Ocean Master

After the aftereffects of the battle died down completely, Sebastian finally calmed down and confirmed that he was not dreaming. The over a dozen Giant Crab corpses lying on the water proved that.

Despite this, his brain still couldn't help but feel like he was dreaming.

Once again, his understanding of Oceania and its numerous strange and terrifying creatures was updated. The elderly Giant Crab that he just fought with was a monster; a freaking monster.

To him, the apt term to describe it was- Snoring Panda, Hidden Dragon!

Compared to his supersonic speed escape skill, the skill demonstrated by the Giant Crab at the end to escape with its children completely changed his understanding of how skills worked.

Not only that, the most envious of all was the Giant Crab's Shell War Arsenal adaptation. The only word he had for that adaptation was OP.

If he didn't know more, he would have thought that it was some unique skill.

The machinery-box effects of the adaptation were just god-tier cheating. With such an advantage, it was almost a given that the elderly Crab could adapt to any situation available in a battle.

"Is this the legendary power of the Oldies? Uhm, Elders?"

Sincerely, he was shocked and short of words. From his knowledge of this world, he guessed that such an adaptation could only be available to Crabs which left him all the more envious.

Leroy always said to him that sea creatures with high-tier bloodlines were born with a silver spoon, and they were destined to be the greatest in Oceania.

Before, he completely agreed with that, but now he slightly agreed and disagreed. From his knowledge, he guessed that Crabs were not part of those sea creatures with high-tier bloodlines.

Of course, this ocean volcano region was more treacherous than his previous calmer expanse which meant sea creatures here were stronger but that alone could not explain the terrifying strength and ability displayed by the elderly Crab.

"What a nice test subject for dissection it would have been". He lamented.

From the battle encounter, he didn't sense any arrogance or over-the-top aggressiveness from the elderly Crab, he instead only sensed the vibe of a veteran who slowly fought his way to the top of the food chain.

From this, he guessed that the elderly Crab was probably already at the Purple tier. Also, he now learned that given enough time, sea creatures in Oceania could slowly grow to become horrifying boss monsters.

His best guess about the Crab's wonder shell adaptation was that it got so many skills and adaptations that the experience of all those now enabled him to form this terrifying adaptation.

The elderly Crab was a predator of a different species which directly made it his enemy, but he felt a deep respect for it.

Taking that thought route, he started thinking of his future enemies- the Sea Kings. For such monsters, it was a given that they already lived dozens or perhaps even hundreds of years.

"So, how terrifying would they be?"

He shuddered on the thought as he directly decided to cut that thought process off lest he plants an unnecessary phobia in his mind which would leave him depressed.

This was when he noticed Verni silently staring at him unblinkingly.

"F*ck! For how long have you been staring?"

The Shark revealed a confused expression at the random question. "Since". 

"…"

Speechless and completely short of words, Sebastian could only turn his head to the Giant Crab feast waiting for them to form a distraction.

"Let's eat".

"Ok". Verni eagerly pounced on the closest food without waiting for him. In seconds, it gobbled the meat up and went to the next Giant Crab.

"…"

Sebastian looked at the excited Shark, then at the meat, then at the Shark again. Suppressing the urge in his heart to shoot a tooth at its face, he swam closer and also started digging into the food.

As soon as his teeth dug into the delicious crispy meat left by the Giant Crabs, he felt like falling asleep immediately as his eyes rolled in pleasure. Verni ate more of the meat, but he still got enough to satisfy his glutton stomach. 

After eating to their fill, Verni hovered lazily in a satisfied manner in the cave. Clearly, it was already feeling too lazy to hunt and wanted to rest.

"Get your heavy butt up and swim". Sebastian chided angrily.

"Huh?"

"We're going hunting".

The shark revealed a clear look of reluctance on his face but facing his big bro who could pursue such a dangerous predator crab, it had no choice but to propel his heavy butt up and swim.

Sebastian had no other special cave with delicious food like this one in mind, but there was more than enough prey in this seamount.

Through this hunt, he wanted to understand all the skills and adaptations of his hunting partner to grasp and maximize the use of its strengths.

As soon as they came out of the cave, it only took them a few minutes before they encountered another prey. The both of them attacked together, and in less than a second, their prey was dead.

[You have jointly killed a mutated Giant Shrimp with your hunting partner- Level 11: You have gained Experience.]

[You have gained 1 Skill point and 5 Adaptation points.]

Without wasting any time, they swam deeper inside the seamount after making short work of the Giant Shrimp. For the remaining parts of the day, they started a frenzied hunting spree.

They clashed with and killed dozens of Poison Worms, more Giant Crabs, the crispy Yeti Crabs, some mutated Sea Lions, they even clashed with some of the Crocodiles at some point.

Because 5 of them were hunting together, they had no choice but to abandon the hunt and escape. This was also because Sebastian was keeping their life till the D-day of his plan.

Right now, he felt like a farmer who was feeding his chicks to let them become big chickens only to kill them on Christmas.

"Big bro, what are you thinking…"

"…Nothing, let's hunt".

"Ok".

[You have jointly killed a mutated Fire Snail…]

[You have jointly killed a mutated Giant Rampage Crab…]

As the day grew dark with the green glow of the Sea receding, Sebastian also retreated with his little bro after having a nice time throughout the day.

As he prepared to rest after a long hectic day, his eyes flickered excitedly. Though it was crude, he already drafted a plan in his mind on how to come into contact with the Draconic Lizard family.

"Companions are the best".