Henry pulled himself into the mountainous cave and gave Stormsong a couple of seconds to slip past him before he plugged and camouflaged the exit.

  From one of his many ink clones, he watched the green-scaled creature leisurely swim by, undulating away. It hissed, and the sound made his flesh shudder. The sound reminded him of rattlesnakes. The creature never even glanced at his cave, and soon it went past his furthest blood clone, disappearing in the distance. Just before it left the clone’s range, Henry used Identify.

  [Adult Sea Serpent (B) - Lvl ???]

  Henry had already recognized the creature, but he still wanted to confirm before it slipped away. It was much larger than the specimen he’d encountered and fought a long time ago. Its scales were shinier and its horns longer, and it most certainly was beyond what he could deal with right now.

  “[It’s gone.]”

  Stormsong let out a few bubbles of relief, and even Maurice relaxed. The crab tapped Henry’s arm, and the kraken let him go. “[You said you fought one of them before?]”

  “[Yup. It was right before I met you, actually. When you found the turtle shell, I’d been fighting a smaller specimen. Nasty things. Intense venoms, and pretty damn tough. At the level it is, I don’t think we could have handled it.]”

  Henry pulled out the C-rank triggerfish they’d just killed and let Maurice and Stormsong start eating while he reviewed his notifications.

  Shiftiness of the Trickster (C): Level 1 -> Level 2

  Misdirection of the Trickster (C): Level 1 -> - Level 3

  Thaumaturgy of the Trickster (C): Level 1 -> - Level 2

  Vitality of the Trickster (D): Level 8 -> - Level 10

  Swiftness of the Trickster (D): Level 1 -> - Level 3

  Fury of the Trickster (D): Level 3 -> - Level 4

  Progress was going well. Yesterday’s trip had netted him a few Aspect levels. That and the nearly hundred ink clones and ten blood clones spread out in a half-mile radius all around him, watching for threats. Henry had to assign two more Octominds to assist with the efforts, leaving him with two idle, but it was definitely worth the expense.

  The new formation had just allowed them to skip out on a risky encounter.

  Maurice tore out the eye of the triggerfish and munched at it as he looked up at Henry. “[Are we leaving today?]”

  Henry reached over and, shifting his arm into a bone-blade, sliced off a portion of the tail and brought it over. “[We could. Do you two feel ready? I wanted to confirm if it was possible to detect A-ranks first, but if we move, it’ll be easier to do so. The patfinding Octomind can’t work very well through my blood clones, so I have to be the one to move…]”

  Stormsong tore a piece of the flank and chewed. “[I can move. I think the sooner we’re back to the edge of the current, the better.]”

  Henry eyed the notification he got and checked in on the scouting Octomind as he responded. “[I agree. It’d be a lot better to dip in and out of the Current instead of being stuck right in the middle of it. Don’t know if that would matter to an A-rank… but they’re too damn dangerous to ignore.]”

  Hunger of the Trickster: Crushing Bite (D) added to Ephemerals

  That reminds me…

  Henry checked on his note-taking Octomind and looked through the inventory of his Maw. It was written on a whiteboard in his own handwriting, and as he read the list, he grimaced.

  I haven’t eaten from the mantis shrimps yet. I should also take the lionfish’s explosive skill. I keep thinking about that one and forgetting. Let me get that one over with.

  Henry popped the lionfish out of his Maw and immediately chomped on it. It was prickly, and pretty darn bitter. But it got the job done.

  Hunger of the Trickster: Spiteful Detonation (F) added to Ephemerals

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  With that partially dealt with, Henry turned his attention back to his companions and realized it had been barely a couple of seconds since he’d responded to them. For a moment, he felt a pang of worry.

  The Octominds are messing with my perception.

  What usually would have taken him ten seconds to think through and decide on was now taking him a second or two. It would be advantageous in certain scenarios, absolutely, but it still felt a bit uncomfortable.

  I’ll have to get used to it.

  “[So we’re moving? Great! How long do you think it’ll take us to cross it?]”

  Henry glanced at Stormsong as he had no idea himself, and Trickster’s Pathfinding hadn’t helped him there. At least, the Octomind in control of the skill hadn’t been able to tell him.

  Stormsong shook her head. “[I don’t know. I’ve heard both days and weeks from dolphins I don’t think have actually attempted the crossing.]”

  Henry chuckled at that. “[Alright. I’ll start scouting. We’ll do an hour or two every day, and we’ll see how that goes.]”

  The trio ate and talked, planning out their goals for the downtime they might have, and Henry realized Stormsong was as much of a messy eater as Maurice was. By the time they left the cave, Henry felt that chunks of triggerfish were sticking to him. He could still taste and smell the fish nearly hours later with his arms.

  This time, they managed nearly five hours of travel through the Current. The next few days blurred between scouting, working on Stormsong’s one-time skill copying construct, and on testing the limits of this Octominds.

  For the mantis shrimps… Henry decided to keep them fresh and wait. He had more than enough on his plate with skills already, with all the new ones he had to practice with and train. Not to mention, he had to crack moving a class-skill to an Aspect without the System’s help.

  ***

  The trip was both terrifying and exhilarating, but after the fifth day, Maurice had to admit the journey was a bit more scary than it was fun. After two more close calls with A-ranks—that they didn’t even get to see—Maurice began shuddering whenever a loud sound or something large moved in the cloudy golden sea.

  The seas at the edge of the Current hadn’t been safe, but it was nowhere near as bad as this. The B-ranks were numerous. The A-ranks were more than any of them expected, but thankfully, Henry managed to confirm that he could detect the A-ranks with his pathfinding skill, which Maurice decided to focus on as well.

  If Henry could detect A-ranks with a skill, then there was no reason Maurice couldn’t. Plus, now he had Clawminds. They could help him. A bit.

  Maurice sighed. He stared at the tiny shellfish he was nibbling on, then at where he knew his own sub-minds resided. They just weren’t as good as Henry’s. Which was understandable. But it still sucked.

  Even when Maurice tried to overwhelm the kraken with questions and statements, Henry waded through them seamlessly. Responding to every little inane thing. He still chided the crab, but it was as if he’d suddenly become…

  So. Much. Smarter.

  Maurice wasn’t jealous of his friend. He just wanted to be as good!

  Glancing around, he saw Stormsong and Henry discussing and waving bits of congealed mana around. Both were working on their project now that they’d finished their daily trip. They were getting better at shaping it, so Maurice let them to it. He found himself a nice spot to sit and glanced around.

  They were in a giant tree. Maurice wasn’t sure what that was, but Henry seemed pretty sure. The whole area was full of these “trees”. They were tall, brown, algae-covered columns with weird hard protrusions. Henry said that there were probably leaves far above, but he didn’t want to head up.

  It was crawling with C-ranks up there.

  Maurice closed his eyes and triggered Find the Path, thinking hard of A-ranks.

  Where are they?

  Nothing.

  How can I find them?

  Nothing.

  Maurice hummed. This was an interesting puzzle. Even Henry didn’t know exactly how his Octomind was finding them. Then again, maybe it made sense for Maurice to get no results for his attempts. After all, there shouldn’t be any right here. Or Henry would have detected them.

  Right?

  Maurice considered how the skill might be able to find things by rank.

  Henry called it divination. Learning about things you weren’t supposed to know by magic… but even if the skill works like that sometimes, that doesn’t explain why the little ball we found in the Trickster’s kraken could get the skill to work every time. So divination might be one method, but another is, what… something like a scent? A way to help the skill look in the right direction?

  What could something like that be for an A-rank? Their power? Their mana-reserve? Their soul?

  Maurice suddenly froze.

  He had an idea… but he needed help. He glanced at Henry, but he wasn’t sure if he should interrupt. Thankfully, the two had gone quiet, so he poked the kraken mentally.

  “[Henry, can you help me with something?]”

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