BAMN:Chapter 75/76

Chapter 75: Group is Individual

"Master."

"They are the most outstanding descendants of our clan!"

Under the Direwolf Leader's careful selection, eighteen of the strongest and youngest Direwolves walked before Rin.

Among them was Ranga from the original work, and also individuals whose names were not mentioned in other novels.

Interestingly, the eighteen Direwolves were exactly nine males and nine females.

Rin had no intention of pairing them up.

Once a monster evolved, breeding offspring would become difficult, and could even endanger the parents' lives.

Of course, Rin would not interfere with the Direwolves' free choices.

They could pair up, or they could remain single. This was the Direwolves' choice.

"Including you, there are nineteen Direwolves in total."

Rin had his own plans. He did not choose Rimuru's method of holistic Direwolf naming.

The eighteen Direwolves represented the eighteen types of Pokémon attributes.

Each Direwolf would inherit one of them, and they would develop their respective clans.

And Hoshiga would be the leader of the entire wolf clan.

"From now on, you shall be called Hoshiga!"

Besides the Direwolf leader Hoshiga, the other eighteen Direwolves were:

Males: Ranga (Flying), Shiroga (Normal), Iwao (Rock), Kurogane (Steel), Daichi (Ground), Raiga (Electric), Tatsuya (Dragon), Kagega (Dark), Gekko (Fighting)

Females: Homura (Fire), Mizuki (Water), Midoriha (Grass), Ayakashi (Ghost), Satori (Psychic), Yukina (Ice), Tsukuyo (Fairy), Hachiyo (Bug), Dokuga (Poison)

Among them, Hoshiga inherited some of Rin's characteristics as the Star King Dragon.

Although he could not control star particles, he gained control over space-time and the power of the stars.

Additionally, named after Hoshiga, the entire Direwolf Clan evolved into the Starfang Wolf Clan.

And beneath the Starfang Wolf Clan, eighteen sub-tribes were formed.

"Hmm…"

As soon as the naming was complete, Rin immediately felt a large amount of magicules drain away.

For the first time, Rin felt a dizzy spell.

This was the result of the rapid consumption of magicules.

"It seems I need to rest for a while."

Rin had not expected that he would also have an experience like Rimuru's. He immediately summoned Violet. "I'll leave the rest to you, Violet."

"Ah, please rest well."

Without needing to say more, Violet, who was connected to Rin's heart, embraced the collapsing Rin.

However, this scene inexplicably aroused feelings of dissatisfaction in Snow Empress, who was standing by.

She did not understand what this feeling meant.

It was simply an inability to suppress the vexation in her heart.

"Who are you?"

Snow Empress took a step forward, wary of this suddenly appearing girl.

"Violet."

Violet said calmly, "I am Rin's other half."

"!!!"

The sudden declaration instantly left Snow Empress and the other Ogre Clan members present at a loss.

"Other half?"

"Doesn't that mean she's the mistress?"

"What a bold declaration."

"Nonsense!"

Snow Empress reprimanded coldly, "I don't know when someone like you appeared by his side."

Logically speaking, Snow Empress was not one to get angry easily.

But when it concerned Rin's safety, and a certain emotion that Snow Empress herself didn't understand, she couldn't tolerate Violet's absurd words.

"You'll know if you ask Rin about this."

"But right now, we should be protecting him, not arguing here, shouldn't we?"

Violet's words left Snow Empress unable to retort.

Having no choice, Snow Empress could only stand guard nearby.

She had to protect Rin, and also guard against Violet, while her heart was guessing the other party's identity.

Leaving aside Snow Empress and Violet's silent vigil.

The transformation of the Direwolf Clan immediately attracted the attention of the Hobgoblin, Goblin, and Ogre.

The originally ordinary giant wolves, which were merely a bit larger than normal beasts, were now, one after another, emitting various colored lights.

Red, blue, green.

For a moment, the grassland, illuminated only by moonlight, seemed to become a dazzling stage under neon lights, drawing exclamations of awe from Sakurako and others.

[Individual evolution successful, calculating total magicules of followers]

[Calculation complete, this individual is a namer, sharing 15% magicules]

[Obtained 900 magicules]

[Individual evolution successful...]

[Obtained 950 magicules]

[Obtained 1100 magicules]

[Obtained...]

As the Direwolf Clan evolved into the Starfang Wolf, and due to the power radiation of the eighteen clan leaders,

500 Direwolves, based on their own affinities, evolved into corresponding clans.

This time, Rin almost exhausted all his magicules for the naming.

A full 200,000 magicules was instantly depleted.

In its place was the simultaneous evolution of nineteen Direwolves, including Hoshiga.

Among them, Hoshiga received the most magicules.

It obtained over 50,000 magicules from Rin in one go.

Even with Violet's backdoor, Rin still expended 25,000 magicules.

Adding the original magicules, the wolf clan leader Hoshiga directly evolved from its original C+ individual rank to high-tier A rank.

Then, the remaining 18 Direwolves all broke through the 14,000 magicules mark, becoming true A-rank monsters.

This was a full 180,000, or 90,000 after the discount, magicules.

According to racial characteristics, the Starfang Wolf Clan, in terms of classification, should belong to Beastmen, not the original Wolf Beasts.

Beastmen in the Cardinal World possess the ability to beastify, able to freely transform between beast and beastman states.

Hoshiga, and the other eighteen leaders, all gained this ability.

Humanoid form, Werewolf form, and the original Giant Wolf form.

Depending on their needs, they can choose their preferred lifestyle among these three states at will.

By this point, Rin's magicules had dropped from 145,000 to 30,000.

As for the remaining Direwolves.

Originally, they were merely C-rank monsters, only able to increase their overall strength to rival B-rank monsters based on their intrinsic characteristics when in groups.

Group is individual, individual is group.

The B-rank monster here doesn't mean 500 Direwolves attacking together and defeating 1 B-rank monster.

Instead, it means that as the number of Direwolves continuously increases, each Direwolf will rise from C-rank to B-rank.

Yes, 500 B-rank monsters.

This is the terrifying aspect of the Direwolf monster group.

(To be continued.)

Chapter 76: Astral Body

Theoretically, as long as there are enough of them, by virtue of this intrinsic characteristic, the Direwolves could even forcibly break through to A-, which is around 9,000 magicules.

Imagine, tens of thousands of A-strength Direwolves surging like a tide.

The scene is quite unsettling to think about.

Of course, A-rank is also the limit for the Direwolf Clan.

After all, it is just an intrinsic skill (extra skill). It is impossible for it to grant the Direwolves the qualifications of a Demon Lord Seed like a Unique Skill would.

Furthermore, relying on the characteristic of "group is individual," when Rin bestowed names upon the eighteen clan leaders, another large sum of magicules was diverted to all the remaining Direwolves.

500 Direwolves, with an average of 3,000 magicules.

To make them evolve to B-rank with 6,000 magicules, it would require at least 1,500,000 magicules.

Such a vast amount of magicules, even if Rin included the 200,000 from Violet and doubled it, that would only amount to 460,000 naming magicules (magicules used for naming, Violet's discount is equivalent to doubling the effect).

460,000 compared to 1,500,000 is a drop in the bucket, far from enough.

But, the good thing is the Direwolf Clan's characteristic of "group is individual."

This characteristic greatly reduced the cost for Rin to bestow names upon the entire Direwolf group.

It didn't require 1,500,000. Only one-fifth, which is 300,000 magicules, was needed to complete the evolution of all Direwolf species into the Starfang Wolf.

"Master's magicules are recovering rapidly!"

On the other side, Snow Empress noticed the rapidly rising magicules on Rin and looked at Violet with some surprise.

"After the naming, our magicules reserves were only 80,000."

80,000 magicules, this was already a very dangerous number for both Violet and Rin.

Once a monster's magicules are exhausted, it is equivalent to the demise of its own existence.

However, what Rin did was not simply throwing money away, but investing.

"Investment means being able to receive returns."

The first feedback to Rin was 55,000 magicules from Hoshiga.

Hoshiga was a monster named by Rin, which meant that the magicules it fed back to Rin reached 15% of its total magicules, which is 8,250 EP.

Similar to him, there were also the other eighteen Direwolves, which is 15,000 x 15% x 18, totaling 40,500.

Including Hoshiga's, it was approximately 50,000 magicules.

This was only the feedback from the nineteen leaders.

What truly pleased Violet was the remaining 500 Starfang Wolf members.

Due to the wolf clan's characteristics, these remaining Starfang Wolf Clan members actually directly bypassed the follower stage and reached the rank of named monsters.

Yes, in the judgment of [Unique Skill: Convergence], all 500 Starfang Wolves were considered named monsters.

Thus, the 500 Starfang Wolves, with an average magicules reaching B-rank, which is 6,000 or more.

Even calculated at the lowest.

500 x 6,000 x 15% reached a terrifying 3,000,000 magicules!

This was why Rin, regardless of anything, exhausted all his magicules to name all the Direwolf Clan at once!

Rin admitted that there was an element of gambling.

But he won the gamble!

The originally ordinary, C-rank Direwolves, instantly became the biggest taxpayers providing Rin with the most magicules feedback.

What Direwolves species?

This was clearly Rin's treasure trove!

What is getting rich in one go? This is getting rich in one go!!

"What a pity…"

Violet looked at Rin, whose magicules reserves had reached 990,000.

Of course, the extra 2,000,000+ magicules didn't disappear but were stored with Violet.

"What?"

Snow Empress was puzzled, not understanding what Violet meant by "what a pity."

"He cannot challenge the True Demon Lord awakening ritual yet."

"Why?"

Snow Empress had heard Rin say that a Demon Lord Seed could break through to an awakened Demon Lord by simply absorbing enough souls.

Just souls.

"No, it's not that simple."

Violet explained, "To obtain a soul, you must break through the Astral Body that envelops it."

Absorbing souls is not as easy as it sounds.

You see, there is a special energy called the Astral Body that exists between the soul and the outside world.

This energy protects the soul from interference by other forces, and it is one of the most mysterious and fundamental logics of the Cardinal World.

"The method to break through the Astral Body cannot use magicules. Instead, it must rely on one's own will to forcefully break through."

Violet didn't know how Rimuru in the original story managed to do this.

She could only say that the Star King Dragon and Lucia's remnant souls helped Rimuru quickly cross this chasm, which was pure cheating.

"But if that's the case, why were there so many awakened Demon Lord Seeds later?"

Snow Empress remembered Rin saying that Benimaru, Shion, and others all had the potential to grow into True Demon Lords.

In the original story, they awakened with Rimuru's help by absorbing enough souls.

"Souls and Astral Bodies are two different concepts."

If it is just a pure soul, then you can absorb it directly.

If Rin could obtain 10,000 souls, he could instantly show the Demon Lord Seeds of this world what it means to awaken into a True Demon Lord on the spot.

"But where would we get 10,000 defenseless souls?"

Such a massive amount of souls, aside from ancient Demon Lords like Guy who might have reserves, is impossible for anyone else to possess.

After all, souls follow the rules of reincarnation.

No one can interfere with the destination of souls, except for beings who wield ultimate authority.

Moreover, obtaining these souls isn't as simple as just killing 10,000 people.

The souls of ordinary people are too low in quality.

In the storyline where the Falmuth Kingdom attacked the Monster Country Federation, the army sent by the kingdom consisted of human elites.

Only souls of that caliber can meet the conditions for a Demon Lord Seed's awakening.

"Once an ordinary person dies, their soul cannot remain in the material world and immediately goes to the other side to be reincarnated."

"Only individuals with combat power above C-rank can temporarily remain and be absorbed by a Demon Lord Seed."

"And in this process, the soul's consumption will be enormous."

If 10,000 people die on the spot, a Demon Lord Seed would be lucky to absorb three or four tenths of the souls.

More souls would still be pulled by the rules of reincarnation, disappearing without a trace.

"So, according to you, the only way for Rin to awaken as a True Demon Lord is to directly face 10,000 souls enveloped by Astral Bodies and then forcefully absorb them?"

"Yes."

Violet: "Leaving aside whether this act would cause him mental discomfort."

"Just withstanding the impact of the Astral Bodies is a huge problem."

With Rin's ordinary human mental will, can he truly withstand the impact of so many Astral Bodies?

You see, Astral Bodies are nothing else but the emotions and memories accumulated by the soul in each reincarnation.

Rin can certainly achieve a forceful impact.

But what would be the result?

With so many memories and emotions piled together, could Rin maintain his original self, or would he be transformed into another person?

(To be continued.)