After ending the war between the Firebirds and Wyverns, I headed back to the guild to prepare for the next stage. As soon as I returned, I notified the guildmaster of the situation. However, because of our recent battle against the immortal - Morian, the guild was also short on able adventurers. It seems I will have to do this on my own. Thus, I decided to prepare. I needed my own army. It was time to call everybody...my supporters...and my allies.

Everyone! Listen up! I exclaimed as I sent a mental transmission to all of my supporters. It is time for battle. Everyone prepare and meet me outside the Tavern.

With that said, I decided to prepare some things as well. First, I went to the Tavern and bought a number of alcohol bottles. Then, I went into my room and decided to grab a few items from my bag. I need to make a few weapons, pills, and other things. Hmm...what kind of things should I make? Ah! Don't I still have a King Beetle mount? Such a low-leveled monster...it's definitely time for him to get an upgrade. In fact...maybe I should give a few of my weaker subordinates upgrades as well. Since there will be a lot of things to take out of my storage bag, I decided to activate my Maker's Domain. Once the domain was set, I began rummaging through my bag and pulling out a ton of things. Those things were:

x4 vials of paralyzing poison x9 medicinal herbs x4 antidote herbs x3 vials of antidote x2 kilograms of Demon Metal x29 poor quality weapons x3 Rhino horns x3 Cyclops eyes x5 tons of Rhino meat x1 barrel of Rhino blood x3 Yeti skeletons x1 ton of Yeti meat x1 barrel of Giant Bear blood x1 ton of Giant Bear meat x3 tons of monster meat x1 Queen Beetle corpse x1 King Beetle egg x5 Ent twigs x207 Wyvern corpses x202 Firebird corpses x78 Earth Guardian Dragon corpses x51 Poison Guardian Dragon corpses x92 Plant Guardian Dragon corpses x1 Dual-type Earth and Poison Guardian Dragon corpse x1 Sea Serpent bone some sheets of Arachne silk x1 large boulder of Living Stone from Crooked Mountain x18 Vampire fangs x1 Black Vampire metal knife x1 skeleton from Dead Man's Rest x1 Cloud Giant heart x5 kilograms of Iridium x5 kilograms of Orichalcum x5 jars of Morian's Essence x4 Morian's Essence potions x1 jar of Poison Maggot slime x1 jar of Frost Essence x1 Frost Giant corpse x19 good quality weapons x6 Fire Giant corpses x1 Refined Eternal Ice x5 Werewolf corpses x1 Fire Sword x101 Roc corpses x1 Lesser Kraken x1 Lamia corpse x10 giraffe-wolf hybrid Ash Beast corpses x5 Sea Serpent corpses x1 Living Golem core x1 bottle of Lightning Wisp x200 jars of Poison Essence x200 jars of Plant Essence x200 jars of Earth Essence x1 young Desert Worm corpse x1 Seed of Flora x1 scale of Krosgund Dislocation Technique Thousand Poison Art Earth Meld Escape Technique

That was a lot of items to take out. Initially, I wanted to take out the necessary items to make the things. However, when I looked at the surplus of corpses and whole skeletons, I decided to make a small army. This will take a lot of time...but yet again, time is irrelevant in the Maker's Domain. And so, I organized all the materials in place and began working. First, I'll make a number of concentrated blood pills. No...scratch that, I'll make one super concentrated blood pill. I glanced at the amount of blood I have and made a mental note.

Hmm...I have Rhino and Giant Bear...I could use the blood from the fresh, well-preserved corpses...nah. I got other uses for them, let's just use Rhino and Giant Bear.

After I gave it some thought, I decided to use the barrels of Rhino and Giant Bear blood. Since the blood isn't from monsters, there were no toxins in the blood. I extracted the blood from the barrels and compressed the fluid before me. While I condensed the ball of blood, I chanted incantations of blessings and buffs in order to further enhance the qualities the blood will provide when consumed. What was a giant ball of red slowly darkened as it condensed into a black pellet. I took this black pellet and appraised it. Nice! This blood pill can increase the consumer's strength, endurance, and stamina by at least a level. Not much use for me but for one of my weaker subordinates, it would be extremely helpful. So, I put the pill to the side and mused over the rest of the materials...what should I make next?

Well, since King Beetle - let's name him Kabuto - is the weakest of my subordinates, I should make a few items to buff him up. I took the two kilograms of Demon Metal and started to flatten, heat, and temper it until I successfully refined the Demon Metal and purified it completely. Taking the slab of Refined Demon Metal, I began to knead it like dough while mixing it with some of my Maker's Essence. Then, I used my Flames of Wrath and started to heat the metal until it flowed as freely as water. As I kept the temperature fixed, I began to compress the liquid metal. This process was a little tough but somehow, I managed through and finally, I produced two vials of Heavy Refined Demon Metal.

Now, many may wonder what could I do with the two vials of liquid Demon Metal...well, I'm going to carve a mask. Masks come in different variations. There were the more generally accepted masks that people wear...and then there were the rarer and more obscure masks. Masks...in the most obscure term...is a pattern of some material used to cover or imprint. In other words, tattoos and even etchings can be considered as masks. In this case, I will be etching a 'mask' onto the King Beetle. This will only need one vial, so what should I do with the other vial? Remember, I have another King Beetle egg. That's right, I will hatch that egg within the Maker's Domain using heat from specially controlled Flames of Wrath mixed with a gaseous mixture of herbs and plants. Hopefully, I will be able to produce a variant King Beetle.

Well then, enough thinking, time to carry out the plan. First, I take the King Beetle egg and cast a few streams of Flames of Wrath, having them circulate around the egg. As I controlled the heat and the speed of the circulation so that every place received an even amount of heat, I threw all of the medicinal herbs, antidote herbs, vials of antidote, and vials of poison into the flames. The materials immediately disintegrated into gas. Trapped within the heat of the flames, the gas could only fuse into the egg. Now, I've never incubated an egg before and if it fails...well, I can serve it as egg tonic. Hopefully it doesn't fail though. Anyways, after a few minutes, the egg trembled. It's working?! I immediately cancelled the flames and set the egg on the floor. Cracks began to spread along the egg until *SNAP*, a piece of shell fell from the egg and an antenna emerged from the opening. The baby King Beetle struggled for a few moments before completely splitting the egg in half.

What crawled out of the egg was something different from Kabuto. I guess they can be considered a King Beetle as long as they are beetles and regardless of the type. For instance, Kabuto looks more like an ironclad beetle with one large horn. This new beetle, however, looked more like a tiger beetle with furry legs and two long feelers. The striped pattern on its exoskeleton looked like the stripes of a tiger. When it scurried out, I could sense a poisonous aura emitted from the King Beetle. But enough of that, the speed of the King Beetle was tremendously fast. I have never seen a beetle zip around like that! I decided to name him Kon. With the poisonous aura coupled with the incredible speed, this King Beetle clearly ranked at least in the A-rank...vastly different from Kabuto who was only a D-rank. Not to mention, Kon is still a baby while Kabuto is full grown.

Now that Kon was born, I quickly marked it with the Mark of Servitude. Then, I linked my mind with his so that we can communicate telepathically. Ah! Kon...is female? Then, I misunderstood...the egg I got wasn't that of a King Beetle but of a Queen Beetle?! This is wonderful! After all, Queen Beetles are at least five times stronger than King Beetles. I can't name her Kon anymore...let's call her Kalia. I looked at Kalia and probed her mind.

Kalia, can you hear me? I telepathically asked the Queen Beetle who was looking at me curiously.

Are you talking to me? Kalia asked.

Yes, you're name is Kalia.

Kalia...I like that name. Are you...mother?

Haha, no. I chuckled. It seemed Kalia is undergoing imprinting. I'm not your parent. I am your guardian. You can call me godfather.

Godfather...godfather...godfather.... Kalia murmured as she remembered my face. Once the imprinting was successfully finished, Kalia replied, I'm hungry godfather.

Here's some food. I replied as I reached into my storage bag and grabbed a few pieces of meat and vegetables.

As Kalia fed on the food, I drew a long thin needle from a pouch under my belt and swiftly inserted it into Kalia's neck, aiming for the pain acupoint near that region. With the needle in place, Kalia won't be able to feel any pain from the neck up and the needle won't affect Kalia's eating in any way. Alright! Now, I drew a small knife that looked like a scalpel and began to carefully scratch at Kalia's forehead. Soon, a pattern formed...it was the Mark of Transformation. I carefully poured a vial of Demon Metal into the cracks and spread the liquid until the indented pattern was filled. As the Demon Metal solidified, I placed my hand on the mark and chanted many incantations to increase Kalia's stats. Gradually, the Demon Metal shone a dark luster that enveloped Kalia, covering her like a thin layer of metallic armor. When the incantations came to an end, the light dimmed and revealed a transformed Kalia - her exoskeleton now a dark, iron-like color. Kalia, on the other hand, did not pay attention to her external changes and continued to happily gobble up the food. I patted Kalia on the head and expertly removed the needle. Kalia looked up at me curiously and, as if sensing something was different, looked at her body. When she saw her color change, she was a bit surprised, however, when she felt that nothing bad was wrong with her body, she continued eating.

After Kalia went back to eating, I silently appraised her again. The results were to my satisfaction. They were:

Name: Kalia

Race: Queen Tiger Beetle/Variant

Affinities: Poison/Earth

Abilities: Poison Gas, Antidote, Bullet Slam

Not bad for a child. Though the skills are lacking, Kalia will learn more as she grow older. Anyways, with that out of the way, I looked over the items left and pondered over my next step. Since there were a lot of corpses, I decided to apply the Mark of Animation on them in order to resurrect them. The Mark of Animation was exactly the same mark used on me when I died. However, with my current skill level, my Mark of Animation won't be as perfect as my master's. The corpses will resurrect, however, they will not have much free will. All that's left in them were battle instinct and mindless servility. Nevertheless, I began to arrange the corpses in rows and began marking them with the Mark of Animation. Hours later, all 763 corpses were resurrected. Looking at my small army, I nodded in satisfaction. Setting them aside in my storage bag along with Kalia, I looked at what's left of the things I had pulled out and laid before me.