Antelligent Design

78. New Crinis, Spending up

Curious about Crinis’ new Shadow Eye, I dive deeper into the information hidden within her core, laid bare before my Core Surgery Skill. Ah, interesting. It’s a dense block of information and a powerful organ. If anything, I’d think the majority of her evolutionary energy was spent on this.

From what I can gather, the Shadow Eye is a special type of sensory organ. It doesn’t help her to ‘see’ per se, not like human eyes, it allows her to extend her vision—her awareness—through shadows. I’m not sure exactly how powerful that will prove to be. Although I’m sure Crinis will have a use for it, otherwise she wouldn’t have picked it. Combined with her Shadow Magic Gland and affinity Skill, there must be some trick she can use that I’m not aware of.

The other new organ she gained is also interesting. This is Crinis’ solution to the problem of divided attention. I resolved this issue by adding a number of brains to allow me to think about multiple things at once. She’s taken a slightly different path. Much like how an octopus has neural connections for each tentacle, Crinis’ new organ, the Tentacle Conductor, effectively acts as nerve endings for up to eight tentacles, able to move and act independently of her main mind. Eight may not seem like enough considering the kind of numbers she can manifest, but with mutation advances, I’m certain she’ll be able to push the boundary higher.

Interesting! All in all, she’s done an excellent job.

[Well, Crinis, it looks as if your evolution has been very successful!] I praise, freezing my antennae at the last moment so I don’t pet her. If I overpraise her, she might freeze up and I can’t afford the time. As it is, she’s already quivering a little bit, like a blob of jelly I’ve poked.

Crinis collects herself, lifting her body up on her new permanent tentacles and skittering left and right a little to get used to them.

[Thank you, Master,] she replies warmly. [I spent a great deal of time thinking about how I was going to evolve.]

[I took a good look at your Shadow Eye, but I’m not quite sure how it’s going to work. I assume it has something to do with your Shadow Magic Affinity?]

The slightly larger blob nods.

[That’s right. I’ll show you.]

The squishy orb of death grows still, and I notice that the shadow beneath her body grew noticeably darker until it’s pitch-black. Then, Crinis deliberately extends a tentacle into the shadow.

I boggle at the sight of her tentacle extending into solid stone. What is this? Some sort of shadow gate?

Something tickles the bottom of my carapace and I leap high into the air.

[Wazzat!] I cry.

Crinis giggles, a to this point nearly unheard-of sound, and I look down to see the tip of the tentacle emerging from the ground where my shadow had been, wiggling back and forth.

[Oh, that is sweet!] I yell as Crinis withdraws her tentacle back through the connected shadows and into her body.

[I can’t move my main body through,] she said, checking my enthusiasm. [The Shadow Eye allows me to extend my senses through the shadows after I’ve connected them.]

Oh snap! She could spy on people or extend her tentacles to attack things through a shadow that is in a separate room than she is! The possibilities are almost endless.

[How far can a shadow be before you can’t connect it?] I ask.

[I can’t be certain yet, but it feels like my range is around twenty metres so long as I can detect the target shadow through my Mana Sense, much shorter if I can’t.]

I nod, stroking my chin with an antenna. [Train hard, Crinis. This new ability will be extremely powerful when Levelled up.]

[I will, Master,] Crinis acknowledges, already sounding pumped for the challenge.

So diligent.

Crinis, with her shiny new evolution toys to play with, waddles onto my back with her short tentacles and settles into position, no doubt already practising her Skills. I’m somewhat jealous, having successfully completed her evolution. With my own dance with body changing looming on the horizon, the anticipation and anxiety are continuing to build apace.

It’s a strange thing, changing your body in such a dramatic way. Also invigorating, the sense of growth and strength you feel is incredible. At the same time, there is a tinge of fear from stepping into the unknown.

Gah! Thinking about that sort of stuff is just going to hurt my head. Time to move on to what I need to be doing in the here and now: mutations.

I’ve achieved the dream of full +15, and now the time has come to surge down the path to +20! I’m evolving at full mutations this time and no giant croc is going to stop me! I may need Vibrant to hunt for me in order to get there, but it is what it is.

Alright then, I’m excited for this. Let’s take a look!

My body is a clean slate, essentially. I’m +15 across the board, except for my stomach, which is sitting nice and fully mutated already. I can pick any body part to start with, but it makes sense to start with the big-ticket items. Carapace and mandibles are the obvious choices to start with. After that, I think I’ll do eyes, just for old time’s sake.

[Do you wish to improve your True Diamond Carapace to +20? This will cost 90 Biomass.]

[Do you wish to improve your Empowered Mandibles to +20? This will cost 90 Biomass.]

[Do you wish to improve your Perimeter Eyes to +20? This will cost 90 Biomass.]

Two-seventy. Just like that. It’ll be worth it, though!

I dive straight into the carapace menu, knowing exactly what I’m looking for. I’ve picked the same thing at every turn so far, and I sure as heck am not going to change course now! Diamonds! MOAR diamonds! I hunt down the selection I want and eagerly lock it in. I can’t wait to see how thick and complete my gloriously shiny coverage will become with this next upgrade.

As for mandibles, I have more things to consider. The savage and Mana infusion mutations have both served a valuable purpose. If I had to say which of the two I’m more interested in carrying forward, though… I would have to say the infusion takes the cake. The flexibility and power provided by this option is too good to pass up. Considering I have a nice strong Mana supply, it makes sense to put it to use in as many ways as I can.

I idly consider picking up a brand-new mutation but put those thoughts to the side before long. I’d rather strengthen something I already have rather than add on another, brand-new mutation. I find the option to increase my capacity to infuse Mana to my mandibles and lock it in.

Now for the eyeballs. The ol’ seeing spheres. The domes of ocular domination. We’ve come a long way, my eyes and I. Ah, I remember the days when my vision was so poor, I could barely make out the rocks right in front of my face.

It sucked! I’m so glad I made it a priority to mutate my eyes to the point where I could actually move around reliably without tripping into the open jaws of a monster.

So far, I’ve been trying to make the best out of my compound eyes by having groups of lenses act together to create segments of clearer vision. Increasing the clarity of each individual lens has meant that I have a decent mix of both worlds, sections with good focus, and decent all-around vision.

I think what I want to do this time, is continue to improve all of the lenses. This will help my peripheral vision and sharpen up my more focused zones. This is going to be nice.

[Would you like to improve:

True Diamond Carapace +15 to Hardened True Diamond Carapace +20?

Empowered Mandibles +15 to Bright Empowered Mandibles +20?

Perimeter Eyes +15 to Heightened Perimeter Eyes +20?]

I do!

GACK!