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

the ridiculous good luck I’ve had? It hasn’t been easy to survive to this point you know?! Where is my

rising in my heart as I survey my new status, but when I notice that my 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 drawn to the pool in the first cavern I was in. By drinking the water which was somehow suffused with mana

order to condense the core which has given

dangerous territory than I have experienced already,

wrong choice, the prospect of being able

it mean that I’ll be able to level back up to five

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

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

dust off my mind as I reach the end of the tunnel. Beyond here lies the

walk out into

this place is

roof is sixty, maybe even seventy meters high, so high I 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

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

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

they’ll probably be the first body part I mutate to +5. Since skills can evolve at +5 I’m very

Any clues Gandalf?

...

his immense wisdom the grey one has been very taciturn, or

advice would surely

for me to do but move

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

a large enough word to describe this place, it feels like

through the rocks I strain my eyes 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

scene is just so alien, for the first time I really think to myself, this

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