GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

Chapter 913 A Silver Lining.

First, her fur grew wildly. Then she bent on herself. Her legs elongated and bulked up. Her arms also bulked up but they did after twisting around. The bones and joints of her arms changed rapidly. Her skin didn't break despite all the changes. It expanded like an elastic material to accommodate the changes. But her muscles were not spared from the changes. They morphed and changed with her skeletal structure.

In a short while the female Warrog changed and became unrecognizable from the upright humanoid being that she was before the spiritual fluctuations acted on her. She became a gigantic four-legged savage beast. Her fur had grown out and her size had increased. She is much bigger than her previous form. Even her horns have increased in size. She is also feral. It seems the changes disrupted her consciousness. She reverted to instincts because of it.

She stood up on all fours and howled to the moon. Then she turned her attention to everyone in her vicinity. She has been given a wide berth but that is not going to be enough. She intends to inflict violence on others from the look in her feral eyes. She is very big so she will be able to cover the short distance between her and her closest target easily.

Fortunately, she didn't have to go looking for a fight. The warriors beside her began their work immediately after she was done with the change. Each changing Warrog was assigned to a squad. The squad surrounded them and the Betas began to beat them.

A fight ensued. The Betas punched and kicked her despite her being bigger than them. She fought back as best as she could but she was outnumbered. Each one of the Betas is also stronger than her. Her size is not doing her any favors. So she became wounded very quickly.

The Alphas in the squad watched the ill-treatment without interfering. They only moved after their charges had been beaten until they were too weak or injured to fight back.

The Alpha stood above the beaten beastly girl and roared at her, "Submit."

It was a command from one paragon to another. It is a way to determine hierarchy. Betas will obey and submit. Then the Alpha will force them to transform back to their previous forms. Most of the ones that changed because of the spiritual fluctuations of the totem were handled this way. They transformed back to their humanoid form after a round of beatings.

The changelings are not the same as they were before they changed though. Their humanoid form has been changed by the ordeal too. They have lost some weight and have thinned down. Some of them even have visible rib cages due to the loss of body mass.

Some others in the beast form didn't listen to the Alphas. They either roared back in defiance or resisted in other ways. They are Alphas too so they won't listen to another Alpha even if they are broken and bruised. Other Alphas have no hierarchical leverage over them. So the Alphas will beat them again and drag them to the center of the assembly where the pack leader is.

The beastly lady beside Legion-6 is one of the Alphas. She refused to submit so she was beaten again so that she won't resist while being dragged. She was dragged with 11 other potential Alphas to the pack leader. A single growl from him finally did the trick.

The growl reverberated through their bones and echoed throughout the valley. Those who are Alphas will listen to him. After all, he is the Alpha of Alphas. They are merely whelps and are nowhere strong enough to defy him so they will listen.

Only those who are Omegas won't listen. Omegas stand alone. They don't listen to anyone. In that case, they will be expelled out of the pack and into the wild. Most of them die in the wild. It is rare but some will enter the Underdark and never return.

But some of them will be lucky enough to survive in their savage state. They will transform back to their humanoid forms on their own and regain their senses. But they cannot return to their tribes. They have to find another tribe that will take them. It is called a pilgrimage for indenture.

All 11 of the potential Alphas transformed back to their humanoid form. It was a messy process that is no doubt very painful to experience. Their humanoid form has also become leaner. The activation of their inner beasts took its toll on them. None of them were an Omega so they all listened to the pack leader. Omegas are rare despite the special method that the Warrogs are using to evoke their potential.

The pack leader inspected the new paragons with satisfaction. He said to himself, "The harvest this time is good. Our ancestors have been good to us. I am satisfied."

They say that half-bread is better than none. This situation is half of a bread, but the pack leader is satisfied nonetheless. Warrogs didn't need this method to become Paragons in the past. Every one of them could grow stronger on their own while some were paragons. That was the full bread in which they had both the quality of paragons and the quantity of warriors on their side.

But now, most Warrogs can go their whole life without forming their vitality core. The invocation of the spirits of their ancestors is needed to forcefully awaken the dormant potential within them. This process has led to the creation of more Paragons than there were in the past but the Paragons are weaker than they used to be. There is only half a bread of quantity now.

The totem pole is an anchor for the spirits of their dead ancestors. It is a physical anchor for the connection between the dead and the living. The connection between the Warrogs is the spiritual anchor. The power of the physical anchor is then converted to real power through the spiritual anchor.