Alien Evolution System

Chapter 192 - Eljudnir

I see now," said the Collector as it clicked its mandibles. For the past thirty-two minutes, it had received information from the secondary carrier unit known as 'Thragg' that operated with the Conquering Force.

It was valuable information that gleaned the movements of the tinkerers below the Rift.

According to Thragg, the full subjugation of the Frostfish tribe had been completely successful. There had been no losses involved with the Conquering Force, and that was to be expected. In terms of calculating battle prowess, the Collector knew that the carrier unit and his fourteen champions were easily more than enough to completely overpower the goblin tribes provided they did not have any abnormalities to them.

The Collector did know that the newly subjugated goblins were incredibly weak. The Collector could uplift the smaller goblins into hobgoblins and likely a majority of hobgoblins into champions and further utilize the Breath of Life to empower them, but beyond this means, it had no ability to further evolve them.

This would change as the Collector continued to accumulate might and further experiment with its Higher Calling ability. In particular, when it reached the Facestealer specimen, it believed it could implement new adaptations that could ascend Higher Calling into a truly impressive ability capable of creating a competent force from weakling scraps.

Beyond the subjugation of the Frostfish tribe, however, was the more concerning news that Thragg had encountered adventurers.

The Collector had warned the carrier unit known as Thragg to shy away from any contact with tinkerers and to avoid them when possible, but it understood there was leeway to operate around this order. If tinkering presence came to the conquering force, for example, then there was no choice but to face them and exterminate them to prevent information about the conquering force from leaking.

Regarding this, the Collector was satisfied with Thragg's judgement, for though the carrier unit had taken unnecessary risk in actively engaging the adventurers, he had ensured that the adventurers were dealt with, properly killed with the exception of a single individual who, after some exposure to pain and manipulation by the elder's magic, had given information regarding the movement of tinkerers overall.

As the Collector had calculated, the undead adventurer it had left behind below the Rift had spiraled into a greater problem. It seemed that undead specimens projected a certain 'haze' around them that could infect beings with no primal density to fend themselves, turning them into undead.

The 'haze' dissipated when an undead specimen's core was destroyed but would inevitably condense and return over time provided the undead regenerated itself.

The Collector could easily decimate that undead adventurer over and over again, limiting his production of the aerial undead pathogen, but the same could not be said of ordinary tinkerers, the majority of which were likely to be weaker than the adventurer in the first place.

This caused the undead adventurer to a massive amount of creatures with no primal density and two villages worth of human tinkerers before the tinkering organizations known as the 'Adventurer's League' and 'Sorcerer's Order' had stepped in.

They had issued what was known as an 'Undead Alert' or 'Black Sign', rallying all nearby adventurers over five stars and sorcerers that were specialized in spells that created barriers and seals. An order of sorcerers known as the 'priestesses of the paths' were also heavily employed for they possessed the capacity to manipulate space to some degree, generating warp ways into sealing locations.

In addition, the loss of the dwarven fleet had been noted and attributed to the undead adventurer, causing another fleet to appear.

This massive, concerted effort against the rapidly spreading undead plague focused on the center of the land known as 'Fjall', vastly far from the Collector but concerningly close to the Frostfish tribe.

The tinkerers first eliminated undead specimens as well as they could without being infected themselves, sealing away creatures and individuals and corralling them towards a larger quarantine zone. The zone was square shaped and massive in scale, easily spanning over a hundred kilometers, and each side of the square was formed of a channeled barrier that required protection.

The Sorcerer's Order and Path Priestesses performed the channeling, and the Adventurer's League and dwarves provided the protection.

This granted the Collector great insight into the degree of forces these tinkering organizations could muster and how quickly they were able to do this. It calculated that should it perform any real large scale attack on tinkering civilization, it would have to respond to a coordinated response against it within the span of two days with increasingly larger threats mounting every day after that.

Surprisingly quick response time. Meant that the Collector would have to establish a vast amount of strength before even considering an attack.

In addition, the Collector obtained another important piece of information: the presence of a location known as 'Utgard'.

It was apparently called a 'Null Zone' wherein no magical energy flowed. A patch of land completely devoid of support from the world, barren of both life and mana. The area was normally closed off by the Sorcerer's Order to study, but it was now heavily defended to prevent undead specimen from intruding into it.

The null zone attracted undead naturally and in there, undead specimens could grow exponentially stronger and nigh untouchable to any tinkerer.

The nature of this zone was something the Collector was incredibly eager to experiment with itself, for any capacity to fully neutralize the magical flow of tinkerers would render the Collector unbeatable in combat against them, even against the gods that surely utilized vast amounts of mana to power themselves.

The Collector would obtain more information about this 'Utgard' location over time and determine whether in its inevitable attack it would be a location worth taking to study before engaging in a greater, full confrontation against the gods.

"What is the matter, Sovnar?" said Goromir.

"The conquering force has encountered adventurers but has eliminated them and remained unseen," said the Collector. "I have bid them to move westwards, away from further tinkering presence. There, they will assimilate the rest of the scattered goblin tribes and investigate the Facestealer specimen that is said to reside in the area."

"The Facestealer, you say?" said Kui. "Will mere goblins be enough to challenge it?" He crossed his arms and looked to the elites. "I do not mean to state you are weak, but the Facestealer is an Old God who has survived purges from the New Gods for over a thousand years.

Not much is known of its true might, but it is said to be easily on par with the Protectorate."

The Collector clicked its mandibles. The Protectorate was a collection of the twelve strongest gods, ones who had remained stable in their titles since the beginning of their history. This was in contrast with the Gatekeeper gods that seemed to rotate their titles every five hundred years.

This was secondary information that the female daemon specimen had imparted to the Collector that it had stored for later usage.

"Do you possess any significant information regarding the Facestealer specimen?" stated the Collector.

Kui shrugged. "As I have said, the Facestealer is a mystery beyond compare. All I know is that it resides in Eljudnir, the black mountain of spirits where it is said that the souls of the fallen manifest once more."

"No significant details exist of tinkerers that attempted to enter this territory?" said the Collector.

"There have been some forays into the area," said Kui. "They have ended with no returnees or adventurers that come back with no memory of what they perceived.

Not even the new gods dare to intrude upon the space, for the one time they did was the first time that a god of the Protectorate was slain, and they intend to keep that that the last time such an occurrence ever came to pass."

"Ah, I do remember. The death of a Protectorate member - one does not forget that so easily," said Goromir. "It was slightly before our age. There was tale of Samas, the god of wind, attempting to hunt down the Facestealer for he was known as a god that prided himself in slaying old gods and millennial beasts. 

Samas did not return from his hunt to Eljudnir, and none truly know what happened to him, merely that he met the same fate as countless others that wandered into its depths."

The Collector clicked its mandibles. Nobody seemed to possess any real, tangible information regarding this Facestealer specimen, and its threat to the Collector was only increasing over time as it heard more about it. 

"The Facestealer is of the blood of Gob, that is known," said Goromir. "An inheritor of one of Gob's shards as well, and one whose teachings were said to have created the magic that our Spellweavers use. 

But even in my age, the Facestealer was a mystery whose presence and whispers were known only among the highest of Spellweavers."