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?]

about the strong claws. Those things are beyond strong, they're terrifying.

to the side, [and Crinis is over that way,]

little pockets of darkness that she can saturate with mana

we know where they are

rotate the ends of my antennae in a

gather, they're busy crawling

numbers, the big idiot literally brought the house down. I don't doubt he

whole point of this exercise. Unable to bring their numbers to bear against us, our foes are forced to dig 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 it, before they clear the rubble and get to us. In order

shifting all of this rubbish without dropping it all suddenly on our

Sarah. I

the constant manipulation of earth mana and put them back onto gravity duty, except this time I invert it. A reverse gravity domain. It's tricky as heck to pull off, but with

everything it touches. Even compressed, the mana can't power the domain enough to lift the rock entirely, but it's enough to lighten the

[Is that you, master?]

I thought

[It is! Keep going.]

up. Stay put, Tiny. We'll dig to you. Have you

[Yessssssss.]

Sarah, give me a second and I'll clear some space for you, then we can dig

swipes of my mandibles I clear enough room for Sarah to squeeze through and then the two of

[Right! This way!]