Today Din found out how bad the food situation was. Half the people went hungry for majority of the day. Not starving, eating just enough to survive.

Many died from randomly eating poisonous plants or fruit. And no one thought of eating the weeds that grew everywhere.

They could still hunt and forage so it hadn’t come to that. Din felt this couldn’t go on. He commanded them to gather all the grass.

Some of it was useless but majority of it was right the type. He told them to crush it into mush.

It looked unappealing but it did really taste like wheat. It wasn’t a nice taste in this form. But it filled the bellies of the entire camp.

‘Good. I’ll have them gather this grass along the way as well.’

After eating. Over eighty percent of the camp was moving east. This area wasn’t dangerous to begin with. They crushed anything in their way.

It took them less than half the day to reach the first pack of beasts. They had four legs and leather wrapped bodies. Like small hairless bears.

Slowly they killed their way through. The area these things had occupied was rather sizeable. And Din’s team couldn't kill as fast as they had been moving earlier.

Soon three days had passed. Every day they fought in a rotation. But they felt odd pride. Before, this should have been a tiresome activity.

But now they felt a sense of camaraderie they had never experienced. On occasion Din spoke to his people.

He shared some vague goals. Gave them a light explanation as to why they were doing this. And what would be happening in the future.

They were stunned. It was hard to believe. They expected him to act like others. Belligerent and domineering.

He was certainly domineering but it didn’t feel like it. It felt like a gentle hand encouraging them. They just didn’t realize it.

Having so many people. They leveled slowly. But the women were most excited. They had already gained three levels.

Most of them hadn’t been allowed to join hunts. Or not needed to. The men felt they needed to be sheltered. And if it wasn’t for that. A lot of them didn’t want to hunt either.

There wasn’t much difference in strength between women and men now. If they were on similar levels.

No one would acknowledge this for now. And this was only speaking in terms of physical strength. Where battle experience and abilities were excluded.

When one of the women reached level ten. An aura washed over the entire group. Din took this woman to the side. Spoke to her in private.

She had an ability to passively grant stamina regeneration. This was a unique attribute. Din didn’t know it was. But he did appreciate it.

‘She’s important.’

She was now the most important person in this camp. If everyone else died, they could be replaced. But this kind of aura was unique.

He ordered her to stay by his side and never leave. This roused some scorn, for both Din and the woman.

She felt the many burning gazes on her. She couldn't help but feel self conscious. But she was too shocked to show it.

Her female friends didn’t know what to do. They had agreed to be united. But they now felt jealous. When they realized this feeling, they felt angry. They wanted to revolt.

But this wasn’t the time for it. Soon their whispering died out. It was their turn to fight the beasts.

The beasts were more united out here. But they weren’t stronger. So even someone at level one could fight them one versus one.

It was their quantity that was frightening. Or it used to be. Today was the mark of their last day out here.

Din stood there tapping the air. He had an a soulless look on him, which gave his smile a creepy feeling. Few dared to look at him.

He ordered the people to march back to camp. Beside him was the same woman. She was now feeling a bit smug.

She had been afraid at the start. But now she felt she was important. She had made eye contact with her group of friends many times. Quickly she realize they were jealous.

Confused she didn’t know what to do. Then realized. Yes. You should be jealous. This man was the leader. And he had chosen her.

The more she thought this way, the more the smugness crept out. It was to the point where she would look at her female comrades with pity.

There was a quiet war going on between them. But no one but them knew.

Din had took the time to properly analyze the situation while out here. He realized the men were like hungry wolves. Their eyes on a woman any waking moment.

This was to be expected but he still felt they could show a little more restraint. Even he didn’t take too much of a look when all of them were naked or half naked in front of him.

This furthered his sense of superiority over others. His faith in the Laq Docte family grew even stronger. He felt a familiar intoxicating feeling.

Once back. He laid down some rules. Women had to choose a man. They could give terms and were given three days to decide.

Women were allowed to leave men for others. No fighting between camp members was allowed. He didn’t care if it sounded unfair or biased.

He didn’t want his tools destroying each other. This amount of women wasn’t enough for now. He would prefer it if they outnumbered the men.

Too few women would leave too many volatile men. They weren’t hard to control but they might act in a way that was harmful to his plans.

All the women were huddled together talking amongst themselves. After they got over the initial shock they felt angry.

They had to choose? Or else what? This was humiliation. And some of them felt they needed to take a stance.

But they lacked vision. Over half the women had already begun weighing and measuring the men in the camp.

The plan was to stand united and not pick anyone. It was a foolish decision. Din wasn’t merciful.

In a normal situation, he wouldn’t care at all what they did. But he needed children for the future. And all camp members were his livestock.

Despite their apparent resolve. Half the women began making demands of the men in secret. The camp wasn’t large so soon everyone knew.

This ruptured the short lived alliance. And by the end of the second day. Every woman had chosen a companion.

It wasn’t a hard decision. Everyone here knew each other for the most part. And for some reason, everyone here was good looking.

Some might be skinny or fat. But even then they had certain charm. No one realized this. So no one spoke up about it.

Even Din had never considered that the level of attractiveness his camp had. On earth he could have set up a modeling agency.

What Din hadn't considered was that some women took up to three men. This was a difference in culture. Only a few looked down on the men. Those without women still just felt envious.

After discovering this, Din felt he was short sighted and had much left to learn. If he had to redo it. He would have just divide the men evenly amongst the women.

He voiced his idea out to a few people. And it was obvious it wouldn't work out for now. The iron had already cooled.

‘I just need to find more people. I won’t make the same mistake twice.’

The days passed. Soon everyone had a roof over their head. They could sleep outside, but the lack of privacy was detrimental to Din plans.

‘I have to be careful to let them have enough energy after working. It’s good that there are no ways to prevent pregnancy out here.’

It was fortunate that Din kept most of his thoughts to himself. A vast majority of them would provoked to anger.

The next days were focused on setting up farmland. Small offshoots in the rivers were created.

A small funnel for the water to flow through, carefully managed by a hatch. It was primitive and shoddy work. But it saved them hours upon hours of work every day.

Labour was fine. But Din had bigger plans than to use these people to mule water back and forth.

Soon a simple pulley system was formed alongside the river. Used to ferry materials up and down the river. The ropes would need to be replaced every ten to twenty days.

Din had wanted to make a bridge over the river as well. But shelved the idea for now.

‘It’ll be too much work. Once we resupply our rope, we’ll create a hang bridge from two trees.’

The farming work was hard, but Din had made sure everyone had time to rest. Every seven days they only worked four days.

This was Din’s idea of efficiency. Rest of the time he encouraged hunting. Even going so far as to reward people for taking his crafters out to get experience.

For now, nothing else could be done. A couple months passed like this. According to Din’s information, the grasswheat should harvestable in two to three weeks.

The opportunity to hunt lessened but Din had reached level twenty nine. And should reach thirty before the grass wheat harvest began.

‘It turns out those places were rich in metals. I can’t do much with them for now. But in two weeks I can set up a forge.’

Most of the required farmland had already been prepared. So Din set his sights on the next objective. Mining.

Problem was, he couldn’t buy tools for it. He couldn’t make them either.

But once he bought this forge. It opened up the path to mining. And he’d devote majority of his workforce to it then.

‘If I can arm everyone with metal weapons. We should dominate the other two camps.’

He had researched the already known camp. And even found another camp. Two members of his camp were very impressive. They could easily avoid beasts attention.

He hadn’t given them much, but they were ecstatic to be chosen as scouts. It was easy work and were promised women once new ones arrived.

This was a rare chance for them. From their perspective, Din was benevolent towards women and for him to promise them one. It was beyond expectation.

Din himself felt these people were simple. He had one women by his side. He wouldn’t let her out of his sight. He felt her potential in future fights was too great.

There had been another person that had given others a buff. But it was a single use a short duration. Nonetheless this person was also treated well.

This caused a perception shift amongst the people. They now came willing forward and explained the abilities to Din.

After two additional people received special treatment. Everyone became greedy for benefits.

‘There is a trend. A generic attack skill without much potential, followed by a passive skill that bolsters attribute growth. And there are offshoots like Jao’s aura.’

There were other variations he hadn't found. A passive or active defensive ability. And control abilities.

It wasn’t that they were rare. They would only be granted at level forty five and sixty respectively.

And this was the reason it was so difficult to unite any land. Once a few individuals had a control ability. Any man could be killed.

This was why a ruler had to have loyal subjects. Unknowingly, Din was cultivating this in his people. Loyalty that is, it was what he had been taught to do.

‘Tomorrow I buy the forge. And a week later, hopefully i’ll be able to buy the tools to begin the mining operations.’

The forge would be placed closed to the river, midway between the river and the mining site.

Everyone had been prepared and they only lacked the tools to begin harvesting. The soil was so rich in metal they could scoop it up and just sift through it.

But he didn’t have sifts. He didn’t have a forge. Not yet at least.

Din had no way of knowing how to work the metal, or anything to with harvesting the metal.

But he would buy the information. Once he had the information, it was a matter of trial and error.

He had also found out that any crafting could lead to objectives. In almost all cases these were personal objectives. But he catalogued them all.

He was hoping the forge would trigger another objective. But he’d have to wait until tomorrow to find out.

People were already gathered around the planned forge area. An awkward road lead from the metal resources and the river. Forge would be built in between.

Din was waving his hands in the air. Up and down, then twisted his open palm. In front of him was a holograph of a large building.

‘This is bigger than I expected. It almost reaches the fog.’

The forge was larger than any shed in the camp. Perhaps twenty sheds would be of a similar size.

He could place the forge wherever he want. He could even use it to remove a tree, if it was in the way.

The foundation could be lifted up a meter above the ground. But he felt it would look odd. He then rotated the building to his taste.

‘This should be fine.’

Innumerable soft particles of light began appearing. The sight was mesmerizing at first. Many would never forget this experience.

Soon a rough foundation had been set. The walls came up. But no one could see what was happening inside the building.

Inside the forge, various items manifested themselves. An eternal fire rose. Four different entrances to the furnace lead to anvils. Clearly it was meant for four people to work at once.

‘This is amazing technology.’

His thoughts were mirrored by many of the camp members. A few of them had seen incredible technological achievements. But this was something different.

Advanced technology always seemed like magic. But was this magic? They couldn’t tell. Some were sure it was magic. Some were certain an alien race were just this advanced.

When the building finished. Din stood in place. Going through his node support interface. He was looking for the things the forge would unlock.

‘Alright. I can buy beginner forging methods, but no recipes. The forge already has an area to work the unfiltered metals.’

He was slowly making his way through. To his surprise, he saw he received some resource points. These were different however. And bound to the forge.

‘This is a bit strange. Not bad but strange.’

There was no explanation for this new resource. There never had been any for the other resource either. Only a way to accumulate more.

After a few moments, people began exploring the forge. It was a bit of a disappointment. Only a select few found it amazing.

When Din snapped out of his reverie, he began ordering people around. Supplied them with new tools and what they had to do.

The next few days were peaceful for the most part. The initial deposit of metals to the forge were enough to last a week.

The problem was the inefficiency of getting the metals to a usable form. So mining labour was at a minimum.

People were still assigned in rotation to do things. But their schedule of three days work, four days off remained.

In the forge Din watched over people work. The heat was staggering but not to a point where you couldn’t get used to it.

‘We need to make a form to pour the metals in.’

No one had prior forging experience so they really had no idea what to do. Even if they were told what to do.

A solution was found. They dug up the thick mud around the riverbank. The mud was used to create a form to pour the metal in.

A week after the forge was created. The first metal stick was produced. The person in charge received staggering bonus experience and a recipe for the stick.

This recipe was a holographic representation that only he saw. He was ecstatic. Soon the sticks began rolling out as fast as they could produce workable metals.

This kept going over time. Before long the people mining gained bonus experience and a method to ease the mining.

Even the people separating the soil from the metals began receiving bonus experience and a method to increase efficiency.

The experience was great at first but the subsequent productions were one tenth of the first one. But they were still ecstatic. They didn’t need to go fight terrifying beasts to level up!

They could just stay in the camp and work for the experience. Din was happy as well. He received a new camp objective.

Objectives

Arm the militia

Produce enough weapons to arm half the population

Currently five out of thirty four are armed with metal weapons

It didn’t matter if the resources given by these objectives were low. They were still at least four weeks worth of resource points.

‘Good. I was going to arm every last man and woman anyway.’

They had hammers and a grinder in the forge. But those were mostly ignored. Until one day someone was casually spending their free time roaming around the forge.

They hadn’t been impressed at the start, but now they were creating weapons here. He felt it wasn’t beneath him anymore.

After watching the workers toil away in the sweltering heat. He felt again that this was beneath him. But he wandered around, saw the racket of unused tools on the wall. He saw the grinders.

He stepped on a petal and it began spinning. His thoughts went to his home planet. He had sat on similar things in the gym. It was an immobile bicycle.

It was heavy and hard to spin, but he liked it. He felt nostalgic. He was one of the people that had already received a metal rod. He was proud of his stick. As many others were.

Din was in the forge today. He was wondering about some things. He had tried to make swords but whatever they made, it was worse off than just the metal rods.

Today he saw someone sit behind a grinder. He was just making it spin and spin. He was about to ignore him when he saw the guy lift up his rod.

At first the guy was a bit hesitant. But soon he placed one end of the rod on the grinder and sparks began raining down.

‘What is he doing? What is that thing?’

Even if Din was in charge of this whole place and had access to information no one else had. He had no idea what half the tools here were for.

This grinder apparatus had been inspected by him. But he still had no idea what it was for. Even when he saw the sparks fly into the air he wasn’t enlightened.

‘He’d have to spent a few weeks at it if he wants to destroy the rod.’

Reassured he couldn’t destroy the stick, Din continued watching. After a while he got bored and continued wondering how to make swords.

The man on the grinder was inspecting his rod. He was a bit worried. He didn’t want his rod to be damaged.

He saw that he made some small progress, one end of it been shaved away. It wasn’t enough to create an edge.

He thought to himself that might be able to create a sharp point on the edge if he worked at it. And he was enjoying himself.

It wasn’t like he would destroy the rod if he shaved off a little more. So he continued playing around.

Three days later, he returned to the forge. His stick was almost complete. He was a little smug. He had been bragging to some the guys he was friends with.

The word began to spread. Someone had been messing with his rod. A lot of people wanted rods and so when they heard someone was playing around with theirs. They were angry.

Some went so far as to tattle on him. Din went to see the guy. He was in the forge right now, just grinding away.

‘It does look okay.’

After watching him for a few moments Din turned around and spoke to the people creating metal rods.

He also went outside and ordered some people around. Soon all the rods were gathered. A few people were selected and moved from mining duty to grinding duty.

The man on the grinder had a bit of a blank look on his face. He had just been messing about. But now his job was to grind all day. He used dig up the soil in the mining area.

This wasn’t much better in his opinion. The forge was really too hot. He had only spent a little time here every day grinding a bit out, before being overwhelmed by the heat.

But it was too late to regret it now. He was a grinder. He felt people’s respect but he wasn’t satisfied. It really was too hot in there.

‘This makes things a lot simpler. I need to change up the training with the rods.’

Now that the rods had a new function, they needed be able to use them effectively. The rods weren’t long. They were considered one handed weapons.

‘Shouldn’t we have shields as well? That makes sense right?’

The days passed in a void. If it wasn’t for the constant rotation of people working they’d probably loss all sense of time.

After a week. Some shields began popping up alongside the rods. They were a bit tricky to make. Because they need to create handles on the flat disc.

The man who pioneered this handle was celebrated by the forgers. Really a genius. This was how they felt.

He also received substantial experience bonus and was granted a recipe for the handle. The shield was still just something they poured into a mold.

The handle could be attached to numerous things. It needed to be attached to the shield and this was what the recipe was.

Din got another objective to clear. Half the people needed to be equipped with a shield. So their attack had to be delayed for some time.

The grass wheat had been harvested and people were busying themselves with finding ways to cook with it.

Some just made soup with it and beast meat. But many wanted bread. And devoted their spare time to find ways to mill the wheat.

Someone wanted to create a waterwheel by the river. But he had no idea how to do it. Eventually someone decided to copy the grinder.

This was an endeavour and a half. It would have been too hard for him. But the forgers were excited to help him. They also wanted fine bread. Even if it was green.

The handle expert relayed his wisdom in a way that a grandfather relayed his teachings to his grandchildren. He was very smug. He’d fall asleep at night smiling.

Din had been trying hard to think about the future prospects of things. But it was sad that he wasn’t all that smart.

He was educated. He had unswerving will. His ambitions could be considered absurd. Conquer, dominate and flourish. This was the Laq Docte mantra.

Din could be like this because he wasn’t his own person. He lived for his family. He was taught that everything else lacked worth.

He believed that if it wasn't for the Laq Docte, the people of Earth might even regress back to savages. This was blind faith.

Even to this day he thought of a way to die. He had been commanded to die. And he believed he needed to die for the family. So he jumped off his high rise apartment.

There had been no hesitation. He believed this was needed of him. For the family. But to his shock and much grief, he hadn’t died.

that wasn’t all. he realized he couldn’t even have others kill him. For a zealot like Din. This was a form of torture.

Currently Din was in his shed with a woman. He had just ended his activities and was dressing himself.

‘I need at least two descendant.’

He needed to have firm roots on this planet. If his family could come to this planet. They needed a firm foundation to work with. This is what drove Din.

A few of the women already had swollen stomachs. They still had to work. Din assigned them handcrafting jobs.

He wanted to properly mark people. He had them create insignias that would be sewn into clothes.

Surprisingly, the most prolific tailor was the rope enthusiast. He wasn’t the most talented. But he had burning desires.

There wasn't much need for military order. But Din still thought he should establish a chain of command.

Everyone had jobs to do but also had to attend battle training. It wasn’t too strict but he did assign some superiors. These people commanded five to eight people each.

They only had right to command others while training or during battle. This became awkward at times. One of the lead forgers was a subordinate to one of his own subordinates.

They came to a mutual understanding of respect. Soon they became more like co-leaders. Din didn’t care. He wasn’t a military commander. He just did what he thought he needed to do.

‘What am I going to do with this.’

You have reached level thirty!

After reaching this milestone you are granted one ability.

You have been granted the ability: Improved instincts!

It was a bit strange. Every point he spent from now on would increase his instincts by two.

In addition to this his strength and dexterity would increase by one for every ten points in instincts.

He wasn’t sure if he should be angry or happy. He was just disappointed he didn’t receive an aura ability.

Strength: 48

Intelligence: 30

Dexterity: 48

Wisdom: 30

Willpower: 30

Constitution: 30

Stamina: 30

Health: 400

Mana: 250

Health recovery: 40

Mana recovery: 25

Instinct: 188.5

His strength and dexterity both reached forty eight. Eighteen points for the hundred and eighty points in instinct.

Din looked at the information in front of him. He stared at it for a long time before sighing to himself. He didn’t know what to do with it.

Some people could now conjure ranged projectiles to throw at enemies. But him, he had three passive abilities. He was confused.

No one really understood what was going on this place. They just tried to survive. They all had their own stories.

Most of them were important people on their home planet. But now they were all here. Some digging up metals. Or farming.

The luckiest ones were the people with crafting skills. If they found a recipe. Din would allow them to focus entirely on crafting. Otherwise they had to labour.

Today Din was thinking. Too many people were finding things to craft. He needed more livestock. His eyes pierced north. He was going to attack the north survivor camp.

In just a week. He’d have enough to finish two objectives. He had finished the arming over half the people. Soon everyone would have a sharpened rod.

Once he finished the objective, he could buy the rods from the forge interface. But he felt it was a waste. He had his eyes far into the future.

He needed more facilities like the forge. There were numerous production buildings he could buy. The forge was just the most useful one in his mind.

Today they would finish the last shield. And tomorrow, they would march.

Only few were left behind. Eight pregnant women and some crafters. The two were already making sure the march would be unnoticed.

Din had planned this attack for a time now. He wasn’t worried he’d fail. It wasn’t because he was sure of his success.

He didn’t view failure and success in the same way normal people would. Anything he did was an experience. He was taught that not all things can succeed.

If he fails and every member of the camp dies. He’ll find another way. There wasn’t much to think about.

The other members of the camp were confident in their chances. They had trained. They were armed. Even to the extent of having shields.

They could fight with up to three people in a formation. Most hadn’t realized how confident they all were.

On the day of the march, Din played with a metal rod. Fifty people would go fight today. They had estimated the other camp had twice as many members.

But they weren’t worried. Because they also knew that their members were in similar shape as they had been in, before Din arrived.

Din didn’t believe he’d meet much resistance. Of course the other camp’s leader might consider fighting back. But he’d just have to kill him.

On the way, Din made sure they gathered any fruit or vegetable that was safe to eat. This wasn’t for his people.

This was part of his plan. There was no need to fight in his mind. Instead of worrying about how the battle would go. He was planning how future roads would be built.

‘Even if we can build around these trees. I think it’s better to just take them down. We can use them as materials for more rafts and houses.’

Since he didn’t have machines, the river was the best way to move large quantities of food or other materials.

The road would be built beside the river with possibilities for expansion. If the traffic required it.

…

…

…

‘Once we take over this node we can abandon this area. And head back.’

It didn’t matter where the people would live. The road would only transport miners and the materials. But that was far in the future.

“Din!”

‘This is one of the scouts. What did he want to be called again? Shadow something.’

He had given them orders to return to him if something came up.

Din had completely forgotten his name. So he stared deeply into his eyes. He was trying to recall.

Shadows errants. That was the codename he wanted. He had actually begun feeling independant. A lot due to the fact he spent little time in the camp.

But now he felt more afraid than when he had to stand only a few meters away from a large pack of beasts.

‘It’s impossible to remember all these names.’

“Shadows errants requests to speak.”

He felt that Din was unhappy with him. He saw those eyes, it was his second encounter with those eyes.

Last time he felt pressured, this time he felt like his soul was being groped and fondled. It wasn’t until he mentally gave up that he felt relief.

“Did you see something?”

Forty nine people watched this engagement. The feelings were split two ways, one felt pity for the man. The others were envious.

There were whispers in the camp. The leader’s gaze could change a person. That’s what was being said, these were rumours.

Din’s eyes were no different than others. Perhaps a bit too bright. Even in the shadow of the forest they still shone.

What made them different was his intentions. He didn’t show indifference. It wasn’t curiosity, anger, lust or love. His intentions were always to appease.

This was hard to learn. Almost as hard to learn as it was hard to teach the loyalty, the undying devotion Din felt for his family.

This was because this devotion wasn’t just a feeling. It was a character, a personality. His interest were the interest of his family. This was a near impossible achievement.

In stories you’ll hear of people willing to die for others. This was a similar thing. Except that wasn’t the limit. Din would live for the family.

This meant that even in his dreams, he dreamt of a future where Laq Docte would save this world from itself.

To have such character. You can achieve a degree of sincerity only the most devote zealots might achieve. Others fought for gods, Din fought for Laq Docte.

It wasn’t strange that people felt his gaze held power. It was because in truth. It did. It could invoke fear, admiration, respect or even love.

But what it would never do, is provoke people's ire. Most would at least feel a urge to please.

After briefing Din on the problems ahead he left as quietly as he arrived. Din wasn’t worried.

‘We’ll still have to change course.’

The scout has informed him that an unexpected number of roaming beasts were seen.

They were not directly in their path but they might stumble on a few, there was no direct danger in this.

Din had other thoughts on the matter. He estimated that a beast invasion from a neighbouring territory was beginning.

They were soon to cross the border from his land to the enemies. Had he strafed some distance north-east, he would enter the territory of a beast king.

Whether he was correct in his assumption didn’t matter. If they encountered a beast tide, they’d kill a beast tide.

At this point in time. Few things would oppose this troop. Their training was shallow, their weapons the works of amateurs. This was all true.

But in this location, they were kings. They were unrivaled. Perhaps only organized beast kings could overrun them.

And so they continued their march. A new path was configured. It was not accurate, but it didn’t matter.

While the marched, Din felt the lack of real transportation. He didn’t know how to fix this problem. He was thinking about using the river, and a lot of rope.

But the idea was only forming, he had to consult his rope fanatic. He also decided to let that waterwheel guy have a few people to help him out.

In the cover of enormous trees and thick fog, time was ambiguous. Din thought about one issue to another and before he knew it, he was only a few dozen meters away from the enemy camp.

Din walked ahead of the group. When he was a ten or so meters ahead of the group he waves his hand. The rest began following after him.

It was hard to miss the arrival of fifty people. They were quiet but they couldn’t turn invisible. People screamed and ran towards the camp.

Din felt this was natural and continued slowly making his way towards the camp. Some people didn’t even run, they just watched on as people walked passed them.

Din matched the gaze with one of the men. He was holding up a half made basket. Weaved out of the thin bark of a particular tree.

He appeared mature. But his calm gaze surprised Din nonetheless. He stopped for a moment. Forty nine people came to a stop as well.

Din nodded to the man. The other party nodded back. They felt like kindred souls. They had similar characters. Except one had ambition, while the other did not.

The difference might not seem great. But one was to be a king and the other a peasant.

These two didn’t know. But one wrong or right action and they would be fated rivals or bosom friends.

Seeing the man nod back. Din felt assured and kept marching into the heart of the camp.

The camp’s leader could see Din’s troop arrive from where he stood. He saw Din stop. He was confused. Everyone was confused.

But it didn’t last long. Today he couldn’t be lost in confusion. Today he might lose his life. But it wasn't that he wasn’t confident in his abilities.

He knew that man Din greeted. He knew he wasn’t simple. He didn’t necessarily fear him, but he did respect him.

He had been here for a few months. The food situation was hard on many, but somehow that man always had meat.

He’d vanish from the camp. When he was seen again, he was roasting a new beast.

He was thinking about these things. And Din drew closer. But he still hadn’t properly laid eyes on Din. he was still thinking,

Their camp had over hundred people. Only twenty percent wasn’t here at the moment. But they nearly outnumbered them two to one.

He was thinking this. He also knew a day would come where he’d have to expand the camp. He’d know that someone might attack him.

But this wasn't enough people, or so he thought. But that trail of thought changed when he started noticing the items these newcomers were wearing.

He was baffled. Are those shields? And metal sticks? You all have the same stick? This made him more confused than ever. Where the hell did you all get these sticks?

Not just sticks. But shields and sticks. And you all look so relaxed. Is this a quiet stroll around town? We’re about to go to war here.

Din came to a stop maybe twenty meters away from their gathered troop. They were armed with various things. Mostly wooden sticks, some even just had a basket of stones.

‘This is worse than I expected.’

He wasn’t referring to their weapons or number of people. He was looking at their bodies. They were skinny. The shelters were some form of tents with the occasional shack.

He wondered how long they had been here. He guessed maybe a month.

Of course he guessed wrong. They had been here half a year now. And changed leaders three times. Only this new leader was better received than the others.

He didn't arbitrarily punish people. He only kept five women by his side. This was considered modest. He demanded people went out hunting at least two times every ten days.

That was the extent of his dictatorship. Rest of the time he’d go out with his team and hunt.

When they returned they would share some of the spoils before shutting themselves in with their respective women.

“I want this support node.”

The silence was biting. But no one felt the words were strange. Only the manner they were spoken.

It didn't feel like a demand. It felt like a good friend came to you and asked you for a small favour.

A few people had the idea that maybe these two knew each other. And for some reason they felt reassured.

“What can you give me?”

Initially he had intended to fight. He was confident in his abilities after all. His level was reaching forty, after hunting like a madman with his trusted team.

When Din heard those words he smiled. His gaze softened further. He already liked this person. So he walked closer.

This scared quite a few people. Even if he smiled, they couldn’t see his eyes. But their leader did. So he wasn’t afraid.

“I can promise you some things.”

A vague answer for a vague question. It didn’t seem to mean much. Many would feel it was nonsense. But they knew a quiet fight had begun.

“That’s good, should we find a more quiet place then? Please.”

He didn’t wait for Din to answer he turned around after gesturing towards a rather large shed.

‘He’ll be useful.’

Useful. At least he thought so much. He did not think the man who had been weaving a basket would be useful. That man wasn’t a follower. And couldn't follow others.

This camp’s leader was different. He’d want earthly things. He wanted women, good food, exciting battles and most importantly, a purpose.

In this camp he already had three of those. And Din would give him the fourth.

“My name is long.”

Din nodded. Quite a few people had long names. Some were even difficult to pronounce.

“So they call me First. Because I always draw first blood.”

The words sounded like a hidden threat, but they weren’t. First was a violent man in a way. He wasn’t straightforward. He was cunning to an extent, but he liked the feeling of danger.

Din thought it over for a moment. He wasn’t thinking this man liked to fight. He was still wondering why people kept renaming themselves.

This was a mystery to him. He treasured his name like gold. There was severity in his voice every time he spoke it out loud.

“I am Din. Of Laq Docte.”

First didn’t understand this way of introduction. But he didn’t care to think about it either. You can be of the sun and moon, for all I care. This is what he thought.

“Good.”

“Good.”

Din mirrored First words. This was again something Din had been raised to do. He did these things unconsciously. There wasn’t much intention behind it.

“If you have any needs. I’ll see to them. I intend to move you all down south with me.”

First hadn’t expected this. But then again, he didn't care either.

“There is a beast invasion south east.”

“We’ll deal with it on the way back.”

“I want a place to stay, no worse than this house.”

He called it a house. No one would call this a house. Din felt this wasn’t an issue either way. He nodded, indicating he’d provide one.

“I also want those sticks and shields. For me and my men.”

Din felt this was obvious and gestured to the woman by his side. This was his woman, Jao, she never left his sight. She was too important.

She walked towards the door of the shed, whispered a few words to the person outside. And soon ten rods and ten shields were laid in front of First.

First was a bit shocked. He felt this was a bit extreme. Too fast, but he snapped out of his thoughts after inspect the weapons.

“Good.”

“Good.”

In truth. This was all First wanted. He fought hard to think about other things. But eventually sighed and began waving his hands in the air.

He was accessing his support node interface. He had to transfer the ownership. Only this way would Din be able to take over the area, without killing him.

This was the best way to achieve ownership of support nodes, the area would retain their resource points this way.

In addition. If you killed the owner of multiple support nodes, you would only receive the nearest support node. The others would go back to their neutral state.

In their neutral state, anyone could claim them. Even beast kings could be born in such conditions, allowed the time.

The way past this was being conferred the support nodes. Only when the current owner of the nodes gave them away could you receive multiple support nodes at once.

‘After the people eat, we’ll get rid of this invasion. Then head back.’

Din took a look at the updated benefits of having two connected support nodes. It was a minor increase. The main benefit this time around would be the increase in resource point income.

‘Once I’ve got a few support nodes, the bonus experience multipliers will begin to shine.’

The only way to gain experience in such a low level zone was to conquer many zones. Once multiple zones were united, the experience gain would sky rocket.

If you gain ten experience for killing an ordinary beast, then you’d gain eleven when controlling a support node.

It wasn’t until you controlled multiple nodes that you’d feel the increase. Ten zones would double the experience per support node.

So the experience would go from ten percent per zone to twenty. Meaning two hundred percent experience or thirty experience per ordinary beast.

This meant you would level at a decent rate, but also any newbie would level at an incredible rate as well. Making it easier to train new troops in less time.

This was one of the important benefits of multiple support nodes.

You have acquired your second support node!

You will receive an additional ten percent increase in experience while within your territory.

You gain additional resource points every seven days you hold your current support nodes.

There wasn’t much to it. The resource gain was only so much. Chances of being invaded increased, allowing for more resource points, from objectives.

Din wasn’t impressed. It also dawned on him. Even if people had to come to him personally to challenge him, beast invasion would drag him across his territory.

He again felt the lack of transportation. In the end he’d have to construct roads and perhaps even capture and tame beast.

When his thoughts came to this point, he felt it was sensible. Why not capture beasts, rear them and raise them for transportation, even food.

The more the thought about this, the more he felt it was a viable option. He now imagined great swaths of land littered with domesticated beasts.

‘It is the Laq Docte way to bring people civilisation.’

Din had already ordered his people to feed the hundred some new recruits. He was now thoroughly entranced in his thoughts.

He felt intoxicated. Every thought of the future filled him with a sense of justification. His Laq Docte family really were the light in the darkness.

It wasn’t until people had finished eating and First came to speak with Din that he snapped out of his reverie. His woman hadn’t left his sight.

She was used to this. Sometimes Din would fall into this intoxicating reverie, he’d assume a pious expression. This was him reaffirming his believes.

On their way back they fought the beasts. Having over hundred and fifty people they obliterated anything in their path.

First got to see the fruits of Din’s battle training. He felt impressed but also slight disdain. He felt he could improve their methods.

After discussing with Din, Din agreed to make him a commander. First fit the part like a glove. He didn’t care what they would do. He was excited at the thought of training people.

He imagined hundreds, perhaps thousands of people rushing into battle. Him taking the lead. He was lost in this train thought.

Din ignored him. He liked the man, but Din didn't like them as people. He liked them for their use. Maybe only the man weaving the basket could be considered friend worthy.

That man had tagged along as well. He was dead quiet and hard to notice. Din even forgot about him. Even the people walking close to him didn’t glance at him.

It didn't take them long to beat back the beast invasion. Din elected to sleep where they were for the night.

Despite people's increased stamina, sleep seemed a different phenomena.