Chrysalis

Ah mutating. The subtle joy of making some selections within your mind and then having your body literally transform into a better and more capable version of itself. Not only is it mega-convenient, it's super addictive. The feeling of constant improvement is just fantastic. So it's with a giddy joy in my heart that I start perusing the menus and looking over my status, trying to decide which of my many organs and body parts needs to be upgraded next. Obviously it's an important decision, we have a big fight coming up, multiple tier seven opponents will be present in the city, so I'll need to be at my combat peak.

But then, what entails the combat peak? My carapace and mandibles are upgraded, that's fantastic, obviously, but what comes next in terms of offensive and defensive priority? Is it my legs? Speed is always good and they harden up a little when I mutate them, which reduces the chances of going without limbs, which has been a recurring issue. No wonder the way ants fight each other on Earth was to pull the legs off. It's a low blow, but it's effective as well. The weakness was the legs all along.

So legs are an option. My regenerative plating is another strong contender. Tier seven demons are going to be able to put some serious hurt on my carapace, I've no doubt, so being able to absorb some of that impact and regrow my diamond covering that much faster would be a boon. But then again, there's the mental edge. I could upgrade my brains rather substantially with this Biomass or I could improve the coordination cortex and give each of my brains a small boost that way.

There's always the gravitational mana gland as well, now that I think about it. A big ol' gravity bomb is what got me out of the last fight against a tier seven alive and if I'm being honest, it's going to be my trump card going into this one as well. Having more gravity mana on hand to throw about sure doesn't hurt.

Of course, improving my nervous system would also be a wise investment. I took my antennae all the way to +30 last time around, so it would make a lot of sense to go ahead and improve this now so I can keep up with what my future sense is telling me.

Gah! So many decisions!

All right, I only get three so I might as well spread the love out rather than concentrate it in one place. I'll improve my coordination cortex. That'll give each of my brains a small but noticeable boost and help me on the magical side of things. I'll also improve the gravitational mana gland. Each improvement gives greater capacity, faster regeneration and so on, but lately I've been mutating it to pre-condense the mana for me and that has been a serious help in making the gravity bomb faster to cast. It might only be doing ten percent of the work I need, but it makes a huge difference in the heat of the moment. Finally, I'll improve the inner-carapace plating.

As good as my reflexes are, especially when combined with my future sense, Grokus showed me that I can't always rely on being able to dodge away, even against foes as ponderous as he was. I fully expect to take some hits in this battle and by improving the plating I'm giving myself the best possible chance to survive.

In terms of the individual mutations, it isn't that hard to pick out what I want from the exhaustive lists. As I stated, the condensing effect I've been adding to my gravitational mana gland has been great. It's actually an idea I stole from Tiny believe it or not. He added this effect to both of his lightning mana glands a long time ago and it was only much more recently that I decided to follow suit. The carapace plating has a mix of mutations so far, aimed at improving its ability to absorb forceful blows as well as healing the carapace above. I think I'll look at emphasising the former rather than the latter. The healing effect I get from the plating is good, but that isn't why I purchased the organ, I purchased it to help shore up my defence against solid, concussive blows. Making sure it's working at maximum capacity in that respect is going to be the best choice right now.

In fact, when I next evolve, I might look at reforging the carapace plating along with the carapace. Rather than add the healing effect, I could go all in on bulking up my defence and add an additional organ or element to repair damage to the carapace on the fly. Even those diamond bugs I was offered last time… I'm not especially comfortable with having little parasites inside my carapace, but if they can strengthen and repair it, then it'll be a worthy trade.

Anything to make the diamond shine brighter!

With all of that done my upgrades look like this:

Braced Healing Inner Carapace Plating +25 -> Fortified Healing Inner Carapace Plating +30;

Unyielding Coordination Cortex +25 -> Indomitable Coordination Cortex +30;

Compressing Unending Gravity Magic Gland +25 -> Forceful Unending Gravity Magic Gland +30;

And those three upgrades are going to cost me just FOUR HUNDRED AND TWENTY BIOMASS. Holy moly things are getting expensive at this tier. I seriously need to prioritise mutating my stomach the next time around. I need to squeeze all the Biomass I can out of the prey I get because I need literally thousands of points to get myself to fully upgraded. This is likely the downside of adding too many different body parts and organs… but it'll be fine. As long as I spend enough time I'll eventually get to max. Considering I need to reach level one hundred and sixty to evolve again, there's almost no chance I reach that level cap before I finish my mutations. The sheer volume of experience required is just mind boggling. Although, knocking down a tier seven opponent is worth quite a few levels… hopefully I'll get the chance again tomorrow.

With my selections made it's time to put my head down and confirm my choices. I may as well let my mind get some rest whilst I'm at it. For a battle of this size, I need to be as fresh as I possibly can.

When I feel the itch start to roll over me, I almost welcome it. Then it erupts from inside my brain and I immediately hate it again.

DAMN ITCH! WHY MUST YOU TORMENT ME!?