Chrysalis

These menus are always intimidating due to their sheer size, but I’m prepared to go the distance on this one, I can’t afford to make a mistake and pick the wrong options. There’ll be no reset after this one.

I suppose it’s technically possible to do one, but that would be a criminal waste of evolutionary energy. Basically a punch straight into my own face.

So I have to be careful, no yahoo off the cuff stuff. I’m going to peruse these menus with extreme focus.

Focus….

Focus….

Zzzzzzzzzzz….

Hah!

Wazzat?! Curse these damn lists! Despite having so many brains and such a high Cunning score, how is it possible my attention span and capacity to look at fine details remain so terrible?

But I can’t give up, I won’t!

With renewed determination, I begin to scroll once more. Most of these, I’m not interested in, obviously. Long ago, I decided against using mutations for specific resistances. I want my improvements to be as broadly applicable as possible. Naturally, that means I have to settle for a bit of oomph in many areas rather than a huge shazam in one. It’s the wiser tradeoff.

I mean, my gravity compressed diamond is already hard as a brick. A brick formed from the heart of a neutron star, that is. Most mutations add a layer to the outside of the carapace, like my diamond mutation which coated my exo-skeleton in a fine layer of the precious gem. That worked great, since the outer coating was harder than my carapace and helped protect it from harm. What am I going to coat my new carapace in? Something even harder? There’s barely anything harder than this, and what’s the point of layering something ultra tough on top of something that’s already close to ultra

solving that issue with my own mana skills. I can create shields to protect myself from projectiles, or use my many mind constructs to rip the spells apart

need is not even more defence. What I need, are mutations that will help synergise with

saw it, and I’ve yearned to better harness that absurd power. The humble gravity bolt, welding my

ant! Now, finally, after all this time, I can

some specific mutations for it attached. I eagerly scroll through thousands

I find only three that

to repair damage to

there, sure. I want to use gravity mana in battle, which will

my inner-plating for something like this, or rely on my regeneration gland, which replenishes so

Hardening: Absorbs gravitational energy to further compress and

onto my carapace, but toughening up what I already have whenever I use gravity magic, which I intend to do, all the time.

the resonating properties of Gravity Compressed Diamond to provide a boost

This one is also quite sweet. Turn my defence into offence! I can get behind it. The more I reinforce this mutation, the stronger the resonance will be! In

Perhaps I should take both mutations and then fuse them in order to get the best of both worlds? My carapace makes my gravity magic more powerful, which in turn hardens my carapace, which in

I love it!

way to +30, selecting Magnification at +5, Hardening at +10, fusing at +15, then repeating the

results is: Intensifying Compression Carapace

in and