Chrysalis

My mind snaps back to its regular housing and I take a moment to reorient myself. I’m still where I was before, partially buried in a mound of workers with the Queen standing in front of me, quite close.

"Are you alright child?" she asks, seeing me suddenly look so fatigued.

"I’m completely fine!" I gasp out as my brain continues to melt into sludge, "how are you? How did it all go?"

I’m anxious to know if there was any pain or discomfort during the process. I could have tested it on my pets but there is a chance that the skill would have a different effect on them since they have a different relationship with me than most monsters. In the end I went ahead and worked on the Queen hoping that it would all be fine.

"I am fine" the Queen assures me, "it tickled a bit"

....

Tickled?

So having the fundamental makeup of your being tinkered with only results in a tickle?

Thank goodness!

"That’s great!" I cry, "excellent! The whole process has been a success! Hopefully from now own our family will experience a great gain in strength!"

I stick around to counsel the Queen about spending some Biomass to mutate her egg production organs. She is quite reluctant at first but after trying several arguments I eventually tell her that by upgrading all three organs to +5 it will greatly increase the effect of the changes I’ve made to her core. This isn’t really a lie. If she upgrades those organs and chooses some good mutation advancements for them the rate of egg production will increase as the overall efficiency of the system goes up. I don’t know for sure what advancement choices will appear but it isn’t hard to guess that almost all of them will be based around speeding up the process, reducing the cost of each egg or improving the stats of the offspring, any of which would be fine!

beginning to produce the new workers I drag myself back down to where Tiny is waiting and take a quick nap. The relentless battering my mind has taken has pushed even my newly evolved self pretty darn hard. Using the Core Surgery skill in particular was exceptionally draining. If I’d attempted to do it with my old self I’d have had absolutely no chance of getting anywhere at all. My respect for the Sophos only increases the further I walk down the path of core manipulation. Just how powerful are their minds to create the things they do? Are their brains

awake it isn’t because I’ve rested my fill, but rather because my antennae are picking up something strange.

Gah!

it?!

Come on man! Action stations!]

drunkenly as I struggle to get my bearings he reaches out with

ride. With his massive arms he reaches out and takes hold of the tunnel walls before dragging his massive frame upwards as if

in a highly agitated manner. Buried somewhere in that nervous

at a time. By this stage I’ve mostly sorted myself out. My headache hasn’t fully receded but it’s much improved from when I began my rest. I’ve managed to notice Crinis and Vibrant are relaxing on my person as per usual, which is something of a relief. I’d rather they

can finally take in the situation.

see something I truly did not

dishevelled looking humans are clustered around a number of wagons pulled by extremely poorly

ecstatic at the sight of me and runs forward, spooking the workers

look of all of these people something rather serious has gone down. I recognise a few others in the group as members of the village that had rallied around me and the Queen during our short lived cooperation. In fact, the old lady

the priest reaches me he falls to his knees and begins proclaiming in a

....

really wants to feed the dark one’s ego, doesn’t

have no idea what the heck he is saying so for the time being I have to leave him to his own devices. It’s a darn good thing I’ve evolved and actually have a chance to pull off the mind

my attention inwardly and ignoring the prostrating human in front of me I summon the combined power of the brains and begin to painstakingly work on the

slips this time I double my focus and take everything slowly. This time I manage to make it all the way to the end of the process without stuffing it up but so careful and painstaking was I

in my mind. I’ve no idea why it’s