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 way up and have a

see so much further now! Behold the power of my

Ah!

hill in the distance and there are a few shapes on it, possibly tents? This could

I shall investigate!

I continue to snoop

hunters are about, if they come over to investigate

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

I can make out the 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 around

can see three separate tents arranged in a semicircle around their seating area, a few large back packs are strewn about the place along with some monster remains

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

monsters and take cores and materials back

into a good position and decide to

I have a crazy idea

monster, this is almost the first instruction

the humans stand and begin to gather equipment, preparing to head out once more. As I watch they strap on their armour, check the edge on

mage concentrates and prepares her staff. Once again she focuses for an extended period, runes appearing and rotating around the head of

flare around the outskirts of the camp glow brightly for just a moment

been completed the group moves away from the camp, heading towards

ambushing the unsuspecting monsters who have gathered, then returning here to wait until the lake has gathered together the monsters

to

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

guys must have harvested a

a shame if something were to

Gweheheheheh.

left however. I’m sure that if I walked towards their camp

no way I’m walking

to try going *under* it

power of

probably have a little over hour if we account the time to travel to the lake and back, as well the time to fight and scavenge. Plenty of time to dig myself

mandibles work at lightning speed, empowered by my Dig skill I can shift a surprising amount of dirt with each

Muahahahaha!