Pet:
Further Pet Communication (III) Level 11; Core Crafting (IV) Level 15; Pet Growth Speed (I) Level 5
Defensive:
Grandmaster Exo-Skeleton Defence (V) Level 24; Master Dodge (IV) Level 28; Master Endure (IV) Level 8; Expert Grace (III) Level 18; Advanced Mandible Parry (II) Level 5
Offensive:
Unerring Acid Shot (IV) Level 6; Master Precise Shooting (IV) Level 23; Doom Chomp (V) Level 23; Advanced Mandible Spear (II) Level 3; Advanced Chomp Combo (II) Level 6; Expert Charge (III) Level 3
Mutations:
Senses:
Sharpened Perimeter Eyes +25, Future Sight Antennae +15 (Twilight Filament)
Defence:
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, Condensing Gravity Main Brain +15, Mind Mana Focused Sub-Brain +15, Mind Mana Focused Sub-Brain +15, Mind Mana Focused Sub-Brain +15
Mana:
Compressing Unending Gravity Magic Gland +25, Vast Expanded Collective Will Vestibule +15 (Soul Crystal), Purifying Communal Spirit Nave +15
Species: Mature Colony Paragon (Formica Sapiens)
Skill Points: 16
Biomass: 1,546
My Skills are coming along nicely. A few upgrades here and there haven’t really hurt. Mana Craft has started shooting up since I began competing with Brilliant, and I don’t plan to stop until I hit rank six! At least then, my rank will match my tier.
If I want to see serious improvement in my new Skills, I’m going to have to dedicate more time to grinding them. Using Mandible Spear in an actual fight just feels so stupid, though. Charge I’ve had a use for, but that one? Ugh. Looking at my organs, obviously nothing is fully upgraded as of yet, but I’m tossing up between starting to take things to +30, or getting the newer elements of my body up higher from +15…
7. Mutating Makes the World Go ’Round
In the end, despite how much I want to see my old organs rise to the grand old height of +30, I decide to start with the new stuff, specifically, the Vestibule, Nave, and Antennae. These reforged body parts are high performing and important to me, so I need to invest in them. With the huge wealth that I have right now, I can blast them all the way up to +30 with a massive amount of change in the bank.
For starters, let’s look at the antennae. One of the interesting things I discovered in my fight with Grokus is that looking into the future a few milliseconds is all well and good, but when you can’t do anything about what you see, you can run right into the wall.
In a way, the strategy the city lord applied against me was ideal. He didn’t need to act first; he waited to see what I would do and then reacted. Given that he was much faster with his hands than I ever gave him credit for, this was nearly enough for him to snatch me out of the air and crush me for good.
I have to keep reminding myself that I can’t rely on my future sense alone, no matter how much of a leg up it might be. Where I’m going, deeper into the Dungeon, there might be creatures who can see whole minutes into the future, who knows? Either perfect one strategy of survival, or diversify, that’s the only way to go about it.
Right now, I have Future Sight Antennae +15 (Twilight Filament). The reforged antennae are hyper-sensitive, tingling with every fluctuation of air, detecting scents far better than my old antennae did and enhancing my future sight once the mutation was applied. The current decision is, do I index further into future sight, or do I now seek to add another sense to my antennae? I previously had heat detection, which was interesting, but I don’t think it was useful enough for me to want to return to it. Given how sensitive the twilight filament is, no matter what sense I apply through mutation, they will enhance it like a high-quality radio dish.
It’s a tough call. My future sight isn’t currently incredible, just a moment, maybe two, into the future. When combined with my reflexes, though, it’s more than enough for me to get myself out of the way of danger or angle my carapace to help deflect the blow. It’s a good system and one that works well, really well. Even monsters that are significantly faster than me aren’t able to get the jump, and that makes a huge difference. But I’m just not convinced I need more of it. At the very least, before I commit, I want to investigate to see what I may be able to add to the antennae.
Into the lists I dive, and the innumerable different possible mutations roll by in front of my mind. All sorts of incredible, bizarre, and impossible-seeming options swim past that I filter out. What I’m after are senses. This is what will synergise with the material my new antennae are constructed from, and I need to take advantage of it!
Of course, the basic stuff is there. I can improve my sense of smell through mutation, which is probably more useful than I might give it credit for. My sense of smell right now is far better than a human’s, and it’s not even close. I pick up all sorts of stuff wafting on the breeze when I’m paying attention, but generally ignore it. If I chose to, I could improve my sense of smell to the point of making a tracking dog look nose-less. It would be powerful, I’ve no doubt, but I can’t really think of that many times I’ve been looking for something that I haven’t had other methods to find. Pass.
Eyes on the antennae? No. I mean, it’s not really eyes, but photo receptors. Still, no.
Ears? My sense of hearing is quite possibly my worst, given that I don’t really have ears in the sense that humans do, big flappy bits that hang off the side of the head that help to collect sound. I don’t even have holes in my head. I mean, why would I? That’d disrupt my perfect carapace. Ants hear by interpreting vibrations through our legs and the hairs across our bodies. Increasing the ability of my antennae to detect sound waves could make a huge difference in my ability to interpret what is happening around me. I’ll put it down as a maybe.
Taste? Obviously not. That’d be stupid.
Enhancing touch also seems like a total waste of time.
It’s in the other options, the non-standard ones, that I turn over the really weird stuff.
Detect emotional state? That would be a little odd. Why would a monster even want that?
Detect lies? Again… I’m a monster ant, not a detective!