Reign of Worm 9 Aftermath

So, worms have a peaceful life, eh? Nope! Not even close! I thought being a worm monster would be pretty boring, eat, dig, murder a couple of centipedes, and repeat. At least now I know how weak I truly am. And the best part, I'm pretty sure the beetle wasn't even the strongest thing down here. Why else would it eat such petty monsters?

Actually eat may be a little strong word here. More like playing with us before having a snack. There are still the littered remains of many monsters around the pond, many of which I've never encountered before. That makes sense though, I've only really encountered the acid centipede. Alright, time to stop laying around, I have to get what I can from this before other monsters come.

You know, as bad as this was, it can still be considered pretty good. I've gotten a rude awakening, sure, but I also get some free life matter to take back to home base. I do an approximation of a worm grin as I eat the corpses of some creatures, unlocking their profiles and gaining massive amounts of life matter.

[4 life matter acquired]

[Unlocked basic profile of Shadow Crab]

[2 life matter acquired]

[Unlocked basic profile of Nine-legged Spider]

[8 life matter acquired]

[Unlocked basic profile of Tree Golem]

I'm only able to barely stuff my stomach before I hear the sounds of other creatures approaching. Not wasting any time and risking my life, I grab the biggest chunk of meat my mandibles can hold before diving into my old tunnel and quickly worming back to home base. Not the first tunnel, but the one I made after the battle with Mr. Acid Centipede. I'm not stupid enough to follow that beetle. I don't have a death wish!

Arriving at home, I encounter a problem. Sure there's enough space to store the chunk of monster I took back with me, after all I did tunnel a lot, but I don't know how long the meat is going to last. I would immediately eat it too, but my body would be bloated and I wouldn't be able to move very well. Not something I want to encounter in a scary monster world. The only solution, more tunneling!

---

[Tunnel leveled up to V]

[Tunnel can be evolved for the cost of one skill point]

Hey, wait a minute what? I barely have been tunneling for five minutes! This is too sudden! Oh fine, whatever. What are skill points?

[Skill points are used for evolving skills, and are gained from leveling up]

Oh, so do I have one? This is cool!

[Skill Points available: 1]

[Would you like to add skill point value to status?]

Hell yeah!

[Skill Point value added]

Nice! Alright, let's evolve my tunnel skill!

[Tunnel V has evolved into Terraform]

Terraform? That sounds nice! Unlike evolving my body, evolving skills feels like a brain massage, very nice and calming. Sure wish body evolution was like that!

Speaking of, I seem to have digested most of the life matter I consumed earlier. Let's go ahead and dig into this chunk of fortune! Ugh, it still tastes disgusting.

[8 Life Matter acquired]

[Basic profile of Acid Centipede Warrior unlocked]

Basic acid centipede warrior? So it seems that species can be evolved too. I assume I'll have to level up for that. Probably level 5 or 10. Ugh, that's so far away. Alright, let's spend that life matter!

So we have 22 life matter. That is a fuck ton of life matter! Let's see, let's first upgrade mandibles to five.

[Level limit of Mandibles reached, please select evolution]

Ooh, so we can evolve body parts even more? Damn Nice!

AS I'm wriggling in joy, as worms do, a screen appears before my eyes. Well, my mental eyes anyway. There are a ton of options, hardened mandibles, piercing mandibles, and so on. Some options are even crazier like siphoning mandibles. I'll keep it simple with hardened mandibles. Next, will upgrade my setae to level four, my bristles must be able to keep up! And with 9 points left, I'll upgrade my heat-sensing glands to level four, and my muscles to level three.

[Confirm changes?]

Sigh. Confirm!

ACK!

Chapter end