"The f*ck is this place exactly?"
Sebastian felt frustrated already. Despite swimming down the tunnel for what seemed like hours already, he still couldn't see any signs pointing that he was about to get out of it.
That alone was not enough to make him frustrated, what made him curse angrily was the fact that no prey was still in sight.
His stomach and gluttonous appetite were already grumbling in grievance, but he still didn't have any solution to appease it. He could only put up with it, hoping that he would get lucky soon.
As soon as this thought came to him, he remembered. "Luck: 0".
"F*ck!!!"
He wanted to cry but tears refused to come out, this was when the importance of that luck point started emphasizing itself before him.
Now, he really wanted to curse at his system but remembering all the commendable things that it already did for him, he could only hold back.
In this carnage-filled world where even his family abandoned him and left him alone to explore and find a place for himself, the system was his one and only buddy though it hardly spoke.
Despite all these random thoughts that went through his mind, he did not dare let his guard down. The first reason was because of his experience with the Devouring snake, no prey being here probably meant that a predator ruled here.
The second reason was the change in the environment of the tunnel.
Now, he wasn't sure if he should call it a tunnel again as it was now already wide enough to fit 5 of the current him.
It's ballooning in size made him guess that this was leading to another abyssal plain, and after his experience with the city of eels, this only made him apprehensive about his future.
Despite his apprehensiveness, he still had to swim down to find prey unless he wanted to die of hunger.
From the normal grey and greenish color that the walls of the tunnel had, the color was now changing to red and black. Not only this, Sebastian could feel the temperature increasing the deeper he swam.
The first thought that came to him on observing this was that an underwater volcano was nearby, but he wasn't sure if he should be endorsing such thinking.
What does going near a volcano mean? Being burnt by fire. What does being burnt by volcanic fire mean? Being roasted to become Sebastian the great white shark meat.
The thought alone left him shuddering in fear. "I'm not that unlucky, right?"
Yes, there are ocean volcanoes.
Sebastian, like most of his natives, believed since their childhood that fire and water were polar opposites and they could not meet but this was wrong in the case of ocean volcanoes.
Even back on Earth, research showed that there are as many as 30,000 ocean volcanoes scattered. This alone was enough to tell fairytales.
Remembering the video that he watched of the erupting West Mata volcano left Sebastian shuddering again.
His days in this world seemed to be getting more and more dangerous. From the dangerous city of eels, a casual hunt made him encounter Dragon Fireflies, and now escaping made him encounter this.
"Am I cursed?"
Though he felt indignant, he still felt safe as his mana points already recovered after resting for hours.
His battle with the Dragon Firefly told him that if he planned enough and was alert, no enemy in this region of the Green Mist Sea was too much for him. His Water Transmutation skill was his Mjolnir in this world.
As he swam deeper, he noticed that all signs of greenery already disappeared. The walls of the tunnel already turned to purely rock formations, and the red in them was now deeper than ever.
Steam was now slowly rising from the walls of the tunnel, bringing an ominous and terrifying vibe to the tunnel.
Blob!
Sebastian almost jumped in fright on hearing the sound. Turning his head, he didn't see any sea creature but rather a part of the wall was heaving up and down like a beating heart.
Seeing all this, he already more or less confirmed that he was legit close to a volcano. He felt complicated, but he became more serious to fend off any danger.
Swimming down for a few more minutes, his eyes lit up as he finally saw something like a spiraling staircase attached to the walls of the tunnel.
He didn't understand what it meant, but anything was better than nothing.
He wanted to activate his Advanced Dash skill and rush there, but he remembered his own rules and decided to play it safe.
[You have activated skill: Electroreceptors.]
[You have activated skill: Triple Reverse Swim.]
Due to the stamina drain that accompanies every time that he used a skill, he only used his sharp eyes to observe his surroundings till now. But now that there was a change, he needed to improvise.
Without wasting time, he swam closer to the part of the wall that looked like a spiraling staircase. Getting there, he saw that the tunnel directly turned from a slope to a straight-line tunnel facing down.
Apprehensively, he swam inside the straight-line tunnel.
Whoosh!
Sebastian already detected them before they even attacked with his electroreceptors, so he was not flustered.
[You have been hit by a skill: Claw Attack.]
[You have been inflicted with -3 Damage.]
Seeing the negligible damage that the crab's skill dealt to him, Sebastian did not hold back as he retaliated immediately. This was food Afterall.
[You have activated skill: Shredding bite.]
Crunch!
[You have killed a Claw Crab- Level 5: You have gained Experience.]
[You have gained 1 Adaptation Point.]
"…"
Sebastian was speechless. "You're so weak?"
Despite lamenting about how weak the crab was, he still went closer to crunch down on its meat. With his razor-sharp teeth, he dissected the crab in seconds and immediately swallowed.
Filled with confidence now from that encounter, he swam down at a faster speed. On the way down the tunnel, he saw and killed 3 other crabs, filling and finally appeasing his grumbling stomach.
2 minutes later, he heaved a sigh of relief as he finally left the tunnel.
As soon as he laid his eyes outside, he drew a sharp gasp in amazement as the sight that presented itself before him left him dizzy in astonishment.
"Damn!"