Chrysalis

Once again, I've managed to pile up a respectable amount of Biomass, though far less than I could have. The priority was given to pumping up those around me on recent trips, on the next one I can afford to be more… dare I say it… selfish. It's not selfish to feed myself dammit! I need to max out my mutations before I can even think about evolving. Anyone who thinks I'm going to miss out on that juicy, free bonus evolutionary energy for maxed evolutions is insane! Insane I tell you!

To that end, I need to stuff my face. I won't apologise for it!

The other thing I need to do is use combat to pump up my Skills as fast as possible. Elemental magic needs to be the priority. Once I finally achieve the rank five fusion, I'll be able to finally push my practice in other directions. Mind magic will probably be the next area of magical study I need to push. Those mind constructs will allow me to push my prowess to a whole new level once I evolve and pump my brain power.

I feel like it's been a long time since I've even considered evolving. The Colony has been expanding so quickly, and conflict has come to find us at such a rapid pace, that I haven't had any time at all to consider my own progress. I guess in the back of my mind I'd kind of pushed all thought of evolution away since level eighty was such a ridiculously long way away. Not anymore though! Only twenty nine more levels! Sounds like a lot, but it's a heck of a lot less than eighty!

I'm getting excited just thinking about it. Evolution is so addictive, I swear.

Alright, let's get busy, if I sit around here and keep pondering my next evolution then nothing is going to get done. Leaving my pets to sort out their own numbers (even Tiny appears to be counting on his fingers, his face a mask of concentration), I duck out into the corridor and flag down a passing ant.

"Hey there, any chance you can get word to the golgari Torrina and Corun to come and drop by here?"

"Sure thing. Work hard!"

"When am I not?"

"…"

"Alright already! Geez!"

Everyone's a critic. Just because I'm not currently doing something, doesn't mean I'm not doing something. Sort of. I quickly brush up on the Skills that I've upgraded recently whilst I wait for my two advisors to arrive.

Flicker Dash ranking up into Snap Dash was a nice one. The improved dash skill has a dramatically shorter wind up than before. Not that the charging time was long, but if you cut half a second down to a quarter of a second, you notice. It's similar to the feeling of gathering strength in your legs before you jump. With flicker dash, there was a brief moment of wind up before the explosive speed was unleashed, now that time is almost gone. Combined with my reflexes, even faster dodging is now possible. Gweheheheh.

My digging Skill has once more ranked up, Master Excavation taking my ability to move serious dirt to a whole new level. The pursuit of ant zen will never stop! Meditation ranked up once again, which is handy. The Skill is basically a form of enhanced concentration, allowing the Skill user to push emotion and distractions to one side and draw out 100% of their strength. This new rank improves the ability of the Skill to be utilised when moving in high speed, stressful situations. Allowing me to stay centered and focused, even when dashing all over the place.

Directed mana sensing is a handy one, essentially allowing me to extend my sensing range by focusing on a particular direction, like focusing a beam of concentration. Ranking up grace is just helping me with my balance, never a thing to be underestimated when you can run up multiple surfaces and have six legs. All in all, my progress has been decent without being overwhelming. My strength has been steadily ticking up, without any major leaps.

That has to change! MOAR power will be needed if I'm going to defend the Colony and fight off the invaders! It's unlikely I'll manage to evolve before the golgari arrive, but I can push my Skills as far as possible before then and see what happens.

Ten minutes later my advisors arrive and I welcome them into my chamber.

you live?] Corun

the chamber we use to sleep and plan. Does any ant really have a place where they live? I mean, we

once upon a time. I guess I would have expected you to

I'm a bit confused.

point out, [how many ants in the Colony have

to say more but Torrina cuts him

What did you want

I shrug.

mutations and doing some serious power levelling over the next few days, so I thought I'd

She nods.

this out of courtesy rather than because you feel any real desire for our help. Regardless,

[I'm getting close, too. Fire magic is already there. The others are getting closer

Corun shakes his head.

five? I mean… why

rolls her eyes at

made up

protests, [that's so many

across too many brains to be able to handle the more powerful

He blinks.

more sense than I'm used to hearing

trying to get better at being assertive. I think

agree with your choices. If you continue to progress and rank up your other core Skills, your bite, movement and defensive ones mainly, then you shouldn't have any issues up until it's time to evolve. Just

[Why?]

mean to absorb that core, before

a matter of fact. Old habits die hard and stashing cores in my own chamber has worked for me

[Yep.]

in evolutionary energy available at this tier is huge, and you'll be sitting at tier six for a long time. One hundred and sixty levels

if the Colony would stand it if I made them all force feed me experience,] I laugh, [that's a totally shameful level of

She shrugs.

to do it, and it might not be the wrong call. You can do a lot of work at tier six. At that tier, normal delvers would need to dispatch several teams of experts to beat such a monster. Even elites in the second strata wouldn't dare go one on one with a tier six. At tier