“The idea is simple, your pitfall or whatever, place it right behind the entrance. And that’s it already.”
“That… ‘s it?”
“Yes.”

I listened to Fenna’s suggestion, more than a little bit dumbfounded. It was… simple, to say the least. Completely simple. Actually, I couldn’t even really call it a plan.

“Nn, won’t they notice it is a trap then, though? I mean, you said they seem to be quite intelligent, right? Also, what if that nest mother or whatever comes through? I don’t think the pitfall could contain that…”
“It’s a pitfall made by magic, right? So, shouldn’t it be hidden?”
“...”
“... It’s not?”

Rather than hidden, in a place like this, it would stick out like a sore thumb.

“That’s a bit of a problem… Well, maybe they’re stupid enough to still get caught but… Actually...”
“Nn?”
“It might still be fine. I don’t think there is any other exit. At least, the Academy people didn’t talk of any other exit. If this is the only exit, they’ll still be forced to move through here.”
“Nn… That makes sense but… They could still just walk around it.”
“... It’s worth a try.”

Well, yes… It was better than not doing anything but… I sure as hell doubted it would work out.

“Yumi.”
“Nn? What, Sis?”
“... Wouldn’t it be fine if we covered the entire entrance with… you-know-what? Then we could hide the pitfall as well.”
“I guess that’s an option.”

At least, it definitely had a better chance of succeeding than just randomly placing it.

“But… Fenna, do you… know what kind of magic I use?”

I couldn’t remember if I had told Fenna about my magic. I did keep track more or less of who knew about my real nature but…

“Ahhh… That… what was it… tentacle magic? Yeah… I heard that’s also why you wanted to come along…”
“... Nn.”

So she knew... Well, that was at least one weight off my mind.

“The Captain told us to keep quiet about it, so don’t worry. But if you’re still worried, I can tell the others to go back. Though I’d like at least a few to stay with us, just in case.”
“... I think that’s better.”

Korwen wanted to keep the number of people in the known as low as possible. Of course, so did I. This offer was therefore quite welcome.

“Okay, I deal with that. Then, prepare whatever you need to do.”
“Nn. Thanks.”

Fenna left Karen and me alone so she could send the others back. Except the minimum necessary personnel. A few moments later, a little over half of the women went back.

“So, Yumi… What are we going to do now?”
“... Somehow figuring out how to get the tentacles growing here…”

This was, honestly, the hardest part. There was no way I could transform here, with everyone watching. Even if I did, there was no guarantee it would grow again. The only choice I had was figuring out how to do it without transforming.

Let’s think… The whole thing started when Ria pointed out there was some mana in the floor, right? Then, if I were to pump some mana into the floor, maybe that’d be enough already?

It’d be nice if it was that simple. But first, I had to ask Fenna something.

“Nn… Fenna. Where should I do it?”
“Where? Mm, right behind the entrance. Ah but, can you later remove that pitfall again? Or do we need to cover it up?”
“Thaaaat’s…”

That’s a tough question.

“... I don’t know.”
“... Okay then, leave enough space that we can walk around it. Let’s hope it works out regardless.”
“Nn.”

Then, a little behind the entrance into the large cave would be the best. I walked to said spot with Karen, taking a look towards the lake.

“... I hope they won’t try to attack us here.”
“I will make sure nothing will happen to you, Yumi.”
“Nn, thanks, Sis.”

We were right behind the entrance so in the worst case, Karen could just pull me to the side. That would probably be enough. Having seen how fast those tentacles were, there was no way I could dodge them on my own.

I should’ve brought some dolls along for this trip… Wait, speaking of which, they would’ve been perfect for reconnaissance, right? Ahhhh!
“Yumi? Is something wrong?”
“Sis, I just remembered… The dolls would’ve been good to bring along for this.”
“... You’re right.”

Well, too late now.
Why did nobody notice this?

“If this doesn’t work out, we can still go back and make new dolls for this, Yumi.”
“Nn… Wish I had thought of it sooner.”
“Nothing you can do about now. Let’s focus on this.”
“Nn…”

I took out the mana crystal we had prepared back at the camp yesterday. It wasn’t really in the shape of an egg anymore so calling a mana egg felt a little weird…
Maybe I should just think of a new name.

“Let’s see... I hope this works.”

I gathered some mana from the crystal and pushed it into the ground. Without success.

“Nn? How odd… Ah. Right.”

I forgot to change it into Lust-attributed mana. Silly me. Stop being an idiot.

“Okay another try. Here we go!”

I took some mana, changed it to the Lust-attribute and then pushed it into the ground. Full with the intention of growing some tentacles.

“... Ah.”
“It worked.”
“Nn. That was… quite fast.”

Nearly anticlimactic.
It worked immediately and now some little tentacles were growing on the floor. On the positive side, this got rid of my biggest worry for now. It wouldn’t have been funny if I had been unable to make them grow.

“Okay… Sis, give me one of the mana crystals.”
“Just a moment… Here you go.”
“Thanks.”

The mana crystal in my hand contained a huge amount of mana, sure, but I still needed other mana crystals to make new mana eggs. I couldn’t create them from thin air, unfortunately. But, as long as I had a mana crystal, even if it was a tiny one, I could make a pink mana egg.

“Okay, one mana egg done.”

I put the newly created mana egg down on the ground next to the tentacles. It quickly got absorbed by them. With this, they wouldn’t wither anymore as long as there was mana around.

“Ohhh… Is that your magic, Yumi?”
“Nn? Ah, yes, Fenna.”

Fenna had come over to take a look at what we were doing. The other women stood a little away and also watched. Some seemed curious, others a little disgusted. Not that I could blame them, really. Tentacles were probably more like a mortal enemy to them.
Hopefully that wasn’t going to include me anytime soon.

“Mhm… Mind me asking what exactly you’re going to do?
“Nn? No, not really. Mm… I’ll probably have to increase the area this growth covers first. If we want to hide the pitfall, it might be better to cover the entire area around the entrance.”
“The entire area around the entrance?”
“Nn.”
“... You can get rid of that later on, can you?”
“...”

Honestly? Maybe. Maybe not.

“... I get the feeling we’re going to hear a lot of complaints later on.”

Please, I was purposefully trying to ignore that.

I was told to try my magic out by the Captain, so it’s not my responsibility.

Problem solved.
Whatever would come up after this wasn’t my business. All complaints should be forwarded to Korwen.

Well, in the worst case we can just blame this on the ropers. Nobody will notice the difference.

While I was absorbed in my thoughts, I fed the yet small tentacles with mana, making them grow and grow. Seeing as this was the second time I did this, I didn’t need to spend all that much time on it. There was no need to test out anything this time in regards to their growth or anything. Not that we had the time anyway.

“Nn… Sis, can you give me some mana crystals again?”
“Of course. Here you go.”
“Thanks.”

To expand the area, we needed more mana eggs again. It also seemed that I needed a mana egg to create the pitfall anyway. Probably. I could try it first without one, just to check.

“Good, one in each direction.... and done.”

Since it wasn’t constrained by the walls, the tentacle growth had a wonderful circular shape. And now, with a mana egg in each direction, it would grow even more. Not circular, though.

“This is… quite creepy to watch,” commented Fenna.
“Nn, sorry.”
“No, no… Uhm… I wonder but… Why did you choose… this kind of magic?”
“... Let’s say I didn’t exactly have a choice in that matter.”
“Haaa…”

That I didn’t have a choice was actually a fact. If I had been only a normal manakin, it might have been different. From what i had read, even those witch worshippers didn’t use any magic that utilised tentacles. Alas, I wasn’t a normal manakin but… Yeah, apparently not quite a monster either, seeing how the Elder called me a ‘Cursed’ and so. Close enough, though?

“Nn, Sis, should we cover the walls and the ceiling as well?”
“I don’t know…”
“Nn…”

The cave corridor was quite wide. If Fenna, Karen and I were standing next to each other with our arms spread out, we’d probably not even reach half of it. Maybe if three or four of the other women joined we’d reach either wall.. As for the height…

“Even if we’d try to do it up to the ceiling… I have no idea how to get the mana eggs up there.”

It was far too high. Even if I sat on Karen’s shoulders, I wouldn’t be able to reach the ceiling.

“Nn, let’s first focus on the stuff on the ground. Maybe we will get an idea later.”
“Okay.”

Not much we could do about for now.
I filled the tentacle with more mana until it stopped growing once again. Now the growth had the shape of a plus, huh… Well, whatever. Next would be… the pitfall, huh. The part I understood the least.

Okay… I can’t exactly go and transform here so I’ll have to somehow manage without… Hopefully this is going to work.

In the worst case, we’d have to shoo Fenna and the others away. But with only Karen and me at this place, I’d definitely worry. If the ropers attacked us, it’d be quite a dangerous bet if we could hold on until Fenna and the others came to our rescue. We definitely had to avoid that.

“Nn… Let’s see…”

Back then, I had noticed that the tentacles stored a significant amount of mana for unknown reasons. When I tried to access that mana, I had this odd feeling that I could… grow something with it. Somehow, I had to replicate this situation without transforming.

“But… I can’t feel the mana…”
“Yumi?”
“Nn… Sis, remember back then? I mentioned that they stored a lot of mana, right?”
“Yes, I remember that.”
“But… I can’t feel any mana being stored…”

This wasn’t good…

“Maybe they just don’t have enough mana yet? They did use it all up for growing right now, didn’t they?”
“... Ah, you’re right.”

There wasn’t really a lot of mana wasted since we knew the procedure. That meant, there was also no mana they could have stored.

“Nn, okay. Then, more feeding them.”

The question now was how much mana was actually needed for the pitfall? There had been a significant amount stored last time but it still had to take mana from the other mana eggs and even from me. That might have been because of the weird Space Magic stuff but… I should better play it safe.

So, more mana than they had stored at the time, huh… Good thing we stuffed this mana crystal with tons of mana.

If we hadn’t there’d be no way I would have enough mana for this. I poured in a quite large amount of mana into the tentacles. Just like back then, rather than expanding, the tentacles grew thicker. Maybe it was like a sign of getting stuff—

“Hyah?!”
“Ahh?!”
“Yumi?! Karen?!”

My entire vision was dyed pink all of a sudden, taking me completely by surprise. Judging from Karen’s yelp, the same happened to her.

“Are you two fine?”
“N, Nn… That sure surprised me.”
“Yumi, that was…”
“Nn…”

I had forgotten… The tentacles were trying to fill the area with Lust-attributed mana. When they suddenly expunged the mana, Karen and I were blinded for a second, since we could only see that mass of Lust-attributed mana.

“Nn, this is a bit of a problem…”

If they tried to fill the area with Lust-attributed mana… There was no way I’d have enough mana for that. Even now, the mana they expunged was slowly drifting through the cave and getting thinner.

“You two, what just happened?”
“Nn? Ah, sorry, Fenna. Something unexpected happened. It’s nothing ba— Wait…”

No, it might be bad.

“Fenna, do you feel any different, right now?”
“Eh? No, not really…”
“Nn…”

Maybe there wasn’t enough mana to really affect them for now. Well, that was good.

“Then that’s fine… But what to do…”
“Yumi, can’t you stop them from doing that?”
“I can try but…”

I’d probably have to take control of the tentacles for that… But without transforming and connecting to them, I was only able to control a small portion of them. The ones whose mana I could grasp.

“Sis.”

I motioned Karen to come closer. I didn’t want Fenna or the others to overhear so much. Probably having picked up on that, Fenna went back to the others.

“Yumi?”
“Sis, without transforming, I don’t think I can stop them from doing that…”
“Ahh… That’s… That’s a little bad, isn’t it?”
“Nn.”

If we couldn’t stop them, then we’d just needlessly waste mana on this.

“You need to connect with them, you say?”
“Nn.”
“... Can you maybe only connect with a part of you? Like, your hand. Or maybe even your hair?”
“... My hair, huh. Might be worth a try.”

At least, my hair would be the least conspicuous. Thinking about it, this might be good to keep in mind for the future. Assuming that it works, of course.

“Nn, let’s try that.”

I sat down near the tentacles. Thanks to my long hair, I didn’t even need to do anything for it to reach down when I was sitting.

Okay… Let’s see if I can do this…

I was a bit worried, though… Last time, the pure mass of information that had flooded into me caused me to faint. While I got used to it after a while, it’d be bad to faint again. Even if it was just for a short moment.

“Nn… Let’s hope this works out.”

I tried to concentrate on the ends of my hair and moved it towards the centre of the tentacle growth. In a way that shouldn’t attract too much attention. Good thing my hair was so long. Nobody would notice if the end was moving around inside that growth.

Okay… Now, what do I do?

I was still a little worried about the whole information overload thing so I’d rather go at it slowly. I wrapped a single strand of hair around the base of the tentacle with the mana egg for now.
Now, I had to connect them but… How exactly? I somehow managed before since I was transforming my other body parts anyway but…

“Yumi, how is it?”
“Nn… Well, I have no idea? Give me a moment.”

Speaking of which, before we had met with the mercenaries, we had tried out some things with my hair. Cutting it, growing it. Maybe… I could, like, grow the hair into it? Well, worth a try.

Here we go!

I concentrated on the single strand, causing it to grow. Into the tentacle. Or, well, not…

“Nn… Sis, we’ll have to cut some hair later…”
“...”

Karen furrowed her brows at me. Well, she didn’t complain at least.

“Still… Nn… I don’t know. It might not work with my hair.”
“That’s… Then, maybe you should try with your arm only?”
“I’d rather avoid doing that but…”

Might be the only way to do it, huh.

Still, I’d prefer it if it would work with my hair. Really. Well… Maybe I can do it the other way round?

It was a bit of a wild idea but… If I couldn’t make my hair grow into the tentacle, maybe I could grow the tentacle into my hair? Or something like that… Well, to say it in more simpler terms, maybe I could take control of the tentacle’s mana and try to connect it that way.

“Nn, I’ll try one last thing, Sis. If that doesn’t work...”
“Okay, good luck.”
“Nn, thank you.”

I took hold of the mana in the tentacle, causing it to stiffen instantly. Then, I tried to expand the mana towards my hair, so that it cou—

“Waah!”
“Yumi?”
“It worked? I think…”

My hair was… definitely connected with the tentacle now… And I could feel the tentacles around us, but to a lesser degree than back then. The sensation was weak. Better than being overwhelmed by it but this was a little too weak, maybe. Or it might actually be just right. I only wanted to make that pitfall, after all, and not grope Karen with the tentacles.

“So? Yumi? Did it work?”
“Nn, it did. The connection is pretty weak but I think it should be enough.”

Now then, since I finally got connected to them, I only had to suppress them from expunging Lust.attributed mana. That… should be doable. I poured mana into the tentacle growth again, a little slower so that I wouldn’t miss when the tentacles would do it. And after a short while of pouring mana in, I could feel the tentacles trying to do something. Whatever it was, I quickly put a stop to it.

“Nothing is happening… Yumi, did it work?”
“Nn, I think so. I could feel them doing something so I stopped it.”

With the weak connection, it was a bit of an odd feeling, controlling the tentacles Or, well, stopping them. It was more like holding your breath this time. A momentary stop to something that would have happened automatically.

“Ohh, it gathers the mana.”
“That’s good.”
“Nn.”

I continued to pour mana into the tentacles until it had a substantial amount of it. Quite a bit more than back in the wagon. To be on the safe side.

Okay, and now taking a hold of the mana and… A pitfall, a pitfall, at the mana crystal in front of the entrance…

I kept repeating those words in my mind for a while. Maybe because of the weak connection, it took a while before I managed to get them moving. Maybe I needed a stronger mental image or something? I had absolutely no idea how the heck they even did this so… Well, I could verify that some other time.

“Ah, there it is…”
“... Nn, there it is.”

There it was. After using up most of the mana I had poured into the tentacles, the mana egg I had aimed for had changed its surroundings into another pitfall.

“Haaa… I’m glad it worked out.”
“Good work, Yumi.”
“Nn. We’re not completely done yet, though.”

We still had to cover the surroundings here…

“Yumi, Karen…”
“Ah, Fenna.”
“Is that… the pitfall you mentioned?”
“Nn… That’s it.”
“.... I see.”

Fenna made an expression as if she had no idea how to react. Whether she should be astonished, disgusted or something else.

“As… As long as it works…”
“... I hope so.”

I stood up and stretched my limbs. After taking a fleeting glance into the large cave with the lake, I took some mana crystals that Karen handed me. We still had a bit of work left.

“Now then, let’s see how much we can co— GAGGUH!”
“Yumi?!”

Making a rather unladylike sound, something jerked my head back and I fell on my bottom.

“It hurts! Uhhhh!”
“Yumi? Are you okay?”
“I’m not…”

The back of my head felt as if it was on fire. That was everything but okay. The heck just happened?

“Yumi… Your hair is still…”
“... Uhhh, I’m an idiot.”

And I paid the price like an idiot. Good thing we didn’t have to run away but… It HURT. It seriously HURT. Like someone grabbed your hair and then jerked your head around.
And no, I wasn’t crying. I definitely wasn’t crying!

---

“Still nothing?”
“Nn. Still nothing.”

Around half an hour later, we had filled the surroundings of the entrance with the tentacle growth. Thanks to Fenna’s idea of just throwing the mana eggs, we even somehow managed to cover the ceiling. It was a little disturbing to watch as the tentacles fished the crystals out of the air.

“Maybe we’re still too close?”

Currently, we were waiting for a roper to get caught by the pitfall. To not scare them away again, we had taken some distance and were watching from afar now. Too bad that the path was completely straight or we could have hidden behind a corner or something.

“Maybe… Miss Fenna, are you sure this is enough?”
“Yes, it should be enough. I don’t know about the nest mother or so but regular ropers don’t have good eyesight. They won’t notice us from this far.”
“Is that so…”

Hopefully, that was really the case. Otherwise, we’d sit here forever.

“Don’t worry, if it takes too long we’ll return. Something probably should happen overnight:”
“Nn… But wouldn’t we stay another day then?”
“I would rather stay another day for now. Especially if we can get our hands on a roper.”
“Huh.”

If one of them would actually fall for this, that was…

“In the best case, we can catch two or three of them and bring them back. That would already fulfill the job. Cleaning this mess won’t be our problem then.”
“And if that won’t happen?”
“Good question. The Dragon Knights could probably deal with this situation but it’d be hard to send them off under these circumstances.”

The Dragon Knights… That elite squad of heavily armoured mercenaries.

“Nn, I’ve been wondering but… Are the Dragon Knights that strong?”
“They are. They really are. A single one of them could easily deal with my entire squad.”
“Eh? Really?”
“Yes, really. Speaking of which, I heard that the Captain was considering letting Lily go through their training.”
“Ah, yes. He told us as well.”

While  Karen and I had been stuck in that weird egg, they had tested Lily’s capabilities.

“I watched when they tested her. That girl is strong. And if she goes through that training, she’ll only get stronger… I really hope you girls will stay on our side. It’d be scary to fight against you.”
“Nn, well, Lily and Karen are quite strong…”

Karen was physically really strong. And Lily was also experienced in fighting already.

“Yumi, I count you among that as well…”
“Nn?”
“Or are you telling me that magic over there isn’t quite scary?
“Ehh…”

Fenna was giving me a strained smile, seeing my hesitation.

“Anyone who would face that would hesitate. That magic is like boldly proclaiming that this is your territory. And if there are traps inside there, nobody would want to to trek through that.”
“Nn… I guess…”

Boldly proclaiming this was my territory… I… Actually never really thought of it that way.

That spot is mine, huh…

True, when a large area was covered like that and filled with traps to boot, then it could turn out to be quite dangerous.

“I guess, the only problem is that you need time to do it, huh…”
“Nn… I can’t move them elsewhere either.”

Although, it seemed that the wagon would probably still move. But I couldn’t move them away from where they currently were so... 

“Yumi, can you hide those tentacles?”
“Hide? What do you mean?”
“I mean, like hiding them in the ground, or something?”
“Nn… I never tried to… But why?”
“Because, as they are, there’s no way you can walk around and use that magic in public, is there?”

No, there wasn’t…

“But if you could hide them, you could claim the area without people noticing, right? For example, if you claim the area around our camp, it would work as a defense, wouldn’t it? Or you could claim other areas and make less noticeable traps.”
“Nn… I never thought of it in that way… But, I think a magician would notice them…”

On the other hand, if I could manage to fool magicians as well…

“Nn, I think I’ll try that out. Thank you, Fenna.”
“No problem.”

If I did it like this, I was boldly proclaiming my territory. But if I could hide all of it, then it would work a lot better for traps.

“If that actually works, there’s so much you could do with it. The Captain made a good call inviting you girls.”
“Re, really?”
“Yeah. Really.”

Fenna nodded, completely unperturbed.

“I… I see…”

Hearing that made me quite happy, to be honest.
There was much I could do with this, huh?

“Yumi! Miss Fenna!”
“Nn?”
“Look!”

Karen suddenly called out to us. She had continued watching the entrance while Fenna and I were talking. And now, she was pointing towards the entrance.

“Oh? Oh? There’s our first guest?”

Fenna stood up, trying to look through the darkness of the cave.

“Can’t see it…”
“Nn, I can…”
“I wish I could see in the dark as you two…”

Right near the entrance, something was… moving… Wriggling. Tentacles were slowly creeping around the corner of the entrance. They were a deep red, contrasting my pink tentacles quite a bit.

“Is it… probing around?”
“Looks like it.”

The tentacles were moving around, slowly touching everything around the entrance. And then, they came into contact with the tentacle growth.

“It’s… not running away.”

I honestly expected it to run. Yet, the tentacles instead slowly revealed themselves. Or rather, the entire body slowly came into view…

“The heck is that…”
“Is that… a roper?”

A messy ball of intertwining tentacles with a sole eyeball in the middle. This eye was looking around furiously. It seemed true that their eyesight wasn’t that good, since it didn’t spot us.

“It looks like it came straight out of a nightmare…”
“Nn…”

Ahh, it started to move over the tentacle growth. The pitfall was right in front of it now. Only a little more. Only a little more! Just a bit!

“KIYEEEEEEEEE—

A high pitched scream. That ended just as abruptly as it had come… And the roper was gone from sight.

“Judging from that sound, did it fall in?”
“Nn. It did.”
“Good. Let’s take a look. Everyone, get moving!”
“Eh?”

Still a little bewildered over the roper, Fenna chose to immediately check the pitfall.

“Come, you two.”
“Ah, yes.”

We followed Fenna to the entrance with the pitfall. Said pitfall was… closed…

“Yumi, can you open it?”
“Nn… Are you sure that’s safe?”
“A single roper won’t be a problem.”
“Nn…”

If she said so… Still, all of them alert and ready to draw their weapon at a moment’s notice.

“I’ll open it now.”

I only needed to grasp the mana and open the pitfall, nothing else. It did require me to stand quite close, though, so I couldn’t say I wasn’t nervous. Taking a deep breath, I braced myself and… opened it.

“Uwahhh… That’s not what I expected.”
“Ugh…”

Inside the pitfall was the roper…
Just that it was dead. One of the tentacles in the pitfall had pierced the eyeball, killing it. That must have been why the scream stopped in the middle.

“That’s not a pitfall I want to fall into for sure. But this is actually good in a way… Rieke, get the corpse bag ready. We’ll retrieve that one.”
“Yes, Miss Fenna.”

The woman Rieke brought out a large empty bag that had been folded and stuffed into her own bag.

“Also, someone go back and bring two more of the corpse bags.”
“Yes, Miss Fenna!”
“Mm… Seems we might have our best case at hand. Although, I would’ve loved to see it alive and how it would react. But no matter, as long as we can get those corpses, everything else isn’t our business.”

We watched as the women dragged out the roper corpse and threw it into the bag. The blood inside the pitfall disappeared for some reason.

“Nn?”
“Yumi?”
“Sis, look, that tentacle…”

The tentacle that had killed the roper… was covered in something like a hard shell at the tip. As if it was a spear or so… Ah, the shell dissolved and the tentacle moved back into the wall, disappearing among the others.

“I didn’t know that kind of tentacles existed…”
“Nn, neither did I.”

But…

“It immediately killed the roper, didn’t it?”
“It did.”
“... I wonder how it determined whether to kill it.”

When Karen had jumped down that pitfall, the tentacles hadn’t tried to do anything. But these ones had instantly decided to kill the roper. And they also knew exactly how to kill it. That… was a little scary.

“Who knows… Although… Yumi, is it just me, or do they look a little… restless?”
“Nn? Restless?”
“Yes. Look, they’re not moving around all that much. Even the ones on the ceiling. Back then, the others kept swaying around and moving around, right? But these tentacles… I don’t know… they seem quite… alert?”
“Nn…”

Alert, huh…
Hopefully… Hopefully, that wasn’t a bad sign. I had a bad feeling about this.