Maurice stared down at his limp pincer. “[It’s not working. It feels… I don’t know. But at least it’s not shaking? It looks normal. No deformities or weird growths.]”
The crab sighed, then severed his modified pincer with his intact one. Henry picked up the severed limb and eyed it for a second before slowly cutting through the exoskeleton.
“[I can’t really tell, and this isn’t worth much, but the innards don’t look malformed. I’m sure you’ll figure something out soon.]”
Creating functional organs was a significantly tougher challenge than either of them had expected. Henry himself was still struggling with his articulated arm project, so seeing a stumped Maurice wasn’t at all surprising.
Brains were extremely complex, no matter how simple or small.
“[I’m sure it’s possible. I remember you creating a small tentacle on your arm when you got the Skill.]”
The human-illusion of Maurice shrugged. “[I can still do that. But it’s not functional. I mean it moves, but I can’t control it. It was just the Skill taking over.]”
Henry knew exactly what the crab meant. The Skill acted like some sort of artificial intelligence that took their instructions and created whatever they pictured. But integrating a new creation with their own nervous system and have it be stable? Functional? Permanent?
Much more difficult.
Henry had barely managed to create a simple working hinge-joint in one of his arms in the past five days. Sure, they weren’t doing this non-stop, but progress had been slow. Henry’s illusion–a woman wearing a lab coat and tortoise-patterned round glasses–frowned as she leaned over the limb he’d just modified.
“[It’ll be a while for me to get wings.]”
Henry was using the image of one of his old professors. He told himself it was better for Maurice to learn from different faces, but to be honest it was better than looking at the person he wasn’t anymore. He knew that was an issue he’d have to face and deal with eventually, but it could probably wait.
“[Wings will be hard to recreate,]” groaned Maurice, but Henry still felt the resolve and excitement under the thick layer of annoyance.
The crab had been fascinated by the idea of shapeshifting functional organs and limbs at first. Henry had shown him all sorts of configurations; feathered wings, membrane wings, even insectile wings. But once they started working on these long-term physiological changes they’d hit a wall pretty darn fast, and the frustration was getting to the crab.
“[I think I’m close. I can feel it,]” said Maurice, eying his discarded limb before looking down at his re-growing stump.
They both silently ate from the Stoneskin kraken they’d freshly killed and considered their recent progress.
Five days of hunting had netted Henry quite a few improvements. He’d pushed himself to level 20, which in turn raised his Spirit stats to a new threshold. Both Octominds and Arcana leveled up due to his heavy use of illusions–which unlocked the E-Rank upgrade of the latter. He’d also acquired the abilities he had in his Ephemerals from the C-Rank Goliath and as of an hour ago, he had enough to unlock his final Skill upgrade, which he quickly did before settling down for their daily shapeshift training session.
Henry eyed the joint on his frontal arm. Such a simple joint wasn’t very useful, but it was a step in the right direction. Joints meant a way to exercise his strength. Leverage. Tentacles could grip and latch on, but they couldn’t constrict that well. For the longest time he’d relied on Tentacle Whip–which was stronger now thanks to the Goliath’s abilities–but he knew he wasn’t tapping into all of his strength.
His weakness at this moment was a lack of joints, and that weakness extended to Arcane Arm. Henry had tried to change the shape of the magic limb, but he could only make it copy his current arms. Although, he could make it take the shape of a shapeshifted one. So basically, the Skill imitated what was present.
“Another limitation that’ll hopefully go away once the ability evolves.”
Speaking of capabilities, Henry loaded up his recent level notifications along with his newly leveled and unlocked abilities.
Hunger of the Trickster (E): Level 8 -> Level 9
Arms of the Trickster (E): Level 3 -> Level 5
Misdirection of the Trickster (E): Level 6 -> Level 7
Arcana of the Trickster (E): Level 4 -> Level 5
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Vitality of the Trickster (E): Level 3 -> Level 4
Domain (F): Level 4 -> Level 5
Dispelling Bubble (F): Level 4 -> Level 6
Unimpeded Arms (F): Level 1 -> Level 4
Amplified Impact (F): Level 1 -> Level 3
Arms of the Trickster (E) - Level 5:
* Assistance of the Octominds:
* Passive: Your mental faculties are improved by the individual brains in your many arms.
* F-Rank: Amplify the effects of a Skill that can benefit from increased cognition.
* E-Rank: Multiple Octominds can be temporarily pooled to provide a more efficient and substantial assistance.
…
Arcana of the Trickster (E) - Level 5:
* Summon Illusions:
* F-Rank: Summon an illusion within 65 feet of yourself.
* E-Rank: Illusionary sounds can be produced.
…
Vitality of the Trickster (E) - Level 4:
* Arcane Regeneration:
* Passive [41 Charges]: Recover from injuries and ailments faster. While meditating, health and mana recovery are sped up further. Continuously form charges of health and mana to be used at a later time.
* F-Rank: Spend mana to restore your health and recover from ailments.
* E-Rank: Spend a larger amount of mana for a significant burst of regeneration.
…
Class: Krakenbane Wanderer (D) - Level 21
Skills (6/8):
Imploding Bubbles (F) - Level 1: Shoot a beam of bubbles that implode on impact.
Domain (F) - Level 5: Trigger an ability that requires touch within a nearby area. Area grows with levels.
Molten Projectile (F) - Level 1: Shoot a lump of molten-hot material.
Dispelling Bubble (F) - Level 6: Summon a bubble that disrupts Skills in your vicinity.
Unimpeded Arms (F) - Level 4: Channel mana into your arms to suppress environmental friction.
Amplified Impact (F) - Level 3: Channel mana into a limb to release on impact, significantly increasing the offensive capability of an attack.
Even his class Skills had leveled. He hadn’t put a lot of focus on them, but he’d still ended up using Dispelling Bubble and Domain a few times. Considering their low rank, it wasn’t difficult to level them. Henry found that Domain worked extremely well with Bite’s temporary charges, for example. For other options… He was still exploring them. He knew there would be great applications, such as Maurice’s imploding attacks, which were an upgrade of Imploding Bubbles. The Skill was a cornerstone for one of Maurice’s Aspects, which meant it was stronger and more versatile in the crab’s claws.
He only wished he could level his Aspects as easily as his class Skills. The two he needed to get higher barely moved, but at least Arms of the Trickster kept progressing well, thanks to his heavy use of the Octominds.
“We just need something powerful to fight. An encounter where I can let loose with the Ink Clones and actually make use of them.”
Henry turned to Maurice, who seemed to be preparing for another try at shapeshifting a mini-brain into his pincers.
“[Maurice. Want to explore one of the caves we found?]”
The crab looked up, and it took him barely half a second to detach from the deep focus he’d been in. “[Sure! The one near the jellyfish or the other one?]”
They had found a couple of dark, deep caves where life seemed a bit sparse, which pointed toward the possibility of a large and dangerous predator living within. Henry had made note of them, saving them up for later, but now was a good time.
“[Let’s start with the jellyfish. It might be a powerful Arcane kraken hiding in there.]”
Mana-draining jellyfish. Their territory had been an hour or two to the west of the island, and it had been a surprisingly good hunting ground. The jellyfish themselves weren’t a big deal–outside of their painful, mana-stealing stings–but there were some large triggerfish over there. Even a couple low D-rank krakens.
“[Alright, let’s go. We should spend some time there and try to train a resistance to mana-drain.]”
Maurice groaned. “[Yeah… I guess you’re right. It feels bad though. It makes me sleepy.]”
“[More reason why you should build a resistance to it.]”
Henry picked up the crab and placed him on the usual spot, then launched himself up from the seabed. A quick activation of Unimpeded Arms and Slick Coat made him fly through the water.
“[Those two Skills seem close,]” said Maurice after a few moments.
“[Yeah. I bet I’ll be able to merge them pretty easily on the next evolution. How’s the progress with the levels?]”
“[Good. I’m doing what you said. Buying Stat points. You’re right, it feels like the better choice and I still have a bunch to buy.]”
Henry nodded at that. “[Same. I spent everything on unlocking the higher ranked Skills. Now I can invest in points. Hopefully whatever’s in that cave is high D-rank. Or maybe low C-rank.]”
That would certainly cover most–if not all–of the points he had available for purchase.
“[You think we’re ready for C-rank?]”
Henry produced an “eh” sound with Summon Illusion’s new upgrade, which made Maurice jump. “[Sorry. That was me. Also yes, I think we can take one if it’s in the same vein as the Goliath. If it’s that simple. Otherwise… it might not be worth the risk. Not yet.]”
Maurice was quiet. Henry expected a comment about the sound-illusion, but the seconds stretched. From his Mind Weaver’s Tongue, he felt shock. A constant hum of excitement and astonishment.
Henry was about to speak when Maurice broke through. “[Chimeric Assimilation just finished working on the turtle shell. I got two Skills.]”
“[Oh!]” Henry immediately landed on a large rock and looked up. “[What are they?]”
In response, Maurice detached from his head. The crab beat his pincers to gain some distance then turned to face Henry, and then–
Maurice disappeared in a puff of purple light and immediately reappeared a few yards to the right. “[It’s called ‘Blink’! The second one is ‘Find the Path’.]”
And with that, a world of possibilities opened up ahead of them.