episode_0146

I desperately felt the need for a hive mind and immediately began research to create one.

Since I had not achieved proper results when I had done a short research before, I had no choice but to start with research.

After consoling Jiena, who was worried about being confined to the studio, and Amy, who was complaining that the time they could spend together was decreasing, he consoled himself in the studio. Of course, that didn’t mean I didn’t come out of the studio.

Anyway, I was locked in my studio, constantly supplying the corpses of various monsters to mercenaries through Amy, and conducting all kinds of research to create a hive mind.

But the research was not an easy task. Unlike many people like researchers in the R&D headquarters who put their heads together to think about problems, I had no choice but to conduct research alone.

Since my grandmother did not particularly interact with other warlocks, I did not know any warlocks, so it was inevitable. Even if I knew a warlock, I had no intention of working with him to research a system that would be an important part of the territory.

Anyway, in order to create a hive mind, we continued to experiment with all kinds of methods. However, even though I used about half of the monster corpses that were piled up in the studio, the results were not particularly good.

“We need to connect our minds as one… … . So how should I do this?”

While conducting the experiment, I roughly put the corpse that was no longer useful in a corner and buried myself in the chair I left in the studio, thinking about it.

The cost of the monster corpses that were used in the experiment to the point where they were no longer useful was about four to five million meds, so I was contemplating whether it would be a good idea to take a short break.

I wondered if I was missing something, so while doing research, I even looked through the research log in which I wrote down the research process in detail.

While I was calmly going through the research journal I had written carefully, page by page, something I had forgotten came to mind. When I was researching some time ago, I was trying to use a higher entity to solve the problem of fighting until each soul dies by combining souls.

Since grouping similar people together would cause them to fight for leadership, the idea was to create a hive mind based on the one person who could take the lead.

“Gun… … . There are few special objects now.”

However, the problem was that there were not many corpses of special objects in my possession right now. In the case of warrior individuals, there were a total of eight bodies, and for shaman individuals, there were three in total.

It was a large number of corpses compared to their rarity, but as they were very useful corpses, the number was very insufficient compared to their usefulness.

If I made a mistake, I felt it was a waste because I couldn’t use it as an undead and would have to sell it to a company that disposes of monster by-products. After conducting sufficient research with common objects that were easily available, I tried to use special objects, but I had no choice because I had to use special objects for something that might fail.

Still, I conducted the experiment with the thought that creating a hive mind would be of great benefit to me, no matter how many balls I threw. Just in case, use the warrior entity with the largest number.

And, unfortunately, the first experiment that started like that failed. The goblin warrior corpses used as materials were transformed into something that was no longer useful and had to be sold to a monster by-product company. Naturally, the corpses of ordinary objects used together also became lumps of by-products.

“Ahh!”

At the same time as the experiment failed, a scream escaped my lips as I witnessed the moment the valuable corpse was turned into a mass of by-products.

However, this did not restore the original value of the body, which had become a mass of by-products, and there was no way to bring back the soul that had disappeared. I don’t know about the bodies of ordinary individuals, but the bodies of special individuals were very precious. Not only was it worth looking at, but it was also not easy to obtain.

It was a very regrettable situation. However, it was not just a loss. I gained something in my own way.

“Instead of just combining the souls, all you had to do was make them subordinate to a higher entity.”

That is, rather than simply combining souls, there was a possibility if other souls were subordinated to the soul that could take the initiative.

It is very unfortunate that at the same time as I learned that, I also learned that there is a limit to the number of souls that can be subordinated. No, in some ways, I guess you could say it was fortunate. It was better to find out now than to have it shattered later when the system was running normally.

Anyway, since it seemed like I had found a direction that would allow me to move forward, I continued my research.

And, there were a few things I learned through a few additional failures. I was able to accurately understand the limits that could subordinate the soul, and how to increase those limits.

First, we figured out that the limit to what can be subordinated depends on the strength of the soul connected to the original corpse. That strength was not about physical strength, but about the soul. In particular, because they were greatly influenced by the magical aspect, shaman individuals generally had higher limitations than warrior individuals.

Next was a way to increase the number of souls that could be subordinated, which was not as difficult as I thought.

The reason there was a limit to how many people could be subordinated in the first place was because they were subordinated to souls who had no connection, so the resistance increased as the number increased. In short, the limit could be greatly increased just by making it irresistible.

Also, since what I wanted was to remember a huge amount of information and be able to retrieve it accurately at any time, I also figured out how to store the information.

Although the soul can store some memories, most memories are stored in the body. So, I was able to recall some memories of my past life, but at the same time, I did not have many memories.

Therefore, by creating the main mage-type undead, subordinating the souls to the undead, and assigning a body to each soul, it was possible to simply remember a huge amount of information. Of course, just a brain was enough for the body.

“… … The fact that there are two shaman entities sent away to figure out such things is a waste to the point of making me feel sick.”

It was such a waste to think of the two corpses of shaman individuals and the dozens of corpses of ordinary individuals thrown away just to figure out something that seemed great yet trivial.

Moreover, the time it took to complete the process was close to a month, so it felt like a waste of time. The time it took to carefully create undead, handle souls, identify problems in case of failure, and even write a research log was enormous.

However, considering the benefits that the hive mind would give me, it was clear that it was something I could tolerate, so I started creating the hive mind using the last remaining shaman entity.

The start was to make the main shaman into an undead mage. It would be possible to make it with a skeleton, but since there is a difference between whether it has an actual physical organ called a brain or not, the undead to be made this time would be in the form of a zombie.

No, if you look at it, it wasn’t even a zombie. There was no particular need to keep the body intact, and it was planned to become a chimera with different organs connected to facilitate connection with other lower-level entities to which the soul was subordinated.

“Chimera is a bit unsure… … .”

Although the quality of the warlock who creates the chimera is a very important factor, there was another factor that was just as important. That’s right, it was dexterity. This is because the parts that will become the chimera’s body must be placed either artificially or taken from another living organism. If dexterity was poor, the arrangement was bound to be a mess.

In my case, it’s not that I don’t have dexterity, but I was worried that I wasn’t very good at it. Of course, I had no intention of leaving it to someone else or giving up.

Anyway, in order to first create the chimera that would become the body of the hive mind, I brought all kinds of items to the workbench. The workbench was filled with blood essence, which was an all-purpose material, body parts brought in from here and there with the intention of attaching them to the hive mind, and the bodies of lower-level entities that would serve as storage spaces to remember information.

And, using those materials, the chimera that would become the body of the hive mind began to be produced, and the result was quickly created.

“… … It might be a bit awkward to show it to someone.”

The final Hive Mind body was quite disgusting. As a warlock who has no choice but to get used to things that are disgusting or disgusting in their own way, it was enough to make me frown.

In some ways, it looked like a huge dark red egg case, but if you looked closely, you could see gray things inside that looked similar to brains. Moreover, the egg-like thing was continuously throbbing at regular intervals, as if it were a heartbeat. Even more so, the dark red color became darker and lighter every time it throbbed, as if blood was flowing.

Since it didn’t look good, I decided to immediately complete the hive mind and hide it somewhere. I was planning on burying it in the ground like I did when I made the repeater skeleton. Like a repeater skeleton or surveillance skeleton, it was possible to check information from a certain distance.

“Ah, rather than just appreciating it, you should put your soul into it first.”

Since the soul had not yet been placed in the body of the Chimera Hive Mind, they moved quickly to complete the work before the soul completely passed into the underworld.

The soul of the main shaman individual was placed in the very center, and the souls of ordinary individuals were placed in the surrounding areas, such as brains. Of course, they did not forget to subordinate the souls of ordinary individuals to the souls of the shaman.

After going through all these processes, the hive mind was finally created completely.