With Maurice latched atop his head, Henry was swimming comfortably along the grassy seabed, a mile or so below the ship. The light of the sun could not reach this far down, but the lights and energies of the Current were still exerting their influence, even though they were supposedly approaching the edge of this particular Pillar.

  The grass swayed calmly below, like a rippling tapestry of bright greens and below, Henry could peek a few hiding fish just waiting for the opportunity to snack on something their size, though they all scampered away when his shadow fell on them. Henry was almost gargantuan compared to most creatures around, even more now that his Aspects gained a couple of levels since they’d set sail with Velistraine’s ship. The last couple of days after his fight with the A-rank crab saw him pick up plenty of fights with powerful B-ranks—whenever he managed to find them, and so, he was getting some much needed practice in, and the notifications confirmed it all.

  Predation of the Trickster (B): Level 4 → Level 5

  Renewal of the Trickster (B): Level 5 → Level 6

  Thaumaturgy of the Many-Faced Trickster (B): Level 4 → Level 5

  Dancing Shadows of the Trickster (B): Level 3 → Level 4

  “[Can you feel any A-ranks around? I’m not finding anything,]” sent Maurice after a few minutes of searching through his pathfinding Skill, and turning his attention to his navigator-Octomind, Henry knew that he hadn’t detected anything either.

  “[No. Nothing,]” Henry sent back. “[Maybe they’d don’ t like being on the edges like this? Either fully in or fully out. Velistraine did say there’s plenty of A-ranks outside of the Pillar. Especially the older kind. We’ll found one sooner or later,]” he mused as he swam low, letting the tall stalks tickle his many arms as he used his siphon to propel himself quietly forward. He was also using his Octominds to control the water around him and push himself faster. It was a good exercise for the oft neglected Skill and considering it was a channeled Skill—like Telekinesis—Henry was doing something that maybe he shouldn’t.

  While Velistraine did say that condensing an active Skill was dangerous, it felt to Henry like maybe there’d be a way to—well, take some of the risk out by practicing with a weaker Skill and under lighter conditions. If his soul was some sort of cloth, then he could strain it all over and then observe its recovery. If it frayed and returned to its initial weak state, then there might be nothing there. On the other hand, if that frayed soul grew tougher to damage, then that opened a whole avenue for him to strengthen himself and his soul. Already he’d been wondering if his Spirit had something to do with his resilience to such strain, considering to gain a state he had to infuse his soul with the energies contained in the token. Maybe the tokens and stats weren’t the only way to interact and reinforce his soul.

  So it was while he was working on condensing Control Water and leisurely swimming when he saw something he hadn’t expected through one of his Shadows, and so he swerved, turning himself invisible so he wouldn’t spook the creature.

  “[Did you find one?]”

  “[Nope! But this should be fun,]” Henry teased, slowly approaching a specific patch of the rolling grass-covered dunes, and nearly a minute later, they arrived.

  A dozen or so yards away, a moss-covered turtle was munching on the grass, taking a moment every few seconds to peer about for danger before it took another fistful of stalks into its mouth and started gnawing.

  [Mossback Turtle (C) - Lvl 72]

  The turtle looked… well. Like a turtle. It was larger than the average specimens Henry had seen in the past, and he’d put at the average weight and size of two trucks put next to each other, with shell fully covered in rippling green moss and a tuft of the same growth atop of its head. The turtle paused mid-chew, peering in the general direction, then its chewing slowly resumed, though it still didn’t look away. It was as if it was sensing something was off, but it couldn’t really peer through his and Maurice’s invisibility.

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  It went back for another bite, but it kept glancing in their general direction every few seconds, until the feeling grew too annoying and it swam away, keeping itself low and close to the grass on which it melded, becoming barely visibly especially when seen from above.

  “[It’s so… calm,]” said Maurice after a bit.

  “[Yup. Back on Earth, they never get that large. It’s pretty cool to see. Especially that camouflaging thing it’s got going on,]” Henry added as he slowly began navigating back toward the ship. There were still no A-ranks about, but they were finally reaching the end of the Current and for that, he wanted to be closer to the their companions. Just in case. But before he could really get back to the ship’s trajectory, it had happened.

  One moment his scouting Shadows were in the gold lights of the Current and the next, the seas dimmed, and a new world of deep blues opened up.

  “[The first clones just left the Current,]” he told Maurice, and then they went back up.

  ***

  Henry was back in his yellow-eyed human shape, while Maurice kept his crab form as the two popped back on the ship.

  To the crew, exiting the Current wasn’t much of a big deal. While Henry and Maurice mentally braced at the prow of the ship to experience the change themselves, the crew went on with their daily tasks. Sure, there was an air of relief among them. The Pillars—on average—had much more of an active fauna that tended to be a little territorial, as the creatures quickly leveled and powered up, so there was much more of a chance in there for a monster to take umbrage with a meandering ship. But it wasn’t as if the waters outside of the Pillars were safe. It just… took a little push and nudge to get a rise out of the sleeping monsters of the depth.

  In fact, the real monsters seemed to be out of the Current, as the heightened activity of the special area tended to ‘annoy the shit out of them’, as Velistraine aptly put it.

  The wind was picking up, propelling the ship forward while the wall of golden lights slowly grew dimmer ahead and then—

  They were through.

  Sharp color suddenly came back as the golden hue abruptly disappeared, as if Henry had been wearing tinted glasses for months. It felt refreshing, and while he might miss that sense of strength imbuing the air all around him, he didn’t mind it. It’s not as if it could affect him much at this point.

  I bet there’s an ability that’d let creatures absorb the energies of the Pillars more actively, but that’s something for another day, he thought as he peered about. Of course, this wasn’t the first time he’d stepped out of the Current. He’d been in the Sanctuary, where he figuratively caught the scent of the Bahamut whales and where he’d met the porpoises. Glancing to his right, he saw the thread leading to the whales extend away in the horizon. It was way out of his way, so that meeting might take a minute. But so long as he could maintain the pathfinding instance, there will be a chance.

  Eventually.

  “Found anything good?” asked Velistraine as she sidled next to him as they all stared at the horizon.

  “Just a peaceful little turtle. But I’m guessing we’ll start finding potential targets soon, if what you said is not too off-base.”

  “First, how dare you. Second… don’t pick fights blindly. While I don’t think you’ll find anything that could one-hit you this close to the Current, you never know. Keep a clone near me in case you need help.”

  “Is that your way of saying you want in our fights?” chimed in Maurice.

  Velistraine clicked her tongue at the crab and went to poke him, only for Maurice to swat her finger away. “You think you’re so smart, huh? Maybe I should challenge you two another spar so we—”

  “Oh would you look at that, it’s time to do some scouting,” Henry called out, mana surging around him as he activated his Shadow switching Skill, and right before his vision of the sky was exchanged with the deep blue expanse of the ocean below them, Velistraine managed to give him a half-outraged, half-betrayed look before she disappeared.

  “[She’s probably bored,]” Henry said as he began regaining his form.

  “[But she’s fun,]” added Maurice.

  Henry had to agree. “[Thought I didn’t teleport us down just to get away from her,]” he said, wrapping an around the curious Maurice before he looked down at the vibrating crab. “[Ready for your first A-rank fight?]”

  Maurice threw both arms up. “[Yes! Finally!]”

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