Chrysalis

Moving with extreme caution I move away from the lake. I’m fair game out here and there are many monsters who would love a slice of this delectable pie.

In the war for survival stealth is still my most powerful weapon.

I’ve been able to gather quite a bit of Biomass, probably more than usual for a creature of my level, by operating as a scavenger, picking up the rewards when others have done the dirty work, but unfortunately this doesn’t work very well for XP.

With the exception of the completely bizarre battle between the Dragon Wolf pack and the centipedes, I’ve had to carefully pick and choose my prey in order to get XP and that remains the case.

It would be nice if, on this trip I can successfully carry out a hunt on my own and defeat my opponent one on one.

I need the confidence as much as the XP, I won’t be able to stumble across wounded opponents forever.

Keeping myself as hidden as possible I dart from cover to cover, keeping all of my senses sharp.

After that last stomach full I’ve returned to full HP and my antennae is showing no signs of the extensive damage it endured during my last fight, thankfully my leg had healed long ago.

This forest really is strange, it feels like every time I turn a corner I see something weird I hadn’t seen before, like this bright orange fern looking thing. The tip of every branch has a thin tendril of an almost weblike materiel hanging down to the ground.

Won’t be touching those!

Out of curiosity I flip a stone using my mandibles towards that plant but nothing happens. My wariness doesn’t totally dissipate though. It’s possible the plant will only react when something organic touches it.

Instead of standing about eyeing off a fern I keep moving.

I come across a few different creatures as I move in the general direction I saw the hunters leave in, a large pack of small, ape like creatures were congregating around a particularly large tree. I give those guys a wide berth.

If only I had the support of more of my kind! Seeing these large groups of smaller monsters really gets me down for some reason.

I also saw a few Dragon Wolf cubs on the prowl, yet another group I couldn’t take on.

Feeling a bit stifled by my inability to find something I can fight I decide to do something I wasn’t able to do before.

Climb a tree to scout around!

of my Grip skill to swiftly make my

much further now! Behold

Ah!

shapes on it, possibly tents? This could be the camp of the five

I shall investigate!

mind I continue to snoop about while making

to start any combat whilst those hunters are about, if they come over to investigate

make my way to the foot of the hill and start to take things very slowly, darting from cover to cover and avoiding any sound or sign of

shape of the human hunters at the top of the hill. They appear to sitting in a circular shape on stones and bits of wood they’ve put together as chairs. Possibly they are sitting

seating area, a few large back packs are strewn about the place along with some monster

strung across two poles and at first I think they are hanging their clothes from it but

group is here to hunt monsters and take cores and materials back to the surface

position and decide to watch

I’ve identified where camp is I have a crazy idea forming in my

a virtue to the monster, this is almost the first instruction

humans stand and begin to gather equipment, preparing to head out once more. As I watch they strap

and prepares her staff. Once again she focuses for an extended period, runes appearing and rotating around

noticed before flare around the outskirts of the camp glow brightly for just a

group moves away from the

they are just farming the lake, ambushing the unsuspecting monsters who have gathered, then

efficient way to slay

I shadow the group until I’m certain they are heading towards the lake, then I double back and

a lot of monster cores

a shame if something were to .... Happen to

Gweheheheheh.

of the spell that was cast as they left however. I’m sure that if I walked towards

is no way I’m walking over

willing to try going *under* it

power of Level

all of my might. I probably have a little over hour if we account the time to travel to the lake and back, as well the time to fight

surprising amount of dirt with each chomp and it isn’t long until I’m dug under

Muahahahaha!