Chapter 11: Stampede

"Hah!" Cecile and Nana stabbed a horned boar right in the head. The spear Hiro gave them was strong enough against normal monsters.

However, despite Hiro eating part of the boar, he didn't gain any new metamorphic tentacle abilities. He wondered why his metamorphic tentacle only allowed him to produce wood and bones. Animals and plants are composed of many different tissues—animals have skin, fangs, horns, nails, scales, and more. Birds have beaks and feathers, for example. Plants too! Plants don't just produce wood; they also have leaves and fruits, and some fruits have different parts, like cotton, nectar, and seeds. Yet, Hiro could only create wood and bones and flesh. Flesh was his main body material, so it didn't count.

After downing the boar, Hiro made a bone knife for the girls to cut the meat. Although the girls had only met three days ago, they worked like a well-oiled machine. Nana sliced the meat apart nicely while Cecile skinned the boar, hung it up, and drained its blood. Rebecca made a fire to roast some of the meat for their lunch.

"We need this later. Please don't eat it. Could you make some storage bags for us, Mr. Tentacle?" Cecile asked Hiro. He obliged by wrapping himself around Cecile and then creating a bag on her back. Hiro was so happy the girls depended on him that he forgot to do anything lewd, even though two days had passed. A pulsing, pink bag made of flesh appeared. The bag was horrendous, to say the least, but it was the best Hiro could manage.

He wanted to make leather but didn't have animal skin in his metamorphic tentacle skill. This realization disappointed him. Wrapping the girls in just his fleshy bits didn't excite him as much as wrapping them in skintight black leather. Little did he know, while leather is made from animal skin, it is a different material altogether. The skin needed to be tanned to be processed into leather. His dream of wrapping the girls in skintight black leather would not come true.

"Can you talk? You certainly understand us, right? Why can't you talk?" Rebecca asked, poking Hiro's flesh with her finger. It was ticklish, and he squirmed.

"Maybe this one can't talk? Rebecca, don't bully it," Cecile said.

"I don't like the fact that it comes from our crotch. Can you move somewhere else? Hyaa! Stop it!" Hiro emerged from Rebecca and tickled her armpits. Despite the many instances of molestation, she only felt ticklish. Hiro was puzzled by her. Nana and Cecile could go into heat right away if he touched them lewdly, but Rebecca didn't react much.

"Well… it certainly has calmed down. I wonder if it would do that thing again…" Nana suggestively stroked Hiro's tentacle, running her forefinger along it seductively. Hiro ignored her; he was not in the mood. He wanted to be the one doing the assault, not being assaulted.

"Maybe it was just a one-time thing? Like a rite?"

"I think it will do it again in the near future," Cecile said with conviction, knowing she had been on the receiving end more than once. Hiro teased her by wrapping her head and caressing her face. "Un… stop it. Let's go."

And so, the group moved on. Not long after, a group of goblins came and surrounded them. Hiro activated his amphetamine and adrenaline injections on the girls, except Rebecca, and they moved swiftly. Their movements were clumsy, but with Hiro's boost, they easily reached the same stats as someone at level 17 or even 20. It was no match for goblins who were in the single digits.

[Cecile has leveled up to level 8

Level: 8/100

STR: 24 -> 30

Dex: 25 -> 30

Mag: 2]

[Nana has leveled up to level 12

Level: 12/100

STR: 10 -> 13

Dex: 35 -> 42

Mag: 2]

They quickly leveled up. Rebecca, who wasn't on the front lines, hadn't leveled up. It should have been easy for her to level up, but she didn't put much effort into attacking.

"Wow. I really moved like a different person," Nana said. "So, this is a symbiote. I think I know why the country wanted to keep it a secret. I think my stats almost doubled."

"You were so fast, Nana."

"I see." Rebecca looked at the two girls with a somewhat jealous expression. She didn't feel any different than before. She didn't notice her stats going up at all. Of course, Hiro could only boost strength and dexterity by using his adrenaline and amphetamine skills. He didn't have any way to increase her mana or magic yet.

"I'm hungry…" Cecile complained. Even when Hiro didn't take any nutrients from the girls, they still felt hungry. This was due to Hiro's skill, which raised their stats. Hiro considered giving them nutrients from the inside, but he wanted to recover his cell storage. The dead goblins didn't provide him with much nutrients at all, which puzzled Hiro.

The reason the goblins didn't give him much nutrients was that they were hungry themselves. Moreover, dead monsters quickly undergo decomposition, reducing their nutritional value. Hiro couldn't derive nutrients from carcasses. His parasitism didn't work on dead animals.

"We just ate two hours ago."

"But there were so many goblins today. Didn't we fight like three groups of goblins just now?"

"Yeah. I think a stampede is coming; this is a season for monsters," Nana answered.

"Eh? Should we be in this forest, then? We need to hurry!" Cecile said.

"We might as well try to find shelter. Maybe a cave or something. Remember, we're fugitives. We can't go back to Horaine. And the highway won't save us from the stampede anyway."

"Rebecca, we have no shelter or camp…"

"We can ask our symbiote. Hey, can you make something? A box like yesterday would be okay. Though, we'd appreciate it if you refrained from the tentacles. We need a place to rest!" Rebecca said haughtily. Hiro sighed mentally at her snotty attitude but relented. His sigh then turned into a smirk. He would make them the box, but he certainly had something in mind for them.

"Eeek!" Cecile squealed when Hiro slithered across her skin. Nana, on the other hand, got excited. The box was filled with tentacles.

"Finally! Master…” Nana jumped in excitedly.

"Ugh! My party is full of perverts…" Rebecca muttered as she slipped inside the box. Hiro let her be. She seemed to be the one who didn't feel anything during sex, which made him lose his passion. However, with the other two, he was excited for their play. The innocent but sensitive Cecile and the slutty Nana were fun to play with.

Nana willingly slipped into the box, going even further by removing all her clothes, leaving her in her birthday suit. After putting her clothes inside the box, she entered it herself. Cecile, watching Nana, felt confused, weighing her decision on whether or not she should do the same.

"Please don't be too rough…" Cecile said as she entered the box, still fully clothed. Hiro made a victory pose—he had her consent! The fact that she allowed him to touch her was a big deal. She no longer felt disgusted by him.

"Master! Hurry!" Nana was already hugging the tentacle. The night wind of autumn grew stronger, but none of the girls felt it, thanks to Hiro's shelter.

For now, Hiro ignored Nana and focused on his first waifu, Cecile. Her brown hair was pleasant to the touch. He extended his tentacle from the box and gently caressed her face.

"Ehe. It tickles." Unlike Nana, Cecile wasn't a complete slut yet, so she didn't feel much when Hiro initiated skinship. She didn't even react that much when he moved on to her breasts. "Uh. What a perverted tentacle."

"Ahn." Cecile moaned softly as Hiro started to move from massaging her breasts from the outside to caressing her nipples from the inside. Her nipples weren't erect yet; he hadn't turned on her switch.

This was foreplay. He wanted to be gentle, so he heated her up little by little. His tentacle slithered from her breasts to her waist, and then he began undressing her. Surprisingly, Cecile allowed him to do so. Hiro was filled with a sense of conquest and ecstasy. He could barely repress his desire.

However, fate took another course. A group of goblins was drawn near their tent, attracted by the female pheromones exuded by Nana and Cecile. They came in bulk. Hiro was visibly annoyed when one of the goblins kicked the coffin-like structure containing the girls, and he lashed out from within.

He had already had his fill; all of his cell storage and nutrient storage were full. He wanted to take the offensive, but he only had 40 cell storage left after creating the box for the girls, so he was biding his time. But since the goblins came to him, he charged out.

Multiple tentacles lashed out from the box, grabbing goblins left and right. He attacked with such ferocity that ten goblins died instantly, their life force sucked out of them in a matter of seconds. The remaining goblins backed away, but Hiro pursued them. After detaching himself from the girls and the box, his cell storage dropped to 40, but that also meant he could use his nutrients to regenerate the cells.

With his newfound mobility, Hiro began exterminating the goblins. Some of his tentacles were cut off by goblin's daggers, but he prevailed. Hiro felt exhilarated, as though his instincts had taken over, and he was free.

This was the expected behavior of a parasitic tentacle. It's somewhat of a misnomer to call them parasitic, as they acted more like dangerous predators. Anything that stood in their path would be consumed. Thousands of goblins around him were devoured. Orcs were tougher; Hiro lost a fair bit of his tentacles due to them ripping him apart with their clubs and sheer muscle power.

However, as long as the opponent wasn't protected by some kind of full-body barrier, the tentacle wouldn't lose. Its cells would regenerate, and new tentacles would branch out. If, by some minuscule chance, the core was destroyed, Hiro could always use mitosis to split from other cores—he currently had four of them, three inside the girls and another one outside. This stampede consisted of wolves, goblins, and orcs. Stampedes in safer areas such as Horaine were only composed of low-level monsters, none of which could defeat Hiro.

Five hours had passed, and Hiro managed to stamp out the stampede. After returning to the boxes containing the girls, he checked his status, and to his surprise, he and all of his hosts had leveled up.

[Cecile has leveled up to level 9

Level: 9/100

STR: 30 -> 36

Dex: 30 -> 34

Mag: 2

Spear Mastery lvl 1 learned!]

[Nana has leveled up to level 13

Level: 13/100

STR: 13 -> 17

Dex: 42 -> 50

Mag: 2

Spear Mastery lvl 1 learned!]

[Rebecca has leveled up to level 11

Level: 11/100

STR: 5 -> 6

Dex: 8 -> 10

Mag: 22 -> 30]

[You have leveled up to level 5]

[Choose an upgrade:

Material Analysis (Disabled)

Water Magic Efficiency (Disabled)

Cell Storage Level 2]

Hiro tilted his head, confused. Why did the girls level up? And after all that slaying, why did he only level up once? Did he share his experience with the girls? But they hadn't leveled up when he did. Then, there was something odd displayed beside his skill—it said: "Disabled." When Hiro opened up the explanation, a window appeared:

[Material Analysis:

Analyze organic or inorganic material that has been consumed and imitate its function. This skill is disabled because the prerequisite skill is absent.

Prerequisite skill missing: Iron Gut or Phagogenesis]

[Water Magic Efficiency:

Enhance the user's skill regarding Water mana. This skill will allow the user to form Water Magic with 50% more efficiency.

Prerequisite skill missing: Mana Sensing and Mana Manipulation]

[Cell Storage Level 2:

Increase the amount of storage the user can hold to 500.]

Hiro couldn't choose the disabled skills, so he opted for Cell Storage Level 2. He wondered why the system even presented skills he hadn't met the requirements for.

Nevertheless, even if he could select the skill, it would be useless without the prerequisites. So, he didn't take it. Besides, he needed more cell storage now. 100 meters seemed long, but when he branched his tentacles, it was quickly used up. Additionally, the metamorphic tentacle skill had also consumed his cell storage.

[level up achieved!

STR: 19 -> 21

Dex: 20 -> 22

Mag: 0]

Dawn soon arrived, and the girls woke up before Hiro could do anything further. The box they were in was only covered by a fragile layer of wood, so it was easy to break. Rebecca was the first to rise, followed by Cecile and Nana.

"Morning, girls…" Rebecca looked at the others with apprehension.

"Master is such a tease… this is…" Nana was frustrated. Hiro didn't plan a neglect play, but she seemed to think otherwise.

"Eh? What happened?" Cecile asked, looking around as she dressed.

"There was a lot of noise during the night. What happened? Are these monsters?"

"They're all dead."

"You protected us, right? Thank you!" Cecile said, caressing Hiro's tentacle, which slithered to her neck.

The rest of the journey was fairly smooth. By the evening of the next day, the royal capital was within sight. The large city with tall towers surprised Hiro. It wasn't like a medieval castle; it was more akin to a fantasy castle. The towers glowed with various colors in the light of the evening sun.

"Let's rest here. We'll reach the capital tomorrow," Rebecca said. "Ugh… I stink."

"Yes."

The three girls made a fire and slept. Hiro didn't do anything to them, as they were exhausted from the travel.