Chrysalis

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

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

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

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

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

choice, the prospect of being able to use mana was just too tantalising in

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 points as I

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

but I don’t want to spend it 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

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

walk out into the open air once

this place

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

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

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

+5. Since skills can evolve at +5 I’m very excited

Any clues Gandalf?

...

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

extra advice would surely

left for me to

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

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

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

alien, for the first time I really think to

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 an