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!

my Grip skill to swiftly make my

so much further now! Behold the

Ah!

a few shapes on it, possibly

I shall investigate!

in mind I continue to snoop about while

about, if they come over

things very slowly, darting from cover

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

tents arranged in a semicircle around their seating area, a few large back packs

their clothes from it but when I stare a little harder I realise they are monster

and take cores and

position and decide

identified where camp is I

the monster, this is almost

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

metres away they all pause whilst the mage concentrates and prepares her staff. Once again she focuses for an extended period, runes appearing and rotating around

I hadn’t noticed before flare around the outskirts of the camp glow brightly

the group moves away

monsters who have gathered, then returning here to wait

way to slay monsters I

the group until I’m certain they are heading towards the lake, then

guys must have harvested a lot of

something were to .... Happen

Gweheheheheh.

if I walked towards their camp an alarm would go off or I’d be melted on the spot

way I’m

willing to try going *under*

power of Level 5

time to travel to the lake and back, as well the time to fight and scavenge. Plenty of time to dig myself

dirt with each chomp and it isn’t

Muahahahaha!