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

all the ridiculous good luck I’ve had? It hasn’t been easy to survive to this

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 drawn to the pool in the first cavern I was

sacrificed a significant upgrade to my stats in order to condense the core which has given me, in effect, only ten MP

than I have experienced already,

the prospect of being

mean that I’ll be able to level back up to five and evolve again? Which

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

once they reach level five. I won’t even look at the skills menu in case mana shaping or spell chanting has appeared

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

I walk out into the open air

place is

One slip and I would certainly plummet to my own death. To my left and right the walls curve away into the distance to

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

over a distance. It probably also explains why I’ve been able to avoid having anything

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 see what will happen when

Any clues Gandalf?

...

be surprised at this state. For all his immense wisdom the grey one has been very taciturn, or perhaps

would

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

I more down the slope, leaving the shelter of the small tunnel and exposing myself to the open air of this

it feels like a fully enclosed world, like a

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 familiar

for the first time I really think to myself, this is

the grasses and plants with my front claw, snipping at them to see if they react. When they don’t respond I move toward a giant mushroom. These things are easily twice the height of an adult

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