The crab disappeared into his Maw while Henry dove into a wide crevice, hoping nothing was hiding within. If there was anything hidden down here, his telepathic sense didn’t pick it up.

Should have done that before I rushed into the cave. Then again, we were all busy booking it.

Henry slunk along the rocky wall, eyes scanning the darkness under him. He couldn’t see or feel anything, which was comforting, and if there was something in this crevice, it would need to be on the smaller side anyway.

That didn’t mean it wouldn’t be dangerous, of course. Just less intimidating. Henry would have never fit in here if he hadn’t recently downsized himself.

Arms gripping the rocky wall, Henry matched its texture right as the squids passed above him, and he melded into the deep gray stone. He held off on using his concepts to hide, as the squids didn’t seem too perceptive. Even his blood clones could escape their notice, so it didn’t feel too much like a gamble.

Watching them from his two remaining blood clones above, he saw the squids swim in a progressively wider circle, searching for him. After a tense couple of minutes, they began drifting away.

Henry let out a sigh of relief, but he couldn’t really relax. A brightly colored fish swam past the opening, drawing his attention up to the bright sea above, but all he could think about were the dangers and hidden monsters waiting for them in the golden fog of the Current.

How long are we going to scurry about, hiding every time anything shows up?

It rankled. Having to be this careful. He’d been excited at the challenge at first, at being in this new and dangerous environment full of levels and opportunities. Now, after spending nearly a week in the Current, he realized that he’d barely leveled. He’d gotten around four levels, but all had been from the Current itself and not from anything he’d personally earned.

He was just as weak as he’d been coming into it.

Sure, it hadn’t been completely unproductive. They pushed Maurice to C-rank. Henry had worked a lot on mana manipulation and gotten a few skill levels here and there, but one thing was clear; it just wasn’t enough.

Henry had just had his eye taken out again by a mantis shrimp. Next time, his brains might be turned to mush by a strike he couldn’t even dodge. Next time, he might be blitzed by an Otodus shark, or some other stupidly fast monster.

He was handling the monster’s attacks well enough for his level, but how long was this going to last? How close did he need to get to a disaster to speed things up?

It’s time to go for levels. I can always do mana and skill research when I’m resting. And I could do it even better if I don’t have to worry about my life and Maurice’s.

He paused. Well, Stormsong was also slowly becoming part of the team. The changes were small, but the dolphin was less brash and combative. She was more willing to help and trust, and it’d been almost a full day since she last bickered with Maurice.

Yeah. I don’t want her to get hurt, either. She’s just a kid, too. In a way.

Henry detached from the wall and floated up, out of the crevice. The squids were back to their usual territory, so the kraken slowly made his way toward their stolen home.

The swim was short and grim. The shrimps had looked for safety and found a nice spot. They hadn’t come after him personally, and this wasn’t really about the cave itself, but it happened to be yet another threat that would muscle him away just because it could.

Slow. Calm.

Henry breathed slowly as he closed in on the cave. Now that there was no Maurice or Stormsong to keep him busy, he was feeling annoyed.

At everything. He hadn’t thought of the world outside of the ocean for a while, but right now, he felt tired from the depths and everything that was hidden within.

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Henry landed on an outcropping facing the burrowed cave. Instantly, both mantis shrimps turned to face him and raised their claws. The kraken just stared at them while his clones watched over him from above.

“[My home. Get out.]”

The Deepflare Mantis’ shell lit up as it primed its claws, ready to punch his eye out again if he got near.

Henry had no intention of backing away.

A three question mark monster is above level fifty. It will be good with its concepts. If it has some in reserve.

Henry eyed the monsters as they blustered at him. The problem was, those damn claws hurt. If he’d had any less Toughness, he would have absolutely gotten brain damage from that one hit. So how could he approach them? How could he get the drop on them?

Camouflage, then blink? I’m lighter now. I can use it more frequently.

Venom would work as well, but their shell might be too tough for him to break through.

Electricity counters the shell.

Henry collected his arms under him as he eyed the couple.

He could drop on their backs with Blink, then electrocute them until they stopped moving. He’d most likely take a few hits, but he survived a B-rank’s attacks. He could live through this.

The shrimps slowly scuttled out of the cave. It seemed that now that they’d gotten a good look at him, they were getting ideas. After all, why not eat the octopus who’s trying to chase you out of your own cave?

Henry backed away and watched as they scuttled back into the cave. He didn’t want them to spread out.

He wanted them trapped.

Henry stopped a distance away and continued watching them.

They are gorgeous, though.

Part of Henry just wanted to observe and study them. But that was an old Henry, who didn’t have to worry about being something else’s lunch. The squids were too numerous to attack head on, especially because of the handful of B-ranks they had, while these two… He could manage it.

I have to level. But when will this stop? B-Rank? A-Rank? What’s even after?

This is where outside knowledge would have been useful. Stormsong’s knowledge was limited, considering she’d always lived with her pod; apparently they only dealt with B-ranks on occasion. A-ranks weren’t spoken about much, and they weren’t that common, but the one time one had been sighted, the pod had immediately moved.

The journey had taken days, and she’d been only a child.

Henry stilled as his clones caught a B-rank squid swimming in a wide circle that was about to bring it close to kraken, but thankfully, it didn’t come down on him. It just kept going, and soon went back and joined its shoal.

Alright. Enough stalling. Let’s get some levels.

Henry readied some Fury-aspected mana. He’d barely used any while fighting the squid earlier, and he still had a full reserve of Arcana essence to rely on. The mantis shrimps were powerful enough for him to go all out from the get-go. He couldn’t have the fight last too long.

He felt at his reserves for a few more moments. Hunger and Shiftiness were a bit low, due to his experiments, but now that he was examining what he had available, he remembered his class was supposed to hold some concepts as well.

Henry recalled the image the System had used to display his Aspects and the surrounding Class. Focusing on that memory, he prodded at the frame surrounding his Aspect and felt the conceptual energy flare up in response to his attention.

It wasn’t a lot. It felt as potent as his D-rank Aspects, even though the class was supposed to be C-rank. But it would do.

Concepts of protection and scouting.

Honestly, he’d been so focused on his own Aspects that he almost forgot about the class altogether.

Henry pulled at the protection concept and used one of his Octominds to drip-feed the protective mana into Trickster’s Fortitude as he began approaching the shrimps from the side. Even though he was camouflaged, they could still see him. But that wouldn’t matter.

Henry exhaled, then triggered Blink. The world wooshed around him, and nearly 30% of his mana reserve was gone, but it was worth it.

The small kraken hovered above the two strikingly colorful crustaceans. His two larger arms shot down and began wrapping themselves around the surprised shrimps’ midsections.

And then there was light.