Well, chatting to the golgari proved to be less painful than I had expected. I’d half expected them to start poring over my options one by one, looking for optimal combos, or have me put together complex Skill schemes that would take a hundred years to train up into a set of fusions.

Thankfully, they restrained themselves. As nice as it would be to have that sort of thing in my back pocket, I just don’t have time to sit back and train. At this point in my family’s development, they still need protecting from the big bad things out there, and I fully intend to be the ant that they can rely on.

That means squashing these tier eight monsters running amok here in the third stratum, then going down to the fourth and making sure our grip on that stratum is secure. Eventually, the Colony will grow powerful enough that I’m no longer needed to babysit them, but for the time being, I’ve committed to being their protector.

That’s the commitment I made when I selected the Altar of Self.

So with a few suggestions locked away and a couple of nice General Skills added to my list, I start to climb up the pillar from the top of the nest and make my way toward Roklu.

Of course, with Granin’s thoughts ringing in my ear, I make sure to continue practising as I go. The sub-brains keep churning away at Gravity Mana and managing the gravity construct, which will prove to be my ace in the hole once I get it strong enough. I can’t wait to see what sort of nonsense becomes possible once I reach rank six with it, but that’s a long way off.

Training Grip is another thing I need to focus on. By the time I reach the plate-city of Roklu, my poor claws are at the edge of their limits and my legs feel like they might just drop off. Holy moly am I heavy. Next evolution, I need to ensure I don’t skip leg day and beef up my six little legs, not to mention my poor claws.

If the energy cost is minimal, I may even consider making them mutable so they stand a better chance of holding my weight! Crawling around upside down is just way too hard now!

After a short rest, I make my way into the city and start looking for the demon that I want to find. I haven’t spoken to Al for a little while, but I’ve heard he’s still floating around in Roklu, and I eventually find him in his house.

Demon houses are interesting. They aren’t like a human house as I experienced them in my past life, or even what I’ve seen of them in this world. A human house would have furniture, food, storage, bedrooms, all that normal stuff, but the demons don’t really need any of that. They aren’t communal eaters, so there isn’t a table. There aren't even cupboards to store food. You can’t really store Biomass in the traditional sense; instead, there’s something similar to a market where the demons go to grab food, which they usually eat on the spot. Like most monsters, demons need to sleep, except, ironically, the Sleep Demons, but they don’t have beds, they just flop down in their house like any sensible monster would.

Why then, do they have houses at all? Well, that all boils down to their obsession. To a demon, a house is essentially a place to put all the stuff they need to feed their obsession. Pride Demons fill theirs with carvings of themselves, or paintings of themselves, or tapestries of themselves, you get the idea. Wealth Demons hoard precious resources. Murder demons hoard… you know what, I won’t go into it.

For Al, he hoards knowledge. His little house is stuffed floor to ceiling with books and it’s in there, flicking through his precious library with great caution, (he is after all, a flaming eyeball), that I find him.

[Hey there, Al. How’s things?]

[Pleasant. The Colony has procured new texts for me to peruse and I am fully engaged in this pursuit.]

I feel like he’s telling me to buzz off.

[Don’t be like that, Al! I’ve got some juicy tidbits to trade with you. A few tender morsels of information that you may find completely irresistible!]

That great, lidded eye turns toward me, flaring with heat as his intrigue grows. Now that I’ve got his interest, I know better than to fail to deliver.

[I’ve got a name that might interest you. Does Torrifex ring any bells?]

Al stills for a moment, then flares, the heat rising rapidly within his house.

[Whoa there! You’re going to burn your books!]

I quickly pump out some ice mana and create a few spikes, trying to cool the air down. It works, well enough that there isn’t a fire at least.

[Hmmm. Thank you. Let us continue this discussion outside.]

We remove ourselves to the street outside, the tier seven demon smouldering away. Thankfully, he doesn’t close his eye in disgust. I’ve seen that once before, and I’d like to never see it again.

[How did you know?] he demands of me and I shrug my antennae.

[I had a feeling you might know a little something about them. You collect knowledge, right? And I suspected that you were a bit older than you might let on. It’s possible that you might know a little something about a big demon like that.]

I can feel Al’s attention boring into me.

[And how did you learn that name? Torrifex has been asleep for almost five hundred years.]

[I fought him. Sent him packing after cleaning his clock.]

[... Interesting.]