Henry swam to the cave’s exit as he called back his camouflaged blood clones, while his Octominds established their connection once more. Stormsong was right next to him, peering at the world outside, while Maurice continued pouting on the seat Henry had made for him.

“[You just need to get to C-Rank. It’s not that complicated, and we’ll have time to explain everything to you while we’re out here. You do have to focus on leveling, though.]”

That seemed to mollify the crab a bit, but Henry couldn’t focus on it too much. He had bigger fish to fry, which was needing to make sure they weren’t about to be ambushed by something he’d missed.

He’d lost contact with his blood clones for a good while, so he couldn’t tell if anything dangerous slipped through the perimeter he’d established. If he hadn’t, it wouldn’t mean his perimeter was safe, of course. It just meant that when something dangerous like the B-rank sharks or any other threat roamed toward them, they had time to react and hide. Right now he had no clue what was around.

“[We have to stay discreet until the blood clones make the rounds,]” he sent to the other two, surveying the reef in the depression they were in. “[Was I out for long?]”

“[I had time to work on my Clawminds like… 6 times.]”

Henry winced. That was close to six hours. “[Are you two hungry?]”

Stormsong looked away from the cave’s exit.“[I can eat.]”

“[I’d love some kraken roe,]” said the crab. When Henry stared at him, he dropped his claws and rolled his eye-stalks. “[Crab meat is fine… I guess.]”

Henry sighed as he put the crab down and pulled some spare cuts from his storage.“[You keep learning the worst things.]”

“[Well you won’t tell me about concepts. And I’m learning these things from you.]”

Henry didn’t rise to the bait. “[At least you’ll fit right in with when we meet humans.]”

Next, he pulled some more drake meat out and put it in front of Stormsong before taking a cut himself. While he ate, he began exploring one of the options in his new menu.

Henry loaded the concept menu and selected Disassemble Ephemeral construct, which gave him the option to break down one of the temporary abilities copied by his earliest skills. Henry studied the prompt for a second, then he confirmed.

Excising ephemeral construct: Venomous Spikes of the Lionfish

Henry closed his eyes as he felt the nudge deep in stomach. A twist, a pull, and then a ball of energy came free. He opened his eyes, and there it was in front of him. A bundle of glass-like shards that reminded him of the System’s lesson, arranged and loosely connected by a glowing blue string.

Maurice stopped eating while Stormsong looked up and stared. Henry didn’t dwell on their reactions, and instead focused on the bundle in front of him. It felt flimsy. He could see motes flying off the string tying it all together. He tried to press his will against it to make it last longer, but he couldn’t. Well, he could, but his attempt was too awkward. Too… vague.

Like when he tried using chopsticks the first time, and kept dropping his food.

The string came loose and its dissolution sped up. In a second, only the three shard-like items were left.

One was steely-gray with sharp edges that gave Henry the impression of a razor. One was noxious green mottled with a dark red, and the third was a blood red that kept rippling, as if it wanted to change and make something of itself.

Henry tried to reach for the shards. Would they break down as well? He didn’t see any clear indicator of them dissolving. How could he store them? These were the Concepts, he believed.

“Well… Time to test some stuff out,” Henry said to himself right before he touched the shifting concept.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

He instantly regretted it.

His first attempt resulted in the red one immediately sinking into his skin. His flesh distorted and began growing out of control. Changing shape and size in a second. Hair and sharp spines broke out of the site, and Henry immediately used Evershifting Strike to cut his limb off.

In the quiet that followed, Stormsong leaned down and bit into a piece of drake. “[You can’t touch them with your bare arm like that.]”

Henry glanced at the dolphin, then looked back to the two shards. “[How do I use them? Also, can I store them?]”

“[What are you two talking about? The blue stuff is gone.]”

Right. Maurice couldn’t see Concepts yet. Henry wondered how that worked… and why it was limited to only C-ranks.

Henry began explaining.“[I’m looking at—actually, I’ll show you.]”

An illusory imitation of the shards appeared right above the ones Henry had in front of him, though it was immediately clear that it was only an image.

He couldn’t copy the otherworldly feeling he was getting from the shards themselves.

“[You need to break them down with your own mana.]” Stormsong explained. [“Your mana can then tell them what to do. As for storing… I don’t know. I use my own stuff, I don’t work with foreign concepts.]”

Henry stared at the dolphin for a second. “[Your own? …Oh. Ooooh.]”

Turning his attention inward, Henry went looking for his personal Aspects. He found them quickly enough, their large forms hovering around each other. He focused on Hunger… and tugged.

He was mostly visualizing things, not really seeing them at first. But when he pulled on Hunger, he felt something move. The sense of Hunger filled his stomach, a gnawing and greedy swirl of mana that tried to consume the rest of his reserves. When he pushed the whole thing down one of his arms, his limb started twitching and gained a healthy reddish hue.

Stormsong clicked at him as she chewed.“[Yes, that’s it. Hunger, right? It makes sense, I guess.]”

Henry didn’t respond, still maintaining focus to keep the mana in control. He wished he had his Octominds, but they were all busy controlling the blood clones.

“What do I do with this now?”

Henry tried concentrating the mana, but he was hitting some sort of limit after which it refused to condense further. Which was when he remembered one of his new menus.

Extracting concepts….

A suction feeling pulled on his reddish arm, drawing the red smoke in front of him and turning it around on itself. A red bead appeared at the center of the whirlwind, slowly growing larger. Within seconds, a new glass-like shard was created.

“Nice… Now. What if I tried this…”

Knowing he couldn’t touch the shards, Henry channeled mana into one arm until it glowed in his mana sense. Then he touched the Hunger shard once more, only for the concept to dissolve into his arm.

“Damnit.”

He extracted it once more, this time recalling the thread he saw surrounding the Concept shards, he whispered to the mana. “Don’t absorb it. Don’t absorb it. Don’t absorb it.”

He willed his mana to be Concept-proof. Like duck feathers to water. Concepts should touch his mana and just… roll-off.

Henry poked Hunger with his glowing arm—and only a tiny bit of Hunger seeped through, while the rest went into his Maw. He beamed up at the dolphin, who stared back at him for a second before she went back to her food. “[Got it. I’ll be able to… collect…]”

Henry trailed off as his Octominds brought his attention to one of his blood clones. The kraken quickly moved his consciousness to it, and the cave faded in the background. He found himself camouflaged as stone, only a few yards away from the wall of golden lights.

Click…. Click….. Click

Soft, familiar clicks were getting close. Interspersed and discreet, not willing to draw too much attention to themselves.

Henry kept his camouflage going and hoped Faint Presence was active. He wasn’t sure if his new upgrades were already transferred to his clones or if he needed to re-summon them, but he wasn’t willing to test anything right this second. No need to draw more attention to himself.

He hoped they weren’t dolphins. He didn’t need things to get… complicated. But, unfortunately for him, the universe didn’t care for his preference so he wasn’t at all surprised when the first spotted gray form swam over a reef formation, followed by a handful of others. Trailing behind the six dolphins was one larger than all, with spots that swirled and twisted over its silver skin.

Click.

The dolphins slowed and began turning. Sundots took the lead, guiding the remaining troupe toward Henry.

“Damnit.”