The hatchling continues to ruminate over her choices, being far more diligent in perusing the menu lists, looking for combos and asking clarifying questions than I ever was. Not that I had anyone to ask at her stage of evolution! I was a solo Dungeon monster, dammit! Kids these days have it way too easy. But I suppose that's a good thing, I don't want them to suffer as I suffered. Otherwise what would be the point of all that we've achieved? We continue to feed her experience and Biomass as she narrows down her options over time.

As he'd been doing diligently the entire time we'd been in the Dungeon, Tiny continues to watch over her with a keen eye, making sure that she doesn't come to harm, or try to escape. In fact, the escape attempts have dropped to nothing over the last little while. Perhaps now that she feels that she's finally progressing she doesn't feel the need to be elsewhere.

She remains endlessly curious though, asking an endless stream of questions and inspecting everything we come across for herself, refusing to take my word for just about anything. Whenever I give System advice, she always attempts to double check it in her menu, going so far as to make sure she takes a bite out of everything we defeat in order to unlock as many profiles as possible. No matter how small or fiddly the detail, she's keen to absorb and understand it, quite different from Vibrant.

And me…

But I think it's a good thing. If the second champion in the Colony ended up being as empty headed as Vibrant, we'd be in trouble. Although that's not really fair. Vibrant is far from stupid, she simply doesn't sweat the little things, she knows what she wants to do and she goes out and does it. I'm looking forward to seeing what she'll be able to do once she reaches tier six. I expect a truly ridiculous level of speed will be achieved at that point.

Naturally, it doesn't take long to raise the hatchling to level ten and stuff her full of cores and Biomass so that she's ready once again to evolve. Feeding her tier three monsters one after the other certainly takes the time out of it. The downside is that she's only had a few hours to consider her options and what she wants to be in the future, but there's little that we can do about it now, it's time to go for it!

"Alright then little one, here's the special core I've prepared. Make sure you're completely ready before you absorb it, otherwise you'll have to put up with the pain of it longer than you otherwise would need to."

She nods, looking sombrely at the glittering core.

"Made your decisions?" I ask.

She nods again.

"I have. I just feel terrible about all the things that I'm turning my back on. When I make a choice, I throw away so many potential others."

"That's just how it goes, hatchling. As long as you excel in the thing that you find most interesting, I think you'll be alright."

I can tell that her inexhaustible thirst for information and knowledge is behind her hesitation. It's not that she actually wants to be everything, she just wants to experience it, to know what it's like. Which would be a waste of her talents.

"You'll get the same options that everyone gets, the nine basic castes of the Colony. Soldier, scout, general, mage, carver, core shaper, tender, queen and healer. You can pick one of them if you want, but I recommend that you take something that you can shape a little more to your own desires. I can't be sure exactly what special options the System will offer you, since in part it's based on things that are personal to you, but you should get an option that appeals a little more closely to what you envision for yourself. Gandalf is good at sussing out what you want. So you should be fine."

"Alright then, thank you Senior."

I pull back in mock horror.

"Thanks?! From you?! Are you sick?"

"No! It's not my fault if you don't do enough to warrant thanks most of the time."

"Fair enough. Absorb the core and crack on, little one!"

Which she does, the core dissipating into raw energy before she immediately begins to consult her menu, quickly pouring through the options as she grits her mandibles.

[Back on guard duty Crinis! You know what to do Tiny! Let's get to it Invidia…]

For the four of us, we get back to doing much of what we were doing the last time we were in this position. For me and Invidia, that means more mental warfare. Trying to crack through the little demon's mental defences is impossible, he simply has too many threads running at once, hitting me with a dozen attacks even as he weaves an intricate layer of protection around his own mind, rebuffing every packet of mana I send across the bridge between us. It's completely exhausting and if we weren't still in range of the Colony, I wouldn't be able to keep it up for long. Thankfully the Vestibule soothes my tortured brains and drives away my headache, keeping me in the game for longer.

Which is a good thing.

Master Mind Magic Affinity (IV) has reached level 40 upgrade available]

[Master Mind Magic Affinity (IV) Level 40 -> Layered Mind Magic Affinity (V), cost 1 sp. At this rank, advanced forms of mind magic will become known to the Skill user, further enhancing their ability to utilise mind magic.]

YASSSSSSSS!

Finally it has arrived! The next big leap in technology has come! After grinding for the omni-elemental construct, and now this, I feel as if after all this time, I'll finally be able to take a step forward on the path of magic. After all, what I've been doing all this time is nothing other than creating the foundation! From this point onward, new unexplored fields of magic await!

[Hold on Invidia! I've finally got it! Give me a minute here…]

I hastily confirm the purchase and then grow still as the pleasant trickling sensation that a Skill upgrade brings washes over my brain. Gradually, the new spell forms take shape in my mind and I finally understand what I have been missing all this time: the mind construct form! At last, it is mine!

Turning into Invidia a little there.

It takes a couple of minutes for the new information to finish forming in my mind and when it does, I'm raring to go. Mind mana construct already working, I spin out the specialised mana that I need and put my brains to work!

Like any new spell form, the mind construct is a complete pain in the business district to create. It'll take a lot of practice before I'm familiar enough with it that I can whip them out on a moment's notice. For now, concentrating hard and taking my time, I put the construct together, linking its maintenance to one of my sub-brains. The moment it slots into place, something strange happens. It's almost like I've grown an extra hand, as if a new limb just appeared within my mind. This time, when I reach for the mind mana, another brain reaches with me and we start working on another construct. How many can I get?!