The message about my evolution flitted across my mind, stealing my attention for a moment before I waved it away.

  “Kyr? You’re sapient now?” I tried to replicate the way he’d talked to me, easily repeating it. The method wasn’t all that different from how I’d impressed what I wanted my creatures to do in the past, making it easy to adapt to.

  Through my mana-vision, I watched as the Kyr’s newly winged form paused in the air, Air mana easily keeping him afloat in the air. His head turning to gaze in the direction he knew I was, “I... I think so… Is that what this is? It’s… odd.” His body flexed and shifted in the air as he inspected himself.

  “Odd? What do you mean?” I quickly sent back, ignoring the movements of the other creatures of the dungeon, my attention solely focused on Kyr at the moment.

  I’d never talked to anyone before, I wasn’t going to pass this chance by. I could feel him taking the time to think before responding, something my creatures rarely did. Finally, he responded, “It feels… Like when you Named me. As though something had been reached and I am now more than I was before. Even if I don’t feel all that much smarter than before, it feels like I just happened to pass that line…”

  My mind brushed away the message insisting on my evolution. I’d normally be ecstatic about reaching another evolution for myself, but it paled in comparison to finally being able to talk to Kyr. Really, truly talk to him.

  I considered what he said for a long moment, “The system that helps me build the Dungeon does seem to have something like those hard and set limits. So it probably just affected you as well, making that boost to your intelligence enough to pass that limit.”

  Kyr’s head swayed slightly as I felt curiosity and a shred of confusion through our connection, “System? What system?”

  For a brief moment, I felt the same confusion he seemed to. “The System? Messages telling you when things evolve or can tell you how much mana you have?”

  Kyr’s head slowly pulled back, his confusion growing stronger as I spoke. “I don’t… know what you’re talking about… I can just feel my progress to evolution, as well as simply feeling how much mana I have…”

  “Wait, you don’t receive messages like that? Because for example, there is a Stone Rat six feet behind you in one of the wall’s tunnels that is close to evolving. When it’s ready I will get a message about it, telling me what I can evolve it into.”

  Kyr’s head reared back farther this time, almost in shock. “You get what? That’s… I don’t know how to describe that…”

  I transmitted a feeling of unknowing acceptance, “It has simply been happening since I can remember being alive, I thought everything had something like it…” Feeling his fascination as he thought of what it did, I spoke again.

  “For example, I actually gained an evolution for myself, from you becoming sapient.” I felt Kyr’s attention snap onto me instantly.

  “You should take it, as soon as possible.”

  I hesitated, hearing the strength in his voice suddenly. “I will. I certainly won’t refuse it. I simply wanted to talk to you first. Talking with my first Guardian and the first creature at all seemed more important.”

  I could feel his insistence soften slightly, seeming to appreciate the sentiment. Even still, “While I thank you for that, we can talk as we wish afterward can we not? I doubt I will lose this suddenly, it feels… permanent. It feels stable. Take your evolution, I’ll be waiting to see what had changed after,”

  I only sent a quick feeling of appreciation down our connection, before Kyr himself broke off. I could feel that I could forcibly connect to him anyways if I wished, but I didn’t. If any of my creatures deserved some respect, it would be Kyr. Kyr, who has fought for and with me since the very beginning of both my life and his.

  Taking Kyr’s advice, I finally accepted the incredibly insistent message informing me of my evolution.

  For the first time in a long time, I called upon my own status, receiving the full message about myself. Looking over the information given to me, I almost felt that same smile in my mana. I was a long way from what I once was…

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  Once I had all the different facets of my current self set in my mind, I allowed the evolution to begin. Feeling the white glow that had suffused so many of my creatures glow around myself, I finally discovered how they had felt. It felt… warm, even though I couldn’t truly feel the temperature. It felt safe, even though I knew it was my most vulnerable. It felt good to evolve. And unlike the first time, I didn’t blackout, I didn’t lose consciousness. Before I could realize it, another message had come to me.

  For the briefest moment, I thought nothing had changed. Then, I realized everything had changed.

  They wouldn’t die?! No wait, it said they would… But that they would be revived… So they could still be defeated, but they would eventually come back to life, meaning that no one would be able to simply run through the Floors just because someone stronger had killed all the Floor Bosses…

  For a long, long moment, I was stunned. Such a thing was incredibly powerful, and not something I could pass up. While the incredible strength of the Awakened Evolutions was evident and I desperately wanted to take Fated Awakener, I knew that I simply had to survive. Once I was more stable, more sure of my survival, then I would choose Fated Awakener.

  But the ability to let my Floor Bosses fight more freely, more aggressively, was almost priceless. As powerful as they were, I was still incredibly wary of letting them fight, knowing that they were my best defenses and not wanting them to die and leave me vulnerable.

  But with this, they could fight with everything they had, and return after death anyways. It took me barely another moment’s thought to choose the Floor Cycle. The decision seeming to seep into my Core, saturating throughout the golden designs and emblems across my exterior. Slowly, circular and cyclical patterns began to emerge along those golden lines and etchings on my obsidian surface, proving the initiation of the Floor Cycle.

  At the same time, I could see as both the Deiron Drowner and the Gladiator Skorpion seemed to shine white for a brief moment themselves, the two Floor Bosses pausing in their movements as they seemed to internalize the change. I watched as the Drowner seemed to swim in spirals for a few moments, simply feeling the change within it.

  As for the Gladiator Skorpion, I watched with a mix of exasperation of amusement as it slammed its heavy pincers together, immediately facing Leira upon feeling the change within itself. I felt the white glow slowly release me from my evolution, the changes complete. Feeling that, I called upon my status once more, eager to see the changes.

  I’d gained another name, my mana capacity had increased to three hundred and seventy-five and my regeneration had gone to seven point five per hour. More than worth everything that had happened recently, I concluded with a sense of satisfaction.

  Yes, that was good. Now, let’s watch the execution of the Gladiator Skorpion by Leira.