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!

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

I’ve rested my fill, but rather because my antennae are picking up something strange. Emergency pheromones from

Gah!

is it?! What’s

Come on man! Action stations!]

and when he sees me stumbling about drunkenly as I struggle to get my bearings he reaches out with massive paw and grabs hold of

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

remain and defend the Queen albeit in a highly agitated manner. Buried somewhere in that nervous mass of the workers the Queen seems content to

to crush the ants as he moves Tiny continues to carry us to the surface one handhold 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 be where I can see them that off gallivanting somewhere when

Tiny makes his way out in the light at the top of the anthill I can finally take in the situation. Hundreds of ants have already appeared in response to the threat,

can see something I truly did not expect to

around a number of wagons pulled by extremely poorly looking horses. At the lead is a figure that I sadly recognise all too

dried blood becomes ecstatic at the sight of me and runs forward, spooking the workers considerably. They gnash their mandibles at him and I reluctantly ask them to settle down as I advance forward to

really want to kill him of anything. Besides, judging by the look of all of these people something rather serious has gone down. I recognise a few others in

to his knees and begins proclaiming in a loud voice, turning to indicate that the villagers behind him

....

really wants to feed

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 magic transformation, otherwise I’d

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

so careful and painstaking was I that it takes a full ten

product in my mind. I’ve no idea why it’s so outlandishly