When the light of the portal fades to nothing and I find myself standing atop the roots of the Mother Tree I practically sag with relief. The pain! It's… not gone! It's mostly gone, faded into the background to the point where I can tolerate it much more easily. And thank goodness for that. I was seriously hitting my limit up there in the third, it was absolute agony. Having that unrelenting pull on the core of my being… no rest? No pauses? Wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. Except Jim, that foul worm can get Called twice for all I care.

Freed from the worst of it, I take a long moment to bask in the open air of the fourth. Wide open spaces, the gigantic tree overhead, the air brimming with life mana, the fourth really is a paradise by Dungeon terms. In the distance I can see the glittering waters of the vast lakes that lie between the mountains that rise and rise until their peaks are obscured amongst the mist and clouds above. Floating islands the size of cities drift impossibly through the air, raining down water that dissolves into fine rain before it reaches the ground. Just lovely. Filled with impossible monsters of death, but still… good to look at.

One particular type of monster is occupying me right now and that's the termites.

It's time to put an end to it. Initially I wanted more time. I wanted to hold defensively until the Colony had consolidated itself, until our numbers had grown and we'd gained a more permanent foothold in the third stratum. With demon allies, with new resources and with hundreds of thousands of reinforcements, rolling over the termite menace would have been as easy as clacking my mandibles together. Alas, it hasn't worked out that way. Too many enemies loom on the horizon and a protracted fight down here is only weakening us, preventing us from properly dealing with other issues.

Issues like the Ka'armodo getting more aggressive on our borders. Or like tier eight demons causing a ruckus beneath our cities for whatever reason.

The time to mess around with these insect impostors is over! We need to get aggressive, smash their nest and annihilate their queens. Until that inferior, slave Colony has been wiped from the Dungeon, I shall not rest!

To that end, we need to arm ourselves for the final push. That means upgrading my Skills and pushing my mutations to their limits. Once I've mustered all the strength that I can, it'll be time to fight.

Obviously I push my companions to do the same. With all of us approaching the pinnacle of tier six, the amount of power we can bring to bear is nothing to sneeze at. If all goes well, we might earn enough experience through this assault to get us to the precipice of tier seven! Despite the many problems it will cause, the increased dependence on mana to sustain myself, the likelihood of suffering even further from the Call, I'm still excited to evolve. I can remember what it was like for me to go from a hatchling to a mature ant. That sudden leap in strength that allowed me to overcome challenges that had seemed insurmountable before. Ah, how I feasted on centipede tears back in those days. Good times.

Regardless, the time has come! Gimme that menu!

Usually I do the skills first, but this time I'm going to dive into the mutations before anything else. I've been fighting and eating termites for ages, so I have a ton of Biomass to spend. Let's get to it!

First off, I should see what I still have to upgrade from 25 to 30. I mean, basically the entire acid production line back in the business district is in that category, and nothing else. Aside from that, I have to take my sub-brains up from +15 to +30. After that…

Wait, that's it?

That's it! Oh ho! I'm extremely close to completing my perfect +30 across the board form. Magnificent! After that I just need to get my core to where it needs to be and I'll be good to go!

Let me see… to fully max out my mutations, I need…

Six hundred and sixty Biomass, just for the +25 to +30. Then I need another… three hundred and sixty per brain, and I have three of those, so that means another one thousand and eighty. So one thousand seven hundred and forty Biomass in total?

Sweet bearded saviour! That is a hell of a lot of Biomass! Do I even have that much?

No…

But I'm so damn close! I have one thousand five hundred and forty three… So frustrating…

I'll upgrade the brains all the way, and then save up the last little bit I need for the complete acid upgrade. A couple of battles and I'll have all the termites I need to get the food required. Then I can upgrade the commercial empire all in one go.

As far as the brains go, the mutation required is hardly worth thinking about. The sub-brains are fully dedicated mind mana engines of refined excellence! The more mind constructs they can handle, the better!

Punch it in!

Checking the menu, each of them will go from a Mind Mana Focused Sub-Brain +15, to a Mind Mana Mastery Sub-Brain +30.

That sounds impressive! With more mind constructs I can handle even more spells, or cast multiples of the bigger more destructive versions. Heck, I may even be able to run a Gravity Domain almost constantly, until my mana runs out of course. Perhaps even a compressed one! Or I can just chuck the handling of my body and spells to the sub-brains and let the main mind focus on crafting a bomb when the need arises. I'm excited for the possibilities!

Alright then. Time to let it rip!

Confirm that upgrade, Gandalf!

CHARANAZINAP! MY FREAKIN' BRAIN(S)!