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.

“Creepy slug thing! Hard to kill! Someone take this core to the generals!”

The ants look vaguely confused as I unload my perfect and clear description upon them.

“Uhh, sure, Eldest. We’ll get someone to run that core to the command centre straight away.”

“I want a report of what’s happening in the other tunnels as well. The monsters from the fifth are pushing up and it seems like they might be organised rather than random attacks.”

When I organise my thoughts I realise that this situation might be worse than I initially thought. Could this be a full on assault 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 a good idea to reveal a weakness or lack of knowledge to them.

There’s nothing for it… I’m going to have to ask the tree. Hopefully, I can get the branchies to answer my questions so I don’t have to talk to the Mother Tree herself. She’s always… difficult.

“You guys will have to take over the tunnel for a bit,” I tell the soldier eventually.

Of course, handover isn’t quite that simple and it’s ten minutes before I can leave my post and make my way deeper into the nest. Before long, some runners come and give me a clear picture of what’s going on around the place.

The rising poison mana has been seen pretty much all over. Only a few tunnels, closer to the surface, are completely free from the taint, and slug monsters, along with poison frogs and other nasty things, have already been encountered. So far, the Colony is trying to solve the problem with overwhelming firepower and numbers, 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 compressed rock.

Perhaps we need our battle mages to start training in more advanced elements…. If lightning works as well as it sounds, that could be the solution.

I ponder the issue as I scuttle through the long tunnels 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 the Mother Tree and her children. Thankfully, it’s high up and relatively isolated, so there isn’t too

Before too long, I run into a large bruan’chii keeper tending to the plants and smiting the monsters emerging from the walls.

[Thank goodness. Great to see you. How’s things? Life good being a tree-thing? I imagine it is.]

The large wooden creature turns to me slowly, blinking as it sees my giant form occupying space within its carefully tended garden.

[Hmmmm. Greetings, six-legged one. The Mother has told me of your arrival.]

[Of course she did. I hope she’s in a welcoming sort of mood?]

The plants around me writhe and shake, communicating her state of mind.

[Not… really,] the keeper informs me.

[Ok. I’ve just got a few quick questions, then I’m out of your… vines. Is that alright? It’s about the wave.]

The Keeper seems to be listening to something, his head cocked to the side.

[You can ask, and hopefully I can answer you,] he says finally.

[It’s about the slugs, the Krath? And the toxic mana from the fifth stratum. I’ve fought monsters from down there before, but I’ve never heard any mention of these Krath.]

The big tree stands silent for a moment, then he nods.

[I am permitted to answer. The Mother does not like those of whom you speak.]

The plants around me writhe violently again.

Does she like anyone, though?