Chrysalis

When I eventually wake it's to find that the rest of the group has already completed their mutations and that Crinis has extended herself into a wall between me and everyone else. Preserving my modesty in my most vulnerable moments. What a good companion she is!

[Thanks Crinis.]

I mean that sincerely, with all of my soul.

[You are welcome, Master.]

I slowly pick myself up and this time it's a little more disorienting than usual. I stagger to one side before I manage to gather my balance and freeze for a moment. It takes a few seconds for me to work out what is giving me such trouble, but once I do it starts to make a little more sense. The antennae. When I upgraded to Twilight Filament, I did so because the description spoke of how sensitive they were, and I'd hoped that sensitivity would translate to the future sense, since it's essentially changing the antennae to 'detect' more sensory information. I've done the same again, but this time made them able to detect gravitational waves and they are doing a damn good job of it from what I can tell.

It's like… I'm not even sure I can describe it. I can feel the pull of gravity not just through my body but to an incredibly fine extent through my antennae. And not just the gravity that is affecting me personally, my physical body, but in an area around me. Naturally that pull is downward, toward the centre of the planet, but there are vibrations and fluctuations that perhaps someone with greater understanding over how these things work could explain. On top of that, the two mutations are functioning together, so not only am I detecting the gravitational waves as they are, but also as they will be a few moments in the future! Gah! As I twitch my antennae, its startling to realise that I can actually sense the very tiny fields being emanated by my companions. Tiny's stronger than the others, but even Invidia's is large enough for me to detect. Perhaps I'm also sensing the mass he has stuffed away in his pocket dimension?

It's bizarre and a little nauseating, but I'm hoping that's a temporary side effect, otherwise I've just mutated my way into trouble once again. No worries, I'll get used to it. Other than that, there are other differences as well. It's easy to forget sometimes, that upgrading an organ does produce a small overall performance increase. In this case, taking my Vestibule and Nave from +15 to +30 at once, apart from the changes brought on by mutation, has produced a noticeable and startling effect. The amount of energy pouring in through the Vestibule has increased significantly, the range at which the organ is working has increased along with the amount of energy collected. The Nave is flooded with that Will and is condensing and purifying it to the point that it feels like liquid gold as it eventually floods into my system. The feeling is incredible, to be honest. I feel refreshed, energised and uplifted as the Will of thousands upon thousands of my siblings flows into me.

With a start I jerk my mind away from that path. I know from experience that sinking down into the thoughts and desires of my siblings that flow through me is a trap that it's hard to get away from. I've been disciplined about it lately but it'll take some time to adjust to this new level of intrusion. Still, it's nice to see that the improvements have been worth the rather massive investment that I made.

My mandibles and carapace have also benefited from the process of course, the pure diamond coating that encases me has grown that little bit thicker, adding to my lustre and shine. My jaws are a little larger, a little more dense and even more responsive to my mana than they were before. I'm going to have to test them with every type of mana that I have at my disposal to really see what they can do, something I've been far too lazy and avoided doing. I mean, what happens when I bite something with mind mana infused into my mandibles? Goodness knows!

[Alright then, squad. It's time to get back out on the road. We need to keep grinding Skills, levels and Biomass. I've got a long way to go to maxing out for tier six and I'm sure that all of you are the same!]

My pets each acknowledge my words in their own way, for they are true for all of us, even Invidia.

"Brilliant, are you able to move around much yet?"

"I-I think so…"

She doesn't sound all that sure but looking at her I can already tell that a lot of the raw Biomass has been digested.

"Tiny can carry you if we need him to. I hope you're ready to reach tier four, because we aren't stopping until you get there!"

"Tier four?! Already?!"

"Yes, already. The Colony doesn't have time to wait around, you need to get cracking and you can't exactly do much as you are…"

"I can too!"

"Sure, sure. Come on then, let's get going."

It takes concentration but as we roam through the tunnels with Brilliant loaded into Tiny's arms like an ant-missile, I find that my sensitivity to gravitational waves is even more extreme than I thought. I can actually sense monsters through it so long as they are within a certain range, which is just ridiculous. The amount of gravitational force a monster gives off might be many times larger than a human would, but it's still pathetically weak! The fact I can find them, through walls even in some instances, just blows my mind. This is nuts!

At least it makes for extremely efficient hunting! As soon as we find a monster, we knock it down and pummel it to the brink of extinction before Tiny rams Brilliant into it and she manages to chomp it to the point of giving her a notification. Then we hoover up the Biomass and move on to the next target. We only slow down when it becomes clear we are roaming deeper and deeper only to find fewer and fewer prey.

[I believe if we were to go much deeper we would break through to the next layer,] Al observes after a while.

I raise my head, letting my antennae swirl through the air as I attempt to detect anything that would indicate he was correct. The heat has only risen as we descend, the open pools of lava becoming more frequent as they drip down from above. If I were to crack an egg on a rock it would be charcoal in a minute, that's how hot it feels.

[By any chance does it get a little cooler as we get lower?]

The giant eye of literal flame looks at me steadily for a long moment.

[I'll take that as a no,] I sigh.

"How far off evolving are you?" I ask Brilliant.

"I'm level nineteen!" she informs me from her position as a harpoon in Tiny's grip.

One more monster and we can retreat back to the city.