Ocean Master

[…]

For the first time since Sebastian started asking the system questions, it kept quiet for more than 10 seconds without answering. This reaction alone confirmed his suspicions.

During the previous battle after Octumpedam emerged from the hole, when the situation became too certain of death, he was scared and had no choice but to pathetically call his system for help.

The reaction of the system then was what made him suspicious. He didn't think about it immediately then due to the tense situation but after the battle, he finally started noticing the strange trends.

Though he was not an avid fan of novels in his previous life, he still read novels enough to know about systems.

He may be wrong but from what he knew about systems, it was abnormal for a system to provide help to him in such an inconceivable manner. Then, it was like a motivational speech from Eric Thomas himself to him.

This was what brought the question, was the system a robot, an alien with a personality, or a human?

The system kept silent for over a minute before it finally reacted. It didn't speak to Sebastian like usual, it directly projected an image into his mind.

The projected image was in a plain sparkling white background, and in this place stood an old man with white flowing beards.

The old man was dressed in a yellow flowing robe. His white hair paired with his beards formed a combination that made him look scholarly, and his eyes like the starry skies seemed to be filled with the knowledge of the universe.

As Sebastian watched in silence, the old man turned to face him.

"Candidate, you can call me Sage 54. I and 61 other Sages were the ones who created the mother system. You are not strong enough to know more information about this, so I will skip it".

"I am not alive; this is just a soul projection from faraway. I am the Sage assigned to look over the 54th candidate whose identity is you". 

"The World Domination System that you inherited is different from me. It's like a machine with programmed words, it does only what it is programmed to do. I am sentient and I was the one who answered some of your tricky questions".

"All you need to know is that the universe is not as you see it. Just try to fulfill your potential as a candidate, and perhaps, one day, you will know the secret of the universe".

"I will remain attached to your system so when you have queries, you can ask and I will answer to the best of my ability. You transmigrating is not a curse, you have a huge destiny to fulfill and you have to work hard towards it".

"The system was created solely to help you towards that ultimate goal, always remember that". 

"And lastly, remember this, don't try to pry into mysteries until you are strong enough".

"…Damn! There really is an old Gandalph in there!" Sebastian was stunned as the information revealed by the old man rapidly went through his mind.

After what happened during the encounter with Octumpedam, he already had tons of theories and this was one of them. 

Surprisingly, he wasn't as flustered as he thought he would be on seeing and hearing the things that were just revealed to him. Once again, he felt it, he felt that he was vastly different from before when he was still just a human.

He felt curious to know more right now, but the ending warning from the old man sent alarm bells ringing in his mind.

He didn't have a choice; he would rather take the benefit of the doubt and believe the old man than to blindly go out and die.

After taking some efforts to calm his mind, his thoughts once again went to the proceedings of the previous battle.

The intensity of the previous battle was exactly what he needed for him to conclude his calculations into how his body worked. 

As an anatomist, knowing his body was a priority and he's been working towards this since the first day he reincarnated into this world. After putting in much effort, it finally bore fruit.

After everything, he already compiled a stat table.

>Level 1-5 creatures= 1 Adaptation point per kill<

>Level 6-10 creatures {White tier} = 2 Adaptation points per kill< 

>Level 11-15 creatures {Orange tier} = 5 Adaptation points per kill<

>Level 16-20 creatures {Orange tier} = 10 Adaptation points per kill<

>Level 21-40 creatures {Purple tier} = 50 Adaptation points per kill<

>Level 41-80 creatures {Red tier} = 250 Adaptation points per kill<

This was the result that he arrived at after compiling the result of all his experience killing other sea creatures. For the tier above the red tier, it was blank for now as creatures at that tier were beyond his reach.

Also, having checked his HP recovery rate record since his first days evolving, he came with the right statistics to check his performance in battle.

[Young Great White: +1 HP per second.]

[Teenage Great White: +2 HP per second.]

[Young Megalodon: +10 HP per second.]

This abnormal spike in recovery rate was entirely because of the Megalodon bloodline, this was the difference in bloodlines that Leroy spoke about.

This insane recovery rate was what enabled him to tide through the Octumpedam battle. Despite the severe bleeding, his HP recovery rate kept up, making sure that he never got to that point of near-death state.

Despite the huge role played by his rejuvenation skill, the high recovery rate did wonders in keeping him alive.

Even as a Great White Shark, the recovery rate then was still miles better than other creatures. It was the main reason why he survived near-death battle encounters like that against the Barracuda and the Devouring Cobra.

With this compilation done, he felt satisfied and could finally view his status.

"System, give me my status".

[Affirmative!]

-----------------------------------------

Name: Sebastian

Level: 20

Stats:

Power: 87

Speed: 42

Mind: 56

Constitution: 65

Luck: 10

HP: 821/821

MP: 1070/1070

[Body Skills: Shredding Bite Level- 4; Triple Reverse Swim Level- 4; Advanced Dash Level- 3; Empowered Dorsal Fin- Level 1; Empowered Tail Fin- Level 3; Advanced Electroreceptors- Level 4; Spike Attack- Level 5; Battering Ram- Level 4; Cardiac Sphincter Constrictor- Level 3; Crushing Bite- Level 2.]

[Material Magic skills: Magic Teeth- Level 4; Rejuvenation- Level 2; Magic Shield- Level 3; Supersonic Speed- Level 2.]

[Magic- Sound Domain skills: Sound Control- Level 2; Sonic Drill- Level 3; Sonic Reflection- Level 3; Sonic Dissonance- Level 2; Water Cyclone- Level 3.]

[Unique Skills: Water Transmutation.]

[Adaptations: Map; Spikes; Hard Dense Skin; Vampire Teeth; Mana Conductor Coating; Magic Organ; Damage Reflection Skin Coating; Camouflage Organ; Sound Magic Domain; Fire Skin.]

[Species: Young Megalodon!]

[System Remark: Keep grinding hard, you're slowly on your way to becoming the Ocean Master.]

------------------------------------

Seeing this, Sebastian grinned. The golden level 20 tab left him feeling giddy and proud but as he looked at it closer, the grin slowly turned to shock as his jaws hung open in a big O shape again.

His constitution increasing was because of his Fire Skin adaptation. After everything settled down following the mutation, his constitution stat increased. For his mana points, it was all attributed to the magic cores that he assimilated.

What really shocked him was his luck points. "Holy mother of all anatomists! What am I seeing?!" 

"My luck? 10 points? How? When?"

[A magic core is the consolidation of the being and magic essence of a predator; this includes luck and other natural elements.]

[When you harnessed the magic core of the purple tier Mammoth Crocodile, it was not enough to break the threshold but that of the red tier Octopus did it.]

[Though host's luck stat point has remained 0 since he transmigrated, do you really think you would have survived with such abysmal luck?]

[The system has been programmed to do a job of safekeeping for you. It harnesses your luck and keeps it in a safe place, only to release it when you need it the most. This is the main reason why you've survived till now.]

Hearing this, Sebastian received an epiphany as everything seemed to have clicked in his head. His Blood Vampire skill, though it was OP, the requirements to activate it were so tight that it bordered on the verge of being unrealistic.

Despite this, when he needed it the most, like in the case of the Devouring Cobra, the Octopus, and in other cases, he somehow triggered it before dying.

Though he always tried to ignore it, this has always been at the back of his mind. Finally getting an answer for it left him feeling satisfied.

He swam contentedly, all his questions and queries were finally answered, now it was time to go visit the Lizard Lord.