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.]

Egg laying! All very Queen like stuff. Just one problem... one little query that I have... I’m

Wait.

known this for ages. All workers in a colony are

I’M A FEMALE ANT!

DAMMIT GANDALF!

a boy and stuffing them into a female monster

Grrrrr...

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

guess gender isn’t all that important to

be stuck inside the colony laying eggs all the time. I mean... I may be moving away from my humanity but

Next option.

(formica), a larger, more combat oriented worker, this evolution includes +10 might bonus

boost to the might

interesting but

worker ant, losing the species formica and becoming a generic Monster worker ant, this selection allows two free body part choices as

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

I would still have Tiny with me but I’m reluctant to take this choice. I like staying with the colony, it’s almost like having a family, something I didn’t

place with other creatures in it

think I’ll take

Let’s see if the special

comes a +5 bonus to might and a choice of aura gland

lives up to the hype! A new evolutionary path of commander ant eh? The might bonus is nice but I’d get a free aura effect to buff nearby workers?! That is super

all of the workers would be stronger? Oh boy, that is tough to pass

One to go.

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

Ohhhhhhhhh baby.

freakin’ expensive for me to upgrade last time so a free boost is pretty damn attractive. Not to mention the magic affinity gland, would that let me produce one kind of

evolution choices. They really do live up to the billing. I definitely plan to choose one of the special options, they both give me options that are extremely tempting and hard to come by, with the added bonus of not

one to

obviously more fighty, and the aura bonus is so tasty, the idea of being an incredible ant general, leading troops

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

Gah!

This is hard!

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

for healing magic... making her the ideal support mage. I could do something similar possibly, or I could just max

I just can’t decide!