NOVEL NEXT Chapter 320: Vassals
The sun slowly peeked out of the horizon line, showing its shy brightness in little amounts.
It was a cold and beautiful morning, everything was cool, the breeze wasn't much and the sky was slowly brightening.
This looked like the kind of morning that would instantly lift the mood of all who woke up at this moment. This was the atmosphere that brought smiles to the faces of the thousands of creatures on the world of Eridoria.
This would have been the case if not that the air in a certain place was uncomfortably stiff and stale.
As the sun rose higher, a large three-meter-tall golden lion could be seen sitting casually in the center of a grassy field. The grass here was taller and most creatures could use it to hide, but the lion was just too big that the tall grasses looked like regular grass before him.
His clean pale golden fur swished lightly due to the wind. His dark gold mane kept on blowing to the side, giving him a regal and majestic appearance.
His head was raised high and his chest was puffed out, all done subconsciously. He wasn't even paying attention to the creatures that were looking at him. His ears twitched and his nose shifted, showing that he was aware of some things, but his beautiful, sharp golden eyes were focused on the semi-transparent screen before him.
Kael had been discussing with Chloe the whole night, and for a good reason. According to Chloe, she had successfully found the place where the Arkship should be.
The land where the trees have pink leaves. Well, they weren't leaves, just peach blossoms. But Isaiah's description had helped them identify what they were looking for.
Chloe and her explorers' team seemed to have found a peach valley, which was what the place could be described as.
Another thing was that the Origin Essence was very thick in this place. Chloe had felt it and she felt her powers growing slightly. She assumed that if she stayed there for longer, she would be able to evolve to the next level without having to go through the process that other creatures are going through.
Kael asked and discovered that the average creature at this Peach Valley was tier 3. She had not seen a single creature that had not yet awakened their hearts, all of them were super-powered creatures.
And best of all, she had also seen a tiger. Indeed, they were in the right place. Chloe had captured the tier 3 tiger with the help of the exploration group and the Combat magic shuttle.
They were currently interrogating the tiger and asking some questions that would lead them to the arkship and also give them knowledge on the kind of powers that would be guarding the place.
For now, Chloe couldn't advance without a clear plan. She and Kael discussed strategies to use to go about the issue, comparing ideas and using Chloe's knowledge on arkships to make preparations.
The Arkship was created for the lions to rule over and control. Although other creatures could be let in, they wouldn't have control over it, hence why the Arkship was still on this world and not being flown through space right now.
After hours of discussion, Kael decided that Chloe was to immediately set camp far away once she confirmed the Arkship's presence.
She would wait for Kael to come before anything could be done. In the meantime, exploring the Peach Valley and taking advantage of the excess Origin Essence would be beneficial to all of them.
Kael took in a deep breath, the air was sucked into his lungs. He closed his eyes, meditating. Since he woke up from that unconscious state caused by Ishat's memories, he hadn't slept at all.
He didn't feel sleepy or anything, he was just acknowledging how much his body had changed since his growth.
He opened his eyes, no longer were they calm. Now, they had malicious intent spilling out of the corners. The air became stiffer and more oppressive.
He exhaled, causing a strong gust of wind to flow out of his nose and divide the grass in front of him.
He ignored Exalon's last messages, checked on the mission boards, and confirmed that everything was going well.
After that, he willed the golden screen to fade away. His eyes refocused on the vast number of grass eaters in front of him.
From yesterday night to this morning, the herd had consciously moved away from Kael, creating more distance between them.
They had not left his line of sight at all, just moving by a few hundred meters. This was the disadvantage of this Super Mega Herd, their mobility was severely restricted. For all of them to move in a certain direction at the same time, it would take a lot of effort and cooperation.
The creatures at one end might be running from predators but the other creatures at the center might not want to move at all. Conflicting herd mentality made them insufficient for great mobility.
Kael's limbs moved, he stood up. His movement immediately alerted the onlookers from the horde. The horde creatures had spread out to cover a large area of land.
One spirit eagle spoke into the shared telepathic channel, alerting everyone to the king's movement. The King had remained still through the whole night, and it seemed he was waiting for something.
Some felt it was normal, this was a Super Mega Herd, brute force alone was not enough. They just assumed the king was thinking of a plan.
A lot of the creatures got excited, knowing that the king was finally moving. Finally, some action.
Kael had just stood up, but that simple action resulted in howls and roars from different areas of the grass field. The sounds of the predators stunned the herd members who had not heard anything since last night.
The sound of laughing hyenas which they had gotten used to was completely gone, replaced by these wolf howls and bear roars.
Another screen appeared in front of Kael, it was the Vassal Record. Since last night, the Vassal Record has been constantly updated.
Here were some new castes that were added. The Crocodile Caste, Hyena Caste, Giraffe Caste, Antelope Caste, Buffalo Caste, and Zebra Caste were added.
The Vassal Record was starting to look like a really diversified stock portfolio at the moment. This wasn't taking into account the other lions at different places and the Vassals they had.
Kael was just looking at his own personal profile and not the extended version that included the vassals of other pride leaders. Kael had intentionally given the other lions autonomy since their actions were somewhat predictable.
If he indeed took account of their vassals, then there would be a lot more castes to be added here.
Kael still had his own plans and vision for the Vassal Record and its use. He was far from done with it. Marcus's existence further solidified his ambitions with his vassals.
'...League of Primordials…' Kael played with the words in his mind before pushing them away.
More than two hundred and fifty thousand identity marks had been added to the Vassal Record in the span of yesterday night. Ninety-nine percent of which was coming from the Super Mega Herd.
Two hundred and fifty thousand plus, and the numbers were still increasing. Every second, one herd member was turning to the side of the golden lion, unaware of what they were about to fight for.
Kael was about to pull off the biggest scam ever. Tricking so many herbivores into fighting for a world where carnivores don't exist.
Of all his powers. Kael's spirit power was suffering the most. It was so strained and spread out that he only had enough for basic telepathic communication right now.
This was the first time that Kael was feeling anything close to a headache. His spirit energy had diluted among the chosen herd members, linking them in a pseudo-hive mind temporarily.
If not for other spirit-based herd members, Kael might not have been able to maintain a loose mental connection with so many creatures at the same time.
Even though he stood tall and had an imposing aura, his mind was groggy and he was finding it hard to maintain focus for more than ten seconds.
Priya, being extremely sensitive to spirit fluctuations, naturally knew of this. No one knew how much effort Kael was putting into this operation besides her.
Even Katari, who was somewhere, was oblivious to the pain Kael was putting himself in. The lengths lions would go to conquer something was astounding, talk less of a Primordial Lion.
"LION! SAVE US!"
The most outrageous phrase was uttered at this moment from the mind of a green-striped zebra at this point.
This phrase traveled into the spirit network and was heard by many herd members.
The indoctrination was so bad and so aggressive that the golden lion was now seen as a Messiah who would save the world from carnivorous creatures. Herbivores were never the brightest of creatures anyways.
It was now that Kael spoke into the spirit network, "I'm here…"