Chrysalis

"GRRRRRRRRRR. GARRRRR!"

With another stone shattering roar, Sarah brings the full weight of her body behind a vicious slash of her right forepaw, rending the sorry ghast that had risen in front of her to pieces. Far from her valiant and intimidating voice, her thoughts are rather less impressive.

[AHHHHH! I hate these damn things!]

I can totally sympathise.

[It's the way they float right? Sends shivers down my spine.]

[And the look in their eyes! It's so freaky!]

She's not wrong. The ghasts are beyond even regular demons when it comes to their obsession. Normally the obsessions drive the behaviour of the denizens of the third stratum, but for the ghasts, there is literally nothing else. They are a maddened ball of living energy that contains a single thought, which makes them a little… manic.

[Good experience though,] I note. [Even if they don't leave behind any Biomass.]

It's an interesting dichotomy, the relatively rich reward in xp as opposed to the total lack of food they leave behind. Since their bodies consist entirely of mana, it's not like there is anything that could be eaten anyway.

Which leads me down an interesting line of thought. I mean, isn't my body made of mana? And every other monster for that matter? Born from the Dungeon, it's not like we were created from anything else. You could make an argument that I came from the Queen who had to sacrifice Biomass to create my egg, but then I could just turn around and say, where did the Queen come from then? She came from mana. I suppose the Dungeon must create the Biomass that makes up our bodies out of mana, meaning they are two distinct substances. I wonder if it’s possible to learn that. Is it possible to learn a mana speciality that will transform the pure energy of the Dungeon directly into Biomass?

That would be pretty nuts if you could do it… You'd be able to create monsters at will. Maybe the reverse is also possible, turning Biomass into mana. If it's possible at all, I'm sure it's some high tier nonsense, nothing that I could touch at my current level. I need to keep my mind occupied with the types of magic that I do have access too. Namely, force magic. As we make our way through the tunnels, I rely on this branch of spell exclusively, which limits my input to the fighting but sure as heck contributes to levelling it faster. I've already managed to raise it to rank three which is helping to unleash a tiny portion of the mana type's potential.

Force bolt!

kinetic energy. When it hits something, they react much the same as if they've been punched. The more mana I pack into it, the harder they get punched. Against the stronger demons, it's basically just a tickle at this point, they shrug it off, but that certainly isn't all the tricks that I've developed with this mana type. The force spear is an interesting one, the pure lance of kinetic energy acts much like a regular spear would, except its totally invisible of formed entirely out of energy. Not sharp enough to cut through a demon… yet the spell is still useful for slipping damage

creates a rotating sphere of wind, the force domain is invisible and exerts a 'push', forcing opponents away from me. Useful to keep distance between me and other monsters, but

or flashy effect, but it does allow my jaws to close with even greater force that before, the added kinetic energy really slamming my mandibles together with an amazing CLACK. Anything

to sniff out traces of the demons who left Orpule. Despite our best efforts, it's actually the hatchling who manages to get a sniff of their

she announces to me after we finished off a quick fight against some

What have you picked

some strange whispers. Give me a

that thing even work? Does Gandalf talk to

the place up!

How rude…

this place. They were headed… that

"How many?"

be sure. More than

"Hmmm."

to be careful. If we assume that in our previous encounters with demons, they were taking us lightly, as Al suggested, then we can't act as if every fight against a group of tier sixes is going to end up as an easy stomp. If they take us seriously, then things should be much

does the

Brilliant hesitates.

straight into my mind. I 'hear' little snippets of information, or I sense things that might have happened in the past. Usually all of pertaining to monsters who were spawned or move through the area, or about the

"So, you get a little window into the past? But only in the realm of information that the Dungeon