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

mother of downgrades? Why am I 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 you

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

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

than I have experienced

help but worry I’ve made the wrong choice, the prospect of being

to level one may not 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 precious skill

creature which could allow me to gain more levels and skill points at a

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

shaken the dust off my mind as I reach the end of the tunnel. Beyond here lies the vast underground space

breath I walk out into the open air

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,

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

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

choice for me and they’ll probably be the first body part I mutate to +5. Since skills can evolve at +5

Any clues Gandalf?

...

at this state. For all his immense wisdom the grey one has been very taciturn, or perhaps he’s

would surely be

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

shelter of the small tunnel and exposing

enough word to describe this place, it feels like a fully enclosed world, like a

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

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

and plants with my front claw, snipping at them to see if they react. When they don’t

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