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.]

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

the rock. I’d asked where the giant worms and 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,

of core powered lighting installations. I was

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

a whole lot of your people around Formo. Is it a market day or

hard to ruffle the Dungeon’s feathers and it doesn’t appreciate it, not a

can tell how bitter he is from

Dungeon just

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

I

long before the Dungeon appeared. When mana 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

[That’s terrible.]

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 instant, like a switch was flipped, we lost our Classes, we couldn’t bear young, our levels were gone and

a tragedy! How the heck

was a close run thing. Luckily we’d relied on our pets from the outset,

you can hit? I thought it was more of

seems to think it runs the show around here. The Sophos may already know about it, or they might

the Dungeon that can be learned, even when it doesn’t want you to. It’s also possible to work against the interests of the

profiles! I’ve unlocked a 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

Formo nodded his head.