I reached rank F 2 in what felt like only a couple of hours. I started feeling a small trickle of energy inside me, which surprised me at first but then I realized it must be the Queens killing things, or making things. All the rank up really did, though, was give me a little more energy and, I think, a little more strength. It was honestly surprisingly easy to rank up, but I suspect it won't be that easy in the future.

I explored the area where I first woke up and it seemed to be the end of a cave or tunnel. I also noticed that there appeared to be more fleshy things on the wall, and more organic mass in the stagnant pools of water. It was only small changes though, they still were interesting to see. There was moss all over the walls and ground in patches of growth, and there was a slight haze of fog that made everything humid, and damp. I walked down the tunnel to where the Queens were and just took a breath in and let it out, which sounded like a guttural wheeze.

As I continued down the tunnel I saw something small moving in the haze so I walked over to it. When I got close enough to it was a parasite though it was dead.

"Oh, wonder what killed it?" I said in surprise.

I continued down the tunnel still taking my time, when I heard a scream coming down from the tunnel. I rushed forward to see what made it when I saw an infected lizard getting mauled to death by a sludge of flesh. Then an infected bat just swooped down and picked up the sludge and flew off. I just kept walking like nothing happened to see if there was more farther down the tunnel.

There were a few more squabbles of sludges and infected lizards, I did see a few more bats but I couldn't tell if they were infected or not. I kept going farther to see if I could find the Queens, but as I kept walking and no sign of either of them I realized it was futile. I walked back to the back of the cave with no trouble considering the carnage happening, even if there weren't many things fighting. I decided to try to call the Queens back by just calling out their names, and considering the echo that reverberated through the cave I think they heard no matter how far down they were.

The Parasite Queen was first, running through the tunnels, on the ceiling, her head was twisted in a 180-degree angle to look at me. She then hopped down as if it was the most natural thing while keeping eye contact with me the whole time. I don't know why it won't stop having eye contact but it was creepy as hell. She seemed to have grown a little muscle mass around its torso area and its spindly limbs. Now it only looks like she was starving for a few months instead of years. I decided to look at her name and it surprised me with what I saw.

Parasite Queen: F 2

I was overjoyed with what I saw but it ended quickly when the Flesh Queen walked in and I saw its rank.

Flesh Queen: F 1

As the Queen got closer the thing by its side was the flesh lizard, for some reason. Guess making it was a one-time thing or something. The Parasite Queen started to hiss and run backwards and up the wall, all the while staring at the Flesh Queen with her black eyes. The Flesh Queen just stood there with an almost grin on its face considering it didn't have a mouth it contorted its flesh.

"Ok so I'm just curious but could you guys bring your creations here so I can see your guy's progress?" I said, "Also please don't have them fight while they're here."

At first, they both stared at me like I was insane for even asking, but after the awkward silence, the Parasite Queen let out a shrill shriek that sent chills down my spine. While the Flesh Queen just stood there like a general. After a few seconds, the first creature showed up, it was an infected lizard followed shortly by a pair of flesh sludges and an infected bat. In just a few minutes all of my Queens monsters were at the back of the cavern, which considering it had only been a few hours was impressive.

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The Flesh Queen had a good three dozen flesh sludges, of varying sizes from the smallest being barely as big as a kitten and the biggest around the size of a pitbull. They also had some variety to them surprisingly enough. The bigger ones had some sort of weapons to them, some had sharp bone protrusions sticking out of them while others grew short weapons that also acted as limbs. Some had short swords or a sort of primitive mace at the end of them. There was also a two-headed bat with four wings and bone protrusions. In total, the Flesh Queen had 37 monsters.

For the Parasite Queen, she had around four dozen creatures in total, but most of them were just lizards. The lizards also had some size differences between them, the bigger ones did seem stronger but I wasn't sure yet. They all looked similar except for their size, no protruding growths or limbs, but the bigger ones do have foaming mouths, and their claws looked bigger, but that's about it. The dozen or so bats all looked the same, all similar in size and nothing changed physically except for maybe sharper claws but I couldn't tell. Maybe they had internal changes like better hearing. In total, there were 45 that the Parasite Queen had under her control.

Just as I was about to send them off to continue with life the Parasite Queen started to hiss with a tone that sounded like glee. I turned around and heard a flapping noise, thinking it was another bat I dismissed it and turned around walking away. Then something landed on my back and I froze. I shook myself to rid the creature of my back when I heard a squawk. I turned around and saw a bird with milky eyes and realized that the Parasite Queen got a bird. Wait that would mean there was a close entrance to the cave I was in, unless a parasite traveled far to try and find something. I'll just hope it was the ladder.

Either way, this was a great accomplishment! My Queens were growing so fast and it wasn't even a day yet. Watching them gather their creations filled me with an odd sense of pride. It was strange like I was a parent seeing their children excel. But these weren't just children. They were monsters. My monsters. That realization should have unsettled me, yet it didn't. Instead, it made me wonder, what else could they do?

I suddenly had an idea, I dismissed it at first but I decided it would be fun. I felt bad for calling the Queens back right after I dismissed them but I felt that it wouldn't bother them too much. When they both came back I asked for them to bring their strongest creation here, which they both did almost curiously.

The Parasite Queen's strongest was the biggest lizard it was about two feet long with yellow-tinted foam bubbling out of its mouth and long black claws. The Flesh Queen's strongest was the flesh lizard, which was a surprise but, I honestly expected it. When they both got settled down from the curiosity, and the annoyance from the flesh lizard went away, I was shocked it could even have that emotion. I told them to fight each other, the Queens both paused literally, they both stopped moving well at least the Parasite Queen did the Flesh Queen was barely moving beforehand but now it was rigid.

The first one to react was the Parasite Queen, she let out a shrill screech which I guessed was a command to attack. The infected lizard didn't waste a second ramming into the flesh lizard and trying to tear into its neck with its foaming jaws. The flesh lizard while shocked at the sudden attack immediately started to bite into the infected lizard's torso. They kept clawing and biting each other for so long that I was about to call the fight off when the flesh lizard started to freeze up. It was about to bite the leg of the infected lizard but it just froze and the infected lizard didn't hesitate and ripped off the flesh lizard's head.

The Parasite Queen let out a gleeful shriek and started to taunt the Flesh Queen with cooing sounds and a pitiful look that looked surprisingly real with its child's face. The Flesh Queen just stared at the decapitated body of the flesh lizard and deflated, then walked away. It looked so sad but so was life. The infected lizard looked like it was about to explode by the way it was shaking, I was a little worried it might actually do that when a bright white flash entered my vision.

When my vision returned the infected lizard looked bigger, stronger, and had a lot more yellow foam coming out of its mouth.

"What is that?" I asked the air, now expecting the words to pop up.

Infected FrothFang: F 2

It ranked up! This must be the first thing that ranked up except for me and the Parasite Queen. I felt overjoyed and congratulated the Queen and sent her off, letting her go off and do her business.

As I walked back to the very end of the cave I thought of how great the day was.