"Fifth core?"
"Yes, last time I failed because of a lack of mana stones."
"Master, do you need more mana stones?"
"I have had enough now." Hilda couldn't help but sigh in her heart, thinking how many stones she needed to make the fourth core.
For the third one, she needed two stones. Understandably, she thought five stones would be enough to create the fourth core.
It failed.
The more cores she had created, the stronger the attraction force of the central core had become. By the time she had inscribed a little over half of the beginner inheritance circle, the tree had absorbed the rest of the mana in her central core.
In the end, she needed eight stones to create the fourth core. By that logic, she would need 32 stones this time. Just to be safe, she had gathered almost 50 stones.
If it hadn't been for the sudden invasion of the humans, she would have already tried to create the final core.
The entire forest was littered with broken tents, pottery, and dead bodies. There was human armor and weapons, too. The goblins and kobolds could use these weapons, but it wasn't the thing she was looking for.
After going through every tent, Hilda only found eight mana stones. They all came from the two tents out of a hundred she had looked into.
"If only the human could create a core inside them…Sigh." Hilda waved her paw, and a root came out of the ground, holding a fur pouch. This was the place where Hilda had hidden her mana stones.
"58. It must be enough." Hilda counted again before she went to fill her belly. By the time she had filled her belly, Scar and his troops had returned.
While they feasted on the meat, Hilda concentrated on the mana stones before her. There was no way she could swallow all this stone, nor did she need to.
She spread the stones on the ground and sat on them. She concentrated as her consciousness returned to the only subspace without a core.
Different types of mana are poured into the subspace. The problem was the mana was dissipating at the same rate it was filling up.
The desperate situation had made Hilda proficient in using four aura needles simultaneously.
Fortunately, by the time Hilda completed inscribing the inheritance circle, the mana hadn't stopped penetrating the subspace.
The core formed, and the mana actually filled up the core. Moving to the central core, she found the tree had another growth sprout.
It was almost five meters tall.
Although the top didn't spread like the one Hilda had enlightenment inside, it was still enormous.
[Hilda
Age: 2/34
Race: Gnoll
Grade: Violet
Level: 23 (7.91/22)
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Virtue:
Sin:
Condition:
Strength: 29.9
Dexterity: 36.2
Constitution: 45.8
Intelligence: 100
Wisdom: 100
Charm: 21.1
Free point: 6
Element: Earth/Water/Arbor/*****
Skill: [Fortitude]. [*****]. [Bite]. [Claw]. [Night Vision]. [Dominance]. [Mana perception (Violet)]. [Ancient language knowledge (21.1%)]. [Breathe of Bodhi]. [Tangle]. [Vine Armor]. [Floral Limb(II)]. [Light Healing (III)]. [Herding]. [Bloom(I)]. [Domain].
Creating a core doesn't directly boost the amount of mana Hilda could contain in her body. However, it did increase the rate of mana recovery.
[Breathe of Bodhi
Type: Passive
** Recover 25% of MP every hour.
** Recover 10% of HP every hour.
** Recover 10% of SP every hour.
** [Domain]
** ?????]
"Wow!" Hilda couldn't help but be slightly surprised by the increment in her skill. "Although it didn't activate the last option, to increase the mana recovery…"
When she created the third core, it increased by 5%. For the fourth, it increased by 3%. So, she thought it was reaching its limit.
"To recover one-fourth of the mana…" Hilda didn't expect it to have such great results.
By the time Hilda returned to her body, the sun was already in the middle of the sky.
After she came out of the tent, Mia was the first person she noticed. Her twins and Shelly were also there.
Looking at the vine wrapped around her waist, Hilda was sure Wani had brought her here.
Shelly was the only human magician she could find. Hilda had already made up her mind to take her in. To her surprise, Shelly actually accepted her proposal.
Hilda wanted to mark her and inscribe on her heart as soon as possible. Wani didn't let her.
According to her, those who Hilda had mated with could gain some strength, unlike the one she had enslaved with a mana circle.
However, the problem was that she didn't get to spend time with her. After constantly attacking the goblins and the kobolds and being accompanied by unwanted human attackers, she didn't get the chance.
"Master, a couple of wolf-riding scouts returned," Wani reported as soon as she had noticed that Hilda had come out of the tent.
Although Hilda and her group had already cleared the goblins and kobold nest around the area, Hilda couldn't help but feel the pressure. The area around this part of the desolated land had too many enemies, especially after the war.
Hilda had to constantly scout the area around this place to prepare before any enemy attack. It was also how she prepared the trap before the humans had attacked with such a significant force.
However, compared to the short teams of scouts, she even sent goblin and kobold mages, who had slightly higher intelligence, to scout the area more than two days away.
"How many of them have returned?"
"Three of them," Wani reported. "One of them found nothing useful besides a couple of small tribes. One of them found a small orc settlement about three days away from here. And the last one found a human settlement."
"Human settlement?" That was the news Hilda was waiting for. "How far away?"
"It was about five days from here." Wani paused, asking, "Should I call the mage?"
"Do it." As soon as Hilda ordered, Wani left. It wasn't that Hilda was craving human meat. As a matter of fact, her intention is totally opposite.
Hilda had noticed that the chance of survival after being inscribed the enslavement circle on their heart was related to the intelligence of the victim.
Although the goblins and kobolds are physically stronger, the intelligence of the humans is much higher than that of those beasts. Being a human herself, she did not doubt it.
Hilda was sure that the chance of survival for humans would be much higher than that of beasts. However, that wasn't why Hilda had been looking for humans.
All the humans under her were female, while the goblins and kobolds, no matter how intelligent, couldn't move through the human territory without being attacked.
So, the only people she could send into the human territory to gain information about the next human attack were humans. Wani soon retunred with a kobold mage. It was afraid of looking at Hilda directly.
"How many humans are there?"
"Many."
"Huh!"
The mage quickly spread his arms wide, adding, "A lot."
Looking at the kobold who couldn't count, Hilda could only sigh. "Do you know how to count?"
Wani wanted to say yes, but she understood lying would not be the correct thing to do. Instead, Wani quickly turned towards Shelly, asking, "Do you know how to count?"
Shelly stole a glance at Hilda's before nodding. Wani joyously informed, "She can. She can teach them after master would mate her tonight."
Although Hilda didn't hate the idea, she felt that Wani was more excited about it than her. Hilda could understand Wani wanted to prove that mating with Hilda would give them some skill on top of their obedience to Hilda.
She felt it was the effect of the [*****] but was still surprised when Wani awakened the skill [Shadow Cloack]. But the best thing about Wani was that she would act as her assistant, and surprisingly, she was quick to catch Hilda's intentions.
"Let them rest today and tomorrow. We will leave the day after tomorrow. We will hit the orc settlement before going to the humans." Hilda paused, adding, "Warn them; do not kill anyone until I say so."
************
"Stop." All four soldiers pointed their spears at the four horsemen, yelling, Identify yourselves."
"Show your respect. You are in the presence of the fifth prince of the empire of Gunder, Your Majesty Thomas Gundur." As Guntur introduced him, Thomas took off his helmet.
"Your majesty." All four of them saluted at the same time. As he waved his hand, they moved away, letting Thomas and others enter the camp.
Unlike the other makeshift camps, this one is well made and is a logistic point for all the troops penetrating the desolated land.
It had a ten-foot-tall wooden fence around the camp with watchtowers and a moat around the wall.
However, Thomas's horse fell down before they could reach the stable. They didn't stop until they reached the camp because the beast might attack them from behind. It was running for almost 20 hours straight.
All the horses were foaming from their mouths, but Thomas' horse had the worst. As soon as it fell, blood started to leak out of its nostrils and mouth. All its muscles were twitching uncontrollably. Before anyone could do anything, it passed away.
"It has served well." Thomas didn't spare a second glance at it before leading the way, "We have a far more important situation in our hands."
The rest of them followed them to the main quarter of the commander of the expeditionary force. The guard shouted to inform those inside the quarter about his presence before letting him enter.
'Damn it.' Thomas couldn't help but curse in his heart as soon as he saw Troy sitting in the room. 'That is the last person I want to learn about the situation.'
Troy was his elder brother. Although they were almost the same age, Troy was the fourth prince of the empire.
However, when their eyes met, Thomas felt something wrong with Troy's expression.
"Your majesty…" Arthur called, attracting Thomas' attention.
It was the commander of the expeditionary force, Arthur Hendric. He is one of the dukes of the Gundur empire.
Thomas took the seat he was shown before explaining from beginning to end. After hearing the entire story, a deep frown appeared on his face.
"It looks like the situation is much worse than we thought."
"Worse?"
"An armored troop of gnomes also ambushed Prince Troy's troops."
"Gnomes? This far outside in the desolated land? Is this because of the war?"
"That is one of the reasons. More importantly, it was the result of the incident that had triggered the war in the first place."
"What?"
"The four omens, the council of witches, and the warlords control the central desolated land. However, the church has killed a witch and a warlord. The witch is not the problem, but the warlord of the mountain troll caused the problem."
"After the warlord's death, the troll again fragmented into tribes. The central region is in chaos as they fight to find the next chief. As a result, most of the beasts are forced out of the original habitat, so…"
"I have seen a mountain troll…" Thomas thought momentarily, adding, "But I don't think it was the leader."
"It could be a mage from a beastkin tribe." That was the only plausible explanation Arthur could think of. "To control such a large area with mana, it has to be someone with an enormous amount of mana."
"The gnoll?"
"Although gnolls are strong, they aren't known for their intellect." Arthur paused, adding, "I think your highness had made the right choice. Staying there would have been detrimental to Your Highness."
"What should we do then?"
"I have already instructed numerous contingents to return. Instead of numerous 500-man squads, we will split the army into three 2000-man squads. Although it might take longer, we could decrease the loss this way."