I'm a Stingray?

Chapter 207: First request

"Godly-tar is known for its cleansing properties. Now you are barely connected to any form of tar, so the chances of exploding are much smaller." Such a sentence felt like a massive ray of relief, but worry still lurked in its corners.

But what returned the recently depleted worries, was Gerlach's further explanation. "That doesn't mean that you're completely safe. Consider yourself as lucky and cursed at the same time."

At this point she was a bit more lost than her stingray friend, likewise she questioned. "What do you mean?"

He faced the lady and carried a half smile while explaining, "You are lucky and so am I. Because we got powers without giving our soul to the holy-tar sect."

Without a single stutter, the mantis shrimp slowly explained. "But we are also considered cursed, because we need to do a lot of work to battle the bad effects. This is why we need to touch bits of godly-tar once in a while, it helps reduce those effects. But we can never really cure it."

This information seemed fascinating at this point. And she would be happy to withhold such bits of knowledge, if she wasn't the one who became ensnared towards such a curse.

That was why she stuck with a thought, and asked about it vocally. "What are the bad effects?"

Hesitancy struck the old man for once, as he took nearly half a minute to answer. "Well you could explode or slowly lose your grip of reality. Self control can become a big problem as well."

Seeing that she was getting discouraged, which was a major issue when it came to dealing with such a sensitive case, the geezer wanted to intervene right away.

That's why he added, "But there is one thing that these powers won't take away from you."

A string of motivation spiked in her consciousness, and she asked. "Which is?"

"The ability to love and have your own little guppies." He had even stretched that small sentence, which added a bit more pressure.

That's when the girl's fishy cheeks turned a little red, and she instantly shouted out. "I don't want to have kids!"

"That's your personal problem." Gerlach cited, brushing it off lightly without a care in the world.

And stated something shortly to gain attention in this conversation, "There is another problem."

Without waiting for a reply, the shrimp continued. "We have powers that come from the tar, but we don't worship the holy-tar itself. So the sect will especially hate us, because they consider us prime enemies unless we show interest in joining their sect."

"That makes sense." Osira answered after successfully fighting away the blush.

After peeking at the collapsed structure, the latter added. "This is another reason why this... dead leader, wanted to take you through three ceremonies rather than simply splashing tar on your face."

"You are uncomfortably smart about the sect's business." She added after a bit of contemplation.

Because at this rate, she wanted to be as dumb as a board rather then knowing everything about her fate. But even though this situation brought a lot of anxiety, it was better to know how to handle this curse rather than finding it out later on, through the hard way.

Although these two had a rather important conversation, the only stingray here was working on something else. Specifically, he was focusing on getting any food that aided in terms of increasing health.

Such attempts were filled to the neck with desperation, but at least it proved somewhat effective. Because he had managed to find a small bundle of critters that he enjoyed the most, and had a weird connection with.

"Leggy crabs!" He let out a loud whisper and charged towards the one who was close by.

If Gerlach saw the young boy eating a few shrimps, he might get offended; but the last thing that Timothy cared about at this moment, was a second thought. So within a few minutes he had chewed through all of these shrimps and heard the system specify.

[From this little massacre, you have received 12 system points]

[Total system points = 132]

[Health = 74/110]

It was impactful without a doubt, but not enough to brush away all of the pain that the sea-pancake was experiencing. So an idea brewed in his little noggin, and the first step required to put it into motion, was to approach the couple of marine animals he reached this pool with.

It wasn't a difficult task, since he had just swam a few meters away. And after finding them, he peeked at Osira and wanted to ask for help; but also remembered that he couldn't be too specific about the whole set-back.

Within those same few seconds, he noticed an elongated fish swimming above them. It wasn't certain if this fish would attack, but it sure seemed like a barracuda.

He wasn't the best at memorizing things, but a species as useful as a barracuda was difficult to forget as it was just tremendously impactful. So the second portion of the desperate plan was being put into motion.

As he requested from the lady, "Shoot down that barracuda for me."

Of course he could have tried to kill the target all by himself, but the last thing he needed right not was to take damage from a wildly toothy elongated fish!

And of course, the grouper lady didn't find any reasons to deny the request and instantly granted it. A ball of black light generated in front of her, and shot out towards the target that was peacefully swimming above them.

It seemed like a rather ruthless method of solution solving, but all of the barracudas he met, had not proven good and holy in any recognizable way.

The ray of light had struck the prey hard enough to force it upwards for a few feet, but it seemed like an instant kill. Because a few chunks of flesh were blown off the fish, and it was floating down without the slightest movement.

Peeking at just how powerful that blast was, the mantis shrimp added. "This is an example of godly purity. You can do even more damage if you can suppress the curse."