TTT Vol. 1 pt. 30

It worked!

I jumped around in a circle using my leg tentacles while waving around my two new tentacles. I didn’t get just one, I got two new tentacles!

And they both had suction cup-like tips! And they were even able to open up wide enough that I’d be able to use them on Lada! They’d struggle with somebody like Korova, but they were perfect for Lada!

This is perfect! And it confirms that all I have to do is think about what I want to inherit from whatever I eat in order to gain that feature!

My theory was all but conclusively confirmed. The only reason it wasn’t conclusively confirmed was because—well, I’d need to prove it many more times over just to make sure that the results were always the same. All it took was one negative result to make it inconclusive.

Now, let’s test these out for a little first. I need to actually know how my body works.

I held the new tentacles out in front of me and opened them up. They were similar to the bulb at the end of my tail, except they opened much wider and didn’t split into different parts. Plus there was what looked like a small slit in the center of the tentacles that the “cups” were connected to.

When I tried to make a “suction” motion, despite not having lips of my own to suck with, the slits squeezed together and became concaved.

But can I do the opposite?

I tried to blow with them.

Surely enough, the slits opened up and I blew air into my face.

So, they’re basically mouths. They don’t have the features needed to actually eat or anything, unless I want to drink something through a straw, but they should be more than good enough for what I have in mind for Lada. Though… I wonder what else I can do with them?

I was curious and wanted to really get a good feeling for them, so I dipped the tentacles into the pond and closed the cups to secure a decent amount of water in each one. Then I sucked to drink all of it.

Unfortunately, I didn’t taste anything. Though, it was only unfortunate because I also imagined using them on Lada.

I wonder if I could evolve them to be able to taste with them.

And when I tried to spit the water out after sucking in it, nothing came out.

So, I have no idea what happened to it. It basically disappeared in my body. Maybe it went into my stomach? That’s probably good. If I used these on Korova and her milk didn’t just disappear… my tentacles would probably get so inflated from her milk that I wouldn’t even be able to lift them.

Next experiment.

I scooped more water into the cups but, instead of sucking it in, I made a small opening at the tip of the cups and then blew.

I created a small stream of water with each tentacle, spraying all the water right back into the pond that it came from.

My mind immediately went to a perverse place as I imagined spraying Lada with water while she wore a tight, white shirt without anything on underneath it.

That’d be nice.

But as nice as that would be, there was still some more experimenting to do.

Alright. So, I know I can spray the water, but how far can I spray it? How hard?

I took more water into my tentacle cups and then tried to “blow” as hard as I could. Leaving only a small opening for the water to go through, the result was a pretty pressurized stream of water that managed to shoot over the pond to the other side of it.

That’s… impressive, actually. I didn’t expect to make it even half that distance. Maybe I’d be able to use that if there’s ever a fire? Spray water at it from a safe distance. Or… again, spray it on Lada from a distance. No, I’d rather be close to her if I did that so that I could fully appreciate that outcome.

What else?

I have an idea.

There were a few small rocks scattered around the edge of the pond, so I scooped them all up into the cups prior to closing them. I then swung the tentacles around in every direction, not exactly being gentle either, and the rocks remained safe and sound within them.

They can be used for safely transporting small objects. And now…

I lashed the tentacles out and opened the cups the perfect time to maximize momentum, sending the rocks flying out as a scattered shot that buffeted a poor bush in multiple spots.

I’d consider that an upgrade over just throwing rocks. Though it’s not as accurate and I can’t hold anything too big nor heavy in there. Against smaller enemies, though, it could help. And maybe against bigger and stronger enemies if I have something powerful enough to throw at them. Or maybe I could try working on my speed? If I’m able to swing my tentacles even faster, I could send the rocks flying with an even greater velocity. The faster the rocks, the more damage they’re going to do. Even if they’re small. Not to mention that improving my speed would make my normal throwing even stronger, too.

Idea after idea came to mind for how I could use my new tentacles. Aside from the things I wanted to do in the bedroom with them, they could be used for fighting fires or delivering liquids from a distance in general, they could be used for transporting small objects, and they could be used for throwing multiple projectiles with a single tentacle.

I can’t spend too much time experimenting, but is there anything else? What about picking things up? Or closing them around things? I don’t know. Probably not. Though… I’m probably going to look stupid for this.

I positioned one of the tentacles right above my head, pointing downward, and opened the cup up before surrounding the upper half of my body with it. Then I closed it.

Alright. So, in theory, I could close it around things. For example, a Chosen. If some Chosen bandit were to try and attack somebody, I could close this around their head to stop them from seeing, hearing, and breathing. Just wrapping a normal tentacle around them wouldn’t be anywhere near as effective. That sounds like an extremely niche use, but it is a use that might come in handy someday… come in tentacle-y? Regardless, that’s probably all the uses that I’m going to find.

The new tentacles were still going to primarily be used for bedroom techniques, but they had some useful utility options and huge potential for combat.

I wonder if there’s a reason why I care so much about combat uses. Did I used to think about that in my life before? What if I worked with a military? Or maybe I’m just thinking of those sorts of uses seeing as how I’ve already been in two serious fights. Given that I’m in a rural village probably forgotten by most of the world, if there are ever any beasts posing a threat, it’s going to be on us to protect ourselves. So, the more I think about this now, the better I’ll be able to protect everybody in the future.

But despite thinking about such a serious topic, a much more… degenerate idea came to mind.

I held my tail tentacle in front of my body.

Then I aimed one of my new suction tentacles at it.

All I had to do was open up the tip of the tail and…

No. Stop it, me. You have to get back to Granny. Even if I didn’t have to get back there, I have Lada for this sort of thing now. I can imagine her being disappointed if I did something on my own without her, so no doing that.

I was both disappointed in myself and impressed by myself for even thinking of that idea.

Tentacles really did open up a whole new world of opportunities when it came to bedroom matters.

That aside, I needed to get back to—

A pained cry caught my attention. There was no way that it was a cry from a Chosen, though. No person sounded like that. It had to have been a beast.

Probably just one beast hunting another… but I’m curious. And I should probably check just to be sure. The leaves will be fine if they sit there for another minute.

So, I swung up into a tree and headed in the direction of the cries.

The closer I got, the more it churned my stomach to hear those noises. Sure, it was just a soulless beast, but the noises themselves sounded like noises that any living being with a soul could make. Well, if they were a soul beast of the same species, anyways.

The point was that I didn’t like those noises. The noises of suffering were the noises of suffering even if they came from a beast that couldn’t actually feel any suffering.

And then the noises stopped.

I stopped in my tracks on the latest tree I swung to and came across the sight just in time to see a headless body of a beast being dragged into a bush by an unknown predator, leaving a trail of blood from the neck.

The beast’s head looked like half of it was bitten off. It wasn’t a small head, either. And while one side of the decapitated head had a full antler, the antler on the other side of its head was broken off with what looked like raw force.

Big enough to tear its head off, strong enough to break its antlers, and hungry enough to drag its entire body away. Not to mention smart since a dumber beast would just eat it right in the open where it killed its prey. Definitely more of a threat than those plant beasts I’ve killed. Maybe it’s linked to whatever’s been killing Korova’s livestock? I’ll have to let her know about this. But for now, I’m not going to throw myself at an unknown beast capable of doing that much damage to something way bigger than me. I should probably let the guards know about it later, too. They’d probably want to know about a dangerous beast like that roaming around the woods. Especially with how they let kids play in the open.

Not wanting to give myself away, I carefully went back in the direction that I came from so as to not make any noise. I didn’t want to become the predator’s next meal.

And fortunately, the leaves were exactly as I left them. They were in good shape, not roughed up at all, nothing came to mess with them—they were in perfect condition.

Hope that Granny isn’t too upset. I’ve taken a lot longer than I was supposed to, probably.

I made it back to the tavern and saw that Lada wasn’t back yet. That probably made me feel sadder than it should have. I just… always wanted to return and be able to see her there. But, I knew that she’d be back soon, so I forced myself to get over it.

I can’t be too clingy. No matter how much she likes me, she’s not going to like me forever if I act as clingy as I want to be.

But while Lada might not have been there, Granny was, and it was impossible for her to not notice my return. “There ya are. Huh. Looks like ya actually got a good haul there. Fast, too. Get lucky and find one at the pond?”

Oh. She’s not mad. That works.

YES. ALSO SAW DEAD

BEAST. ONE WITH ANTLERS

KILLED BY SOMETHING

STRONG.

“A beast with antlers killed by somethin’ strong? Only predators they’ve got around here really are soarin’ wolves. It’s no big deal. They typically stay out on the border islands and only hop on over here whenever they need a meal. The forest is busy enough for them to get full without ever comin’ close to the village.”

SO IT’S NORMAL?

“Yeah. Nothin’ surprisin’ about it. Only time a soarin’ wolf has come close to the village in years was when one was sick and desperate. The thing was put down by the guards no problem.”

GOOD TO KNOW.

“Ya ain’t scared, are ya?”

NO. WAS JUST WORRIED

ABOUT KIDS RUNNING

AROUND WHILE STRONG

BEASTS ARE NEARBY.

“Well, don’t worry. All ya need to worry about is gettin’ the tables set. Lada’s takin’ her sweet time which means those old geezers are probably talkin’ her ear off or askin’ her to help them find somethin’. Happens every time. A young person goes over there and suddenly they’re askin’ a million and one questions and usin’ them to help find whatever they’ve lost this time. Shoulda taken care of their bodies when they were younger like I told them to. Anyways, back to work!”

I saluted and got back to it while imagining Lada running around helping a bunch of old people with petty tasks.

It was cute.