Undersea Reincarnation - [Octopus Monster Evolution LitRPG]

Henry stared back at the giddy captain and blinked, Maurice tightly wrapped in one of his arms. He'd reduced his size a little after reverting to his natural shape, being only about ten feet long. The two of them stared at Velistraine as she hopped from one leg to the other, brows dancing up a storm.

"You want to come with?"

Velistraine nodded, a wide smile on her lips. "Yep."

"Do you even know where we're going?"

"No idea. But it sounds fun," she said. "How do we do this?"

Henry looked down at Maurice and considered his options. He could try chucking both in his Maw, but while he didn't expect that to be difficult with Maurice, it might be with Velistraine.

But would it be easier than trying to transport her through my Shadow teleportation?

Even that Skill took a little work to ferry Maurice along with him. He expected it to be much more difficult with an A-rank under his arms.

"Okay… let's try putting you in my Maw," Henry said tentatively as he put Maurice down and for the first time since Velistraine had joined their chat, she winced.

"That might be a bit difficult. But worth a shot, right? I won't resist," she announced, spread her arms wide.

With a sigh, Henry wrapped an arm around her, took a deep breath, and activated his Maw.

Oh god, Henry gasped as his legs shook. Velistraine was gone, but it was as if someone had just shoved a boulder down the plastic throat that represented his throat. It was incredibly painful, but while he expected to lessen in sensitivity as the seconds went by, it only got worse as the backlash grew sharper and more excruciating, and within two more seconds, Henry spat her back and doubled over, gasping for air as his soul ached and as his vision swam.

Velistraine sucked the air between her teeth, grimacing. "Yeah… I didn't expect it to work. Good thing that you managed a few seconds, though," she said, tapping him on the shoulder encouragingly. "Got anything else?"

***

From the other side of the line, Henry's Shadow began channeling, the magic slowly building up as his main body activated the switching ability. A few crabs and porpoises peeked up and watching him as they chewed, but after glancing toward their leaders, they dove back into the meat.

The leader—whom Henry still didn't know the name of—ripped a nice chunk of tuna and watched him. He would have asked her what her name was, but already, the mana and the magic he was channeling were getting intense enough that he worried if he lost focus even for a fraction of a second, the clone might break down from how much mana was swirling about.

"[You're not gonna try and kill us, are you?]" the leader asked. But Henry and his Octominds were so focused that he didn't dare even look up. From the other side, Velistraine was ready to give him a boost of concepts, but there was no need.

The energy reached its apex, and the Skill triggered. Henry imagined the sensation would feel disorienting, and in a way, it was, but he'd grown used it. Right now, he was still a bit sore from having tried to carry Velistraine in his Maw, and while it still felt heavy and had made the teleport difficult to channel and maintain, it still worked in the end.

One moment his real body was in Thalis, and the next, there was a pulse of magic and Henry found himself deep underwater, with Velistraine in his arm, in front of a pod of porpoises whose eyes went wide before a few fearful clicks echoed out of their throat.

The leader—and everybody else—were like deer in headlights. The hermit crabs had disappeared into their shells, and Velistraine, like a child who'd stepped in a farm for the first time, just grinned and smiled.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"[Hello!]"

The porpoises were still completely frozen. Only their eyes moved, and those most of them were trained on the A-rank that just showed up, some also flicked to Henry.

They must have thought I was just a C-rank, Henry thought. Which was a good sign, he believed. He'd been weaker than them, and they showed no interest in attacking or swindling him.

"[I'm Henry. This is Velistraine, a friend, and this here, is Maurice,]" Henry said, summoning the crab out.

Maurice landed smoothly on the rock under his feet, shell shining as it reflected the lights of the floating jellyfish above as he took in the scene.

"[Where are we? What… what?]" Maurice's voice died out as he took in the blinking porpoises and the little eye-stalk peering out of the shells that still hovered on and around the tuna's carcass. The smaller local fishes didn't care about the scene taking place and were instead just nibbling on the small bits, having the time of their life.

With Maurice's appearance, a ripple spread through the porpoises. A few click escaped their throats, and the first of the hermit crab had come out of its shell and was slinking toward them, eyes nearly shining as it took in Maurice.

Maurice stared for a moment, then hopped off the rocky and slowly approached as well just as he felt a hand tap him on one of his arm. Looking to his right, Henry found Velistraine grinning at him as she gave him a thumbs up.

A few more of the crab were approaching Maurice, now that the first of them had emboldened them and within moment, nearly forty of the little buggers were surrounding Maurice clicking their pincers as they looked up at him, their meal forgotten.

He was much larger than any of them. While the largest of them was approximately a foot or two tall, Maurice easily five feet tall and wide. He could have made himself larger or smaller, but he seemed to like his current size and right now, he was nearly as large as the B-rank porpoise, who'd finally broken out of her stun. But while she was intrigued by Maurice, she was way more concerned about the captain Henry still had wrapped in his arm.

"[Do you want me to let you go?]"

"[Nah. This is easier,]" she said, tapping him on the arm, then she waved at the B-rank. "[Hey there! Didn't expect to see your kind here. What's your name? We're friends. You don't have to be scared,]" Velistraine said, resting her chin on her palm.

"[I'm… Navi. You met our kind before?]"

Velistraine nodded enthusiastically. "[Yes! Though those I've met didn't have those little fellas with them. They were traveling alone,]" she said. Then privately, she spoke to Henry. "[Good find. They're friendly little buggers. Fast as hell, too. Kinda funny too. Though I spooked them a little. Sorry about that.]"

Henry wasn't worried about that. Already, a few of the porpoises were crowding around Maurice, clicking and watching as the smaller crabs climbed over his multicolored shell. Henry couldn't tell what Maurice was thinking as their Mind Shields were always improving, but it looked like he was having fun. He was speaking to them, but as far as Henry could tell, none were answering.

They aren't naturally sapient, he thought, and for a moment, Henry considered that maybe he should have given Maurice a warning. Then again, they'd spoken of this before. Just like many of the krakens Henry had met had not been sapient, it was also likely that if they'd ever met another Chimeric hermit crab, odds were that they wouldn't be sapient.

Though they definitely had character.

One particularly large crab, a C-rank, was posturing in front of Maurice, clicking his pincer aggressively as he let out a few bubble float out of its mandible. Half of its body was out of its conk purple shell, and it seemed like it wanted to take over Maurice's.

Henry almost laughed at that, and after ignoring the fellow for a few seconds, Maurice ended up picking the crab with his shell, turning him upside down, then left him to dangle up there while he played with the smaller ones.

"[Where did you find him? How is he so… how is he talking to the others?]" Navi asked. By now, all of the porpoises had shaken off their wariness from him and Velistraine and were crowding and clicking up a storm as they surrounded Maurice. A few of them still threw wary glances back, but they were mainly taken by potentially the highest level and smartest hermit crab they'd ever seen.

Glancing down at Navi, Henry wrapped an arm around a large rock and after making sure Velistraine was fine being this far underwater—which she was, as apparently, as aside from the fact that she could hold her breath for hours, she had abilities an ability that'd let her extend that indefinitely—he responded to the porpoise. "[It's a long story, and interestingly, it started not too far from here.]"