Chapter 5: Dying
The lead Frenzy Minnow’s jaws snapped shut on empty water.
Gray had pulsed downward with every ounce of strength his pathetic jellyfish body could muster. The movement was clumsy, desperate, and barely fast enough. He felt the rush of displaced water as the predator’s mouth closed inches from his bell.
’CLOSE. TOO CLOSE.’
The dead minnow floated below him, its silver scales still shimmering faintly. The swarm was already shifting, their attention split between the fresh kill and the living prey that had just dodged them.
Gray angled his body and pulsed hard toward the corpse. His tentacles reached out to push. The dead minnow tumbled through the water, spiraling toward the center of the swarm.
The effect was immediate.
Three Frenzy Minnows broke formation and lunged for the corpse, their jaws tearing into the soft flesh. The swarm’s crescent shape collapsed into chaos as more of them joined the frenzy, fighting each other for scraps of the dead minnow. Blood clouded the water, a murky red veil that bought Gray precious seconds.
’GO. GO NOW.’
He pulsed. Once. Twice. Three times. Each contraction pushed him maybe a foot through the water, achingly slow but steady. His bell ached from the effort. The wound where the minnow had bitten him still leaked faint, shimmering fluid.
Behind him, the feeding frenzy intensified. Snaps and thrashing vibrated through the water, a symphony of violence that made his tentacles curl instinctively.
’Don’t look back. Don’t look back. Just keep moving—’
[DETECTION: Your bioluminescence is currently active.]
Gray’s thoughts screeched to a halt.
’...Turn it off. TURN IT OFF.’
[Skill Bioluminescent Pulse is a Passive skill. It cannot be deactivated manually.]
’OF COURSE IT CAN’T.’
He was a glowing beacon in the dark water. Pink and blue light pulsed rhythmically from his bell, a living lighthouse broadcasting his location to every predator within a mile. The skill description had called it a "minor attraction effect on curious creatures." Minor. That was probably why the minnow had found him so easily. And why the nightmare lamprey had found him—
A sharp vibration cut through the water behind him.
Gray didn’t need to turn around. His tentacles felt it. Something had broken away from the feeding frenzy. Something was following him.
’No no no no—’
He pulsed harder. His bell screamed with the strain. The edge of his wound stretched and tore a little wider.
[-1 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 5 / 10]
’YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. I’M TAKING DAMAGE FROM SWIMMING TOO HARD?!’
The vibration behind him grew stronger. Closer. He risked turning his perception backward and saw it: a single Frenzy Minnow, larger than the others, its angular body cutting through the water with predatory precision. A red gash ran across its snout where another fish had bitten it during the feeding frenzy. It had been wounded. Driven away from the corpse. And now it was looking for an easier meal.
[FRENZY MINNOW (INJURED)]
Level: 3
HP: 14 / 25
Status: Bleeding (Minor), Aggravated
’Level 3. Injured. Fourteen HP.’ Gray’s mind raced through the math. ’Static Discharge does eight to twelve damage. If I roll high, I could almost kill it. But my MP is at ten. It’s been... how long since the fight? Two minutes? Three?’
He checked his status.
MP: 13 / 25
’Thirteen. Two more minutes until I can use Static Discharge. I just need to survive for TWO MINUTES.’
The Frenzy Minnow lunged.
Gray pulsed sideways, but he was too slow. The fish’s jaws grazed his bell, tearing a shallow gash through his translucent flesh.
[-5 HP]
[GRAY ASHFORD — HP: 0 / 10]
’...What?’
The world flickered. His vision dimmed. His bioluminescence sputtered like a dying lightbulb.
[WARNING: HP CRITICAL.]
[STATUS EFFECT GAINED: DYING]
[DYING: You have sustained fatal damage. You have 60 seconds to stabilize your condition or receive external healing. Failure will result in permanent death.]
’I’M DYING?! ALREADY?! I JUST GOT HERE!’
His body was shutting down. He could feel it, the strange gelatinous tissues of his bell losing cohesion, his tentacles going limp. The cold of the deep ocean seeped into him, no longer just around him but inside him, filling the cracks in his broken form.
The Frenzy Minnow circled back, sensing victory. Its black eyes gleamed with hunger. The wound on its snout still leaked dark fluid into the water, a trail of blood that mirrored Gray’s own.
’Sixty seconds. I have sixty seconds.’
His thoughts fragmented. Panic and desperation and fury all crashed together in a useless storm. He couldn’t fight. He couldn’t run. He couldn’t even stay conscious for another minute.
’Is this it? Is this really how it ends? Killed by a tutorial fish after I already beat the tutorial fish?!’
The Frenzy Minnow opened its jaws.
And something inside Gray snapped.
’I REFUSE.’
The scream of a man who had already died once and refused to die again.
’I REFUSE. I REFUSE TO BE PATHETIC ANYMORE.’
[MP: 14 / 25]
’I DON’T CARE ABOUT THE ODDS. I AM NOT DYING HERE.’
[MP: 15 / 25]
[STATIC DISCHARGE — AVAILABLE]
’—NOW!’
The lightning erupted.
His broken body became a conduit. Blue-white lightning leaped from his bell, his tentacles, his very core. The water around him turned to light.
The Frenzy Minnow didn’t even have time to flinch.
[-12 HP]
[FRENZY MINNOW (INJURED) — HP: 2 / 25]
[STUN — 3 seconds]
The fish seized. Its body locked rigid, fins splayed, jaw frozen open. The black eyes went glassy and unfocused.
Gray didn’t hesitate. He pulsed forward. It was weak. Pathetic. Barely a nudge. But it was enough.
His tentacles brushed against the stunned Frenzy Minnow’s flank.
[NEMATOCYST STING — 4 DAMAGE]
[FRENZY MINNOW (INJURED) — HP: 0 / 25]
[FRENZY MINNOW DEFEATED]
The fish’s body went limp. Its black eyes faded to gray. It began to drift downward, joining the sinking remains of the minnow somewhere far below in the dark.
Gray floated there, his body flickering between light and dark.
’I did it. I actually—’
[DYING — 22 seconds remaining.]
’Right. Still dying.’
He had twenty-two seconds. His HP was zero. His MP was nearly gone. He had nothing but a broken body and a system that seemed more interested in counting down his death than preventing it.
’Think. THINK. There has to be something. Some skill I’m missing. Some mechanic I haven’t figured out. I refuse to believe the system brought me here just to die in the first fight.’
He pulled up his status screen with the last fragments of his fading consciousness.
And then he saw it.
Something he’d missed before. Something so obvious he wanted to scream.
[LEVEL UP!]
[You are now Level 3.]
[10 Stat Points available for distribution.]
[1 Skill Point available.]
’...LEVEL UP.’
[DYING — 14 seconds remaining.]
’LEVEL UP HEALS YOU. IN EVERY GAME EVER MADE, LEVELING UP HEALS YOU. PLEASE LET THIS BE ONE OF THOSE GAMES.’
He didn’t have time to think about optimal builds or careful planning. He shoved all twenty stat points into HP with a desperate, wordless command.
[HP MAX INCREASED: 10 → 30]
[HP RESTORED: 30 / 30]
[DYING — Status removed.]
The warmth flooded through him like sunlight breaking through storm clouds. His bell solidified. His tentacles regained their strength. His bioluminescence flared back to life, pink and blue pulsing steadily in the dark water. The gash in his margin sealed, leaving behind only a faint scar in the translucent tissue.
Gray floated in stunned silence.
’I’m alive. I’m actually alive.’
The swarm was still behind him, distant now, still fighting over the remains of the minnow. They hadn’t noticed his victory. They were too busy tearing each other apart over scraps.
’Level 3,’ he thought, pulling up his status.
STATUS MENU
Name: Gray Ashford
Species: Aurelia aurita — Common Moon Jellyfish (Bioluminescent Variant)
Level: 3
Title: None
Stats:
· HP: 30 / 30
· MP: 3 / 30
· ATK: 1
· DEF: 1
· SPD: 2
· INT: 15
· LUK: -10
Skills:
· [Bioluminescent Pulse] (Passive) Lv. 1
· [Nematocyst Sting] Lv. 1
· [Static Discharge] Lv. 1
Stat Points: 0
Skill Points: 2
Evolution Paths: [LOCKED] — Reach Lv. 10 to unlock.
’Thirty MP now. That’s enough for two Static Discharges if I’m full. And I have a skill point. I can upgrade something.’
He looked at his three skills. Bioluminescent Pulse was useless in a fight, and upgrading a passive that was actively making him a target seemed counterproductive. Nematocyst Sting was decent but upgrading a melee-range attack when he could barely move seemed like a trap.
That left Static Discharge.
’I could upgrade it. More damage. Lower cooldown. Something to make it more reliable.’
But something made him hesitate. The skill point glowed in his status screen, a single golden marker of potential. He had no idea how rare these were. If he spent it now on his starter skill and later unlocked a powerful evolution that needed skill points...
’I’ll hold onto it,’ he decided. ’For now. See what Level 10 brings.’
He dismissed the status screen and took stock of his surroundings. The feeding frenzy had faded into the distance, a distant blur of violence and blood. The scale-fang he’d killed was drifting downward, its body slowly disappearing into the abyss below. The water around him was quiet again. Cold. Empty.
’I need to find somewhere safe,’ he thought. ’Somewhere I can rest and regenerate my MP without getting ambushed by every hungry fish in the ocean. There has to be... rocks? A reef?’
He pulsed forward, slowly, carefully. The motion was still clumsy, still pathetically slow, but it felt different now. More deliberate and more controlled.
’Level 3,’ he repeated to himself, the number glowing warm in his mind. ’Seven more levels until evolution. Until I can become stronger.’
His tentacles twitched with something that almost felt like hope.
’Just seven more levels. How hard can it be?’
Somewhere in the distance, something massive roared. The sound vibrated through the water like an earthquake, deep and old.
Gray’s bioluminescence dimmed involuntarily.
’...I really need to stop saying things like that out loud.’