Currently I am going through all the options for Cake’s evolution while she keeps watch on the rock door.

There are a lot of options although most of them aren't anything too special. I meant that literally too she didn't get the (Special) boost like I did, the one that allows me access to the mutation store. Although the ones I am really looking for are the ones that will increase her (Intelligence), I would like her to be able to form sentences at least.

Eventually I manage to sort out all the options with (Intelligence) by digging little bits of writing on the floor like a rock notepad.

-Rock Notepad:

Basic Fil-Gill Slug: (Intelligence +) (Defense -) (Breathability +)

Tendien Hermit Crab: (Intelligence +)

Deep-Rock Hermit Crab: (Intelligence +) (Defense +) (Slowness ++)

===

I think I understand what all of these buffs and weaknesses mean, except for breathability.

Breathability: Filters the air or water to allow the host to breathe more efficiently.

I am not picking the slug one anyway, I was just curious what (Breathability) was. I am not going to allow my cute little crab to become a slimy slug with no shell.

It is just between the two Hermit Crab evolutions then. Deep-Rock would be good but it has double slowness meaning that all of Cake’s progress on her speed would be lost. But she might get a thicker shell as well as intelligence.

Tendien Hermit Crab, I have no idea what that could be other than Cake stays as a crab and gets smarter.

I wish I had that Deep Learning mutation to probe deeper into GladOs’s mind to actually understand exactly what these evolutions do.

But...I don’t and I have to choose one of these two based on limited info.

I think risking it on the unknown evolution Tendien, might be a better idea since Cake won't lose all the progress she has made on her speed.

Alright GladOs evolve Cake into a Tendien Hermit Crab.

[Confirmed, Evolving subject Cake into a Tendien Hermit Crab]

I look over at Cake as she slumps to the floor and a black goo starts to seep out her body and wrap around her until it covers the entire body.

And now it is time to wait until the evolution finishes.

…I wonder if she spent all her Biomass before evolving? She probably didn’t, but to just be on the safe side. I’m going to be doing some solo hunting.

I open up the tunnel and close it back up and make my way to some of the pesky monsters in this cave.

The battle seems to have stopped. I peer around the corners and I can still see some millipede spots, although they are too close together for me to go and kill; it does prove that the millipedes won the war against the Crabs but not without losses I can tell that the population has been cut around half.

I continue roaming around the caves looking for something easy to kill and I spot a wolf? I haven't seen a wolf since the hell gas took over the floor below me. I wonder how it got up here?

I move closer to the wolf to get a better view of it, but I move very carefully and stick to the roof.

I can tell that this wolf is indeed blind and deaf and also has the signature four nostrils that scared me for most of my life. Not anymore though I have outgrown my fear of the wolf.

I fall down from the ceiling and latch on to the wolf’s back and stab my spike into its stomach and then try to stab another into its brain. The sleek wolf is able to knock me off but it has taken damage and is limping a little as it growls at me.

“Grhhh!”

Yeah, take that you stupid wolf, you never expected me to come from above!

I use Flesh Flash to launch toward the closest wall and the wolf runs to where I just was and ends up getting a mouthful of dirt, as I make way up the wall it tries to follow me and runs face first into the wall dazing it. I jump off the wall and latch back onto the wolf and try to stab it in the brain again but the skull is quite hard and my spike can't penetrate all the way.

The wolf tries to knock me off again by shaking its sleek fur like a wet dog. I spread a tendril around the wolf and then as I am flying off the wolf I use Flesh Flash and am sent flying back toward the wolf. I use the momentum to stab it in the brain and lock in with a spike expecting to get a failure like last time.

[You have Successfully taken over a Body]

Woooo! I did it, Alright now how does this work?

The wolf has stopped moving completely almost as if it is frozen in time. I send a mental command but instead of using thoughts, I use muscle. It's just like I'm puppeteering its body, I can make it do whatever I want.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

I sit on the back of the bleeding wolf that has a tendril digging through its brain and make it do the most humiliating thing I can think of.

Why are you chasing your tail, why are you chasing your tail! Stupid Wolf! Mwahahaha!

I don't even need to crawl on the walls, I can use this wolf to take me back home!

I make the wolf move back toward Hole Base. Luckily it's not very far and I have memorized most of the tunnels around us since I don't want to get lost again and lose my home again.

This is definitely weird riding on the thing that terrified me for most of this life, but I must show them that I am now the better monster!

I eventually make my way back to Hole Base on the wolf but before I can kill the wolf by destroying its brain, I get unexpected guests in the form of 9 millipedes drawn by the trail of blood that the wolf left.

Instead of fighting them head on like I might have normally wasted stamina and getting sprayed by acid and also possibly dying. I will instead use the wolf I am currently brainwashing.

I make the wolf rush in and swipe and bite away at the millipedes. It takes a bite out of a millipedes side and slashes out at two more. The wolf moves a lot better with me controlling it, due to my natural smarts and actually being able to see. The millipedes throw acid at the wolf and even some at me, but I manage to manoeuvre the wolf through most of it and it only gets hit with a bit of acid on the nose.

I rush the wolf through the small crowd of millipedes and managed to kill the two heavily injured ones and injure the rest of them. The wolf looks very beat up, it must have multiple broken bones but it's still standing due to my brainspiking.

I manage to do one more rush through the millipedes on the back of the wolf before it collapses dead. The last rush managed to kill 3 and heavily injure 4.

All that's left is for me to mop up the rest of the millipedes and save them for when Cake wakes up.

I go for the most injured one first and stab a spike in a gash made by the wolf. I then activate Anti-Grav to move faster and dodge the other millipedes attack from behind me. I counter attack them and spike them both in the back as they pass me. This dodging and counter attacking continues as I chip away at the four millipedes health and they keel over.

[You have reached level 11]

Still no evolution, I wonder when it's going to happen?

I stuff the bodies inside Hole Base and check on Cake.

She is still covered in black undulating goo. I wonder what the evolution will look like? It better have kept her cuteness that is the most important aspect she has, my personal Radar Bleach to get rid of all the disgusting monster images that get stuck in my head.

Something does concern me about the monsters though, namely that wolf. How did it even manage to get up here? It wasn't a special wolf it didn't have any visible power boost compared to any other wolf.

I think I should do some investigating into this. If there is a pocket of wolves somewhere out there, first of all they need to be eradicated, but second of all they are another food source for me and Cake.

The millipedes are great and all.

...not really.

They are decently easy prey for me, now that I know to only disturb the out of the way millipede clusters, but eventually those will dry up and I will have to venture closer to the nest, and the last thing I want to do is meet an evolved super millipede. They are also very ugly, even when compared to the creepy wolf. I mean it's not like Im a supermodel or anything being a ball of tendrils and suction cups that can turn into a ball or pill, is definitely not something you would find on the cover of a beauty magazine, but atleast I dont have creepy jagged teeth that have never been brushed!

I leave all the monster bodies in the hole with Cake and make my way back to where I originally saw the wolf. It was near an exit into the lower level that made its way down to the gas ridden caverns below.

However, I am not going anywhere near that place since the itchiness from the radioactive gas has been making its way back into my mind again and I am starting to have a hard time thinking about anything else.

...like right now.

Why did I think about the itch! IT ITCHES SO BAD!!

I start to imagine Cake doing a little tap dance while snipping a tune, a solid back up plan, but the itchiness is too itchy to be solved by cute thoughts of a crab.

GladOs upgrade my Regeneration!

[Error, You do not have enough Biomass to upgrade your Regeneration. You are currently missing 7 Biomass, current amount 23 Biomass]

This is bad, this is bad. I need to find something to kill. I should have eaten more of the millipede meat!

I peer around as many corners as my vision will allow but, I can't find anything!

ITCHY! WHY DOES RADIATION ITCH SO BAD!

I make my way back to the pile of bodies in my base as fast as possible. I use Anti-Grav and Flesh Flash to turn corners as fast as possible. Sadly, I don't find any Millipedes on my way back and I'm forced to deal with the itch all the way back.

I shove the rock door to the side and burst through to start to eat away at the meat, I left on the ground.

Instead all the meat is gone and I see a certain Crab enjoying the last bit of millipede meat.

‘CAKE! YOU ATE ALL OF THE MEAT, I'M ABOUT TO DIE OF ITCHINESS!’ I loudly send over the mental communication.

Cake jumps at the sudden angry communication from her Meister.

‘Cake. Sorry. Meister. Cake. Fix.’ She sends over the mental link as she puts a claw to her eyestalk to snip it off.

Hearing Cake actually come up with basic words caused me to snap out of my itch trance.

‘WAIT STOP IM BETTER I DON'T NEED YOUR EYE!’ I hurriedly send back.

‘Cake. Need. Punishment. Ate. Meister’s. Food.’ She sends back as she instead moves to snip off her...tendril?!

‘WAIT STOP, I’ll PUNISH YOU LATER!!’ I said something to get her to stop.

Wait, what did I just say!

‘Really!’ Followed by one excited snip.

‘Uhhh...sure’ I send, thinking that evolution may have backfired.

‘Meister. Cake. Apologize. Alot.’

‘Why do you keep saying that word?’

‘Word?’ Cake asks confused.

‘Uhh, Meister, what even is that?’ I ask confused.

‘You. Meister.’ She responds.

‘I am Meister?’ I ask.

*snip*

She sends me a single snip, meaning that she is trying to say ‘yes’ without speaking.

‘What does Meister mean?’ I ask again.

‘You.’ Cake says like its the most obvious thing ever.

Wait a minute. Meister does sound familiar to a word that Cake might use for me since I do have that parasite embedded in her head.

‘Do you mean Master?’ I ask.

*snip*

In my basic crab snip language I can interpret that single snip as a ‘yes’.

I try to help Cake by asking her to say Master slowly, but she still ends up saying Meister, I even tried to tell her to call me by name, Joy, but she adamantly denied and double snipped at me for nearly ordering her to do it.

‘You know what I don't care, call me whatever you want.’ I say giving up; at least Meister is better than Master, it makes Cake seem less slave-ish at least.

‘Yes. Meister.’ She relaxes at my thought message.

‘What changed in your evolution?’ I ask, shifting the topic and because I am curious.

‘This.’ She says as she moves her two new wiggley appendages coming from underneath her spiraling shell.

‘Can you put those inside your shell?’ They do retract Cake’s cuteness points quite alot.

*snip* A snip followed by the two tendrils retracting into the shell.

‘Did anything else change?’ I ask; tendrils are great and all, I would know since they cover most of my body, but I feel there must be more to an evolution than two new limbs and better intelligence.

*snip snip*

A double snip meaning that she is trying to say ‘no, nothing else changed’.

I guess that really was it, raising her Intelligence must have been most of that evolution. Gaining two new appendages seems somewhat helpful but they aren't nearly as strong or plentiful as mine.

‘Did you gain health and stamina?’

*snip* A ‘yes’ snip.

‘Cake, how much Health do you have?’

‘Five. Zero.’ She replies.

At Least she gained some health, too. I would have regretted my decision if she didn't even gain health from her evolution.

I look over at Cake once more and her gleaming black eyes and her crab limbs covering her body while also carrying her.

What a weird evolution, I think to myself.

The itchiness starts to crawl back into my mind.

‘Cake.’ I say.

*snip*

‘It's time for your punishment.’

And for my Cake Therapy!