The tentacle that previously took over half an hour to fully regenerate now does so in less than five minutes, and all the while I’m left to wonder what happens now. I can’t remain on this asteroid, can I? I mean, yeah, I could, but I would probably die in the process. I almost died just now, after all. Which is just, well, it feels weird to say. I barely wanted to live back on Earth, and here I am, determined not to die on a darn asteroid? What’s that all about?

Wack. Well, err, all things considered, I should probably do like that insect did and get the heck out of here.

...That raises yet another question.

How?

Sure, if I made a lot of tentacles I could probably use them as some sort of grappling hook, but I really really want to plan this out. Just so I don’t die. If anything, this encounter has taught me that I’m moments away from death at any time.

-Status-

...Alright, I ignored it until now, but what the heck does “size” indicate?

Increase Size? Cost: 1 (you have 119)

Well, that’s ridiculously cheap, so I don’t see why not. Do it.

119 -> 118

-Bop.

...Whoa. Okay, yeah, I increased in size. Not much, barely at all really, but… I’m larger now. Slightly.

Hey. Question? If I become larger, can I eat more insects? Hm. Only one way to find out.

Computer, increase my size again!

Increase Size? Cost: 5 (you have 118)

Yes.

118 -> 113

I grow in size a bit again. It’s really hard to determine when I’ve got nothing to compare myself to, but I seem to be about twice as large in volume as compared to my first form, which is… Very interesting. Advantageous. If I can become very large…

-Could I eat that big creature?

Hah, nah, nah, impossible. Completely ludicrous.

...How much to increase my size again?..

Increase Size? Cost: 30 (you have 113)

...Fuck it. Sure. All evidence is telling me that I won’t be able to afford the next one, but… Let’s go!

113 -> 83

I grow again. My body quakes, I increase in quantity and strength and my tentacles grow thicker and longer to encompass my growing mass. By this point, I have to be over twice as tall as I was when I first started out, and with this development, I realize that I’ll need more tentacles and whatever to make up for it. Size and complexity must correlate, that’s for sure.

And I’ve got 83 points to spare.

...But I just wanna know, how much will the next one cost?

Increase Size? Cost: 100 (you have 83)

Yeah, uh, alright, I’ll save that one for later.

For now, I need symmetry. These four tentacles are very cool, but I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that five is better than four. Plus, then I’ll be in a cool star or snowflake formation! That is, when I jump away from the gravity field of this asteroid and out into the free reign of space. Once I do that, I’ll be left to fend for myself! And when I do that, I want to look cool.

So, step one, create another tentacle. Along with the hand, of course. And also a fifth eye on my main body to compensate for the fifth tentacle.

83 -> 76

...Cheap.

Alright, and now, to develop this beyond, well, what it is. So far, my strategy for fighting and eating is just sort of to bring things to my mouth, which has worked very well for me so far, so I’ll just keep doing that! My issue is that sometimes I can’t bring the thing to my mouth. What do I do then?

Okay. Listen to me. Hear me out. What about…

Another mouth.

On the hand?? Wouldn’t that just be the wackest?? Like-, I won’t even have to bring big meals to my mouth, I can just eat them in my hand! Ah, though, how would I bring food to my hand if my hand is my mouth… Hrm.

Wait. I’ve got it. What if I elongated my fingers and-, and put hands on them? Well, maybe not hands, but just having two small tentacles should be enough. Would that work? Hold on-,

I turn my eyes on one of my five hands.

Elongate all three fingers, add two small tentacles to each, give the palm a mouth, and if it’s going to be far from by body then three eyes between the tentacle-arms would also work…

76 -> 59

Eye-Mouth formation discovered.

Add separate conciousness? Cost: 10 (you have 59)

...Add a what now?

Okay, hold on, I’m looking at this disconnected thing that I created and it looks really cool, but, like… The hell do you mean separate consciousness?? That sounds-, it sounds like I’m about to slice my corpus callosum in two. Become two and all that.

But, on the other hand, it sounds kind of cool! I mean-, if I’m lucky it’ll be kind of like how octopuses have separate consciousnesses in all tentacles that can each act on their own. If I’m unlucky I’ll have a cloning-case on my hands, which would be… Strange. Weird. I don’t want that.

On the other hand, I’m too curious to say no.

Do it.

59 -> 49

...No fireworks, huh? Okay. Sure.

It really doesn’t feel very different. Like, there’s the bulb with the mouth and eyes and everything, here’s me, and if I concentrate on the bulb-,

...Huh? I-,wait, hold on. This is… this is very strange. It almost feels like my perspective shifted, but it also completely didn’t. Not in the least. If I focus back on my main body, it shifts over there. Very strange.

Anyhow! I’ve got 49 points left, and one of these modifications cost 17 points, which means that I’ve got enough to modify two more with 15 points to spare. I’ll just assume that I’ll make these points back in the long run. Call it an investment, eh?

49 -> 15

Two more of my tentacles transform into these half-conscious extensions of myself and I instantly feel a bit unbalanced. I’ve got three of these and two unaltered ones. Practically speaking, I could transform these two without giving them consciousness by using 14 points in total, but that felt a bit like a waste. How can I know what’ll happen once I emerge into the real life? I can’t!

So, I’ll keep these as a back-up and until I’ve got enough money, I’ll refrain from using them.

15

Size: 4

Core: 4

Tentacles: 38

Eyes: 14

Mouths: 4

Carnivorous

Increase

Regeneration

In other words, it’s time.