1033 Preparation For Battle The words from Rowan touched something deep inside the mind of the Shiik, granting it a focus and a goal that its young mind clung onto, yet its fear of light and the sun was still primal, embedded in the part of itself that its new intelligence could not yet control, and it was still returning to the crater but more slowly. The Shiik fought against its instinct, but the tools for such a battle were yet unavailable to it, and although Rowan could override those instincts, he understood that some battle needed to be fought personally, but he had no time for the Shiik to acclimate, their presence had been detected by the powers in this land and before long, an intense battle was coming for them. Rowan sighed and borrowed the sight of the Shiik and looked around, even in his weakened condition, he had instantly digested the souls of the three Explorers, and although he had no access to manipulating soul energy, he was able to gain the other peripheral benefit of this ability. He sent the image of a large metallic building at the edge of the complex surrounding the crater. The complex was largely automated with only the three Explorers handling the entire operation, this was to keep this resource point as hidden as possible to avoid outside interference. The Calamities were not the only problem in this world, for as always, where there were benefits there would also be conflicts. There were other Ascendant powers wishing to take control of this Resource area, and the hidden battle to control all of these resource points was both gruesome and terrifying. This conflict would act as an advantage for Rowan at the beginning, they would never understand the sort of creature he was and his capabilities, and before the true scale of the threat he represented was shown he would be unbeatable. The building that Rowan placed in the mind of the Shiik contained a volatile mixture that when combusted would release a lot of heat and most importantly a thick green smoke that took an extremely long time to dissipate. In small amounts, this smoke can cover several meters and make it quite hard to breathe, and in large amounts, it could cover miles. The building contained enough of that mixture to cover tens of miles. Rowan judged that it should cover the sight of the sun for the creature, giving it time to adapt, and more importantly, draw prey towards them. Rowan did not relish remaining in this mortal form for long. The Shiik finally seeing a way to block out the sun, pushed through its discomfort and charged at the building. No longer moving with its usual fluid grace, it barreled through the buildings in its way, crushing both concrete and metal with equal ease and reaching the large metallic building, tearing it apart, its glowing red claws slicing through six inches of metal without any hindrance. The building was a large storage vat containing nearly a million gallons of the foul mixture that bubbled, emanating pale yellow fumes, they flooded past the legs of the Shiik after escaping out of the confines of the metal storage unit, and the Calamity watched with glee as the green fluid flows past it and spread for thousands of feet. It brought two glowing red claws forward and touched them together, generating sparks that attracted the red lightning surrounding its body. This lightning snaked forward and touched the liquid and the area for miles flashed white before a large roar and a red mushroom cloud bloomed above the earth that could be heard and seen for hundreds of miles. The explosion destroyed the entire complex except for a single building, however, the flames did not last for long, disappearing supernaturally quickly. The mushroom cloud also did not remain in place for long before it flared into nonexistence and a wave of thick green smoke exploded from it that was accompanied by the excited shrieks of the Shiik, who raised dozens of red claws to the sky in the last defiance of the light as it was covered by a wave of green. Rowan smiled, "good girl." ? This crater was called Feeding Pit # 19. One of the newest Resource points for the Silver Alliance, a powerful force with more than a hundred thousand continents under their control. The Silver Alliance possessed more than a dozen Ascendant Explorers and hundreds of Deific Rank Explorers. Feeding Pit # 19 was in charge of supplying a hundred tonnes of valuable vitality-infused remnants every decade to the Alliance and earned a sizable amount of profit for them. Its importance would only increase in the future as the Shiiks reproduce and increase their number and levels. This resource point was located on a dead continent. It was a continent where the war that ravaged its surface had scoured every life from it, leaving nothing but scavengers, and even those had been cleared away for the creation of this resource point. The previous explosion from this dead continent would draw attention, for the creation of this place was quite secretive, and various parties would begin venturing into this place before long, but Rowan could still muddy the waters further to cause further chaos. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞 With the knowledge gained from the mind of the three Explorers, Rowan finally knew all the levels of power before the immortal state in this world. From Mortal, Enlightened, Heroic, Glorious, Legend, Deific, and finally Ascended. With his experience he theorized that Deific Explorers should be equal to Archmages or gods, with powers that were in the range of a Minor God to a High God, and Ascended should be from the God King level and upwards, and with a powerful world like Doom Star, he expected to come across higher dimensional beings across the Ascended Explorers. He did not expect Ascended class Explorers at this time, and if Deific Ranked Explorers were going to be making their way over, they would not be a lot of them, he just needed enough fodder to quickly powerup and the first few battles would be tough, but after that he should have gathered enough Aura to push him to at least the Legend or Deific Rank. The green smoke covered the Shiik and ascended to the heavens, and the Calamity crouched after noticing the lack of food around, folding all its limbs underneath and closing its eyes, waiting. It could remain this way for centuries, its body state reduced to something that was nearly lifeless. Consuming death came with benefits. Rowan observed this creature for a while, trying no to think about the events that transpired in his second deaths and the children he had lost, the pain would drive him mad, his consciousness was still too weak to hold all the weight of those that had perished. The explosion would draw attention, the Silver Alliance would never allow this valuable resource point to be tampered with. He only needed to wait and prepare and the battle would be coming, but he did not need to wait inside the stomach of the Shiik at this moment, there was still much to do, and the day was still young.