Chrysalis

Life in the fourth stratum is considered by many to be the pinnacle of existence. The rich mana intensive atmosphere, the wealth and prosperity available to those who are strong enough to hunt the powerful monsters, the abundance for those who can pay for it. Many empires of Pangera have shifted their capitals to this layer of the Dungeon over the thousands of years since the breaking.

This has caused a strange environment to arise in the fourth, as it is, without a doubt, a place of tremendous danger. The monsters that populate the stratum are without a doubt powerful and vicious, many of them being intelligent creatures capable of great cunning, even communication. The great sky-wyrms, the most threatening of their kind, have roamed the mountains for hundreds of years; growing up to a hundred metres long, they are fearsome opponents and have caused the downfall of many a hunting party, or even cities.

Thankfully, the ingenuity of the sapient peoples is nigh limitless. In their fortified mountain cities it is possible to live an extremely comfortable, and secure life, though that peace has been bought, and continues to be paid for, in the sacrifices of others.

• Excerpt from 'The Life of the Great' by Tiritus

[Oh! There you are. Thank goodness.]

[Sarah?]

The great bear snout snuffs about before she shoves her head through the narrow opening and I spy her big bear eyes blinking at me owlishly.

[I've been trying to dig you out, the termites are everywhere.]

[Yeah, I noticed. How the heck did you manage to find me?]

[Bears are good diggers,] she says a little defensively, [I've got strong claws and a great sense of smell. Why wouldn't I be able to find you?]

Those things are beyond strong, they're terrifying. I've seen them cut the

over that direction,] I angle my antenna to droop down in front of her face and then point to the side, [and Crinis is over that way,] another point. [Though she

of shadows to work with, little pockets of darkness that she can saturate with mana and

termites? Do we know where they are coming

of my

said, they're coming from everywhere. From what we can gather, they're busy crawling over the rubble that Tiny brought down on us, digging their way

actually done us a favour with his reckless roof-punching. Right at the moment when the cockroach descended scum were aiming to flood us with overwhelming numbers, the big idiot literally brought the

through literal tons of material before they can put the bite on us. Still, it's only a matter of time, and not much of

rubbish

Sarah. I might have just

onto gravity duty, except this time I invert it. A reverse gravity domain. It's tricky as heck to pull off, but with

Even compressed, the mana can't power the domain enough to lift the rock entirely, but

[Is that you, master?]

thought it might

[It is! Keep going.]

try and meet up. Stay put, Tiny. We'll dig to you. Have you managed

[Yessssssss.]

second and I'll clear some

the termites are wriggling all over the rock, thousands of them now. With a few great swipes of my mandibles I clear enough room for Sarah to squeeze through and then the two of us are squashed together in a very

[Right! This way!]