[ 3 days later ]

Sunny waited patiently in bed for his dream to end. He saw breasts in front of him, pushing tightly against the crystal. Those were not real. After all, boobs only exist in fairy tales.

“Do you feel it?” A female voice asked.

“Boobies.”

“Exactly, Master.”

Sunny raised his head. A pair of dark eyes smiled back at him.

“I knew tha—“

“UWAAAAAH!!! SEIDON, HELP MEEE!!!”

The wooden door flew off its place as the slime burst into the room. A tiny crown of flowers adorned his head, which fell off as he approached the end of the bed.

“Sunny-gonyo! What’s wrong?”

“WHAT DO YOU MAN WHAT’S WRONG?! There’s a monster beside m--”

But he stopped, seeing his friend’s confused eyes. He turned and took a closer look at the monster.

“Master, did you have a nightmare? Don’t worry, I’m here! There’s nothing to be afraid of. I’ll protect you.” Said the ‘monster’, before hugging him with two pairs of arms.

“L-Luna?”

Sunny couldn’t believe his eyes. His moth friend has evolved!

Her head and torso had kneaded into a more human form, turning the first two pairs of legs into hands while turning the hind legs into sharp walkers. Snow white silk covered these body parts, acting as a soft pillow on her hard chitin armor.

Her wings were also fluffy. They were long and painted with shapes, reminiscent of a queen’s mantle.

A white mane sat on her head, serving as both hair and scarf. Her eyes remained similarly dark, and a tiny mouth appeared on her face, smiling.

“Good morning, Master!” She waved and slowly got out of bed. “In my dream, I saw a plethora of options I could have evolved into. ‘Demon Butterfly’, ‘Elemental Moth’, ‘Silk God’... yet this one stuck out, being the most human of them all.”

“You chose solely based on appearance?”

“Yes! Because I wanted you to like my—“

Bang!

As soon she got out of bed, Luna fell headfirst on the ground.

“Ugeeh! It hurts…”

“Damn, it must be tough to learn how to walk. Like learning how to ride a bycicle.”

“A bycicle?” She dusted off her silk and stood up. “But anyway, come and check my stats! Let’s see how cool I’ve become!”

“Nyope. I don’t want to get jealous of you guys, so I decided to wait with stats until my own evolution!”

“You’re lame.”

“I know.” He said proudly. “Anyways, speaking of evolution, we should head to the shaman’s temple. It turns out I can’t evolve just by sitting around, gotta’ do some voodoo shit.”

Seidon complied without saying a word, swallowing the pink gem and placing Luna on his back. He then headed for the temple, crawling out of the small house.

Ash covered the road. As depressing as the burnt houses were, the air was full of hope. The shroom men worked tirelessly to rebuild their homes. They used tools and ideas Sunny suggested, using his memories from the previous world.

“Are you sure that shaman can be trusted?” Luna asked.

“I don’t think he has any ill-will, especially after we defended the village. But even if he has, we got no one better.”

“That’s true.” She lay back on the comfy slime. “I wonder what happened with that spider’s corpse. It disappeared when I regained consciousness.”

“Must’ve been the villagers. She destroyed their village, so I bet they took revenge on her corpse.”

“Meh, I don’t know. It’s just weird. Mainly because after it disappeared, a hill grew in its place. Full of blooming flowers!”

“That’s where Children-gonyos got the lilies for my crown!” Seidon joined the conversation. “They love that hill! It’s so pretty!”

“It is! Sunny, do you know anything about it?”

Sunny did not answer immediately. He pondered a bit as the subject evoked bad thoughts in him. But between those clouds of sorrow was a beam of sunlight, no matter how tiny, reminding him of the freedom she had achieved in the end.

“No, I don’t know anything about the hill. But it’s pretty.”

In the temple, the usual sight awaited him: the shaman was sitting behind a purple fire, throwing various dust on the ember.

“Here you go, Gonyo!” Seidon placed him on the other side of the large campfire.

“We’ll wait outside.” Luna hugged the gem before leaving.

Sunny was left alone with the shaman. He knew what to expect, so he waited patiently for the mushroom to finish with the preparations.

“Thank you. For everything. Even though you have no mouths, you’ve taught me more than I expected. I’m grateful for that. Thus, how about I give you a name? Like… Pan! Yes. Pan, you should be.”

[ Naming Requirements ]

[ Your Essence is at Least 4 ]

[ Creature is at Least Level 1 ]

[ Creature Accepts Name Willingly ]

“Yup! So, let me just…”

[ Conditions are not Met ]

[ Naming was unsuccessful ]

“Wait, what? But my essence…”

The shaman continued with his preparations without looking at the gem.

“You refused my offer? But… well, whatever. I might be smarter than a moth, but I will never be smart enough to understand a mushroom.”

The shaman reached into the fire and took a handful of glowing ash. Then he began to walk around the campfire, scattering the dust. Once the circle was drawn, he grabbed his skull wand and slammed it into the fire.

Bwam!

The walls tore apart and stars rose in their place. Sunny found himself in space again, hovering in his human form. A dragon rose from the campfire, embracing the cosmos with its tail.

“It’s you again!”

The dragon reached into space with his huge claws. He placed three different colored stars in front of Sunny, then stood back, leaving room for the boy.

“Uh… Hey, what am I supposed to do now?”

The dragon remained silent.

“Thanks for nothing…”

The three stars were all very different.

One glowed blue. Faces floated around it like moons. Some cried, some laughed, all of them bore different emotions.

Sunny didn't like that star. Looking at it made him uncomfortable.

“No, not that one…”

The second star was ~/ groovy /~. Different colors alternated in it. There were many small things floating around the ~/ groovy /~ star, such as fireballs, pebbles, and snowballs.

As Sunny looked at the ~/ groovy /~ star, he didn’t feel too ~/ groovy /~.

“No, that wasn’t made for me…”

And finally, there was the last one.

This star looked similar to the others in form. A tiny lime green star. There was nothing floating around it.

Still, somehow it was different. Somehow it was able to grab Sunny's attention. To him, it almost felt like the star was trying to communicate. And Sunny could almost understand what it wants, what the star was whispering about.

“Yes. That one.”

Sunny carefully approached the star. He observed it from every angle, from left to right, top to bottom, up close and from a distance.

Yes. This was the star.

“Alright!” He grabbed the star as if it was a ball. “What now? Do I have to eat it?”

A message popped up, though full of unintelligible text.

[ đä3äĐÍÄ8䳣$ß ]

[ Are you sure you want to đĐÄÍß5×& ]

[ WARNING: 0% Percentage of $$×v6ß

“Uh… what? I haven’t… really seen anything like this before. So… what?”

He looked at the dragon for an answer, but it remained silent.

“A-Alright… sure. I’m sure I want to do… that… thing. Whatever it is. Yes.”

[ äđ@$34Łđ Successfully Chosen ]

[ Beginning äĐ42Ł7$×… ]

The last text didn’t seem to go away. The star behind it began to glow stronger and more brightly. Sunny tried covering his eyes, but that was useless. It shone with such bright light that the cosmos lit up. The other stars also joined in, flashing their lights.

“W-What’s happening? Hey, make it stop!”

The dragon burnt bright. Raising its menacing head, he let out one final thunderous roar. And as the light devoured everything, it suddenly...

Stopped.

Sunny was in the temple again. The walls were fixed and there weren’t any noisy dragons.

“Oh, thank god! Sensei, you won’t believe what happened!”

The campfire didn’t burn anymore. There was no smoke or ash left behind. The tent was also gone, and with it the shaman too. Sunny was alone in the room.

“S-Sensei?”

As he looked down, two things have changed.

First, he wasn’t floating inside the gemstone anymore. He saw the world as if the gemstone itself was an eye. He was also a bit smaller.

Second, there was a small bag in front of him. It looked like the ones the shaman used for his spells.

“Uwaah, I feel like my head is about to explode! Too many questions for today, way too much.”

He grabbed the bag and headed for the exit.

“God damn it! I feel much weaker! This crappy evolution didn’t do any…”

He stopped and looked around. Long, leafy, green vines were attached to his body. They were pretty thin but strong, which allowed sunny to hold the bag and crawl using them.

Confused, he looked at the vine and thought of waving. And the vine waved, just the way he wanted it to.

“Holy shit…”

Luna was waiting next to the entrance. She leaned against the wall and watched as Seidon played catch with the kids. A rare peaceful moment.

“Alright!” Sunny said enthusiastically while exiting the temple. “Pack up, boyoz! We’re leaving the village tomorrow!”

“Someone sure is happy, hehe!” Luna chuckled, before gasping in surprise.

Sunny built a body from stones and vines, in a human image. The stones replaced the most important bones, while the vines held his body together.

His head was a horseshoe-shaped rock with the gemstone serving as an eye in the middle. His hands were tangles of vines, that he used to hold the shaman's former wand and bag.

Luna covered her mouth in surprise.

“W-Who are you?”

“My name is Sunny! I’m a dungeon core!”