I guess I ended up napping out in the sun. It was really peaceful, and just what I needed after a long sleep.

Don’t ask me why that makes sense to me. Just go with it.

Ahh… I’m going to have to start grinding more abilities in my downtime, aren’t I?

But first, I wanted to find food.

My daily list of chores was probably going to become: find food, escape from predators, grind skills, escape from predators, find food, and sleep.

I could get used to the routine… if we could just trim out a couple of those unnecessary items. But for now, I would have to deal with it.

Rexcelsis was gone now that I looked into the distance. The corpse of the fish had disappeared, as well, reminding me of the mysterious case of the missing xaptor heads. Yeah, maybe sleeping out here wasn’t the best idea.

I made my way back into the woods, traveling toward Dwayne, the t-rex head made of rock who guarded my new home. So what if the gorlen wanted to live there? Roommates don’t have to get along, do they?

Plus, that guy stayed at the end of the tunnel, anyway, so there wasn’t much of a problem with me staying in the front.

Oh yeah… I thought the tunnel ended before but… could the gorlen have fooled my senses?

Forget the food. I ran back to the cave to explore more. On the way, I pulled up my status menu to fully examine my progress. I’d have to find some challenging mobs to eat so that I could level up. If Rex was a possibility for my future, I wanted to evolve now.

But then again… I wondered just how much impact on the available evolutions my skill levels had. Should I focus on unlocking more skills and leveling them up before I evolved or would that be a waste of time?

Theoretically, the longer I stayed in a weak baby form, the higher odds that my increased vulnerability would end up costing me dearly. Evolving sooner might be worth it in the end. I looked over my stats.

Baby Dino

Level:

6 [345/350]

Health:

200/200

Stamina:

135/135

Traits

[Nocturnal] [Lvl 4] [Guided Evolution] [Lvl ---]

Skills

[Bite]

[Lvl 3]

[Claw]

[Lvl 5]

[Sprint]

[Lvl 4]

[Stomp]

[Lvl 3]

[Swim]

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

[Lvl 4]

[Sneak]

[Lvl 4]

[Regurgitate]

[Lvl 1]

[Climb]

[Lvl 3]

[Feast]

[Lvl 4]

[Dig]

[Lvl 2]

[Slam]

[Lvl 2]

[Corpse Hatching]

[Lvl 1]

[Leap Strike]

[Lvl 1]

[Punch]

[Lvl 3]

[Dirty Trick]

[Lvl 1]

[Kick]

[Lvl 2]

Instincts

[Risky Business]

[Lvl 1]

[Blend]

[Lvl 2]

[Fearful Flight]

[Lvl 5]

[Observe]

[Lvl 10]

[Watervision]

[Lvl 3]

[Pack Mentality]

[Lvl 1]

Wow. I forgot how close I was to leveling up. I could probably kill a squirrel right now and level up.

Assuming I could find a squirrel and sneak up on it, that is. What was my current max level again? Fifteen? Yeah. Fifteen sounds right.

Let’s see… out of the options I have here, I could probably level up Sprint, Swim, Sneak, Climb, Dig… oh and Regurgitate, but that might be uncomfortable. The safest is probably Sprint or Climb. Swim involves going places I might’ve once thought were safe, but now I know otherwise. And Sneak would require me to be near an enemy.

Yeah. Sprint, Climb, and Dig were the three skills I could focus on. However, if the levels of my skills impacted my evolution options, it could be detrimental to have those three much higher than the others.

Ugghh. It’s so hard to make informed decisions with no information! Is this what being involved with politics feels like?

I decided it was better to make some progress rather than none. Once I finished exploring the cave and obtaining food, I’d grind out some levels.

I passed Dwayne, thanking him for all his hard work, and entered the Dino Cave. I stepped around the table and made my way down the ever-closing tunnel. Maybe my dig skill could…? No, not through the stone. Not with these claws. Maybe if I had a classic Rexcelsis Death Beam, but not by hand.

Then again… I wondered if I might be able to dig through stone if I leveled up the skill enough. Or maybe I could find something to use to help me out.

How do tunnels even form, anyway? It was random thoughts like these that made me miss the internet and the downward spiral of random science video binges it could induce.

I peered through the darkness, crawling further into the tunnel as it closed around me. Was I right? Was the gorlen’s invisibility really what was stopping me from going any further? My stomach scraped on the ground as I realized I could very well get stuck back here. At least it wasn’t too tight yet… Hey, at least my arms were strong enough to handle pulling me along.

I wanted to be sure I wouldn’t get stuck back here in the tighter spots, so just to be safe, I pushed myself back out with just my hands until I could comfortably crouch and back out normally.

See? We’re fine! Totally fine!

After gathering my courage for a minute—because, let’s be honest, who wants to crawl into a tight space with the risk of getting stuck—I continued further into the cave, my body scraping lightly against the roof. I grasped at the walls and pulled, kicking against what little purchase my hind claws could find on the stony floor.

It was pitch black. I could see absolutely nothing now, even with my night vision.

But then a breeze touched my snout.

I blinked. What was that?

Wind?

I stopped my progress, turning my head to listen for the breeze. Wind could only mean one thing in a cave, right? It had to be coming from somewhere. Which meant that this tunnel was probably part of a larger cave system. And in a world with so many similarities to the games I’d played, that meant there were fat mounds of experience waiting to be uncovered!

I sniffed at the air as it blew by me. Did it smell… like… water? Maybe?

As the cave pressed against me, and I became crushed against the floor, I was considering backing out of my little adventure, but suddenly, light surged above my head, and I could see that there was enough room for me if I could just press a little bit further.

So I did. I squeezed myself through the hole, nearly getting caught because of the natural arch in my back. But I managed to slip through, standing up in the massive cavernous opening.

Phew… That could’ve been a “hole” lot worse! Get it?

…

Nobody?

Sometimes, the only way we can cope with the unknown is through bad puns. Sorry, but really not, though.

You’ve gotta understand that not everybody can get through without making a bad pun once in a while. You know what they say, “A pun a day keeps the predators away!”

And I’m severely under that quota!

Okay, maybe they don’t say that. But they should.

It’s probably true.