Arena

[An influx of darkness detected]

[Rapid evolution will now begin]

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Fuck, this hurts so bad! Even the electric chair didn't hurt this much! My limbs feel like they're about to explode!

Shortly, I feel my mind begin to fade before my vision goes completely black.

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[Rapid evolution completed]

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A silky skin has wrapped itself around me as I currently am covered in liquid. Another egg? These results better be good, if not, I don't think it was worth the pain I went through. I'm trained to handle pain, but holy shit. Even pain suppression didn't do a thing.

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[Status]

[Name: Erebus]

[Race: Augmented Hive Thrall]

[Biomass: 0.3 kg]

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[Upgrades] :

[Retractable Sharpened Claws 5] [Evolution requires 10 kg of Biomass]

[Enhanced Ligaments 5] [Evolution requires 15 kg of Biomass]

[Strengthened Carapace 5] [Evolution requires 25 kg of Biomass]

[Pain Suppression 5] [Evolution requires 10 kg of Biomass]

[Weak Corrosive Ability 2]

[Darkness Control 1]

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Holy shit, so many things have changed from that. Level 5 in all of my physical upgrades and my name and race changed. I seem to be 'Augmented' rather than 'Enhanced'. Perhaps the means I have gotten stronger and passed some sort of threshold?

Regardless, it seems like that darkness did me wonders, it's a shame all of my Biomass was sucked dry, I'm really looking forward to evolving one of my abilities.

I wonder which one I should do first? The obvious choice is Enhanced Ligaments or Strengthened Carapace. Those are more expensive than the other two, but I would also be able to hunt more efficiently if I evolve those first.

Enhanced Ligaments is probably my safest bet, it gives me way more agility in fights, something which has led me to even be alive right now.

Whatever, I can think about this when I can actually afford any of them. As of now, I'm just a broke Hive sitting in an egg.

Unsheathing my claws, I slash forwards into the skin of the egg, my claws almost cutting through it like it doesn't exist. How can these get any sharper with evolution? Perhaps at this point they're getting more durable instead of sharp? That would make sense.

Continuing to claw at the egg, liquid bursts out of the hole I made, causing the egg to deflate. As I squirm out of the hole, I see something interesting. A pile of dead Fallen bodies are laid next to me, and some sort of note written in strange runes sits beside it.

I can't read that, I have no idea what it says at all. As I think this, a whirring noise comes from behind me, followed by a deep and distorted voice.

"Dead bodies... granted by Malvūc as part of your reward."

The ghost, it can read that shit? It looks like moon runes to me, it's completely illegible. I know seven languages and that looks like none of them.

Anyways, dead bodies huh? I wonder how much Biomass is in these things, hopefully enough to evolve at least one of my abilities... Probably not. Sadly, these guys seem to have little Biomass that gets transferred to me.

There has to be somewhere that I can get loads of Biomass... wait!

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[Mutiny:

Kill Malvūc and destroy his worm]

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What if I ate his worm instead? The way this is worded, it seems that the worm might be something super important, so who knows how much Biomass that can give me? Perhaps it can thrust me to evolve all of my current upgrades?

Is it even possible for a worm to give that much Biomass? How is the given Biomass even calculated? There are so many things I don't know about this ability. Hopefully, those questions will one day be answered.

I look over to the pile of Fallen bodies, there seems to be six of them. My mouth begins to uncontrollably salivate at the sight of all this food, why on Earth am I always so fucking hungry?

Taking a corpse from the top of the pile, I sink my teeth into the tough skin of the Fallen body. Blood flows into my mouth, washing the meat down my throat. If I were still human, this would be disgusting. Thankfully, this body has different taste buds. 

As the final bite of the first body flows into my stomach, I throw the rags that the body was wearing off to the side. For some reason, however, it seems to fall onto the ground with a hefty weight to it, unbefitting of the clothing it had. 

Walking over to investigate, I begin to search through the rags, and as I look through the inner pockets of the shirt, I find a small sphere, almost completely black in color, apart from the inner purple glow. It seems to be some kind of core? Whatever it is, there has to be a reason that the Fallen were carrying it. 

I walk back over to the remaining five bodies, and begin to feast. I make sure to search the clothing of the rest of the bodies, just to make sure that there aren't any more items that I should know of. 

After the five bodies are reduced down to bloody bones and a few organs, ones I can't think of eating even with this body's palate, my hunger seems to be sated slightly. However, I feel no end to what I can eat, not like I have any more food in front of me anyways.

None of the other Fallen had any pieces of loot, which is slightly disappointing but understandable, the Hive must have missed it while preparing the bodies. 

Now then... where should I go? There has to be some things to do on this ship. Now that I think of it, do humans exist on this world? I haven't seen any sign of them. 

Well I guess I can just explore. Something interesting will appear eventually.

Approaching the grey, bone-like door, it seems to detect my presence and open when I get close, and close behind me as I pass through. I begin to walk down corridors, passing by Hive that are consuming small piles of different corpses, plants, and Biomass on the ground. The amount of Biomass they are consuming appears so negligible, it isn't worth the loss of my dignity to eat like that.

I continue to walk by, trying to spot anything. Eventually, I get to a door that seems much larger than the rest, and as I walk closer, it opens with a heavy creak, grinding open as the boney materials grind together. 

As the door opens, I'm revealed to a large open room, with a giant Hive knight with a sword slashing at a different Hive, one with a large weapon that seems to fire off bright blue beams at the knight. Is this some sort of arena? 

The two Hive continue fighting, and eventually, the one with the sword seems to fall dead, as the Hive with a gun jumps onto the knight and begins to consume it.

An arena where you can consume the bodies of those you beat? This is perfect for me!

I walk into the arena, scanning the area. There seem to be hundreds of different battles, at varying stages of Hive evolution. Some seem to be similar to my body when I woke up, others seem to be large hulking abominations. Others are flying Hive, blasting what appears to be fucking magic. 

I have no idea how I'm supposed to defeat the abominations or the flying ones, but I think I can take everything else, probably. 

Before I can continue forward much, a Hive walks up to me, it seems to have grayish-red skin, with a green head, with three green, glowing eyes in the shape of a triangle. It holds a gun in its hand, and it appears to be threatening me.

With a grin on my face, my claws unsheathe, and I sprint up to it. This thing doesn't know what's coming to it!