Chrysalis

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

My hard work, my accumulated experience, all the ridiculous good luck I’ve had? It hasn’t been easy to survive to

hunch was correct and the monster core is the vital ingredient to mastering magic for me and my fellow creatures down here. This could explain why so many

condense the core which has given me, in effect, only ten MP that I can’t use. Was this

dangerous territory than I have experienced already, those

can’t help but worry I’ve made the wrong choice, the prospect of being able to use mana was just too tantalising in

that I’ll be able to level back up to five and evolve again? Which also means I’ll be able to gain more of the precious

actually better. I’ll have a second opportunity to amass skill points as an unevolved creature which could allow me

available right now but 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 list. I may not be able to resist

my body and shaken the dust off my mind as I reach the end of the tunnel. Beyond here lies the vast underground space I

a deep breath I walk out into the open air

this place

on it. One slip and I would certainly 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

is something I’ve been thinking more on. As an insect, I don’t have regular eyes like a human, but compound eyes. This means a few 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 are able to look in many directions at once, but the

I’ve been so frustrated by the blurry nature of my vision, especially over a distance. It probably also explains why I’ve been able to avoid having anything sneak up

+5. Since skills can evolve at +5 I’m very excited to see what will

Any clues Gandalf?

...

For all his immense

advice would

There isn’t anything left for me to do but move

slope, leaving the shelter of the small tunnel and exposing myself to the open

this place, it feels like a fully enclosed world, like

the distance as I can. Strange twisted trees, huge oversized mushrooms and a carpet of plant-life underneath face me everywhere I turn. The whole ... forest ... pulses with the now

alien, for the first time I really think to myself,

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