Chrysalis

Chapter 1016: Within the Self

How deep does the Dungeon really go? It’s possible that only the Ancients truly know. Certainly no human, golgari, ka’armodo, brathian or any other old race has plumbed the greatest depths and returned.

Of course, it’s possible an empire or organisation has managed to find their way down and has kept it a secret for all these years, but this researcher doubts it.

Instead, we can apply ourselves to examining what information is public and making inferences from there.

To many who toil on the surface, living within the Dungeon is nothing but a legend, a myth or fairytale for children. Little do they know that many of the goods they create and crops they harvest find their way down into the depths, supporting cities and fortresses they do not believe exist.

Of course, the seats of power for almost all the great kingdoms and empires on Pangera are found in the fourth stratum. Filled with abundant life mana, this is a dangerous yet wondrous place to live.

Beyond is the fifth, and it’s unfortunate, but many records end there. A world of poison, decay and toxin, the fifth stratum is a hellscape, inimical to life. However, there are some who are prepared to admit that they have gone beyond this point and into the sixth.

Sometimes, I wonder if those of us in the fourth are similar to those on the surface. There could be a whole world beneath us that we refuse to believe exists, cut off by dangers that we believe insurmountable.

– Excerpt from ‘The Musings of Dai’

Just when I was hyping myself up to do some more mutating, I realise I don’t have the points to invest. What a let down! I was hoping to power up some key organs and look at pushing others to +35, see what sort of nonsense I can mutate with the more powerful options I can get at that level.

Sadly, not to be. Just taking the Altar from nothing to +30 has cost me a whopping 465 Biomass. That ain’t cheap. So it looks like I’ll have to hold myself back for now and try to get some more food packed into my face. Good news is, there’s no better time to do that than during a wave. As long as I can get high enough tier enemies, I’ll have points to spare.

…

Get back here, Torrifex! How dare my precious meal-ticket run away in the middle of a fight?! A demon that size, that powerful? He must have been worth well over a thousand points by himself. If he’s a fully mutated tier eight, then the Biomass density would be off the chain!

Then again, it might be better if I don’t run into him in the next little while. I’ve got a lot more work to do to finish powering myself up before the next showdown. And not just on the mutation front.

With my selections done, I commit them all and then immediately start flailing around as the Altar within me is consumed by that hated itching sensation.

Somehow, knowing that I’m the only one suffering from this makes it even worse.

WHY, GANDALF?! WHY HAVE YOU CURSED ME IN THIS MANNER?!

Honestly, being as large as I am, this is starting to get dangerous. Thankfully, structural integrity was maintained in the chamber. Mostly.

Phew.

Time to poke at my Skills and see if there’s anything I can rank up, then look at the lists for juicy new options.

Well, my Gravitational Magic Affinity has reached level 10, which means I can bump it up to the third rank, which I do immediately. That’s not nothing. Considering the changes I made to the Altar, Gravity Magic is going to be my most powerful offensive weapon going forward, even more than in the past, so I need to pump levels into this as quickly as I can.

Barrier Magic has also reached a new rank, which is nice. I need to keep working on this as it’s proven useful and not just as a defensive tool.

Sadly, there isn’t much else I can improve. Most of my key offensive Skills are in tier five or six now, which means they need a ton of levels before I can improve them again. Void Chomp is still a long way from the halfway point, needing almost a hundred levels before I can improve it again. Even so, just thinking about what lies beyond the Void Chomp is enough to set my carapace a’tinglin’.

Then infusing it with the altar… just what sort of result would that produce? Could I become the first insect to produce an atomic explosion when I chomp my mandibles? Even the Ancients would have trouble dealing with that, surely.

Speaking of getting to work…. I prod all of my mind-constructs and get them working on Gravity Magic. Half of them are tasked with constructing and taking apart the mana construct. I’ll have them practise it until I’m confident they can whip it together in thirty seconds or less. Having to wait for more of the purple mana while I’m getting my butt kicked is not an option!

The other half start whipping together Gravity spells as fast as they can. Inverting them, condensing them, and testing in a variety of ways before firing them off at walls and other safe targets.

The training won’t stop until rank five is achieved, so keep at it, you lazy bums!

My sub-brains seem to grumble a little in the back of my mind, but really, it’s just me yelling at myself, so who the heck are you getting mad at?

I open up the menu and start trawling through, looking for new Skills that might prove useful going forward. There isn’t much there, really….

I mean, there’s an almost infinite number of Skills. I could pick up fire-starting if I really wanted to, though I’m not sure how critical that might be in the future. There’s another one here for bridge building. Another one for grooming? Who needs the grooming Skill?! Actually, I wonder if the Nameless Ones use this….

Ah, no. I found a Carapace Polishing Skill. They probably use that instead…. There’s a Skill for everything, that’s what I’m trying to point out. Finding the useful stuff buried amidst all the generic dross is the hard part. There could be an almighty ‘Ant Meteor Carapace Smash’ somewhere in the list and I’d have no idea.

Actually… there is a bodyslam Skill…. I wonder if that would work for me? I have a ton of mass now, so jumping on opponents could become a valid strategy. I might shelve that one as a ‘maybe’.

Actually, you know what? I’ve decided I’m going to go and talk to Granin and his triad anyway, so I may as well get some advice from them. If anyone is going to know about awesome Skills for monsters, it’s going to be that crew. Me sitting here and rolling through the lists until I get bored (which won’t take long) isn’t going to achieve nearly as much.

To the advisors!