Undersea Reincarnation - 2.17: Nothing better

 A/N: Big week! The price changes go live on Friday. 3 chapters of UR and launch of the new story should be this week. Just gotta finish some recommended edits by the dev editor. Aiming for tomorrow (late) night. The patreon chapters for that might have to wait a bit though. I got a bunch but I need to edit :_;

Happy Wednesday! 

While the shelled squids savaged a large being that meandered into their territory, Henry slunk along the seabed and made himself into a large rock. He would have liked to boost his camouflage, but Shiftiness and Misdirection still somehow felt light and shallow.

Clearly, conceptual energy needed a bit more time to recover. It wasn’t anything like mana, and Henry had no idea how long it would take for them to be refilled, but one thing was clear; he couldn’t go around using his Aspect’s energy willy-nilly.

He had to be frugal with it. He also needed to understand it better.

I might also be able to use the stuff I recover from breaking down abilities. As long as it’s somehow compatible.

Henry slowly made his way toward a reefy formation, looking for a hidden spot to settle in. He didn’t feel that great, now that the adrenaline was wearing off. Some of the energies from Sundots’ attacks had leached into him and made him feel heavy. Sick. It reminded him of having a fever, but he could feel the offending agents in both his body and his soul.

He had an idea of how he could get rid of it, but he needed to be somewhere safe first. Any time now, the squids were going to get back to roaming, and he was in the middle of their territory.

Maurice’s going to want one of those shells.

A few minutes later, Henry found a good spot. A bunch of large rocks seemed to have detached from the cliff a long time ago, and they formed a high, almost mountain-sized network of reefs and caves. Most were on the smaller size, but he found a good one that was curiously empty.

Henry didn’t mind that. He slipped in and, using a couple of arms, mimicked a large boulder to dissuade anything from trying to get in. He then let out a sigh of relief, but couldn’t really rest just yet.

Pulling some essence from the vitality Aspect, Henry channeled it into a pulse of Arcane Regeneration and shivered as the skill coursed through his body. It was like a wave of cold water coursed into his body and soul, scrubbing everything clean and filling it with energy. As soon as the skill finished coursing through him, Henry made himself a promise.

He had to find a way to use this combination more often.

He’d never felt as good. It felt like he just had the best night's sleep of his life. He felt energized and full of life, as if he just down a shot of espresso but without the nervous energy that would follow To his greatest chagrin, now Vitality also felt empty.

I need to figure out a way to stockpile these conceptual energies. Or make more of them.

That was something he could ask Stormsong about. Glancing behind, he made sure once more that he hadn’t locked himself in a dangerous cave and readied himself to pull out Maurice and the dolphin—with whom he needed to have a conversation—but paused.

Might as well get through the notifications first. And see what I got from the dolphin.

Hunger of the Trickster: Control Water (F) added to Ephemerals

Hunger of the Trickster: Sonic Pulse (E) added to Ephemerals

Hunger of the Trickster: Mind Shield (E) added to Ephemerals

Misdirection of the Trickster: Torrential Ink copied.

Huh. I got the clicky-skills. Wonder how that’s going to work. Still, good haul in general.

Henry was disappointed for a moment because Control Water was copied at the F-Rank. But then again, as he recalled the fight with Sundots, the skill seemed to have a lot of powerful application that most certainly required practice and mastery. It might be a core ability of the species as well, as it was also what Stormsong used in their little bout, though her technique was different from Sundots’.

Now, how about Aspect levels?

Hunger of the Trickster (D): Level 6 -> Level 7

Shiftiness of the Trickster (D): Level 9 -> Level 10

Misdirection of the Trickster (D): Level 5 -> - Level 8

Arms of the Trickster (D): Level 4 -> - Level 7

Arcana of the Trickster (D): Level 1 -> - Level 2

Vitality of the Trickster (D): Level 1 -> - Level 4

Swiftness of the Trickster (E): Level 1 -> - Level 2

Fury of the Trickster (E): Level 1 -> - Level 3

As always, nothing better than almost dying for leveling up.

Shiftiness was ready to be upgraded to C-Rank. It would be his first Aspect to hit C-Rank but unfortunately, it would cost a whole B-Rank token to upgrade. He’d be able to afford the expensive skill-upgrade way before he managed to scrounge up a B-token.

Henry unfurled an arm and a multicolored—but mostly red—crab popped out. Maurice looked around for a moment, examined Henry for a second, then a piece of crab meat popped into his claw and he began chewing. “[How did it go? Tell me everything. Can you recreate it with your illusions? That could be better. What if—]”

Henry let Maurice ramble on and pulled Stormsong next. The dolphin immediately glanced around, water churning around her, and when she saw the crab munching as he stared back, she calmed down. “[What happened? Where are we?]”

The kraken quickly filled them in, and even recreated some elements of the encounter when Maurice insistedOnce he was done, Stormsong stared at him, while Maurice was climbing over his camouflaging arm to take a peek outside at the shelled squids.

“[You fought him? Sundots?]”

Henry shrugged with two arms.“[I don’t know if I can call it fighting. More like I survived a few hits until the shark showed up.]”

“[And you brought an Otodus… That’s so… ]”

Stormsong was speechless, and Henry was very much aware how precarious his situation had been, but then again, he was somehow growing used to the danger. Which was concerning.

Not wanting to dwell on those thoughts, Henry eyed the dolphin for a second and let the question drop. “[What is going on with you and your pod, and why did they come after us?]”

Maurice stopped watching the outside world and scuttled up on one of Henry’s arms, while Stormsong quietly stared back. A few small bubbles escaped from her head, then she bobbed her body a couple of times. “[Your lives were at risk because of me. So I’ll tell you. But I don’t want to discuss it. Can you respect that?]”

Henry agreed. Maurice continued munching on crab meat.

“[There are two reasons I wanted to leave. Or at least, I was waiting for a chance to leave. The first is that I have no one in the pod. My parents were exiled when I was just a calf. The second is that there are… expectations of me that I have no interest in. I want to travel and see the world. I’m not naive enough to believe my parents are still out there, but if they are, I want a chance of seeing them again. No matter how small it is. Not be trapped rearing calves back there.]”

Henry listened quietly, skin crawling when he realized what the second might have been. Knowing the habits and behavior of dolphins back in his world, he guessed these dolphins, even though they were sapient and all, might still have some unorthodox and potentially traumatic behaviors. From the tone and muted body language of the dolphin, he assumed it wasn’t pretty. Henry felt Maurice about to say something, and decided to cut him off. Just in case the crab wasn’t picking up on the heaviness of the situation.

“[Thank you for telling us, and you’re welcome to continue traveling with us.]”

Maurice looked up to him inquisitively, so Henry shot him a quick private message. “[Questions later. This is a sensitive topic. Let’s change the subject.]”

The crab’s excited voice came through their minds almost immediately. As if he’d been waiting.

“[Can we get one of those squids? Stormsong, do you know them?]”

The dolphin looked up, and slowly rose from the floor she’d been resting on. She approached the exit and peeked outside over Henry’s arm, seemingly welcoming the distraction.

“[No. I don’t recognize them. I don’t think I’ve heard anyone speak of them either… Maybe they don’t leave the Current? Or maybe they prefer staying at the bottom?]”

Henry couldn’t look outside, but his clone could. It was watching them, camouflaged along some algae leaves at the edge of the squids’ territory. “[They seem placid on their own, but as soon as something approaches, they swarm it. They fight together, and they’re fast. They’re using their shells for both offense and defense, hiding within when they’re attacked, or they stab with the pointy end. If we want to catch one of them, we’ll have to lure it away. Otherwise we’re fighting all of them.]”

Henry looked down to the crab, then to his multicolored shell. Maurice noticed his gaze, then a worried voice came through. “[Why are you looking at me like that?]”