Chapter 23: Chapter 19 – Still Waters Run Deep

Resh woke with the sun hitting it straight in its eyes.

 

“Gaaaa!” Resh yelled, making only its second noise ever with its newly acquired mouth.

 

While it could now make coherent sounds and bite things and yell to damage things with Sonic Boom, a mouth also came with some disadvantages that Resh was yet to discover. Resh woke up for the first time with some serious cottonmouth.

 

Need water! Resh thought. Only after that first thought of the day did Resh notice running water nearby. It had walked through a large portion of the forest to arrive at the stream in the middle of the night.

 

Resh looked around for the first time since arriving in that place. The situation yesterday had not exactly screamed relaxation and calm. Under duress, Resh had continued to doggedly walk, on aching and tired legs to finally be claimed by the blissful oblivion that was sleep. It wasn’t entirely surprising that it hadn’t noticed the moving water. It also had never seen a stream before but instinctively knew what it was and that it was dangerous to get too close.

 

Resh knew it needed to stay away from the water it was dangerous. It could not rationalise this feeling but it stayed away from it anyway. It did need a drink though. Its mouth needed to be quenched, it never even occurred to Resh to just get rid of its mouth. It had become so used to the mouth in such a short amount of time that it didn’t even register as an option.

 

Resh edged its way slowly to the water, shifting so most of its bulk was on the bank while a short tentacle with its mouth and eyes on the end moved down to the waters’ surface. Resh was very careful as again its instincts screamed at it to stop and run far away from this place. Just as Resh’s mouth touched the water it overbalanced and tipped head face-first into the river. Resh’s mind went into overdrive. Resh was screaming with its mouth which meant that water was filling its mouth. Resh was waiting for the pain or its HP to start plummeting.

 

Nothing happened; it got some messages, sure. But there was no pain, no sudden blacking out and dying. It could feel the water tugging at its body like it wanted to pull it away. But it was stuck at the bottom of the river.

 

Movement speed reduced by 90% in Water! Natural recovery reduced by 50% in Water! 2x Exp to all Skills training underwater!

 

You have gained the Environmental Skill Underwater Living Level 1! This skill will level only while you are fully underwater. It will also gradually improve your capabilities while underwater.

 

Resh tried to use its legs to get out of the river, and it seemed to be working but as Resh neared the surface the water current swept it further downstream. After this had happened a few times Resh began to get frustrated, it manifested its wings to try to fly out. That ended up being a mistake as the wings caught the current even more effectively and pulled Resh along. Luckily Resh managed to get pushed into a quieter part of the water, just in time as well because it had just received a warning.

 

The water current is eroding your substance after 2min and 18sec in the water will begin to erode you at a rate of 1g per second. Please exit the water completely to reset the timer.

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That was about the time that Resh began to panic, it could feel bits of its body starting to dissolve and be carried away with the water, it did not hurt exactly but more like Resh’s whole body began to tingle and its skin went numb in the areas that were being eroded. Its substance was getting removed! It wasn’t getting eroded slowly either. At this rate, within 8 minutes it would cease to exist. Resh frantically waded out of the water from the shallow area where it was but it took a while. After about a minute of trying to get out of the water with its legs being hampered, Resh made it out and flopped down on the muddy bank.

 

The fear of the water was back and with a vengeance. Almost like its instincts were telling Resh, I told you so! When Resh had not immediately started dying it had not been scared but in less than 3 minutes it had started getting eroded by the water.

 

This moving liquid is very dangerous!

 

Resh would need to watch itself. Maybe it would stick to the land. It would at least stay in the shallow part of the water so it could come out quickly if it needed to. The one great thing about this experience was that it had gained some nice experience during its time in the water compared to normal but it was only for 3 minutes so it would need to be able to spend enough time in the water without dying. It could manage that, one good outcome of it getting eroded, if it could be called an advantage, was that it was smaller. And that meant it was now small enough to be able to fly, but it had lost over half of its Weight since it had taken so long to get out of the water. That lack of speed was going to be the death of Resh. Resolving to be more careful for the millionth time in its short life, Resh rested on the bank.

 

Underwater Living has increased to Level 2!

 

Getting used to the water was something that didn’t have to be done right now, it could wait, it was more important for Resh to get stronger and be able to find more powerful enemies to overcome. That was the moment that Resh spotted some fish in the water. It was mesmerised by the shiny glinting quality of its scales as they caught the sunlight, the scale flashing from dark grey to a brilliant white in an instant. For what felt like hours but was only a few minutes Resh forgot all about its issues and just enjoyed looking at the scales of the fish catch the light, it had been so preoccupied with survival when it was in the water before that it had not had a chance to see or appreciate the fish before.

 

Still excited Resh started moving towards the fish and into the water again. It was so distracted by the shiny scales of the fish that it forgot to be scared. As it slid into the water again and slowly crept towards the fish the fish scampered. They were so far, not like Resh with its 90% speed penalty. While in the water again Resh used Strong Odour Alteration and Strong Camouflage to gain River Water and Water Odour and Texture respectively as well. Those abilities had served it well in the past so it would not underestimate them.

 

With that done, Resh got out of the water. This time it had not exceeded the time limit so did not lose any of its Weight. A great result as far as it was concerned. As long as Resh got out in the time it would be fine, that give it a lot more confidence in the water.

 

Thirst satiated for the moment there was no further reason for it to remain here, it could not hunt efficiently in the water and so there was no point in going in there now. Instead, it stayed close to the river but moved up and down it. Flying when possible and walking when not.

 

There was a greater variety of animals near the water. While on the forest floor Resh had only really seen Grounded Squirrets and the Panther. Others may have been chased away by the aforementioned Panther or Resh itself. Here Resh saw the Squitters and Teabers come down from the trees to drink where the river bank’s slope was gentle, it saw some Water Brevers and Fanged Carp in the water. The former building dams and the latter swimming lazily until with a quick flick of their tails they would snap up a smaller fish. In the banks of the river burrowing in the sand were Fresh Water Mallusces a small animal that lived in a shell and only seemed to come out when it wanted to eat quickly retreating if it felt threatened. Resh had a lot of fun with that one. In the grass overlooking the river were several large rodents, Field Groles that moved in groups and didn’t stray far from their holes and were very cautious movers.

 

Resh saw all this and more as it moved further along the river, sometimes chasing and annoyingly sometimes being chased when it got too close to another animal’s nest. Notably when Resh encountered a large animal with many smaller ones of the same type. Those large ones were the fiercest in chasing it away. Resh didn’t linger in those situations getting as far away as possible as quickly as possible. The worst of the lot had been the Field Groles, that big one had chased for almost a kilometre before it gave up and even that was only because Resh had finally had the presence of mind to climb a tree. The Field Grole had not been able to climb effectively but it had tired.

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