“[That’s not enough. It’s still too unfocused.]”

Henry’s head was pounding as he tightened his will around the uneven ball of glowing mana between his arms. He tried to concentrate it. To increase its density and potency to match the mana material used in ability constructs, but at a certain point, he just… couldn’t. It was as if he tried to compress smoke with his bare hands.

It just didn’t work.

His yellow eyes swiveled up at the dolphin. “[I know. I’m trying. And as you can see, it’s not working.]”

Henry released the mana from his control, and it puffed out in a little cloud of blue-tinted smoke that slowly faded into the ether. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, and heard Maurice snip off yet another one of his arms as a sense of deep annoyance reached him through his telepathic sense.

At least he wasn’t the only one stuck. The crab had been relentlessly working on creating the nerve-centers that would allow him to copy Henry’s Octominds, but ever since their encounter with the cachalots earlier today, he’s yet to make any progress.

Henry opened his eyes and looked at the dolphin. “[Do you have any tips other than ‘concentrate it’? Can you show it to me?]”

“[Sure. Observe.]”

The dolphin floated back a couple of feet, then blue light began coalescing at the tip of her rostrum. It began glowing brighter, and Henry leaned forward as he studied the process.

Her control is a lot better than mine.

While his own ball of mana had been wispy and seemed to stutter and flare up a bunch, hers was even and smooth. Henry expected the mana to congeal and become matter at any moment, and then—

The mana destabilized, and it faded to motes just as his own had.

“[You do that, and then you concentrate it further, and that should be it.]”

Henry twitched and looked down at the dolphin. “[What happened? Why didn’t you finish it?]”

“[I can’t,]” Stormsong said, shrugging her pectoral fins. “[Not sure exactly what’s missing, as I’m just guessing, but it should be easy when you get to that point.]”

Henry gave the dolphin a long stare, then closed his eyes. “[Are you actually sure what we’re trying to do is possible? Have you seen it done?]”

“[Nope.]”

Henry’s limbs twitched. He wanted to strangle her.

Ever since he laid out his plan of creating a temporary, one-time-use ability construct for her to copy a skill—which he wasn’t sure was even possible—the dolphin had been hovering around him, criticizing his attempts and giving him barely useful advice. And now, it turns out she barely knew more than he did.

Breath, Henry. Breathe.

The dolphin kept going. “[It’s clearly a form of mana. It’s also the same thing that makes up skill constructs, and it dissolves into mana. Which means it must be possible to recreate it.]”

Henry looked away from the dolphin and excised another ability construct. This one was an accelerated healing property copied by Mimicking Arms. Henry held it up and peered at the physical form of the ability for a moment. In a way, the construct looked very organic. A congealed mass of mana surrounded a piece of the concept shard, just like connective tissue might. This shard was vibrant green, and it made him want to close his eyes and breathe it in.

“[Let’s pause the attempts for now,]” Henry said. “[That’s only one facet of this project, and there’s a lot more we still don’t know. First, let’s examine the congealed mana for a bit. Then, before it deteriorates too much, try to take it in. See if you can actually take a temporary skill of mine.]”

Stormsong went still. The silence stretched for a few seconds, then the dolphin bobbed her head.“[Okay. What is this one for?]”

Henry didn’t feel slighted by the initial reticence, but he appreciated the trust she displayed. Henry quickly explained the ability as he infused mana to delay the construct’s degradation.

“[Mimicry is at the core of my abilities. The cornerstone skill I use to camouflage can create these one-time abilities from the being I ingest. This one comes from a Goliath Kraken, and it should temporarily give your skin a healing factor.]”

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The dolphin peered closer. “[That’s… useful. You think this would work to give me a skill-copying ability?]”

Henry shrugged with an arm. “[I think it should be possible. In theory. For example, this ability right here is pretty specific in how it works, but from what I’m sensing, the concept itself is almost the same as what I can produce with Vitality of the Trickster. So the whole ability is somewhere in this mana stuff.]”

Maurice added, “[My copying comes from Curiosity.]”

Henry glanced down and found the crab clambering over one of his arms to get a closer look at the construct. When Maurice noticed both the kraken and the dolphin staring down at him, he threw a pincer up and waved the stumpy second. “[I’m bored and I need a break. This looked interesting.]”

Henry picked up Maurice and lifted him closer to the construct.“[What I was saying is, I think with a shard of Hunger, we could make a one-time copying ability. The three key problems are making a shard out of the aspected mana, making this congealed mana stuff, and telling it what to do.]”

Stormsong studied the mana blob surrounding the concept shard.“[It must be possible… I mean, your own skill created this.]”

My own skill…

Henry studied the construct from up close. It really did just look like mana. His own mana-control skills were garbage compared to Stormsong’s, but he felt like there was something else missing.

He glanced down at the crab. “[Do you feel something other than the mana and Vitality shard?]”

Maybe Maurice would pick up on something. The crab was uncannily sharp when it came to feeling out things with his skills and senses. It’s true that it had been barely a couple of days since he started perceiving concepts, but Henry wouldn’t be surprised if the crab managed to—

“[Yes. I think I feel something in the weird mana.]”

Henry stilled, and his eyes slid down to the crab. “[Seriously?]”

He hadn’t expected Maurice to find something this fast. Even the dolphin seemed shocked.

Maurice waved Henry to bring the construct closer, and the kraken complied.

The crab rubbed his right stump against his left claw. “[Yes… It’s tiny, but I feel some other aspect in the mana. It reminds me of your camouflage, Henry.]”

Henry tried to channel a minute amount of Shiftiness down his arm, then approached said arm to Maurice. “[Like this?]”

Maurice clacked his claw. “[Yes! That’s it!]”

Stormsong beat her fluke and moved in a circle around them. “[Is that the trick? You need to use concepted mana to compress it? Let me see…]”

Henry continued infusing mana into the construct, and both of him and Maurice watched the dolphin make another attempt.

The blue ball of mana coalesced on top of her rostrum over the next minute or so while he watched quietly.

“[She’s a lot better at controlling her mana than me. Much less you.]”

Henry would have chucked the crab, but he didn’t want to distract Stormsong now that aspected mana was coming into play.

A wave of teal-hued mana slowly surrounded the blue ball. Her control was a bit rougher on this new type of mana, but Henry could see the blue mana begin to shine brighter. A thrum of excitement ran down his arms.

It’s working.

Suddenly, the dolphin’s control faltered, and a stream of red-tinted bubbles escaped her blowhole. The mana ball detonated in a small explosion, and the ethereal substance dispersed around them, slowly dissolving away into nothingness.

“[Ugh,]” Stormsong groaned. “[That was more difficult than I expected. Give me a moment.]”

Maurice tapped Henry’s arm to be let go. The crab beat his arm downted toward the seabed as soon as Henry let him go, then quickly scuttledd his way to the right. Henry was curious, but the dolphin didn’t seem to be doing so well. Blood was still floating up her head, and her eyes were closed as she drifted lower.

“[Stormsong, are you okay?]”

It took her a second to respond, but she slowly opened her eyes. “[Yeah… I’ll be fine in a bit. But I think we have got our solution. It’ll just take a bit of work.]”

“[Look! You did it!]”

Henry and Stormsong looked down to find the crab holding up something with his left claw. A blue, tiny blob of mana.

The dolphin glanced up at Henry and gave him a short click. “[See? It wasn’t that hard in the end.]”

Henry could only agree. Now he just needed to work on his mana control and reproduce her success.

The kraken put two arms next to each other and began channeling his mana into the space between them. It was true that the first beneficiary of this project was Stormsong, but this was going to be a much needed mana-training exercise for him.

Plus, an incredible ability to have. Creating one-use skill-copying skills.

He just needed to get better at using his mana, and hopefully, his Octominds would help alleviate the mental strain that seemed to have affected the dolphins.

The next few days were going to be interesting, that was for sure.