The lobster stared upward for a few incredibly long seconds, claws crackling with barely contained lightning while Henry prepared to run for it. If the creature so much as put one of its many legs forward, he was out of there, and he wasn’t stopping until he got back to Thalis. But to his surprise, the lobster looked back down, and the intense power running down its pincers suddenly abated. The jagged-glowing pattern on its body cleared, and the static hum in the water faded.

  It seemed that the A-rank had decided that Henry was not too interesting or threatening, and so it relaxed by tucking its pincers under its head.

  Henry didn’t dare move his clone. Did he swim away? Did he try talking to it?

  Nope. It’s not out to beat me up, so I’m gonna just… let it have its nap.

  Opting for the least intrusive option, Henry dispelled the clone and, keeping a wide berth from its quarters, he posted a couple of clones whose only task was to watch for any disturbance or movement from the creature. Not that it would make any difference whether they noticed its movement at all. At this point it was all about not bothering the creature, because clearly, it saw none of them as threats.

  Still, Henry couldn’t help but wonder. Would he be able to tank a hit from it? Was there any skill he could pick up from the lobster?

  Probably… But not today.

  He wondered how intelligent this being was. Most likely, it could understand him perfectly well, but Henry had no clue if it could maintain a conversation or if it even had any interest in such. While sapience became more common as a being climbed the ranks, Arisia had said that A-rank did not mean a creature was sapient. Intelligent, of course. But sapience was never guaranteed.

  Considering its name and appearance, it seemed that the creature was very much a brawler of some sorts, and so one of Henry’s theories for why it hadn’t attacked was just that they weren’t worth it.

  Or maybe it’s just lazy. Or maybe even though it’s named a “bruiser”, it’s actually very peaceful and likes minding its own business.

  Henry paused for a moment, then decided that maybe that last one should be pushed down the list of probabilities. Considering how intense it had gotten as soon as it sensed his magic, it was probably used to getting in a lot of fights.

  All A-ranks are bound to have survived their fair share of life-and-death scenarios.

  Turning his attention back to his companions, Henry quickly briefed them on his findings by summoning a recreation of the creature through Summon Illusions. “[It’s called Stormclaw Bruiser, and I don’t think it cares about any of us. But we’ll stay away from it, just in case.]”

  Rocky and Maurice huddled over the tiny image of the lobster, and Henry could swear Maurice’s eyes were about to pop. When Henry dismissed the image, the crab almost protested but in a surprising effort of self-control, Maurice stayed cool.

  Henry grinned and tapped the crab on the head. “[We just gotta work hard and we’ll both be as cool-looking as it is.]”

  Now, what was he going to start with?

  ***

  Over the next few days, Henry and Maurice spent most of their time focused on their own training. Occasionally Rocky would join them and try to imitate what they were doing, but most often, he was content to hang around, fish, and explore the submerged city.

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  For the first two days, Henry alternated between working on Trickster’s Domain and Trickster’s Fortitude. For the first, he would find himself somewhere quiet and just use his skills, only he would summon the remote skills as far as he could manage away from his body, and he would do it conscientiously. To observe and sense the intricacies of the skill itself. As he did, he would alter between the remotely-casted skills, using the likes of Inkjet or Bite from a hundred feet away, and at the same time, he would have two of his Octominds try and dispel his efforts through the other subskill of Trickster’s Domain: the Dispelling Pulse.

  It went without saying, Henry needed frequent breaks from such an intense exercise. Creating a ghostly beak a hundred feet away that’d bite into the rock while simultaneously being challenged by the Octominds trying to break the skill before it managed to form was incredibly expensive mana-wise, and though he’d kept mana-training constant, he was forced to stop that subroutine while doing the Domain training.

  Thankfully, his other focused ability was much easier to train. For Trickster’s Fortitude, he basically just needed to find powerful-enough volunteers to smack him around, which, being in the middle of the ocean and in the midst of such a richly populated ruin, was not difficult to manage, and it got even easier when made himself smaller. Plus, it did help that most creatures here were high and mid-ranks. Less risk of a serious threat. Aside from the lobster, but that one kept to itself, luckily.

  Electric shocks from tunas. Venoms and more electricity from eels. Imploding bubbles from Maurice, and even some mighty powerful strikes from Rocky were helping Henry improve his control over the skill. Considering it was made from mainly two parts, he worked on both. Sometimes, he would tweak the reinforcing mana spreading through his body, boosting it with more mana, or even trickling in some Aspects for a better result, which was, in a bay, bonus training to improve his control over empowering his skills with Aspects. Other times, Henry would opt to boost the protective film instead of the body-reinforcing magic, giving it more attention which, at some point, even managed to deflect one of Maurice’s bubbles before it could implode.

  And speaking of Maurice, the crab was pursuing a handful more goals than Henry. He was working on improving his Clawminds, working on his mana reserves, bubbles, and basically, nearly everything he had at his disposal. When Henry told him he might be better off focusing on a few things at once, the crab turned down the idea, but he promised he would if he failed, and Henry didn’t insist. Whether Maurice succeeded in reaching his goal or not, it would be a good learning opportunity either way. After all, what worked for Henry might not work for Maurice, and vice versa. But one thing was for sure; hard work did pay off.

  The first skill that managed to unlock the C-rank upgrade was not Henry’s defensive skill, neither was it the Domain. It was Mana Nexus. And the difference between D-rank and C-rank was striking. His reserves became much denser, for example. If his E-rank and D-rank felt like humid, misty air which then evolved to to feel like a diffused spray, then at C-rank it became completely liquid. A light sort of liquid, like pure alcohol, ready to be ignited and turned into offensive or defensive skills. And that wasn’t all that changed.

  His control improved by leaps and bounds. His mana sight grew sharper, and now he could see more than just hazy blobs, though he was sure he needed more practice there. Mana traveled easier and faster in his body, and finally, the mana-matter that he needed for skill engineering became a lot easier to produce and condense. A process that used to take nearly fifteen to twenty minutes of absolute focus was reduced to barely a few minutes.

  The difference was night and day, and with his increased mana capacity, Henry was able to stretch his Domain training sessions and get more practice between breaks, until near the end of the third day he managed to unlock the C-rank upgrade for Trickster’s Domain. Once that was done, he took it for a test run and quickly discovered that it was still just as expensive to use, but the skills triggered much faster, and Dispelling Pulse became very difficult to resist. Both for himself and for Maurice, and finally, near the end of the fifth day, Trickster’s Fortitude was ready to upgrade.

  Just like Trickster’s Domain, the difference seemed mild at first, but once he started testing it and pushing its limit, it became clear how efficient and potent the two subskills became. The best benchmark was, of course, Maurice and his imploding bubbles.

  For the deflective film, the regular imploding bubble could not manage to implode on his skin anymore, unless Maurice triggered it from afar, which was very frustrating to the crab. The black bubbles still managed to break the protective film, but Henry had no doubt that if he really pushed the skill and empowered it with an Aspect, it could deflect the crab’s attack.

  For the mana reinforcing subskill, the results were even more depressing to Maurice. Basically, the regular bubble was a slap on the wrist, or like a pinch. Henry could feel it, and it would tingle for a minute or two, but that was it. The black bubble on the other hand… Well. It lost some of its bite, to say the least. Now, when neither of them were using Aspects, it only broke a few blood vessels and gave Henry the equivalent of a nasty bruise.

  All in all, it was a very productive week, and as Maurice complained about scams and cheating, the trio finished up the last few tasks they had set themselves. After a quick check that the A-rank was not somehow waiting for them outside, they headed back up toward Thalis.

  It was time to learn about skill and Aspect fusions.

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