Chrysalis

Down and down into the depths we plunge, battling the furious monsters of the wave every step. The number of cold undead creatures we encounter continues to rise as we progress, and I can't believe the sheer variety of shapes the shadow monsters can take. I understand that their shadow flesh makes them the basically formless, squishy and mouldable things that they are, but some of them are just weird.

Tiny battled a disgusting beast who resembled a slug fused with a seahorse that fired some strange form of death plasma out of its face-hole. The whole thing was rather traumatic from my point of view and I wish I'd never seen it. Only Invidia's intervention managed to prevent my ape friend from suffering a premature death during that fight, and in fact during many fights.

Without much ability, or inclination, to avoid damage of any sort, Tiny has come to rely rather heavily on his armour to prevent damage, which works well against physical attacks, but doesn’t help much against the more insidious attacks levelled at him by death monsters and demons. Without the eyeball of Envy, Tiny would have had to face-tank all number of poisons, curses and toxins that were sent his way and I've little doubt he wouldn't have survived long.

Before he evolves to tier six I'm going to make sure that he covers his bases and gains a few more points in cunning. I'm starting to think the reason I've never seen any of Tiny's species evolve beyond tier two is simply because the lightning fist ape and what comes after are simply too dumb to survive without constant babysitting and supervision. I might have a chat with Granin about it when we get back… Still, it would be encouraging to learn that my first pet's total lack of survival instincts was an inbuilt flaw rather than something I introduced myself.

The number of demons has also continued to rise and without the benefits of my evolution they would have been a right pain in the backside to deal with. Despite being tier five, both Tiny and Crinis struggled against tier four demons, the resilience and sheer brutal power of the creatures simply a tier above what we had seen so far.

[Disgusting trash! You will be rendered into pieces before you lay a claw on my Master!] Crinis ranted, her limbs wrapped around the foul visage of a hulking demon, sawing away at it.

[Need any help, Crinis?] I ask.

[Do not foul your mandibles or mind on this infernal creature, Master! I am enough to end its miserable suffering!]

I think you are more the cause of its suffering Crinis. Nevertheless, she is successful in ridding the poor beast of its condition, namely the one of being in one piece, and swiftly descends on the Biomass. In just a few seconds the looming threat of the Wrath Demon is gone, along with any evidence it existed in the first place, vanished into the three maws of the blob of death.

Despite her victory, we are still surrounded, and I once again bring down a domain of scorching blue flame, using my main mind to supercharge the spell and increase its range, burning any monster who dares to come close.

[This is exhausting,] I complain, [there's no end to them.]

didn't expect anything different; did you Master? It's a wave after

This is basically paradise for you! For his part, Invidia just continues to float alongside us, the intense light of his eye

I say, the roars of burning monsters ringing in my ears and causing me to

time, it's so, so different. Moving downward in the Dungeon has felt like walking into the face of a gale force wind. We want to go deeper, but it appears as though every other monster in the Dungeon wants to go higher. Which means stronger monsters, more of them, and delivered fresh to our face in a never-ending stream from

you maintain this domain, Master?] Crinis asks

mana flooding into my core through my legs and idly check what I can grab from

probably indefinitely? It would take most of my

suggest we

relax. Invidia, can you deal

flashes dark

ssssshall take

[Sure thing buddy.]

deal with the press of monsters on its own, though it does damage them. Sadly, most of the demon spawn are resistant to the flames, which allows them to push through

BOOM!

stones as we settle in for a short break as Invidia sucks in

BOOM!

do you guys think we need to go

do not know how thick the shadow layer is, nor can I say how far we have travelled so

and forth, eyeing the exploding monsters around us sadly. By my estimation, we've come a significant number of kilometres down, the slope we've been travelling on has been fairly steep, and

you two managed to gain

pulls a face whilst