Chrysalis

[Worms are stupid.]

[I said I was sorry already…]

[They look disgusting and they eat dirt.]

[I know, okay? I know.]

[They're soft and don't have a carapace which makes them less shiny.]

[Not all ants are shiny! Only you are shiny!]

[Are you talking back to me?! Invidia, I think he's talking back to me!]

[Sssstrange. It should be shame.]

[Yeah, you're supposed to be shame! Aren't you, Jim?]

[… yes. I am shame. Can we PLEASE discuss this another time? Like, when we aren't being ACTIVELY chased?!]

[I suppose…]

As much as I enjoy reminding our resident worm that he and his entire species are massive failures who the world would most likely be better off without, we do have something of a situation on our claws. After we popped up outside those massive stone gates, we hightailed it back underground but it wasn't long before we started to sense signs that we were being followed.

Luckily, Jim was able to retrace the tunnel that I'd collapsed a lot faster than he could dig through solid rock, but we couldn't follow that all the way back, we'd just end up in the Shaper outpost that we'd started in. Which meant that we needed to dig our way into another Dungeon tunnel, a job for which we needed Jim's now suspect earth senses to try and find.

[Look, I found a tunnel, didn't I?]

[Just not the right one…]

[I was close!]

[Close to a city full of Golgari…]

[I'll be quiet.]

or if this is just a location spell of some sort? Monster detection? Perhaps trying to sense vibrations in the rock? Either way I'm not a huge fan. Jim and I are using every technique we can to speed up our tunnel digging. He's biting and utilising his earth magic to its limits as I do the same from just behind him. I've put Invidia on tunnel collapse duty so I can focus more completely on assisting the digging. It's hard to manipulate the mana that far ahead of myself, Jim is a long worm after all, so I need to

They're coming quicker now… Does that mean they're homing in on us or are we getting further away?

We can't be far,

far! I've found another tunnel, probably… twenty metres dead

given

[Agreed!]

so long, having his meals brought to him, it must have killed his edge. Although, judging from his history, this guy was

Jim.

[Right!]

I could not have worm butt in my face sometime soon, I'm well over it. It takes a couple of minutes for us to drill our way through and with

[We did it!]

[Get down, Jim!]

the tunnel with

CHOMP!

apart and it falls to one

the hell was that?!] Jim

do you want to do? Try and hide in the walls or do

He hesitates.

go alone, I really don't,] I assure him, [I've got places to be and you'd rather hide, it's fine. I just need you

a moment as

too close to try and hide here, they'll be able

[Let's go!]

HAZZOW! I'm off!

you to blast anything that looks like it's going to get too close!

[Yesssss.]

[Let's hustle!]

tall rock people are going to leap at you from the shadows, motivation to run isn't hard to come by. Invidia isn't the fastest, so I pile him onto my back and start dashing down

that I thought it might have been. This is the Dungeon after all. You can't get far without running into monsters, a hazard which Jim isn't the

earlier. Obviously not somewhere I'm keen to return to. Neither in the short term, nor ever, if I'm frank. Robbing the Lirians was a

Chomp! Chomp! Chomp!

The support spells make all the difference as my enemies reel from his dizzying mental attacks, are rebuffed by his shields or straight up detonated by his explosions.

Keep hustling. I think we're nearly

going to be safe? I thought we were just trying to get further

little suspicious, which I can't blame him for. As far as he knows, there isn't any safe place anywhere in the