Watching the newly created Swarm unit begin to move its body within the hive, with tiny electric currents dancing across its surface, William's stern face finally showed a hint of a smile as he slowly retracted his expanding psychic scan.
"It's finally a success. Next is the observation period and the collection of actual combat data."
With this thought, William exhaled a breath and smiled as he tugged at the thread of faith.
The newly born Swarm unit immediately spread its wings, but without visibly flapping them much. Instead, the electricity flowing across its body suddenly surged, and with a powerful push from its four claws against the ground, it leaped into the air.
Just like that, it floated effortlessly, its massive body seemingly unaffected by gravity, slowly ascending. It rose directly through the opening above, exiting the underground hive and emerging into the sky of William's divine domain.
With just a few wing beats, it accelerated from hovering to a speed of over 600 km/h in just over ten seconds.
Then, the electricity on its body erupted in a dazzling display, and in an instant, it broke the sound barrier, speeding toward the designated testing area that William had selected.
Watching as the new Swarm unit left behind a trail of blue lightning, streaking through the air with sparks and flashes, William's smile deepened.
"Since it has inherited the bloodline of the original Thunder Wyvern, I'll call it the Thunder Wyvern."
In a great mood, William immediately finalized the name for the new unit.
Then, with a flicker, his demigod form disappeared from its original location and reappeared at the edge of his divine domain, overlooking a barren landscape in the distance.
He didn't have to wait long before a small glowing dot appeared in the far sky, rapidly growing in size as it approached at high speed.
As the glowing figure neared, the Thunder Wyvern, now fully enveloped in lightning, made a sharp dive, landing before William. The powerful airflow generated by its descent stirred up dust and debris, sending sand and rocks flying in all directions.
William looked up at the massive beast before him and casually swiped his hand, summoning a translucent blue screen in front of him.
What followed was a detailed examination of the Thunder Wyvern—something William did for every newly created Swarm unit.
After all, only by thoroughly understanding his own creations could he be prepared to handle any situation that arose.
Floating in mid-air within his divine domain, William looked at the Thunder Wyvern’s test report with great satisfaction.
The data from the tests had exceeded his expectations.
In addition to the three innate magical abilities inherited from its bloodline, which demonstrated remarkable effectiveness in offense, defense, and mobility, the Thunder Wyvern's raw physical strength—combined with the traits borrowed from the Beast of Thunder and Zerglings—made it a formidable melee fighter as well.
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The scales covering its body possessed a natural resistance to supernatural attacks. Whether it was the fireball magic from Hydralisks or the scythe strikes from enhanced Zerglings, the damage it took was significantly reduced.
It was almost as if it had a built-in, simplified version of a permanent resistance-enhancing magic.
Its flight capabilities also exhibited supernatural traits. Unlike ordinary flying creatures that needed to constantly flap their wings to stay airborne, the Thunder Wyvern could hover in the air with minimal wing movements, consuming only a small amount of magical energy.
"With the detailed data now collected, the next step is to observe for a month. If no issues arise, mass production will begin."
Closing the translucent blue screen in front of him, William mused to himself, "There's still a little over two years until the Global Tournament. If production goes smoothly, I should be able to amass a considerable number of Thunder Wyverns by then."
Given the massive size of this new unit, its production cycle was naturally not short.
However, through careful design and deliberate enhancements, William had ensured that the Thunder Wyvern larvae possessed an exceptionally efficient digestive and absorption system.
This allowed them to grow rapidly through constant feeding, accumulating energy much faster than ordinary creatures.
Throughout the entire process, the Thunder Wyvern larvae were fully cared for by other Swarm units. They had nothing to do except eat—continuously.
Even so, for a larva to grow to over 20 meters in size still required about a year and a half.
Once they had accumulated enough energy, they would enter the cocooning phase, which took another half a year before they could emerge, fully transformed into Thunder Wyverns.
The Thunder Wyverns' appetite was staggering, consuming twice as much food as the Beast of Thunder, earning them the title of the Swarm’s number-one glutton.
Fortunately, their combat prowess justified their massive consumption, unlike the now-discontinued Beast of Thunder, whose power-to-consumption ratio was simply inefficient.
Through testing, William had also gained a thorough understanding of the Thunder Wyvern’s most powerful attack—the Lightning Flash, a potent thunder-element spell.
This ability had several key advantages:
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Its energy was highly concentrated, allowing for rapid casting.
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It had exceptional penetration power.
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The projectile moved in a straight line, making its trajectory predictable.
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It had a long effective range.
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The lightning beam was extremely difficult to evade.
It could be used both for sweeping across battlefields to hit multiple targets and for sniping powerful individual enemies.
With a sufficient number of Thunder Wyverns, William believed that even if he encountered a Hero-class unit like Kaelen again, he would be able to obliterate him with sheer firepower.
Waving his hand to dismiss the screen, William vanished from his spot and reappeared before the Ant Queen.
At that moment, the Ant Queen was hunched over a thick exercise book, using her antennae dipped in ink to furiously scribble down answers. Piles of completed exercise books, stacked like small hills, surrounded her.
Sensing William’s arrival, she immediately stopped writing and raised her head to look at him.
"I’ve been too busy with the new unit lately to check on your studies. How has your learning been progressing?"
"Master, I feel that continuing to complete exercise books isn’t helping me much anymore."
The Ant Queen's telepathic response carried a strong sense of grievance.
Over the years, William had periodically taken time to personally answer the Ant Queen's questions during her self-study.
Since he had no prior teaching experience, he had simply replicated the study method he had used in his past life—brute-force memorization and endless exercises.
Every time he answered one of her questions, he would assign a massive amount of follow-up problems, using a "problem-solving overload" approach to reinforce understanding.
As a result, the Ant Queen had gradually turned into a relentless problem-solving machine, drowning in an endless sea of exercises every time William left.
"Uh... well, doing lots of exercises is a way to train your thinking skills. The process is more important than the result."
Scratching his head, William finally conceded, "Since you don’t enjoy it, let’s put a pause on our coursework for now."