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

experience, all the ridiculous good

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

core which has given me, in effect, only ten MP that

territory than I have experienced already, those increased stats would have

the prospect of being able to use mana was

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

skill points as an unevolved creature which could allow

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

control of 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

breath I walk out into the open

this place is so

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,

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

nature of my vision, especially over a distance. It probably also explains why I’ve been able to avoid having anything sneak up on me,

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 a mutation reaches that level. Will I be able

Any clues Gandalf?

...

immense wisdom the grey one has been

extra advice would surely be

left for me to do but move

of the small tunnel and exposing

it feels like a

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

time I really think to myself,

at them to see if they react. When they don’t respond I

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