Munch munch! Oliver happily chewed on the savory crab meat, as looked looked over at Shelton.
"Oi, gimme those legs and I'll let you have the eyes" Oliver said.
"Sure" Shelton snickered as he passed over his share of crab legs in exchange Oliver's portion of the crab eyes.
"I don't know how you can eat those things" Oliver spoke as he quickly began to devour the crab legs, and chewed before opening his beak again.
"They're all slimy and soft, there's not crunch to them, it's seriously gross." He said as he looked at the crab eyes in disdain.
"You're one to talk" Shelton retorted back as he gestured to Oliver's body.
Both of them looked at Oliver's body for a moment before they both snickered in amusement as they continued on with their meal.
Ever since the successful hunt, the two of them both began to open up to the other one more.
Oliver found a sense of connection because Shelton was the first sentient being he had encountered upon reincarnating and Shelton considered Oliver as not only a good way for him to grow, but also now a friend.
"When you first met me, you mentioned how you probably needed to get back to your tribe. Don't you need to go back to them?" Oliver asked while they were dining.
"Ahem." Shelton fidgeted on his legs as Oliver questioned their initial meeting.
"I need to go back to the rest of my tribe's hunting party by the end of the day, what I told you before was an excuse to leave." Shelton said, his shell turning lighter yet again with the later portion of his sentence substantially quieter than the first part.
"Awww, is little Shel' embarrassed?" Oliver mocked, "It's fine, I know we got off to a bad start so I won't blame you for anything about that encounter."
Shelton let out a sigh of relief as his biggest worry was diminished.
While he initially was kind of afraid of Oliver, at this point he really liked him as he considered a friend who could walk along the same path to glory as him. Leading him to the next topic that he wanted to bring up.
"So... Oliver... after this, when were done hunting today, and I have to go back to my tribe... what do you think you'll do?" Shelton said with feigned nonchalance as he kept his eyes straight ahead on the food in front of him.
"Hmm?" Oliver grunted as he swallowed his food before speaking.
"I guess I'll probably just, continue hunting around this forest until I evolve to the r-orange rank" Oliver stuttered, as he corrected himself, "Then I'll probably travel somewhere else to look for better prey so that I can keep on growing."
Oliver shrugged, "I don't really have specific plan, I just know that I want to keep on getting stronger."
Both of them sat in silence for a few seconds as Shelton processed what he said before finally mustering up the courage to ask the million dollar question.
"If that's the case, would you want to go back to my tribe with me?" Shelton managed to get out.
However upon saying this Oliver ceased to move as he looked at Shelton with confusion.
Thinking that Oliver was about the refuse, Shelton continued, "You may not know this but I'm actually considered quite a rookie in my own tribe, barely an adult. There are hundreds of crabs in my tribe, many of which are elders who can help teach you things that even I don't know about yet. You also don't have to truly be apart of tribe but could be more considered an ally if you don't want anything tying you down!"
"If you join us you could not only probably answer a lot of your questions, but we could also tell you about the different regions around us! We could help you with your evolutionary process giving you a safe space to evolve in, we can even-"
"Woah woah, calm down there." Oliver interrupted Shelton as he began to ramble about the benefits of joining.
"I don't mind going with you, but is that even allowed?" Oliver asked skeptically.
"I mean, I'm kind of not a crab, and I don't know if your family will accept me as quickly as you did." Oliver voiced out his concerns as he went back to munching on his crab legs.
Shelton relaxed his tense muscles at Oliver's unconcerned voice, relieved that this was what Oliver was actually thinking about.
"Of course it's allowed. Although creatures create different tribes usually based on species, other creatures joining those tribes isn't that all uncommon. Especially with lone creatures that have a higher bloodline, or are notable predators such as sharks. Sharks are almost always accepted into any tribe they want to join."
"So there shouldn't be able problem with you living with us, especially considering that you're not only fairly young, but also because you're a wild octopus, meaning you're much less likely to betray us for another tribe."
Shelton finished as he finished cleaning off the meat from inside the shell of his crab.
Oliver sat in silence as he thought about what Shelton said.
'Getting to know more about the world, gaining allies, and not be tied down there for life... I won't actually be apart of the tribe but I can still make allies...'
I don't see any reason why I shouldn't join then, I mean I also like Shelton a lot so going with him seems good too me, plus this forest going to slowly become to low leveled for me to actually progress in my growth.
'Alright I've decided then, I'll join Shelton'
Now let's check out my status
Starting at the top of his status the first thing he noticed was that he's no longer unnamed! It finally put his name there!
'I had been wondering how I was supposed to get named but I guess I just needed to tell someone else my name?' He thought as he continued looking down his status.
Throughout the fight it looks like he had leveled up 3 times which he kind of expected. After confirming that he was indeed a white ranked creature, it only makes sense that he would level up so fast fighting creatures an entire tier in front of him.
Some of his skills also leveled up including his camouflage, tentacle grab, regeneration for after he grew his tentacle back, and it even looks like he obtained a new skill!
Shredding!
He hadn't noticed it during the fight but he had obtained a new passive skill, likely due to his barb mutation which he finally got to use during this fight.
'That shows why my barbs were so effective, I thought it was kind of unnatural how quickly I got the hang of them...'
I also managed to amass quite the fortune of mutagen points with a shocking figure of 38! First thing I'll do with this is get all of my mutations to tier 2.
[Dark Ink Sac has increase to level 4!]
[Dark Ink Sac has increase to level 5!]
[You are able to choose your next advancement for your Dark Ink Sac Mutation!]
After searching through the list for a little while I decided on my ink sac mutation.
Yes!
All this mutation will do is make it even harder to see through for other creatures, basically just enhancing what I originally mutated it for.
[Ink Seeing Eyeballs has increased to level 4!]
[Ink Seeing Eyeballs has increased to level 5!]
[You are able to choose your next advancement for your Ink Seeing Eyeballs Mutation!]
For this mutation, I'm actually not given as many options as I was for my other organs.
Most of these mutations include the ability to simply either see better through different means of sensory input, such as the [Heat Seeing Eyeballs] or can amplify my eyesight to spot potential threat in the environment through mutations such as [Danger Seeing Eyeballs].
However the main strength from both my eyes and my ink sac comes from their synergy when working together. So I would rather keep my mutation line alongside one another rather than trying to buff up something else.
Yep yep, after evolving both of those organs to tier 2 I'm still left with 20 mutagen points. However the next upgrade for any of my organs all cost 6 mutagen points just to increase any of their levels to level 2 since they're all tier 2!
Maybe I would save it for the next surplus of points, but I've actually got an additional organ that I need to mutate!
My Density physical magic organ!
One thing that I've found so far when using my Density enhancement, is that I can go in both directions but only so far.
What I mean by that is I can probably turn a part of my body such as my arms 5 times denser, which not only increases the weight of my attacks, but also increases the musculature in my arms so that I can keep those heavier tentacles moving at roughly the same speed.
Since I'm still not very used to it however, most of the time when I increase the density of one of my limbs, it naturally slows down because I don't use all of the newly condensed muscles in that arm.
I haven't actually turned myself lighter yet in battle due to my small mana pool, but I have done it outside a few times and I can't tell that the same thing applies in reverse.
While my arm does become lighter and easier to move, the muscles also become weaker thus making me easier to injure.
Thus, while I do think turning it lighter is sometimes beneficial, ultimately I think that turning myself denser and more heavier will ultimately help me more with my attacks and defense.
[Density Physical Magic Organ has increased to level 2!]
[Density Physical Magic Organ has increased to level 3!]
[Density Physical Magic Organ has increased to level 4!]
[Density Physical Magic Organ has increased to level 5!]
Once the system finished saying those words by mind blanked out, only for me to come back to my senses by Shelton shaking me
"Hey Oliver! Are you okay?" The crab looks at me worriedly.
Feeling my insides as well as my eyes finish bulging around I turn to look, at Shelton.
"Yeah sorry I was just in deep thought! Haha!"
"Deep thoughts? For 3 minutes without answering me or responding to me at all? He murmurs but I ignore him.
I would evolve this organ right away, but it takes 6 mutagen points to evolve it to tier 2 level 1, and since I just used 15 mutagen points I'm only left with 5 left, just shy of being able to.
Finally turning my attention away from my mutations I look at the last untouched part of my status, the stat points!
I've currently got a full 30 stat points from the 3 level up's I had and I know where I'm gonna put the new bulk of them. Magic!
I won't ignore my other stats but I am definitely bulking that one up as much as I can!
With that over and done with, my final status looks like this.
Satisfied with my new status, I turn to look at Shelton, "Sure, I'll join you!"
His claws tremble in excitement for a moment before he gets them under control and gestures towards the door with them.
"Then we should really get going, my tribe is probably worried sick about me."
Oliver floats on over to Shelton's head before planting himself on top of him, riding him.
Shelton thinks about syaing something buts opts to simply ignore him as he crawls over to the exit. As they are leaving Oliver removes his suckers from the remains of the last crab he finished eating leaving an unnoticeable little vortex mark on its shell before they are eventually gone from the entrance.