Chrysalis

I hope these crabs taste good, after all the nasty monsters we've had to eat on the second Strata so far, I'm hoping that they live up to the reputation of Earth crabs for being delicious. I suppose I need to finish the fight first.

Omen Chomp.

CRUNCH!

Another crab reels, its shell cracking as slinters fly in all directions. The disgusting mass of anemone on its face roil and grasp for me but I'm already moving. My fast reflexes and future sense thrive in a situation like this. Monsters surround me on all sides but I'm able to move deftly with a speed that belies my large size. My synapses fire with incredible speed as I feel the monsters around me move. Claws reach for me, gross mouth parts seek to drill into me and in the midst of it all I shift my position with precision.

Angle the carapace here. Shift my legs now. Tilt my body to the left. Each movement presents a better angle, each time I step with my six legs, I'm able to dodge by a hair. They strike my carapace repeatedly. The sharp spines in the claws are damn sharp. Whenever they grab at me, they dig and chip into my hard shell, trying to inject their venom. So far, my carapace holds. Its' actually starting to give me a great sense of pride! How's that you damn crabs? Your shells are like nothing before us, but mine still holds strong! The ant reigns supreme yet again! MUAHAHAHAHA!

Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.webnovel.com for visiting.

But if the fight drags on too long, they might put my endurance to the test. Although the Inner Carapace plating is doing its sweet work, I don't want to put it to the test, and I don't want to rely on my healing gland too much. I need to save it for replacing legs more than healing chips in my precious diamond carapace.

if they

Stupid crabs! Omen Chomp!

CRUNCH!

is a massive drain on the stamina, I'll have to shelve it for a moment to let

Solar flare!

sending the creatures around me skittering back in fear. Nice! Since they fear the heat so much, I'll just

shape the spell I draw out more fire mana and feed it into a basic bolt pattern. I'm familiar enough with this working that I

monster and it reacts sharply, flinging up its claws to keep the hateful heat away from itself. Surprisingly the monster doesn't burn. I was kind of expecting it to light up like a candle but no such pyrotechnics take place. However, the crab definitely hates it. After absorbing the bolt with its claws, it begins writhing on the ground, out of the action.

as Tiny rips up the outside of the fight and Crinis works hard to keep the monsters from swarming me. Every firebolt puts a crab down,

rip through the clearing until the only monsters left were the smallest crabs, tier ones probably, scuttling

team! Tiny, I'm impressed you did so well following directions, thanks to that you aren't dead! Crinis,

one of my antenna, causing her to

Spawn point. Explains why the crabs occupied this territory. Very normal behaviour for monsters with a base level of intelligence, so the Sophos told me. They like to grade monster intelligence based on a few simple behaviours. Apparently, the dumbest monsters usually are physically powerful roamers, wandering about smashing stuff until they either become too powerful to stop and take over an area, or more likely they get eaten when

form a group around a spawn point and act together in mutual defence. Of course, higher than that you have things like my colony. Creatures capable of sophisticated social behaviours. Naturally higher than this is the monsters who begin to approach human intelligence. Alone or in groups, they're a much higher threat than anything else. According to the Sophos, monsters tend to get either smarter, or stronger, or both, the lower you go in the Dungeon. These crabs seem to be literal bottom feeders here in