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!

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

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

Gah!

is it?! What’s

Come on man! Action stations!] I

awake and when he sees me stumbling about drunkenly as I struggle to get my bearings he

With his massive arms he reaches out and takes hold of the tunnel walls before dragging his massive frame upwards as if climbing on a jungle

we reach the Queen’s chamber it is buzzing like a hive, the workers jittering this way and that and some of them stream upwards to the peak of the hill. The majority of them seem to want to 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 stay still for the time being. I don’t try to talk to her since it would be

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

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, aggressively postured to defend the colony from all

I can see something I truly did

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

of me and runs forward, spooking the workers considerably. They gnash their mandibles at him and I reluctantly ask them to settle down

vanishing but I don’t 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 the group as members of the village that had rallied around me and the Queen during our short

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

....

guy really wants to feed the dark

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

my attention inwardly and ignoring the prostrating human in front of me I summon

process without stuffing it up but so careful

in my mind. I’ve no idea why it’s so outlandishly difficult to construct but it’s done! Now to put