Henry stared at the woman, and after considering it for a second, he summoned a visual illusion to emote for him. After all, expressions were an important part of communication, and a kraken’s features didn’t lend themselves well to such.

  “The System? I don’t know much about it aside from the fact that it popped up to talk about classes and Aspects a couple of times,” he said, recalling. “I believe it mentioned something about… storing power to transfer it somewhere, but that no one had been around to claim it in a while?”

  Henry was a bit shocked how well he remembered that first interaction with the System. He strongly suspected he could recall it so well thanks to his Octominds and their passive effects.

  Arisia stilled. “It said so? To you? Are you sure?”

  Henry’s illusion nodded. “Yes. I’m sure. But aside from that, I don’t know much about its origin or its goals, aside from nurturing the residents of this world.”

  Arisia stared past him, deep in thought. “Interesting,” she mumbled. A few seconds later, her eyes snapped back to him. “To answer your question on why we’re willing to lend a hand, we—me and Zerathstra—are willing to provide some support and training because we believe you might have what it takes to overcome the System.”

  Henry blinked at her. “Overcome what?”

  Arisia took a deep breath. “As far as we know, no one has ever managed to move beyond A-rank. No one has ever managed to ascend, even though the System claims it’s here to empower us,” she said.

  Henry digested the words and reviewed his encounter with the odd being. He sifted through the memories, looking for a crumb of malice or ill intent that he could pick up from his interactions, but came up empty. He was about to say as much, when the instructor raised a hand.

  “I know this might be difficult to believe, but even though most of us have had only a handful of interactions with the being, we believe it knows what’s happening. Whenever the… thing is asked about those who had attempted ascension, it refuses to say anything and quickly cuts the encounter short. We don’t think the System is out to get us. It’s not being malicious on purpose. But it might be some sort of forced mechanic. Something we don’t understand very well. Maybe it has something to do with wherever the System hailed from. Because we know the System hasn’t been around forever. We have old text telling about its cataclysmic arrival thousands of years ago, and about our escape from Seavaria.”

  When Henry blinked at the name, she pointed up at the second planet looming above.

  “Write that down,” he told his glass-wearing Octomind while he tried to wrap his mind about everything being said. Henry looked up at the blue planet, and thought of the little metallic orb that had pointed up to the celestial object when coupled with Find the Path.

  The picture wasn’t clear, but he was getting more and more puzzle pieces.

  Henry hovered over his rock and peered at the B-rank. The System could be responsible for whatever was happening, but what if it wasn’t its fault?

  “What if all of these A-ranks failed their ascension? What if the failure was fatal, somehow? And what if they succeeded and moved on to some other world after their ascension?”

  There were so many possibilities for why an A-rank might not come back, but of course none of those reasons ruled out some potential foul play. And the tight-lipped nature of the System was definitely not helping. If its instructions were so strict that it couldn’t divulge the ascended’s whereabouts or if they were even alive, then something shady might actually be happening.

  Arisia sighed, then shook her head. “We don’t know. Through the years, many promising individuals took the risk and were never seen again. No matter the enchantments they had on them, the skills they expressively developed to potentially escape or survive. We even had one of ours reach that step, and we’ve never seen them since. Something is happening. While Zerathstra is not intent on pushing for ascension, you might one day arrive at that step. If you do, we want you to be prepared. We want to know what has happened to our elders and ancestors. And if the System has done something to them, we have to know.”

  Stolen story; please report.

  Henry sat quietly on his little boulder. The silence stretched as he considered everything he’d heard, but after a while he nodded and set it aside. He now knew why she was helping him, and he knew he had to be ready for whatever the System was up to. For escaping or surviving, he already had a couple of leads he could look into, such as the turtles and how they managed to cross from his world to this one.

  Still, this conversation gave him a lot of context. With every interaction and every tidbit he was learning, the visit to Thalis was proving more valuable by the day.

  “Alright. I appreciate your help and training, and I promise I will let you know if I ever manage to learn what happens beyond A-rank. But before we get started… has anyone actually tried going up there? To Seavaria?”

  Arisia shook her head. “I don’t believe anyone below A-rank can make the journey. There are things between us. Things that live where there is nothing, and even though it seems close, it’s an incredibly long journey where there is no heat or air, and all the while, you’d be hounded by the things of stars and void,” she said, looking up. For a moment, Henry thought her eyes shone a bit, and a small smile played on her lips. “Some believe there are still survivors up there. Hiding under the sea.”

  She looked back down at him with a smile and shrugged. “Maybe you’d eventually be able to make the journey. You’d be well-equipped to survive its terrain.”

  Henry glanced up, and as much as he felt some excitement at exploring a new, giant ocean, he was still a bit tired of water. Then again, he’d have to be at least A-rank to survive the journey, so why worry about that just yet.

  Over the next couple of hours, Arisia drilled Henry and took notes.

  She asked him to channel mana, project it, manipulate it, condense it, change it, alter it, then asked him to redo-everything with Aspected mana. She asked to see his skills and how he used them. She asked him to push said skills, alter how much he pushed mana into them, feed them the least he could manage to trigger the ability.

  On and on, she made requests and took notes. By the time she was done, and by the time Henry’s ego was black and bruised, she told him to come back the next day. She’d have a training plan ready.

  As he made his way down to pick up Maurice, Henry had no doubts. He most definitely failed at least 90% of the tests Arisia had put him through.

  Which means… I can only get better from here on out, he told himself. It was true, but it still didn’t make him feel that much better.

  With his newly-made body, Henry soon arrived at the farming area. He quickly found Maurice thanks to the little crowd of children that kept following the crustacean, only to turn around and run away, giggling and screaming, whenever he snapped a claw at them.

  With the kids chased away for a moment, Maurice turned back to the farmer he was chatting with, who, to Henry’s surprise, still had most of his hair atop his head. But there was no mistaking the look of relief that came upon the stranger’s face when he saw Henry approaching, at which point the two eyestalks swiveled around. Maurice came scuttling toward him, eliciting more squeals and laughs from the children that had been sneaking up on the crab.

  “[Henry! You took longer than I expected. What happened? I’m okay, by the way. Sera here told me a lot about farming. Can we farm? We’d have to stay in a single spot though… unless… No, no. That’s not possible. Anyway, what are we doing now? Did you ask your questions? Did you get answers?]”

  Henry stared at the crab, then up at Sera. The young man gave him a tired smile and began sidling away from them, which made Henry frown down at the crab. “[Did you give him time to answer your questions, or did you throw everything at him all at once?]”

  The crab froze for a second, then the eye stalks began leaning to the side, more than they usually id as the little crustacean averted his eyes. “[I-um. He’s okay! I also paid him, like you said. I gave him tips.]”

  Henry shook his head at the blatant subject change, but let it slide. “[It’s ‘tip’. Singular. What did you give him?]”

  “[I gave him some squid roe. The juicy ones!]”

  Henry stared down at the proud crab, then decided to go find the young man and give him an actual tip.

  “[What? Should I have given him some more roe? The squids are the best ones I have! Henry?]”

  Henry kept walking. He was looking forward to his nap.

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