Which combination would help Henry out the most?

  Improving the Octominds even further sounded powerful, especially with how much mental effort he was about to start spending as he tried to get his mana manipulation skills up to speed. Plus, he didn’t know what kind of effect adding something like Find the Path into the Octominds would have on them. Would they get better at predicting things? How about Identify or Telepathic Sense? Henry wasn’t always good with them, but what if they became part of the Octominds?

  In an ideal scenario, the Octominds would become an intelligent mini-system that took over a lot of small tasks and worries from Henry. Then again, he wasn’t guaranteed any of his ideal abilities would show up, so he should bake that uncertainty into his decision.

  The second option was Misdirection and Swiftness, with the ideal ability of teleporting to his clones, whether they were made of ink or blood.

  Which one do I want?

  Henry stared at his mental whiteboard and felt at his Octominds. Their presence was heavier in the back of his mind. Much more powerful as well. They had their tasks, such as controlling and maintaining contact with his blood clones and watching for his own wellbeing with some emergency protocols, but while he’d been using around 80-90% of their abilities before C-Rank, now it felt like he was using less than 20%.

  And I could push that higher. Give them more capabilities. Or I could be teleporting to clones.

  Henry was leaning more and more toward the Octominds’ upgrade. He’d been complaining about efficiency and his own suboptimal use of his Skills. Upgrading the minds assisting him would be a step toward fixing that.

  It might also help prevent giant squids from sneaking up on him.

  Alright. I’m convinced. Now, let’s see if I can even afford it.

  Henry selected Assisted Controlled Fusion and was invited to select which Aspects he wanted to fuse.

  Two Aspects at C-rank or below.

  Cost of fusion: 10 Evolutionary points

  Holy shit. That’s almost all of my points.

  Henry winced at the cost, but he tried to select his other option and found it cost the same.

  Damn. Alright, fine. Am I doing this?

  Henry exhaled and eyed the upgrade for a few moments. The more he considered the possible changes, the more excited he grew.

  Though I’m about to lose access to them for however long this takes. Same for Telepathy. And Identify, and a bunch more stuff.

  Henry decided he should have a quick talk with his companions. He waited for them to finish their current tasks before he mentally poked them. Once they were both looking at him, he quickly explained what was happening. Stormsong was quick to understand, since she was familiar with the process.

  “[Usually only B-ranks can afford the assisted fusion. I heard it’s a lot faster, too. You should be in for a day or two, while the spontaneous fusion can take up to two weeks. Also, your passives will probably still work, but just in case, we’ll be alright.]”

  “[Yes! This is exciting!]” said Maurice. “[Don’t worry, we can still talk, and you can… Well. Gesture with your arms or something. Go for it! We’ll wait.]”

  Henry eyed the two for a second, then nodded. “[Alright. Let me know when you need to eat. We’ll go hunting after because… I don’t think it’ll be safe to go outside without us being able to communicate.]”

  With that dealt with, Henry took one last look at the menu in front of him, then confirmed his choice.

  He expected great magic to instantly materialize around him. Motes of light and potent mana to quickly coalesce, but none of that happened. Instead, he felt something else. He felt seen, all of a sudden. Like a presence had fallen on top of him and began examining him. Clearly, it wasn’t being sensed by the other two, so it wasn’t something external.

  The process has begun, and this was probably the first phase. The preparation before the fusion was really initiated.

  Fusion of Arms of the Tricksters and Arcana of the Trickster…

  Beginning preparation phase…

  Small sparks began dancing around Henry, moving in a slow and deliberate manner. Occasionally, one of them would pause, and he’d feel a pulse of something deep within his soul. Like a magical, immaterial finger gently brushing against his Aspects and soul. The process lasted for a few minutes, and Henry did his utmost to try and see what was happening at all times. From the corner of his eyes, he could see Maurice and Stormsong doing the same.

  They could see the soft blue and purple lights.

  Number of possible configurations: 1

  Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

  Thaumaturgy of the Trickster

  New cornerstone ability: The Great Octominds

  Greatly empowered and evolved Octominds, capable of reasoning, cooperation, prediction, and spell and skill casting.

  Each Octomind can be given simple or complex tasks and be linked to a set of skills and passives to further augment itself and accomplish its tasks autonomously.

  Skills and passives to be transferred:

  Summon Illusions

  Arcane Arm

  Draining Touch

  Mind Weaver's Tongue

  Mana Nexus

  Telekinesis

  Identify

  Trickster’s Domain

  Trickster’s Pathfinding

  Henry reviewed everything and couldn’t help but feel surprised. He liked the new Octominds. They sounded more powerful, and a bit more flexible and streamlined, but he had no idea how effective or better linking them to skills would be. What did it mean they’d be augmented? He might only know when he agreed to the process. He was also surprised the rest of the fusion wasn’t drastic. Most if not all of his abilities were there, and Henry worried that might be too much for a single Aspect, but then again… maybe not?

  Is this actually worth 10 evolutionary points?

  The kraken eyed the description again. It would be, if the Octominds were as powerful and capable as the description implied. He could still do what he intended initially; have each Octomind specialize in something. One would be on healing duty, and not just for emergencies. One would be scouting and pathfinding.

  When I put it like that… this might be worth it.

  He could offload a lot of tasks to the Octominds, and he would still be getting the cognitive boost as well, as he would always have some available to assist him when he needed them.

  What if I could create combat Octominds to cast spells and distract?

  They’d eat into his mana like crazy, but as he pictured the possible scenarios he could create, he was more and more convinced. It would still come down to how effective this upgrade was to each Octomind, as their current version should be able to handle all of these tasks, but if they could really become autonomous, then that was definitely a powerful upgrade.

  Alright.

  Henry confirmed the change. The waters shuddered around him, and then something he hadn’t expected happened. Something unpleasant that he had mostly forgotten about.

  Henry felt something worm itself into his soul and begin moving things around. But while he’d only been E-rank back when it had first happened and could barely suffer through the spiritual pain and discomfort, now it only felt like a particularly intrusive and uncomfortable massage.

  Still, Henry grit his beak and focused. He could sense what was happening, even though some parts felt vague. But this might be his one chance of observing the process, so he shut down his discomfort and turned all of his mind toward sensing what was happening within his soul.

  ***

  Maurice examined a pincer while the little disturbances coming off the kraken continued.

  He opened his right claw and closed it, channeled mana into it, then rubbed it with his left pincer and found that all sensations and movements seemed normal. He pulled one of the spare bone-shells Henry had made for him and glanced up to find Stormsong watching him. Maurice raised one eye-stalk above the other. “[What?]”

  Stormsong wiggled both her pectoral fins in a shrug. “[Nothing. I’m bored. How’s your project going?]”

  Maurice eyed the dolphin suspiciously for a second. She was becoming nicer, and it was still weirding him out, considering how arrogant and abrasive she’d been before. But he didn’t mind chatting. “[I can use it and I can feel from it. The nerve centers are there, I think. I packed in as many nerves and nerve connections as I could, so maybe this time it’ll work. Then again, I managed to do the same the last few times, and it wasn’t enough.]”

  Stormsong blew some bubbles. “[You really want those Clawminds, don’t you?]”

  Maurice blinked at her. “[You don’t?]”

  The dolphin swam around him and glanced at Henry for a second before she bobbed her head. “[Yeah. I admit, it’d be pretty cool to have something like that.]”

  Maurice put the bone shell in front of him and hoped it’d work this time. He’d been working on this damn project for so long already. “[I know. Did the test work? Can you use the one-time skill?]”

  Stormsong beat her flukes and twirled in the water as she swam in a small circle around him. Maurice would lie if he didn’t say he was a tiny bit jealous of how easily she could move in the water.

  Maybe someday I’ll have something that’ll let me move like that.

  Maurice put a claw on the bone-shell and activated his skill-copying ability while Stormsong spoke in his mind.

  “[I feel it in my soul. I think it will work. I even see it in my class skills… but I guess I’ll wait for Henry. What do… What’s wrong?]”

  Maurice stared blankly at the text in front of him, disbelieving for nearly five seconds. An eternity for someone like him. He looked up at the dolphin and threw both claws up. “[It worked!]”

  Chimeric Assimilation: Assistance of the Octominds adapted into Assistance of the Clawminds.

  Chimeric Assimilation: Assistance of the Clawminds copied.

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