Leveling Up By Surviving Alone - L.U.B.S.A Chapter 29

In that instant, catching fish was the last thing on his mind.

 

His **Rapid Swimming ** wasn’t the same ability he knew before.

 

*What on earth—?*

 

**“Ah!”**

 

Only then did he remember that **Rapid Swimming ** had been upgraded. He’d forgotten all about it after the night of drinking and the whole situation with Kim Kkokko laying fertilized eggs.

 

*“It’s way crazier than I thought!”*

 

After all, his F-rank skill had jumped straight to D-rank. Not just one but two steps up. No wonder it felt like a completely different skill—he would have to readjust.

 

Throughout his journey to the wakame bed, Ji Yeonwoo tested Rapid Swim repeatedly to figure out the changes.

 

**Pah-pah-pang!**

**Pah-pah-pang!**

 

Before, the F-rank Rapid Swim propelled him about 10 meters with one kick. Now at D-rank, that distance was about 20 meters—and he could do it three times in a row. The cooldown seemed roughly the same, maybe slightly shorter. It had been around 10 seconds before, now maybe 8.

 

Of course, it ate through his mana much faster. Whereas he’d used to have about half his mana left after gathering wakame, now he was down to about a quarter. True, traveling to his destination was quicker—he could chain those three bursts of speed—but the mana cost was significant.

 

*“I’d better gather a **lot** of wakame this time.”*

 

That seaweed soup earlier had been amazing. And since Kim Kkokko would need all the nourishment it could get until the eggs hatched, he wanted to keep cooking plenty of soup. He also wanted to keep replanting so it would grow around his base.

 

So Ji Yeonwoo stuffed his backpack with wakame.

 

**Rip, rip, rip, rip!**

 

He harvested so much that the round rock where the wakame grew looked like it had a receding *M-shaped hairline*.

 

*“Sorry… but you’ll grow back soon, right?”*

 

He didn’t wait for an answer. He was ready to leave. Having achieved his purpose, fatigue began to wash over him. It was probably because he’d spammed Rapid Swim so much. Now, only about 25% of his mana remained, and he badly wanted to get back to the raft. Using Rapid Swim again was out of the question—he had no idea where his limits lay, and collapsing from mana exhaustion in open water would be disastrous.

 

That was when he encountered an unexpected fish at a most inconvenient time.

 

A beak-like snout, big, round, button-like eyes, a yellowish body speckled with dark spots—and it was well over a meter in size. Quite intimidating.

 

Its name?

 

—

**Rift Pufferfish (D+)**

—

 

It just hovered, opening and closing its mouth, glancing from Ji Yeonwoo to the thoroughly plundered wakame bed with what appeared to be shock. Maybe Ji Yeonwoo was imagining it, but the pufferfish’s gaze seemed like a farmer discovering his field had been stripped bare overnight.

 

*“This… was your territory?”*

 

He didn’t know.

**Blub, blub!**

He was sorry, sort of.

**Gulp.**

 

He swallowed hard. A pufferfish? Really?

 

*“…Dang it…”*

 

Ji Yeonwoo immediately gave up on fighting it. Not from guilt at stealing its seaweed—this was the law of the ocean, after all, survival of the fittest. He wasn’t that soft.

 

No, he feared the puffer’s venom, similar to that of the sea snake. What’s more, this wasn’t just D-rank, but **D+**. Aside from “??”-rank Kim Kkokko, it was the highest-rank monster he’d seen so far. And he was running low on mana.

 

He averted his eyes and tried to slip away.

 

*“I’ll settle the score later!”*

 

But apparently, if you say that, it doesn’t scare the monster. Even though Ji Yeonwoo tried to look cool and unhurried with his swimming, the Rift Spined Puffer shot forward and snapped at him.

 

**Chomp!**

 

*“Aaack!”*

 

He managed to thrust his spear in the fish’s mouth instead of his own foot. The spear began to bend under the pressure.

 

**Crack, crack!**

 

*“Gahhhh!”*

 

If that had been his foot… he didn’t even want to imagine. Even in this moment of panic, the fish’s huge eyes bore into him. Ji Yeonwoo forced himself to stay focused, refusing to let despair take over.

 

*“If I run, it’ll chase. It’s a fish, I’m human. Even if I spam Rapid Swim, it’ll just keep coming…”*

 

But desperate times sometimes spark genius. A lightning bolt of inspiration, as if he had the wits of a 400-IQ female cockroach, flashed through Ji Yeonwoo’s mind. He activated Rapid Swim again.

 

Still gripping the spear jammed in the fish’s mouth, he swung his foot at the puffer’s eye.

 

—

**Rapid Swim (D)**

—

 

**Thud!** Its left eye ruptured.

**Thud!** The blow sank deep into its gills, slamming its spine.

 

Stunned, the fish instinctively opened its mouth to inflate, but—

 

**Thump!**

 

A direct strike to the forehead flipped it over, the enormous body ballooning like a giant gym ball and floating toward the surface. Ji Yeonwoo rose along with it.

 

The *seaweed-garden destroyer*, a monstrous spined pufferfish that had once peacefully munched shellfish and small fish, was dead.

 

“Puh-hah!”

 

He greedily inhaled the ocean air. It tasted so fresh and vital. He was still alive.

 

“I… I got it?”

 

Sure enough, its face was caved in and it hung limp. But Ji Yeonwoo wasn’t fully relieved yet. He stabbed its head repeatedly with the bent spear. It was brutal, but he had no choice. Its blood trickled into the sea, likely laced with venom. Ji Yeonwoo kept his lips clamped shut to avoid ingesting any of it.

 

He hesitated.

 

*“Should I leave it?”*

 

But his curiosity about its potential skills won out. He shoved his hand through the puffer’s gills, deciding to take it along. *“So… blowfish soup for dinner?”* Possibly with wakame?

 

Of course, that assumed it was edible. In any case, his 25% mana had now dropped to below 10%. He badly needed to recharge. Which meant heading to the raft.

 

*“It kinda reminds me of the old days…”*

 

Because there was another reason he’d wanted to flee from the pufferfish initially. You could almost call it PTSD—he had bad memories tied to blowfish.

 

Long ago, his father once carefully prepared some fish. He’d acted like he wanted to eat it but wasn’t confident. Ji Yeonwoo, a clueless boy, had no idea if it was sea bream or a halfbeak puffer. He only knew that anything Dad caught was always delicious when eaten raw.

 

So he took a bite.

 

It *was* delicious. He asked his dad what kind of fish it was. The look on his father’s face—turning pale as a sheet—was something Ji Yeonwoo would never forget, not even on his deathbed.

 

…He ended up in the hospital, with all sorts of treatments and even a stomach pump, which he didn’t care to recall. Thankfully, he survived. After it was all over, Ji Yeonwoo feared he’d be severely scolded, but his dad just hugged him tight.

 

> “Kid… Agh, never mind. It’s my fault. This is something you shouldn’t eat… It might be safe, but don’t eat it, okay? Promise me.”

 

That was the first time Ji Yeonwoo had seen his father cry. Later, his dad passed the notoriously difficult blowfish-handling certification test—nicknamed the “Blowfish Exam”—yet even then, he never served blowfish to his son again. Ji Yeonwoo, for his part, had a mild trauma and never deliberately ate blowfish.

 

And now here he was, gripping the gills of a one-meter-long puffer. He might end up trying to cook it…

 

*“Let’s hope that goes okay…”*

 

He wasn’t confident. *His* father had earned that certification, not him. True, Kim Kkokko might be able to detect poison as it had with the sea snake, but now blood was everywhere, so who knew?

 

*“I’ll just bring it along and figure it out later.”*

 

Anyway, that was a close call. He had almost no mana left thanks to Rapid Swim.

 

**Puh-hah!**

 

He broke the surface to catch his breath and spotted the raft about 200 meters away—three minutes of normal swimming if he took it easy. Good enough.

 

Enjoying the gentle current against his skin, Ji Yeonwoo slowly paddled toward the raft. Then a voice sounded in his head.

 

—

– The Watcher has connected.

—

 

“Oh!” Perhaps because he’d registered The Watcher as a pet, or maybe because of their “Rift Brotherhood” oath, he could now sense when The Watcher came online. He decided to greet him first.

 

“Watcher! I’m right here!”

 

Would he hear? Unfortunately, it didn’t seem so. Apparently, just thinking didn’t transmit messages. Ji Yeonwoo emerged from the water and spoke out loud:

 

“Watcher, you’re here? I can tell when you log in now!”

 

—

– The Watcher says he’s late today.

– He thinks he’s hungover.

—

 

“Haha, I figured. That’s why I made seaweed soup for you! I’ll head home soon and serve you a bowl.”

 

—

– The Watcher goes silent for a moment.

– He asks how you knew today was his birthday.

—

 

“Really?! Wow, what a coincidence. Happy birthday, big bro! That’s awesome. I even brought a lunch box on the raft, so I’ll let you have it first thing!”

 

—

– The Watcher says he’s already excited.

—

 

“Hehe, it’s not like I actually knew it was your birthday. Just listen—Kim Kkokko laid eggs last night, and—”

 

He was about to gush like a doting dad about the fertilized eggs when urgent system messages cut him off:

 

—

– The Watcher suddenly panics.

– He says something is approaching!

– He tells you to hurry to the raft!

– But it’s coming **from the raft’s direction**!!

—

 

“…Huh?”

 

Without hesitation, Ji Yeonwoo ducked his head under the water. *There’s nothing here…?* He popped back up, ready to say it looked clear. That was when he spotted it in the exact direction of the raft—a shape moving toward him at high speed.

 

He couldn’t see it clearly, but the creature could definitely see and sense him. Drawing closer, its bulk became visible—over two meters wide, *not* in length but in frontal girth. Each movement of its fin brought it tens of meters nearer: 50m, 40m, 30m…

 

A tall, blade-like dorsal fin at the center, matching pectoral fins at “4 o’clock” and “8 o’clock,” and cold, beady eyes above hundreds of serrated teeth:

 

—

**Rift Bull Shark (juvenile) (B)**

—