Chrysalis

It's hard to turn my thoughts away from Jim and his eventual fate, but I force my mind to shift onto other priorities. If anything, it's a relief to have him finally caught and dealt with. It wasn't enough for him to betray us the once, he had to run around… slither around, and continue to try and bring down the Colony. This situation with the ka'armodo would likely have happened no matter what, but it wasn't helped by Jim spitting his poison into their ears.

As the Colony grew and expanded, having someone ringing alarm bells wherever we went would have been absolutely disastrous. In some ways, I can understand it, even if it infuriates me. Unable to accept he was wrong to betray the Colony, he had no choice but to double and triple down. He could never admit to himself that what he'd done was a horrible crime, that he had become a killer, he had instead run away from that realisation. In his mind, the Colony was bad, evil even, and with that 'fact' locked into his head, he had no choice but to act as he did.

But understanding and sympathising are far apart.

Good riddance to bad worms! We are moving on with the numerous challenges that face us. The greatest and most urgent issue of all, disposing of the literal tons of termite Biomass left over after the battle.

For once, the damn beetles stuck around to fight rather than retreating. The number of termites destroyed in the fighting runs up into tens of thousands, easily. Perhaps even more. I incinerated a good chunk of those, but there are plenty left to deal with the old fashioned way.

It's time for a good old fashioned, post battle feast!

[Let's dig in, everyone!] I announce to my pets.

The four of us merrily dive into the food, Tiny quite literally so, swan diving into a nearby mound of Biomass. What are you, a billionaire duck in a money bin? Have some damn class, man! I begin to shovel in the food myself. It isn't great quality, as Biomass goes. The termites aren't highly evolved or heavily mutated by monster standards, rarely even reaching tier five even, but we are still able to extract some value as we pack our stomachs fit to bursting, which takes a bit of work.

could eat a mountain of Biomass back then, eating until we couldn't move and sleeping it off afterwards. With Crinis and Invidia added to the mix, in addition to our vastly increased size, we could just about pack away a literal mountain now. Crinis has three mouths and an almost bottomless appetite, only stopping when her reserves of shadow flesh are completely stocked. Invidia keeps his stomach in

'yesssssssss' he purrs out

out in all directions. My gaster has swollen to an absurd size, so big I'd have to drag it behind me if I wanted to walk anywhere. Tiny has finally emerged from the pile, his belly so round it looks like he inflated a beach ball in his guts. Even Crinis is reduced to a floppy pile of dark goop on

for the Colony.

should spend and upgrade, check for Skills that need to be moved along as well. I know it'll take longer for you guys, but the final sprint for tier seven is getting close,

to die full stop, but dying as you close in on the next evolution seems even more cruel. After striving for so long to reach the next step, and relative safety,

for me. I can still feel the claws of the Ancients in my guts, Calling me deeper. When I evolve, that feeling is only

the Call. I'm about to complete my perfect evolution! Achieve my final (for now) form! That sweet, sweet bonus energy will be

mutations, I can see that the only thing left is the entire business district. My commercial empire has four major components, each of which needs to be

want to emphasise, how do I

so I can mutate any reset parts of my body to a good standard straight away. For my Concentration Gland, I want to emphasise the 'thickening' aspect that I've taken on, and the weakening aspect of my Stimulation

since that is the primary function, after all. Pressurising the shots to give me

Gland itself, I want to emphasise the propagating aspect that I mutated recently. Having my acid be able to replicate itself to a degree is nice, keeping the damage going for a longer time after a single hit. With the

done, this is what I

Mana-Feasting Bind Acid Gland +25 -> Spreading