Chrysalis

These menus are always intimidating due to their sheer size, but I'm prepared to go the distance on this one, I can't afford to make a mistake and pick the wrong options. There'll be no reset after this one.

I suppose it's technically possible to do one, but that would be a criminal waste of evolutionary energy. Basically a punch straight into my own face.

So I have to be careful, no yahoo off the cuff stuff. I'm going to peruse these menus with extreme focus.

Focus….

Focus….

Zzzzzzzzzzz….

Hah!

Wazzat?! Curse these damn lists! Despite having so many brains and such a high Cunning score, how is it possible my attention span and capacity to look at fine details remain so terrible?

But I can't give up, I won't!

With renewed determination, I begin to scroll once more. Most of these, I'm not interested in, obviously. Long ago, I decided against using mutations for specific resistances. I want my improvements to be as broadly applicable as possible. Naturally, that means I have to settle for a bit of oomph in many areas rather than a huge shazam in one. It's the wiser tradeoff.

As I trawl the menu, I start to wonder more and more if I actually need to make myself tougher via mutation. I mean, my gravity compressed diamond is already hard as a brick. A brick formed from the heart of a neutron star, that is. Most mutations add a layer to the outside of the carapace, like my diamond mutation which coated my exo-skeleton in a fine layer of the precious gem. That worked great, since the outer coating was harder than my carapace and helped protect it from harm. What am I going to coat my new carapace in? Something even harder? There's barely anything harder than this, and what's the point of layering something ultra tough on top of something that's already close to ultra tough!?

I could coat it in a layer of magic resistant material for the ultimate defensive combo I suppose, but I've already invested heavily in solving that issue with my own mana skills. I can create shields to protect myself from projectiles, or use my many mind constructs to rip the spells apart as they approach me.

No, what I need is not even more defence. What I need, are mutations that will help synergise with what I hope to make my greatest strength: my gravity magic.

The gravity bomb captivated me the first time I saw it, and I've yearned to better harness that absurd power. The humble gravity bolt, welding my opponents to the floor, the gravity spear, or even the gravity domain, literally bringing my enemies to their knees.

I want to be a gravity ant! Now, finally, after all this time, I can make it happen!

As a material that already holds an affinity for that type of energy, it's only natural that there should be some specific mutations for it attached. I eagerly scroll through thousands of different mutation options, looking for anything that relates to gravity.

In the end, I find only three that are relevant to me.

[Gravity Regeneration: Harnesses gravitational energy to repair damage to the carapace.]

Now, this is fine. It's… it's fine. There's synergy there, sure. I want to use gravity mana in battle, which will generate gravitational energy, which will repair the damage I sustain in battle.

It's just… not what I'm looking for. I can use my inner-plating for something like this, or rely on my regeneration gland, which replenishes so quickly thanks to the Vestibule.

[Resonance Hardening: Absorbs gravitational energy to further compress and harden the carapace.]

Now this, I can get behind. It's not adding an extra layer onto my carapace, but toughening up what I already have whenever I use gravity magic, which I intend to do, all the time. I can already see myself floating gracefully through the air, carapace absorbing that sweet energy from the well, making me invulnerable to physical damage!

[Gravitic Magnification: enhances the resonating properties of Gravity Compressed Diamond to provide a boost to any Gravity Spell or field nearby.]

Oh ho! This one is also quite sweet. Turn my defence into offence! I can get behind it. The more I reinforce this mutation, the stronger the resonance will be! In fact….

Now that I think about it, this mutation actually melds quite well with the second I considered. Perhaps I should take both mutations and then fuse them in order to get the best of both worlds? My carapace makes my gravity magic more powerful, which in turn hardens my carapace, which in turn provides more energy.

I love it!

Happy with my decision, I punch in my upgrades all the way to +30, selecting Magnification at +5, Hardening at +10, fusing at +15, then repeating the process for +20, +25 and +30.

What results is: Intensifying Compression Carapace (Gravity Compressed Diamond) +30.

Satisfied, I lock that in and turn to my inner-carapace plating.

It's important that these two components work together, since that's their intended function.

I added the inner-carapace plating to help negate the weakness of an external skeleton by making it have a little more flex. The weakness of a tough armour is either a sharp stab in the joints, or getting hit with a hammer, cracking it like an egg or sending the force rippling through the armour to scramble the insides.

I want an omelette all of a sudden.

The plating does that job well, helping to absorb shocks before they get to my organs, just by default. I can mutate to increase that effect, which isn't a bad idea, but I'm sure there are other things I can find.

The Crystal Flesh I used to form the plating during the reset is already reactive to gravity, but I'm sure there's a way to capitalise on that aspect even further.

There's basically two things I'm looking for here, help healing the carapace, because I quite liked the regenerative mutation I used previously, but I also want something that might feed into the enhancing of gravitic energy that I've leaned into already. Luckily, I find a mutation that closely mimics the regeneration I was already offered for my carapace, which will work well.

A tough carapace that rapidly heals itself is the idea. We're all about that effective HP around here.

I don't find something with the same resonant properties as what I found for the carapace, but I may have found something just as good.

[Gravitic Amplifier: increases the density of gravity mana in the vicinity of the plating.]

Nice.