[You have leveled your class.]

Gopher hair, blood, and guts covered me, but in front of me were seven small hearts that fit in the palm of my hand. I decided to rapidly eat them one after another, to see if it changed what I received. The single level I'd gotten from the fighting so far seemed disappointingly low.

[You have devoured an Aggressive Gopher and gained insight into Quickness.]

[You have devoured an Aggressive Gopher and gained insight into Quickness.]

[You have gained a stat in Quickness.]

[You have devoured an Aggressive Gopher and gained extra experience.]

[You have devoured an Aggressive Gopher and gained extra experience.]

[You have devoured an Aggressive Gopher and gained extra experience.]

[You have devoured an Aggressive Gopher and gained extra experience.]

[You have devoured an Aggressive Gopher and gained insight into Cheek Stuffing.]

I shuddered at the overwhelming taste of sweet corn in my mouth, and part of me wanted to gag. Even drinking water from my canteen didn't help with the lingering taste.

Wait, what?

I circled back to the notification about Cheek Stuffing, still trying to ignore the corn flavor. Whatever it was, I didn't learn the skill, which was a good thing. It didn't sound like something I wanted to add to my already full list.

Hopefully, the extra experience would help me gain another level, since only that one for all the creatures I'd killed seemed low. Then again, none of them had hit level 46, and with that one level, I was up to 47. I remembered my note to increase my strength and tossed 15 points in from my free stats, leaving 10. That'd need to be good enough for the moment.

A grumbling came from the cavern ahead, and I took a moment to gorge myself on Gopher meat.

Time to get back into action.

The tunnel widened into a cavern, with a cliff ledge at least three stories high looking down. The grumbling came from a large creature in the center of the cavern below. It barely had any room around the edges of the cavern. Maybe four feet around its body.

[Gopher King, Cheek Pouch Barrage, Level 45, Prey, Corn.]

Then something hit the floor next to it.

[Gopher, Level 42, Prey, Corn.]

The King attacked the much smaller gopher, tearing it to shreds. Another one fell from above, and I tried to spot where it came from. Another dark tunnel entrance sat to my right, with a narrow ledge leading to it that stretched beyond my prey sense.

The sounds of the King fighting came from below as another lower level gopher was pushed backward out of the opening to my right.

I hooked my knife onto my belt and crept along the ledge leading to the opening. Several creatures appeared on my radar, all Prey. Before I stepped into the mouth of the tunnel, another gopher was pushed out and fell below.

[Gopher King, Cheek Pouch Barrage, Level 46, Prey, Corn.]

It had leveled. From killing more gophers.

Part of me wanted it to gain another level, while another part of me worried how fast it'd grow.

Still, I peered into the tunnel mouth, which led to a smaller cavern. A cavern full of gophers fighting gophers.

The aggressive ones were winning. Some of the smaller gophers tried to escape out the tunnel, or were pushed off the ledge, falling to the King below.

I leaned back and studied the area in which the king sat. Behind it, a dark tunnel entrance led somewhere, but I wasn't sure if that was the way to go.

A gopher screamed from the fight and a large gopher fell down below while tackling a smaller one.

Then both hit the stone floor hard. The aggressive gopher head-butted the smaller gopher toward the King. That distracted the King, and the aggressive gopher fled into the hole.

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Yet, somehow the numbers in the tunnel next to me didn't change.

Fuck it.

I crept back along the ledge to the tunnel I'd started at and pulled out my spear. Taking a deep breath, I steadied myself and then leaped over the edge.

Some sense must have warned the King. Suddenly it opened its mouth, and a rock went flying by my head, barely missing.

Then another headed right at me, as I rapidly fell toward the creature.

It slammed into my leg, almost breaking the bone. Two more flew right at me, but I fell too fast. Pain erupted from my left hand as I swiped. Three arcs of light slammed into the first rock, knocking it off its path. The second came on, but missed.

Then I hit the back of the Gopher King as it tried to tuck itself into a smaller target, but it didn't have anywhere to go. The tunnel was too small for it. Screams came from both it and me at the impact. My armor took the brunt of the damage as my spear slammed into its back, but it still hurt.

Then it flung me away into the stone wall.

Another stone hit me, again that same leg as I fell to the ground.

I stabbed randomly out with my spear as the giant hairy creature loomed closer. Its breathing was all I could hear. The tip of my spear shot out, and it screamed, a high-pitched wail that echoed in the cavern. Everything went silent as I jerked back and stabbed again, as its paws swiped at me. The coppery scent of blood filled the area, but my healing didn't fix my ears.

Its teeth snapped at me, and I had nowhere to go.

I thrust forward, aiming for the roof of its mouth, blood already dripping down my weapon.

The tip pierced the roof, flashing a bright red as it lunged at me, sinking deep as it squirmed. A claw dug into my shoulder, piercing deep.

I gasped before sending ice-cold energy into the tip. Anything to make it stop.

Energy drained out of me as the creature slowly stopped moving.

[You have gained experience from combat.]

Everything hurt.

Bracing myself for the pain, I shoved the claw out of my shoulder. A shuddering breath escaped me, but it was dead and I wasn't.

My senses went wild as something arrived in my area from above.

[Gopher, Level 43, Prey, Corn.]

I blinked a few times, then realized as blood went flying that it had started eating the King's body. I yanked my spear back from the King's mouth then shot it at the much smaller target. It didn't even notice me as it dug deeper into the carcass.

I one-shot killed it through the head, and it slumped over.

[You have gained minimal experience from combat.]

So at some point, the levels I could get experience with must have widened. Good to know.

My hearing still hadn't returned, but my leg felt like I could put weight on it again, while my shoulder still bled. I snagged meat directly into my mouth, chewing and swallowing to get enough energy to move.

Another shadow fell from above.

Fuck.

[Aggressive Gopher, Level 46, Prey, Corn.]

This time I moved enough to pierce the gopher on my spear as it launched itself, trying to reach the Gopher King's body. It struggled valiantly, but I quickly finished it off. But by this point, I'd gained enough energy to start digging into the King's carcass, toward its heart. The gophers from above were going to keep coming, and I couldn't waste time.

Speed over cleanliness.

Blood and guts went everywhere. I finally got to the heart, but not before another gopher fell from the sky. It also died on my spear, this one a regular gopher.

I stared at the softball sized heart, not wanting to eat it, but I forced myself to.

[You have devoured a Gopher King and gained the skill Cheek Pouch Barrage. You have ten skills already, would you like to merge Cheek Pouch Barrage into Venomous Chomp - II?]

I paused for a moment, then stopped when I realized I could hear again and nothing came from above. No more scraps of violence from the tunnel. My shoulders relaxed for a split second as I focused on the notification.

Merging them sounded great on the surface. What if it let me shoot venom out? Or venom-covered rocks? But the more I thought about it, the more I worried. Already my teeth were razor sharp, and what would this do to my face?

I selected no.

[Would you like to merge Cheek Pouch Barrage into Insight- III?]

I didn't see any downsides, so I went with yes.

[You have gained an insight into Cheek Pouch Barrage and Insight - III. Insight - III: You can study different creatures, objects, or crystals learning basic information and have an increased chance to uncover what skills they have.]

The last time I'd done that it had given me a chance to see what skills a creature had. This just gave me a better chance. That, I'd take.

I still felt off after the fight and took a few moments to cut up and store more meat in my inventory. This might be the last of the gophers, and I didn't want to run out of food, even if I wasn't a fan of the taste. I didn't mind eating things that tasted like fruit or a treat, but corn just felt wrong.

Still, I stocked up on it before I turned toward the tunnel that led out of the King's home. I paused again, thinking about how the King had damaged me. Those last 10 free stats I tossed into Toughness. Getting injured kept slowing me down, and my healing skill wasn't keeping up at this rate. I needed to figure out a way to increase my body skill.

This tunnel appeared the same as all the others. A smooth round hole cut into the rock. I kept my guard up as I hiked deeper into the darkness.

This tunnel didn't even have glowing mushrooms, but my dark vision came to the rescue, since I didn't want to create any light. My stealth had me silently making progress down the tunnels without a sign.

Eventually, I'd find where the gophers had been going, but for now it was all the same. It didn't take long for boredom to set in as I traveled down the tunnel. Over time, I felt the stat increases sink into my body. Time seemed to slow down until eventually something tingled on the edge of my senses.

Surprisingly, it wasn't from ahead of me; it came from above. I slowed down, trying to understand what I felt. A cool draft of air rushed from above, and I found a darker area of another perfectly round hole.

It curved like it met with this tunnel and it continued on the same path. The tunnel farther down was a little wider than the one I'd already hiked.

Something moved above, and I stepped back the way I'd come. All the hair stood up on my neck and I yanked out my spear, careful to stay beyond the hole, waiting.

The sound of grinding increased, and I took a deep breath, ready to rush back the way I'd come if needed.

Dirt and dust fell from above as the rock surrounding me vibrated.

Then, a wave of fear slammed into me.

[Infected by fearful aura.]

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