BAMN: Chapter 79/81

Chapter 79: Soaring Magicules

"In that case, just have them be mindful."

"Maintain their forms in the village to avoid causing damage."

"It has already been arranged."

These matters didn't require Rin's concern. Snow Empress had already taken care of them.

Rin actually had little to say. Anything he could think of, Snow Empress and Violet surely could too.

He didn't need to worry about management.

What he truly needed to consider was how to use this vast amount of magicules.

"Snow Empress, notify everyone. I'm going to name them."

Out of 3 million magicules, excluding the 100,000 to maintain Violet and 990,000 for Rin's own strength, the remaining 2 million was purely surplus.

Without breaking through to S-rank and awakening as a True Demon Lord, the magicules could not undergo a qualitative change.

Especially this portion of magicules. If it wasn't spent quickly, Violet's daily magicules recovery would be impossible.

Failure to recover meant waste, a losing endeavor.

Even with 3 million magicules, Rin still couldn't forget the 200,000 magicules he received every half month.

'Invest! I must invest heavily!!'

2 million magicules, when used for naming, was equivalent to 4 million.

Once again, thanks to Violet's 50% discount, Rin's assets effectively doubled.

Snow Empress left, leaving only Shuna to accompany Rin.

As for Violet, she preferred to stay in Rin's soul, quietly observing everything around her.

Additionally, Violet would connect with the World Core from time to time.

She needed to investigate intelligence on the Cardinal World and monitor any forces that might threaten Rin.

"Rin-sama, what are you planning to do?"

Shuna helped Rin get dressed, then asked the question on her mind.

"Naming."

"Huh?"

Shuna was startled, then reacted, immediately showing an incredulous expression. "You, are you perhaps going to...?"

"I plan to make everyone a named monster."

"This!!"

Shuna was incredibly shocked by Rin's decision. "But if you do that, it will consume a lot of your magicules, then..."

"Don't worry, Shuna."

Rin lightly patted the girl's head and said calmly, "My Leader has evolved into Convergence and can add a monster race to become my familiar."

"And what I've chosen is the Ogre."

Once the Ogre was chosen as a familiar, Rin could obtain 30% of the magicules from the Ogres, excluding his existing familiars like Shuna and Benimaru.

Compared to the previous 15%, it directly doubled.

"However, to develop the Ogre into a familiar, they must first become namers."

This was crucial, and it was also why Rin intended to name everyone.

"What about the Goblin?"

"The interesting part is right here."

Rin smiled. "The Goblin is a monster race that evolved from fire spirits after they degenerated into fairies."

"Coincidentally, so is the Ogre Clan."

"In other words, the Goblin and the Ogre Clan can actually be considered the same race."

"Ah, this..."

Shuna wanted to say that the Goblin couldn't possibly be a distant relative of the Ogre Clan.

But this was Rin's judgment, so it must be correct.

"Of course, if it were just the Goblin, my Convergence wouldn't be able to integrate them with the Ogre Clan into one race."

"But!"

Rin said, "The Hobgoblin is different."

Hobgoblin are C-rank monsters, while the Ogre Clan are B-rank.

There was exactly one rank difference.

In the original work, Gobwa evolved from the weakest Goblin into a Goblina (female Hobgoblin), then a member of the Ogre Clan, then a Kijin.

This clearly illustrated one point: there was a clear evolutionary path from Goblin to Ogre.

Rin had asked Violet, and she had given an affirmative answer.

"As long as all Goblin evolve into Hobgoblin."

"I can incorporate this branch into the Ogre race," Rin said. "Then, they will all become my familiars!"

Rin had 3 familiar slots.

The Ogre was Rin's strongest follower at the moment.

Deepening their relationship with him would only bring benefits, no drawbacks.

"So, this time you're naming them, not only won't you lose out, but you might even make a huge profit?"

Shuna and other familiars were Rin's most trusted confidantes, the kind who would never betray him.

However, secrets like the Convergence's ability to gain magicules, Shuna would not reveal to others.

This wasn't deception, but rather the unpredictability of a monarch's grace and might.

"The Goblin race has over 8,000 members. Calculating at an average of 300 magicules, they would need at least 2,700 magicules to evolve into C-rank Hobgoblin."

Shuna: "This is not a small sum."

8000 x 2700, a total of 21.6 million magicules.

Even with Violet's 50% discount, it was still a massive expenditure of 10.8 million magicules.

This was an extraordinary amount, one that Rin simply couldn't afford.

But!

Rin could first name the Ogre Clan.

"If we are named first, there are currently about 250 members of the Ogre Clan who have not yet received names."

250 people, with an average of 6,000 magicules.

To evolve, they would need 4,000 magicules, which would be 1 million.

After halving, it would only require 500,000.

This wasn't much. Rin could fully afford it all at once.

Then, the 270 Ogres with over 10,000 magicules, because they were familiars, could provide Rin with 30% of their magicules.

This would amount to 8.1 million magicules.

Adding the 1.5 million Rin already had, that would be 9.6 million.

9.6 million magicules, when used for naming, could be considered double, so 0.4 would be 19.2 million.

Rin didn't need to name all 8,000 Goblin at once.

He could completely choose to name 4,000 Goblin first, and then, after they became Hobgoblin, incorporate them into the familiar system.

"Accurate magicules expenditure and income have been calculated."

Violet's voice echoed in Rin and Shuna's minds. "Naming the Ogre consumes 500,000 true magicules and can yield 8.1 million true magicules."

"Naming the Goblin requires an expenditure of 10.8 million true magicules and can yield 7.2 million true magicules."

"After calculation, the final net magicules gain is 4 million!"

...

A net income of 4 million magicules, plus Rin's existing 3 million, would make it 7 million.

Rin's total magicules not only didn't decrease but more than doubled.

(To be continued.)

Chapter 80: Fearless Lizardmen

"Uh..."

Looking at the calculated results, Shuna was stunned.

What was going on?

Naming monsters not only didn't consume anything but actually made them stronger?

"As expected of Rin-sama!"

What else could Shuna say?

"Cough!"

"In any case, it's definitely a good thing that everyone can become stronger."

"Mhm, mhm, mhm!"

Shuna nodded repeatedly, while also beginning to imagine the scene of the village's strength greatly increasing.

Two hundred seventy Ogres, excluding underage children, could field at least 200 active combatants.

The Ogres did not have the weakness of females.

They were all soldiers.

If it weren't for the consideration that sending children to battle was somewhat inappropriate, everyone could fight for Rin.

Then there were 8,000 Hobgoblins. Forming an army of 5,000 was effortlessly easy.

5,000 soldiers, 200 elites.

Then, pairing male and female Starfang Wolves to form Starfang Wolf Riders.

In this way, an army of monsters close to 6,000 strong, consisting of elite troops, cavalry, and regular soldiers, was formed.

Soon, Snow Empress and Shuna completed the summoning of everyone.

And upon learning that Rin had called them over to name everyone, the monsters immediately erupted in deafening cheers and praises.

Without needing to say anything more, Rin was already accustomed to the monsters' purity and genuine outpouring of emotion.

"Everyone, line up in an orderly fashion, one by one, no rush."

Rin sat at the head, in front of a long line of monsters eagerly awaiting their master's naming.

Naming approximately 8,500 monsters at once was definitely a huge undertaking.

It wasn't that the process of consuming magicules would cause Rin discomfort.

On this point alone, Rin was actually already accustomed to it.

What truly troubled Rin was what kind of names he should give the monsters.

"Um..."

Rin: "You, your name is ...."

"As for you, from the Red Ogre tribe, and a girl, how about Benihana?"

To be honest, Rin never expected it.

The biggest difficulty encountered in naming wasn't a lack of magicules, but the 8,500 names themselves.

It was fine at first, but later, Rin's well of inspiration was truly bone dry.

Helpless, he had no choice but to muddle through like Rimuru, using names like 'Gobueast,' 'Gobuwest,' and 'Gobunorth.'

Fortunately, the monsters didn't care about these things at all.

As long as it was a name given by Rin, they would cherish it from the bottom of their hearts, never disgracing Rin's expectations.

Actually, Rin didn't have any expectations.

Fortunately, Rin could remember every monster he named.

This prevented Rin from being in the awkward situation of not knowing a monster's name when facing them.

"Phew~"

Thus, the naming process lasted for nearly an hour.

After finishing the naming, the mentally exhausted Rin lay sprawled on the bed, just wanting a good night's sleep.

"So tired."

"It turns out that naming monsters is such a difficult task."

"Violet, don't you have an automatic naming function there?"

Facing Rin's inquiry, Violet replied, "That's easy, but naming monsters is a process of establishing a Soul Corridor, so it cannot be done so expediently."

Not only could Violet not assist, but even if Rin held a dictionary and flipped through it on the spot, it wouldn't work.

The best way to name is to think briefly and then blurt it out.

"Naming, a fated name?"

To Rin, this was merely an unintentional remark.

But to the monsters, the names bestowed by Rin were treasures that would accompany them for their entire lives.

"Alright then."

That being said, just the thought that he might have to name tens of thousands of Lizardmen and hundreds of thousands of Orcs in the future sent shivers down Rin's spine.

200,000 names, it was simply torture!

He felt he should get a dictionary early, just in case.

"Forget it, what happens in the future, we'll talk about it later."

A dictionary was useless.

Violet had made it very clear, only names that Rin blurted out on a whim could carry a Soul Corridor.

Naming while flipping through a dictionary wouldn't work.

"No choice, I'll just have to let future me worry about it."

As for now, Rin, who had worked hard all day, just wanted to slack off.

Thus, two more days passed since the subjugation of the Goblins and Direwolves.

This afternoon, Rin was tasting Shuna's latest dish.

At the same time, he received a telepathic communication from Souei.

"Rin-sama."

Souei: "Reporting to you about the Lizardmen's attitude."

"Mm."

Rin-sama picked up a napkin and wiped his mouth. "What did they say?"

"The Lizardmen rejected our alliance proposal."

"Is that so?"

Rin was not particularly surprised by this outcome.

Regarding how to subjugate the monster races in the Great Jura Forest, Rin's plan was to first cooperate and express their friendly attitude.

Then, when the Orc Lord's crisis arrived, he would incorporate them.

Of course, the simplest method would actually be to send a team of A-rank Ogres to the Lizardmen tribe.

Recruitment, after all, is nothing more than military deterrence and coercion or inducement.

"Souei, what do you think of those Lizardmen? Can they be recruited?"

"This..."

Souei: "The situation with the Lizardmen is a bit… special."

Rin heard Souei hesitate and thought he had encountered trouble.

With 7 million magicules in hand, and three elite units under his command, Ogres, Hobgoblins, and the Starfang Wolves, Rin lacked neither magicules nor sufficiently powerful followers.

The Lizardmen, to Rin, were actually somewhat of a double-edged sword.

In fact, rather than recruiting the Lizardmen, what Rin truly wanted to subjugate was the Tengu Clan.

Tengu could fly and were natural air forces.

He happened to be lacking such a force.

Unfortunately, the area where the Tengu resided was too far from the Ogre village, and Benimaru and Rin had not yet established contact there.

"What do you mean?"

"It's hard to describe in words."

Souei said helplessly, "If I had to say, it's probably that the Lizardmen lack the awareness of facing a strong opponent."

In Souei's view, most of the Lizardmen seemed a bit… mentally unstable.

Moreover, some were too fearless.

(To be continued.)

Chapter 81: Their Loss

"I think I understand what you mean."

Rin thought of Gabiru from the original story, who was quite idiotic.

This isn't to say that all Lizardmen are conceited fools like Gabiru; there are intelligent individuals among them.

For example, the Lizardmen Clan Leader, and Souka, who would follow Souei in the future and is currently the Lizardmen Clan Princess.

But these individuals are, after all, only a minority.

However, thinking about it carefully, it's not strange that the Lizardmen would think this way.

Firstly, the three dominant races in the Great Jura Forest were the Ogre, Orcs, and Lizardmen.

The Orcs numbered in the hundreds of thousands, but their individual combat strength was lacking.

Although the Ogre were strong, their numbers were too small.

The Lizardmen had tens of thousands of people, and their individual combat strength exceeded C-rank, with some even reaching C+ and B.

Their overall strongest comprehensive strength led the Lizardmen to consider themselves the protectors of the Great Jura Forest, naturally superior to other races.

"Forget it."

Rin decided to temporarily ignore the Lizardmen. "Souei, you can come back now."

"Yes, Rin-sama!"

The Lizardmen rejected Rin's alliance invitation.

He wouldn't hold a grudge against the Lizardmen for such a small matter.

Whether to form an alliance or not was inherently the Lizardmen's freedom.

Rin would not impose his will on others, believing that they must act according to his plans, or else they were seeking death.

"Rin-sama?"

Shuna saw Rin suddenly put down his chopsticks and thought it was because her cooking didn't suit his taste.

"It's nothing, it has nothing to do with your cooking, Shuna."

Rin directly informed Shuna, Snow Empress, and the others present about Souei and the Lizardmen's situation.

"How ungrateful, these Lizardmen!"

Upon learning what had happened, Shion was the first to speak. "Do you need me to teach them a lesson, Rin-sama?"

"Just a lesson?"

Ice Empress was far more brutal than Shion. "Since they are unwilling to surrender, then let's just eliminate them!"

"Uh..."

Hearing this, even Shion couldn't help but feel speechless. "Well, Ice Empress, you're a bit too extreme."

"Is that so?"

Ice Empress didn't think so.

The world of Soul Beasts was inherently a struggle of life and death.

Currently, the strongest in the Great Jura Forest was undoubtedly Rin, and he was not just a little bit stronger.

His not directly declaring war on the Lizardmen, but allowing them to live in the forest, was already very benevolent.

Yet, the Lizardmen still chose to refuse.

If it were Ice Empress, she would have probably already gone to their doorstep and scattered the ashes of those ungrateful Lizardmen.

"Alright, Bing'er."

Snow Empress stopped Ice Empress's ineffective speech. "This is not the Northern Icefield, and the Lizardmen are not brainless beasts."

"They, like the Ogre, have their own culture and customs."

If not for Rin's great kindness to the Ogre, plus Ogerpon as a higher-ranking fellow species, subjugating the Ogre would also have been quite difficult.

In the original story, even when the monster Gelmud wanted to name the Ogre, the Ogre did not agree.

Even facing extinction, the Ogre's integrity remained unchanged.

From this, it can be seen that subjugating the monster races in the Great Jura Forest is not easy.

The more enlightened and civilized they are, the harder it is to suppress them by force.

The Ogre, Lizardmen, Orcs, and Tengu Clan are more like humans than monsters.

Yet, these races are also different from humans.

They are too stubborn.

"Sometimes, dignity outweighs life."

Shuna said, "The Direwolves only chose to compromise because their entire clan was defeated."

Of course, this isn't to say that the Direwolves lacked integrity or were cowards.

It can only be said that the Direwolves were beasts.

And beasts do not have the idea that dignity and freedom are above all else.

After all, you can't tell a dog not to eat charity, can you? That would be a bit ridiculous.

Additionally, as the Direwolves evolved into Beastmen, freed from the shackles of beastly instinct, the Direwolves gained their unique racial quality, which is the loyalty of canines to their master.

"Let's leave it at that for now."

Rin said, "Anyway, we don't lack this small amount of strength from the Lizardmen."

If nearly 30,000 Lizardmen were subjugated at once, the magicules Rin could obtain would be terrifying.

If he were to bestow names, even if he only received 3% of the magicules, that would still be nearly 5 million.

Unfortunately, 7 million and 12 million make little difference to Rin right now.

Let alone bestowing names.

For the Ogre, Goblins, and Direwolves, Rin bestowing names was a favor.

"Master, your naming is nothing less than a chance for them to be reborn."

"It's just that the Lizardmen don't know how to cherish it."

Snow Empress's words were met with unanimous agreement from everyone.

"That's right, the Lizardmen don't have such good fortune."

After Shuna finished speaking, Shion snorted coldly. "Who told them to be so unobservant!"

"Anyway, let's talk about it after Souei returns."

Rin estimated that with Souei's speed, it would take at most a few hours to return to the village from the Lizardmen wetlands.

Sure enough, not long after, Souei appeared in front of Rin.

He knelt on one knee, his head bowed low, as if he was asking Rin for forgiveness regarding the Lizardmen's matter.

"Get up, Souei."

Rin said, "You've worked hard."

"It is my honor to serve my master."

Souei's tone was calm, but his words came from the bottom of his heart.

Having received such great kindness from Rin, Souei truly wanted to do something to repay Rin.

"The task of investigating the Orcs was completed well."

Rin said, "As for the Lizardmen..."

"What exactly is the situation?"

"Souei, did you not show them the power of an Ogre?"

"I did, but..."

Recalling the situation at the time, Souei still felt incredibly abstract. "But they didn't believe it."

"Huh?"

Shion stood up indignantly. "What do you mean? What do you mean by 'didn't believe'?"

If he said they weren't afraid, Shion could still understand.

But didn't believe?

Was there such a saying?

"The literal meaning."

Souei said, projecting what happened at the time in the form of shadow magic.

In the image woven by shadows, Souei swept away hundreds of Lizardmen confronting him with overwhelming power.

Even the Lizardmen leader holding a trident, who was at the forefront, was instantly killed by Souei with one move.

Of course, Souei did not kill them.

He simply taught these conceited Lizardmen a lesson.

"Isn't this good?"

Ice Empress rested her chin on one hand. She felt that Souei did the right thing, and should teach these ungrateful fools a lesson.

(To be continued.)