Ocean Master
Chapter 16 - Breakthrough.

From afar, the clan members of the Leroy clan saw their soldiers coming back home from war. They didn't react at first, but when they saw loads of food being hauled back, the whole clan reacted.

"Food!" "Food!" They chanted excitedly.

Even the baby fishes in the clan joined their parents as they chanted excitedly. They seemed to be welcoming the soldiers, but the food was what they were actually welcoming.

Seeing this scene, Sebastian was completely speechless. "You guys can't even appreciate our efforts a bit? Meh!"

Looking around, he was surprised to see that he was the only one who felt it. For the other soldiers, maybe they just didn't care, but they revealed wide grins on their fishy faces as their clan members chanted excitedly.

Sebastian looked, flabbergasted. As he looked, his eyes suddenly clashed with 2 of the soldiers that he didn't want to see at all.

The 2 twins crayfish, Ray and Fay. These 2 guys with their daggers, from the first day, that Sebastian joined the clan's army he didn't know why but these 2 just loved harassing him.

Clack!

Noticing that his attention was on them, they clapped their daggers intimidatingly. Sebastian shuddered; intimidated, he lowered his head and turned away.

"What a poor life I'm living! Just wait, after I evolve, I'll see if you'll have the guts to do that to me again".

After they swam through the crowd of clan members who helped them take all the food to the chef chamber, they finally all retreated to their base. It was there that a death count was finally made.

Like Sebastian expected, some of the fish soldiers died, precisely 4 of them during the just concluded clan war.

Like he already experienced for the past few days, none of the fish soldiers showed sorrow for their dead comrades. Perhaps they were just too dumb to feel that way, but Sebastian still felt spooked.

"What if I died today, they'll not even remember me too?" He shuddered, feeling insecure all of a sudden.

As the soldiers went to their various corners to sleep and rest their aching muscles from the battle, Sebastian went to meet Spankster. He told her the good news that he was ready to evolve, and that he wanted to start his breakthrough now.

"You reached the pinnacle of level 5 already?" Her fishy eyes widened.

Sebastian blushed a bit. "Is anything wrong?"

"No, I just thought it was fast, faster than anything I've seen before. Don't worry, you can go breakthrough, let me rush to tell the clan head about it".

"Ok, thanks". Sebastian waved his fin at her before turning to go to his own corner of the army base.

It was not anything complicated, just a slightly isolated corner in the room that was decked with the few rare corals that barely glowed compared to the others.

He felt anticipation as he hovered atop his rest place. Ready for his breakthrough, his body quickly entered the rest state as he now gave all his attention to his system.

"System, give it to me".

[Proceed with breakthrough attempt: Yes/No?]

"Yes".

[Breakthrough mechanisms have been put in place. Stabilizing host…, host has been stabilized.]

[Mental check: Pass.]

[Physical check: Pass.]

[All parameters for evolution are complete, host's consciousness will now be drawn into the illusion realm.]

As soon as the system completed what it was saying, Sebastian suddenly felt like a needle was pricked inside his brain. He tried to yell out but the sound that came out of his mouth seemed far yet close.

The sound just kept on echoing in his head, making him dizzy.

The next moment, he felt like his consciousness was pulled out of his body. The familiar environment of the Leroy clan lair suddenly disappeared, then it was replaced by a pure white background environment.

The background was static at first but it suddenly started moving rapidly. Sebastian's eyes dazed, he felt like he was on a rollercoaster ride or in a portal that was about to take him somewhere unknown.

The light kept on getting brighter and the background moved faster. It got to a point where all he saw was dizzying white moving across his vision, then the color suddenly spiked, becoming that of a rainbow.

He squinted his eyes to protect them, then everything became black. He was gone, his consciousness was gone.

…

"Since when did his evolution start?" Leroy hovered at the top of the army base, looking down at Sebastian who hovered motionlessly at a corner of the water.

"Approximately 40 minutes ago". Swordfish quickly replied.

"Ok".

Looking down at the great white shark that was below him, Leroy felt a lot of things going through his mind. It was a risky move on his part bringing such a potentially dangerous predator into his clan lair.

Sebastian even exceeded his expectation, the young shark leveled up faster than he predicted. This was supposed to make him happy, but he couldn't, he instead felt worried that he may have invited a dragon into his clan for help.

Though at just level 6, Sebastian could not overpower him, it would be hard for him to completely suppress the shark too.

Sharks, most especially great white sharks were known all over Oceania for their prowess and leveling speed. They were among the pinnacle bloodline carriers; they were the predators while every other creature here was prey.

He really wanted to kill Sebastian as he slept now, at least that will prevent this young shark from turning into a disaster after waking up.

His rational mind told him to do this, but he could not bring himself to do it. This was not because he had a liking for Sebastian, that would be just plain weird. It was because of some news that got to him a few days ago.

According to his secret scouts, his long-time rival broke the truce between them and looked for a predator reinforcement from outside the expanse.

When he heard this, he was shocked. If he didn't move fast, his clan may be annihilated the next moment. This was why he took the risk of taking Sebastian in despite the terrible consequences that may follow.

He sighed.. "I hope that I made the right decision this time".