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!

looking tree I use my claws and the potency of my Grip skill to swiftly make

can see so much further now! Behold the power of

Ah!

hill in the distance and there are a few shapes on it,

I shall investigate!

destination in mind I continue to snoop about

are about, if

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

to sitting in a circular shape on stones

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

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

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

into a good position and

I have a crazy idea forming in my

monster, this is almost the first instruction in

head out once more. As I watch they strap

camp and once they are about ten 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 the head of her staff before

around the outskirts of the

away from the camp, heading towards the

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

efficient way to slay monsters

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

a

a shame if something were to ....

Gweheheheheh.

was cast as they left however. I’m sure that if I walked towards their camp an alarm would go off or I’d be melted on the spot or something equally

no way I’m

willing to try going

of Level 5

the time to travel to the lake and back, as well the time to

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

Muahahahaha!