My reaction must have given something away, Granin was always quite good at reading me. Amazingly so considering I don't have facial muscles and therefore no expression to speak of. Perhaps his many decades of experience working with monsters has given him some sort of sixth sense in matters such as this.

[What's your level?] he asks.

[Bit rude, just up and asking like that, isn't it?] I feel exposed.

He grunts.

[Keep your false modesty. There's a whole nest of ants here who need your strength, so out with it.]

[Seventy three.]

[That's close,] he whistles, [you're going to need that consultation before too long. With the wave coming, those levels and the Biomass requirements should be filled pretty quick.]

He pauses our conversation for a moment to turn and speak to Torrina and Corun. The three of them converse in rapid tones for a moment before he turns back to me.

[Sounds like you haven't exactly been availing yourself of the help I sent you,] he says sourly.

I feel a little guilty. The two golgari cultists had abandoned their people to come and help me because they, along with Granin, saw potential for something great in me. I've just never been much of a careful planner. Or a deep thinker. Or patient. Hang on a second. Am I just stupid?

[Don't think about it too much,] Granin sighs, [I know you can't be bothered thinking about this stuff. Since you aren't going anywhere until the little stumps wiggling on your side grow a bit more, I may as well explain a couple of things.]

The big shaper lowers himself to the ground and sits in front of me, looking at me face to face.

[The thing you need to keep in mind, is that monsters are stronger than people.]

That doesn't seem right. That Titus guy was crazy strong! He carved down one of the frickin' gates by himself! As if sensing my protest before it arrives, Granin raises a hand.

[I know, alright? Just stop thinking for a minute and listen. Yes, individuals can become very strong. You might even say monstrously strong,] he smirks before he settles and continues, [in the legends, during the Rending, the great golgari heroes were supposedly capable of truly ridiculous feats. One of the first shapers was supposedly so strong in earth magic, he could conjure a mountain to smash his foes with. Whether or not that's true, none can say. Now whilst that strength might seem impressive, the number of golgari, human, folk or any other race who manage to achieve that kind of power are less than one in a million. Way less. The other indisputable fact is, no person has ever matched the kind of strength that the ancients possess, and each of them, is a monster.]

[How many billions of monsters does it take before one rises to the level of an ancient?] I say sceptically, [all you've really told me is that monsters have higher potential.]

Granin waves a hand.

[We're getting a little side tracked, talking about the ancients. What I was more trying to emphasise is that, generally speaking, a monster is stronger than a human or golgari. Strong monsters need teams of strong people to bring them down. Eventually, some monsters get powerful enough that large teams of up to a hundred are necessary. You've probably met a few like that, surely?]

Garralosh, obviously, but she was a special case, being a reincarnator like me. I've seen strong monsters though. The giant whale fish thing I glimpsed in the first expanse I visited in the second strata, or the giant spider mama who was such a pain in the butt. Seeing agreement in me, he continues.

[Right. At the moment you're tier five, once you reach tier six and above, you've joined the ranks of the elite monsters, the type that very few people can hope to match one on one. They exist of course, especially the deeper in the Dungeon you get, but you're on the precipice of real strength.]

He gives me a second for that to sink in.

[The other thing you need to be aware of is how the options will change starting with your next evolution. You probably noticed looking at your eyeball over there,] he gestures toward Invidia, [that he has mutations and abilities that haven't been available to you. Am I right?]

I nod slowly.

[That's true. I figured it was because of the strata we originated from. As a demon, he gets access to juicier stuff than me, since I'm just an insect from the upper layers.]

[That's true. The deeper you go, the 'juicier' the options a monster will get by default. However, the playing field is meant to be level in the Dungeon. Sapients and monsters alike, everyone is supposed to have the same chance to succeed. This means there must be a way to balance this discrepancy.]

[I'm assuming your about to tell me what it is?]

[Obviously. It's called the Rescindic Principle of Mutable Advancement in the academic circles. We mostly just call it a cash in.]

[… a cash in.]

He nods.

[Yes. Basically, you trade in all your current mutations on a particular body part in order to upgrade it to a better base model. Once you evolve at +25, this option will become available to you.]

[What do you mean by better base model?] I'm confused.

I can tell Granin is passionate about this stuff, the more he explains, the more animated he gets and I'm starting to get a little lost. Seeing the dazed emotion in my eyes, he settles himself.

[Let's use your carapace as example.]

[Not my carapace!] I try to cover my glittering shell with my antennae and fail miserably.

[Bear with me, alright? You'll like this.] He soothes me with a gesture. [Your carapace started out as the default exo-skeleton that all insect monsters in the first strata have access to. The thickness might have varied, but you ultimately had the exact same protection that the centipedes had.]

How revolting.

[Now, you've made excellent improvements and your diamond carapace is extremely durable, I think you picked very well. But what if I told you, it's possible to revert your carapace back to +0, but instead of starting over with plain jane regular chitin, it could be diamond from the get go?]

Wait… that would mean…

[Right,] he affirms. [Then you could upgrade it from scratch again, adding more and more diamond mutations along the way. By the time you got back to +25, your carapace would be twice as tough as it is now. Not only is this a great way for a monster such as yourself to power up, it's also a necessary step for you to compete with monsters in the deeper layers. Unlike you, they were spawned in an environment with far higher mana concentration, so they get the good stuff right out of the gate.]

[But the amount of Biomass that would take!] I protest, [it's insane! I'll struggle to get everything maxed before I hit level eighty as it is. Then the next evolution won't be until level one-sixty. And the Biomass to take everything from zero to +30 will be bonkers!]

It just doesn't seem feasible, and it appears that Granin agrees.

[Which is why you don't reset everything. That's stupid,] he says, [at most, I recommend that you do two of your body parts. Some of these resets will probably appear in your evolution choices as well, and those count too. Say you get one cash in from your evolution, then during the process, cash in one other thing. Also keep in mind that there are better cash in choices available at +30 than there are at +25, and so on. If you want your carapace to be as strong as possible, you either need to reset it every evolution, or wait until your reach tier seven or eight before you cash in.]

My mind is spinning. The number of possibilities this opens up is nuts…

[I told you it was going to get crazy,] Granin grins. [Look at the envy demon. You could make your internal structure mutable at your next evolution, then chomp away until you get it to +30. The next time you evolved you could cash in and change it to the same as his, the pocket dimension. No matter what breaks through your shell, your organs would suffer no damage. It's a handy one to have.]

He stands up and brushes off his granite exterior.

[I'll have a word with you about the choices you could look at first when it's time for you to evolve. In the meantime, I want to have a word with the rest of the leadership. There's a council or something right?]

[Uh, yeah?] I'm confused. [What do you want with them?]

[I want to make sure they know how important it is to funnel resources to you,] he says flatly, [one tier six powerhouse will do more to protect the Colony during the wave than a thousand tier threes. If they'd concentrated their efforts on you, you'd be tier six already and this siege would have gone much better for you and your whole family. You wouldn’t have been able to take on the Legion single handed, but they would have had to have been very careful about what they chose to put in front of you. From here on out, it's the big leagues, Anthony. Especially this high up. If the Colony is going to survive, they need strong members, and they should start with you.]

… I think they wanted to do that ages ago, but I told them no… I won't mention it though. Might as well keep that tidbit to myself.