These centipedes were smaller than the one Basil just took down, but that means they were quicker and could attack places that he couldn't defend fast. His size and form could become a problem in the long term against creatures of different sizes and shapes, but that was a problem for another time.

The Ceadcem looked at its brother's dead body and went for Basil's throat in less than a second. They went in different directions to distract the creature that killed one of them. Basil focused his sight on one and didn't wait for a signal. If he let himself get surrounded, he would be in a problem. Unlike the other bugs, these things were more dangerous with their bodies than the others' pincers.

He got near one of them, but the thing noticed what he was planning and tried to escape. Basil saw this too, and instead of following, he turned around. He pounced at the one that was preparing to do the same thing to him. They were smaller, which meant they are weaker.

Basil trapped the centipede with his claws and ravaged its body quickly before its brother could save it. The Ceadcem stopped squirming after having all its cores destroyed. Basil was already having the other trying to cut or pierce his scales with its pincer, and he took this opportunity to practice a little with his new ability.

His body was getting strange each day, and the things he consumed were in its majority the culprits of this, but every time it happened, it felt right in his brain.

Basil captured the slime centipede and destroyed most of its segments so it couldn't move more; the screeches were loud and with a gurgling sound added to it. Basil didn't pay any attention. He dragged his catch to a corner of the cave and began to think while doing so.

He already understood that he could eject bones out of his body and knew that his form right now was getting bigger each time. Basil changed and grew but now asked himself, "what could he do to protect his not so easily reachable parts now?" He was flexible, yes, but that could begin to disappear if he didn't do something about it and kept following the natural way his body changed him.

Basil took his hostage and, with a rock, canceled its movement by putting it on top of the body's mangled part. He took his distance and tried to eject one of his bone spikes; they were expelled upwards. That surprised him and made him run because they could pierce his body if they went down.

To his misfortune, one of them got him and pierced his tail. Basil cried and pulled out the spike with rage. Basil didn't know how to count, but his logic told him that there was at least a limited amount of nails he could shoot out of his back.

All the spikes were different in size but similar in appearance, and after he shot them, he could feel new ones forming simultaneously. They couldn't go a long distance but were enough to protect his back.

Basil kept practicing only to launch one or less of them, he could eject right now five of them, but if he knew how to count, he could understand that. He had a goal in mind; sometimes they could go high, another they didn't eject with force and were only pulled out of his body.

These events intrigued him, but he killed the centipede to put it out of its misery before he could practice more. Its cries were annoying him, and it seems he only needed the body for the practice with the spikes, but sadly it converted itself into a puddle by the time he destroyed the last nucleus. These circumstances didn't deter Basil's curiosity because he continued analyzing his body.

Minutes passed, and Basil successfully made only one spike to get ejected, so he decided to investigate another part of his body. His claws were one, and he tried to make them grow or remove themselves. They didn't do such a thing, and he thought they were bones too; maybe he was wrong?

He also tried to make one of the bones in his paw grow in any direction. There was an effect, a painful and bloody one at that, a spike made of bone grew out towards the ground with great speed and broke itself against the rocks from the force at which it ejected out of him; Add to that punctured flesh and veins in its path. Basil tried to retract the bone, and it complied; he looked at his claws and noticed the hole his bone made. It hurts.

Basil kept investigating with his limbs because he was a little scared of the thought of destroying something meaningful in his body. His legs and claws would heal just fine, something inside his torso not so much if he did something stupid,

He was beginning to understand why one needed to know its body fully. Basil made many holes in his legs, and the floor was a little dirty from his blood. There was something he was not doing right. "Why the ones in his back pulled out just fine, and in his legs, it makes a mess? Maybe it was the direction?"

He tried something different this time. Instead of a random direction and size, he tried to create a thin spike in the same path his claws were facing and from one of his fingers. There was no excruciating pain, only a tiny pinch and the bone nail he wanted in his finger.

Basil learned something important. You couldn't pull a bone out of a body with speed; it could create a mess instead. Basil spent more minutes experimenting with each finger and arm until satisfied. This ability was not something he could use right now for his defense or attack; well, only the spikes in his back were useful.

Basil got up after resting for a bit, he looked at his surrounding, and there were no more of those centipedes in sight, so he continued his journey evading the center of the cave. Maybe those things patrolled that area the most.

Unfortunately, he encountered many more on his path, even if he tried to hide behind rocks. Still, these were the little ones instead of the big one he fought first, so he dispatched them fast as they were alone in each encounter, so it was easy for him at least. However, his thirst was something only water could quench and not some slimy goo.

Basil was getting a little anxious after walking for so long and still not seeing even a drop of water, and that if a lizard can get tense, he could still see the tiny dots of turquoise with his vision some lines too. He was getting closer, but he was not so sure.

"He is looking for something."

"I can notice that, Mardok."

"You don't have to be sassy, Evalyne."

Evalyne was lying down on the bed incorporated in her suite and looking at the ceiling where the many screens were floating, showing the status, vitals, and Basil's situation. In another one, smaller than the rest, was the solemn face made from the bark of Mardok, well not so serious if he could say it.

"He is learning and getting more intelligent." — Replied Mardok.

"Yeah, that is what worries me a little."

"You are getting worried about him getting smarter?"

"It's not what you think, I am happy and excited to see what he could and would do with each change, but there is something that gives me a bad feeling."

"Like what exactly? If you could elaborate."

"Let me explain when someone is too intelligent; this can create many paths for the individual." — she said while showing a hand— "one. Being overly cautious about everything and have nothing done at the end. Two, being a smarty ass and think everything is under your control no matter what and then having it explode on your face at any given time. Three, suppose you don't need anyone because the world is yours to conquer. I think this is the worst because it is the world that destroys you in the end. Four, understanding the importance of everything in your surroundings and knowing that every action has a response like Karma dictates. With it, you can create your path to real survivability."

"Mmmmm, you are worried he will fall in one of the first three if he gets overconfident or too careful?"

"Not only that, this could kill him fast." — Replied Evalyne while letting out a sigh. — "Right now, he is a curious creature trying to analyze everything. I hope you saw him practicing his control over that new ability that you guys told me to buy for him. "The bone manipulation thing." oh, it almost killed him, by the way. Why didn't you tell me the body had to be invaded by an imbued splinter?"

"You would have given it to him if you knew?"

"No, not really. But it's already done."

"You expect him to survive, yes or not?"

Evalyne got up from the bed.

"What I expect is for him to thrive, and right now, this gamble is only getting started."