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

level one Gandalf?! My hard work, my accumulated experience, all the ridiculous good luck I’ve had? It hasn’t been

magic for me and my fellow creatures down here. This could explain why so many monsters were drawn to the

condense the core which has given me, in effect, only ten

is likely more dangerous territory than I have experienced already, those

can’t 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

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

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

breath I walk out into the open

this place is so

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

more on. As an insect, I don’t have 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

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

correct choice for 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

Any clues Gandalf?

...

this state. For all his immense wisdom the grey one has been

would

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

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

large enough word to describe this place, it feels like

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

time

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.

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