The Collector finished transferring the gic codes and then withdrew its tendrils. They hovered around the Collector, awaiting an additional subject, for the Collector could create three drones.


    Thrag''s cocoon fully sealed, the triple colors of the mana swirling around him crystallizing and sealing his shadowy, barely visible figure within. It would take an hour for the specimen to build into his new form.


    "I grant power now to a select few," said the Collector. "Ascendant power that shifts the form much as I am capable of. I possess the capability to ascend two more specimen."


    The Collector chose.


    "The specimens known as ''Goromir'' and ''Kandak'' shalle forth," said the Collector.


    "Why!?" said Thokk as he broke from his kneeling stance and rose up in surprise. "Why not me?"


    "You possess immense potential that has not yet been fully realized," said the Collector. It had fully analyzed the battle between the carrier unit ''Thokk'' and the new elite ''Goromir'' ande to the realization that the carrier unit possessed an exceptional amount of inherent potential.


    Potential as that being defined by both capacity to grow in martial prowess and inherent biological capacity to take in more evolutions. All living specimen it seemed possessed a set amount of strength to which they were capable of rising towards, with this limit set upon birth by gics which also determined magical capability.


    However, the capacity to evolve into a different specimen was a different type of potential all together. It required the flesh to be particrly malleable to change by modifications such as Higher Calling, and among all the goblins, the carrier unit ''Thokk'' possessed a form that was most receptive to change.


    The carrier unit alone among the goblins had been able to truly ascend into elitehood with a simple push from Higher Calling. The specimen known as ''Thrag'' that would now lead the split conquering force required bing the boss of a dungeon, a status that greatly stimted evolutionary growth, to sustain such an ascension.


    This potential manifested elsewhere as well. As evidenced by the carrier unit being an exceptionally quick learner inbat. His knowledge was multiple degrees below that possessed by the twin elite units, but his potential to surpass them was incredibly high.


    "Because you possess this potential, you shall remain with your current form," said the Collector. "For once I graft foreign gic codes into a specimen, their capacity to shift their forms bes increasingly difficult, their biological capacity to hold gic ''data'' bing increasingly overloaded.


    Wasting your gic data capacity on simple samples that I hold within me now will be a waste. Until you have tempered your body to its true limits and until I have devoured sufficiently exceptional samples to share, you will remain as you are."


    "But-but I will be weak," said Thokk. "I lost to Goromir because I am not strong enough." He looked down at his pale hands. "I am just a goblin. If I can be something more, I can be stronger."


    "''Just'' a goblin?" Goromir came behind Thokk and pped his back in a friendly, rousing gesture. "Do not disrespect the blood of Gob like that! Come on, young one, the Sovnar has recognized your potential, and I too respect it.


    We will journey together, you, my brother, and I, and we shall teach you all there is to the martial prowess of the Gob elite.


    Learn and devote yourself to the way of the flesh, and you shall be strong."


    "You sure? I can be strong?" Thokk looked expectantly up to Goromir, and Goromir nodded with a smile that raised his tusk of ice up.


    "Of course. But do not expect our training to be easy. Kandak, especially, holds little kindness in his heart," said Goromir.


    "You nder me, brother," said Kandak. "I was trained with pain. Thus, with pain do I train others. It is simply the best way."


    Goromir gestured back at Kandak with a thumb. "See what I mean? And besides, young one, the Sovnar has made his will known. You will not oppose it, will you?"


    "No." Goromir nodded resolutely.


    "Oppose my will when you deem it fit to do so," said the Collector, and the goblins turned to him in surprise. "I do not possess a sufficiently developed sense of ego-based pride to believe mymands and information to be absolute.


    One of the primary purposes of allowing a swarm such as this to operate independently, besides eliminating the burden of mana cost, is that as drones invested with independent function, you may possess or gain knowledge that may contradict mymands.


    In such times, it is imperative that you transfer such knowledge to me such that I may adjust my calctions and ns ordingly."


    "Your generous will is known, Sovnar," said Goromir as he put his fist over his heart.


    "Agreeable," said the Collector. "Now approach me, the twin elites known as ''Goromir'' and ''Kandak''."


    The twin elites came forwards and knelt before the Collector.


    The Collector assessed the individual capabilities of either goblin, taking note of their builds and personalities as they knelt side by side before it.


    Goromir was built lean and of moderate height for an elite, standing a full head shorter than the carrier unit known as ''Thokk'' who possessed great size, almost reaching to the Collector''s own three meter height.


    This granted Goromir a far more lithe and agile build, and he expressed it greatly in his showcasing of the martial art ''Gobeira''. Speed and striking – these were the elite''s specialties. If the elite had wanted, during his duel with the carrier unit, he could have used the de-like ice crystal formations jutting from his elbows and knees for even more lethal strikes, but had held back doing so.


    His twin brother Kandak, on the other hand, was as bulky as the carrier unit Thokk.


    Kandak''s body was riddled with discolored flesh shaped by scars, and these now manifested almost like stripes of grey upon his snow-white body, lining the curvature of his rippling muscles. In contrast, Goromir possessed far fewer longstanding battle wounds.


    Indicated that Kandak preferred a far more direct mode ofbat that involved taking greater damage. Likely that the martial art known as ''Gobeira'' had some variation that suited a build like Kandak''s better.


    The Collector selected the gic samples it would transfer.


    It stepped forward first to Goromir, and in preparation, the elite bared his chest, uncovering his hand from his heart.


    "I will make use of this new form you bless me with," said Goromir. "Truly, O Sovnar, you are the chosen of Gob, capable of blessing and shifting our flesh like this so."


    The Collector clicked its mandibles as it mmed its hand into Goromir''s chest, injecting Higher Calling energy into the elite''s heart. In hearing of the history of the goblins from the elites, it knew also that the ''Sovnar'', or one who possessed a shard once held by the titan Gob, possessed a boosted Higher Calling that could alter goblin flesh, not only ascending them, but changing their physical structures to make them more adapted for different biomes.


    One of the reasons the twin elites recognized the Collector to such high degree was that it seemed to possess this type of Higher Calling, though the elites confused the Collector''s innate evolutionary capabilities with it.


    Regardless, the inference was that the proper shard of Gob might allow for the Collector''s Higher Calling to vastly be enhanced, though this was a consideration forter.


    For now, the Collector stepped back and watched as a cocoon of blue, green, and red swirled around Goromir, encasing him in a crystalline structure of triple lights.


    The Collector stabbed its three tendrils into the crystal and pierced them into Goromir''s body, into his head, heart, and stomach. It began transferring gic sample codes.


    For Goromir, the Collector shifted the samples for the Windcutter Wildcat and Lurker.


    The Windcutter Wildcat was an exceptionally agile feline specimen that possessed ws and des that could generate shing winds, and they could also swirl winds around them or gather natural wind currents to rapidly elerate their movements.


    The Lurker would grant Goromir another dimension of movement, allowing for subterranean ambushes and quick assassinations of which Goromir was familiar with.


    Goromir had spoken some of his past. He was not only a frontline fighter but also a reconnaissance unit, observing others from stealth and knowing how to utilize weapons to quickly sh in and out, killing without being seen.


    He had even boasted of slitting the throat of a Godblood, a specimen possessed with blood from the entities known as ''gods'', though whether this was simply fabrication or a confirmation that divine blood alone did not necessitate great strength was uncertain.


    Overall, with the gic codes of these two samples, the Collector estimated Goromir''s directbat capability to rise by 80% with its utility rising even further.


    The Collector withdrew its tendrils and bid Kandak forwards.


    "I take your blessing, Sovnar," said Kandak, his voice more gruff and his words fewer than his brother.


    The Collector cut its hand into Kandak''s chest and infused Higher Calling into his heart as well. When the mana cocoon formed around Kandak, the Collector injected its tendrils into the elite and chose the appropriate samples.


    The Collector would grant Kandak the Grizzled Stormbear and Assassin Bugbrute samples. Both of these specimens were extremely durable,rge, and powerful creatures that relied upon their natural bulk, armoring, and sheer physical strength to beat down their prey.


    Kandak was also less prone to talk and crueler than Goromir, and would utilize the Bugbrute''s venom and corpse armor more effectively as well.


    Thus, Kandak would be significantly morebat capable than Goromir in a direct confrontation, but wouldck in utility.


    However, considering Kandak''s battle scars and his history as one who charged into battlefields with reckless abandon, ignoring any pain and pushing forwards, the Collector found it apt to appropriate the elite into a role he was familiar with.


    In any altercation, the Collector would utilize Kandak as a unit to soak damage and attention.


    This would be the two elites that would apany the Collector as its current personal guard. With these samples added to them, they were significantly more powerful than the four-star adventurer.


    The Collector''s own personal ''Kingsguard'' as the elites would have put it.