After some brief dancing atop the corpses of my enemy, I checked on Green and Indigo’s condition. No matter how excited I was for an upgrade, these two were what I needed to protect. To the current, monster me… they were my whole world. Once I determined they were okay-

Green jabbed a still partially bleeding Crayfish head into Indigo’s side. Indigo curled up and accepted the head. Very soon, Indigo’s body shrunk very slightly and the head pivoted to look at us both. I mimed squirting liquid out of the mouth, curious if it would come with that annoying skill. Indigo shook his head and I shrugged my oozing shoulders.

Wait a second, was a shake of the head an instinctual motion? Might also just be because of the Level 10 switch. Our dear Indigo is developing basic communication Skills. Uwah, hard to keep track of how quickly the intelligence of these two is growing… are crayfish brains really so capable?

A line of investigation for another time. Green bounced next to me, probably just as excited as I was. She bounced higher and higher, barely able to wait. Now, I wanted to peel apart our prize. I turned to face the corpse—

For the third time today, a wave of mud smacked into the front of my body. By the time it had cleared, my dreams had been obliterated; Green used a long frog leg to wave cheerfully from within the pulped remnants of the corpse. Then she bounced over, holding two objects in her tails.

She hadn’t been bouncing from excitement. She had been bouncing up to gain height and crashed down like a dinosaur annihilating meteor. She had struck exactly on the wound I had inflicted, so the interior of the thorax had been pulped.

The only unaffected body parts were the foreclaws and legs, most of which had been broken in the fight-

Green… in the future, let my serrated foreleg perform the butchering… when you need to smash your way to the inner organs, the only parts remaining are goop… I still felt stunned, but at least I saw the tell-tale tingle of Mana from one of the objects wrapped in her tail. I reached out tentatively for her gift and let out an explosive sigh of relief.

Would you like to integrate the slightly cracked monster core of Lonely Crayfish Egg-Defender Lvl 12?

Integration requires 30 Anima. Continue?

Ah, Green! While your methods aren’t ideal, perhaps you are more observant than I’ve given you credit for. You know which body parts I am interested in and handled the butchery yourself. I would likely… ahem, have taken one or two of the others to perform a few minor tests, but still. And the other one is undoubtedly the heart-

Would you like to integrate the malnourished stomach of Lonely Crayfish Egg-Defender Lvl 12?

Integration requires 24 Anima. Continue?

I looked down at the blob Green stuffed into me. Ah, alas… no, perhaps the brief flashes of her coherence are just luck…

Green also seemed incredibly enthusiastic about me absorbing her gifts, continually jabbing the organs inside of me. I felt somewhat helpless, but could only allow myself to be bullied into absorbing both of them, despite the hefty Anima costs. Perhaps there is a sharp rise in Anima required to integrate stronger limbs?

Just to be on the safe side, I started with the stomach.

You have attempted to Integrate the malnourished stomach of Lonely Crayfish Egg-Defender Lvl 12! You have failed. Integration target has degraded.

Your Skill Integrate Body Part has grown to Level 11.

You have integrated the sour and malnourished stomach of Lonely Crayfish Egg-Defender Lvl 12! You have unlocked Stat (Temp) Recovery. You have unlocked the Stat (Temp) Constitution. You have unlocked Skill (Temp) Feed Lvl 1. Sour and Malnourished Stomach of Lonely Crayfish Egg-Defender Lvl 12 provides Recovery +4 and Constitution +1.

Constitution: The extra toughness of your body. Boosts resistance to attacks and adds a small boost to physical recovery speed.

(Temp) Feed: (Altered to suit your Species) When Absorbing Anima, you gain a slight chance of regenerating a small amount of Health over the next minute. Effect chance increases with Skill Level. Amount of Health regenerated increases with Skill Level.

This is a degraded version of the organ? Perhaps some of the failure was softened by the Skill Level. But all these benefits… I need to murder high-Level monsters more often… Recovery raised to new heights and now some Constitution? Plus this Feed Skill… heh, I won’t need to allow Anima to dissipate in order to recover Health…

Finally, I turned to the real prize. Again with her weird intuition, Green shoved the core into my ooze just as I prepared to activate my Skill.

Would you like to integrate the slightly cracked monster core of Lonely Crayfish Egg-Defender Lvl 12?

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Integration requires 30 Anima. Continue?

You have integrated the cracked and fragile monster core of Lonely Crayfish Egg-Defender Lvl 12! Another monster core detected within your body. The monster cores are beginning to react with one another.

Your Skill (Species) Integrate Body Part has grown to Level 12.

Your Skill (Species) Integrate Body Part has grown to Level 13.

Your Skill (Species) Integrate Body Part has grown to Level 14.

Your Skill (Temp) Lesser Mana Detection has grown to Level 10(+12).

Your Skill (Species) Integrate Body Part has grown to Level 15.

An Interesting Achievement: For fusing two monster cores, +5 Mana.

You have integrated the Hybrid Monster Core Lvl 13. You have unlocked access to Kami’s Blessings. You already possess a Kami Allegiance. You have pledged to The Third Tier Kami: To and Fro the River Wanders.

A Notable Achievement: For pledging to a Kami before receiving Quests, you have unlocked an extra Basic Blessing Slot.

You have integrated the Hybrid Monster Core Lvl 13. Hybrid Monster Core Lvl 13 provides Mana +5.

Eh? What the hell is all this? My vision spun as the unexpected spurt of notifications filled my vision. Satisfied that I had accepted her gifts, Green bounced away. Indigo followed after her, clearly afflicted with Stockholm’s Syndrome, which at least left me alone to consider.

My eyes spun around, just to make sure no one would witness what came next. Because sometimes, when I activated my ultimate move…

…even bystanders would be ‘blown’ away.

Mana Eruption!

A whole cloud of blue Mana billowed around me as I burned through the massive supply of 10 Mana I now possessed. With my Lesser Mana Detection, the energy glittered around me; I felt like I exited in the middle of a snow globe.

Okay, still not super useful. So, which of these new developments to follow up on next? I waffled a bit; I couldn’t decide how to feel or what to investigate first. So I stood in my Mana and just stared forward— and because I was standing still, I saw my Mana beginning to funnel down into the mud in front of me.

Eh what the hell is this? Setting aside all the benefits I had accumulated from this new Monster Core, I dug up the mud to figure what happened to my Mana. I found crayfish eggs, which made sense, considering the Egg-Defender had been lounging here. What made less sense was that my Mana seeped into several of the eggs. I couldn’t be sure, but the orange coating of the eggs now had the slightest tint of lavender to them.

This… is a distraction. Can’t grow strong if I let every random egg I encounter derail me. I stomped a few eggs I saw with my sharp legs and then marched away.

Once I moved amongst the reeds, I went to my Status Screen and selected the Kami Allegiance heading. A new menu popped up in front of me.

Allegiance: To and Fro the River Wanders (III)

Known Blessings(0/2): None

Note: Please Pray to your Kami in order to receive your first blessing.

Eh? Prayer? Kami is a word for god, right?

Aren’t real-life gods… actually quite intimidating? They could have a bad mood and then suddenly I am smooshed across the ground in a fiery display of wrath… Oh, I suppose this is a river god. Perhaps I will be drowned- no that work, because I do not need to breathe. If this river Kami really wanted to kill me…

No, let’s not tempt fate by figuring out how I can be killed…

Your Skill (Earned) Basic Wisdom has grown to Level 7.

Okay okay, I get it. Ahem. As someone too busy getting caught up in fictional words to believe in anything in my first life, isn’t it difficult to suddenly approach this with anything but irony in my heart? Oh Kami…

…

Ahem Ahem. Fine, oh great kami, please hear my p-p-prayer…

I created two tentacles and spread them wide in a gesture of supplication. The wind whistled through the nearby reeds, emphasizing the deafening silence of the Kami’s response. No magical Blessing settled across my body. God remained aloof.

Perhaps… Oh great To and Fro the River Wanders-

The gaze of your Kami turns toward you.

“Detestable.”

“Benefactor.”

“...inexplicable. Yet we hear your prayer.”

A massively loud noise made me jump and roll backward. I had the strangest sensation of a whole flock of ducks quacking into my ears. The surrounding reeds were flattened by a blast of wind. Or they developed sentience and bowed to the presence of the kami.

I couldn’t decide which was more reasonable in this world.

But at the same time, another notification popped up that at least relieved my anxiety.

You have received your first Blessing: (Basic) Squirt Water (0/100).

Actual, great To and Fro the River Wanders, I earned a notable achievement, so I can even receive a second blessing.

Your Kami snickers.

“Greedy.”

“Too soon.”

“Denied.”

The Kami is disappointed. It has decreed you will receive no more Blessings until you perform a pilgrimage and pay homage to the Kami in person.

This stupid…! Gah!!! Must remain leisurely and calm. My second life… will not end like the first…

Even if it was tempting to find out how long it would take my clockwork to chew up and spit out a disrespectful kami.

It took me quite a bit of furious quivering, but gradually the undulating jelly of my form calmed me down. Ah, truly, my whole body was a stress ball and I could not believe my luck. When I had ceased seething, I at least felt excited about finally obtaining a use for my Mana. I focused inside and could feel the Blessing within me, a glowing sigil that appeared rather easily when I let my mind go black.

Okay, perhaps the effect will be worth it? If I can rival the power that the Crayfish demonstrated…

I activated the blessing, eyes rosy with anticipation-

Insufficient Mana to activate Blessing. Proficiency Lost.

Proficiency has degraded beyond acceptable limits (0)! The Blessing has devolved to (???) Dribble Liquid (0/10)

The Kami shakes its head.

“Typical.”

“Unexpected.”

“Unprecedented.”