Chapter 604 Outward bound (1/2)

After fiddling around a bit, I end up settling on the following mutations:

My Mana-Feasting Bind Acid Gland +20 will add the self-propagating trait and become the Propagating Mana-Feasting Bind Acid Gland +25.

That is… quite the mouthful. Hopefully it becomes a little more readable when I compress these traits down. I'm a.s.suming I get to do that again at +30. in addition to that, which will take a good 115 chunk of Bioma.s.s out of my reserve, I've made upgrades to the rest of the business district to bring the whole thing together.

My Acid nozzle has had its pressurised trait reinforced and then gained the scattershot mutation. My theory being that if the acid is able to make more of itself, then applying a little bit of it to a wider area will allow me to bring the slow burn of never ending acid to a ma.s.sive number of foes. Alternatively, I can use this mode to blast a scattershot onto a particularly large enemy, creating dozens of acid hotspots that will only grow over time. That's taken it from +10 all the way to +20 for a cool 155 Bioma.s.s.

The Acid Concentration gland has so far been used to power up the traits inherent in my main acid gland, thickening the mixture, so to speak. That's great, and I reinforced that at +15, but for +20 I wanted to emphasise damage, and the concentration gland had a wealth of options to boost the effectiveness of my produce in that department. The usual suspects make an appearance here, elemental damage and so on, but rather than take those options, I had the gland inject a little extra spice into the mixture, a little addition that will reduce the defence of whatever the acid hits to the melting effect. Should help kick the deeps of the acid to the next level.

That's another 155 Bioma.s.s which turns my Potent Acid concentration gland +10 to the Thickened Weakening Acid concentration gland +20. My acid stimulation gland is still stuck at +10, but I'll have to deal with that for the moment. Not to mention, none of my new acid components have reached +25. It's going to take a heck of a lot more Bioma.s.s before I'm finished revamping the commercial zone.

With a weary sigh, I check over my selections once more and then give Tiny a subtle nod. He nods back, a serious look on his face, for once, and moves to block the entrance to my chamber. Once she notices what's happening, Crinis detaches from me and manifests her body to block all line of sight to me from the outside. Not even my annoying body guards will be able to see what goes on in this s.p.a.ce!

Operation ”Blackout”' is in full effect…

Confirm!

HARCK!

FTTTT… SHABA…

COLLIBLAMAWAGAAAAA!

It itches so bad! Dammit all!

Not far away.

Corun and Torrina make their way through the Colony discussing theories and options that they'll need to present to Anthony the next time they get the chance. They could talk for hours on this topic, this is their purpose, as well as the entire focus of the cult, after all, but they got the sense Anthony wasn't quite as interested in pouring through the details, so they were determined to work out the kinks in their research before speaking to him again.

After a few minutes an easy silence fell as they both lapsed into their thoughts.

”Hey, Torr,” Corun broke his silence.

”Yes?” she prompted.

”What do you think Anthony meant when he mentioned itching?”

She pursed her lips and frowned for a moment as she considered.

”I've no idea,” she admitted, ”do ants get itchy under their carapace?”

”You want to ask one?”

They both hesitated. The ants could get quite touchy when it came to their carapace.