Henry read everything twice, then he focused on the two options he was most interested in. Arcane and Trickster. He was tempted by Mesmer, but it just wasn’t as good as the other two. And he’d just seen what an Arcane kraken could do. Mana stealing, dispelling, potential invisibility, and who knows what else. It was a good option.

  But he didn’t want to lose Magic Mimic. Was that a possibility? Could he lose the trait?

  Henry read the description for Trickster kraken again, and a line in particular attracted his attention.

  It does say that the Trickster copies abilities. It doesn’t say it for others, so maybe it gets limited somehow in the other krakens? And it seems like the main advantage of this species is the intelligence, but that’s a given to me.

  It was also another hint at what was sending clones at him. The intelligence boost would explain the clones’ behavior and speech.

  Henry looked up and around. Maurice was on watch duty, scanning the horizon in every direction every few seconds, and there was no golden shark swimming around. No voice in his head.

  System? Are you around?

  He waited for a few seconds, but no one answered. Henry guessed it was busy, or maybe the appearance wasn’t a guaranteed thing.

  A bit disappointed, Henry looked down at the descriptions and compared between Trickster and Arcane.

  I got the Arcane Arm skill. For mana draining, Bite will probably get the option to ‘memorize’ a property, just like Mimicking Arms had gotten. I could steal my mana that way, and finally, I got the dispelling skill. It might not be as good as the original as it often is with Magic Mimic, but I could work on it and upgrade it.

  Which meant that he had already a few of the Arcane kraken’s advantages in his arsenal, so sticking with the Trickster was the move her, and even though he’d gotten Magic Mimic samples from the other species, the trait could get diminished.

  That, in itself, was too big of a risk. Henry was pretty sure that if Magic Mimic disappeared or got weakened somehow, there wouldn’t be take-backs.

  Also, the Arcane kraken looked weird. A bit. Henry didn’t want to look like a jellyfish hybrid.

  Still, I’m about to become a kraken.

  It was an upgrade, but he was getting further and further from humanity. Was he okay with that?

  What choice do I have?

  Henry looked around. At his new companion. At the ominously empty waters where, at any time, a kraken might appear to ambush him.

  Did he want to become a monster and survive, or cling to who he used to be?

  I’ve already chosen, haven’t I?

  Henry breathed in deep, then confirmed his changes.

  Class Krakenbane Wanderer (D) was selected.

  Species Trickster Kraken was selected.

  Aspect consolidation unlocked.

  Aspect consolidation

  You class and cornerstone abilities have reached the required maturity to unlock Aspects.

  Your species abilities will be re-arranged under their appropriate Aspects.

  Every Aspect will have one cornerstone ability that matches the rank and level of the Aspect itself.

  Every Aspect can have multiple non-cornerstone, thematically-matching abilities. The potency of the abilities depends on the level of the Aspect, and the rank of the ability itself.

  You class will remain to act as a frame and structure to your Aspects.

  You will have a higher chance of converting class abilities into Aspect abilities.

  The upgrading process of all abilities will be altered, and prices will be raised as modifications will grow more challenging to apply.

  Evolutionary Points can now be used to acquire Aspects and other miscellaneous system-assisted operations.

  Warning: 6 Evolutionary points will be consumed to create 2 additional Aspects.

  Warning: A high number of ability slots detected. To prevent potential complications, both skills and traits slots will be reduced to 10 each. This limitation will be lifted in the next evolution process once the new Aspect frame has matured and been stabilized.

  Warning: Some abilities might be temporarily weakened.

  Henry’s eyes narrowed as he slowly and carefully read through everything. The re-organizing of his abilities, he didn’t mind. This also might mean he didn’t need to track the skill levels so much. But on the downside, it seemed like his upgrades were about to get more expensive.

  This must be what Maurice had been worried about and this must be what the System alluded to last time when it said I’m being prepared for the next step.

  Henry reread the list, and focused on the warnings.

  That’s quite a few slots I’m losing, but it sounds necessary… Plus, I already said I need to be selective with what I pick up, so it should be fine. But some abilities will be weakened, which isn’t great… Hopefully it won’t be for long. And 6 Evolutionary Points is a lot, but at least I’m getting something for it, and I guess it would counts as a system-assisted operation.

  Henry exhaled, then confirmed. The prompt disappeared and was immediately replaced by a wall of notifications.

  Skill and Trait merging skipped.

  Bite and its subskills will be assimilated under Aspect: Hunger of the Trickster.

  Mimicking Arms and its subskills will be assimilated under Aspect: Shiftiness of the Trickster.

  Inkjet and its subskills will be assimilated under Aspect: Misdirection of the Trickster.

  Summon Illusions acquired. Summon Illusions will be assimilated under Aspect: Arcana of the Trickster.

  Assistance of the Octominds acquired. Assistance of the Octominds will be assimilated under Aspect: Arms of the Trickster.

  …

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Henry barely had the time to read a few lines when he started feeling sick. But it wasn’t physical, and he wished it was.

  It felt as if he was being taken apart and rearranged. Something deep within him was being stretched. Cut. Severed and put somewhere else. Peeled then layered. Twisted and melded. All in an instant that was incomprehensibly stretched, same as his senses and perception.

  Henry thought he heard himself screaming. His mind was melting. Through the unimaginable madness that tore his soul apart and put it back together, something golden flashed in the corner of his eye, right before the darkness took him.

  ***

  Maurice nervously rubbed his claws together, hoping to stop the tremor that took them over when he’d felt the wave of terror and pain from Henry as the white light wrapped itself around him like a shell.

  It had lasted barely for a second, but it shook Maurice. Was that how he’d felt?

  He’d mostly forgotten about this. His limited cognition back then hadn’t helped, but once he had been past the process, he hadn’t dwelled on it. Like a bad dream, he was content with letting it fade away from his memory. And to be fair, they’d been busy since.

  Still, it wasn’t as if he could do anything about it.

  “[Hang in there, Henry.]”

  He had to keep his friend safe. And keep watch.

  Complete focus. No distractions.

  Maurice honed in on his telepathic senses as he watched his surroundings.

  He’s going to be okay. Yes. He’s strong. He’ll be okay.

  Maurice tried to push at the boundaries of his mental trait. It was familiar. It behaved somewhat like Seeker’s Bounty, where it was vague and limited at first, but, like a muscle, got better the more he used it. Unfortunately, he couldn’t feel the krakens, though he expected them to appear at any time.

  The crab shuffled around the large globe of light, peering suspiciously at the calm waters surrounding their makeshift camp.

  The kraken must need mana as well, and a skill like that has to be expensive. It probably needs to recover its reserves.

  Maurice paused.

  If it’s a higher rank, though, it would recover faster than us. It could be already here.

  He looked down at his skills and traits, and his eyes lingered on his the cornerstone skill of Curiosity of the Hermit: Chimeric Assimilation. It was still working on his new shell, and it was barely a tenth of the way through.

  I wonder what I’ll get.

  It was interesting how the skill had worked instantaneously on Henry's shapeshifted shells, while it was taking this long for the turtle shell.

  Probably because it’s an old shell?

  Maurice vaguely remembered that the ones he’d found would take some time for his skill to process. Next, he eyed another of his skills, then glanced around before approaching the ball of light. He gingerly tapped it.

  It was solid.

  Okay. I can at least get a good spot.

  He looked up, and sighed. He readied his arms, dreading what was about to happen. Something he loathed above all else.

  Swimming. My one weakness.

  Maurice beat his arms frantically, rising slowly and awkwardly above the giant ball of light. He almost missed the top when he let himself fall back down, but he was able to stabilize. Slowly, he took position at the apex of Henry’s evolutionary bubble, and activated Bissal Anchoring.

  He felt his shell stick to the ball like an old barnacle to a rock. Nothing should be able to pull him off other than himself.

  Okay. Now we wait.

  The crab slowly watched his surroundings. He couldn’t see behind him very well, but he could activate his best skill at any time. At a moment’s notice.

  It was perfect for protecting a small area. Though to be fair, the bottom half of Henry wasn’t protected… But hopefully the clones wouldn’t know that… Right?

  Could Henry even be hurt while he was in the bubble? Maurice hoped not.

  The crab looked down at the opaque ball of light he was sitting on. Most of his class slots were full, thanks to Henry. The crab didn’t remember much from before, but he knew he hadn’t been as active as he was now. He’d been content to follow the whims of Seeker’s Bounty, traveling around to find shells and hiding within them. One fateful day, he’d sensed it. It was one of the few memories he still had from back then.

  A world-traveling turtle.

  Of course, he didn’t know that, back then. Only that his trait had blared at him to go toward it. If he got anything from it, he’d have to make sure Henry got it. That’d be the least he could do, after all the abilities he’d gotten for free.

  Next time I hope I'll get the mana hoarding one.

  A small shoal of fish swam by, and a Riptide shark came close to the ball, circling it once before swimming away.

  Maurice still felt a bit bad about that debt. Henry had cut off his limbs dozens of times, while the hermit crab had only given him one pincer.

  The crab scuffed at the smooth light below him.

  I don’t like feeling this.

  True, he didn’t have that many skills, but there were still a couple he could give Henry. Like–

  Hate.

  Maurice’s eyes jerked to the left as he activated Hermit’s Domain.

  The clone was swimming close. It’s eye on him.

  “[fOoD.]”

  Maurice twitched but didn’t hide. He waited for it to approach. When it was within reach of his Domain skill, Maurice pointed at the space between its eyes and snapped his pincer.

  Its eye and brain were crushed with the invisible implosion, and the clone turned to dark-blue ink.

  Maurice immediately deactivated his skill, gasping at the mana it ate up, and listened to Telepathic Sense.

  Ten minutes later, two new clones appeared.

  ***

  Henry’s eyes fluttered open, and the first thing he felt was how… sensitive his innards felt. Not his physical ones. His soul?

  Was that what just happened? Soul surgery?

  Henry slowly pulled his arms under him. His muscles obeyed like usual. He felt off, but he seemed healthy. Mostly.

  Then something came through Telepathic Sense. A low thrum of fear mixed with resolve that made his stomach knot as he shot up and looked upward.

  Hanging above him, on a suspended white disk, was Maurice. The crab was reaching out from within his shell to snip at a black-and-yellow striped kraken as it tried to dig through the back of his shell.

  Maurice was in a bad shape. One eye-stalk was missing. One pincer was crushed, along with a few of his legs. His second pincer seemed smaller and scarred, but was still desperately trying to reach the clone.

  Henry flew upward as cold fury burned through him. He prepared to use his skills and braced for the pain he suspected was about to assail him, but it didn’t. Two bladed arms whipped upward and sheared through the clone like scissors through cloth.

  It had been easy. The skills felt as responsive and part of him as his own limbs.

  Maurice’s single eye looked down, and his claw lowered. “[Are you… okay?]”

  His voice was weak. Slow.

  Henry slowly extended an arm around Maurice to pick the crab up. Maurice put a claw on his arm. “[I’m okay, Maurice. You can rest. Do you have mana to regenerate?]”

  Maurice took a second to respond. His eye swivelled down, then the disk began to fade and the crab fell into Henry’s arm. “[I…think. I did… good. I can also… protect. See? I sleep.. now. A little…]”

  Henry cradled the shell. He tried to use Regenerate on it, but the skill refused to leave his skin.

  Work, damn you. Fucking work.

  It wouldn’t. But thankfully, after a few tries, he saw the familiar hue of Regenerate come from within Maurice’s shell. It’d stay on for a few seconds, then turn off. Again and again as the hermit crab slowly healed himself.

  Henry breathed slowly. He looked around, but there were no clones to be seen. He bundled the crab between his arms, safely hidden under his massive frame, and waited for Maurice to recover.

  He would recover. Henry was sure of it. Henry had recovered from worse and had been weaker. So Maurice would be okay. Once he was, they’ll settle the score.

  The stalking kraken would be dead before the week was out. It was only a matter of time.

  Joran Q

  If you want to fuel me with a cup of coffee, there's . I use the new subscription model, so you will not get double billed on the first of the month.