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

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

MP has gone from zero to ten it raises my spirit a bit. Looks like my 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 monsters were

upgrade to my stats in order to condense the core which has given me, in effect, only ten MP that I can’t use.

now into what is likely more dangerous territory than I have experienced already, those increased

I’ve made the wrong choice, the prospect of being able to use mana was just too tantalising in my

be that bad, 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 to gain more of the

opportunity to amass skill points as an unevolved creature which could allow me to gain more levels and skill

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 the temptation! Be disciplined Anthony! Don’t

shaken the dust off my mind as I reach

walk out into the open air

place is

absolutely refuse to climb 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 isn’t good enough, even at plus four, to be able to see the ends of the

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

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

be the first body part I mutate to +5. Since skills can evolve at +5 I’m very excited to see what will

Any clues Gandalf?

...

at this state. For all his immense wisdom

extra advice would

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

slowly I more down the slope, leaving the shelter of the small tunnel and exposing

place, it feels like a fully enclosed

to see as far into 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

is just so alien, for the first time I really

grasses and plants with my front claw, snipping at them to see if they react. When they don’t respond I move toward a