Chapter 173 Well behaved ape (1/2)

Tiny's bat face starts to exude more and more anxiety as I watch him intently.

[Tiny]

[....]

[Tiny!]

[...….. What?]

[Time to max out that core champ! Get over here]

….

With reluctance painted over every inch of his body, Tiny lumbers to his feet and then resentfully ambles his way towards me from where he had slumped himself against the wall as I worked.

Using an antenna I flick one core at his feet and then stare at him.

He stares back.

….

Slowly I reach down to pick up the core with my mandibles and something flashes within the apes eyes. Was it understanding? Wisdom? Or was it heart rending fear? I shall never know. What I do know is that Tiny reaches down and s.n.a.t.c.hes up the core before I can grasp it in my jaws.

A moment later he shows me the empty palm in which the core had been held.

[Good boy].

He needs to make sure he eats all his food.

With flicks of my antenna I continue to roll him cores I've modified until I run out and have to craft a few more. Every now and again I make sure to check in on Vibrant as she undergoes evolution. I kind of expect to see flas.h.i.+ng lights or a glow or something but evolution doesn't seem to work like that here. At least nothing is happening so far, the little worker is still lying flat, seemingly unconscious, without any physical changes taking place.

[Core Engineering has reached level 5]

Nice! Every little bit of help I can get makes a difference!

I continue grinding my way through the cores but I have to take frequent and longer breaks in order to maintain the effort. It won't be long until I can't continue anymore and will need to take a break to rest.

This is ma.s.sively draining work.

After consuming more cores Tiny finally raises his hand and pushes the last core back to me, indicating that he is full.

Finally!

I'm wrecked. My head is pounding with serious pain. I'll have to take a nap before trying to form the special core, Tiny will have a minor reprieve.

[Take a nap big guy. We'll finish it tomorrow and then you can evolve]

Tiny nods happily, clearly pleased at this turn of events. Ungrateful! No appreciation for how hard I'm working…

I scuttle wearily over to check on Vibrant and see if there have been any major changes during her evolution.

…

Still nothing. Maybe she's still fiddling around in the menus? I can't be sure.

Certainly the first time I evolved I have no idea how much time pa.s.sed as I fiddled about with the options and scrolled through the lists of options which are certainly extremely wide. I guess this could be taken as confirmation that Vibrant is intelligent enough to trigger the manual evolution.

Something Tiny will possibly never reach.

Grumbling internally about my lovable apes' dim witted ways I slowly drift into torpor.

…

MANAMANA!

I'm up!

Springing awake I flash into action, immediately moving to check on Vibrant. Antennae wiggling this way and that I eagerly check to see if there have been any developments whilst I was resting. What's she got? Wings? Extra head? Doubled in size? Tripled in size?!

…

Nothing?

Resting on the ground, still perfectly still for possibly the first time in her life, Vibrant continues to appear to be resting peacefully.