I can only watch as Andy gets grabbed by the gigantic Novum Ape, the primate simply picks him up and begins to sprint back into the forest. Instinctively I scream out, “Andy!” but the giant ape is already gone by the time I open my mouth. Stunned and shocked by how quickly everything went down, I stood on the spot for a second before catching my bearings and running over to the piece of forest which the ape disappeared into. I see smaller apes still swinging in the distance but the giant Novum Ape is nowhere to be found.

“Damn it! Emma! Andy got taken!” Emma hops out of the carriage in a hurry yelling, “What?! What happened?!” I look back into the forest, and the Novum Apes are long gone now, “A group of Novum Apes took him, they were so fast I didn’t even know what was happening…” A look down dejected and continue my sentence, “…and we can’t even go looking for him because I need to be in the capital…” Thinking about a solution for a second, I get to a conclusion, “I’ll try and convince the empress to send a search squad out, either they’ll find something or Andy’s going to show up by himself.”

Emma looks down angrily, I know she’d just love to jump into the forest and go looking for Andy right now, but I’d be useless. So she composes herself and stammers out “Ok…Let’s get there quickly. I want to be part of this search party!” “I’ll see what I can do…,” we both get back onto the carriage and continue our journey to the capital.

_______Andy’s Side_______

Goddammit! Every time I punch one, another one appears! I squash one bug after another, the hard stone floor around me already is a bona fide insect graveyard. But the skittering insects around me have only increased since I’ve started exterminating them. I’ve been killing these things for multiple minutes now…Maybe I should’ve just kept walking and not bothered squashing them…But wait…. Isn’t this like a giant XP Farm?! Realizing what I’ve just gained here, I get a bit more motivated to continue the insect slaughter.

After some more time, the insects finally start to thin out a bit, it isn’t much, by now they’re crawling up piles of their dead brethren just to get potshots at my metal body. Not a single one of these cat-sized insects has properly damaged me by now, so I simply continue. But just when I think it’s finally over, I hear loud scuttling in the distance, when I look over the piles of dead insects I don’t see much because of the sheer darkness, so I begin to make my way out of the pile of insects.

When I get back down to the other side, I see what can only be assumed to be a giant rounded mass of carapace making its way straight toward me. At first, I panic a bit, but after a solid 5 seconds the giant insect hasn’t made much leeway, so I can presume that it isn’t the fastest. I jog around its side and discover it’s a gigantic pill bug, it’s about as big as a semi-truck. Damn, this puppy should give some XP! I charge up a [Power Punch], the hard carapace of the giant pill bug cracks and my fist plunges into his insides. Just as my fist enters a flood of the giant thing’s insides shoots out onto me.

Ew! Gross, I gotta…find- Wait…Sleepy?! …Damnit!... I realize after pulling my hand out of the pill bugs body that I once again ran out of juice, the [Crushing Grip] I used to save myself from falling was charged pretty hard and I had to use a few [Skills] to fend off all the big insects so I was out once again. I collapse onto the ground next to the giant pill bug and shut off for the second time, no meeting with any deities this time around.

I wake up once again, and I am in some sort of bed, this one is stone-hard though. I fell asleep in the middle of a cave, how am I in a bed? I look around the room I woke up in, it’s built like a stone igloo, and there’s a stone block next to the bed I woke up in, presumably used as a nightstand. I notice another thing after pulling myself up, I’m not in complete darkness anymore, in the middle of the stone igloo is a small stone giving off a nice ambient light, it’s not bright, but I can finally see something.

Whatever saved me, from how it put me in a nice little room I can guess that it might not be malicious. I get up from my bed and sit up, but before I can get anything done a wall of text assaults me, the wall shrinks down to a few simple text boxes before I can even begin reading all of the text.

Defeated 96 Life Forms: 768 XP received

Defeated Rima Insect Queen: 250 XP received

You have advanced from Level 16 to Level 30

You have learned [Overclock], [Heightened Senses], and [Alternate Cameras]

You have reached the requirements for multiple [Evolutions], please choose an [Evolution]

What the hell?! So much happened! And I’m forced to evolve now?! Whatever, let’s take a look at my options…

Possible Evolutions:

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Robot (Common)

A nondescript upgrade to all of your stats

Servant Robot (Uncommon)

Your body will be augmented to be better suited to serving someone

Whew…Now, which should I take… I said I wasn’t going to be a servant anymore, but I can’t really let it go can I…But maybe going with Robot will change something else, the Motus Intrepid is a special design from another world after all. I think about it a bit longer, but the idea of being a Servant Robot just doesn’t sit well with me in the end. All right, I’ll try and go with Robot. Before I can do anything else, I once again fall into a deep slumber on my stone-hard stone bed.

When I wake back up again, I notice some big changes. My vision is different, I can’t quite say how, but something feels off. The other thing that has changed is that I feel a lot more, this is also complicated to describe but I can somehow “feel” the charge level and health of the battery installed inside of me. There are so many of these feelings that it’s almost overwhelming, I can still hear and see, but it feels like I can also measure a lot of internal processes, like the heat of individual components and the amount of electricity coursing through them. I’ve even got an internal clock now!

I sit down for a while and try and catch my bearings over everything that I feel now. I wonder why I suddenly feel this way just because of a simple Evolution, has it something to do with me being a human in the body of a robot? Once again realizing my newfound inhumanity and decide to take a look at my status.

Name: Andy

Race: Robot

Level: 10

HP: 300/300

MP: 0/0

Strength: 175

Dexterity: 75

Agility: 50

Constitution: 150

Intelligence: 30

Wisdom: 30

Skills:

Power Punch, Crushing Grip, Devastating Kick, Overclock, Heightened Senses, Alternate Cameras

Points: 29

Hmm, yeah. They didn’t lie, just a small stat boost. These new [Skills] sound neat though. I’m finally healed though, I’m glad I wasn’t forced to go to a scrap heap.

Looking over myself once more, I don’t see any major changes, the only thing that seems to have changed is my race, and maybe some internals if they really did upgrade me. I decide to leave whatever else may have happened to someone else. My top priority after evolution just now needs to be getting out of here or even just starting a conversation with someone who lives here, I’ve been down here for too long! I finally make my way over to the small igloo hole and push the stone away from it, hoping to find someone outside to talk to.

I push the small stone away with ease and find I came out in a miniature city center. A small cavern has been bedecked with glowing stones in its ceiling and the ground is scattered with small igloo houses, it feels like I just walked into a smurf city. When I get back up from the tight squeeze through the entrance I took, I see the full scope, there is an entire miniature metropolitan area built down here! When I look closer, I see giant moles walking around on two feet between the houses. The moles come up to my knees in size and they all seem to be wearing some sort of tribal attire. Next to my giant igloo is one of the mushrooms I saw back in the underground forest, still growing just a bright.

I pan around the entire area in pure awe. Wow, this is insane! I look around, and the entire cavern these mole people inhabit is lit up with various bioluminescent stones, simple stone houses about the size of dog houses stand in lines before me, with streets used by the occasional mole person or two. As I’m wondering what kind of great underground society lives down here, I get surrounded by 4 mole people, they point spears at me and yell something in their language. I don’t think they are malicious, just a bit spooked by the giant suddenly in their city center, so I simply raise my arms in capitulation and say “Don’t worry, I do not intend to hurt you.”

The mole people don’t seem to understand me but they eye each other and say something in their language, a fifth mole person arrives, gets told something by the other ones, and immediately rushes off, when he returned, I see him walk over with an older looking mole who is using a stone cane. The older mole looks up at me for quite some time trying to decipher something, but before he can say something I decide to try and talk again, “I don’t intend to hurt anyone here, can someone here understand me? Why was I brought here? I’d be more than happy to just leave.” When I start speaking the older mole’s face finally seems to understand something, he clears his throat for a second and then begins talking in a raspy and shaky voice, “We are Earthlings…Do you come in peace?”

Oh, so these guys down here don’t have much outside contact and the only one speaking their language is this old dude. But, Earthling? Whatever. I try and speak in simpler tones and turn to the old mole, “Yes, I come in peace. I fell down here from the surface, I need to get back to the surface.” The old mole has a quizzical look on his face for a solid 10 seconds before mentally processing what I just said, then he takes some more time to prepare an answer, “You want back to surface?” “Yes, I need to go back. Do you know the way?” I ask. The old mole signals to the warriors pointing spears at me and they lower their spears and move to his side, “Follow, I bring you to translator.” The old mole begins taking small slow steps behind the igloo I was sleeping in, he’s making conversation about me with the warriors who were handling me, they occasionally look back at me with weird looks on their faces.

We walk through one of the streets made in the mole village, in the distance, I can see I large stone house which looks to be exactly where we’re headed right now. The mole warriors begin making their way before the old mole, probably to talk about my arrival there. When we get there, a small and dainty-looking mole is standing in front of the house, she begins by greeting me, “My name is Nevus, I am the daughter of the chief of this Earthling Village.”