The camp was very busy after returning. The whole ordeal took a great toll on people. A lot dreaded Din’s declaration.

He had told them they would set out in another two months. Seven had died. Two women and five men.

It somehow felt different now. In the past a lot of people would die, especially when they became too weak to fight properly.

These seven death’s put a new unknown pressure on people. They remember how Din had chased that giant beast away.

They weren’t grateful or awe inspired. They felt left behind. Originally all of them had a similar start. Why was this fellow so strong in comparison?

In truth. They weren’t all that weaker than Din. They just couldn’t move like his instincts. The more they trained, and the more fighting experience they gained. The closer they would be.

Din’s instinct only knew what to do because somewhere Din had learned them. It exerted his body to the best of its knowledge. Knowledge Din possessed but had no idea how to use.

The more danger Din got into. The more his instincts knew to be careful of. After this he had gained considerable experience.

The first building was called a refinery. This place was exactly what it sounded like. It made sense to Din to build this building first.

Currently he could afford one other building. But he wanted people to discover the refinery first, he looked down on people and thought they were simple.

If multiple buildings were created, they might be overwhelmed by the new information. It was an absurd attitude. But how would anyone know his thoughts?

The refinery described itself. In it you could learn methods to refine materials. Some, they already knew. But still benefited from.

The people that mined and worked the metals felt enlightened. Some people began trying out working other materials.

There weren’t any other production buildings, but people had already built sheds from materials bought with resource points.

Largest benefit came to the group of rope makers. They were enlightened and a large scale gathering of a previously useless flora began.

Din felt they were on to something and ordered a new plantation. They could make fine thread. This mean he would no longer need to buy it.

It would take years to make up for the cost of the building, if only thread was considered. But they might be able to make planks for sheds.

There were even ways to further improve metal refining. This would increase durability of all future production. This was because the metal was purer.

‘I would have bought it sooner had I known.’

Some things had to be left to fate. Din had saved quite a sum before taking the beast’s node. But he still could only afford two buildings.

The refinery was the cheapest. Even cheaper than the forge. What surprised Din was that he could buy more information on valuable materials.

This was different than before. He had to buy specific information for wild plants and trees. And even more precious metals.

There was even gems. But he had no idea what the use for these were, so he put it out of his mind.

‘If it’s like this. I should set up the other building as well.’

This new building was called Scriptions. This was a confusing thing. Similar to the refinery it didn’t directly produce items.

If the refiner was a foundation, then scription was the roof. But it was a mistake to build. It required too much time to study.

If they had a fledged out novice scriptionist, it would have been worth many times the resource points. It was unfortunate.

‘What is this stuff?’

Din and a lot of other people now had access to the beginner methods to scription. All of them felt it was confusing. It looked easy.

Someone wanted a head start and even began practicing. She was engraving her metal rod. But it wasn’t this simple. It was because it wasn’t magic.

This wasn’t a genuine game. Materials were needed in tandem with it. After spending some time reading Din noticed it.

The inscriptions needed those gems. It rather precise amounts as well. The more Din read the more assured he was.

So he began buying some information from the refinery. There was a method to work the gems into a powder.

That powder could be used into inks, special metal paint, fused into threads or scorched into leather.

Once Din felt he had read up enough, he was overwhelmed. This required a lot of effort. And the end result of it was unknown.

These gems did not exist on Earth or anywhere else for that matter.

They were artificial a byproduct of some sort. They were similar to the source of power that held this world together.

If used right they could produce a source of energy. Like gunpowder it required mechanism to harness its power. Without it was just an explosive energy source.

No one here knew any of this. So this was just labeled magic. Even Din was beginning to come around. Was this magic?

It wasn’t that they were narrow minded or closed off. It was just hard to imagine something you’ve never been exposed to.

Even the most creative of people require a foundation to build on.

‘It’s good I didn’t build this building first.’

He felt regretful. He felt this was the only wrong decision he had made since got here. He was fully immersed in this failure.

Even while feeling the weight of it on him. He began ordering people to prepare a quick excavation of these gems.

He didn’t set out to make it a full fledge operation. He wanted to see if this had any long term benefit.

It took some time to get the refining down. It was decided to make a type of ink. This required a different form of refining.

Herbs were picked and refined. It was more shoddy work, but it could be considered useful for practice.

The hardest part was to create the right ratio of refined gem dust versus amount of ink. This further massacred its quality.

By the point they had workable product the benefits of the end result scription was so low it was near negligible.

The most fundamental use of it was just to slather it on whatever you wanted to empower. The empowered items could result in more durability and cause a minor repulsive force.

The higher quality the inscription, the higher durability the item needed. If it was used on armor it would deflect impact in a similar way.

The metal rod’s quality wasn’t high but it was capable of handling this poor quality inscription ink.

Soon they tried out the new ink. The ink wouldn’t last. Metals needed to be engraved and then you’d fill the engravings with the special painting.

Din was disappointed in this. He saw the impact the ink caused. He felt it was as useful as the consumables.

He couldn’t know that the ink was just a horrible product. The scribing had also not reached novice. This was just slathering it on.

The energy flowed in a specific way. It needed to be scribed in a way that complimented it. It could also be empowered further but without instructions it was hard to divine.

Even with Din’s lack of interest in this field. Quite a few people thought of themselves as intellectuals. This whole scriptions fiasco ignited their scholarly spirits.

It would take a miracle, a lot of tedious labour, refining and blind luck. For them it was a worthy quest. What else was there to do out here?

In their minds, they were already labouring in a jungle. With no end in sight. This was a form of liberation.

There weren’t enough people to get into this subject. At first there were fifteen of them. Din didn’t assign anyone to it.

Two weeks in and there were only five people that continued the good fight. They had to march to the gem mine. Haul it back.

They needed to refine both gems and herbs. Din had a few people volunteer to practice refining so this wasn’t too much of issue.

They got better at making ink and even tried their hands at metal paint. The rope enthusiast ordered one of his subordinates to help them.

He wanted that infused thread. When he got it he was happy. The thread was near identical and in short supply but it’s tensile string at least doubled.

There wasn’t much of it but he just needed for the most fragile parts.

Din was somehow inexplicably interested in everything this man did. He had long forgotten his name. But Din didn’t need to know anyone else's name.

Everytime Din talked to people. He would state his purpose and called them you or just not bother with it.

No one would call him rude for it. They got used to it and soon it was expected.

A month had passed since they returned to camp. A new star had risen in the refinery. The basket weaver that Din felt was different from other people.

He had stumbled into the refinery looking for more materials and decided he’d just do it himself. He didn’t dislike the people but he didn’t like them either.

After finding out about the new refining methods he refined the bark of small bush plants. He also wanted to work with threads so began doing that as well.

It was like the awakening of sleeping dragon. He stopped caring about his handicrafts and obsessed over refining.

Din had no idea. Very few people even noticed. But in the refining community it was considered impressive.

Near two months had passed since they returned and Din felt they rested long enough. He told them they’d march for the eastern node tomorrow.

This journey was very similar. Shorter by a day. The beast king this time around moved on four legs. It wasn’t as smart as the previous one.

This time Din didn’t fight it alone he had them swarm it. It was quickly beaten into unconsciousness.

Once unconscious they hammered a rod into its brain. Like nailing a hammer. It took effort to pierce its thick hide and bones.

Only two people died. Din was very unhappy about this. He felt these people were doing it intentionally. It wasn’t hard to stay alive.

Din reached level thirty two. He was somewhat baffled how slowly it went. They had killed thousands of beast by now.

He let people rest again after taking the node. He built an Artificer. They contained methods to work with leather, threads and other handcrafted materials.

This time around Din was happy. He had bought too many clothes for these people. He felt they could walk around naked. It wasn’t cold here, even at night.

This time around the near half the camp was interested. The many different methods allowed people to pick something they liked.

Still many people didn’t care for any of the production jobs available and focused on hunting and training. People like First.

Din kept to his carving. A few people mimicked him and took up whittling as well. A few genuinely liked it.

He still felt it was boring. But when he had nothing else to do he continued to carve away. It was cathartic.

It had to be said. He wasn’t gifted in this. The reason he continued was he was taught to divert his mind. Being idle is a poison. He believed this.

With the artificer and refinery he got higher quality wood to mess around with. He’d been making forks.

Din made a decree that everyone would take up an occupation. He allocated people work, to supply materials and refine them.

Right now they didn’t want for any specific tools. He was thinking about this transport issue. His animal rearing plan wasn’t working. These animals would not calm down.

He had hopes for their offspring but they’d need be born first. And it didn’t look like they were active in breeding while in captivity.

Once he took his tenth node he’d be able to buy a animals. Very expensive animals. They’d be loyal and follow him and this camp’s members into death.

Until they he could only try to breed wild beasts.

Din’s woman, Jao, took up refining and working with leather. She was making carpets. Din didn’t know what to make of this. He thought she should make something more useful with it.

Once the first small carpet was made he changed his mind. He liked the feeling on his feet. He felt his world was too small.

‘Maybe the entire floor could be leather.’

He took it up with Jao. she felt it was an odd request. But she liked refining leather. She didn’t mind doing this. She also felt Din was a strange man.

She had gotten used it. At least she wasn’t ignored. He was a bit reserved in bed but that wasn’t a problem for her. At least he made sure she was taken care of as well.

There was a lot of pride in her now. She was very satisfied with the situation. A lot of the women were very satisfied. They took pride in their man or men.

With all the new production jobs, Din again felt the lack of people. He had sent his scouts on a job. They traveled to the north-eastern node. To check out the adjacent nodes.

If he found a new camp of people, he’d rush over and steal them. He needed more people. At the drop of a hat, they could expands their farms to accommodate thousand more people.

During the time of rest. People got more and more used to their situation. At first they didn’t like all the rules. They had to work, and take a production job.

Those that didn’t enjoy it felt oppressed. If it wasn’t because they were free to pursue whatever production they wanted it might not have settled.

The communities around each production helped settle people down. It was no longer just about creating something, a chore. It was not about the other people doing these chores.

One day someone created a poor bow and arrow. It was created with flexible refined wood, refined thread that had been infused with refined gem dust.

It wasn’t very good. But it was a bow. A method to shoot projectiles. This was one of the rare recipes. Din was thrilled about the development and assigned a ten man team to the person.

She was a bit overwhelmed at first but got used to the sense of power fast. She now had ten subordinates. She could demand materials now.

With the production of bows. Arrows had to be made. She didn’t get a recipe for it so they kept making poor arrows.

A second individual felt this was a chance. He began spending all his time creating prototype arrows. In the end it was too hard to find a replacement for feathers.

After a few weeks, he found a replacement. It was a product by the basket weaver acknowledged by Din. The bark was very light nearly see through. It couldn’t be used for much.

It had been sidelined and stored away. Now it became very popular but people didn’t know where it came from. Soon they found how to replicated it and a recipe for an arrow appeared.

This was a momentous occasion. The camp could now wield bows. Soon there was established mandatory shooting practice. First was very enthusiastic about the whole ordeal.

On their next node hunt. They lost no people. The beast king’s hide wasn't easy to penetrated but they took him down with ease.

They lost no people. There was a celebration when they came back. Din said a few words and praised the bowyer and arrow maker. He really was happy with them.

Din was getting closer to ten nodes. It didn’t seem like there would be any issue. Once they resupplied the arrows they would take the next area.

Things were progressing fast. Far faster than Din had ever hoped. He still wanted more people. A few kids had popped out. The camp was very doting on these newborns.

Jao was still not pregnant. Din wasn’t surprised. It was rare for a Laq Docte people to produce children. This was not due to a lack of trying. His father was over fifty when Din was born.

She didn’t feel good about it. People will always doubt themselves. She felt they had tried very hard.

He however didn’t care at all. He wanted descendants. But they could appear in a few years. If things didn’t look too bright he’d take more women.

He had six nodes now. That was sixty percent experience increase. It still barely dented his path to thirty three.

The next threshold was level forty five. Those without it, would be guaranteed a defensive ability. At sixty they’d have a strong chance to get a control ability of some sort.

Even with ten nodes. Level sixty was only achieved in dreams. Whatever the issue would be. Din would simply gather more nodes until he ran out.

When he felt they had enough arrows, they took the south-western node. It was as close to a flawless takeover as it could be. This beast king was fast.

It was fast and no lesser than the others. The camp however now had metal tipped arrows. These arrows could penetrate its hide. Hundred arrows left no room for opposition.

‘We could take over the western node.’

He thought it through. Spoke to First, who instantly agreed. He was too eager. Din wasn’t sure how to feel about it.

So they marched from the south-western node and headed north. Straight to the western node. They conserved their metal tipped arrows for the beast king.

Its hide was thick as bark. Yet it was riddled with arrows. The wobbling porcupine had even arrows pierced into its eyes. It reached its brain. There was nothing to stop Din’s advancement.

‘That’s eight nodes.’

They’d have to cross an entire territory if they wanted to take over more nodes. His scouts had not found any other camps. But that didn’t mean there weren’t any.

It was impossible for them to travel without end. They got to rest just like the rest of the camp.

There are six nodes surrounding the core node Din was developing. Surrounding those six nodes were twelve other nodes.

His scouts had gone to five of them. They retreated once the amount of beasts were too numerous.

No one knew that this might not be a sufficient method. If the node was being discarded like all of Din’s auxiliary nodes. They’d be populated by beasts.

Once they go to the actual node. They should discover whether it is really a beast king's territory.

Back at camp everyone got back to their usual jobs. The forgers felt they had lost a lot of face when the bow and arrow was introduced.

Weren’t they the weapons experts? They felt they had to do something so they stopped their pet projects and worked together.

One of the oldest. And mind, this is oldest by a few years, not much more. He made his voice slightly deeper and conveyed his wisdom.

He suggested that it was easiest to improve upon already existing thing. So they tried improve the rod. That didn’t work out.

Eventually they conjured up the small metal arrow tips. This was heralded as a great discovery. And the forgers felt pride once more.

There was a lot of fire lit under the crafters. Prestige came with great inventions. And they didn’t need to invent anything. Just recreate the wheel. So to speak.

That was also on the menu. Some people fancied themselves to be woodworkers. And a waterwheel was under construction.

They had problems with the gears or whatever made it spin like it did. They had requested taking apart a grinder. This wasn’t popular with the forgers.

Forgers held a lot of weight. Din didn’t care at all, but they never brought it up with him. They only argue amongst themselves.

There were things they had taken for granted. Like wheels, which were now something important but not out of reach.

On a routine stroll. Din was reminiscing about one of his father’s teachings. His father used to say. People can’t read your mind, but you can let them pretend they can.

This was a part of a larger lesson, how his appearance not only needed to maintained but manipulated.

His father taught him many things. Every Laq Docte was treated like a rough diamond. They had to be polished into brilliance. Their edges had to be sharpened.

Most of Din’s lessons came directly from his grandfather. His grandfather was near a century old when Din was born.

His favorite saying was that he didn’t know what he didn’t know and barely knew what he did know.

On multiple occasions Din thought about these words. And he had always agreed with the words. His deferred meaning might change, but he felt they were correct.

He would often study his betters words. These words were his gospel. If accumulated into a book. He’d call it the Laq Docte bible.

In truth, Laq Docte were more philosophers than entrepreneurs and visionaries. They managed the footing on Earth through indirect means. It could be called luck. It wasn’t ingenuity.

It was because they were all raised by a high functioning but mentally disabled man that had survived the traumatic experience Din was now facing. At least similar.

But from persistent insanity sprouted a cult like mentally seen in Din. Din of course didn’t think of things like this. He felt immense love for his family.

Jao was now more confident in her demeanour. She wasn't just reaffirming her actions now. She firmly believed she was a pillar of the community.

No one would argue with her. She had been isolated from other peoples in the way that Din was isolated. He didn't let her out of his sight.

This could be considered oppressive. She was very much a servant without the look or mentality of a servant.

Perhaps she didn’t love Din. And maybe he didn’t love her. But from an outsider's perspective they were much looked the part of lovers. Regal as they were.

Din never thought about these matters, Jao did, but these thoughts were rare and brief.

It had been some time since the refinery settled down into a steady pace. But today something new occurred.

There was a batch of refined herbs sitting in a pile. It wasn’t a large pile. There was a tinge of blue but for the most part it was white.

This was a product similar to salt. Maybe not the composition but the taste. This opened another floodgate.

Before long numerous herbs were refined into spices. This was very popular. It had a multiplicative effect on the variety of food in the camp.

The most impressive feature was that sometimes meals would be made. And they carried an empowerment. These empowerments only lasted a few hours.

But to Din this was an incredible achievement. He knew how much those consumables cost. He dedicated a team to mastering meals that granted empowerments.

These empowerments ranged from few percent boost in experience, attributes or even unique things like stamina regeneration or health recovery.

Everyone just enjoyed it due to new variety of tasty food. Din saw the grand scale a few percentages could do on a gathering of many.

Once he had thousand, ten thousands or more under his heel. One percent increase was a great difference.

It wasn’t hard to imagine the bustling the camp had. They were only slightly less than two hundred. But they all had schedules to keep.

Few people spent their downtimes relaxing. Almost everyone went from a designated job to their hobby.

In their endless twilight the camp never felt asleep. Food was plentiful. Materials came faster than they could use them. It was a golden age of sorts.

Din took over the ninth node. He’d have to travel across a whole territory to take the next one. There were still buildings to buy. But he wasn’t going to buy leisure buildings.

He’d buy a archery range. A dominus. Whatever could increase the training of his troops. But not leisure buildings. These army related buildings however did not exist.

The river that ran through his three nodes was very straight. Next to no twists or turn. But there were a few.

Din was supervising the camp’s largest engineering feat. they were placing the new waterwheels.

These waterwheels would perpetually pull on ropes made by intertwining their finest threads.

Using these ropes tied to waterwheels places far apart, they would pull their rafts. Heavy materials could be transported at low risk. With minimum labour.

The ropes would need to be replaced periodically but that was the cost of business.

They built this waterwheel pulley system downstream. South. He was going to take the southernmost node once they finished this project.

He was in no hurry. He wasn’t aware of the significance of the first ten nodes.

The biggest issue with this basic waterwheel system. Was the twists in the river. Once they turned up, they had to place down the wheel and place a new one nearby.

This took incredible amount of rope. But it wasn’t an issue. What Din had was materials and labour. He could afford being this wasteful.

It was a questionable decision. But it still was true that they didn’t have much to do. It was a pet projected glorified as a transportation system.

If anything. They could use the extravagant amount of rope they had accumulated.

The system would become obsolete once Din got ten nodes. He’d be able to buy beasts capable of carrying him around.

As far as Din was concerned. If he didn’t need to walk everywhere, it would be fine. But in the end. What Din really wanted. Was more people.

Once he had a couple of cities up and running. Few million people working as cogs in a self sufficient system. He’d set up a government while his family sat in the background.

He hadn’t factored in the fame his name would carry. He had already shone too bright. This light wouldn’t be squashed easily. He’d need to completely vanish.

Whether that would be a option was up in the air.

The tenth area was as easy as the other six beast king territories.

You now have ten support nodes.

Your ten support nodes have been merged into a tier one support node.

Your first tier one support node grants a bonus of hundred percent experience bonus.

The bonus is additive with previous experience bonus.

Having created a tier one support node all adjacent support nodes will merge into nodes the size of five to ten nearby nodes.

Every subsequent tier one node will grant an additional hundred percent increase.

The real threat this created was a team of beast kings. They would also grow faster. The amount of beasts in each territory would increase.

The increase wasn’t only multiplicative. It would also increase the strength of each individual beast.

Din wouldn’t know this until he tried to take one out. It would be hard with just two hundred people.

For now it would be difficult. Once they had a few thousand beasts killed with the tripled experience bonus, they might even reach level forty five eventually.

What did happen was that all people within a certain range of Din’s tier one support node, were informed where it was.

The reason of this could be considered twofold. One, it addressed the expected lack of people. And second, it allowed people the chance to attack.

And this was going to happen. Killing those beast kings was difficult. A lot of people had to die to overwhelm them.

Other multinode communities knew that the easiest way to take over an area was fighting other people. Other people wouldn’t be so strong that they’d need hundreds to kill them.

The best of all however was they could just assassinate the leader then slowly take over the neutral adjacent nodes.

The nearby areas were now dangerous as well. They either had to move further away or be engulfed in an unbeatable war with the tier one beast king territories.

There is a window where they could move. Two or three months from now and Din’s tier one node would be surrounded.

People from unrated support node system all got notification and the wording was very obvious. Either they joined the new tier one node. Or they attacked it.

In a ten node radius multiple communities either moved in the opposite direction or moved towards Din.

The wording was very clear. No one decided stay where they were. Din also knew nothing about this. He was annoyed though.

‘Why does it need to help the beasts?’

This was the words of the ungrateful. The system was very fair. Beasts were still tools, fuel for people to kill. A pressure to push people.

The beasts were given a chance to evolve. Their capacity for intelligence was their greatest benefit. It was increased. But the price was being a living target.

Din quickly moved on, he was reading the new changes. There was a whole slew of things he could buy. From items, animals and information.

They tried the waterwheel system back to camp. It wasn’t as fast as Din expected. If he didn’t have unshakable convictions, he’d purchase beasts.

He still steeled himself to buy what was clearly a building to rear animals. Animals of war. Presumably capable of transporting people as well.

Din now thought they should focus on creating wheels for wagons. Shouldn’t be hard to do, right? This is what he thought.

This was the mindset of almost all people. It isn’t that hard. Yet they had spent untold hours trying to create the simplest of things.

Trying to replicate what they had back home. It was easy. And yet they still continued to fail over and over again.

It was obvious from an outside perspective, they even judged each other. You can’t even do this? But it was hard to see failure in themselves, they had no mirrors here.

Near two hundred handsome people. And no mirrors. Some would find it humorous.

Din was overwhelmed. He had been blindsided by the sudden information. From extravagant pet projects to towering progress.

He felt like he had been climbing a mountain only to fall down the otherside. If you could consider the fall a positive.

It took them just a day to travel back with the waterwheel pulley system. Din was now determined to use them for something else.

The river was relatively straight so the travel time back wasn’t too long. He felt it slow because he didn’t need to move. It was counter-intuitive.

If he really did have to move large, heavy quantities of metals, gems or whatever there was. The system would be invaluable. But it would need people walking beside the rafts for safety.

The system required latching onto the raft. This meant smooth transitioning with a heavy raft. Without it there would be a high risk of snapping the rope.

The ropes had impressive tensile strength. Not comparable to metal chains but they were well within the means to drag a few heavy loaded rafts.

The issue was the constant pressure, it could work them down over time. Perhaps their durability could be made to last longer.

Din still hadn't made a bridge over the river, he had completely forgotten about it. And right now he didn’t care. He could begin rearing beasts.

He was very determined to rear beasts. They would be easier to breed than the people. People were the biggest bottleneck right now.

They could shoot arrows, wield their metal rods or use their abilities. But the numbers were too low. He wanted more. The more time passed the more apparent it was.

There were twelve children born in the camp so far. They were growing up fast and strong. It would only take them five years to reach the similar growth as ten year old back home.

This had to do with this place. It was unusual, they were born faster, grew up faster and would be brighter.

Maybe not smarter. But their reflexes would be at a slight advantage. In the end they were only just barely at an advantage compared to a Earthen child. Excluding future levels.

Din was in for a surprise. Ten different camps were within a ten node radius. They had all decided to head towards him.

Whether they would try and attack the camp, request a merge or voluntarily join. It was still to be seen. They’d roll that dice when they arrived.

There was little to no time to scout the camp. They had to decisively leave for either the great unknown or towards Din’s tier one node.

Traveling across over nine nodes was at least a fifteen to twenty day activity. They had to hunt and sleep during the journey This wasn’t hard but it was tiresome.

The other option was to move away from the node. Where they’d almost always have to confront beast kings. This would probably mean losing a few members at least.

The choice wasn’t difficult. More people. Better land. Tier one node promised three hundred percent experience bonus. Anyone with a sliver of ambition would jump at the chance.

Din’s people were strong. Armed with various tools. Low durability metal rods, daggers, spears and swords. The rods were the only thing that lived off a hunt without heavy maintenance.

It was strange to many. But without a recipe, the durability would fall dramatically. It wasn’t enough to pour molten metal in a mold and sharpen it.

But people liked swords. So there were a few of them made. They made for flashing looks. But in the end they never lasted a battle.

There was something else Din found interesting. The weapons and various other products they had made had not reached tier one.

His craftsmen could still not be considered novices. They were still apprentices or beginners. Of course there was a difference from beginner to beginner.

What he was curious about now was how to get to tier two. Tier two node. It was an obvious trend. He had to climb this ladder.

He had no idea where this ladder would lead. But he would tread this ladder with conviction. He’d do it for Laq Docte’s sake. The deeper the roots. The better.

‘With the increased Income I should be able to buy this Agricultural building.’

Din wasn’t the smartest person, he wasn't stupid either. He was educated in many things. And he knew what agriculture meant.

This building might seem to a dream for farmers. The price for it was astronomical. But only because Din was moving faster than estimated for these things.

He’d need a few weeks before accumulating enough resource points but it was an easy choice for him.

It was a great choice in the long term. He had other great options. And many lesser options that would have a more immediate effect.

Once his population increased, he would need great farm fields. He had land. But his efficiency was low. Either he’d need travel far to sow fields or increase output.

The Agricultural building would solve this problem. Din was however instead excited over the potential animal husbandry.

After a five days. The first flock of people arrived. They were ready to attack. But there was only eighty of them.

Once they saw the heavily armed forces they hesitated. Din went out to meet them.

“Are you the leader?”

It was a rather hostile voice. He had tried to hide it but it wasn’t very well hidden.

“I am Din, of the Laq Docte.”

This man felt the introduction as odd as First had felt it was. First was stood two meters behind Din. He had a mocking smile.

First thought. You think you can beat Din? You think you can talk your way out of here?

He had been there when they went for the third node. The way Din spoke to them was baffling. As amiable as a family friend. Even he had experienced it first hand.

There was softness in his eyes that both scared people, and attracted them. Not a sexual attraction, more a closeness between kindred souls.

“Laq Docte?”

He was confused. He had never not understood what people were saying. Only when he said it outloud he realized it was a name or a title.

“Whatever you are. We’ve come to make a deal.”

“Would you like to sit down with me?”

Din gestured and two stools were put down. A table brought forth and some cold water from the river.

“You must be thirsty from a long journey.”

The man felt more confused now. Wasn’t he intimidating. He was bigger than Din in every way. If he reached over. Who could stop him?

The more he thought like this the more he was sure Din was hiding his strength. Maybe he had a powerful ability.

He hadn't even known what a tier one node was. But this Din had one. Maybe he was level forty? Fifty? Sixty? He had no way to know.

“We want a merge.”

It was time for Din to be confused. But he nodded and held his mild smiling expression.

‘Why would I merge with you?’

It wasn’t in contempt that he thought this. Maybe he had something to offer Din. he was willing to listen. Worst case scenario. He’d just kill the man.

“A merge. That might be an option, what do you suggest?”

What do I suggest? I suggest a merge! His thoughts were creeping forth. He felt his intentions were obvious. He had grown accustomed to power. He wasn’t going to be a follower.

He hadn't seen the facilities in the camp they were still just near some half-assed sheds.

“I suggest.”

He paused to exhibit his exasperation.

“That we merge. We split the nodes. You hold what you have now and i’ll take the future ones.”

All that mattered was he kept control over some nodes. If he didn’t control a node, he’d lose access to the node support shop.

Din felt this was a waste of time. He stood up.

“You join the camp now. Or you die here.”

Din waves his hands in the air and two rows of archers lifted their bows. They hadn’t pulled the string back. Merely made some low shouts and readied them.

This was what people had to deal with. He’d have a soft smile and provide a friendly conversation and then they met with the emotionless domineering of a righteous zealot.

“All of you step to the right, over there. If you don’t intend to fight. You have three seconds.”

He would never actually have this many people shot. He needed more people. But he absolutely would kill five or seven of them to make a point.

“Wait! Wait! We’ll join!”

It wasn’t the people behind that shouted. But their leader. He was incredibly afraid of arrows. He had a recurring nightmare since he was peppered by a small animal with needles.

Seeing all those arrows he felt light headed and when he heard Din say move to the right if they weren’t going to fight, he woke up from his shock.

“Great! Welcome. Follow First, he’ll take you to the kitchen. Get some food in you.”

He breathed in a deep breath. And nodded.

“Come see me after you eat. I have some questions for you.”

Din hadn’t spoke so much in a long time. Usually he’d just throw out some orders. He liked using gestures to convey things.

He would smile and nod. He’d look people in the eyes. It was a whole ordeal and people were often inconvenienced by it.

However Din wouldn’t acknowledge this. He thought other people were bad at making small talk. It was another thing the Laq Docte were better at, these were his thoughts.

When the man returned from dinner. Din had returned to his shed. Din’s shed was only a bit bigger than the others.

First’s shed was actually a bit larger.

He asked him how they found him. After all it made little sense. He had scouts and to travel here randomly was impossible in his mind.

He found out of the message people had received. He was thrilled. He set up some patrols and had people focus on both expanding farmland and building more sheds.

It never occurred to Din that many people could revolt. His people never so much as made a peep. Maybe he was complacent.

Best guess was he was blinded by arrogance. Whatever it was. He was getting more people. In less than a month he’d build his agricultural building.

The camp was always lively. But now it was more so. People had to get accustomed to the schedule. Very few people weren’t required to follow the rotations.

Jao was one. Women at certain point of pregnancy. Lead crafters. That meant people with recipes.

There was also the basket weaver. Din didn't care what he did. He didn't want to order him around. It was out of character for Din to feel like this. But he embraced it.

In the next few days new people would arrive. The largest was just over one hundred and twenty.

Two things happened. One, they’d ask to join the camp. And the other was some show of intimidation.

One individual had tried to ambush Din as they sat down to talk. This man died. His men that intended to attack after the signal was given. Died as well.

Twelve people got struck down. The rest were spared. Din valued people after all. He wanted more. To the point of being greedy.

It took some effort to introduce people to their system. The more people arrived the more work had to be done.

This work was easy to spread around. There wasn’t much pressure on people. But what they found weird was the all the crafting.

They had to find a hobby? Who orders people to take a hobby? What will you do if we don’t take up a hobby? They felt it was strange.

But over two hundred people were doing it. They weren’t going to object. A hobby didn't demand much from them. They just had to laze around for a bit.

In the end of course they would ideally find some passion in it.

People had to sleep outside for a while. It wasn’t hard building sheds, but it did take some time.

They had gotten used to it however. Even in their original camp they had to sleep outside or share housing.