1. Reincarnated as a Tentacle.
1. Reincarnated as a Tentacle.
A forest thick with trees is home to various living creatures.
From tiny bugs to rabbits hopping around grazing on grass, and deer that have come to the riverside to quench their thirst.
And even predators like foxes, bears, or tigers that hunt these herbivores.
Although the forest is the primary habitat for beings born in nature and returning to nature, there are not a few beings that do not follow this cycle.
Goblins, who today are searching near their base with weapons in hand to satisfy their sexual desires and increase their kin,
Orcs, who mindlessly devour every living creature they see, and sometimes rape the females to breed countless races into their own.
And.
A purple tentacle, about the length and thickness of an index finger, is no exception.
Its smooth surface glitters in the sunlight filtering through the trees. If one were to compare it to an Earth creature, it looks like a spoon worm, but the color is quite different.
This being, which wiggles like a caterpillar as if the blowing wind is slightly cold.
That is me.
Damn it.
I have no mouth, so I cannot speak, but that thought echoed in my mind.
Even though I don't even have a brain to think with.
Where on earth am I?
Why am I in a place like this?
As I trace back my blurry memories, I recall that I am a man, and that I lost consciousness while reading an erotic novel featuring tentacles.
I remember nothing else besides these two things.
Naturally, I felt a wave of terror because I couldn't even remember common sense that I should have known, or even my own name.
Ugh, I'm... hungry.
A severe hunger, to the point where I felt my body was suffering, dominated my mind.
I don't know how this tentacle's body structure works, but the pain was so intense that I felt like I would die right now if I didn't eat something.
Deciding to eat first and think later, I looked around.
I don't have eyes, but perhaps I can feel my surroundings with my skin; information about all directions entered my brain? as if I had eyes on the back of my head.
I couldn't see colors, but in return, I could feel the detailed shape and structure of objects with my entire body.
Rabbits running around nearby, birds flying away with a flutter of wings, goblins looking around as if searching for something, and a woman in a mage's outfit.
Clearly, assuming this body is capable of hunting, I should have accepted that a rabbit or a bird would be my daily bread.
But for some reason, the tentacle perceived that there was nothing for me to eat except for that one female mage.
Has my intelligence level dropped because I became this kind of body, or is it just that the instinct I once harbored—to molest women with tentacles—has been revealed?
I moved my body, wiggling like a caterpillar.
It was a bit awkward since I had spent a long time walking on two feet, but I wiggled forward in my own way.
I moved stealthily, hiding between the grass.
To eat the female mage who had just encountered the goblins.
*
She clears the overgrown grass with her staff.
The view opens up a little, but it's not enough to clear all the branches blocking her path.
It was a waste to expend magic power in a place like this, so she didn't use magic to clear the branches in front of her, but.
Every time a hole appeared in her precious robe, the mage regretted her decision, yet she didn't want to go back on it, so she stubbornly cleared the branches in front of her with her staff by hand.
Finally, she arrived at a small clearing in the forest.
Exhausted by the endless slopes that continued from the entrance, she finally moved her feet with a slight sense of relief as she reached the small flat ground.
"Ha... why the hell do I have to come to a place like this?"
Making a sound as if she were annoyed, Kyuri brushed off the branches that had stuck to her body.
"If I'm a mage of my caliber, shouldn't they just give me the Bronze badge? That damn receptionist bitch, even after seeing my graduation certificate, she just handed me a wooden badge, seriously."
She gripped the wooden badge in her hand as if to crush it.
A faint cracking sound was heard, but it didn't break due to the mage's pathetic physical strength.
The first test to be recognized as an adventurer: exterminate one or more goblins.
This is like a gateway that all adventurers in the Adventurer's Guild, which has ten ranks, must pass.
No matter how outstanding one's abilities are, or how noble one's birth, this was a test that had to be taken without exception.
It was the ability of the guild administrator, who had met countless types of people, that managed to talk the girl, who had grown up without knowing the ways of the world, into taking the test immediately after she came to the guild and shouted for a Bronze badge, the fourth rank from the top.
"I should just catch a goblin and go back quickly. It's gross and tiring... I want to go to the dormitory and read my grimoire."
While she was stretching with her staff in one hand, loosening up her body that was screaming from overexertion for the first time,
She heard the sound of grass rustling in front of her.
Perhaps it's because she lives up to the name of a mage who explores the high-level discipline of magic.
Where had the annoyed look from a moment ago gone? With a sharp gaze, Kyuri lowered her head and shifted her eyes to the source of the sound.
'Goblin.'
A small body about the size of a child, bulging eyes, crude weapons in their hands, and a habit of gathering in groups of at least three.
The girl quickly remembered that these were the characteristics of a goblin she had seen in a book someday, and she thrust her staff forward.
"If I really had to, I was going to look for a goblin den, but this works out. Die, you stupid monsters."
Whoosh.
A red magic circle based on a circle is drawn.
A sphere that looks like it's burning floats in front of it.
Bang.
It is fired rapidly with a sound.
"Fireball."
"Keureuk?"
The female, who she thought wouldn't have noticed them because she had been looking down until just now.
The leading goblin, who didn't realize a fireball had been thrown, is toasted crisp and flies backward.
"Kieeek!!""Kuehehe."
Seeing the leader being roasted to perfection and flying away, the three following goblins jumped out of the grass as if in anger and rushed at Kyuri.
"Do you think goblins like you are a match for me!"
From the tip of the swung staff, yellow lightning formed this time, and with a crackling sound, it split into three branches and struck the goblins.
"Thunderbolt!"
It will hit.
There is no way her magic would miss such monsters.
That was the magic she fired with such certainty, but.
"Kureeeeek!!"
Only one was directly hit by the lightning.
The two surviving goblins split to the left and right, firing the spears and swords they held at the female mage.
A pincer attack from left and right.
It might sound difficult to block, but.
Because of the goblins' weak bodies and low intelligence, if she had dealt with them even a little bit, she should have been able to handle both of them skillfully.
"Kyaaak!"
However, for a girl who had only seen monsters in books and was facing them in front of her for the first time, there was no way she would have such ability.
The woman's sweet scream, and at the same time, countless imaginations bloomed in their heads.
To claim this mage before the other companions, to rape her repeatedly, to make her bear their children, and to play with the female as a toy to her heart's content once she was used up.
The moment they were licking their long tongues and the blades were about to touch the mage's body.
Ting.
The goblin's hand bounced off into the air in vain.
The bastards were flustered by the unexpected situation, but one thing did not change.
It was that the female still did not realize that she was safe.
Seeing her drop even the staff in her hand and tremble with her head down, they, still holding their weapons,
furiously struck the golden barrier wrapping the mage's body.
The same sound as before rang out, and crude metal fragments bounced off, but they didn't stop and struck the barrier as if hammering an anvil.
Every time the barrier shook and cracked from the impact, the girl only repeated her trembling, wailing in fear.
I want to live. I don't want to die.
I'm scared, I'm so scared.
She was someone who had been holed up in the Magic Tower studying magic her whole life.
Originally, that was how it was supposed to be, but was it because her arrogance was severe due to her outstanding achievements for her age?
[Don't you dare show your face in front of the Magic Tower before you've seen more of the world!!]
It was because of that thunderous command that she had run out of the Magic Tower as if half-chased away.
Fortunately, she became an adventurer, which her peer who followed her out of concern said was a way to make easy money just by shooting magic, but.
She hadn't thought there would be a threat to her life.
The more the girl screamed at the sound of the barrier shaking.
The goblins laughed even more and tapped on the barrier.
The girl trembled at the fear that would soon come and shed tears.
If she just stood up, picked up her staff, and fired one proper spell, they would die, but.
Kyuri didn't even have that much mental strength left.
The sound that rang out, clink, which awakened her, was the sound of the barrier breaking.
An artifact that her master had secretly attached to her body just in case.
It not only absorbed magic to create a barrier, but also had magic that forcibly awakened the mind if the barrier broke.
It was a provision her master had prepared in his own way, hoping that his disciple would come back with her body intact and her mind clear after going out.
As the golden particles scattered and passed between each other, Kyuri turned her body to face the goblins.
Terrible body odor and appearance, blades that could kill her at any moment.
Kyuri, barely perceiving the goblins in front of her due to the effect of the awakening magic, grabbed her trembling hand with her other hand and spewed out magic indiscriminately.
"Die, die! Just die!!!"
"Kieeek!!!"
Without having fully regained her senses, she just indiscriminately combined the magic formulas that popped into her head, and the small clearing in the forest was instantly devastated.
The goblins, who had been laughing greedily amidst the swirling wind, flying ice shards, and lightning and flames shot in between, became pieces of flesh and flew into the sky.
Thud, thud, green blood and flesh fall like rain, covering the girl.
"Ugh, blegh."
The unpleasant goblin blood and flesh were on her body, the pungent smell piercing her nose, and although she had just escaped from the shock, her mind had only been forcibly awakened and she had barely managed to overcome the threat in front of her, so she hadn't fully regained her composure.
Kyuri was on the verge of going crazy from fear and disgust.
"Dirty... disgusting, aaaaaah!!"
She wanted to find a river nearby to wash her body, compose herself, and reorganize her equipment, but.
Her magic power was depleted, so the protective artifact her master had secretly packed for her no longer functioned, and she couldn't use magic either.
If she encountered a goblin in front of her right now, or even worse, if an orc appeared in front of her.
She didn't even want to imagine what would happen after that.
"Gotta... go back."
Fearing that if she didn't move her feet quickly, the dangerous elements might increase even more as the sun was about to set.
And with the single desire that she never wanted to come here again.
Leaving behind the vomit that filled her vision, to cut off the ears of the goblins as proof that she had dealt with them.
The moment she tried to stand up, barely leaning on her staff with her stiff body.
The tentacle, which had been watching Kyuri from the grass before the battle started and had approached close by while she was not in her right mind after the battle ended.
What was shot towards her ear.