Undersea Reincarnation – [Octopus Monster Evolution LitRPG]

 

“Riptide Rush and something sharp and durable. Not shark teeth. I feel like shark teeth would break on Deepcaller’s skin. Maybe I could ask the serpent for a tooth? And I’d need another Skill slot for Riptide Rush. Because I can’t afford to lose any of my current Skills.”

Henry watched the sea serpent swim away again after he’d left it a few Riptides for lunch. It was too soon to target such a creature, but he couldn’t help but be curious.

“What does an adult look like? What can they do?”

So far he hadn’t seen it use any Skills, and Henry was dying to see what they could do.

Keeping up his disguise as a rock, Henry pulled up his status. 

“I have 18 Tokens remaining. Start saving up for Skill upgrades, or get levels?”

So far today, every shark he got he turned to levels. He kept the fights easy, and tried to work on his other Skills. Like Bite. Which made things awkward, because Bite didn’t have the reach of his tentacles. 

But maybe its upgrade would be able to punch through Deepcaller’s insanely tough skin.

If not, he could maybe save for the second upgrade for Razor Tentacle and see if that worked better. Though it seemed like it would take a while to get that many Tokens. Henry felt that leveling up was a more efficient way to spend his time.

Hoard Vitality was a level away from 10, and he was holding his breath for something useful. He pulled up the rest of his notifications.

 

Undecided Marine Biologist - Level 31 achieved!

…

Undecided Marine Biologist - Level 35 achieved! 1x Stat point awarded.

 

Hoard Vitality (F): Level 8 -> Level 9

Mimicking Tentacles (F): Level 8 -> Level 9

Bite (F): Level 6 -> Level 8

 

“What to increase now… Perception? Strength?”

Henry navigated to the Stat Increase menu. “I wonder if I’ll ever be able to buy more–oh. Oh damn.”

He could buy points for Constitution and Spirit. Now that they passed the 10th point, it seemed possible to exchange Tokens for a point. Only issue was… 

“What do you mean a thousand Tokens for a point?”

Henry glared at the menu. He put a point in Constitution–which he was glad to see he could still assign points to–vowed to give Perception and Strength some attention soon, then dismissed the menu.

“Things are getting too expensive. And when am I supposed to get Evolutions? I need to ask the whales next time.”

Henry saw a larger Riptide swimming closer.

“I need to start looking for something other than these sharks. Didn’t I see some other shark type near the whales? Oh well… they’ll have to do. And I need to build up more Vitality charges.”

The surface above darkened and brightened up again. Henry thought the night lasted three hours or so.

He’d been building up charges of Vitality, occasionally murdering the occasional shark while he watched his surroundings.

He saw the serpent once again. Three dangerous-looking sharks showed up as well. All three E-rank, and he believed they were the same kind that the whales had chased away a few days ago.

 

[Whipcrack Shark (E) - ? ]

 

The single question mark was interesting. Did that mean their level was in the single digits?

The sharks were around 15 to 20 feet each and they reminded Henry of a mix of great white and thresher. He was getting nowhere near them until he knew exactly how they fought, and he already had some ideas on how to find out. 

They ended up heading east again, further down into the reefs and away from the kelp forest. Henry wished he could draw these animals somewhere and take the drawings with him.

After they’d left, he saw a notification waiting for him. He excitedly opened it, quickly passing over his new levels. 

 

Undecided Marine Biologist - Level 36 achieved!

...

Undecided Marine Biologist - Level 39 achieved!

Hoard Vitality (F): Level 9 -> Level 10

Bite (F): Level 8 -> Level 9

 

Upgrade Hoard Vitality (F)

Pick the focus of the Skill upgrade

Store mana as well as health

Or

Increase efficiency

 

Henry grimaced. “Both are good. Damn it.”

An option would raise efficiency, true, but while he was sitting around waiting for his health to tick back up, his mana was often sitting at full doing nothing. 

“Ah this sucks…”

Henry considered both options for a few more minutes, then decided to go with the mana storing increase. 

“This just makes more sense… if I’m low enough to need the Vitality charges, I’m going to need some mana as well.”

 

Hoard Vitality (F) successfully upgraded to Hoard Vitals (E)

 

The description now indicated that both health and mana would be stored. Henry sighed and was about to dismiss the interface when another message arrived.

 

New Class Evolution Unlocked: Recuperative Meditation (F)

You have spent hours upon hours recuperating your health and mana, refilling both pools many times over in the last few days.

Recuperative Meditation (F): While resting and relaxed, mana and health recuperations are accelerated.

 

Henry’s eyes widened as he read through the notification. “Yes! Thank you!”

The new Evolution went under his Class. Not with his Species’ abilities. And with it, he had two slots remaining in his class Evolutions.

“Amazing. And perfect timing.”

Over the next few minutes, he triggered his new Hoard Vitals Skill and tried to relax… but his recovery didn’t seem that fast to him.

“Maybe I can’t relax while I’m exposed like this… even if I’m camouflaged.”

He then went down to his hidden turtle home and settled down.

“Inner peace…. Inner peace...”

Saying inner peace didn’t work. But when he really settled down and relaxed a few minutes later, he felt the Evolution take effect.

Every three or four minutes, a health percentile would tick up. One to two minutes for mana.

He opened his eyes after thirty minutes or so and looked at his full health and mana reserves. “I’m going to hoard so much they’ll call me… Uh… whatever.”

Henry bailed on his crappy joke and began burning through his health and mana. Thankfully, the Skill didn’t make him feel sick as much anymore. Maybe it was the upgrade. Or maybe his Constitution.

It didn’t matter. Henry was about to become the next best thing to unkillable.

Three hours later, he had to stop and go outside.

He needed to practice meditation. Because sitting there with nothing to keep himself busy allowed some uncomfortable memories and thoughts to bubble up. He didn’t want to think or deal with any of that right now, so he went outside. He’d hunt something real quick, then try this meditation stuff somewhere where he could watch the surrounding ocean and not be stuck in his shell.

He still managed to get 4 extra charges of Hoard Vitals, though, bringing his total to 7. With the new charges having mana.

That was obvious to Henry, because the spots had a blue-ish center that made him look like a weird offshoot of a blue-ringed octopuses. One with not as many rings as nature ordained.

“Level 39… I should push for 50. See if anything happens then.”

Henry settled on his usual spot, overlooking the whale territory in the distance and the kelp forest to his left, and waited.

Soon enough some Riptide sharks came around from behind him. Henry caught a couple then set them ahead for the big players. Hopefully they'd come out, and maybe this time they’d reveal something.

He wasn’t sure if it would work. He wasn’t sure if any would show up.

But they did.

The sea serpent appeared first. It undulated toward the fresh meat and was almost upon it when five Whipcrack sharks showed up from the opposing direction.

Henry inhaled and braced excitedly. “I wish I had some popcorn.”

The sea serpent paused in front of its meal and screeched at the sharks. Henry winced at the loud roar–his tentacle twitched and curled up instinctively–but the sharks didn’t seem to care. They spread out, unperturbed by the serpent’s warning, and got closer.

The serpent closed its mouth and Henry thought he could almost see it narrowing its eyes. It coiled around itself… and the back of its throat began to glow.

Henry leaned forward. “What is—”

A Whipcrack suddenly rushed the serpent. Its long tail whipped forward in a loud crack, aiming at the serpent’s face.

The serpent jerked its head away and coiled harder. It shook its head then turned to the shark rushing it.

It roared, and a beam of green rippling light shot out of its fanged maw. The shark hit by the light thrashed and twitched a few times, then it turned belly up. Unmoving.

The four remaining sharks rushed the serpent all at once, and Henry thought that maybe he should back away.

If one of those rays came his way, it might be the end of him.