Chrysalis

Exploration of the Dungeon has been the task of all the civilised races who make their homes above the ground ever since the first opening was made known to us.

However a unified approach and the free sharing of information has proven impossible to facilitate. Each kingdom, church, organisation or private army or noble house than has devoted resources into plumbing the depths and secrets beneath our feet has withheld their own slice of information from the common perception. Hoarding slivers of information like family treasures.

There Is much information that has been publicly confirmed, however, enough that all citizens have a reasonable awareness of the world below, the dangers and opportunities that can be found there.

Some the key information regards the various Strata, the levels, defined by both their depth and the concentration of mana found there.

The First Strata is generally accepted to lie from the surface to five kilometres deep. It is frequently referred to as the Strata of Beasts, since most of the monsters found there are exaggerated, terrible hybrids of creatures that have long existed on the surface.

As for the lower Strata, the second and below, information is much harder to corroborate.

From the ’Knowledge of the people, a series of essays’ by the Magio Scholar Tarius.

I manage to pass a fairly profitable day in this manner.

During the quiet moments I manage to construct a third pitfall trap and add it my expanding network, excavating another tunnel to connect it all together and gaining another level of excavate as my reward.

My fairly crude traps have proven surprisingly capable, netting a consistent flow of prey that I have been able to finish off quickly and conceal within my tunnels, feeding the majority of the Biomass to Tiny and taking a little for myself.

Over the last day I managed to take four Biomass for myself, which I’ve stockpiled for the time being. I could take two upgrades to pheromones immediately but I don’t particularly see the need. It isn’t as if I’m cooperating with the colony at the moment so the pheromones won’t help achieve anything.

I did start to feel a little guilty about leaving the colony to its own devices for this long. After digging out the third trap I decided to start the arduous process of connecting my small network of pitfall traps to the main nest by way of a rather long underground tunnel.

This particular project will take a long time to actually complete, particularly since I have to return to the traps to check on the situation every now and again, as well as making frequent, ever longer trips to transport the dirt and rock I’ve dug back to the surface.

and more difficult. I’ve had to travel ever further away from my pitfalls to find a space to dispose of it and the area around my traps

monsters stomp through the area they tend to scatter the dirt and pound it into the ground, concealing my work

to feast and then sleeping immediately. Every time he wakes up he’s grown a little larger and after repeating this process four times across the day he’s shown significant growth, basically

his teenage size, all he wants to do is sleep and eat. I’m half

pace he’ll be able to display some strength in combat fairly soon. I can already

managed to get that crucial level ten. Every time I finish off a monster now I await the pronouncement of Gandalf with all of my soul but

but it’s so

just dig some more, let the feeling of

traps to the colony.

no desires, or wants. There is only

CRASH!

PREY! GETTEM!

the hunk of rock I’d been carrying I sprint towards my traps. So eager am I that I reach my next

the walls of the pit and tearing apart the branches that have fallen around

brawl next to the ant hill this one is larger and more brutish, it’s fur is thinner and patchy, almost as if the creature were sick. The thickly muscled limbs testify to the brute power of

beastly and hideous face I haven’t seen yet. A fetid, diseased pallor, fluid leaking from each eye and missing teeth are the first impression

ooze from every pore of the monster’s body, filling the air

Wait a second...

that I AM in pain! I’m losing health just by being near this damn

me just by being nearby? I’ve never seen anything like

delay I more health I’m going to lose, stop slacking about Anthony,

POW! POW!

into the pit I present the back-zone to my prey, eyeball it over my shoulder and unleash two blasts of the restrictive acid, catching the monster across the chest and

Looking at the monster I’m concerned I may get poisoned or diseased if I were to be bitten or scratched during the fight, best to slow it down first before I tussle in close quarters with