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

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 know?!

monster core is the vital ingredient to mastering magic for me and my fellow creatures down here. This could explain why so many monsters

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

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

I’ve made the wrong choice, the prospect of being able to use mana

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

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

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

body and shaken the dust off my mind as I reach the end of the tunnel. Beyond here

deep breath I walk out into the open air once

place

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

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 once,

especially over a distance. It probably also explains why I’ve been able to

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

Any clues Gandalf?

...

shouldn’t be surprised at this state. For all his immense wisdom the grey one has

extra advice would

anything left for me to do but

leaving the shelter of the small tunnel and exposing myself

this place, it feels like a fully enclosed world, like a

trees, huge

just so alien, for the first time I really think to myself, this is absolutely

them to see if they react. When they don’t respond I move toward a giant mushroom. These things are easily twice

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