Chrysalis Chapter 1863 - Further Mutations

While I’m poking around at new parts of the body, the ol’ sensory processor should bear looking at. By which I mean, the entirely new sensory processor.

Granin mentioned that they’d added this doohicky in order to speed up the rate I process sensory information. They’d had the idea because I have so many senses, and they’re so varied. Gravity, the future, thousands upon thousands of lenses, fine hairs for picking up vibrations and scent. There’s a heck of a lot going on, quite frankly, and that’s not including mana sensing!

So this little organ is responsible for sorting and sending information to where it needs to go even faster than before, which is only doing good things for my reaction speed.

The faster I can respond to things, the better. Being able to sense a moment into the future isn’t all that helpful if I can’t respond in time. Moving my massive frame isn’t easy after all, and milliseconds make a big difference.

Digging through the mutations, I start looking for something that will just help it do its job better, the sort of thing I’ve been picking for all of my reset organs. After all, it isn’t necessary to try and get fancy at the lower levels of mutation, I’ve found. There’s good stuff to be had, sure, but the organ needs to do the job it was put there to do before anything else. However, in this instance, my searching manages to find me something I didn’t expect, something with a little .

Temporal Sensory Processor.

It starts to process sensory information .

Holy moly! That’s got synergy written all over it! If I were to guess, then this thing is only going to gain info a tiny fraction of a second into the future, but as I was just saying, every millisecond counts!

Let’s take this mutation three times and lock it in all the way to +15. Nice! I’m keen to see what that’s like.

Disorienting, probably. I’ll get used to it soon enough.

Related to my reaction speed, I should probably start mutating my nervous system. I went ahead and added a highly magical sub-neural network without even touching the original and now it’s kind of redundant. I wonder if there’s anything I can find here to help give my nervous system a bit of purpose. I end up taking a long time, crawling through the list of seemingly endless mutations filled with some truly weird options.

Electrified Nervous System? It works faster, but shocks you at the same time! Actually, Tiny would probably want that. Maybe it could work as an additional source of electricity for him?

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Liquid Nervous System? I mean… why? There has to be a reason, surely.

Ultimately, the nervous system’s job is to relay information to the brain. Doing it faster is… , I suppose. Then, intrigued by the option I’d found for the Sensory Processor, I go looking for a similar effect. Surely I wouldn’t be able to find the same thing…

Future Echo Nervous System.

Relays information a tiny fraction of a second before it’s received. .

Happily, I lock that in all the way to +15. What I’m most curious about is if the foresight stacks. Like, my antennae sense future vibrations, but now the nervous system should pick it up early, the Sensory Processor should pick it up even earlier than that. If so, I could be onto something pretty nifty.

A second before I confirm my mutations, I feel something, perhaps a warning from the future, and realise what I was about to do. Mutate? Here?! In front of all these ants?!

Never.

This chamber is so open, there are dozens of my siblings moving past constantly. They would see everything! That cannot be allowed to happen. I need an excuse, something intelligent and reasonable, something they wouldn’t think twice about.

Aha!

“I am going to cover myself in rock,” I declare loudly, “because I am cold!”

Perfect. Gweheheheh. They won’t suspect a thing.

I spin up some stone mana and create a nice solid dome covering me from every angle. Only when I’m sealed in and wrapped in darkness do I dare to confirm the mutations.

And then….

FAFFACKAWACK!

STUPID ITCH! Damn you Gandalf! Damn your beard and your gruff but reassuring tones!

Brain mutations are always the worst. How in the name of heck are you supposed to deal with having an itchy ?

When it’s finally over and I stop rolling and writhing on the ground, I’m pleased to see that I haven’t destroyed my temporary cover and exposed myself. Thrashing around, as strong as I am now, there was a decent chance I’d knock a hole in it. My dignity is preserved.

I use more mana to start taking the dome apart, dissolving the stone into dust, then compressing it back into a ball and rolling it off into a corner. There are perhaps a hundred ants watching me curiously by the time I’m done. Perhaps a little too curiously.

“I am no longer cold,” I announce to the group in a suave and non-suspicious manner.

Excellent.

Now to get back to training and seeing how my new mutations feel. Should feel a lot of power out of my sub-brains with all of them being mutated to +15. Indeed, I can already tell that they’re handling the Mind Mana much more smoothly than before, which makes my mind constructs operate better, and I can probably handle more of them now. Good stuff!

I take a step, and then feel entirely too wobbly for a second. My brains swim for a bit as I try to process the incredibly strange information being fed through my senses.

That felt .