"Your battle capabilities are worthy of praise," stated the Collector to the elites. "To engage an enemy that prior to your evolution would have reigned dominant over your kind and to defeat it in convincing manner allows me to understand the significant combative improvement you have made."

The Collector raised a fist towards them and clenched it. Spiral patterns of blue mana started to gather around its arm, charging it a pale blue shade.

Then, the injuries of the goblin swarm began to heal.

Goromir's shattered back and dismembered leg regenerated, the bones and alighting, new leg bones sprouting before flesh and nerves and skin padded it over.

Kandak's three mangled, burnt arms and hole in his stomach fully restored, the blackened and deadened flesh sloughing off to reveal newly grown biomass while the hole sealed over.

The rest of the injuries across the swarm were also healed, but none of them were significant to any degree.

"Yet," said the Collector. "It is imprudent to suffer such injuries in defense of a swarm that is also battle capable. Know that it is possible for me to expend magical energy to restore your injuries, no matter how severe they may be, but to bring you back from complete expiry will require that your corpse is preserved, and though this environment is apt for such preservation, there is no guarantee that I shall always be immediately available."

"We understand, Sovnar," said Goromir with a deep head bow, placing his fist over his heart. "We know well that it is not always possible for you to bring us back from the dead, but my brother and I thought it best to save the rest of the tribe with our strength, for their lives are our own also."

"Save the blood of Gob. That is what we train to do," said Kandak.

The goblin swarm champions gave respectful nods to the twin elites.

"But I wanted fight too!" came one shout among the champions.

"When you can knock me down once in a match, then we can talk of you fighting a beast like that!" said Goromir with a chuckle. "Come now, I know we have all faced death together before, but throwing away the life your Sovnar has granted you again so easily?

Your bravery is quite unmatched."

"Guess you right," said the champion. "But next time, I knock you down."

"Always welcome for the challenge," said Goromir.

The Collector clicked its mandibles in further understanding. It viewed the goblin swarm as a collection of units with the three elites being units of more worth that naturally should utilize the other champion units to defend themselves or as distractions.

In optimal, efficient usage, of course.

But because the swarm was a collection of individuals, and because the elites possessed their own codes of conduct and moral ideations, they would give their own lives before allowing the lesser units to expire before them.

Of course, this was not entirely inefficient. The Collector was beginning to understand the perspective of individuals and how they could possess a different form of efficiency. By defending the champions with their lives, the elites inculcated further loyalty and drive.

There would have been no need to do so in a hivemind, but the Collector understood that as a collection of individuals, they were attempting to approximate to the best of their capability the efficiency of a hive.

This was enough to sate the Collector, for it had made the choice to utilize the swarm knowing there could be inefficiencies here and there. So long as they were minimized in some way, it could accommodate.

"Carrier unit," said the Collector, noting the unit known as 'Thokk's' aversion to meeting the Collector directly. "Your injuries are not severe."

"I know, Sovnar, and I am sorry," said Thokk. He knelt down. "I tried to fight with Goromir and Kandak, but I was too weak. The beast nearly had me clutched in its jaws, and Kandak had to save me. My distraction let the beast charge its great breath, and so many other champions were burnt."

"That is of little consequence," stated the Collector. "There are no deaths and marginal injuries. Misplacing mental concern over issues of the past is also highly inefficient. Do not do so. Spend such processing power in future development to prevent potential inefficiencies."

"Come now," said Goromir as he came up to Thokk and raised him up from his kneeling position. "We have not trained you fully yet. Exhaust your potential, then you can cry about whether you are weak or not."

Goromir pointed a finger towards the whole swarm. "And that goes for all of you too. My brother and I will train all of you as we travel. Learn our ways, our flesh arts, and become strong. Show us you are worthy of the Blood of Gob. The rule of the Sovnar."

A general commotion of assent rose among the swarm, and the Collector clicked its mandibles as it noted this. "My flight speeds have already been calculated to adjust for two rests a day for your kind. One for sustenance, one for slumber. I shall extend such rest times for the induction of this concept known as 'training'."

The Collector itself had little idea of what training was like. It was born knowing how to fight, and its observational and processing skills were sharp enough to learn techniques and movements with utter ease. It understood that tinkerers utilized 'training' to approximate what the Collector did but over extended periods of time.

Highly inefficient, and yet, the Collector was willing to spend the time to allow the goblin swarm to cultivate their strength.

"But there is little time to squander now," said the Collector. "Draconid mobilization possesses the chance to indicate that they are searching for me. We shall take a longer route towards the Rift, crossing the mountain range through its eastern end where it will be farthest from draconid presences.

Our travel time will reach thirty-four hours if moving at eighty percent efficiency. Follow my presence from above and take wary note of your surroundings. Do not hesitate to output a distress signal in the case that stronger enemies manifest."

"Understood, Sovnar," said Goromir, and Kandak nodded.

Thokk, too nodded, putting his fist over his heart in learned salute. "I will not disappoint, Sovnar."

The Collector pushed off the ground, sending out a tremor of force as its white form of hyperalloy carapace shot into the air at rapid speeds, quickly forming a sonic boom that rippled outwards, scattering Grain. It flew high, but not so high that it was over the cloud cover so as to still benefit from the obscuring effects of Grainfall.

Then, the Collector oriented itself to its new trajectory, and began to move, its twin wings of chaos red flickering as they fueled its flight. As the Collector soared through empty airspace, it pondered the nature of the 'White Voice'.

The Collector knew by now that the 'White Voice' was a manifestation of the planet, but the nature of a genuine 'White Voice' was one full of uncertainties the Collector did not yet have information to glean.

Evidence pointed towards the shard of the 'White Voice' within the Collector right now as that which was genuine for it was the one the Jotnar worshipped. This, the Collector knew for the shard it possessed on its head was the same the Jotnar cherished.

Yet, if a shard alone necessitated a quality of authenticity, then the draconids were not far behind, for they too possessed a shard.

There was the possibility that there were multiple incarnations of the 'White Voice', and this, the Collector gave some credence too, for when it had heard the voice from the draconid before it was forcibly erupted, it could sense that the psionic profile of the voice was not entirely the same as that which it had experienced from absorbing its shard.

Similar in wavelength, but still variant. Variant enough to be distinctively separated into two different individuals.

The Collector would understand more of this when it reached the Jotnar. To that end, taking the eastward path was actually more efficient, for the slumbering place was located in a far eastern pocket of the Wailwaste.

The only issue was that the Grainfall became thinner the more east the Collector went. Grainfall was sourced from the western half of the Wailwaste, generated by the corpse of a titan that lay approximately in that location if wind currents and movements were to be accurately assessed.

The meteorological phenomenon known as the 'Great Storm' also contributed to the distribution of Grain, but it by now was located also in the western half of the Wailwaste.

This meant that for a few hours as they traveled east, the Collector and the swarm would be exposed without Grainfall, but they would quickly regain cover as they approached northward to the Rift.

For now, the Collector considered this an acceptable risk.