"I'm leaving a couple of clones and here, do you have storage? Great, then keep this one on you," Henry said as he handed Rocky a tiny Shadow encased in bone. The kraken took the orb and popped it in his beak, where it vanished. "Are you sure you're okay with staying?"

They were on the docks. Velistraine's ship was out of her storage ring and her crew were finishing up loading their cargo while Henry and Maurice said goodbye to their friends. Maurice was talking to Stormsong while Henry checked in on Rocky. The latter patted Henry on the head.

"[It will be okay, friend Henry. You worry too much,]" the kraken said.

Henry chuckled as Stormsong and Maurice joined them. "We won't be gone for too long, I'm guessing. You're okay with staying too, Stormsong?"

The dolphin bobbed her head up and down. "[Yes. I'm having fun here plus, I need to catch up anyway. Now that the Wave is over, I'll be able to go out with some hunting parties to work on my own Skills. Let's not lie to ourselves here, you two kinda moved past me. But I'll catch up eventually.]"

Over the next half hour, everyone just talked and meandered. Arisia asked Velistraine and Henry to document everything they found, having liked what Henry had given her from his foray in the lobster's territory. It would take her a few weeks at least to translate the piles of imageries and texts Henry had recovered, but she seemed to really enjoy it.

They exchanged pleasantries, said goodbyes and slowly but surely, Velistraine's crew began climbing up the ladders until it was Henry and Maurice's turn. For Henry, it was easy enough, but it took Maurice a couple of minutes to get used to the motion with his shapeshifted body. In the meantime, Henry's Octominds were waving at Rocky and Stormsong.

Looking around and getting a nod from her first mate, Velistraine leaned down, eying those on the docks as she rested an elbow on her knee. "Well, that's about it. We'll see you all soon! Don't die in your sleep, Zer," she added, a cheeky smile on her lips while Zerathstra just rolled his eyes and smiled. With a deep breath, she looked away from Thalis and grinned at Henry and Maurice as the ship drifted away from the trees. "Let's find you two a place to sleep, then."

***

Henry and Maurice watched the trees grow smaller in the distance with a mix of nostalgia and excitement while another Shadow plopped down in the water from his extended hand. All around, the crew were still a flurry of movement, all of them busy making preparations, cleaning, watching. All were busy but one.

"You two excited? And thanks for the scouting, Henry, by the way. We have our own system but it's not nearly as good as what you could do."

Henry waved that away. "I would have been scouting anyway. Wouldn't wanna miss anything interesting below us. But yeah this all should be… pretty fun," he added as he took in the sandy stretches his Shadows were traversing.

"How long until we get there?" asked Maurice as he finally looked away from the rolling waves below them.

"Depending on the wind, around a couple of weeks until we reach the first of the Isles. Unless we the third orb's closer than we thought. But we'll figure that out pretty soon. And once everyone's done with their work, let's do a quick get together so you two are more familiar with the crew, alright?"

Henry nodded. He hadn't spent much time with all of them, but he was familiar enough with most. Maurice might actually be closer to them than he was.

With that, Velistraine disappeared within the ship and Henry continued to watch as Thalis slowly faded in the fog.

Well, off to a new adventure, then.

The next couple of days went by pretty fast. The first night, they had dinner with the crew. It was a quick affair as many were either tired or busy with their responsibilities. It helped that Henry was keeping an eye on the seas below them with his Shadows. Maurice was on his best behavior—mostly—helping out in the kitchen when he wasn't hanging with Ash and Fabian. Maurice had been good enough with his feet back on Thalis, but the boat was giving him some trouble and frankly, it was hilarious seeing him stumble around with the waves and curse at Henry and everyone else when he'd slip.

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Ash and Fabian were still intensively working on upgrading and fusing their Aspects, while Velistraine mostly lazed about in her quarters unless she was needed. They had confirmed that the underwater orb was still far away, which meant it would be going last, and it was in the evening of the second night that Henry caught the scent of a potential prey when he'd been standing near the prow of the ship as the red sails swelled with wind, pushing them ever forward.

It wasn't the first A-rank his Shadows had encountered, but it was the first he was confident in beating. Certainly he had better odds of dealing with it than the barracuda who'd torn through five of his Shadows before Henry even realized what was happening.

The current Shadow was a couple of miles ahead, and it was eying a large, moss-covered crab that was basically cracking reefs open with his claws and picking up whatever was too dazed to run from it. A few B-ranks tried to defend their homes from it, but it didn't even look like it felt their attacks. It reminded Henry of those videos of anteaters when they'd come up on an anthill.

"Henry?"

Henry's attention snapped away from crab and he looked around. He was back on the ship, and behind him Ash had a hand raised in a little wave, a wince on her face. "Sorry. Did I interrupt you?"

She was wearing her usual dark clothing. A padded vest for the cold wind—not that cold wind could do much for a mid C-rank, loose cargo-like pants like the rest of the crew and boots and from her, Henry sensed nervousness. She was shy, which was understandable considering they hadn't really interacted that much back on Thalis. She was mainly Maurice's friend considering how the two got along, and to be honest, Henry had been pretty busy ever since Velistraine and her crew had shown up.

Henry smiled and shook his head. "Not at all. I was… scoping out something. What's up?"

The teen swallowed, knuckles tight, and Henry gave her a second so she could summon the courage to make her request. Because it was clear from what he was sensing that was why she was here.

"Maurice said I could ask you… so...um," she let out a breath, and her shoulders tensed. "Could you give me some of your shadow essence?"

When Henry blinked at her request, she continued. "I'm… working on a Skill in particular and I want it to create some sort of body double. I'm a little stuck and I was talking with Maurice and he said you might be able to help," she said before panicking. "If you can! Of course. Or if you want. It's okay if you'd rather not, I understand. Shit," she added under her breath, chiding herself, but Henry only chuckled and waived her worries away.

"You're too stressed. It's fine, and yes, I can give you a hand. In fact, I might be able to do you one better," he said thoughtfully as he stepped away from the prow and paced, enjoying the rhythmic swaying of the ship as he considered his option. "I'll try but… I'm busy with something right now. If it doesn't work out I'll try again later."

"Oh of course. Thank you!" Ash said with wide smile on her face. Henry could see her eyes following him but thanks to his Octominds, that wasn't at all distracting. "And … wow. You got good sea legs. Maurice is still struggling but you look like you've been doing this for a while."

Henry let out a single bark of laughter. "Hah. I bet he hates it. And yeah this isn't my first time on a ship," he said as activated an instance of Shadows, though before the Skill could finish forming and before it started pulling on his mana, he froze the process that with the help of an Octomind, he dragged it out of his chest, rolling in a thick layer of condensed mana as he infused it with the will to activate with any person's mana. This would be a little more advanced than a one-time ability, though more basic than actual Skill. Then he condensed a little orb of swirling shadows, and extended both to a wide-eyed Ash.

"If you're lucky, you might get offered a Skill like mine. Otherwise, it should give you a few hints of how mine works. It's a bit complicated, but I don't mind give you another if you need it. And here's the shard you requested."

Ash stared at the orb and at the glowing shadowy construct in her hands in disbelief. Henry leaned over until he was face to face with her, which seemed to finally shake her out of her stupor. "Do you mind telling Velistraine to slow down the boat a little? I wanna go on a quick hunt."

Ash blinked, then nodded, and Henry grinned. "Awesome. Thanks!"

And without wasting any more time, he switched position with the Shadow watching over the crab as he reshaped his body and regained his original form, which got the crab to notice him, and it let out an ear-splitting screech at his sight.

Let's get our first A-rank core, then.

[Moss-Shell Ravager (A) - Lvl ?]

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