A giant blue claw bopped Henry on the head.“[Dammit Henry! I just caught up, and you decide to go ahead and get 25 levels? By yourself?]”

  Another giant crab pincer was dropping toward him, but Henry just locked it up with Telekinesis. “[Did you not hear what I just said? I didn’t get the chance to stop. Everything happened too fast, and anyway, the levels were from the mantis shrimps.]”

  Maurice paused, and even Stormsong floated closer. As she spoke, Henry realized he could see her levels now.

  [Spotted Dolphin (C) - Level 28]

  “[Are you going to use it for levels? Can we see it before you use it?]”

  Maurice was quick to switch his tones when that was brought up. “[Yes! Can we see it? I’ve never seen a B-rank core before.]”

  Henry stared down at the crab. It was impressive how fast Maurice’s moods could switch. The kraken sighed, then summoned the B-rank core.

  It popped into his arm; a large, glowing crystal ball of rippling blacks and whites. The two leaned over to examine the shining object. Large shadows appeared behind them, cast from the bright, undulating light of the core.

  “[This is awesome. Was it strong?]” asked Maurice, glancing back up. Stormsong looked up as well, curious.

  “[The B-ranks can control the rest of the shoal and shoot them at you like arrows… So by itself, it’s not as strong as some other monsters, but it might be more dangerous when it's with its shoal. I got lucky, I guess, by grabbing on to it and by having the cachalots show up to distract the shoal, but I wouldn’t try it again. As for what I’m going to do with it… Tokens. This will allow me to push a lot of Aspects to the next rank.]”

  Stormsong bobbed her head. “[Good. Good plan. The jump from D to C-rank in an Aspect is very much worth it. How many Aspects will you be able to push? Even two would make this an incredibly lucrative day.]”

  Maurice slowly rotated, and Henry thought he felt both amusement and envy from the little crab. Maurice peered at the dolphin, waiting to see her reaction in real time.

  Henry quickly parsed his interface. “[One is moving up to D-rank. Four to C-rank.]”

  A few bubbles escaped from Stormsong’s head. They stared at each other quietly for a few seconds, then Stormsong bobbed her head before she swam closer to the exit.

  “[Alright then.]”

  The dolphin peered out into the new environment while Maurice and Henry shared a look. Maurice raised both claws in a shrug, and was about to say something when the dolphin’s voice reached them. Immediately, Maurice’s legs began dancing with mirth.

  “[How?! How do you have so many?]”

  Henry shrugged. “[Plenty of sleep and exercise?]”

  “[And dead krakens!]” called out Maurice.

  “[Yeah, I guess those helped.]”

  Over the next few minutes, Henry answered a few more questions and agreed on a new schedule with his companions. They were to continue training and hunting while slowly working their way through the Current. Being trapped in its center was getting mentally exhausting, and it would be a lot easier if they weren’t at the mercy of everything hidden within these dangerous seas.

  Henry’s freshly created clone would begin scouting toward the exit soon, and every day they’d switch caves. But there was a problem with that plan, and he was quick to bring it up to the crab and dolphin, hoping they might have an easy solution which wouldn’t depend on luck.

  Luck in this scenario was Find the Path, which after three tries still gave Henry nothing he could use.

  “[I have no clue which direction we came from,]” Henry said, which made the two others pause. “[Find the Path might give us something, eventually, but for now, we might need to stay still until we know where we are.]”

  Stormsong shook head. “[I have nothing to help with that… I can scan the surroundings, but I can’t see farther than what I can hear.]”

  Maurice hummed and rubbed his pincers. “[Find the Path isn’t working? Maybe it needs something like that ball? Something to help it find a target?]”

  Something as a target?

  Henry considered what he had on him, but Maurice clicked his pincers again after a few seconds. “[What if we asked where the dolphin home is? The one we visited? Wouldn’t that work? We could just keep moving away from it until we’re out of the Current.]”

  “[Not bad,]” Henry said as he considered Maurice’s solution. “[Maybe Stormsong’s presence could help?]”

  The dolphin eyed both of them like they were speaking a foreign language. “[Help with what? What are you two talking about?]”

  Maurice waved her off and turned to Henry. “[I’ll explain to her and I’ll take care of finding our direction. You do your thing and let’s go hunt. I’m not gonna let you two get that far ahead of me.]”

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Henry was taken aback by the assist, but he didn’t say anything to jeopardize it, instead watching as the duo moved deeper into the cave and continued their chat.

  And since when are these two so friendly?

  Well, to be fair, they were less and less on each other’s throats, and they were all spending a lot of time together, so Henry guessed they just got used to each other. Then again, as long as they weren’t fighting, Henry didn’t pay them much attention. Especially when they were working on their own thing.

  With that all dealt with, Henry pulled up his notifications and started by converting the large core in his arms to tokens.

  1x [Orthoceras Conductor Squid (B) - Level 3] Core converted to 7 B-tokens.

  That should be plenty for all the upgrades.

  Henry made sure the exit of the cave was blocked and camouflaged, then got to work. There were a lot of upgrades to get through, and he was looking forward to all of them. Though with how many abilities he had at this point, the loss of efficiency was bugging him.

  I’ll think about it after the upgrades. For now, let’s start with Hunger and Swiftness. Get the latter out of the way first.

  Swiftness of the Trickster (D) - Level 1

  Blink

  Actives:

  F-Rank: Teleport to a nearby location you can see.

  E-Rank: Range is increased while cost is decreased.

  D-Rank: Create a temporary anchor. When an anchor is within range, Blinking to it is significantly cheaper.

  Hunger of the Trickster (C) - Level 1

  Bite of the Trickster

  Passives:

  Magic Mimic: By sampling the tissues of a magic-empowered being, a Skill or Trait can be temporarily copied. Magic Mimic has a chance of copying abilities at a higher rank, and has an increased chance of adapting non-compatible abilities.

  Nothing is Lost: You can absorb, claim, or exchange for Consumption Tokens the targets you vanquish.

  Venom Production: Your salivary glands can now produce venoms after sufficient exposure. Production can be accelerated through channeling mana to the glands. Available venoms: Numbing of the Pufferfish, Spasmodic of the Sea Serpent, Tranquilizing of the Mesmer Eel, Anticoagulant of the Sea Drake, Agonizing of the Lionfish.

  Actives:

  F-Rank: Your bite inflicts more damage. You can produce venom you’ve been sufficiently exposed to.

  E-Rank: Temporarily gain a property of your target's bite. The charge is available until used.

  D-Rank: Two mimicked properties can be remembered permanently. [Draining Bite of the Arcane Kraken]

  C-Rank: Your Bite has a chance of stealing some of your target’s conceptual energies.

  Maw of the Trickster (C)

  Store anything you can wrap your arms around in a private storage dimension. Total volume: 950m3.

  Voracious Grip (C)

  Apply Bite of the Trickster through your suckers.

  Blink has anchors now? I’ll have to test that. As for Hunger, mostly small updates. No more limit on what Magic Mimic can copy aside from time. No change in the other passives, and mostly the same with Maw of the Trickster and Voracious Grip. Good thing I got their upgrades done as well. As for Bite… the biggest difference is the C-rank, which should help my collection of concepts grow nicely. I can permanently remember another property as well. Good. Pretty good. All around a decent upgrade.

  Henry didn’t waste any time, moving on to the next Aspect. Once the transformative magic faded, he pulled the new description.

  Shiftiness of the Trickster (C) - Level 1

  Mimicry

  Passives:

  Faint Presence: When camouflaging, your mana and mental presence will be muffled.

  Actives:

  F-Rank: Your tentacles can mimic shapes and lifeforms accurately.

  E-Rank: Temporarily mimic some of the physical properties of recently ingested prey.

  D-Rank: Two mimicked properties can be remembered permanently. [Scales of the Serpent]

  C-Rank: You can create familiar forms around your true form in exchange of mana. The mana signature of the forms can be mimicked as well.

  Oh, that’s interesting!

  Henry interrupted himself to take a quick look at their surroundings with his blood clones before turning his attention back to the upgrade.

  The cornerstone’s skill name changed. I’m surprised it hasn’t happened sooner, to be honest. More small upgrades like hunger, and a new neat ability on C-rank. Very fitting as well. I wonder if I can make myself tiny and then hide my body in a massive, dangerous-looking form. Like a cachalot or an Otodus shark.

  Henry paused. This might also be the ability that’d allow him to step on land, though there were a couple of questions that needed answers first.

  If I put myself in a human form, could I walk with it? Could I fly if I made myself into a bird?

  He was going to have to test this one in depth, but the potential was definitely intriguing.

  Alright. Let’s see what’s next.

  Thankfully, he didn’t have to upgrade much else in Shiftiness of the Trickster. After all, both Partial Shapeshift and Flowing Form were already at C-Rank.

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