Ocean Master

For minutes, Sebastian kept on swimming while blasting everywhere with his electroreceptors to see if his rapid escape attracted any new predator. For that freak shark, he was taking no chances.

At times, he had to slow down to let the great white Shark keep up with him, but still, they were able to cover dozens of kilometers in a few minutes.

Another 2 minutes later, Sebastian finally stopped. With narrowed eyes, he manually controlled his electroreceptors to check deep in all 4 directions around them for any predator or signs of the freak Shark.

After confirming again, he finally had the time to relax.

"Big bro, you were so awesome…"

Sebastian did not let the great white Shark finish, he was having none of that as he roared a question. "Which freaking monster was that?

The Shark flinched back slightly on being roared at, then it revealed a sad expression on hearing how the question was phrased as it pursed its huge dangerous maws.

It was hard for a shark to look cute, but the strange fearsome pursing of its huge maws by this great white somehow looked cute which was strange.

Seeing this, Sebastian was taken aback, feeling like he somehow bullied a fragile girl as he hurriedly asked. "Uhm, sorry, did I say something wrong?"

Hearing that, the great white Shark's expression quickly reverted, becoming cheerful again like it was originally pulling a prank. 

"He's not a monster, he's Teeth".

"Teeth?" Now, Sebastian was confused.

"Yes, that's his name. Oh, you're still a stray shark so maybe you don't know about the concept of names yet. I'm Verni".

"…" 

"The f*ck do you mean I don't know the concept of names?" Despite feeling this inwardly with a strong urge to curse it Sebastian was still able to calm himself.

"I'm Sebastian".

"Oh! You have a name?" The Shark exclaimed, clearly surprised.

"…"

"Old Mak said that only strong and experienced great whites know the importance of having names. Then, you must be a frightening powerhouse. Big bro, you're the best".

Seeing the shark raise its dorsal fin to cheer happily, Sebastian's expression became weird but he still pressed on his question.

"Ok, umm, the Teeth, that guy, who's Teeth?"

"He was originally one of us". Verni answered still cheerfully.

"…One of us…" Sebastian immediately caught into this term.

Now, when he recalled properly, the Goblin Shark was in so many ways similar to a great White Shark. The only difference was its body color and the super long snout.

Not only that, Sebastian got another deduction from this 'one of us' term. Phrasing it in such a way meant that there were other great white Sharks here.

He immediately felt excited. "There are more of you here?"

"Yes". Verni answered in a chubby bubbly manner. "We have a huge cave up in the great circular wall, that's where our territory is".

Saying this, its expression suddenly became depressed. "Unfortunately, I was hunted by Teeth and could only escape far away here to survive".

"Ok, so what happened to this Teeth?"

"He mutated after failing during his evolution".

Hearing that, Sebastian rapidly had thoughts go through his head as he felt a chill go down his spine. 

He shuddered. "That's possible?"

"Yes, the same thing already happened to a lot of my brothers through the years. Only Teeth's own was different".

"Old Mak said that he likely came into contact with some unknown influence which made him mutate to become a Goblin Shark".

"He's extremely terrifying. Our family already tried to hunt and bring him down numerous times, but we're never successful, the skills that he got after mutating are just too frightening".

"But, Big bro, you're so awesome, you managed to kill him the other time".

Sebastian tried to ignore the shameless over-enthusiasm of this fellow. "Then, why didn't he die?" 

"After mutating, he doesn't feel pain and he got a horrifying health points stat. Besides, he got an incomplete resurrection skill, that extremely fast speed skill, and the freaking bomb skill".

The Shark visibly shuddered on mentioning that. "Old Mak solemnly called it the Goblin Abomination Bomb Skill; that's frightening, right?"

"Yes, it is". Sebastian gave his consent sincerely and also to please this fellow lest he put another cute sad face before him.

"So, who's Old Mak?"

"He's the head of the family".

Before Sebastian could digest the information that was just dumped at him, the over-enthusiastic Shark asked him excitedly again. "Big bro, are you already at the Purple tier?"

"For you to kill Teeth, you must be there or super close to it. Teeth's attempt to evolve to the Purple tier was what resulted in his death".

Now, Sebastian was really clueless. "Purple tier?"

"Oh! I forgot, Big bro is a stray shark".

"Must you emphasize that?" Sebastian felt like whacking this fellow on the head to discipline him.

"Old Mak says there are 5 power tiers in this world, but he only knows 3- the White, Orange, and Purple tiers". 

Hearing that, Sebastian rapidly made the connections and arrived at a conclusion as he felt his face burning in shame a bit. "If I'm correct, I'm at the Orange tier and I'm still a F*cking beginner".

Despite saying that in his mind, he only gave a silent acknowledgment of the knowledge in his heart.

"Big bro, which level are you?"

"Which level are you?" Sebastian expertly threw the question back.

"Level 17". The Shark quipped excitedly, leaving Sebastian dumbfounded.

Crack!

He felt the tiny bits of his dignity as a Big bro shattering.

"Big bro, which…"

"Let's leave, other predators may have been attracted already". Sebastian cut it off while looking around like an army of predators already surrounded them.

Seeing his actions, Verni wisely obeyed. "Big bro is a real professional".

"…"

Not commenting on that, Sebastian turned to lead the way forward while most of his attention was already inside his mind.

"System, why didn't you inform me of such basic knowledge about the power tiers? Do you f*cking enjoy seeing me embarrass myself?"

[Ding! System is not obligated to reveal it as host did not ask?]

"…"

Sebastian felt imaginary smokes billowing from his head but he forced himself to calm down. "Ok, now tell me the power tiers of this world".

[Affirmative!]

[Oceania power tiers are divided into 2 basic and 3 advanced tiers: White, Orange, Purple, Red, and Black.]

[The first 2 White and Orange tiers are the beginner tiers. Host is currently at the Orange tier.]

[To level up from Orange to Purple and subsequently upwards, the required levels for evolution will be 2× the required levels for the previous evolution.]

[This means that as you needed 5 levels to evolve to the Orange tier, you'll need 10 levels to evolve to the Purple tier.]

[System Clue: Sea Kings are at the pinnacle Black tier.]

Seeing this, Sebastian came to a realization as he now understood a lot of things that originally still eluded him.

Without saying a word to the cheerful great white Shark, he led it deeper into the seamount.