Chrysalis

[Is there a particular reason why you Sophos are so loud?]

[LOUD? WE’RE TALKING MENTALLY YOU CRETIN. NOT A SOUND IS MADE!]

[Formo! You know exactly what I mean! Every time I form a mind bridge with a Sophos I’ve had my head rung like a bell! Can you tone it down a little?]

[WE ARE SIMPLY EXUBERANT, MY BOY! FULL OF BEANS!]

[I seriously doubt you eat beans, Formo.]

[WELL, NOT UNLESS IT WAS A BEAN MONSTER I SUPPOSE!]

[Just, take it down a notch, please?]

[I SHALL- ahem. I shall try. I must say young Anthony, I didn’t expect that I would see you again. Judging by your change in size, you’ve been quite productive over the course of the wave.]

[Well, once the colony got rolling, the wave was almost more help than it was harm.]

[Hmm. I wonder if you understand why that might have been the case.]

[I’m not sure what you mean.]

[No matter. Come, my boy, let us wander this way. My domicile is found near the forge.]

would be. After my first

such lived and had been informed that most of them lived in holding areas beneath the village. I’d been a little surprised at that. I’d expected that they might treat their pets a little better, considering how much they relied on them. Tiny and Crinis have been sent down there as pets are discouraged in the upper levels. I’ve been assured they’ll be treated with the utmost respect,

thing that struck me is the total lack of Mana Veins here. The walls are bizarrely clear of them, light instead being provided by a series of core powered lighting installations. I was pretty darn interested in learning how the heck they did that but Formo

similar, the real defining feature I could pick out was the mottled colouring of their skin. Most of their skin was green, but some had patches of red, or blue, or even orange

don’t see a whole lot of your people around Formo. Is it a market day or

Of course not! There just aren’t many of us! We’ve worked hard to ruffle the Dungeon’s feathers and it doesn’t appreciate it, not

bitter

Dungeon just up and

when the opportunity to rant about the Dungeon pops up,

sure I

through the ground, we were the first to experience and make use of it. When the Dungeon tunnels connected to ours, we were the first to come into contact with monsters and battle them. The surfacers ignored our warnings and laughed at our pleas for help. I have to say, their attitude towards us was much

[That’s terrible.]

keep a good Sophos down! We adapted, thrived even! But things began to change. After hundreds of years, we were so steeped in the mana of the Dungeon that the stupid System couldn’t differentiate between us and monsters. In an

What a tragedy!

nearly wiped out, I’m afraid to say, it was a close run thing. Luckily we’d relied on our pets from the outset, and they did not desert us. Now we build our settlements around any spawn point we know has produced a Sophos and we battle against the Dungeon

fight the Dungeon? Is it a thing that you can hit? I thought it was more of a nebulous sort

the show around here. The Sophos may already know about it, or they might pin me down and dissect me. They seem pretty anti-system in general to me. Probably best if I

It’s also possible to work against the interests of the Dungeon, once you know what

full profile after eating her Biomass, considering there was only one of her the Expert Profile was unlocked straight away. I haven’t been able to bring myself to read it yet. I mean, I killed

I have. Those damn centipedes were the

Formo nodded his head.