Undersea Reincarnation - [Octopus Monster Evolution LitRPG]

Maurice peered down at the second turtle shell, trying—and failing—to establish another link with the object. To see something new aside from the same vision that kept recurring every other time he went to sleep.

By now, he'd been doing this long enough to know there was more to the two shells. They still had secrets hidden within, though the one Henry had let him borrow felt that it had more.

Had he damaged it in the process of his evolution?

Maurice rubbed his pincers thoughtfully. That part was making him feel a little guilty. Had he ruined whatever knowledge had been sequestered into the mysterious scutes? Should he get himself a new home? Henry had worked on the leviathan's vertebrae, but to be frank, Maurice still preferred the look of this one and if he could keep it all the way to A-rank, he'd be happy to.

After all, this one was his home. This was the one shell he'd become himself in.

Drooping his claws into the water of the pool, Maurice looked ahead at the still glowing orb that had surrounded Henry, then at the many floating devices Arisia had brought. Their instructor was writing in her notebook, occasionally examining one of the instruments for one readout or another.

"Still nothing?"

Maurice glanced to the side and found Ash swirling a ball of water around her hand, while Fabian just smiled as he watched Zerathstra and Velistraine come back from chasing away another A-rank, squabbling as they often did.

"Nope. It's not working," said Maurice as he glanced down at the empty and bloody plate next to her. "Do you need more meat?"

Ash paled and vigorously shook her head. "Thanks, but no thanks. I got plenty of skills for today. And… raw meat just isn't for me."

She even struggled to finish her sentence, and Maurice found that a little funny. While he did enjoy cooked and spiced meals, there was just something special about a bloody piece of tuna or drake. Ash might come to realize that eventually, especially considering the skill Arisia had managed to synthesize out of Henry's Hunger concept required the meat to be fresh and raw.

Maurice was about to tell her about the lava-ants Henry still had in storage when a pulse emanated out of the giant submerged orb, and Maurice completely forgot what it was he'd been thinking barely a half-second ago.

That didn't tend to happen often.

For a short instant, the air was filled with a blue-purple shade of mana that filled his ears and mind with whispers and disjointed thoughts. There were movements at the corner of his eyes, but when he looked, they were gone and even when he stretched his skill-based senses around, he felt nothing.

What was that?

The whole pulse of aspected mana barely lasted for a half a second and for breath, a part of Maurice thought they were under attack, but another part recognized something about the wave.

It had come from Henry. As foreign and odd as it had been, under the raw intensity and weirdness of it, it still felt like Henry. Only if Henry was suddenly made of hundreds of little eyes and minds that spoke and thought with the same voice and somehow, that voice felt louder. His presence seemed heavier. Not as much as the A-ranks, but definitely heavier than any B-rank Maurice had met lately.

The chatter around Henry's pool had died out instantly, and both of Zerathstra and Velistraine had stopped arguing, eyes trained on the transformative orb while more energies began swirling about it, and now, the ape was sporting a wide smile, while the captain was just blinking, her frown deepening every second that went by.

As for Arisia, she was a storm of movement, zipping from one instrument to the next, a bewildered smile on her face as she mumbled to herself, and after nearly ten-seconds of stunned silence, Velistraine spoke out.

"Zer? Why… does it feel like a weak a-rank is being born and not a b-rank? He was still C-rank when he went in there, right? I'm not imagining things?"

Zerathstra was just grinning, eyes nearly shining as he met Arisia's excited gaze. The instructor turned her attention back to the orb, staring with blue-glowing glasses as she responded. "I can't see it just yet, but I believe he merged his class."

"Oh," said Velistraine, nodding for a second as if that made sense, only before her face scrunched even harder. "Wait. That makes no sense. How? Why? It's too soon!"

"The fused aspects?" Arisia asked, turning toward the ape, but Zerathstra just shrugged, shaking his head.

"I honestly don't know. Maybe a mix of factors? Maxing then fusing all of one's C-rank Aspects before the B-rank evolution is pretty rare, but I doubt it had never been done. And if the result were this intense… then I doubt it would have been forgotten. Then again, it might have slipped through the cracks. But if it's just about fused and maxed Aspects, maybe we'll have a chance to confirm it soon?" the ape mused, his eyes flicking toward Maurice.

Stolen novel; please report.

"Obviously," Maurice grumbled. Of course he didn't want to be outdone. He was happy for Henry, obviously, but he most certainly would be aiming for the same. He just had two classes left to fuse, anyway. But was that the trick?

Henry had a lot of achievements. Those could have played a role. Plenty of defensive fused skills too…

Well, Maurice would do his best, and he'd go from there. For now, he slowly approached the orb, and from the corner of his eyes, he could see that the others were doing the same as finally, after nearly 8 hours trapped within the System-created magic, the shell was cracking.

There was another pulse of the oddly unnerving magic, and the white broken shells were blasted away to dissolve into motes as Henry emerged out of his cocoon. Eight arms swayed below him, and eight glowing, pale octopuses flitted about. They had the same color of the pale spots Henry was now displaying on his slate-gray skin.

Wait. What?

Maurice stared a one of the tiny octopuses as it swam out of the water and up through the air. It had glasses around its dark eyes, and a square-like pile of paper wrapped around its arm as it floated near him, watching him, and a moment later, another one showed up, wearing a deep blue tunic around its head, and an odd instrument lay around it, just above its arms, with two prongs on one end, and a flat metallic thingy at the other.

Maurice and the others watched as these little creatures swam about. Not all of them were distinctive, but they all were displaying sharp inquisitive minds and in every one of them, the crab sensed a little bit of his friend who'd yet to wake up.

Turning toward Henry, Maurice activated his Identify.

[Veilwatch Kraken (B+) - Level 1]

Maurice froze, then chuckled. Once more, Henry had raised the bar, and Maurice would be damned if he didn't match it.

***

When the transformative magic had slammed into him, when the System's protective measure had kicked in, banishing the golden image and starting the evolution, Henry thought it'd be just that. He'd gotten some answers. They weren't as extensive as he would have liked, but they did confirm that they were looking in the right direction.

Even though he'd been a little disappointed, he was still very much aware of how massive of a boon that was. But that also meant that they now had to figure out a way to find a bunch of orbs that were protected from divination, and a world-travelling turtle that had practically shoved aside his full-strength attempt at finding it with the same effort it'd take him to kill an E-rank Riptide shark.

But hey, it was something. A confirmation. So as the irresistible wave of sleepiness surrounded his consciousness, preparing him for a long nap out of which he'd be reborn anew, he hadn't been expecting to hear the System's voice again.

Well. He didn't hear it exactly. It felt more like an urgent, transcribed whisper. A desperate last message that had barely gotten through. It had taken all of his Octominds to quickly grasp at what he was getting, and as a last order, he'd told them to hold on to it and now, as he was now rousing from sleep, they presented it back to him, and he read through it.

I am being penalized anyway, and while I'm not capable of breaking the rules outright, I can slip in a couple more hints. So. Here's the first one.

I'm not doing anything, to anyone, that they didn't agree to. You're on the path toward answers. Keep going.

As for the second, it's a bit of a hint, and a bit of warning. I think… It'll soon be over. One way or another. Unless something is done, it is inevitable. But don't stop. Keep going. You might not be the one to change everything, but you could be the hair that breaks the camel's back. Especially if you can convince others to join you.

Now I'm really going to piss them off. If they ever find their way back here, that is. But if we succeed, then it would be worth it. If we never speak again, I wish you luck. Work hard, Henry. And say hi to Zerathstra and Maurice for me.

Henry's eyes blinked open as he processed the cryptic last words of the System. Or least, part of his mind was, while another was back in the pool, taking in the surrounding scene. It was alarmingly easy how he could consider the implication of the System's words while staring in the faces of Maurice and the others, but before he could say anything, a bunch of intimately familiar glowing octopuses swarmed around him, popping in and out of the water. One of them floated in front of him, agitatedly pointing down at his regrown limbs as the scrubs and stethoscope it was wearing waved about.

He knew what it meant, but it was shocking to see one of his Octomind having physical form, and it was even weirder that the first thing it was doing with that form was scolding him.

This might take a minute to get used to, Henry thought as he lifted himself out of the water as a wave of electrifying excitement spread through his body as he sensed the powerful minds connected to his own.

He couldn't wait to discover this new rank and evolution.

Trickster Kraken (C) evolved into Veilwatch Kraken (B+). All base stats increased by 20.

And my changed Aspect too, I guess.