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

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

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 they were able to absorb it and hasten the

core which

to advance now into what is likely more dangerous territory than I have experienced already, those increased stats would have been super

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

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

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

to be advanced once they reach level five. I won’t even look at the skills menu

off my mind as I reach the end

a deep breath I walk out into the open

this place is so

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

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

nature of my vision, especially over a distance. It probably also explains

I mutate to +5. Since skills can evolve at +5 I’m very excited to see what will happen when a mutation reaches that level. Will I be able to

Any clues Gandalf?

...

For all his immense

would surely

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

of the small tunnel and exposing myself to the open air of

to describe this place, it feels

I descend, picking my way 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 whole ... forest ... pulses with the now familiar ambient blue

alien, for the first time I

nervously poke 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

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