Undersea Reincarnation - [Octopus Monster Evolution LitRPG]

Henry watched as Rocky drifted away with Maurice, Ash, and Fabian, with the kraken carried by Stormsong as they scrambled to find more trinkets and items for Rocky to examine. He seemed utterly fascinated by worked metals. When Henry had brought him the vial that contained the seed for Telepathy, the kraken hadn't said much, though he'd certainly been taken by the worked glass. Back then, Henry had thought it was the fact that he was getting a skill from a glowing potion that had impressed him. But he'd been wrong.

Rocky seemed to have a deep fascination with … crafts. Even a simple piece of cloth was enough to lose him for a couple of minutes. Good for him, Henry thought as he turned his attention back to the trio that had stayed with him. "So. What's the deal with Adamantium? I'm guessing it's not just a cosmetic thing?"

Zerathstra smiled and crunched into an apple, while Arisia was writing furiously into her notebook, leaving Velistraine to answer him. The captain chuckled, then tossed her dagger at him. "Here, try to channel a skill through it. And don't hold anything back. Tell me how it feels."

Henry caught the dagger and paused. He didn't have much experience with weapons—aside from leviathan teeth, that is—so he couldn't immediately tell which skill to use. Not many of his skills worked well with weapons… but he figured Evershifting Strike would do.

Activating the skill, he decided to follow the captain's instruction and poured everything into it. All of the effects Evershifting Strike could manage. He even empowered it with a tiny bit of Predation. Henry was about to guide the energies of the skill down to the dagger in his hand, only to blink.

It was already glowing with ominous red lights. The skill had flowed from his own arm to the dagger without him even thinking about it.

As if it had been a part of his body.

"There's your answer. Well, part of it. Adamantium is even better than monster bones at channeling mana. My own sword is made of bone," she said, partially unsheathing a pale-bladed cutlass for a couple of seconds. "It's perfect for channeling skills. But this sword is barely a few years old, while that dagger hadn't had a scratch on it ever since I found it. You wouldn't have realized this just yet, but Adamantium is the only material—aside from the bones of A-ranked beasts—that can handle the power of another A-rank for any length of time. Even bones would deteriorate and crack over time. Adamantium–if worked by a master–won't."

Eyeing the dagger in his hand, Henry whistled. Now their reaction to seeing Rocky casually synthesizing such rare ore made sense.

"It is exceedingly rare," said Zerathstra, voicing Henry's thoughts. "Most of what had been forged with it has been lost to the sea, but a few relics are still around. Sitting in vaults or ruins."

Velistraine nodded. "Just this little dagger is enough for A-ranks to take shots at me. That's how valuable it is."

Henry turned to watch Maurice clamber up the patient kraken as they roamed around the space, freed from Arisia's tyrannical teachings.

"I see why this needs to stay a secret," said Henry after a moment, suddenly aware of how dangerously valuable Rocky's skill and evolution were.

That's probably why I couldn't get the full skill… it's too specialized. I only can mimic materials, not synthesize them wholesale.

Concern must have been showing on Henry's face, because one hand landed on his shoulder, and when he turned he found Zerathstra smiling at him. "No harm will come to him. I swear it," said the ape. "But we absolutely would not mind if he made some for us. He'd get whatever he would want. We might not know how to forge it, but I know there are some that do and when anyone asks how we got our hands on raw Adamantium, we can just say we found a vein below. Which isn't a lie, considering that's how Rocky himself found out about it."

Velistraine's eyes shone as she raised a hand. "When you start forging it, can—"

"No," Zerathstra cut her off with a grin. "If we start forging it. No one's forcing Rocky into producing the ore for us. Once that's settled, and if he agrees, then we'll see about arming our productive citizens."

The discussion quickly devolved into bickering from that point on, so Henry just shook his head and sighed. While Arisia gave him a nod and barked out at the slacking students.

At least Zerathstra is intent on keeping to his words.

Henry, mind still whirling with the discovery, drifted away and found his old spot before sitting down, the voice of the two A-ranks still carrying, and right before he closed his eyes, he saw the animated face of the ape and felt a twinge of empathy toward him.

He remembered feeling wary of the ape. When he'd first arrived in Thalis. But the more he interacted with the A-rank and the more he'd seen him carry himself around, the more Henry felt for him.

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He couldn't help but picture Zerathstra as the youngest sibling who suddenly had had to grow up and take care of everybody, but occasionally, that young soul would peek through, unburdened by the weight of responsibility. Just like now, as he squabbled with Velistraine.

Henry hoped they would soon find some answers. And for that, he had to get some work done.

***

Henry tuned out the voices, wind, daylight… everything.

He was back within his own mind.

Stretching his awareness to the building blocks that made up his soul, Henry quickly identified them.

His four Aspects. Predation. Lifeweaving. Thaumaturgy. Dancing Shadows, and finally, the frame that surrounded all of them. The system given-class: Watchful Guardian.

Focusing on the latter first, he triggered Invisibility. An instance of the skill appeared in the nexus hovering near his stomach, but he didn't let it activate. Instead, he left it in some sort of stasis, taking note of where the instance had originated from within the class.

What Arisia called the skill root. The origin.

It wasn't really a real target. This was all in his own head. But conceptualizing and visualizing these things helped tremendously. With the source of his Invisibility and its instance firmly gripped with his will, he turned his focus to one of his Aspects, Lifeweaving, then triggered Mimicry, changing the color of his skin.

The second spell wanted to go elsewhere, creating another skill nexus to activate from, but Henry didn't let it. He forced the instance down to the same nexus that held Invisibility, and just like trying to mix two different Aspects, the two immediately reached out for another, to mix and clash for supremacy. Or at least, they would have, if Henry had let them.

1st stage, done.

Now he had to pacify them. Thankfully, the two spells were close enough that just floating the idea of them being unified was enough to appease them. But Henry wasn't practicing for an easy fusion, so he did what he would have done if this merge had actually been complicated, which he had done with every fusion so far, just to get the technique down.

With a flex of will, he flooded the nexus holding both instances with Lifeweaving concept and let them simmer in it. Both skills were empowered, and the energies swirling about emboldened and pulsed, and bit by bit, their 'pulse' began to match each other. They had been singing a different tune a moment ago. But now, between his vision and the unifying quality of the concept, their rhythm began to sync, and not so far off, where both skills had emanated from, the two skill roots resonated. One in the class, and one in the Aspect.

2nd stage. Done.

Now was the final part. Now that the skill roots were reacting, he could nudge them. Of course, Mimicry was too heavy, and in any case, he didn't want it to go anywhere. It was one of his big skills. Instead, he pulled on Invisibility. Gently. And the skill didn't need to be convinced for long.

With a slightly uncomfortable pinch in his soul, the root of Invisibility broke away from the class-frame, and drifted toward the territory of Mimicry.

It was going well, but Henry did not allow his focus to slip, and time went by, his awareness firmly wrapped around both skills, until he felt they were on top of each other.

Then he let them fuse.

Observing the process from that point was pretty easy. He couldn't see the skill itself, as he was visualizing all of this, but he could feel it sink into the larger arcane-like organ that was Mimicry, breaking down a little before a new home was found for it within the more powerful skill. As if to confirm his success, a message popped in his interface.

Invisibility has been successfully merged into Mimicry.

Henry sighed, eyes still closed. In this manner, he'd already fused a handful of skills. But he still didn't feel ready to start on the big items. His Aspects were still pulling on him to confirm the new cornerstones. It was like an instability still running through his soul. Bothersome. But he had to be patient. He didn't want to rush it. He still had skills to fuse, and he had ideas.

He had to fuse Arcane Regeneration into Mimicry, a much more challenging prospect than Invisibility. The resulting skill would be the cornerstone of Lifeweaving.

He had to fuse Evershifting Strike with Bite. He wasn't sure of this one just yet, but he wasn't too worried about it. Both Bite and Evershifting Strike would be a good fit for Predation, but the cornerstone would most likely continue to be Bite of the Trickster.

So far, both of these were the safer merges. The cornerstones will still be his oldest and most powerful skills of the Aspects.

But he couldn't say the same for the last merge. It was the one he was most excited and worried about, and it was the most ambitious. While Misdirection's cornerstone had been Inkjet, and it had carried him far in this journey, allowing him to survive and escape many times, he felt it was time to change things around.

His goal was to fuse Blood Clones and Scouting Clones, then fuse the resulting skill to Blink. Then make that the new cornerstone.

He hoped for a cornerstone that would allow him an easier path toward teleportation between clones. A cornerstone skill that was worthy of an Aspect called "Dancing Shadows of the Trickster".