one to begin with, but he was still surprised!

He thought, “Well shit…”

This situation was a bit of a surprise, so he didn’t really know what to do. He felt stumped at first, but within seconds, he figured that the best plan here was for him just to act natural, this was his solution. He only had to be himself, in order to manipulate the situation to his favor!

Tim only had to annoy the entity, so he then transmitted a very coherent thought, citing. “You heard me right, and I won't be taking anything back, green weirdo. Mana is your sun, huh? That's nothing new in our magical world, so don't consider yourself holy and shit, don't act all unique, cuz you're just another stupid ghost, hahaha!”

The idea was to irritate the entity as much as possible, and to achieve that, he didn’t have to think about it all that much, Tim just had to be himself, as mentioned. Once he had transmitted those thoughts across the air, the green entity naturally reacted, and it did so with a full-on attack, rather than an argument!

The entity shot a spear-like beam of light against Timothy. The spear was green, obviously, and it was also very destructive, so he didn’t really stand a chance against it!

The spear hit him, and in exchange, it dissolved his light-blue, stingray-shaped soul within seconds! Tim didn’t get enslaved like the rest of those entities, no, his soul simply faded out of the sky instead.

After that, the green entity thought to itself. “What world are we growing into, where mana isn’t respected? Depressing, sad.”

The entity didn’t even bother to enslave him, which itself explained how much it disapproved of the other's foul words. The entity was angry, but as far as facts were concerned, Timothy got what he wanted out of that brute exchange. He had lured the entity to attack, and this, in a weird way, aided his own survival and longevity.

Throughout that commotion, Tim’s health bar had run out, so technically, his soul should return back to his body now. This is how his explorative soul ability worked, and he used its features to try and get back to his body, without putting in much effort to do so. With that said, now he could only hope that his soul would travel back to his body as quickly as possible, preferably in under just a few hours, rather than over a day! If it took over a day, he would surely die.

…

Tim woke up. He wasn’t feeling fully rested, but that wasn’t such a big issue, as it was a true achievement that he woke up to begin with. He had expected to die, the prior situation had hinted so, and for that matter he was beyond happy that he actually survived! His lucky streak of surviving such and similar odds, hadn't run out after all.

He then mumbled, “I made it, system! But… from the looks of it, I probably lost three pounds of fat, my stomach feels as empty as my wallet used to be, for fuck's sake.”

[Hello again, Timothy. First things first, you’re being a tad delirious about your weight. You can’t lose three pounds, if you don’t even weigh a pound to begin with. Secondly, yes, you’re very hungry right now, we don’t need to look at statistics to know that, you’re close to death.] The system followed along.

Furthermore, she added. [Luckily though, you went into hibernation mode close to your food stash. The stash of panzer crab meat you have may be a bit rotten by now, but they are your best choice for the time being. Consume it, because you’re a fish, after all, so you don’t need to worry about tummy aches as much.]

Tim did not appreciate the system’s sarcastic remarks all that much, but he didn’t have any time to argue with her right now. His frail, tiny body had gone at least two days without food, so he had to eat something immediately! Thankfully all the food that the system mentioned, was right in front of his nose, so he wasn’t in any immense, starvation-related danger right now. Food was available, so he didn’t have to hunt for it.

Tim started munching on the crabs afterwards, perhaps too fast, even, because he started throwing all the contents up, after he went for the seventh bite of food. The rotten meat didn’t treat his stomach so well, and paired with the fact that he rushed through the meal, it wasn’t a surprise that he felt nausea for the first time ever as a stingray! The meat wasn’t treating him well, but Tim wasn’t treating himself so well either.

With all of that considered, he had to slow down. He only took a few bites at a time afterwards, no matter how hungry he felt, as this was the safest way to eat food after a long period of starvation. This method worked well, because after about an hour of careful munching, he didn’t feel as horrible anymore. The food helped him attain a spike of energy, even, regardless of how it was rotten; His belly could finally digest everything now, so he reaped the usual benefits of a meaty meal.

Thanks to the meal, he could also think straight now. Slowly but surely, he realized just how bad his recent trip across the sky had been. Not only had he been enslaved for two days straight, but also, he didn’t win any system points along the way! With that said, he obviously couldn’t buy any new upgrades for the time being, which was quite a bummer.

Tim felt like a failure, and felt that he had wasted a lot of time, he thought. “No points, I didn’t find any kingdoms either, plus I got humiliated on top of all that! God damnit, the skies are not nice at all!”

He had a bunch of reasons to be angry, most souls would get as angry as he was, if they were in his place, there was no doubting that. However, he wasn’t given enough space to explore all of this sadness.

All of a sudden, either the gods or the crab meat, blessed him with a different kind of an upgrade. His body suddenly exploded in size, to the point where he had to force himself out of this tiny, hiding spot!

Timothy finally had his growth sprout, apparently, and the said sprout was really decent. Percentage wise, the system had a couple of numbers to share with him!