Chrysalis

It's a good thing I have so many minds now, since I have so many new things to play with. Barrier magic is another defensive tool in the box and I'm quite keen to prioritise it. With my reaction speed and increasing magical prowess, I bet I can throw down shields in the blink of an eye, putting them where and when I need them before my opponents can even react. I don't think it would be much of a stretch to say that I'm attached to my life in this world, a heck of a lot more than I was to the one before, so I'm invested in being not dead. The more methods I can deploy to ensure I remain in a living state, the better in my opinion.

But then, I also need to pick which of the four new magics I'm going to grind up in order to get access to the next level of magic. I'm quite tempted by metal and wood both, but I think I'm going to have to go with force. It sounds way too useful to turn down. I mean, kinetic energy, on tap? The only limiting factor is mana and my ability to wield it!

Selection made, I put half of my mind constructs to work practicing the necessary construct to produce the required form of mana. As is tradition, the construct is a pain within a pain wrapped in an ache and garnished with a kick to the noggin. None of these damn things are easy, but then again I suppose converting mystical energy from one form into another isn't exactly an easy task. Despite the complexity, compared to the omni-elemental construct it's basically a walk in the park. I have every confidence I'll be able to put it together in a few hours and then I can start playing about with it.

As we make our way back to the city of Roklu, having completed our immediate tasks, I take some time to experiment with something else I've not investigated as deeply as I should. My mandibles are specifically mutated to accept mana and produce effects based on the type that I use. I had a lot of fun infusing them with gravity mana back in the day, but more often than not my opponents these days have too much mass for me to properly yank them. I think I phrased that correctly…

a lot more situational than it was before, since they don't have the desired effect on things that are too massive. If I had more gravity mana to pour in, then perhaps I could get it to work as it did before, but I'm limited since I only have what is available in my

can infuse into my mandibles that I haven't really tried yet! I'm not expecting anything world shattering, but it'll be nice to see what kind of effects I can produce. As we march back to the city, following the winding tunnels as they twist

to mutate them down this line has clearly increased the strength of the effect that is produced but also increased the

of cutting, and when I chomp down on a rock the mana floods out in a rush as tiny, concentrated blasts of water emerge from the spiked tips of my mandibles. When I withdraw my jaws and inspect the rock I find the pressurised water has drilled holes deep

super heating my mandibles, though I don't really feel it, thank goodness, and sizzling whatever I bite. I'm a fan. Not much use in the third stratum, but I still think it's a

mana is a bit of a weird one, similar to gravity in a way. Once fully charged, when I open my mandibles wide the air in front of me is sucked away, dragging whatever happens to be in front of me forward as the air rushes towards me to fill the void. The range is much less than the pull gravitational mana gives me, but this effect is targeted on an individual in the same way. Anything in front of me will be dragged forward, unless they are strong enough or properly

sure what to expect with earth mana. I mean, it was always going to be an unusual effect, but what I got was surprising and pleasing. The sense of peace and fulfilment that washed over me was immense and when I turned to the tunnel wall and began to dig, the earth just

when I bit a stone the mana flooded into it and even in these boiling temperatures the damn thing started to freeze, rapidly cooling to the point that frost started to form on the surface. Of course, mixing temperatures like this isn't particularly healthy for a