After months of dreading his first encounter with humans, Henry was glad to see it had gone well. Sure, it had looked a bit dicey early on, considering his first meeting with the warriors Zamir and Semea, and he would have probably moved on and never discovered this place’s hospitality if it hadn’t been for Zerasthra. But clearly, his first encounter of his own kind—or at least, what he’d used to be—had not ended up with him being hunted or shot at, and no one had tried capturing him just yet.

  Henry considered that a win, and now as he stood in front of Arisia’s shop, he saw a few heads peeking at him from various shops. There were even two or three smiles and waves. The strangers’ pleasant dispositions might be because this settlement’s guardian was an awakened beast, a bit like Henry himself—as far as they were aware—but he was happy with the reception. He knew he’d be able to learn a lot over the next few weeks.

  Arisia finished jotting the last line while Henry stood still, waiting. His eyes roamed around, taking in the haggling customers and the odd-looking items being sold. There were fruits that shone to his senses, full of mana and concepts. There were labelled bottles, parchments, weapons, clothes, and more he couldn’t perceive from where he was standing. As far as he could tell, most goods seemed magical in nature, but there were a few he couldn’t sense much from. The weaponsmith in particular seemed to have only a handful of magical items while the rest felt inert. Empty.

  Probably on purpose, he thought. The items might have been left blank just so the customers could choose what their magic would do.

  Henry was aware he didn’t know much of what was even possible, so he didn’t dwell on the question for now. He just added it to the list, and by that he meant his note-taking Octomind was adding it to the whiteboard.

  The kraken continued waiting, but even though some might think he was idle, he was very much not. Four Octominds—those not assigned long-term tasks—were at work. One was maintaining Domain in a short radius around him, and it was trying to do that without destroying Henry’s appearance, while two others were on reparation duty. As soon as his skin cracked or discolored in one area or another, the two Octominds would patch it up. As for the fourth, it was testing a theory by basically doing nothing, and so far, it was working.

  The remaining Octomind was meditating, to both heal him up from creating the restoration orb and to counteract the other Octomind’s mana consumption. Henry was running a deficit, but it wasn’t too severe, and in any case, he could always dig into the Hoard Vitals charges. But this meant that in a pinch, he could set his Octominds to rest-mode and recharge his health and mana faster.

  Henry smiled and nodded to a passing older man, while his Octominds worked hard. His mind was like a steaming workshop, and Henry, like the mild-mannered, client-facing clerk, was relaxed. And happy. After all, his Octominds—and by extension, he—were getting a lot of work done, and frankly, he was pretty surprised at how much work he could delegate to them.

  Seconds ticked by with only the soft hubbub of the marketplace filling his ears as the kraken turned his attention back to the mysterious scribbling woman ahead of him. He tried to get a mental impression from her, but no matter how much he tried, she was like a pocket of nothingness to his telepathic sense. She wasn’t invisible. He could clearly sense something ahead of him, but he could make nothing out of it.

  He wondered how easy that would be to recreate. It didn’t feel like the effect of Mind Shield, which felt more like an impenetrable wall. Arisia was like there was a telepathic patch of nothingness.

  A couple of seconds later, she stopped scribbling. With a movement of her wrist, both notebook and pen disappeared—the latter of which Henry made note to research. Unless his senses were mistaken, that pen was taking in mana to produce ink.

  “Where could I get a pen like that?”

  Arisia stepped up to the counter and rested her wrists on the spotless wooden surface. “Apologies for the delay. For the pen, I do have spares. I could provide one for three concept shards of your Aspects,” she said with a smile.

  Henry liked that. Negotiating a little exchange of goods was a nice way to break the ice. He shook his head, saddened, then gave her a polite smile. “Three is too much, I’m afraid. I could do one, though. They take a while to recover, so I can’t afford to expend everything I’ve got, can I?”

  Arisia raised an eyebrow and tilted her head. “I didn’t say you had to empty out your reserves. Can you not create samples?” she asked, perplexed. When Henry blinked at her, both of her eyebrows went up, and her notebook and pen appeared again. “Can you not control and portion your conceptual essences? How about recovery meditation and storage? Trickster krakens have a dimensional storage ability, do they not? Do you mean to say that as a level 31 C-rank, you still don’t have a stockpile of your own concept shards for emergencies?”

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  Henry’s thoughts ground to a halt. This was not the relaxed exchange of goods he had been expecting. He’d expected a few back and forths as they slowly got to the subject they were both interested in. Instead, the instructor instantly made things personal. If his fake body could react like a normal human body could, he’d be beet red at this point.

  Arisia gave him a once over then smiled, and Henry could feel his hackles raise. She reminded him of an old professor. A dictator with impossible standards, and now she was looking right at him. She mumbled something, and Henry felt his ears pop. At the same time, the sounds of his surroundings completely cut off.

  Arisia walked from behind her counter, peering at him, and Henry took a step back. “I’ve been expecting you, Henry, and clearly you have heard of me as well, or you wouldn’t be here asking for pens. You want something. I don’t believe you’re interested in my reserves of concept shards, considering the skillset of Trickster krakens, but I believe you’re after what I know, which I’m willing to provide. And now looking at you, I realize my advice is sorely needed. Zer said you were self-taught, but this is… unacceptable.”

  Henry glanced back toward the exit, then back at the instructor haranguing him. He couldn’t leave. He hated this, but he knew he needed the help. He realized how much he didn’t know, so he stood his ground while the special instructor continued listing his failings.

  The worst part—and maybe the best, under a certain perspective—was how matter-of-fact she was being about it.

  The woman flicked her wrist once more, and a nice pair of wood-framed glasses appeared over her nose. “And what are you doing to your body, exactly? Its structure keeps cracking. Deteriorating. I don’t believe this is due to your poor control, but it is abnormal. If I’d been doing any mana-sensitive work, I would have already tossed you into the water. You’re polluting the area. You need better control. So. What is it that you’re doing? Actually. Wait. We’re better off going somewhere more discrete. Somewhere more appropriate for some testing.”

  Arisia walked back behind the counter, pulled out a small carved sign saying she was unavailable, then stepped out of the store and mumbled something else he couldn’t catch. Instantly, a barrier of greenish blue appeared just in front of the counter, like a glass pane to prevent any intrusions while she wasn’t around.

  “Follow me and explain,” she said, walking past him. “And let me cut to the chase so we don’t waste either of our time; I’m aware of your origin. Of the fact that you were once human. I’m under soul oath, same as Zerathstra, but I’ll repeat it in just a bit to clear out any doubts or fears. I might have a few questions as the subject is extremely intriguing, and I believe my services would earn such answers.”

  “Services?”

  Henry felt like a boat caught in a tsunami. He’d come for some quick questions. Maybe learn a thing or two about skills and how to create them, but he hadn’t expected the instructor to drop everything and put him through an admission test right out of the gate.

  Arisia came to a stop right past the hall’s exit and turned to face him, hands behind her back.

  “You are, as far as I know, a unique existence. Humans and monsters reaching the heights of power in this world is not unheard of, but a human being reborn in a monster’s body is. Do you realize the advantage you’ve been given compared to everybody else in this world?”

  Henry wasn’t sure if that was rhetorical or if he had to answer. He opened his mouth—

  “You clearly do not. How could you know? You’ve been thrown into the breeding ground of monsters, in the middle of nowhere, with barely any instructions, and thankfully you did alright, but the sheer waste of potential… We'll be addressing it shortly. I expect you to be at the training grounds daily. At dawn. Understood? We’ll start first with your abysmal mana control, and we’ll create a training plan to address every other problem as we go.”

  “Okay,” Henry mumbled, following behind his new instructor. They climbed the wooden stairs silently, but he was curious. After a few moments, Henry asked, “What advantages have I gotten? The skill-copying thing?”

  She was silent for a few seconds, then shook her head. “Not exactly. It was an advantage, yes, but it wasn’t the main one. Which is this: awakened creatures are rarely awakened in the lower ranks. Which means they don’t have access to a class, and don’t have the mental acuity to make good decisions and to play to their strengths until they're at a higher level. The ones who have sapience, us humans, don’t have the innate capabilities of magical beings, which results with us having to create and curate our own advancements. With all the challenges that entail. You didn’t have to deal and scrap for hoarded knowledge. You didn’t need potions and elixirs to attune yourself to Aspects. You didn’t need to secure the right expeditions to earn your levels. Sure, you woke up in a death zone and any mistake could have cost you your life, but at the end of the day, you got the best of both worlds and here you are. A low C-rank who could challenge experienced C-ranks and new B-ranks and still should come up on top.”

  The words sounded like praise, but seeing the sharp eyes studying him, Henry could only swallow. He had a feeling the criticism was nowhere near over.

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