“[You think it’ll have treasure?]”
Henry eyed his remaining notification and shrugged with his human image. “[Doubt it. It might have some random stuff in there, but I doubt krakens care about gold or jewelry. But who knows, we might find anything in there. Probably a bunch of hatchlings.]”
A quick look through everything he had available for upgrade–and all the other Skills slowly creeping up to level 10–made Henry’s non-existent wallet shudder. It was absolutely a good problem to have, and he still had enough kraken Cores to help him, but he’d have to find some large–hostile–targets to ever afford the big items.
Alter Form and Partial Shapeshift. One would at the least allow him a quicker change of size–like how the kraken had enlarged itself in seconds–while the second must be how the kraken had used three arms to create the bone-lance. Meaning he’d get access to a more powerful shapeshifting ability, and he could guess how it would evolve beyond.
In one or two upgrades, it might become a complete shapeshift. Which meant… how was he supposed to use such a Skill without doing some irreversible damage to himself? If his experience with Shapeshifting Arm was of any indication, the Skill wasn’t the easiest thing to use.
“Unless the higher versions have a better guiding system… I guess I’ll know when I upgrade this one.”
Before Henry could turn his attention back to his interface, Maurice spoke up.“[What are we going to do about the hatchlings?]”
“[Hmm? Ah. Nothing. We’ll leave them be. Let nature do its thing. Some will grow up. Some will die out. Life will go on.]”
Maurice hesitated for a moment, which made Henry look up. The crab then “[If krakens are so dangerous… is leaving them alone such a good idea?]”
Slowly, Henry exhaled. “Oh boy,” he thought to himself, then looked up to Maurice. “[Alright, there’s a pretty easy explanation for why that’s probably not a good idea. Back in my home country, there was a city that had a pretty big kelp economy. There was a kelp forest, sort of like this one, and fishers and locals would often go out in boats and collect kelp and algae to sell. People would cook with it, make teas, eat it after it was dried, use it in Spas, and all sorts of other things. The problem was, sea otters also lived in that kelp forest, and the people of the city started hunting them for their fur. They were out there on the boats anyway, so might as well, right?]”
Henry summoned the image of an otter swimming down and picking up sea urchins, cracking them with a rock, then eating them. Then the otter faded away, and the sea urchins started multiplying, while the kelp stalks began thinning, until the forest was no more.
“[It didn’t happen fast. But once the otters were gone, the sea urchin population exploded. Which in turn, overtaxed the kelp forest and ended up in the whole ecosystem collapsing on itself.]”
Henry dismissed the illusion, then looked leaned back and glanced at Maurice. “[So. What do you think?]”
Human-Maurice nodded and crossed his arms.. “[The otters should have been stronger and beat those hunters up.]”
Henry gave him a blank look, and Maurice grinned. “[I’m joking. I like how you presented this! This was a lesson, right? Okay. So. We don’t know what the krakens do. Maybe they’re the reason why the ocean’s not overrun with something terrible. Like… super-urchins.]”
Maurice gave him his most winning smile, and Henry nodded. “[Good enough. I’m going to look at my interface now.]”
Human-Maurice laughed while his true form scuttled to the kraken arm to get himself another slice.
1x [Trickster Kraken (C) - Level 47] Core was collected.
Caution. Spatial storage attached to the Core detected. Content will be released when Core is claimed, consumed, or exchanged.
Human-Henry raised an eyebrow, then turned to Maurice and whistled. Henry had the pleasure of seeing the still smug crab jump. “[I’m going to release the content of its storage. It had Maw, just like me. Just in case it has something dangerous and alive in there, be ready.]”
“[If it has shells I want them first! Or treasures!]”
Henry shook his head, then selected the obvious option for the core. “I should look into keeping some spare Cores though. I have the storage, and soon enough E or D Cores won’t matter to me. They might have some use elsewhere.”
Light surged outward out of his chest and surrounded him like a whirlwind of gold dust. The feeling on his skin was… electrifying. And when it sank into him his whole being began to burn. Not just his muscles: his soul felt like it was on fire.
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Henry grit his beak and waited through the changes, unable to gather his thoughts or process what was happening until it was over. When it was all done, he felt like he’d just had the most painful–and reinvigorating–massage and bath of all times.
Krakenbane Wanderer (D) - Level 24 achieved!
...
Krakenbane Wanderer (D) - Level 51 achieved!
2x Class Skill Slots added.
2x Class Trait Slots awarded.
6x Stat points awarded.
3x Strength Stat points awarded.
3x Spirit Stat points awarded.
3x Constitution Stat points awarded.
Trickster Kraken Core (C) contained significant Spirit Stats. 3x Spirit Stat points awarded.
Trickster Kraken Core (C) contained significant Dexterity Stats. 2x Dexterity Stat points awarded.
“Oh… I broke through Constitution and Spirit’s thresholds. Dexterity too! And I get some extra slots. Wait. Does Krakenbane’s slot count? No, it doesn’t. Phew!”
Henry felt amazing. He felt… reforged. His mana reserves–though still low–felt deeper than they’d ever been. His movements seemed more fluid. More controlled. “I’ll do some testing with that later. As for levels… I got 27. For something more than a 100 levels above me… I can’t imagine the requirements for leveling in C-Rank. Pretty sure I jumped like 50 levels last time I beat something with this wide of a level difference. Though I’m getting some nice bonus stats. Hah. Even got some Dexterity.”
Content of spatial storage will be released in 3…2…1…
A ripple appeared a few feet in front of Henry and began growing as the countdown ticked down. Like a bubble that slowly deformed the water as it grew larger and when it got to the last tick, the layer peeled off like a cloth.
“[Ewwww. What is that?]”
Out of the fold of space a mound of off-white stuff appeared. Immediately, some of it began wafting away from the heap, clouding the water around it. A few round shapes rolled down… and Henry realized what he was looking at.
“[Roe. Kraken roe.]”
Maurice scuttled closer, then leaned forward, as if sniffing the literal mountain of kraken eggs. “[Actually… it doesn’t smell bad. It’s–]” Maurice spooned a tiny amount and brought it to his mouth. The crab shuddered and began literally shoveling the eggs into his mouth. “[It’s so good. This is the tastiest thing I’ve ever eaten.]”
Henry dubiously eyed the heap for a few seconds while Maurice practically inhaled the poor unborn eggs then shrugged. “[Eh. Why not.]”
It wasn’t as if it could make him sick. Regular fish roe was a delicacy. Why not try something new?
----------------------------------------
“[We need to go back, Henry. Please, you’ve got space. Mine’s full. Pleasepleaseplease!]”
Maurice was right. Henry did have a lot more storage space, especially now that Hunger had upgraded to level 4. 55 cubic meters of storage space, to be exact. Which, if Henry was visualizing this right, should be around the storage space of a small shipping container. Huge. Massive. Just like his new mass limit of 2,600 pounds–which he was now slowly working on with Alter Physique.
With all that in mind, Henry refused to store what had remained of the roe heap in his Maw. He felt like it’d be the equivalent of storing soggy cereal in his pocket. If it was in a container, sure. Fine. But as it was right now? He didn’t like thinking of random kraken eggs swimming around in his storage space like some sort of organic glitter that’d he’d keep seeing wherever he pulled anything out of his storage.
Henry didn’t actually know if it worked like that. It was a detail he hadn’t thought of testing; whether items in his storage got in contact or not. He knew time was suspended somehow, from the few occasions Maurice had been in there.
The eggs probably wouldn’t contaminate anything… or else Maurice would have come out bloodied from the meat Henry had stored.
Still. He didn’t want to.
“[Maurice, for the last time: I’m not putting loose kraken eggs in my storage. We’ve had our fun, we ate plenty. You even barfed twice! I’m sure we’ll find more krakens in the future.]”
The crab continued to complain and grumble about scams as Henry leisurely swam toward the island. Occasionally he’d feel the soft chime of Sense Foe ringing in his ear and he’d glance at it, but he didn’t stop. He wasn't in the mood for a fight–unless it was a new variant–but they were all specimens he’d seen before.
Henry just took in the scenery of the thinning kelp, the reefs, and even stopped to store the occasional interesting-looking plant. He knew it would be a pain to remember everything he had in storage, but he had a solution for that. One he couldn’t implement just yet. If he had a notebook, he could write everything he stored, and then he just needed to retrieve his notebook from storage to keep track of what he had.
He just needed to figure out how to get a notebook. A waterproof one. And a pen. Then how to write with this body.
“Maybe I should go with Partial Shift first…”
He needed to make a choice soon. Whether to prioritize Partial Shapeshift or Flowing Form. He was curious to see how the shifting ability would evolve, and if it would allow him to create more complex organs. On the other hand, Henry had a suspicion about Flowing Form.
He still recalled how the kraken’s strength hadn’t changed when it increased its size. So if Flowing From allowed him to keep his stats… Henry might benefit from being smaller. Especially once he reached the Current.
The whales had said it was dangerous, and considering Henry was finding C-Ranks here, it meant they might be a dime a dozen over there. And they might be fodder for stronger things.
If Henry could keep his strength and have a stealthier frame, he could make use of that.
“Well… I’m going to need to get my hands on 100 C-Tokens first. That should take a minute. In the meantime, I’ll work on upgrading everything else.”
Henry crested the ridge that led down to the ant’s glass river and dove in the direction of the island’s stone wall. The waters weren’t as dark as they’d been the last time, and far down, Henry saw the lava river. Soon enough, the once-hidden entrance of the kraken den appeared in his sight.
Maurice perked right out of his petulant mood. He breathed a single word, and even though Henry knew the chances of finding anything valuable were low, the prospect filled his mind with excitement.
“[Treasure.]”