NOVEL NEXT 3.22: Faces
With water dripping down his limbs as he lifted himself out of the pool, Henry stared back at the little crowd around his once private guest home. "I'm still me, everyone. Y'all can stop gawking at me like that," Henry jokingly shot out as he fashioned himself a new body while simultaneously, he read through his updated interface. The differences weren't massive, but they were still non-negligible.
The class is gone. The reincarnated intelligence tag is gone. Evolutionary point counter is gone.
That was for starters. His species, level, and Thaumaturgy of the Trickster were changed, as well as the cornerstone of the latter. But every other skill and Aspect were still the same.
But all of the system-assistance menus are gone, he thought as he shaped the mana-veins of his new body, making sure they were a little wider and thicker now that he'd grown a little stronger, and he quickly noticed the strain was nearly nonexistent on his mind.
The new Octominds made the task trivial, he thought as he turned his attention back to the issue of the inaccessible upgrading menus.
He wasn't sure how he was supposed to upgrade his Aspects and non-cornerstone skills himself, but honestly, he figured how to fuse and manipulate those same elements himself. How hard could upgrading them be?
The upgrades use tokens. So… cores. I bet that once an Aspect is level 10, I can kick start the process myself. I just need to make sure I have enough fuel for the upgrade, he theorized as he eyed the changed elements. Plus, he could always ask Arisia and the two grinning A-ranks for answers. That would be much better use of their time than trying to poke at the floating tiny octopuses.
Name: Henry Dubois
Species: Veilwatch Kraken (B+) - Level 1
…
Thaumaturgy of the Many-Faced Trickster (C) - Level 10
Council of the Outer Minds
Passive:
Your consciousness unfolds into a network of sentient projections—your evolved Octominds—each a sliver of self orbiting you like veiled sentinels. Their presence sharpens your awareness, deepens your insight, and augments your cognitive speed and spellcasting precision.
The Octominds can act on preset triggers or tactical intuition: subtly guiding your body to evade, reflecting hostile magic, or casting assigned spells and skills. You may bind abilities to each, allowing specialization—to heal, to navigate, to act as a decoy or to defend, and much more. They act near-independently, yet in perfect, seamless harmony with your core self: one mind thinking, many executing.
Henry quickly read through the updated Aspect and skill as he quickly resumed the changes.
They're much more powerful. More independent as well, and I can sense their cognitive boosting effect more sharply now. They also didn't really have much of a personality before, even if they could show initiative, but now they're much more present. Maybe even sapient?
One of them landed on top of Maurice's shell who tried to gently grab a hold of the little creature, only for the magical octopus to turn invisible and creep all the way around the shell before it poked the crab claw.
And what's up with my rank? B+?
He didn't even know that was possible. What did it mean?
Henry watched Maurice jump in surprise, and frowned. Did it just manage to bypass Maurice's detection? And how come he could still see it even though it was invisible?
Wait… I'm not really seeing it. I just know where it is. And it's telling me?
Henry took a second to rub his forehead. If he wasn't so advanced in his evolutions, the sudden changes of perspectives and many different stimuli and trains of thoughts would have certainly done some psychic damage, but curiously enough, he was handling it just fine.
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He just had to get used to it.
Finishing the last touches on his magically created human form, Henry looked around, gave Maurice a wink as the tiny octopus reappeared in front of the crab before it blinked away and popped back into existence on Henry's shoulder. The man-shaped kraken took a deep breath, enjoying the heightened energies of the current for a small moment, then looked Zerathstra in the eyes.
"We need to talk," he said, and gesturing to everyone else to get closer, he prepared to explain what he'd just learned, and sensing the mild spike of anxiety from Ash, Henry considered letting her off the hook, but… well. She was already in on many of these talks, and Velistraine seemed to trust her, so he didn't feel like making a stink to kick away the two young ones.
Wait… does she even care?
Henry thoughtfully eyed the captain and her excited grin for a moment, and considered another option.
Nah. Well, trust most likely plays a part on why Ash and Fabian are here, but I'm actually thinking she doesn't even care if they're around or not. They just happened to hang with Maurice.
"So? What is it? Also, wanna go and spar? Never found a B+. What can you do?" asked the red-headed woman as she tried to poke at the ream of magical, fake papers one of his Octominds was holding, only for the Octomind to swat the finger away.
Henry was about to start speaking when he realized he could just… recreate the scene.
With a flex of will and deft use of Summon Illusion, Henry summoned the image out of his memory, and it was as if he was back in that vision, only this time, a few more people were present with him in the turtle shell, and quickly enough, everything was covered.
The confirmation that the turtles and the orbs were connected, and that the orbs were their key to some of the System's secrets, which, by itself, had lit up a fire under Zerathstra. And as Henry moved on to the System's disappearance and the last message it had sent—which he just floated out as a written letter—the intensity of the ape went from an insistent flame to an urgent and pressing blaze.
Ash and Fabian were gasping for breath when the ape realized he was flaring his aura too hard, while Maurice was straining, pitting himself against the pressure with a potent use of his Domain and concepts though by the time Henry had spread out his own influence out—or was it aura?—he managed to lessen the pressure, though he could feel himself strain as well. Not as badly as Maurice, but he could feel it.
Aura?
Henry could sense that presence a little better. He had used it in the fight against Tevarius, but back then it had been a bit raw. It was him letting it flare out in response to the once-lord's presence, but Henry had never summoned or manipulated his aura himself. Now, he could feel it, like… like a new limb he had access to. A sort of force emanating out of his Aspects, reflecting some of their concepts and his will outwardly. Mostly the many minds and whispers of Thaumaturgy as well as the hungry leer of Predation, but all of his Aspects were a little represented.
Henry focused back. He'd look into all that very soon. Within minutes, he supposed, if the alarms being sent up by his underwater clones were of any indication. Already, he could hear the alarms of Thalis ringing. But the ape had no ears for them.
By now, Zerathstra was barely an inch away from his face, eyes wild. "Are you sure this is true? This is what it said?"
Henry nodded and summoned an Ambercrisp apple, and before Maurice could beg for one, he pulled another. "Absolutely. These new guys won't let me forget it," he said, pointing with a thumb at a nodding, absent-mindedly scribbling Octomind with a whiteboard, "and there's no way I imagined the message. I was about to pass-out in the evolution process, but it was clear as day. They caught it, then passed it on when I woke up. It's pretty cryptic. But it sounds like it… matches what we spoke of before. At least in parts."
Zerathstra and Arisia shared a wide-eyed look, and Velistraine gripped on to the ape's wrist. Taking a deep breath, Arisiat turned back to him, still blinking as she took in the news. "Everyone agreed to whatever the System's doing to the ascending A-ranks. They agreed," she repeated, shaking the ape's arm.
At this point, more alarms began to ring, and all of them began to move.
Velistraine spoke up next, drawing her sword as she frowned down toward the sea. "It has to do with the second part. The warning. Something's going on. Which might explain the turtle's panic in the vision. There's something just past the horizon. Something dangerous. And… inevitable," she said, and it almost seemed like she was savouring the word.
Maurice scuttled up next to Henry, and the kraken picked him with Telekinesis. "Do you guys think it's collecting the A-ranks for this danger? Like, building an army?" Maurice asked.
"Maybe," Henry said, thoughtfully. "By the way, it's eels. Low B-ranks. But hundreds. Maybe thousands."
"Ugh. It's a damn swarm," groused Velistraine before she shoved her sword back in its scabbard. Her eyes flicked to Henry. "Might be good for you. Stretch out your legs and take that new rank out for a spin. But definitely call for help if something bad shows up."
Henry grinned, then with a flex of will, he popped Maurice in his Maw and switched places with one of his underwater clones–which he ordered to keep his freshly made fake-body safe–before he popped the crab back out and instantly, hundreds of jagged-toothed maws snapped toward them. There were some familiar purple ones with telekinetic abilities. Some crackled with electricity and one was glowing with ominous green lights, while a bunch of skeletal eels hovered around it.
"[Ready, Maurice?]"
"[Yeh. Oh. I'll be working on some stuff to also hit B+. Can you cover for me when I ask for it?]"
Henry's limbs crackled with electricity as twenty shadow-like krakens appeared around him. At the same time, his Octominds shone with different lights, each activating their own skills while Henry tightly wrapped a non-electrified arm around the crab as he eyed the rippling swarm around them.
"[You got it, buddy.]"