The bat's intuition told it to familiarize itself with the words on the screen. So concentrating on a word, the bat found itself trying to say the words out loud, but they broke into incoherent shouting. The bat needed time to familiarize itself with reading, and soon, the bat was able to read, albeit imperfectly.

  Soon the bat's eyes hovered across the screen towards a certain word it found challenging to pronounce, which was disappointing given its flawless streak of three perfectly pronounced words. Narrowing its eyes in an attempt to dig out the secret the word was hiding, a prompt appeared.

  The bat was first surprised before elation coursed through its veins. Its action provided it with a new finding. Finding the words readable, it committed each word to its ever-growing bank of knowledge. Perhaps the knowledge would prove to be useful later.

  After it read and memorized the words, the mini-screen disappeared as it had appeared. The bat wasted no time and went to the next word.

  All of that was a large chunk of information for the bat to absorb at once. Luckily it was only storing it for later once its understanding matured. Once the bat was done studying, the whole screen disappeared, and a small one took its place.

  Once the bat was done, no other screen appeared, much to its disappointment.

  "Congratulations on your successful evolution," just when the bat was frustrated on the disappearing screen, the melodious voice softly sounded in its head, evoking the bat's comfort-inducing hormones.

  "It's time for you to visit the second floor. You should be able to handle those creatures easily."

  Suddenly, inky-black liquid air appeared out of thin air and started to coalesce. A black vertical circle formed as a result.

  The bat's curiosity was instantly piqued, its eyes fully opened as it marveled at the creation before it. The portal revealed stairs with a bright light at the end. Narrowing its eyes, the bat looked at the almost hypnotic light. Though it ultimately evaded its gaze as it quickly discovered it didn't like excess light.

  Curiosity was a dangerous thing, as though the bat was growing to hate the light, its legs started to move on their own as it approached the circle. Passing through the ring of darkness, the bat felt nothing worth mentioning, and soon its right front limb stepped on the first staircase.

  *Tap**Tap*

  The bat's sharp claws collision with the floor sounded as it slowly made its way up the cemented stairs. Soon, its journey ended uneventfully. The bat could not comprehend what happened as it suddenly appeared in a different zone. Wasn't it climbing stairs just a moment ago?

  Looking around, endless greenery coupled with a mixture of different flowers filled its eyesight, long brown trees converged at the top to form a green canopy with tiny spaces that allowed rays of light to descend on the soft soil floor. Coily vines made their way up the tall trees only to smoothly suspend on the branches.

  The new surrounding, unlike its previous one, was not silent. Its sharp ears perked and twitched as new and strange sounds entered its radar.

  The bat wasted no time and approached a green bush, its snout getting to work as it sniffed. Whatever the bat was expecting to find was not there as it quickly moved to the next green bunch.

  Having had enough of savoring the new smell, the bat finally moved forward with fewer stops to investigate every new thing it came across.

  Suddenly, its left ear quickly pointed in a certain direction. A small disturbance caught its attention. Turning its head, the bat was lucky to see the bush move ever so slightly. Its instincts warned, and it obeyed. A small jump was all it needed to be airborne. The rest was left to its wings as it flapped away to the safety of the sky.

  Inside the bush, the tiniest opening revealed shining globes as they followed the direction of the flying creature. As the flying creature disappeared, a geenskin emerged from its hiding spot. Its size bigger and sturdier than the ones on the first floor, a spiked club hanging from its hand.

  The bat had indeed escaped disaster. If the goblin were to succeed on a sneak attack, surely at the very least, it would be critically hurt.

  Once the bat was at the safety of the trees, it directed its gaze below, and what it saw made it elated. It was the same creature that gave it strength once it successfully killed one. It was almost tempted to dive back, but the menacing club the goblin was holding made it think twice.

  The two creatures locked gazes for a while. The goblin frustrated its prey had disappeared from its grasp while the bat was happy to discover new prey.

  Suddenly, the goblin seemed to have come into a realisation as it scurried with its gaze fixed on the ground as if it was searching for something. It wasn't long before its efforts yielded, bending its hips, the goblin picked a rather large stone enough to fit in its ugly hand.

  With a cunning smile plastered on its face, the goblin turned its gaze towards the bat, but nothing was there. Thinking it had forgotten where the creature was initially, it turned its head multiple times to no avail. The bat had pulled a disappearing trick on it.

  The goblin's attention span proved its mightiness as it soon forgot what it was searching for. Wondering why it had a stone on its hand, it threw it away as it made its way back to its kin.

  In the thickest part of the tree, hiding from sight, the bat's red-eye followed the goblin's direction. Prey and predator were yet to be determined