[Null?]

  I roll the name around in my head, feeling how it sounds.

  "Yeah? What'd you think?"

  [It's not... bad.]

  The ground began rumbling.

  [Joule? Are we having an earthquake?]

  [The ground's not shaking - you are!]

  I begin shivering before my carapace splits, a larger version of myself emerging from it, and then that one breaks, and it happens two more times before I'm finally done growing.

  [What was that?! We grew more from that than that chicken earlier!]

  [I don't know! We didn't even absorb energy, and it didn't look like it hurt. It was like a totally different process!]

  Noah grinned. "I thought that would happen! My little singularities don't like being unidentified."

  [Singularities? But I didn't detect any - ]

  She paused in the middle of her sentence, and then continues in a stunned voice.

  [You fed him a black hole?]

  "Pretty much! But don't worry, he hasn't blown up yet and doesn't show any signs of doing it soon."

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  [Blown up?! What does that have to do with growing?]

  [Getting blown up is probably the best-case scenario! There is no way on this floating ball of rock that you should have survived what Noah did!]

  King Kapoof barked in agreement, perhaps a little annoyed that I hadn't blown up. The ground shook slightly in response.

  [Wait, so I'm going to explode?]

  [No!]

  "Of course not! Probably. Maybe. Okay, like a twenty percent chance. Twenty-five, tops."

  I stare at Noah for a long time.

  [I seem to remember something about the 'other ones' when I woke up the first time. What exactly were you talking about?]

  Noah's grin freezes.

  "WellIhopeyouhaveanicetimewithyournewnamegottagetKapoofbackseeyoulater!"

  He vanishes along with the dog, leaving four deep pawprints pushed into the ground.

  [He's really weird sometimes.]

  Joule corrects me.

  [No. He's really weird most of the time. Whenever he isn't terrifying or hungry, he's really, really freaking weird.]

  [Huh.]

  I sit there for a moment, contemplating the freakish dog and its even stranger owner.

  [Did he say that thing was Izzy's dog? Who's Izzy?]

  [...I'm probably not supposed to tell you yet. And anyway, don't you want to know about all your brand-new upgrades?]

  [Definitely. What's the difference look like?]

  [It's pretty huge. Whatever having a name does, it's pretty dramatic. Your size has increased to about six times your previous max, to say nothing of the improvements to your Void.]

  I flex my mandibles, testing my muscles. I don't really feel any different aside from a distinct thick feeling on my carapace. It's an excellent upgrade since I can probably keep my old run-and-jump strategy going for a while.

  [What were you saying about the Void?]

  [You're actually generating void energy now. It's impossible to run out short of using a full Void Creation at full power.]

  [Now that is good news. What about the mana, is that increasing?]

  [...Not really, but we should be able to absorb ambient mana way faster. Trust me, this will be helpful in the long run.]

  [I'll take your word on that. First, however, let's go eat something.]