Chrysalis

Chapter 728 Mutating Makes the World Go 'Round

In the end, despite how much I want to see my old organs rise to the grand old height of +30, I decide to start with the new stuff, specifically, the Vestibule, Nave and Antennae. These reforged body parts are high performing and important to me so I need to invest in them. With the huge wealth that I have right now, I can blast them all the way up to +30 with a massive amount of change in the bank.

For starters, let's look at the antennae. One of the interesting things I discovered in my fight with Grokus is that looking into the future a few milliseconds is all well and good, but when you can't do anything about what you see, you can run right into the wall. In a way, the strategy the city lord applied against me was ideal. He didn't need to act first, he waited to see what I would do and then reacted. Given that he was much faster with his hands than I would have given him credit for, this was nearly enough for him to snatch me out of the air and crush me for good.

I have to keep reminding myself that I can't rely on my future sense alone, no matter how much of a leg up it might be. Where I'm going, deeper into the Dungeon, there might be creatures who can see whole minutes into the future, who knows? Either perfect one strategy of survival, or diversify, that's the only way to go about it.

Right now I have Future Sight Antennae +15 (Twilight Filament). The reforged antennae are hyper sensitive, tingling with every fluctuation of air, detecting scents far better than my old antennae did and enhancing my future sight once the mutation was applied. Right now I have a decision, do I index further into future sight, or do I now seek to add another sense to my antennae? I previously had heat detection, which was interesting, but I don't think it was useful enough for me to want to return to it. Given how sensitive the twilight filament is though, no matter what sense I apply to them through mutation, they will enhance it like a high quality radio dish.

It's a tough call. Right now my future sight isn't incredible, just a moment, maybe two, into the future. When combined with my reflexes though, it's more than enough for me to get myself out of the way of danger or angle my carapace to help deflect the blow. It's a good system and one that works well, really well. Even monsters that are significantly faster than me aren't able to get the jump and that makes a huge difference. But I'm just not convinced that I need more of it. At the very least, before I commit, I want to investigate to see what I may be able to add to the antennae.

Into the lists I dive, the innumerable different possible mutations rolling by in front of my mind. All sorts of incredible, bizarre and impossible seeming options swim past but I filter them out. What I'm after are senses. This is what will synergise with the material my new antennae are constructed from and I need to take advantage of it!

Of course the basic stuff is there. I can improve my sense of smell through mutation, which is probably more useful than I might give it credit for. My sense of smell right now is far better than a human's, it's not even close, I pick up all sorts of stuff wafting on the breeze when I'm paying attention, but generally I ignore it. If I chose to, I could improve my sense of smell to the point where I made a tracking dog look nose-less. It would be powerful, I've no doubt, but I can't really think of that many times that I've been looking for something that I haven't had other methods to find. Pass.

Eyes on the antennae? No. I mean, it's not really eyes, but photo receptors. Still, no.

Ears? My sense of hearing is quite possibly my worst, given that I don't really have ears in the sense that humans do, big flappy bits that hang off the side of the head that help to collect sound. I don't even have holes in my head, I mean, why would I? That'd disrupt my perfect carapace. Ants hear by interpreting vibrations through our legs and the hairs across our bodies. Increasing the ability of my antennae to detect sound waves could make a huge difference in my ability to interpret what is happening around me. I'll put it down as a maybe.

Taste? Obviously not. That'd be stupid.

Enhancing touch also seems like a total waste of time.

It's in the other options, the non-standard ones, that I turn over the really weird stuff.

Detect emotional state? That would be a little odd. Why would a monster even want that?

Detect lies? Again… I'm a monster ant, not a detective!

Detect Mana. Juicy. This is similar to how Crinis perceives her surroundings, by 'seeing' the mana in an organic way. My detect mana skill performs a similar function, though probably not nearly as well, still not sure I want to use a mutation slot on it.

Heat? Pass.

Electrical Current? No…

Movement? I mean… maybe? Looking at the details it seems like an upgrade to the ability to detect shift and vibrations in the air. Might be handy, might be handy.

Toxins? Being honest, the ability to detect poisons is going to be super handy if I live to see the fifth. Apparently the place is absolutely swimming in it. And the monster I faced from that level was no joke either. That perfect mana toxin was insane.

Dammit there is just so much here, as always. I flick through the lists and even narrowing it down to just senses is enough to give me a headache.

Then I stumble across something that gives me strangely mixed feelings.

The ability to sense, Gravitational Waves?

I mean… what?