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.]

our stroll through the Sophos community. I’m not sure what I expected, but the place is much more humble than I had assumed it would be. After my first meeting with Formo, I envisioned the Sophos to be an all-powerful community of core shapers without compare. I’d assumed that they would live in the lap of

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, and I really

of core powered lighting installations. I was pretty darn interested in learning how the heck they did that but Formo was cagey about it when I asked. Damn you, you bulbous

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 I saw. Other than that, their featureless faces appears the same from one to the next. Mind you, they would probably say the same about

your people around Formo. Is it a

worked hard to ruffle the Dungeon’s feathers and it doesn’t appreciate it, not a whit! So the spawn rate

I can tell how bitter he is

work? The Dungeon just up and decided your people were

touch on a sore subject, old boy. We don’t much like talking about, but when the opportunity to rant about the Dungeon pops up, who am I to

sure I

to seep 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

[That’s terrible.]

were so steeped in the mana of the Dungeon that the stupid System couldn’t differentiate between us and monsters. In an instant, like

What a tragedy! How

more than a thousand years ago, and there are some of us still alive from that time. We were 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

the Dungeon? Is it a thing that you

my conversations with a mind that seems to think it runs the show around here. The Sophos may already know about it, or they might pin me down and

even when it doesn’t want you to. It’s also possible to work against the interests of the Dungeon, once you know what it wants. For example, have you seen the Expert Profile of

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 and then ate her. I’d rather not learn something that gave me cause to regret it. As a fellow former human though, I probably owe it

I have. Those damn centipedes

Formo nodded his head.