Scouting
Realizing I can't just fall asleep whenever I wish to, I decided that it would be best if I scouted the area. Potentially bringing back more bodies to eat later. Perhaps if I collected enough, I could just stay in the safe area forever.
As much as that would be easy, it would be insanely boring. I'm a man of thrill, I can't stop just because I'm an alien with some sort of godlike ability.
Leaving the cave, I start running. I don't have any real endpoint in sight, I'm just moving forward. While running, I stay vigilant for any sort of alien base. Perhaps some sort of stash of dead bodies? That's wishful thinking, but a man can hope.
After a while of running, I see some sort of light down a cave tunnel. It isn't any sort of natural light, however it shines a bright blue color. I start to approach stealthily, attempting to stay near the walls as to remain unhidden.
As I get closer, it becomes clear that the location I had found is buzzing with aliens. Several tens of them, all gathered around while making strange chittering noises. One of them seems to be the leader of sorts. It has a larger weapon as well as tougher looking armor. It will be hard to eliminate him without some sort of weapon. My claws don't look like they would be powerful enough, however, maybe I might be able to upgrade them with a rest.
I decide to come back later, retracing my steps to the egg, while hoping to find some stragglers to eliminate as I return. My energy is still high, so I'm not worried about having to return any time soon.
I walk for a few hours, there seems to be nothing in this cave, however, I do find another small group of two aliens. One of them seems to be holding a rife, and appears to be wearing white and red armor instead of the usual brown.
Readying my claws, I dash in fast, taking them by surprise... or so I thought. The red and white one seemed to have anticipated me and was quick to strike, blasting a shot of his rifle in my direction. The shot landed directly into my left arm, blasting it clean off.
This isn't good at all. I was confident in this battle, it seems like the red and white ones are much stronger. Dashing sideways, I take a wide swing at the arms of the red and white alien. My aim is on target, as I slice straight at one of his two arms, knocking the weapon out of it's hands.
This isn't as useful as I thought, however, as it quickly regains composure and punches me in the chest, knocking me back a few feet.
'Gah!'
A groan of pain escapes my chest as my left shoulder throbs in pain.
[Pain Suppression 2 Unlocked]
The pain begins to subside, as the words appear in my head once more. Another useful ability, but nothing to help me out right now. Taking another slash at the alien, I manage to land a solid blow on its chest, leaving a deep groove.
Out of the corner of my eye, I can see the second alien fire a shot at me. Quickly, I move the red and white alien in the way of the shot, as it yells in pain before falling to the ground dead. These guns are much more powerful than my claws. I desperately need to upgrade them.
Seeing that the main problem is dead, I quickly dash in and dispose of the other one.
My body is extremely damaged at the moment, and I can only afford to bring back one of the enemies. Which one is obvious, the red and white one. As I drag the alien back to the egg, I feel my vision start to slowly fade. I have to hurry.
Rushing back to the egg, alien in tow, I manage to make it back second before I pass out. As I do, I see the flash of words reappear in my vision.
.
[Biomass Gathered]
[Upgrades Unlocked]
[You have 3.4 kg of mass to allocate to your body]
[Upgrades] :
- Sharpened Claws
- Weak Corrosive Ability
- Strengthened Carapace
.
Looking at the the new menu, it seems that there is a new option: Strengthened Carapace. This probably means the body I was built with. If it increases my toughness, I won't complain at all, it would make it that much easier to fight.
Defense or offense? In my recent fight, it seems that I'm more lacking in the defensive department. The red and white alien was able to get a shot on me before the fight began, so it wasn't really my offensive capabilities that held me back. On the other hand, I did require the power of the gun that the other alien had to win the fight.
This is a tough decision. However, after mulling over it for a while, it seems like the winner of this choice is the Sharpened Claws. I could always just eat the stored bodies that I have gathered.
After willingly selecting the Sharpened Claws upgrade, my vision should have returned, however, this time it didn't. The text was still in my vision, only with one less option.
.
[1.3 kg of Biomass consumed]
[Sharpened Claws 1 Unlocked]
[You have 2.1 kg of Biomass remaining to spend]
[Upgrades] :
- Weak Corrosive Ability
- Strengthened Carapace
.
Well this was unexpected. It seems that it doesn't wake me up after an upgrade, rather it wakes me up when I've spent my available Biomass. Interesting. Since now I don't have to wait another day, I can select Strengthened Carapace now.
After selecting it, the following words appear.
.
[2.1 kg of Biomass consumed]
[Strengthened Carapace 1 Unlocked]
.
As these messages sat in my field of view, my vision started to return. Shortly, I could see the ceiling of the cave once more, along with the corpses of the previously murdered aliens. I felt hunger consume me, and demand me to eat. It's probably the consumption of the Biomass that made me that hungry.
Regardless, I decided to inspect my changes first.
My claws have lengthened and fined to a point. Before the claws used to have the sharpness of a pair of scissors, now they were about as sharp as a cooking knife. It was a huge improvement, not only would I be able to kill aliens with more ease, I could begin to slice up the dead bodies of the aliens. Eating them whole was a pain.
Along with my claws being sharpened, I noticed that my entire body has turned a deeper grey and parts of it seemed... bulkier? That's not the right word, it's more along the lines of 'more defined'. The odd shaped body I once had was morphed into a more efficient one. The extra bone was ridded of, and probably consumed to strengthen the others.
Bones that had stuck out had now been brought back in, to reinforce my chest. This was a huge improvement. The best part about all this is it seems like my arm has been healed as well.
Now that I've inspected myself, I can eat. And so I did, chowing down on all the corpses of the remaining aliens. Now that I'm not afraid of wasting Biomass, I choose to consume as much as I can.
After finishing the final body, I felt a sharp pain in my head, as some of the messages appeared.
.
[Sufficient Biomass consumed]
[Please eliminate the nearby threats before continuing]
.
Fuck. My helpful ability is turning its back on me. It wants me to kill all of the enemies around here? Theres almost thirty of them! Without killing them off one by one, I have zero hopes of doing this with my current body.
What does this message even mean? Sufficient Biomass consumed? What, am I going to gain magic or something? I guess we will find out later. Now, my mind must be set on killing thirty aliens... goddamit.