Who could tell how many bodies scattered through the forest, there was no end to them. I seemed to even be developing a crick in my back from bending over and grabbing so many dead goblins by the end of it though. Considering I didn't feel fatigue, that came as a bit of a surprise. Hopefully it was only psychosomatic, I hadn't seen any chiropractors in Derriad.

Not the only one enjoying the fields of death, goblins feasted everywhere. With the battle over, they dropped their weapons to the side to tear into fallen friends and foes. On these grounds the mess made couldn't really be seen amidst the already omnipresent carnage, however the fact the goblins wasted so much food irked me.

Like very hungry caterpillars the goblins moved from corpse to corpse. Maybe the reason why you keep eating is because you're only taking a few bites out of each thing! Sit down and eat your food, too wasteful! Too wasteful! Maybe if you all ate your livers and bones you could grow up strong like tKlor’t’t.

Well I had no interest in becoming a goblin dietician, so I minded my own business.

Somewhat at least. As the Khtraal ate, I took interest in the way they seemed to pack away so much mass into their tiny bellies. I doubted I could eat as much as they did, even if goblin meat looked more appealing. Actually, I could just fix the problem of sight, smell, and taste with ...there were already a bunch of chikans for me to eat, so that was just a hypothetical.

Eating slowly brought about changes, though they were minute. Eating the dead slightly strengthened the magic potential within them and seemingly stifled their wounds. The goblins weren’t exactly rejuvenating on the spot, but dark blood coagulated and they became more energetic. It seemed that cannibalism wasn’t just a way to help sustain the enormous population.

However thinking back on it, it wouldn’t just be their fallen enemies. Khtraal let me take away chikan as they weren’t quality food; I thought it had been in reference to taste or nutrition. While I suppose being strengthened by food could count as nutritional, I had been thinking more along the lines of they wouldn’t be able to survive off of chikan for long. Instead, goblins could gain energy from anything they ate. tKlor’t’t mentioned wanting Yhrack because it was closer to populations of certain animals, and while he explained he received benefits from eating him, I hadn’t realized they were so permanent. His gluttonous self was not a special case, it applied to every single goblin.

Isn’t that a bit dangerous? If all they have to do is eat to become stronger to the level of tKlor’t’t, even if there is an unnecessarily high turnover rate in the population, even a low chance would produce many in such a large population. Once becoming stronger, they would be less likely to be killed, and eventually their strength would snowball away. While I could deal with Kugu and the long-necked goblin rather easily, my abilities were a bit abnormal. The humans of this world could be stronger than me and still be overwhelmed, a lot of my success depended on being able to exploit the nature of my skills. Not to mention, tKlor’t’t and his spawn looked stronger than other members of their generation, with the exception of Vamp, who also happened to feast eternally.

Then again, goblins never seemed to emerge from the forest. While the walls of Glaucen would undoubtedly be impenetrable to their kin, it shouldn’t be hard for them to sweep across the farmlands for a hearty meal. Well, I hadn’t gotten a direct look at any humans other than myself, so perhaps they contained less energy. A curious matter to look into before leaving; there may have been no precedent, but there was a first time for everything.

My allies ate as I swept up the battlefield, deciding to use when my mana topped off to help clean up the area. Though it sounds useless, it was the bottom of the blood magic spell tree; there was the possibility that practicing the spell would give me insights into spells further down the line were I ever to acquire them. After a while of this, there were noises of the army regrouping in the distance. As those around me began moving off through the trees in one direction, the next phase of the battle had come.

Time to run back north.

In order to maximize his benefits, tKlor’t’t altered Khtraal’s plan slightly. Originally, the tKlor’t’t elites and several warg riders were meant to harass and slow the approaching army to the east. Serving as a crumple zone to break their momentum, the already weakened tKlor’t’t would be even worse off. Instead, the plan would now have his forces bait the enemy in a more northern direction to between Yhrack and where Kugu’s forces had been engaged.

There, I would be able to engage them with my undead; again putting a large portion of the battle on my own efforts. Why tKlor’t’t valued the combat potential of my forces so highly I didn’t know, but the prediction was accurate enough in the last battle. The majority of his warg riders being wounded, we would be reinforced by elites; the goal to grind them down before the actual march on Yhrack, while concentrating the bloodshed in one area.

Apparently losing troops in the area would reinforce the potential of a nest. While tKlor’t’t still found it wasteful, such a result could be more readily accepted.

On my way back up north, I summoned up a measly five more zombies, I had enough Inventory temporarily ferry them while running, and Clavi could keep up with me to create more space. Every little bit would help, last time my troops had been seemingly invulnerable, but there was no point getting complacent. There’s no such thing as too much power after all.

Rallying them all up, I immediately ordered us to start heading east. The sun was already beginning to set, or rather, that was to be expected after fighting for so many hours. Wrapping a few skeletons up in old rags that had been cleaned, they looked quite ominous, but the real reason was to pad their bones and provide a comfortable ride to the next battlefront. I mentally rested atop a swaying litter of the dead, although I suppose it was more like a hammock. It wasn’t totally relaxing, as I had to coordinate some rather complex movements to make it work, but overall being carried by your legions of the damned is a refreshing experience.

Dusk fully fell, but since they were relegated to serfdom at the moment, my army didn’t seem particularly imposing, even in the night. Activating and to supplement my slightly weakened vision let me detect a small group at 100 meters distance. Hesitantly approaching, I readied my army for action, but didn’t get up from the sedan.

The group of three came into view, their facial features revealed them to be tKlor’t’t’s men. Suffering from minor injuries, they more or less remained in shape. As such, once noticing the details of the horde, they did an excellent job of leaping backwards. Calming down slightly, one stepped forward to ‘speak’.

“Yhu Whrait.”

Croaking, it seemed only one of them knew any Derrish at all, and had only been instilled with a few keywords. Repeating it several times, the three then ran off. Sighing, it was a good thing that tKlor’t’t told me of the plan beforehand or else I would have no idea what was going on. Then again, that could have already been taken into account. Well, nothing to be done about it either way. I ordered the undead to form up. I also made sure to patch them up with Negative Energy while waiting, and went ahead and imbued them if my mana capped out.

I made some interesting observations while doing so in regards to their mana composition. Not only were their webs of mana potential connected with themselves, but with my own mana as well. Both part, and not a part of myself; it likely had to do with the fact that their souls were mere artifices I had created, though since I didn’t know the essential factors of a soul, I couldn’t state they were qualitatively different outright.

As for during the process of imbuement, I noticed that while the mana from within myself actually seemed to grow, yet slightly dilute, the cloudy essence I thought represented their mana.

It seemed that whatever I was looking at did not mean mana in a literal sense. Ayyayai, can I get a game guide or a wiki here? Everything is just so interrelated, I have no idea where I want to start.

Taking the hand spiders out to play while I waited, Hans’ ‘mana’ potential overshadowed that of his fellows several fold. Further examining it, I had him wrestle with the others, and he was far and away the most domineering of them in strength and agility.

“*Hans, you’re a good boy, but I’m trying to relax here. Do you really have to bring up another mystery for me to investigate? My schedule is already full you know.*” Hans sank, his palms dragging in the dirt as he sulked around. I quickly scooped him up. “*Hey little buddy, you aren’t even supposed to have emotions; if you get depressed, think about how bad that makes me look. You don’t even have eyes, what do I do if you start to cry?*”

I fed Hans some energy to soothe him, and stroked his back. Was I going to have to hire a psychologist for my undead? This was pretty much the weirdest thing ever. Though Hans did look adorably sad; at least, as close as an undead creature made of hands could get to being adorably sad, which is closer than one expects.

Luckily, it wasn’t long before warg riders and elites gradually began finding their way to my position. Vamp and Khthju approached with the groups that ended up following them, pillars of strength naturally drew others to them; even Vamp who was given a wide berth.

“Form up. Ghojtroik and Zhargorb close. Slow move south.”

“I went over the plan the same time you did.” I grumbled.

Alright man, get a hold of yourself. Be more energetic, get pumped, you can’t just wander around listlessly like this! Look, exciting fields of corpses are just waiting to be sown throughout the forest!

Haaa~, the moon’s already out, self. We’ve been doing this for almost twelve hours and still haven’t been challenged. A few levels have made all the difference in this zone, we’re untouchable now. Well, we’re still corporeal, but damage dealt is negligible, and despite the linear growth the power levels here were too low.

Complaining to myself, the enemy approached and the minions moved forward to engage. The impact of endless goblins wore out a few minutes into the last battle, it certainly wasn’t stirring my blood up again. You can only watch waves crash on rocks for so many times before it grows dull, sure it might be a majestic sight, but it doesn’t rock emotions on a primal level.

Certainly, attention needed to be paid to the front lines. These goblins were larger and stronger than their Kugu cousins. Zombies crumpled in several places during the initial strike, and some skeletons even lost their arms as they struck through the formation.

In the end, weaklings are weaklings.

No matter how much stronger than those that came at us earlier in the day, they remained average. The warg riders and elites operated close to the undead encirclement, carving a path of destruction before returning to rest their mortal constitutions. Only the elites on the side of Ghojtroik and Zhargorb posed any threat to the defensive line, and I barely needed to flick my Fear Aura their way; not that I didn’t partake in the bloodshed, they were some of the few that I would actually be able to get experience from.

Impenetrable. Indomitable. Those aptly described my unholy legions.

They did not, however, aptly describe my goblin allies.

Vamp tirelessly continued in excellent form; the others, not so much. Tongues lolling past a jagged maw, wargs began to flag, unable to cool themselves, and exhausted from tanking so many hits. There were no signs of damage, but after accumulating an infinite number of even the lightest of strikes, their muscles showed signs of quivering. tKlor’t’t elites suffered from a thousand cuts, trying to take moments to feast in safety to recover before setting out again.

Contributing a non-negligible portion of the kills, doing without them would not have been a bad idea. I thought tKlor’t’t had merely been overestimating the undead, but it was my vision that was faulty. It had been too long since I earnestly played games not dependent on a stamina system, I had far underestimated just how destructive the undead could be.

Despite their fragile mortal coil, the tKlor’t’t warriors sprung out into the face of death time and time again, dedicated to their cause. I felt relieved I didn’t actually have to keep them all alive, but giving them refuge within meant we somehow evaded all casualties.

Balling around our small force, they were beaten off as we slowly, but steadily worked our way south towards Yhrack once more.