Chapter 27.South

Trgl's army had a unique dynamic, and that dynamic led to the surprising result of each member of the army forming a second will-core before I started building their avatars of intimidating Trgl and enfeebling Mgrt. What surprised me even more was that as soon as the bodies of the avatars were finished up to the waist, both Trgl and Mgrt recognized the other in their respective avatars and entered a similar heightened state of worship comparable to Angie in appreciation of their beloved being given such a prestigious representation.

I was also finally able to figure out the reason behind the formation of the second will-core. It was due to the acceptance of their broken pieces, or their genuine feeling of worship pointed toward me. Once they held me as the supreme entity that ruled their will-core with no resistance to my rule, they formed a second. Extrapolating from that, I could assume that entering the next phase of generating will from lesser worshippers was the next level of dependence upon the connection they had to me, an acceptance that the purpose of their lives was contingent on my existence. Using that as a principle, I could see Samantha slowly increasing her speed around my will-core. For her it wasn't as fast as it had been for Trgl, Mgrt, or Angie. She didn't get an epiphany, instead she was gradually sinking deeper into my influence.

Assuming I was right about the basis for the change in a worshipper's status was right, I could also see another two ranks for their worship to achieve; holding their existences as being contingent on my existence and actually having their will-cores be dependent on mine for their continued existence. The first would level out which will-core was their own and the last would leave the original will-core as being the broken shard of the actual origin of their selves that rotated around my will-core. It was possible that a further level existed that would fuse their will-core into mine, truly become a piece of me, but that was entirely speculative.

While I couldn't prove my hypothesis about worshipper tiers, I could see the distinct advantage having two will-cores served this army. I'd decided to give the same circuit to every will-core that orbited mine, seeing as how I held it to be the best will circuit and only the best could be truly useful to me no matter how powerful I became. Human experimentation was valuable, but that which could be called a part of myself deserved nothing less than perfection.

Due to the second will-core, and the ability to process that came with it, they leapt forward in their ability to construct circuits and implement them in their battles. I'd taught them all the circuitry I knew, excluding only those that could pose a danger to myself, so they had a vast wealth of knowledge to draw from when it came time to design their own combat circuits. This allowed me to see almost as many varieties of circuits being used as were commonly seen in Angie's army that was still the most magically proficient force. I would have said the gap was closing, but those that had formed a second will-core numbered over a hundred in Angie's army. Those that hadn't were clearly falling behind, but those that had were keeping their lead.

Another effect was the increased cost in mana to repair the bodies after every battle that the army had, especially since the enfeebling avatar allowed them to continue without sleep. Not only had the quantity of battles increased, but now the bodies were being more thoroughly destroyed. It also took more to repair damage that changed what the pieces were from their original state into something else. A good example was when more than just the hounds started implementing fire into their attacks. Now I didn't only need to bring their pieces back together but I also needed to repair the flesh from charred remains. I also needed to dig out the bits that got swallowed by earth-manipulating circuits and the distance some pieces managed to fly had increased greatly, but both of those expenditures were insignificant in comparison to repairing burn, corrosive, or obliterative damage.

I didn't mind, though. It allowed me to train myself in doing multiple things at once to constantly have to repair the bodies that were broken in the unending battlefield that was Trgl's army. They also taught me a lot about tactics as they learned it themselves. The price in mana wasn't significant enough to outweigh the benefits.

As soon as the next generation of offspring had slid free of the brood constructs, they were placed under the most dominant teams and pitted against each other. Goblin and hound offspring picked up physical combat very quickly, but the human offspring had a much steeper learning curve though they did seem to learn circuitry much faster. Due to my alterations to their feeding, they matured to normal humans with third class lord circuitry as fast as the goblin and hound offspring advanced to third class. As steep as their learning curve was, they managed to make progress faster than their predecessors did while the goblin and hound offspring learned at the same pace their predecessors did.

The difference was most pronounced in the formation of their second will-core. All of the offspring of Trgl's army had formed the second before they were adults, thought that wasn't unique to Trgl's army. Angie's army had similar results, though a few had to be adults for a day or two before they formed theirs. Samantha's and Grace's armies were the only ones that had more with a second will-core among their offspring than they had among the older generations. Both were by a very wide margin. A few in each force had started forming their second will-core once my avatars appeared over their heads, but the numbers were lower than the offspring.

It was pathetic, as the human brood constructs were still really small. They barely managed to make a hundred per army, only beating the horse and boar brood constructs, while the goblin, food goblin, and hound brood constructs each produced ten thousand, five thousand, and eight hundred respectively.

The army was also having trouble managing their resources. Leather was a different material to skin, so they couldn't use my skin construct for leather, though I tried. As a result, they had been forced to start skinning the fourth class ogres every once in a while to keep themselves clothed. The leather that was produced was much thicker and sturdier than the hobgoblin leather they'd received in Adrian, but now they were acutely aware of the price. Many teams chose to bite the bullet and fight naked to save their clothes, but many preferred the advantage of clothing and weapons even if it meant they had to provide the material for them from their backs. Surprisingly, many of the human-only teams chose to keep the advantage. This meant their leather was harvested from them as they had no fourth class ogres to skin, but they compensated by using many layers. It was a strange sight for the rest of the army to see them in their skinning circles as they flayed their comrades' backs as theirs were being flayed before waiting for the skin to grow back and do it again.

One team in particular didn't even treat their leather and instead did it for the psychological effect they could see on the faces of the other teams. They wore their own skin, still looking like skin, into battle as it flapped around. As a result, they were the Flappers to the rest of the army. Despite the lack of defense, they were among the top three teams in the army. I wasn't sure if it was due to an advantage I hadn't noticed in fighting with light and loose clothing that unnerved your enemy or the utterly brutal way they fought. Due to skinning themselves whenever they weren't in battle, their tolerance to pain was nearly limitless. In tandem, they were also progressing to be the first group that progressed together into the next level of worship. Once they did, I could see them moving up to the elites from this army. Trgl and Mgrt wouldn't be suppressed by the Flappers, but those in their team that had only consolidated their second core would.

The normal status of the army was broken as a horrifying roar tore through the air. It was so powerful I could feel a slight reaction from the air itself, as if sound could become something the air deigned to suppress.

Following the roar, I felt the first ripple of fear in the army since they'd conquered their fear of death. It was understandable. Two creatures existed in the world that provoked fear above all others for their unique ability to achieve seventh class; chickens and dragons. The screech had come from a chicken. A monster known to effortlessly eradicate entire cities by itself. One of the only two known creatures capable of attaining the seventh class. Walking calamities.

What I said next did nothing to alleviate their fear. "Don't fight to kill, this beast will be subdued." There were two reasons for this, one much more important than the other. First, I wanted to make sure this army was still under my control. Prisoners had value, and they needed to be capable of not killing a foe. The other, much more important, reason was that I doubted I'd be able to breed chickens. If I wanted a living chicken, I needed to tame one. I wanted one. I really, really wanted one. From what I could tell at this distance, it was a class seven creature. Just having access to this one monster would increase the power of the army by more than double. If, through my perfecting of their circuits, they became capable of being eighth class...I doubted there was a force in this world capable of restraining me after that point.