Chrysalis

The second trap is almost halfway done when I hear another crashing thud, followed by a furious roar.

Once again a visitor has decided to grace my humble hotel! Welcome dear guest! Manuel, take their bags! Gweheheh.

Chortling to myself I crawl out of my second pitfall and rush to the first. Tiny is standing up in his tree abode, excitedly staring down at the hapless monster caught in the pit. The little ape is practically drooling, he’s become so hungry.

I get that you’re hungry little guy but really?! Try to maintain a little dignity.

As much as I try to ignore it my stomach is also growling. After all of this work digging I’ve worked up quite the appetite.

Approaching the side of my trap I peer down to see exactly what monster I’ve managed to reel in this time.

Greeting me from the bottom of the pit is a particularly furious looking giant centipede. The centipede very quickly begins to right itself after falling into the pit, a mess of sticks and foliage tangling in its legs.

This guy again huh.

Where once upon a time I felt hugely threatened by the massive centipedes, I just can’t muster the same kind of fear for them anymore. They might be much larger than the original claw centipedes but they remain fairly stupid with limited ways to attack. In fact, due to its increased size and reduced mobility, the most threatening weapon of the claw centipede, its poison spike, is rendered almost completely useless against me.

POW!

I dispense justice in the form of acid from my business zone down onto my prey before leaping directly into the pit to do battle.

There were several reasons why I thought pitfalls would be a safer way to hunt in the current forest, one of which was the ability to isolate the battle somewhere the sound and scent of the battle would be somewhat muted. Combined with the natural advantage of battling against a monster after it has fallen and become entangled this method seemed promising to my mind.

So far it has proven to be effective. I’ll be very interested to see if I can finish this battle quickly enough without drawing any further monsters from the surrounds.

Just as the centipede is able to right itself my acid rains down, once again entangling legs that had only moments ago become free. Hissing furiously the centipede writhes and twists in knots as the pain and discomfort mounts. At this time I land directly onto the carapace of my prey, gripping tightly with my claws, pushing my grip skill to the limit.

Take this you lively bugger!

Piercing Chomp!

CRUNCH!

knife into a refrigerated spread

shrieks in agony and attempts to use its body to

Slam!

centipede, receive my bite

CRUNCH!

absorbed almost all of the impact so I received very little actual damage from that desperate manoeuvre, what I am concerned

Crushing Bite to inflict maximum damage, my mandibles ripping deep into muscle and organs of

lost most of its fight, unable to properly move the latter half of its body there is little it can do to avoid fatal

level

[You have gained experience]

Nice!

prepared side tunnel and out of sight. Then I crawl out of the pitfall to reset the majority of my screen, covering the hole

finally sate our hunger. Down in the dark tunnel the offshoots the pitfall we

and grow strong. You’ll pay me back in labour eventually,

current total to four. Just one more and I’ll be able to upgrade yet another body part to +5. I’m quite excited to see what sort of

moment. This little guy must have eaten something like fifteen, maybe even twenty points of Biomass since I reconstructed

his bat face

spent or is it all being saved up? Maybe he can’t spend it until he matures to a certain point? He certainly couldn’t be called anything

I can do about it at this point.

I am extremely grateful. I wasn’t able to recover the mouse bait, I think the centipede dove on it and ripped it to shreds as it fell. So I finish resetting the first trap after making sure Tiny was securely positioned in his tree, it will probably take longer to get

use as

pretty

I’ve managed to finish off the second trap despite a few interruptions. I had a gang of unevolved centipedes go through the area, a croca-beast and the elusive dog snake, which I’d only seen dead before. Sadly none of these monsters fell into my clutches so I simply hid myself away as they

level in excavation! It feels pleasant to gain levels without

decided to join the two tunnels together, I mean why not? This necessitated a lot more digging and effort, particularly when I ran into a rather stubborn block of stone which

of the pitfalls by a somewhat winding tunnel roughly

that took

bloody starving