With the scouting of their surroundings in progress, Henry spent some tokens and brought some of his copied abilities into his class, and when he was done, he paused, summoned more scouting clones, and let them out. But now that he was a bit less distracted, he blinked.

  Wait… Why am I doing this myself?

  Turning his attention to his idle Octominds, he tasked one with summoning more clones when his mana replenished, and another with letting the clones.

  Then he focused back on his interface.

  Alright, the new abilities are now in my class. Probably sticking to the class-frame, somehow, and soon, I’ll need to move them to an Aspect, he thought as he eyed the list. He’d have to figure how to do it by himself, as he didn’t want to spend his last remaining Evolutionary point on this. For the points, the fusions—of both Skills and Aspects—were the priority, so the rest would have to wait. Moving a Skill out of the class and into the Aspect by himself was probably challenging, but he didn’t have a limit in his class at this point, so he had plenty of time to try and figure it out. If he hit a dead-end, he could try with the System’s assistance and observe the process. For now, there was no rush, and he had some ideas after having observed the fusion process he’d just gone through.

  I’m glad there isn’t a limit on class skills any more. Then again, I could only focus on so many things at once and now, the new Octominds should help in bringing the new skills up to speed, he thought as he brought up the current abilities in his class.

  Class: Watchful Guardian (C) - Level 1

  Skills:

  Control Water (F)

  Sonic Pulse (E)

  Mind Shield (E)

  Invisibility (D)

  Telepathic Orchestration (E)

  Traits:

  None

  Henry took note—and his Octomind wrote it down on the to-do whiteboard—to test out Sonic Pulse and Telepathic Orchestration to see what he could get out of them, and to see if they were worth transferring to his Aspect. He wasn’t sure about Sonic Pulse, as he didn’t have the hearing or the brain circuitry to interpret the sonic feedback, but Orchestration was most likely making the cut.

  It was a skill to coordinate telepathically, without words. At least, that’s what the description was saying. Henry would test it shortly. As for the remaining Skills, they were going to be added to their respective Aspects. When he’d figure that out.

  Invisibility and Mind Shield were amazing and would be extremely useful. Both would increase his stealth capabilities by leaps and bounds, and when he eventually met more telepathic beings, having his mind shielded would be a necessity.

  The Bahamut whales might have been friendly and might have not abused their insight into his mind, but there were bound to be intelligent beings out there who’d exploit everything they could glean. Humans, among others. Especially if telepathy was a common ability.

  As for Control Water, even though it was incredibly weak right now at F-rank, it was a prime Skill to assign to one of his Octominds for training. Having seen what could be done with it, Henry believed it could grow to become one of his main abilities one day if he so chose.

  With that done, Henry turned his attention to his scouting Octomind and was… shocked. As he watched over the shoulder of the Octominds, a trill of excitement ran through him.

  They really are better.

  In the few minutes he’d been busy starting at his interface, nearly fifty ink clones had been created and dispatched. No blood clones, as those were expensive in health and mana, but fifty ink clones was a lot more than he’d expected.

  His scouting Octomind was seeing through their senses, coordinating them with ease. A line of inky-black clones were swimming forward, covering for a handful who searched for safe caves to hide in, while the remaining clones were spread out to watch for danger in a wider circle. Whenever one of them was killed or whenever a particularly dangerous monster was found, the scouting Octomind would make small adjustments, and the scouting party would drift away from the dangerous seas to explore another direction.

  The sheer amount of information Henry perceived would have overwhelmed him before this last upgrade, but not anymore.

  This is just one of them. And it’s not being helped by the others…

  The Octomind was performing much better than he expected. It was almost worrisome, but it only made Henry more excited.

  He turned his attention to the navigator-Octomind. “Coordinate with the fourth Octomind as it scouts. Draw us a path toward the next cave, and once it’s confirmed, secure the space and watch out for ambushes, both of you.”

  Henry felt both Octominds confirm, and considered he needed to give them names. At least the ones that would be a fixture.

  ***

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  Stormsong watched from the corner of her eyes as ink clones continued to form like clockwork. One after the other, every few seconds. They’d wait until there were five of them, then Henry’s arm would move to unblock the exit and the clones would surge out.

  What is happening to him?

  Henry didn’t even look like he was paying attention. He seemed completely absorbed, staring up at the air in front of him while his arms and body moved independently.

  Next to her, Maurice was staring as well, claws rubbing against each other.

  It makes sense why Maurice wants the ability so badly.

  Even she wanted it, now. The Octominds—if that’s what they were called—were powerful enough before, supporting Henry and boosting his focus and cognitive abilities to frightening degrees, but now?

  He doesn’t even have to pay attention to them anymore. They’re just doing the work by themselves.

  Through her interface, Stormsong looked at the temporary Skill she’d received after absorbing the construct Henry had given her moments ago, and decided to activate it. She had to know if such abilities were even possible for her.

  Even if Henry manages to give me one-time copying constructs, it’ll probably take me a lot more work to get something like an Octomind, she thought. She still remembered the literal mountain of limbs and shells Maurice had gone through to get his own. How long would it take her?

  We’ll see. For now, focus.

  Her mana rushed into the one-time skill construct, and Stormsong tensed. Was it going to react badly? Would it blow up in her soul, somehow?

  The temporary skill detached from where it had been and dissolved into her mana. It rushed forward through her body and stopped at her teeth, clouding them in a red glow that radiated out of her jaw.

  Stormsong blinked, sensing the magic around her jaw.

  It… worked? It’s that easy?

  She could feel the skill’s effect. Empowering her teeth so her bite would inflict deep tears into whatever had the misfortune of receiving them. She could feel the small malicious will within them. A curse-effect that would delay her victim’s healing and make their bleeding much worse.

  It really worked.

  From the cave’s entrance Henry looked up and stared at her for a second. “[Is that my temporary Skill?]”

  Stormsong beat her flukes and twirled around the distracted crab. She was excited, but she didn’t let it show too much. She didn’t want to get her hopes too high. “[It worked, and it doesn’t look like it’s any worse than you described.]”

  Henry unfurled his arms. “[That’s good. Very good. We’ll be able to get to the next steps soon, and I’d love to pick your brains about a few things, but we should move. Are you two ready to go?]”

  Stormsong blinked at the brain-picking part. What did that mean?

  Must be one of his weird sayings, she thought as she nodded and glanced down at the crab, who finally focused back on his surroundings. “[I’m ready.]”

  Henry picked up the crab, then looked at the dolphin. “[Good. Let’s go, then.]”

  With that, the kraken turned and flew out of the cave. Stormsong followed, easily catching up, but she grew confused at the sudden changes of direction that Henry kept taking. It didn’t take long for her to understand what was happening. He kept zigging and zagging every few seconds, sometimes even going for a wide half-circle before he corrected back, but Stormsong didn’t complain or say anything. She trusted him. Though she was still shocked at how effective the Octominds had become.

  She knew he was using them to scout. She didn’t know how he could take such sharp turns and change of direction through the thick algae without getting lost, and she didn’t know how he was mentally nudging her seconds before he took the turns.

  How is he doing that?

  It was frustrating. But also exciting. She was falling behind, sure, but this also meant there was so much more she could learn from these two. The possibilities were endless.

  They swam like so for a while, pausing here and there to rest. It had been going well for close to two hours, when the Current opted to remind them of where they were.

  All of a sudden, Henry’s guiding skills nudged her firmly down before he dove deep and fast. They landed on the sandy seabed and hid under a whale-sized reef. Before she could ask what they were hiding from, a stifling aura fell on her while the world grew darker.

  Stormsong’s limbs refused to move. She was too terrified to even twitch a muscle for a few seconds. What was up there?

  She wanted to see.

  Slowly, terrifyingly, she tilted to the right and began maneuvering to push her head just past the rock, to look and see what was above them when she felt the mental nudge from Henry.

  He slowly shook his head, saying nothing telepathically. So she remained still and waited.

  The dolphin was terrified, but she also had never been as excited, and she wondered what it was that was passing by.

  ***

  Henry was glad the dolphin could listen to instructions and had the presence of mind to follow his lead. His other companion, on the other hand, was not as quick on the uptake.

  “[Stop talking,]” said Henry. If he heard another peep from the crab, he was sending him to his Maw. Henry could understand the crab being incredibly curious, and to be fair, neither of the two could see what he was seeing, but Henry wasn’t telling him to stay quiet a second time.

  He wasn’t sure if telepathy could be detected, and he wasn’t risking it when the strongest creature he’d ever seen was right above their heads.

  Well, strongest aside from the System. That thing was the closest thing to a god Henry could imagine. Thankfully, Maurice had gotten the message, so Henry waited with bated breath as the thing passed over them.

  He had no clue how his scouting and navigator Octominds had missed it, though now that he reviewed “the footage”, it was clear that it had come from above. And it had come down fast.

  It was like a mountain had decided to come by and float above them.

  Henry looked through one of his clones and swallowed as he took the creature in. A deep black plastron with green, glowing edges. Gigantic flippers that ended in green, gem-like claws that matched the monster’s beak. Scales. Ridges and sharp features that made his limbs twitch. A mountain-like black and green shell. An emerald slitted eye roved around, and Henry could swear it landed on a couple of his clones before they were dismissed.

  Henry had seen islands smaller than the creature swimming past them. Which made sense, considering this was the first A-rank creature he’d ever seen.

  [Shellwyrm of the Verdant Trench (?) - ?]

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