Chrysalis

Even after nearly a day my gravitational energy gland is still not full. With my sub-brain offering a heightened awareness of all things core related I can tell that there has been a steady drip of mana flowing out of my core and into the new gland.

The conversion rate seems to be very slow, the gland is only thirty percent full after slowly charging since my evolution. Even with my core as enhanced as it is, it has been unable to provide enough mana to fill up the gland.

I’m starting to think that gravitational energy is actually super hard to make. At my current rate it would take several days for the gland to be fully charged from empty. I don’t know if that would be the case for every type of energy. I suspect that if I had chosen fire or one of the other elemental selections then the process of converting mana to the particular energy type would not nearly be so slow.

It’s possible other types of energy are even more demanding, time and space are potentially just as difficult. However the slow rate of charge actually reinforces my confidence that this was a good choice. If it was easy to do then I would have just waited until I could have done it manually myself, there would be no need to invest a precious body upgrade to achieve this result. Since Gravity magic appears to be so difficult then the choosing to shortcut the process of converting raw mana into gravity energy is well worth it!

With my sub-brain helping reduce the strain I continue to draw out the energy from my new gland and pack it tightly into a tiny ball that sits in my throat. The energy flows like immaterial water, hundreds of small streams leaving the gland and twisting through my body before they are caught by the rapidly growing ball.

Thanks to the reduced effort I’m able to keep a better eye on my surroundings during the process. Concealed high in my tree and remaining still my stealth skill is able to properly display its full potential, I’m not concerned that I’ll be detected. Tiny however, is becoming increasingly difficult to hide. The ape is getting larger with every meal, he currently looms over me even after my evolution. He’s achieved roughly half of his full grown size at this point. On the one hand I’m glad that he is getting stronger, on the other hand we want to hide more than we want to fight right now!

He’s doing his best, I’ll give him that. In my nearly 360 degrees of vision I can see him behind me, curled into a ball, resting on the intersection of the branch and trunk. It looks like he has snapped a leafy branch off and is holding it in front of his body to try and conceal his muscular, gorilla like frame.

The idea itself isn’t bad but he’s chosen such a tiny branch that he is barely covered at all. Overall the effect reminds me a person trying to cover their privates with a fig leaf.

Still, it appears as if he put some thought into it, which is a win?

From the mound a centipede sticks its nose out of a hole and quickly peeks about before retreating out of sight. I think these creatures are also finding it difficult to hunt in the current forest. Where once upon a time roving gangs of five centipedes were enough to threaten most things, the number of larger and more threatening beasts is constantly growing. One of those Lion Ogres would thrash a dozen unevolved centipedes without an issue.

My guess is the centipedes in this mound are clustering together and leaping on any prey that approaches too close to their nest using their full numbers to suppress the foe.

Which means that the number of the little crawlers inside the mound is extremely high.

Excellent.

the same as normal, raw mana. The colour is certainly different. Normal mana is an intense, bright blue but this energy is a deep purple. In my mental

small, tightly packed energy cloud it suddenly shrinks and congeals itself into a perfectly spherical, rapidly rotating ball. The colour has become so deep as to be almost black. As soon as the change happens the

mind’s eye, the flowing mana caught in the irresistible pull of gravity as it circles around the sphere in

the heck

I made a mana black hole or what?! I have to frantically focus all of the mental energy I can summon from both of my brains in order to maintain even a semblance of control over the energy. If I lost concentration for even a second I’m

has reached level

now dammit! Claws crossed this skill improves my control and not the speed that

drawn out of my gland I can feel the almost unstoppable pull

to drain me completely dry of

open my

is perfectly still before

mana, so deep is the purple now it

with every ounce of mental strength. This is far more difficult than the normal force mana ball. I feel like I’m shifting a mountain with my bare

to move. With every moment I continue to exert my mind it

BAM!

a dam breaking, once the momentum has risen from a trickle to

a high pitched shrieking sound shatters the silence. The sphere blasts forward, slowly rotating all the while. An unfathomable pulling

response to the sudden cacophony of sound, centipedes begin to pour out of the mound, claws thrashing in the air as they rush to

too late

several centipedes are caught in the inexorable pull. Though they attempt to resist the monsters are ripped from the ground and