There was one more option to check from the main menu. Well, two. “Research” and “Leaders.” Since technology would likely take a bit more concentrated thought put into it, I checked out the leader option first.

But nothing happened when I chose it.

“Why can’t I choose leaders?” I asked Enna.

“Ah, I believe leaders are locked behind technology?” Enna answered.

“Interesting design choices. These games typically let you start with leaders right away.”

“Well, the way that the research tree is set up, it is split into different tiers representing various stages of civilization. Right now, we’re in a stage representative of civilizations that are only just beginning to organize. People coming together to live in organized groups, learning to work the land and developing tools, and so on. Something like learning about making fire was only just ‘discovered.’ The only leader needed at this point is you! Having a hierarchy of different leaders is something that begins to take place in the next stage of civilization—once we begin forming towns and truly organizing our efforts.”

“That sounds like something worth rushing then.”

“Does it?”

“Leaders tend to have huge impacts. Maybe their impacts aren’t all that great early on, but you want to get them early and level them up as much as possible to get as many bonuses as you can out of them. The longer you have them for, the stronger they become and the higher their ceiling is.”

“That’s a good point!”

“And I take it that I don’t count as a leader by the game’s mechanics. All I do is manage everybody, but don’t actively do anything myself.”

“Right!”

“But if I see somebody working to construct a building, I can still go over and help them, can’t I?”

“You can, but you wouldn’t make any difference in the time that it takes no matter how hard you work.”

“I don’t care about that. I care about putting equal work in. I won’t be sitting back taking it easy while everybody follows my orders. A true leader gets dirty in the workshops and fields with those under their command. Only pathetic cowards refuse to get as dirty as their people. Like the British. You think some old lady with a tacky crown is going to work the fields with her people? Of course not. The moment you spend more time sipping tea than pulling out weeds is the moment your opinion no longer matters. Also, I feel I should mention that there is nothing wrong with weeds. The ideal of having a perfectly cut lawn is bullshit that began as a status symbol to appear superior over others not wealthy enough to afford laborers to cut their lawns, and it has nothing but a negative impact on the environment. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m in full support of paying others to do things you don’t want to do. That’s the most beautiful thing there is about capitalism and the only reason why it should exist. My dream world would have fast food chains on every corner of every street, but they would exist alongside nature. Who cares if that means there are more bugs around the place? If a spider sitting on the door to a fast-food restaurant scares you from entering, you belong back in the womb since you clearly aren’t ready for the real world.”

Enna tilted her head and looked at me with a confused expression before asking, “What… what is a lawn?”

Right. From what I saw of Hell, they didn’t exactly have grass and weeds there. “An abomination that I won’t let exist in this world. Correction. If somebody wants to cut their grass, that’s their right. It’s their property and they can do what they want with it. But the moment people start using lawns as anything more than an aesthetic preference, such as a status symbol destructive to the environment, is the moment I’m educating them on what really matters in life and how important nature is.”

“I’m still not sure I understand, but… I appreciate how passionate you get about things. If—if I may say so, I believe it is very admirable!”

“The same can be said about your work ethic. You haven’t left my side since we arrived and have answered every question of mine. I’ve never had an assistant before, but I can’t imagine finding one better than you. Good work so far.”

Enna’s face turned red and she looked like she wanted to hide her face and run away, her eyes frantically looked around for an exit opportunity, but she forced herself to stay put no matter how embarrassed she felt. Instead of run away, she pushed her glasses up and tried her best to look me in the eyes as she said, “Th-thank you.”

I was well aware of the effect I was having on her.

That effect aside, I finally opened up the technology menu.

“Tile modifications,” I said. “What are those?”

Enna forced herself to calm down and answered, “Like buildings, except they are placed on a single tile to modify the income gained from that tile. The buildings we are building right now will all be within our main settlement tile, but the ones available from research have to be placed on a specific tile. Oh! And while you can only build settlement buildings once, you can build an unlimited amount of tile modifications.”

“Got it. Thanks.”

It sounded like the Hunting technology was probably going to be our best bet for a starter technology. It provided a tile modification and a new military unit, and it also looked like a prerequisite to Animal Husbandry alongside Foraging.

And when I scrolled through the tree by dragging a couple of fingers across it, I was even more convinced of it being the right choice.

Animal Husbandry led to Riding which led to Mounted Hunters. One more row below that revealed Mounted Warriors, which also required the prerequisite of Warrior Training which was beneath Group Tactics.

So, from what I could tell, the left side of the tree was focused on food, the center was focused on military, and the right was focused on industry.

Scrolling to the right confirmed that.

There was also Mining a bit more to the right, and to the right of that was Tanning and Leatherworking. Those would surely require some kind of material most likely gained via hunting, though, so I decided to go with Hunting first.

As soon as I chose it, some nearby demons went into an open tent, sat down around a table, and began working on what looked like papers. I wasn’t sure what exactly they were doing, but I figured it was mostly an aesthetic thing just to make it look like somebody was actually doing research.

“Only one thing left to do,” I said.

“What would that be?” Enna asked.

“We have to explore. Figure out what we’re working with.”

I selected our only military force, which was now only composed of two spearmen units, and separated them.

“A-ah, I… I’m sorry for questioning you, but is it really a smart idea to split our forces right now?” Enna asked.

“Never apologize for questioning authority. And it might not be the best choice, but that depends on what happens and what they find. Personally, I always split up my forces at the beginning to cover as much ground as possible. We need to uncover more of the map so we can plan for the future. For example, if it turns out we have a good place to build a chokepoint nearby, then I want to funnel resources into claiming that territory as early as possible to prevent anybody else from getting it. Map awareness can make or break an empire.”

“I—I see! Well, I am not sure if you know this mechanic yet, but please be careful of where you send them if you split them up. The more units you have in a military, the safer it will be while traveling. Different terrain tiles have different levels of danger. If you send only a single unit over a tile with high danger, they risk getting wiped out by wildlife or other dangers.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks for letting me know. I think they’ll be safe for now since the tiles are only marked as medium.”

Enna nodded. “A single military unit is enough to handle medium tiles, with a few exceptions. Settlers and other non-combat units won’t survive them on their own. They can only safely travel across low danger tiles on their own.”

“What about tiles we’ve claimed? Lava lakes are marked as high, and we’ve got one claimed.”

“That should be fine! It will only matter when we build a tile modification on that tile, and there will be settlement buildings we can construct later to reduce the danger of tiles within our territory.”

“You know a lot about this.”

“A-ah, well, I have watched recordings of many past games. But… admittedly, I never paid much attention to specific strategies. My main interest was in watching how cities grew. So, I am rather familiar with everything related to the city management aspect of the game, but I am not so familiar with everything else.”

“That’s more than good enough for me. Thanks.”

Splitting the military force required moving one of the units onto a new tile since there couldn’t be two on the same one. So, I placed that one to the north of the camp, using up its final movement point, and then moved the remaining unit to the southwest where it bordered the fog of war. That meant, tomorrow, I’d be able to reveal more of the map with both units.

I just had to hope that they found good land instead of enemies. I was never one for early-game military rushes.

“Anything I’m forgetting to do?” I asked Enna.

Enna shook her head and looked proud. “That’s all until tomorrow! You are welcome to rest until the—”

I cracked my knuckles and then my neck. “Let’s get to work. Even if we don’t make a difference, I’m not going to let our builders work on their own.”

Enna looked surprised for a moment. It was almost as if she wasn’t sure if I actually meant it earlier when I said we’d be helping out. But, as soon as she realized I was serious, she smiled and nodded. “I’m ready!”