Chapter 73: Spoils of War

The Collector stepped across the burning throne to the goblin lord's corpse. The once mighty and proud lord was on his knees, his figure hunched over as blood streamed from a hole in his heartless chest.

His crown fell from his head as he slumped over further, clattering onto the stone floor before stopping by the flame-wreathed throne.

The crown flickered and melted, the soft gold bubbling as it slowly oozed into a viscous liquid state. The crown, a symbol of authority vested unto the lord by his fellow tinkerers, and yet, at its base state, was it not no more than a mere decoration?

An accessory fashioned from minerals and alloys that held no inherent worth to it.

Something gaudy that purported hollow strength. Much like the lord himself.

The Collector clicked its mandibles as it began to tear the lord's corpse apart, devouring it.

>>>

*Biomass gained (+30)*

Biomass Level: 290/100

*Spirit roots consumed. Root consumption limited reached*

*Genetic material gained*

Stored Genetic Material:

-Black Ant

-Deer

-Black Hobgoblin

-Human

-Lesser Oni

-Frostborn Hobgoblin

-Horse

-Lesser Greatcentipede

-Lesser Greatbeetle

-Spitting Greatbeetle

-Leafblade Insect

-Frostborn Hobgoblin Thrall

-Vineswinger Goblin Champion [Core]

-Flametongue Salamander

-Windcutter Wildcat

-Shockstripe Eel

-Shaker Fish

-Firefly Shinchu

-Lurker

-Goblin Lord [Core] *NEW*

Mana Level: 120%>180%

*Metalloglottic ossifier samples obtained [MAX]*

--Lightstone

--Runewood

--Bone Binding Skull

--Volcanite

--Everfrost

--Threefold Iron [Scrapped]

--Ermine Robes [Scrapped]

>>>

The Collector also consumed with the goblin lord the ores and robes that it wore. The ore was called 'threefold iron', it seemed, and here, the Collector recognized a new functioning of its evolutionary system.

Beforehand, the evolutionary system had classified organic material into categories based on their general bodily structures, and through these, the Collector could sift through and recognize them.

However, it did not truly know what these creatures were called by the native denizens of this world.

After its sudden metamorphosis that developed its magical capabilities, the Collector could begin to understand the information in a context more relevant to this world, allowing it to know the names of whatever it devoured.

Curiously, this seemed to extend even to metal alloys, granting the Collector enough information to hypothesize that the iron ring-weave the lord wore operated on a tier system.

Now that the Collector had consumed the iron, it could initiate a more thorough analysis of the material. Its structure had been folded three times as its name would indicate, and each time, the shattered remnants of a mana crystal had been folded into the ore.

This granted the ore a durability far exceeding that of ordinary iron, though at the same time, simply imbuing the iron with raw mana did not change its inherent properties, it merely enhanced them.

It seemed that attempting to enhance those properties with ordinary living mana would yield not yield similar results.

In conclusion: the iron was largely useless to the Collector. It was significantly less durable than its carapace and far less useful in utility because at its base, it was simply iron.

The robes, too, had been comprised of ordinary fiber weave and red dye, only granted its fireproofing through an imbued magical spell that did not carry over into the properties of the fibers themselves.

In other words, the Collector could not utilize it, nor would it even if it could considering it already possessed the goblin champion's Blessing of Mount Oe. This provided a fireproofing ability far beyond the means of the robes.

Both samples, the Collector therefore purged from its ossifier, for the organ could only hold five samples within it for extended periods of time.

The fibers and metals broke down into base components that flowed into the Collector's bloodstream, dissolving out through its spiracles later.

With additional metamorphosis levels, the ossifier would increase its capacity, but this was the Collector's limit for now. It would have to cycle through the most useful samples to it.

All in all, a disappointing haul from the goblin lord's equipment, though certainly its biological and magical traits such as its core and abilities were of note worth.

The lord possessed an Inhera called Higher Calling that allowed it to control goblin kind with his voice and force their evolutionary growth with his touch, but this power was limited only to goblins.

The Collector did not deem the ability especially useful in a purely combat sense considering that the average power of the goblin species was so low.

Even should the Collector encounter an entire commune of goblins, empower them and bend them to its will, they would all be annihilated by an adventurer of four-stars and above. In extracting information from goblin specimen, however, this was quite useful.

The abilities were also notable in the fact that they were potentially the first set of abilities the Collector could assume that in some measure could mimic the larger scale manipulative adaptations of Infestor and Dominator Collector strains.

And not all the goblins were groveling weaklings.

First, the champion, and now, the elites-

The Collector looked to the side of the throne where the goblin lord's greatsword lay on the floor.

Its eyes analyzed the twin tusks protruding from its pommel.

The elites had been an exceptional challenge. One that the Collector had enjoyed to quite some degree. Theoretically, if there was a champion of enough strength and the Collector both bent it to its will and forced it to undergo evolution, an elite could be produced.

Though the chances of a champion specimen surviving such a process was low.

The Collector picked up the greatsword by the handle, and in its hands, it looked almost like a normal short sword.

The blade was comprised of a black metal that possessed a surface that seemed to constantly ripple like water.

Though the metal itself was not notably durable, the Collector could sense exceptional capacity for the metal to interact with magical energy.

'Wow...,' said the daemon as she floated down to the sword. She stepped to the ground and stopped herself from collapsing due to mounting exhaustion, rubbing her eyes with her hand. 'look at the surface. It looks like murky, black waters. No mistake about it: that's...that's Abyssium.

So called because it's mined from the depths of one of the world dungeons. The Abyss.

They say that in its murkiest depths, sanity grows just as thin as light and breath.

With it...all types of Dominus magic grow much stronger.'

The Collector clicked its mandibles in understanding as it finished analyzing the blade. This metal, this Abyssium, would do well as an ossifier sample. The Collector used its regrown monomolecular claws to scythe off a chunk of the blade and tossed it into its mouth.

>>>

*New metalloglottic ossifier sample obtained [MAX]*

--Lightstone [Scrapped]

--Runewood

--Bone Binding Skull

--Volcanite

--Everfrost

--Abyssium

>>>

It then beheld the tusks again.

This magical energy signature, it was familiar with.

The tusks were bone binding constructs. However, they were of a capacity and quality that drastically exceeded what the hobgoblin thrall's core was capable of.

Even the Collector could never hope to reach the level of bone binding utilized to create these tusks, for the Collector could make the processes it took from consumed species more efficient, more varied, but it could not truly increase their natural limits by significant margins.

Where the thrall's bone binding allowed the storage of one spell into a bone, the bone binding that went into this tusk allowed for an entire living being to be stored within it.

'This sword...it's old. Very old. It would be considered a rare treasure today,' said the daemon with a nod, appraising the blade. 'And...and it's soulbound, probably to that big goblin lord.

I...I am surprised you can even hold the sword without it just...breaking apart.'

The Collector clicked its mandibles. "I have consumed the goblin specimen that declared itself a 'lord'. In doing so, I have assimilated its psionic signature and genetic material.

These alone should be sufficient to bypass most biological encryption factors.'

'Hm...it's...it's very strange,' said the daemon as she cocked her head. 'Almost...almost like you have his soul in you. No...no, that's not possible. No living being can ever have more than one soul in them.'

"The boundaries of limitations that you set upon the backwards organisms of this world do not apply to me," said the Collector as it raised the greatsword to its eyes. It could sense that by flowing in magical energy to the blade, it could activate the tusks.

The Collector clicked its mandibles. Though the Collector possessed a shard of the goblin lord's essence within it, enough to have the dungeon recognize it as a 'boss' to heal its wounds, this connection was incomplete.

The Collector could not interface with the dungeon to see through it or manipulate it. Likely, it would have to slot in the lord's core or perhaps even go further and take its form for that.

This would extend also to the greatsword and the tusks. The elites within the tusks obeyed the lord, but would they obey the Collector?