Chapter 5: Tentacle Menace

"Eat!" the bandits tossed some remnants of their meal to the girls. They were on the run, so they hadn't carried much—only two tents and several bags of supplies. The fact that they hadn't untied the ropes binding the girls indicated that they wanted them to eat with their mouths on the ground like dogs. Cecile quickly bowed down and devoured the meat presented to her. Her nutrient levels were in the single digits, even though she had consumed less yesterday. Hiro was relieved that Cecile wasn't as prideful as the other two, who refused to eat.

"Boss, what are we going to do with them?" asked one of the bandits.

"We're going to sell them, of course," replied the leader.

"But our faces are known. Knights are looking for us all over the place."

"We'll sell them to other countries. Don't touch them. They're more valuable that way. Most nobles won't touch women who have been defiled by bandits. Shitty nobles—they're fine with women who swing with other nobles but are disgusted by us. I know what you're thinking. But we need more money to bribe those nobles from Vertia." Vertia was a kingdom neighboring Latvin, where they currently resided. To travel to Vertia, one had to cross two other cities and a mountain pass. It was far, but they had to do it if they wanted to be free from Latvin's knight order.

"Okay, boss," replied the bandit. They proceeded to tie the girls to a tree.

Hiro thought hard about how to reverse the situation, and then he suddenly had an epiphany. He remembered his race was supposed to consume the entire ecosystem. So, it couldn't be that his ability only worked for his host alone. However, Cecile was still awake. He needed to put her unconscious. He looked through his skills and remembered anaesthesia.

Anesthesia consists of many types. Hiro only knew about local anesthesia, which reduced pain in a small area of the body. He didn't realize anesthesia could put someone in a coma-like state, similar to a sleeping drug. While he had over 9000GB of sex lessons, he was a bit behind in biology and thus didn't even know that anesthesia could induce comatose or even kill the host if too much were injected. Fortunately, his skill window explained what anesthesia he had. It was a skill and not a real drug, so there was no need to fear for fatalities.

Cecile felt numbness spread from her bosom. It spread from her stomach to her chest. At first, she was afraid, thinking she would die. But soon, she accepted her fate. It was better to be dead now than to be caught by bandits. Her body relaxed as her breathing calmed down, and soon she fainted.

"We need to do something!" Rebecca panicked, but Nana was broken. Alex's death meant she had no future. She was unresponsive when Rebecca called her. "Cecile, you too. Don't sleep!"

Hiro slithered from her crotch and coiled himself around the bark of the tree behind Cecile. He then peeled some of the loose bark from the tree and latched onto its vascular system. When he activated his skill [Advanced Parasitism], it worked as he intended. His hunger was filled by the nutrients from the tree. Hiro usually took only enough to satisfy his hunger from Cecile, but this time, he took more. With advanced parasitism, it was possible to take more nutrients and convert them into body mass, which would be stored in his cell storage skill.

Hiro's size didn't change, but the numbers beside his storage skill continued to increase. As soon as it reached twenty, it stopped. In a matter of hours, the big tree that had grown over two decades died. Its husk withered, and its leaves gradually turned orange. Some guards still took watch, but most of them were sleeping.

After feeding on the tree, Hiro stored 20 units in his cell storage. He then used it to extend his tentacle to take nutrients from nearby trees. The grass and bushes hid him from the guards. Hiro could branch his tentacle, but he couldn't separate it. After sucking nutrients from four trees at once, his cell storage shot up to 60.

Judging that he had enough cell storage, he slithered to the sleeping bandits. This group slept next to each other just a stone's throw away from the girls. If only they had kept more distance, their lives might have been saved. Nevertheless, it was too late. Hiro entwined himself around their legs one by one and injected anesthesia to numb their pain receptors and make them unconscious. Then, he sucked up their nutrients. The process went much faster than when he did it with trees. It only took several minutes to steal the nutrients from the bandits.

The bandits never woke up. They didn't even twitch when Hiro drained them. Anesthesia was a cheat skill if the enemy didn't see it coming. Anything done to their bodies, they wouldn't react to, just like with actual anesthesia. Out of the fifteen bandits that kidnapped Cecile, twelve died just like that. This was the ability of the parasitic tentacle, an abomination that shouldn't exist in this world.

Hiro pondered how to kill the other three bandits who were on night duty. They were not travelers; they were runaway bandits, so they didn't dare to light any fire. Hiro has the advantage of stealth. Hiro considered using his anesthesia again but refrained. Anesthesia worked slowly. Moreover, for general anesthesia to work, he had to inject it into their blood. The sleeping bandits never realized it because Hiro dripped some local anesthesia and then injected it into their legs when their legs were numb.

Hiro considered assaulting them directly, but none of the bandits he killed had levels below ten, and all of their stats easily surpassed his. One of them was even level 35! He assumed the night watch bandits also had similar stats.

The night sky slowly turned red, marking the arrival of dawn. Hiro ran out of time and decided to assault them directly. After killing the bandits, his cell mass was over 80. The nightwatchers were unarmed. First, he tripped one of their legs as they made their rounds, and then he entangled one of them while dripping anesthesia all over them.

"Ugh!" One bandit went down. When the bandit fell, Hiro immediately entangled himself around his face, slithering inside his mouth, ears, and nose while dripping anesthesia on him. The bandit resisted. Hiro branched his tentacle and tried to bind the bandit's hands, but it was futile. The bandit overpowered him, pulling and struggling with such force that some of his tentacles ripped.

Hiro let out a soundless scream inside Cecile's womb when his tentacle ripped. He almost wanted to retract his entire tentacle back inside but persevered. The ripped tentacle was still inside the bandit's throat, so he couldn't scream or breathe. Soon after, the bandit lay motionless, and Hiro consumed him.

After repeating the procedure two more times and killing all the bandits, Hiro slithered to a tree. Hiro lost about 30 cells, so he wanted to recover it by taking more from nearby trees. that's when he noticed a star on his status screen. He had leveled up. He focused on the status window and brought up his new perk.

[You have leveled up to level 2]

[Choose an upgrade:

- Acid production

- Mitosis

- Nutrient storage]

After skimming the skill descriptions, he chose mitosis. Acid production would make his body acidic, which is useful in direct combat situations like this. But he was a parasite, and his goal was to remain a parasite. Engaging enemies directly shouldn't become a habit. While nutrient storage was tempting, he chose mitosis.

[Level up achieved!

STR: 13 -> 14

Dex: 15 -> 17

Mag: 0]

It was now or never. With mitosis, he could split his body and plant himself into Rebecca and Nana. They were currently asleep after crying all night. Hiro's tentacle then came nearer and, as it carefully shifted their panties, jabbed the newly formed nucleus into their tender orifices. This jolted them awake, but when they looked around, Hiro had already returned to Cecile's womb. A pop-up window appeared when he successfully infiltrated Nana and Rebecca's wombs.

Name: Rebecca Evesys

Race: Human

Age: 17

Class: Adventurer (Rank F)

Host Affinity: 0/100

Nutrients: 40/70

Level: 10/100

STR: 5

Dex: 8

Mag: 22

B/W/H: 24/24/25

Skills:

-Mana Manipulation lvl 3

-Mana Sensing lvl 3

Name: Nana

Race: Human

Age: 18

Class: Adventurer (Rank F)

Host Affinity: 0/100

Nutrients: 77/100

Level: 11/100

STR: 10

Dex: 35

Mag: 0

B/W/H: 44/24/35

Skills:

- Enhanced Vision

-Archery lvl 5

Hiro was able to see his hosts' stats and he frowned. Their stats were way too unbalanced. They were good at what they did, but not much else. Hiro pondered their future and smiled. Without Cecile, they were bound to have a difficult path ahead. This meant their future as Hiro's hosts was secured.

"Ngh… Cecile? Nana?" Rebecca woke up. "Where are the bandits?"

"Cecile! Now's our chance!" Rebecca whispered and used her legs to wake up Cecile. The anesthesia had worn off a long time ago, so she finally woke up. "Cecile, can you break free from the rope?"

The bandits didn't know how to properly tie someone, so after some wiggling, Cecile and Rebecca managed to break free. Nana just sat there even after being untied by Cecile. Rebecca wanted to escape immediately, but Cecile knew something was amiss.

"Look. The night watch is dead. Those bandits, too!" Cecile came over and inspected the corpses.

"What happened to these bandits? They're all shriveled up." Rebecca looked closer, examining Hiro's handiwork.

"Let's leave. The monster who did this is probably still around," Cecile said while looking to her left and right. There was a cart used by her team that was stolen by the bandits parked nearby.

"You're right. Nana, Cecile, cut off their heads and bring them with us. The knight order will still pay us," Rebecca said. Nana silently followed her command. Her body was on autopilot. Cecile was apprehensive, but when she heard about the knight's order paying them, she followed suit.

"What about the orc quest? I'm sorry, Rebecca, but I can't afford to fail this quest," Cecile said. If she failed this quest, her adventurer license might be revoked.

"We can use the bandits' supplies. They have two or three orcs' worth of meat. I will freeze them."

From the bandits' loot, there were 10 gold coins, some weapons, provisions including orc meat, and a ledger listing the bandits' connections. The girls couldn't possibly bring it all, so they opted to get only the orcs, gold coins, the bandits' heads wrapped in a sack, and the book.

"Cecile, we have just been together for a day. But can I trouble you to return to the orc's field? I want to recover Alex's body. Nana and I will carry him. So, could I ask you to take these? I'm sorry, but our strength stats are low." Rebecca asked Cecile to pull the cart. Cecile nodded. The cart was filled with the orc's quest, after all.

There are appraisal machines in the adventurer's guild and other government buildings, so statuses and skills are common knowledge. On the way back, Nana and Rebecca thought hard about Alex's death. Without a vanguard, they couldn't possibly survive as adventurers. They looked toward Cecile. With the adrenaline injection from Hiro, her STR stats doubled, and she easily carried two tons of meat in a hand-drawn cart by herself. Nana's head was blank, but Rebecca thought about her next move.

When they returned to the plains, Alex's corpse showed signs of decomposing, with crows and rats proliferating around his corpse. Nana ran and shoved them away and began to cry profusely. But no matter how much she cried, Alex wouldn't come back to life. They loaded Alex's corpse into the cart and helped Cecile push it.

They returned to the city of Horaine in the evening. First, they went to the adventurer's guild to mark the quest. Cecile was elated that she could finally pay her debt from the previous quest's failure. When they went to the knight's order, the guards calmly accepted the bandit's head. They asked various questions, but Rebecca could only answer that the bandits were attacked by monsters. After giving them the ledger, they were let go.

"Cecile, where do you live?" Rebecca asked.

"In the Prairie Inn, a five-minute walk from the guild."

"If you don't mind, will you continue to party with us? And, I think it's better if you move to our inn, Sophomore Inn. It costs 10 silver, but if we split the cost, it should be cheaper than that inn."

"Yes!" Cecile nodded. "I will pack my things and move tomorrow!"

Hiro smirked at the encounter. Cecile was returning to her room. Time for some lewd level-up!