After the attack, Murkel started to make some changes in his dimension. At first, he took the bodies of the dead and began to open them up. With his red crystallized body parts, it was easy to slice and dice the mages.
In doing so, he didn't find out much, apart from them looking to be the same as regular citizens on Pagna. Their bodies had the same type of organs. The only thing that looked slightly different was the heart.
All of them appeared to be slightly darkened compared to a real heart, which Murkel had seen before.
At the end of the day, Murkel was no physician, and there were no real tools at his disposal, so the only conclusion he could come to was that these mages were the same as humans visually.
On top of that, he found a device on the first mage he had attacked and took it from them. The device itself was what had allowed him to understand what the other mages were saying in the first place. Then there were the robes on their dead bodies as well.
Using a small amount of Qi, he could see a barrier reacting.
Keeping the robes, Murkel stored them in his cave while leaving the rest of the bodies to be fed to his family of beasts.
While sitting down in the cave and cultivating his Qi, Murkel was thinking, planning his next set of moves. The dimension he was in was dying, and now it was being invaded as well.
He still had business on Pagna to deal with; if anything, this pushed him further to act quicker than he had expected.
At that moment, a large number of beasts returned, bringing their fair share of crystals as they usually would. Murkel picked it up and then shook his head.
"You, eat it. I need you beasts strong," Murkel said.
One of the beasts with a large trunk took the crystal, pulled it toward him, then placed it in its mouth and crunched down on the crystal.
"All of you, don't bother bringing me these crystals anymore. The dead that pass on take their crystals and continue to grow stronger. We are going to need everyone's strength if we want to stop these attacks."
There was a large number of crystals from the dead beasts when the mages had come to attack, but Murkel hadn't taken them either. Still thinking about what to do with the situation, he finally came up with his answer.
The beasts came forward, taking the crystals and consuming them one by one, and Murkel was keeping track of those that were starting to grow stronger.
"An army of humans failed me, so I will try for an army of beasts instead. All of you get strong."
Days passed with Murkel trying to concentrate on his cultivation. At the same time, he stayed in his beast form a lot more than he did his regular form.
In his mind, there was still a gap that his beast side and the human side hadn't synced up with each other.
If they fully synced, then he would gain strength. Perhaps he had been subconsciously suppressing his beast side, and now he was trying to openly accept it.
As time went on, Murkel could see his plan taking effect. A few of the beasts had been practicing consuming the crystals.
In doing so, they had become incredibly strong, reaching high levels. He was sure if Pagna warriors knew about these beasts, they would be hunting for their power stones all over.
When looking at them and back at the robes that were still in the cave, Murkel started to think.
'That group of people, they managed to gather quite a large number of hybrids. Having a human beast that can use Qi certainly does make them stronger.'
'That Dame also gave me quite some trouble as well. Before, I never brought any humans to this dimension to create hybrids because there was a good chance that the human's mind would be the more dominant one in the beasts, but with the way the beasts are now, would it be the same?' Murkel started to think.
Perhaps if high-stage warriors weren't selected, non-high-skilled ones, the beast's mind would be dominant, and they would still decide to listen to Murkel.
With this in mind, Murkel decided to do a little test. He walked over and through the dense jungle. He still remembered, after all of the years, the spot where he had entered from.
'Depending on where one is in the dimension and opens up a portal, it appears that where they will appear on the other side changes as well.
'There were a few clans in the Dark Faction near the Erupting Fist. They weren't large, big well-known clans, so this should work.'
The same place where the first warriors had entered the dimension. For now, Murkel had changed his form to make himself appear more human. He had grabbed a makeshift blade made of stone and cut his arm with blood.
Right after, he placed this on one of the red crystals and started to draw a circle in the air. The energy started to linger, and when it joined up, a portal opened up.
Murkel then placed the red crystal from his body onto the ground and waited. He waited directly in front of it until people started to appear through it.
"I can't believe we managed to hit the jackpot, finding a portal in all places. We're going to make it big!"
"Our clan will finally be able to rise."
Without a moment's hesitation, Murkel grabbed one of the warriors' heads and flung him behind him.
One of the beasts high up in the trees grabbed hold of him, running off.
Murkel then grabbed another and flung his arm to the side. With each person coming into the portal, Murkel was flinging and throwing them to the strong beasts behind him.
"The Dark Faction failed me, so I'm making my own army this time," Murkel stated.