‘Cake! I'm Back!’ I mentally tell Cake as I roll the rock door out of the way.

Cake scuttles toward me and prods me with her antennae.

‘Cake, what are you doing?’ I ask about her moving her antenna around me, something she hasn't done before.

‘Check. Injury.’ She replies.

‘I am fine, actually I am better than fine, I am doing great!’ I replied, since on my way back, I got this message after killing another group of millipedes.

[You have reached level 12]

[You can now evolve, you have 5 options]

I can evolve, that's why I am so happy! I never knew when it was going to happen again, since it didn't happen at level 10, I was beginning to think that my first evolution might have been my only evolution.

That sounds silly when I think about it now but, it was a genuine fear for me!

Even though I can evolve now, doesn't mean I am going too. I don't plan on evolving until I get that Deep Learning ability, because I want to make sure I am getting all the info from GladOs on these evolutions. I am not going to make the same mistake as last time and just blindly pick one, I am going in with info!

But that doesn’t mean I can't check them out beforehand!

Helix Lola:

Shifter (++) [The Power of the Flesh becomes Grand]

Endurance (+) [Last Longer at Everything you Do]

Boulder Bouncer:

Strength (++) [Grand Increase in overall Strength]

Size (+) [Increase in Size]

Breeder (+) [Allows the Host to create Loyal Subjects using Biomass]

Neurax Nova-Demon:

Takeover (+) [Increases the Chances of Taking over a Body]

Neurax-Takeover (+) [Allows the Host to Bond to a target to completely take over their Body as if it was the Hosts own]

Size (-) [Decrease in Size]

Toxic Myst Lola:

Mystification (+) [The Host Expels a Gas from their Body of a selected Element]

Radioactive (++) [Selected Grand Element]

Agility (+) [An increase in Speed and Flexibility]

Gynop Nightmare:

Psychic (+) [Adjust and Control others actions around you]

Stealth (++) [A Grand Increase in Stealth Capabilities]

Strength (-) [A Decrease in overall Strength]

Wow! These are some very interesting evolutions and a bit creepy.

I'm looking at you, Neurax Nova-Demon, you think I want to become a brain sucking parasite that lives in people’s heads...actually I have basically done that already, when I borrowed that ladies body, but that was an emergency, it doesn't count!

There is another Nightmare one again, I'll have to see what that is about when I get Deep Learning.

I feel like Toxic Myst Lola is making fun of my Radiation Poisoning and giving me a Radioactive Evolution, but it might cure my radiation poisoning since I will become radioactive, it just better not itch all the time.

Boulder Bouncer is the same evolution my mother had when I first met her, I am pretty sure at least, it even has Breeder.

I am definitely not choosing this one, I am still too young to have my own children!

‘Meister!’

That entire time Cake has been trying to get my attention, but I've been thinking about my evolutions.

‘Yes?’ I wonder why she is yelling for me.

‘Finished. Digging.’ She replies.

‘Oh you did, already?’

Stolen novel; please report.

I look around and can tell that Hole Base definitely feels more roomy than it was before. I am no longer cramped with Cake in a small hole in the ground, now it seems to be a much bigger hole that I can move around somewhat freely, basically an improvement of a small hole to a slightly less small hole.

‘Good job, Cake.’ I say

I can see Cake’s antenna twitch in excitement over my compliment.

Something has been on my mind about Cake though, before her evolution she used to be more monsterlike, she seemed to only care that I was alive and nothing else and now she is apologetic about eating my food and checking me for injuries like a doting mom. Could this be a result of her increase in Intelligence, maybe increasing her intelligence gave her access to new concepts that she never had before, like sharing.

I guess I could just ask.

‘Cake, do you know that you have been acting differently since evolving?’

‘No?’ *snip snip snip*

It seems she doesn't know judging by that triple snip ‘I don't know’.

‘Mmm, well okay.’ I send over our mental link.

It seems she didn't even notice anything. That means I am going to make an assumption that I was correct and move on.

Somehow I need to get that 100 Biomass though, I have killed basically all the millipedes left over and that are not near the main nest. I have also killed all the hermit crabs

...wait a minute Cake’s favorite treat was Hermit Crab and now they are possibly extinct.

I look over at Cake blissfully ignorant of her species extinction, while she digs a little more using her claws to smooth out the wall. I don't know if Cake would be sad that she might be all alone now or mad that she can no longer eat her siblings.

I think I’ll kick this down the road for later and have my future self deal with it, like a responsible Hell-Spawn.

I think the best way to get 100 Biomass is to explore even further in this labyrinth and find out what other monsters have made their home here.

Not the safest idea but I had to do it eventually, I have been scared to go exploring any further into the maze since, I might lose my home again and I have no idea what else is out there. I have already been given a taste of the zombie honey badgers and I am not keen to find out what else is out there.

But it's either that or try to take on hundreds of millipedes in their home base, also about those millipedes isn't it weird, how they never seem to need to venture out of their home and come toward me, not that I am complaining but I am sure they need food to sustain those numbers and they aren't getting it from over here.

I did see the mother centipede/evolved millipede carry a dead wolf, when fighting that geomancer woman, it must have been trying to source food for its nest and it had to go all the way down into the hell gas to get it.

...that does not paint a pretty picture for me then.

The itch is starting to come back too, no doubt caused by my recent heroic saving and subsequent brain borrowing of that woman in the rad-zone.

That means I am on the clock to find food before my mind collapses in on the itch

Seeing no time to waste I give Cake, a basic rundown of our food situation and that we need to go exploring.

‘Cake. Go. Too.’

‘Yes, you will be going too.’

*snip*

‘But, I will need you to do something, so that we don't get lost.’

*snip*

‘We need to make a distinct trail so that we don't get lost and we can find our way back here and I would like you to make that trail using your claw.’

*snip*

Free labor was never so cute.

Me and Cake make our way out of the main tunnels we have been using and start to make way into unventured territory, Cake is also making a small line in the ground using her Claw.

Using my Radar Sense I can see, pretty decently in this maze and can tell where a deadend is.

I decided to head the opposite direction of millipede nests and into the desolate hermit crab nest.

Cake seems to be able to sense that this used be a nest of her species, I don't know how, since to me this just looks like a bigger cavern in the maze, but Cake can and she seems excited about the possibility of crab meat.

‘Where. Crab?’ Cake says in confusion at the lack of crabs near her species nesting area.

Best not to reply to that question because I don't want to explain how I killed the last group of them.

Luckily she doesn't seem to ask anymore and I make sure to avoid the dead crab husks that I drained, and we head on our way out the back of the nest…

I wish I could say that it opened up and revealed a massive cavern of poor lizards but, I can’t, it's just more maze.

We continue heading past that point zig zagging around the caverns while Cake digs a small trench in the ground to make sure we can get back.

I eventually spot a zombie Honey Badger ahead but I choose to ignore it since they dont give Biomass, and keep making my way.

Eventually the ground starts to slope downward leading to a very wide but very low cavern, in fact it is so low that the top of Cakes shell is scraping at the ceiling.

There are small rock pillars that keep the whole thing supported from collapsing but it still is mostly just free open space, I can even see a couple monster battles happening bringing back some old enemies and mixing in a few new ones.

LIZARDS!

The lizards are back again, you disgusting evil lizards shall be turned to a smear along the stone as I drain your body to a husk! Mwhahahah…ehh what is that lizard poorly fighting anyway.

I peer toward the lizard getting thrashed on by a STICK?! Okay, it's not really a stick it’s more like a small rod of rock beating on the lizard.

The rock stick monster has 6 long, but skinny rock legs that grip onto the ceiling that support its larger stick body with a rock mace on the front of it; the only reason I know it is the front because it has two long black antennas sticking out of the mace.

The 3 foot rock stick slams its rock mace head into the lizards side, the lizard grabs onto and tries to nibble at the rock sticks mace, but its teeth can’t pierce the stone, then the mace opens up and a serrated tongue launches out and wraps around the lizards body cutting it up as its body is dragged into the rock sticks mouth full of jagged teeth. The lizard has a look of ‘Welp, I fucked up’ written all over its stupid face, as it gets dragged into the rock sticks mouth.

Yeah! You go Sticky! Show that lizard who’s the better monster! Just make sure to keep you and your tongue well away from any of my tendrils, as well as just you in general!

I look over at the other battles going on.

We have lizard getting picked alive by the beak of a bat-crow monster, lizard getting slammed shut on by a clam with tendrils, lizard getting picked up and swung into the ceiling by a toad with its sticky tail, lizard getting its head chopped off by a rat with a metal spike at the end of its tail, even lizard vs lizard although the second lizard has a frilled mane and longer claws, and looks less like a modern lizard and more like a micro-raptor, except without feathers.

Hehe...yeah...you..you get em.

I kinda feel bad for the lizards after seeing their entire species completely fail at surviving and getting eaten by every consecutive nightmare fuel in this cave.

The rat monster after eating the lizard starts to foam at the mouth and collapses dead.

Oh that's right, the lizards are poisonous, of course they have to have a way to survive in this cave even if it didn’t help them until after they die, they are still poisonous and all these monsters just ate them.

2 Minutes of waiting for Lizard Poison to set in and kill all these monsters, later.

…

Why aren't you all dead, yet?! You all ate the lizard, how come only the rat died?!

The rat that died has already been eaten up by a passing scythe beetle, another returning face..err carapace, I guess?

Are these Monsters all immune to lizard poison?! How is that even possible, did they just eat so much poison that one of them managed to get a mutation or something that makes them immune to poison and then passed on that immunity to their kids. Cause, I can totally see that happening, they are dumb monsters after all.

Never stop being dumb monsters, and I mean it you know how hard it would be to kill a Rock Stick if they could actually plan ahead.

I do a quick check over before I go down into the cesspits of battles to drain some monsters.

Tendrils. Check.

Cake. Check.

Itch. Check.

Cesspit of Monsters. Check.

Alright, looks like we are all good.

‘Cake, are you ready to fight?’

*snip*