The champion, however, despite its wound, was not dead. Far from it. If all went well, it would be more alive than it ever had been.
The Collector activated the secondary ability of Higher Calling: the capacity to evolve goblin subspecies into higher variants of themselves. Those forcibly evolved could also be connected to the Collector's mana pool, regenerating infinitely so long as the Collector possessed the mana to sustain it.
However, there were several limitations to this ability. The higher the subspecies of goblin, the more difficult it was to force them to undergo evolution to their next subspecies variant.
It required that the specimen possess an innate magical and biological potential to come close to reaching that evolution by themselves, and the higher the evolution, the more potential was needed from the specimen.
Thus, it was easy to ascend a goblin into a hobgoblin for the gap was not incredibly large in terms of required potential.