Dragon Lion's Neighbors

The Overmind's idea had little practical significance.

The night passed in a hurry.

As the morning sun slowly rose, scattered green lights blossomed across the Creep.

The once-level Creep sprouted several hundred towering, lush trees again. They had transformed from the surviving high-level Root Vine Monsters.

The light released by the Stump Monster near the pool even outshone the sunlight on the horizon for a time.

Thick roots burrowed deep underground, then rapidly turned upward, stretching straight toward the sky and branching into slender twigs, forming enormous trees.

In just a few minutes, the Stump Monster single-handedly expanded a small forest.

Of course, the roots beneath this forest were interconnected. In truth, they were merely "one" tree.

At the center of the forest stood a colossal tree at least fifty meters tall, its trunk as thick as a pagoda.

At the Overmind's command, two Bait Birds descended from the sky. Sure enough, like the strange trees in the core region of the Creep, the giant tree had a huge hollow near its base. Within it, a heart made of roots and vines beat powerfully.

Pathogenic spores were scattered, and the Hyper-Evolutionary Virus swiftly pulled it into the Zerg faction. It became a unit whose life and death were controlled by the Overmind.

A faint green glow pulsed along with the tree's heart, spreading through the forest like an antenna for four or five kilometers in every direction—far wider than the strange tree beside the Overmind.

That meant Zerg structures such as Hatcheries could be established in that area in the future.

From an environmental perspective, that place was also better than the "Dragon's Rise Land" where the Overmind currently resided. It had mountains, water, and forests...

Hmm. Time to move!

Since it had no need for food, rest, travel, or anything of the sort, the Overmind had no luggage to pack. After thinking for a moment, it turned and said, "Agatha, the Dragon Lion is strong. Have it help move my sofa later."

After all, it had watched it grow bit by bit. It had become attached to it... That really did not sound like it was describing a sofa.

A few days later, another Venom Devourer successfully hatched some distance from the pool, and the central node of the Creep neural network was rebuilt. This territory where the Dragon Lion had lived for hundreds of years was completely brought under the Overmind's control.

The Overmind rather liked this method of expansion: kill a magical beast that had lived for hundreds or thousands of years; read its memories to obtain intelligence on the surrounding environment; then have Bait Birds scatter Creep and expand it there within a day.

It was efficient and safe. Most importantly, the Dragon Lion's mind contained information on several nearby magical beasts. Perhaps it could meet the conditions for establishing a Hatchery within a week.

The Overmind pressed a hand against the Dragon Lion's head. The nearest neighbors around the Dragon Lion's territory were... a few rocks?

Two days later.

Eighty kilometers outside the Creep zone.

The Dragon Lion was fighting two monsters over four meters tall, shaped much like gorillas but covered in a heavy layer of rock.

Perhaps "toying with them" would have been more accurate.

Both monsters possessed soul strength close to Level Six. Working together, they might have been able to trade blows with the uninfected Dragon Lion before its dragon transformation.

But after the Dragon Lion underwent dragon transformation, Zerg transformation, and merged with Agatha, its strength had increased by far more than tenfold.

If the Overmind had not deliberately wanted Agatha to become more familiar with the strength of her current body, the battle would have ended long ago.

In fact, a monster corpse already lay nearby, its stones shattered and its spine broken. When the Dragon Lion dove in for a surprise attack, it had failed to control its strength and accidentally killed it.

At that moment, the Overmind was possessing an Arrow Gull, directing Bait Birds to drip Creep onto the dead monster. It wanted to see if it could be saved. If it had been dead too long, the information in its brain would be gone.

The Creep droplets carried by more than a hundred Bait Birds were completely emptied. The monster's mouth, nose, and wounds had all been soaked in Creep as fungal threads spread through its body.

The Overmind controlled the bird's claws to tap on the monster's rocky outer shell, a strange expression appearing on its face.

Although it seemed to contain a kind of extraordinary energy that increased hardness, this stuff... was genuinely stone. It was not a mimic shell.

The monster's skin secretions had adhered the rocks to its body, somewhat like barnacles and certain shellfish on Earth.

This method of adhesion was peculiar. It was even more secure than the way Zerg structures clung to rock layers. Once the Evolution Chamber was built, the relevant genes could be uploaded.

Still, while this adhesion method was efficient for building units, it was rather foolish for freely moving creatures. The protection provided by stone was usually not proportional to its weight. If the monsters themselves did not possess extraordinary strength, they would have been crushed so thoroughly they could not move.

The Overmind suspected this mechanism had not originally evolved for combat.

After all, when the Bait Birds found these Rockhide Monsters, two of the three had been hibernating deep inside piles of stones, wrapped airtight in massive rocks. That was why the Overmind had not sent Bait Birds with meat, but had sent the Dragon Lion instead.

Thump—thump—

A heartbeat suddenly jolted twice, then began pulsing rhythmically. This thing had come back to life.

The Arrow Gull's eyes immediately dimmed. Meanwhile, the Dragon Lion in the distance suddenly froze. Using it as a stepping stone, the Overmind invaded the revived monster's mind.

The passage of immense psionic energy made the Dragon Lion blank out for a moment. The two Rockhide Monsters facing it immediately swung their arms, smashing the winter-melon-sized stones attached to the backs of their claws into the Dragon Lion's face and sending it flying.

However, that fierce blow caused no real damage to the Dragon Lion. With a flap of the dragon wings fused to Agatha's forelimbs on its back, it steadied itself in midair and charged the monsters once more.

The Overmind had also used that burst of power to pull the revived monster into the Hive Mind and began browsing its memories.

The Overmind first examined its memories from around the time of its birth.

Fortunately, unlike the Dragon Lion, this monster was not the descendant of some super creature, nor was its species as promiscuous as dragons. Its mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother had all been Rockhide Monsters.

However, perhaps because it was not very intelligent to begin with, or perhaps because death had rendered its brain tissue inactive, its inherited memories were unclear and could not even form complete images.

Combined with their habit of prolonged hibernation, the information in their memories was far less complete than the Dragon Lion's.

Still, there were three monsters. Putting their memories together should probably provide enough information about the surrounding area... Hmm!

The Overmind's focus sharpened.

Driven by psionic energy, a crucial image was highlighted from countless fragments of memory.

A throwing spear made of flint, sticks, and vines appeared before the Overmind.

Traces of civilization!

The Overmind immediately became alert. Were they the creatures that had knocked the Dragon Lion unconscious and driven it here?

No, that did not seem likely. The arrows that struck the Dragon Lion had been far more refined than throwing spears.

More memories were uncovered.

Soon, the Overmind saw the owners of the throwing spears—a group of crazed, naked little green people with bulging eyes, large ears, and enormous noses...

Could these be... Master Yoda?

No. Master Yoda did not have such a large nose, and the nature of that extraordinary power it had named "soul" was unlike the Force.

The Overmind found nothing more of value in the Rockhide Monster's memories. Still, seeing as this world had "treants," it first gave these little green people the name "Goblins."

Controlling the Rockhide Monster to prop itself up, the Overmind watched the battle in the distance through its glowing red eyes. Perhaps the other two monsters knew more.

"End the battle, Agatha."

At the Overmind's command, the Dragon Lion lowered its head. A thorn shot from the point where its body joined with Agatha's, piercing straight through the Rockhide Monster's shoulder without resistance...