The Collector snaked through the tall, grassy and muddy undergrowth as a speeding blur of red and white.

Several tree trunks tinted red in its aura zipped past it in its speed, and it snaked around a tree trunk nearest to the first hobgoblin as its sensitive hairs picked up the target's location.

Dirt, branches, and leaves rushed up in clouds dragged up by the Collector's speed as it swerved around the wide trunk, taking the hobgoblin's blind side.

The hobgoblin did not even have a chance to react and look at the Collector before a white-carapaced fist slammed into its chest and burst through its back in an impact of shattering bone and crushed flesh.

The Collector raised its fist up, tearing the upper half of the hobgoblin's body in half. The hobgoblin corpse knelt to the ground, the two halves of its torn head falling to its sides.

Several normal goblin jumped back in surprise, yelping in fright and falling onto their behinds in the dirt as they gazed up at the towering, armored and horned form of the Collector.

The Collector paid these unworthy foes no heed as it sensed the next hobgoblin to slaughter.

Then, the unexpected occurred.

Unlike the first hobgoblin, this one continued to fight even with half its body torn in half. Its burly arms tried to reach out to the Collector, but the Collector was ready.

It did not register surprise that slowed it down, after all.

Instead, it caught the hobgoblin's arms in its fists and then with a jerking motion back, tore them completely out of their sockets, arcs of blood spraying in the air and splattering on the goblins below as they shrieked and ran.

The Collector clicked its mandibles in analysis as it noted the aberrant hobgoblin.

Much like the first one it had devoured, this one seemed to also be a new variant of some kind.

Black in color with red eyes on either half of its split head. Masses of wriggling tendrils on its back.

Magical energy emanating from the tendrils. A veil of black aura.

Rustling.

The next hobgoblin in the formation nearing.

The Collector calculated its approach. It was to appear in a space between two trees directly in front of the Collector.

The Collector took one of the dismembered hobgoblin arms in its hand and powered its arm with mana, surging it with chaotic red.

Then, it hurled the arm straight at the clearing, and the moment the next hobgoblin's head poked in to survey the situation, the thrown arm crashed into its skull like a missile, splattering both limb and head into explosions of flesh and bone.

Again, this hobgoblin was anomalous, continuing to move even with its head split apart like a burst watermelon.

The headless specimen stepped forwards, on a shaky leg at first, then regained its balance, entering into a full on charge against the Collector

It would seem to eliminate these variants of hobgoblin, the Collector would have to consume them.

Or perhaps there was an alternative.

The Collector unsheathed the bugbrute proboscis in its right arm.

The curved, sleek black spike slid forwards from a gap in the Collector's white forearm carapace. This spike was fragile, unsuited for combat usage as a blade, but with an easy to read target like this–

The Collector slammed the proboscis straight into the aberrant hobgoblin's chest, injecting the bugbrute's toxin in mass quantities flowing throughout the specimen.

Even without a head, the magical compound could still affect movement in corpses with severely damaged neural centers, and yet, the Collector could still perceive the specimen wrapping its arms around the Collector's own, trying to prey free with futile effort.

The Collector clicked its mandibles before it sensed the female daemon's approach. It did not look back at her, instead using its sensitive hairs to locate her.

She seemed to float in the air at an elevation of one meter, and as she neared, the various scattered movements of the goblins slowed, then stopped to a halt as their bodies were ground to pulps like flesh put under a hydraulic press.

"This 'Sapia' of yours," said the Collector. "I wish to utilize it to control this specimen. Yet, it requires me to utilize to your trigger. 'Wonder', it is.

How is it that you perceive this emotion to a strong degree?"

'It…it's hard to explain in just words. Ah…may I?' The daemon floated behind the Collector, purple outlining her figure, and the end of her ponytail, the spike called the 'thel' that acted as the focus point for Sapia, extended outwards. 'If I connect to your thel, I can share that emotion with you. Once you know it once, you can remember it.'

"You are tired. Your mana does not seem to flow through you in significant quantities. Your power is still severely stunted. Unable to damage me," said the Collector, assessing the risks of allowing her a little measure of access to its psionic network. "Very well. As you do so, inform me of your regenerative capabilities. Is this also an ability inherent to this 'Sapia'?"

'No, it's…from you. Came from touching the cocoon. I…don't know what it is. Healing magic is so hard to come by. And something that can clear away the Helian Brand is…unheard of.' She reached out her thel, and it gently hovered up to the Collector's own.

The two spikes of black, wiry mass shook for a moment before the Collector felt it.

Wonder.

Immediately, the Collector clicked its mandibles and writhed, sending the daemon ducking and shrinking away. This was an emotion it was unable to feel, it knew this instinctively. Its programming should never have allowed it.

It knew curiosity, yes. It even knew surprise in limited degree when the goblin champion had exceeded its expectations, surprise that later morphed into admiration.

But this emotion, though it had the same base, was far different in intensity.

It did not know how to process this emotion. Where to direct it. It stared at the beheaded hobgoblin specimen still impaled in front of it, still trying to wriggle free.

Did this thing, this lowly vermin, deserve this emotion…this wonder?

No. The Collector knew this instinctively even if it had never felt this emotion. It did not know how to deal with this emotion, and it did not wish to now when time was a sensitive resource.

Like putting a match to a fire and then blowing it out, the Collector used the warmth of this emotion to open its Daemon core and then suppressed it as much as it could, focusing instead on the battle before it, on the desire that it was far more familiar with.

'I'm…I'm sorry about that. I didn't know-, I'm sorr-' began the daemon as she tentatively neared the Collector.

'Apologies are a waste of mental resources. You have provided me with the catalyst to open this core of yours. That is sufficient.

Answer me this now: this 'Trigger' for magic, does it require consistent activation?" said the Collector.

The daemon shook her head. 'No. Not unless your core is forcefully shutdown, sealed, or damaged.'

'Agreeable. Then you will have no more need to intrude into my psionic network again, nor shall I allow it,' said the Collector.

'O-okay, I'm, I'm sor-,' The daemon stopped herself, shaking her head as she remembered the Collector's words.

With the Daemon core open, the Collector felt the breadth of its powers, this 'Sapia', flow through its body. Tinges of purple flickered in its aura of red, and its two main lavender eyes began to glow bright.

The Collector clicked its mandibles. As it had theorized, this power was quite similar to psionics.

Utilization of the psionic network, the 'mind' as tinkerers tended to generalize it, to affect tangible phenomena upon matter or manipulate the workings of other psionic profiles.

As the system had said before, the creation of a personal shield. Manipulation of the personal body to assist in wing-based flight and general enhanced movement. Exerting holding, pushing, and pulling force upon matter.

All of these, the Collector was familiar with.

Even possessed to some degree in its original form, though its psionic energy was largely invested into shielding and resistance to weapons that manipulated the fabrics of space and time.

Regardless, the operation of this 'Sapia' would also be like second nature to it.

The Collector willed the thel attached to its largest dreadlock of fibrous hair to point towards the hobgoblin specimen. It projected an attempt to weaken any mental defenses inherent within the creature, and found that access to its psionic profile was denied.

'I see now,' said the daemon as she hovered around the still struggling hobgoblin body, nodding at it. She hovered a hand over the wriggling black tendrils on the corpse's back.

Though the tendrils appeared like flesh, they were not solid, comprised of magical energy as they were.

'There is…there is something controlling this. Sapia is strong, very strong, almost the strongest Dominus type magic– magic meant to affect the mind-, but...'

She touched a hand to her chin. 'Hmm. Whoever is controlling this must have conditions on their power. Or they are very powerful.' She looked back to the Collector. "But…I wouldn't worry. About them taking your mind.

You are even stronger. Your mind…it is invincible. I think maybe not even the gods can do anything to it."

"Very strong, is this creature's psionic capabiltiy?" said the Collector. "Then I welcome their efforts to attempt an infiltration of my psionic profile.

Severed from the greater Collective I may be, there is still enough latent defense from the shard within me that any psionic assault this world may muster possesses high probability to fail."

The Collector said this, but as it felt desire for the battle grow within itself, it thought perhaps it would be a shame for a specimen, a strong one in particular, to waste itself breaking its mind upon processing power that was not entirely the Collector's own.

The Collector clicked its mandibles, driving away those thoughts also. Heretical. The shard was part of itself, one of the fundamental pieces of its psionic profile that gave it purpose.

Must focus on the extermination at hand. Must make it efficient.

The Collector withdrew the proboscis from the hobgoblin, and it faltered back several steps.

Notably, blood did not trickle from the sizable puncture wound for the bugbrute's toxins possessed hemostasis-inducing properties.

Before the walking corpse could respond, however, the Collector was upon it, tearing it from limb to limb and devouring it.

>>>

*Biomass gained (+3)*

Biomass Level: 16/100

*Spirit roots gained (+5)*

Root Consumption Limit: 60/100

>>>

The Collector would find another specimen to test the bugbrute venom on.

For now, it calculated that with the aid of its Sapia to control the venom's flow, the toxin could allow a corpse to move in complex, automated patterns capable of assisting in combat.

However, having the corpse retain consciousness would be difficult.

Sapia, or the least the type generated from the female daemon's replicated core was not specialized for controlling so much as taking.

It was meant to destroy minds, not control them. It sensed that there were potential Daemon variants that were potentially more specialized towards control, but these, it would have to encounter and devour later.

For now, the Collector would collect more battle data and fine tune its capabilities.