Chrysalis

The demon infusion program began rather shortly after our expansion began within the third stratum. It became clear quite quickly that a steady supply of demon recruits would be needed to fuel our ambitions, especially if we wanted them to be a regular and meaningful contributor to our conquests. Normally this would happen naturally, there is always a flow of demons that battle and survive on the plains below, reaching tier six and then ascending to join their cousins on the plate cities above.

The issue we encountered was that this process seldom gave rise to demons who had maximised their potential through the early evolutions, particular the first two. An demon larvae lives a truly brutal and savage existence, fighting constantly, consuming what Biomass it can in the flowing melee and mutating rapidly in order to gain whatever edge it can over its innumerable enemies. Although it doesn't take long for the larvae to absorb enough mana to form a core, given the density of the energy at this level, half of tier two larvae evolve without forming one, desperate to survive they reach for the quick power a fast evolution will provide.

These stunted larvae seldom go on to reach any higher, becoming food for their brethren who achieve a more powerful evolution. Naturally this is wasteful and inefficient, something the Colony has never been prepared to tolerate. It's impossible to observe and assess each and every larvae, but with great effort the Colony was able to create a system whereby promising larvae would receive support to ensure they achieved perfect evolutions up to tier four, whereupon they would be allowed to make their own way.

Although imperfect, this greatly improved the quality and strength of the demons who joined those cities under the influence of the Colony, something they greatly appreciated and repaid many times over with their savagery and enthusiasm for battle.

Excerpt from 'Growing Demons' by Bella

After absorbing this sober warning from Granin and I head back to where the gang is still sorting out there mutations and park my diamond covered rear for a minute to consider my levelling speed. It's not as if I've been slacking off down here, and the hunting has been good, but the experience has been spread out over the group fairly evenly. I know that's not what Granin wants to happen, he wants me to force my pets to funnel me all the experience, as well as depend on the Colony to do the same. It wouldn't even necessarily be wrong to do so. If I get accelerated to tier seven, then my friends will be able to enjoy my protection, along with the Colony as I would be able to go toe to toe with our most powerful enemies without having to take massive risks or depend on surprise tactics to win.

Even so, it doesn't feel right to me. During our extended hunting trips I've been making sure that Brilliant is fed the lions share up until she maxes out, then letting everyone split our gains roughly evenly. I'm still ahead of my group in levels, but not by a significant amount. Even my babysitters have been getting their share, since I forced them to take it. Although the flow of xp has been good, spreading it out over so many monsters has made the gains fairly low.

Idly wondering what level I've even managed to reach, I bring up the menu and take a look.

Level thirty five.

Not bad! All things considered, that's not half bad! I mean… I only need to reach… level one hundred… and sixty…

Holy moly! That's another hundred and twenty five levels?! Are you kidding me, Gandalf!? That's unreasonable! An outrageous demand! Actually wait a second… that means in order to reach tier eight a monster needs three hundred and twenty levels. And tier nine would take six hundred and forty. Are there really any monsters like that!? It's absurd! Complete madness! Who would come up with such a stupid requirement?! How could it possibly be achieved?!

Actually, thinking about it, if we imagine that the ancients are tier ten, I have no idea if they are, but let's go with it for now, that would mean they'd need one thousand two and eighty levels to get from nine to ten…

I get that monsters don't really age and will live forever if we don't experience death by violence, and that the ancients may have had literally thousands of years to level up and achieve their current level of power, but it still feels ridiculous to me. If I had to grind levels and Biomass for even a hundred years I feel as if I'd go insane.

No, I think I will continue my current policy of sharing out the love and refusing to hog the xp, although I do think we need to accelerate our efforts. The closer I get to the next tier, the safer I feel running around down here, although asides from the few tier sevens I've run into, I haven't really felt threatened by anything that we've encountered.

Luckily for us the bulk of the 'wild' demons that we run into are lone wolves, operating on their own until they reach the sixth tier and join a city and demon society more broadly, making them easy pickings for our hunting party.

[All right gang, everyone doing well? All read to go? Manage to deal with the itch?]

Each of the pets gives me a slightly odd look but I brush it off, coming out of a mutation can have that effect on a monster.

[It's time to head out again. We're going to head out towards Kaarmodo territory, being careful not to tread on an scaled toes and irritate the touchy lizards. Even so, I think it'll be a good idea if we can get a general picture of how strong they are and how many cities they control in this area. If we manage to pick up the trail of that traitor worm, all the better. Sound good to everyone?]

[Do I need to evolve on this trip as well?] Brilliant asks, one antennae in the air as she asks her question.

[No. No you don't,] I sigh, [it would be nice to push you tier six, but I don't think you're quite ready for it yet. You need to have a better idea of what it is you want to do and what you want to become before you commit to those decisions. Anyone else?]

Tiny, Crinis and Invidia don't seem fussed either way, so we quickly make ready and exit the city once more.