Chrysalis

It takes a while for the vicious itch to fade. The coordination cortex is like an octopus that sits between my sub brains and the main mind so as it mutates and changes my entire brain zone lights up with itching. It’s intolerable!

But finally gone!

The process finishes and I find my pet monsters looking at me funny. Look! Just because you lot can take the sensation of mutating like its nothing doesn’t mean I can! I’m sensitive!

...maybe.

At any rate, keep digging!

It takes only a few hours of vigorous work to finally connect the new section of the shortcut to the old, meaning the travel time from the surface down to the marsh will be as short as an hour if there aren’t monsters spawning in there or an hour and half if there are. It’s a crude tunnel that zig-zags back and forth on a fairly steep grade, barely large enough to squeeze Tiny through. When he evolves again we are going to have to put in a lot of work expanding all of these passages for the big lug. To celebrate this momentous achievement, I’ve decided that we’ll all pitch in and collect a feast for ourselves and then another feast that we can take up to the Queen.

I place Crinis on defence duty at the shortcut entrance to make sure nothing sneaks out of the expanse and then Tiny, Vibrant and myself start roaming the tunnels looking for Biomass. Crinis isn’t really built to be an offensive hunter, at least not yet, so placing her in position where she can deploy her tentacles thinly like a spiders web to detect intruders and snatch them up is the best use of her talents. Tiny and I are more than capable of dealing with the monsters that spawn out of the walls here.

Sadly we don’t find many. Since the monsters are drawn by that mysterious pressure to run into the marsh expanse upon spawning they can’t build their numbers and get caught up fighting each other in the tunnels. Asides from a few stragglers and slow moving plant types the pickins’ are pretty darn slim.

[Master! Return to my location I think something is happening] Crinis suddenly speaks in my mind.

[We are on the way Crinis. What’s going on?] I mean... something could be happening but how the heck would she know? If a fireworks display was going on around her she’d have no idea.

[I can feel vibrations in the tunnel floor, and they keep getting stronger. I think something is approaching] she explains.

Ohhhhh. Makes a lot of sense really. She does have quite a responsive sense of touch, she kind of has to since it’s the only sense that she has... She’ll have to wait until evolution before she’ll be able to take advantage to some of the changes I made to her core.

our way back at full speed to

I could see perfectly well what was happening. Another horde of monsters was piling out of the marsh expanse and into the tunnel, hurtling in our direction as quickly as their beastly limbs could

to dive! Crinis, engage feast mode!"] I holler frantically at my

upon us, only a few metres away at this point but Crinis wastes no time! Immediately she retracts the thin sensing tendrils she had laid out and reforms her tentacles into the thick, monster crushing engines of

but I get the feeling the big guy has not enjoyed feeling so subdued by the pressure emanating from the center of the expanse, he’s not the kind of monster who wants to shy away from a fight, he wants to

the change, personally I think

work his frustrations out on a massive horde of foes and he is going to

Tiny bowls into them with his formidable mass, sending monsters flying, slamming into

and engage! Tiny ran past you to fight

[Oh!.. Uh.. Understood master!]

that are already starting to wrap around Tiny and attack his vulnerable back. Those monsters rather suddenly find themselves wrapped up themselves as their bodies are rent by Crinis’ and then tossed

we need enough

Sorry master! I forgot myself!]

fine to eat, just

[Ok!]

of dismissed all stomach upgrades in the evolution menu out of hand but I’m really starting to see the value in them. If I can hold more food or process it more efficiently then my Biomass deficiency should be

I need to

his way through fists first, lightning sparking off him in increasingly intense waves and Crinis starting to wind up her threshing machine I decide

transformation construct active so I start feeding it double time

The water cannon!

massive torrent of water blasts out from just above my head, cannoning

Time for