Ocean Master

"Shark Sensei?" 

Hearing this strange term amid the cacophony of thank you from the sharks she just taught, Elder Dangle stopped in her path as a curiosity to know who said it emerged in her mind.

Seeing this, Sebastian heaved a sigh of relief as his plan worked. Seeing Nanga's reaction to being called hall master, he guessed that doing the same here may induce a reaction and he was not wrong.

"Elder, it is your humble junior, Sebastian". 

This declaration felt shameless, even super shameless when it was coming from a shark but after the encounter with Elder Mangle, Sebastian felt that it was right expressing goodwill before the conversation started.

The elders were really intelligent sharks, but the fact remained there that they were Great White Sharks, not humans. They had tendencies in their bloodline that could not be eroded off by intelligence.

If she had eyebrows, the elder's eyebrows would have risen on hearing the way this shark phrased his words. It would have risen even higher when she saw the identity of the shark.

"Junior Sebastian?"

Sebastian was surprised, feeling a little flattered that the elder was able to so easily identify him among the group of sharks who attended her lecture.

Seeing Sebastian, Elder Dangle was stunned at first but she quickly recovered after recalling that the shark was a sound domain magician. It was only normal for junior sound domain shark magicians to attend her lectures.

She didn't specifically know the information and name of every shark in the clan, but Sebastian was a clan member who left a deep impression on her. Even if she put effort into it, she doubted that she could forget him.

The 3 months old orange tier shark, or the young shark competent enough to disrupt her vibrational check skill. This was her greatest and deepest impression of this junior shark.

But immediately after she recognized Sebastian, what seemed like a frown came over her enormous shark face. 

Of course, the first thing that came to her mind was about the young shark's ambition to create a new department in the clan but she was surprised by Sebastian's next words.

"Yes, elder. I hope to seek guidance from you".

Elder Dangle kept quiet, ruminating over the word for a few seconds which was a first for her before she understood what it meant. 

The next moment, she recovered, exuding the aura of a shark elder again. "Did you read the department note? Or, you can't read yet?"

"…"

Sebastian felt exasperated at these silly assumptions from the sharks in this clan, but he resigned himself to encounter even more during his stay here. "Yes, I can read elder".

"Good, read the department notes outside the chamber".

"You're a good seedling of the sound domain, work hard and you will fulfill your magic potential".

Without taking another glance at the shark, after she said this, Elder Dangle turned and flapped her enormous tail, propelling herself forward and out of the cave before Sebastian could react.

"…" Sebastian was left gaping, stunned.

The elder left so abruptly that it took him some time before he digested her orders to go read the department notes. 

When he registered into the department, close to where the fat shark hovered and engaged in his business, he saw what seemed like a rock note on the wall with some words written on it.

At first, he ignored it. This was not only his first time seeing real words being plainly written by the sharks and not on an Atlantian machine, but he seemed to have once again underestimated the intelligence of the sharks.

When he felt that he already overestimated them, they revealed more, showing him how wrong he was in his assumptions.

None of the other sharks with who he attended the lecture spoke to him, so he simply flapped his tail and also left the department chamber.

[You have activated skill: Triple Reverse Swim.]

[You have activated skill: Advanced Electroreceptors.]

As the elder already left, Sebastian finally felt the freedom to activate his electroreceptors without feeling like he was being rude.

As soon as he swam back to where the fat shark hovered with a shrewd spooky merchant smile still on his face, Sebastian ignored the shark and moved his gaze. Immediately, he saw the rock note again.

This time, he read its contents.

{Sound Domain Department}

…

>Rules<

>Requirements<

>Department Prices<

The rock note contained the name of the department and those 3 large tabs written under it. Sebastian rapidly skimmed through the rules, with most of them emphasizing not fighting when lectures are going on.

Seeing this section of the writing, Sebastian felt a sense of nostalgia hit him. He could feel his secondary school rules and regulations vibes in the writing.

The second tab was about the requirements to do anything in the department, including the requirements to become a member of the department, and the requirements to be a worker in the department. 

A worker of the sound domain department in this term meant being a marketer like the fat shark, department promoters, department coordinators, and department lecturers.

All the work positions were interesting and each worker got paid in shark points weekly, but the one which caught Sebastian's attention was the department lecturers.

This was his first time seeing and hearing of this. Apparently, if Elder Dangle deemed you competent enough in the sound domain, you could be a lesser lecturer of the department with a fixed pay.

"Bruh, is this set up by sharks? Th-this feels so illogical and unbelievable".

Sebastian felt that he was hallucinating. Perhaps, this Oceania thing was even an abnormally long dream that he was refusing to wake up from.

"But if it's a dream, I love staying here forever though".

The last tab which was the department prices tab, it included not just the pay for every work position in the department and the prices to attend lectures, but what Sebastian was looking for.

It included the price for a personal consultation with elder Dangle, including the price for what he was looking for. 

Apparently, consultations concerning knowledge about evolutions were special and needed more shark points to access.

>Elder Personal Consultation Price: 150<

>Evolution Consultation Price:<

- White tier: 20 Shark points.

- Orange tier: 100 Shark points.

- Purple tier: 1000 Shark points.

"…"

This was Sebastian's reaction to seeing the sharp spike in shark point price, but in the end, he reasoned it as normal since the purple tier had a far greater significance than the 2 lesser tiers.

"Sigh, no wonder the elder directed me here".

He thought he could get guidance and start his evolution immediately, but he could not have been more wrong. Nothing was free in every world.

Though he felt a little depressed at that, he cheered himself up as this was not a problem too big. All he needed was to get more shark points, and well, he didn't see that as much of a problem.

Without hesitation, he turned to leave but was attracted by a small commotion happening close to the entrance to the department.

"Sound is everywhere, sound is omnipresent!" One of the young sharks yelled excitedly as scenes from the previous lecture filled his brain.

Another joined. "To be the ideal sound domain magician, you need to be imaginative and swift in harnessing the sound around us".

A bigger shark joined. "Be daring! When your elders speak, think of how to sound-slap them without them knowing that you did it".

"So bold! I'm daring! Whoever says otherwise, scam!"

Boom!

"You attacked me? You attacked me? Take this!"

"Chicken Soup Sonic Vibration!"

Boom!

"You dare use sound magic on me, a powerful sound domain magician? I'll bite your ear off!"

Crunch!

Seeing this scene, Sebastian was dumbfounded but not for long though. He turned and swaggered out of the department chamber.

"Intelligent, but still Great White Sharks".