Chrysalis

I'm exhausted and my mandibles are aching something fierce after all that digging, but is it time to rest?

NOPE.

Those damn pupae are teasing me with their very existence. The twenty large casings are resting against the side of a chamber, taunting me with their stillness. Within them, the hope of ant kind is taking the final steps of their gestation, turning from a grub into something more, something incredible. The ant species to end all ant species.

At least that's what I'm hoping for. If they suck I'm going to be really disappointed…

It shouldn't happen though! I reinforce my own positive mindset. They are going to be great, I've put so much effort into creating them and into making sure they'll get a solid boost to start out their new lives, surely they'll be great!

The closer this project is getting to fruition the more stressed I'm getting.

Put it behind you Anthony, put all of it behind you!

Focus on yourself for a while, treat yourself. To what should I treat myself? To skill training, of course!

Not only me, Tiny and Crinis have been roped in as well.

discussing things with Beyn and drawing on his knowledge, our knowledge of the system has greatly expanded and the weightiest nugget

within my core, I was ignoring two aspects of the holy trinity of

in nature, so it is within the monster. When one tree is watered over much, it does not grow properly, drowning instead of thriving, and the

none of my combat skills was of the fourth rank he'd nearly slapped me out of sheer shock and in the process lost

the time has come to take part in that most

grind like

most important thing to grind? Of

most frustrating thing that Beyn had enlightened me of. I'd thought I'd made use of an

problem is that having the gland doesn't give me access to what I really need to make use of it, which

before, he was sure it was a particularly advanced form of mana, which means

to get access to it, I have to level up my basic affinities, which will unlock the next rank of

affinity skills will unlock. That is my most immediate goal. Apparently the exact types of mana that unlock are not necessarily set, and can vary from individual to individual. With a bit of luck I might even see Gravity Mana in the next

then fusing them to form the skill Elemental Mana Mastery, which gives powerful boosts to the basic elements. Most local mages

Rush to the top!

Crinis and I settle in to grind our skills, repetitively, endlessly, mind numbingly. For me, that means forming and releasing the ice mana construct over and over again, casting water and ice spells at everything I can see. The walls, dipping into the Dungeon and launching them at monsters, at Tiny once by accident, and the

faster boost than just hitting the walls but being as mentally exhausted as we are, I don't want us diving into frenetic combat. Keeping to the upper tunnels and picking

we grind, and

tentacle skills, grappling shredding, dismembering. After much persuasion, I eventually get a mortified Crinis to attempt to use her