Chrysalis

[Troglodyte?! Where in the BLAZES did you get that thought?!]

This guy is so touchy! Judging from the ’sound’ his voice makes in my mind I definitely consider him to be male, he sounds like a British general from the 1800’s.

Oh.. Uh.... I took a look at the ... Dark Crawler core and it said they were engineered by... Troglodytes... so I assumed...

[BOSH and POPPYCOCK! Only the BLASTED system in this Dungeon refers to my great people as "cave dwellers"! We refer to ourselves as the Sophos and have done since before this SMARMY Dungeon existed!]

Uh... poppycock?

What is a Dungeon anyway?

[... You are inside the Dungeon you BLITHERING simpleton! You’re smart enough to talk to me but have no idea where you are?!]

I’m... not local? Sir?

I have no idea how to talk to this guy. He doesn’t have eyes I can focus on, I feel rude staring at his wrinkly forehead.

[What do you mean not local? You’re here aren’t you?! I can’t imagine a BLASTED thing like you could get out of the Dungeon at all! Those DUNDERHEADED surface dwellers lack the sophistication and senses of us Sophos! If they’d seen you they’d think you were any old monster and squashed you flat I dare say!]

Despite his voice frequently rising to a mighty roar, filled with energy and outrage, his body never moves, not even a twitch. The juxtaposition of voice to frame is completely bewildering, I’m finding it hard to focus on all of the incredible information he’s passing me!

Please... Sir! I haven’t had a chance to ask anyone as... knowledgeable as yourself about this... Dungeon! If I have caused offense by eating your crawlers I am very sorry! I thought they were just monsters and attacked them.

[Just monsters? BALDERDASH! I laboured many hours in the monster forge to produce those beasts! How am I to complete my reconnaissance of the forest expanse without them? HMPH! If you weren’t so unique I’d have already fed you to Crinitus here!]

You can tell I’m not a normal monster?

[Of course! What do you take me for? Some primping, pink, puffy HUMAN? My people are renowned over Pangera for our unsurpassed mental magic. UNSURPASSED I SAY!]

AHH! Yes! Clearly unsurpassed!

My bootlicking seems to mollify him a little, though it is hard to tell since he basically has no face. I try not to think such thoughts too loudly lest he pick up on them and feed me to his worm.

[Hurrumph! I could detect the movement of your thoughts long before I came upon you here. Clearly not the mind of a monster spawned from this WALLY of a Dungeon! What say you, ant?! How did you come to be?!]

Uhhhhh.

How can I explain this... I... died? On another world? And then I ... uh.. Woke up here in an ant body... ?

...

...

[By the MAGNIFICENT MINDS OF THE MIGHTY SOPHOS! You were reborn here you say?!]

can

.. Yes!?

[I see!]

of silence follows as my brusque new

are not the first we have encountered in these

there have been more people like me that were

[Yes].

...

still around? What happened to

Another pause.

encountered us. Others were killed either by the Dungeon or hunted by

statement without shouting, perhaps he understand

mad or

seem

Uh.. No?

your new

mean... I was pretty used to being on my own with nobody to talk to... and it kind of feels nice to be out

human previously as I understand it from your thoughts, you don’t find it

...

it really, I was too concerned about staying alive and then I was too busy trying to level up and evolve, then I found the colony and looking after them has been fun... I suppose I already had a human life and it was ok to

...

silence. I wish this guy would move or

...

A good STIFF UPPER LIP, that’s the stuff! You won’t survive long in the

He got his pep

I do seem to recall word that one of your kind had survived and gone deep into the Dungeon. Whether or not they had come from the same place as you before they were reborn, I dare not say. The old records detail many powerful monsters who survived countless battles and descended deep beneath

though, just how deep does this Dungeon go? We must be nearly a

...

jape! Where you a joker in your last life also? HAHA! I SAY

I’m wrong

mentally wiping a tear from his

common knowledge amongst my people puts the radius of Pangera at slightly over 10,000 kilometres. As far as

... Right.

are things so stupidly dangerous already then! Not even 1% into

because of the wave of

Wave?!

...

shouldn’t forget that you know nothing of this place! Have you not noticed that the number of monsters and

I have!

will occur. Simply put the Dungeon will start to spit out massive numbers of monsters, pretty much constantly for a period

a

already spitting out massive numbers?