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

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 have no option but to trust them. Formo has never

a series of core powered lighting installations. I was pretty darn interested in learning

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 I saw. Other than that, their featureless faces appears the same from one

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

how bitter he is from

does that even work? The Dungeon just up and

subject, old boy. We don’t much like talking about, but when

I wouldn’t

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

[That’s terrible.]

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 instant, like

a tragedy! How the

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 Dungeon? Is it a thing that you can

show around here. The Sophos may already know about it, or they might pin me down and

there is much about 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 Dungeon, once you know what it wants. For example, have you

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

Those damn centipedes were the

Formo nodded his head.