It's been quite a while since I first came to. The subtle hum and whirring of the saps has become familiar. The more time passes, the more curious I am as to what goes on inside of the saps' rooms. However, I can't figure that out no matter how often I phase myself inside the rooms.

  But that's fine, for now. I can wait, as long as the number keeps going up. The pangs are the only bothersome thing I've known to date, and not doing anything means getting them. Which means, that whatever happens, I need to continue to do stuff.

  All told, I've been working on it for a while. Another couple of rooms have come to be. I've put them lower, digging deeper beneath the ones already existing. I figure keeping them close together might just mean they work better.

  If nothing else, it feels like something exact, compared to the rest of this place. My excavation efforts may be industrious, and at times they've been a touch starved, motivated by the pangs. But orderly, they've never been. The cave I find myself in is not the nice square I started from.

  Inexact cuts mar the stone, painting a meaningless craving all along the sides of this grotto. The form, as well, is kind of odd. It grows mostly on its height, going up more than twenty rooms by now.

  Meanwhile, its depth is a continuous change in its uppermost echelons, closest to where I came to. There are straight hews, where I used the automatic function the first few times. At the time, they were at the bottom of it.

  Now, however, they're left as recesses or cliffsides, depending on where you're looking from. This far down, even the red light of the screens seems to fail to breach the darkness.

  After a central point, where four rooms filled with saps are neatly placed next to each other, this cave continues to develop lower, keeping roughly that shape. So, if one were to look at it from the outside, it would look like a rectangle with a very odd hat.

  I check up on the number, fully aware it's the only thing that has changed in a meaningful way since I've come alive.

  11.4/17

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  The extra saps only need one more to fully cover the ones on top, the first layer, so to speak. I've been manually digging lower, trying to maintain the shape. If the box shows up red, I scrape some more of the sides.

  It's slow going, but it's increasing the limit, and that's what matters. Each little unit bringing me further away from zero could stop me from passing out again.

  However, one thing I've noticed, spending all this time staring at the stone, is that it's getting bluer the lower I go. In the far distance, I can faintly make out columns of blue looking more colorful than everything around them, kind of like living snakes.

  ...I feel like trying out something new. Anything at all. It's getting kind of stale, as is. I remember the expenses for other rooms. Most of them have me outpriced. I'd need to keep going for quite a while yet.

  However, since then, things have changed. Just about the time I started to see those odd faraway outlines, I've felt something start to shift. With each room I added, I crawled closer and closer to some kind of... new phantom limb-

  My vision colors a nice light green, the tint affecting everything in sight. Invisible fingers grasp empty air, failing to hold onto it. The air feels empty to my newfound fingers, so different yet similar to the breath I use to dig.

  Within a second, they dissipate back into the aether, fading to the back of my mind. That one feels a bit numb now.

  No flashy screen pops up. Nothing rings in my mind. Nothing visibly changed, and the color is already draining from my view.

  Uhu. I guess that's enough exploring for now. A burst of thoughts has a new room bud into being. Four walls flow into being, emanating from the ones already in place above them, and a stony floor bottles up the room.

  I've put this one beneath the other four, to start a third layer. Another two, and I'll have doubled my starting capacity.

  6.3/18

  Soon, I'll be able to plop one and get the sap in at the same time, without needing to wait. I continue to dig down, reaching lower and lower.

  Technically, now I can afford some other stuff apart from saps. Invoking a few menus reminds me of what I could afford, if I filled up the gauge. A lab, a hatchery, a- actually, a hatchery only costs five, as much as an empty room.

  Focusing on it highlights the empty room, the one I just placed down. It's five, and I have around eight. The last time I got close to zero, I passed out. Apart from possibly wasting time, it's quite painful all things considered. I'd rather avoid that happening again.

  ...Let's just play it safe for now. After digging a bit more, I reach nine and a half and fill the new room with another sapper. As soon as it fills up the room, cutting off the inside from what I can readily perceive, the pangs return to my mind.

  2.8/18

  Yeah. Let's get back to digging. Feeling like this is quite the experience, and the edge of my vision turning light green is a bit nauseous.