Chrysalis

I don't know what’s up with these demons, but they are seriously feeling themselves at the moment. Every now and again, we’ll be out on the plains and some tier five Stab Demon will come sprinting at me from out of nowhere, leap ten metres in the air and come crashing down like a spear from the heavens… only to bounce off my carapace without me noticing.

Where is your sense of self preservation, idiot?! Life is precious, a miracle of mana and coincidence, don’t waste it like this. Alas, monstrous life is as cheap as it gets on the third, and the price is currently crashing through the floor. In fact, I’d go further. It crashed through the floor, through the basement and burrowed deep into the earth where it found a portal to a new reality, the EvenDeeperVerse, where it continues to plunge to new, mind-bending levels of depth.

The spawn rate for demon larvae is getting so out of control, they’re starting to scrape the bottom of my carapace when I walk over them. Usually this happens when one of the vicious little stabbers jumps too high, not from being stacked on top of each other!

The vastly increased number of larvae of course means a vastly increased number of higher tier demons roaming the plains. They hunt each other, or, if feeling particularly full of themselves, have a go at passing Mythic Monsters.

But something else weird is happening as well. Something I haven’t seen before.

[Over there, Master. Another group.]

[Where?]

[Tiny is pointing at them.]

[Ah, so he is.]

Hmmm.

[It’s still odd, no matter how many times I see it.]

[It is unusual, Master.]

Invidia? These are, at

blinks once,

unnaturalssss,] he says with

feeling was put into that, and he didn’t even demand something! My boy is growing up. I feel a tap on my carapace and notice Tiny has sidled up to me and poked me

is it? What does

you… want me to ask your opinion as

I can see

do you think about it,

a serious expression plastered on his

[Odd,] he declares.

gives me a solemn thumbs

buddy. I

large thumb jutting proudly into the air, he nods again, pats me on the back and steps to the side. The air coming off him is insufferably smug, as if

say something, but I can’t bring myself to

going on in the pea-seed brain of yours Tiny, but,

our confusion roams the plains in the middle-distance, a pack of tier five demons going absolutely wild on everything they see. This is extremely unusual behaviour for demons out on the plains. They’re solitary hunters, preying on each other until they reach tier six, at which point they gain true sentience and seek out a city to take them in. Here we see a gathering that breaks that pattern. These demons should be trying to slice each other's faces off, but instead, they’re out

It’s not natural.

time we’ve seen this lately either. Ever since we broke off the assault on that demon horde, we’ve been creeping about hunting while looking for another horde to take bites out of and this stuff keeps

the will of Arconidem and are acting against their own natures. Should they come across a horde, they’ll probably join it

me to

like they have, in order to do whatever the Ancient

[... Most likely, Master.]

blue? Like, if enough of them get together, that’s just a brand new horde