Holy...snip! I thought I was prepared for Cake’s evolution, but I was wrong. There was no way I could prepare for that! I mentally point at Cake’s somewhat human face and chest that morphs fully into a hermit crab body at about her stomach. She is also much bigger than before about 4x times and about the size of Mrs. Boulder.

As I look over Cake’s evolution I begin to wonder if that increase in intelligence actually did anything.

‘Cake, How do you feel?’ I ask Cake.

‘I am fine,’ Cake pauses for a second before asking, ‘Was my evolution bad?’

*mentally spits out coffee* Cake...cake can speak normally now?! That is another thing I expected but still caught me off guard. I collect my thoughts from my mind that has been blown apart before answering Cake’s question.

‘No! Your uhh… evolution was very good!’ I tell Cake.

‘I’m so happy! I will do everything I can to please you Meister!’ Cake’s mouth claws perk up in a happy way but still hides her mouth.

Wait a minute Cake has a mouth, I wonder if she can speak to Gothalyn, who is also staring at Cake along with me.

‘Cake try to speak.’ I ask Cake to speak.

‘Okay.’ Cake says before stopping the conversation since she did speak.

‘Using your mouth.’ I tell Cake.

‘I don’t know if I can Meister but I will try.’ Cake responds before trying to speak like a human.

“Like-krk-this?” Cake says in english with some interference from her mouth claws.

Yes! Yes! It worked. Now I can talk to Gothalyn using Cake as a middleman...oh wait Gothalyn doesn’t speak english.

I need to figure out a better way to talk to her. I still really hate using the rocks as communication there has to be something I can do. I look over to Gothalyn who is still very surprised by Cake speaking english even if she doesn’t understand it, and I decide to check the mutation store for anything that can be used for translation.

As I’m looking for something in the store to translate an unknown language. At the top right of the screen, I can see a penguin icon with a ‘1’ next to it. I click on the penguin as if I got mail and a new screen pops up and GladOs starts to read a message.

[You have been given a 50% off coupon that can be used for The Mutation Store, you have acquired this coupon as a donation from [Nothing]

A coupon from a god?! That is both strange and a little sad that in-store policy can transcend dimensions. I don’t know why the god gave me a coupon instead of a cool power, but I’ll still take it.

It might help me buy that translation upgrade. I did some more searching and found one that could fix my language problem.

-Thrae’an Language Translator-

Translates the Thrae’an Language into the host’s Language.

Cost: 500 Biomass

This was the only language I could buy with my tier 1 store. I have no idea if that is even the correct language although I guess I have a way to find out.

‘Cake say Thrae’an to Gothalyn.’

Gothalyn watches as Cake walks toward and speaks.

“Thrae’an-krr.” Cake speaks with a few minor chittering of her mouth claws.

As Cake speaks Gothalyn looks like her jaw is about to fall off. Cake walks back near me and leaves Gothalyn’s mouth agape and silent. I’m going to make a guess that Cake said a word in Gothalyns language. Which means if I buy this I can understand her and maybe even speak if I had a mouth.

I can even use that coupon to get it down to 250 Biomass although that is still 250 Biomass, I could also make Cake or myself learn Gothalyn’s language which would take who knows how long, possibly months. Although I would rather just pay the 250 Biomass at that point.

And speaking of biomass, I wonder if humans have a leveling system similar to us monster’s although I’m not really sure how I can ask that using rock’s. I guess I’ll have to wait until I can have an actual conversation to ask that.

And to get to that conversation I need Biomass even though I probably won’t be paying 250 biomass to understand Gothalyn right now, I will eventually have to do something. I should also check the radiation levels down below to get back down with Cake and Gothalyn. Although I am still a little scared of Gothalyn since she tried to lock me in a cage she hasn’t tried anything since then so I will view her as an ally for now.

I watch as Gothalyn looks at me and then the little rock dolls. I can tell she wants to communicate more with possibly about Cake’s evolution...actually it’s definitely about that.

I try my best to explain using a rock doll of Cake’s new figure that Cake just evolved due to my decision. Which is very hard to explain using dolls and I end up doing a very poor job although I’m sure I got something across.

After that doll communication, I start to walk out of the monster lair and make my way to check the radiation levels down below. Gothalyn also ends up joining us with her pouches of rock powder. I don’t know whether that is a good thing but I’m going to deny her to tag along. As weird as she is she is still quite possibly the strongest thing in this cave and having her as an ally could save me from any big bad Mother monster’s.

As we walk toward the cliff to the bottom layer, I stay on Cake’s shell since she is about much bigger than me which isn’t very impressive since I am about basketball size. It still does make me feel super small compared to Gothalyn and Cake.

We make our way to a cliff, and I start to move down it using my suctions cups to stick to the wall. Cake and Gothalyn stay up together as I figure out whether or not radiation levels are safe for them to move without me having to constantly slap them. I check by activating my radioactive gas causing my body to ever so slightly glow and gas pours out of my body and I feel energized. The gas spreads around my body and when it comes into contact with radiation on the ground it glows even brighter than normal. I use that to figure out there are finally radiation free places that can be used to travel around here. I could have also gotten rid of the radiation on the ground by slapping it although I am not doing that for obvious reasons. It hurts, even if I do regenerate.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

The radiation free path isn’t big enough to allow the evolved Cake to walk through since she has gotten much larger although she is not as tall as Gothalyn she would definitely need 2 or 3 three seats to sit anywhere if a monster airport existed.

I do some more checking for radiation and make my way back up.

‘You're back Meister!’ Cake mentally tells me.

‘Uhh? Yeah, did something happen?’ I ask Cake.

‘The human is making weird noises and keeps looking at me.’ Cake tells me her complaints about Gothalyn.

I’m still not used to this whole having a completely normal conversation with Cake, and it takes me a while to reply.

‘Cake...Why do you care that she is looking at you?’ I am genuinely curious that a monster would care about being stared at.

‘I do not know, but I just know that I don’t like it.’ Cake responds.

‘Do you care if I stare at you?’ I ask Cake since I stare at Cake almost constantly especially after her evolution.

‘Absolutely! Meister!’ Cake responds excited.

What?! How am I just learning Cake hates being looked at, now?!

Cake continues, ‘Knowing that you look at me gives me so much joy.’

Oh...that’s what you meant. The word ‘joy’ also makes me shift a little as if someone called me.

*cough* *cough*

I can hear Gothalyn cough in the background. I’m guessing that’s the other complaint Cake had about weird noises.

‘I’m uhh...sure it does Cake.’ I reply before moving on, ‘Also Gothalyn is just coughing, it's something humans do.’

‘Humans are very weird monsters.’ Cake responds.

‘How so?’ I ask curious about the perspective a hermit crab monster has on my ex-species.

‘They don’t have any claws or anything on their body to attack with, and they wear weak pieces of material around their body instead of upgrading their skin.’ Cake responds.

I guess Cake has only seen other bloodthirsty monsters and me. From her perspective I can see why she might be calling humans weird.

I try to respond to Cake by giving her a truthful answer.

‘I’m pretty sure humans don’t upgrade the same as us and that material they wear is called clothing and it’s mostly used to keep them warm or to cover themselves up.’

‘Cover themselves?’

‘Yes well…’

How the hell do I explain why humans don’t walk around nude?

‘It’s a weird human thing.’ I give up at trying to explain to Cake human society and just end up calling human’s weird.

Cake snips once satisfied with my answers.

*cough* *cough*

I roll over to Gothalyn coughing and try to explain to her that the radiation hasn’t all cleared by giving big X’s. Gothalyn stops coughing and frowns at being stuck in a cave but continues to look me over curious about something.

Gothalyn points down into the abyss and slaps her wrist. Which means that she would be willing for me to slap her all the way to the exit to keep the radiation off her.

No, I am not leaving Cake behind to go and smack radiation off of you, and then leave her in some random cave. Even if Cake could probably survive the drop all the way down if she correctly lands considering that is something her weaker siblings have been able to do, however, even if she gets down without seriously injuring herself, I’m going to have to slap radiation off of two people.

Gothalyn can just wait another day or two for the radiation to become mostly harmless.

I give Gothalyn an ‘X’ and she gives me a scowl knowing that I won’t help her escape.

Listen I want to escape as much as you. It's just I don’t want to leave Cake to fend for herself in this cave and the sun will probably blind me as soon as I escape. My best bet is to spend these next few days upgrading myself for the escape and getting Biomass.

Wait a minute...Gothalyn is basically overpowered in this cave, and she doesn’t need Biomass, what if I convinced her to go and kill one of the Mother Monsters like that mantis and then me and Cake could reap the reward from it!

Holy crap that’s genius! I just need to figure out how to tell her. I’m pretty sure I could convince her by letting her know that I would be able to understand her by buying that translation, although I have no idea how I am going to explain to her this plan using rock dolls. I am still going to try!

We quickly head back to our house, and I quickly try to explain my plan using the dolls. Gothalyn seems interested although it looks like she needs that extra push. I agree to help Gothalyn escape out of the radiation by slapping it off of her and then I would head back once she got close enough to the surface, I would head back to Cake until the radiation passes and Cake and I can leave. That ended up being alot to explain using just dolls and I'm pretty sure not all of it got through to Gothalyn but it seems like just enough did to make Gothalyn understand that a certain big mantis needs to die.

As we all walk to the shallow caves I get an idea about that big mantis, since it might be an evolution higher than me. I wonder how much Biomass I can get from that mantis if I take most of it?

After helping Cake reach her evolution, I don’t think she would mind me taking most of the biomass and I really need it for an idea I have in mind plus buying the translator.

‘Cake do you mind if I take most of the biomass from the monster Gothalyn kills?’

‘Your safety is the only thing I care about. You can take all the biomass you like, meister!’

I know that Cake has a brain parasite that makes her act obedient…*mental sniff* but that’s still the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.

Cake I care about you too, I swear after this I'll give you all the crab meat you'll eve...

[Would you like to give Verthrariug the 572!:&!/&7, complete control over your body!]

Yes/No

...Annnnnnnd you ruined the moment GagOs!