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

But we

[There's more?!]

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 surface races, they

that when demons evolve enough, they 'graduate' into a fully formed demon

This is shocking news!

from far below by Arconidem the Demon Lord and author of the Red Truth. The Demon Cities are

so you guys don't trade or

That's illegal. The penalty is death. The Abyssal Legion wages a constant war or the Demon Cities, trying to exterminate them entirely. To any delvers, the demons are a continual menace. They don't want us down there and hunt down any

Aren't

Granin shrugs helplessly.

just like killing. Doesn't matter what it is. If you can't kill the demons in your own city, then the demons in the city next door are fair game. They might be able to control their urges, but that doesn't mean they don't

The mini-eyeball is quite adorable. He can't support himself on his wings just yet and has to 'walk' 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.

the demon, we need to work out what you

my elemental skills? The ice magic turned out to be quite

rocky face turning

like we're going to need something else. You're aiming for the rank five fusion, which is unlikely to happen before the end of the

I hesitate.

use. If the enemy is taken by surprise, it basically a guaranteed

me

it a Gravity spell?] He

I confirm

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 nods and concentrates hard for a time before nodding back to her

listening in. I've told you already that 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

shouldn't

support in their suppression of you and between now and then we can stoke those

don't sound completely sure