Chrysalis

Flush with the glow of a hard won victory, Tiny and I are unusually not looking forward to the next reward, the Biomass.

Unfortunately, whatever was blocking our sight ended with the defeat of the last monster, clearing our vision to take in a truly wonderful scene.

The monsters practically exploded when bitten and the remains are scattered over the tunnel floor in a truly unpleasant image. Something this abstract would have to be a Picasso? The spattered goop certainly leaves a strong impression.

Sharing an unwilling look with Tiny we both begin to pick over the tunnel floor reluctantly, looking for something that looks like edible Biomass.

[You have consumed a new source of Biomass: Tenebris Serpere, you are awarded one Biomass]

[Basic profile of the Tenebris Serpere unlocked]

[Tenebris Serpere: Dark Crawler, Produced in the Monster Forges of the Troglodyte engineering guilds, these creatures are tailor made for reconnaissance and stealth missions, deploying an arsenal of shadow magic for offensive and defensive purposes]

Uh...

WhatyousayGandalf?

What am I reading here? Produced? Monster Forges? Troglodyte Guilds?

What the heck was all o that?!

So these, truly unpleasant to eat creatures were created? By... Troglodytes?

I’ve never heard of a Troglodyte. What is that?

Well. Focusing back on this fight, the Xp from these creatures was perfectly acceptable. Two whole levels! Once for each! Not to mention the three cores that were able to secure as a result of this battle! Such rewards are almost unprecedented!

Surely this cannot be an omen of something bad about to happen!

...

Ok, nothing terrible so far.

I won’t count it out yet.

After splitting the Biomass with Tiny I gain a further four points, leaving my total on nine. Enough to take my legs from +2 to +4 and enhance my Gravity gland to +1 with one point spare.

I quickly confirm those upgrades with Gandalf while I distract myself from the unpleasant itch by rounding up the monster cores we’ve gained. Three small, round gem-like stones sit on the dirt in front of us. Apparently these monsters were engineered or created outright by a kind of people called the Troglodytes?

if there is anything special about these

skill and begin to study the information contained inside. There is still much that I can’t see in there, but what I can see is quite shocking. These monsters have almost no toughness at all, and very little might, the energy is instead diverted into

are probably the first monsters I’ve seen with such tanked physical stats in favour of mental and magical prowess. It makes sense if you consider them as designed monsters, to compensate for their physical weakness they were equipped with their darkness cloud spell and whatever projectile they were

Interesting.

I try and shift the values a little, just divert a touch of energy over to toughness and I find that it is impossible. When I attempt to make the

was difficult when I made a change to the undead rabbit core, it was nowhere near this hard! Perhaps the more a core has been engineered and changed the harder it becomes to make additional changes? I can test this

these

like to

Reinforce that sucka!

three points each, which is interesting. For

him he stares blankly at

...

I use my mandibles to push it right up to him

looks at

He looks at me.

He sits down.

looks back to the

one hand, picks up the core

...

cheeky ape! That hit me right

the core in my mandibles and rush at him. He seems stunned to see my charge

Whack! Bash!

moron! Don’t give

only hitting him with my mandibles now and the core is gone. Stepping back Tiny is looking at me with a reproachful expression, clearly not happy with my violent treatment. I gift you a core and this is how you react?! I had to beat you up before you would

remember this lesson next time I pass you

his larger gorilla form. If he’s going to follow me around then he needs to be as strong as possible, so it’s worth it to invest cores

the rewards distributed I start to think about whether I should investigate further into this tunnel or retreat for the time being when I feel something

the heck is

to wave vaguely in the air in front of

I think this is....

Air pressure?

wind? From

wind underground if.. Something ... large.... Was pushing the air.... As it..

....

a massive heat signature approaching, fast. Not just

of the wizardly one, get the heck

I already know it’s too late. Turning my head slightly as I run I can see a looming shadow growing in the tunnel behind, filling the empty space