Chrysalis

Biomass has been spent, food has been dispensed, traps are taken care of and Tiny is happily sleeping off his food coma.

The time is ripe!

There is something so exciting and freeing about being able to become a completely new creature via evolution. A human changes over their lifetime also, going from baby to toddler to child to teen to adult but the process is so slow that the change doesn’t always feel meaningful. Only in hindsight can you appreciate the different stages of your life.

I didn’t even make it to adult in my life as a human! After more than ten years!

I’ve not even been in my new world of Pangera for a single year and I’ve already reached my second evolution. If I were to line it up with the stages of human life, then I’ve been a baby monster, currently I’m a toddler monster and I shall promote myself to child monster!

Considering how weak the ant species is individually, these analogies actually feel pretty accurate to me.

Ok, no more stalling Anthony, time to go for it!

[Would you like to use the Evolution menu?]

I would!

[Congratulations on reaching the maximum level for your current species. Evolution will allow you change your form and increase your stats as a monster.

Warning: evolving will make securing XP and Biomass more difficult as fewer rewards are given for preying on creatures less evolved than yourself.

A special core has been detected, by advancing your core beyond normal limits special options may be available.

Your evolution options are as follows:

- Juvenile Queen (formica)

- Soldier (formica)

- Monster Worker Ant

- (Special) Command ant (formica)

- (Special) Mind ant (formica)]

What the heck!? So many choices?! I only had two last time, and one of those involved changing my species! Ok.... Let’s slow down and not prejudge. Take the options one by one and let Gandalf explain each one.

[Juvenile Queen (formica). A young queen of the formica species, this evolution includes wings and an egg laying organ allowing the new Queen to begin her own colony.]

Just one problem... one little query that I have... I’m a boy! Why the heck do I have a

Wait.

be so stupid? I’ve known this for ages. All

I’M A FEMALE ANT!

DAMMIT GANDALF!

Huh?! Taking someone who was a boy and stuffing them into a female monster body?! Is this your hobby?

Grrrrr...

when I calm down and think about it, being a male ant wouldn’t be that good. Male ants basically mate with a Queen and then crawl away to die, acting like disposable fertilisation machines who are then frequently eaten by the colony. In this world I’m not even sure male ants exist at all. The queen seems to be doing just fine without mating, laying eggs at a steady rate. I’m not really sure monsters in this place procreate

gender isn’t all that important to a monster. But still!

awesome but I don’t really want to be stuck inside the colony laying eggs all the time. I mean... I may be moving away from my

Next option.

oriented worker, this evolution includes +10 might bonus to

I was to avoid the Queen route then becoming a larger, fighting oriented worker would be the choice. This selections seems to come without any free body upgrades but instead a significant boost to the might stat all of which is dumped into size. With all of the energy in my core I could probably take my might score up another ten or fifteen points easily, making

interesting but

the species formica and becoming a generic Monster worker ant, this selection allows two

species, but this time I would get two free choices of body part. Is this because my species would change but generally

be, I would be forced to abandon the colony and go back to leading the solitary monster life. I guess I would still have Tiny with me but I’m reluctant

a place with other creatures in it who won’t attack me is a nice

think I’ll take

Let’s see if the special evolutions

a formica commander. With this evolution comes a +5 bonus to might and a choice

ant eh? The might bonus is nice but I’d get a free aura effect to buff nearby workers?! That is super

workers would be stronger?

One to go.

a new evolutionary chain, a formica mind ant. This evolution grants a +5 bonus to cunning

Ohhhhhhhhh baby.

the magic affinity gland, would that let me produce

I definitely plan to choose one of the special options, they both give me options that are extremely tempting and

which one

the idea of being an incredible ant general, leading troops into battle is

mind ant, magical ant supreme, fast tracking my development as a magic monster user, giving me a free affinity to boot. I could be spitting fireballs or lightning, or goodness knows what?! I don’t even have a

Gah!

This is hard!

mean, the commander choice obviously makes me much stronger when acting together with other ants, since the aura will be able to show its full effect only when I’m with the rest of the workforce, whereas the mind ant will be more suited to a lone ant style, although that isn’t to say I wouldn’t be effective when fighting together with the colony due

organ for healing magic... making her the ideal support

I just can’t decide!