Chapter 8: EXPERIENCE GAINED
The sentinel shrimp charged, its reinforced carapace gleaming like dull copper in the glow of Gray’s bioluminescence. It moved faster than the regular shrimp, its legs propelling it across the rock face in a skittering blur. The pincers snapped open and shut with an audible click, each snap a promise of violence.
Gray pulsed backward, but the sentinel was already on him. The pincer caught his bell margin and clamped down.
[-6 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 23 / 30]
’SON OF A—’
He wrenched himself sideways, the pincer tearing free with a small chunk of translucent flesh still in its grip. Shimmering fluid leaked from the wound, drifting upward in tiny, iridescent droplets.
’Okay. Okay, that hurt. That really hurt.’
The sentinel didn’t pursue immediately. It planted itself between Gray and the crack where the colony had vanished, its red eyes tracking his every movement. Its pincers spread wide again, making itself look larger. A warning display. A challenge.
’It’s not trying to kill me,’ Gray realized. ’It’s trying to buy time. Hold me here until the colony is safe.’
The realization made him pause. This creature had evolved specifically to protect its kind. It had transformed its body, grown armor and weapons, all for the sake of others. It would die here, alone on this rock, if it meant the colony survived.
’...I was supposed to be the protagonist here. Why do I feel like the monster?’
But there was no time for that. The sentinel had given its warning. Now it was coming to finish the job.
It charged again, pincers raised.
Gray met it head-on.
His tentacles lashed forward, intercepting the sentinel mid-charge. The nematocysts fired on contact.
[NEMATOCYST STING — 2 DAMAGE]
[SENTINEL SHRIMP — HP: 18 / 20]
[PARALYZE — RESISTED]
’Resisted?! Of course. Reinforced carapace. Probably has higher status resistance too.’
The sentinel shrugged off the venom and clamped its pincer around Gray’s nearest tentacle.
[-3 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 20 / 30]
Gray didn’t pull away this time. He wrapped another tentacle around the sentinel’s body, then a third. The shrimp thrashed in his grip, its legs kicking, its remaining pincer snapping wildly at anything within reach. Another hit landed, scoring a shallow gash across Gray’s bell.
[-2 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 18 / 30]
’STOP. MOVING.’
He squeezed. Every tentacle tightened at once, nematocysts firing in rapid succession.
[NEMATOCYST STING — 3 DAMAGE]
[NEMATOCYST STING — 2 DAMAGE]
[NEMATOCYST STING — 4 DAMAGE]
[SENTINEL SHRIMP — HP: 9 / 20]
The sentinel’s struggles weakened. Its pincer opened and closed erratically, the movements growing sluggish as venom finally began to seep through the gaps in its armor. But it wasn’t dead yet. Its red eyes still burned with that fierce, defiant light.
The sentinel surged with a final burst of desperate strength. It tore free from his grip, leaving behind a cloud of torn tentacle fragments and shimmering fluids. Its carapace was cracked in three places. Dark ichor seeped from the wounds. But it was still standing.
[SENTINEL SHRIMP — HP: 9 / 20]
[STATUS: BERSERK — DEF -50%, ATK +50%]
’Berserk?! It has a second phase?!’
The sentinel screamed. A genuine, primal scream that vibrated through the water like a physical force. Its red eyes flared brighter than Gray had ever seen them, twin crimson beacons burning with nothing left to lose. The cracked carapace split further as its body seemed to swell with adrenaline.
It leaped.
The movement was so fast, so aggressive, that Gray barely registered it before the pincer was embedded in his bell.
[-12 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 6 / 30]
[WARNING: HP CRITICAL]
’SIX?! I HAVE SIX HP LEFT?!’
Panic detonated in his brain. His body wanted to flee, to hide in his crevice and never come out. But the sentinel was still attached to him, its pincer buried deep in his bell, its berserk eyes burning with single-minded fury.
’It’s going to kill me. It’s going to kill me and I can’t—’
No!
He stopped the thought before it could finish.
He’d done this already. He had been here before, on the edge of oblivion, and he had refused to fall.
’I AM NOT THAT MAN ANYMORE.’
He wrapped every tentacle around the sentinel’s body to hold it close.
’You want to protect your colony? I understand. But I’m not dying here for your noble sacrifice.’
The sentinel thrashed, its pincer tearing deeper into his bell.
[-2 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 4 / 30]
Gray didn’t flinch.
’You evolved because I threatened your home. That’s fair. But I have something to protect too now.’
His bell flared bright. Pink and blue light pulsed faster, stronger, driven by something more powerful than fear: resolve.
’Myself.’
[NEMATOCYST STING — ACTIVATED]
All of his tentacles fired at once. Every nematocyst along every tentacle discharged simultaneously into the sentinel’s cracked carapace.
[NEMATOCYST STING — 4 DAMAGE]
[NEMATOCYST STING — 3 DAMAGE]
[NEMATOCYST STING — 4 DAMAGE]
[SENTINEL SHRIMP — HP: 0 / 20]
The red eyes guttered like a candle in a slow current, their light shrinking to a pinprick before the dark swallowed them whole.
[SENTINEL SHRIMP DEFEATED — 35 EXP]
The pincer went limp inside Gray’s bell. The berserk tension drained from the sentinel’s body, leaving it small and fragile in his grip. Its carapace, so fierce moments ago, was just a cracked and broken shell now.
Gray hung there in the water, breathing hard despite having no lungs. His HP sat at 4 out of 30. His tentacles were torn and ragged. His bell bore a deep puncture wound that leaked shimmering fluid with every pulse.
But he was alive.
’...I’m sorry,’ he thought, looking at the sentinel’s corpse. ’You were just doing your job. Protecting your people. I can’t even say I was doing the same. I was just... hungry for levels.’
The system chimed again.
[EXPERIENCE GAINED — 35 EXP]
[LEVEL UP!]
[You are now Level 4.]
[10 Stat Points available for distribution.]
[1 Skill Point available.]
The warm rush of the level-up washed through him, sealing the worst of his wounds and refilling his HP bar. The puncture in his bell knitted shut. The torn tentacle fragments regenerated. His bioluminescence steadied from a weak flicker to a steady, healthy glow.
But the victory felt hollow.
He absorbed the sentinel’s corpse slowly, almost reverently. The reinforced carapace dissolved against his feeding surface, and a new notification appeared.
[Skill Nematocyst Sting has reached Level 2. Skill evolution options will become available at Level 5.]
Gray pulled up the updated skill description.
[SKILL: NEMATOCYST STING — LV. 2]
Type: Active (Automatic on contact)
MP Cost: 2 per discharge
« Analysis »
Your nematocysts have grown denser and more potent through repeated use. Venom concentration has increased. Paralysis effect now affects targets up to your own size.
Effect: Deals 3-5 damage on contact. 20% chance to inflict [Paralyze] for 3 seconds on targets equal to or smaller than the user.
’Three to five damage. Higher paralyze chance. Longer duration. And it works on things my own size now.’