The influx of energy streams was a huge relief for Mitch. If everything went according to plan, the rats that were born would not only be faithful to him; they would be very intelligent too.
Hopefully, the newborn rats would become the foundation of the soon-to-be-established rat society.
But the dirty sensation that spread through his body as he absorbed their faith made him shudder.
"Will this result in something bad happening?"
He didn't feel like absorbing the dirty Mynt would kill him or anything. But he didn't like the feeling he got from doing so.
"I think you will start feeling sick if you absorb too much, almost like food poisoning."
Mitch was still feeling fine. He made a plan to deal with this future problem in advance.
Figuring that if the tainted prayers would make him sick, he could balance it out with pure energy. The question was how he was going to reach an equilibrium.
The only reason he was fine even after attaining over a hundred more zealots was because they were still newborn. The moment their mental faculties developed enough for them to start actively praying, that's when problems would begin.
"It is vital that the children of the rats I have with me become pure believers fast."
He swiftly made his way to a safe place between the rat nest and the ant nest.
A temporary base had been established there, acting as a vanguard.
It would be really tragic if he invested almost half of his Mynt into the rats, only for some ant to wander in and eat them up.
Just the thought of it happening almost made Mitch depressed. Truly, the rats were too weak to protect themselves.
At least, most of them were.
He had tested Hailey's strength before, and he was very impressed. She might have stagnated at 19%, but that was already strong enough to single-handedly take care of one ant.
However, that was the limit. The ants might have progressed far less than her, but they could still overwhelm Hailey with their numbers.
In the end, Mitch decided against having her fight for the time being.
Why would he sacrifice his queen for a few pawns when he himself could crush those pawns without breaking a sweat?
"Hailey. When the children are born, can you take care of indoctrinating them?"
Complex topics were no problem for Hailey to understand. She gestured to Mitch that it would be easy and for him to not worry whatsoever.
"She's very reliable, isn't she? Will you give her the {Blessing of Language} when you have enough Mynt?"
Katherine was referring to the very same blessing Mitch gave Madeline when they first met.
He fell into deep contemplation.
'Hmm… I might do it. You do know what my end goal is, don't you? The Mynt used to bless Hailey might end up being a waste. But at the same time, I have no idea how long it will take before then. We will have to see.'
Mitch was a bit scared to promise anything. In fact, he was unsure if he would survive long enough to even bless Hailey. After all, he was almost done waiting.
He had some things he wanted to do before Madeline woke up, and he would soon begin on one of them.
For now, though, he decided to eat.
This time, he ate something special—something he hadn't eaten in three weeks.
Ant meat.
He had waited long enough. He was done playing rat farmer. He was done waking up early just to slay ants late into the night. He was done limiting himself from gaining strength.
Consolidation was for when he needed to buy time. Now was the time for action.
Luckily, if there was one thing he wasn't lacking, it was ant corpses.
He ate some, and then some more. His entire body was being covered in green blood that splashed from his mouth every time he took a bite.
All he did for half an hour was eat.
Eventually, he started feeling full. At the same time, he felt his Mynt being drained at a much faster rate.
[Name: Mitch]
[Title: Lesser Khad]
[Mynt: 0.69]
[Power System: Devouring (20%)]
[Followers: 169]
[Mutations (body): Extreme Strength]
He had overtaken Hailey in progress. But it only made sense. After Hailey had gone through the mutation, she didn't eat more than what was necessary to feel satiated.
In comparison, Mitch just ate more than the total amount she had eaten until now. Nevertheless, no matter how much more he ate, his progress had stopped at 20%.
As if there was some kind of bottleneck that prevented him from progressing further.
Soon after he was done eating, he noticed some ruckus in the box.
The females had started going into labor.
They kept squirming and squeaking, but Mitch had no way to help them.
Seeing them in so much pain reminded Mitch that he wanted Madeline to go through something similar.
Of course, she would be laying eggs rather than birthing the children fully grown, but it might still hurt.
'I swear, I will find a way to prevent it from happening.'
Despite refusing to give his word about blessing Hailey, he made a silent promise to Madeline. A promise he would do everything in his power to keep it.
Fortunately, the birthing ended without any issues. The baby rats seemed healthy as they stumbled over to their mothers' stomachs, searching for food.
Seeing that, Mitch made his way back to the rat nest.
In the event that he didn't return anytime soon, he wanted to make sure that the rats at least got freed from the box.
The run back was pretty uneventful. He kept observing the babies and saw how Hailey was already trying to teach them about his existence. They were, understandably, still too young to understand anything.
Finally reaching the opening to the nest, Mitch placed the box on the ground and opened the roof. He then carefully scooped the rats out one after the other.
When all the rats were released, Mitch nodded towards Hailey, who returned a gesture of reassurance, telling him to leave it to her.
Convinced that Hailey was smart enough to handle organizing the nest in his absence, he started running back towards the battlefield.
It was time to go on one last killing spree.