“[You’re smaller!]”

Maurice was, as usual, loud and obvious in his statements. Henry waved his now short arms. “[I reduced my size so we can be stealthier. I know I could camouflage you too, but we might find things that can see through my disguise. Just like the dolphins. I can’t be relying on concepts every time for us to be safe.]”

Henry was now around the same size as Stormsong when excluding his arms. Two of them were nearly twice his size, and he was using one of his larger arms to keep them hidden in the cave by using it as a rock-shaped stopper. “[It’ll be easier to travel like this. I was getting too big.]”

After a few seconds, a surprised Stormsong asked, “[How many more skills do you have?]”

Maurice chuckled at that, and so did Henry. They both had their human illusions present to get back to practice, while Henry worked on luring something near them with his clones. A mid C-rank was on the way, following one of his clones, unaware that it was literally on its way to an ambush.

“[I have a lot of skills. Do dolphins have ways to copy and learn skills? We might be able to help.]”

The dolphin shook her head—a gesture she already picked up from observing Henry and Maurice’s illusions. “[We can learn but we can’t copy, no. Wait… I know Trickster krakens can, but the cra—Maurice can as well?]”

Both illusions nodded. “[Yes,]” said Henry. He was quiet for a couple of seconds, then he looked down at the crab. “[Carpet shark’s almost here. You’re ready, Maurice?]”

Stormsong grumbled about unfairness while they all prepared themselves to take down the carpet shark. High above their current hiding spot, hanging from one of the algae stalks, two clones were watching the surroundings, eyes peeled for anything that might approach or sneak up on them while they killed their target.

Maurice had to deal the most damage to get the greatest core fragments, and considering he was still technically in D-rank, it might take a moment.

Henry unfurled his arms and swam out of their new cave; Maurice tucked in one of his arms while Stormsong trailed behind.

“[Okay Maurice. We’ll lock it down. You keep hitting it until it dies. Let’s go.]”

***

A stream of bubbles flew at the fleeing Hammerock crab as it struggled to drag itself away from Maurice’s onslaught. Maurice Blinked after it, reappearing over of his target. A second later, a large, glowing blue claw dropped on the low C-rank monster like boulder, and its remaining feet buckled as it slammed against the sand and rocks of the seabed.

Maurice focused his stream of bubbles and gave it another mouthful. The bubbles hit the tough carapace and imploded, each one weakening or straight up tearing a small bit of the large crab’s shell. It would take quite a few of them to really dig into the monster’s insides and mush its vitals, but thankfully, Maurice could keep sending dozens of them every seconds.

At this point, his Imploding Bubbles didn’t even tax him that much when it came to mana.

The mana passive skills I got from Henry were absolutely worth it. Good thing I kept upgrading them.

The hermit crab kept the stream of attack going until he felt the much larger crab weaken and slow. It was odd, feeling things through the magical arm, but Maurice was good at that sort of thing.

Soon enough, the crab finally stopped struggling, and a few moments later, Maurice received the kill notification as he let himself drop atop of his fallen foe. He was panting, pushing air through his gills fast. His body felt sore from all the mana he’d been channeling all day. But it was worth it.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

This was the fourth C-rank they’d downed today, and this one he beat all by himself.

To be fair, Henry said that it was only around level 12 in C-rank, so it didn’t give that much of a fight. But a win’s a win.

Henry swooped in a moment later, picked up Maurice, and stored the large, dead crab in his Maw. The kraken glided along the seabed, even using Riptide Rush to make it to their hiding spot faster.

“[The squids are approaching. They might have sensed something,]” Henry explained.

Maurice was a bit jealous of his friend’s ability to change his body shape this much. He himself was pretty locked into his shell, and there was no way to make it larger, as far as he knew.

A few moments later, they dove into their cave and Henry used one of his arms to camouflage the exit before turning to Maurice.

“[Do you have everything you need? Got enough tokens left over? I have a couple of fragments, if you need them.]”

Maurice clacked his claws in excitement. His legs scuttled along the rocky walls of the cave. “[I have enough. I think. But I need to do the shapeshift skill first right? Are you sure my Clawminds can be done with the upgrade?]”

Before the kraken even began answering, Maurice sensed the amusement and rolled his eyes. He wasn’t getting a straight answer.

A second later, as predicted, Henry dodged the question. “[I don’t want to ruin the surprise. You’ll see when you get it.]”

“[Fine. I’ll get to it, then.]”

“[What upgrade are you two talking about?]” The dolphin approached from behind. She was a lot nicer recently. Though Maurice didn’t understand a lot of the nuances of what was going on with her, he knew enough not to poke the proverbial shark.

Henry waved an arm. “[I’ll explain in a moment. Maurice, good luck. We’ll wait for you to finish, and we’ll pick things up later.]”

With that, Maurice went deeper into the cave and sat down.

Today was a big day. It would have been so much better if he had some kraken roe to celebrate with, but unfortunately, he was out. He had asked Henry if the new shapeshifting skill would allow the kraken to make eggs, but it seemed to have made him uncomfortable and he only said he’d look into it. Maurice wasn’t convinced he had.

Maurice didn’t understand why. But he’d get there. Eventually. In the meantime, he had some fresh crab he could snack on once the process was done.

Alright. Time to upgrade my Skill. Then evolve.

***

Maurice was annoyed at himself as he came out of the evolution process. He kept still, digesting everything he’d just learned from the strange yellow crab. One almost as quick-minded as he was himself.

It was odd seeing his own Aspects, but it made sense when the strange crab had explained it. He was building himself a new shell, in a way, made out of Aspects. And the less parts he used, the better it would be. Less chances of fracture and whatnot.

Maurice understood that instinctively. But even while he’d been in there learning amazing things, he couldn’t shake off his wonder at all the new possibilities Partial Shapeshift had opened to him.

His mind buzzed with everything he’d learned from activating that skill just once. So. Many. New options. To think the upgrade had been sitting there, within reach, for weeks.

Argh. So stupid.

He had been prioritizing levels recently, wanting to catch up to his two companions, so he’d balked at the cost of upgrading his shapeshifting skill… But now that he knew how powerful it had gotten, he wanted to hit himself.

All the solutions are there. The key to having my own secondary minds.

Maurice had spent so much time trying to recreate complex nerves centers, and he had definitely made some progress. He would have eventually cracked it, he was sure. But that would have taken a few more weeks. Maybe months. While now… Well. He was almost sure he could have the Clawmind skill running within the week. He just needed to experiment a bit with Partial Shapeshift, then he and Henry could try again with some bone-shells.

It should transfer this time. And then he would be able to add it to one of his Aspects.

Speaking of… Let me see how things are looking.

His status page was getting long. Maurice had made a lot of progress since the day he became him. And there was so much more to do!