章 70: Chapter 68 - One of Them

*(Mood Song: "Dio - Rainbow In The Dark")

Erik woke up feeling great, and he noticed Inky slowly waking up next to him, also the Leader seemed to have gone back as she wasn't there anymore "good morning sweety, did you sleep well?" he said as he kissed Inky's forehead.

She smiled at him, pecked his lips, and said "good morning" and then just fell asleep again.

Erik sighed and looked at the full incubation pool and thought 'guess she exercised a lot yesterday...' he looked at the eggs fondly and then at the peacefully sleeping Inky 'better let her rest more, I need to work anyways'

He then walked to the workshop and posted a note on the door in case Inky or someone else came looking for him. Inside the workshop and saw a machine connected with a cable to a helmet and a hammock.

Erik: [as efficient as always Rose]

[what can I say, I read your mind ¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

Erik: [yeah, quite literally, I was gonna ask for a bed though]

[but your first thought was a hammock]

Erik: [sigh... so if I had first thought of a rocket, you would make one? is that the real reason?]

[...it was easier to make... (ʘ‿ʘ)]

Erik: [yeah, that's what I thought, thanks a lot anyways] he said as he was laying down on the hammock and put on the helmet.

[...will this even work? if you get discovered they might eat you alive]

Erik: [well, if the avatar body dies it's fine, I can always make a new one]

[then... are you ready?]

Erik took a deep breath [yeah, activate the link, if we can't communicate I will clack my pincer 3 times if I wanna go back]

[understood, good luck ヽ(^o^) ]

Once she said that he felt himself fall asleep and after a brief darkness he felt it, his body had changed, it was a weird feeling as he felt really hungry, weak and it was hard to breathe, also his body was restrained. He also felt regretful as the cut off member still hurt a lot and was really itchy 'is this karma?' he wondered.

Just as he was looking fascinated at his new avatar body, he heard a voice.

[i see it worked... since it's your mind inside it worked... interesting (⌐□_□) ]

Erik: [okay, release the bindings]

[sure]

The bindings opened and he tried standing, but he just fell flat to the floor with a loud thud, having 4 arms and 6 legs unsurprisingly made moving really hard. He calmed down and concentrated, feeling his body and its nerves, the body was way bigger than his human body, and also hard, he felt like he was wearing the power armor. He managed to move the claws after some time and finally stood up on his six legs, he was getting frustrated and wanted to say "damn... this is way too hard..." but a series of clicks came out instead 'oh right...' he used his hands to press a hidden button in his necks carapace, as there was a translation device hidden inside and then continued to train at moving his body and starting the hidden devices and weapons.

--- Octopeople city ---

Meanwhile, back at the city, the Second Elder was sitting in the onsen with her other 3 sisters and an absent-minded Leader.

Timberly: "I called you all here to inform you of something, last night I got a name from Erik, now I'll be called Timberly, apparently it means tall and strong!"

"wow, we are so happy for you dear!" the other 3 elders congratulated her, they noticed the absent-minded Leader but ignored her for now.

First Elder: "no wonder you were so... active yesterday, you almost made me pop~~ hnn those pools are also a great invention"

Timberly: "Yeah... this city, this place, it's full of hope... he's given us so much, maybe we could return the favor you know, I found out he's trying to impregnate that evolved scout Inky" --she narrowed her eyes a bit-- "anyways, we aint gonna give him our meat as he already has a lot, but we could give him some unfertile eggs and cum, and maybe also some training, he didn't do really well on our first hunt with him after all"

All the elders nodded to that.

First Elder: "yeah, with a stallion like you and your daily production we can fill him a pool with it and it would last him a long time, but that seems a bit too easy, did you try to... hehe~ you know, a direct delivery?"

Timberly sighed: "I did... sadly he wasn't up for it, he said it would kill him, I did research on humans and it seems to be correct, it needs a lot of mutations, I researched their... reproduction habits thoroughly too... --she did a pause to that-- it was an enlightening experience..., anyways the first step would be to make him stronger, then convince him to become what his people call a Futanari".

She then showed them some vídeos, that also finally got the attention of the Leader that had been daydreaming all this time, thinking about Inky.

Leader: "that's hot..."

Timberly gave her a look and continued ignoring her like the others, they usually pushed most of the work on directing the tribe to the Leader so it wasn't strange to see her be sleepy or tired anyways. "yeah, let's go tell him real quick, I even have the perfect plan, we will tell him its training to be an Alpha like us hehe~, I'm sure he will be interested that way".

--- Base ---

When they reached his base though they only found Inky watching a show while eating algae chips made with oily algae.

Inky looked at them strangely as she paused the show, she smiled a bit when looking at the Leader though as the Leader blushed and avoided her eyes. She then looked at the Elders "so..." she pursed her lips "why are you all here?"

Timberly gave a confused look at the Leader but she then looked at Inky and inexplicably felt a bit annoyed, she put on a good face though, and said "well, we came looking for Erik, do you know where he is?"

Inky gave them a piece of paper "he left a note" she noticed the Elder's confusion and said with a smug face "should I read it for you?"

Timberly was angry at her tone and tried reading it by herself, but she was struggling to get some words as she was still learning.

The Fourth Elder took the letter from her and said to Inky with a calm face "it's okay dear, that won't be needed" and proceeded to read the letter. She had learned the language weeks ago, being the reliable elder sister, she always looked after her sisters and people.

First Elder: "... it says his mind will use the captured crabman to go to the caves again and to look after his body while he's gone..." all the elders were surprised at the letter's contents as it seemed unbelievable that something like that was possible to them, he had done lots of impossible things for them before though so they weren't too overly surprised.

Inky: "well, you heard her, now shoo shoo, go away" said Inky as she started to watch the show again while waving them away.

Timberly: "yeah... we will go..." is what she said, but once they were out of Inky's sight they looked room by room, eventually finding the body of Erik laying on the hammock, the helmet's systems keeping it breathing and its heart beating.

All the elders silently surrounded his body while the Leader just guarded the door.

Timberly then took his pants off carefully and pulled his legs up, exposing his ass.

Timberly: "see, here's the problem, it just has one hole, and his skin is dry, also..." she licked one of her fingers and put it in "his hole is too thin for our cocks... well, for mine at least, it might fit yours, Shana, since it's long and thin..."

Shana: "haha... no, it's fine, and we shouldn't do this without asking first while he sleeps, I've also researched human culture and they are quite reserved about sex, mostly just for females though, im not so sure about males..."

Timberly: "really? I don't think he would get angry about sex right? well fine, anyways at least let me get his cock hard to show you, and then we will go, according to the vídeos if I rub this part inside... aha! see, it's called the prostate, it makes them get hard"

All the elders looked eagerly as Tiberly stroked him, soon joining her in touching around and inside his body, the Fourth Elder a bit more reserved than the others.

--- Back at the lab ---

Meanwhile, Erik had finished getting a hang of his avatar body and was lightly exercising satisfied, it seemed the body was able to move faster now with his brain controlling it, his modifications also worked perfectly, with the poison shooter and chainsaw claw being the deadliest.

Suddenly, as he was there thinking of his descent, he felt a chill crawl all over his body 'did I forget something? oh, Crabina right... well, for next time, it's fine if this body dies anyway'.

He hastily avoided the cameras he had set up to avoid alarming the octopeople and rapidly descended down the cliff without a care, he felt really free without having to care about dying.

He felt a bit nauseous due to the quick descent but it got easier to breathe for him as he entered the cave system, he pressed his neck and set it to crabman language. Reaching the same place as last time he was spotted by the new guards that seemed surprised to see him.

Guard1: "Rukud! you are still alive! what happened? we looked for you for an entire day, good thing Drabu gave us the meat to eat that day, his sacrifice shall not be forgotten!" clacking his claws he said "nothing shall be wasted!"

To what the other guard echoed "nothing shall be wasted!"

Erik, seeing them both do it did it too "nothing shall be wasted!"

Guard1: "He became part of us, his strength will always accompany us..."

Rukud (Erik): "right..."

Guard1: "anyways, go inside" he stepped aside "it's almost time to go hunting, grab a bite from the captives if you are too hungry"

Erik just nodded and got in 'are they that stupid? he didn't care why the other died or where have I been? weird...and I'm pretty sure they ate the dead one... talking so naturally about cannibalism, could be an opportunity to kill some and reduce their numbers...'

As he was thinking about these things he got to the big cavern, glowing algae still illuminating the place, and the water was also a nice 20 degrees, he could hear moaning and cries of pain from the middle of the village and decided to avoid that area, his avatar's body was still was lacking a dick anyways.

He explored the area and installed some more hidden cameras he had been carrying stuck on its underbelly, these cameras even had a microphone so he installed on in the feast area, in the sex slaves area, and in the elder slaves area, these last ones kept for their wisdom, they looked at him strangely when he came and stuck a weird rock to the ceiling, but nothing much as their eyes seemed dead and devoid of hope.

As he got out and was planning to go search for the sleeping area, he was stopped by what he believed was a female rockcrab "Rukud, I'm glad you are safe, I was worried when they said you suddenly disappeared, I thought the chief might have decided to eat you, thank the currents that you are safe, I prayed for you and I believe my orations are what kept you safe so..., shouldn't you reward your savior?~"

Erik was dumbfounded 'but... Rukud is technically dead though? and prayer? is it a local thing or just her I wonder' he looked at her in the eyes and said "while I'm grateful for your... well-intentioned wishes" he got closer to her, grabbing her hands, putting one of hers over his regrowing dick area, and saying to her ear "what about I give you a good fucking once my dick grows back?"

She seemed excited and said "hehe~ I knew you had guts, even though I'm part of the chief's harem you don't care..., hmph that bastard of Trutk doesn't even fuck us anymore, since he got all these new slaves he's obsessed with their strange squishy and weak bodies" she got closer to him "but I see you have better taste..." she caressed his regrowing dick "I will be waiting eagerly~" and went away.

Erik was satisfied with the encounter as it told him an important piece of information the chief was called Trutk and was obsessed with Crabinas mutated crabmen tribe. He had avoided looking inside the chief's tent for now since it was heavily guarded 'well, I might as well infiltrate, it's fine if I die anyway'.

Just as he was thinking about a suicide mission though, a group of 4 crab people approached him and the one in the middle said "Rukud, we are going to go hunting, wanna come?"

Rukud: "yeah, okay let's go..."