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.]

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

there's a bit of trash that they had lying around. I just need the

second,] she says and starts rummaging around, looking

and

there Coolant,] I greet her, [did we actually

scratches her head with

not easy to say at this stage. We certainly got a lot of stuff that we haven't seen before. I assume that it's useful, otherwise why would the Shapers have been storing it? But since we've never

sort of stuff did we

various things on the shelves with

pieces of equipment, staves mostly, a couple of enchanted robes and … loincloths? There are also many other items that we are yet to be certain of their purpose. Over here, I've collected a series of gems and implements that I believe are for scrying for certain mana signatures over great range. If we can discover what each enchantment is designed to find, it

Fascinating!

we making any progress

this stage. We're assembling teams of our best tier four mages and enchanters to look over them. Claws crossed, they'll be able to unravel the secret soon. If we can make scrying

a game changer. Because they surely

a variety of mana infused ores and metals. It seems to be something that they

glittering ore. Flipping on my mana-sense, I can feel the pure energy of the Dungeon flowing throughout these materials. Some are clearly more precious than others, but

do

Coolant shrugs.

determine what affinities these materials have and then