Chrysalis

Chapter 24

I don’t know how much time had passed before I regain consciousness. The light slowly returns to my eyes and sensation to my limbs.

Deep inside my thorax (the middle bit) a hot, boiling feeling is slowly fading away, drawing in a dense ball of heat. Probably my new core.

Groggily I get my legs underneath me and start slowly moving through the tunnel again. No matter how weak I feel, I cannot stay here to rest, pursuers could be dropping down the shaft to investigate even now. I have to move.

Gradually my muddled thoughts begin to straighten themselves and my coordination slowly returns. As I navigate my way across the rocky tunnel I check my status.

Name: Anthony

Level: 1 (core)

Might: 15

Toughness: 12

Cunning: 25

Will: 18

HP: 30

MP: 10

Skills: Digging level 4; Improved Acid Shot Level 1; Grip Level 4; Bite Level 4; Advanced Stealth Level 1; Tunnel Sense Level 3;

Mutations: Eyes +4, Antennae +2, Acid +3, Legs +1

Species: Hatchling Ant Worker (Formica)

Skill points: 1

Biomass: 0

downgrades? Why am I level one Gandalf?! My hard work, my accumulated experience, all the ridiculous good

monster core is the vital ingredient to mastering magic for me and my fellow creatures down here. This could explain why so many monsters were drawn to the pool in the first cavern I was in. By drinking the water which was somehow suffused with mana they were able to absorb it and hasten the formation

I think about though, I’ve sacrificed a significant upgrade to my stats in order to condense the core which has given me,

territory than I have experienced already, those

help but worry I’ve made the wrong choice, the prospect of being able to use mana

doesn’t it mean that I’ll be able to level back up to five and evolve again? Which also means I’ll be able

second opportunity to amass skill points as an unevolved creature which could allow me to gain

I don’t want to spend it yet. I have several skills at level four which will need to be advanced once they reach level five. I won’t even look at the skills menu in case mana shaping or spell chanting has appeared in the

regained full control of my body and shaken the dust off my mind as I reach the end of the tunnel.

deep breath I walk out into the open air once

place is so

plummet to my own death. To my left and right the walls curve away into the distance to a place I cannot see, my eyesight isn’t good enough, even at plus four, to

things, firstly, my eyes don’t need to be wet, so I don’t have to blink, more to the point I can’t since I have no eyelids. Secondly, my eyes don’t have one point of focus, unlike a human who can see the one place they are directly looking at in great detail, my eyes

vision, especially over a distance. It probably also explains why I’ve

has been the correct choice for me and they’ll probably be the first body part I mutate to +5. Since skills can evolve at +5 I’m very excited to

Any clues Gandalf?

...

well. I shouldn’t be surprised at this state. For all his immense wisdom the grey

would

isn’t anything left for me to do but move

the small tunnel and exposing myself to the open

to describe this place, it

I can. Strange twisted trees, huge oversized mushrooms and a carpet of plant-life underneath face me everywhere

just so alien, for the first time I really think

if they react. When they don’t respond I move toward a giant mushroom. These things are easily twice the

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