Chrysalis

Soooooo this description is a thing.

[Occultus Toxicus Limax: Hidden Toxic Slug. A hardy, defensive monster used as a forward scout by the Krath tribes. With its dense coating of ascended slime flesh, the Hidden Toxic Slug is difficult to kill, and is capable of changing the environment to better suit itself, and its masters.]

Actual useful information in the basic profile? Gandalf, you feeling alright? This is most unheard of!

Of course, information only leads to more questions, but at least I know what direction the investigation is going to go. Who in the name of heck are the Krath? Was this monster a pet? Or do they raise these monsters in the depths somehow? As far as I know, that’s not possible, you can’t get monsters to cooperate unless they have sufficient intelligence or are born from a queen-type pet, like the aphids.

Ok, actually there’s several ways to get monsters to cooperate with you.

I grab hold of the core and examine it. Thankfully, it wasn’t chewed up by the gravity bomb. Interestingly, the monster seems pretty well designed, either by the Dungeon or the Krath. Most of its evolutionary potential is bound up within its two main functions, the terraforming acid spray and its hyper defensive slime coat. Looking at the details of it, outside of me sitting in its acid for a prolonged period of time, or stabbing me through the eyeball with the mouth-spear, there wasn’t much chance the thing would have been able to hurt me.

If I’d been willing to get close enough, an empowered void chomp would likely do the trick in one shot. Still, the benefit of being born in the deeper strata of the Dungeon is alive and well with these damn slugs. Just imagining a world in which every ant is born with a diamond carapace out of the gate, or other powerful alternate materials, makes me green with envy. Well, if these slugs think they can slide up here and take on the Colony, they’ve got another think coming.

I take a bit of time to roast the heck out of the tunnel before me again, burning away the goop and slime, including boiling the slime pool to nothing. Hopefully it fills up with water again soon.

Job done, I rush back to the troops waiting at the tunnel to report what I've seen.

to kill! Someone take

ants look vaguely confused as I unload my perfect

run that

from the fifth are pushing up and it seems like they might be organised rather than

by a civilisation buried deep in the fifth? Or does this happen all the time? Dammit. I really wish I could talk to the brathian again, although it might not be

have to ask the tree. Hopefully, I can get the branchies to answer my questions

take over the tunnel for

my way deeper into the nest. Before long, some runners come and give me a

which usually works pretty darn well for us. The monster I fought has only been fought in two other tunnels, luckily. Tiny was able to roast one with lightning, then finish it off with his devastating punches. The other was brought down by over a hundred mages using earth and lava magic to trap and cook it, then stabbing through the coating with hardened spears of

start training in more advanced elements…. If lightning

as quickly as I can. There’s only one long tunnel that the Colony has committed to keeping open outside of the nest and it connects our mountain fortress to the territory claimed by

into a large bruan’chii keeper tending to the plants and

you. How’s things? Life good

slowly, blinking as it

The Mother has told me of

she’s in a welcoming sort of

me writhe and shake, communicating her state