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.

staying away from that

more regular monsters, I don't feel any need to start

able to avoid a few groups of monsters and stay on the trail as it winds through the forest. The trail doesn't follow a straight line but bends and curves, laid down in whatever path the first scout to come through here took

explodes in the forest not far away from where I am,

Some monsters are getting serious over

to investigate whilst keeping my distance, I don't want to be dragged into what sounds like a

monsters

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

gorilla is significantly larger

huge.

and thicker mid-section arms looking slightly silly waggling in the air not able to do much. The

this is! I refuse to believe this massive things have evolved once, as I have. Surely this size is the result of at least two, maybe three

is able to swing its massive claws in devastating, wide swings, raking the sword like edges

ducking forward and back to avoid the swings but it doesn't

BOOM.

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

the accumulated energy until loud crackling sounds are emanating from both of the

That. Looks. Awesome!

The dreaded lightning fist!

on earth am I

fists crashing into the earth before leaping high, bringing both hands

energy amassing in its chest to be

sheer momentum carries it forward, bringing both fists down with the strength of a lightning bolt, discharging the rippling

combatants stagger back after this incredible exchange and

Holy moly!

point am I going to be

of the mouth? Channelling lightning into the fists?

baleful glares. These two seem to seriously hate each other's guts. Something tells me these two may have fought before. After the last exchange the damage to both monsters seems to be equal and they continue their standoff,