Complete Diamond Carapace +25; Braced Healing Inner Carapace Plating +25
Physicaclass="underline"
Hardened Rapid Absorption Legs +25; Mana Flooded Mandibles +25; Frequent Potent Regeneration Gland +25; Loud Convincing Pheromone Gland +25; Vast Hungering Stomach +25; Lock Hyper-Twitch Musculature +25; Coordinating Instant Transmission Sub-Neural Network +25
Acid:
Propagating Mana-Feasting Bind Acid Gland +25; Guided Hyper Pressurised Scattershot Acid Nozzle +25; Thickened Draining Acid Concentration Gland +25; Exhausting Thickener Acid Stimulation Gland +25
Mentaclass="underline"
Unyielding Coordination Cortex +25; Main brain; Sub-Brains
Mana:
Compressing Unending Gravity Magic Gland +25; Collective Will Vestibule (Soul Crystal); Communal Spirit Nave
Species: Mature Colony Paragon (Formica Sapiens)
Skill Points: 21
Biomass: 123
The first thing I need to do is mutate my antennae. My fighting style has come to rely on my Future Sense, combined with my lightning-fast reflexes and sturdy carapace to make me disturbingly hard to damage.
Having just been reset, my new antennae are not set up to read the faint tremors of the future as they used to be, something I need to remedy immediately. That isn’t to say I haven’t noticed the improvement my newly reforged antennae provide, far from it. They look glorious, to start with. The Twilight Filaments that now make up the basic structure of my antennae are like glittering crystal wires of a dusky hue. They catch the light whenever I move and, in my opinion, appear quite fetching.
The other benefit is just how darned sensitive they are. The filament splits off into impossibly fine threads up and down the length of each antenna where my hairs used to be, and let me tell you, they are very, very fine detectors. I can smell a trail the second a molecule of pheromone wafts anywhere near me, even the tiniest shift in the air current is like a shout in my ear. Comparing the performance pre-reset to now is like night and day. To think that monsters deeper down get to be born with this stuff? No fair!
Although, everything they have to fight is also born with these advantages, and they can only come up here to fight us during a wave… Bah. Still unfair!
I have enough Biomass to lock in the first three mutations for my antennae, so I double down on the Future Sense and then reinforce it, skipping over the heat sensing ability I chose last time.
[Crinis, cover me.]
Luckily most of the ants are facing outward, toward the enemy, so they don’t notice Crinis envelop my body, hiding me from sight as I twitch and thrash whilst my antennae mutate. When it’s complete, I emerge from my dark cocoon ready for battle.
Let’s do this!
37. The Paragon Fights
To be honest, I’m both overwhelmed, and a little sad about my new stats. It’s an incredible improvement over my last evolution, the gain to each stat is more than double, a feat which required the immense bonuses provided by the Mature Paragon evolution as well as a massive chunk of my evolutionary energy. It was necessary, though.
My stats were lagging behind where they needed to be, as I invested a lot of energy over the last few evolutions in expensive organs. Even though the gain is massive, I still fall short of Tiny in raw physical power, and also Invidia in mental might. It’s true that they’re more of a streamlined, specific type of monster, but I need to work harder to make up for my lack of raw power by using my versatility to its finest.
Comparing my Cunning stat to Invidia’s, the differential is made even worse by the fact that my own mental stats are split across four separate brains, whereas his are devoted entirely to one. Using the Mental Construct Magic, he’s able to replicate the ability to think about multiple things at once without having to physically divide his brains, as I have.
Although I’ve made a huge stride forward with this evolution, I still have a long way to go before I can become a truly intimidating magical force. Having made all of my brains mutable is going to be interesting to explore as well. I’m sure there are plenty of options that’ll help me take my spellcasting game to a whole new level. So many more strides forward waiting in the future!
Having said that, I now have a level of juice in the tank that I’ve never come close to having before, and it’s finally time to put it to the test! Eager to get started, I rally my pets and we start to move toward the line of battling ants. I order my sub-brains to kick into gear and marvel as they stir the Mana in my core, drawing it out and weaving it into the Omni-Elemental Construct. It’s still hard, obviously, but it isn’t close to the near impossible task that it was before. Each of the brains works in harmony, guided by the coordination cortex as they cooperate to work the intricate, many-layered structure. This is incredible! My main mind doesn’t need to get involved at all!
[Are you ready?] I ask my pets.
They each reply to the affirmative and we start to run forward. A wall of insects covers the tunnel in front of us, members of the Colony hanging from the walls and ceiling to block off every possible avenue for the wave to pierce through their numbers. On the other side, a screaming mass of monsters pushes forward, fighting each other just as hard as they do the ants that bar their way.
“Clear a path!” I roar, blasting my pheromones forward.
My siblings respond instantly, the centre peeling back to either side.
The monsters of the wave waste no time seizing this opportunity and flood through with a triumphant roar, only to be met by Tiny’s fist and sent flying back to where they came from. In less than a second, we barrel through the opening and find ourselves surrounded, the wall of insects closing behind us. Enemies on all sides, swathes of claws, fangs, and worse reaching to rend us limb from limb from every conceivable angle. Tiny has never been happier.
With a whooping bellow of rage and joy, his fists blaze with light as his hands start to flicker faster than the eye can see, sending straight punches in all directions that blow monsters back, stunning and damaging in equal measure. With the minimum space he needs achieved, he winds back his right arm, gigantic muscles shifting and bulging beneath his armour, and launches a furious straight right that sends a fist of light the size of a car slamming into the ranks of monsters. The enemies evaporate, knocked away or simply disintegrated by the power of that punch.
Imagine being tier one and having to face up to Tiny’s fists… Such a miserable way to go.
Unwilling to be outdone by my first pet, I urge my sub-brains to finish their work. They grumble back that If I really want to speed things up, I can darn well get involved and help, which I refuse. Nevertheless, in only a few more seconds, the construct slams into place and I task the main sub-brain with maintaining it while the other two take over operating it, feeding in raw Mana and extracting the desired type. The whole process is so much more flawless than it was before, my main mind not even required at this stage in the process. In a blessedly short amount of time, Blue Fire Mana has accumulated, and I deign to step in, weaving a Fire Domain with speed and precision that leaves my previous efforts in the dust.
With a whoosh, the air ignites as a sphere of pure blue fire expands around me, searing any foe who dares to step within ten metres of my noble frame. I turn the maintenance of the domain back over to a sub-brain and almost weep when it manages to maintain the spell as well as operate the construct in order to keep feeding it with Mana.