I had been hiding out in the trees for two days now. While still dangerous, it was almost boring at times, especially during the day. I really didn’t want to risk exposing myself too often since it would only take a single monster spotting me to absolutely get decimated. So, I’d spent most of the time sitting in the trees, occasionally getting down to eat and store some fruits, and constantly watching the other monsters, whenever one showed up.

I’d learned quite a bit about the various monsters visiting the oasis, which would definitely turn out helpful once I had to fight them, but now I’d seen most of the native monsters. Sure, there were probably more diverse monsters depending on where you’d go on the third layer, but at least around here, there were around thirty or so different monsters that showed up regularly. Not counting whatever was swimming around in the water.

I was watching around for some fight that I could spectate, but everything was calm right now. I briefly considered getting some more fruits, when a ripple in the water caught my attention. Some sort of two-headed fish emerged, its two heads on a swivel, scanning the shore for some prey. Its two mouths were pretty elongated and had barbs lining them. I hadn’t seen one of those before, so I curiously watched it for as long as I could.

It looked around a bit more, and after not finding anything worthwhile, redirected its gaze toward the trees along the shore. Just to make sure, I carefully retreated a bit, so that only the very tips of my eyestalks poked over the edge of the leaf I was hiding on. Both of the heads scanned over my position, not even shortly lingering on my spot. Of course, I assumed that I’d not been discovered, my stealth holding up to scrutiny once again.

I was wrong.

Without warning, the heads snapped to look in my direction, and jets of high-speed water left their mouths. I barely had time to be surprised, before both jets hit me in my foot, launching me off the leaf. I hurtled through the air, trying to process what went wrong. The pain I experienced quickly let me know that both water jets had cut clean through my body, two holes now decorating my body.

I quickly threw up my stat screen to check on my HP, and it was already dangerously low. I mentally cursed at the fish for spotting me as I landed on the ground with a wet slap. My eyes darted back to the lake keeping watch on what little I could see from the shoreline and it didn’t take long for the fish to pop out its head from the water, perfectly in between the trees so it had a straight shot at me.

I cursed again, making a mad dash for the cover of a nearby tree. Of course, in my case, it was a very slow mad dash. I kept one eye trained on the fish, watching for the moment it’d shoot at me again, and as soon as I saw the shot coming, I activated both of my defensive skills.

One of the shots barely missed me, but the other one slammed into my side, sending me flying once again. It hurt like a motherfucker, but thanks to my skills, at least there wasn’t another hole in my body. Of course, my HP was even lower than before, and I’d consider myself to be in mortal danger.

The fact that I’d been sent flying again, meant that there was now even more distance between me and the fish. I wasn’t sure if it even had a way of collecting my dead body from so far away or if it just wanted me dead for my XP, but I wasn’t about to kick the bucket because some stupid fish spat at me.

I landed pretty close to a tree this time and managed to get the trunk between me and my assailant, just in time for another volley to impact the tree. There was only one way for me to survive, and that was to keep at least one tree between us while gaining as much distance from the water as I could. If I managed to either gain enough ground or put enough trees between us, I’d consider it a win.

The fish seemed to realize this as well and started haphazardly shooting in my general direction. Water bullets impacted the ground next to me or the tree behind me and I suddenly got worried that the tree might fall over and onto me. Getting out from the palms protection would be even more dangerous since it’d have a clear shot, so I just had to pray. Eventually, I reached another tree and while I was in the process of switching cover, more bullets scraped along my body, most of the damage deflected by my skills and the fact that the shots lost some power over this distance.

I continued to use the trees as a shield until I noticed that no more shots were coming my way. Carefully peering around my current protection, I could not see the lake anymore. So I breathed a sigh of relief and decided to put some more distance between me and the water. I’d been fine so far, but if there were more of these kinds of monsters in the water, I wouldn’t be as safe over there as I thought.

Sure, there could be monsters on land that might be able to spot me with their skills, but moving away from the water would eliminate any and all possibilities of fish-based assault. I could just drink the juice from the fruit, so I didn’t need to stay near the lake and put myself in more danger than necessary. In fact, it would probably behoove me to try and find some sort of hidey-hole around here.

For now, I needed to restore my HP, though. And there was no better way to do this than eating a monster since my Gluttony passive would provide me with a lot more healing than my passive regeneration could. I got into a nearby cluster of bushes and took out one of the monsters I had in my inventory.

Back when I met the hunter I managed to snag myself four corpses, and I hadn’t eaten any of them so far. The fruits were more than enough to sustain me, so I’d kept the monsters for situations like this. The monster I took out was a huge, spiky, scarab of sorts, and I quickly got to work on eating it. During the mindless task, I reminded myself again of what I wanted from my next evolutions.

A faster way to consume my prey. Unlocking my Agility stat. More offensive abilities.

These were the three main things I needed. I knew I could probably not get all of them at the same time, but I’d already be happy if I could just get rid of that damned agility restriction. I could get a faster way of eating by spending mutation points, which I’d most likely get when I evolved. And in terms of offensive abilities, I could probably get some new magic depending on what evolution I picked.

But again, I just needed to survive this stupid quest first. It was my seventh day since it began, so I was officially at the halfway point. Just seven more days and I’d finally get to fuck up some of these assholes that made my life difficult on this layer. After finishing my food and having topped up my health(I even got a point in constitution!), I started looking for some subterranean hiding spots.

I wasn’t very optimistic about finding a cave or anything, but if there was just a small hole below a tree that I could fit in, it’d serve my purpose well. And if I couldn’t find any, I’d just have to see about making one myself!

Well, I wasn’t able to find a proper hole for me to hunker down, so I went back to creating my own luck. My options for digging were severely limited, so I found myself a spot where a fruit bush was right next to a palm trunk and started digging. One mouth full of dirt at a time.

It was slow going, but if there was anything I was used to, it was being slow. That, paired with the fact that I didn’t have any taste buds, made the whole experience rather cathartic. It was something to work on, to keep my mind occupied. I had to stop at some point because the sun was about to go down, so I climbed up the tree, hid myself among the leaves, and readied myself for another chaotic night.

I wasn’t spotted, thankfully, and once things calmed down in the morning, I descended and started working again.

Since I was already building a shelter, I decided to make it slightly bigger so I could move around in there. There was also the possibility that I’d grow once I evolved, and I didn’t want to get stuck after the fact. I also wanted this hole to become my base of operations of sorts. I needed a place that was secure, where I could return to even after I’d evolved, so I might as well make it big enough.

Not like there was anything better for me to do until my quest was over.

The fact that I was digging beneath a tree meant there were a lot of roots in my way. I managed to dodge around the bigger ones fairly easily, and eventually, I had a small tunnel leading underneath. Once I was properly beneath the tree, I started to expand the space. From now on, I could just spend the nights in my cave, unbothered by whatever was going on in the oasis and continue to excavate during the day.

So I spent the next few days with the construction of my little base, occasionally going out to collect more fruit. I also had to spread out the dirt I’d dug up, or it might draw suspicion from a passing monster if there was just a random mound of dirt lying around.

Alright, that one might have been the paranoia speaking, but after the fish encounter, I wasn’t taking any chances.

Three days later, my cozy little cave was complete. I used the glowing mushrooms from the second layer to provide some gentle lighting, illuminating the smaller roots sticking out from the ceiling. The small root network helped tremendously with stabilizing my cave, so I was thankful that they were around. By now the cave was big enough to fit myself, and probably the corpse of a small to medium monster, so I could even eat undisturbed while I was… “home” I guess.

Calling a dirty hole in the ground home felt weird, but I suppose this was the closest thing to a home I’d ever get in the near future.

So now my big project was finished and I only needed to survive… four more days! I could probably just stay down here, sleep, relax, and eat some fruit until the quest was over. And I was done taking stupid risks for now!

I’d like to assume that I was able to learn my lesson, and the lesson, in this case, was: Literally, everything on this floor could kill me by looking at me funny.

I really lucked out when that two-headed fish went after me, and the only reason I survived was a combination of luck and my upgraded defensive skills. I had no doubt that if I came down here without upgrading them, that second shot would have most likely killed me.

So!

I would just chill down here, not even attempting to check outside until I finished up my evolution!

And four days later, it finally happened!

You have completed a bonus objective!

Survive for 14 days in the third layer (14/14)

Congratulations!

Time to evolve!