Chrysalis

After dropping Sarah and Jim with Florence, I rush back out to the storage area I'm told we stashed our haul from the outpost in. I'm feeling a touch buoyed by the run-in I had with Sarah and Jim. I'm not sure how much they'll be able to help out, but like I told them, every little bit helps. I doubt it would ever happen, but having Sarah on the front lines, a monster who's supposedly strong enough to rip me up would make an incredible ally. It would take a lot to get there, considering her aversion to violence, but I'm sure she'll be able to contribute no matter what.

When I finally make it to the chamber, I find a wide, low ceilinged chamber filled with precious loot. My siblings have been busy in here, categorising and stacking all of the goods in neat shelves that they’ve shaped out of stone. Probably another innovation that they stole from the humans. At the time I arrive, Coolant is there, picking through the various magical materials and items. Ellie is also there, making a meticulous inventory of the many, many cores we brought back.

I crawl over and drop Garralosh's core with a massive THUD. Ellie's antennae begin to quiver uncontrollably the moment she notices it.

[Eldest! That core?! Are you here to donate it?]

[Ah, no. This one's for me, unfortunately.]

[Are you going to make a pet with it? Surely you will!?]

[You know what core this is, right?]

[Of course I know! I still can't believe you never let us study it, but it's an amazing chance to create an incredibly strong pet.]

I shouldn't be surprised that the core shaper would be interested in the most potent core the Colony has gotten its mandibles on, but I kind of hoped they'd have gotten over it by now?

[No, I won't. I'll be absorbing this core after I've maxed out my current limit. That's why I came here, have you finished categorising the cores yet? I want to take the more useless ones and absorb them.]

these cores are of real interest to us. Unknown monsters that we haven't come across before, new organs

trash that they had lying around. I just need the energy, not

says and starts rummaging around, looking for

and wander over to

we actually get anything useful from those

scratches her head

otherwise why would the Shapers have been storing it? But since we've never come across this stuff before, we don't

stuff did we

pointing out various things on the shelves with

certain of their purpose. Over here, I've collected a series of gems

Fascinating!

making any progress on

on the tools at this stage. We're assembling teams of our best tier four mages and enchanters to look over them. Claws crossed,

be a game changer. Because they surely have ways to scry monsters. Did we

did collect quite a variety of mana infused ores and metals. It seems to be something that they quite fancied, since

the pure energy of the Dungeon flowing throughout these materials. Some are clearly more precious than others,

we can do with these?]

Coolant shrugs.

what affinities these materials have and then pass them over