Chrysalis

The death of the spider, along with all the 'cleaning' my pets and I had done on our journey was enough to push me to level 76, tantalisingly close to the goal. I was keen to get back out and hunting for experience, but the remains of the big spider were right in front of us and I refuse to let Biomass go to waste! This is a tier six monster after all! The four of us dug in and in a short amount of time, all signs that the giant arachnid had been here at all were gone, vanished without a trace. I decide I can spare a little time and explore the rest of the tunnel in which we'd fought. There's a chance that hideous creature had some good stuff hidden in here, perhaps a Biomass store tucked away in a cupboard, or some cores that we could seize upon. Instead, I find something a little disheartening.

At the end of the tunnel, bundled tight in protective webs are eggs. Hundreds of eggs. After the Colony had swept through and depopulated the area, it was clear that the spider mama had been determined to re-establish the dominance of her family over the strata in which we found them. Although it brings me no joy, I can't allow these spiders to hatch and compete with the Colony, so I get Invidia to destroy them.

I copped out, alright?! I didn't want to go around destroying eggs!

With the deed done, I make sure Crinis grabs the core and we back out into the regular tunnels and start sweeping our way deeper. The longer the wave goes on, the faster the monsters will spawn, and already they're piling up quickly! From what I understand after talking to Granin and the others, the mana never returned to 'normal' levels after the first wave, which is something highly unusual. What's even more unusual is having waves this close together. According to the Shapers, this may point to something rather nasty occurring where we experience a series of waves, each longer and more potent than the last. If that's the case, the Colony has little choice but to level up as fast as possible if we're going to survive. We've grown to the point we can handle the second strata well enough, but what about monsters from the third? Or fourth? If a wave is strong enough, and long enough, then they're going to get here eventually.

In fact, they're going to get here right about now.

After burning my way through a mass of tentacled shadow monsters, my pets and I find ourselves standing in a strangely clear section of tunnel that ought to be occupied by more fighting monsters. Instead we can see the signs of recent battle and the rather obvious remains of some creature messily eating what was left of their foes. Not a great sign. Following the tunnel around a corner we come face to face with the culprit, who strikes me rather immediately as not being a shadow creature.

The monster has four grotesquely muscled limbs that each end in a hardened, flesh coloured point. It's body is a bloated, constantly writhing mass of pink … something whilst its head appears to be little but a mouth. As we watch, it finishes its battle against a large shadow centipede by leaping forward with incredible speed and landing on all fours, one of the forelimbs spearing the arthropod straight through. Not even waiting for the creature to pass away, the hideous monster shrieks a piercing, rage filled scream and starts tearing into the centipede with that enormous mouth, its spear-like limbs dug deep into the floor.

What the heck is that thing!?

idea what the

do notsssss. I have never sssssseeen it

like something from this strata!

memoriesssss of that place… I

and then reared to meet the exact specifications of the Shapers. If my memory serves me correctly, a demon isn't considered fully down until it reaches tier six, like the eyeball has. So this thing is tier five at most? Yikes. It's larger than me already and if I'm not mistaken it might be able to drive one of those damn

they just won't. If you had a big enough sword you might be able to bash your way into breaking some bones or getting a cut in, but generally speaking, the way you used a sword against armour was to stab. You puncture through the protective layer by putting the maximum amount of pressure on the smallest point, piercing like a needle. It's almost as if this damn demon

all! With

shriek when it notices us engaging with it and turns to face us. It moves on all fours and every time it shifts its position those legs rise out of the stone floor of the tunnel and then pierce back through it like it was jelly. It makes

mouth!

lefts. The tight, compact punches are so unlike what I've

it Tiny! Master the left, master

off balance and its anger builds to a terrifying crescendo. I don't think it's taking much damage from the blizzard of punches, but it's finding it hard to move out from under the pinning assault. Not one to back down from an opportunity, I pepper the beast with a few more gravity bolts as I close the distance with a flicker dash, my form blurring from the high speed manoeuvre. When I'm close enough to engage my Doom Chomp I notice that Crinis has also arrived, a forest of her dark limbs twisting out of the shadows on the floor to wrap themselves around the demon's

continuously chomp away at its health. That grotesque mouth snaps and bites at us constantly and I almost lose an antennae when it suddenly extends its jaw a metre out of its face. Whoever heard of an extendable jaw?! What the heck! Soon enough we

have slain level 31

[You have gained experience.]