Chapter 205 - The nine-week session

Originally, Tim and the team had decided to spend a month in the bony den of theirs, just so they could be more prepared to face the challenges of The Old Sea, but under the new circumstances, they decided to camp out for two months! They wanted to progress first, and survive second, but neither of these two things came without the other, so camping it out was a must!

During this period, not only did they accumulate a lot of mana, but Timothy also made a massive army for the team to use! He had been very calculative about it, so at the end of the nine-week session he both had a decent army, and plenty of dark mana to fuel them! Technically he could extend his army of slaves almost endlessly, but that would be a bit of an overkill, so he decided against it.

Since they were in the sea for two months, Skendus had flown out of the water to tend to the dragons, several times! He wasn't really a big fan of dragons, but he was the only one who could travel through such dangerous waters without risking being harmed, because he could turn into a ghost. He'd turn into a ghost in the most literal sense possible, and he'd take his body with him too, so he managed to look after the dragons on the shore, very well. He fed them, cleaned them, and entertained them at least once a week, because that's all that the tamed dragon needed to be happy!

Anyway, as for the army of goblins, the expansion of the army had been very linear. Throughout the first week, Timothy swam around with his group of fifty slaves, and did his best to feed them, killing tuna fish for them and all. By not spending any dark mana points at all throughout the first week, he had accumulated almost seventeen-thousand mana points, which as a result, replenished the dark side of his mana pool almost entirely!

Once it was replenished, he created fifty more fire-wielding goblin slaves, and he created them using the same method that he used on his previous ones! This set him back by twenty-thousand dark mana points, but he wasn’t too worried about spending mana this time around. He had plenty to spare.

Timothy even sprung to create a large, bony den for them, and the den ended up costing twelve-thousand dark mana points to build, which was very expensive, but he did build something big, and substantial here! He built a forty meter deep, and sixty meters wide den for them, using artificial bones as beams, and thus, creating a safe home for them! The Old Sea was filled to the brim with dangerous creatures, and a group of a hundred goblins was very easy to spot, so he did his best to hide them!

With thirty-two thousand dark mana points spent in a day, he then refrained from spending points for fourteen days, up until the third week of their camping session, to be exact! At this point, he replenished the dark side of his mana pool almost entirely, and he was happy about it, though it had taken great willpower to keep himself from spending the mana. Camping for so long was very boring, he didn’t have anything fun to do, and at some point it felt as if he was waiting for an apocalypse to pass, so it was truly mentally exhausting to endure the boredom!

Then, at the three week mark, he decided to feed his current, one-hundred slaves with dark mana. It was a bit early to feed them, yes, as they could still kick around freely for another couple of weeks, but he wanted to reset the timer for them now! He did so, because wanted to make it easier for himself to remember everyone's doomsday timers, especially because today, he was to create another batch of slaves! In the future, he wanted to replenish all of his slaves with dark mana, within the same day, rather than random, different days!

“Three-thousand mana points, eh? That's not so bad for a once-in-a-month deposit, I can regenerate 2,400 dark mana points a day, hehe.” Timothy spoke to himself.

It took just three-thousand dark mana points a month to feed his current amount of one-hundred slaves, and it would take even less if he allowed them to run around for five-weeks without feeding them, but he didn’t want to risk the latter. At the five week mark, parts of their organs would've already withered, and he didn't want to put the slaves through the heart-shattering pain of being, or feeling disabled. He wasn't greedy!

Anyway, with three-thousand dark mana points spent, he then spent another twenty-five thousand points creating fifty more slaves! These slaves were a bit more expensive to create, five-hundred points a piece to be exact, simply because they could shoot lightning bolts, rather than fireballs!

Lightning bolts were certainly more expensive to cast, so it wasn’t surprising how that reflected on the slaves as well. Thankfully though, this new batch of goblin slaves weren't any more expensive to maintain, as they each required thirty, dark mana points a month as well, nothing more. With seventy-thousand dark mana points remaining in his sum, he was happy with the results!

One week later, he created fifty more lightning-wielding goblin slaves. Paired with the amount of mana he had regenerated during this time, sixty-two thousand points remained in the dark side of his mana pool! He was well off, and he now had two hundred goblin slaves to abide by his bidding.

Halfway into the nine-week session, Timothy was very happy with the overall results that he achieved. Not only did he have two-hundred slaves, but the blue side of his mana pool had replenished significantly as well! Sure he spent a few thousand points hunting for food in order to feed his slaves, but his pool was still at the one-point-two million points mark, and it was a phenomenal amount, it was far more than what he hit the waters with a few weeks ago!

Having not spent as many points as him, his friends had even more mana points to their disposal. They'd have a full mana pool very soon, it was certain, and they might even upgrade their mana quality! They hoped for the best.

Anyway, after hitting the two-hundred slaves mark, Timothy refrained from using dark mana up until the six-week mark, as to accumulate more of them, and as he was getting ready to create more slaves, he then was told something very important! The entirety of his first ever batch of slaves, had ascended to level seven in the God's Punishment Realm of mana, and this was great news, because it confirmed his expectations that even slaves could ascend through levels of mana! Sure they had endured the extreme pain of ascension, but a win was a win nonetheless.

“Wow! Amazing!” Timothy celebrated with them, and then he said. “Though it's unlikely that you'll make it to level eight in time, this is still good. Relax for a couple of days, regenerate your mana, and after that, you guys will do all the hunting. Fifty of you can certainly kill a fish, and besides, you need to practice your powers more if we're to go after the Ruins of Aqumus! Haha!”

After congratulating his slaves, he then started creating more slaves, a full hundred of them, and he had them dual wield both fire, and lightning! This decision of his was extremely expensive, it cost him eight-hundred dark mana points a slave, eighty-thousand in total, and they cost fifty points a month, each, to maintain. This quickly became the most expensive part of his nine-week camping session, but it was worth it, and at this point, he was done building his army! He didn't have time to make more of them, so it was best to stop now while he could.

Sure he spent another eleven-thousand mana points, two weeks later, just to keep his slaves alive, but that was it. He didn't spend any more points, and at the end of the nine-week camping session, he had a total of fifty-five thousand dark mana points to suit him! Of course, he had a decent army now as well, and he confidently trusted, and depended on their firepower.

Aside from those clear advantages, everyone in the team, except for Timothy, had leveled up! They had these massive mana pools to suit them! Most of them had well over one-point-six million mana points to suit them, apart from Tim, who had a full mana pool.

Timothy couldn't upgrade his mana quality level, because both his types of mana had to be filled to the brim for him to level up, so the dark side of his mana pool ended up holding him back. It was only halfway full, even at the nine week mark! He was sad about this, but at least he had a full, blue mana pool at his advantage, and the latter was very helpful, because in any battle, he was a big spender!

Regarding levels, Ortana and Skendus were at level seven now, Gustav was at level six, same as Timothy, and Arvena may be the luckiest one of all. Despite the crippling pain, she made it out of the Fintelus’ Apprentices realm of mana! She was ecstatic about it!

The team had made quite an advantage for themselves throughout this camping session. Along with their level ups, and nearly full mana pools, they also had the knowledge of three-hundred men and women to suit them!

Each of these slaves knew something about The Old Sea, and with their information collected, Timothy, and the team were finally ready to go after the Ruins of Aqumus once more, and this time, they were well-prepared!