My new empire is looking good. It took them a few months of hard work to build all their primitive residences but they have enough food and their training and culture is going nicely. Every single one of my current faithful is a great force by themselves.
The children and citizens have stopped growing in strength by themselves besides training, but I'm satisfied with how they are currently. Kumo kept teaching all of them the basics of magic now that they can all use it, and they become even stronger when they morph into their bestial forms. Some of them are even intermixing creating strong hybrid believers where they take some of the bestial traits from any of the parents.
Right now I'm walking around trying to find some new beasts so I can morph them into monsters to temper my faithful.
After walking and looking at the local beasts that have been constantly evolving from the mana infused land after I blessed it but none of them really scream we will become a smaller monster empire.
I finally decided on a group of lizards. They look like slightly larger monitor lizards that are apparently called Varanus lizards. These lizards live in communities of 15 to 30 and have a level cap of 5 after living here for a while.
I evolved 5 random groups I found to a level limit of 12 as a species. They look like lizard men in some of the game I've seen. They all had a mostly dark green coloration, sometimes they had light green spots around they bodies. One of them was different and was black with red streaks. I'm guessing this is a variant or a mutation.
All my experimentation has led me to believe that variants can naturally raise they levels above their species level cap. The species level cap is kind of the limit a normal member of a species can reach. Going beyond this is the difference between a successful scientist and Isaac newton. They can go beyond their other contemporaries in their area of expertise.
This is to say the limit isn't a hard limit but simply an indicator of how strong they are expected to become while training. It is true they can go way beyond it but it is extremely unlikely and they would be an outlier.
I will call these new lizard people the Varanus Scales. Their stat sheet looks like this:
Name: No name
Magic: 100%
Race: Varanus Scales
Stamina: 100%
Existence level: 4
Level Cap: 12
With the new monsters roaming around they should develop nicely and start fighting my empire for resources as both our numbers and their numbers grow.
This way after they fight they will be better prepared for warfare, if the other deities of this world start trying to kill me with their giant armies.
I imprinted the knowledge of basic metalworking and weapon crafting to the lizards so they can have some decent equipment when they fight. These lizards will also become another deterrent to other kingdoms if they try to encroach near my territory.
After all after they fight their battle they will be forced to disperse further away from my mountain range giving us more time to prepare if someone comes and giving us a "barrier" from them. They were influenced to be warlike so any stranger would face their ferocity.
I saw how they hunted and I must say I am quite pleased with their viciousness. They went for a bighorn mountain goat. This is a mountain goat half the size of a cow that tries to impale hunters with their large sideways facing horns that are stronger than most stones.
I saw how 3 of the rushed the bighorn. One rushed at it directly from the front and stopped its head from moving with his immense strength. Which is much harder that you might think, if they were on earth I think they would have the strength of an adult hippo.
While the first one held it the other two bit the underbelly tearing chunks of flesh and letting the innards fall into the ground. This tough beast was disemboweled in seconds by these savage monsters. I love it! They'll work well. Hunting in these areas has become much more dangerous since I empowered the area with mana.
Both the flora and fauna have become stronger being able to naturally absorb the mana in their environment to strengthen themselves. They become stronger, tougher and more cunning.
The most interesting thing about this situation is that after constant natural evolution from the species around they stop just absorbing mana and start to have the same concentration of mana in their bodies that the lands has. This way the state of the ecosystem becomes permanent and I don't have to occasionally replenish the areas mana.
------ Algar POV ------
It has been about a year since I got saved at the brink of death by one of the scouting patrols the military expedition left in order to scout the winkling threat. I've spent my time mostly recovering from my wounds. I had multiple fractures and torn muscles. It's a miracle there was an apprentice paladin in the scouting party that could heal me from the most serious of my injuries.
I spent the entire reward I got from the mission on new weapons and priest fees to heal me up to the best condition possible. After all there are still wanklings left to kill. There are still wanklings I have to kill.
The second expedition will be under way soon. After the winkling campaign there have been too many changes to the forest. Hunters have seen the beasts grow stronger and tougher. The further in they go. The mages tower has announced that there is an area deep inside the forest where a mana source emerged. The problem this time is it was too far for them to harvest therefore a rouge mana source will infuse the wildlife with mana and strengthen them.
This could give rise to monster waves in the future but it is simply too far from civilization for us to do anything about it. Our supply lines do not reach this far so an expedition there is impossible.
At the very least we can investigate a little. Either way we will kill all the wanklings in the way so it doesn't matter to me. I walk out of the inn I've been staying at for the past few months grabbing my equipment on the way out.
"Hey, Luke!" I call out to one of the soldier trainees I see as I walk out.
"Yes sir, how can I help you?" he looks a bit nervous. Well most recruits are nervous around me after I became locally famous from my deeds during the expedition.
"Listen; tell the captain I'm ready for the new expedition now. Come back and tell me when we leave. I asked last week but the priests were not ready to leave back then. I want to go bash some of those grey fucks as soon as I can." He ran away after I finished speaking. He's the same age as me, but our lives are completely different.
Oh how I wish I could go back before the fame when my life revolved around my family and Shelby.
I haven't seen her since we separated in Obern church last time.
I miss you so much Shelby but I'm broken after what I've seen… what I've done.
I hope she lives well though she deserves it more than anyone I know.
------ Random Cultist POV------
"My lord the soldiers are patrolling the edges of the forest more recently. The power of the magic source must be great, if we can harvest it for the great ritual we may be able to summon the lord of destruction after great sacrifice and tear the false idols from their thrones to give rise to the true gods of ancient." The voice of a middle aged man announces in an abandoned shack near the forest.
"We must move decisively now. The army will be slow. We can perform the ritual and show them the true power of the forgotten gods."