Timothy was excited that he got a significantly higher IQ now! He was up at a scale where he would be considered a supreme genius amongst the fish world, he was one of a kind, and he''d be amongst the small percentage of absolute geniuses no matter what species he shapeshifted into! Be it a spider, a lizard, a goblin, or a human, he''d always be at the top in terms of intelligence! It was accelerating!


    However, intelligence didn''t mean anything, if he didn''t know how to put it into use. In this case, he wanted to use it so he, and his friends could survive whatever challenge was to be thrown against them after a couple of weeks. He wanted to survive The Old Sea with his friends, and surely, survival came hand-to-hand with great rewards!


    “I need an army,” He plotted, “Since we can''t fight all these bastards in the sea without emptying our mana pools, I might as well make an army fight for us! System, can I give powers to my skeleton slaves?”


    Timothy asked that question, because he planned on building a bunch of indestructible skeletons, who were also great swimmers. If he could give them magical powers as well, such as the ability to shoot fireballs, then the sea might as well be his to conquer!


    The system did answer him, though her answer was demotivating. [You cannot give your slaves the ability to wield magic, not unless you buy one of the current, available necromantic abilities. Buy the Master''s Will necromantic ability, and you''ll have the chance to give magical powers to your slaves! Though I have to warn you, your plan will be very costly, mana-wise.]


    “Looks like it''s very costly, system-points wise as well, lady. You''re asking for 45,000 points for a new ability? That''s mental!” He ranted.


    Although he was superiorly intelligent now, he was still subject to minor tantrums. With a price like that pitched to him, he might as well complain! He had seen this purchase before, and had noticed how expensive it was, but he ignored it back then for his own sanity''s sake, and he had tried to create alternatives to the Master’s Will ability, but he wasn’t as successful as he wanted to be.


    “I guess I can''t create everything, huh? I''d probably need an MQ of 500 points to replicate this power… what a bastard, eh?” He waffled, and started accepting the fact that he had to go out and hunt again.


    Firstly, he looked at his reanimated little fish pals, and commanded. “Go back to the den, my friends. You''ve probably been dead for two-thousand years already, I don''t want you to get re-killed so quickly, not today! Go to the den, and suck on everyone''s toes if you want to, I order you to piss everyone off.”


    Tim had grown a bit attached to these little fish that he had reanimated, especially the anglerfish, it was a cute creature, so he didn''t want to see it die! This fish had a good deal of sentimental value to him, because it was his first, and perhaps most important experimental success! He reanimated the anglerfish even though he just had a skeleton to work with, after all, and that wasn''t an easy task! He treasured the little guy.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    After the couple of fish left, he started scanning the sea. Though he didn''t want to fight a Sea Orc, or any swarm of creatures, he was still hoping to kill something big! He wanted to buy the Master''s Will ability, but he was thirty-three thousand system points short in terms of wealth, so he couldn’t waste his time killing a bunch of tuna fish, no, he was hoping to kill something rewarding!


    “I don''t see shit,” He complained, and started coming to the terms that he had to leave the den for a while. There weren''t any big fish around him.


    Tim swam a kilometer away from the den, he swam north, and with a wider point of view to aid him, he managed to locate four bundles of creatures that he could attack! He automatically discriminated two of them as options, because their groups seemed too big for him to handle, and he started focusing on the smaller groups instead.


    The closest group was four-hundred meters away, so he couldn’t make out what species they were, but by all odds, they were just mere fish, and not some large dragons. He got closer to them by two-hundred more meters, and once he noticed that they were more massive versions of barracudas, he attacked the group immediately! He attempted to fry their brains.


    The barracudas were large, and they probably had magical powers to help them fight, but that didn’t matter. They were mere fish at the end of the day, so it was unlikely that they had any abilities that could shield them from Tim''s attacks, so he stormed through their useless fish brains, with the help of the Electro Nerve Splitter ability!


    [-4,000 mana points,] The system beeped.


    Seconds later, she also added. [Four, Greater Barracudas killed! In exchange, 5,000 system points have been added to your sum.]


    Such a reward was worth the mana that he just spent. He was lucky that those Greater Barracudas weren''t so smart, because if they were, he would have had to crank his ability to the max just to fry their brains, and that would''ve been at least ten times more expensive! The latter wouldn''t be optimal. He got lucky, so he didn’t even bother swimming over to the barracudas at all, and started locking in on the second group of fish.


    “Be kind to me, mother nature, I just provided food for smaller creatures to feed on.” He spoke to himself, half-jokingly.


    The second group that he wanted to massacre, were also full of normal-ish fish. Sure they were large, but they didn''t seem too powerful, so he attacked the five of them with the Electro Nerve Splitter ability, but he put a bit more juice to this attack, because these fish looked a bit bigger!


    [-6,000 mana points,] The system beeped.


    Afterwards, she added. [Five Divine Arapaimas killed! In exchange, 8,000 system points have been added to your sum.]


    “Divine, huh? Don''t tell me that I angered the gods again?” He panicked, slightly.


    [No, their name is mostly symbolic. They''re considered divine, because arapaimas are freshwater fish, they''re not supposed to be out here in the sea. The fact that this species of arapaimas strides the seas regardless of the prior fact, is what labels them as divine!] The system explained.


    Tim just sighed in relief, and didn''t comment any further. He continued to scout for any other creatures that he could kill, because he was getting closer and closer to having enough system points to make that grand purchase that he needed. He was just twenty-thousand system points shy of buying the Master''s Will necromantic ability!