But I think I might know how to handle the scorched area.

I bring up my three functional mouths and chew away at the burnt area until only clean flesh remains. Only then does it heal as normal, in which case it takes mere seconds.

Jesus fuckin’ Christ. Okay, mental note number two: fire also hurts. Water is the first note. No water, no fire. What the fuck.

With my body recovered, I slowly approach the firesword where it lays slowly scorching the floor. Just its mere presence makes my whole body prick and sizzle in vague, acidic pain. Within five meters of it, I can barely stand to even remain there. It’s like being in a locked sauna cranked up to the top, but there’s no real steaming pain, just a full-on “I am on fire” kind of pain.

I approach slowly. Stretch out one of my arms. As it gets closer, the surface of it starts to scald, turning crisp and rigid, burning my flesh, making my teeth grit in pain, trying desperately to keep back a tremble, keeping myself from admitting the pain the dastardly thing is causing me, until I finally grab a hold of it, the tentacle holding it almost bursting in fire at it, the inside turning tense and cooked in moments, but with a flick of the wrist, I turn it off.

Cool returns and I relax. Jesus Christ. That is-, this is just a terrible thing, huh?

Better eat it then. Call me a coward, call me brave, call me any number of things, but when I stick the turned-off fire sword in my mouth, I do it with the cool indifference of a child that doesn’t understand it’s eating poison berries.

Nocromch.

14 300 -> 27 500

Crunchy texture. Cra-,

Memories hit me in shades of purple. He tamed me as an adult. We were inseparable. He left despite this. I remained. Awaiting his return. Despite it all.

...Wack. Uhh, 2/10 cuz the memories made me feel a little sad.

Man, I’ve got a lot of points now, huh? I wonder what I should use them on… Maybe upgrading resistance will make me less susceptible to fireswords, if there are any more of them. Hm. Now that I think about it, those batons the statues are holding look a whole lot similar to that firesword I just ate, right? Wack.

Then, resistance? Oh, and size as well, of course! Maybe a bit of strength…

...Huh.

I-, I hadn’t thought about it before, but… Um, how am I going to leave this planet once I’m happy?

Like, getting in here was one thing, but what about escaping? If I ate the whole planet I could probably leave it since it would exist, but how many years would that take? No, if I want to leave, I’ll need to, I dunno… Jump? Jump. Shoot up like a rocketship. Well, technically speaking, if my strength and size are both high enough, I should be able to jump out of the atmosphere?

It sounds so fucking stupid when I say it like that but I seriously don’t think I have a choice here.

But, for now, I’ll save that for when I’ve finished exploring this here temple! I’ve already found two crystals, with who-knows-how-many more awaiting me deeper inside!

Let’s go!!

My exploration is cut short the moment I move from the main hall to what seems to lie beyond it. After all, it branches into three different paths! How can I possibly choose??

I go right. There, I find several completely empty rooms of no importance, the singular object in there being a half-corroded chair. Nice to know even humans out in space need to rest their weary behinds. I turn back and go to the left, finding that room to be a bit more of a… Well, it seems kind of like that little workbench I found in the main hall, but the amount of tools is only a few more than out there. There is one difference, though. There are a whole two white crystals and one firesword. Hehehe.

Nom.

27 500 -> 69 250

Hehe. Nice.

...This was the workplace. Temporary, soon to be permanent. There were such detailed plans. Fruitless, but important.

-Wack. I’m not even going to try to understand what these memories mean because, honestly, I kind of don’t care.

And now for the last path, which is right up the main stairs! Beautiful things. Can’t tell if they’re modern or classic. Climbing stairs after all this time feels both right and wrong since my tentacles aren’t really alike legs in the sense of walking. I kind of just drag one in front of the other, and doing this right up a flight of stairs feels very strange.

At the top of these stairs, I’m met with a long hallway adorned on both sides with statues of humans and creatures, most of them only half-finished, but all of them possessing the respect and awesomeness of some sort of fantastic warrior. Walking down that hallway, glancing into the (empty) rooms on either side felt like being inside a cathedral. The kind that’s filled with beautiful things and you want to hold your breath and be super quiet lest God comes down and smack your bum for blaspheming.

And then, just as I start to wonder if there’s nothing else to be found inside the temple, I emerge from the hallway and into what I can only describe as a library. An incomplete one.

Filled with half-stocked bookshelves that stretch toward the high roof. But it isn’t even books! No, these things are some sort of blue tablets, and I have to actively fight the urge to eat one just to see what they hold. Whatever these were, they were important. Kept here for the sake of safety. Disrespecting this temple, as deserted and half-finished as it is, would feel wrong.

Instead, I wander about, looking at the strange machinery and weird computer screens everywhere. And, in the end, I look at the door half-hidden at the end of the room. The only door other than the entrance.

But it’s built like a damn safe!

I know I’m much weaker in this form than in my real form, but even then, I can’t even budge it. There’s some sort of hand-print scanner on the side of it, but, obviously, my tentacle doesn’t cut it. Kind of fun that there’s any power here at all.

...Only one thing to do.

If the idea that my only escape would be by jumping, then upgrading strength will never be unadvisable. So, let’s go!

Three times should be good.

Upgrade Strength? Cost: 900 (you have 69 250) Upgrade Strength? Cost: 1 100 (you have 69 250) Upgrade Strength? Cost: 1 250 (you have 69 250)

Yes, please.

69 250 -> 66 000

Strength courses through me and I grip the sides of the heavy door, the ends of my tentacles almost sinking into the metal, and with a heave and a groan, I tear it off fully. What is presented before me then is a circular hallway, having a much less mystical and more so high-tech aura. The walls are lined with square cyan lamps.

….Whoaaa… Yeah, there has to be something cool in here. As everyone knows, if it’s behind bars, then it’s probably worth busting out!

Let’s g-,

The second I step a tentacle inside the hallway, the blue lights flash into a horrendous shade of pure red. Nothing else happens. Or, well, other things might be happening, but I literally only have two senses, so… That’s a bust, heh. Nothing else seems to have changed here, so I guess I can just go through the hallway? Yeah, let’s go. For realsies!

The room on the other side of the room is… Interesting.

See, I step out onto this weird platform surrounding a weird pillar, and the rest of the room is entirely disconnected from me by a deep chasm. The walls just beyond my reach are all lined with what looks like giant crystals, but… Oh, wait, that pillar in the middle of the room also has these in them, there are even some on the floor. Neat!

I grab one from the pillar, happily nothing that they aren’t stuck or anything.

Hm. Yeah, it’s a crystal alright. Of some sort.

See, it’s not quite just a crystal? For one, it’s like ten times the size of all those other crystals I’ve eaten. Secondly, it also has a clearly defined shape, being surrounded by some sort of frame. Altogether, it seems less natural and more like it has a purpose. Kind of like those crystal-like tablets out there? Maybe, I’m not sure.

I eye the one in my hand. Hmm. Crystal.

Edible?