Undersea Reincarnation - [Octopus Monster Evolution LitRPG]

The second Aspect Henry upgraded was Renewal of the Trickster, and this time, it had been a fascinating process to witness.

Lifeshaper's Form—the cornerstone of the Aspect—was a pretty fragmented skill. Or at least, it looked like it was. But underneath all of the passives and skills, the cornerstone had two distinct parts: one for shapeshifting and camouflaging, and one for healing. So when Henry had started the process, he wasn't sure which one of the many actives and passives was going to be affected and empowered. He didn't know if only one of them would change, or if all would be upgraded. But when the process was done, the results turned out to be a little obvious, in retrospect. After all, the heart of the skill was divided between healing and shapeshifting, so it was those two subskills that had taken the bulk of the energies and had stepped into the next rank.

Renewal of the Trickster (B) - Level 1

Lifeshaper's Forms

…

Shapeshift: Alter and reshape your physical form, molding your limbs, organs, and body into complex forms and structures. Well-practiced forms can be accessed swiftly. You may gradually adjust your overall size, mass, and proportions. The drawbacks of smaller forms are significantly reduced. Maximum Mass: 820,000 kg

Life Surge: Expend mana and Lifeblood to release a regenerative surge that restores health, purges ailments and foreign concepts, and accelerates soul recovery. It can be channeled to others with touch, and for a greater mana cost, the effect is greatly empowered.

…

Henry quickly scanned through the changes.

Partial shapeshift became simply shapeshift. Which means I might be able to actually take a human form instead of creating a shell, Henry thought as he continued thinning out the swarm of eels.

It was an odd thing to consider. Did he want to take back his human form? He'd gotten used to being a kraken and frankly, the many arms were pretty damn practical. Though he could see the usefulness and the power of the skill, especially considering the general weakness of the shells he'd been creating. With a full shapeshift, he didn't need to create his own mana channels or worry about the durability of the shell. It'd still be his body. Which would be mightily useful if they found themselves in human lands on their search for the metallic orbs. After all, a powerful enough spell could shatter his shell, and then he'd be exposed to the world. Changing his Identify tag with the skill and with mana signature manipulation would not be enough to hide his identity if his 8 limbs were to show. Still, as he eyed the new maximum mass, Henry wondered.

Could I make myself into an eighty-two thousand tons human?

Henry grinned inwardly. He'd be a walking, talking giant. That could be interesting to see.

Which reminds me, I should really work on the wings next. I might be travelling soon, and having wings would be useful. Especially against bird-monsters.

Then again, with how good his Octominds had gotten, levitating himself through Telekinesis might actually be easier than handling flight with wings.

Oh well, we'll see, he thought as he turned his attention to the changes of Life Surge next. The main changes were that now the healing pulse could affect his soul, and it would allow him to purge foreign concepts a little easier. It was pretty decent, and he was pretty happy with it.

With that done, Henry continued circling around the wide territory of Thalis, occasionally sending detonating clones as he quickly checked on Maurice. The crab was still deep in meditation, so without further ado, Henry moved on to the next upgrade.

Dancing Shadows of the Trickster (B) - Level 1

Trickster's Shadow

Create a clone formed of ink and lifeblood that follows your commands and can be controlled remotely via yourself or through your Octominds. You may perceive through its senses, use skills through it, and every clone can be used as a relay to extend your range of influence. A connection to a clone can be weakened, but it cannot be fully severed so long as both parties are within the same plane of existence. You can exchange places with any Shadow you can perceive, taking its place while it takes yours. The further the Shadow is, the longer and the costlier the teleportation will be.

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B-rank: The distance before the connection starts deteriorating is dramatically increased. The number of clones that can be maintained all at once is greatly increased.

Henry eyed the description, hummed, and started casting. The limit of this new kind of clones had been around fifty before the upgrades. It was more than the older blood clones, but lesser than the ink clones, though considering the Shadows were a mix of both, fifty was a fair number. So he wasn't surprised when he'd gotten to 75 clones after the upgrade.

Then he kept casting, and at a 100 clones, Henry was impressed. He had to take a breather then, lest his mana dipped too low, but within a handful of minutes, he continued until he reached a 150 living, breathing clones.

All around, spread out across the sea, were 150 inky, flitting shadows, tearing into the eels and swimming after him like a swarm of underwater crows.

It was taking all of his mental effort and the support of a handful of Octominds to keep track of all of them, but he quickly sent them at the eels and detonated three quarters of them.

He hadn't expected his capacity to triple, and right now, they were just a bit too much to track, but Henry resolved to get himself used to managing that many. It was bound to get easier as the skill levelled and as his Octominds got better.

Still, Henry was a little awestruck. The range he'd be able to cover with them was becoming gigantic. And considering he could switch places with them on a whim…

It's like a game teleport system. Eventually I'd be able to have them all around the world, and just hop from one to the next.

The possibilities were endless, and by now, only a tenth of the swarm was still alive, so Henry sent the remaining clones at them. Maurice was likely to wake soon, so Henry wanted the upgrades to be done with. With that in mind, he turned his attention to last Aspect still at C-rank and channeled his tokens to it until its evolution triggered.

Thaumaturgy of the Many-Faced Trickster (B) - Level 1

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 passives or 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.

B-rank: The Octominds' projections are empowered further, significantly increasing their durability and the speed at which they recover.

Around him, the forms of the Octominds shuddered and slowly, they grew denser. They hovered about him, watching the carnage as the rest of his Shadows mopped up the rest of the eels. With the remaining cores—of which there were literally thousands, Henry began consuming them for levels while waiting for Maurice to finish up. He consumed dozens, then hundreds, until, near the end, he consumed a whole three hundred of them for a single level and, at that point, he decided to keep the remaining couple of hundreds in storage. They just weren't worth it anymore, and so he'd rather find another use for them. For now, his targets would be the high B-ranks, and maybe even weaker A-rank.

After the spar with Velistraine, I might go check on that blue lobster near the ruins, Henry thought as the swell of magic finished sinking into his body and soul, reinforcing his attributes and filling him with strength. Henry hoped Maurice would get the B+ evolution as well. While he didn't think that it was that special in and of itself, and that they'd all be equalized at A-rank anyway, he was curious what the change would look like in his friend. Plus, as being halfway between B and A-rank, they'd be twice as safe while travelling.

Veilwatch Kraken (B) - Level 2 achieved!

...

Veilwatch Kraken (B) - Level 37 achieved!

7x Stat points awarded.

All stats have been empowered by 3 points each

Wait… what?

Eying the notifications, Henry quickly realized that while he was still earning a free point every five levels, now whenever he gained ten levels, he'd be gaining a point in every stat.

Nice… this along with the evolution will make sure every stat keeps growing evenly. Actually, can I buy some stat points? Can I make them myself? It seems like the menu for that is gone as well. But I bet I could figure it out.

A nice change, all in all, and as he sensed a sharp claw poke at his inner arm, Henry opened up his grip and watched as the words died in the level 100 crab. Maurice stared around, arms hanging limply at his side as he took in the sea of shredded flesh being nibbled on by weaker fish before he looked up at him.

"[Where'd the eels go? I left you alone for barely an hour!]"