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.]

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

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 have no option but to trust them. Formo has never steered me wrong

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 was cagey about it when I asked. Damn you, you bulbous

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.

don’t see a whole lot of your people around Formo.

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

can tell how bitter he is from

that even work? The Dungeon just

a sore subject, old boy. We don’t much like talking about, but when the opportunity to

I

began 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 have to say, their attitude

[That’s terrible.]

LIP AND ALL THAT OLD SPORT! It’s tough to 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

tragedy! How the

out, I’m afraid to say, it was a close run thing. Luckily we’d relied on our

fight the Dungeon? Is it a thing that you can hit?

much I should share about 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 dissect me. They seem pretty anti-system in general to me. Probably best if I play it

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

heap of those after all the fighting and eating that’s gone on over the last few weeks and I haven’t been bothered to read through them all. I actually unlocked Garralosh’s 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 and then ate her. I’d rather not learn something

damn centipedes

Formo nodded his head.