-How much did the next size increase cost again?

Increase Size? Cost: 2 000 (you have 1 976)

...Yeah, that still costs a whole bunch, huh? Alright, we’ll ignore that for the moment! What else, what else… Well, regeneration has never once been out of place. I’m kind of starting to wonder if there are any other skills out there, though? I kind of wish there was one, just so I’d have something cheap to waste my points on it. Sure, I get that I apparently only get these kinds of things in - what? - times of great crisis? But still.

Alright, how much for the next regeneration?

Increase Regeneration? Cost: 450 (you have 1 976)

...That is much cheaper than I imagined. Fuck it-, how much for the upcoming ones?

Increase Regeneration? Cost: 590 (you have 1 976) Increase Regeneration? Cost: 700 (you have 1 976) Increase Regeneration? Cost: 850 (you have 1 976)

Okay, so, according to the math things in my head, I can afford like three of these. Wack. Buy ‘em!

1 976 -> 236

Nice. I wish I could feel this stronger, like a surge of power coursing through me, but I really can’t. So, in order to test it, I’ll do the usual.

I rip off one of my primary arms and eat it, which goes way quicker than I feel it should.

The whole arm regenerates in around 15 seconds. Which is just-, impressive? Genuinely. I could lose like three arms and recover in less than a minute! Neato!

Now, what to do.

See, I could go upstairs. Climb the wall, maybe try to find my way out of these endlessly winding halls. It would likely take days and be boring as shit, leaving me barely any stronger than I was upon arriving. And then there’s the second option. Follow the eel. Maybe even find and eat him? In which case I’ll likely gain a lot of points that I can use to grow bigger and escape this damn place much faster. Supposing I don’t die, that is.

In other words, I head for that cavern the eel had slipped into. Slippery fucker. I’ll have his head for a mount!

But, as always, the journey is the treasure, and so are the friends (snacks) I make (find) along the way.

236 -> 678

Leftover leeches and suction cups and weird wiggling worms, all sporting antennae. But by this point, I’ve already come to recognize that allowing the creature to observe me and do that weird antennae dance will summon the eel, which would be-,

...Exactly what I want. Okay, alright. Sure. Fine! I didn’t consider that aspect before eating them, so maybe I’m the stupid one, but…

There. There’s a suction cup right over there, hung loosely over a stalagmite like some sort of throwaway gown. I approach it with nothing but discontent in my heart. It’s not like it looks up at me or something, but its antennae move regularly and I can tell exactly what’s running through its mind. “The heck is that? Enemy? Friend? Hmmm…” But I have no time for such trivialities, so I just grab it. This makes it panic.

Its antennae whip back and forth wildly, and once I start hearing that familiar rumble, I pop it in my mouth.

678 -> 688

It’s coming. I’m less afraid now. I know what to do before I even see its horned face.

And that is to move to the wall and plaster myself onto it. Flat against it, I watch as the eel approaches at amazing speeds, its horns nicking the cavern and chipping off stalagmites and stalactites alike. Finally, it explodes right to where I am, tearing off a fair piece of my body, but not enough. The wound heals in mere seconds. It stops, turns about, sniffing the place, its antennae groping about in the empty space…

I hop onto its back. And for just a moment, it seems confused. And then it must notice that I’m neither parasite nor friend.

It begins to thrash, but by that point I have already begun my plan. I burrow my tentacles inside its supple flesh, biting and tearing before it even has the sense to whip its head and myself into the surrounding walls. Within mere seconds, my entire body has slipped inside the massive eel, tearing and eating whatever I can get my hands on, be it flesh or bone. My plan is a bit more complicated though, and I angle myself sideways, stretching out my limbs inside of it, chewing away at the one place it can’t get to, until, finally…

I’ve fully chewed off its head.

The wound I gouged out opens up completely and I gleefully emerge from within, seeing how the creature’s head falls with a silent thud and a small cloud of dust. If I could reliably grin with all these mouths, I would! I just bested that fucking beast! Heck yeah, this is-,

...Why is the body still moving?

No, I’m serious. I’m still half-submerged in this thing’s flesh, so I can clearly feel the muscles and tendongs moving, twitching. Post-mortem movement is fine, but this is-,

Yeah, okay, the body is being pulled deeper inside. The head is kind of being dragged along by a few scraps of skin and flesh, but-, oh, no, wait, it just tore off. Goodbye, head. You were not very kind to me, though I kind of wish you would have been?

Hm. Well, wherever it is I’m going, I guess it can’t hurt to dig in while it’s still happening.

I chew the flesh closest to me.

Kind of meat-y. Almost everything else I’ve eaten here has mostly had this sort of alien non-organic texture, but this is just straight-up meat. Which I can sort of appreciate, but without the meat-taste, it feels very off. Raw flesh. Not as tasty as some make it sound. 4/10. Better than much.

And this is still going, huh? Dragged deeper and deeper, faster and faster, and I don’t even know where it’s going. Chomp chomp.

It’s probably fine.

As I get deeper and deeper into the bowels of the asteroid, the atmosphere seems to… change. There’s something artificial about the cave system. Something dug-out. It seems to fit the body I’m inside almost perfectly. Had I been stuck on top of this creature, I would easily have slipped off. That’s how form-fitting these holes are.

And until I reach the bowels of the beast, I don’t truly understand why this is.

I and the eel both emerge into a massive, dug-out cavity containing it.

It is a massive creature. The eel-like body I reside in, the one I thought was a singular creature, is apparently merely a single tentacle of a creature almost as large as the leviathan. Flesh; writhing, moving flesh, stretch out in all directions around me. Merely looking at it gives the impression of a vast collection of immense snakes, all wrapping around each other, collected in a pit of a pile. Parts of this seemingly endless ball of taught bodies seemed to slip inside various holes in the walls of the pit. One of these was the cave that I and the body I’m inside emerged from.

I’ve continued eating, but now, the body I’m inside heaves, rising up before this pile of infinite bodies. Not a single eye is visible. Only a hair-like collection of feathery antennae, poking out like a thin mane from every part of that body. These move in mesmerizing patterns, some of them moving over its own body, others touching the ceiling of the pit, and yet another few brush over the decapitated part of the body I reside in.

It doesn’t react very strongly. There’s a moment of stillness and quiet, its antennae stifling in their movement, and then…

Nothing. I think.