They were more mounds of gems here than in any room, stacked high in numerous piles that were practically overflowing with shimmering colour, and it wasn't just gems.

There were silver helmets and gold coins, some unique looking creature skins, and other shiny plant matter, the like I'd never seen before, like they were magpies, attracted to everything that glimmered, and it was curious to see all of their accumulated items.

Their wealth was a lot more than what I'd gathered prior, they had to have been making frequent trips outdoors, and I had to wonder where they had found all their items.

The two snakes looked rather proud of their accomplishments, and Typhon, who truly knew the risk of their actions, was upset with them.

I saw it as an opportunity. If these greedy snakes wanted more jewels, the stinky worm had tons in its belly just waiting to be collected. And so, I told them all about it, much to Typhon's disapproval.

However, since they had no idea where the tunnel to the Middle Stratum was, they would need Typhon to go with them. And due to the danger, they would need to evolve first.

The same condition applied to Apollo, if he wanted to continue working to understand and eventually learn to contain the bottom feeders, he was much too weak right now.

There was too much potential for accidents and Typhon couldn't watch them all the time to make sure they were safe.

What would happen if one day the bottom feeders got senselessly hungry and decided to attack him? For that he needed to evolve to be able to handle them.

I explained this to the three with the aid of Typhon, and the mischievous snakes immediately agreed, seemingly undeterred as they celebrated amongst themselves. And they soon started making plans of what they needed to do.

Heh, was their love of sparkly items this much?

Unbeknownst to them, the stinky worm corpse was the farthest thing from luxury they would ever come to see, and I laughed inside because they were in for a nasty surprise.

Well…all the better for me.

They were the unfortunate helpers I needed for such an occasion, and I made sure Typhon did not disclose the stinky surprise to them. As for Apollo, he seemed determined to evolve but was a lot more hesitant than the two, but I was sure that with frequent hunts with his team, he would meet those requirements eventually.

Ah…they were all so cute.

I was sure I would miss their tiny snake forms when they all got big.

Was this how a proud parent felt?

I was pretty satisfied with my nestlings, aside from the lingering suspicion that things were going a little too well. Perhaps, it was a newfound instinct, and I got the feeling trouble was brewing but I had no idea where it was coming from.

The scorpion creatures were all busy with the apes, and the apes were devastated and still in a war with scorpions.

"You're unusually cooperative." I said to Sensei.

«So?» He ironically asked. «Isn't that a good thing?»

No, it wasn't.

It meant there was definitely something wrong somewhere, some mistake he wasn't pointing out so it would all blow up in my face.

«Or maybe you're being too suspicious and need to calm down.» Sensei suggested. «If you want to bring back Sylrin, shouldn't you do so while it's calm?»

Hmph.

He had a point. I needed Sylrin here in case of trouble.

And the cave needed to go through major corrections when we got back.

«Start by telling them you're leaving.» Sensei added. «You don't want them all to panic by your sudden disappearance.»

"Fine." I grumbled.

He was definitely being weird!

Since Typhon was already here, I informed him first.

[I'm going...to bring back...] What was the word for scaly poison lizard?

[A friend.]

That should work!

Typhon looked confused, but after many attempts at describing Sylrin's scaly form, he finally understood. He grinned at the memory of him, likely thinking of ways to taunt him now that he was much larger.

The dark fae was also excited to hear about leaving the cave.

[Can we stop to see the Nymph?] She pleaded. [I miss her. And I look bad.]

Nymphs, eh? I'd completely forgotten about them - I suppose a quick stop couldn't hurt.

Typhon who understood I would be leaving soon, chose to tell me some troubling news.

On her hunting trip, Ophelia had discovered a cave very similar to ours, only the creatures within were dead and he had a strong impression they had been snakes no different from us.

I was very surprised to hear this.

Of course, the thought had occurred to me that there were other nests besides ours, but due to never encountering another snake all through my escapades outside the cave, I thought they all lived elsewhere, or they had left their nest after some time to join the snake clan.

But according to Typhon, these were fairly recent, and when I asked him how big the snakes inside were, he explained they were no different to that of unevolved nestlings. He seemed to have the impression that had been killed by outside forces, but to me death by starvation seemed more likely, or worse, cannibalism.

And so, when he asked my permission to investigate further, I instructed him not to go there again – at least until the cave was settled and there were no more threats. Typhon agreed, but I could see he was still troubled about it.

I thought it would be even cruller to send him there.

What good would it do him to find out those other snakes had died tragically?

He gained nothing from investigating it, if anything it would only demotivate him to learn our snake parents had abandoned us here to fight it out to the death.

Typhon was better off not knowing how close he came to being one of the unlucky ones.

And so I advised him to put it out of his head.