Henry didn’t know how long the process had taken.

  It could have been hours. It could have been a couple of days. It might have been the former, but it most certainly felt like the latter, and it was with great relief that the pulling and moving in his soul, the stretching and cutting and all other kinds of manipulation was over.

  He could feel it winding down, and as the fatigue slammed into his mind like a sledgehammer, a notification popped in front of him. Henry was not ashamed to admit that it took him nearly five seconds of staring at the text to understand what it was saying.

  Fusion Phase winding down.

  For best results, meditate and refrain from activating abilities from the fused Aspect for at least two hours.

  Henry wondered if falling asleep would count, but just in case it didn’t, he closed his eyes and tried to not fall asleep.

  He lasted barely ten minutes.

  ***

  Henry’s eyes fluttered open, and he found a message telling him the process had finished successfully. He barely had time to read it before a red and a gray shape floated in front of him.

  “[Henry? Can you hear us? Stop that!]”

  Maurice was standing atop Stormsong’s head while she shot bursts of bubbles under the crab. It didn’t look like she was actually trying to dislodge the crab. Only to annoy him. Which Henry approved of.

  “[Yes. I can hear you well and good. How long was I out?]”

  Maurice hopped away from the dolphin’s forehead and climbed up Henry’s longer arm. “[How was it? Did it work? It’s been fifteen hours, give or take one or two.]”

  “[It didn’t take too long,]” said Stormsong. “[I believe you were asleep for the last three or four hours, though.]”

  Henry picked the crab up and moved his arms around for a moment. They weren’t sore, not really. Not with the incredible amount of stats he had. But the stretches still felt good.

  “[The fusion worked. It was also pretty uncomfortable, but I got a good feel for how it worked and how it was done,]” said Henry as he watched his surroundings and began looking through his blood clones.

  The effort was trivial, barely affecting his train of thought as he spoke to his companion. It was getting easier and easier to maintain multiple trains of thoughts. Easier than it ever had been.

  I can probably create some more blood clones… And start using the ink clones more as well.

  “[It’ll take work though. The System could create that thick mana, manipulate it, and infuse it in seconds. It did that… a dizzying amount of times. Cutting the skills, moving them, re-anchoring them. I’m sure it used its own… abilities to accelerate some of the processes, but yeah. I’m trying to remember everything. Make sure to save every Evolutionary Point, Maurice. You’re gonna need them.]”

  “[Fascinating…]” Stromsong mumbled.

  “[I will! Also, I found where we came from. The direction of the pod, I mean. I couldn’t find the fastest direction away, but if we head in that direction, we should be good. Right? The pod’s that way.]”

  Henry picked up Maurice, surprised at the confidence of the little crab. “[That way? You’re sure? Was it difficult to get something out of the skill?]”

  Maurice clacked a pincer in annoyance. “[It took a while, and I ended up having to use my Aspects. But even then it took like all of my Aspects to get something solid. I’m sure, though.]”

  “[Which Aspect?]” Henry asked, curious.

  “[Aspects! Plural. It worked when I used Curiosity, Craftiness, and Arcana! Also, guess what!]” The crab raised a claw and wiggled it around.

  Henry stared at him, stared at the claw, glanced at Stormsong and finally, from the corner of his eyes, he saw the discarded shells. “[Wait… You got it? It worked?]”

  “[Yes! Finally, I’m going to have tiny-minds as good as yours.]”

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  Henry stilled for a fraction of a second, but then he twirled the crab around. “[Congrats! You worked so hard on it!]”

  The kraken was sincerely happy for the crab, but unfortunately, the little crustacean was sharp, and he picked up on the crumb of doubt Henry had felt at the claim of Maurice’s Clawminds being as good as his own.

  “[What? You thought of something weird. What is it?]”

  ***

  While Stormsong ate from the C-rank squid they’d hunted together, and while Maurice pouted at being left behind once more, Henry turned his attention to his new Octominds and was startled when felt them focus back on him.

  They are definitely stronger. Damn.

  It was hard to describe, but while they had felt like tools before, like an extension of his will, these new Octominds were even more intimately connected to him, and they felt… aware. Almost like small, independent minds nested within his own.

  It was as if he’d just stepped into a meeting room, and eight sharp subordinates focused on him, waiting for his instructions. To make his life easier, he began picturing them as small octopuses, just like he’d been, and began altering their appearances to remember them better.

  To the first, he gave glasses, a pen behind an unexisting ear, and a pile of papers in the Octomind’s many arms.

  “Mind #1, you’re on note-taking duty. Your job is to maintain everything I tell you to recall. The content of Maw, and everything we might talk about. While we’re talking about Maw; start feeling out what’s in there, and make an inventory.”

  Henry didn’t know how realistic his instructions were, but it should be all easy enough to test. Unexpectedly, he felt a question come up from the Octomind. After a couple of seconds, he understood what the mind was asking. It was asking if Henry wanted to give it control over Maw of the Trickster to integrate deeper with the skill.

  Right… I remember this feature. Though I don’t know if it would be useful here. I definitely need to test it and see how effective it is.

  “No, just use the skill, but don’t take it over.”

  The note-taking mind sent back its confirmation and began stretching its feelers into the Maw. Somewhere in his own mind, a whiteboard began listing the various samples and meats Henry had stored and forgotten about.

  Lionfish, Riptides, Sea Serpent, the little metallic ball, the leviathan vertebra and tooth…

  This might actually work.

  Next, Henry turned his attention to mind #2. He gave this one scrubs.

  “You’re on healing duty. If I get injured and if it’s non-lethal, your job is to heal me slowly. Efficiently. If the injury’s life threatening or mind altering, you can use the E-rank ability of my healing. You’re allowed to use the accelerated healing. Actually, every one of you has that instruction, just in case Octomind #2 gets disabled as well. Understood?”

  Henry felt all of his Octominds confirm. Even the one that was doing inventory. Which reminded Henry of something else.

  “Number one, as soon as you’re done with the inventory, take notes from the fusion process. Everything I can recall, and everything you all may have noticed.”

  For the third Octomind, Henry filled its arms with navigational maps and some naval tools.

  “Your job is to keep track of our location and make sure we’re not going in circles. Take control of Trickster’s Pathfinding to find where we are and how we could get out of the Current. Maurice gave us the direction already. Try to confirm it. I want you to be like a minimap that uses the ability’s sub-skills to show me dangers, valuables, and everything you can pick up from it.You can use illusions to show me arrows and whatnot.”

  The Octomind confirmed, and Henry felt the sub-mind’s controls stretch, slowly isolating a part of his soul. It was a bit uncomfortable, but not at all as bad as it had been when the system was doing it. Maybe because the Octominds were still part of Henry’s mind, and so part of his will.

  Still, when Henry tried to find the trigger for Trickster’s Pathfinding, he couldn’t. At the same time, he sensed the Octomind begin casting spells and sending its attention outward.

  So that’s how it works… Huh. I hope it’ll be worth the loss of control.

  Henry turned his attention to the fourth and made it sit in front of multiple monitors.

  “Four, you’re scouting and clones. Blood and ink. Don’t take over the skills, but watch through them and alert me when you need another mind’s help, or when something’s worth my attention.”

  Which left four Octominds. “All of you are on standby for now. We’ll see how it goes with the first batch.”

  Henry wasn’t even sure if things would work out as he expected them to. He was still a bit doubtful about the advertised autonomy of the Octominds, but maybe he’d be surprised. It would surely take a lot off his plate if they worked as well as he hoped, after which he might find a couple more tasks to assign to his Octominds. Though he’d certainly need to keep a couple—or at least one—idle to help him whenever he needed a hand.

  Like a personal assistant.

  Next, Henry turned his attention to the fourth Octominds and to the many screens ahead of him. “Make some clones and start scouting in the direction Maurice pointed. We’ll start moving in a bit. Find us a spot to rest and make sure the space is secured.

  The Octomind confirmed its orders, and Henry turned his attention to his class skills.

  With all that taken care of, I have one last thing to check in my skills and then we can start moving.

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