Chapter of Living Dreams: The First Tentacle Research

“So, what should we do first?”

“Nn…”

Karen stared at the thick tentacle in the middle of the room.

It was the one that had absorbed the mana egg that Ria had dumped on it.

“Maybe we just feed them some mana crystals for now and watch what happens?”

I squatted down next to the thick tentacle and poked it a little. It was squishy and quite lively as well, moving back and forth in reaction to my pokes.

“Guess we’ll start with that then. I’ll go fetch a few.”

With those words, Karen left the small room.

A short while later she returned, holding a leather bag with some mana crystals.

“Should I just dump them on the tentacles?”

“... I guess so? The dolls did the same, right?”

“Mm…”

Maybe still a bit cautious, Karen threw a few of the mana crystals at the tentacles, instead of just dumping the contents of the bag.

“Ah, they’re disappearing.”

“Nn. They absorb them quite fast, don’t they?”

Seeing as the entire ground was covered with them, the tentacles didn’t even go out of their way to catch the mana crystals. They were simply absorbed the moment they hit the ground.

“...”

“...”

“... Nothing happens, does it?”

“Nn.”

“Should I throw a few more?”

“Nn.”

Seeing how the tentacles didn’t expand in the least, Karen poured the contents of the bag into them.

“Oh, now they’re expanding again.”

It was barely the width of my finger but you could clearly see the tentacles shift slightly upwards on the wall.

“They really might need a lot…”

“Nn.”

“Hey, Yumi.”

“Nn?”

Karen walked up to the wall, checking the border of the tentacle growth.

“Look. Don’t these look a little… I don’t know… less energetic?”

“Nn… Let’s see…”

The tentacles at the border were significantly smaller than their counterparts further in. They also seemed considerably less lively, hanging down and not moving at all. Were these even still alive?

“You’re right… But why?”

“Mm…”

The dolls should’ve given them quite many of the mana crystals. I was already wondering why they hadn’t expanded even further but… Maybe there was some kind of problem?

“Nn… Odd. Just a little further down and they’re energetic again.”

“I’ll bring some more mana crystals.”

“Okay.”

Maybe we could see something if we gave them even more mana crystals. A little bit of a brute force approach, but if it worked? Hopefully, it’d work.

A moment later, Karen returned, this time with even more of the crystals than before.

“It’s good that Mr Captain brought us so many of these crystals… But it still feels like a waste…”

“Sis, it’s not like the mana just disappears, right?”

“I guess you’re right... “

Karen once more poured the mana crystals over the tentacles as we watched.

Just as quickly as before, they were all absorbed into the tentacles, leaving nothing behind. Curious, I tried to see if I could make anything out from the movement of the mana but… It just disappeared into the rather thick mana of the tentacles, making it impossible to observe.

“Hey, Yumi.”

“Nn? What is it, Sis?”

“The ones at the border didn’t grow at all this time… But look, here… The ones around the center.”

“Oh? So… they stopped expanding and instead grew thicker in the middle?”

The tentacles right around the center tentacle with the mana egg had become quite a bit thicker. This was also where the mana was the thickest, so… Wait… The thickest?

“Sis, I have an idea. Can you bring more mana crystals? About as many as before.”

“Okay.”

For the third time, Karen left the room and fetched some crystals, bringing them to me.

“Nn… Let’s see…”

Taking the bag, I took one of the slightly thicker mana crystals and then started transferring the mana of the remaining ones into this crystal. A short while later and I was holding a small pink crystal in my hand.

“Now, let’s see if I’m right.”

I walked to the corner of the room and put down the mana egg. Or rather, I tried to. But before I even got that far, the tentacles snatched it out of my hand.

“Woah! Quite aggressive...”

“... They didn’t react at all to normal crystals but they reacted to that…”

“Nn…”

One tentacle absorbed the mana egg, growing thicker than the surrounding ones. And then it began absorbing mana from the surroundings as well, just like the one in the center of the room did.

“Nn… The ones around it grew larger as well.”

The tentacles around the new mana egg grew thicker, similarly to the ones in the center. Within a short time, this spot looked exactly the same as the original one.

“Ah, Yumi, at the wall! They’re expanding.”

“Ohhhh.”

Right above the corner, the tentacles started expanding again, crawling up the wall up to the ceiling before they finally stopped again.

“So that really was it. I guess they can only expand a certain distance away from one mana egg.”

“From the mana egg… I see. But… Why?”

“Nn... “

That was the big question. The only thing I could think of was that the mana egg couldn’t keep the tentacles alive past a certain distance. The tentacles needed mana and the mana egg absorbed mana from the surroundings and provided it to the tentacles.

“I think the mana egg can only sustain a limited amount of tentacles. It can’t absorb a whole lot of mana, after all. And the more tentacles are around, the more mana is needed.”

“Mm… That makes sense.”

Karen furrowed her brows while staring at the newly expanded tentacles. Was she not satisfied with that explanation?

“Is something wrong, Sis?”

“Mm… I just thought… If that’s really the case, you’d need a huge amount of those mana eggs to cover a large area, wouldn’t you?”

“Ahh… You’re right.”

If we took the distance from the corner up to the ceiling… The ceiling of the wagon was quite high but still close enough that I could comfortably reach it while sitting on Karen’s shoulders. The distance from the center mana egg to the middle of the wall was a little more, though. Probably. Measurements taken by the eye and so. Not exactly what I’d call accurate.

“Do we have any measuring tools, Sis?”

“Measuring tools? Mh… I don’t think there are any in here but the craftsmen should have some.”

“Ohh… We should borrow one sometime.”

So there were measuring tools around. That made me curious how tall I was in this world’s measurements. Then again, the measurements here were an absolute mystery to me.

I should probably remember them sometime… There is nobody around who knows the ones from my world anyway.

Except maybe Yumias, but that one was mostly irrelevant anyway.

Either way, without a measuring tool at hand I could only take a rough guess with the eye. The distance from the center egg to the previous border was… around twice my height? And the wall height was probably around one and a half times my height.

“That’s really not a lot… You’d need hundreds just to cover the camp.”

Not that I wanted to try that out, of course. Nonetheless, making hundreds of those eggs would be quite a lot of work. And since I was the only one who could make them, it’d be my job to do it… Yeah, that sounded like a huge pain. Nothing I wanted to do.

“Good thing the wagon isn’t that large.”

“Yes… Yumi, do you want to cover the whole room?”

“Nn… I don’t know. If you ask me personally, it bothers me that it’s now so uneven. But whether it is actually a good idea… I don’t know.”

I was also a little curious if those tentacles would grow on the ceiling. Wormaz had plugged the windows and everything in this room, so there was no chance for them actually getting outside. So, why not just cover everything?

“Nn… If we wanted to cover the whole room, I guess we need at least one mana egg in each corner?”

“So… seven more including the ceiling?”

“Nn.”

“... Want to do it?”

“... Nn. Let’s try it out.”

I was curious. I was curious therefore we tried doing it. Korwen wasn’t going to press us for results on the first day anyway. Seeing how free Ria was acting, it probably wasn’t a big issue as long as we actually tried out stuff and got results at some point in time.

“Here, Yumi. Are these enough?”

Karen carried a rather large bag full of mana crystals into the room.

“That… should be more than enough.”

More like, that was way too much.

I scooped up some mana crystals and began my work. Seven mana eggs, one for each corner, floor and ceiling. Making one mana egg took me maybe a minute or so, so a few minutes later I finished.

“Okay. Let’s go for it, Sis.”

“Just putting them into the corner is fine?”

“Nn.”

Karen took two crystals and put one down in a corner. Similar to before, the tentacles literally snatched the egg from her hand. A few moments later, the tentacles once again began to expand.

“Nn… It really is like that.”

After confirming that my guess was most likely correct, I took one of the mana eggs and walked up to another corner. I dropped the stone on the tentacles and once more they…

“Nn?”

“Hey, Yumi. They aren’t expanding anymore?”

“Nn. Over here as well.”

The remaining two corners only expanded the growth a little, not up to the ceiling like the previous two.

“Odd… But it worked with the other two.”

There wasn’t anything different right?

“Yumi, maybe there isn’t enough mana for them?”

“Huh? Why wouldn’t there be?”

“Well, I was wondering… Where did the mana go from the crystals we dumped first. Couldn’t it be that the mana egg was storing that mana to expand later? I don’t think all that mana was used up for making the tentacles in the middle a little thicker...”

“It was storing it? Wait, Sis… Wouldn’t that mean the egg knows that there are other mana eggs around now?”

In other words, those eggs were connected in some way? That… was convenient? Actually, it was surprising but… That could very well be the case, huh…

“I still have some mana crystals in this bag. Should I try it out?”

“... Nn. But, dump them on the one in the center first.”

“Okay.”

If it grew despite the fact that the one in the middle absorbed the mana crystals... 

“Here I go.”

Karen emptied the contents of the bag over the central tentacle and its mana egg. There were still quite a lot inside yet, they all disappeared in a flash. And after they disappeared…

The tentacle growth expanded once more.

“It really worked.”

“...”

The tentacles were now covering the entire floor as well as the walls. Karen had closed the door when she came back so that the tentacles wouldn’t expand outside the room…

Although I sincerely hoped the door would still open now… Maybe we should’ve been a bit more careful there.

“Sis, does the door still open?”

“The door? Oh! Let me check.”

She walked to the door, pushing it. Fortunately, it opened just fine. 

“Mm? Yumi, the door is trying to close itself.”

“Eh?”

“I can feel a little pressure. Let’s see.”

Karen abruptly let go of the door and stepped back. And then the door closed itself. Very slowly, but it closed.

“Nn… Well, guess the tentacles don’t like to keep it open?”

“I doubt they can think that far ahead, Yumi.”

“... Probably. But as long as we can still open it, that’s fine. Maybe we can teach them to lock the door even when we aren’t around.”

“...”

Karen scowled, apparently she wasn’t quite convinced they would do that. Okay, I doubted that they would do that, too. But who knew? With some training? Maybe?

“Anyway, Yumi, how do we get the mana eggs up there?”

“The ceiling, huh… I climb on your shoulders again?”

“Mm… I’d rather not with this unsteady footing.”

Unsteady footing, huh. Since we were stepping on the tentacles, it was indeed rather far from an even floor. On the other side, it was a soft floor.

“If we fall, they’ll probably cushion us, won’t they? The ones on the floor grew… quite thick.”

I shoved a few tentacles to the side, trying to bury my foot as deep into the growth as I could. My foot was disappearing quite quickly and even my ankle wasn’t visible anymore. That should be more than enough to cushion us, right?

Actually, considering how soft they are… Wouldn’t sleeping on them be more comfortable than on that bed?

If we disregarded that these were, well, tentacles… Then it should be rather comfortable.

“Still… Something might happen…”

“Nn… It’ll be fine, come, Sis. Squat down.”

“... Okay, okay, I got it.”

Karen did as I asked and squatted down. I brushed her hair to the side so that it wouldn’t tickle me afterwards.

“I’m coming, Sis.”

And after saying such, I climbed onto her shoulders.

Oh? This is…

Once firmly sitting on her shoulders, Karen grabbed my legs and slowly stood up again.

“You okay there, Yumi?”

“N— Nn. I am.”

“Yumi? Is something wrong?”

“Well, that’s…”

I couldn’t help but fidgeting a little. With my legs.

“Yumi…I can feel something brushing against my neck.”

“Ahaha…”

We were still in our birthday suits. As such, it was probably only to be expected… That my crotch was being pressed against her head. It was a rather… stimulating position to be in. Although for sure one of the weirdest ones. I was sitting on her shoulders, after all… Not the most appropriate place for such stuff.

“Haaa… Yumi… Just get the mana eggs up there.”

“... Nn.”

Karen handed me the remaining four mana eggs and walked towards one corner. After giving the tentacles the mana egg, the growth expanded as expected. It really could grow on the ceiling but...

“Yumi… This is… a little creepy, even for me.”

“... I agree.”

It was one thing on the floor and the walls… But the ceiling was a little… Gravity was doing its work. In other words, the tentacles were hanging down…

On the other hand, it really completed the slightly nightmarish view… Fleshy walls and floors and tentacles hanging down from the ceiling…

“If I were to encounter this in the wild it’d surely haunt me in my dreams…”

“I’d be worried if your own magic causes you nightmares, Yumi.”

“Nn…”

Was this still considered magic? Somehow, my image of magic was a little different from this. But, yeah… Technically, it was kind of magical… Magic, huh...

“I’ll go to the next corner now, Yumi. Hold tight, okay?”

“Nn, will do.”

With slow and steady steps, Karen approached the next corner. She really was worried about falling with me on her shoulders, seeing how slowly she walked… I felt a little bad now that I forced her to do this just to sate my curiosity.

“Here we are.”

“... Thanks, Sis.”

“Mm? You’re welcome?”

“Nn.”

I could feel how she was tilting her head a little, as her hair brushed along my thighs. It was ticklish…

Anyway, after giving another mana egg away, we watched the ceiling getting covered a little more, but then it stopped earlier than the other one.

“Out of mana again?”

“Seems like it… Let’s first put the other mana eggs at their place, Sis. Then we can feed them more.”

“Okay. But, I feel like we’re using quite a lot of those crystals…”

“The Captain told us to use them. And there are a whole lot of them.”

A single crate contained a huge amount alone. These were mostly discarded mana crystals, so they were cheap as hell, thankfully. Regardless of the price, though… Even with these many that we had used already, it was probably still only very little compared to the amount we had stored here.

“There really are a lot… And the ones we have here aren’t even everything.”

“Eh, they aren’t?”

“No, apparently not. I heard that Mr Captain bought a huge amount from a merchant for a pittance. The ones we have here are only the first shipment, apparently.”

“... Seriously?”

Just how many did he buy? And… a pittance? Even if they were cheap… If it was a pittance when they were already so cheap… He didn’t get them for free, did he?

Well, nothing for me to worry about. If we could use them, that was only good for us.

“How did he even buy them, though? We can’t enter the city, right?”

“You’ll have to ask Mr Captain, Yumi. I don’t know.”

“Nn…”

I was curious but… It didn’t really matter now. Karen was once again slowly making her way to the next corner where I handed the mana egg to the tentacles. Finally, we made our way to the last corner.

“The last two didn’t grow at all…”

“They still took the mana egg, so isn’t it fine? We just have to give them more mana crystals and they’ll be fine.”

“True.”

At least we had put the mana eggs at their respective places.

“Sis, you can let me down now.”

“…”

“Sis?”

“Mm... “

For some reason she was hesitating. Her hands were squeezing my legs a little stronger than before.

“Sis, you can touch my legs all you want later.”

“... That doesn’t make it easier to part with them.”

“Haa…”

Karen and I… we both were seriously quite needy, weren’t we? After we became a little more honest to our desires, I felt like it only got worse.

Okay, maybe it just felt like it got worse since we could now honestly say we didn’t want to stop.

“Mm… It’s unfortunate but I have to, I guess… Haa… Hey, Yumi.”

“What is it?”

“... Can we sleep here tonight?”

“Of course, we can. I don’t mind.”

In fact, if she hadn’t asked, I would have probably.

“Ehehe… Then, I’ll let you down now.”

“Nn.”

Karen squatted down so I could climb down. It was oddly comfortable on her shoulders but having proper ground to stand on was rather relieving after all. Okay, this floor probably wasn’t exactly proper ground but nobody would mind that detail.

“Okay. Now, we only need to feed them some mana crystals again and we’re done, right?”

“That’s right.”

And then we’d have a literal tentacle room.

Karen had for the fourth or fifth time or so left the room now to fetch some mana crystals. It was a good thing it was only a few steps away… We couldn’t exactly store them inside this room anyway.

“Are these enough?”

“Nn… I wonder. Let’s just see what happens.”

“Okay.”

Karen and I fed the crystals to the tentacles. The tentacles on the ceiling expanded, covering every little bit of it.

“... It’s done.”

“Nn.”

The room was now covered entirely in tentacles. Honestly, seeing them hanging down from the ceiling was more than a little creepy, especially since they weren’t exactly keeping still but twitching left and right occasionally…

Regardless of this little issue, we had finished now.

“So, Yumi. What do we do now?”

“... Feed them more?”

“I wonder if anything will happen then…”

“No idea, that’s why we could try it, right?”

As long as we were careful not to overfeed them and cause an explosion or something…

“Hey, Sis. Can mana explode?”

“Explode? What do you mean?”

“Nn… For example, if we overfeed the tentacles and they collect too much mana.”

“I… don’t think that will happen. At least, I never heard of such a thing.”

“Nn…”

Maybe we should, after all, delay it for now and ask Ria.

“Okay. Let’s give them some more mana crystals and see what happens. And if it looks like nothing happens or the mana grows really dense, we’ll stop and ask Ria.”

Honestly, I was too curious right now to stop. It was weird. Watching the tentacles grow and messing around with this...  I quite enjoyed it. Or in simpler words: It was fun.

To think that one day I’d start enjoying watching tentacles grow from the ceiling…

Made me wonder a little if I would’ve enjoyed that before as well. Not that I would have ever gotten the chance to, in my old world.

“Yumi.”

“Nn?”

“... I’m going to carry that crate over here, okay?”

Apparently, Karen had finally gotten fed up with leaving only to fetch more crystals… But, even with Karen’s strength… A large crate filled with stones was probably too much even for her, wasn’t it?

“And, here we go.”

“... Of course, shoving it works too.”

“What?”

“I was wondering how you’d carry the crate but it slipped my mind that you could just shove it.”

Why do it the hard way when this worked too, right?

“I don’t think I could carry this alone…”

“Nn.”

Karen moved the crate right next to the door. Now, I could just grab some crystals as well.

“Then, let’s see what happens.

And like that, we started feeding them more and more crystals.

The tentacles devoured them, absorbed them without pause. First, the tentacles grew slightly thicker and longer. I could feel even the ones I was standing on squirming a little and growing the more crystals we fed them. At one point though, they stopped.

“Did they finish growing?”

“Nn, maybe?”

Once again, I shoved a few tentacles to the side and tried to see how deep my foot could go.

“They grew quite a bit, though.”

The tentacles reached a bit higher than my ankle. Around the width of my palm higher, to be precise. Each tentacle was also around the thickness of my wrist. Each and every one of them… The ones from the ceiling had grown as well. Especially in their length… They stopped right above Karen’s head, occasionally brushing against her hair.

“It doesn’t seem like they’re growing any more, though. But they still keep absorbing mana crystals.”

“Nn. Maybe they’re just going to store the remaining mana now? Like before.”

It didn’t seem like they were expunging Lust-attributed mana anymore either. Maybe because the air was already filled with it?

“Probably… Huh? Yumi, doesn’t that one in the middle look larger than before?”

“The one in the middle?”

I followed Karen’s gaze to the middle of the room. The tentacle with the first mana egg… was still growing.

“Nn. The other ones aren’t growing, though. Only this one.”

“I wonder how big it can grow…”

“Sis… Weren’t you the one who wanted to be careful?”

“But it’s only this tentacle growing, right? We’ll quickly see if it grows too large.”

“I mean… Yes, but… Nn, whatever. Let’s do it.”

And we fed it more and more… Honestly, at this point I really didn’t want to know just how many mana crystals we had fed them. And this crate still had around two-thirds left. To boot, it wasn’t even the only crate…

Just how many of these mana crystals did the Captain buy… And why the hell did the merchants even keep that many? There are barely any uses for them, right?

Not that I could answer that question myself, really. And even though the question bothered me a little, I was still grateful that we had them.

“Sis, isn’t it growing a little too large, though?”

“Well…”

We kept feeding it and it grew and grew and grew even more. It was now around the thickness of my thigh and if it stretched, it was probably around as long as I was tall…

Seeing it growing so much, we stopped feeding it.

“Nn… It still looks just like a regular tentacle.”

“There’s nothing special about it except for its size.”

“Then, why did it grow that much?”

A small mystery, really.

“Because we fed it, of course.”

“I meant, if there’s a reason behind it, Sis.”

“If you ask me, I am curious about the reason for any of these tentacles.”

“...”

Good point. I wanted to know that as well.

“Yumi, you can control them to a degree right?”

“Nn, I can.”

“Mm…”

“Sis?”

Karen stared at the tentacle, seemingly lost in thought. She… wasn’t going to get any strange ideas now, was she? That tentacle was a little too thick to play with! You were just going to hurt yourself really badly!

“Maybe you can sit on it?”

“...”

“Yumi?”

“... Ahh, sit on it… Sit on it…”

It was a rather normal idea. That was good. I got worried there for a moment.

Actually, no, this wasn’t a normal idea either. Why would you think of sitting on a tentacle? But it was better than the other stuff I could think of...

“Let’s see…”

I walked up to the tentacle and put my hand on it, taking control of the mana. It… didn’t stiffen up or anything like the time when I tried it before. In fact, it was still moving on its own.

“Huh… Ah, but I can still move it.”

The tentacle bent down so I could sit on it. I was a little worried whether it could even carry me—my own tentacles could barely lift a cup after all—but it proved to be an unnecessary worry. Even when I put my entire weight on it, the tentacle still held up just fine. Seeing as it was safe, I sat down…

“Woah. It works…”

A little unstable, yes, but the tentacle was sure carrying me just fine. In fact, seeing as how I could move the tentacle from this position…

“Sis, Sis! I’m taller now!”

“You’re not taller, you’re just higher up in the air…”

Well, yes…

I wasn’t even allowed to dream for a moment, was I? Not that I even wanted to grow taller. I was quite happy with my current situation.

“But… I don't think the point of this tentacle was to make it into a chair.”

It was convenient but… I was fairly sure this wasn’t the intended use.

“Yumi, I want to sit on the tentacle as well.”

“Nn, just a moment then.”

I moved down again and returned to the ground. In my place, Karen sat down on the tentacle now.

“Wahhh! This is… a little wobbly.”

She had to grab hold of the tentacle beneath her, trying to steady herself.

“Ohhh! It’s… a little like I’m floating? Ahh! Ca— Can’t you keep it a little steadier?”

“Sorry, but this is the best I can manage.”

“Uhh… Okay… Then, try to lift me up. But, slowly! Slowly!”

Karen was still firmly holding onto the tentacle. It was a little adorable, seeing how she couldn’t deal well with the unsteadiness. And yet she still wanted to be lifted up.

“Ohh! Can it go higher?”

“No, this is the highest.”

“I see…”

Honestly, it wasn’t really all that high. When I was on it, I could just barely look over Karen. And she wasn’t exactly the tallest person around, either. By far not. If it had been Korwen standing there, he probably wouldn’t even notice the difference. He’d still have to look down at me.

“I’m going to let you down now.”

“O— Okay…”

The tentacle moved down and returned Karen to the ground. Alas, Karen still felt a little unsteady on her feet. To add, the ground wasn’t even here…

“Wahh!”

“Ah? Sis?!”

And she dove headfirst down onto the ground.

“Sis, are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“I, I am fine… I am fine… That surprised me.”

“Haaa… Don’t scare me like that.”

“Sorry... “

Falling to the ground could be quite dangerous if you were unlucky, after all. Thankfully, the tentacles probably cushioned the fall for her.

“Ohhh, Yumi! This is actually really comfortable.”

“Nn?”

Karen rolled around, lying one her back and spreading her arms and legs. Whether intended or not, she gave me quite the view of her naked body right now.

“Yumi, come and lie down as well. They’re really soft and nice to lie on. Although, they tickle a little.”

“Nn…”

The tentacles below her were moving, adjusting their position to… Wait…

“Sis, you’re sinking.”

“Eh? Ah, you’re right.”

The tentacles below her were moving away and instead wrapping around her arms and legs. It didn’t seem like they were firmly holding her in place or anything. I got more the impression that they were acting like a blanket.

Realising that, my initial panic quickly subsided again.

“They’re warm… Ahh, I feel like I could fall asleep like this.”

“We still have work after this, Sis. Don’t fall asleep now.”

“I know, I won’t fall asleep. Yumi, come and join me.”

“Nn…”

What should I do…

It wasn’t that I was scared of the tentacles or anything. They came from me, originally. One might even argue that they were just an extension of myself. Albeit, an extension that moved by itself.

Nonetheless, I was still a little worried about simply laying down on them…

Fortunately, there was a simple solution.

“Ah, Yumi?”

“Nn… You’re right, this is nice.”

“... I wanted you to lie down on the tentacles, not on me.”

“Should I move away then?”

“... You’re unfair.”

Karen freed one of her arms and wrapped it around me, hugging my waist.

“Only for a little, okay?”

“Nn.”

Only for a little would we enjoy each other’s warmth. We still had work after all. But such thoughts didn’t even enter my mind right now. I just wanted to be with Karen, after all.

This is bliss. Really.