The cave turned out to be very large; there was a whole lot of stone shards everywhere, which hampered my movement. The impenetrable darkness seemed to loom over me from above, which frightened me a little. The entire time, I kept fearing that the two-legged would jump out from somewhere and kill me with their claws, but everything was quiet. The only thing that disturbed the silence were the water droplets as they fell onto the stones below.

I took one of these shards that strongly resembled a claw and was much stronger than my own with me. It looked very large in my hand and it was hard to hold, but I felt a little calmer for having it. “It’s a pity that I cannot grow a second hand; things would be much easier,” I muttered absently.

Sometimes, the grayness of the cave would be interrupted by the dim light of some mushrooms and plants. I noticed one of these sources of light, and I came closer. It was a small, translucent mushroom, glowing with a steady, dull turquoise light.

This light soothed me, and I wanted to get even closer, but the mushroom grew too high up, and without a second hand, I wouldn’t be able to reach it. I looked at its light a bit longer and then kept going.

I wondered why there was no one else around. Was I alone here? I had been wandering around the cave for about two more hours before I saw something amazing. A large lake, filled with clear water. It was shallow, and its bottom was clearly visible.

I came closer and put my hand in the water. “Brrr! Cold.” Hmm... I was thirsty and decided to taste this delicious water. After my thirst had been quenched, I spotted something strange in the lake. It seemed close to the surface.

I became curious and went over to look at this little thing. The depth appeared to be much greater than I’d originally thought; I had to plunge completely under the water. At first, it was rather cold, but then my body started getting used to it.

There was a pebble at the bottom, almost transparent, interspersed with white crystals. I took it in my hand that, for some reason, started to become unresponsive, and hurried back. It got worse with each minute I spent in the water, and I barely managed to get ashore.

I had to lie down for half an hour before I felt more or less okay again. I carefully looked at the stone, but the previous feeling of definitely needing it had disappeared.

I took a deep breath and threw the trifle back into the lake. I wondered how I could protect myself from the cold. Maybe I need to change my shell. Anyway, why was I thinking about something like that when I didn’t even have any experience points?

After a while, I felt something strange in my stomach. My mind suggested it was hunger, and then I remembered the luminous mushrooms. The hunger forced me to look for something edible, but there were only stones and water around.

After a while, I finally stumbled upon a couple of mushrooms. Their thin, conical caps shone slightly with a greenish light, which caused me some discomfort, but I couldn’t stand the hunger pains anymore, and so, without hesitation, I ate them both. A few minutes later, I felt ill, and a dark window with red letters on it appeared in front of me again.

You are poisoned! Take an antidote, otherwise, you will die within 60, 59 ... 47 seconds!

“What kind of antidote? Where do I find it?” I yelled as I rushed about, panicking. I never wanted to see that darkness again, but as time went by, I kept getting worse and worse. When I saw the countdown reach ‘zero’, my vision was covered in a dark red veil, and I found myself in the darkness once more.

***

I opened my eyes and saw the graves of my parents. Now it was clear that, when I died, I would be transferred here. I looked around. “Since I’ve already been that way, let`s try the opposite path.” It turned out to be much more interesting. Every now and then, I could see some strange, dark gray pebbles glittering on the walls, and they turned out to be very solid. I also saw a moss that I tried to eat, and surprisingly, I didn’t die.

Unfortunately, it had no taste. I took a little bit of the moss with me and pressed on. From time to time, I encountered dried pools of blood, but there were no bodies to be found. Did these two-legged really devour my kind? Why hadn’t they done the same to Trirlil then? So many questions and no answers in sight. I ate some of the moss again.

The cave moss gene is successfully absorbed!

New development opportunities are available!

10 points of experience received!

Cave moss gene

Description: enables your body to accumulate a number of different substances within itself.

Stats: Life +1; Health +10; Complexity +1; Structure +1; Evolution +1.

Effect: “Accumulation”.

Requirements: Level 2; Life 2; Evolution 1; Structure 1.

Level up! Current level: 3.

“Wonderful! Thanks to this gene I can now grow a second hand.” So that’s what I immediately did. “Woo-hoo, I’m making progress! Even if little by little.”

Level up! Current level: 4.

Great! However, I couldn’t understand why my level was getting higher. Reading the description a second time didn’t help clarify the issue. Okay, I’ll figure it out later, when I get smarter.

As I resumed walking, I kept thinking about how I’d managed to absorb the blood on the first try, but I had eaten a lot of moss before I managed to get its property. Hmm, is it possible to give up a property? What if some of them cause something bad to happen again? I wouldn’t want to become a two-legged.

I needed to do a little growing up and walk straight since it was inconvenient to lean on the stony surface with my forelegs, and at the same time, I would look like my parents.

Hmm... their torsos had been almost the same as that of the two-legged. Does that mean that the two-legged are also related to us? Why did they kill their own kind then? It didn’t make sense. Also… what kind of substances can I accumulate inside me?

I needed to find out, but as I’ve already said, my main goal right now was to get smarter. Besides, where can I put my experience points? I don’t think they’ll be enough to improve my mind, but where else can I put them? How do I find that out?

This time, I saw a whole set of windows respond to my thoughts. On the first window, I saw the parts of my body, on the second – my internal organs, and on the third – my genes.

“Wow, these also indicate the stats that these parts provide me with.” I said, amazed. I took a careful look at them and figured out that the total amount of stat points I got from them was twenty.

Okay, so that means if I’m level four, then each level has five points worth of stats. Therefore, to increase my level, I just need to get different body parts that would add more stats. The only question is, why should I raise my level, and what benefit will it give me?

Your mind is limited by your brain. Nevertheless, it went beyond its limits!

20 points of experience received!

These messages made me think carefully and a strange thing suddenly happened to me, after which I passed out. I don’t know how long I lay there, but when I woke up, another message appeared.

Your brain could not cope with the pressure created by your mind!

Be careful, this can cause your death!

Does that mean I cannot afford to think properly then? Tsr-r-tk! I made a noise with my jaws as if I were eating a stone. I was angry at this limitation. Who came up with this? Absolutely angry at such an injustice, I went ahead and began eating some of the moss again.

“Where are you heading, kid?” a voice sounded from nearby.

I looked around but saw no one. It was strange, very strange. It seemed as if I’d begun to hear imaginary voices. Maybe I shouldn’t have eaten this moss.

“I’m here, over here!” the same voice said, and a large stone rolled aside, a large beetle crawling out. It was larger than me but smaller than Trirlil had been. He had big, dark gray eyes and a black shell. His long, white mustache hung down to the ground. His jaws resembled the two-legged’s claws; however, they were slightly smaller.

Khha, level 45

“Who are you?” I blurted out and coughed. How strange this was: every time I wanted to say something, my throat began aching.

“Use the jaws, lad,” the old fellow said. “Don’t try to copy the rippers. At your level, it’ll be very difficult to speak their language. You’d better wait a bit, get stronger and modify yourself.”

“Who are you?” I repeated the question using my jaws, and then it was much easier, although it felt unusual to me.

“Much better now,” the old fellow nodded. “I am Khha, a cave bug. As far as I understand it, you are the karkants’ offspring. Did you manage to escape from the rippers?”

“But who are the rippers?” I was surprised, although I remembered that Cytrilct had also used this word.

“They are the two-legged,” the old bug clarified. “They’re called the rippers because after they kill us, they take our bodies apart”.

“Yeah… they killed me, and I couldn’t do anything, and neither could Cytrilct and Trirlil,” I said, feeling sad.

“That’s bad, you cannot allow yourself to be killed,” the cave bug said and asked. “Where are your parents?”

“I buried them under some stones,” I replied. I noticed that the old fellow was looking at me intently.

“You are quite unlucky,” the beetle sighed. “They were on their last rebirth.”

“What does that mean?”

“Everyone who happens to be in this cave, except the two-legged, has a certain number of rebirths available to them. This determines the number of times you can be reborn if you’re killed. The higher your level is, the more times you have. Your parents were on their last lives, so they just didn’t have time to explain everything to you. However, no one knows the exact number of their lives. You will find it out only when you have three lives left.”

“But why do the two-legged kill us?”

“Everything is simple,” the bug clacked its jaws. “To get stronger. They kill us, they gain experience, we kill them, we gain experience. The stronger one wins. Natural selection. Besides, they usually go up to the Highers, to get antiquities. They aren’t always aware of why they need them, but, apparently, there is a reason, if they keep going there.”

“How do I stay safe then?” I asked the completely logical question because I was very weak, and I didn’t want to die again.

“There is no definitive answer to this question,” the cave bug shrugged its legs. “Everyone tries in their own way. I hide under the stone, someone digs into the ground or climbs to the ceiling, some use disguises, others hide in the farthest corners of the cave, though that’s not always the best way. Whose method is better? Only the gods know. In short, think up a way that suits you. I’m sorry, lad, but I can’t help you, I have only three lives left, and I don’t want to die at all.”

“Can you answer a couple more questions?”

“Of course,” the old fellow scratched his shell with his legs. “There’s still some time left, so go ahead and ask me.”

“Who are the Highers?”

“They’re also locked in this cave like we are, but they surpass us in every way. Even numerous groups of rippers cannot defeat them completely. Each of the Highers guards their dungeon level, and so far, the two-legged have failed to defeat all of them, and that makes them incredibly angry.”

“And why do we speak the language of the two-legged?” I asked the old fellow.

“You see, no matter how badly we are massacred, there are always those who look upon us not only as a source of experience but also as living beings. Such two-legged are extremely rare, but they do exist, and it’s very difficult to encounter them, but it is quite possible. We can exchange something with them or find out something from them. Besides, there are some good ones among them. And can you imagine what a funny face they make when they hear the words of their language coming from a beetle? Regardless of their race and class, it’s always amusing. Now I need to clarify something: the two-legged are divided into races, and each of them has its own direction, which is called a class. This class can strongly affect their character, but their astonishment is always sincere, and their faces take on an indescribable shape. But my jokes have gotten me into trouble and now I only have three lives left. Now I would like to ask you a question. Why did you cover the bodies of your family with stones?”

“I don’t know,” I replied after a while. “Something inside me was sure that it would be the right thing to do.”

“That’s weird.”

“Why is hiding in the farthest corners of the cave not the best option?”

“Because not all of our kind are... good,” the cave bug answered after a hesitant pause. “And those who are like that also hide in the farthest corners and can even kill someone of their own kind that`s why I think so. To tell you the truth, the mechanisms of the ancients can also activate sometimes, but that happens quite rarely. Alright, you will have to ask someone else the rest of your questions, I have to go and fetch some food.”

“Can I help you?” I asked hopefully since I needed to find out what I could eat besides the moss. The old fellow looked at me skeptically but then decided to give me a chance.

“Hmm... why not?”