Undersea Reincarnation – [Octopus Monster Evolution LitRPG]

“Having someone on watch seems to deter the kraken from sending its clones.”

Henry bit into the flank of a seal as he watched the half-obscured light of day. It had still attacked once, though, at night. But they’d been able to react quickly enough to beat the clone. And when Henry had been about to bite the clone, it dissolved.

Another concerning fact to add to the list.

Maurice poked an inner arm, and Henry unrolled his tentacle to let the crab out.

“[Good morning. There’s food],” said Henry as he pointed to a seal lodged under another tentacle.

Maurice began trudging toward the dead seal, then paused and turned to Henry. He lifted a right pincer, which Henry had learned to interpret as the crab asking if he was okay.

“[I’m good, ready to get it right this time.]”

Maurice lifted his right pincer and waved, then turned to the seal and dug in with enthusiasm. Henry would be lying if he said the crab’s trust didn’t feel good.

“Just you wait.”

Over the last two days since settling in this area, Henry had been trying over and over to create something useful with Shapeshift Tentacle. The fact that he could only use it once every few hours made climbing the learning curve slow.

He looked sideways at the pile of discarded limbs. Some were barely changed, but with every iteration he was getting better at shaping and changing the limb’s composition. Reverting the changes was mana-intensive as well, so he opted to sever the limbs and regrow them instead.

The last couple were almost shell-shaped, but that hadn’t been enough for Maurice’s ability to work. One ended up too thick with the interior too small to be used as a hermit crab home, while the second had been too holey and uneven.

Henry waited for Maurice to finish eating and went through his plan for the new trial. “Test number…14. Shape the tentacle in a cone beforehand, make sure there’s space left in the center, then turn the whole thing to bone.”

Bone was easier to create than keratin. Tougher, as well.

Maurice finished a few minutes later and scuttled close. Henry picked the crab up, carefully wrapping the extremities of his arm around the hermit crab’s shell, then put Maurice down.

He examined the mold he’d created and gingerly nudged his limbs around, making slight adjustments, sealing off bits here and there, then… it was ready.

“[Here goes.]”

Henry activated the Skill, and this time he kept his focus on the limb. He ignored the countless possibilities that flashed in his mind, the overwhelming sense of control the Skill baited him with, and ordered the cells of his prepared limb to turn to bone.

He started at the tip of his tentacle and slowly worked his way back. The top of the future shell turned from clear orange to off-white, and the color bled through his tentacle. As it did, he lost feeling from the transformed flesh, but he kept his focus and didn’t contract or move.

The world fell away as he narrowed all of his senses onto the task at hand. Once he got to the size he wanted, he let go.

Henry closed his eyes for a moment and waited for the bout of dizziness to fade. Using large amounts of mana taxed him. Glancing at his stats, he knew he’d just burned through 87% of his reserves.

Henry grimaced and glanced around. “[I’m low on mana. But I think we got it this time.]”

Maurice warily eyed the waters around as he approached, but Henry felt the excitement well within the crab. The bone-shell looked good. There were some small imperfections, but no holes outside of a very respectable entrance at the bottom of the conical shape. Or more like it would be, once they cleaned out the remaining flesh that was left within.

Henry severed the tip of his arm. The damage didn’t even register.

He looked down at Maurice. “[What do you think?]”

Maurice scuttled around the bone-shell, touching and tapping it with his claws every few seconds. He turned to face Henry and raised a decisive right claw.

Henry pumped a tentacle in victory. “[Alright, let's–]”

Maurice didn’t wait for him. His right pincer tapped the freshly made shell, and sand rippled away from the sculpted bone.

White light began to drift off the surface of the conical shell. It flowed along the pincer, up to the multi-colored shell where it sank through and disappeared.

The process took barely seconds, and when it was over, the bone-shell looked… gray. As if the light was sucked out of it.

Maurice stood still for a few seconds, then slowly turned to the octopus.

Henry held his breath, waiting, and then a small tentacle grew out of Maurice’s claw.

The crab and Henry stared down at the twitching tentacle, then Henry burst out laughing. Which, for the first time in weeks, made him squirt a bit of ink.

“[You got shapeshift! That’s good. It means this works, and we’ll be able to get you telepathy.]”

The crab pumped both pincers up, and the tentacle at the edge of his claw waved around. Then the crab lowered his arms, and with the left, snipped the right claw off.

“[Wh–what are you doing.]”

Maurice raised his remaining claw, still holding the severed one, and approached Henry. As he did, the stump began to glow softly, and the limb began growing back.

“[You got Regenerate as well?]”

Maurice lifted his severed claw, then, when the crab was close enough, he put down the claw in front of Henry. Raising his slowly reforming claw, he went back to his post.

Henry looked down at the tiny pincer and the still-twitching mini-octopus leg. “[For me?]”

Maurice waved his stumpy right arm.

Henry slowly picked up the tiny morsel and popped it into his mouth. It was crunchy, and thanks to it, he obtained the bubble gun, an incompatible Skill, and an interesting defensive one. The issue now was that he only had one Skill slot left. Henry thanked the crab, then went back to meditating. As for which Skill to keep, he decided that would be a nice problem for later.

 

---

 

Four stupidly optimistic seals later, or to be more accurate, around ten hours—give or take two—another test was about to take place.

Henry went through the process as usual, while Maurice stood guard. He found it easier to get Shapeshift Tentacle to do what he wanted now, so the whole thing barely took ten seconds. When he was done, something new happened.

“[I got a notification. Here, hopefully you’ll get it this time,]” said Henry as he chopped off the tip of his arm and gave it to Maurice. He pulled up his notifications and skimmed over the level-ups in Mimicking Tentacles and Regeneration.

 

New Traits Unlocked: Mana Conduit (F), Condensed Mana (F)

You have spent days channeling large quantities of mana in seconds, refilling your reserves, and doing it all over again. Your mana affinity has improved through your frequent and intense exposure, and these Traits will allow more efficient usage and storage of your reserves.

Mana Conduit (F): Your abilities are more efficient with mana.

Condensed Mana (F): The mana running through your being is more concentrated, letting you do more with less.

 

“That’s really nice. It should help with training up Regeneration and Shapeshift.”

Henry turned back to Maurice. “[Any luck?]”

Maurice looked up to him, and in response the crab opened its mandibles and spat out a stream of black ink.

“[That’s more useful than you think],” said Henry as he readied himself for another shapeshifting procedure. He was getting better and better at them, and any time now the Skill should–

“[I… know. I know.]”

Henry jumped and slowly turned to Maurice. The octopus stared at the crab for a few seconds, then he asked, “[You got it?]”

In response, the crab raised a right pincer. “[Yes! I can spEaK!]”

Maurice’s voice was oddly shrill and echoey, but not unpleasantly so. It sounded a bit like a kid’s voice through a modulator.

“[Why can you speak? Where are you from? How come you’re so big? Why are the ones like you attacking us? Did you see those ants? Do you think they can make glass shells? Can we go—]”

Maurice had so many pent-up questions that the stream of telepathic bombardment lasted for nearly a minute. And the crab didn’t need to breathe, so that wasn’t an issue. Henry had to step in after a while because he was forgetting the questions as soon as he got hit with three more.

“[First rule of communication: when you ask a question, give me a chance to answer. Because I don’t remember a tenth of everything you just asked. Alright? Let’s try again.]”

Maurice straightened up and seemed to inhale. “[Where are you from?]”

Henry eyed the crab and noticed the twitching limbs and the tip-tap of its many legs. Then, as expected, Maurice resumed the barrage of questions.

Henry sighed, letting the crab get the questions out of its system as he planned the next step of their journey. With both of them able to communicate, fights should become easier, and Henry decided it was time to push for the next rank. He just needed to refill his charges and prepare a bit, then head out toward the territory of the goliath kraken.

Maurice never stopped talking. At this point, it was a mishmash of questions and statements about everything and anything.

“At least I’ll have someone to bounce ideas off of. If I manage to get a word in.”