When Henry swam back to his burrow, the crab followed him.

  He didn’t mind. That would let him keep an eye on it, though it kept waving its pincers, clearly trying to say something.

  Henry wanted to sleep, true, but how often could one have a conversation with a hermit crab?

  “[You’re trying to say something?]”

  Right pincer, yes.

  This is going to be rough, Henry thought to himself before addressing the little red crustacean. “[Is it about me?]”

  Left pincer, no.

  Henry started to suggest different subjects, until they landed on classes.

  “[What about classes?]”

  The crab pointed at him.

  Oh. “[Do you see Stalking Threat? Or do you see Octopus? Click once for the first, twice for the second.]”

  The crab clicked once, finally answering the question Henry had. “[So you have Identify as well?]”

  The crab raised the right pincer in agreement, then pointed to itself.

  Henry paused. “[You want me to Identify you?]”

  Yes, the crab signed, so Henry did as asked.

  “[Oh! You got a Class? You didn’t have it before?]”

  [Shelled Nomad (D) - Lvl ?]

  The crab indicated yes. Then it pointed to itself again.

  Henry frowned inwardly, but did as asked.

  [Chimeric Hermit Crab (D) - Lvl ?]

  “[You can switch them?!]” Henry immediately went into his interface, and after looking for a few seconds, he found it the option.

  Huh. Good to know. Better late than never, I guess.

  Henry looked down at the crab as it waved its arm around. “[Do you have the menus as well? To buy stats and Skills and stuff?]”

  The crab froze for a moment, then it slowly lifted its right pincer.

  This was incredible. “[We need a better way to communicate. Do you have something that lets you learn skills and traits? I can learn things by eating from them.]”

  The crab paused, and slowly slinked into its shell. Henry tsked and shoved it gently with the tip of his arm.

  “[I’m not going to eat you. Relax. Maybe a leg if you lose one naturally.]”

  It came out quickly and raised both pincers as its eyes and legs danced.

  It took a moment from Henry to register. “[You were joking?]”

  Right pincer.

  Henry shoved the smug crab again. “[Haha. Funny.]”

  The crab then scuttled out, got its old shell, tapped it once, then tapped above its head with a gentle ting, then looked at Henry expectantly.

  “[You get skills and traits from the shells you inhabit?]”

  The crab hesitated, but it still raised its right pincer.

  “[Interesting… Do you have to fully move into them? No? Hmmm. I wonder… Maybe I can shapeshift a shell-like thing and give it to you? Do you think that would work?]”

  The crab lifted both pincers. Unsure. It oddly looked like a shrug as well.

  “[We’ll try, I guess. After I get some rest, though.]”

  Right pincer.

  Henry kept Alter Physique inactive, then remembered. “[I’m going to change my appearance. Let me know if it changes when I’m asleep, okay?]”

  Right pincer.

  Henry eyed the crab as it picked up a stone and turned it around with its pincer. Then it examined its pincer.

  Amazing. Was this because of the turtle shell? Actually… should I trust it?

  The crab was intelligent. And it was a stranger. A cute and funny one, but it would be incredibly stupid for him to die in his sleep because he trusted a being within 15 minutes of meeting it.

  Henry closed his eyes but didn’t go to sleep. He transformed himself into an algae-like plant, complete with ridges and discolouration, then relaxed. His eyes felt heavy, but he resisted and instead, he meditated. Within minutes, Accelerated Recovery kicked in.

  He could hear the crab picking up things, taking a few steps here and there, softly clicking its pincers from time to time. After a few minutes of observation through Telepathic Sense, Henry knew this hadn’t been the odd presence he had felt recently. He didn’t know why exactly. It was just a feeling, like seeing a silhouette from afar and recognizing the person, even though the person’s features were too far to pick up.

  Still, he stayed vigilant, and as he relaxed, his health and mana began to rise.

  ***

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  After a couple of hours of meditation, Henry was almost back to full and he allowed himself a short nap. When he woke back up, it felt like an hour or two had passed. The crab was sitting at the entrance, watching the outside world.

  “[Did my colors change when I was asleep?]”

  The crab jumped and Henry saw a white-blue light near its mouth that quickly faded. It raised a left pincer to say no.

  “[Sorry. Give me a few more minutes, I have some stats to assign.]”

  With that, Henry loaded up his menus and got to work.

  First things first, buy everything.

  Henry started with skills. He bought the Telekinesis targeting upgrade first, which would allow to taget areas and individuals. After a couple of tests, he found he could fashion shapes around the target, or, if he focused, he could make the telekinetic force into flat area that could act as a barrier. It would take work, but there was a lot of potential there.

  Next, he bought Arm Whip’s speed upgrade, then he looked at his list of skills and traits to see if anything was worth buying permanently.

  As his eyes roamed the list, he noticed that Riptide Rush was gone as well, but Spiteful Detonation and Piercing Projectile were still available.

  At least Riptides are still around. But I couldn’t find that damn fish with the Dart skill again. That would have been useful to keep.

  Next, Henry turned his attention to the ray attack of the serpent.

  Do I want that?

  It was powerful. And he already had some skills and traits linked to toxins… but he wasn’t sure about turning toxins and venoms into his speciality.

  There’s some light affinity with Bite… in the sense that I need my mouth for both. Maybe it could fuse with Bite or Venom Production?

  Henry decided to buy it. Worst case scenario, he could replace it if it ended up being disappointing.

  What else… Piercing Projectile and Spiteful Detonation… Still no. Shapeshift might allow me to get some use out of them, but that’s a reach. That’s about it, huh. Next outing I’ll collect samples. Time to fill-up the empty slots some more.

  Next, he moved on to his Stats.

  First, he bought the remaining available E-rank points for Dexterity and Perception, which meant all of his next purchasable points cost D-tokens. With that done, he turned his attention to the 9 points he had to assign.

  I can round up Perception and get it to 20, which would leave me with 7 points. One to Dexterity, and the rest gets divided between Spirit and Constitution. Three each.

  Henry confirmed everything, and the lights began to collect. His eyes itched as if fire ants were crawling within his eyeballs while he skin felt as if he was repeatedly being dunked in cold water then hot water then back to cold and as he suffered, with Telepathic Sense he caught a vague impression of wonder from the crab.

  When the changes were over, Henry unrolled his arms and slipped out. It felt…seamless. His limbs were responding to his command faster, and he could feel the water smoothly rush around his limbs as he made micro-adjustments to fix his trajectory.

  If his reflexes and control felt good now, how better were they going to be once he broke through the 20 points mark in Dexterity?

  Henry pushed his size to the maximum, and nudged the skill to enlarge his mouth and arms the most. He had things to test.

  Mana rushed through his body, and the skill got to work, burning through his mana to augment his size and as it did, Henry pulled his stats to take a look before he moved on.

  Strength: 23

  Constitution: 33

  Spirit: 24

  Perception: 20

  Dexterity: 15

  The crab stepped after him, and Henry saw light reflect over the gem-like turtle shell.

  “[Did you get something from the shell? Like skills and traits?]”

  The crab moved its arms, seemingly in thought, then raised both.

  “[You don’t know?]”

  It raised a left pincer then looked around before glancing down to the ground. It put down a pincer, looked up to Henry, then slowly moved its pincer in a line. After a second or two of movement, it lifted the pincer and tapped it down on the end of the line.

  “[It takes time?]”

  Right pincer.

  Henry stared at the crab. “[You’re really smart.]”

  Right pincer.

  Henry shook his head and chuckled. “[What should I call you? Do you have a name?]”

  The crab hesitated then clacked both pincers.

  “[I don’t know what that meant. My name is Henry, you can’t see it with Identify. A name is a sound we use to tell each other apart. Not the class, and not the species. Do you have one?]”

  A sad left pincer.

  “[Do you want one?]”

  Fast right pincer.

  “[Let’s see. Do you have something in mind?]”

  The crab shrugged, then stepped a bit away. It pointed to its mouth, and light began to collect.

  Henry’s eyes widened and he tensed involuntarily. A small stream of blue-white bubbles formed and shot forward. Henry stared at the attack. The bubbles reached a boulder and every one impacted with small implosions.

  The boulder was pulverized.

  The crab pointed at where the bubbles had flown, then back at itself.

  “[That’s… you want the name of those? Bubbles?]”

  The crab seemed to mull it over. Then pointed at its head.

  “[Shell? Shelley?]”

  It continued pointing at random things for a while, then pointed at Henry.

  “[You want names from me?]”

  Yes, the crab gestured.

  Henry considered the crab for a moment. “[Barry? Sebastian? Wait. Those are boy names.]”

  Henry took a minute to explain what he meant, after which the crab shrugged.

  Fair enough.

  Henry focused back on the matter at hand. “[Alright, I’ll list some and stop me if you hear a name you like. Kirby, Krabby, Seamore, Sheldon, Barry, Claws, Mabel, Maurice–]”

  The crab lifted a claw.

  “[Maurice?]”

  Right pincers, then the crab’s limbs all danced as it scuttled around Henry’s growing body.

  “[Well, nice to meet you, Maurice.]”

  Maurice clacked both pincers and glanced around. Then back up to Henry. It lifted both arms in doubt. Or maybe in a question?

  “[Are you asking about what we’re going to do? If so, I want to go explore a bit. I get skills and traits from things I eat. I’m still not ready to fight anything big, but I can go around and catch a few things. I also want to test something with a skill I have.]”

  Maurice raised a right claw and began scuttling forward.

  Henry watched the crab move ahead of him and grinned. This was a nice change of pace and for a moment, it felt as if he was hanging out with the whales again.

  It was a good things that he didn’t interrupt the crab’s evolution. Or he’d be alone with his own thoughts still.

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