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Chapter 192 Regroup

[Master, I don\'t have any ears.]

[You know what I mean! Do you detect anything?]

[… No. I wasn\'t able to detect anything on the surface either. Whatever was making that noise was far outside my range.]

[Fair enough. How about you, Tiny?]

[Whurfft?]

[Get that Biomass out of your face dammit! And why would having food in your mouth make your mental voice sound different? Do you hear anything?]

[No…]

[Good!]

Somewhat of a surprise, Morrelia had chosen to join us in the Dungeon. Perhaps she wanted the shelter of being concealed below ground level. She seemed to be fairly shaken after that fight. I don\'t know why she was so rattled, but I can only imagine she has good reason. I haven\'t seen her do anything she wasn\'t absolutely sure of.

[You feeling a little better?] I asked her.

At the moment she had her ear cocked into the air, her face was intent as she listened for any hint of pursuit. She didn\'t respond for a full minute until she seemed to feel confident there wasn\'t anything coming after us.

[I think so] so sent, [I just couldn\'t believe that a creature like Garralosh could actually be on the surface.]

[Yeah, shouldn\'t that be impossible?!] I protested, [its painful enough for me to be on the surface, some gigantic monster, that is hundreds of years old should have evolved ten times more than I have, should be drained of mana after a few minutes on the surface, surely?!]

Morrelia looked at me carefully for a moment before she continued to speak.

[How much… do you know, about Garralosh?] she asked with some reluctance.

[Pretty much nothing. From the system messages I get when I eat monsters I know a little. That the various Garralosh monsters are her offspring, that she\'s a giant Croc and that she raised her children for some sort of purpose. That\'s about it.]

Morrelia appeared to think hard before she continued speaking.

[I can give you a little more than that, though speaking too much would break faith with people I care about, so I won\'t tell you everything.]

I sense secret knowledge!

[Whatever you\'re happy to share, I\'ll be more than grateful for!] I tried to appear harmless and cooperative.

Morrelia snorted, seeing through my guise in an instant.

[You\'ve been willing to help my people so far, Anthony. It\'s only fair that we help a little back. Now. Firstly, I\'ll say that Garralosh is probably not as highly evolved as you might think.]

[but how could that be?] I wondered, [she\'s hundreds of years old, isn\'t she?]

Morrelia nodded. [She\'s around two hundred and fifty years old. Nobody can know with precision unless they were there to see her spawn but that\'s the best guess.]

[So how could she not have evolved much? I\'ve evolved three times already and I\'m not even a year old!]

[You\'re not one year old?] Morrelia\'s eyes suddenly narrowed as her voice became sharper.

[Ah.. Yes? Friendly person who is an ally? That shouldn\'t be that surprising should it?] I shrank back a little from her cutting aura.

Seeing my attitude Morrelia\'s expression softened. [It\'s a little unusual that would be this strong, this young, according to what I know of Monsters. I was honestly shocked when you unleashed that… ball of death. What was that?]

Aha! The excellence of my magic has made an impression after all! I swelled up with pride.

[That! That was my Gravity Bomb! Fearsome destructive power, no?] I boasted.

[Gravity?] Morrelia asked, her face intent, [Is that the type of mana you used?]

It was my turn to become a little evasive. I don\'t intend to give up all my secrets, woman! Perhaps a little wisdom is finally starting to blossom in me!

[Let\'s not worry about that too much] I deflected, [we were discussing the giant crocodile who is apparently out to eat us?]

Visibly disappointed, Morrelia nodded and continued with what she had been saying.

[Garralosh has been prevented from descending deep into the Dungeon. I won\'t go into too much detail but suffice to say that she hasn\'t had access to the higher tier monsters and cores she would need to evolve to a massive height. We believe the last time she successfully evolved was seventy years ago.]

[Wow! That is a long time to not progress. Wait a second. Did you say something about cores?]

[I did. Why?]

Cores…. Cores…. Something about cores.

[Crinis?]

[Yes Master?]

[Did any of us take the core out of Garralosh Commander that we killed?]

[You ordered me to focus on the arms and then run, Master. I thought it was odd, but I didn\'t want to question your orders.]

Oh my Gandalf. There\'s no way…

[Tiny…] I asked desperately, knowing the answer before I even asked the question. [Did you collect the core?]

The big ape just shook his head, almost proudly. [Nope!] he declared, thumping himself on the chest for emphasis.

DAMMIT.

To the immense and visible confusion of Morrelia, I flopped onto my back and started thrashing at the dirt with my legs, a tantrum of the finest quality.

I could have used that stupid core! Not for me (god no!) but for Mother! If I\'d come back with a second rare core then surely the Queen could have been persuaded to accept it, allowing herself to evolve into a powerful form that could support the entire colony and more importantly, keep her safe! Such a waste! Anthony you freaking moron?! What\'s a hundred Biomass compared to the rare core!?

As quickly as I\'d flopped onto my back, I froze and flipped myself over again.

[We have to go back!] I declared to Morrelia.

Her eyes widened. [What?! Are you insane? What will happen if you run into Garralosh?]

[I need the core out of that monster! That\'s a rare core that we left behind out there!]

She froze.

[You didn\'t get the core?!] she demanded incredulously, [you stayed back there just to get those limbs?!]

[You freaked me out!] I defended myself, [we heard some supernaturally loud growling and you panicked! Then I panicked!]

[Even so, I\'m not going back there just yet. We should lay low for the time being and head back out tomorrow.]

[There is no chance the core will still be there by then! I\'ll go on my own, nice and stealthy. I\'ll take a quick peek, grab the core if I can then return. Ok?]

I turned to my two pets.

[I\'m going to go back and take a look for the core, you guys stay here with Morrelia and regroup. Feel free to eat what we took from the commander. I\'ll be back as soon as I can.]

With that said I didn\'t pause to see if anyone had a response before I ran up the wall and back out onto the surface. If I can get that core for mother then I sure as hell am going to!