The Clam turned into rainbow smoke, and I had the options of shell, flesh or a pearl. Silver-rank flesh was no good to me, so I went for the shell and pearl. I started to meditate.

That tipped Reaping Magic over to bronze. Ooooh, that felt amazing. I was like an injection of power as well as mana. I closed my eyes and let the feeling flow through me. The skill would not level any more until all the other skills in the Essense of the Reaper also reached bronze. That was fine. It would happen.

I examined my first bronze-level skill. The amount of magic it reaped had increased and dissipated slower, so I had more time to choose what to select. Bronze was now the default in the spirit coins and monster cores. That would significantly up my income.

Then there was better news. I could turn the magic into crafted items as long as I knew how to craft them. I knew a lot. Poisons, acids, and explosives from alchemy alone, then there were knives of all different types, and I used the weapons skill book as well as the armour books.

Of course, it wasn’t that easy. It used significantly more magic and had to have some relation to the monster I killed. I wasn’t getting steel knives from a clam. I am curious about what I might have gotten from a clam. I will have to wait for the next one.

I got out my record of my skills and updated it.

* Reaping Magic {Reaping Stone} B1

* Iron Rank: Collect the magic from recently killed monsters to form relevant natural objects. Magic will dissipate quickly. The amount collected depends on the Level and Spirit Attribute.

* Bronze Rank: You can form a wider range of objects. I can also create crafted objects if I have knowledge of the craft; they must relate to the monster. Magic dissipates slower.

“You look like you had a skill go to bronze,” Val said. “Which one was it?”

Oh. I had never revealed this skill to her or any of them here. I didn’t want to be taken advantage of as this skill could make a lot of people rich. “It is one of my support skills,” I replied.

“Oh?” she queried, “One that could produce silver-ranked bones perhaps?”

“Yeah,” Zavis said, holding up a bone, “where did these come from?”

“You have a harvesting skill, don’t you,” Val accused. “That’s why you are so rich recently.”

I didn’t know what to say.

“Lucky bastard,” Haemir took my silence as a yes.

“Really?” Zavis asked. “Do you want to join our team, we can get you levelled.”

“And that is why I was keeping it quiet,” I said. I looked at Val, “Thanks a lot.”

“We’ll keep it quiet,” Haemir said with a double eyebrow raise and a look that said for a price.

He got hit by his sister, “He’s joking.”

“I know he is joking, but those responses are why I am not joining any team,” I said.

“Sorry,” Val said.

“The bones are from the bears in the moon forest, aren’t they?” Zavis asked.

I nodded.

“Hah,” said Val, “I should have kept the moon essence all to myself.”

“I did tell you to.”

“We won’t spread this, but it will come out when you work with others, like it did here with the bones,” Zavis said.

I nodded. I knew that, but I was putting it off anyway. “No need to advertise it.”

“Hey, what did the clam give you?” Haemir asked. Lyari punched him, “Hey, what was that for? We all know about it now.”

I pulled out one of the clam shells. It was a smaller one that would fit through the shield I had.

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“What are you going to do with that?” Haemir asked.

“Sell it. It is silver ranked, so no good for me,” I said.

Then I pulled out the pearl. It was the size of a small human's head, perfectly round and an off-white colour.

“Wow, that's big,” Haemir said,

“Yeah. I figured it would be valuable, but I have no idea what for,” I replied.

“The Magic Society will snap that up,” Val said, “They use them in the water chambers for long-distance communications. They probably have other uses as well,” she shrugged.

I stored everything away again. I was looking forward to Bronze rank as it would give me more room in my Hunters Pack.

We had a longer rest on the island and got some sleep. Then we moved on to the next gate.

It was the smell that alerted me first. I had been smelling under the water. I knew many sea creatures had enhanced smell and could smell things like blood from a long way away. I figured my iron-rank-enhanced smell should be able to do the same. It was taking a lot of effort as getting water up your nose was incredibly uncomfortable. I kept working at it as the physical aspects of your senses get sturdier and useful in more situations as you rank up.

We were moving slowly in moderately deep water, and that meant it was over my head. I was on my shield and keeping my head underwater a lot, getting it up my nose. I spluttered and sneezed and spat.

“Incoming, that way,” I pointed. I knew it had a strong smell, but I didn’t recognise it, “possibly silver?” I said.

Perich looked at the three bronze members,

“Let us try first,” Zavis said.

“Yes!” Haemir reiterated.

“You guys should come up with a team name,” Val said.

“I did,” Haemir said.

“But we rejected it,” Zavis said.

“Pretty Trolls was fine,” Haemir argued.

“No, it wasn’t,” stated Zavis.

“Nothing with the word Troll in it is fine,” Lyari added as they left toward whatever was coming.

Zavis was running on the water, Lyari was … walking? It looked like her legs had turned into tree trunks and lengthened to reach the seabed. Haemir had an item on each arm that kept him afloat, and he swam after them.

We watched as if it were silver, and then we would only be of limited help and probably just get in the way. Depending on what type of silver-rank creature it was would determine whether they could handle it on their own.

Pretty Trolls, ah? I might start using it and see if it sticks.

I watched, and Zavis struck at something in the water. I saw the water change colour. Was it bleeding? A jet of coloured water struck him, and he flew back and landed in the sea.

“Heidel shit,” I heard Perich say as he launched himself off the boat and toward the monster. I couldn’t see what he was worried about. A jet of water would not hurt Zavis.

Then, the sea erupted in a swarm of tentacles, and they attacked everything in or near the water. I saw Venter create a shield around the boat to protect her instruments. Massive tentacles smashed against the shield to no effect.

Val was in the shield. I was floating on my shields behind the boat and went flying when a tentacle as wide as my torso nicked the edge of the shield.

I splashed down well away from the boat and swam for my life. I had my resin flippers on, but this thing was fast and angry. It was also clouding the water with some type of ink that smelled almost as bad as the rainbow smoke. I couldn’t see anything, and my sense of smell was overwhelmed. My hearing was fine, but with all the splashing and water movement, it was basically useless to me.

I orientated away from the biggest noise and swam. I couldn’t see anything, and the smell was horrible. I was trying to swim up to the surface, but I wasn’t sure where that was. I hit the seabed and reorientated. At least it was shallow at only 6-8m deep.

Before I got to the surface, my right leg was grabbed, and I was yanked violently backwards. I was dragged from the water and caught in a tentacle. I grabbed a quick breath. I could feel the tentacle cracking my leg bones. I brought my other foot to bear and racked it with my claws leaving lacerations, but I only had two claws left on the foot.

I was tossed around like a rag doll, and my hip joint dislocated from my leg.

I caught a glimpse of Zavis slicing tentacles, and something powerful hit the main body, probably from Perich. I then disappeared back into the black, impenetrable water. By this time, I was pretty blinded by the pain to take much notice of the smell.

I was moved violently through the water. Then the tentacle gave a violent spasm, and everything stilled as my leg was torn off. Blood started pumping from my hip joint, and I didn’t know how to stop it.

I fumbled at my belt for the strongest health potion I had, but there was only a weak position left attached. I firmed a seal around it with my lips and drank, knowing it would not be enough.

Ardisia manifested and wrapped herself around my waist, stemming a lot of the blood flow. I felt I was losing consciousness. With Ardisia attached, I think that made me lighter than the water, and I started to float to the top. Maybe it was also the loss of the leg.

Something crashed next to me, and I saw a long, dark shape sink past me. I must be getting close to the surface if I can see that.

Did I have anything in my Hunters Pack that would help? I didn’t know. I couldn't think.

I breached the surface and took a breath as a tentacle crashed down onto me, and everything went dark.