Chrysalis

The effect of the gravity bomb is far beyond my expectations. That was only forty percent of the gland being charged! What would one hundred percent look like? I shudder to imagine. To be honest I’m not even sure if I would be able to control that much energy. The gravity bomb I just fired had almost escaped my grasp, even after my upgraded mental capacity.

Just goes to show how difficult magic is to perform in this world, even with my heavy investment to upgrade my mental capacity it isn’t necessarily going to be enough to take me all the way to the end of the magic road. In future evolutions I may need to further invest in expanding my sub-brain and increasing my will stat.

For now the results are certainly good enough.

[You have gained experience]

[You have gained experience]

The voice of Gandalf continues to echo in chorus in my mind dozens of times, announcing the same message.

[You have reached level 2]

Even after smashing all of those of claw centipedes I only gained enough experience for one level. The penalty for defeating creatures a whole two evolutions below me is being displayed.

In the aftermath of the gravity bomb there is an eerie silence for a moment. Tiny and I begin to descend the tree in order to survey the damage more closely. As grow closer to the mound several centipedes begin to crawl out from deep within their nest, clearly protected from the blast by their position below the ground level.

These guys are seriously mad, claws snatching at the air and mandibles viciously chomping in a clear display of their rage. Tiny and I are quite delighted to see them and happily hurl ourselves upon the foes, ready to do battle.

I’m especially glad to see these centipedes survive as they are perfect for training a new skill I’ve wanted to level up for some time.

My Exo-skeleton defense skill!

This particular purchase was part of my effort to tank up, buffing my defense to the point I wouldn’t have to fear little beasties like these guys, but I haven’t had a good opportunity to test it and gain experience in it yet.

This handy skill doesn’t actually improve my carapace in any physical way, what it does do is give me insights and instincts to help make best use out of my external skeleton. I can feel the skill at work in my mind as I close in on the claw centipedes and deliberately allow them to strike towards my body. Seeing the angle of the attack I almost subconsciously shift the position of my body to present a greater slope to the enemy, blunting the impact and reducing the surface the clawed beastie can grab hold of.

Gweheheheh. Behold my skillful maneuvers!

Ouch!

claw centipede has approached from the

my skills need

take it like an ant! I try to react as

more than capable of blunting the attacks of these monsters,

defense has reached level

skills, tanking blows from weak enemies! This is the ultimate wisdom of humanity on

ugly monsters have surrounded me now, battering me on all sides as I continue to make small adjustments in

defense has reached

Bwahahaha!

Wait, Tiny nooo!

will blue electricity and

and staring, Tiny turns his bat face towards me,

done buddy.

little bat ears and leaps into eating scooping up handfuls of

... gross.

I start to hunt around the mound, curiously prodding here and there to see what I can find. After searching around the outside of the mound I manage to find a

gravity bomb?! Did it really manage to squish all of that dirt and Biomass into this little

is a truly terrifying level of compression

having a car crusher launched from my

rather disgusting cocktail, three parts dirt, one part crushed centipede. There is probably a couple of points of Biomass mashed into here, it’s

probably

were

monster cores when I scanned the mound as well as that strange convergence of energy at the deepest recesses of

has simply vanished, perhaps crushed by the gravity bomb... Whilst the second is deep in the mound, close to that strange

the mound covers a large hollow space on the inside, a space that extends several meters underground. These mounds contain even more space that I’d assumed! No wonder so many centipedes can fit in

narrow hole that extends deeper still. Right in the bottom I can see an extremely bright source of concentrated mana. The mana is so thick I can visibly see it swirling in

heck

mana. This centipede appears to have a slight blue tinge to its carapace, and is slightly smaller than the

smart enough to realise you couldn’t win in a fight against something that could obliterate the nest in one hit? Thought your only chance

luck buddy! Nobody slips past