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

of downgrades? Why am I level one Gandalf?! My hard work, my accumulated experience, all the ridiculous good luck I’ve had?

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

think about though, I’ve sacrificed a significant upgrade to my stats in order to condense the core which has given me, in effect, only ten MP that I can’t use. Was

now into what is likely more dangerous territory than I have experienced already,

I’ve made the wrong choice, the prospect of

one may not be that bad, doesn’t it mean that I’ll be able to level back up to five and

skill points as an unevolved creature which

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.

as I

walk out into the

place is

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 at plus four, to be able to

regular eyes 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 eyes are able to look in many

so frustrated by the blurry nature of my vision, especially over a distance. It probably also explains why I’ve been able to avoid having anything

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 to advance my mutations into some

Any clues Gandalf?

...

immense wisdom

advice would surely be helpful

isn’t anything left for me to do

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

it feels like a

trees, huge oversized mushrooms and a carpet of plant-life underneath face me everywhere I

the first time

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

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