Undersea Reincarnation - [Octopus Monster Evolution LitRPG]

Peering past the surface, Henry looked himself over one last time.

Soft colors. No black and yellow. Just standard brownish red. Be friendly. And it should be all fine.

Henry took a deep breath, then broke through the surface. Usually Maurice was the one who took care of breaking the ice; without him, it was a bit more awkward. It wasn't too bad though, and with seamless activation of Telekinesis, he levitated out of the water, limbs curled under him. As soon as he looked up, he found Zerathstra and the woman staring at him, and a flash of foreign fear flashed through him.

Wait… What? Why?

Was it an aura? No…Not exactly. It was too weak to be that. Too mild. But something about her was triggering some odd response within him, and as he floated up and was not immediately attacked, Henry shoved the sensation away but still resolved to pay attention to her, just in case.

Probably some sort of passive skill.

"Henry, this is Velistraine, one of our citizens who'd rather travel around the world as some sort of captain for hire than be a productive member of her home."

"Bite me."

Zerathstra whacked her upside the head. She'd tried to dodge, but the ape still got her before he continued, as if he hadn't been interrupted.

"Velistraine, this Henry, a pretty smart Trickster kraken who's a guest and who's currently being trained by Arisia."

Even though the captain had been peering at him curiously, Henry didn't miss the barely visible wince when she'd heard Arisia's name as she rubbed the back of her head. But while Velistraine's face was a bit difficult for him to ascertain, the rest of the crew was much easier to read.

The two youngest were just staring, open-mouthed. The girl looked like she needed to take a seat, while the young man had a half-smile as if he was having the time of his life. The rest of the crew were mixed. Some were confused. Some were nonplussed. And some kept occasionally looking up at the canopy above, then back to Zerathstra before their attention turned back to Henry.

"Hello, everyone. Nice to meet you all," projected Henry after a short moment.

The girl flinched. The boy's smile went wider, and Velistraine slowly put her hand under her chin as her eyes threatened to bore into him. Not in any hostile manner, he assumed. But he could see the gears turning, and he could see the questioning gaze she threw at the still-grinning ape.

There's going to be questions, that's for sure.

While he couldn't pick up what she was thinking, he could sense a few minds from the rest of the crew. He could sense some suspicion here and there, and he was happy to discover that curiosity was the prevalent reaction to his appearance.

As far as Henry could tell, that was a good sign, and as he recalled Rocky and the kraken's usual greetings, he decided to try something out.

"Do you all like tuna?"

The question jammed their thoughts like a stick in a bike's spoke, and Henry would have certainly gone red from the befuddled stares he was getting, while just ahead of him, he could see Zerathstra's shoulders shake at his barely suppressed laughter.

"I'd like some," said a large man with an apron. The cook, Henry guessed. So with a quick scramble inside his own mind, he turned his attention to his Maw and began looking for the largest tuna he could find.

I should have had my Ocotminds grade them on the whiteborad… I have no clue which ones are the best.

Henry pulled the first one out, peered at it, saw the missing chunk out of its side, then threw it back in storage and pulled out the second. This one Maurice had gotten to its guts.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

That little…

A couple of tries later, Henry found a good one, which he floated to the chef who was already rubbing his hand together, a gleeful look in his eyes. It was one of the highest level sparkfins he'd gotten, and it was nearly twice as large as the man who was getting ready to butcher it.

Henry was happy the crab hadn't gotten to this one.

"This is going well."

Henry turned to the ape and felt a deep desire to smack him. But he didn't dare to. Velistraine, on the other hand, had no compunction as she shoved the ape down into the water, where he landed… and didn't sink.

Henry didn't know the ape could walk on water.

***

The crew of Velistraine were all standing on the docks leading up to Thalis with their bags over their shoulders, while Henry hovered a bit behind with Zerathstra. The kraken watched as the captain took a step forward toward her swaying ship, then after asking for a headcount and making sure everyone was accounted for, she raised her hand and one of her rings shone.

Henry's mana-vision nearly blinded him.

A surge of mana poured out of the captain and into the ring before being changed to a purple-black film of mana that covered the ship. She continued pouring her energies into the instrument, and then there was a pop, as if she'd just won over some sort of rule of physics, and the ship was sucked into the ring.

Velistraine rolled her shoulders then turned to face them and clapped. "Alright, we're good to go. Can you two take my crew up? We'll join you all in a minute."

A starry-eyed familiar duo nodded then gestured to the dozen or so people to follow, which left Henry, Zerathstra, and the captain alone.

Uh-oh.

Velistraine kept a smile on her lips as she watched her crew head up, escorted by Zamir and Semea, while Zerathstra was content with holding his arms behind his back and watching the trees above. When the crew was far enough, Velistraine crossed her arms then gave both Henry and Zerathstra a look.

"Alright, you two. What's actually going on? Because that," she said, pointing at the innocently floating Henry, "is not a kraken. That's a person. I don't know how this happened, but I've seen krakens. I've battled Tricksters and Blightbringers and Mesmers. Even the occasional Bloodtide and Voidborn. While they're smart buggers at C-rank and B-rank, they seldom get to this level of intelligence even in A-rank. Even then, they still run on instincts, and their instinct isn't to share tunas with what they consider potential food. Spit it out. And don't look at me like that, Zer, you know exactly what I'm talking about, and I see it all over your face, you smug fossil. Tell me!"

Zerathstra cackled, and as the captain reached for him–Henry assumed she wanted to throttle the answers out of him–the ape leapt above her outstretched arms and jumped off of her head to cling on to the edge of the stairs leading up before he called down. "I told you before. The world's a big place. Everything can happen. Though you should definitely meet Maurice. You just reminded me of him right now."

While at first Henry had been concerned at the captain's attention, the worry quickly dissolved away as he saw the unserious adventurer within her peek through. And to be fair, he had to admit Zerathstra was right. That desperate, unbridled curiosity was very Maurice-like.

A small part of him whispered to not say anything, but that part was just paranoia. He trusted Zerathstra, and this captain could be a powerful ally. Aside from that, he just liked her. As she cursed at the ape and yelled at him to come down, Henry felt there was a certain honesty and genuineness about her that very much appealed to him, so he began shaping his human shell as he shrunk down.

He might be wrong in his assessment, but if he was, what's the worst that could happen? He had oaths guaranteeing his safety, and he didn't want to live his life jumping at every shadow, so he might as well make some friends.

As soon as the skill activated, the captain's gaze turned to him, and while she didn't make any other move, he felt a thrill of nerves run through him, mostly bolstered by whatever passive skill she had.

Cool. But kinda scary.

The human appearance continued to form as the magic congealed and began shaping his limbs around his smaller form as he spoke. "I used to be human. From another world. I died, and woke up in the body of a Trickster Octopus."

Henry recounted a few more details as Zerathstra dropped back down while Velistraine intently listened, and at the mention of another world, her red eyes shimmered. She turned to Zerathstra, who gave her a nod, and her smile grew.

Velistraine sat down right then and there, then tapped the wood in front of her as Henry finished shaping his human-form.

"Tell me more about this other world. And what's this about turtles?"