Transformation and a New Subsystem

Dozens of days later, Benjamin stopped working.

The vast arrays around him slowly dimmed, and the lights spilling from the Nest faded with them.

He took two steps back and nodded with satisfaction at the enormous creature before him.

After all that work, the transformation was finally complete.

The Nest looked much the same as before: still a mass of translucent gel, still faintly blue, like a giant slime.

But Benjamin knew its insides were entirely different.

He called up a light screen and reviewed the new data, sorting through the thinking behind the transformation.

First came the question of its role.

Benjamin had originally designed the Nest as a biological warship that could serve as both an arms factory and a combat unit.

But the Automatic Factory in his Internal Grotto-Heaven could now take over production entirely. Keeping that function would only blur the Nest's purpose.

So Benjamin removed it and made the Nest a dedicated aquatic combat unit.

That meant its combat methods needed serious improvement.

Benjamin had prepared for this long ago.

On a battlefield during the coordinated war, he had once saved a Level 5 Wizard from his own Workshop.

The wizard specialized in Water Element laws. In gratitude, he had given Benjamin the complete fruits of his years of research: the Water Elemental Shaping and Energy Compression Technique.

It was a Level 5 Wizard's core technology, after all. Combined with methods Benjamin already knew, it was enough to bring the Nest's underwater combat ability to an impressive level.

Benjamin marked that section of the technical records "complete" and read on.

Next came the heart of this transformation: time technology.

The Nest already had some ability to manipulate time. Derived from Snow Monster biotechnology, it could slow nearby enemies while speeding up its own movements.

Benjamin