Chrysalis

Full of glee I head back towards the lake. My combat test run was a massive success! My newly upgraded acid worked better than I'd imagined and the power of my bite attacks has skyrocketed.

If I manage to get my mandibles to +5 I wonder what I'll be able to do then?

I'm at risk of getting a little carried away with myself again. Head in the game Anthony, your new family isn't going to find itself!

Once I arrive at the lake I make my way around to the pheromone trail, my antennae tippy tapping along the edge of the water.

The usual collection of monsters has gathered again, eyeing each other off and getting a good drink of sweet, sweet mana juice.

If I look at the water it appears more agitated than it did before. The strange formations within the lake are moving more rapidly and intensely than before, I swear the lake is also brighter. Ever since I arrived in this world things have been getting brighter…

Is this a seasonal thing? Are we coming out of underground winter and moving into underground summer?

Well, there's nothing I can think of to answer that mystery other than wait and see what happens.

Excitedly I pick up the trail and start following it away from the lake.

It seems like the trail has become a little weaker over the last day or so, which means no ants have come through here and reinforced it for the last while. In some ways I'm glad because it means that none of them have shown up here when I wasn't watching, which would have been depressing.

Even if the chemical signal is a bit weaker than before, it's still strong enough to be fairly simple to follow into the forest. This feels a bit exciting now, moving into new, unexplored territory!

The weird plant life in the forest continues to perplex me. I'm finding shorter trees in this area, probably only a few metres high but shaped like an inverted Christmas tree, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. As I watch the different levels of foliage appear to be swaying in the breeze, but each level sways in a different direction.

Weird.

I then realise there is no breeze.

Out of curiosity I flip a rock at the tree and I swear the branches twitch to knock it away.

then, staying away from that

more regular monsters, I don't feel

it winds through the forest. The trail doesn't follow a

not far away from where I am, the

monsters are getting serious over

want to be dragged into what sounds like a battle of the

when I creep close enough to see the action, two monsters I'm still unwilling to tangle with are laying right into

possibly the same one from the lake and second monster is the massive bat-faced gorilla looking

particular gorilla is significantly

absolutely huge. The

thicker mid-section arms looking slightly silly waggling in the air not able

things have evolved once, as I have. Surely this size is the result of at least two, maybe three evolutions. How could it fair otherwise?

to swing its

is far more nimble, ducking forward and back to avoid the swings but it doesn't look nearly as solid defensively,

BOOM.

of its colossal might, veins bulging under its skin. Electrical energy starts flashing, first around the shoulders and then streaming down the dark arms, faster

energy until loud crackling sounds are emanating

That. Looks. Awesome!

The dreaded lightning fist!

on earth am I

runs forward, massive fists crashing into the earth before leaping high, bringing both

its chest to be released from between those dreadful

bat face before the sheer momentum carries it forward, bringing both fists down with the strength of a lightning

after this incredible exchange and I remember to

Holy moly!

to be able to do totally

fireballs out of the mouth? Channelling lightning into the

may have fought before. After the