Chrysalis

A few hours later, Granin barges into the chamber and pushes past my ever watching triad of guards to climb down into my cell. When he reaches the bottom and sees me feeding a little mini-demon, he freezes for just a second before he bursts out laughing.

[You as well?] I complain.

[I mean - I just - … Can you imagine their faces if they heard?]

Not this again. I'm almost starting to feel guilty.

[He's an incredible piece of work!] I point out defensively. [I didn't even need to do anything to change his core, just fiddled with his evolutions a little.]

[I know, I know.] Granin waves a hand. [I have to say I was pretty impressed they managed to raise a demon so well, it's notoriously difficult to do.]

That's intriguing. Now that I have a demon in my little group, I'm quite curious to learn more about them. The more I know about my team members, the better I'm able to support them.

[Why's that the case? Is it something to do with the basic shell mentioned in the profile?]

Granin nods.

[Demons are a bit of an oddity in the Dungeon. You can effectively think of them as being divided into two groups. The lower-tiered demons spawn as basically brainless, violent monsters who are even more bloodthirsty than your average beast. Sometimes they don't even eat what they hunt, just move onto the next battle to satisfy their bloodlust.]

[What a waste of perfectly good Biomass!]

[I know. As they evolve, they get stronger, but their basic instincts don't go away. All demons are capable magic users basically from birth, even those who focus on it and evolve down the path to becoming like our little friend here,] he gestures to the Envy demon, [get more adept with magic but are still enslaved by their instincts.]

[So they get smarter, but remain mindless killing machines?]

[Basically. They become more cunning killing machines.]

Strata sounds

But we aren't done

[There's more?!]

yes. Once they reach tier six, the demons begin to take on aspects and transition to the second group. These are the upper demons. More powerful, more specialised and entirely in control of their instincts. Just as smart as the

me that when demons evolve enough, they 'graduate'

This is shocking news!

far below by Arconidem the Demon Lord and author of the Red Truth. The Demon Cities are a massive threat to the civilised people of

you guys don't trade or interact with

a continual

Aren't

Granin shrugs helplessly.

control their urges, but that doesn't mean they don't enjoy indulging them. Be

around on his little stick-thin arms. When I try to feed him a tiny mouth appears in thin air to start nibbling on the Biomass I offer. Obviously, I'm not feeding

out what you are going to be doing between now and the next

grinding on my elemental skills? The ice

rocky face turning

for the rank five fusion, which is unlikely to happen before the end of the tournament, so raising the

I hesitate.

by surprise, it basically

stares at me for

it a Gravity spell?] He asks

is,] I

want to spill all of my secrets. I still don't fully trust Granin and his team. More than that, I don't trust the broader Shaper community even a little bit. Granin thinks for a moment and speaks a few words to Torrina. She

Gravity magic is risky, but we might have to pull the trigger on it this time. Even in this short amount of time, Gravus' allies are moving on his behalf. Things are going to get rough for us and the next matchup is

I shouldn't use

get to work early, we can lay the groundwork for our counter-argument. The leading triad doesn't have universal support in their suppression of you and between now and then we can stoke those attitudes and point to the numerous abuses that start popping up. With a little luck, we'll have enough sympathy on

don't sound completely sure that'll