Thomas flipped the page, once again boggled by the sheer number of skills. Interdimensional Sight, Precognition, Energy Control, the works. However, these were all grayed out, just like all the others. However, there were some skills at the very top of the page. He zoomed in to check them out;
Bite: A usually inborn skill that creatures with teeth have. The passive of this skill increases the efficiency of biting, while its active effect overcharges the muscles in the jaw, resulting in a significantly stronger bite.
Headbutt: A self damaging skill, which is offset by its high damage. As a passive skill, it allows the user to make more efficient head related attacks. As an active skill, strengthens the users neck muscles, resulting in a substantially stronger headbutt.
Charge: A purely active skill. By activating this skill, the user will charge in a straight line at three times its base movement speed. This overexertion of the muscles will result in a momentary loss of movement.
'Hmm, it seems like Charge is just a worse version of swift swim..' Thomas kept studying the three available skills to him, until he finally decided to spend all his points on Bite and Headbutt. Soon, he felt the sweet, sweet trickle of knowledge enter his brain. Thomas realized the way he had bitten the Leonfish before was completely wrong, and that's the reason why his teeth locked together. Slightly ashamed, Thomas swallowed the info being deposited in his brain with glee.
'Now I have more attacks'
Leaving the skills page, Thomas found that he was no longer paralyzed, and eagerly left his little cave to try out his new skills. After decimating another population of shrimp, Thomas was very happy with his new skills. The passive of Bite let him not only know where to bite, but when as well, which would be extremely useful when he fought bigger prey. The headbutt would be less useful against creatures larger than him, but for these little shrimp, it practically made them explode! AND because they were too small he didn't have any rebound damage. Feeling a little bolder, Thomas decided to hunt something else. He explored the reef a little further, and was still amazed with the variety of life he saw. It was a literal ocean of life, and even the constant struggle against death wasn't enough to turn him off of it. All of a sudden, a fish flashed in front of him, charging directly at him. Without even thinking, Thomas twisted to the right, and the fish swam right past him. Right before it left, he saw a flash of three tails.
'Ah, one of those guys.' For a moment, Thomas forgot that everything wanted to kill him. He turned to better see it. To his surprise, the three tailed fish was unmoving about 10 ft behind him. They stared at each other for a moment, until finally the other fish began to swim away, slower than it was before.
'The hell was that, it's almost like he couldn't mov-oh. It probably has the Swift Swim skill.' For some reason, Thomas felt slightly upset that another fish had the same Skill as he did, and wanted to hunt it. Then he remembered the Fanged Eel, and how he got the teeth from it.
'No, I want to hunt it because I can probably get its tail, not because of the skill. Yeah, that's the reason why.' After convincing himself, Thomas set off to stalk the three tailed fish, but there was a problem; the damn thing was fast, seriously fast. He couldn't get close enough to the thing to actually SEE it before it would dart away. After an entire day of flying across the reef chasing one of these things, Thomas finally had a semi accurate idea of where the fish went. Retreating to his den, he began to plan out the rest of his day.
With a quick flash of his tail, Thomas was out the cave, ready to hunt. He arrived at the area where he thought the fish would most likely be, and began to swim in lazy circles. After doing its attack yesterday, Thomas had an idea on how these fish hunted; they would activate the Swift Swim skill, and quick as a flash fly into their prey, and swallow them whole.
'I guess it tried to grab me yesterday, it is twice my size..' While he was lazily swimming, Thomas was making sure to keep his eyes sharp. A fish's eyes were special, his range of vision was almost 360, barring the area behind his head. Of course, the area directly in front of him was much clearer than the sides. Suddenly, from his left side, Thomas saw a flash of movement. Moving as fast as he could, Thomas swung his body out of the way, and bit at the fish as it sped by. It missed him by a hair's breadth, and he sunk his teeth into it. Immediately he emptied his venom gland, pumping the speedster full of paralyzing venom. 'And now we wait!' After biting it, Thomas swung around to see the fish unmoving about 10 feet behind him. He sped up to it, crossing the distance in seconds, and bit the fish again. This time, he activated the bit skill. Thomas could feel his jaw muscles hyperflex, and bite down with terrific force. It was strong enough to rip one of the tails off the fish! He ripped a little piece off the tail, as it was too large to swallow whole.
Tri-Tail Consumed. One Muta point gained. Tri-Tail Abilities absorbed. Tri-Tail Identity Profile created.
Thomas chuckled evilly as he heard Morgans voice. 'Time for the Exp!' The Tri-Tail, stunned from the loss of its tail and frozen from venom, was unable to move as Thomas tore into its side, who gained another Muta Point. Suddenly, his prey was ripped from his jaws. He looked at the fish, wondering why it left his mouth, and saw a long piece of wood was stuck to its other side. Attached to the end of the wood was a round stone. The rod shook, and the fish flew up to the
surface, where Thomas noticed for the first time a long, wide.. something floating on the surface.
'A boat?' Thomas paused for a second, and then the realization hit him.
'A BOAT!' He swam up to the surface as fast as he could.