Killing the tree had given me an achievement that was a requirement for a future evolution. Still though, a dungeon creature?

Did that mean that…?

I turned around and observed the tunnel leading down.

There was a dungeon here?

Now that I looked at it closer, the tunnel that led down seemed to diverge further down. The dirt walls turned to stone, creating a wide enough tunnel for creatures far larger than me. I would be able to pass through the more narrow mouth leading down, but if I were to grow further, I would have to start removing dirt in order to fit through.

I couldn’t believe I was actually thinking about delving into a dungeon. Then again, I knew how hard getting prey was right now. It would probably be even harder in the near future. Dungeons were known to house many types of creatures, and, very importantly, have many of them in one place. I would have a very good chance of finding creatures that would award experience inside.

I heard a sound coming from down the tunnel and prepared to get away from here as quickly as I could. My mana reserves were almost depleted, after all. It was then I noticed that the sound came from a bunch of practically harmless critters.

Groups of small spiders, large centipedes, and other creepy crawlers made their way up from the tunnel in the tens, if not hundreds. I couldn’t be bothered to move and simply observed them pass under me on their way to apparent freedom. They had probably been trapped in this underground tunnel for quite some time.

I wasn’t focused on them at all as I was simply trying to relax to recover my lost mana and stamina. That was, until I noticed that in the swarm of small creatures with too many legs were several scorpions.

As low on mana as I was, it didn’t take much to kill something that was far smaller than me. I simply aimed with one of my legs and impaled a scorpion’s abdomen.

Achievement earned: Cousin Killer

Kill a scorpion.

You have been awarded 150 EP.

You have been awarded 0 EXP.

Requirement for future evolution complete.

Evolution available!

I heaved a mental sigh. It appeared I now had everything I needed for my evolution, which meant I could just go home again and evolve into the red option.

I decided to wait for a while until my mana had regenerated first.

The swarm of critters abated and I looked down the tunnel once more. I would definitely check out this dungeon, but I’d probably not do it until tomorrow. I was going to have to wait for a while for my regeneration, and then I still had a trip ahead of me.

I started thinking about this tree and how its corpse might attract unwanted attention. I didn’t know how close those humans operated to here, which had me a bit anxious. I would like to be on my way home already, but I was exhausted.

I had no choice but to wait.

And so I waited in the tunnel. In the meantime, I wondered how Cellestra was doing. I’d been gone for a couple of hours, but I was already longing to see her again. Just the thought of her smile made me feel warm inside.

I couldn’t control my tired mind. It kept wandering off to the elf, and I let it. The feelings it gave me, and the warmth it provided were addicting…

I knew it was bad, yet I allowed it to happen.

I waited long enough for my mana to refill completely. I basked in the pleasant feelings that Cellestra’s memory brought while waiting. I wondered how her work on the setup for my shelter was going?

I hoped she wouldn’t hurt herself with backfiring spells…

When I felt confident enough to head out again, I crawled out of the tunnel and inspected the blackened remains of the guardian tree that I’d felled. Most of its branches had been reduced to nothing but ash, but its trunk still remained mostly in one piece. Some of it was still smoldering here and there.

Black clouds had appeared in the sky. I started my way back in a hurry as I realized that rain would be setting in soon.

I hadn’t experienced rain in this new world yet, and I wasn’t looking forward to it, either. I had no shelter yet, and I couldn’t get inside Cellestra’s house anymore. Now that I thought about it, how was I going to take shelter?

There was no place I could hide…

I should have made that shelter sooner.

Then again, I had this evolution I could go through, which was likely to increase my size again. Even if I had made the hanging nest kind of shelter, I would have had to redo it all soon. What a struggle…

I prayed to Elysa that I would avoid any rain, but soon found out it was useless. When I was halfway back, it started to rain. It was only a few drops at first, but it soon turned into a complete downpour.

I had feared that my eyes would suffer from being out in the rain as I couldn’t close them, but I was more than relieved to find out that I couldn’t actually feel it. It seemed my eyes had some sort of protective layer on them that kept them safe from anything poking into them.

Having rain fall on my new body was quite… weird. I felt it pour onto my abdomen and cephalothorax. It wasn’t that I wasn’t used to those body parts, it was just the first time I had felt the rain fall on them. What was worse, the rain was cold, unlike the air around me. The short hairs that covered my body were soon drenched with cold water, which had me freezing.

I recast my barrier spells, hoping it would help protect against the rain somewhat. I had even used my ice wall spell, but found that keeping it floating above me would just drain my mana. I couldn’t afford to waste it on things like this.

So I just hurried back as fast as I could. I still had a long way to go…

I wasn’t in luck. Not right now. One could argue that that fight had been quite beneficial to me. I had, after all, discovered a dungeon, and got to my next evolution. The battle was hard-fought but had made me stronger in the end.

I just sucked it up, as I always did, and kept running.

The rain never gave me any respite. By the time I reached Cellestra’s home, I was shivering from the cold. I was more than a bit worried about my health, and hoped that healing spells could fix whatever happened if I were to fall ill. I was more worried about the fact that I wouldn’t have any shelter.

When her home came into view, however, most of that worry disappeared in a heartbeat as it was replaced by hope… and also, admiration.

Cellestra truly was an angel.

In front of her home were several thin tree trunks that were placed in the ground. There were six trunks in total and they formed a rectangle. On top of those six trunks she had placed wooden panels; four in total that were connected to her roof. She had managed to extend the roof, so that I had shelter outside of the house.

I couldn’t believe that she’d gotten that all done within a few hours. Where did she even get those wooden panels from? I had a hard time believing she made them herself. The trunks I could understand. Those were fairly easy to get, but the panels left me puzzling.

I walked up to the window, and relished the fact that my head and part of my abdomen were now free of the downpour that was still going on. If I turned myself sideways, my entire body should be dry.

I tapped on the glass, and soon, Cellestra exited the building and looked at me with concern.

“Kealyna, are you alright?”

I nodded with my pedipalps. My physical health was fine… I think?

“No, you’re not. You’re shivering.”

I turned so that I was fully sheltered from the rain as the elf continued. “Hold on a second.”

She walked back inside the building and soon stepped out, barefooted, with two towels in her hands.

“By the goddess. You poor thing...”

She laid one towel on my head and used the other to start drying my abdomen. As she did so, I could feel myself shivering from the cold that had penetrated into my core. I would be lying if I said it didn’t feel nice.

More importantly, her actions, and kindness helped me warm up, both outside and inside.

Cellestra continued drying me, and when one towel was soaked, she used the other to continue her work. Once she was finished, she brought them back inside and walked out with a couple of logs that she placed in the grass before her doorframe.

She lit them with her flame spell and sat down inside, with her feet on the ground outside, next to the fire that was starting to warm me.

I silently thanked her for her kindness.

“I would ask you how things went,” She spoke softly, “But the paper would be ruined in an instant, so I’ll have to make do with yes or no questions for now.”

She smiled at me before continuing. “Did everything go well?”

It didn’t matter how things had gone. She was with me. She had smiled. All was well.