After officially moving the hermit crabs down on the list of ‘Monsters I am Smarter Than’, now placing them a step above the wolf. I make my way back in the winding tunnels to look for shelter and food.

(You have gained 9 Biomass)

(You are now Level 8)

But mostly food.

I finish draining the hermit crab I have managed to kill. I think I found a nest of them up here, there seems to be a lot more around here than there ever was down there or maybe its just ‘survival of the smartest’ as only the dumbest of the dumb crabs manage to walk off and fall down to the lower levels.

It's probably both…

On the bright side of things, I am alive and although I do feel sick and itchy from the gas it's somewhat tolerable. There have also been zero spiders or lizards up here as far as I can tell. Although I refuse to believe all of them died amongst that gas, especially a certain komodo dragon.

Once again my plan of action circles back to getting Biomass and becoming stronger. I also checked the Mutation Store and after scrolling through the long list of filtered options, honestly, I didn't expect much. Which was why I was surprised when I stumbled upon this.

-Monster Egg Latcher-

A Mutation that creates a separate entity in the body, designed to create a submissive subject to the host, by inserting itself into selected Monster Eggs.

Can only be used once unless the link between subject and host is broken.

Cost: 50 Biomass

Tom, I take it back you were not a complete failure after all! I just need to get 50 Biomass and I can order my own monster to get food for me, actually, they would probably die if I did that, due to how weak they are going to start out as.

If this means I can finally get an ally so be it, I will get this Mutation no matter what, I don't even care about the part that says it creates a separate entity in the body. This Mutation calls to me!!

Now, how to get that 50 Biomass? I can either save what I have and slowly work my way up killing any hermit crabs I stumble upon while hopefully avoiding any other Monsters that roam around here or I can upgrade myself as much as possible using what I currently have in storage to get it faster by killing harder monsters.

They are both risky in two different areas but getting 50 Biomass from crabs will take a while and it will require a lot of exploring meaning I have a very high chance to run into something that will kill me.

And due to that I will upgrade myself and totally not because upgrading myself makes me able to roll on the ceiling.

GladOs upgrade Suction Cups:(Grip) and Draining Spike:(Draining) by one.

Then upgrade Flesh Flash:(Speed) and Draining Spike:(Breakthrough) twice.

(Confirmed, upgrading

-Suction Cups:(Grip) to (Medium)

-Draining Spike:(Draining) to (Medium)

-Flesh Flash:(Speed) to (Medium)

-Draining Spike:(Breakthrough) to (Slightly Strong)

Using 16 Biomass from Storage, remaining amount 1 Biomass)

The dream has come true, I can now ceiling crawl and even though it still consumed some stamina overall crawling on the ceiling as a pill has never been easier or possible.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

It is time to grind out that Biomass and get myself a new pet/buddy! You millipedes think you can stop me now!

I walk toward a spot of darkness in my vision using the ceiling and to the front of another three millipedes, they perk up and much the same detangle themselves from the wall but, this time I don't cowardly run away.

I move a tendril and gesture them to come to me. They oblige and come running at me I dodge all their strikes and retaliate with some of my own as my spikes launch out of my tendrils cracking millipedes carapace heavily but not breaking through. I have to roll out the way as a millipede wraps it way around my tendril and bites at it, shredding it to little bits. I hit that millipede even harder with my spike and pierced it all the way through its carapace. I start draining it as the other two millipedes spewed a ball of acid that spashled across my body. Dealing some damage and hurting quite bad. As the two millipedes get closer to me I activate Flesh Flash in the middle of them, rocketing me toward them.

I let go of the one I started draining and focus on the other two as I rocket toward them I stretch out two tendrils with spikes at the ready, causing the spikes to hit even hard than normal causing heavy damage to them and piercing through the underside carapace.

*crack*

The two millipedes are stunned at the sudden and powerful attack and I use that time wisely by draining and weakening them. The other one crawls toward me and slams its body against mine like a whip sending me at the wall, luckily it causes limited damage to my squishy body. I use Flesh Flash once more at the millipede who came over to finish me off and latch onto his wound, the grapple tendril picks my body up from the ground and into the air as I puncture directly into the millipedes wound, after that it falls over dead. The other two millipedes released from their daze move over to me and I end up slowly draining each of them as I feel exhausted from using those two Speedy Flesh Flashes. They eventually keel over and die on top of their millipede friend and I end up getting…

(You have received 29 Biomass)

Yeah yeah, I deserve at least that for going against these millipedes they are a lot more durable than they look, just what you would expect from these armored worms.

I am exhausted from that fight, I used so much stamina to kill these all the while they slammed, chewed, and spat acid at me. These things are like a combo between a pack spider and a scythe beetle. If I manage to do that once more though, I can get that egg mutation.

I could start to see some of the other nearby millipede spots move toward me due to the fight, I managed to rest just enough to regain some stamina and make my way up to the ceiling of the tunnel, before they came. They never saw me as they made their way to where the fight happened and I got away scot-free.

My wounds are already starting to heal and I feel energetic once again. For some reason I am still itchy though and I feel like I'm coming down with the monster pox. I check my status and I see why.

Stats:

[Health: 60/60(100) (Radiation Poisoning)

[Stamina: 60/60(100)

[Material Storage: 30/100

That was no ordinary Evil Gas! It was Radioactive Evil Gas and I went and took a dip into it! How do I fix this?! This is terrible! It is like an itch that goes from annoying to agonizing the longer it lasts! My Regeneration can't fix it, what are you even used for if not to cure this type of thing!

Maybe I just need to upgrade it; GladOs upgrade my regeneration to fix this!

(Confirmed, upgrading Regeneration: (Usability) to (Weak), using 20 Biomass in storage, remaining amount 10)

Ahhhh, that feels better!

The itchiness and sickness soon came back from my moment of relaxation, but it itched less and I am able to easily push it to the back of my mind as it slowly eats away at my psyche.

I return to roaming around for easy prey, not wanting to fight another group of millipedes so soon after the last one.

My next prey I find is another snail; like the one I killed by throwing rocks on the ground, I am pretty sure that they are species of evolved hermit crabs seeing as they use similar cone shaped shells, so it is not surprising for them to be up here along with the crabs.

I am not taking any chances and use the same strategy as last time because if I am right the last thing I want to do is be hit by that attack because it could very well kill me. I roll up the top of the shell and as I prepare to throw rocks at the floor, the snail launches out of its shell again making me lose the grip on its shell. I roll down the front of the snail as it retracts back into the shell, I stab it making it quiver but is quickly back in its shell preparing for another attack at the front of it, where I am. I have no time to think and use Flesh Flash and a tendril stretches out and digs into the floor I can only wait a couple seconds either waiting for the tendril to reach far enough away from the snail and fling me away or insta death.

My tendril locks in place and I launch away from the snail, at the same time I throw a rock right in front of it to confuse it about which is me because even though the Flesh Flash allows me to move much faster than I can normally that snail is definitely the fastest gun in the west, they are evolved to maximize the speed and destructiveness of one attack, I cant compete with that.

Luckily my quick thinking paid off and the snail went for the rock closer to it, allowing me to fully get away from the range of its attack.

I just saw my life flash before my eyes! Being in front of that snail is like having a guillotine above your head just waiting for someone to flip the lever. Not a fun experience.

How did that snail notice me! Is it because I'm fat! I mean I evolved and I did get larger... Ahh that's probably the reason.

Time for a new strategy to kill the snails, instead of crawling up the back of the snails shell as I did before, I simply throw a rock and go into action and stab it and then flesh flash away while it tries to eat away at the rock. This is more draining and slower but it eventually pays off and the snail dies.

I really expected to get a level from this guy, they were the ones that got me to my evolution as a Lola Fetus after all.

I ended up getting a solid 13 Biomass from it and after I rest, I make my way back toward the millipedes to get the last of the needed Biomass.

I manage to exhaustedly kill another three millipedes much the same as I had before and I finish draining them hoping that this will be the last of Biomass to make the purchase.

(You have gained 26 Biomass)

I ask GladOs to read out my total Biomass.

(Current amount of Biomass in storage)

(49/100)

*Joy.exe has stopped working*