The Tentacles System
The battle was intense. Just when Jack thought that the two gargantuan creatures had unleashed most of their capabilities, they always brought out more and more feats that seemed out of the blue.
The worm, Oo'zakha, summoned more than fifty avatars of the enemies that it had defeated in the past; there was a radiant knight, a ten-meter tall bloke with a crossbow twice his size, and even a hovering attack helicopter. It appeared within Jack's notification that all of them were beyond level 700.
"Sephiroth, can you appraise them like how a normal system would?" Jack nervously sneered.
[Appraisal Feature is a part of the ingrained service that is also a Roots Feature at the same time. Choosing Appraisal Feature over something more combat and survival oriented is deemed to be an inappropriate situation in a world full of anomalies like this.]
"You dimwit! There are too many unknown things in which the Appraisal Feature is best for!" Jack gritted his teeth out of amused frustration. "But not having any extra firepower at all seems to be worse than having critical information, without being able to utilize it. Not to mention, I can't feel any mana from this world…"
When Jack thought that his spot was safe enough to watch the battle, a stray ray of destruction dug twenty-meters deep on the area at his left side. The heat from the indirect contact alone gave the old fart a nasty goosebumps.
"That's it! Let's skedaddle!"
At the same time, the giant kraken began shedding and growing more tentacles in its vicinity. In which it was sweeped with another ray of destruction by the worm.
Through desperation, the discount kraken changed its element and skin color into grayish wind. From its mouth with layers of serrated teeth, the octopus blew a propelling maelstrom to separate the purple avatars away from its main adversary.
The remains of the severed tentacles flung in every direction. One of them would've crushed Jack if he forgot to look back.
Being blown away by the sands, Jack embraced his pain as he beheld the majestic cephalopod limb laying on the searing sands.
Gulping his own saliva through his dried throat, he chuckled. "Oy! Sephiroth! How about this beauty over here? Can you make that into your Roots Feature?"
[As you wish, Jack]
As the background became more hectic, Jack shrugged the sights and watched as the giant octopus' appendage in front of him began to be coated with a holographic grid.
[Analyzing the property of the said catalyst_
[Closest reference: Cephalopod's Appendages. An arm that lacks bones; instead, they are built from an intricate tapestry of coiling muscle fibers. It can be shot at its prey by contracting fibers along the tentacle's entire length. By contracting only some fibers, it can work into tiny recesses with ease.]
[It has a genetic coding that seems to be organizing the developing limb, telling each cell about its location. That information leads the cells to evolve into the right tissues for their spots in the limb, tracing their evolution to develop an independent neural network to the whole body_
[It could have hard exoskeletons, with muscles pulling on them from the inside.]
"This info dumping sure is educational."
The remains of the tentacle dissipated into the air. Jack felt like something was attached to his soul.
[Creating a Roots Mainframe that matched with the given data_
[A Root Feature has been established.]
[System Type: Summon | Growing | Nurturing | Body Part Extension | Mutation ]
[Naming it _
[>The Tentacles System<]
At the very same time, a metaphysical core was fused with Jack's soul. Some of the excess primordial soul he possessed was scrapped, creating a pulse to his vessel that temporarily augmented his physical ability.
All of his blisters and wounds were healed. Jack stood up as information surged into his mind. He didn't really know the true nature of this burst but decided to not pry too deep into it as he didn't want to let it go to waste.
He used the temporary power up to run away from the scene as fast as he could. In his current state, the speed could outrun an adult cheetah at max speed.
"Seems like the south is a good choice!"
With his body naturally running for his life, Jack was spoon-fed the information of the new Roots Feature.
[A new service is unlocked.]
[The host can now grow and nurture terrestrial appendages or 'Tentacle' within the system's pocket. The host then can deploy it using a three dimensional allocation perception given by the system or attach it on the host like a body part, allowing the host to gain the benefit of the Tentacle's power and attribute directly.]
[The system is giving the host one basic tentacle by default, and more as the system acquires more Reality Fragments.]
[Try putting your intent on the 'Basic Tentacle Information', Jack.]
"Ahaha." A smile appeared on his face, as he continued running through the vast desert. "This is my first time using a System. A little bit excited, you could say."
He then did what Sephiroth told him. A single holographic button appeared on his vision.
[Information_
[Slot 1: Basic Tentacle {PL1}]
It was actually an interactable menu. That took Jack by surprise.
Grinning with excitement, he then touched it and the section expanded.
[Basic Tentacle> All | Basic Information | Mutated Ability | Mutagen Socket | Artificial Intelligence ]
"Oy, Sephiroth. Which one do I need to choose?"
[It's the information UI, just touch 'All' for now and you'll get used to it.]
Jack touched the 'All' holographic button.
It then expanded again into a stats screen with a picture of pinkish tentacle accompanied by rows of suckers running its length on the pad-shaped side. The picture was on the left corner of the screen.
[ Name: Basic Tentacle {Power Level 1}
Health: 100%
Type: Grappler
Length: 98cm
Width: 30cm-10cm
Weight: 17kg
Kinetic Strength: 20kg
Toughness: G
Regeneration: G
Growth Rate: F
Unique Feature: Suction Pads
Status: Undeployed
[Mutated Ability: None
[Mutagen Sockets>
Socket: Empty
Socket: Empty
Socket: Empty
[Artificial Intelligence>
Intelligence Quotient: 41
Bodily Feature: Host Allocation | Exteroception | Hostile Identifier
Action: Grab | Slam
Trait: Calm
Aggressiveness: 12 ]
"Holy moly, Sephiroth! It's covering my whole face!"
[That's what you get for opening every stats screen at the same time.]
Jack could just put an intent to remove the stats screen and it would disappear. Focusing his survival, he increased his running speed as he wouldn't know when the power up ended. Fatigue didn't matter as much to a veteran like him but he really wanted to stop from all of this running-for-his-life thing. He was just born less than fifteen-minutes ago!!
After an hour, right when the power up started to dissipate, he encountered the outskirts of a dense forest as the ground slowly started to morph into soil and grasses as he traveled.
A notification screen appeared.
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