´Ugh, this is so weird. Why did my body even become like this? How am I supposed to catch fish when my eyes are over here now?´

Waking up from what felt like a nightmare, the girl was pretty sure that the bad dream actually didn't end once she looked down at herself.

She didn't quite know how, but her body appeared to have taken on a very unfamiliar form to her. The only thing that sprung to mind is that it had to be connected with [Humanoid Pursuit] in some way or another. Not that she knew what Humanoid stood for, but there was this one message before all the transforming began.

Now to hit you with a short lesson to broaden your horizons: An Octopus' mantel isn't only their head, but their whole body essentially. All their organs are up there because where else should they be? That´s what the girl's anatomy looked like too, and she was happy with it. She didn´t need any changes, but there were anyways: A newly-grown body part was just there when she woke up.

To her, it felt weird and impractical. Beneath her head was now a chunk to which two limbs were attached to the bottom, and another two a little higher up to each side. Basically arms and legs, though she didn't know that´s what they were called. But her form wasn't fully developed yet, one couldn't quite call it ´Humanoid,´ though the rough shape was there. Her feet were just two small stumps, and her hands only consisted of two fingers and looked more like a crab´s claw than anything, though it was filled with many suckers instead of sharp blades. Furthermore, her ´body´ was tiny, her head still made up a good two-thirds of her. She looked like a chibi with a way too large head to which tentacles were attached. Furthermore, because her mouth was also still up there on the back of her head, her newly grown face was made up of nothing but two big eyes that were pitch-black.

´I want to go back, let me go back to how I was!´ she complained, and found out that there was absolutely nothing she could do about it

´Is it going to change even more? What am I supposed to do with this? Who in their right mind would even... Urgh!´

Mari was angry. Very, very angry at the lack of influence she had over what was happening to her. If she lost a tentacle in a fight or an accident, sure it would suck, but at least she would have had some chance to avoid it. But this? She didn´t do anything wrong, nothing, and still was being punished. Why should someone be punished for no reason at all? She didn´t understand.

Mari sighed

´Fine, if that´s how you want to play, I won't give you the satisfaction,´ she said to no one in particular, yet clearly addressed someone

´The bright side, yes, there's always a bright side in everything, no matter how bad it looks. I just have to find it in these depths of shit´

She felt almost losing her composure again, but managed to stop the train of her own feelings just before it fell down the hole of irritation and no return.

She cleared her throat, or something like that:

´For now, let´s see how you work,´ Mari said, and miserably failed to move. Well, not quite, she pushed the water with the tentacles on her head like she usually did, but due to an unfamiliar part of body being there as well, she was thrown off-balance and slammed right into the sand. Her vision was now black, lying face-down as she was.

´This... is going to need some time´

-- -- --

Some trial and error later, she managed to push her upper-body up with her tentacles and get a move on, but her legs were still dragging on the ground as she crawled through the waters, which honestly looked very comical. Just imagine someone not getting what their body does, it's very funny believe me.

It took her longer than it should to realize she could move her actual arms and legs as well, and when she did, she performed worse than a toddler. Well, that may be too harsh. Let´s say she performed like a toddler.

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On her knees and with hands in the sand, she scuttled at a turtles pace at first, but found out her new limbs weren't as difficult to control as she initially thought to which her speed increased.

Not long and she attempted to further up her speed by pushing the water back even stronger with her tentacles. The coordination was tricky at first, but that was also only the case for about ten minutes.

´Ok, this is working fairly well now, but I can´t just keep to the sand at all times...´

The girl put some more strength into her legs and jumped up from the ocean floor. She struggled around for a bit before somehow finding some sort of balance and managed to keep herself from touching the sand. With each stroke of her tentacles, her swimming-speed gradually began to rise.

Once she felt comfortable, she experimented with using her arms and legs too to help move through the water faster, but she quickly found out that they´d do more harm than good if not kept close to her body. They felt like an open umbrella on a windy day, or in other words, very annoying.

It didn't matter much to the girl though, after accustoming for a few hours, she could perform at speeds almost comparable to her previous form. Almost, that is.

One thought kept nagging away at her though: It expressed the concern of how she was going to fair in a fight from now on. She still intended to use her tentacles as primary ´weapons,´ but her eyes were now on the one side of her head and her mouth and tentacles on the other. She was quite conflicted at that. Either seeing your opponent or attacking them didn't seem like the easiest pair to choose from.

Isn't there a Pokémon that does that?

Huh.

´Can I maybe...´

Mari tried to kinda bend her tentacles to the front were her eyes would be looking at, and surprisingly pulled it off without much difficulty. With the new changes, her tentacles too became long and flexible enough to move around in basically every direction. Though there´s no chance she could also do that with her mouth...

´Well, at least I can move my arms better now, maybe I can sling at a monster and somehow bring it to my mouth with some luck. There have to be a few options at least, I hope. Let´s go find some prey, no amount of thinking beats actual testing,´ she then concluded with a shrug.

-- -- --

On her way, she remembers something. Now that she has actual ´hands´ to grab things with, there was some prey waiting all around the area that pissed her off greatly just earlier. The worms. Her tentacles weren't quite designed for the task, but the excuse of a hand she had now? Should be worth a shot, is what she thought.

She turned her head and found one of the annoying fuckers ever-so-slightly sticking out of the fine sand. The girl grinned, as much as her not-very-normal mouth was able to anyways.

´Come here, don´t be scared, I won´t do anything,´ she lied, squatting down and spreading her two fingers so that the worm's tip would be in-between. Counting down from three, she quickly clasped her hand and the worm actually got stuck there. The many little suckers were much more effective in not letting go than she thought. The worm struggled a bit, but with its slimy mucus now rendered useless in the face of the squidctopus' upgraded grippers, it had no chance against her strength. Mari packed it with her other hand as well and pulled it out as if it were a rope in a hole.

---

[Para Maggot -- 2/2]

´Ugh, why do you have to be so long?´ she grimaced at the wriggling thing in her hands. It made her lose her appetite ever so slightly. Though that's only what her head thought, her stomach´s growling said otherwise

´You're really need lately, aren't you? Fine, here goes´

Mari put one end of the worm to the back of her head —to her mouth — and grabbed it with her sharp teeth, then continued to slurp it up like a noodle while the suction was periodically interrupted by some chewing.

---

[Life-Essence Plunderer] has been Activated

Absorption of Life-Essence in progress...

---

[Para Maggot -- 0/2]

A second later she was finished

´I didn´t even feel anything. And it didn´t taste good at all, what a waste...´

---

2 Life-Essence has been Absorbed...

Level 4 (4 / 40)

Empty [Slot] has been occupied with: [Filthy Mucus] (0 / 5)

Absorbed Life-Essence is compatible with [Filthy Mucus]: 2

´Ew, what´s that even supposed to be? I don´t want it´

---

[Filthy Mucus] has been Discarded

[Slot] has been freed

´Huh? You can do that?'

Mari didn't expect random thoughts to actually have an impact on the window. She thought they never really had, but that assumption of hers changed very quickly after this.

'At least it wasn´t all pointless then. This thing really should come with a manual though...´ the girl was pleasantly surprised, then annoyed.

´Well, I´m still hungry, and I don´t feel like eating more of these things. Guess my good old friends will have to do, I need some feeling good right about now anyways,´ Mari said and began her search for her beloved [Deep Tunas].