I’ll be honest, it took me a few seconds to gather my wits, leaving my little mouse hanging. I focused in on him, seeing that his body was still asleep, but could feel the connection between us thrum as is curiosity came to me.

“Um… Hello,” I replied, my mind choosing the most articulate response I could muster in my shock. A showing of my amazing conversation skills bleeding over from my time on Earth.

“I’m sorry, give me a moment here,” I continued. “I can’t say I was expecting to be able to converse with you so clearly while doing this.”

“Yes Mighty Creator,” he answered, his response garnering my attention. It had sounded clear, but not at the same time. Like listening to a robot respond to a command, I could hear the response, but the emotions didn’t quite fit the words.

I felt his emotions through the bond, excitement and a slight bit of confusion at my words. So I decided to do a little test to see.

“Little mouse, can you explain to me how you got your last level?”

I felt more confusion at the random question before he began to answer.

“Kill intruder, grow stronger,” was his reply. Again I heard the words, but the emotions didn’t quite match up. First I could feel curiosity, before wonder seeped in. Then I felt caution, to anger, to aggression. Continuing I could feel trepidation and caution once more, before the aggression kicked up a few notches, before finally satisfaction and pride.

The disconnect between what his emotions were conveying, to the simplicity of the words, led me to believe that he wasn’t actually speaking. At least not in the sense of full blown sapient conversation would be held. It was almost like talking to a young child or baby, who could say a few words. The words were short and to the point, but his emotions conveyed the details.

“Well in that case, thank you for defending the cave, and congratulations in reaching evolution,” I said to him, feeling the pride and slight embarrassment feed back to me.

“Welcome, Mighty Creator,” was the response, before confusion once again came through.

“Why can we speak? Why do we speak?” he asked, his confusion in both the fact we were speaking, as well as why he was allowed to speak.

I decided to answer honestly, “Because I want to you to see your choices. As well as get your opinion on what evolution you would prefer.”

I could feel the shock and confusion flood the link, as he seem flabbergasted that I would even ask him.

“You Mighty Creator, you choose,” he quickly answered, seeming almost scared that he was even given the option.

“Yes I might have created you, but it is your life. If ever something were to happen, you must also live with these choices, as such I would like to hear your thoughts.”

Even more shock and confusion pushed through, something I didn’t think was possible considering how much I already felt. In fact I was almost worried that this much shock would be harmful to his little body. That was when a tide of gratitude poured into me, completely overwhelming any other emotions he had been sending.

I let the emotion wash over me, trying not to drown in it. It was so strong it was nearly overriding my own emotion, something I didn’t even know could happen. A few moments later the tide of emotion finally slowed down enough for me to gather my own thoughts again.

“Honored and thankful,” he said to me, “but trust in Mighty Creators decision.”

I smiled internally hearing that, my own happiness and feelings of gratitude returning to him.

“If that is what you desire then so be it, I will make the choice for you,” I answered, “but I would still like for you to look over the options and judge them yourself.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I could feel the affirmation come through, though no words this time. I sensed his focus turn to the options, and watched him go over them. I wasn’t sure if he was actually reading them or if the information was just kind of there in his head, but as he looked over them I could feel his emotions come through. It only took him a few moments before he turned back on me.

“Like Hopi, hate Fanged, ok with Avenger,” he spoke, his emotions conveying a little more in depth to his answers.

Hopi brought the feelings of pride and power, while the Fanged option only held disgust and derision. Finally when he mentioned Avenger I felt curiosity but also a tad bit of fear. I could only guess he found the power it could bring tempting, but I wasn’t sure what the fear was for. Maybe fear of losing his new family and nest? Either way, hearing him like Hopi only cemented it in my mind.

I had wanted to go with Hopi the moment I read it, though I was also curious about it. The Hopi were a tribe of Native American Indians found in the southwestern area of the United States. They had a clan called Pisha, which translated to field mouse. There was a story of a little warrior mouse who used his cunning to kill a hawk that was killing the tribes chickens. So the fact the name was based on the main tribe was quite confusing, seeing how this was a completely different world.

Was there already a species called Hopi Warrior Mouse in the world, or was the System making a new one due to my theme? Whatever the answer, it didn’t really matter. Not looking at the name, it was in my opinion, the best choice. The Fanged Hunter mouse sounded like just a basic upgrade, with a possible loos in intelligence. While the avenger mouse was basically a berserker, but only based on vengeance. It may be powerful, but being solely focused or seeking vengeance was not healthy. Even the description showed they were relatively short lived creatures, never making a family or nest.

Either way, I sent my acknowledgment over to my little mouse before speaking. “A good choice little one, I also agree with your opinion. I will see you when you wake, little warrior."

Pride once again surged through, as I chose the option in front of me. I could feel the link slip away, as my little mouse’s consciousness went fully to sleep for the upcoming evolution. It had taken 3 days for my Guardian’s initial evolution, but she had the Ice element being added to her as well. Focusing in on my mouse showed it should only take about 24 hours before he was finished.

I watched as the other mice in his nest woke up, looking over at him, before gathering around him as if to protect him. I could not feel their emotions, as they had not connected to me like he did, but I could see the love they had for him. I had kind of neglected my little mouse after the skink fight, only watching him occasionally as he had made the nest and gathered others to him. But it would seem he did not need me to look after him, as he had his own family to do so.

I watched them for a little more, noticing that one of them was due to give birth any day now. I was still curious on whether they would be counted as monsters or not, but for now I had other concerns.

The tutorial, plus my little talk hadn’t taken to long, only an hour or so. But my expansion into the cavern we had taken had yet to stop. I still couldn’t push my mana too far into the water, but I noticed that it was finally starting to gather more before being dispersed by the currents within.

Hopefully I would be able to claim the water myself, or at least find a way to make a node. I tried to see if there were any tutorials for discovering or making nodes, but so far nothing showed up. I still wanted to make a creek bed going through the caves I had made, but for now I could only wait. Turning to look at where my mana could expand, I felt I was finally getting close to the end of the cavern. So far the dimensions of the cavern was nearly equal to two of my current caverns.

My three other cavers were all about 10x10 feet, so almost 100 square feet in size. The entrance to the cavern had been 10x6 feet before it hit the water and opened up more in the north. North of the underground lake the cavern was 8x8 feet so far, and I had yet to hit the end of the cavern. From what I could tell in my limited vision, was that I had about another 6 feet or so before I hit what looked like the end.

Deciding not to make the same mistake twice I gathered everyone who was able to form a group to scout out the area under my control. I didn’t want them going outside my range just yet, since some of them were still recovering. Plus if there was anything to fight, if they could kill it within my growing territory it would help bolster my experience. I was getting a fair chunk of experience claiming the open cavern, but it was still small compared to what I got from killing things in my territory. Just adding everything up since I started claiming the cavern I had only gained maybe half a level from the territory itself. The other 1 ½ levels I had gained came from the 2 Tatzelwurms when they fell.

So overall I still had to rely on being a murder core if I wanted to grow. I was curious what my “evolution” choices would be when I hit level 10, so I was excited for a few more levels. Of course I kept the excitement to a manageable level, as I didn’t want to rush forward and continue making the same dumb mistakes.

As I pondered what it could be, I watched as my Mana finally hit the far end of the cavern. I was expecting it to stop and then I could claim this cavern for myself, so color me surprised when my mana kept pushing into the wall. Normally it could only go a foot, but my mana went farther. I decided to focus more on the wall where the mana was seeping through and found the reason why. This wasn’t the end of the cavern at all, just a caved in portion.

And just on the other side of the cave in, my mana hit another void black wall. Seems I wasn’t quite done clearing the cave.