It’s especially frustrating because I can’t really sense any malicious intention from her. She’s just curious and wants to roll about the place, free and uninhibited, quite apart from most of the grubs in the Colony who are perfectly content to go with the flow. The only downside is that she’s a completely defenceless larva with almost no sensory apparatus or ability to defend herself. Considering her almost uncanny ability to wriggle out of sight and hitch a ride with passing ants, locking her up is necessary for her protection.
I mean, come on… It was that or she stayed in the mouth, alright? I think I’m doing well!
While Crinis and Tiny are evolving, Invidia and I bond over our mutual love of explosions, magic, and lasers. This has also been a wonderful opportunity to start grinding my Mind Magic. I only need to push it up a rank or two and then I’ll have the ability to create Mind Constructs just like the envy demon! Of course, I don’t expect that I’ll be able to maintain nearly as many as he does, but it should help multiply the amount of magic I can do.
I went into depth with my Triad of advisors in regard to this technique before I evolved. As they said, the normal method for a monster is to go the same route that Invidia has. Pile up one huge, omnipotent brain, and then use advanced Mind Magic to spin off constructs that essentially allow for parallel thinking. Each construct isn’t nearly as powerful as the original mind, but with increasing expertise in Mind Magic, and with a more potent host brain, the constructs become stronger and are able to handle more workload. Advancing beyond that, the constructs can cooperate with each other much like my own sub-minds do, working together to handle spell weaving that they couldn’t do on their own.
I took the time to speak to Invidia about it and it turns out he needs two Mind Constructs working together to weave each instance of his explosion magic, something that surprised me. As he explained it, since his go to detonation spell required two different elements, namely gas and fire, it was far easier to create them with two separate minds carrying the load with one.
During our spell barrages, I work hard on my Mind Magic, reaching out with bridges and connecting to monsters, twisting their minds and throwing false thoughts at them while they attempted to dodge Invidia’s spell assault. It was familiar casting that I’d spent a lot of time on before but hadn’t been using lately, as training other Skills had taken priority. Now it’s finally time for the mental warfare to make its triumphant return! All in the name of Mind Constructs!
We spent over a day in this pattern, force-feeding the larva and fighting to our heart’s content, driving back the ever-surging monsters and helping provide breathing room to my siblings.
Invidia continues to gleefully detonate every monster he can, vacuuming up experience at a phenomenal rate while I content myself with training my Skills and picking up kills where I can. After enough time has passed, we gather up the iron cage and cart it back to the evolution chamber, where we find Crinis and Tiny emerging from their sleep, newly forged and ready for battle.
78. The New Kids
The soft glow of evolution is gradually fading and the two of them are looking significantly different. Well, Tiny is, at any rate. Crinis remains blobbed up in a small ball, wobbling slightly as whatever internal changes that are taking place complete themselves.
My first pet and friend in this Dungeon, the giant bat-faced ape, has continued his trend of getting more absurdly muscular as time goes by. Another increase in size has him looming over the room, his considerable bulk taking up almost half the available space. Tiny’s made sure to put back on all the muscle mass that I took from him, times about five. His shoulders have levelled up, as well as the rest of his upper body, but surprisingly even his legs are beefier. Clearly, he wanted an all over power increase without targeting any particular area.
He remains largely dark in colour, the influence of the Shadow Mana that he took into his body is still there, though traces of flickering silver are starting to return to his back. Still somewhat shaggier than a gorilla would normally be, his fur crackles with faint electrical energy that discharges into the air and leaves an acrid tang on my antennae.
I waddle closer to Crinis and inspect her condition. I’m intrigued by the slight changes I can detect around her. Although she appears dark and wibbly-wobbly as always, there’s something new that I can see dancing on the edges of her body. It’s an almost ephemeral, ghost-like outline which hovers around her form. I’m super curious to know what it is, but I don’t want to peek at her core while she’s still evolving. Also, it’d feel a bit rude to look at someone’s core whilst they were sleeping. It’s just not on.
I set down the cage with the still sleeping grub inside it, and settle in to wait with Invidia. We idly engage in Mind Magic warfare to pass the time, but it doesn’t take long before the glow around the two monsters fades completely, and they begin to stir. Crinis is the first to shake off the sleep. Of course the greedy ape will cling to every ounce of rest he can get his meaty hands on. The little blob shivers a little and I feel her consciousness stirring to wakefulness as a collection of small tendrils extend and she starts to almost unconsciously feel out her surroundings.
[Hey there, Crinis! How does it feel to be tier six?]
The little ball wibbles a bit.
[Ah! Master! You were waiting for us?]
[We haven’t been here long. Invidia and I have been out fighting the waves for the most part while you evolved. You didn’t answer my question though. You’re now a member of the exclusive tier! The biggest and baddest creatures in the Colony! Are you excited?]
[Um, no? I-I’m happy I’ll be able to serve you better, Master!]
I slump a little. Ah well. I suppose it’s fine like this. I’d sort of hoped she might be a little pleased with the increase in her own power for her sake, rather than mine, but it appears there’s some distance to go before I can remove the ‘pet to master’ relationship we have. I won’t rest until my pets are free of all compulsion and able to make their own way in the world! This is my vow!
[Get any juicy options?] I follow up. [I’m genuinely curious to hear what sort of things you were offered. Given your species and… specialties, there must have been some odd ones.]
Crinis is only too happy to explain to me what her choices were, extending a few small tentacles to wave about the air as she excitedly describes the various dimensional mind horrors that she could have turned into. Naturally she picked the most terrifying one. She’s one step away from being able to flay minds. I look slightly askance at her as I ask: [And you’re happy with your choice?]
[Yes!] she confirms joyfully.
Well… I suppose it’s to be expected. She’s happy, that’s what matters.
[Actually, since you’ve got new… mind invasion… stuff, you should check the Skills available to purchase. You might have unlocked something to do with your new capabilities. In fact, I’d be shocked if you didn’t. You should also make sure to test out your phasing ability as much as you can before we go out to fight again. I get the feeling it might take a little while to get the hang of, so practising early will pay off.]
Only too happy to take my advice, Crinis tentacles her way over to a corner so she can start perusing the lists, and I see her already trying to pass a tentacle into the wall, shifting the flesh to become insubstantial. There really is going to be nowhere to hide from her much longer. A chill descends on me.
Thankfully, Tiny manages to distract me from my grim future by sitting up and yawning with an unexpected amount of energy. His thick, packed arms and shoulders shift and bulge beneath his fur as he moves. He glances down at himself, a mighty grin breaking out on his face as he beholds his new mass.