Becoming The Strongest Using My Would-You-Rather System!-Chapter 15 - Shore Dwellers

As Theo stared at the ocean, water continued gushing off its body as the creature rose from the waves, its height nearly matching that of a human.

Its thin frame was hunched forward, grayish scales clinging to its skin while bulging, fish-like eyes protruded from its head.

"An F-rank Shore Dweller," Theo muttered, taking a slow step back.

As the creature stepped onto the beach, its head tilted unnaturally, eyes locking onto Theo.

Theo slowly raised a hand in front of him.

At the same time, the Shore Dweller’s gills flared up, screeching loudly.

It ran over the beach, rapidly closing the distance to Theo.

Theo gritted his teeth, guiding mana to the palm of his hand.

Slowly, a thin lightning bolt formed in the air beside him.

The Shore Dweller was faster than he expected. In just a few strides, it reached him.

It lunged toward him, razor-sharp claws aiming straight for his neck.

Theo’s eyes widened, quickly releasing the thunderbolt.

The bolt flashed brightly in front of his eyes, crackling as it pierced straight through the creature’s arm.

For a split second, everything went silent.

Then dark flakes slowly started fluttering to the ground as the entire arm disintegrated.

The Shore Dweller shrieked in agony, collapsing onto the sand as yellow sparks crackled through its body.

’...Good,’ Theo thought, letting out a deep breath as he took a few steps back. ’I need to finish this.’

He raised his hand, guiding mana through it once more.

The Shore Dweller’s cries stopped for a moment, its bulging eyes locking onto him again.

It forced itself up on its feet the next second.

"It’s still moving...?" Theo said, staring at it with wide eyes.

With a guttural scream, the Shore Dweller lunged again, as if pain no longer mattered.

Theo’s instincts kicked in immediately, stumbling sideways.

Claws sliced through the air where his throat had been a second ago.

Knowing there wasn’t any time to cast Lightning Bolt, Theo gritted his teeth and forced all the mana into his palm.

The creature spun toward him again, wildly swinging its remaining arm.

Theo barely managed to step aside and, without aiming, simply released the mana the moment the creature reached him.

In an instant, a violent burst of lightning exploded from his palm.

The bolt struck the creature point-blank, leaving it no time to react.

The lightning shot through its stomach, disintegrating a gaping hole instantly.

For a second, the Shore Dweller remained standing.

Then it collapsed to the ground, smoke curling up from the edge around the hole.

Everything around Theo went silent again.

He stood frozen, his hand still extended, faint sparks dancing across his fingers.

His chest rose and fell heavily.

Slowly, he lowered his arm, his eyes still locked on the creature.

"...It’s dead," he muttered under his breath.

He swallowed, forcing himself to calm down.

"Fighting monsters is... completely different from sparring humans."

As he stood there, the stench of melted flesh entered his nose.

Theo’s expression darkened, nearly gagging from the utterly disgusting smell.

Without hesitation, he stepped further away from the corpse.

Yet, no matter how far away he went, the disgusting smell remained.

"I’ll just have to get used to it," he said, clenching his fist. "This won’t be the last time I’ll be smelling it after all."

Theo stood there for a few more seconds before finally lowering himself onto the sand.

His body felt slightly weaker than expected as all the adrenaline faded.

’That... took more than I thought.’

He stared at his palm for a moment before closing his eyes.

From training, he had a rough estimate of how much mana he could use, and it seemed like he’d used twenty-five percent in total.

’All that... for one F-rank?’ he thought, his jaw tightening.

The first thunderbolt had been clean, but his aim was slightly off since he got flustered.

But the second?

That one was a total mess.

He’d just wasted a ton of mana because he had no control and just dished out a clump of mana.

Theo replayed the fight in his head, analyzing each moment as best he could.

’I don’t know what got into me,’ he thought, opening his eyes again. ’I was slow, hesitant, and overall just panicking.’

If it had been an E-rank creature...

He would’ve been in serious trouble.

’I need to keep my composure next time,’ he thought, exhaling slowly.

Theo glanced at the ocean for a moment, then took out his phone. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"It’s already been two hours, huh," he muttered softly. "Still got ten hours to go then."

He slipped his phone back into his pocket and remained seated on the sand.

The shoreline was quiet again, but there was no guarantee it would remain like that.

’I have to recover as much as possible.’

He closed his eyes, appearing in front of his core.

Several mana strands flew out of his affinity almost immediately and were slowly guided to the core walls by him.

After the strands merged, Theo felt the core light up slightly.

"It’ll take a few minutes to get it all recovered."

Time slowly passed by.

Occasionally, Theo would glance at the ocean, which interrupted his recovery, but overall it was peaceful.

After nearly twenty minutes, he let out a deep breath as he opened his eyes.

’Recovered,’ he thought.

Theo stood up and brushed the sand off his clothes, taking a slow look across the shoreline.

For a moment, his eyes landed on the Shore Dweller corpse in the distance.

"A shame I disintegrated its F-rank mana core," he mumbled, shaking his head. "Otherwise I could’ve earned an additional hundred dollars."

Theo let out a small sigh and turned his gaze back toward the ocean.

"Next time... I’ll be better," he muttered quietly.

He remained standing for a while, scanning the horizon.

But nothing happened.

Hours passed by as the sun climbed higher and higher into the sky.

Theo remained alert the entire time, occasionally hearing soft screeches echoing from other areas.

Though it didn’t seem like anything was coming for his sector.

By the time the sky began turning faintly orange again, he’d almost started to believe the morning encounter had been a fluke.

He checked his phone once more.

’Only two hours left,’ he thought, letting out a quiet breath.

As he slipped his phone back into his pocket, his head snapped toward the water in an instant.

Far in the distance, white foam rose to the surface.

Then it bubbled.

But it wasn’t just one patch of water that started to bubble.

Instead, three different places bubbled at the same time with only a few yards between them.

Theo’s body stiffened slightly, but he pushed himself through it.

’Three creatures,’ he thought, clenching his jaw. ’Can I even take that?’

It only took seconds before three scaly heads poked through the surface, screeching loudly as their fish-like eyes noticed him.