Chrysalis

The cool light of the Dungeon welcomes my small party home as Tiny and I follow the tunnel deeper beneath the earth, Vibrant and Crinis tagging along for the ride. The goal of this trip, and for the next few days is to absorb as much Biomass as I possibly can before evolving and pushing my evolutionary level penalty further and further. Every time I evolve, the less Biomass I'll get from creatures that haven't evolved as much as me. After my next evolution I'll be tier 4 monster, with three evolutions under my belt! Considering I started as the statistically pathetic hatchling worker ant, which has almost no strengths to speak of I can only say that I've come far from humble origins.

Not only do I require Biomass, Tiny also needs to eat, as well as gain xp to push him towards his next evolution. I briefly conversed with him as we rushed through the Queens chamber and he was able to communicate that he had not yet reached level 20, therefore he needs to be the one absorbing all of the xp.

Crinis and Vibrant have tagged along since they both need to eat and Vibrant needs to gain more xp so she can evolve. Considering she was born with a core we don't need to worry about using her first evolution to form one, so she can directly be promoted to mature worker ant. I still intend to have her absorb a special core and see if she gets any juicy options that I may have missed out on, since I didn't know that special cores and the extra evolutions they unlock even existed at that time.

Still, I wonder what monsters we will encounter! New section of Dungeon, hopefully we get to see something new, I really don't want to have to keep battling centipedes all the time. Ever since I was born there's been centipedes around every corner! Giant centipedes with spikes in their b-zone is not exactly something I want in my face all day, let alone actually having to eat!

If I see even one centipede I may call the whole trip off…

The tunnel we are following seems to be slightly narrow, most likely not a major one. I can feel monsters gestating in the walls, so apparently the wave is still not over but they don't seem to coming out at all? To my senses they seem to be developing less rapidly than the monsters in the Dungeon we had encountered during the wave, those guys had popped out after a dozen minutes so, like donuts in a deep fry.

When I flip on my mana sense I can see a more powerful reaction from these sleeping beasts. It seems the monsters here might be slightly stronger or more complex? Requiring more mana for the Dungeon to form them? Or is the wave receding and the mana isn't sufficient to pump out the monsters as quickly as before?

Bit of a head scratcher.

The workforce already invaded this section of tunnel and cleaned it out when the Queen took up residence so we'll have to push a little deeper if we want to sate our hunger. With Tiny in the lead we eagerly rush forward, looking left and right for something to fight. After five minutes or so I notice something off.

… quite green

actual vines growing on it? And is that a flower I detect?! Since when the hell have there been

poking out of the rock on the wall, about halfway up, looking offensively harmless. A bright red in colour and with vivacious petals that really give a refreshing feeling

come down here to admire the

and more vibrant as we descend until the tunnel until the tunnel widens out and we find ourselves in a place that looks rather less like the Dungeon and more

tunnel, dangling moss in our faces and the rock walls are barely visible beneath layers of leaves and shrubs. Here and there are truly MASSIVE flowers and

underground.

on in my head just as the many plants and vines start shifting and moving, almost unfolding

not this

the

… by the …. Throat? Before beginning

begin to whip through the air as they try to latch onto me, or simply lash me with their suddenly razor sharp leaves. Some fire

to settle for implementing

*Splintering Chomp!*

wide, rusty saw blades that close like a vice, tearing and compressing. For the more armour

they slam shut cutting vines and stabbing wide holes in fleshy plants. For now they only extend about a metre in front of my face but as I level up the skill they'll get larger and more potent, at least