Chapter 175: Chain Of Command
With everything set, what followed was a pleasure for Seo-jin to watch, his freshly regrown tail swaying slow in the water as he observed.
It was untested, but he was determined to see if his broodlings could level by killing the lessers. Turns out they could.
At first, he ordered the lessers to hold still and accept their deaths. He wasn't certain they would obey, but surprisingly they did. Watching Tomb and Sin carve through bodies that didn't resist grew dull fast. When he commanded the lessers to fight back, the clash of claws and flaring bloodlight made it far more interesting.
[Even though they both start at F Rank, the lessers just don't stand a chance.]
'The broodlings are spawned from me. If they couldn't kill these peons, they wouldn't be worth my time.'
[Fair. Tomb is doing great though, huh?]
Seo-jin's lips curled at the pride in the system's tone.
'Yeah. He's a natural-born killer.'
The pair of newborns were already deep in it.
Ash-white Tomb moved through the mass with stripped-down violence, pale form flashing in and out of the blood-clouded water. He didn't slash. He struck. A solid punch caved in a lesser's chest. Another blow smashed a jaw sideways. He didn't claw. He hammered. Every motion tight, and controlled. When two rushed him at once, he shifted his weight, let them crash into each other, then drove his elbow down into the back of a skull.
Sin was chaos beside him.
Dark pink flesh twisted and coiled through the brood. He bit first and thought later. A lesser clamped onto his shoulder; Sin seized it by the jaw and wrenched until bone snapped loose in his hand. He spun, tail cracking into another's knee, then barreled forward, dragging one screaming body through two more. Where Tomb left corpses, Sin left pieces.
The water churned around them, pressure shifting with every violent movement. Bloodlight flickered and pulsed, illuminating claws, teeth, torn muscle. Limbs drifted, only to be shoved aside as more lessers piled in, desperate and mindless.
Just outside the killing zone, the lessers assigned to Tomb and Sin's brothers and sister hovered in a loose ring, claws flexing, eyes fixed on the carnage. They didn't move. They waited. Their stage would come soon enough.
Tracking their progress on his screen, Seo-jin watched the twos levels climb, counting each gain as it came. He needed them at nine. No higher.
At first the levels ticked fast, each kill feeding cleanly into growth. Then the gains slowed as the returns thinned out. Not stalled, but enough to irritate him as he felt the drag in the pacing.
He began to question whether there would be enough left for the second half of the experiment. Then, after a few dozen more broken bodies, both hit the threshold.
'Enough.'
Tomb and Sin froze mid-strike. Ignoring the lessers clawing at them, they disengaged and swam straight to Seo-jin. Bowing at once, Sin lowering fully until his forehead pressed against the stone floor.
'I wouldn't say I am impressed, but you both did adequate.'
Both trembled at that, subtle vibrations running through their bodies. It wasn't high praise, but any acknowledgment from their father carried weight.
Tomb bowed deeper and slammed a fist into his chest, the impact thudding through the water. While Sin remained still, quiet as ever, but his bloodlight thickened.
Seo-jin studied them for a moment, then gave a small nod.
'Stand up, Sin.'
Without hesitation, Sin rose.
He was average in build and size for a newborn, nothing remarkable there. His horns rose almost straight from his forehead, clean and narrow. The dark pink of his flesh set him apart most. After that, it was the silence.
'What the brood lacks, you will fill. You'll be my healer. It won't make sense to you now, but you have the power for it. The brood will burn. It will bleed. You will be the one who keeps the engine of war running. Do you understand?'
Sin remained motionless for a breath, as if weighing the command. Then, after a short pause, he bowed again.
'Your will is mine.'
Content with Sin's response, Seo-jin shifted his attention to Tomb. Truthfully, he didn't have a clear plan for this one. Remembering how he'd fought, solid, direct, he decided to keep it simple.
'For now, keep smashing.'
Tomb smiled, one that held only malice.
'Go join your siblings. Good luck with Panic.'
Both paused at that, glancing back at him, then toward the others. Panic was already staring at them like fresh meat. The moment they swam over, he descended. The new pair endured the standard initiation...prodded, squeezed, and thoroughly chewed. Mostly chewed.
[Thought you gave up on trying to guide their growth.]
'Never tried the direct approach. Might work.'
[True. So, next experiment?]
'Hell yeah.'
He'd been waiting for this part, anticipation tightening along his spine.
'Alright, put them down and get over here. Bring the lessers you chose.'
Hex and Panic both frowned as they released Tomb; each had been gripping an arm and leg, engaged in a slow underwater tug-of-war. Widow exhaled and sliced the thread wrapped around Sin's feet, she'd been holding him suspended while Bile poked at his horns and shoulders.
Within moments, the brood regrouped around Seo-jin, the selected lessers hovering beside their commanders, eyes fixed and waiting.
Flipping open his panel and swiping to the new commander skill, Seo-jin ran the numbers, eyes scanning the shifting interface.
With seven hundred and thirty-six lessers remaining, he wouldn't be able to raise them as high as he wanted. Still, any gain at this point was worth the effort.
With a pulse through the broodlink, the four chosen lessers moved into a line before him, settling against the dungeon floor.
Panic's pick stood twitching, claws longer than normal, teeth clicking softly against each other. The one beside it wore a bloodmask. Bile's choice was taller and thicker through the shoulders, though it kept its head dipped beneath Panic's prickly selection.
The last two belonged to Widow and Hex. Widow's was obvious, eight spider legs flexing from its back, mandibles working, an extra pair of eyes blinking out of sync. Hex's looked almost ordinary by comparison, which made it stand out more. Its finger tapped in a steady rhythm against its thigh, the motion constant.
A thought surfaced.
He turned to their commanders and studied them.
'After this is done, each of you pick a name for your chosen.'
The commanders stiffened at once, excitement flaring through the link. Only Tomb and Sin stood slightly apart, silent and watching. They felt the gap, but there was drive in it. Their time would come.
'Alright. Let's see how this works.'
His focus tightened on Panic's choice.
[Cull the Weak // Activated]
[Recipient // Lesser Broodling F Rank (Panic)]
[Target // Lesser Broodling F Rank (Panic)]
The chosen lesser erupted in bloodlight, shrieking through the link as power flooded it. All forty-nine of Panic's remaining troops reacted at once, agitation rippling through their ranks. The chosen lunged at the nearest lesser.
Without instruction, the target stood still and accepted it. The chosen latched onto its face and began devouring it whole, jaw working as blood streamed into the water.
'No point in waiting.'
[Cull the Weak // Activated]
[Recipient // Lesser Broodling F Rank (Bile)]
[Target // Lesser Broodling F Rank (Bile)]
[Cull the Weak // Activated]
[Recipient // Lesser Broodling F Rank (Hex)]
[Target // Lesser Broodling F Rank (Hex)]
[Cull the Weak // Activated]
[Recipient // Lesser Broodling F Rank (Widow)]
[Target // Lesser Broodling F Rank (Widow)]
One after another, the remaining chosen lessers flared with bloodlight and plunged into their own ranks. They tore into their kin without hesitation, bite after bite, limb after limb, flesh stripped and swallowed. The water darkened around them, currents pulling red in widening sheets until it seemed the entire sea had turned the color of blood.
Within minutes, the violence burned out. The water settled. Each chosen had devoured forty-nine lessers, their swollen forms hovering where the bodies had been.
Swiping his panel, Seo-jin added a single new unit to each of their troops, the interface flickering across his vision.
Four flares of crimson burst from the remaining mass of standard lessers. Those four began to shift, bone pushing, limbs lengthening, features twisting as their bodies reshaped to mirror their commanders.
He activated the skill again, and the last lesser in every group was seized and consumed. Then it happened, the surge he'd been waiting for.
Each chosen began to rank up.
Panic's chosen was the first to break.
Its body jerked as bloodlight thickened around it. Bone popped and lengthened, the compact frame pulling upward from a foot and a half to nearly two and a half. Its tail split at the end, cartilage hardening into a clean, blade-like edge. Then a second growth forced its way out along the top of its right wrist, extending forward over the back of its hand...a narrow, forward-facing blade.
It stood there a moment longer, taller, heavier in the water, tail blade drifting behind it like a drawn knife.
Bile's chosen didn't twitch. It swelled.
From two feet to three, its torso thickened and rose, shoulders widening as muscle layered over muscle. Then the bloodmask started to move. In response, thick crimson spikes burst through its spine one by one, hardening into jagged blades that trailed down its back. More blood gathered across its shoulders, clumping and shaping itself into solid plates that resembled armor. The fluid dulled as it set, forming crimson pauldrons that shifted with each roll of its shoulders.
Hex's broodling convulsed as it grew.
Its lean frame stretched from a foot and a half to over three, bones elongating until it stood taller than the rest. Then something new followed. Bright green strands burst from its scalp, spiking upward and outward in uneven angles. The color was wrong for this place, too vivid against the red-stained water. The hair waved in the current, each spike stiff but alive, framing a face that had grown sharper, more severe.
Widow's chosen changed the least, but the shift was still there.
It rose by roughly a foot. The real change came in the chitin. What had been black deepened into a dark-red, the color saturating until it matched dried blood. Then its mouth opened. Thick venom pooled between its fangs and slipped free, drifting into the current in slow ribbons. When it brushed against nearby coral, the surface hissed, dissolving under the touch.
Floating there, Seo-jin felt his skin tingle. The water pressed against him, but the weight inside was different. This was what he needed. What his children needed. Not just numbers. Hierarchy.
'Each of you will be responsible for training your chosen. Their role is to lead your troops when you can't. Raise them well. Do not let my gifts go to waste.'
In perfect unison, the brood dropped to a knee, claws scraping stone as they bowed.
'Yes, Broodfather!'
[I'll admit it. Feels fucking good.]
'Right?'
He looked over the gathered mass, bodies layered in the red-tinged water. He could see it clearly, ranks upon ranks spreading outward. A landscape filled with broodlings. A world bent under his will.
Now, only one thing remained before they could push for the boss.
System light flared in his grip, bright against the murk, and the lantern containing Liao Tzu's soul formed in his hand.
'Alright, Grimm. You can come out now.'
Nothing happened.
'Quit pouting. I've got a surprise for you. But if you don't want it—'
Blue light burst from his chest, pushing outward in a pulse as the not-so-little ghost drifted free.
'You're such a brat.'
Seo-jin reached out and rubbed the top of ghost's skull, fingers passing through faint resistance. He knew the little bastard was still irritated, being told to stay inside him and only called out now had bruised his pride. But the moment Grimm's hollow sockets locked onto the lantern, the attitude vanished.
'You know what this is?'
Grimm nodded hard, his intestines uncoiling and drifting up around the artifact, brushing close to the green glow leaking through the glass.
Leaning closer, the lantern's light reflected in Seo-jin's eyes.
'You ready?'
The drifting intestines snapped tight at once, wrapping into position around the lantern from every angle.
'If you let him go, I won't help you. So do your best.'
Grimm's hollows dimmed, his skull tilting sideways.
[Think he just rolled his eyes.]
'Whatever.'
Ignoring the system, Seo-jin reached forward and lifted the latch on the lantern.
Green light ignited the entire area as Liao Tzu's dragon soul tore into existence, its massive outline coiling through the water.
But there was no freedom waiting for it. The shard entity found itself hemmed in by something that set every instinct ablaze. Even as a soul, every part of it recoiled, the urge to flee clawing through its form.
'What is this?! You dare—agh!'
Hooks drove into Liao Tzu. The dragon's scream churned the water and shook silt from the floor, forcing nearby lessers to clamp hands over their ears. Grimm's intestines had latched on, wrapped tight, binding the thrashing soul like chains dragged from the abyss.
'Damn you, Seo-jin! I curse you! Curse y—!'
A dense green cloud blasted from Grimm's mouth, engulfing the dragon soul in a rolling surge. Liao Tzu's words broke into screams, then dissolved into wet, bubbling sounds, and then into nothing at all.
Slowly, Grimm reeled in what remained—
And a system panel flared into Seo-jin's view.
'Finally.'
[System // Notification]
[Uplink Request // Accepted]
[Source // System By-product (Grimm)]
[Designation // User Pet]
[Sub-System Quest // Feed The Fire // Completed]
[Distributing Rewards...Unlocking Pet Skill Tree...]
A blue inferno ignited in the middle of the ocean. Ghostfire, cold and violent. At its base, intestines spread wide, Grimm floated as the flames compressed inward.
The towering pillar collapsed as quickly as it had formed. The instant it did, Grimm's shape flared into a solid silhouette of blue light.
Seo-jin didn't look away.
Not when the glow intensified.
Not when he had to tilt his head back as the ghost began to grow.