Chrysalis

We make much more rapid progress in our descent this time as opposed to the first. Tiny is much stronger after his second consecutive special evolution and he smashes his way with extreme speed and a strangely casual attitude through these small fry. I don't think I've even seen him throw a punch, he's just squashing monsters flat underneath his palms for the most part.

I really have no idea exactly what he gained in the evolution. Perhaps some new organs? Something related to his lightning? Maybe a boost to his sonic scream? I'm more tempted than ever to take the skill that allows me to look at a pets status, simply for convenience sake but I resist. Now that I have the core surgery skill I can take a look at his information using that, it's just a bit more difficult to do so. I have a lot of skill points saved up at the moment so the thought of casually spending one or two to make life a little easier is extremely tempting.

As Tiny keeps slapping his way through the upper layers we pause every now and again to let the little ones eat. I've told Crinis to exercise as much as possible to aid her digestion in order to allow for maximum food stuffage in the shortest period of time. What this means is that she is frantically waving tentacles all over the place whilst riding on my back. She can extend a lot more limbs a lot further than she could not that long ago so I'll take that as evidence that she is fact growing properly.

Whenever we take breaks I flip open the skills menu and flick through it, looking for anything new that has appeared or anything that might be useful. There are a few skills I hadn't seen before that I'm considering purchasing, especially these few:

[Water Magic affinity, Increases the users comfort, speed and efficacy when using mana of the water attribute]

[Fire Magic affinity, Increases the users comfort, speed and efficacy when using mana of the fire attribute]

[Earth Magic affinity, Increases the users comfort, speed and efficacy when using mana of the earth attribute]

[Wind Magic affinity, Increases the users comfort, speed and efficacy when using mana of the wind attribute]

The appearance of these skills seems to answer a few questions in my mind. It appears that once an intelligent creature has mastered the transformation skill to some extent then they will be able to choose an affinity to make it easier to advance onto the next step. I'm guessing that with higher levels of the Mana Transformation skill, or perhaps when the skill advances to the next rank then other, more advanced affinities will become unlocked.

the first to become available since of all the mana types these four have the most

Water Magic Affinity. I know that the Croca-Beasts have a fire magic gland, despite being based on an aquatic creature. Even if water magic doesn't prove to be too effective offensively against them, I'm

thought leads me in an interesting direction. Is it possible for a creature to have poor compatibility with certain elements? Or good affinity? A water based lifeform like a crocodile doesn't seem to have good synergy with fire magic on the surface… maybe I'm overthinking the whole Crocodile thing. Just because they dwell in water on my world doesn't necessarily mean that

one. My skill level is much higher now than the

our way down to the location of the short cut we had previously dug. Whilst Tiny smashes everything I continue to charge

level 5. Skill

Nice!

horse the user will be able

I'll take it!

points saved up… I'll leave it for now but I really ought to be spending these. Skill points in the bank do nothing to increase strength! I do need to a few points in reserve so I can advance key skills when they hit the cap but ten is really

has been emptied out then we excavate the entrance and start clearing the shortcut of spawned monsters. By this time the Dungeon has extended its veins all the way to the top. Beasties and plants have spawned all over the place and started ripping into each other with gusto. It's all over very quickly once we arrive. I go into

of business!

….

it. In order to ensure the Dungeon beneath the colony is safe we keep moving and mapping out the branching paths as much as possible. Every tunnel Tiny can fit in is explored to some extent, those that he can't I scurry into myself

…

is exhausting! On the plus side my Tunnel map is becoming more