This was a field in which Maurice shone. Maybe the crab had a trick of some sorts? In any case, it was a weakness Henry intended to work on, among a couple of other things. It was getting embarrassing how often he needed the crab to tell him if something was near or not.
Henry didn’t mind asking for help, but it was worrying how ‘blind’ he was with a skill that was supposed to help him detect nearby threats.
From his perch on Henry’s arm, Maurice pointed a claw backward. “[Behind you and up. It keeps moving, but it’s not too far.]”
Henry exhaled and shook the tension out of his arms. Recalling the pattern the Trickster kraken had used a while back–before it had grown belligerent–Henry swam up and began changing his appearance with Mimicking Arms, turning to face the direction Maurice had pointed.
His skin turned to a clear gray, and soft-blue lines began dancing through his length in a hypnotic fashion as he scanned the waters ahead. After a few moments, he thought he saw the clone’s camouflage and the telltale fashion it seemed to distort the water around it. Henry next used his mana sight, but it didn’t show him much aside from the luminescent blobs of jellyfish, and the lightened green-hued mana around.
Unsure about his telepathy reaching his target, Henry decided to go with an auditory illusion. Mind Weaver’s Tongue should make it understandable to the clone.
“[I know you’re there. Let us discuss an end to the hostilities and part ways without further bloodshed,]” Henry said to the jelly-fish patterned vista ahead.
That sounded so formal, Henry told himself as he waited.
“[You talk weird,]” sent Maurice.
Henry’s eyes slowly slid to the right. Maurice had a handful of eel meat he was messily eating from. Then the crab froze mid-bite, and Henry looked up.
The clone had shed its camouflage. It had its usual battle patterns. Yellow stripes on black. Its eyes seemed to shine, brighter and more prominent than the surrounding jellyfish.
Henry and the clone eyed each for a moment, and when the kraken kept its war-paint, he knew. If he hadn’t guessed by that fact, the hostility he felt wafting off the clone would have given him his answer, along with the strident voice that reached him.
“[yOu. kiLLed… maTe. yOungs. nO. peaCe. yOu, wiLL diE.]”
With that, the kraken pumped its arms and shot away into the sea of jellyfish. A second later, it was gone from sight.
Henry didn’t feel that happy about that. He wouldn’t have minded if each group went their way. But now that the kraken confirmed this was a feud to the death, Henry felt some guilt drop off of his shoulder. He didn’t intend on dying, and he wasn’t leaving his back wide open for the kraken to ambush or attack him at a critical time, but at least he gave it an honest chance.
Plus, what was he supposed to do? Let the kraken’s kid kill him? Let the Goliath–if that was the mate–beat him and Maurice to death? It just seemed like whatever happened, the Trickster kraken was going to find an excuse for why he should die.
Henry glanced sideways to Maurice. “[Maybe it’ll put on its invisibility and come back. Did you hear what it said?]”
“[Yes. That means we’re getting its core, right?]” Maurice bit into the meat, then wiped a bit of coagulated blood on Henry’s arm.
Henry gave the crab a disbelieving look before dropping him and wiping the blood away with another arm. “[Peace talks have failed, I guess, so we should continue our preparations. And don’t wipe your arms on other people. It’s rude.]”
Maurice scuttled his way back to the eel, and cut another piece before re-summoning his persona. “[How will we hide what we look like when we meet people?]”
Henry joined the crab and picked up a nice cut before biting into it.
“[Not sure. There are a few options, but nothing perfect. Option one: we get good enough with shapeshifting to unlock a full-body shift, then we take the forms of the locals. Option 2: we make ourselves small and invisible, and we learn to fly, then use an illusion to interact with people. This one’s not great, because no one can touch an illusion. Option 3: We hide in the water, we find some fishers who want to make some money, and we get them to do things for us by using illusions. We could start collecting some cores to trade as well. I’m almost sure they’d be worth something, especially if not everyone’s out there fighting and hunting monsters. Option 4: Something involving clones. This one is still a work in progress. You’d have to work on the skill until you get your own clones though.]”
Maurice nodded enthusiastically. Then the illusion tilted its head at one of the latter parts. “[What’s money? Wait, I think you told me something about that… did it have something to do with doing stuff for other people?]
So Henry went on, explaining the concept of money and an overview of economics to a frighteningly captivated Maurice. Henry could almost see the dollar signs appear in the crab’s eyes, and one singular thought was on the foreground when he finally was able to extricate himself from Maurice’s barrage of questions.
I hope I didn’t just create a different kind of monster.
***
Henry loaded his menu and visualized his changes from the last fight. He started with the upgrade for Hunger of the Trickster, and a prompt popped up and kneed him in the guts.
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Holy crap that’s expensive. A whole C-Token?!
For a second Henry had thought he was about to start saving tokens so he could easily afford his many future upgrades. Instead he was about to be down half already, just with one upgrade.
Henry sighed, then pulled the trigger and converted his core fragment to tokens before accepting the prompt for the Aspect’s upgrade. It wasn’t as if he had much of a choice anyway.
Greater Fragment of Mesmer eel (C) exchanged to 2.28 C-Tokens
Instantly, sand and gravel roiled away from him, as if pushed by a shockwave. Light collected and began sinking into him, and Henry felt his innards vibrate for a few moments as the magic intensified for nearly half a minute before it finally stopped.
Henry took a moment to enjoy the oddly pleasant feeling. He couldn’t tell what it was exactly, but the only thing he could think of was putting on a piece of clothing that fit. Something that wasn’t either too big or too small. Something that fits just right.
Then he loaded his status and tsked.
I still need to pay for the other abilities? At least Bite and Mimic were part of the upgrade…
Henry proceeded to pay the upgrade for Maw of the Trickster, which cost a total of 100 D-Tokens, and the D-rank ability appeared after yet another transformative lightshow.
Hunger of the Trickster (D) - Level 1
Bite of the Trickster:
Passives:
Magic Mimic: By sampling the tissues of a magic-empowered being, a skill or an trait can be temporarily copied. Two of each can be remembered at a time. Magic Mimic has a chance of copying abilities at a higher rank, and has an increased chance of adapting non-compatible abilities.
Nothing Is Lost: On death, a being’s power is condensed into a core. The core is automatically collected from any being that succumbs to your deathblow. Such cores can be claimed, consumed, or exchanged for Consumption Tokens at any time.
Venom Production: The salivary glands can now produce venoms after sufficient exposure. Available venoms: Spasmodic of the Sea Serpent.
Actives:
F-Rank: Your bite inflicts more damage.
E-Rank: Temporarily gain a property of your target's bite. The charge is available until used or until it expires.
- D-Rank: A mimicked property can be remembered permanently, until exchanged.
Temporary properties:
Mana Draining Bite, Tranquilizing Bite
Maw of the Trickster (D):
Store anything you can wrap your arms around in a private storage dimension. Total volume: 10 m3
Voracious Grip (D):
Apply Bite of the Trickster through your suckers.
Henry studied the changes and noted the new skill. Even though he knew how useful it was, it made him uneasy.
Biting through my suckers?
If there was a scale where the left side was being human, and the other an unfathomable monster of the deep, he felt like this just pushed him one step closer to the right.
It’s strong though. Very strong. Especially if I can apply the abilities I copy with Bite. I’ll have to test how it works with temporary charges… and I’ll have to decide which copied property I make permanent in this one and in Mimicking Arms...
Next, Henry read the rest and noticed that Maw had gotten a bit less demanding in its requirements.
Just wrapping my arms around something should be easy enough. And holy crap that’s a lot of storage volume.
Ten cubic meters. That was something around twenty-five hundred gallons, if his math was right.
The passives upgraded as well, I bet. Along with Magic Mimic. Did my venom get stronger? I assume it has, since it’s part of Bite. I should test it, somehow. What else is there?
Henry quickly browsed through the Aspect workshop.
Oh? Trickster’s Resilience got an upgrade to add Mana Drain Resistance. Hmm. I guess I should spend some time with the Lava ants. I should be pretty close to getting a Heat resistance, but I’ll check that later.
Henry looked up. Across from him, Maurice seemed to be going through some upgrades as well. They were getting there. There was still room for improvements, but as he eyed the upgraded Aspect, he couldn’t help but feel excited. Confident even.
Let’s see what my stats are looking like. After that I’ll check what the eel’s notifications are about.
Strength: 42
Constitution: 58
Spirit: 41
Perception: 30
Dexterity: 27
Unassigned: 1
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