Chrysalis

When did he begin to hear the call? Even I can't be sure. Long before I warned him, of that I'm sure. Such a subtle thing, that siren song, the incessant pull that pushes them to dive ever deeper, until they are crushed by the pressure or forged into something new. I firmly believe he would have gone there even without my influence, it's inevitable, the call will find all of them in the end.

I have to believe that.

He is gone now, to places that I can no longer reach, where the mana is so thick my very cells would disintegrate within minutes. None but those born of the Dungeon can ever hope to touch that ground. I desperately hope that he finds what he's looking for there, perhaps he will be able to save himself, and in so doing, save us all.

Perhaps he would have gone, even if the Dungeon had never spoken to him, never sunk its claws into his mind. That's the kind of person he always was.

But part of me believes that he felt that call very early. Perhaps even from the moment he was born in this world.

• From the private journal of Granin Lazus.

It doesn't take long for us to secure a little hideaway and I ask my companions to shield me whilst I trawl through the menus. My current haul of Biomass represents several weeks of hunting, though I've share the haul the final total is still quite respectable, if I do say so myself.

Seven hundred and fifty six, in total.

first hundred was left over from my last mutation

a heck of a long time before I come close to reaching level one hundred and sixty, but that's nothing bad. I'd much rather be maxed out by the time

of my lucky organs

way… I will absolutely upgrade my eyes, the old classic, the first body part I ever mutated. Just thinking back to how bad my eyes were when I'd first hatched… yuck. Absolutely made the right call there.

then! Eyeballs

in focus than others, letting me see straight ahead much more clearly, for example. I've noticed that having pockets of better vision is bringing back the human habit of turning to face things so I can see them better, whereas an ant generally wouldn't have to do that. I know for a fact that some of the castes have been leaning in this direction though, mainly the carvers, but a few others as well. This

see in every direction isn't useful, it absolutely is! Just

and fuse here. Which is a hundred

suppose I can be forgiven for prioritising things that were more combat oriented. I've taken the same mutation at every level for the stomach, one that reduces the penalty for consuming prey from lower tiers. As long as I keep it fully upgraded I can cut that reduction in half for the tier below mine, which I clearly want to do! I do wonder if I might eventually end up reforging the stomach into something else. I mean, will there be much of a need for this mutation down the line, when I've tier eight or something? Maybe…

that's done, another hundred and forty

What's next?

time, which obviously synergises exceptionally well with my nervous system of foresight antennae. Predict the future, react

of the different mana types I can pump into the chompers, but it does mean that I haven't used my mutations to increase the pure chompiness of my mandibles, making them sharper, stronger or more damaging, aside from a couple of early choices when I picked up the savage option. In order to compensate for that lack I decided to do what the famous trap jaw ants did back

to emphasise that aspect of my current mutations going forward. So that's another one forty tossed to the wind.

hundred and twenty, so one more will put up to five sixty, which will probably do me for now. I don't mind the idea of keeping a little Biomass in reserve for emergency purposes, you never know when you might need a particular mutation